Post by Donzig on Mar 25, 2023 1:51:07 GMT -5
I
Armand groaned as he fell back on the mattress, the silk sheets twisted around him as he tried to catch his breath. Victoria sat up beside him, a wild grin on her lips before she slid from the bed. She dragged the silk sheets around herself crossing the floor of the cabin to stare out the window of the airship at the lights of London below. Her eyes gleamed in the darkness, and she shrugged her slim shoulders.
Armand rolled over to watch her, and then reached for his cigarettes with a laugh.
‘You are insatiable.’
Victoria sniffed, tossing her hair.
‘Those of my blood have insatiable appetites, Armand.’
Armand grunted, nodding as he leaned back on the pillows as he watched her.
‘Hm, your brother doesn’t seem to have these appetites.’
Victoria frowned, her reflection staring at him in the glass before she turned on her heel. She paced across the room, the silk sheets swirling around her as she poured herself a drink. The finest liquor poured into the crystal tumbler, and she took a long swallow before staring at it. Armand watched her bemused through his long association with Donzig, he had never seen the Scourge eat or drink.
Especially alcohol.
‘Donzig was once a man ruled by his appetites. His lust for life was the stuff of legends. Nothing was ever enough for him. There were not enough women, fights, alcohol, or anything for him. Ask Anthony if you want. Donzig would fight all night, drink until morning, spend the night with a few whores, and then show up at noon ready to go again. There was no one like him, Armand. No one loved life more, even if said life was more brutal than him.’
Armand arched a brow, and Victoria glanced at him before she continued.
‘But now he is the Scourge, and the Scourge doesn’t hunger for life. It doesn’t hunger for glory like my brother did. It only hungers for destruction, the absolution of oblivion, and the peace of the grave. All of these other things are lost on him.’
Armand grunted, and Victoria turned back to the window as she sipped at her drink. Her head lifting as she watched him in the reflection.
‘You confuse me, Victoria.’
‘You fail because despite standing beside him and against him? You do not understand him. You think he is like these others motivated by a desire to the best, a desire to prove something, for gold or titles. To make these fans love them perhaps? But Donzig doesn’t want these things. He feeds off chaos, all he wants is blood and destruction, he wants to watch the world burn. He doesn’t want to prove he is the best, because in his heart he knows he is the best. Love? He doesn’t know the meaning of the word. He fights because it is all he wants, Armand.’
Armand frowned, thinking.
‘And why have I failed to destroy him? Everytime I think I have bested him, he rises up stronger.’
Victoria shrugged her slim bare shoulders, and turned.
‘Because you deal in pain and fear, Armand. You think fear and pain can defeat anyone. Normal people fear you, they know what you’re capable of. They avoid you, they do what they have to do and move on. They let you do what you will to avoid that fear. They fear pain, they fear being made to suffer.’
Armand nodded, puffing at the cigarette to exhale a stream of smoke as he watched her.
‘But Donzig doesn’t feel fear. He doesn’t care what you will do, what you are capable of. He literally doesn’t care. Pain? What is pain to him? Donzig doesn’t care about pain. He likes to suffer, he likes to be hurt, it is what he expects of life. Happiness scares him more than anything you will do.’
Armand thought this over, and then he flicked some ashes into the ashtray on the nightstand.
‘And what should I do then?’
Victoria turned to look at him, finishing her drink as her dark eyes met Armand. And he almost flinched because at that moment those dark cold eyes reminded him of nothing so much as the black pitiless stare of Death in High Places.
‘You must use his strengths against him, Armand. Donzig will not yield, he will not ever stop, to stop would mean the end of this. He will not let you break him, he will not back down from a fight. His pride is his greatest weakness. Donzig believes he is a God, an immortal, that none of this can touch him. He is a storm given flesh, Armand. A force of nature. The maelstrom, yes? He will fight you as long as you want to fight.’
Armand arched a brow, and Victoria continued as she sat aside the glass.
‘And if you want to hurt him? You have to take away the only thing that matters to him.’
Victoria walked across the room, and she let the sheets fall away from her before she planted a knee on the pad. She crawled towards him, and Armand watched her with a lick of his lips as he leaned back.
‘And what does that monster love?’
‘He told us all what he loves, Armand. He loves what he makes, the things he creates. And one of the things I hate the most about him? Everything he touches he makes more like him. He reforges them into his image, he makes them like him. You have seen it, Armand. He changes people, he makes them all worse. You have seen it! Fox? The Founder? The Revenants? Esmeralda?’
Armand stared at her, his eyes lingering as she slowly slid against him. His hand moving to tangle in her hair, and then he realized what she was saying. Victoria smiled, rolling over as she dragged him close.
And Armand laughed.
II
The shots rang out in the early morning as Esmeralda and Sinclair made their way up the slope in the cold mist. The grass beneath their feet was slick as they climbed up the small hill. In the distance loomed the massive walls of Godfrey Hall. But what they were seeking was at the top of the hill.
The shots rang out again, short precise bursts at the exact same rhythm every time. And Esmeralda shook her head, turning to the Baroness.
‘This is what he is doing?’
‘He says it helps him think.’
Esmeralda grunted, and followed Sinclair through the thin ranks of the circle of trees. Donzig stood in the clearing flanked by a severe looking man in a butler’s uniform holding a silver tea tray covered with clips and bullets. Donzig stared down field, and leveled his luger at a far off target where the trees were thicker.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
He paused, and tilted his head before he sat down the gun on the tray. He waved the man back, and turned to stare at the pair of women. He was not wearing his mask, and his lips were twisted into a frown as he waved his hand.
‘Esmeralda wants to speak with you.’
A grunt.
‘Donzig, Armand and your sister are off somewhere plotting against you! And you are doing this? Not to mention whatever you and that insipid Yamamoto are fighting about!’
Donzig sniffed, and he arched a brow.
‘The King of Failures, and the other King of Failures. Yes, I am aware. But I don’t care, Esmeralda.’
Esmeralda gaped, and turned to stare at Sinclair. The Baroness shrugged, and Donzig motioned the butler back over as he picked up the luger once more before he leveled it down field. His eyes narrowed, and then he pulled the trigger.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
A pause, and he ejected the clip before he reache for another. Esmeralda grabbed his wrist, turning him with a frown.
‘Dahling, you need to listen to–’
Donzig jerked his arm away, dropping the pistol again before he hissed.
‘Esmeralda. My sister can plot and scheme with your husband all she likes. But I am the Scourge! Not her! She has always been a jealous, petty creature! No doubt still upset that that I am the heir of our legacy, and she is just the fucking spare! And it is no shock to me that Armand and her have found common cause. He is just as fucking sad as she is.’
Esmeralda stared at him, and then waved her hand.
‘And the rest, dahling? SKY Force?’
A shrug.
‘Yamamoto has already fallen to me, and the rest of SKY Force will share her fate. The entire XHF can line up and suffer at my fucking hands, Esmeralda! I will lay them all low, and they will bow down before the Inevitable! It is just me and my sea of enemies, and I will break them one by one!’
Esmeralda grunted, and then she scooped up the pistol to slam a clip into it. Then she moved past Donzig, and snapped off her own string of shots. She emptied the entire clip, and then tossed the smoking gun back onto the tray as Donzig stared.
Then she stomped past him, heading down the hill. Sinclair stared at Donzig, then shrugged before following after EVK. Donzig watched them go, a hand lifting to tug at his beard before he turned to the butler.
‘Women.’
