The Six People You Meet In Hell
Dried blood lingered on Nika’s bottom lip as she stirred from her place in the shared bed. She ran her pierced tongue over the soft ridge of her lip, pursing it inward to get the full taste. It wasn’t her own blood; that much she could tell. instead, it was heady with hidden sweetness like dark chocolate, the true hallmarks of a man who lived a hedonistic life. In this case, her incubus-turned-vampire had done just that. Johann lead a life of luxury in life and in death. It was always an interesting contrast to Gregor’s earthy taste. He bore warrior’s blood: a robust, musky taste that always reminded her of a dewy forest just on dusk. All blood carried a life story for her kind. It was an unmistakable and inescapable cadence of past lives. At times, Nika wondered how she tasted to her mates. The stories that blood told and its resulting perceptions were different for everyone. The smallest part of her hoped they couldn’t taste how she perceived herself in her human form. It wasn’t a thought she lingered on often. Out of mind was better than front and center any day of the week.
Nika opened her eyes slowly. She didn’t need to look at the faces at her side to know they both slept peacefully. Her thigh crossed over Gregor’s as she was half-sprawled on top of his tall, strong frame; the same leg was joined by Johann’s which melded around hers from behind. Nika’s fingertips lightly traced over the hair on Gregor’s chest as she lifted her head to look at him. His head was turned to face his two bonded as he slept, hand over Johann’s on Nika’s side. Johann was pressed close to her back, face lost happily in a mess of dark hair. A smile formed on her lips though it was hidden as her cheek pressed back to cool skin. Being like this with her bonded felt more natural to Nika than anything else in the world. On some nights they could talk for hours curled up like they were now. On other nights, they didn’t need words to express themselves. They had their own language and their own world in this embrace.
“Veronika.”
The accented, bell-like voice cut through the peace of the moment and set Nika’s nerves on edge. Forgetting her position underneath the limbs of her bonded, Nika pushed her slender frame upwards and her eyes opened fully to find only the familiar darkness of the curtains surrounding the King’s bed. Her stomach constricted in fear as she cautiously crawled over Gregor to reach the side of the bed. Her hand went to the symbolic trinity knot pendant on a long chain around her neck as it often did when she was nervous or upset. Its usually calming influence did not help the thoughts about this particular voice. The one that beckoned her was unmistakable and completely impossible.
“Veronika!”
The room beyond the curtains was illuminated by the light of the fireplace. She drew them back quickly and swung her legs over the side of the bed, standing up to face that constricting fear.
“Who’s there?”
The voice laughed then. Whether it was directed to her, she wasn’t sure. It was soft like she remembered but there was an edge to it she couldn’t place.
A hand came to grip her shoulder and Nika let out a shrill cry, turning to face the sudden attacker. Her eyes widened as she fell backwards to the floor of the King’s chamber. Curling her arm over her naked breast, she stared, shaking in horror, at the one man responsible for so much of the rage she held inside.
Elias Stone. He stood tall, looming over her like a reaper intent on stealing her soul. He had, in a way. Nika always thought of him as a black stain on it, spreading out like a cancer until she was left infected and begging for a release from his grasp. Elias looked like he did the first time she laid eyes on him: jet black hair with sideburns cut in long, sharp lines, expensive clothes of the times cut perfectly to his slightly overweight shape, face pale white but lips turned up in a knowing smirk, and eyes black as coal. Her senses were consumed with that first, harsh taste he had given her. She recalled the way his stubble grazed her cheek, his leather belt wrapped tight around her throat until she could barely draw breath between her sobs that first night, and that overpowering scent like metal. Later she would find out it was her sister’s blood. He’d taken the oldest as his prize first. He’d made her sister scream and it was Nika’s turn to please her new master. The pain Elias put Nika through was nothing compared to the look in Irina’s blank eyes as she watched her sister bent over the dining table, shouting Russian insults and clawing to be free of this monster of a man.
“You were a slave once. A weak and pathetic little maid who nobody would marry. Now you lay at a King’s side.” Elias drew back his jacket to expose his white shirt, stained with blood as if it was pouring from his heart. “I loved you more than anything. I gave you everything and this is what you did to me. Look at what you did to me, my Princess.”
Nika’s bottom lip quivered, remembering the way her body was stained in Elias’ remains after she had ended her maker - the man she reluctantly deemed father - for The Magnate. There was only one reason behind her revenge and it never changed. Nika stammered on her words, despite the defiance she desperately wanted to show him. “You know why.”
“Is that why we had to die?”
She turned her head sharply to find two very familiar men. Tears were in Nika’s eyes as her gaze fell on them, speaking their names in a shameful whispered. “Anton... Nikolas?”
