“And if it is not?” Dmitri asked, shrewdly, already weighing it in his head. Despite Omar’s care, he doubted the dog would live more than another week, if that long. Then he’d be in charge of paying for its burial which, even in Africa, did not come cheap. Better he trade it to this unsuspecting sucker now than have to deal with disposing of its carcass. “I guess if is not then I will keep dog and you will be on your way.”
“Fair enough.” Ndigwe said, showing him a broad smile full of yellowed, but straight, teeth. “Is about your brothers and dat doctor dey been travelin’ wit.”
“My brother and doctor are dead, only one brother remains.” Dmitri said, but Ndigwe shook his head.
“Dat not be true. De white hair doctor and black hair man who sleep in same bed wit him…dey still be livin’ an in same village I just come from.” Ndigwe said, then held out a camera phone with a picture of Ivan, Aleksei and Yuri that had seemingly been taken inconspicuously as they sat around a dinner table laughing and talking only days before. “Dey went on safari dis morning, lef’ out early, but dey won’t have gone far. Dey went by slow truck, de big blonde one, de tall one name Ivan, he wanted to go hunt before dey leave de country in two days.”
“You are right, Ndigwe, your information is valuable to me. Omar, bring dog here.” Omar, hoping his smile was not visible, because he was beaming on the inside, pulled the dog to his boss’s feet.
“You have been good pet, my little bitch, but this nice man has bought you now so that I might finish my business and go back to Russia and live happy life. He will take care of you from here on out.” Dmitri said and she watched as he passed the leash off to the strange-looking dark-skinned man with no hair and yellow teeth. “Thank you for doing business with me.”
“No, no, de pleasure is all mine.” Ndigwe led the dog out and pulled her along behind his donkey into the dim light of dawn.
“Rot in hell, Ivan’s whore.” Dmitri commented under his breath. He knew the safari game-lands well, and started preparing to depart immediately. Omar had disappeared, probably to get a bite to eat, he supposed, as he finished up his coffee, which he’d left sitting on the table as he watched his bitch trot off behind Ndigwe’s donkey. His stomach was full, so he didn’t immediately feel the effects of the drug Omar had put in the coffee, by the time he did, though, it was too late. He collapsed across the camp bed, asleep before his body even hit the less-than-soft mattress.
Chapter 40
Dmitri woke with a scream Ivan imagined anyone within two miles had probably heard, if there was anyone within two miles. He was lying flat on his back in the hot dust, completely naked, his arms and legs stretched painfully by ropes tied to stakes driven deep into the ground.
“Shut up, big baby.” Ivan said, giving him a hard slap across the face. “You are still alive, but you will soon be wishing you were not.”
He made sure Dmitri was watching him as he opened Aleksei’s surgery kit, laying out the tools in the sunlight so that the metal would heat up. He then took a cloth and wiped away the sweat on Dmitri’s chest as carefully as he could. During this time, Dmitri’s eyes were drawn to the source of another noise, the sound of wood hitting dirt. He saw Ndigwe and Omar setting a thick post in the ground, a long chain with manacles dangling from the top of it.
“Please…Ivan…you saw her…you saw how much she…” Another slap, this time one of his lips split and Ivan spit on him before pulling on rubber gloves. He had written, Dmitri noticed, the words “Ivan’s Bitch” down his chest and belly in four different languages. Now Ivan picked up a scalpel and whistled, bringing Omar and Ndigwe over, their work interrupted. A rough, foul smelling cloth was forced between his teeth by Omar, who was staring down at him with a self-satisfied smirk. Ivan was crouched over Dmitri’s waist, avoiding touching him by sitting on him.
“Now, I want to make lasting impression so you never fuck with me again. Scalpel will only make small incision, so I am going to have to cut out some rather decently sized strips.” Ivan said and Dmitri strained with all his might then, as the sun-hot blade touched his skin, a howl of pain coming from him as Ivan cut away a half-inch thick, half-inch deep English-alphabet letter ‘I’. “There, now. That is one letter down…many more to go.”
