Dark Days (Written Pictures #2)

by H. A. Kotys

  Or perhaps she had been too focussed on Alexei and hadn’t really tried with Natalia. It was difficult to say, and even trying something to entice her may just end up making things worse. The thought was desperate, and stupid.

  What was crystal clear to Raven was that if Natalia found her, she hated her enough to keep her alive and that what she had experienced so far would be just an hors d’oeuvres to what would undoubtedly follow.

  So despite the screaming fatigue in her muscles, the struggle of every step on the loose rock, she had to go on.

  == ~ ==

  The dust from the bike ahead burnt his eyes and Alexei had to squint to see the way. He had to stay at the head of the pack. While he suspected what Natalia had in her mind, he had no idea what that red-haired idiot would do.

  While he was learning to distrust his little sister, he trusted the Jester even less and always had. He had been brought into the house because as well as a spontaneity and mirth, he didn’t turn away from helping with the dirty things that others wouldn’t do. Yet it was becoming more obvious that with him also came a chaos that could so easily become destructive.

  He had a look about him as he tracked Raven on his bike that spelt trouble for the woman Alexei wanted. He spurred his horse forward again. To hell with Natalia. To hell with the consequences.

  == ~ ==

  By keeping the sun roughly to her right as it approached the height of day, Raven continued to head east, away from the danger and further out into the countryside. The scree field had given way to upland scrub and she was able to quicken her pace, taking care to keep off the ridge's crest to avoid being silhouetted.

  Dropping down further to keep away from the ridge as it fell away from its heights, she caught the fragrant welcome of fruit trees, triggering a single thought: hunger. Raven twisted an apple from a low-hanging branch before pushing on, deeper into the heart of the ancient orchard.

  Watchful eyes noted her progress.

  == ~ ==

  The Jester was gunning and speeding his motorbike along the rocky road, then stopping abruptly every few hundred metres to crane his scrawny neck down. Alexei’s doubts were growing – she would not have been stupid enough to just follow the path. The fool didn’t have a clue.

  Reigning in his horse, he allowed the rest of the party to engulf then overtake him. When they were all ahead, he looked back, peering into the skies for his beloved falcon.

  The sun was bright and it was difficult to see. Shading his eyes, Alexei scanned the horizon. The boundary of his estate was long gone, set in a valley as it was and he traced his eyes along the ridge looking for his prized bird, always an invaluable aid to his hunts.

  He spotted her way in the distance and while he couldn’t make out detail, she appeared to be hovering, as she was bred to when sighting her prey. He looked down at the path, which was far too rocky to track anything properly, the Jester’s headlong dash more madness than method. Alexei trusted the falcon far more than the fool on the bike.

  Leaving the Jester to his inane pursuit was a risk should he actually be right. But he trusted his falcon. With a dig of his heels, Alexei hauled his horse around and galloped away on nothing but a gamble, a gamble that did not go entirely unnoticed.

  == ~ ==

  Breathlessness usually came in the bedroom rather than open country, though there was that one time when she was younger. Raven’s muscles burnt and she had jarred her shoulder clambering over an orchard wall, leaving her cursing Murphy’s Law, and then everyone else as the throbbing continued. Fatigue was creeping toward overruling other concerns. Tossing the remains of the apple away, she looked for a safe place to rest.

  Edging down the slope alongside the wall, she soon came across a dilapidated farmhouse with three partial walls and no roof. It wasn’t ideal but it would protect her from being seen by anyone unless they were close. She really needed to catch her breath and think and taking another apple from the last tree before the ruined building, Raven headed inside.

  The large fireplace would once have been the focus of the house. Cooking, heating, baking, all would have happened there and with part of the chimney still intact, it was big enough to crouch inside to get some respite from the midday sun.

  It was a building that had been built to last. With thick stone walls, it was reminiscent of the building she had first sheltered in when running from home all those years ago. That had been where time for safe reflection had helped see Raven ultimately born. It would serve her well for now, at least until she was strong enough to put more distance between herself and captivity.

  Nestling into the remains of the fireplace, Raven relaxed for the first time she could remember and bit down into the red-green apple. Sweet and brimming with juice, it nourished her spirit as much as her hunger and she closed her eyes in a rare moment of contentment as the fruit released sweet sugars onto her tongue and smoothed down her parched throat.

  == ~ ==

  Alexei watched his precious bird swooping then soaring, finding the thermal and adjusting her position again. He could see more of the fine colouring of her plumage now and he kicked his horse on, keen to find if what he instinctively felt was indeed right.

  When they reached the scree field, he slowed his horse to let him pick his own way across the loose surface. The stallion had been with Alexei since his teens and keen as he was to make progress, he didn’t want his ageing horse hurt.

  Once clear, the falcon told him that he was close. Alexei could see the effort she was putting in just to stay in place above a building he remembered from childhood. With a whistle, Alexei acknowledged her effort and the falcon landed on the top of the chimney.

