Page 44 of Soulless Rivalry

My brother Alexei did it because it was what he’d been taught. Mikhail and Dinara did it because they loved the high. Dominik killed because our parents would be disappointed otherwise. Katarina did it when necessary and Roman and Devina did it to protect. But me?

Ilovedto kill.

Especially stupid sons of bitches who thought they could touch what didn’t belong to them.

As soon as the fucker underneath me stopped moving, I let go of the hold I had on his collar and he hit the damp ground with a thud. I slowly stood back up, dusting myself off and checking that my sleeves were still rolled up because the last thing I wanted was to get his dirty blood on my clothes. My forearms were all specked in crimson, but my white shirt was still intact, thank God.

I turned around slowly, my eyes immediately finding Elyssa’s who was still sprawled on the ground. She didn’t look as shocked as I would have thought. She followed my movements carefully, but not like she was afraid I’d pounce on her next. More like she wanted to remember them.

Her breathing was irregular, coming out ragged, but her eyes were shining. That bastard had had a field day with her before I arrived but she still looked beautiful.

The startling thought gave me pause.

You would have to be blind not to see her beauty; still, it felt strange admitting it to myself, even in the confines of my mind.

Crouching in front of her, I wiped my thumb across her bloody lip as she looked up at me, unsure. Her lips had always been puffy and pink, that was nothing new, but I still hated how much more prominent her lower lip looked now, like proof that he’d hit her.

Her blood on my finger, I couldn’t resist and brought it up to my tongue, tasting her. It was too fucking sweet for her own good. She watched me silently the whole time, a war playing within her eyes. I could tell, because I felt it too.

Part of me wanted to shield her and destroy anyone trying to hurt her, while the other was still fucking pissed at her and everything she represented.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice hoarse from screaming.

I had never felt such rage as when I heard her scream in fright and fury. We had been walking to town because Royal had been told that was where his current obsession was, and for once I was grateful for his stalkerish ways.

Anger wasn’t an emotion I was unfamiliar with, but I rarely ever felt it to this extent. The mere thought of anyone but me hurting Elyssa seemed to put me in some sort of bloodthirsty trance.

Still cupping her face, my thumb was back against her lips and although I was dying for another taste, I wouldn’t indulge myself. My heart was beating fast and I couldn’t trust myself at the moment. I was high from her proximity, from killing, from the taste of her blood still prominent on my tongue.

“Are you serious right now? You said no killing.”

My brother’s voice seemed to startle Elyssa, who all but jumped and broke her gaze away from mine. Pushing away from her, I got back on my feet and slowly turned towards Mikhail. Royal stood next to him, clutching the hand of the girl he’d been stalking for close to a month. She looked queasy and ready to barf, her eyes trained on the corpse a couple of feet away from us.

Elyssa’s friend, a girl who danced with my sister Kat, ran up to us as soon as she noticed her lying on the ground at my feet.

She cupped her face and I could hear Elyssa whispering that she was fine and that she had nothing to worry about.

“I would’ve had a field day with that giant out there,” Mikhail complained.

“One corpse is easier to hide than three.”

As soon as we understood what was going on, both he and Royal had gone to see the other three girls. I specifically told my brother not to kill anyone; those weren’t my orders but our mother’s.

“But three’s more fun.” He grinned.

Again, I rolled my eyes. It was something I tended to do a lot when in the presence of Mikhail. He brought it out of me.

“Why did you help us?”

Our attention was snatched by Elyssa’s cousin, Mia, eying us suspiciously. She too had moved to her cousin’s side. Elyssa was on her feet, still talking in hushed tones to Briar who had transformed into a real mother hen.

“Why not?” Mikhail nodded at her, crossing his arms on his chest.

“Because…” She frowned. “Because you’re Bratva. And we’re Cosa Nostra. You’d benefit more from all of us getting killed than you would from saving us.”

A shadow crossed my brother’s face and his dumb smile was gone, replaced by narrowed eyes. “First of all, don’t call us Bratva, that’s fucking insulting. We’re mercenaries, we make our own rules.”

He took a menacing step towards her and she had the intelligence to take one back.

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