"For every Sir Lancelot in your blood, there's a Genghis Kahn. You were built for this, and they used a lot of parts from the dark side of the workshop."
– George Junior
Trevor ran his hand over the dirty wall one more time, confirming with touch what the illumination of his flashlight showed: no line, no crease, nothing. Just solid stone wall.
He sighed but, in truth, did not find it surprising. After all, since coming to this parallel universe he could not feel the mysterious key around his neck, the key the Old Man gave him to access the secret basement beneath his mansion where the third gift lay.
It appeared the key and the secret door did not cross the dimensions with him.
If things were the same-and who knew exactly how much was, indeed, identical-then the door and disappearing key of this reality belonged to the person who had been the link on the chain for this Earth. The person chased from this lakeside mansion.
He stepped out from the cubbyhole beneath the stone stairs of this mansion's basement that was, in fact, half-buried in the side of the mountain. Apparently a building style popular on this Earth.
In any case, like the rest of the home, the basement was dingy and covered in cob webs. No mementos from the previous owner remained. What little light glowed in the cave-like cellar came from small, oblong liquid lanterns, sort of a cross between a chemical glow stick and a camping torch, about the size and shape of a football and standard issue emergency lighting for Nina's people. The 'lights' actually gave out a significant amount of heat, making them something like a portable campfire.
If this place ever served the same purpose on this world at it did a universe away, Trevor saw no sign of it. He wondered if his counterpart had had time to organize an orderly evacuation or did he barely escaped with his life, leaving any materials to the mercy of the invaders or scavengers.
The latter explanation seemed likely, considering Nina knew nothing of this place or her Trevor's activities during the early days of the invasion.
His thoughts dissipated at the sound of footsteps descending the stairs.
Reverend Johnny asked, "Mr. Stone, is your solitude down here by design or accident?"
"Come on down, Johnny."
The Reverend accepted the invitation.
"Corporal Brewer and the first wave of evacuees have departed. They have offered their assurances of a swift return with additional transports to facilitate our own egress from this forlorn place."
Johnny referred to the fact that they-Johnny and Trevor-were now two of only a handful of people remaining at the estate. The Skipper's sacrifice resulted in a reduction in transport capacity.
Nineteen infantry, two technicians, Major Forest, Reverend Johnny, Brewer and Trevor Stone had survived the day. Of that group, six of the infantry had suffered significant injuries including broken bones, shrapnel wounds, burns, and blunt trauma.
While the two remaining Skippers held enough physical space to carry all of their number back to Thebes, the extra weight would have devoured too much fuel for the trip.
To the surprise-and delight-of the rank and file, Trevor insisted on sending the wounded and other personnel first; he would wait for the next transport and face an overnight stay in the wilderness while most of the others returned to the relative safety of Thebes.
Ironically, the men nearly came to blows over who would stay with him. It appeared that their victory served as a great inspiration, just as Trevor hoped. When he eventually returned to the city, he knew he would need to find similar inspiration for the rest of humanity's remnants.
Johnny stood alongside Trevor and said, "The two Skippers have disappeared over the horizon into the setting sun. The Major has deployed the five remaining infantrymen at guard points throughout the mansion, as I assume this is where you would prefer to make camp."
"Yes, this will do. She told me earlier that based on her understanding of the Geryons they will be back in force, but their main base is far enough away that they shouldn't get here for a couple of days. We should be safe here for one night."
"That reminds me," Johnny added. "I believe Major Forest is looking for you."
Stone fidgeted and closed his eyes. He had not spoken to her since the kiss on the balcony, an embrace interrupted not long after it began. Once his blood cooled, Trevor decided to avoid her.
"You seem in distress," Johnny observed. "What troubles you, my friend?"
Trevor almost chuckled. Where should he start?
Well, you see Rev, I still love Nina with all my heart even though I’ve got a de facto wife on the other side of the dimensional divide. Oh, and I just spent several minutes in a hot make out session with the Nina Forest of this world. Did I mention that one minute I despise her for looking like the woman I loved, then the next I want to take her in my arms?
No, Trevor could not explain all that. Not to Johnny. Not even to himself. However, he did manage to condense it into one surprisingly efficient package: "I’m confused, I guess."
"Oh, yes, well, I myself am having difficulty accepting the implications of the parallel universe concept. Yet I have found a certain peace in-"
Johnny stopped as he comprehended the true source of Trevor’s confusion.
"Yes. I can see how this could be very confusing for you; very difficult."
Nearly six years ago, Johnny not only informed Trevor of the memory-eating implant in Nina's head, but also removed it.
