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  Black Knight

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Svetlana Ivanova

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  Chapter 48

  CHAPTER 49

  EPILOQUE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Svetlana Ivanova

  Copyright © 2012 Svetlana Ivanova

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1537543819

  ISBN-10:1537543814

  DEDICATION

  To all the homosexual girls, bisexual girls, heterosexual girls, queer girls, still-questioning-their-sexuality girls and all the transgender babes out there, this book is written especially for you.

  PROLOGUE

  At the edge of an unknown galaxy, a baby girl was born on a planet called Arzuria. She possessed the delicacy of a girl and the purity of a boy. She was given a mission that would determine the fate of her people. Along with two guardians, the girl sailed through the vast empty space to the planet Earth where life sucked the most in the middle of the Milky Way. Needless to say, she had to safeguard a secret too, and a big one at that. Her one and only purpose was to find a special Earthling among the seven billion humans on this lonely planet.

  But then there were a few complications.

  And all of them were because of me.

  CHAPTER 1

  My father dropped me off at the Domodedovo airport. It was freezing outside and even inside his beat-up Nissan. The Moscow skies turned a perfect cloudless gray. I pulled over the hood of my brown parka to keep warm.

  Pyotr, my dad, had personally volunteered to kick me out of his house this morning. It was America where my butt would land in the next seventeen hours and a stop later.

  "Nina," he called to me for the fifteenth time after I crammed all my stuff into the car. I was waiting for him to say, 'I'm sorry, we can work this out together. You don't have to go.' or something along that line, but he seemed to have a frog stuck in his throat every time he opened his mouth, so I just gave up and let this hope die.

  After we parked, I got out of the passenger seat.

  "Call me when you get there," he said as he loaded everything I owned onto a cart and then with a small unmanly voice, he added, "Take care."

  I slung my bag which contained my passport and plane ticket over my shoulder and walked off into the busiest waiting areas without looking back again.

  As I boarded the plane, I knew Pyotr was already on his merry way, and I tried not to cry.

  The next day, I woke up in the sky domain of the United States. Everything went smoothly after my plane landed. And before I knew it, I came out of the revolving glass doors of the Los Angeles airport. I pushed my cart to the curb and looked around myself.

  While I was waiting, my thoughts wandered to my old home, which led me to think about Dominika, who sucked my father's soul through his you-know-what and then got herself knocked up with the devil's spawn.

  Dominika would have liked to strangle me in my sleep, or poisoned my drink and let me die in agony if I were to have stayed there long enough. Dad had to send me off to live with my aunt in the states while he and his hot young wife went on to celebrate their new family with me out of the picture.

  Now looking at the land I barely knew with its beautiful sunshine, I felt completely lost. My eyes scanned the area for a middle-aged woman. She was my dad's younger sister, Aunt Viktoriya, who was married to an American businessman. They were now living in a big house somewhere in LA.

  But after half an hour passed, there was still no one that looked like Aunt Vikki.

  Great, I was exiled from my country and got abandoned in another one.

  Then I noticed this uniformed man approaching me. He could be in his fifties, a bit too thin for his sleek black suit.

  "You must be Miss. Antonina Volkova, right?" The old man said to me.

  "Yes?"

  "I'm John, your aunt's personal driver. I'm here to pick you up since she couldn't make it."

  He handed me his ID card and a signed note from Aunt Vikki saying she apologized for not being able to receive me herself and that she would see me at dinner time.

  "We should go now, Miss Volkova," he said. The old man had a kind sincere face that made it impossible not to trust him. I couldn't help feeling relieved to have someone found me at last.

  "Please, just call me Nina, " I said, sounding somewhat awkward speaking in a foreign tongue for the first time. "Nice to meet you, Mr. John."

  "Just call me John," he said with a warm beam, which brought out his laughing wrinkles even more.

  We got my luggage into the trunk of a black BMW and then I got into the front seat with John. The old man simply started the car and drove off.

  The afternoon sun shone through the tinted window of the car. I looked at stores and buildings, traffic signs and people, and big cars and small cars. I saw a bunch of high-school kids getting out of Starbucks, laughing and joking. When we stopped at a red light, we heard blasting music booming from a white Jeep next to us. Some guys with sunglasses bobbed their heads to the beats.

  Everything seemed so hyped here. I was still trying to get my head around all this.

  "You'll get used to it," John said even though I hadn't said anything out loud. I guessed it was a good thing I educated myself about American culture before I came over here — thanks to Hollywood movies. But to be completely honest, all of this was still taking me by surprise.

  After a long while later, we arrived at my aunt's house.

  It was a beautiful house with red tiled roofs that reminded me of a Mediterranean holiday villa. The rest of it was painted pure white. It had a large manicured garden and a cobbled driveway snaked through to the front door.

