Vikenti Kozlov never really considered himself a loner, but there was a certain peace in the solitude of the hotel gym just after dawn. Maybe it was the twinge of nostalgia he got, remembering the way his father would wake him up before the rooster, and start his training while the dew was still fresh on the grass. Sometimes he missed the feeling of the wet grass under his feet as he ran laps around the compound. Or the weight of bundled firewood on his back. Vikenti could get strangely homesick for the wilderness he grew up in. He looked forward seeing his father and mother again the holiday homecoming was always a nice reunion. However, Vikenti was not excited to see his sister again.
“Papa should have let you die.” Those were the words Natassia Kozlova last greeted him with as she opened the yellow door of the house she had rented with Prizrak Rytsarya funds. He had tracked her for eighteen months, from Moscow to Copenhagen, following a trail of money she had tried hard to keep hidden. This mission was his first assignment after completing his training. Natassia’s cruel blue eyes were colder than the November rain. She was severe and beautiful, graced with thick glossy cinnamon colored curls, and freckles painted across her nose and cheeks. She was nearly his wife.
Vikenti’s memories of childhood before the age of six were mostly lost. His most distant memory was panicked and desperate. At only five or six, he was being ushered on to a helicopter by some guards. His parents didn’t want to leave. Little more than a baby, Vikenti was pushed into his mother’s arms. He started to cry as the helicopter blades started to pull the craft off the ground.
The air in the cabin was hot, and the small helicopter was overfull. It smelled of vomit and desperation. Other children fussed. Adults complained of wanting to go home. Someone screamed, but it was silenced by another person’s hand. A man had a gun. Fear filled the cabin. The stench of urine found Vikenti’s nose.
The gun fired. The shot’s echo was the last thing about the memory he could remember hearing. The helicopter began to fall from the sky. Some of the men tried to right the vehicle, but they were tossed by the trees. The crash was violent.
Vikenti remembered feeling warm. A fire had broken out during their abrupt landing. He’d been thrown from his mother’s lap. He tugged at her dress, but she didn’t respond. Her apron and his hand were both stained with a brilliant red. She was dead.
He wasn’t sure how he escaped the helicopter, or the fire, or how he survived the next part of his journey. Vikenti was found by his adoptive father fifty miles from the crash site. Alone and unprotected, Vikenti had wandered through two feet of snow in the harsh western Russian forest. He was bloody, dirty, crying, naked and hungry, but he was unburnt.
Natassia was there too, scowling at Vikenti from the comfort of her fur lined coat. She listened to her parents discuss the fate of this lost little boy. Natassia was eager to have her own thoughts considered.
“Where are his parents? This poor little thing!” Their mother fussed over Vikenti. They decided later to call him such. Until that point, he did not remember having a name.
“We’ll take care of him. At least, until someone comes looking for him.” His father told a sweet lie, putting his own wool coat around Vikenti’s pale shoulders. No one ever came for Vikenti.
“We could just shoot him now.” Natassia said. Her mother was aghast.
“Nyet, Natassia! Don’t be cruel. Vikenti could be your husband in due time.” Their father scolded. He made no empty threats either. When it became clear that Vikenti had been orphaned – his father had conducted a search party while his mother nursed his wounds, the arrangement had been struck. Vikenti was raised as their son-in-law, with every intention of marrying him to Natassia when they were both of age.
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Looking For The Light (Book 2)
ParanormalElijah's life has been thrown for a loop. His girlfriend left him, he's leaving his home behind, and setting off into the unknown. Doubting his mission and himself, the young telepath struggles with many of the great questions of life.
