Another day dawns in Skyrim and Nessa is so very confused about… everything!
Please read and review!
Sanctuary
The couple got ready for bed in silence. His eyes stabbed her accusingly as he removed his leather chestpiece. She tried to repress a smile, but her amusement shone through her eyes. She watched him watching her as she pulled on a comfortable old shirt to sleep in. Finally he couldn't contain his ire.
"Why bother, Astrid." His lip curled in a snarl. "You want to be with her then go! When you're tired of her, come back. Maybe I'll still be here." His voice was rough with anger. He yanked at the laces on his trousers and managed to break them. He threw the broken laces across the room and shucked his pants off.
"Arn, my love." Her voice was a silken purr, meant to soothe. It was what he loved best about her and she knew that well. Her voice could always reach through his bestial nature and soothe him, even when he was a wolf. "Don't be jealous. She will never replace what we have together. She simply… augments it." She moved up behind him and slid a hand up his back to his ear and she rubbed it as she did when he was a wolf. Leaning in she lowered her voice. "Can't you imagine the two of us together? I would show her all the delights a woman can give another woman." She let her slender fingers trail down his neck just as she'd done with Nessa earlier. "Can't you see our bodies sliding together, her gasping and arching off the bed as I bring her to heights of ecstasy?" She ran her finger around his ear and let her hot breath buffet him as she spoke. "Then, I'd tempt her with something she truly wants, my darling." She paused, noting that Arn had gone perfectly still. He'd never admit it, but he was intrigued.
He snorted. "What is it you think she truly wants?"
"Hmmmm… why you, my sweet husband. Wasn't that obvious?"
"You're crazy." He pulled away from her and put on his sleeping trousers. "Even if she did, I don't want her. I married you, Astrid."
He was being pig-headed. There was always one way to get through to him… make him angry. "Well, perhaps you're right." Her voice hardened. "Maybe I should go to her. You and I used to have such fun together and now it has gotten predictable and dull."
He whipped around and snarled at her. "You are bored with me, is that it?"
She turned around to look at him, her face perfectly composed, framed in indifference. She shrugged, her gesture speaking volumes. "I thought marrying a werewolf would be exciting. The thrills, the passion, the danger…" She sighed and threw up her hands. "Now that we've been together a few years, you're becoming just as dull as my last two husbands were."
Arnbjorn's snarl turned into a growl and he began to change. His eyes began to turn more yellow than golden and his limbs darkened with black hair.
Astrid's face remained impassive, but her eyes began to glow. That's more like it! She turned away from him, affecting indifference. There was a long, tortured snarl from him, but she ignored him, turning down the furs on their bed. Then he was on her, pushing her face first into the bed. His jaws clamped on the back of her neck and held her firmly. His hands, not yet paws, pushed up her nightshirt and he mounted her, pushing himself into her with one brutal thrust of not entirely human hips.
Astrid's smile reached her lips and she hissed with pleasure. She'd been ready ever since bathing with Nessa, but it wasn't her way to let Arnbjorn control things. She struggled to her hands under his considerable mass and, with extraordinary strength of her own, wrestled with him. His teeth scored the skin on her neck and she could feel her own blood rolling down her back.
"Oooh, Arn," she half-laughed as she panted from the exertion of struggling with him, "I'll be replacing that with your own blood, you hairy son-of-a-bitch!" With a combination of shoves and joint locks she finally got him on the bed, face up, and crouched over him, her silvery eyes looking into his yellow ones. "It seems you've forgotten the one rule of our sanctuary." Arnbjorn couldn't respond; he was too far gone. All he could do was growl and snap at her.
"Obey Astrid," she said narrowing her eyes. She slapped his face suddenly, viciously. Her fingernails scored his cheek, leaving three bleeding tracks. She leaned forward, licking the blood welling up from the wounds, and then impaled herself on him, rocking her hips, her eyes never leaving his. She put one hand on the base of his throat, her sharp fingernails threatening to clench and her other hand sought out her bud. She rode him slowly, deliberately making sure she would find her own pleasure first.
He began to transform back. It wasn't anything conscious, he always told her, but this brought him out of the wolf madness. She slowed her pace even more but she was too excited to wait. Her vision blurred and the lure of his blood was more than she could resist. She fell forward and sunk her fangs into the vein throbbing in his neck and he cried out with a wordless shout and grasped her hips as he climaxed along with her. His last erratic spasms coincided with the blood surging from his opened vein, with the pumping of his heart. Astrid drank as she climaxed. Her body squeezed him with strong contractions that seemed to go on and on as she drank. When it was like this, primal and angry, sometimes she couldn't stop herself.
"Astrid, stop," Arnbjorn said. He pushed against her, breaking the seal of her mouth against his neck.
