Timeless (15/?)
by Elisa P. Black

  Nick winced as the smell of blood and vampire ash hit him.  Looking
around, he catalogued things automatically in his mind.  A bowl of popcorn
and a popper sat on the countertop by an open window, sandwich supplies
were spilled by the fridge, a wooden chair with a missing leg lay in the
corner, and a pile of ash with the chair leg on top sat near a pool of
blood. 
  At the far end of the room, Schanke had just finished reconstructing the
crime for Mulder. They hadn't yet noticed that he was there. The FBI agent
knelt beside the pile of ash to examine it, and Nick felt very uneasy. 
  "I would ask Scully to check this out, but I don't want to ruin her
vacation." Mulder pulled a vial from his pocket. 
  Nick knew that the agent wanted to get a sample of the ash. With these
"X-Files" that he'd heard about, he figured it would be disastrous to let
Mulder get a sample analyzed. He stepped forward and cleared his throat. 
  "Hello, Agent Mulder. How ya holding up, Schank?" 
  Mulder's hand stopped halfway towards the ash as he looked up at Nick.
"Hello, glad you could join us." 
  "I'm OK, Nick," said Schanke. 
  Mulder gave him an odd look and reached for the ash again. 
  "So where's your partner, Agent Mulder?" 
  Mulder stopped again. "She's at the convention." 
  "Oh." 
  Mulder started towards the ash again. 
  "What do you want that stuff for? It's only ash." Nick inquired
nonchalantly. 
  Mulder stopped again and spoke seriously. "It's vampire ash. Possibly
containing residues which can be analyzed. Maybe we can find out how to
stop the vampires." 
  "Okaaay," Nick pretended to sound doubtful. 
  Mulder grinned. "Yeah, I get that a lot." 
  The agent went ahead to shovel a bit of ash into the vial. Nick looked
down to hide his look of frustration. Maybe he could "lose" the sample
later... Assuming that Mulder let down his guard enough for him to steal
it. A doubtful possibility, even at va mpire speed. 
  "I know the coroner on duty now. He owes me a favor. Maybe we can let
him look at the ash," suggested Schanke. 
  "Why not Nat?" asked Nick. 
  "She's at the convention with my partner," replied Mulder. "But I think
Scully mentioned that the presentation would be over around," he checked
his watch, "now. So maybe I can call my partner." 
  He immediately pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. After a
few minutes, he hung up. 
  "She's not answering." The unease was clear in his voice. "Could you try
calling Dr. Lambert?" 
  "Yeah, sure." Nick pulled out his own phone.  There was no answer. 
  The three exchanged looks of alarm and raced out the door.  They piled
into Nick's Caddy and headed for the hotel.  In the lobby they found a
crowd of people gathering around the front desk.  In the row of chairs
opposite a motherly-looking woman cried on the shoulder of a young lady. 
Scully and Natalie were not there. 
  "Hey!" Nick called for attention and flashed his badge. "I'm a police
officer. Could somebody tell me what happened?" 
  Someone explained that they were all coroners who had just come from a
meeting.  They had found the woman barely concious and the desk clerk
dead.  They'd called the police, and soon, the woman was able to tell them
what she'd seen.  She told her story again for the three. 
  "And then he took them all into the elevator and went up!" 
  Nick sprinted for the nearest elevator and headed up, leaving Mulder and
Schanke behind.  Hopefully, he could still find this other vampire's
trail.  Bingo! the unmistakeable scent of vampire ash hung in the air. 
The vampire must have been too close when he had killed the other one in
the lobby and some of the ash must have fallen on him. 
  Nick took to the air. 

  "I don't want to die just yet," answered Nat. She wanted to stall him...
and got the odd feeling that he would allow it.  After all, he was
pretending not to notice that Scully was working free of her ropes. "Isn't
there any other option?" 
  "I'm afraid not." 
  "Well, how about..." Nat hesitated then, wondering if it would be wise
to mention such a thing.  But since she couldn't think of anything else to
say, she continued. "How about, no... what if, I suggested that you make
us vampires? Not that I'm saying y ou should." 
  "Um, no can do. There are already too many new vampires running around
nowadays. We don't need more." 
  Natalie was about to ask why there were so many new vampires.  Then
something crashed through one of the high windows, sending a tinkling
shower of glass to fall in the soft moonlight.  They looked up sharply to
see, in the shadows of the far wall, a ta ll pale figure in dark clothing. 
  "Shane," growled the man in a low voice which Natalie immediately
recognized, "you are a fool!" 

  - End of Part 15 -