"I can see your dilemma, Mr. Stone. Affairs such as these, they are to be handled with the utmost care. You are dealing with forces far more powerful than any alien armada or scoundrel creature. You are dealing with the passions of your heart."
Trevor stood and listened, saying nothing.
"If you’ll indulge me, in the early days after I had…after I had dispatched my family when The Order implanted them and turned them loose on me…after I had begun my quest for revenge…I walked to the neighborhood where my brother and his children lived. I sought them out in the hope of taking them to sanctuary. I was particularly keen on finding my niece-my God daughter-Alyssa. A beautiful girl not even ten years old and already a firecracker."
Johnny smiled a grin of fond remembrance.
"Of course I was too late. I knew this when I spied the Spider Sentries and Missionaries wandering the streets of the housing development. Nonetheless, I came upon Alyssa. She was infected beyond the point of salvation. Her tiny body was no match for Voggoth’s parasite. Yet I did not see the blotches on her face as she approached me. I knew they were there; logic insisted so. Post-mortem examination proved as much. But I could not see them on her face because my heart so desperately wanted her to be that firecracker of a little girl-a human little girl-that I loved so dearly."
"You killed her, your God daughter?"
Johnny shook his head. "That’s the point, my friend. I did not kill my God daughter, she was not even there. She died when the implant seized control of her body."
"But you said you didn’t see blotches. How could you kill her?"
"My mind, Mister Stone, I could trust my mind; my intellect. As for my heart, that is a different matter. The heart is a fickle friend; fair weather at best. At your moment of joy it is there to be filled with celebration and to make the wonderful fruits of love and life that much sweeter. But when it has not been fed the diet it desires, it will turn on you without warning. It will coax and coerce. The heart is not to be trusted. Certainly not when it sings a tune that is not in key with what your head knows to be true."
"Elegantly put as always, but for me it isn’t that simple."
The Rev corrected, "Yes, it is quite simple. In your case, Trevor, you merely have to remember where you are."
"Where I am? Well, where am I?"
Johnny reminded, "You are away from home."
– Trevor managed to work his way around the mansion and up into the second floor office without seeing Nina. As he traveled, he made sure there was enough light to allow the temporary residents to move about safely but also made sure that blankets, wood, and whatever else he could find were positioned over windows and doors to keep that light muffled inside the home.
He brought three emergency blankets to the office with him and hung them over the busted balcony doors. Stone took one last look toward the lake before pulling the makeshift drapes closed. Debris still burned on the water but the inferno had dwindled to scattered embers.
In any case, he positioned the blankets and turned to leave, only to see Nina emerge from the adjoining room.
She strolled to him, placed a hand on his shoulder, and said, "Hey, I’ve been looking all over for you. Where you been?"
Trevor stepped away. "I was, um, searching the place. I’m afraid there's nothing of value here. It was a wasted trip."
She tilted her head as if puzzled by his words. "I don't know about that. I mean, you won a big victory here today."
He turned and tried to find something in the empty room to focus on other than her.
She pressed against his back.
"You did a lot of things today, things that really…hmm, how to say this? Things that really impressed me."
Her hands worked around his waist from behind.
"Major…"
"The guards are outside, we’re safe here. Not a peep from the hills and woods. We have this place to ourselves tonight. Plenty of time…"
Her hands massaged his chest then worked lower…searching…
"Major…I’m sorry I…"
"Mmm…" she purred as she found the spot."You don’t feel sorry."
Trevor pulled her hands away, let them go, stepped off, then faced her.
"Listen, I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have done that."
"Done what?" She purposely teased.
He scowled, "I should not have kissed you."
"Oh…that…yeah, I remember that," she raised a finger to her mouth as if touching the memory of his lips.
"It was a mistake. I got caught up in the moment. It was wrong and I’m sorry."
To his surprise, she accepted the explanation. Her demeanor changed as if she had already forgotten the incident.
"Do you understand? I’m sorry. I really am."
"Yes," she smiled politely. "I understand."
He exhaled in relief.
She said, "Anyway, I do have something to show you that might interest you, I think."
"Oh? What’s that?"
"Over there," she nodded toward the adjoining room.
The mansion of this world resembled his in many intangible ways but was far from identical, particularly in architecture. He had spent time exploring the first floor and the basement half-buried in the mountain, but realized he had spent little time on the second floor other than in the room most resembling his office and its adjacent balcony.
Given that this new room sat off that old office, he guessed it to be this world's version of his master bedroom. Perhaps she had found files or a hidden supply cache. He mentally kicked himself for not thinking to investigate there earlier.
Curious, he went in with Nina following and stopped just inside the arch-shaped doorway.
