Debtor's War

Bad things happen to people who probably don't deserve it. Themes include addiction, mind control, slavery, incest, violence, and blood play.

N.B. I've made some effort to build the world and characters up to this chapter. You will get more out of the story if you read Debtor's Promise and the earlier installments of Debtor's War first.

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Eleanor's gift. It sparked and twitched as though my body had yet to find a way to contain it. When my blood had coursed with Sister Rosemary's vitae, I had run for my life across rooftops, thrown myself headlong into battle, cut hell spawned creatures to shreds on the city wall.

Brimming with borrowed power, I came home to a peaceful scene. Herr Lugoz sat in his usual spot, Claudia lounged at his hearth on the soft sheepskin with her golden hair fanned out across his lap.

The dog shuffled off into a corner as Claudia clambered up, gracelessly tumbling into my arms. Her eyes were red raw from weeping.

My sister's touch was too much to bear. My heart ached with a possessive love that took all my will to subdue, but I pushed her aside.

"I survived," I said. "Is the light in the window for my soul? Or just to help me find the house?"

The old man leaned forward on his cane, gnarled fingers tight on the pommel. He looked me up and down with a nod of approval. "Well. We saved your supper. Take that as you please."

"You didn't know what would happen," I said. "You guessed, you hoped, but it's a fucking miracle I'm still breathing.

"Did they hurt you?" Claudia stammered, "And... and did it work? The three shillings?"

I didn't know what to say.

"It worked," Lugoz smiled, undaunted by my mood. "Eat. It'll settle that temper. Better yet..." He threw a cheeky look at my sister and raised a bushy eyebrow. "Either way, the old man needs his bed. Damn hips are killing me in this chair."

He dragged himself to his feet with a grimace. Claudia helped him over to the cot and pulled the curtain across.

I bolted the door and stood at the window. The vampire was long gone by then, but still I touched a dark little whorl in the translucent horn and pictured Eleanor walking in the rain. Steadfast, and worthy of my service. I brought the lamp out of the window and fastened the shutters

The anguish in my sister's eyes made me sick.

"He said you might never come back," she sniffed.

I let her melt against me and held her as she sobbed. Her body felt softer, more yielding than before as I turned her face to mine and kissed the anxious tears from her cheeks.

"I made you go... I made you go... I'm sorry... I..."

"Shh..." I met her lips with mine, forgiving her was as easy as loving her. "Don't be scared of me. It breaks my heart."

Her eyes softened and I knew my mistake. She was afraid of herself..

"We're safe tonight," I said.

"What happened to you?"

"Come see."

I unrolled the beautiful charter that Nathan had drawn. It looked so out of place on the rough hewn table. "My name." I traced the elaborate letter E. "And yours too, Claudia Walder." She gave a delightful little gasp as I guided her hand to rest upon her own name.

"Really?"

"It says you are my 'most beloved'," I said softly, right into the shell of her ear.

A thrill ran through her body. "It says we're free?"

I savored the familiar scent of her tear stained hair. "It says the Bürgermeister himself will protect us both."

"Oh my God," she breathed, "How? What did you do?"

"Put out the light, sister. Lie with me."

I put another thick log on the fire, then lay back on the hearthrug. I didn't want to rush her, or make her nervous, so I said nothing, but I needed her forbidden kisses.

Claudia began unfastening my boots, her impatient fingers already exploring my thighs. She wrinkled her nose as she cast the boots aside. "Now I know it's not a stupid dream," she teased.

I shot her a look.

"What?" she said with an innocent giggle. She rolled down my stocking and kissed the top of my foot, I flinched as the softness of her lips tickled, "They smell like roses."

I pulled my dress down with indecent haste, "Here, for god's sake, kiss me!" The hearth threw out a lot of heat but my nipples stood hard as ever. I drew them out between my fingers, and Claudia's eyes widened in delight.

She crawled up my body, drawing my skirts with her as she went, her fingers came to rest against my mound as her mouth stopped a breath from my nipple. She met my eyes as she drew me into her mouth.

I almost forgot to breathe as she teased between my lower lips to find my clit, her other hand found mine and our fingers entwined. I said her name, her beautiful name, my Claudia, my lover. Her tongue circled my teat, the maddening heat of it, the loving softness of it!

"Oh don't tease me..." I whimpered. She suckled harder, I felt her teeth graze against my skin as she drew my little breast deeper, as deep as it could stretch. I pinched the other, gouged my nail hard enough to hurt.

