The Dead May Rise ✓ (GxG)

Five

"Papa?" Pyotr, twelve at the time, asked. "Are you finally going to take me hunting?"

       Agafon laughed a little at his son who was jumping up and down with excitement. He exhaled. "Da, Pyotr. I will." He added, "Just get your jacket, will you?" He ushered Pyotr in the direction of his jacket.

     "Papa?" Aedona's voice sounded from the steps. "What about me?"

     Agafon's gaze drifted over to Aedona. He wetted his lips. "Uh…" he paused for a second. "Sure. Get your jacket too."

    Aedona gleefully skipped down the remaining steps before racing over to where Pyotr had gone.

     When Aedona awoke again, her chest ached severely.

      "As long as there's breath in my body, I will protect you, no matter what," echoed Aedona's father's, Agafon, voice in her mind.

       Aedona was freezing–it was far too cold for her in the room.

       She could barely keep her eyes open.

       As she began to drift off again, she heard talking outside the room.

        She tilted her head up a little, thinking it would allow her to listen to what the people were saying better.

      "Corporal Ebner, I told you… this Kryvichyn was willing to pay a lot of money for Stavayeva…" one voice said.

      "I don't care who this Kryvichyn is… I don't care what he'll pay. I'm not just going to release the prisoner," Aaron said outside the door. "What do you think our enemies will see us as? Compassionate? Weak-minded and weak-willed? That does nothing for us."

     Silence.

     "Tell this Kryvichyn to fuck himself," Aaron said before his footsteps faded off.

       Kryvichyn? Aedona's mind began. Razzhigatel' voyny? The Warmonger? What would the Warmonger want from me? Why would the Warmonger even care?

    The doorknob slowly started to rotate, with a clicking noise-–this made Aedona tense up.

     A young man with dark hair and amber eyes entered the room-–he was dressed like a soldier. He softly closed the door behind him.

     He slowly headed toward the place in the room that Donnie was binded to the chair. His footsteps echoed each time.

     Donnie tensed a little trying to push herself as far back in her chair as she could.

      The young man kneeled in front of her. "Don't be afraid… there's no need to." His mostly likely fake German accent began to fade off to something more comforting to Aedona.

      Donnie noted the sharp fang like teeth in the man's mouth. "W-who are you?" She began. She was going to ask more along those lines, but she shifted it. "Did Ebner send you in? Are you a friend of Alfred's? Did Ebner force you to torture me?"

     "My accent is Russian, is it not?" The man began, softly. He placed a hand, gently, on Donnie's knee. He lowered his voice even more, as if he thought German soldiers were positioned right outside the door, waiting for him to slip up about infiltrating their ranks. "I'm Roman Zima."

     "Were you the man outside? … The one talking to Ebner?" Donnie queried.

       Roman nodded. "I was."

       Aedona raised an eyebrow before coughing. "What's this about the Warmonger wanting to pay my bail?"

      "Why don't you see for yourself," Roman began as he stood.

      Donnie pulled a face which only made the burn on her face hurt more than it already did. "What…? What do you mean?"

      Roman pulled a knife from his belt, cutting away at the binds on Donnie's arms and then at the ones that were on her legs. "Can you stand?"

     Donnie nodded, standing. She instantly regret it though. She felt lightheaded. She felt like she was going to pass out at any moment.

      Donnie wasn't sure what hurt the most–her face, her chest, or her abdomen.

      Aedona raised her hand and placed it on her abdominal wound. Within seconds, her hand was stained red with blood.

     "Come on," Roman said. "Kryvichyn will meet us here soon." He headed to the door, opening it. He peered out the door to check if anyone resided nearby. He looked back at Donnie and tilted his head out the door. "Come on!"

     Roman left the room and Donnie limped behind him.

     The two headed down various corridors before Roman came to a halt.

      The same cloaked figure Aedona had seen right before the German attack on Osowiec stepped out of the shadows, approaching the two.

      "We don't have very much time for introductions, so I'll make this quick," Roman began. "This is the Warmonger," he said to Aedona, to which she only made a mildly surprised expression. Then Roman said to Kryvichyn, "This is Aedona Stavayeva."

    Kryvichyn nodded a little greeting to Aedona.

    "Are you-" Aedona cut herself off. One of her hands shot to her chest–-while the other remained on her wound. She collapsed to her knees, coughing out blood.

     Roman grimaced. "That's what I was afraid of." He looked to Kryvichyn. "We're never gonna be able to get her out of here in this condition."

    Kryvichyn looked like she was thinking for a moment before approaching Aedona and scooping her up in her arms.

    "What are you doing with the prisoner?" A German soldier's voice boomed as Donnie slowly began to drift to unconsciousness in the Warmonger's arms.