Time to Spare
A Highlander/Forever Knight Crossover
A sequel to When Day Breaks
Natalie shuddered as the Quickening left her and she sank to the ground, laying her head wearily against the gravelly cement. She managed to avoid most of the broken beer bottles, and sighed as her cheek soaked up the chill of the pavement beneath her. This wasn't supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to find her now, not here. This was her time off, her vacation. She was going home, you see. Immortals were just not supposed to find you when you were trying to go home. There really ought to be a law.
She cracked open an eyelid, noting that her adversary's body had disappeared. Handy, that. Nick would be jealous. She smiled faintly at the thought, as she pulled herself up off the ground of the grungy little backlot that that idiot had insisted on fighting in. One of these days, she should really find a nice, backwater godawful hole in the earth that *didn't* have an immortal lurking in it, and build a retirement home there. She snorted. Yeah right, retire for the next century, but then what do you do after that?
Her eyes forlornly traveled to the gravel road ahead of her, and the small town behind her, where she'd just stopped to eat a burger before she made the last leg of her journey to Toronto. One would think that staying off the main highways and taking the path less traveled by would at least afford her some security against meeting more of her kind. She stretched thoughtfully and trudged her way back to the car. Apparently she was in error; once you become one, you just can't seem to get away from them, even if you want to.
She stretched again before she opened the door to her rental, and yawned hugely. *Damn, I knew this was going to happen.* Two minutes after a Quickening, and she was ready to curl up and go to sleep right there in her carseat. But she pinched herself and blinked rapidly instead, knowing she didn't have time to sleep it off, she had to get out of here before anyone started missing their friend. Not knowing how long that would be, she'd better make tracks while she could. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She'd tried to get him to wait till at least morning, so she could have a good night's sleep under her belt... if only he hadn't been in such a stupid rush to kill, kill, kill. After another jaw-cracking yawn, she started the car, and prayed the next town would at least be big enough to have a Seven- Eleven.
As she pulled off the last of the pavement for a while (figures, the towns have just enough cement to cover their own roads, but once you leave you're on your own), her thoughts turned to Toronto. As for what she would do once she got there... well, she'd been pointedly trying *not* to think about that for quite some time now, thank you very much. But, as usual, she did anyway. It had been twenty years since she'd left, and she still wasn't sure if she wanted to see him. Never mind that, she wasn't sure he would want to see *her* anymore. They hadn't parted under the most flowery of circumstances. But here she was, battling the most annoyingly washboard gravel road you could possibly imagine, gritting her teeth against the jarring motion and mentally double-checking on the spare tire in the trunk. Never mind the fact that she was racing to get to Toronto before the first snowfall... traveling down an icy, no-traffic road was very chancy if something happened, to say the least. So definitely *some* part of her must want to see him, or else she was far too bored. Well, if nothing else, this little adventure was definitely going to liven up her life for a while... for good or for bad.
In a practiced mental maneuver to get her brain to think of something other than what she didn't want to think about, Natalie tried to wonder why Nick was still in Toronto in the first place. She knew all the logical arguments against staying in one place too long; Adam had thrown them at her countless times over the years, especially in the beginning, when the temptation to go back had still been strong. Her friends all thought she was dead, she couldn't have made herself look twenty years older for long, and it's better to cut the ties clean, instead of making it harder for them, and for you. Most of those arguments went double for Nick. Why hadn't he moved on? What had he found to tie him there so thoroughly that he would risk the exposure?
She could only think of a few answers, all bad. *You better not have picked yourself up another mortal, Nick. One would think you'd have learned that lesson by now.* She wasn't jealous, of course. She didn't really have the heart to, anymore. Twenty years was still a very long time, even for matters of the heart. And then there was Adam.
Adam. She sighed. *Well, if I'm going to end up thinking about all the things I shouldn't be thinking about, might as well get them out on the table all at once...* She didn't smile at the thought. It had been fourteen years since she had last seen him, and it still hurt, even more than when she left Nick. At least when she left then, it was her idea, and her anger did a lot to help the pain.
But with Adam, it hadn't been her idea. Not even a little.
*I guess I shouldn't talk about making another mistake, huh, Nick? Not when I went out and made quite a doozy of my own...* God, how did she get on the subject of Adam? The last thing she needed to think about was the one memory that actually hurt *more* than the memory of her leaving Toronto... no, she was not going to cry. No, she'd been there, done that, got the tattoo, and it was gone within the week. She didn't have the slightest reason to cry. He most certainly wasn't crying over her. She took some deep breaths and opened her eyes wide, hoping to dry them out a little. Come on, Nat old girl, stiff upper lip and all that.
She looked at her watch, and sighed. Four more hours to Toronto. That next town had better darn well have a caffeine outlet, or there'd be hell to pay.
