Let me tell you about the night... (from_the_depths) wrote in haunted_roads, @ 2008-05-15 21:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | chloe, nikolaos |
Week Eight: Monday
When: Late Night
Where: Hotel
Who: Nikolaos and Chloe
"He's trying to play us for fools..." The growled voice grated, making Nik's teeth clench and eyes blaze. Fingers curled until blood seeped from the flesh as claws dug in, feet wore a path into the carpet where he paced back and forth. "I understand..." he hissed sharply in return, dark eyes cast towards the sound of the voice but there was no demon there to see. His grandfather was in hell, his words spoken by the mouth of another that was scarcely even aware of where they now were. This conversation had played on for hours now. Over and over the warnings told. Over and over the demands made. It was Nik that was made to feel the failure. He had not stopped this from occurring. The work done with the other demon, Dorian, mattered nothing today.
No work would ever mean anything if Nik failed the family in keeping his father away from those fucking corpses. Already he was failing, failing and seen weak by it. Failing and seen as less than a man for it. "How do you expect to rule the family if you can not rule one!" the question slammed through the room and Nikolaos's lips twisted into a sneer. "You expect me to rule he who is ruler of the family now?" Nikolaos was brought to his knees painfully as the demon servant in the room wormed pain through his veins. He was not to question. He was not supposed to doubt. He was to do as he was told. He was to not fail. To fail was to not only make his own self weak but to make them all.
"I expect you to be stronger than this." Blood flowed past Nik's lips, never once did Nik make a sound of pain. His body was tense, his fingers pressed to the ground and eyes closed as the wash of pain struck worse then a whip upon bare flesh. This was not the first punishment he had received from the demon who excelled beyond all others in their service, in magic. It would not be the last time Nik would. Within the energy constricted against the veins, it twisted against the lungs stealing away breath. "I expect you to do. as. you. are. told...." with each word the pain intensified till Nik saw nothing by white hot darkness before his eyes.
There was no means to gasp for words; there was no air to speak them. But that was no excuse, there was never an excuse. "I...." the word came out choked as slowly Nikolaos Aristedes began to push himself to his feet. If he stayed down he was failing them all. He used the pain to fuel him; he took it in and numbed himself to it. It mattered not how the blood flowed or how movements seemed to shred his body within. Legs moved, he stood, and he forced his blood shot eyes to open. “…am.” The words was a growl low within the throat. A snarl of every last bit of breath and energy he had left.
The pain disappeared so suddenly that Nikolaos nearly swayed but he refused to lose his footing. Not now. “Then prove it.” He could not question how. He could not ask what it was that his grandfather wanted done. There was no need even for confirmation. All within the family knew that if you were challenged, you either accepted or you were weak. You were a disgrace. Nikolaos would do whatever it was he had to do in order to prove it. To make it known without shadow of a doubt where his loyalties lay. He would prove that none among them could doubt his strength.
The two others in the room turned without a glance back, leaving Nikolaos alone to the hotel room. Heavy silence hung over head, a weight that threatened to crush him. Nikolaos had sought to deny coming to the surface for this reason. He feared what would come to pass, that his father would fail all the tests placed before him. He knew that if he did it would be on him to correct it. Nikolaos knew he could rule, he could hold the family name up high. But never once had he truly believed that he would have to throw his own father down from that place in order to take it.
The silence exploded as Nikolaos lashed out. Glass shattered to the floor, his fist slammed through the walls; objects were thrown across the room to splinter into hundreds of pieces. There were no words to describe his rage. No…..not just rage. That was too simple. To….hollow. Nikolaos had respected his father. He had believed the man knew the importance of honor, of family and name. And yet here, upon the surface, in this city, he had dragged them all through the mud. He chose that dead bitch over them. He chose her over him. He had to hear it everyday now. Snarled by family, reminded constantly.
Roughly blood was wiped away from his mouth as he went for the door. His jacket grabbed and the door thrown open. He wanted to know what it was about these Baptiste that made them worth lowering ones self for them. What made them worth more then the family name.
“Send word…” he growled in the face of a guard. The man froze, hesitant to listen to Nikolaos’s word. “Do it.” How does one remove a threat without knowing the details of it? If he was to eliminate the problem he had to better understand it. Get to one you get to all….Nikolaos would ruin the corpses one at a time if he had to. But more then that, beyond anything he would ever speak. He needed to know why. Seeing one would not give him an answer but in his rage now it was worth the attempt.
The guard turned, leaving to send word to the youngest Baptiste who had earlier contacted the demon. Nikolaos took only a moment to compose himself before he ventured down to the hotels bar, paying to clear the place out. Waiting for the sister of the bitch to show.