Her fingers slid back and forth against my sex, I was sodden with the remains of Nathan's slick come. Claudia let my breast go with a wet pop. "You're soaked!" she laughed, sinking three fingers inside me as I moaned in protest.

"Don't stop!" I begged.

"Your hurting yourself."

I let go of my bruised nipple, suddenly self conscious.

"Please..." I breathed, "I need it harder, I need it all..."

Her fingers played back and forth in the mess between my legs, and that was the closest I came to ashamed of myself. The feeling was fleeting. She let her fingers slide deeper inside me. I grabbed the rug in both fists and lifted my hips to welcome her invasion, wide eyed as she forced her knuckles against my slick resistance

I gasped as I felt her sink up to her wrist, her eyes sparkled with delight.

I couldn't speak, the stretch was intense as she nudged into me but there was no pain. That brought a tear to my eye, I threw my head back and despaired at what my desire had become. I couldn't find the courage to tell her to hurt me, not after everything she'd suffered. Claudia lay her head on my belly, made her thrusts slower, firmer. I could have screamed my frustration to heaven. Instead I drew it inside myself, made it an unholy silent prayer.

We always fit together, now the two of us curled into the space of one. I pulled her closer, played my fingers through her hair. "I want to kiss you," I murmured, "need to... need to..."

She uncurled her hand so gently, my cunt kissed her fingers as she withdrew. Then I kissed her lips, loving, demanding, my hunger answering her own. She touched my face with her slick fingers. Impatiently I dragged her skirts up, and the smallest quiver of her lip gave me pause. "May I? Please?" I asked.

"J... just go slow please. I want you, I'm just..."

I pictured her on the brothel table, helpless to stop any stranger from touching her cunt. I knew killing Radu wouldn't be enough. I wanted to see Gerta's sneering face in tears, I wanted Stojan flayed, I wanted... but it wasn't me at all, was it? I forced myself to breathe, to be calm. It was this blood.

"How do you dream of me?" I asked.

She covered her face and laughed nervously, "Oh God, I don't know." She peeked at me from between her fingers. "I always wake up before this part. We have a secret little place together," she said. "And I go to get water, but you're there in the shallows, washing... touching yourself."

"Where anyone can see?" I scoffed.

She nodded. Her face was livid with embarrassment. "But there's only us. And we go into the deeper water together, and then..."

"And then you wake up horny?"

"Yeah. Mostly." Suddenly serious, she took her hand off her face. "And scared."

She'd left me. She'd laughed at me when I asked her to get me a job with her at Madame Gerta's place. I'd been easy prey for Enzo, cut adrift with no one, and it hurt to think about it. "I wish we'd stayed together from the start."

"How could we? Even if... you know. Remember Hollie and Ava?"

Two of our neighbors were found kissing in a hay barn. Ava joined an order, the Poor Clares I think? Hollie hanged herself. And no-one ever spoke their names again, even their mothers. Our love was an utter blasphemy, even compared to theirs, we could burn alive for this.

"You'd be better off without me," Claudia said, "but the longer I was away from you the more I hated myself for it and with Madame... after that..."

"There's no point worrying about that now love." I said. "You want me. You need this."

She nodded, sweet little half smile teasing me.

"Don't play innocent," I laughed. You just fisted my cunt."

"Oh no..." she whispered, "how can you just say that..."

"People heard my master beating me and raping my arse every damn night, but they'd have been just as offended as you if I spoke about it."

She stiffened in my arms.

I let my frustration get the better of me. "So which is worse? The sin or the word, 'cunt'?"

She flinched again.

I laughed, god help me. "Cunty fucking cunt cake with syrup on top?"

"Elizabeth!" She hissed, screwing up her face, trying not to laugh.

We are bound by reason, bound by propriety, and sometimes the only thing that can set us free is a firm hand.

I rolled her onto her back, straddling her waist and pulled her bodice down roughly. She reached for my hands and I caught her wrists, pinned them above her head. Our tits pressed together, I locked my arms as she struggled lightly and didn't give her an inch of freedom. She whimpered quietly, but there was desire in her eyes.

"I know just where you are," I breathed. "I know what you need."

Her veil was draped neatly over the arm of the old man's chair. I pulled the linen haphazardly onto the floor, it was her banded undercap, with its long cotton tails I needed. I wound the binds eagerly around both her wrists.

"Open your mouth?"