A Highlander/Forever Knight Crossover
A sequel to When Day Breaks
Natalie shuddered as the Quickening left her and she sank to the ground, laying her head wearily against the gravelly cement. She managed to avoid most of the broken beer bottles, and sighed as her cheek soaked up the chill of the pavement beneath her. This wasn't supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to find her now, not here. This was her time off, her vacation. She was going home, you see. Immortals were just not supposed to find you when you were trying to go home. There really ought to be a law.
She cracked open an eyelid, noting that her adversary's body had disappeared. Handy, that. Nick would be jealous. She smiled faintly at the thought, as she pulled herself up off the ground of the grungy little backlot that that idiot had insisted on fighting in. One of these days, she should really find a nice, backwater godawful hole in the earth that *didn't* have an immortal lurking in it, and build a retirement home there. She snorted. Yeah right, retire for the next century, but then what do you do after that?
Her eyes forlornly traveled to the gravel road ahead of her, and the small town behind her, where she'd just stopped to eat a burger before she made the last leg of her journey to Toronto. One would think that staying off the main highways and taking the path less traveled by would at least afford her some security against meeting more of her kind. She stretched thoughtfully and trudged her way back to the car. Apparently she was in error; once you become one, you just can't seem to get away from them, even if you want to.
She stretched again before she opened the door to her rental, and yawned hugely. *Damn, I knew this was going to happen.* Two minutes after a Quickening, and she was ready to curl up and go to sleep right there in her carseat. But she pinched herself and blinked rapidly instead, knowing she didn't have time to sleep it off, she had to get out of here before anyone started missing their friend. Not knowing how long that would be, she'd better make tracks while she could. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. She'd tried to get him to wait till at least morning, so she could have a good night's sleep under her belt... if only he hadn't been in such a stupid rush to kill, kill, kill. After another jaw-cracking yawn, she started the car, and prayed the next town would at least be big enough to have a Seven- Eleven.
As she pulled off the last of the pavement for a while (figures, the towns have just enough cement to cover their own roads, but once you leave you're on your own), her thoughts turned to Toronto. As for what she would do once she got there... well, she'd been pointedly trying *not* to think about that for quite some time now, thank you very much. But, as usual, she did anyway. It had been twenty years since she'd left, and she still wasn't sure if she wanted to see him. Never mind that, she wasn't sure he would want to see *her* anymore. They hadn't parted under the most flowery of circumstances. But here she was, battling the most annoyingly washboard gravel road you could possibly imagine, gritting her teeth against the jarring motion and mentally double-checking on the spare tire in the trunk. Never mind the fact that she was racing to get to Toronto before the first snowfall... traveling down an icy, no-traffic road was very chancy if something happened, to say the least. So definitely *some* part of her must want to see him, or else she was far too bored. Well, if nothing else, this little adventure was definitely going to liven up her life for a while... for good or for bad.
In a practiced mental maneuver to get her brain to think of something other than what she didn't want to think about, Natalie tried to wonder why Nick was still in Toronto in the first place. She knew all the logical arguments against staying in one place too long; Adam had thrown them at her countless times over the years, especially in the beginning, when the temptation to go back had still been strong. Her friends all thought she was dead, she couldn't have made herself look twenty years older for long, and it's better to cut the ties clean, instead of making it harder for them, and for you. Most of those arguments went double for Nick. Why hadn't he moved on? What had he found to tie him there so thoroughly that he would risk the exposure?
She could only think of a few answers, all bad. *You better not have picked yourself up another mortal, Nick. One would think you'd have learned that lesson by now.* She wasn't jealous, of course. She didn't really have the heart to, anymore. Twenty years was still a very long time, even for matters of the heart. And then there was Adam.
Adam. She sighed. *Well, if I'm going to end up thinking about all the things I shouldn't be thinking about, might as well get them out on the table all at once...* She didn't smile at the thought. It had been fourteen years since she had last seen him, and it still hurt, even more than when she left Nick. At least when she left then, it was her idea, and her anger did a lot to help the pain.
But with Adam, it hadn't been her idea. Not even a little.
*I guess I shouldn't talk about making another mistake, huh, Nick? Not when I went out and made quite a doozy of my own...* God, how did she get on the subject of Adam? The last thing she needed to think about was the one memory that actually hurt *more* than the memory of her leaving Toronto... no, she was not going to cry. No, she'd been there, done that, got the tattoo, and it was gone within the week. She didn't have the slightest reason to cry. He most certainly wasn't crying over her. She took some deep breaths and opened her eyes wide, hoping to dry them out a little. Come on, Nat old girl, stiff upper lip and all that.
She looked at her watch, and sighed. Four more hours to Toronto. That next town had better darn well have a caffeine outlet, or there'd be hell to pay.