Timeless (22/?)
by Elisa P. Black

  It was a restless day for Natalie and she couldn't even get in a decent
hour of sleep.  Deciding to get up early at dusk, she puttered around the
apartment, keeping busy and trying not to think about the problem at hand.
Every now and then, a half-form ed thought slipped through: could they
really find the source of the problem?  What vampire would be stupid or
driven enough to make so many new young ones?  What would happen if they
couldn't stop it?  Would Mulder and Scully remain on their side? 
  A stain refused to leave the tabletop that she was diligently scrubbing. 
She sighed.  Why did everything have to be so difficult?  While reaching
for the bottle of cleanser that sat at the other end of the table, she
noticed that her cat was staring at her strangely.
  "What is it, Sydney?" 
  The cat stared solemnly at her, his ears flicking frenetically and his
fur standing on end.  She felt the hairs on the back of her own neck
raising in response.  Her spine tingled with fear. 
  "What is it, sweetie?" 
  The grey tabby suddenly dashed across the table to knock the cleanser
over the edge.  With a cry of frustration, she leaned forward in a futile
attempt to stop it.  At that same moment, she heard a loud pop accompanied
by breaking glass.
  She gasped.  That was a gunshot through the window!  Keeping her body
down against the table, she pushed herself sideways and dropped to the
floor.  From there, she looked at the kitchen window to see a gaping hole
in the glass.  If Sydney hadn't gotten her to move at that instant, she
would have been hit. 
  Fear hung heavily over her, turning her insides as she wondered what to
do.  Would they fire another shot?  Who wanted her dead, and why?  Should
she call someone for help?  She crawled into the next room and grabbed the
phone.  Using speed dial, she called Nick.  When he picked up, she
immediately spoke.
  "Nick, someone just shot at me through my window." 
  It was enough.  The phone clicked; Nick was on his way.  Now all she
could do was wait.

  Mulder had gotten up early.  For about an hour, he'd sat in a rental car
parked a little ways down from Detective Knight's loft.  Now it was
getting darker, and he considered whether or not he should just walk up to
the door and knock.  He *was* getting
 bored out here, and he wondered if the good detective would ever get up. 
  Jumping out of the car, he stretched out as much as he could, reaching
out as far as possible, throwing back his head.  A good stretch to try
wringing the fatigue out of his body.  Then he saw it, a dark figure
running on the roof of the warehouse.  It was too fast to be human.  A
split second later, it took off into the air, flying out of sight within a
minute.  It looked very much like Knight. 
  Cursing softly, Mulder ran into the building and rushed upstairs to the
loft.  When he emerged from the elevator into the living area, the place
was almost pitch black.  Pulling out his flashlight, he conducted a quick
search of the whole loft.  No one was there.  He cursed again. Oh well,
while he was here...
  In the bathroom, he found nothing interesting.  The bedroom was full of
dark clothes and silk sheets.  The living room and some other areas held a
few pieces of art, all of which he supposed were probably expensive.  In
the kitchen, he found a conspicuo us absence of food.  There were also
many wine bottles filled with blood like the kind that had been described
as "paint thickener" in the report of the time that Knight was in jail.
Otherwise, the loft was pretty much bare, as if no one really lived there. 
  Spotting the radio, Mulder turned it on, hoping to find something
interesting.  Half-listening as he continued his perusal of the living
room art, he heard a male voice whisper smoothly and intently.  The man
spoke of love and hate in a dire tone, laugh ing heartily at the
hopelessness, and proclaiming his own eternity.  Uh, ok, though Mulder,
this guy is a certifiable nut.  But there was something so compelling
about the voice and manner, so hypnotic even, that Mulder couldn't just
dismiss it.  He got the sneaky feeling that this Nightcrawler must be a
vampire.
  Mulder set out to find a radio station. 

  "Natalie?" 
  Nick burst into the apartment to find her sitting on the floor of her
living room.  She pointed wordlessly at the broken window, and he
immediately zipped over.  There was an open window in the next apartment
building.  The muzzle of a weapon peeked out from behind some curtains. 
  Assuring himself that Nat was unhurt, he then rushed out and half-flew
up the stairs of the next building.  Without hesitation, he burst into the
apartment where he had seen the weapon.  He searched every room, but no
one was there.  Quickly taking to the air, he scanned a radius of two
miles but couldn't find anything suspicious.  How could the shooter have
escaped so fast? 
  He headed back to the shooter's apartment dejectedly.  What if the
person tried again in the future?  Nat might not be so lucky then.  How
was he going to protect her?
  Thoroughly disgusted with himself, he half-heartedly searched the
apartment.  The whole place was amazingly clean, despite its desertedness. 
That was very suspicious; someone must have spent a lot of time cleaning
here before.  The whole thing might ha ve been in planning for a while. 
The thought made him shiver in fear.  Why Nat?  Who would want to kill
her?
  He noticed that the weapon muzzle he had spotted before was nothing more
than a small metal cylinder propped up in the window.  Well that explained
how the shooter had gotten away; the person had left a long while ago. He
also saw something on the floor by the window.
  It was a still-smoking cigarette butt. 

End of Part 22