Maiden of Death

[Nisha Decrilla]

The wheels of her small case click clacked over the tiled floor of the expensive apartment block, the noise irked her. Noise alerted people to her presence and she didn't like that in the slightest, she much preferred it when her presence surprised them. Nisha smiled at the doorman, not because she liked him, or because she was pleased to see him, but because social etiquette demanded it. He blushed...they always blushed.

"Miss Decrilla! Staying a while?" he indicated to the case. She didn't answer, so he continued with what he really wanted to say. "He's not here, I'm afraid, out for the evening. Perhaps you should call tomorrow?"

"Or perhaps you can give me the spare key and let me surprise him?" She rested her forearms on the counter and leaned forward slightly, deliberately. The heat blossomed on his cheeks eyes darting to the perfect curve of her cleavage and back again to her face. He stammered. "I'm not sure," up and down his eyes went, "If that's umm..." he looked st his desk, shuffled papers needlessly and looked back up...and down her top once more.

Nisha was truly smiling now, and that seemed to tip him over the edge of rational thought. "Oh very well, Miss Decrilla." He fumbled in the doors and Nisha took the opportunity to give him a sweeping gaze of her own. He was stick thin and tall, she imagined he was a screamer too, if his reaction to her was so drastic when she was pretending, if he ever saw her true colours she'd get the greatest reaction.

"Thank you very much, Tom." she said as he handed her the key. He flustered again and she left him out the counter and slid into the turbo lift, waggling her fingers at him to wave farewell as the doors closed. The facade dropped the moment the doors closed, though there was still a lingering smile. What kind of scream would he have? She pondered as the lift rose. Would it be a high girlish scream? Probably, he didn't exactly have a baritone voice. What would make him scream? The sight of the knife? Or perhaps it would be the pain itself.

She slid the keycard into its slot as it demanded when they reached the top, the doors sighed open, she retrieved the key and stepped inside, not bothering to find the light switches because such a thing was foolish. They flickered to life as she clapped her hands and moved deeper into the apartment. Nisha took her time to settle in, showered, redressed in something slinky, because apparently slinky was the only outfit she'd left behind on her last visit. Rearranged the fridge and set something inside it, front and centre so he wouldn't miss it. And met a cat.

The cat made an interesting noise.

She settled herself into a high backed chair facing the door, sat still and waited, clapping again for the lights to go out. Nisha was an expert at waiting patiently in the dark.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

Every detail of the apartment was known to him as intimately as he'd know his own pocket.

No lights were turned on when the door clicked open with one Itash Mecetti stepping on through. The door closed, Tash tilted his head ever so slightly... catching a whiff, before disregarding it as unimportant for that particular moment. He passed the chair with Nisha in it by without comment, instead opting to move towards the kitchen area and the refrigerator. They had spend all day on the field today. If there was one thing that Tash needed right now was some real food rather than those nutrition bars his people chomped down like candy.

His hand brushed the edge of the kitchen counter as it often did.

Then clicked the refrigerator door open.

Lights loomed.

Tash tilted his head at the sight of a... decapitated head resting square in the middle of the space. It was squeezing his lettuce and leaking something on it... if only it was blood rather than whatever that was. With a sigh he closed the refrigerator again and entered the living room once more.

Two claps.

Lights on.

"You know head isn't the most tasteful part, why ruin the lettuce?" Sad shake of the head and he settled himself in a chair opposite of hers. "Any trouble?"

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Nisha sat back in the chair eyes trailing up to look at the ceiling, memories of the kill flitting past her mind drawing a neat smile across her lips as Itash moved past her. She caught the scent of his cologne and the memory shattered. She could have killed him in that moment been upon him in a flash and slit his throat. The image displeased her, not because she was in anyway attached to Itash, but because his death could be far more interesting...far more fun.

The lights snapped on and her smile became a smirk, her dark gaze shifting from the ceiling to the man who'd taken up the chair opposite her. "Brains are considered a delicacy on some planets...and those cheeks should be nice and tender too." She was dead serious, reaching behind the chair for the little case that caused her such irritation. At least here, the wheels were muffled on the soft carpet. She knelt, laying the case flat and pressing her palm against the locking mechanism.