She gasped for a moment trying to recollect herself. She looked down at her husband. He looked a little pale but otherwise unharmed. "Oh, Arn…" She leaned forward and kissed him sweetly on the lips. "I'm sorry, I just got a little carried away."
His mouth turned up in a rare smile. "So… maybe I'm not so boring after all, eh?"
She laughed. "No, sweetheart, that was rather enjoyable." She rolled off of him onto her side of the bed and burrowed under the covers. "We should do that more often." She stroked his face, his wounds were already healing.
He chuckled quietly. "Well, that's fine, but I don't want to meet the same fate your first two husbands met."
"Hmmm… yes, there is that. But you always seem to be able to push me away when that happens. You're much stronger than they were."
He hummed but said nothing for a long moment. "Just forget about that girl, wife. You don't need her."
Astrid smiled at him enigmatically. Her husband was handsome, undeniably; strong, admittedly, but not the pointiest pike in the armory. The girl was the reason their lovemaking had been so gratifying. He would figure it out soon enough.
She snuggled into his chest. "Good night, husband."
He wrapped and arm around her and pulled her close. "Good night, love." His body was satisfied, but his mind was not. Somehow, he didn't think his wife would give up her obsession quite so easily.
~o~o~o~
A soft hand stroked her cheek as she awoke to the perpetual twilight of the cavern that held the sanctuary. She startled, unsure where she was at first; she had slept so soundly.
"Well, good morning, my sister," Astrid said soothingly. "How are you feeling?"
Nessa relaxed and smiled, she stretched her arms over her head and yawned. "Better now, I think. My guts aren't feeling so twisted today and this bed is much softer than the ground. I should get up. I'm sure you must have work for me." She wanted to make a good impression on her new family.
"Nazir does have some assignments for you, but they can wait a few days until you're fully rested and recovered. She pulled back Nessa's blankets and shook her head. "You're far too thin. A good assassin has stamina and you'll need some reserves to draw upon. I thought today we could review what you know about our art. Babette might have another potion for you to drink this morning, and I'm sure you must be hungry." Astrid's hand smoothed the hair back from Nessa's face. "Come see me after you've eaten. I expect you to eat heartily," she said sternly.
Nessa nodded obediently. "Yes, ma'am."
Astrid smiled and left her new protégé to dress.
~o~o~o~
"Tell me what you know about killing." Astrid asked the girl when she showed up later.
"I prefer to use my bow. I'm a very good shot."
Astrid nodded. "That's very useful, but moving silently so you're close enough for a clean shot is essential. Can you move without being seen or heard?"
Nessa nodded confidently. "Yes, ma'am. I trained with the thieves in Riften. Lots of times I had to break into a house and steal things."
"Good, we'll test you out later with that. Tell me how you killed Grelod." Astrid pierced her with her strange silver eyes.
"I sneaked into her room and waited for her. I hid in a corner." Retelling the tale both thrilled and sickened her. "When she opened her wardrobe, I wrapped a bow string around her throat and pulled it so tight she could scream or draw a breath. She just whispered… something."
Astrid leaned in, cupping her chin in her hand and directing her eyes to meet her own. She watched the girl's face avidly. She recognized the feelings Nessa was having… but it had been so long. "Tell me, what did she say?"
"She said, 'I always knew you'd come to no good.' It was what she always said to me… when she was beating me." Nessa shivered at the memory of those beatings, but then remembered that ultimately she'd won. Grelod had paid.
Astrid moved closer to Nessa. Those feelings…to recapture them. She placed her mouth next to Nessa's ear. "Did it excite you?" she whispered. "Did you feel powerful, like a vengeful goddess?"
Another shiver went through her as she thought about that night, her eyes slid away from Astrid's as she recollected. "It felt… good." She brought her eyes back to Astrid's, an intensity shone in them. "I… I liked it."
She could feel the girl's excitement in her quickened pulse. "Hmmmm…" Astrid closed the distance between her lips and Nessa's. They met, just barely, but lingered in the faintest kiss imaginable. When she let go of the girl's chin and pulled away there was a pink flush to her cheeks.
Nessa dropped her eyes, unsure of herself and what just happened. Astrid is married! Even worse, she's a woman!
Watching the girl deal with her emotions was sweeter even than the kiss. She looked so confused and conflicted. With a word or a gesture she could put the girl at ease, but this was far too fun. "When you strangled the old woman did you come up behind her like this?" She turned Nessa around and wrapped her fingers gently around her neck and pressed her body against the girl's. She could feel her heart beating even faster now.
"N… no… I wasn't so close, and I used the string."
