House of Dolls 4 Read online

  “There’s no need to apologize.”

  “I mean, I’m sorry that the art is so bad in here.”

  Nadine turned to Roman, a smile forming on her face. “It really is bad, isn’t it?”

  They had been playing this weird little game for a good twenty minutes now, and to finally take her in, her soft features, her green eyes, the look of concern and determination on her face…

  Roman swallowed hard.

  “It’s so nice to see you,” he said, feeling the urge to move on her, to bring her into his arms.

  Nadine nodded. “Sometimes life comes at us so fast we forget the things we’ve been through with certain people, only to be reminded once we’re finally eye to eye with them again.”

  “I know what you mean. How have things been?”

  “They reassigned me to the border. I’m working on a project there through a Centralian government that deals with border security. It’s not great.”

  Roman shook his head. “I don’t know how you always get assigned to the Centralian government so easily; it’s like you have a knack for espionage.”

  “It is what I was trained to do,” she said without hesitation. “But with this role…”

  “You don’t like it?”

  “I see the point of it. My goal is to help people from my country easily enter this country by making the Centralian border porous. Sure, makes sense. But it doesn’t have any of the same parameters as my previous roles, nor is there much risk. And while I enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere for about three days, I have since discovered that I’m much more attracted to danger.”

  Nadine slowly placed her hand on Roman’s. She kept it there for a moment, Roman waiting to see how this would play out.

  “I’m sorry you don’t like it,” he finally said, just to speak.

  “It’s tolerable.”

  “Is that why you called me here?” he asked, looking down at her hand again. “To tell me this?”

  “There’s more, and to be honest with you, I don’t know why I called you here. Just that…” She shook her head as she took her hand back. “It’s been a bad day. Eli destroyed the safe house, killing Oscar and the scientists from my country that were experimenting on him. I have Lisa and Eli hidden in a different, temporary location, but I know my government will come looking at some point…”

  “You’re trying to hide them?”

  “Not Lisa, Eli.” Nadine considered what she had just said. “Well, both of them. They have already been exploiting Lisa for her power, which is how we’ve been able to discover a few things about your government that took even me by surprise. With Eli, I don’t want him to become a guinea pig.”

  “What have you discovered about my government?”

  Nadine gave Roman a sidelong glance and turned her focus back to the window, seemingly cold again. “Just some things.”

  “Thank you for being vague.”

  “It’s what I do. Any updates?”

  “I have some news that may interest you.”

  “What’s that?”

  Roman thought of all the things that had happened over the last few days, and decided to start with the revelation. “Margo is still alive, and she’s my half-sister, so there’s that.”

  “Half-sister? You’re kidding.”

  “No, and she’s apparently coming for me again. I received information from a Western Province spy named Orange. Sound familiar?”

  Nadine blinked twice. “Yes, I’m aware of the man.”

  “Apparently, the same guy who fathered Margo fathered me about ten years later, putting both of us up for adoption. She stayed in the West and later became a soldier of the State or however her twisted story goes; I was adopted by a family from Centralia. I confirmed with my parents as well. It would explain my power.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Margo has the same power, and apparently her father did as well—our father did. From what Ava has told me, it has to do with a particular tribe from the Western Province who have white hair as one of their defining traits. I mean, not all of them must have had white hair, and surely there are people here in Centralia with the same color as me who don’t have the power to animate inanimate objects, but it is a known trait.”

  “Had the power,” Nadine said, correcting him.

  Roman stopped speaking, not able to hide his grin.

  Instead of continuing, he glanced at a glass on one of the tables. The glass cylinder pressed together, scrunching up like a fist but keeping its base as he started to form a rose out of it.

  He didn’t have a chance to finish.

  “Your powers are back?” Nadine asked, bringing her hand to her mouth.

  Roman nodded.

  “How…? They actually gave it back to you?”

  “Not quite.”

  Roman quickly explained to Nadine that a woman Margo had killed would have been the one to give him his power back, but that instead, his ability had arisen naturally on its own after he’d been interrogated by a high-level telepath.

  “That’s remarkable; I really don’t know what else to say.”

  “I don’t know what else to say either,” Roman told her.

  “I was unaware that your powers had been returned, but now that they have…”

  “You could use them?”

  Nadine nodded slowly. “That’s not exactly why I called you here, but part of it had to do with hoping you had a friend or two left in the immigration office that could forge documents. Yet with your power…”

  “I don’t need a friend to forge anything, and before you ask, I’m willing and able to help you as much as I can, Nadine. But it’s going to have to be secret.”

  “Would it be any other way?” she asked with a smirk as she scooted closer to him.

  “The Centralian…” Roman shook his head. “Never mind. It just has to be secret. I don’t know where I stand with my own government yet. I would like to keep off their radar, if that makes sense.”

  “And your dolls?”

  “Actually, I’m having them modified. They should be back tomorrow.”

  “So you’re alone for the night then, right?”

