Chapter 4
Author's Notes: Welcome to Chapter 4 of Call of the Bluebird! In this chapter you get to see Anna's true self. I don't really know all about Anna's past regarding her family so I changed it up a bit. I hope you Anna fans don't mind. This chapter also begins to introduce another original character which I sort of imagined to be Gauron from Full Metal Panic. This is the start of the action now so as much as I hate to say it, there won't be too many lovey-dovey scenes for a while.
When Anna awoke the next morning, she found herself lying on her bed. She had been neatly tucked in underneath the expensive sheets and when she took a peek beneath the covers, she found that she was still clothed in her lacy black nightie. Raising herself to peer out the arched window of her bedroom, she found that the blizzard from last night had let up and all that remained of it was the pile of snow that now covered the streets. She leaned back against the headboard to fully awake herself before she started her day and lazily let her eyes skim across the room. They passed over the furniture, clothes, and walls then stopped when they met up with a soldier who was standing in the far corner of the room.
Aside from the fact that his hair was dripping wet, probably from a shower he had taken earlier, he appeared exactly the same as he had last night. He was still dressed in his military pants, black T-shirt and he still wore that blank expression on his face. Anna couldn't help but wonder what he was still doing here. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stretched. "Good morning," she greeted sweetly. "Did you have a nice night?"
Sergei didn't reply. In fact, he didn't even take a glance in her direction. His eyes remained set on the floor down by his feet while Anna stared at him, confused. Throughout all last night, he had kept his attention on her whether she was getting dressed or just speaking with him. She wouldn't even have been surprised if she found him peeking on her during her shower. She narrowed her eyes at him. Something was going on…
Feigning her innocence and naïveté as she has always done, she rose to her feet and began approaching the man. When she reached him, she gave him a kiss to the cheek and told him just under her breath, "I'm going to be in the shower, sweetheart."
Unexpectedly, she was given a slight nod, a kind of reply, which furthered added to her confusion. Forcing a smile to her lips, she headed into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She should've known that this man wanted her for something and she made the mistake of trusting him. She threw off her clothes and turned the water on. Without even checking the temperature, she stepped in and let the warm water clash with her bare skin.
As she was scrubbing herself, she had to think, why? Why had she decided to trust him? He had saved her, but anyone could have done such a thing and she was sure she would've left them hanging just as she had done to every other man. Sure he was handsome but so were all the other businessmen she let down. This man, Sergei Dragunov, he was just…different. Not only in the way he behaved, but those eyes of his held something she was all too familiar with…Loneliness.
She dropped her arms to her side and narrowed her eyes. Ever since she awoke from her cold sleep, she had been alone. Although she had woken up with her sister as she had asked, Nina had lost her memories and wanted nothing to do with her little sister. That was when Anna came to realize that whether Nina had her memories or not, Anna didn't mean anything to her. It had been the same when it came to her father and mother too. She didn't matter…
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the sound of the bathroom door creak open and a soft thud soon following it. Pushing aside the curtains just enough to allow her head to peer out, she found that Sergei had thrown in a few clothes and a towel for her. Staring at the pink towel that was lying beside the black dress, Anna had to smile. He knew she had forgotten it…
After he had tossed in her towel and a dress he had found while digging through her suitcase, Sergei went back to his position in the corner, his mind deep in thought. He began to recall the night he had with Anna, when he held her in his arms while she was sleeping peacefully. It had felt so real and for once, Sergei felt that he could relax. However, it didn't take long for that peaceful moment between them to be ruined.
While she was in the midst of her sleep, the receiver within Sergei's person began to beep. Before it could wake Anna, Sergei quickly retrieved his pager and pressed an answer button, hastily silencing the next beep and allowing the man on the other end to speak.
"Sergei, are you there?" It was Aleksander.
Anna squirmed in his chest as Aleksander's voice echoed into her ear. Sergei pulled the radio away from her and prepared to stand up, but with her hands gripping his shirt the way they were, he would have taken her with him. He stared at her for a second or more before finally settling on what he should do. He stuck the receiver back in his pocket to pick up the woman asleep before him. Careful not to wake her, he tucked her into bed and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
When he was standing out in the hallway, he pulled the radio back out and listened as Aleksander began to speak once more. "Sergei, is that you?" Although Sergei didn't reply, he knew that it could be no one but. "There were reports that said Anna Williams was last seen with you. Contact me as soon as you reach this coordinate point and I'll send a helicopter to go pick you up."