The soft glow of a liquid lantern lit the room and also provided a source of heat, like a small fireplace. In the gentle illumination he saw what he guessed to be a bed frame designed in a strange style with metal bars on the headboard and sagging wood beams along the sides. An air mattresses lay atop of the contraption covered with sleeping bags and blankets, all from one of the Skipper's survival equipment kits.
Her body pressed against his back once again. Her lips whispered in his ear so close he felt puffs of warm breath. "I want you, Trevor. I want to feel you inside of me."
His heart raced and his adrenaline rose but it rose in anger.
"I told you. I made a mistake. Forget it."
"Forget? Like your Nina forgot everything?"
He turned and looked at her. His face twisted. "Why are you doing this? I’ll say it again so that you can hear it loud and clear; I made a mistake. I’m sorry. Now leave me alone!"
He tried to push by but she blocked his escape.
"Look at how afraid you are of me. I mean, you’re trembling."
"You’re making me angry."
"Am I? Is that the same anger that made you stay and fight the Steel Guard?"
"Stop it," he growled.
"Is that the same anger that turned you from a sole survivor into the commander of legions…into the Emperor of your kingdom?"
"You’re pushing me…don’t push me…let it go…" "Well I want that anger! I want you!".
"Major Forest-"
"Nina! Say it! Say my name! Look me in the eye and say my name! Tell me-tell Nina — to get out of your way! Walk out on me…walk out on Nina! Let me go again the way you walked away from the Nina on your world!"
He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her against the wall. "You just shut up!"
"Look at the Emperor trembling!"
"God damn it I told you once…I told you I don’t play these games!"
Her shark grin returned. Her eyes grew into blue daggers.
"Well I do play games. Me and my Trevor, we played all sorts of games…"
Her hands stroked his chest even as he snorted breath like a beast ready to fight.
He grabbed her wrists and threw them against the wall above her head. She smiled.
"You…are…not…Nina!"
"And you’re so damn mad about that aren’t you?"
His lips quivered but he suppressed an answer.
"Come on! Say it, Trevor! Admit it! Admit how mad you are at me!"
This time it was not a floor he pinned her against, but a wall. Yet once again, she squirmed and fidgeted purposely…teasingly…
"You’re mad at me! It’s boiling over in you! I can taste it in the air!"
He leaned in and nearly bit her nose off as he confessed, "Yes! I’m mad at you for looking like her! You’re an imposter!"
"You’re angry!"
"Yes!"
"And you want me! You want me so bad it hurts."
"God damn it yes!"
Emotion churned out of control as everything came together; anger, confusion, desire; stirred together and simmering toward explosion.
She dared, "Then take me. Possess me, Trevor."
"Is that what you want? Is it?"
He did not wait for her answer. He swung her onto the bed, took a quick step toward her, and then stopped, hovering over her as she sat on the edge of the mattress.
Nina pulled one of the thin leather straps from her battle suit. She wrapped it around her wrist then offered both hands to him. Her face was submissive and pouting.
"If you’re so afraid of me, Emperor, if I so scare you then tie me down. Make me sorry for being her imposter."
He shivered.
"What are you waiting for, Emperor? " She mocked. "Consider it another conquest. Make me your next battlefield."
He looked at her bare wrists-one already bound by the strap-and felt something stir. Something so very dark. The same something that helped him make hard decisions over the years. The same something that allowed him to be brutal on the battlefield.
The something that had made him curse the Gods as he had held the Viking leader aloft at the Battle of Five Armies; the something that allowed him to unleash his dogs of war on the enclave of New Winnabow; the something that had drove him to brutally beating the Hivvan Commander in North Carolina.
The monster his half-brother had warned of; a source of power…and danger.
And oh, the anger was there. Anger and desire, a volatile combination.
The simmering pot exploded. Trevor Stone pounced. He grabbed her wrists and shoved her back, pushing her hands together against the bars of the headboard, working the leather strap around her other wrist and pulling tight.
She grunted in pain. He bound her tighter than expected. She pulled against the binds. The motion barely rattled the bars.
Their eyes locked as he moved off the bed. She saw the wolf in him. She knew it was in there. She knew she could find it.
Nonetheless…that look in his eyes. Had she gone too far?
She had been in control of the situation since the instant she brought him to her universe. This was all part of the plan. Still…she felt — just a little- afraid.
Major Forest squirmed on top of the mattress. He stood at the base of the bed and removed her boots and socks. When he was done he unhooked his utility belt. Before he let it fall to the floor he removed the knife from its sheath. He then worked his way over the mattress on his elbows and knees, closing on her with the prowl of a predator.
She licked her lips.