  “It appears that way, yes. The government has arranged a hotel for me, but I haven’t checked in yet.”

  Nadine’s eyes slowly looked from Roman over to her bed.

  “I can sleep on the couch here,” he said, almost as an afterthought.

  “Fuck it. I’m sick of holding back.” Nadine turned to Roman and straddled him in a matter of moments.

  She started kissing him passionately, Roman’s hand naturally going to her sides as she squeezed her legs even tighter.

  He ran his hand along her back and eventually found the zipper of her dress. As they made out, he helped her out as best he could, the rest of the fabric still tight across her thighs.

  His hands came to her sides again, lightly grazing her scar.

  “What happened?”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Nadine said between kisses.

  Roman didn’t press her.

  Instead, he buried his head in her breasts, sucking her nipples and occasionally looking up at her, at the top of her chin. Nadine’s head was thrown back, the woman gasping as he reached one hand around and cupped her ass, moving his fingers closer to her sex.

  He started lightly touching the back end of her panties, and Nadine grew wetter and wetter as the room blurred all around him.

  Roman knew he was drunk, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to make this one count, the pressure between the two having built up for so long.

  Nadine arched her back, making space for Roman to unzip his pants.

  He could tell in that moment that there wasn’t going to be any foreplay here. Both of them were practically thrumming from the tension they had bottled since meeting each other, since the first time he’d seen her at the immigration offices.

  Keeping her eyes on him, Nadine pulled her panties aside and gave Roman enough room to slip inside
her.

  The fabric of her panties started grinding against the side of his penis; Roman quickly animated them, and the panties slid like a snake off Nadine’s body.

  “That’s one way to do it,” she said, breathless now, Roman fully inside her.

  “It really is a blessing,” he said as the two instantly found their rhythm.

  Roman had been with plenty of women, and there were some he had never been able to develop a natural rhythm with. That didn’t mean that they didn’t have great sex, nor did it mean that portions of the sex weren’t pleasurable, like his relations with Catherine.

  But there was something about the natural rhythm he had with Nadine. It was instantly gratifying, proof positive that the two bodies were made to unite, that the users understood each other, that there was a connection beyond desire, a greater power being exchanged.

  “I’m so happy to see you,” Roman said, trying to maintain control, to stop from orgasming too soon.

  Nadine was now backlit by the lights outside, the front of her body dark with shadows, her curves outlined, her nipples erect. He dug his fingers into her ass cheeks, helping her along, both of them breathing together, quiet as they ingrained this memory in the back of their skulls.

  With the lives they lived, there really was no telling if there would truly be a tomorrow.

  There was only the moment, and in that moment, Nadine whispered for Roman to finish inside her, that she was coming.

  Roman dropped his head back and let out an audible sigh as he obeyed her command.

  Chapter Eleven: Streamlined Removal

  “Get me the documents you need me to forge,” Roman told Nadine once he was dressed, “and I will see that it is done.”

  Nadine sat on the couch that looked out over the city, fully clothed, a cup of tea in her hands. The morning sun was shining into the room, both a welcomed sight and a reminder that time went on.

  “That shouldn’t be very difficult,” she said almost as an afterthought. “And thank you.”

  Roman was just about to make it to the door when he stopped, turning back to her. “I really did miss you over the last month. Did you see the messages I left you around my flat?”

  She nodded. “I saw them.”

  “Sorry if they sounded a little desperate.”

  “I would have reached out to you—you know that, right?” She set her cup down and made her way over to Roman. “But I was already on thin ice…”

  Nadine’s hair was down for once, and she looked completely different from the woman Roman was used to seeing. He wanted to bring her into his arms again but decided against it, not sure of how they would interact with each other after what had happened last night.

  It was still too early to tell.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to grab breakfast?” she asked. “My treat.”

  “Believe it or not, I am sort of starting a new job today.”

  “Where?” she asked.

  “Just some stuff for the Centralian government. They’re still keeping a short leash on me for the time being. Maybe if I play my cards right, they’ll let me go after Margo.”

  Nadine paused. “And you would do that again?”

  Roman shrugged. “There is no doubt in my mind that Margo must be brought down, even if I have to kill her myself to do it. I’m not going to let the fact that Celia is now buried in a place where Margo could never find her distract me from finishing what I started. Then again…”

  “You sound like the Roman I knew a month ago,” Nadine said, and Roman was uncertain whether this was a good or bad thing based on the tone of her voice.

  “You never let me finish.”

  “We really don’t change that much, exemplar or non-exemplar.”

  The two smiled at each other for a moment, neither certain as to how they should end this meeting.

  “Until we meet again,” Roman said, instantly feeling stupid for the words that had just left his lips.

  Nadine covered her laugh in a cute way. “Sure,” she finally said. “Soon.”

  Roman ordered a teleporter, and as he stepped out of the room, he noticed a square starting to take shape on the hotel carpet. The top of the square opened as if it were a trapdoor.

