It amazed Vivika at how lax Feraldo's people were even after Thomas had blown the place to hell, she'd slipped in without so much as a sideways glance tossed her way and stood by the door listening to everything. She'd been there a good hour before anything even remotely facilitating decided to happen, in all honestly the young woman had lost interest and then boom, something interesting.
Justine Feraldo gathered her remaining people around, the command centre seemed so empty after Eichhorst's spring cleaning. They all wanted to bug out and go up into the mountains, silly plan if one asked Vivika, everyone was fucked and they knew it. 'DC has their shit together' one of them had said, DC didn't just made a better show of pretending they did. New York was phase one, The Master would come for the rest of the country and then the world soon enough.
Feraldo did her best to convince them all to stay and fight, the raven-haired woman actually commended Justine for that, there weren't a lot of people with true belief left. However, her words mostly fell on deaf ears, a few remained but certainly not enough to fight of the Strigoi. Green eyes watched as about ninety percent of the people remaining simply walked out never to return and Vivika slipped in with them as though she belonged.
It pleased Vivika to learn that the stubbornness of the human holdouts had finally started to accept their defeat; like rats running from a sinking ship. This game for New York was getting easier and easier to win. Most would have called her a traitor to her species but Vivika liked her job, enjoyed that she was always a fly on the wall while being untouched by all the death and destruction. As Thomas' assistant she was his eyes and ears during the day, she was a wolf in sheep's clothing; could just stand there in plain sight knowing all.
This wasn't part of her orders though, Vivika had just wanted to satisfy her own curiosity. Her actual orders for the day were to check on Sanjay Desei and make sure he was keeping their master's cargo well guarded while Thomas was busy. Vivika needed to change before she went to him though, couldn't have him seeing her dressed in basic, boring clothes anyone else would wear. No! She was only to be seen as Thomas Eichhorst's perfectly put together assistant. The crap she had on worked nicely enough to keep her going unnoticed by Feraldo and her people but that job had ended.
It really didn't take Vivika all that long to return to the industrial apartment she shared with her German lover, she'd become rather proficient at navigating the tunnels – even the new ones when needed – without aid, and thanks to The Master reinstalling the order that she wasn't to be touched she could once again wander around without issue or worry.
Once at her closet she made quick work of stripping off and going in search of something a little more Vivika Graves. She paused though when she spotted the suit jacket that Thomas had tossed in the trash after he'd lost his hand. The twenty-one year old hadn't ever been more terrified than when she'd stumbled across Thomas in that basement; she'd almost lost him. Oh that bitch Dutch would rue the day she'd been born when Vivika got a hold of her. The whore was dead; dead! The very idea of losing her darling Thomas physically hurt. She'd learnt to stop caring about anyone and anything that wasn't her at a very young age but then Thomas had come along and literally picked her up from the gutter, he'd made her love him and Vivika hadn't loved anyone ever before. Before she knew it soft tears had started to roll down her cheeks, she couldn't lose Thomas. Everyone had always looked down on Vivika as the freak of nature obsessed with bugs and insects, or as the poor little girl of a drunk, or just plain as though there was something mentally wrong with her … which was right. Thomas though, all he'd ever done was teach, love and care for her.
The young woman ended up cuddled in on herself with Thomas' pillow pressed against her nose, it smelt of him, of his aftershave. This wasn't like Vivika, far from it, she was strong and compartmentalized far too well; she didn't weep. Thomas would have been ashamed, his strong-willed and iniquitous resorted to crying over something that wouldn't ever actually happen. Vivika Graves was better than this shit!
Eventually she managed to get a hold of herself and finished getting dressed, just her leather wrap shorts a white blouse and heeled military boots. Thomas would no doubt be able to smell her tears when he returned and what had been a sign of weakness would become their sexual gratification; oh he'd have fun with her. First though she had a certain beard in a suit to deal with.
Vivika hurried down to her car and drove the twenty minutes to the vast warehouse they'd been storing their cargo in. It was dark by the time she arrived and clearly threatened to rain, lights were dotted about over the city in the distance almost like little pockets of hope; not to worry, she'd watch as Thomas put them all out.
As soon as she stepped out the car she knew something was wrong, the main gate hung wide open, it was far too quiet and her key indication something had gone horribly wrong … their men lay dead all over the ground before a blown open door.
"Ah fucking shit!" She growled as she kicked one of the bodies aside to get at his weapon. "Fucking useless assholes. Christ how hard is it to fucking kill someone?!"