When Dmitri lost consciousness, and he did several times, Ivan would get up and stretch his legs, have a drink of water, pace back and forth and wait. Then, as soon as Dmitri was conscious once more, he would go right back to work. “While I am working on you, you should know, Yuri thanks you for lending your body for his…experimentation last night. You were first virgin he ever had.”
Dmitri looked sick, then closed his eyes and groaned as Omar gave Ivan a knowing smirk. In fact, Ivan had inserted a little sliver of super-hot pepper into his half-brother’s rectum while he was unconscious, to give a burning sensation that would leave him thinking he’d been violated. It was worth it now, that disgusting task, as Dmitri stared up at the sky, silently. But, the silence was not long lived, as Ivan was still a few letters away from finishing his work. Night was falling and Ndigwe and Omar were sitting by a roaring bonfire, heating Ivan’s hunting blade for the last step of Dmitri’s debasement.
When he was weak with blood loss and sickened by the burning in his backside, the two African men helped to flip him over on his stomach. No care was given to protecting the wounds on his chest because none of them cared if he died of infection, or if he died any other way. Now Ivan took the knife, which was glowing red hot and carved ‘Yuri’s’ with a drawing of a human eyeball beneath it on the left side of his rump, and then ‘Bitch’ and an eyeball under that word on his right side. All the while Dmitri howled and whimpered and begged. He knew what Ivan was doing and he knew what those eyes meant in Russian prisons. It meant he was willingly offering himself to other inmates for sex, whether he was actually willing or not.
Ivan stood up then and stood over him for a long moment before nodding to his companions. They hefted Dmitri up and dragged him to the post where Ivan stretched his hands up to the manacles and suspended them, leaving Dmitri standing. Well, more like he was slumped against the post, but he was upright.
“Now, in best interest of time, I have to be off. Aleksei will have gotten Rosa and Yuri to safety, but that is not what matters. What matters is this: you will hang on this post in God-forsaken middle of nowhere for rest of your miserable life which, without fire and protection, will not be long. Already hyenas have been stirring, they smell your blood on wind. I couldn’t care less. But as you die, as they rip your intestines from your body, and they will, I want you to beg forgiveness of the Almighty in Heaven because you will find no forgiveness on this Earth. Not from me, not from Yuri or Aleksei…and certainly not from Rosa. Personally, I hope you do not ask forgiveness so that you may dance with Devil until my time comes and we meet again.”
With that, Ivan nodded to Omar, who went about setting out a bottle of water and food well in Dmitri’s line of sight but also well out of his reach. “Dat is why you do not treat women dat way, Russian bastard.” Omar spat on him and watched as Ndigwe smothered the fire, which was the only thing keeping the hyenas at bay. The three piled into Omar’s truck and sped off into the distance, but Dmitri did not watch him, his eyes were focused on the twenty or so shapes that were approaching. His ears tuned into their soft chuckling sounds. He would not beg forgiveness because, in his own mind, he had been in the right all along.
Chapter 41
“Gods, Aleksei, what is that, fucking wildcat?” Oleg eyed the rocking, shrieking crate warily. “I thought you said you had recovered Ivan’s fiancé.”
“That is his fiancé.” Aleksei, who looked drawn, tired, and significantly aged said. “Can we just put her in cistern? I am tired. Yuri is too.”
Oleg embraced Yuri as he entered the house, squeezing him so that his eyes looked likely to pop out of their sockets before he finally released his nephew. “Da, cistern is this way, in middle of house. Used to use it as swimming pool some, but
was too much upkeep since I am barely here anymore so I had maintenance man drain it. Glad I did now.”
It wasn’t easy, threading the large crate through the house, but after some time, and nearly losing it going down the ramp to the cistern doors, they successfully placed it in the center of the room. Yuri insisted both Oleg and Aleksei leave, for their own safety, and then he pulled the pins holding the ‘door’ of the crate closed out and sprinted behind them. When she finally bumped the door and knocked it open, she came pelting out, tearing wildly around the cistern, wailing loudly for a master she would never see again. They left her to it, not feeding her per Ivan’s instructions, but they did leave her water. He had already been in touch, Ivan had, and his work done with Dmitri he was now on his way to Siberia where Oleg’s safe house compound was located.