Anton wore an arrogant scowl that matched his chiseled jaw, sharp suit and hat, ice blue eyes and slicked-back blond hair. His arms were crossed over his chest and tendrils of smoke wafted up from his shoulders. Nikolas looked younger than she remembered him. It wasn’t his dark hair or sad eyes that Nika focused on but the red gash across his throat.
“I had no choice, I...” Nika tried, curling up more so she didn’t have to smell Anton’s burnt flesh. Her nails dug into the palm of her hand, willing the visions silently to leave her.
Anton’s scowl only grew as he circled his ‘sister’. “Don’t give me that no choice crap. You made your choice. You chose her!” he growled out.
“You should have told me, baby sister,” Nikolas said blankly, stepping forward as Anton stalked around. He crouched down to Nika’s level. “You trusted me once. I could have helped you.”
Nika reached out for her brother. He was the only one in the Stone family she ever trusted to call a friend. Her fingertips grazed over his cheek. His trust had cost him in the end. “I’m sorry, brother. I’m so sorry.”
“She has never been sorry. She never will be.”
That voice made Nika’s skin crawl. Her jaw tightened as she looked at the thin blond who Nika despised more than any one of the ghostly visions in the room. Marguerite’s eyes were glazed over and white, her skin showed the marks of Marcus Viteri’s torture and she carried the same bloody wound on her bare chest like Elias.
“Precious little princess,” Marguerite crooned from Elias’ side. “You never did understand why I killed her.” She smiled then, brushing her fingertips over her mate’s chest before licking the blood from her fingertips. “I didn’t do it for revenge or pity. I did it for you, Veronika.”
“You murdered my sister!” Nika hissed at the vampire she was forced to know as ‘mother’. Her eyes were wide and wild, lip curled up to bare her fangs. She moved to kneel before the figures of her family. It was then that the roaring began. The voices of the vampires she had ended started yelling at her, consuming her head with undeniable thoughts of what her revenge had cost them. They laughed, cried, screamed and begged to know why. They called her things she knew deep down she called herself. They showed her what she feared her mates would see in her blood. Nika closed her eyes and held her hands over her ears but the voices penetrated deep in her mind.
“Veronika...”
The endless screams of her family faded out with that word. Her eyes were still closed as two warm hands covered hers and brought them to rest in her lap.
“Look at me, babochka.”
A single tear fell from Nika’s eye as she slowly looked up. The voice that beckoned her was the one that always haunted her thoughts and dreams. “Irina,” she breathed out, their eyes meeting. “It is you.”
Irina smiled and leaned forward, pressing her lips to Nika’s right cheek and lingered there. “Babochka. I have missed you.”
Nika’s arm drifted around Irina, keeping them close. “I miss you so much, sestra.” The vision of her sister had not changed in 330 years. Irina always appeared as she had been seen in that last moment of her life. Her body, slender like Nika’s, was covered in bruises, dirt, welts and bites. Her long, dark hair was knotted and cut by a blade at odd angles. But above those things, it was Irina’s eyes that always stayed with her sister. Her eyes were icy blue but the spark of life had been stolen from them.
“I never wished this for you, babochka. Your vengeance went too far,” Irina touched Nika’s cheek softly. “You must finish this.”
Nika shook her head. “They needed to pay for what they did to you.”
Irina’s eyes locked with her sister’s gaze. “They are not responsible for what happened to me.”
“Then who is?”
“You are, Veronika.” Irina smiled slowly and stroked Nika’s cheek.
“No! I’m not. I tried to save you, I...” Nika stammered as her stomach constricted with the fear she felt towards Irina’s words.
“Babochka, you can’t see. You have never seen.” She laughed, pressing her forehead to Nika’s as she spoke softly. “We had so many chances to escape from them but deep down, you wanted to stay. What was left for you as a human? Nothing... You wanted what Elias offered.”
“No!”
“You think they are monsters.” Irina smiled widely as Nika looked to the vampire family around her. “They are nothing compared to you, babochka. You killed them all in my name when you are the one to blame for my death.”
Nika’s eyes frantically searched for an escape from this revelation but Irina’s grip was tight. “I’m not to blame. I’m not!” she nearly chanted.
Irina brought her closer, whispering into her ear. “You’re not angry at them. You’re angry at yourself more than ever these days because you know I’m right. You must accept it.” Her eyes darkened as her hand went to Nika’s shoulder. “Your rage will kill the ones you love, sestra.”
Nika looked fearfully back at the bed where her bonded slept. The last thing she wanted was to see Gregor and Johann hurt. She ached inside when she even thought of them in pain.
“You must finish it.”
