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Nuclear Dreams
Part 3?-ADULT
Nichole fought her way to consciousness. Her head hurt like nobody's business and her mouth was dry as the Sahara Desert. She was also starved, not for the solid food that was left on the table near the door for her to eat. She opened her eyes and looked about the room in a red hue. Her canines itched and grew to full-length fangs. She started to panic and become frustrated at her current situation. She softly whispered, "Daddy, I'm scared! Where are you?" Her internal clock told her that it was mid-afternoon, and she should be ready to go home for the day from school. To be sure that she could still stand direct sunlight, she moved to the window and bravely stuck out her hand. Her hand started to burn and slightly smoke as she heard the lock in the door click for entry of an unknown person. Remembering the Code, what her father practically lectured endlessly about, she closed her eyes and tried to clear her head. While doing so, she removed her hand from the sunlight.
Nichole heard the beating of a healthy heart walk closer to where she stood. She did manage to ignore the siren call of human blood and the promise of a satisfied hunger as a warm huge hand of a male grabbed her from behind, and threw her back on the bed. Her eyes now blue, she watched in horror as the man undid his belt and pants as well as hers. She watched as he lowered his pants and undergarment, he proceeded to do the same with hers. Now terrified at the sight of the grown man's erection, she did the only thing that she knew she could do despite her weakened strength. She mentally pictured throwing him across the room and slamming his body into the opposite wall. She forced all of her will power and anger at the resurfacing memories of her last foster father, Robert, toward the man who is now climbing toward her from the foot of the bed. She watched as the mental picture played out in front of her very eyes.
She heard the satisfied thump of his body hitting the wall. Nichole watched as he slumps unconscious on the floor. She snapped her head back toward the door as it was opened quickly and three other men came in the room. They stopped dead in their tracks as they looked upon their comrade slumped on the floor. The first man, who came through the door turned to look at her, he took in her state of fashion and returned his eyes back to his unconscious comrade. He also took in his state of fashion and put two-and-two together. Turning his attention back on Nichole, he ordered her, "Get dressed. You have to make a phone call. I'll be outside, be decent in one minute." He turned around and led the other two goons out of the room, leaving the unconscious pervert comrade in the room with her. She looked toward the still form that laid in her prison, and hurriedly dressed as she was told.
Nick and Nat stood staring at one another until he was just about ready to fall from unsteadiness of emotional distress. She immediately walked over to him and held him like a mother would a child, she whispered soothing words to the distraught and crying vampire. As his sobs abated, she dared asked, "Do you know who would do such a thing?"
Nick shook his head slightly before answering, "Unless Mr. Wilkes figured out who I am."
"What are you talking about, Nick? What would you have to do with the Mexican Mafia?"
"I don't. It was Nancy who had something to with the Mexican Mafia."
"Who is Nancy, Nick? You are confusing me, like always."
"Nancy Anna Chilton 'was' Nichole's biological mother. Remember when I introduced Nichole to you?" Not waiting for her to answer, he continued, "At that time, Nancy had been dead for almost seven years. According to Nichole, Mr. Wilkes was behind it."
"Oh, Nick! I'm so sorry. What did she have to do with the Mexican Mafia?"
Nick moved the two of them toward the couch before he began this chapter of his long life. He didn't want Natalie to get leg cramps just standing there listening as he told her his involvement with his latest ex-wife. He sat her down and told her how he met Nichole's mother and how old Nichole was when he left. He explained that she was a FBI agent undercover working for the Mexican Mafia, more specifically, Rawley Wilkes. He watched her face for any reaction as he told her how his ex-wife was killed and why he thought Wilkes did it.
"Nick, why did you leave your family when Nichole was only six months old?"
"LaCroix. He came by to torment me as usual. When he found out that I had managed to father a child, he became enraged. He took Nichole from my care after he managed to effectively knock me unconscious. Because I was a member of Chicago's police department, I had enlisted help to find her. Nancy and I managed to find her in LaCroix's care in an old church. Now before you ask how he could stand holy ground, I'll answer you with this: he is my master and older than me, so he has certain advantages over me and that is one of them. When we arrived at the location, Nancy offered to go in. She knew what I was and didn't want me in the pain that she knew I would experience. I told her that I should go because I have a bloodlink to Nichole like a master does to a fledgling. That was when she surprised me with her heritage, she was a witch. Then she told me that was why she should go, she also has a connection to our daughter. She found them, but LaCroix didn't want to confront her. He wanted to confront me, teach me a lesson. He held her also, calling me to come to him like I learned when I first awoke in this existence.
