Note to Nifty: this is a continuation of my series by the same name
Thank you all for being so patient with me and this story. It's been such a long time coming for me, and for some of you as well. It's taken a lot out of me to even get this much done and released before the ear mark of the previous chapter.
Though special attention has been given to historical accuracy, and inspired by true events, this story is a work of fiction. The primary characters do not depict any actual person, so any correlation making it seem otherwise is entirely coincidental. Some characters used in this chapter and any following it did exist in history and have been used in a parodic manner to fit the narrative and is perfectly legal, as well as any place and event in history. This story contains graphic depiction of sexual acts between two female characters, among others, as well as graphic depictions of many things. If any of these subjects offend you, or if you have a weak stomach, please leave now. I did not write those scenes for enjoyment, but as a play on the historical accuracy of several sequences throughout the story, nor did I write these scenes to have some random person lecture me on my twisted imagination. While I do have a twisted imagination to come up with this story in the first place, some of the following scenes happened as I described them so if you have an issue with it, take it up with your dead ancestors for supplying me with the material.
That's enough of my little rant on my not giving a fuck of peoples' feelings. You've been warned, so if you read further you only have yourself to blame for being offended.
So sit back, relax with your favorite person, and enjoy part 7 of Embrace The Enemy.
Chapter Seven
~~ NADIA'S PERSPECTIVE ~~
More than a week had passed since the imperial troops had entered the city to quash the uprising. Untold numbers of people were still lying dead in the streets, waiting for someone to put them to rest. No one in my family dared to leave the house since my mother burned the blood-stained clothes of my father and brother.
"I'll be back," my father said, already heading for the door.
All of us looked astonished. "Where are you going?" my mother asked, but we all knew the answer.
"We need food. Things have started calming down, most of the troops have left the city."
"But what if someone recognizes you?" she asked, not daring to make a grab for him. We'd all seen that look before. It was not wise to question his resolve.
"No one will recognize me. We wore face covers. No one will question an unarmed man walking through the market with his daughter."
We all looked at each other. "What are you saying, Dmitri?"
"Nadia is coming with me," he declared holding his hand to me. I hesitated before taking it, more confused than every one else in the room. I could still smell the blood after all his efforts to get rid of it. It permeated the air, was in the floors, in the walls... I could almost taste it with every breath. No one else seemed to notice. "I will draw less attention this way, especially the attention of the authorities."
My mother nodded in defeat. "Very well."
My father dragged me out of the house. I almost passed out from the noxious fumes riding in the morning fog. Gunpowder, blood, death; agony, despair, fear... my head was spinning. Literally and figuratively. I couldn't stop looking around at the devastation wreaked upon the city. Everywhere I looked people were either blank, angry, or dead. Or armed and marching. I wanted to scream, but knew it wasn't a good idea. My father must have sensed what I was feeling because his grip on my hand got tighter the closer we got to the Central Market.
"Stay close to me, Nadia," he uttered without looking at me. His eyes were on everything but me. Always watching, always alert.
We made a few stops along the remains of the market, picking up a few items. We didn't stop long at any one person's stall or wagon, but my father would nod or grunt to seemingly random people if given one first. To any passer-by it would seem nothing more than a quick greeting, but even at my young age I knew all too well what it meant.
They were part of the uprising.
They were the reason the Imperial Army laid siege to Odessa.
They were part of the problem.
The closer I looked at each man the more I started noticing a pattern to their behavior. They would lock eyes for an instant with my father then look around for any passing troops. Their heart rates would increase as they did so, then slow when the coast was clear. My father would return their quick greeting, then pretend like we never stopped there.
What surprised me the most was how little attention any of them, including the Imperial soldiers, paid me. It made me feel insignificant, but important at the same time. I could be carrying a bomb and they would never know it. They could march right over my skull only to be mad that I got in their way. Over the sound of their marching feet I could taste their apprehension and distaste of being in my city like a sour flavor mixed with the coppery sensation of the blood in the air. For some reason, that made me smile.
On our way back home, the only person that my father verbally acknowledged was the Arch Diesis of Odessa.
"Good morning, Father Ioeseff," he said genuinely happy to see him.
He gave us a kind smile in return. It was obvious that he'd been seeing to the many parishioners who have suffered a loss over the past fortnight. He looked haggard, weighted down, but was always quick with a smile as if seeing one in return could change his whole day around. His robes were spotted with blood, which caught my attention even before he returned my father's greeting.
"I wish it were a better morning, Dmitri," he answered with his unusual velvety German accent. I never learned how or why he chose Odessa. He could speak our language well enough, but there was something about him that always put me on edge. "So much tragedy and despair in the last two weeks, but hope remains."
He said that last part looking directly at me. Even with my innocent eyes I could see something behind his warm presence shift. I felt... cold standing there before him. Exposed. Like he could see right through me, like he knew about the changes happening to me that I had yet to understand. When he exhaled, I could smell something odd about his breath. It smelled like something I wouldn't understand for many years to come.