  Alexei dismounted, secured the reigns around a low hanging branch of a nearby tree and moved as quietly as he could toward the ruins of the old farmhouse.

  He had once known the house well, having come here as a child. It had been his fort, where he had battled all manner of demons not dissimilar to the one he had become himself.

  Power, pride and revenge had driven his every act, shaped every decision and now he wondered if he had been blinded to what was really important. She was that. Everything else could go to hell, right now he just wanted her.

  Was it love? He didn’t really know what that was. But if love made you feel that there was no single thing in life more important then yes, it was love. If someone monopolised every single thought and compelled every single act then yes, it was love. If you instinctively knew when someone was close then yes, it was love.

  Love or not, he had to find her, had to make her sure she knew she was safe with him and he could feel that she was close. Alexei stretched to peer over the ragged wall, heart pounding. The first thing he saw was a half-eaten apple on the floor and then, rising further, the scuffed leather of a heeled boot. His heart seemed to leap into his mouth as his gaze trailed upward along the endless length of leg and the lean body he had enjoyed just once, only a short while before.

  He could smell her. God, how he wanted to hold her again and this time he would never let her go. Family or not, Natalia would be dealt with. With a dry mouth and racing heart, Alexei moved to what was left of the doorway and passed inside.

  == ~ ==

  Her dreams struggled to rationalise the horrors she had endured. Images flickered and flared triggering feelings, fears and phobias to first well up then wane as her subconscious hurried from one topic to the next.

  Raven stretched out, reaching for the pillow so she could press it against her head to slow it all down but all she found was the rock of the chimney. A jolt of reality fed all the way up her arm and into her shoulder, nudging her conscious mind forward with a moan of frustration and discomfort.

  She wasn’t in her bed and moving her leg, she realised that she wasn’t chained to one either. As her mind slowly clicked into gear, Raven remembered the Jester, how he had fallen across her, how she had run and the difficulty of crossing the scree field. She remembered now. That was why she wasn’t in her bed
. She was in a farmhouse and needed to push on but when she opened her eyes, a figure was standing over her.

  == ~ ==

  Alexei watched her stir and imagined watching that every morning as the sun streamed through curtains and he held her. The stretching of her leg seemed to lengthen something that already ran forever and when she reached her arm sleepily back, he had to admire how the latex of her now tarnished catsuit strained across her breast.

  She was enough to rearrange your world - the priorities in his had already been changed dramatically. Alexei had planned her to be his crowning glory, a celebration and maybe she would still be that, but she had changed the ‘how’. Many things had changed, he had changed. She would not be some kind of toy to take out, fuck and forget until his next erection needed an outlet. No. She would adorn his arm and enjoy his bed. An equal. His love.

  As her eyelids edged open he welcomed her awakening with a smile and stretched out a hand to help her up, seeing beyond her bruising to the beauty that would always lie beneath.

  Opening his large hand, the smile danced across Alexei’s lips and into his eyes. “Come back, Jacqueline,” he said softly.

  == ~ ==

  Alexei?! The shock of seeing him sent her sleepy senses into instant overload. He had inflicted so much on her and yet, and yet, there was something that called to her, something that whispered deeper within her as she looked nonplussed into his sparkling eyes. She was cornered. She had nowhere left to run, but that wasn’t her concern. Even in the open she would have frozen as she did, head and heart racing just looking at him.

  He had called her Jacqueline. Not Raven. Not Ki-Ki. Not some sadistically spat insult. Jacqueline. His voice; softer, real and in his eyes there was the promise of things she had barely allowed herself to dream of. In that moment, two screamingly solitary souls connected for eternity and entwined in a look that spoke a thousand silent words.

  The sceptic within her saw a ploy to lull and lure her back to the misery of his house but she wanted to believe in more than that. She wanted to be Jacqueline again and in her heart she knew she could be Jacqueline with him.

  And so, in a decision she knew would change her life, she reached up to her future and with a hesitancy that caused her hand to shake, nodded a barely perceptible acceptance and placed her hand in his.

  CHAPTER LXVI – Solutions

  Her hand placed on Alexei’s, Jacqueline’s eyes never left his. As she laid herself open to him, she explored his soul through the window of his eyes and watched as they grew distant, seemingly lost in the poignancy of the moment. So much promise and in placing her hand in his, so she placed her trust.

  But her hand was never grasped. Slowly his slipped back to his side, allowing hers to hover alone, precisely where it had been abandoned. Jacqueline frowned and looked deeper into his eyes, hunting in vain for an explanation as they stared back at her. There was no depth there now, all they offered in its place was a reflection of her own anguish.

  Why would he toy with her like this? He was just like he had always been, just like the other bastards, building her up only to smash her apart. Right before her eyes, the future she had hoped for was slipping away. It was only when he collapsed to the floor that it was clear it wasn’t through a choice he had made. She saw a knife that dripped with his blood, and a hollow horror hammered at her heart.

