A/N: Oof, better late than never. Real life has kept this chapter in Rewrite Hell for longer than I care to admit. Thanks again to all of you who read, and especially reviewed, last chapter. More swearing than usual in this chapter, but it's hardly gratuitous. All usual disclaimers apply.
Seventh Circle
Chapter 12
Lilith glances over his head at the two underlings standing slightly behind her prize. A pink tongue moistens her generous lips before she speaks. "Leave us."
Lilith's ravenous eyes instantly return to Kirk's face. "We will not be disturbed," she observes with quiet relish, a slight smile playing around her lips. "I must admit, Captain, I am somewhat surprised to see you. I was not expecting you so… soon."
Kirk barely notices her words. His heart pounds madly against his ribs as he strains his ears for the soft echo of the guards' receding footsteps. Just a few more seconds and he will be alone with the person responsible for killing Giacomo and torturing his crew. The captain furtively eyes her wrist, trembling with anticipation. He is going to have to be very, very fast.
The door slams behind the two guards.
Kirk surges to his feet. He simultaneously seizes Lilith's outstretched wrist and pulls with all his might. With a cry of surprise, she stumbles and slams against his chest. She recovers almost instantly and twists half out of his grasp. He lunges after her. Her free hand darts for her phaser, but Kirk bats it out of her hand before she can bring it into play. Lilith snags a foot around his ankle, dumping him to the ground. Kirk drags her with him as he falls.
They hit the floor hard. Kirk clings to her tenaciously, refusing to relinquish his grip even as his knuckles crunch sickeningly on impact with the ground. She is very strong, but Kirk has the nearly superhuman strength born of five days' anguish and desperation on his side, and he easily gains the upper hand. Lilith soon stops struggling. Elated, Kirk pins her to the floor. He grins down at her triumphantly.
To his surprise, Lilith appears unconcerned by her defeat. "I would not move if I were you," she observes coolly from the floor.
He opens his mouth to make a smart-ass retort, but a hard jab to his stomach stops him. The grin slowly slides off Kirk's face as he follows her gaze down his chest. He swears viciously under his breath at the sight.
Fifteen centimeters of wicked-looking knife rises from her manicured hand to meet his abdomen. The vitreous blade glows sinisterly in the reddish light of the room. His high spirits plummet.
Lilith hadn't quit. She had stopped fighting in order to get the knife. The captain does not dare move. She could gut him before he could blink an eye, let alone wrest the knife from her grasp. He is at her mercy once again.
Lilith smiles up at him from a halo of tousled auburn curls, enjoying Kirk's thunderous expression. "My, my, you have been clever," she croons, goading his impotent fury. "I'll admit, you nearly had me fooled. It's been tried before, of course, but none of the others ever made it so far. You put on a brilliant act, Captain."
She raises her eyebrows suggestively. Kirk seethes as he releases her shoulders. She rises gracefully from the floor, forcing the furious captain backwards onto his knees at knifepoint. The fingers of her free hand gently trace his cheek before threading themselves in the collar of his shirt. A chill races down his spine as the tip of the knife snags ominously in the black fabric.
Lilith's voice is as cool and coy as ever. "I will make a deal with you, James Kirk. If you surrender now, completely and unconditionally, I will let one of your men live. However, you must choose which one. Will it be your friend the doctor? Your loyal first officer? Or the little one? He can still be saved, you know…provided you act quickly enough. "
Sweat begins to break out on Kirk's forehead. There is no good way out of this situation. He would never, ever make that decision, and Lilith knows it. He reminds himself that she wants him alive. She wants him alive, and badly enough to try to force him to bargain. Kirk stares levelly back into her golden eyes. He ignores the menacing knife. She will not use it. "Do you really think I'm going to make that choice?"
Lilith smiles at him. Kirk tenses as she suddenly drags his head close to her mouth by his collar. She speaks so close to his ear that he can feel the warmth of her breath against his sticky skin. "No, Captain," she says softly. "I don't."
There is nothing in her eyes as she drives the knife to its hilt into Kirk's unprotected abdomen.
White-hot pain rips through his flesh. He lets out a strangled cry and feebly tries to pull away. Lilith's fingers tighten on his collar, holding him in place while she methodically twists the knife and snaps her wrist. He feels more than hears the sickening crack as the blade shatters from the hilt. Kirk crumples around the wound. The now-useless hilt of her knife clatters to the floor beside him. She pushes him carelessly aside before he can collapse and rises to her feet.
Lilith watches dispassionately from above as Kirk struggles on the floor. The jagged edge of the blade protruding from his skin grazes his shaking fingers as he instinctively reaches for the wound. Even if he wanted to, he cannot get a grip on the slick glass to remove it.
Kirk lies back against the floor, panting. Shit, there is a lot of blood. His hands are covered with it. Bones is going to kill him.
Waves of agony radiate outward from the vicious wound, sapping his strength and clouding his mind. Kirk desperately tries to focus through the pain. He cannot just lie there. He has to save Bones. He has to save them all. His scarlet stained fingers scrabble at nothing as he tries and fails to push himself up. His head lolls as he sags back to the ground, chest heaving with pain and exertion. He dully notes that it would be much easier to just lie there and bleed into oblivion. The floor isn't even that uncomfortable, minus the strangely shaped lump digging into the middle of his back.
Kirk blinks. The phaser-shaped lump.
Realization roars through his shock-and-pain-induced daze.
Lilith's phaser. He is lying on top of Lilith's phaser!