She grabbed up the HK416, checked how many rounds she had, decided the dead bastard on the ground had probably been one of the first to die and headed towards the blasted door. Vivika hadn't ever really been grateful to her father for much but that good old Texan blood had done wonders for teaching her firearms.
Ever so slowly she stepped past bodies and through the door. Everything lay silent, sort of like she'd stepped into a tomb or something. Shame there wasn't anyone around for her to shoot but it did make her life easier. Then again, if she was pissed Christ knew how Thomas was going to react. Vivika sighed, she'd never been told what was in that cargo they'd all been guarding like the Arc of the Covenant.
As she looked around it became quickly apparent that Desei wasn't in the warehouse, he'd either gone with whoever had took The Master's property willing or been forcibly taken; that wasn't all that important at that moment. The important thing was that when she found the box she'd been looking for it was fucking empty! Her Strigoi had told her the box's content would be a surprise but from the foam cut outs she was looking at and the explosion Thomas had set off it didn't take a genius to guess the box had housed bombs, two judging by what she could see.
"I'm fucked." She mused to herself.
Vivika should have been at that warehouse not crying into a goddamn pillow because she couldn't cope with the idea of losing her boyfriend. If she'd been there she could have helped, could have stopped everything going tits up; or she'd be dead in a pool of her own blood just like all the other dead dipshits.
To say this wasn't good would have been putting it mildly. No, this was a serious problem and she needed to tell Eichhorst about it now. Vivika marched back past the boxes, out the destroyed door and shuffled her way around the dead back to her car. Just as the vehicle came into view through the darkness of night when the dulcet sounds of a Strigoi scurrying drew her attention, it was still obeying The Master's orders so Vivika hadn't had any cause to shoot them as of late but she would if it got too close. However, this one just looked at her, weird but Vivika had to find Thomas and quickly. She yanked the car door open but stopped dead when he name came from the Strigoi.
"Vivika Graves." It called in that deep, clearly not its own voice.
When she spun around to face it again the eyes glowed red and Vivika found herself smiling, their master had returned to her.
"You will come to The Park. Now."
She nodded. "Of course, Master, but I need to tell Thomas about this." The human gestured to the mess of bodies behind her. "Desei is gone and the cargo stolen. Only Eldritch would have had the resources to pull a stunt like this."
The Master didn't seem bothered in the slightest. "You will come to The Park as I have instructed." He ordered again. "I will relay the loss of cargo to Thomas."
Okay, yeah, The Master could probably do it much faster than she could. Vivika opened her mouth to say more but when she glanced back at the Strigoi the red eyes had faded and it instead just stood there looking at her like it couldn't quite figure her out.
"Conversation over then." She muttered to herself and got in the car.
Vivika drove quickly through the night uncaring about any speed limit, wasn't as though there were any cops left to enforce it. Back into the city streets she dodged around abandoned cars every now and again but the roads remained unblocked for the most part; surprisingly. If The Master had found her personally then something big was happening, something important and Vivika wondered if this was the final moment. Was the war to be won that night?
The twenty-one year old, well, closer to twenty-two now, had made it about half way to Central Park when what looked like a Born and a friend showed up, just stood directly in the centre of the road stared at her. Normally she'd have ploughed right through the dumb fucker and kept going but a burnt out car took up most of the road, if she lost even the slightest bit of control or any blood made the tires skid she'd hit the other car and go rolling. Reluctantly she slammed on the breaks and stopped little more than a foot from the strangers in the road. I can always just shoot them, muttered her mind but then it surged past the high beams to yank the driver door open with such force she'd momentarily though it would come off.
"Always so prompt, Vivika Graves, but I have other needs for your services now."
"Master."
This wasn't some Strigoi he'd taken over for a few minutes, this was him, actually him, in a body. She slipped out of the car and followed her overlord without a word, round the burnt out car, past the other Strigoi and over to a bench where someone lay slumped. The damn Strigoi looked like it had been in one hell of a fight. Suit in tatters – wait, suit? Vivika rushed past her master and dropped to her knees before him, didn't even wince at the pain of her knees against the hard ground.
"Thomas!? Oh Christ, Thomas, what happened?"
His prosthetics were all half-ruined or gone, his suit utterly destroyed and he'd clearly been shot multiple times; a shotgun by the looks of it. In an instant she shoved up her blouse sleeve and made to cut her skin open for him but The Master rested a hand atop her shoulder.