"Indeed, Father, so long as you and yours continue working through God. It does me good to see out amongst us." My father was oblivious to the fact that I was trying to hide behind him away from this man. "We are bringing some daily stores back to the family. You should come by when you can spare a minute."
Father Ioseff's smile widened at me, then he shifted back to my father, his lips falling back to the simple grin. "Duty has my schedule filled for a while yet, but I thank you for the invitation."
Then we were off on our way to the house. And what felt like its diminishing safety.
~~CHARLIE'S PERSPECTIVE~~
The room was spinning even before I opened my eyes. I could feel the dizziness threatening to take over reason. Did Nadia just seriously tell me that she was worth a half-billion dollars? Did she just propose?
"Charlene? Honey, can you hear me?" I swear I could hear that angel's voice somewhere above me. "Wake up, honey."
My eyes fluttered open, the bright light coming from everywhere at once. The pressure in my head was easing up little by little, but that couldn't take away the fact I was freezing. Being almost naked might have something to do with that though.
"What happened?" I asked, trying to sit up on my own and failing.
Nadia's arms were still wrapped around my shoulders. I could feel her perfect body behind me, but that didn't bring the familiar comfort I thought it would. My head was still swirling from that mind fuck a moment ago.
Nadia put her chin on my shoulder, her breath even but forced. "I told you how much money I have and you blacked out."
"I mean after that," I said turning my head. "Why am I naked?"
Nadia shrugged. "I thought I'd take you to bed. You've been out for a good twenty minutes. I thought you'd hit your pretty head, or something."
I groaned and rolled my eyes away from her. That would explain why we were on that magnificent bed. "Are you seriously worth a half-billion dollars?"
Nadia shrugged again. "Somewhere around that. I haven't checked it since I had your ring made." That got my attention. My question must have been spelled on my face, because she continued with, "I used the precious metals from my own bullion vaults. You're wearing a ring I had made specially for you, melted from my own gold, palladium, platinum, and rhodium holdings."
I couldn't help my smile. I was going to cry, I knew it. For all the things she's done for me since before we even met, I could only love her in return. For all eternity if all the rumors were to be believed. That thought took some of the twinkle out of my eye though.
"What?" Nadia asked, sensing my mood dampen.
I shook the thought from my head. "Nothing. It's just after all that we've been through already, I never thought something like this could ever be possible." Nadia held me tighter. In all my life I never felt safer than right there in her arms. Nothing could ever tear us apart. Nothing.
I felt her lips touch the unscarred side of my neck. A chill ran down my spine from the amount of force she put behind it. I knew she was hungry -- shit, so was I -- but she wouldn't dare break my skin unless I gave her permission, Watcher or not. I also knew she liked to be teased with will power. The longer I held out, the better the sex would be afterward.
The heat from her mouth's ministrations kept building. Her hot breath was ragged with want and desire. She knew what I was doing, hell she knew what she was doing if the subtle raking of her teeth was any indication. I could smell the wetness between my legs building, so I knew she could. Nadia's nails hardened into my skin; it hurt, but damn it hurt so good.
My own breath was getting ragged. I opened my eyes in time to see her leave claw marks across my shoulders and down my arms. They were red, but bloodless. My nipples were rock-hard, so the little pinch she gave them sent an even bigger tingle up my spine than normal. My breath came and went in a satisfied groan.
"Nadia..."
Everything stopped. I knew she would. It was that pause before I gave her permission to draw blood that told us who controlled whom. I couldn't help my smile when she whimpered.
"Go for it," I breathed.
Her mouth clamped down on my neck. I felt the pleasure in the pain of her teeth sinking into her mark, into me. The whole world spun around us as she drank. We were in the depths of a bliss that no one could dare intrude upon. My vampire had become my world. My vampire would now become my wife.
And her Watcher will become hers. It was in that moment I realized what we truly had. It was the answer I had been searching for ever since I was pushed into all of this. It felt like Nadia's very soul was intertwining with my own, not overtaking it as the stories once had me believing. Her teeth in my neck, or when we make love, it's the same sensation. I wrapped my arms and legs around her and held her against me. This is what true love felt like. My pussy wanted to get fucked, no doubt about it, but every other part of me wanted this. I wanted to protect her from the things that went bump in the night, the things that would harm her the most. I wanted her to tell me everything. I wanted to be strong for her, to see my fiance through what I knew we had to do.
Then everything stopped. Her teeth pulled out of me. And then I fell. I fell forever it seemed. I was alone in a cavernous void, only the echoes of my breathing broke the silence. I couldn't tell if I my eyes were open or not. I knew I lifted my hands to touch the nothingness surrounding me, but I couldn't see them.