She did, her breath coming faster, her sweet teats plump as berries. I gave her the cap to hold between her teeth.

"I'll stop if you let it go," I cautioned. "Keep your mouth shut. Let me eat your cunt."

She opened her legs so wide her knees almost touched the floor and clasped her bound hands together. Her beautiful breasts caught between her elbows looked even more magnificent.

I'd sucked every cock at the King's Road checkpoint at least twice, but I'd never touched a woman's sex. Enzo had brutalised mine with his lessons in submission and suffering.

I have no idea where the gentleness in me came from. The desire to bind Claudia playfully, and soothe her trembling thighs with kisses. The need to roll my tongue between her plump pussy lips and taste the nectar of her lust, I was like a bee hovering at the honeysuckle, my hunger for her blossomed.

I lay beside her, my head at her hip, my arm reaching under her knee, I entered her with just my thumb but thrust deep and paused. I watched her blush, felt her relax, offering me all. Those plump petals blushed too, I felt the heat building on my fingers, felt the pulse quicken as they swelled. She moaned, frustrated as I waited, savoring the sight.

The fair hair on her sex grew dark with moisture. I leaned down and suckled her lips, tasting her for the first time. Her musk was sweet, heavy, like the linden blossom. I kissed her slick cunt, left her clit neglected as I delved for her honey, running my tongue into her alongside my thumb. I fucked my thumb gently in and out as I circled, tasting all her secret folds. Her hips lifted impatiently, and I pushed her back down, lifted my head to see her face.

"Be still," I said.

Her eyes were dreamy, unfocused. I watched her face as I switched my thumb for two fingers, lazily frigging into her in time with her breathing. I set my wet thumb on her clit, rubbing tiny circles and was rewarded with a gutteral little moan, her eyes snapped back into focus and she looked at me.

How easy she was for me, how responsive to my touch. I leaned in again and played the circles with my tongue, kissing and sucking her until her hips lifted again. She was ready. I sealed my mouth around her fat little bud, sucked harder as my tongue deviled away at it. My fingers curled up into her, harder, faster, until she came apart.

Low in her throat the wave began, and rose in pitch until she squealed into the fabric of her cap. Her fists pressed together, her thighs clamped against my head, and the taste of her cunt changed, I swear it, a rare spice in the heat of her passion.

"Oh!" she wailed, "Oh my god!" She caught my hair and thrust against my face and still she came.

Afterwards we lay there, half naked in the firelight. She held me. I watched the shadows dance in the gloom, listened to Lugoz snoring, and felt Claudia relax into exhausted sleep.

I carried her to bed, but didn't join her there. I dreaded the exhaustion that followed my nightmares. Better to stay awake ready for danger than roll around restless.

I braided my cropped hair back into its feminine crown by touch, and straightened my clothes. The food they'd saved for me was in a little earthenware pot on the hearthstone. I damped down the fire, and sat in the old man's chair to eat.

This time tomorrow at the Sacred Heart, innocent people would die in agony. Would Radu wait until after the sacrament to make his play? Perhaps he would come here first to escort us to the church. Perhaps he'd duck out before the killing started once he knew we weren't coming. There were too many uncertainties to plan for.

I had to trust that he would come alone, and that the strength in Eleanor's blood would give me the chance to defend myself. Still, there were things I could prepare. I busied myself until the sound of the city morning stirred outside.

When Lugoz woke, he took a long slow piss as old men do, and evicted me from his armchair. I made him breakfast and knelt on my spot and we called a truce. I could forgive an awful lot for his unwavering acceptance of Claudia and I.

"You didn't sleep," he said.

I shrugged.

"Still feeling it?"

I nodded.

"Someone pull your tongue?"

I shook my head. "Is that... I reckon I'd get worse than a pulled tongue if I told you anything. Sorry."

He chewed his waffles thoughtfully. "Good. That's good. What's the plan?"

"Radu's bigger than me, and faster. But I can fight, for Claudia's sake... and yours. I can defend our home."

He scoffed, and put his half eaten breakfast aside.

"I can!" I said indignantly.

"Right. And afterwards? You'll tell the guard it was self defence?"

"No!" I laughed, "That won't work. I have to... erm. Bring proof?" I shrugged again. And the strangest feeling in the world took hold of me. I imagined what it would feel like to hold someone's head in my hands and offer it to my mistress like Salome. I fussed with a thread on the edge of my hem.

He stroked his chin with a thoughtful smile. "Sounds messy."