"I obeyed and followed the link easily. LaCroix had Nichole laid out on the alter as if he were going to sacrifice her, and held Nancy tightly against his body and had her head pulled to one side as if he were to drain her. He saw me enter. I was in pain, but I did not show that to him. I told him to let my family go. He told me rather sternly that he will under one condition, I leave my family permanently. Fearing for their lives, I hastily agreed. Seeing that I was not deceiving him, he vanished but not before giving me a warning of 'If I should find you in the same company of your child, I shall put my threat into action'. I said my good-byes, and left shortly after that night. Throughout the past years, I kept close tabs on Nancy before she died and even closer tabs on Nichole until she showed up here in Toronto."
Before Natalie could ask anything else, the phone rang. Nick reached over the back of the couch and answered, "Knight."
"Señor Knight I believe you are missing something, no?" A slightly Spanish accented voice responded.
Nick outraged at what the familiar voice was calling his precious daughter answered through clenched teeth, "Yes, I an missing 'someone'. If you harm a hair on her head, I'll kill you myself. What do you want, Wilkes?"
"Just merely to chat and catch up on old times. If you cooperate, you just might get your possession back whole."
"She is 'not' my possession, Wilkes." Nick continued through his teeth barely trusting himself to talk.
"Señor Knight, please try to cooperate. Now, I want you to meet me in Allen Gardens at 11:30pm inside The Tropical House. Come alone."
"I want to speak with her."
"Of course, I can't keep a father from speaking with his daughter, can I? You have fifteen seconds."
Nick listened as he heard the phone move and was startled by a very familiar voice, "Daddy!"
"Princess, did he hurt you?"
"I don't know."
"Where are you?"
"I don't know.'"
"I love you."
"I love you too, Daddy."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, but I'm hungry."
"Are they not feeding you?"
"Yes, but 'not' that hungry."
That sentence gripped at his still heart. Here she is going through one of those 'episodes' where he has to feed her 'protein', and she is trapped somewhere in this town. "Hang on Princess, I'll get you out of there."
"How touching, Señor Knight. Your time is up. As you can see, she is unharmed. If she should stay that way all depends on you, Detective. I trust that you do not enlist any other help from the authorities."
Before Nick could respond, Wilkes hung up the phone. He turned toward Nat's confused face, "That would be that call I was waiting for before I could make my move, but he cut off that plan."
"Is she okay, Nick?" Nat had adopted Nichole as a daughter the minute she learned that he had one. She even spoiled Nichole from time to time thus making them great friends.
"She is okay for now." Before Nat could respond, Nick was up and making his way toward his stereo and album collection. He spotted his Collin Raye CD, which he got shortly after Nichole arrived in Toronto, and plugged it up into the system. "I hope you don't mind Nat, but this song makes me think of Nichole."
"I don't mind Nick. What..." Her question was cut off as a strains of a country song filled the loft. She listened to the soothing sound of a male voice sing:
"Everytime I see a woman on a billboard sign
I think about you
Saying "drink this beer and you'll be mine"
I think about you
When an actress on the movie screen
Plays Lolita in some old man's dreams
It doesn't matter who she is
I think you
"When I see a pretty woman walking down the street
I think about you
Men look her up and down like she's some kind of treat
I think about you
She wouldn't dare talk to a stranger
Always has the be aware of the danger
It doesn't matter who she is
I think about
"You... eight years old
Big blue eyes and a heart of gold
When I look at this world I think about
You... and I can't help but see
That every woman used to be
Somebody's little girl... I think about you
"Everytime I hear people say it's never gonna change
I think about you
Like it's some kind of joke, some kind of game
I think about you
When I see a woman on the news
Who didn't ask to be abandoned or abused
It doesn't matter who she is
I think about
"You... eight years old
Big blue eyes and a heart of gold
When I look at this world I think about
You... and I can't help but see
That every woman used to be
Somebody's little girl... I think about you
"When I look at this world
I think about you"
Nichole had gotten dressed in less than one minute. She sat back down on the bed, and kept her eye on the half naked man laying unconscious across the room until her 'guard' retrieves her from her prison. After the remaining minute was up, her 'guard' opened the door. "You're ready. Good. Now let's go, don't make me use this." He held up a syringe filled with a clear liquid. "It's sodium pentothal. Or in simpler terms, 'truth serum'." Nichole got up and followed the goon out into the hall. The minute she passed the door frame, she was grabbed from behind and had her arms pinned behind her back.
