Inheritance - Resurgent

Boom, Boom, Boom. The knock was insistent. Almost angry. Not the best opening move to get the person on the other side to go gaga for God. Grumbling, Nate got up and shuffled in his slippers to the door, ready to be angry. Maybe even needing it. He had to admit, the sensation was nice, in that it was something.

He was already spewing out his greeting when his visitor was revealed. "Holy hell, if you aren't selling magic pills to give me a giant dick, we are not going to be friends..." That was it. Visitor revelation completed, Nate found that every iota of cleverness went bye-bye. On his part, at least.

"Dick pills? Really, Nate, from what I was told, you hardly need them." One dark brow was cocked in amusement. "Though I guess you did give me the perfect segue here." A pause. "Gonna invite me in?"

"Aisha?" He couldn't believe it. There she was, his ill-fated sister-in-law, wearing a long, thick coat to ward away the chill of the autumn night, looking at him like they'd just had lunch the day before. "Wha..."

She held up a hand. "Just gonna get through the boring parts quick. First," she curled down all her fingers but one, "I'm rich. Second," next finger up, "Private Eyes are plentiful. Third," now the last, "You didn't exactly go into witness protection, my poor, wounded brother-in-law."

"You've been... you hunted me down?" Nate was shaking his head. "What possible reason..."

"Okay, you're not a good host. Message received. I'm coming in because my nips are going to fall off the next time a breeze even thinks about coming this way." Shivering to prove her point, the ruddy-cheeked redhead slid past him and sauntered over to a plush recliner, plopping down with her coat still on. Then she just... sat there and looked at him.

Fucking twilight zone. Nate groaned and ran a palm down his face, the closed the door and took the chair opposite his invader. He knew he should have done a lot of things; cursed her out, reamed her out, thrown her out, but deep down in a place he didn't want to acknowledge, he was... curious.

Okay, voraciously needy and infinitely yearning for information. Fuck it.

"Aisha, what's happened?" His blue eyes narrowed. "What's gone wrong?"

The woman grunted. "Yeah. Right to the point. Good." Despite her words of approval, she suddenly became very recalcitrant, her brown eyes darting about as if searching for a sign. "Okay... all right... the thing is..."

"Aisha!" Nate's fog of startlement was more than clear by that point. "Tell me about my fucking family!"

Even as his own eyes widened with surprise at his words, Aisha's gleamed with pleasure. "There it is. You haven't... amputated." She nodded in satisfaction. "I knew I was right about you."

"Just talk." Nate had his forehead in one hand, refusing to look at her. "Stop wasting my time."

"Fine then. Here it is; apparently you're a prophet, Nathaniel the All-Knowing, because your daughter is in dire fucking straits right now."

"Jesus. Is she... what's happened?" Any and every horrible idea under the sun inundated his brain at once, and he felt dizzy.

"That..." Aisha sighed. "I'm sorry, but that requires a story. A year ago, you refused to let any of us really explain things to you before you stormed out, so now you need some background before you can fully understand what's happened." She leaned forward, though that seemed to cause her discomfort for some reason. "And if you don't understand, you can't mount a good rescue." She put a lone hand on his knee, trying to get emphasize her point. "Nate... you have to mount a good rescue."

"Christ... fine." Nate waved his hand at her. "Lay it on me. Fill in the blanks. Just, don't drag it out."

Aisha nodded once, satisfied. "So you know the outline of our family history by now, I'm sure. My father, Vincenzo, and my mother, Serilda, are brother and sister. Though we didn't know it until we were grown, Cleopatra and I are children of incest." The woman couldn't seem to resist a little smile then. "But, can you blame us for not even considering it? I mean... look at us. How many inbreds are as dead sexy as--"

"Don't. Drag. It. Out." Nate's warning was low. And effective.

Aisha swallowed. "Sorry, sorry. Okay, so, yeah. Incest. Can't keep it in your pants, keep it in the family, right? Crap, okay, I'm done. Seriously. Believe it or not, saying this shit out loud isn't actually easy. I'm nervous."

"Good impulse." He was about done with her, despite his initial motivations.