"What was it you said? 'Bring me their heads, Nisha, make sure they die screaming'" The lid opened revealing more heads, each face twisted in agony and fear. "You ask, Itash, I deliver. Don't complain about the goods you requested."

She rose smoothly, moving to the drinks cabinet, letting him admire her handiwork for a moment while she poured them each a glass of wine. Nisha didn't answer the question about trouble, because doing so would acknowledge the insult to her abilities. The glass hovered before his face, till he took it.

"If you don't like brains, there's a perfectly good cat on the kitchen counter. Still warm too."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

Fingers curled around the glass and let it swirl just an inch, before he allowed himself to show a bit of confusion.

"What cat?" Then a deep sigh, closing his eyes in mild indignation. "That... was the neighbor's cat, dear, now I am going to have to buy them a new one." For the most part Nisha was a welcome presence in his life. She was quick, meticulous (when she wanted to be), competent in all the ways that mattered and their bed had to be replaced almost weekly once they were done with it. That last part had fallen to the wayside with Cassandra's steps into his life, but the appreciation for her capabilities remained.

She was also infuriatingly impulsive sometimes.

"As for brains, I'd rather keep myself from shaking involuntarily until I die, thank you very much." He hadn't actually ever eaten another human before. Thought about it, certainly, mused about it outloud with Nisha during their more... wild days.

But it had always seemed rather unhygienic.

He barely considered them worthy to shake their hand and to put them inside his stomach? No, probably not. "What would you like this time? I saw you burned through your monthly stipend within a week this time around."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

"Was it?" she asked, not in the least bit interested whose cat it was. It wasn't a real cat, a real cat wouldn't have let her get so close. A real cat would've run, recognising danger in the smell of her before she'd seized it. "I assumed that as it was in your flat, it belonged to you and took it upon myself to remove the insult to its kind from existence."

She perched on the arm of his chair, hand coming to rest at the back of his neck, nails scratching gently just in his hairline not even a little bit sorry for the inconvenience she'd caused him. He shouldn't let strange animals into his apartment...but then she'd seen enough of those things he called women pass his threshold to know that that was simply something he would not learn. The glass paused at her lips at his question and she took a sip of wine, wondering what it was she had bought...

"Ah...yes...My wardrobe needed renovating. Do you know I had dresses in there i'd worn at least four times?" she shuddered and shook her head. "I've got this sapphire blue one, real diamonds sewn into it with a slit in the side that runs all the way up." she used her wine glass to indicate to her hip. "Backless too. Beautiful. Saving that one for a special occasion. Not that you ever invite me to any of those any more. You've been to what? Two or three of them without me now? Miss Paige must have you on a short leash."

What a quaint concept.

"I want a raise, something sparkly to go with my dress and a night like we used to have."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

He ignored her scritching other than the low purr at the back of his throat for a moment.

Then a sip from his wine- eyes closed, leaning in just an inch into the glass to let the scent rise up through the stirring of the glass, then the sip and the bliss that came from it. Taste buds prickled as scent and taste merged together in a beautiful mix of joy. Mm. "I will increase your stipend then." There was a note there, she'd have to buy them herself and she knew that. The wild days... they had been a blur of blood and screams, but they were behind them.

Both of them.

Nisha simply needed time to come to terms with it. "As for a night out..." He mulled that with a second sip, before Tash shrugged. "I will escort you back home at a reasonable hour and leave. If this is acceptable for you than I agree."

This she also knew.

But she enjoyed teasing him, pushing his boundaries, trying to catch a glimpse of the old Itash. The one who had been less civilized and acclimatized by new-found wealth and lofty goals.

His hand brushed the side of her knee as he slowly rose, stepping up to her, looking down. Their eyes met and something of the old emerged. The hunger, the quality of dead in his eyes and more. Nisha had always been the loud monster of them both, but Tash? Tash was the silent death. She forgot that sometimes or maybe she pretended like she did. Either way, his hand brushed the side of her jaw, a nail etching a tender line up and down while he mulled on her thoughts.