  John told me to go inside while he took care of my belongings, which wasn't much. I sucked in the air and walked up to the glossy front door. But before I could knock on it, it burst opened and a tall dark-haired guy stepped out. He was wearing an American football jacket and chewing a mint gum with open mouth. The guy gave me a once over.

  "Who are you?" he asked.

  "Oh, I'm—I’m Mrs. Black's—niece—I—er—"

  His laughter cut me off. Then he extended his hand to me.

  "I'm just kidding. I'm your cousin, Jason," he said. "Mom told me to wait for you. Your English needs more improvement, but I like the accent. Keep it! Now please come on in. And by the way, you can call me Jay. I don't like my real name."

  He shook my hand as soon as I took his and looked at me with a wide grin. Then Jay-not-Jason motioned for me to get inside.

  The inte
rior was just as splendid and cozy. The furniture of the living room looked like it was fresh out of a modern decor magazine.

  Then we heard footsteps coming down the stairs. A girl about my age appeared. She had a pretty face that reminded me of Aunt Vikki, and she wore a short denim skirt with a black rock band t-shirt.

  "Hey Piper, look! Who's here?" Jay said and turned to me. "This is my twin sister, Piper."

  It took me a while to notice their similarities and differences. Piper had blonde hair —almost platinum blonde. Jay had dark hair with brown eyes while his sister's were deep blue. I wouldn’t have guessed they were twins.

  "Oh, hi!" she said as if she didn't expect to see me there. "You're my cousin, Antonina, right?"

  "Yes, hello," I said and smiled back. "You can call me Nina."

  "Alas, I finally found someone who hates real names in this house," Jay said. “I’m sure we’re going to get along so well, cousin Nina.”

  Piper came forward and knocked her brother on the forehead.

  "You better not let dad hear this, or he'll disown your unappreciative ass." Piper then turned to me. "Come on, I'll show you your room."

  I nodded. The girl turned to walk back upstairs and I followed her. The house wasn't too big, but if you spent almost all of your seventeen years living in a small apartment, then it was the biggest you had ever been in. I tried not to be all starry-eyed. I didn't want my cousin to think that kids from Russia weren't as cool as kids in America where they had cars and lived in a big nice house and wore fashionable clothes and all that jazz.

  Piper took me to a room at the other end of the hallway, which seemed like the kind of room a monk would live. It was isolated and far away from the others. But when she opened the door, a great burst of brightness greeted us with the sunny view from the windows. Outside, there were oak trees, willow trees along with aspens and chestnuts, dotting over the green hills with other houses.

  "Mom and dad will be back to have dinner with us," Piper told me. "Make yourself at home, Nina. And if you need anything, just ask."

  "Thank you, Piper." I smiled in gratitude.

  "Well, you must be so jet-lagged and tired now. Get some sleep," she said. I nodded as she turned to leave. At least, my cousins seemed so nice.

  Yet when I looked around the room, an empty feeling enveloped me. I was going to stay here for—who knows how long? But at last, I was away from my old troubled life for now.

  ~*~

  I didn't mean to fall asleep practically the whole day. When I woke up, I thought I was still in my bed back in Russia thousands of miles away.

  The sun might have just set. There was still the slightest bit of orangy sky over the green hill. I looked out the window at the beautiful landscape that appeared so still and perfect, a unicorn might as well trot into view at night, but I didn't see anything except a few birds flying home after a long hard day.

  I grabbed my bag of toiletry and went to the bathroom to freshen up. I washed my pale face and brushed my bed hair, smoothing out the chocolate brown tangles into place. My eyes were puffy and a bit hazy as I looked at myself in the mirror. The irises were sparkling with light but as black as my soul.

  Facing my pallid self, I wondered what I would be doing next. I felt too shy to get out of my room, but I couldn't hide forever. After I finished cleaning up, I unpacked my clothes and got changed into a simple t-shirt and jeans before going downstairs. I found Piper half way.

  "Oh, I was going to go to your room," she said. "Mom and Dad are already here. Come. Dinner is ready."

  Jay was standing by the entrance when we got to the dining hall. He looked at me with unblinking eyes and smiled at me in his own boyish way.

  "See you again, cousin, I thought you turned into Snow White already," he said in a mischievous voice, which earned him a blush from my cheeks and an elbow from Piper in his gut as she walked past him.

  "What?" Jay said, rubbing his tummy. “I’m just teasing.”

  Aunt Viktoriya was there. Once she saw me, she walked right up and put her arms around me. Then she stepped back and looked at my face and just said, "Nina," like it was all she could muster up to say. After a while, she added, "You're as beautiful as your mother," which obviously wasn't true since my mother was really beautiful and I was not.

  Mr. Robert Black, her husband, was a large bald man with a smiling face. He was at the head of the table. He stood up and held out his hand like I was his business client.

  "What a pleasure to have you here," he said as I shook his outstretched hand.

  After we settled around the table, a maid came in with plates of food. They served clam chowder, meatloaf, and chicken soup with a side dish of macaroni and salad.