Yuri had been oddly distant since they had rescued whatever was left of Rosa, his dark eyes studying her almost contemplatively. Finally, over dinner that night after Oleg’s departure, he spoke of it and Aleksei watched him and listened closely. “Aleksei…why did he keep Rosa alive but kill my own…my Crystal?”
“Unfortunately, that we may never know. Perhaps he tried the same…no, Yuri. Don’t go down this path…it’s not healthy. We must take this at face value…it’s something that most likely none of us will ever understand. Besides, would you have wanted Crystal to live that way?” Yuri shook his head ‘no’ and looked at Aleksei expectantly. As he leaned in to kiss Yuri, someone spoke from the dining room door and he sat back, quickly.
“Gah, get room why don’t you?” Ivan said, he’d begun to master the usage of conjunctions of late, though when he was angry it was a skill he quickly forgot. “Yuri, before I forget, Ndigwe sent this, he said you are to wear it to protect yourself always. He said you are doctor and you know enough about protecting yourself, Aleksei, but he did send you one, too.” He held out two ebony pendants that hung on string necklaces. Yuri put his own immediately, then frowned at Aleksei until he did the same. Content, he leaned on Aleksei’s comforting warmth. “How is she?”
“Wild. Mad with grief. I almost lost her on transport flight here. The infection was deep and bad, necropsy had set into the flesh and I had to cut away more than…more than I wanted to. As a result, the words are not completely readable now. But, the point is she’s at least healed if not completely healthy.”
“I will go and feed her now. Better she gets accustomed to me and learns to accept me.” Ivan said, and Yuri followed him curious what would happen, leaving a disgruntled Aleksei to clean up the dishes, though he would never complain. Ivan went into the kitchen and selected different fruit and cut it into pieces that would be small and easy to toss, then went down to the cistern. “Stay outside, Yuri, she may be strong but she is not strong as I am. It will take lot more than she has to hurt me.”
Yuri nodded, but stayed at the door, his eyes watching the slow progress of Rosa, who had run herself into an exhausted state but was continuing to move. The clothing Aleksei had put on her she had already torn off, but that was nothing to him, and he did not focus on her having nothing on. He heard Ivan say her same and she froze, then shot at him like a bullet, clinging to him just as Yuri had once done trying to bite his neck. Ivan threw her off and she charged again, but this time someone came out of nowhere, hitting her with a flying tackle, both of them snarling and snapping until Ivan regained his balance and could see what had happened.
Yuri was over Rosa, snarling, his teeth locked on her throat. For a time she snarled and growled her best, even attempting to kick him off with her legs, but eventually he increased the pressure enough she relaxed and submitted, whimpering pitifully. Ivan watched this display with interest, and then, a glance from Yuri told him to play along, so he tossed a cube of fruit to Yuri, who caught it deftly in his mouth and crunched it loudly, allowing the tart green apple-induced saliva to slobber out of his mouth. Rosa came close, sniffing, but Yuri growled and snapped driving her away with a yelp. He then returned and nodded to Ivan, who threw him three more cubes, which he ate in quick succession as Rosa hovered a safe distance away, her weight shifting from one hand to the other, her eyes watching their every movement.
Yuri moved in close and allowed Ivan to pat his head before he trotted away and exited the cistern, surprised to find Aleksei was standing without, watching. “What the hell was that?”
“Shh, just watch.” Yuri said and they both leaned in against the glass as Rosa came tentatively closer to Ivan, sniffing and hunkering submissively. Ivan tossed some fruit and she failed to catch it, but ate it right off the filthy floor none-the-less. Ivan was able to feed her the remainder of the apple, and by the end she was sitting very near him in almost a stance like one might see from a begging dog. She looked towards the door where Yuri had gone and then at Ivan before approaching and allowing him to stroke her head twice, but only briefly before she backed away and resumed circling the enclosure restlessly.
