Find Me In The Darkness (Domsub AU)

by freyagirl

Steve noticed that everyone has taken a seat except Nikita, he turned to tell her to sit, noticing the blood dripping from the fingertips of her right hand as it hung loosely from her side a moment before she collapsed to the floor. Steve was the first to reach her, taking off his glove to feel for a pulse. The moment his skin touched hers, a bright light flared up between them.

1. Chapter 1

A 14 year old girl walks into a club in Odessa. She is carrying a pillow case dripping blood on the floor as she walks to the table where the owner of the club, Demyan Volkov, the head of a powerful Bratva family is sitting. He studies her for a moment, taking in the black eye and fingerprint shaped bruises on her arms, the snarled mess of blonde hair matted with blood where hunks had clearly been torn out. The Dominant can tell she is a submissive, has clearly been beaten and can barely walk. She reaches into the pillowcase and pulls out a severed head, placing it on the table in front of him. It is the head of his most hated enemy, one on whom he had placed a considerable bounty. "What is your name, child?" he asks.

"Nikita Ivonova," she replies, glancing nervously at him through her lashes, fear and pain shining from the depths of dark lapis blue eyes.

"Nikita is a Dominant's name," he observed. The girl says nothing but steadily holds his gaze, even as her whole body begins to tremble from the strain of it. Demyan Volkov is a strong Dominant and he knows what this costs her.

With this information Demyan knows that this is the stepdaughter of the man whose head is currently gracing his table. Her father, Ivan Zolner, had been a gifted and loyal enforcer for the dead man's Bratva family until being betrayed and murdered by his boss. He asks Nikita if she is here to claim the reward, she replies that no, she wants his protection. He offers instead to teach her the skills of her father, to give her a valued place in the Volkov Bratva. For the next 12 years the girl is trained by former KGB as well as by a few instructors who had been associated with the Red Room. Nikita wears Demyan's collar, the symbol of the Volkov Bratva embossed into the leather, and follows his orders. Demyan makes sure that all know that Nikita belongs to him and anyone who bothers her will answer for it. When he wants a message sent, he sends Nikita. She kills and maims at Demyan Volkov's command, and trains herself to feel nothing but the determination to repay him, to be of service to the only person she can trust. For the last 12 years, he has kept his word, he made her capable of defending herself, he gave her a room in his house, his collar kept other Dominants from approaching her, and he never asked for sexual favors in return, never asked her to kneel.