Bloodlust

Chapter Seven

Niklaus' POV

As I follow a confidently striding Nadya into Pierre's, I curse that I left Will alone with her.

It's bad enough that I screwed up the mission so early. Letting her break my neck was a rookie mistake and one that I shouldn't have made. After all, I've been alive since the 1800s. I shouldn't have misstepped.

As strange as it sounds, though, there's something alarmingly easy about talking to Nadya Telemun. The minute I stepped onto the roof, I felt calm; safe, even, which a vampire is never. I don't talk to anyone about the night terrors, except for Will, who I've been friends with since the 1960s, but with her...it was simple.

Before she cracked my neck, I was actually having a pleasant conversation.

I shake my head and look around the store before my hearing catches the light footsteps of a man; thirty-six, at the least, wiry frame. Controlled breathing.

A man fitting my inner description appears, a wary look on his face.

Nadya hardly glances at him before saying, "You haven't looked this bad since the 40s, Pierre."

My heart clenches as Nadya casually insults a fellow vampire. It turns into utter confusion when the man - Pierre, I assume, - breaks into a huge grin and envelopes Nadya in a hug. "Ma chérie Nadya! Wherever have you been? It's been too long, my dear, far too long." [translation: my dear]

She laughs - laughs! - and replies, "Pierre, what's the point of being in Paris if it's not with a man? That's the only way I can get in here, you know," she adds accusingly.

Pierre waves his hand and pushes his glasses up the slippery slope of his nose. "Ah, you know it is not the same for you, Nadya. You're always welcome in my shop." Peering over Nadya's shoulder, he surveys Will and I, his piercing gray eyes raking over our frames. Just as I did in the French labor camps, I stand up straight. I'm a regular Jean Val-Jean, you could say.

"Two boys, Nadya? Less than last time."

Nadya snorts as he starts moving towards the back of the shop, waving us along. "The last time I was in France was when Caroline was marrying Tucker. The buffet was delicious, but the ass she married really off-put the whole event." Turning to us, she clarifies, "Tucker Michaels and Caroline West. Beautiful couple, but the dude's a piece of shit."

Pushing aside a curtain, Pierre says, "Non, I'm talking about the Revolution, Nadya! When you came in here with those delightful resistance fighters - what were their names? Thierry, for sure, and ---"

As quick as a snake, Nadya pins Pierre against the wall with unnatural speed, even for a vampire. Both Will and I hiss, but stop when Nadya holds up a hand lined with callouses. Her fangs detract from her gums and she hisses, "We do not speak of Thierry, Pierre, non?"

He holds up his hands and shrugs. "Whatever you wish, Nade--"

She pushes her teeth closer to his and I see a slip in Pierre's breathing. "Know your place, Pierre," Nadya breathes, the truly monstrous side of her coming out to play. "We are not friends for nothing."

Pierre nods, a bead of sweat dripping down his immortal face, before Nadya releases him. Dusting off her hands, she states, "Get those two suits. Put it on the Council's tab. I'll be back at one to collect them."

As she begins to make her way down the hallway, I say curiously, "The Council has an account, here?"

I can hear the smirk in her voice as she calls, "Who do you think introduced the Council to the delights of Otherworld France, Niklaus? Surely not Alastair."