“It’s an animal thing. I just sort of knew somehow that all she needed was reassurance.” Yuri explained as the three walked back up into the house-proper. They had bedrooms to set up and provisions to order delivered. Ivan had a feeling they were going to be there a very long time.
Chapter 42
Middle-of-Nowhere, Africa
The nomad children approached the strange looking tree in the distance with great caution, not sure what it was all about. The closer they got, the more alarmed one of the older children became, and he ran pelting to his father to tell him of the naked, red-skinned and filthy man’s body they had just found tied to a post. This brought immediate action from the group of nomads, and many of the able bodied men came running to see what the children were telling them.
There, slumped against the post, hung a man with long, matted, dark hair. His skin was burnt to blisters in some places and had been carved in words they could not read on others. Shaking their heads, the men decided they should at least take him down and give him a decent burial. While they were discussing this, one of the nomad boys, only four, got brave and approached the man, his soft hand touching the bearded, burnt face. When he did the man stirred slightly, weakly, sending the children scattering, screaming in terror. His one brown eye fluttered open briefly as dozens of black-skinned natives closed in around him and he closed his eye back again. Surely, his sick and feverish mind thought, the demons had finally come to drag his soul to Hell.
Chapter 43
Six Months Later
Life went on slowly at the compound in the Siberian wilderness, especially in the heart of winter when there was nothing to do but sit around day by day, trapped inside. One morning, when a gale-force blizzard was wreaking absolute havoc outside, Ivan stumbled into the kitchen still half-asleep, his mind only on one thing: coffee. He set up the coffee maker, then stood leaning on the bar and reading the national news on the tablet his uncle had sent him. Just as he poured his first cup he heard a crow of maniacal laughter and a buck-naked Yuri came sprinting into the kitchen.
A bellow unlike anything Ivan had ever heard came from the direction of the room Yuri and Aleksei shared. “Yuri! Where the hell are you?”
“Oh hell. What did you do, Yuri?” Ivan asked but Yuri was laughing too hard to answer and instead departed at a run, not the least bit bothered by the fact he wasn’t wearing any clothes.
Pranks had become Yuri’s new outlet for his cooped-up boredom. Just the previous week, he had shamed poor Aleksei, who never watched a horror movie in his life, into watching an old classic about a madman in a snowbound hotel. Then, two days later, Ivan had been in the kitchen fetching a snack when he saw Yuri creeping towards the bedroom he shared with Aleksei, carrying an axe. Ivan knew he wasn’t intent on hurting Aleksei, he just wanted to scare the piss out of him, and likely would have.
“Nyet, Yuri.” Ivan had said and Yuri jumped about a foot in the air and turned in surprise, an insolent pout immediately appearing on his face. “Give me axe. I cannot let you be tearing up Uncle Oleg’s hou
se, he would take axe to my head if I did. Find another way to scare Aleksei, something that does not involve destroying house or accidental dismemberment.”
So, Yuri streaking by laughing so hard he couldn’t breathe really came as little surprise. Ivan sat on a stool at the center island and thought glumly about watching yet another adult movie. He had to do something, because he wasn’t pleasant to be around when too much testosterone built up. His glumness was forgotten moments later in a desperate attempt not to laugh when Aleksei appeared in the kitchen doorway wearing only a towel around his waist. It was clear why he was so angry, his white-blonde hair, of which he was very vain and proud, was now a dark, brilliant, neon pink.
“I have not seen him.” Ivan lied, blithely, his cheek bleeding inside his mouth from his efforts to keep from roaring with laughter.
“You know, somehow I just don’t believe you.” Aleksei said, then cursed and Ivan looked away quickly as Yuri flew by and grabbed the towel, displaying that the hair on his head wasn’t the only hair that had gotten the pink-treatment. “You little bastard get back here!”
Ivan chuckled and went right back to reading the news, then glanced up as the alarm on the door beeped to announce someone had arrived. “Oleg.”
“Ivan. Did I hear someone shouting?” Oleg asked, looking confused and then he threw himself against the wall as Yuri came through the kitchen, this time in full flight, still laughing so hard he was almost choking, still naked. “Why is Yuri running around naked?”
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