  After we exchanged some pleasantries, everyone began to eat.

  "By the way, how about telling us a little about Russia," Mr. Black said.

  But before I could reply, the twins started bombarding me with a million questions. Piper asked me about Russian models and whether it was true that most girls in Russia smoke to keep themselves slim or that they won’t get out of the house without makeups. Jay asked me if I knew about mafia kings and drug lords. But Aunt Vikki gave them a disapproving look, so they stopped.

  I did tell them about my town, which wasn't as nice as this one and about my school. Aunt Vikki asked about my father and Dominika. They asked me a lot about Dominika and their new heir and everything else that led up to me sitting there with them. I could tell that they felt kind of sorry for me. Aunt Vikki asked me privately, and by private I meant she spoke in Russian, which I knew none of her American-born children understood and neither did her husband.

  She asked how my father was doing and whether he was doing alright financially. I told her he was fine except for his taste in women, and that he was probably feeling a lot better now that I wasn't around to remind him about it day and night.

  Aunt Vikki gave a kind of funny look like she couldn't decide whether to keep from laughing or crying.

  "Well, their loss is our gain," she said at last. "Anyway, Robert and I have registered you as a member of our family already. From now on, you are Antonina Black."

  I looked up from my plate in surprise. So my father had secretly disowned me for real? A pang of sadness and hurt ran through me like a blade. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

  "But I don't know if it's a good idea, Aunt Vikki," I said.

  "Oh dear, we would love to have you in our family. Why did you say that?" Aunt Vikki said with a concerned frown. Everyone looked at me silently. I had to take a sip of iced water to calm my nerves. My hand shook as I put the glass down. I looked back at them again, thinking if I didn't tell them now, they would be crushed by disappointment just like my father. I took a deep breath and told myself, 'It's now or never!’

  "Because another reason why I was sent here is the fact that—" I gulped. "—I'm gay."

  If they couldn't accept it, I would just have to get out of this beautiful cozy house and drop dead somewhere else. I was sick and tired of hiding who I was for all those years. I had to let them know and make it crystal clear, and to hell with it!

  There was a silence at the table. It was so quiet you could hear a fly fart.

  Jay dropped his silver fork on his porcelain plate, making a loud clanking noise.

  Piper just stared at me wide eyed. Robert and Aunt Vikki looked like Medusa had just turned them into stone.

  Piper was the first to speak.

  "You're...gay?"

  I nodded. Jay had his jaw hanging open.

  "But—but—" he stuttered, "You don't look like a les—"

  "Jason!" Robert hushed him sternly.

  "That's alright Mr. Black,” I said. “"I know this is quite a shock to all of you, but I guess you don't have to do this for me. Thank you for taking me in and all, but I think I better go and get packed now."

  I just wanted to say that I couldn't live with people who would house my body but reject my soul. As I pushed my chair back and stood
up to leave, my aunt reached out to grip my hand.

  "Where are you going, Nina?" Aunt Vikki asked. Her eyes darted to her husband as if asking for him to intervene. Robert cleared his throat awkwardly.

  "Nina, don't be silly. You can stay here," he said, but it sounded more like a command.

  "Yes, dear. Let's sit down and finish your meal. Tomorrow, Piper and Jason will show you your new school." Aunt Vikki quickly changed the subject and tried to be cheerful again. "We have registered you and everything. Are you ready to go to school or is it too soon?"

  "I'm fine with it," I said and sat back down. Everyone continued to eat in an awkward silence. Then Robert announced that he had a business trip to Las Vegas the next day and would like to go to bed early. After he excused himself from the table, Piper and Jay also came up with their own reasons to leave.

  Then there was just Aunt Vikki and me. She looked at me as if she was trying to figure out something about me, but not in a judging way most adults would do with their homosexual relatives. She was just genuinely curious. She asked me a lot of questions. And later, she put her hand on mine and said she wished my mother were here to see what a vivid person I was. I thought 'vivid' was a pretty strange choice of words. I asked if she meant to say 'messed up in the head' but she just laughed. Then she stroked my cheek and it made me feel sad and happy all at once.

  "Pyotr was so wrong not to choose you, Nina," she said.

  CHAPTER 2

  Breakfast with the Blacks was a quiet affair. Robert left the house early. When I asked about the bus system in the neighborhood, Aunt Vikki told me I could go with Piper. Jay acted like a brat this morning. He kept complaining about his burned bacon and answering his mom with one-syllable words before sulking out of the house and was gone.

  Aunt Vikki wondered what was wrong with her son today.

  When I stepped out of the house, Piper was waiting for me inside her silver Porsche. I walked towards her shiny sport car that gleamed under the Californian sun. But Piper was quieter than usual when I got inside.

  "How far is the school?" I asked to break the silence. She fumbled around in her Prada and fished out the car key.