"You should be close if you're going to strangle someone, my sweet. You can use your leg to trap one of theirs. It'll help hold them still." She twined one of her legs around Nessa's. "You see? Now I have perfect control of you. I can push you down, or move you however I like." She suddenly let go of Nessa and noticed her cheeks had gotten even redder.
"Yes, ma'am," Nessa said quietly.
"Now, I want to see you try to sneak up on me as if you held a dagger. You might not always have the distance to use your bow." She went to the other side of the room and sat with her back to Nessa. "Go ahead."
Nessa moved as quietly as she could and crept up behind the guild leader.
"I hear your heart beating, my dear. You must calm yourself," Astrid said. "Although, my hearing is a bit better than a normal human's. Still, you should try to compose yourself before you attack."
Nessa tried to still her thoughts. She tried not to think about Astrid's hand on her face, that kiss, or how her leg wrapped around her own and left her feeling helpless and exposed. It didn't work. The more she tried not to think of those things, the more heated her face became and the harder her heart beat.
Astrid smiled, hearing the girl's heart speed up. "Never mind, Nessa. Just show me what you'd do with the dagger."
Nessa closed the remaining distance and reached around the older woman's neck with her pretend dagger. Astrid's reaction was blindingly fast. She didn't know how it happened, but suddenly she was on the floor, her wind knocked out of her. Astrid was sitting on her, straddling her waist, her strange silver eyes gleamed. The vampire reached out with her hand and traced the girl's lips.
"This lesson should teach you that it is very, very difficult to surprise a vampire. Hmmmm?" Astrid leaned forward and kissed the girl again. "We will continue this lesson again, later. Unless you have some questions for me?"
Nessa thought for a moment, not really wanting the lesson to end. "Tell me about your first time." She hoped it wasn't an impertinence to ask such a personal question.
"The first time I killed?" Astrid asked, her eyebrow cocking.
Nessa nodded.
"It was my Uncle. He made certain… unwanted advances, so I killed him." She smiled remembering it. "This was long before I was a vampire. I was just a girl of fifteen. But I liked it so I killed again and I liked it even more. The Dark Brotherhood found me and saw I had certain talents so I joined them." She smiled down at Nessa. "Just like we saw that you have certain talents."
"How did you become a vampire?" Nessa braved another personal question since the answer to the first one came so effortlessly.
A laugh bubbled out of Astrid and she cupped Nessa's jaw rubbing her thumb across it. "That's a story for another time, sweet. Right now, I want you to find Arnbjorn. Tell him I want him to appraise your archery." Astrid rose gracefully and helped the girl to her feet.
~o~o~o~
"She told you to find me, so I could assess your archery?" Arnbjorn glared at the young Nord, his wife's obsession. By Hircine's hairy flank, what is my wife doing?
Nessa stood purposefully before him. She resolved to show no fear even though his lupine eyes narrowed and a low growl came from his throat. In that moment he reminded her of all the ice wolves she'd met on the road, although, if anything, they were friendlier. An ice wolf made man; that was what he was. His pale hair was the same color as their fur: Icy white. She reminded herself she had the pelts of three ice wolves amongst her belongings in Riften. Ones she had slain. "That was what she said."
"I heard you," he snapped at her. "You needn't repeat yourself."
Her mouth dropped open in a wordless protest of his rudeness. "But you asked…"
"It wasn't a question needing an answer, stupid girl," he snarled.
Nessa was stung by his words. She'd had something of an education at the orphanage. She could read, write and do sums, although she rarely got the opportunity to do them. Still, she was literate. "I am not stupid! You… you're a rude werewoof!" Her voice rose with the fury that suddenly overtook her.
As if on cue, the other assassins began to edge into the great hall and watch the pair of angry Nords from a discrete distance.
"Fifty septims on Arnbjorn," Festus, the mage assassin, quietly offered.
Nazir snorted and shook his head. "As if anyone would bet against Arnbjorn…"
No one would take Festus up on it. The skinny Nord girl certainly could never stand up to the werewolf.
"Were… wolf!" Arnbjorn roared, enunciating slowly. "I am a rude werewolf."
Her eyebrows furrowing and nostrils flaring, Nessa nodded vehemently. "You certainly are! Well, I don't care if you are some sort of woof or not. You have no right to call me stupid."
Arnbjorn crashed into her, pushing her against the cavern wall, his forearm across her windpipe, threatening to choke her air off. "Wuh-luf! I am a were wuh-luf. Say it right, damn you!"
Nessa's breath seethed in and out of her nose with her anger. "Wuh-luf! You are a rude… damn… wul-luf."
They were frozen for a long moment, both angry, their eyes locked in a deadly duel even if their bodies didn't move. In the end, her eyes disarmed him. He let go of her and turned away quickly before she could see the smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. He strode across the room, ignoring her now.
