Thanks for that excellent rec! It's so thought provoking. I hadn't considered the ramifications of Nick knowing about vampires if he ever became human. Of course, it would put him in danger. LaCroix making him forget would be a last act of protection. Not giving Nick a choice about it is a very vampire thing to do.

It is a good one!

It wasn't clear to me whether LaCroix had erased Nick's memory, or if it was due to some natural process of him regaining his humanity. The fact that the memories were fading as opposed to just disappearing made me wonder. Clearly he had just made Natalie forget entirely.


At the very end, even though Nick experiences great distress as he is conscious of all his memories (that he could only have if he'd known he'd been a vampire) slip away from him, is the ultimate place this will lead such a bad outcome? When you think about it, in a moment, he's not going to be conscious of what has happened. He's going to stand up and go home and look forward to seeing Natalie at dawn, unbothered by what he has lost because he won't remember that he lost anything at all.

But I think that would also meet the definition of Nick not feeling 'whole' even though he wasn't conscious of his past. I do wonder if Nick were given a choice of humanity, but with the known caveat that he would lose all his memories, including those of his mortal family, would he agree? Maybe, but I'm not certain.