The Fancy Pants Club — Chapter 42: In Memory Of

~ Daniella ~

Fire.

A thick wall of it in the main foyer welcomed me and Erik when we reached the grand staircase. A quarter of the north wing facade had been destroyed leaving me to catch a glimpse of the garden wreck outside. Black smoke belched out from the rubble and whipped like a tornado in every direction. The atmosphere turned hot because of it. Very hot and it screamed a promise of suffocation.

Panic climbed up my throat just seeing the situation before me, but Erik looked unaffected. He gripped my hand even tighter and pulled me to manage the stairs.

He must have gone out of his mind, but with Nikola and Hyde possibly seeing us when we passed the open door of the drawing room, it was understandable. There were no other options available but to move forward.

With my free hand, I covered my mouth to block out the thick smoke. Erik seemed too engrossed with getting us out that he didn’t care doing the same.

For a moment, I had thought we were onward to freedom, but when we were halfway in the stairs, an echoing sound of Nikola’s voice halted us.

“Not so fast, brother.”

I looked up and saw him pointing the familiar gun at us. This got me all terrified and went to shot a look at Erik who, in his most calm way, sneered at his twin.

“Nikola,” he gritted his teeth just as he moved to shield me. He raised the silver gun up and pointed this to Nikola as if they had an unfinished duel.

In my line of sight, Hyde emerged behind him, pointing another gun at us. From that, it was clear that Erik and I were outnumbered.

“I’ll hand it to you, you really know how to make things work. You are such a fucking good actor,” Nikola smiled in a sinister way.

“Envious?” I heard Erik retort, showing no hint of fear, but his twin just scoffed.

“Not at all, but I do would like you to hand over Daniella to me. I am greedy.”

I gulped hard and pressed my palm against Erik’s back.

“What’s makes you think I’ll do that?” I heard him say.

“Oh, simply because you are surrounded with that wall of fire your Club created and hmm, oh yes, my men are pointing their gun at you.”

Men? What men? I mentally asked and consciously scanned the whole area to see.

At the base of the stairs, two goons appeared and on top the west side of the landing, three were standing all in the same hostile stance.

Seeing that Erik stayed silent, I decided to make my own thoughts known.

“I’d rather die than to be with you!” I shouted, stepping out slightly from Erik’s back.

Nikola’s immediate unearthly chuckle drowned out the roar of the flames.

“Oh, we can arrange that, mishka. You know your corpse won’t stop me from making good with you.” He smiled like a devil which by the way could be more than true considering the angry-red fire ahead of us reflecting his eyes.

“You’re despicable!” I spat.

“Oh, I am,” he snorted and in a heartbeat, he proclaimed to his goons, “Gun them down!”

Erik speedily embraced me.

What I heard next wasn’t actually the sound of guns firing, but another explosion from on top us; in the roof specifically. This stunned me, along with the men that cornered us. In a fleeting moment, I saw them including Nikola and Hyde shield themselves as the skylight shattered.

“Daniella, cover your head!” Erik shouted whilst covering me with his suit jacket. I took it, keeping it in place with my right hand while my left clasped with Erik as we ran down the base of the stairs.

One of the two goons who were awaiting us cowardly ran for cover while the other pointed his gun at us shakily.

Erik released me in a fraction of a second and jumped to the man like an eagle swooping down its prey. Before the man could pull the trigger, Erik kneed him in the midsection, drawing out blood in his mouth. The man recoiled at first and then lost consciousness.

“Daniella!” Erik bellowed when he turned to me and stretched his hand. I took it after blinking fast.

Shards of glass, splinters of wood and metal beams fell continuously on our way. I got two cuts on the exposed arm and another in my cheek, but it was nothing compared to the gashes Erik received in his face, shoulders, and arms. The white collared shirt that he had worn was tainted with his own blood.

Realizing that the flaming main exit wasn’t an option, we turned heels to an arched opening in the hopes of getting to safer ground, and yes, we did amidst the fact that it was a short narrow hallway slightly blurred with smoke. In there also, we met a comrade who I have never expected to see: Rohan.

“Prez! In here!” Rohan shouted when we were but a stone’s throw away. He wore combat clothing of all-black starting from his neck down to his boots. He almost looked like an unmasked ninja minus the samurai sword and shuriken. In his left arm, a long firearm of some sort hung loosely while in his right, he held an assault rifle.