Aisha paled, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. "I truly believe that there's a genetic component to what we... became. A full-on biological compulsion. How else can someone explain how me and my sister, when our pedigree was still completely unknown to either of us, fell in love and fucked each other silly for weeks. When I found out that my uncle was my father, I jumped right in with both feet, called him my husband, and fucked him silly for... years. Him and my mom. I even gave birth to my own father's children. Couldn't wait to, in fact. Hell, your own daughter embraced the idea of... mating with both her parents after just a couple weeks of vacuous reassurances. It's there. That seed. Just waiting to be watered."

The woman was finally on a roll, and seemed to forget she was even talking to someone else. "It doesn't stop there either. I've watched my twin daughters do things to each other that should have made me vomit, but instead got me so wet that I let them, begged them, to do them to me. I watched them get fucking wrecked by the man that sired all three of us the day, the very hour, they turned eighteen, and just waited for my own turn, jealously."

She gave a small moan then, and the tears that streamed from her eyes sprung up as if from behind a burst dam. "I even held their hands when Vince forced them to abort their first..." She sobbed. "The genetic tests... there was no denying what would have..."

"Jesus Christ." Nate was rocked back on his heels. In his worst nightmares, he'd never let himself think that the depths of the clan he'd married into, the pit they were mired in, could be that dark. So utterly void of light.

Without thinking, he followed his impulse and pulled Aisha to him, lifting her from his chair, wrapping her in his arms, and holding her tight. The heart and soul of him, his defining core, was of a man who wanted nothing else but to have the people close to him be whole. Unbroken. Even if that person had done him an injustice. He couldn't help it. He was a hopeless damned romantic in every damned way, and he wasn't going to apologize for it.

Aisha more than appreciated the undeserved solace, if his wet shirt and aching ribs were any indicator. Long minutes passed between the pair of in-laws that way, just silently feeling each other's presence, but this time Nate accepted it. He could wait.

Finally, Aisha got it together enough to pull away from him with a trembling, grateful smile, and sat down again. "God, I needed that. I've needed that for years. Thank-you so much, Nate." The smile firmed and gained some real warmth. "I guess I'm a prophet too. When I said I loved you, I was seeing the future."

When she heard his intake of breath, she put up a hand to forestall him. "Not like that. I... not in love. That, the real thing, takes time, not..." She grimaced. "Loins. But I'm not lying. Right now, I feel like you're the big brother I never had, but always needed, and not just because you're married to... Um. Sorry. I know. Time to finish."

Nate, his newfound sympathy holding back his impatience, nonetheless couldn't stop himself from leaning forward with anticipation. They were coming to it, finally. Answers.

"Mom and I, we love our family. We do, but what happened with the... with my daughters'..." She sighed dejectedly. "It was a wakeup call. We knew we had these natures we couldn't fight, but we also wanted a future. So we hatched a plan. Deep inside, we always knew that Cleo was the missing piece of our puzzle, but we were bitter about that for decades. She abandoned us and became a stranger."

"I know the feeling." Nate mumbled.

Aisha gave him a chagrined look. "I know you do. For us, it was only when dad got sick, and the writing was on the wall, that we starting looking at things differently. We'd... kept tabs on her. I mean, we loved her, and we had the means, so why not make sure she was at least happy? Still, even we were surprised at... you. Her ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend? A fucking man? A fucking man that she was head-over-heels, crazy-out-of-her-skull in love with? We honestly wondered if you drugged and brainwashed her."

At that, Nate had to laugh. "I always felt like it was the other way around, frankly. I fell in love with the self-described predatory dyke that stole the woman I thought I was going to grow old with. Shit, our entire marriage, I knew I didn't... convert her, or whatever. She didn't hide it. Hell, I caught her little wolf-whistles every time we spotted a hottie out and about, the bustier the lustier for her. But she told me, and I believed it, that it was just me that changed her. That to her, she didn't suddenly prefer men... she utterly preferred me."

His next laugh was as wondering as it had been on the day he'd come to accept the notion, bizarre as it was to him. "She said she loved me... and my dick was a surprise bonus. You have no idea what that does for a person's ego. Trust me."

Aisha didn't comment, but her grin was open and honest as she watched him lose himself to memory. After a bit, though, she kept going. "So, yeah, mom and I kept tabs on you. Like I said before... private eyes and stuff. It wasn't hard. We got yearly updates on where you were, what your living situation was... how your child was growing..." The woman shook her head. "And we used all that when Vince died. We decided then that it was time for Cleo to take her place, the one that our father always meant for her... but we also needed her to bring you along with her."

