Abducted

19

"Dear Vanya," she said, walking into his shared room. Ivan looked up to him, with tired eyes he was hiding from the nations- and hiding well, from what she could see. She stepped to him with quick paws, wrapping her long body around where he sat, teasing his jaw with her tail.

"Yes Coahoma?" he asked, looking at her with a stress he had carried since the Imperial days. He seemed heartbroken, holding a glass containing clear liquid, too strong-scented to be water, and too sweet to be vinegar.

"Dyami will not like that you drank his alcohol," she giggled, resting her head on his broad shoulder before nuzzling into his cheek. They'd always played this game- Coahoma found great pleasure in teasing him, and Ivan always needed a distraction.

She only got a hum in response. Ivan seemed solemn at the mention of his lover, taking another sip of the liquid.

She understood then.

"Do you love him?"

What England said about a loveless marriage gnawed at her, sending chills down to the tip of her tail. Her stomach sank, and her throat seemed tense as she waited for an answer.

"I... I need to see him, to know. I cannot just rely on my memories. They have betrayed me before," he whispered his last sentence, and her heart clenched.

"I willed him not to send you away," she whispered, "he was sobbing when he told me that you needed to be with your people."

"And yet he kept Zaltana," Ivan replied. He looked hurt, but she didn't know who he was blaming.

"No, he didn't," Coahoma whispered, "do you not notice that she now hosts more scars? McCarthy called for her to be banished. That tattoo was a mark that she could never return to the states. The Secret Service locked her up in the Urals."

"She didn't get that in bane of him, did she?"

Coahoma only shook her head, "Dyami tried so hard to get to you. Through you. He wanted to tell you everything..."

She paused, gulping.

"He believed Stalin took your mind. Even if he said the code, you wouldn't wake. That you would hate him for the end of your days."

Ivan stared blankly at his glass. He understood Coahoma to be close to her brother- like Zaltana, now poised at his side. He would tell her of his whoas, and she would promise to make them go away. She was one of his closest confidants, but he imagined them closer now.

"He is a fool."

"Well, we both know that," she gave a small laugh.

Ivan looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "Why did you really come here, my sister?"

She looked at him with fear, before pulling something out of the pack she always had on her back. She placed it on his thigh, keeping a hand on it. He looked down at it, trying to figure out what it was before it dawned on him.

"England had requested payment for his aid, as if it was special," she gave a short laugh, made purely of hatred, "this was his response."

His blood ran cold as he listened to the voice speak. He took another sip of his vodka as the recorder ran to run again. He turned it off. She watched his face, looking for a reaction.

His face betrayed nothing, for a few moments.

"Did you deny him?"

Coahoma knew he would ask this question. Her ears flushed against her head, and she sighed.

"I couldn't. We struck up a deal," she took in a deep breath, "if he finds my brother, dear, he will have his hand."

"He would never lose my own," Ivan growled, "I'd rather have him in the marriage of his mother, with multiple husbands. I do not want England 'lone to have him. I fear for what he'd do."