"Thomas would require far more than you are capable of providing him, Vivika Graves, you would surely die."
Emerald orbs flashed up to The Master with tears in them. "I don't care, Master, I love him."
The Master grabbed her wrists then and pulled her to her feet with that immeasurable strength of his and pulled her close, so close she could see the worms as they slithered under his temples.
"Your loyalty is noble but I will not allow you to die, not when you are still of so much use to me. Thomas will live, do not doubt that, my child."
She believed him, always had faith in The Master but that didn't remove her shock and horror. First Thomas had lost a hand to that bitch Dutch Velders and now he was hunched over on some bench slowly dying. Whoever had done this to her darling Thomas would pay with blood.
Vivika's eyes darkened, her voice turned stoic and deadly. "Who did this to Thomas, Master?"
The Master regarded the human before him for a second then released his grip on her. Dark, angry and powerful, this day walker of his truly was more Strigoi than human at this point.
"Eldrich Palmer."
"Of course he did." She growled. "Oh he thinks he's been suffering all his life, he doesn't know the meaning of the word."
The Master smiled, such a violent soul wrapped up in an innocence and beautiful body.
"Where would Eldritch Palmer have gone? He left Stoneheart in lockdown and there is no way of us entering."
This was why he needed her, Vivika had been following Eldritch's people around and sneaking in and out for months. With the tunnels and doors to Stoneheart blocked The Master needed Vivika to get him inside.
Vivika thought a moment as she tried to table her rage long enough to think about anything but carving out Palmer's heart while he watched.
"He'll have gone straight to Setrakian, always goes to him like a dog looking for a pat on the head. Probably wanted to strike some new deal or plan something. If that's what he did then he's still close, it's not far from the warehouse to Stoneheart. Eldritch isn't stupid enough to think he can get away with doing this to Thomas and will know that Thomas isn't dead. He'll be expecting one of the three of us to come knocking, probably me. Expecting a fight from a pissed off, superior enemy? Yeah, he's going to want familiar territory he thinks he can control, he'll come back here and soon. The longer he stays outside Stoneheart the more likely he is to die." She fell silent a second or two as the building layout passed through her mind and then finally a little smile emerged. "The underground parking garage, it's the best and most definable way in or out which means that it would be their only way back in. With Stoneheart in lockdown those doors will only open for Eldritch, we'll have to wait and follow them in."
"So clever, my Vivika Graves."
Usually pride would have swept through her at The Master's approval but in that moment she was far more concerned about Thomas, he'd not moved or said a word.
They had a plan and Vivika wanted blood so they waited, they waited in utter silence for Eldritch and his people to finally return. For them to run into their burrow like cowards. It didn't take long, The Master, his assisting Strigoi and Vivika watched as the garage doors rolled up and the cars made their way inside, it was then they made their move.
The cars came to a stop and Eldritch got out looking pleased with himself as Mister Duncan followed. Those few seconds were all it took for them to sneak in. Bullets rained down, air more metal than actual air for almost a full minute as humans tried desperately to save their own lives. Vivika liked shooting the guards, it relieved some of her ire and brought a smile to her lips when she realized Eldritch had to know the end had come.
An ungodly high-pitched sound screeched into life forcing Vivika to drop her weapon and cover her ears much like all the other remaining humans. It was like feedback from an amplifier inside her brain. Just as it started to blur her vision something small and blue was held out for her by The Master, earplugs! She took the offered relief and quickly slipped them into her ears to protect herself. Oh she could have wept at the silence. Protected and able to see properly again Vivika watched on as the last humans collapsed before her. When the noise finally ended she removed the earplugs and tossed them aside on the ground.
Eldritch made it to his feet and left the protection of his car only to don a mask of utter control and power; Vivika would have called it arrogance and stupidity. The only thing stopping her from ripping this asshole apart was that her master hadn't allowed it yet.
"It may please you to know you chose a partner as wily and as cut-throat as you are. The bomb is in my safe, I alone know the combination. We must work together now."
Palmer honestly believed he still had a fighting chance, Vivika didn't know if that was desperation or just complete idiocy. Didn't matter, either way she'd make sure Eldritch Palmer was dead before the sun came up.
She peered those green eyes of hers to her master hopefully. "Let me cut it out of him, Master. Let me cut away every working organ this walking corpse has left. I will get you that code and I will be thorough. He tried to kill my Thomas."