If anything, his turning around and leaving her standing there, as if she were nothing… as if she didn't exist or account for anything, infuriated her even more. She pulled the bow off her back and an arrow from her quiver. As he walked away from her she loosened two arrows. One flew just to the right of his head; the feathers lightly brushed his cheek. Before he could react a second arrow flew, this one brushed his left cheek.
"How is my archery, werewoof? Astrid will want to hear your report."
Arnbjorn turned slowly and stared at her, confounded by her sudden belligerence. He hadn't expected that. They stared at each other a moment longer and then she slowly lowered her bow and turned away, her back rigid and shoulders thrown back. She stalked off to her room, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck rise as she was certain the eyes of every assassin were on her right now.
When she got to her room she changed out of the lightweight enchanted armor Astrid had given her and put on her thieves guild armor. She had acquired a new bag and stuffed the few items she owned into it. She reverently folded her assassin's armor and placed it on the bed.
So… this hadn't worked out either. She didn't know where she would go next or what she would do now. It seemed that everything she had undertaken had turned sour. First she broke the rules of the thieves' guild and now… now she would probably be lucky to leave the sanctuary with her life. Shouldering the bag with a heavy sigh, she turned to leave her room and the sanctuary.
"Oh dear, no," Babette looked up at her with alarm. "You can't possibly be thinking of leaving!" She ran to her and threw her arms around her hips. "You're the best thing that's come to the sanctuary in… well, a very long time." The little girl vampire looked up into her face, her eyes filled with tears and her lip trembled. "Astrid needs a friend, a confidant, someone she can trust. And… and… so do I."
Nessa was unused to Babette's theatrics so the display tugged at her heartstrings. She felt like she was abandoning a friend, a little girl as lost and alone as she often felt. "Astrid has Arnbjorn. She doesn't need me. Besides, he hates me." She smoothed her hand over the little girl's hair. "I've only been here a day and already I've messed everything up. I can't stay."
Babette let go of Nessa and ran to the door and shut it. "Oh no, you haven't, not at all." She trotted back over to Nessa and took her hand, pulling her over to the bed. She sat down and patted the bed next to her. "There are many intricacies of life here, Nessa. Things are rarely as they seem on the surface." She squeezed the Nord girl's hand and smiled at her girlishly. "You see me as a little girl, but I'm not. You think Arnbjorn hates you, but he doesn't. He may be jealous of you, but after your fight out there, he respects you. In fact… I think everyone respects you and what you did. Leaving now would be a mistake."
Tilting her head, Nessa looked at Babette wonderingly. "They respect me for that?"
Full dimples showing, Babette nodded vigorously. "Oh, definitely! You stood up to a big, mean werewoof and your display of archery was very impressive."
"Now you're making fun of me." Nessa expression darkened.
Babette laughed and squeezed her hand again. "I think the way you say werewolf is funny. I'm going to say it like you from now on."
Nessa smiled at the little girl and shook her head. "Better not. It will just make him hate me more."
"Don't go, Nessa!" Babette wrapped her arms around Nessa as if she could hold her in place.
"I… I don't want to come between Astrid and Arnbjorn. That's why I make him so angry, isn't it?" Nessa stole a look at Babette wondering if she would even know of such things.
"Astrid loves Arnbjorn, Nessa. That will never change. But vampires live a very long time and sometimes they need some… diversity to keep their love fresh."
She could barely believe she was having this conversation with a vampire that looked like a ten-year-old girl. "Diversity. So that's what I would be to her? It just seems so… unnatural for a woman to want another woman."
Babette shook her head and tsked. "Oh, my dear, you are so young and naïve. I can see you haven't read terribly extensively or this idea wouldn't be so foreign to you. If you stay with us, I will show you some books to read that you might find very interesting." She hugged Nessa's arm again. "Promise me you'll stay?"
Her head swimming she tried to take in everything Babette had told her, that they all respected her… her. She nodded slowly. "I will stay."
"Goody!" Babette clapped her hands and ran for the door. "I'll be right back with some books for you to read." She left the room, closing the door behind her. Astrid was going to love hearing about all this.
~o~o~o~
Notes: Poor Nessa is so young and inexperienced at life. It took a tremendous amount of courage for her to stand up to Arnbjorn.
Raven Hunter, NekoMara, Biff McLaughlin, Zevgirl, x_Janelle_x, anon, whoopsiedoodle, freshneverfrozen thanks so much for the reviews! They make writing worthwhile.
My perpetual appreciation to my girls, Biff and Zevgirl, for their Googly support.
Thanks for reading!
I'm also working on Post-Blight Management for Dummies, if you enjoy Dragon Age tales.