Her captors marched her down the hall and into the lift. She watched as her 'guard' pushed the second floor button. The lift engaged for its descend to the second floor. As the lift slowed to a stop, her captors opened the door and led her down the hallway to the door on the other end from the lift. As the oak wooden door is opened for her entry, Nichole starts to hum a tune that she over the radio.
When she looked around the office, Nichole started to mumble the song she was humming to as she entered the door. She just only changed a few words to fit her:
"Father
of mine
tell me where have you been
you know I just closed by
eyes
my whole world disappeared
father of mine
take me
back to the day
when I was still your golden girl
back before
you went away
"I remember dark night skies
walking the
block
I loved it when you held me high
I loved to hear you
talk
you would take me to the movie
you would take me to the
beach
you would take me to a place inside
that's so hard to
reach
"Father of mine
tell me where did you go
you
had the whole world inside your hand
but you did not seem to
know
father of mine
tell me what do you see
when you look
back at your deprived life
and you don't see me
"I was
five years old
doing all that I could
it wasn't easy for me
to be a scared white girl
in a black neighborhood
sometimes
you would send me a birthday card
with a five dollar bill
I
never understood you then
and I guess I never will
"Daddy
gave me a name
my dad gave me a name
then he walked away
daddy gave me a name
then he walked away
my dad he gave me a
name
"Father of mine
tell me where have you been
I
just closed by eyes
and the world disappeared
father of mine
tell me how do you sleep
with the child you abandoned
and the
wife I never saw you meet
"I will never be safe
I will
never be same
I will always be abandoned inside
I will always
be alone
now I'm a small teenager
without a child of my
own
and I swear, when I do, I'm not gonna let him or her know
all the pain I have known
"Then he walked away
daddy
gave me a name
then he walked away
my dad he gave me a name
then he walked away
daddy gave me a name
then he walked away
my dad he gave me a name
"Then he walked away
Without knowing that she had gotten louder, Nichole heard a slightly accented Spanish voice demanded, "Get her to shut up!" Nichole startled at the intrusion of her singing, but didn't say a thing as she felt the needle slide into her arm.
"Good, now come here Nichole. We have a phone call to make." The voice ordered her again. She walked over to where she pinned pointed the owner of the voice was sitting, after the needle was removed. Nichole looked at the man with hatred. He had a full head of black hair, dark eyes, and a thick black mustache on his upper lip. "If you would be so kind as to give me your home number, then we may be able to tell your father that you are okay for the time being."
"Who are you? What do you want with me?" Nichole demanded of her kidnapper.
"My name is Rawley Wilkes, and what I want is to get better aquatinted with the family of an old employee. I believe the employee's name was Nancy Anna Chilton Chasez. If I am not mistaken, she was your mother, no? The phone number, Nichole. Now! I will also need your father's cell phone number."
"555-4762."
"Gracias, Señorita. But I am warning you, if this is not his number you will be very sorry." Wilkes picked up the phone sitting on the desk in front of him and dialed the number Nichole gave him. After five rings, he heard a recording of: "You have reached the desk of Detective Nicholas Knight with Metro Homicide. I am either away from my desk or off duty, if you leave your name, number I can reach you, and a short message I will get back to you as soon as possible. BEEP" Wilkes hung up the phone quickly, and smiled evilly toward her, "I can't punish you for giving me that number, I will give you one more chance. Give me you home phone number, now!"
"555-4822."
He picked up the phone again and dialed 555-4822. Wilkes counted three rings before someone picked up the other end.
"Knight."
"Señor Knight I believe you are missing something, no?" Wilkes responded with sarcasm at the phone.
"Yes, I am missing 'someone'. If you harm a hair on her head, I'll kill you myself. What do you want, Wilkes?" Nick answered through clenched teeth.
"Just merely to chat and catch up on old times. If you cooperate, you just might get your possession back whole."
"She is 'not' my possession, Wilkes."
"Señor Knight, please try to cooperate. Now, I want you to meet me in Allen Gardens at 11:30pm inside The Tropical House. Come alone."
"I want to speak with her."
"Of course, I can't keep a father from speaking with his daughter, can I? You have fifteen second."
Nichole was handed the phone as well as a gun barrel pointed toward her head, "Daddy!"
"Princess, did he hurt you?"
"I don't know."
"Where are you?"
"I don't know."
"I love you."
"I love you too, Daddy."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, but I'm hungry."
"Are they not feeding you?"
"Yes, but 'not' that hungry."