I started walking, the echo of my erratic footfalls brought little comfort. I was surrounded by something -- how else could I hear an echo? -- but it didn't seem to matter how far in any direction I moved, I felt nothing but the solid floor beneath me. I stopped dead in my tracks when a booming, maniacal laughter pierced my thoughts. The thump of someone in heavy shoes sounded from somewhere behind me. It didn't have the same register of my ragged breathing or footfalls. No, this was a solid noise of someone controlled and in command of the air around them, around me.
I heard someone snap their fingers, then felt the severe heat of light hit my still naked back. There was an imposing shadow on the ground beside mine. "Are you having fun with my little Nadia?" the man said in a... German accent? His voice was just as thunderous as his laughter.
"Where am I?" I answered, refusing to turn around. "Who are you?"
"Who I am does not matter, Charlene Candice Coventry. What does matter is this unique position you are in with Nadia."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your engagement." His tone was definitely not congratulatory. It seemed more hurt and threatened. "Why would you, a Watcher, make your vampire your betrothed?"
I almost scoffed. "Why does that bother you so much? Jealous?"
He laughed at that, but this time it was different. "Of you, little bleeder? Absolutely not. However, that will not excuse my curiosity as to why you think you are worthy of one of my esteemed children."
I paused at that. Seriously, what kind of smart-assed comeback could I make that would help, even if that last bit didn't confuse the hell out of me? All I could come up with was, "Tell me who you are. I've already killed Father Darien."
"Truly?" he challenged. "Did you see the body?" When I didn't answer, he continued. "Insignificant at best. He was my brother in the Order, but enemy everywhere else. I was the only one of us wise enough to leave him be in his delusions of creating his own coven. Someone close to him was bound to end his reign. But I had no idea it would be his own sister."
"Half sister."
"My apologies. I didn't realize your hatred of him ran so deep. Or does it?"
I sighed. "Will you just get to the fucking point? Who are you and what do you want?'
"So demanding. I will answer neither of those questions. Ask my daughter. She has been lost for so long to the whims of that fool. But thanks to you, I have found her once again."
That light flashed out. I was alone once again in the forever darkness. The sudden cold made shiver uncontrollably. Mr. Mystery Man's words didn't have to sink in for me to know we were in trouble. Fear gripped me as though the cold had fingers. It squeezed me tighter. My whole body was shaking with erratic, random spasms. My teeth clattered together.
My body was shutting down. "Nadia... " I pleaded into the darkness. "Nadia." Not even my echo responded. "NADIA!"
I didn't know how long I was unconscious, but when I awoke my throat hurt and not because Nadia had bitten me. It hurt like I had been at a concert, screaming my head off. I was dressed in a rather nice purple satin nightie with a nice warm, wet towel wrapped around my neck. My mouth was dry, but my eyes weren't. I'd been crying in my sleep.
I could hear someone sobbing a few feet away. My vision came back from that azure haze to a drunken blur. Even still, I could always tell Nadia's profile anywhere. My mouth moved, but no sound came out.
"Charlene?" That lost-little-girl-hope in her voice worried me. "Are you awake?"
Since I couldn't talk, I gave her a thumbs-up. My vision was clearing, but not nearly as fast as it should. Nadia sat beside me before I even saw her move. She smiled down at me, moving a lock of hair out of my face. It felt nice to feel her gentle touch. It didn't feel nice to see how red her eyes were.
"What happened?" I mouthed with some difficulty.
"I was there, Charlene. I saw him talking to you." She started crying as she spoke. "That monster managed to find you through me. And me through you. I thought he died a long time ago. I'm so sorry, Charlene. I'm sorry..."
It hurt to see her like this. I've never seen her look so scared. She was horrified beyond reason. I reached out and grabbed her hand. I squeezed until she looked at me. It hurt to try to speak and Nadia suddenly turned into Mother Hen.
"Don't talk, love. You've been screaming for the last ten minutes. It was... terrifying." She moved the blanket up to my chin. "You started crying, then I started crying..."
I had to say it, fuck how much it hurt to do it. "Who... who was he?"
Nadia only looked at me, single tear falling down each cheek.
I would like to thank everyone for being so patient with this chapter. I know it's been a while (two years now? holy crap!) but I have been busy with a lot of other projects. I have written and pitched my first feature film "The Bullied" for representation with the APA -- the Agency of the Performing Arts (still waiting for their reply at the time of sending this). For information about this script/film just ask.
I've also been writing for a developing TV series called Intergalactic Space Rangers (www.intergalacticspacerangers.com). I've also been working as a Supervising Producer for the accompanying audio series called Doorways And Dimensions (search for us on YouTube). Our first chapter called "Breathe" has been released on YouTube (search for it and check it out for yourself, it's about 33 minutes long). I personally have written 4 TV episodes -- 3 are slated for production, 1 on reserve possibly for the second season -- and have written 4 episodes of the audio series, and I've read about a dozen other submitted scripts. Go to the Space Rangers website for information on how to get involved and pick up some swag!!
I've been working a lot of hours at my night job as well, plus going to school. Hopefully I'll get this story going a bit faster. And yes, I am still outlining this series into a feature film.