The wily old fox helped me iron the creases out of my plan, taught me two or three different ways of hiding a body, or making it disappear for good. Somehow he was in on these secrets I'd sworn to keep, but still apart from it all, I knew better than to ask why. I felt the chaos dancing around us as though his house were an island of calm. He told us that he'd earned his peace, I knew he wouldn't give it away lightly.

When I went to draw more water I found the mood among the townsfolk was grim. Rumours spread that the weak southwest corner of the great wall was being undermined, and there would be carnage tonight. Some fasted and prayed. Others troughed a week's worth of siege rations and got blind drunk.

I was restless. I did all the usual chores with my gambeson over my dress. Yes, the dress paired with armour looked odd. Jenny, the neighbour, laughed at me.

"If the Ottoman horde gets this far, a bit of quilt cloth won't save you, girl. I can't see you fighting for your virtue anyway."

I hung up the feed net and gave the donkey a mock salute.

The hint of malice faded from the woman's expression.

"It's certainly not regulation, Frau Wasche. How are your boys?"

She grimaced. "Out all night. Not back yet, but it's nothing."

"You heard the talk of a breach of the wall?"

She nodded. "Enough talk. Nothing to be done about it."

"I have a smaller problem," I said. "Nothing I can't handle but..." I lowered my voice, "any chance you'll keep my sister with you tonight?"

"Who's been threatening you?"

"I can handle it, like I said. But you know, Claudia's soft."

It was a gamble. I only knew the good neighbour casually, but I trusted my instincts. I was counting on her good nature should Radu kill me and go looking for my family.

"You've done great things for old Jan Lugoz. He knows a few people, if you tell him your troubles..."

"I have," I said. "He's done what he can."

"Well..." she looked deflated for a second. "Well tell them both to come over then. He's in no state to fight these days. Who else do you have to defend you?"

"It's under control."

She shook her head, "Those bloody Crusaders are bad news. Old Jan never was the same since he lost his family, but he's a good man." Her brow furrowed, "This trouble followed you here, and I don't like it."

"No more trouble," I said. "Not after tonight."

***

I paced Lugoz's house checking and rechecking the preparations he'd helped me make. Was I wasting my time? Perhaps Radu and all Enzo's hundred men would die tonight defending the wall. Perhaps Vienna would burn. What if Radu was too strong for me, what if... what if... what if...

The Ottomans blew their powder charges at dusk. There was a roar you could feel in your belly half a mile away, green wood and old walls thundered into a pile of rubble. Panicked screams and animal cries of pain carried; shrieking war horns and clamouring drums.

I took a long swig of strong spirits, checked all the shutters and doors again. Time passed slowly, heavy rain hammering on the shingles.

As midnight approached I busied myself splitting rushes for weaving. It was the perfect task to keep me alert, take my mind off my fears, and have my knife ready in my hand. I expected violence, the fight of my life. I thought of the wounded, screaming as the sawbones did their work, and a little thrill warmed me. The Blood warmed me.

Then a blast of icy autumn swept in through the doors. Radu was wild eyed, the curved blade already in his hand as he stepped inside. The way was unbarred. I continued splitting rushes, though my heart missed a beat. He closed the door behind him.

"Commander," I said. "Soup's still hot."

He eyed me and my little blade, and then the pot bubbling merrily at the hearth. Then he sniffed. His eyes followed his nose to the misshapen lumps under the blanket, and the pool of congealed blood on the floor beside the bed.

"You crazy little bitch." He shook his head in disbelief. "Have you done for both of them?"

"Better to die in your sleep than get pulled to pieces screaming." I set the bundle of basket reeds aside. "So. How come you're here, not defending the wall?"

He smirked, the wild glint never left his eye, "Could have been different for you. Your family too, if you'd followed orders." He lifted the machete and stepped toward me. The loose floorboard gave way, he stumbled, and his leg caught on something beneath with a bone chilling snap.

How he screamed! The tension I'd carried in my whole body for hours melted away in mirthless laughter. It was an absurd relief to see the hardened warrior howling in agony, pulling helplessly at his trapped leg. I put my little knife back in its sheath and picked up the cudgel from the floor beside me.

"Does it hurt?" I laughed, "tell me all about it!"

"You fucking crazy b..."

I had the reach on him with the long club. I shut him up with a solid crack to the side of his head. Enervated, his fingers spasmed, and the machete went spinning off under the table.