Page 143 of Voracious

He drops her arm to take the knife from me and I stupidly look at Vlad, at the boy I promised to save. He’s still turned to face the wall and I keep having these moments of wanting to apologize to him. Not for who he is now because he’s an asshole, I have the need to apologize to the boy even though I couldn’t have saved him.

Yulia screams as Dima throws a fine powder on her raw skin, it dusts each cut, settling between the parted flesh, causing her to shake. She ends up moving closer to me, all the fluids on her body have me quickly stepping back so they don’t get on me and I’m about to kick her whenshe’s dragged back. Vlad turns, eyes full of fire, and he wraps a chain around her waist, another around her neck to keep her in place. His grimace roughens his voice as he leans away from her filth and nods at me. “Keep going, solnyshkuh.”

I’ve done all the names and I look up dumb when he continues staring at me like a freak. Vlad gently holds my wrist like he’s afraid of touching me and guides the knife to her cheek as he softly says, “Your name isn’t there.”

My brows come together as I slowly shake my head. “She didn’t sell me, I was being trained.”

His nostrils flare as everything becomes deathly still and I’m too slow as he tightens his hand around my wrist. It doesn’t hurt, but he controls my hand as he carves five letters across Yulia’s face so deeply that I can hear the blade scraping against her bones.

V A N Y A

He leans into her and darkly whispers, “You should have stayed away from my daughter.” He twists the knife in her cheek and I jump back from her nasty blood as he continues whispering, “When I die, I’m coming for you again, this is just the fucking warm up.”

Dima pulls her away and shakes his head once at Vlad. Whatever that means makes the psycho stop attacking my torture victim and he lets go of my hand. I step forward again as I laugh to myself, remembering everything she has said and done. I repeat her as I dig the knife in the curve of her tit and carve a line under it.

“They want someone flat. You’re losing me money.”

The temperature turns arctic, and Tali drops his burger so he can join in as I continue cutting in a circle. Her screams are subdued, and Dima steps behind her, injecting something into her neck without any care to remove the needle. He’s still pissed about the mess and grumbles at Vlad.

“You’re doing it next, she fucking stinks.”

I pause with the tip of the knife scraping against her ribs and ask, “What did you do to her?”

Vlad smiles as he slaps the back of Yulia’s head hard enough that her chin slams against her chest. “She had a nice meal that she added ingredients to herself.” He slaps her again, even harder, as he asks, “How did your shit taste, could you tell the difference between what was yours and what belonged to the horse?”

His smile drops when he looks at me.

“Everything she has experienced is nothing in comparison to what she deserves.”

Tali puts on three pairs of gloves, then he copies my incision on the other side of Yulia’s chest. He’s stolen my job, the ass, and I kick him in the shin on my way back to the table.

“You can tell whose daughter she is,” he mutters as he rubs the spot with the side of his foot.

My helper follows me as I ignore the reminder and Vlad’s pride heating the back of my head. Dima stretches around me as he kisses the top of my head and Yulia screams as Vlad curses under his breath, “Filthy fucking bitch.”

Dima turns, checking the torture, then smiles down at me without any sign of wanting to throw up. He’s developing a stronger stomach, I’m so proud of him. I lean up on my toes and kiss the side of his jaw and whisper, “You’re doing such a good job.”

His lips twitch and he raises a brow as he hums low in his throat, he doesn’t say anything though, he simply kisses the top of my head. The chains rattle, bone meeting bone, and Yulia wheezes as Vlad barks, “Move.”

We move in sync as we go back to Yulia and I glare at the controlling asshole, if I want to draw out her torture I will, he doesn’t get to dictate what an appropriate length of time is.

Dima must have already told Vlad what I want to do because he lowers the chains as Tali kicks her tits further away. The chain around her neck keeps her in place as Vlad wraps it around his fist, choking her and snapping her hair as it gets caught between the links. He kicks her in the back and she falls forward, arms outstretched like anyone here will help her.

Dima grabs her arm as she falls to her knees with a crack, and he holds it out for me as I tighten my grip on the knife, finding the exact point of her arm I need. I look at her as I press the sharp serrated edge to her forearm, so she knows why this is happening and my voice is low, haunted.

“You laughed when Nina was crying.”

Her face is covered in blood, bruises, and vomit with snot mixing into the trail of her tears, eyes are swollen shut, but there’s a small enough gap that she can see as I cut a ring around her forearm. Her screams are deafening and right in my fucking ear as I cut through the muscle. The bone takes longer and sweat beads against my hairline as I press my foot against her thigh for purchase. Each pull of the saw knocks my elbow into her face as I swap to my non-dominant hand to give my right arm a break. My shoulder burns and I limply shake it to get the ache to dissipate as Vlad roughly snaps, “Vitali. Take the saw.”

I look up at Vlad’s instruction and I’m about to argue when Tali gently moves me aside. He’s faster than I am, and they take over my torture. Which isn’t fair when I’m the one who had to live with her.

Her screams get louder, and more drugs are pushed into her to stop her from passing out. They must be slowing her heart rate too because there’s less blood than there should be.

When her arm hits the floor, I laugh at the thought that comes to me.Taking Yulia’s sawn off arm before they can stop me, I wave it in her face and laugh, “You did this with your own hand.”

The meaning stops my laugh but it comes back as my arm cocks back and she gets slapped with her very own hand. There are tears in my eyes and Vlad pulls her head further back as I keep slapping her. Or she keeps slapping herself and the clap of her own hand against her face is the best sound in the world.

I can’t mention the videos she made me watch because Vlad’s here, so I throw her arm on the floor when it gets boring and swap my gloves with the heat-resistant ones as I go to the furnace. I can feel the heat of the molten metal on my face as I carefully walk towards Yulia, making sure I don’t spill any. She’s already been positioned on her hands and knees, exposing her back, and Vlad presses his booted foot against her head to keepher in place as she thrashes. I grit my teeth, imagining the pain of the metal burning through my skin and becoming one, it must be close to the hot oil, so I slowly tip the cup over her lower back. Some of the stones were real and remain intact as they paint her in everything she worked for.

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