Page 34 of Darkest Deeds

This time my hand nails its target, cracking across his face and snapping it back with force. I stare, horrified, as a red welt appears on his cheek. His chest rises and falls, but I’m focused on the vein in his neck that’s suddenly pulsing in time with his breath. It’s my obsession with that vein that renders me powerless when he lunges. Clutching my waist tightly, he drags me to my feet and pins me against the wall with one hand.

I open my mouth to scream, but I’m quickly silenced when Niko’s tongue plunges past my lips, claiming them in a demanding kiss. At first, I’m startled, his aggression overpowering me as our mouths fight for dominance, but I lose myself and kiss him back. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I let him take, gasping as his teeth cross the line between pleasure and pain. He groans my name, the kiss becoming frantic as I open my eyes and slide my hand down his arm.

Slowly. Slowly. Slowly.

Almost.

Then everything happens at once. As my fingers graze the knife in Niko’s hand, his eyes snap open. The longing and lust are gone, replaced with hardened fury. The arm that was just wrapped around my waist slams across my chest as he holds the sharp blade against my throat. When he speaks, I’m not sure which side of Niko has my life in his hands.

The man or the monster.

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” he growls, pressing the tip of the knife into my skin as I flinch.

Something wet and warm rolls down my neck, and instead of being horrified, my pulse starts to race. The stinging bite of the knife combines with the one lingering on my mouth, and I moan. I can still feel his lips. Still feel his hunger. Still feel how hard I made him. Need rushes through my body, setting my skin on fire.

Nothing and everything about this makes sense. The sweet release of guilt pouring out of me with a flick of the wrist is familiar. My annual penance. I close my eyes and sink against the wall, only the pressure of Niko’s arm preventing the knife from slicing my neck open.

I open my eyes to find Niko staring at me. His anger is gone, but something more dangerous is in its place.

Knowledge of his power.

“You like this, don’t you?” he asks, weaving a knee between my bare legs and using it to push my T-shirt up my thighs. “Are you wet, Ava? I bet if I worked that hot little pussy right now, you’d explode.”

His knee shifts higher, the rough denim rubbing against my soaked panties. I let out a strangled moan, needing more and chasing it by sinking a fraction of an inch until the knife nicks my neck again, drawing another trail of blood. I cry out, half in pain, half in loss as he lowers his leg to the floor.

“Sorry, pchelka. Traitors have to earn the right to come.” The last word isn’t even out of his mouth when his arm and the knife are pulled away at the same time and I crumple to the floor in an exhausted heap. He closes the knife and shoves it into his pocket before walking toward the door.

“Wh-where are you going?” I stammer. “You can’t just leave me here!”

Niko stops. Without bothering to turn around and look at me, he speaks the words that extinguish the lust and drop me right back into reality. “I have to make a phone call, and yes, I can. This is your new home, Ava—at least until I decide otherwise. Get used to it.”

Once the door slams, I let out a scream so long and loud I lose my voice and topple over with exhaustion.

Nobody hears me.

I thought that night in the basement eight years ago was the most pain anyone could ever inflict on me. I was wrong.

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