Vivika stood in Sanjay Desei's office facing his desk with a seething expression and her stiletto heel pressed roughly against the bearded man's face as she pressed him into the cold floor; just a touch more pressure and surely her heel would go straight through his ear and kill him. Her fists clenched as she tried to get herself under control and Sanjay was smart enough to stay put and not try to get up.
"Let me get this straight." She said strangely sweet. "Not even a full week after my husband warned you to be more fucking competent you allow yourself to be taken hostage, beaten up by a hormonal bitch and left grovelling on the ground. A bitch who has been able to fake her name without you suspecting a single thing. A woman I very badly want dead. A woman who my husband is now fucking playing with!" Though her sweetness had faded with every new sentence she hadn't yelled until those last few words. Vivika took a deep breath. "Oh, and to top things off, Sanjay, you've also made me look like an idiot." Her heel dug deeper, just enough to be a warning. "Give me one good reason why I shoulder just fucking kill yu now and do the job myself."
If Desei had ever doubted which of the Eichhorsts he feared more they all faded away with that question. Vivika was volatile. He tried to stay calm but he did have the rather sharp heel of a Hangisi velvet pressed way too close for comfort. And where is she getting Blahnik from?At least if she did kill him his blood would destroy all that blue velvet; a small victory.
"I – I can do better. I can." Sanjay vowed. "She was skilled at hiding but I know what to look for now, I can stop it ever happening again. I can, I promise."
"Are you sure? Because I am not a patient woman and I am fresh out of free passes."
Oh, Sanjay didn't doubt that for a single fucking second. He'd started to wonder if volatile was the wrong word, insane seemed better suited.
"No, no, not a free pass. No, I created this mess, I see that, not a free pass. Let me, em, let me atone for this, let me make it right."
The raven-haired beauty chuckled to herself and finally, finally, released Sanjay's face from the floor and her shoe. Still sniggering she walked calmly to his desk, her heels clacked against the floor, and sat down in his chair. After little more than two seconds she reached for a silvery letter opener designed to look like a tiny sword and set about fiddling with it.
"Atone, is that what you want?"
It took Sanjay a moment to push himself up to his knees, he'd been in one position too long and ceased up. Although when he did manage to sit up he kept his back straight so he could see her over his desk. The bearded man didn't want to attempt standing without his cane just yet or risk setting Vivika off again. The Strigoi really was less terrifying than his wife.
"Yes," Sanjay nodded though it caused his neck to hiss in pain, "I promise you I will never let this happen again. I'll show you that you can rely on me. Nothing like this will ever happen again. I'll prove it. Prove that Miranda – Dutch, whatever her name is, I'll prove she is an anomaly."
Vivika's eye twitched, clearly more bothered by Thomas being with the blond than Mister Desei failing to spot her.
"Dutch Velders. Why won't anyone just let me kill her!"
Vivika forced herself to take a calming breath, she didn't want go get angry and give into the satisfaction of killing the bearded man just to let out a little rage. She leaned back in the high-backed chair.
"Come here, Sanjay."
The elder man made to stand up with the aid of one of his guest chairs but Vivika cut him off before he could even raise an inch, a devilish glint in her otherwise stunning green eyes.
"Crawl."
Sanjay looked at her questioningly for a split second but didn't speak, knew better. It would hurt like hell – his leg hadn't ever been the same since Illumination Day – but he could do it. Carefully he crawled around his guest chair, then his desk until he was knelt at her feet like an animal. Vivika's smiled softened but it did nothing to ease his worries.
"Such a good puppy you are. Now, I will grant you this one last chance because I genuinely like you, Sanjay."
The smile hadn't calmed him but her words had done something to relax him.
"Thank you, Mis-"
Suddenly she cupped his cheek with the hand not occupied with his letter opener and leaned in, for a moment he thought she'd kiss him but then she was talking again.
"However, I recommend you never disappoint me again or you will not like the consequences. Please make no mistake, I am not threatening to kill you. No, I will kill your wife. I'll make you kneel just like you are now and watch as I slowly cut every single piece of skin from her body and toss the scraps at your feet. I won't kill you after that either, I'll leave you locked in a tiny room with her bloody corpse knowing you caused all of this with your own incompetence. I'll leave you there until you starve or figure out how to hang yourself with her intestines. Do I make myself clear, Sanjay?"
His mouth opened to speak but nothing came out, he couldn't speak, the mental image was just too horrific. Vivika seemed to notice that and it must have amused her because when she spoke next it was with a smirk and she sounded more like her usual lyrical self.
"What? No 'yes, Missus Eichhorst'?"
He knew it was best to answer her but before the thought had even finished going through his mind she'd slashed his left cheek with the letter opener and had him once more hissing in agony. Sanjay grabbed a his face as blood dripped down between his fingers and stained his shirt sleeve, the wound wasn't deep enough to gush or pour out onto the floor but he suspected he'd need a couple of stitches and it would probably scar. Considering Vivika could have killed him he'd gotten away lightly.