  A short man in unregistered teleporter clothing stepped out.

  “How does this work?” Roman asked.

  “Get in the hole,” the man said, and as soon as Roman stepped in, he found himself in a narrow passageway with a single light at the end of the space.

  He started walking toward the light, and steps started to form beneath him as he did.

  Roman took the steps to the top, pressing the ceiling open and coming out in front of the sex-doll shop where Emelia worked. He looked back down to see the man on the stairs now, nodding as he locked eyes with Roman.

  “Have a good day,” the teleporter said, and with that, the trapdoor snapped shut.

  Taking a step back, Roman ran his hand through his hair, not quite sure how he should process what he had just experienced.

  Luckily, he didn’t have to.

  A breeze picked up, whipping a paper bag in the air. Emelia opened the door of the shop and invited him in.

  If she was upset about Roman leaving so abruptly last night, her face didn’t show it as she asked him to take a seat on the plush couch in the center of the room.

  “Are you thirsty?”

  “I’ll be fine, I really need to get to…” Roman shook his head.

  “What?”

  “Work. Somehow I keep getting a job even though I don’t really want one.”

  Emelia laughed at his statement. “Having a job can give one a sense of purpose.”

  “Aware. Especially the job I’m planning to take. But sometimes it seems like I can never actually quit a job and stay unemployed. I guess it’s my fate to work,” he said with a smile.

  “There could be worse jobs, especially with your power,” Emelia reminded him. “They could put you on a construction team, or even worse, some sort of crime scene cleanup detail.”

  “I keep waiting for them to say they’ve reassigned me to the janitorial staff…”

  “Well, if you press your luck with them, they just might do it,” Emelia said as she made her way to the back of the room. “Hold tight for a moment and prepare to have your mind blown.”

  Emelia rolled a hand truck into the room about a minute later, and Roman’s eyes fell on Coma’s lifeless form.

  He immediately animated her.

  The masked doll took a step forward, then looked down at her hands and finally up to Roman.

  “Beautiful,” Emelia said under her breath. But rather than stick around, she moved through the door at the back to retrieve Celia this time.

  “And Casper is with you?” Roman asked.

  Coma reached into the front of her Gothic Loli dress, retrieving the tiny doll.

  Casper came to life and then hopped to the ground, charged over toward Roman and used his pantleg to scale up his body straight to her favorite jacket pocket.

  “Did you miss me?” she asked when she was in place.

  “Yes, I did.”

  Emelia came out of the back room with the same hand truck, this time with Celia on it.

  Roman activated her as well, and the redhead lightly stepped forward and brought her hands to her face.

  “Do you mind if we see what they can do?” Roman asked Emelia.

  “By all means, but don’t tear up the place,” she said with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

  Celia made her way over to Roman and sat next to him, crossing one leg over the other, her hip pressed into his side.

  Roman nodded Coma forward, and as she stepped in front of him, he willed some of his energy into the doll, instinctively looking down at his wrist and realizing he no longer had his power dial.

  Roman was sure he could get another one, but he wanted to be able to do this on his own, without the device to fall back on. Besides, if he constantly relied on a device, there m
ay be room for error, especially if someone managed to break it in the middle of a fight.

  “You might want to take a step back,” he told Emelia.

  The empath heeded his words and gave Coma some space.

  “The floor is yours,” he told his combat doll.

  Coma dropped her red eyes to her right hand, and as she did, the plastic started to melt away, her metal skeleton forming a long blade.

  She lifted the blade and it started to split into two. From there, it merged back together to form one solid blade again.

  Coma spun once, almost like a dancer, bringing her arm around into an incredible attack pose.

  She did this again, moving even faster this time as the sound of her blade slicing through the air met Roman’s ears.

  She morphed her other hand into a blade as well, and as she came forward, Coma performed a full-body spin. She landed in a crouch with one leg straight, balanced on her heel.

  The doll stood, and both blades started to melt.

  But they never actually dripped all the way to the floor.

  Keeping them in their liquid metal state, Coma whipped her arms around and crashed both whip-like limbs together, forming a double helix that quickly morphed into an enormous double-armed sword.

  She chopped her arms forward once again, her legs coming around to meet her and provide stability for her landing.

  Coma dropped both arms to her sides, the blade splitting in two. The metal started to reform into a skeleton as her skin slowly melted over it and solidified.

  “Exactly what I wanted,” Roman told Emelia, finally able to breathe again.

  “I had no idea it would be like that…” the empath whispered, her hand over her mouth.

  “Amazing,” he told Coma. “Absolutely stunning.”

  “It was inspiring,” Celia said, looking down at her own arms.

  “You want to try?” Roman asked her.

  Celia nodded, and with a deep breath in, Roman focused some of his power into her.

  She lifted her left arm and the skin melted away, showing her metal skeleton beneath. Her fingers formed into sharp metal spikes. Celia playfully scratched at the air as Casper laughed.