"Tom is a good boy, Nisha. But he shouldn't have allowed you in without calling first." Itash valued his privacy after all. "Do as you wish, but do it away from here."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

That...was not what she had asked for. She stared at the heads in the case, feeling an irritation wash over her. She brought him all these gifts, delivered him whatever he asked for and he wouldn't go and pick out something for her? And take her home at a reasonable hour? How civilised, how respectful, how very un-itash. She let him tease her head upwards again, snatching a glimpse of him behind those eyes.

But it wasn't enough and she found her thoughts trailing back to Tom, the twig like doorman and the imagined high girlish scream. He was reading her thoughts, she knew it even before he spoke. She'd felt him there often enough to know when he was looking. She'd nothing to hide from him. He was probably the only person in the galaxy who saw what was in her head and still chose to keep her close. This wasn't a friendship, a friendship placed to much in the way of emotions and Nisha was not an emotional woman.

"This is not acceptable." she said pointedly, referring to their night out. "Keep your manners and your niceties. I'll take Tom instead, show him the greatest night of his life and then I'll cut out his heart." She rose, brushing against him deliberately before pushing past him collecting a cigarette from the table and an ornate lighter and padding away from Itash to the balcony. She wasn't angry because he'd changed, or because he didn't want her. She was angry because he wasn't giving her what she wanted, why ask he such a question and then opt to change the answer she gave?

She needed to see this woman, to meet Miss Paige.

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

He left her alone on the balcony for a while.

Instead opting to take another sip from his wine while studying the heads within that case of hers. The screaming lines, the dried tears mixed with mascara, hair still slick with his blood. This had been a personal matter and a personal matter required Nisha. Such was the manner of their... relationship. With a calm gesture he closed the lid of the case and slowly trailed his way through her wake, until the Tapani noble settled himself down next to her.

Elbows on the balustrade, letting his glass rest next to him and taking his own smoke out.

An expecting glance at her, mild indignation from her, but in the end the tip was lit and smoke poured out there too. "We can pick a target together once Tom settles... down, so to speak." A shrug followed as he took a drag from his, letting it escape through his teeth. "Make them sing together. Like old times."

That was the compromise Tash was willing to make.

In truth it had been too long for him too. Keeping it all in, becoming civilized and respectable, leaving the shadows behind in favor of the light. Was there truly any danger in tipping his foot into the sea just a little bit?

Surely not.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Nisha drew on the cigarette with a small smile, exhaling slowly and turning her head to look at him as she did. That was better, it was better because once he smelt the blood, felt the flesh break beneath his hands and watch the light fade from someones eyes again, then she'd have him. And he'd come willingly too, because that was what the moment did to both of them. Feth civilisation and what was right, in that moment there was nothing but primal rage and the thrill of the kill.

"Better." she replied, turning her gaze back to the view and not really seeing it. He mind was already on her next victim. Sweet stuttering Tom, who had no idea how to handle any woman. Oh, she'd show him. "Old times are only old for you, my lord. Things remain the same for me as they always have done. I just find others to fill the hole you used to."

She took another drag.

"Are you going to introduce us?"

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

The former was left to the side.

It didn't matter to him who she found to fill his old role. It would never be the same for her, he felt that clinging off her tongue as surely as her thoughts confirming it. The art they had created together went beyond mindless carnage in empty alleyways and expensive hotel suites. Instead Itash mulled on her question, then became surprised when the answer was so obvious to him.

"Yes." The retort came in between a third drag. "She is mine."

That last part was accompanied with his glance meeting her eye. They played their games, enjoyed the blood, but there were rules to what they did. Otherwise they would have ripped each other's throats out years ago.

Maybe even enjoyed it.

It meant that Cassandra was off-limits, completely, or that there would be consequences.

"I will invite you next week. Taungsday. You will be polite and you won't push her boundaries. I. Hm." He frowned at that last thought. Unexpected to admit it to Nisha out of all people. That admittance would make it true. No lie. "I care about her." In his own way anyway. It didn't prevent him from slowly changing her into the shape of his image, living art.

One inch at a time.