“Rohan?” I muttered just as Erik shouted his name.

“Come this way!” Rohan motioned for us to follow and we did, but when he was about to turn to another doorway, Luca emerged from it with a long knife in his hand.

If Rohan was me, this would have raised a warning flag in my mind considering I knew Luca to be a traitor, but Rohan, judging from his lack of defensive stance when he saw Luca, didn’t know the truth.

“No! Rohan!!!” I cried out in a hoarse voice, all color drained in my face when I saw Luca plunge the knife in his chest.

Rohan looked surprised for a moment and then his eyes darkened. From his rifle, bullets came out but unfortunately, it didn’t hit the traitor.

I felt Erik’s hand on mine loosen. Then, in a blink of an eye, he was upon Luca who had just disposed of Rohan’s limp form on the marbled floor.

I staggered towards the wall as I watched them fight each other; each on their own skills and strength. Why Erik didn’t use his gun in the first place to kill Luca was beyond me. Maybe it was that he wanted for the man to suffer. Maybe it was because a bullet to the head was too much of an easy way out.

Erik kicked him in the head, so fast, so powerful that Luca fell past the hallway to a connecting room.

Realizing that they would be fighting there until death, I inched my way to Rohan who was bleeding profusely in the chest.

“Oh God, no... Rohan,” I shook my head as I knelt beside him. My lips, cold and trembling, couldn’t form any other word. Blood trickled down the corner of his mouth while his eyes looked at me with dullness.

My hands shook as I realized what needed to be done. In my years in college, I had been trained as an emergency first responder but never got the chance to apply it. At this moment, I would be able to do what I have learned, but as I watched Rohan fight for his life, I realized that being one never is easy.

After taking Erik’s suit jacket out of my back, I readied myself with the task.

“Daniella... no,” Rohan, without warning, rasped. “Leave me. Save yourself.”

Tears quickly spilled from my eyes, dripping fast on his pale cheek.

“No, damn you, I can’t do that!” I complained.

“Go... Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine...”

“Rohan, I won’t!” I shouted stubbornly. Damn him for saying that. Damn him for acting so peaceful!

Then, I jerked, squeezed my eyes shut, and covered my ears as five continuous gunshots sounded in the room Erik and Luca were in. In my mind, I was fervently praying that those didn’t hit my beloved.

When I looked at Rohan again, his eyes were closed and his chest no longer moved.

God. No, no, no!

I heaved a breath, felt myself choke upon the realization that a friend of mine had just passed away.

“No...”

Then, from the doorway, Erik emerged, his eyes arctic and murderous; the silver gun tucked in his waist. Sprays of blood not his colored his black pants and boots.

“Erik...” I uttered, my voice breaking. “Rohan... He is...”

I couldn’t bring myself to finish. With another deep breath, I stopped right there.

Erik just looked at me with an unreadable face. Then, his focus transferred on his comrade with lips thinly pressed.

Without a word, he strode towards him and pulled the knife out of his chest. I almost vomited at the sight of it, but I kept myself intact. He reached for the jacket near my knees and clumped it in Rohan’s wound as if it would even bring back his life.

In one lift of Erik’s shoulder, he gathered Rohan up and then turned to me.

“Follow me, please,” he stated in a calm but edgy voice. “Don’t stray. I don’t want to lose you too Daniella.”

I heard another explosion far away from us and after that, the ground beneath us shook. A loud rumble followed and then blasts after blasts stemmed coming from inside the mansion.

“Erik...” I grabbed his tensed shoulder.

“Let’s go!”

It didn’t take us long to flee the burning mansion. After managing two quick turns of the interconnected narrow hallways, it brought us at the back where a long stretch of shoreline greeted us.

Surprisingly, a helicopter in landing position was there. Someone waved at us in the cockpit - Enrique - from what my eyes could gather, making me realize that he was here to rescue us.

We reached him in just seconds, fighting off the sharp wind that whipped our face.

When we climbed in, I saw Enrique turn and looked at the lifeless body of Rohan.

“Prez, what happened?!” His worry was all too clear amidst the slapping wind and the deafening sound of the helicopter. My stomach lurched again.