The white-haired man glanced at her cautiously, he'd always known Vivika to be somewhat volatile and – for lack of a better term – a crazy ass bitch, but he'd never seen her torturing a man coming and quite frankly he'd have rather it not been him. It worried him when The Master appeared to give the idea some serious thought.
"Perhaps it is in my best interest not to destroy you." The Master finally admitted and stepped closer.
The young human had no choice but to watch on knowing she'd not get what she'd wanted. She needed Thomas safe and yet he was sat outside unconscious and fucking dying because of Eldritch – Daddy never loved me – Palmer.
"I shall abide by the terms of our original agreement."
Eldritch grinned at The Master's words but the smiled died a sudden death when the all powerful being before him dropped his gun. Vivika raised an eyebrows, maybe he'd snap Palmer's neck, she hoped not that sort of death would be far too quick.
Before either human could comprehend what was happening The Master had shoved a fist full of soil into Eldritch's mouth and forced him to his knees, it was then Vivika knew Palmer would suffer a much worse fate than any she could have inflicted upon him. In fact, Vivika liked this better; a satisfied smirk settled on her pretty face.
"Eldritch Palmer, eternal life is now yours."
Vivika hadn't ever seen The Master transfer host before but she'd certainly not expected it to look quite so … sexual was the only word she'd really got to describe it. Copious quantities of the White spewed from deep inside The Master's throat flowed by a horde of the worms and into Palmer. Somehow she'd expected the transfer to appear more like when the Strigoi fed, this though, this wasn't even remotely similar.
Eldritch keeled over when the act was done and The Master's former body grew stiff then simply fell down to the side with a thud never to move again; a puppet with its strings cut. Vivika looked around a second or so wondering what it would mean for her protection but no Strigoi came launching at her so she considered herself safe.
When The Master – now in Eldritch's body – shot up to his hands and knees Vivika dropped to his side beside him, eyes full of concern.
"Master, are you alright?"
The Master didn't answer, just peered around the garage past her like she didn't exist. Vivika stayed quiet lest she disturb him but did keep an unnecessary comforting hand on his shoulder. He finally focused on her then, they were Eldritch's eyes but they no longer looked at her the same way; strange. Suddenly he cupped her cheeks with both hands and looked her up and down as if judging something.
"You show your master such concern, such loyalty." Vivika couldn't quite get over her master's voice coming out of Palmer's body. "As a human a single one of those bullets could have killed you and yet you did not waver. Not just out of range for an injured Thomas but because you serve and serve well. Give me your knife." He ordered.
Vivika always carried a knife with her, a gun as well, both gifts from her beloved Thomas. She easily let her hand leave her Master's shoulder passed over the knife. He let his eyes rake across the silver blade then up to Vivika and back. She'd been just about to ask why he needed it when suddenly he sliced through his wrist and held it up to her. Vivika's eyes widened more than they ever had.
"Drink until I tell you to stop, Vivika Graves."
"I am to be turned?" If the war was to be won this night then her usefulness as a day walker would have ended.
"No, the worms obey me. It is only the White for you, my child."
So she drank, drank a long time, much longer than she'd expected to be allowed. The pair of them on their knees surrounded by the dead while she chugged down the White completely unsure of why beyond because her master had commanded it. The White didn't taste of anything when she thought about it, just vaguely warm like coffee sat idle a little too long and thick, somewhere between pasta water and an ice cream shake.
Finally he cupped the back of her head with the hand that still held the knife and she released his wrist. Emerald eyes full of questions met his own darkening ones as his skin knitted itself back together seamlessly.
"You are no longer human, Vivika Graves, but nor are you Strigoi. You are more than human. A single drop of the White brought Eldritch Palmer back from the doors of death, the White you have consumed will keep you young, beautiful and let you heal for a great many years to come." Vivika's brow furrowed deeply with confusion. "This is your reward for your service. Continue to do so and when your longevity comes to an end I shall renew it.
Amazed she nodded. It would have been easier for her to be turned they both knew that, turning had been expected but this? Longevity? This hadn't ever been expected. Why would he leave her even remotely human? She was grateful though, she liked her skin and body the way it was. Clearly The Master had more of a plan for her.
"Thank you, Master."
Vivika meant it, she'd served loyally and now she'd be allowed to stand by her lover's and her master's side as their empire grew. She'd be twenty-one forever as long as she served well and Vivika intended to. Whatever The Master's plan for her was she'd obey and do her job as best she could.
