Kingdom Come

Threat

Loki peered around the door to look into the cabin. There was a tavern girl flirting with two men at the bar as she poured them another round of drinks and a group of five men at the back corner table, but the tavern was mostly empty. "Good," Loki said quietly to himself as he pushed through the door to the front-most table as he had been instructed, "I'm still not comfortable doing this type of business in the open." He sat down and pulled his cloak tighter around him feeling a sudden chill.

"Well, that's fine," the tavern owner brushed against his right arm as he moved to sit across from him.

"I-it is?" Loki stammered.

"Yes." Loki cocked his head in confusion prompting Nikolas to explain, "The girl's blood didn't work."

Loki inhaled shakely. "Umm, it... it didn't?" He questioned. He could feel the rage radiate off Nikolas as the vampire leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees bringing his hands dangerously close to the dealer's throat as he drew on side of his top lip up to reveal a dagger sharp tooth.

"No, it didn't." Satisfied with the obvious shiver that Loki gave at the sight of his fang, Nikolas leaned against his chair and rested his right arm on the back of the chair next to him while he toyed with a short glass in his left hand. Loki watched carefully as Nikolas rolled the bottom of the glass around on the table delicately allowing the golden liquid inside to touch the brim of the glass but never allowing it to fall out. "The deal is off." He raised the glass quickly and threw his head back downing the shot. "However, I know you need the money for your wife." He spoke just as Loki got ready to protest. "I promised to help you, and I am a man of my word. I will pay you the added amount of two more shipments if you bring me the source of your goods. I will not pay you for more than that though." Nikolas pushed his chair back and rose from the table. Loki looked up at him in shock.

"The blood doesn't work, but yet you want the girl? I thought you didn't drink blood unless you had to?" Loki questioned. Nikolas bent over Loki so that his face hovered close enough for Loki to feel his breath down his neck.

"Well, if I am doomed to be a vampire til the end of my days, which will be a very long time from now, then I might as well succumb to my most primal instincts instead of fighting them. The Azrael girl's blood is better than anything I've ever tasted, so I might as well start with her." Nikolas shifted his face so that Loki was forced to look him in the eyes. "Now, do you want my money for your wife, or not?"

*****

Two weeks. That's how long Rivenna had been locked in the little shed, but it felt like two years. She was bored. All she had been able to do was lay around and worry, and she had given up on the worrying at the end of the first week. Rivenna had decided that she would accept her fate, until she found a way out at least. She shifted from her place at the foot of the bed to the chair at the table, then in front of the small fire before prostrating herself fully on the cold dirt floor and throwing her arms over her face. She let out a loud grunt and kicked her feet in a small tantrum causing dirt and dust to rise into the air. She covered her mouth and closed her eyes against her arms while she allowed the dirt to settle. Just because she had accepted her fate did not mean she had done so happily.

The fire was down to only a few embers and the windowless room was growing dark. Rivenna's eyes were just beginning to adjust to the darkness when the door to the little shack flew open allowing the setting sun to pour through and blind her where she lay on the floor. She hissed at the sudden intrusion, of the light or her captor, she did not know; although she refused to rise from her place. Loki had been true to his word and visited her everyday to bring her food, so his presence was not uncommon, however quite unusual for the time of day. So, she tilted her head back and stared at him upside-down from where she lay.