“Enrique,” I muttered when Erik didn’t reply, seemingly busy with arranging Rohan on the metal floor.

Fresh new tears rolled down my cheeks as Enrique stared at his dead friend.

He looked lost. God, they both looked lost.

“Rohan,” I notice him mouthed and then returned to his task of bringing us in the air.

Despite my sad state, I consciously squatted on the floor and grabbed a metal railing on the side, but this seemed not enough for Erik because he swiftly pulled me in and looped a hand on my waist. In that moment, I felt secure and warm in his chest.

Once we were in the sky, I chanced a glimpse at the scene below us and true enough, the mansion was half damaged and half on fire. Oddly, no goons were seen on the grounds or even on the shoreline. This had me wondering why, but a part of me wished their bodies burned along with Nikola’s, Mr. Svaneti’s and Mr. Startsev’s.

“Where are the others?!” My attention diverted to Erik when he shouted.

In my blurry vision, I saw Enrique push two control buttons first before answering, “Vincent and Alec are on the speedboat Prez! They will tail the helicopter once they spot us!”

He pushed some few more and a lever before turning to face us.

“Prez.” This time, the noise of the helicopter mellowed allowing me to hear my own quiet sobs and Enrique’s sorrowful voice clearly.

“Luca. He did this,” was Erik’s reply whilst looking at Rohan’s body in front of us.

“Fuck,” Enrique cursed and fisted his gloved hands. “I’ll make him pay.”

“No, I already did. Five bullets in his head,” I heard Erik coldly say.

I didn’t know what had caused it but it seemed my head started to spin. I pressed my head against Erik’s chest even more and this caught his attention.

“Daniella...” he squeezed my waist. “Are you alright?”

I drawled my eyes at him and slowly shook my head.

“No...”

And then, all that was in front of me blurred. Erik’s face. The helicopter roof. The stars.

“Daniella!”

His voice was the last thing I heard before I fell unconscious in his arms.

Dark was the room that I was in, lying half-naked in a bed that was unfamiliar to me. I had just woken up from a very long slumber when Erik’s face popped out in my front.

He was hovering above me; his eyes affectionate and his lips stretched in a small smile.

“You’re awake,” he stated, cupping my face and pressing his thumb against my bottom lip.

“Yes,” I uttered, slightly flushed with his intimate treatment.

“Good because I’ve been dying to make love to you.”

I blinked fast, taken aback. What? Now? For a man who had just lost a close friend, he sure acted too cool and calm.

But my sense of reasoning became foggy when he dipped his head in my neck and skated his tongue on my skin. It sent me high immediately, tingles shooting up like small missiles in the sky.

I closed my eyes and all the memory of what had happened in the Iopata mansion and Rohan’s death blurred.

“Mhhm, Erik...” I breathed out, unable to keep myself silent with how good his large hands felt on my bare breasts.

“I want you Daniella. Now.”

He snaked low, down to my navel with his tongue and up again, stopping in my still-slumbering pinks. He coaxed them alive by pinching them, wetting them and sucking them.

My reaction was all a tangled moans of pleasure. Deep inside me I knew that he was acting hastily with his ministrations, but I cared less about it. He was that good in licking fire in the pit of my stomach - me being recently asleep or not.

I raked his hair and traced the flexing muscles of his shirtless torso. When he shifted his weight, a slight brush of his exposed rigid c0ck made me bit my lip. I lifted my hips to feel more of it. Erik in response settled one leg in between my own.

“Spread your legs wider, Sweet Rose,” he instructed, withdrawing from my breasts and I, completely weak under him, opened up like a blooming flower.

I whimpered when one hand trespassed under my cotton knickers.

Erik stretched the inner lips with his two fingers and eased the third one on top of my aching bud.

“You’re wet already,” he proclaimed, grinning and looking at me with concentrated lust.

“You’re torturing me again,” I replied through half-lidded eyes.

“Hmm, I think I am.”

“Ah!”

The fingers inserting my inner walls felt so good that I had to arch my back. I grabbed his neck and pulled him closer to me.

“Erik...”

With my nose pressed against his neck, I was able to whiff a certain smell. It was different. Different from Erik’s usual ocean and spicewood scent. I had to cringe my nose with the unexpected assault of it.

