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SEASON
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SUMMARIES
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| 2.1 |
Killer Instinct
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LaCroix is back, and his presence is disturbing Nick, who believes LaCroix to be dead. The question is whether LaCroix is the killer of the low-lifes they've been finding
around the city.
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Paris, 1228
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LC: Do you feel her blood surge in your veins, Nicholas? It's an experience unsurpassed by any other. Rewel in your newfound power - the gift I've
given you. Immortality. That's what all they want, isn't it? Be glad I made you what you are. N: What am I? LC: My protege.
N: Your slave. LC: [laughs] THen I, too, am your slave, for I am bound to you now. Promised to you as your eternal teacher, that I may let
you know all there is to know about what you are. Leave your mortal life behind, Nicholas. You can never go back there now. Soon, you will
not want to.
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| 2.2 |
Fate Worse Than Death
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Janette has been providing a sanctuary for working girls. One was killed, and Janette is out to protect another.
Unfortunately, that one is right in the middle of professional interest.
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Paris, Bef. 1228
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Janette has been forced to become a prostitute in Paris when she was thrown out of her home and divorced by
a husband when she did not conceive. Accosted by soldiers looking for a patriotic tumble, Janette is saved
by LaCroix, who seems drawn to her. He offers her a chance to have control over her body and her life, and
she agrees. LaCroix brings her across and she takes her first meal from the pimp who let her friend die
in childbed.
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| 2.3 |
Stranger Than Fiction
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Famous vampire author is in danger, not least of all from real vampires.
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Fantasies
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Nick, Natalie and Schanke fantasies of vampires.
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| 2.4 |
Bad Blood
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A vampire hunter from Ireland comes to Toronto and is a little too obvious.
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London, late 19th c
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LaCroix has been poisoned by drinking from Jack the Ripper. He asks Nick to make sure
the man is dead, but Nick wants no part of this.
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| 2.5 |
Forward into the Past
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Nick is called to the murder of an old friend's companion, so
now he looks for his friend before someone else finds her.
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London, 1940s
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Nick comes to comfort a dear friend whose husband has just died. It seems clear that the widow is
also now a target and Nick suggests that she give up her life and take on a new identity. He just happens
to know where to go to do this. She agrees.
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| 2.6 |
Capital Offense
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Nick is hit by a car when he stops a convicted murderer, famous for cutting her husband
into little pieces with an axe, from fleeing. Her statement of innocence hits Nick and he
tries to see whether she could be unjustly convicted. Which just leads to another killing
and makes Nick a really bad judge of character.
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France, 17th/18th c
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Needing refuge from a mob and from the sun, Nick hides in the basement of a convent and is
protected by a young, innocent novice. The pleasure Nick takes in their conversation is destroyed when
LaCroix comes to share his refuge, and then to thank his hostess by turning her into dinner.
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| 2.7 |
Hunted
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There is a hunt on in Toronto for the biggest game of all - humans. Nick's attributes are
noted by the stealthy hunter who already has two kills to her credit. Now she wants to bag
bigger game and she knows the right bait to use - Schanke.
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England, mid 19th c
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LaCroix, master and teacher, takes his little family out on a field trip to instruct them
in the finer points of the art of hunting prey. A hunter makes their ideal target, and Nick
enjoys the kill until he chances to see the man's wife find his body and mourn the loss of
her love.
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| 2.8 |
Faithful Followers
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An investigation into the death of a young cult member quickly hits the blank wall of cult silence.
Nick's undercover position as cult member begins to frighten his friends as he plays his part too well.
Nat goes to Janette to look for help.
J: Nicola in a cult. Somehow the word 'ironic' comes to mind.
N: We're worried about him. He's behaving strangely. He's cut us off. J: You think he's joined?
N: Brainwashed. Maybe. J: Usually it's Nicola who does the brainwashing. In answer to your question,
there are times when I, too, feel that I hardly know him. And, yes, he can be highly impressionable,
depending on, you know, who is doing the persuading. N: And I'm here to tell you that I am worried about him.
J: My dear doctor, Nichola is a vampire, and so if he is running with that pack, he is the wolf and they are poodles.
Indeed, Janette knows her lupus. Nick is immune to the cult's message and is able to bring the cult leader to justice.
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Egypt, Early 20th c
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On an archeological dig in the Valley of the Kings, Nick is presented with what could be an ancient
cure for vampirism. It's suggested that he bring in an expert friend of his from his days at Oxford to examine the hieroglyphics.
The woman arrives but, instead of using her expertise for interpretation,
she's turned into lunch as the result of a wager between LaCroix and a fellow vampire that they could
get Nick to bring the woman to the site.