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

The rules were what he made them, she served him after all. He was House Mecettii and she was the Mecrosa Order, she lived to serve and protect him. Everything else along the way had simply evolved from two exiles exploring the darker side of the galaxy at great lengths. Itash had always been out to discover something about himself, Nisha already knew herself intimately and simply went along for the ride.

She inclined her head, indicating her understanding and took a sip from her wine-

-and promptly choked on it at his announcement.

She laughed, and clapped a hand over her mouth to silence it. Shoulders shaking for a moment or two while she recovered herself, looking away from him.

"Oh, Itash." she said finally recovering for long enough to look back at him. Finger tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, then ran along his jaw. "You've said some stupid things in your time, but that trumps them all."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

There was silence.

Then the moment shifted and Nisha was slammed against the wall with his fingers curled around her throat. Squeezing hard. This wasn't an unfamiliar scene for them, but usually... his teeth were on her skin rather than have him glance downward. Even here, as her breath washed over his skin, the beat of her heart pulsed against his hand, Itash was calm.

Like nothing could touch him.

"Mm, stupid, dear?" Now his nose brushed the line of her jaw, continuing to her ear where his lips rested against her edge. "When we hold someone's life in our hands, watch the life flow out their eyes, our knife buried deep and blood rich tasting against our lips... don't we know them as intimately as we know ourselves? Don't we-" The squeeze turned even harder, choking the breath out for an incoming reply.

"-love them at that climax as we coax the life out of their corpse?"

Then she was released and Tash returned to his wine, ignoring the heat racing through his veins now. Difficult to keep that in check, this was certain. "She is like us, but life has made her bury it down."

A wistful smile as Tash pulled the glass of wine to him again.

"I will dig it out of her."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

The glass in her hand went flying, an expensive crystal glass at that, shattered on the marble tiles of the balcony as he slammed her against the wall. There was no fear in her eyes and he squeezed her throat, no blinding panic as the air she had in her lungs began to burn, unable to sustain her. Just a small smile as his breath washed over her ear and neck.

Then he withdrew and she sucked in a fresh breath of air, fighting against the urge to splutter and she followed him, glass cutting her feet. She delighted in the pain and hooked her fingers into his belt loop, tugging him back round to face her. Give me back that heat, she thought, I know its there. "Bury it down like you have been doing, hmm?"

Deft fingers snatched the wine glass from his hand and dashed it against the balustrade. Free hand still holding him fast, while the other seized his chin. "Then you will need my help to dig it out of both of you. Now stop fighting and give me what I came for."

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

For a moment it seemed as if Itash was struggling.

Reconcile the darkness and the light, but then something seemingly snapped in his eyes and his arms wrapped around her waist. This pulled her in tight against him, her body so naturally inclined to melt against his and for a brief moment it seemed that everything was fitting nicely again. His head leaning in to catch her lips, but once his nose almost touched the tip of hers, Tash murmured.

"No."

Then his mind wrapped around hers firmly and squeezed, forcing her to take a step back through the glass as he unwrapped his arms from her waist. "You will have your stipend, you will have Tom and once you are done playing we will find a toy just for the two of us."

She would not get more.

Not until Itash moved towards it himself.

"Since you are here, I found something... interesting a couple of weeks ago."

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

No?

No?!

Well that was just perfect, wasn't it? Years it had taken them to mould to one another, to know just which buttons to press, how to please how to get the reaction they each wanted and boom, just like Itash's eyes mind and body were elsewhere. How fething inconvenient for her. She'd have to find someone with a mind as good as his an mould them...but that would take months.

Now she had to meet this woman. Maybe she'd track her down before next week, watch her from afar, learn from a distance what it was that so enraptured him. Maybe she could ensnare her instead, wouldn't that be infuriating for him. She folded her arms. If this was what he wanted then fine, she would not play games with him.

It was like someone flicked a switch, and her want for his body was gone. There were others, there would always be others. If Miss Paige owned him now...well, she couldn't argue he'd made that point perfectly clear. Unless of course she became a threat to him, in which case his wishes were null and void.

"Oh?" she placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head. "And what was that, my lord?"