She must have pushed him onto it by mistake. Hopeful energy surges through him. Kirk summons his remaining strength and twists around. He ignores the sear of pain from the wound on his abdomen as he maneuvers one hand under his back. Lilith's eyes narrow suspiciously, but it is too late. His fingers have already clasped cold metal. Kirk wrenches the phaser free from beneath his body. Scarcely able to believe his luck, he points the weapon at Lilith and gleefully thumbs the safety.
Shock at this unexpected development only clouds her features for a split second. Lilith composes herself rapidly and addresses him with a reasonable imitation of her favorite coy tone. "Really, Captain, what do you hope—"
"Shut up," Kirk growls as he painfully levers himself into a sitting position. He glances down at his stomach. Shit, there is a lot of blood. Bones is going to kill him. He tries to hold the wound closed around the glass shard with his free hand, cursing. "Where's my communicator?"
"I do not know what you are talking about," Lilith replies airily. Kirk sets the phaser from stun to kill and raises his eyebrows meaningfully. The irony of the gesture is not lost on her. "In the desk," she amends, her tone becoming frosty. A crafty glint steals into her tawny eyes. "Shall I get it for you?"
Yeah, so you can call your guards? As if he would fall for that trick."No," Kirk snaps. God, even talking hurts. He keeps the phaser on her and snatches a quick glance over his shoulder. His heart sinks.
The desk is several meters away, and he can't stand. He will have to drag himself across the floor one-handed…while holding the phaser on Lilith. Shit. Kirk steels himself before pushing with his feet and pulling with his free hand against the polished floor. He manages to move forward despite the screams of protest from his wound. The captain grits his teeth. It hurts like hell, but he can push through it. He has to push through it.
He looks back at Lilith. Her body has not moved, but her golden eyes are riveted to his every move with a calculating intensity that makes the hairs prickle on the back of his neck. She is up to something. Kirk makes a show of checking the safety on the phaser before speaking to her.
"No," he repeats, wincing with the effort of speaking. "You're going to…stand right there and tell me…what the hell you want with me."
"But I've already told you, Captain. I told you days ago." Lilith pouts, a false note of petulance in her voice. "You haven't been nearly as clever as I thought."
"Enlighten me," Kirk snarls through clenched teeth, his temper flaring at her evasion. He harnesses the anger to drive his body another meter closer to the desk, despite the glass shard tearing deeper into his flesh with every movement.
Lilith studies him for a moment, her head cocked slightly to the side. Her voice is casual. Her eyes are not.
"You are here because I want you," she says, giving the final word a slight emphasis, like it has some unusual meaning Kirk has failed to understand. "You were half correct before. I have you…physically. But handsome as you may be, James Kirk, you are so much more."
The captain braces himself for another push across the floor. Puzzlement at her vague words gnaws at the edges of his pain-numbed mind, but he has no breath to spare asking questions. He will simply have to wait until she makes her meaning clear.
"I suppose my attraction started that way," Lilith muses. "Physically, I mean. I saw the holonews vids and I knew I had to have you. Starfleet's new, handsome, golden boy. Any captain would be quite an accomplishment, but you, James Kirk, would be the gem of my collection."
Collection? Kirk's skin crawls as he half-pushes, half-drags himself onward. If anything, her words inspire him to get as far away from her as humanly possible. The wound throbs. He resists the urge to rest, even though his limbs feel like lead. He has gone over two meters. He has to be getting close.
Lilith continues, her conversational tone contrasting sharply with the gravity of her words. "I knew it would be a lengthy process. It took nearly six months for the Federation paperwork to clear, even with the fortune I paid out in bribes. It took another three for the Enterprise to become available."
Kirk's flicker of surprise at her mention of the Federation is drowned by excitement as his back finally impacts something hard. He glances over his shoulder. The desk. Thank god. The captain leans tiredly against the solid wood, panting shallowly and holding his wound. He rests the phaser on a knee drawn up towards his chest. Blood slowly begins to leak around his fingers. Kirk grimaces.
He glances up when he realizes Lilith has stopped speaking, just in time to see her predatory eyes rake across his abdomen. "Rest as long as you wish, Captain. I am a patient woman," she remarks with a sinister smile. "I can wait a little longer."
The captain stiffens with sudden realization. Lilith is waiting for him to pass out from pain or blood loss. That is why she stabbed him. She meant to incapacitate--notkill-- him. Now she is merely biding her time. When he finally succumbs to his injuries he will be completely at her mercy.
Kirk shudders. Damned if he is going to let that happen! He would rather die.
Galvanized into action, Kirk reaches up for the top edge of the desk and hauls himself slowly to his knees. The vertical motion is too much for his stressed body. His head spins and he reels for a moment. Sensing his vulnerability, Lilith lunges towards him. The captain catches himself before she can get close enough to pose a threat. His fingers clench menacingly on the phaser and she freezes once again.
Kirk laboriously drags himself one-handed around to the other side of the desk. He is careful to position it (and the phaser) between him and Lilith. Christ, he hurts. "Get…to the point," he gasps at her between short, painful breaths.
Lilith's eyes narrow as she appraises him. Even five days' torment at her hands does not prepare him for what she has to say.
"Very well, Captain. The point is this: I might have you in my physical control, but your mind is still your own. You are perfectly free to loathe me or worry about your friends. This is unacceptable. I am a jealous woman. I want you all to myself, body and soul."
I can't think of anything clever because I'm fried from rewriting this, so here's some food for thought. It takes me 20+ hours to write one of these chapters. It takes you five minutes to review.
Reviewers shall be rewarded per usual (i.e. previews of next chapter!).