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| 2.9 |
Undue Process
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Natalie's niece is kidnapped and killed by a sexual predator. The man is caught and Nick saves
him from mob justice. Even though Nat is kept off the case, she has her suspicions when the man
dies, and she proves that the relief coroner killed the man herself.
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America, 18th c
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Accused of having killed a woman, Nick is given no chance to defend himself but is taken to a tree
and hung. That night he breaks free and hunts down each of the main leaders and kills them. LaCroix
comes to enjoy Nick's abrogation of his principles against killing, and asks Nick if he knows where
the rumor started, meaning with himself, of course. What someone had to do to keep amused in the days
before television!
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| 2.10 |
Fathers Day
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The theme of Nick as LaCroix's rebellious child continues as Nick attempts to
protect a young man who is marked for death by his grandfather for attempting to leave the mob
family which he's been reared to lead. The mobster calls in a favor from LaCroix who tries to get Nick to back off. Nick,
instead, asks LaCroix to give the boy what he wouldn't give Nick - his freedom. LaCroix comes
up with the perfect solution to the problem. He gives the mobster enough of his blood to
guarantee he won't need to pass his mob family on to someone else for a very long time. Nick won't come back, but he returns
the watch to LaCroix as a Father's Day present.
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London, 1920s
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Finally driven to his limit by LaCroix's stopping his attempts to become human again, Nick
is determined to leave LaCroix. He's aided by Janette and sent to Constantine, a mob figure who understands
about vampires and how to profit from that knowledge. But Janette can't keep secrets from LaCroix.
J: He's gone... just forget him. You can get a new one. LC: I don't want a new one. I like that
one.
The mobster's silence is broken when
LaCroix sees a watch he gave Nick on the man's desk and says that it would only be there
because the man killed Nick or helped him get away. The smart man knows when it's time to start talking.
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| 2.11 |
Can't Run, Can't Hide
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Vietnam vets are being hunted down and killed. Their connection is having all been part of a
massacre of a village that happened while Nick was nearby. One of the vets has turned his life
around and become a force for good among young people to expiate his sin. Nick tries to protect
him, but can't, when the killer turns out to be a vampire from their past. His work of revenge done, the
vampire walks into the sun.
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London, 1940s
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Nick, a medic, was underground in that village waiting for sunset so he could emerge. Waiting with him was
LaCroix, always on the lookout for free food. But in xx to Nick, LaCroix was taking only a little from each,
rather than killing his food. As Nick runs through the village, furious at the destruction of life, LaCroix
repeats his old trick of finding someone he can save and bringing that person across. All without telling
Nick, of course.
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| 2.12 |
Near Death
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A strange scientific experiment is discovered when one of the scientists is killed. They've been
developing a machine to create a near death experience - the moment when someone can choose to
go forward into the light, or to come back to the living after having confronted and overcome their
issues, including diseases. Nick is drawn to this notion as possibly
giving himself another chance to not come back as a vampire, and gets the doctor to use the machine
on him. She has a good reason for using it on him. She's just killed the project sponsor who wanted
to close her down, and Nick could be the voice calling for the project to be continued. Too bad
the machine is designed to work on humans rather than vampires.
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Paris, 1228
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LC: I can grant you a gift that only the gods can grant. Give your life to me and I will give you ten thousand lifetimes
in return. Your existence will be transformed in ways that mere mortals cannot even imagine. Come to me
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Near Death Illusion
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LC: The legacy of your evil has not been purged. Behold, the souls of the innocent that you have murdered. They linger here; they persist.
They will not forgive you until your task is completed. N: How can I complete my task? LC: Can you raise your victims from the dead?
N: You know I can't. I must finish it here. Now. LC: That is your choice. So be it. N: What is it you're not telling me. LC: It is
what you're not telling yourself, Nicholas. Do you wish to proceed? N: Yes. LC: Your decision? N: What will happen to me here? If I
step through? LC: You will be reclaimed. N: As a mortal? LC: Yes. N: And my soul? LC: Will be judged. N: Then I am damned.
LC: Tell me, Nicholas, after 800 years of torment, what do you value above all else? N: Humanity. LC: And what is humanity? Merely a race of
peoples? N: No. A state of being. Of grace. LC: And is that not the way to the forgiveness that you seek? N: I've waited centuries.
LC: We know. But there's much left undone for you. Your debt to humanity has not bee repaid. N: I have to go back. That's what you've been
telling me, isn't it? If I die here now my soul will be damned. I have to atone. I have to go back.