The woman began rocking back and forth in her seat. "You know the highlights. Mom waylaid Claudia out of the blue, filled her head with fantastical stories of the family she never knew... got the wedge in the door with Cleo..."

"You fucked her to tempt her back, and practically forced her onto her... throne." Sympathy or not, he wasn't going to give her carte blanche on this.

"Yeah." The word was raspy, and Aisha couldn't look at him. "I want to say I'm sorry, but... I never stopped loving her. I am sorry that things didn't work out how we wanted, because I know that the optimum outcome would have been much, much better for you. And, well, much less fucking poisonous for us, truth be told."

"This fucking plan." Nate growled at her. "I've heard the word so much, it's lost all meaning. Just spell it out already, Aisha. What did you think I was going to do? What was this... grand role I was going to play?"

The still-devastatingly gorgeous redhead looked at him full on, done with mincing words. "You were supposed to be the father of the next generation. You were going to fuck me, Vivian, Victoria, Cleo... Claudia... hell, even mom for fun, though she can't have any more kids."

Inappropriately, she had to smile at his face right then. "Don't act so shocked. Look at you. Big, hunky, endowed, fit..." Inappropriateness not abating in the slightest, she licked her lips hungrily. "Smart, kind, patient... Jesus. You'd have been perfect. Biggest reason, though? Not related by blood. Well, not to most of us. Which meant no freak babies. Probably. Hopefully. Reasonably enough that we were willing to take the risk. You're the outsider on the inside."

Both her hands were on his knees then, and she got a very earnest look in her eye. "You can't tell me that the plan was bad on paper. We'd have Cleo... you'd have Cleo... and you'd both have a permanent harem of salivating beauties at your beck and call, day and night. Everyone wins every goddamned day!"

"You're insane."

"Fucking right I am." The unhesitating admission surprised him, and Aisha wasn't done yet. "I know that now, thanks to you, asshole. You're little speech to Claudia about... limits and restraint... that one hit home in a way I wasn't ready for. You, you dick, ripped away all my illusions with a few sentences. It was like you smacked me, then kissed me... then kicked me in the twat on your way out the door."

"Um... that's vivid. Sorry?"

"Shut up." Amazingly, she was angry now. "I saw it all then; twenty years of fulfilling every one of my whims had ruined me, and, much, much worse, full-on annihilated my own daughters. Vivian and Victoria... there may be no coming back. They're nothing like Claudia. They have no breaks. No thought for the future. When I told Cleo that she had to tame them, I meant it. Not fix them. Not help them grow. I knew, without a doubt, that they're... they're not real people. God... they never had a chance. The only thing was, is, for someone else to call the shots in their lives."

"Well, you have Cleo for that still." Nate got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach when Aisha averted her gaze at that. "Don't you? Jesus, enough of this. Tell me why you came here."

"You forgot the bit players in our fucked-up play. The former bit players, that is." Suddenly, Nate's sister-in-law got to her feet and began working the claps of her heavy coat. In a few seconds, the thing was dropped to the floor, and Nate thought his jaw was going to go right along for the ride. "You said no, but he didn't."

As Nate stared at the maternity-garbed, visibly distended stomach of the middle-aged woman before him, it all came horribly clear in one crystalline moment. "Holy shit. Vinny."

Aisha nodded ruefully. "The father of my next child is my half-aged, half-brother. I honestly don't know if that's better than the first time around or not... but when you don't see a way out, when you're trapped in your own labyrinth, you... do what you have to."

"Tell me I'm wrong about what I'm guessing, Aisha." Nate was on his feet then too, his hands gripping her shoulders tight, almost shaking her. "Tell me you didn't let happen what I think you did."

The woman jerked back angrily. "I don't know, are you thinking that Amber and Vinny took advantage of the void you left? Exploited Cleo's shattered confidence? That they shouldered her aside and inserted themselves at the head of the family since we were already primed for it? That Vinny became a fucking tyrant and uses all of us like we're... we're breeding mares? Is that what you're thinking, Nate? 'Cause, if so... I can't tell you shit."

He didn't want to ask. He couldn't stop himself. "Claudia?"

Aisha eased up a bit, squeezing her eyes shut. "He's insatiable, Nate. He wants it all."

Okay then.

"Put your coat on, and get some coffee in you. The drive is a long one, and it's already late."