Now, while waiting for Anna to get out of the shower, Sergei stared at the coordinate points he was given last night, pondering. For some reason, he felt reluctant to follow through with these commands. If it had been anyone else he had to subdue, he was sure this mission would have been completed last night. He clenched his fist in frustration. Why was he thinking like this? Orders were orders regardless of who was involved. Anna was no exception.
After slipping on the dress and undergarments Sergei had thrown in, Anna looked over herself in the mirror. She fixed a little strand of hair here and there then nodded in approval. After opening the door to the bedroom, she stepped out into the clearing and met eyes with her roommate, "Mr. Dragunov, how do I look?"
Although he had wanted to turn away, to resist his body's urge, Sergei found himself staring at her. If he ever bothered to show an expression, for sure he would have gaped at the sight before him. The little black dress made her look absolutely stunning as it showed off every little curve of her as well as give her bust a lift. If only Anna knew what kind of torture she was causing the man.
"Mr. Dragunov…?" Anna questioned as he continued to stare holes at her.
Upon hearing her voice, Sergei snapped out of his trance and turned away. If she continued sending these…feelings to him, this day-long objective was bound to take a year. He went through the list of tactics he could perform that would speed up this capture. Only one option seemed to be the only one that would work at the moment.
While playing with the little black ribbon underneath her collarbone, Anna suddenly felt Sergei's shadow begin to hover over her. She looked up and found him staring down at her with those cold eyes of his. Startled by his sudden approach, she backed herself up until she found herself between a wall and the soldier. When she felt as if she couldn't be any more confused, she began to watch as Sergei began to dip his head down towards her. "S-Sergei…"
Expecting his lips to be crashing down on hers, Anna instead felt all the air escape from her as she felt a fist drive itself into her stomach. Letting out a gasp, she blacked out and her body went limp. Before she would fall to the floor however, Sergei caught her, holding her up in what seemed to be an embrace. As he held her, he couldn't help but feel a little remorse. She had trusted him but yet here he was, ignoring his body and instead listening to his duty. While throwing her over his shoulder, he hoped that perhaps she would forgive him for this.
The helicopter that Aleksander had sent arrived faster than Sergei expected. Sergei had only arrived on this rooftop for a few minutes before he heard the propellers slicing through the air. Before that, all he had managed to do was place Anna on the floor. He narrowed his eyes in the direction of the copter and wondered how they would arrive if he hadn't even called Aleksander.
The helicopter reached them within a few minutes and Sergei held on tight to Anna before the wind blew her off the building. As it hovered a few feet before them, two soldiers Sergei recognized gestured with their hands for him to get in. Wrapping Anna's long legs around his waist and tucking his hands underneath her thighs, Sergei rose to his feet and began heading toward the copter. As he was halfway there, he suddenly felt the woman snake her arms around his neck and heard her sleepily murmur something in her sleep. Then he stopped in his step when he realized what she had said. "Sergei…"
The woman was whispering his name in her sleep. She was dreaming of him. Uneasily, Sergei stared at the soldiers who were now signaling for him to hurry while he was feeling the woman in his arms. Was he going to regret giving Anna in to these men? Aleksander may have said he was just going to question her, but Sergei knew better. Once he received all the information he wanted from her, she was going to turn into another one of his test subjects. In Sergei's head he recalled all the tubes in the lab filled with things that were once human. Would Sergei be able to stand seeing Anna, this woman who he had just recently met, become one of those creatures?
The soldiers stared at him, confused. "What's he doing?" "Do you think he got hurt?" As the men bickered among one another, a man, broader and taller than all the others, looked out the door at Sergei who stood motionless just a few feet from the helicopter. He had a few stubbles underlining his chin and his dark hair was wind strewn as he stuck his head out of the copter. Upon seeing what Sergei had in his arms, the man couldn't help but give a sick sneer.
"Well what do we have here, Dragunov?" He yelled out as he stepped out of the copter. Sergei, upon spotting this man, narrowed his eyes, abruptly bringing the inner battle within himself to a halt.
He knew this man all too well. They had trained in the same military camp for years, each of them progressing as much as the other. Many of soldiers saw them as equals in their fighting ability, their emotions, and even in appearance. They had the same stature and height, that Sergei could understand when it came to mutual appearances, but other than that and their shared hairdos, Sergei could see nothing else that they had in common.