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| 2.13 |
Crazy Love
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A serial killer escapes from a mental institution where he was being evaluated and begins to kill again.
The psychiatrist tries to explain the compulsion to possess through killing. She doesn't
know that, in Nick, she's talking to an expert on the subject. But one of the murders doesn't quite fit
the profile. It's a copycat killing and, indeed, its purpose is complete possession.
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Europe, Renaissance
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A beautiful young girl has become compulsively addicted to having Nick feed on her. LaCroix
warns that the situation can't continue and, indeed, Nick finds himself tempted to take one
more long drink, one last long drink.
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| 2.14 |
Baby, Baby
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Once again Nick encounters a lover from his past who carries a large grudge. She's now
an ironworker on a highrise and has a thug as a boyfriend. LaCroix, when applied to for
information, tells Nick that she's after a baby. Nat has discovered that the thug is carrying an
extra Y chromosome, and he might fit the legend that would allow Serena to conceive. Nick would still be up for arresting him if Serena didn't call in her
own debt against Nick, and now Nick stands with back turned waiting while Serena mates with
the man, and then kills him.
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Paris, 1920's
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Offered a drink by a beautiful woman in a man's tuxedo, Nick takes her home. She is adamant
that what she wants from him is immortality, and she is comfortable in her decision. Nick
reluctantly agrees and brings her across. She awakes to discover that she has been cursed
as a vampire, not blessed with a baby.
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| 2.15 |
Partners of the Month
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Nick and Schanke are fighting after Schanke arrives at 5 in the morning to say he's moved out on
Myra and is moving in with Nick. They're investigating the death of a man on the verge of a
divorce and with many, many affairs. But this time it's Schanke who figures out what a man on
the verge of a divorce would do, and that is to give his wife everything in order to keep her.
Which puts suspicion squarely on the mistress.
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Italy, 1325 or lifetime
of daVinci (1452-1519)
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After 97 years together, Janette is bored and is leaving Nick, who expected them to be together for
eternity. They have an argument over daVinci's portrait of Janette, a gift to Nick, but she says she'll get him
to paint another one for her.
LC: Did you really expect her to stay with you forever? I want you to be painfully honest. N: I loved her.
LC: This has nothing to do with love. This has to do with moving on. Immortals cannot cling like lichen to the stone.
It is our imperative to wander through the world, to wander throughout time. We either change and grow or we wither and die inside.
But wouldn't that be eternal hell. [pats Nick's hand] Let her go, Nicholas. There's plenty more of love left in the world.
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| 2.16 |
The Fire Inside
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Someone is using a flame thrower to kill the homeless in the underground tunnels. Nick attempts
to get a young man to lead them to the other people living there so he can get them out. What he
finds is the killer and has to face a flame thrower that could kill him, too.
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2 days ride south of
Charlotte NC, bef 1861
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A slave family hides in the cellar of an abandoned house where Nick, Janette and LaCroix have taken
refuge. The hunters surround the house and say that they will burn them out. LaCroix wants to give
the father and son to the mob as a reasonable trade for their lives. Nick refuses and LaCroix and Janette
leave thru the roof. The house begins to burn and Nick has to get himself and the man and boy past
the flames.
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| 2.17 |
Amateur Night
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Schanke is involved with a movie, consulting for proper police procedures, while Nick and Natalie
are worrying about a gang shooting that left a six year old girl dead. Schanke decides the actress
needs to see how real cops work and convinces Nick to let him bring her along on the case. Make
that on a gangland shoot-'em-up. Thrown off the case, the actress decides to follow one of the
gangmembers, meaning that now she's the one that needs rescuing.
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Chicago, 1960's
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Nick affects a Scottish accent and zaps a police captain into letting him work nightshift in Chicago.
When his partner gets shot, he realizes he doesn't have the training to be a safe partner, and tells
his Captain that he wants to go through the academy. One has to wonder if they have night classes.
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| 2.18 |
The Fix
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Natalie's experiments come to unexpected fruition. She takes two bags of blood into the light
and one boils and one is untouched. Nick's joy is so great that he runs into the sun just to
make sure it's true. It is. He is immune now to sunlight and has an apetite to make up for
700 years of specialty dieting. But the cure is not as long-lived as he had hoped, and he
acts like a junkie needing a fix, stealing from Natalie's cabinet in a vain attempt to stay in the sunshine.
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England, mid 19th c
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Wherever there was a willing scientist, there was Nick playing grateful guinea pig. But all the
hope that the scientist gave Nick was mostly to keep him quiet while he prepared Nick to be the prize
in his collection. Janette and LaCroix arrive in time to make the man lunch.