The voice changed as Nika looked back. Instead of her sister’s face, it was as if Nika was staring into a mirror. This image showed her eyes ice cold and determined, focused on one thing only. Nika’s doppelganger launched her hand forward into Nika’s chest, the tiny hand gripping her heart and squeezing the vampire’s most precious lifeline.
“Finish it!” Nika’s doppelganger hissed through clenched teeth before tearing Nika’s heart from her chest with a fiery, rage-filled scream. The scream was almost as loud as the one leaving Nika’s own throat - a scream of pain that transcended her personal hell into reality.
Nika opened her eyes slowly. She didn’t need to look at the faces at her side to know they both slept peacefully. Her thigh crossed over Gregor’s as she was half-sprawled on top of his tall, strong frame; the same leg was joined by Johann’s which melded around hers from behind. Nika’s fingertips lightly traced over the hair on Gregor’s chest as she lifted her head to look at him. His head was turned to face his two bonded as he slept, hand over Johann’s on Nika’s side. Johann was pressed close to her back, face lost happily in a mess of dark hair. A smile formed on her lips though it was hidden as her cheek pressed back to cool skin. Being like this with her bonded felt more natural to Nika than anything else in the world. On some nights they could talk for hours curled up like they were now. On other nights, they didn’t need words to express themselves. They had their own language and their own world in this embrace.
“Veronika.”
The accented, bell-like voice cut through the peace of the moment and set Nika’s nerves on edge. Forgetting her position underneath the limbs of her bonded, Nika pushed her slender frame upwards and her eyes opened fully to find only the familiar darkness of the curtains surrounding the King’s bed. Her stomach constricted in fear as she cautiously crawled over Gregor to reach the side of the bed. Her hand went to the symbolic trinity knot pendant on a long chain around her neck as it often did when she was nervous or upset. Its usually calming influence did not help the thoughts about this particular voice. The one that beckoned her was unmistakable and completely impossible.
“Veronika!”
The room beyond the curtains was illuminated by the light of the fireplace. She drew them back quickly and swung her legs over the side of the bed, standing up to face that constricting fear.
“Who’s there?”
The voice laughed then. Whether it was directed to her, she wasn’t sure. It was soft like she remembered but there was an edge to it she couldn’t place.
A hand came to grip her shoulder and Nika let out a shrill cry, turning to face the sudden attacker. Her eyes widened as she fell backwards to the floor of the King’s chamber. Curling her arm over her naked breast, she stared, shaking in horror, at the one man responsible for so much of the rage she held inside.
Elias Stone. He stood tall, looming over her like a reaper intent on stealing her soul. He had, in a way. Nika always thought of him as a black stain on it, spreading out like a cancer until she was left infected and begging for a release from his grasp. Elias looked like he did the first time she laid eyes on him: jet black hair with sideburns cut in long, sharp lines, expensive clothes of the times cut perfectly to his slightly overweight shape, face pale white but lips turned up in a knowing smirk, and eyes black as coal. Her senses were consumed with that first, harsh taste he had given her. She recalled the way his stubble grazed her cheek, his leather belt wrapped tight around her throat until she could barely draw breath between her sobs that first night, and that overpowering scent like metal. Later she would find out it was her sister’s blood. He’d taken the oldest as his prize first. He’d made her sister scream and it was Nika’s turn to please her new master. The pain Elias put Nika through was nothing compared to the look in Irina’s blank eyes as she watched her sister bent over the dining table, shouting Russian insults and clawing to be free of this monster of a man.
“You were a slave once. A weak and pathetic little maid who nobody would marry. Now you lay at a King’s side.” Elias drew back his jacket to expose his white shirt, stained with blood as if it was pouring from his heart. “I loved you more than anything. I gave you everything and this is what you did to me. Look at what you did to me, my Princess.”
Nika’s bottom lip quivered, remembering the way her body was stained in Elias’ remains after she had ended her maker - the man she reluctantly deemed father - for The Magnate. There was only one reason behind her revenge and it never changed. Nika stammered on her words, despite the defiance she desperately wanted to show him. “You know why.”
“Is that why we had to die?”
She turned her head sharply to find two very familiar men. Tears were in Nika’s eyes as her gaze fell on them, speaking their names in a shameful whispered. “Anton... Nikolas?”
Anton wore an arrogant scowl that matched his chiseled jaw, sharp suit and hat, ice blue eyes and slicked-back blond hair. His arms were crossed over his chest and tendrils of smoke wafted up from his shoulders. Nikolas looked younger than she remembered him. It wasn’t his dark hair or sad eyes that Nika focused on but the red gash across his throat.
“I had no choice, I...” Nika tried, curling up more so she didn’t have to smell Anton’s burnt flesh. Her nails dug into the palm of her hand, willing the visions silently to leave her.
