Page 105 of Voracious

The last time he had one of his episodes, he flew halfway around the world to make sure he was an orphan.

“Go sit with Ana, make sure she’s not alone,” I gesture for them to leave and they both run with fear and watery eyes. The only person who can talk a man down is the one who owns him, and I video call Inessa as I move the furniture out of the way.

Her first question is about my hellion.

“Is Ana okay?”

Nodding my head, I pan to the door her husband is currently trapped behind and she hardens.

“Let me see him.”

Because she’s safe through a screen.

I risk my life as I attempt to unbolt the door. I have to push my shoulder into it to get the warped metal free and I make sure I can make a clean exit if needed. I have one foot through the threshold when the psycho is on me. His hands wrap around my throat, and he doesn’t react when my knuckles meet his jaw.

“Vlad!” Inessa shouts. “Let Dima go.”

Hearing his wife’s voice, he blinks into awareness and allows me to fucking breathe.I hold my means for survival up so he can calm the fuck down, but whatever she sees on his face has her voice filling with tears as she says, “Come home.”

Weird fucks.

The entire time I’ve known him, he’s never looked at me with pure hate, that’s what’s on his features now and his jaw tics as he hesitates, unwrapping both of his hands from my neck.

“Vlad?” Inessa says, “Don’t, it’s Dima. Come. Home.”

He doesn’t move and I finally understand why everyone is so afraid of him. I watched him with his brothers when they were kids, he was human, now there’s sinister intent in his eyes as he fights his hands attempting to kill me as Inessa keeps pleading with him.

“We’ll figure it out, just come home. Don’t disappear again.”

He doesn’t fully move back until Verena’s shout comes through the phone. “Papa!”

Inessa manages to soften her voice as she stops their daughter seeing the state he’s in.

“Papa’s busy right now, little wriggler.”

His daughter whines, screaming for him and his head turns before he snatches my phone out of my hand and changes it to a phone call. He doesn’t stay in the room or the house as he walks out, taking my phone with him. The only person I need is here and I’m never letting her out of my sight so he can keep it.

Whatever shit he’s got himself into doesn’t take precedent over my hellion.The room is destroyed, pieces of drywall lay on the floor with exposed wires, and the insulation foam taints the air. But my woman is awake, and she is the only thing I care about.

My steps are rushed until I’m back by her side and she has no signs of all the fucked shit she’s experienced. Her eyes are lighter, shoulders less weighted and she smiles easier. She moves to the side, creating space for me as Val quizzes her about her eyes.

“Do you need contacts to see or something?”

There’s no discomfort over the topic and my Ana is back as she punches him in the thigh.

“No, they were just a color, but you’re even uglier now.”

She’s going to live in my arms from now on. There will be imprints formed to her contours, so she fits there perfectly, and I’ll be a hundred years old and still carry her everywhere.Bysome miracle she’s alive, and she’s okay mentally. The break might come but I’ll be there and keep her with me.

I kiss the top of her head as she laughs along with Tali, both of them giving Val shit before they begin bickering with each other and switching sides. Everything Ana has ever wanted is here, she doesn’t have to hide in the forest in her head to have a family. Whether she understands it or not, she’s saved Nina the only way she could and she didn’t freak out about the doctor so her mind is slowly healing too.

FORTY-ONE

Ana

Ishould feel guilty that Nina’s dead but there’s peace in the finality of death. She’s not being made to wish for it anymore and I set her free from the horrible thing we call life. The more time that passes since she died, the easier it gets to breathe. I’m not focused on trying to convince myself she’s real, I know she is, I felt her blood on my hands. So, I’m real too. Maybe it will change in another week, but right now I’m enjoying the quiet.

Dima is attached to my hip, and I abruptly stop walking through the room so he runs into me. Turning to face him, I ask with a laugh bubbling in my throat, “Why are you following me to the bathroom?”

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