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| 2.19 |
Curiouser and Curiouser
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Nick is visiting Janette at her club when a man armed with a shotgun and wearing a mask comes
in to hold up the place. Silent signals keep all the vampires quiet and Nick tries to zap
him into putting down his gun, but the man is a resister and fires off the gun, giving Nick
a chance to get him while he's offbalance. Unfortunately, one of the club patrons has been
hit and dies asking for help. Nick is off the case while an internal investigation of the
shooting takes place. While sitting in his chair at home, Nick's fantasy sequence completely takes
over the episode.
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Paris, 1228
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LC: What's wrong my child? N: I don't know. LC: Did you not enjoy your meal. N: But yes. LC: When they're
as beautiful as she, the flesh is like the sweetest fruit; blood like the rarest wine.
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Fantasy
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Nick picks up a glass of red wine and puts down a glass of white wine. The fantasy starts. All
of Nick's friends are in different roles. Janette is his wife and the mother of his child.
Natalie is the police captain, and Nick's mistress. Captain Cohen takes Janette's place as the
non-vampire owner of The Raven. The case on which they're working is the murder of The Nightcrawler.
And the murderer turns out to be Nick, himself. The fantasy seems to end when Schanke arrives
at Nick's place and Nick puts down a glass of red wine. Except for the detail that the girl who
comes up to Captain Cohen in headquarters is the girl who was killed in The Raven.
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| 2.20 |
Beyond the Law
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A diplomat's son is completely out of control, having been protected by his father over the years from the
consequences of his actions. But the murder of a young woman in Toronto almost
results in an international incident when Nick is determined to bring the man to justice.
The father is convinced to help, but the son wants no part of his father's help.
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Chicago,
1968 Dem. Convention
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A politician assaults a female campaign worker and is considered too powerful to go after when
the girl commits suicide. But Nick lets the scandal out with an anonymous call suggesting an
affair between the girl and the politician. It might not bring the man to justice, but it
does effectively mean an end to his presidential aspirations.
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| 2.21 |
Queen of Harps
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Nick's intention to bid on a Celtic harp is wrecked by Schanke showing up and not letting him
bid. But the harp is too important to Nick and he steals it from the auction house safe.
When the auctioneer is murdered, the assumption is that whoever killed the man also stole the
harp. Whoops.
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Carreg, Wales, early 13th c
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Nick's feudal Lord is charged with backing up the Lord of Carreg's task of converting the Celtic
pagans to the papal version of Christianity. When Nicholas becomes entranced by a farseeing
harpist, Nick's Lord sees her as a block in the way of his duty, and a temptation for Nick. His
solution to both problems is to kill her, causing Nick to be blamed for her death.
In exchange for Nick's release from judgement, Nick promises that he will join the Crusade.
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| 2.22 |
Close Call
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Following a shootout after which Nick hypnotized him, Schanke is beginning to pull things together
and becomes convinced that, crazy as it sounds, Nick is a vampire. He goes to Nat, Janette and, finally,
LaCroix to find out the truth.
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S: Is he a vampire? Are you? LC: You tell me. S: OK. I know this is going to sound crazy but lately there's
been a lot of weird stuff that just hasn't been adding up. Nick rides in the trunk; he can't go in the sun. One minute
he's here, the next minute he's gone - like a bat! Did you know, get this, that we found blood in his icebox?
LC: Human blood? S: No, blood from a steer. LC: [grimaces] Oh! S: I know! My sentiments exactly. That's what I
said. He says he uses it for painting. LC: Raphael showed him that. Tell me, Detective, what has changed in you to
make these things so suddenly apparent? S: I don't know. I do know that I had a really bad night last night.
LC: I know the feeling well. S: Do you? I got into a firefight. Nick was there; he could tell you all about it. I had
to waste a guy. LC: An awful thing, to waste people. S: It is. I killed him. I had no choice. LC: How did you feel, Detective Schanke?
S: How did I feel? Not real good I can tell you. I found out after that the guy had a family, you know. Maybe he was rotten to
them but I know that somewhere there's some kid is thinking about his dad and wondering what happened and what life's going
to be like without him. LC: No, no, no, no, no. When you killed this man, did you feel a surge of strength within you? A burst of
adrenaline? S: No, nothing like that. No matter what anybody says, it wasn't like that. Well, I gotta admit my heart was beating
like a rabbit. The guy did have the draw on me. You know, it would have been curtains if Nick wasn't there to save my ass.
Oh, have I been an idiot. I've been running around all day butting my nose into Nick's affairs when the guy saved my life.