Anton’s scowl only grew as he circled his ‘sister’. “Don’t give me that no choice crap. You made your choice. You chose her!” he growled out.
“You should have told me, baby sister,” Nikolas said blankly, stepping forward as Anton stalked around. He crouched down to Nika’s level. “You trusted me once. I could have helped you.”
Nika reached out for her brother. He was the only one in the Stone family she ever trusted to call a friend. Her fingertips grazed over his cheek. His trust had cost him in the end. “I’m sorry, brother. I’m so sorry.”
“She has never been sorry. She never will be.”
That voice made Nika’s skin crawl. Her jaw tightened as she looked at the thin blond who Nika despised more than any one of the ghostly visions in the room. Marguerite’s eyes were glazed over and white, her skin showed the marks of Marcus Viteri’s torture and she carried the same bloody wound on her bare chest like Elias.
“Precious little princess,” Marguerite crooned from Elias’ side. “You never did understand why I killed her.” She smiled then, brushing her fingertips over her mate’s chest before licking the blood from her fingertips. “I didn’t do it for revenge or pity. I did it for you, Veronika.”
“You murdered my sister!” Nika hissed at the vampire she was forced to know as ‘mother’. Her eyes were wide and wild, lip curled up to bare her fangs. She moved to kneel before the figures of her family. It was then that the roaring began. The voices of the vampires she had ended started yelling at her, consuming her head with undeniable thoughts of what her revenge had cost them. They laughed, cried, screamed and begged to know why. They called her things she knew deep down she called herself. They showed her what she feared her mates would see in her blood. Nika closed her eyes and held her hands over her ears but the voices penetrated deep in her mind.
“Veronika...”
The endless screams of her family faded out with that word. Her eyes were still closed as two warm hands covered hers and brought them to rest in her lap.
“Look at me, babochka.”
A single tear fell from Nika’s eye as she slowly looked up. The voice that beckoned her was the one that always haunted her thoughts and dreams. “Irina,” she breathed out, their eyes meeting. “It is you.”
Irina smiled and leaned forward, pressing her lips to Nika’s right cheek and lingered there. “Babochka. I have missed you.”
Nika’s arm drifted around Irina, keeping them close. “I miss you so much, sestra.” The vision of her sister had not changed in 330 years. Irina always appeared as she had been seen in that last moment of her life. Her body, slender like Nika’s, was covered in bruises, dirt, welts and bites. Her long, dark hair was knotted and cut by a blade at odd angles. But above those things, it was Irina’s eyes that always stayed with her sister. Her eyes were icy blue but the spark of life had been stolen from them.
“I never wished this for you, babochka. Your vengeance went too far,” Irina touched Nika’s cheek softly. “You must finish this.”
Nika shook her head. “They needed to pay for what they did to you.”
Irina’s eyes locked with her sister’s gaze. “They are not responsible for what happened to me.”
“Then who is?”
“You are, Veronika.” Irina smiled slowly and stroked Nika’s cheek.
“No! I’m not. I tried to save you, I...” Nika stammered as her stomach constricted with the fear she felt towards Irina’s words.
“Babochka, you can’t see. You have never seen.” She laughed, pressing her forehead to Nika’s as she spoke softly. “We had so many chances to escape from them but deep down, you wanted to stay. What was left for you as a human? Nothing... You wanted what Elias offered.”
“No!”
“You think they are monsters.” Irina smiled widely as Nika looked to the vampire family around her. “They are nothing compared to you, babochka. You killed them all in my name when you are the one to blame for my death.”
Nika’s eyes frantically searched for an escape from this revelation but Irina’s grip was tight. “I’m not to blame. I’m not!” she nearly chanted.
Irina brought her closer, whispering into her ear. “You’re not angry at them. You’re angry at yourself more than ever these days because you know I’m right. You must accept it.” Her eyes darkened as her hand went to Nika’s shoulder. “Your rage will kill the ones you love, sestra.”
Nika looked fearfully back at the bed where her bonded slept. The last thing she wanted was to see Gregor and Johann hurt. She ached inside when she even thought of them in pain.
“You must finish it.”
The voice changed as Nika looked back. Instead of her sister’s face, it was as if Nika was staring into a mirror. This image showed her eyes ice cold and determined, focused on one thing only. Nika’s doppelganger launched her hand forward into Nika’s chest, the tiny hand gripping her heart and squeezing the vampire’s most precious lifeline.
“Finish it!” Nika’s doppelganger hissed through clenched teeth before tearing Nika’s heart from her chest with a fiery, rage-filled scream. The scream was almost as loud as the one leaving Nika’s own throat - a scream of pain that transcended her personal hell into reality.