One thing people knew the man before Sergei to be was a cold-blooded killer. It was true Sergei performed missions and duties that were categorized under the same topic as murder, but it was not to say that Sergei took joy in it. He only did what was told and perhaps somewhere deep within him, he truly did regret at times what he was doing.
This man however lived off killing. He enjoyed hearing his victims scream and he unmercifully played with their lives while they were groveling at his feet. Sergei found his killing tactics unnecessary as he had seen how much suffering his victims go through. At times the man even killed for fun, stating that the civilian had "gotten in the way" during his mission. No one dared to argue against him for they feared for their own lives. It soon became a rule among the other soldiers that you should never get in the way of Mikhail Barclay.
While Mikhail was approaching the two, Sergei had unknowingly begun gripping the bottom of Anna's thighs harder and harder with each step the man took toward them. Sergei's hatred for this man stemmed farther than any could imagine. In his mind, Mikhail represented everything that Sergei hated. Corruption, greed, pride…The only thing that prevented Sergei from confronting him was not only his sense of duty, but also his sanity. If Sergei had killed Mikhail, he knew that the possibilities of him walking away as the same man were low. Until he had a reason, Sergei would not allow himself to kill the man.
The man reached Sergei and with his rough, calloused hands, he reached out and grabbed ahold of Anna's sides. Quickly, Sergei stepped back, pulling Anna from his grasp. Mikhail, slightly confused by his comrade's strange behavior, raised an eyebrow before letting out a laugh. "Aleksander was right!" He bellowed out while letting out that ear-pounding laugh. "He knew something suspicious was going on between you two!"
Sergei glared back at the man as his laughter slowly subsided. "You look confused, Dragunov," he said, "Would you like me to fill you in?" A dirty smug look crossed his face as he finished his sentence. Sergei, for a brief second, almost forgot his pledge to himself as he was tempted to bloody his hands with a specific someone's gore at the moment. However, he held back as Mikhail began to speak. "Aleksander realized how long you were taking capturing one wench so he sent some followers after you. They followed you for all of yesterday until you entered that little love hotel with her. So aside from what happened inside that little cozy room of yours, they witnessed everything from hugs to kisses." He burst out laughing again. "Who knew you had it in you, Dragunov!"
"That's enough Mikhail." Following the same path the brute had taken was Aleksander dressed in his black tailored suit. He was approaching the trio with his hands tucked into his pants pockets and a solemn, serious look set in his aged face. He stopped a good foot from them then met eyes with Sergei. "Forgive me for the espionage Sergei. I only wanted to make sure you accomplished the mission. I was foolish to think you would disobey orders." He looked at Anna in his soldier's arms and gave a nod. "I trust you didn't hurt our target too much?"
Sergei didn't give a nod or a reply as he felt anger begin to rise within him. Not only had Mikhail's appearance disgusted him, the fact that Aleksander hadn't trusted him sent his blood boiling. Yet he didn't show it nor speak up as his sense of duty once again took over. As long as his duty was accomplished, nothing else mattered.
"Alright then," Aleksander said turning on his heel, "let's get her to the lab before a blizzard picks up." As if nothing occurred, he headed back into the helicopter with Mikhail following close behind, a smirk set on his unshaven face.
After the two took their seats, Sergei, with Anna nuzzling her nose into his neck, mechanically followed in the other two's footsteps. Once he reached the copter, he placed the unconscious woman on an empty seat and settled himself down beside her. After slipping earmuffs over the both of them, Sergei watched as Anna tipped over, her head landing on his lap. He took a quick glance at the woman then scanned the faces of his fellow soldiers. They were too preoccupied with the scenery and chit-chat to notice him. Knowing that, Sergei placed a gentle hand over her head then slowly began pulling her hair back to reveal her slender neck. Looking down at the lovely face before him, he felt a sense of shame. He had betrayed the only woman who had trusted him…
As Anna felt Sergei's hand travel over her head, she couldn't help but give a small smile. How long did he think she was going to be out? She had awoken midway through their trip to the meeting place but remained quiet knowing that her chances of escaping were low. However, from the way he behaved when that man, who she guessed to be Mikhail, was approaching them, she was beginning to second guess herself. Her thighs were aching from the rough grip Sergei had on them, but she found herself enjoying the pain. Perhaps it was just because she knew it was his hands that were causing all the pinching.
She felt her way to his knee then when it was within her palm she gave it a squeeze and smiled. Whatever awaited her next, Sergei was going to be there to protect her, she just knew it.