I'm a first class fool. LC: You're tired, Detective, under tremendous stress. Stress and trauma. Any shock to the system
will play on the imagination. Fill us with bizarre obsessions - fantasies, if you like. S: Yeah. LC: Go home, Detective, go
home to your family, and let Nicholas be with his - us, Janette and myself. We're the only family Nick has ever had. S: What are
you saying? That he's adopted? LC: In a manner of speaking, yes. S: Then he's not a... LC: What do you think? Really?
S: I think I need a drink. Listen, I just want to thank you for talking to me, Mr. ... Nightcrawler. LC: Only a real pleasure, Don.
S: And, please, don't tell Nick about this. LC: You asked me if Nick were different. Au contraire. The Nicholas that I know is very much
like you. H doesn't like to kill people either.
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With LaCroix's better mind control, Schanke returns to Nick's command to forget about having seen
someone fly, and to get his car washed.
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| 2.23 |
Be My Valentine
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As payment for an ancient debt between them, LaCroix intends to kill Nick's love, Natalie.
He invites her to dinner with a card that implies the invitation is from Nick, and only Nick's finding
of the card stops LaCroix from making his own gourmet meal of Nat. To keep her safe from LaCroix in the future,
Nick must give up Natalie now.
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Brabant, 1228-9
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Wanting a last visit with his mother and sister, Nicholas brings LaCroix and Janette to his home,
Brabant Castle. LaCroix almost instantly falls in love with the female version of Nicholas, and
the feeling is reciprocated without any vampire wiles needed. But Nick, who had mixed feelings
about becoming a vampire almost from the beginning, is dead set against LaCroix bringing her
across. In his sister is the last opportunity for the blood of Nick's line to continue. As LaCroix
has said to the mobster Constantine, it's always about them. Nicholas' argument is that
LaCroix loves her innocence, which will be destroyed as soon as he brings her across. LaCroix
agrees to give up his one, true love but demands in revenge that Nicholas will give up to LaCroix
his own one, true love sometime in the future. To save Natalie, Nicholas lies about what she means to him.
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| 2.24 |
The Code
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Schanke has had it with winter weather and is seduced into quitting and joining an Arizona PI firm
to which his ex-partner of 7 years is a member. But the man has had his ethics shredded and has
broken the code that binds law men together.
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Arizona, 19th c
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Nick is saved by a bounty hunter who plies him with poisoned whiskey, since his wanted poster
says 'dead or alive.' LaCroix has not let Nick get far away, and is there to save him.
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| 2.25 |
A More Permanent Hell
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An observatory predicts the coming end of life on earth from collision with a large asteroid. Interesting question:
who would profit from such a situation?
LC: I must say that adapting my palate to accept this vinegar won't be easy. Although, I suppose, we'll run out of cows and
everything else before long. And what then? Artificial blood product? N: Well, if you don't like what's on the menu, you can
always leave. LC: Forgive me. It's not my place to criticize your hospitality. N: Especially when you're not invited. LC: I
will miss them, mortals, I mean. Where's the sport without them? Where's the fun? Where is the sense of gamesmanship? N: What is
it you want? LC: What I have always wanted. Companionship. N: Why me? LC: You can best appreciate the irony of my situation.
You young ones are fortunate. Most of you will eventually starve and die. I'll grieve on that day for my Nicholas, my Janette. N: And
what will happen to you? LC: Ah, we ancient immortals will linger for some while after you're gone. I've been delivered from death
to a more permanent hell. Which do you think would be worse, Nicholas, to die or to be left in a living hell. A form of life whose
only point is survival and nothing more. To exist for the sake of existing. Such a bitter irony. Mortals sustain us - their heart,
their laughter, their society, their blood. Our eternal lives aren't worth much without them, are they? N: So who are more powerful
in the end - the hunter or the hunted? LC: I don't know. Perhaps there is a power that is greater than both. N: And the possibility
frightens you, doesn't it? LC: What kind of god is it that can create such perversity? That can make such torture?
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Pompei, 79
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Lucien LaCroix was a general of Pompei, whose daughter brought him across to save his life when
Mount Vesuvius erupted.
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| 2.26 |
Blood Money
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Nick's entire fortune, $478 million dollars, is invested with a friend who keeps it as a
foundation which supports many good causes. When the father is blown up, suspicion for his murder
and the suddenly missing money falls on the man's son. Justice might want the murderer found,
but Nick wants his money back. Which should frighten the criminal more?
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France, 18th c
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Against LaCroix's advice, Nick steals blackmail money from a partner who then becomes lunch.
Now Nick is left with a heavy box of gold coins to deal with, while LaCroix and Janette take
off for safer climes.
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