Page 124 of Voracious

The bar slowly slides away, and he hits the dirty floor face first as a dark puddle slowly forms beneath him. My entire world crumples and I rush forward, falling to my knees and trying to pick it up. The moonlight filtering through the broken windowsshows the red edges but it’s just liquid and I quickly push it towards his body.

It has to be inside of him, that’s how he lives.

“It’s okay, I’ll put it back,” I mutter. “Then you’ll be okay.”

Something grabs me by the hair, and I scream as I turn, aiming the knife for anything to get them to stop. Anton moves his body back and I scream louder as I push the blade through his bicep and drag it down in a line. My body jolts as something hits my leg but I can’t feel it. I can’t feel anything because I’m slipping in the puddle of Dima’s life force and everything inside me has ripped to shreds.

He lets go of my hair and punches me in the face, causing me to fall backwards into the dark puddle as Yulia steps forward. My elbow hits Dima’s back and it slowly moves underneath me — he’s breathing.

He’s okay, the dark puddle isn’t real.

But I can feel it coating my skin. I don’t care about them, or the way light orbs dance around like dust particles in my vision. I quickly sit up on my knees and drag my hands against the floor, pushing the dark puddle back towards where it came again. If I can just get it back inside of his body, he’ll be okay.

The dark puddle is too warm. It shouldn’t be. The floor is cold, and Dima doesn’t speak as my vision blurs with each blink. I keep pushing the puddle towards him, trying to get back, but it gets deeper. The liquid flowing over my hands, soaking into my clothes.

A blow lands against the back of my head and my hair is gripped by harsh fingers. They turn me, forcing me to look at Yulia. Her diamond bracelet glitters in the low light, and she straightens her shoulders as something scratches my nape.

“If you’re with me,” she muses, “then he can’t risk searching.”

Who is she talking about? Dima? He’s okay? That means he’s okay if she’s scared and I try to nod my head, but everything dances in front of me.

Drugs.

No.

I don’t know what’s real anymore. They’re not sedatives, never sedatives, they’re always the ones that make you see things.

Anton’s voice is closer but I’m under water.

“Just kill her here. We’re wasting time and he’ll be here soon.”

I’m back in Yulia’s house, the fire is on, and a snowflake falls on my nose. It’s warmer than my skin and it doesn’t melt. The snowy days were always worse, Marlo would be angrier, more violent and the punishments would burn. But I stick my tongue out to collect the snowflakes so I can have something to drink.

“She’s coming with us. Now that he knows what we did last time he won’t trust it until he sees the body.”

FORTY-SEVEN

Ana

Every limb burns as they’re pulled and my vision blurs. My head is too heavy to pick up as my chin remains magnetized to my chest. Yulia’s perfume is in the air, making me grimace and I shake my head, forcing it to move. She’s sitting here but this isn’t her house as I look around me at the smooth gray wall, it’s a concrete warehouse.

Dread takes over me. Only one person uses concrete warehouses and the chains forcing me against the wall don’t rattle with how taut they’re pulled as I search each corner of my punishment for Rowan. There’s no one else and the door to my left is open. It’s not a punishment, it’s a holding building.

No stains on the floor, no mirror masks, no Rowan.

But Yulia sits opposite me, admiring her jewelry and making sure the rings line up how she wants them as she admonishes me.

“You always were a pest, I see that hasn’t changed.”

The chains are stretching my arms and I grit my teeth so she can’t see my pain.

“Fuck you, I know what you did.”

She raises one brow and I let the fact I’m dressed comfort me despite the blood sticking my jeans to my skin as I let out my hurt.

“You took me when I was a baby, I wasn’t given to you. I already had a family and you did your trick.”

She told me that they had to take me because there was no one else but Vlad cried.He cried. Someone did want me, he wanted me enough to cry when he’s crazy. And he said Val and Tali were nice to me, that we were friends. But she took it all away from me. She pulled her special trick of switching out the babies when her abuse would kill them for a live one. A simple exchange of product is how she would describe it like we’re not lives, breathing, feeling beings.

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