Trevor cut away the top of Nina’s battle suit. Then he caressed the knife over her chest until it found the straps of her bra. More slicing.
He hovered above her bound form for a moment, then leaned in…his lips coming close…just about to touch…and he backed away.
Stone had the feeling of watching from the outside. Was he really doing this? Was his body really aching to have her in this way?
Yes. There was a force within Trevor Stone stirred by this universe, uncovered by this Nina. One part violent; one part passion. Both held in balance in his world but for some reason that balance fell apart here, on this Earth, with this woman.
Whether it was right or wrong did not matter. It was what he wanted.
He had been denied so much over the years; stolen from him by fate.
Not this time. He was going to have her.
His hands greedily worked at her buckle. He found it, undid it, and pulled the rest of her battle gear over her hips, past her clenched knees, and off.
A chill swept across Nina as her body was stripped of all cover. She rattled the binds again. The straps were tight; perfectly tied.
He took a moment to study her, casting his eyes over her naked body but, to his surprise, saw a painfully detailed snake tattoo wrapped around the upper part of her leg. It was a most striking piece of art work, but further confirmation that this was not really his Nina.
Nina would never get a tattoo.
Trevor’s gaze came to her eyes. Her beautiful blue eyes. Her icy blue eyes. They stared back at him with just the right mixture of excitement and fear.
And there it was. That darkness. There was a voice far off in the corner of his mind-the irrational corner-angry at her for having Nina’s eyes. How dare she look like her! She was not his Nina. She was not the Nina. She was an imposter. A fraud.
How DARE she…
Yes…anger…and arousal.
"What do you plan to do now?"
He undid the straps on his own top while shuffling out of his boots. Then he threw off the rest until he was naked at the base of the bed.
She tilted her head to examine her binds. She pulled hard. The straps were unforgiving. She realized things had gone beyond the point of return. Nina felt his weight on the bed, creeping forward toward her. He lay next to her. His eyes examined her.
Trevor placed a solitary finger against her lips. He moved it, and then slid it into her mouth. She accepted it and caressed it with her tongue.
He removed the digit and slowly…painfully slow…traced a line down her throat, between her breasts, to her abs, then belly button, then the very top of her The finger stopped.
She offered a pout of a purr in frustration.
But that was only the beginning. He used his fingers and hands, his lips and mouth to titillate every inch of her, but always stopped short of satisfaction. All the time she bucked and trembled from his torment. Her moans for more fell on deaf ears.
Stone took pleasure in her torture.
How dare she look like her…
At long last his excitement boiled over. He could tease her no more; even he had a breaking point.
"No, no," she tightly crossed her legs. "After all that teasing… you don’t deserve-"
Trevor leapt upon her like an animal. In one quick motion he roughly grabbed her legs and forced them wide, hooked one of her legs around his arm and pushed it nearly to her ear where it rocked with his motion. He drove into her with speed and ferocity; the beast set free.
His eyes wide, angry, and hungry as he moved. She screamed with surprise, shock and ecstasy. Her head turned from side to side, her eyes shut; her mouth opening to exhale quick squeals that were sighs and then clenching shut again to bear the force of his invasion.
She yanked against the straps above her; the bars of the headboard bent, a little, but she was still secure. Still his.
With every iron-like thrust her body exploded. She heard him growling in her ear as he pinned her to the bed with his weight and his work. Trevor wanted to consume her…devour her with his raw energy. He had never felt like this before. He did not know he had the desire for such…such carnal barbarism.
Yet there it was; a dreadful combination of passion and violence. Of lust. Of anger.
This is what you get for pretending to be her…
His hand found the back of her head and grasped her ponytails, forcing her chin up and back. She grimaced as she rocked. He saw the slightest glint of tears in the corner of her eyes.
With her neck exposed, he dove into her throat where he kissed her tender flesh harshly; violently. Then he reached to her mouth and forced his tongue deep. Then off again, his breath snorting in her ear, but he did not relax his grip.
Whatever pain she felt dissipated in the flood bursting from her body. A trembling, shaking, flood. He felt her muscles as they flexed and released. He felt her strong body weaken and quiver.
Her sigh became a moan became a cry.
Hearing her… feeling her erupt was enough.
He rode her even harder at that moment, then what had been building in the beast released with a primitive energy, making him shudder and roar. His body clenched then flexed…again…and again…and again.
Nina wrapped her legs around him and pulled tight, accepting what he gave even as his final act felt more an assault than love.
Their bodies grew still.
She breathed hard…then softer. His heart thumped against her chest. She could feel it through the sweat.
Trevor was coming back.
Her Trevor.