"Yes, Missus Eichhorst, I understand. I won't disappoint you." He managed to say through gritted teeth.
She cupped his cheek again, a genuine and practically happy smile on her black lips.
"Good. I really hope you remember that because I will hold you to it." The raven-haired woman sighed as if she'd only just noticed the blood. "Now look what you made me do. I hated scaring that face, it's so handsome."
Wickedly Vivika tilted his chin upwards and pressed a soft, completely unresponsive kiss to his lips. It hadn't been a sexual thing or because she'd said he was 'handsome' no, the kiss was simply a power thing. There he was older, bigger, stronger and yet she'd just made him crawl to her for her own amusement. In all honestly the only good her thinking him handsome had done was stopping Vivika cutting deeper.
He kept his dark eyes firmly on her as she leaned back again in his chair and returned to playing with the bloody letter opener. Desei did his best to stay quiet and took out his blue pocket square which he used to help put pressure on his cheek. She'd probably wanted to scar him, Sanjay had no problem believing that was the sort of thing Vivika would do, in fact, he suspected that she most likely knew exactly how deep to cut in order to scar. The bleeding wasn't all that bad and thankfully he was in a building full of doctors and nurses.
Having had his face marked for life Sanjay assumed she was done with him so he finally reached for his cane and used it to push himself upwards to his full height. Vivika didn't even spare a glance at him; too deep in her thoughts. He needed to get out of his commandeered office before started thinking too deeply about what her husband was doing to Miss Velders. Sanjay made to leave his office and find someone to clean and stitch up his face but ground quickly to a halt when the door was thrown open and Eichhorst entered dragging a sweaty and dirty looking Dutch by the arm.
"Mr Desei, check your records." He ordered firmly.
Eichhorst slung Dutch into a guest chair and only paused a moment to take in the sight of the bloody pocket square then flashed his eyes to his wife with the letter opener.
"An old man between the ages of seventy and a hundred had been processed the same day she was. What happened to him?"
"Right away, Mister Eichhorst."
A single forceful look from Thomas had Vivika up from the chair so Desei could get to his computer. She tossed down the letter opener disinterestedly and went to her husband. Irritation raged inside her when he didn't automatically lift his arm so she could snuggle against him as usual. If death glares could have killed Dutch would have fallen limp in her seat.
" Alright, I have four B-Positive men in his age rage that were processed that day."
Thomas rounded the desk to get a better look at the monitor, an act which practically shoved his bride out of the way; Vivika's eye began to twitch again.
"Is one of them Setrakian? Is he alive?"
This blond whore was the reason her husband hadn't so much as kissed her temple yet. It was her fault! The green-eyed beauty leaned forwards unconsciously, she just wanted Dutch Velders dead so badly. Thomas had been paying attention though, he knew his bride better than she knew herself, so he reached out and pulled her back calmly before Vivika could do anything.
"Not now, my love, we shall deal with her later."
Dutch's eyebrows sky-rocketed. "'my love'? What?"
Vivika tensed, he'd not even told the bitch about her!
"I am Vivika Eichhorst, Thomas' wife. The woman who has been promised your death.!
Dutch looked down to the floor and away from the clearly unhinged younger woman. The Professor hadn't ever mentioned Eichhorst had a wife so she'd got no idea if this girl was Strigoi or even the age she looked.
Desei pipped up then and took some of Vivika's attention from Dutch. "Okay, two of them were drained, one of them died of pneumonia three week prior -"
"And the last one?" Thomas demanded.
"Last one is in a bone marrow experiment." Responded the bearded and bleeding man.
Vivika turned fully to face her husband and Sanjay. "Those experiments were starting to look promising." No one took any noticed of what she'd said.
"Where is he?"
"Um, research wing seven."
Desei looked upwards to the Strigoi as the hope returned to Thomas' fake blue eyes.
"Seven. I'll check or myself."
The suit clad monster started to walk away out the other door but spun around in the doorway when Mister Desei called out his name and gestured to Dutch.
"What about her?"
"Hold her here until I verify it's Setrakian. Then-" A monstrous grin came to rest on his face, "-drain her."
The semi-immortal was across the office in hardly a moment, expression outraged as he reached her husband.
"Thomas!"
This had been going on since Eichhorst had first brought Dutch to the Mayfair and it had more than overstayed its welcome. It had become a sort of obsession for his wife to kill the blond and honestly Thomas didn't care any longer, still, he had promised she could kill her.
"Vivika, come with me. Once I have seen Setrakian for myself you can do whatever you like to her. After that, Mister Desei can drain her."
Instantly the anger, irritation and rage drained from his bride and instead Thomas found himself with his wife pressed against him grinning. He knew she wasn't right in the head but damn did he love her evil ways. Green eyes peered back at Dutch.
"We are going to have so much fun!"
"Vivika, come." Thomas ordered only for his wife to dutifully follow along behind him a million times happier than she had been only a minute earlier.
Eichhorst really wasn't stupid, he knew that if he left her alone with Miss Velders she'd kill her long before he ever got to Wing Seven and he couldn't have that.