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

The pouting was noted but ultimately discarded.

Itash had no illusions in his mind that that she'd most likely try and get a measure out of Cassandra before the week was out. He'd most likely warn Cass about it, so she'd be aware, but that wasn't a concern for now either. "Come." Tash murmured softly before stepping around the glass with a sigh. "That was good wine, you know, I am going to take that out of your stipend I think."

A nod followed after that.

Then they wandered out of the balcony and went downstairs.

One such as Itash wouldn't have been happy with just one floor after all. The penthouse suite consisted of two entire floors full of leisure and comfort. A set of doors, ancient oak, led into his study.

On the desk? A staff, blue gem shimmering softly on its own at the end of it. Polished metal with ornaments. It was simply brilliant.

"Do you know what that is?"

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Nisha followed, pausing at the door to pull a particularly uncomfortable shard of glass from her foot before stepping inside and leaving bloody footprints in her wake. She shrugged in response to his threat, he'd already taken one thing she wanted from her why not another? This was clearly how the evening was going to play out he'd already decided that and there was nothing she could do to stop it. But oh, she'd get him back, first of all by leaving blood stains everywhere.

Secondly, she'd leave him the trouble of disposing of the heads and the cat. Little things, but annoying things all the same. She'd save her best till last though.

Whatever her thoughts were about getting him back, they vanished at the sight of the staff. "Oh my." she exclaimed moving forward to examine it a little closer. As with everything pretty and sparkly, Nisha simply had to touch it, to feel the weight of it, to estimate its value. Already she was picturing Itash in various outfits that would suit the staff perfectly. Her fingers curled around it and her body seized as a current crackled though it and it burned.

When it stopped she was on her knees, gasping in pain. Hand trembling as she examined it, tested its mobility...and looked up at Itash with a wide grin. "What is that?"

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

"Care-"

Well, then.

He watched with unveiled fascination the way her body contorted in response to the shock cutting its way through her body, until it released. It seemed as if the security system hadn't been calibrated to a masochist who played with shock-sticks for fun and pleasure. Oh well. Once the shock was over Tash calmly strode over, letting his finger brush the steel while he leaned against the desk.

"The Scepter of Magna Ragnos." Tash retorted with a grin, before shrugging. "-or well, mostly it's the Scepter." Fingers curled around the edge of the staff, letting himself feel the weight of it.

"I found it in pieces with Filiae." Filiae. If there was one name that had repeated a few times in their talks it was the Chiss. He was still rather annoyed about that entire affair, but he'd solve it in due time. Other things first. "She pointed me to someone who reforged it. Mm." He swung it experimentally once or twice, it made a beautiful sound in the air.

A wooosh that rang within the Force too.

"What of your studies do you remember when it comes to the Scepter?"

 

[Nisha Decrilla]

Oh, now he was testing her. She had drunk everything in during her training within the Mecrosa order, everything that is to say, that revolved around killing. Still there had been some history lesson that had intrigued her. She stayed on her knees gazing up at it and him with hungry eyes. Partially because she wanted to hold the Sceptre and partially because he liked it when she knelt at his feet.

"A lot of excitement around its abilities. Storing dark energy, reanimating the dead. Though why anyone would want to do that I don't know." she pursed her lips in thought, finger coming up to tap her lips. "There was something else though...something to do with the force?" she shrugged.

"History, was never my thing. Though I get the feeling I am about to be educated?"

[member="Itash Mecetti"]

 

[Itash Mecetti]

[member="Nisha Decrilla"]

He did.

His free hand was already curling into her hair, curling out, curling in, tightening his hold around her in an absent fashion as his eyes explored the staff.

Especially the kyber crystal at the top. The main new addition that should help with focusing the staff's power, it seemed to pulse every once in a while, especially when it was close to living people... like them. "What it could do above all..." He murmured softly, musing about that particular possibility. "...is impart those without the Force with a shred of force-sensitivity."

Such went the legends at least.

Vaneesh had confirmed it, but that didn't mean much in his opinion. The alchemist had been even dicier with her answers. The green one gave him the shivers and that him talking.

"You see the possibilities here?"