Nate just prayed that Aisha's sudden blooming of unfettered hope as she followed his orders wasn't going to be a jinx.

__________

First was Amber. Somehow, that seemed appropriate.

"Aisha? Nathan?" The golden-haired beauty was just lazing on the big sofa in the family room Nate had only ever seen on video, and when the pair of them burst into the sprawling home just after midnight, the woman in nothing but a set of lacy, red bra and panties jumped up to face them. To Nate's eye, she was flushed, and he didn't have to stretch him imagination to think of why.

Amber gasped, blue eyes wide, and covered her mouth. "Holy shit, Aisha, you convinced him? How the hell..."

In a move Nate didn't expect, she whooped with joy and beamed a smile at him that was as full of promise as any he'd ever seen. The memories it dredged up actually made his chest hurt.

"Fuck yes! Natey Nathan! Oh God, I can't believe it. With you here, I can... we can..."

Shifting from giddy to seductive like she'd flipped a damned switch, Amber began slinking right up to him, veiling half her beautiful face behind a sweep of her full, silky hair teasingly, sashaying her shapely hips while undoing the clasp on her bra to let it fall away. At the sight of those still-perky, cute little tits he'd so enjoyed as a teenager, Nate found that his mouth was drier than the Sahara. Jesus, what the hell's wrong with her? She's coming at me like we're in the most hackneyed porno ever filmed!

"I wish I could tell you how much I missed you. When Vince got old, I got really, really nostalgic." Amber purred when she came up to him and circled her arms around his waist. "Now we can pick right back up, studly." She giggled. "It's no too late for us to make a baby, and goddamn it do I want another one so, so bad. I was seriously about to cave in and let my asshole son do it, I honestly think that. You understand what that means? You and me, we're not like the rest of them. I don't find my own son sexy! I hate the bastard! But my fucking clock is ticking that hard! I figured out a long time ago that all the pussy eating in the world doesn't--"

"Get the fuck off me." Nate shoved the petite woman with as much force as he dared. He wasn't a brute, he didn't hurt people weaker than him, but she was revolting him worse than if she'd been a rotting, walking corpse trying to eat his brains.

Before anyone else made a sound, a groan could be heard from behind the couch, out of sight. It was then that a mop of wild, silver hair popped up, and a pair of half-lidded, bleary eyes stared accusingly at all of them. "Why the noise? I am coming down so hard right now you selfish children..."

The look on Serilda's face then was so close to Amber's, it should have been funny. It wasn't. "Nate! Hello, young man!" The woman--even less covered than the blonde now on her butt, reeling and confused--staggered over to the couch in all her jiggling glory and got on her hands and knees, then looked over her shoulder at him past some strands of her errant hair, actually blowing a puff of air out of her mouth to get the bothersome things out of her face. "All right. I'm ready. Come to mommy."

"Vinny uses drugs. He likes them... us..." Aisha murmured in his ear, trying to explain.

"I get it." Nate barely got the words out through his gritted, grinding teeth. "Where are they?"

"Upstairs. Master Bedroom. I'm sure you... you remember how to..."

"Yep."

"Go. I'll take care of these two." With an encouraging squeeze on his arm, Aisha urged him away before turning to her housemates. "Ladies, time to tie you up."

Nate wished he hadn't caught the delighted, yet unsurprised exclamations that came from both of them. That didn't bode well at all.

He took the stairs three at time, then streaked down the long hall, blurring past the doors containing all the sleeping quarters behind them, making beeline for the big one at the end. He was so focused, the blood in his ears pounding so hard, that he was only distantly aware of a sound coming from one of the open bedrooms; like a shocked grunt, before he past it and at his goal.

The door he stared at, so familiar from the videos foisted on him, was unlocked, of course, because why wouldn't it be? Why would the lord and master of the manor feel any need at all to protect himself? So the door swung open easily in Nate's power, and that was the last easy thing that happened to him that night.

The scene unfolded in slow motion. It was the damndest thing.

Nate took in the sight of Vivian and Victoria lying on a divan off to the side. The twins had their bodies, blotchy, sweat-sheened, and nude, entwined about each other as each feasted on her sister's mouth like they'd been separated for a year. The moans, the undulations, the plunging fingers and probing tongues... none of it could divert his attention from the fact that both of them, ever mirrored even now, had rounded stomachs even bigger than their mother's. Nearly ready to pop, if he wanted to guess.