  Two figures stood where her dreams had been seconds before. A large man looked down at the curved blade of the knife in his hand before wiping it carefully with the underside of his robes, then secreting it back beneath them. Only one word could form in Jacqueline’s head. With the utmost of effort, arm still outstretched though her hand had balled into a fist, Jacqueline spoke it. “Why?”

  The man spoke in an accent which only hinted to his Middle Eastern origins, hidden as it was behind his carefully constructed Eton tones. “Because he tried to blackmail me, girl and did not keep his side of an agreement.” Purely pragmatic, his words belied the hurt Jacqueline felt inside. “For that a lesson must be given and an example set.”

  Turning to the smaller figure beside him, the Prince continued. “I will not hear from Jade again.”

  == ~ ==

  While Mela nodded at what seemed to be a message, it was a simple statement of fact. Across the other side of the world, a figure hunched over Jade’s bedside punched a syringe into her arm. The chamber was slowly emptied and, after checking the corridor was clear of night time patrols, the figure quietly slipped out the room as Jade’s life slipped away.

  == ~ ==

  Jacqueline’s eyes followed his to the smaller figure beside him. She was barely able to register what was happening - her usually active mind simply refused to operate.

  Functional black ankle boots gave way to skinny jeans and they in turn gave way to a vest top that clung to familiar curves. With a final tug, the burka was fully pulled away and Jacqueline could only stare at the girl that smiled back at her.

  “Hello Mistress, it’s good to be back.” Mela was barely able to contain the excited tone in her voice as she fingered the collar she wore again with pride. With a deep bow, she thanked the Arab, “Prince Al-Nizam, it has been an honour to meet you, and thank you, thank you again.”

  With a shallow nod of his head, the Prince took Mela’s hand and politely kissed the back. “You are an unusual girl indeed. We will meet again.” His eyes rose to meet hers, lingering before he rose back to his full height.

  “The papers you need for travel await you at my embassy. Diplomatic of course, they cannot hinder you. A car awaits down there.” The Prince pointed down the track. “Go there. All is arranged, and may He smile upon you.” The Prince’s eyes rose to the heavens in a mark of respect.

  With a sweep of his robes, the Prince strode to his horse, leaving the two women in a silence broken only by the squawk of the falcon which perched atop the partly collapsed chimney, watching with curiosity.

  “How? Why?” Jacqueline’s mind ran through too many questions as she looked up at the quirky elfin girl who wore the collar she had once given her. It was all too much to take in. She was a shell. It felt as if her soul had been scooped out and stamped into the dusty ground until it shattered into infinite shards.

  “There’s no time Mistress, we have to go.” Reaching down, Mela took hold of the still-outstretched arm in an encouragement of urgency.

  Spiralling into shock, Jacqueline seemed to depart from her body. She could almost imagine looking down at herself and the scene around her. Two women, one functionally dressed for the country, the other dressed for darker pleasures, a man contorted and inert on the dusty floor, blood staining his otherwise pristine white shirt.

  In slow motion, she saw herself look down at the man and heard a pitiful cry from the figure that looked just like her before it collapsed over the body, wanting to hold it and never let go.

  “Mistress Raven, please, we have to go!” Mela tugged now with increasing urgency while trying to dress her with the burka she had just removed. Jacqueline clung to her lost love.

  She had dared to dream and almost been free but Jacqueline now bore a new burden on her soul. Fate had scythed her hope again. It had toyed with her and would now torture her with the memory of what might have been. She had opened herself in a way she hadn’t thought possible again and that had only seen her thrown back into the anguish of loss.

  Raven had always been her protector. She had survived horror upon horror and each time she had triumphed by shepherding her through even the darkest of times. She would need her again. They had destroyed her hope, her love, and she would avenge the death of it with a particularly pleasurable patience.

  Clutching her girl’s hand with a firm nod of acceptance behind a cascade of tears, the two women hurried down the track toward the road. The smaller led the way as the other slipped into anonymity under a shroud, ready to be taken to what passed for freedom.

  She would always carry his memory but she would carry so much more. Raven would rise aga
in.

  CHAPTER LXVII – Immunity

  For a hastily thrown together plan, it had worked to perfection. Whether it was because of the speed or perhaps just plain good luck, it didn’t matter because it worked. Raven had breezed past Natalia at the airport, a heart-stopping moment but one that worked like a charm.

  Clad in a head to toe Burka and shuffling along amidst a posse of similarly-dressed females, even the tall Raven had gone unnoticed as the ambassador to Prince Al-Nizam had moved through the small private terminal, his diplomatically protected entourage in tow.

  Sitting now with a seatbelt secured around her waist, Raven afforded herself a smile as she recalled the frustration and anger on Natalia’s face as she had watched the ambassador. Powerless to delay let alone stop him, the thought to hadn’t even occurred to her as she had jabbed orders at a troop of police officers, focussing instead on the public terminal, combing it for Raven’s expected attempt at escape. How could Natalia delay a representative of the Prince anyway? After all, he was the man that would sign the deal securing her future.