Erik didn’t notice my brief displeasure though because, in one hard thrust, he entered me fully. I gasped. He didn’t even bother about taking my underwear out. He just swept the cotton to the side and entered me.

It was certainly a change from his tender side. It was a hundred and eighty-degree turn from his long and delicious foreplay, but still, it got me hot.

When he rocked and penetrated me even deeper, I clung to him like I was falling in a cliff. It was so mind-blowing that I didn’t care how crude he was at first.

But then, he spoke.

He spoke in a slightly different tone of voice and as I listened, the heat in my body fell below zero.

“You’re delicious when you writhe like this, mishka.”

I froze, staring back at him wide-eyed.

“Happy birthday to me,” he continued and gave me a wicked smile.

“Nikola!”

***

“Daniella...”

An all-too-familiar voice woke me up from my dream - no, my nightmare. I blinked hard, trying to adjust to the warm yellow light of the room. My hair fell loosely on my back while the duvet fell on my lap as I slowly straightened to sit.

Erik’s face greeted me when my eyes adapted revealing his mesmerizing orbs settled in mine worriedly and his brows furrowed. His lips were pressed into a thin line as he waited for me to speak.

“Erik,” I mumbled, looking at him with relief. Good, he is dressed.

He wore a V-necked long-sleeved shirt and black pants whilst sitting at a chair at the edge of the bed. This fact made me realize that my dream didn’t return for a redo.

In a heartbeat, I scanned the whole room and saw the unfamiliarity of it. It wasn’t my bedroom or Erik’s or any of the guestrooms because this one had huge stacked monitors across the bed, settled in a rectangular desk. Next to it was another desk covered with scattered papers and folders. Its executive chair, stopping sideways to almost face me, was absent of an occupant, but I can bet my aching limbs that the said occupant was Erik himself.

“Nightmare?” he asked, cupping my face with his warm hand.

I nodded meekly. “It was.”

“Come here.”

He stretched his other arm and joined me in bed for an embrace.

“Where am I? What time is it?” was my inquiry as I snuggled in his chest.

“In the chateau,” he answered initially, kissing the crown of my head. “In my underground office. It is already ten in the morning. You’ll stay here until everything is clear.”

And when he said everything, memories of last night came flooding down on me.

“Ohh, Rohan...” I choked.

The sight of Rohan’s dying form was crystal-clear in my head. His dull eyes. His bloody chest. The long knife embedded in it. It made me sob and cry.

“Daniella, I know what you’re thinking. Don’t blame yourself,” he released one arm in my back and moved it up my head to smooth the tangled locks.

“It can’t be helped, I—”

“Silence,” he interjected.

I shook my head. “Erik, I can’t—”

“Silence!” he boomed and this made me squeeze my eyes shut, letting more tears overflow.

“It pains me too. All of us in fact, but this is how our work is!” he reasoned, dropping every word like a bomb.

I remained silent whilst clutching the neckline of his shirt.

“Death revolves around us whether you are here or not, Daniella. This is what we signed up for. We already know the hazards of it so don’t fucking blame yourself.”

He kissed my head again. I couldn’t bear to see the hurt in his eyes so I just stayed on the safety of his chest.

“What now?” I whispered breathlessly, genuinely not knowing what to do.

“The mansion was burned to ashes, but the California State police had found many evidences in a basement vault of Iopata’s dealings all over the world most of which pertains to Cloud Blue,” he provided in a calm tone. Although this wasn’t what I wanted to hear, it was still a good information to digest.

“ISA and The Fancy Pants Club will coordinate with them with the investigation, capture, and incarceration of the persons involved. We are yet to find the footprints of Nikola and Hyde though, so for now, we will keep our eyes open for any possibility of an attack.”

“In the chateau?” my voice trembled.

“Possibly,” he replied.

A twinge in my heart got me inhaling sharply.

“Erik...” This time, I pulled out from his embrace and looked at him with my brows drawn up in worry. “I can’t—I can’t deal with more deaths especially to the people I care about. Vincent, Suri, Amano, Karl, Enrique, Alec, and you... I don’t want to lose all of you.”

Erik broke the stream of tears in my eyes with his fingers and kissed the bridge of my nose.

“Daniella, Love, have more faith in me and the others.”