Page 49 of Voracious

She pauses with her fork in her hand and frowns, looking at each mark individually as she begins talking to herself.

“But that never happens.”

I nod and lean back in my seat. “Yeah, I’m never usually distracted. Eat your food, lisichka.”

Both of our phones go off at the same time. I’m not under Val’s group like Ana is so it’s weird as fuck for him to be messaging me, especially this early when he never does anything to do with work on a morning so he can drop Viktor off at school. There’s a warning blaring in my head that it’s due to Ana being their sister and not business. They can fuck themselves with a cactus if they think she’s going anywhere, my home is hers now and it wouldn’t feel the same without her.

As always, she begins her shit talk in between her bites. “If I punched Vlad in the face, would you stop him chasing after me?”

“Yeah,” I say far too quickly. “You’ve already done it before though.”

She nods and taps the prongs of the fork against her bottom lip. “Hmm, that was different. Now that we’refamilyI’m allowed to do it, like Katya does to you.”

She rolls her eyes at the relation and despite the fact that she didn’t grow up with her brothers, she’s settled in the usual sibling bullshit.

“Katya takes the piss and tests the limits because she knows I won’t do anything back. When she was younger, around Viktor’s age, she would fight Tali and Val at the same time. We’d have to restrain them all and send them to different rooms to stop them doing it.”

It feels like a lifetime ago that I was separating teenagers while they argued. It always started over dumb shit like Tali using her hairspray or Val wanting one of her friends’ phone numbers.

Ana sets her fork on the edge of her plate and her voice lowers as she stares at the table between us. Looking back up with a wide smile, she narrows her eyes and becomes playful. “So, what you’re saying is that I should kick the shit out of everyone because that’s what normal families do?”

I nod and gesture to her food. “Eat before it gets cold.”

TWENTY

Ana

My eyes keep drooping as we wait for Val to turn up. His message said they would be quick, and he didn’t even tell me what it was about. I hope the killing comes later in the day so I can have a nap. I’ve got used to sleeping a few hours every night and now my body revolts at the idea of going without.

I feel better with all the stickers in my room, like I can breathe, and I lean back against the sofa while Dima does the same next to me. I won’t have to put tape on them since there are thousands of brand-new ones that have never been opened. My eyes lose their fight to stay open as my body gets rest. I’m still awake mentally, I can hear everything, but there’s no energy to open my eyes.

A soft fluffy blanket is pulled over my body and Dima waves his hand in front of my face. I can feel the warmth and the light flickers through my eyelids with him testing my sleep. The cushions dip beside me as he sits back, whispering, “Vy ne znayete, naskol’ko vy dragotsenny.”1

I’m not precious. He’s wrong.

Precious means you have value, you have to be treated with care.

That’s not me. I’m a killer, a really fucking good killer, still a killer and I like it. Pushing all of my energy into one eye, I manage to half open it to see him facing me with his eyes closed. His arm is on the back of the sofa and his head drops as he falls asleep. My lips twitch when his mouth opens, catching flies in his sleep. I shuffle closer so I can share the blanket and he doesn’t get cold, gently push his jaw closed and drape half of the material over him. My eyes close again and it’s more comfortable this time as I lean my head on his chest under his chin. I hope he doesn’t drool on me, but there’s nothing wet against my scalp, it’s just warm.

There’s whispering, forcing me to become alert and my eyes snap open to see someone I really wish would crawl in a hole and never come out. Vlad’s dumbass smirk is fixed on his face as he looks between me and something at my side. Following his gaze, I realize this looks bad, I’m half laid on Dima’s chest, fully turned into him, and my legs are over his thigh. For fuck’s sake. My stupid body was too tired, and I must have moved in my sleep.

Tali and Val don’t have smirks, they’re both glaring at Dima as he wakes up. His instincts sense danger and he protectively wraps his arm around me before he’s even registered the three people stood opposite us.

Freaks, who watches people sleep? And how didn’t I hear them?

It’s strange that I slept without waking up, but they’re killers too so they probably know how to be silent. We’re not given any time to say anything or even wash our faces as they both move at the same time coming to my side and Tali wedges himself in the nonexistent space between Dima and me.

I always wondered what it would be like having brothers, sisters, a family. I know now it’s whatever weird territorialdisplay Val and Tali are currently doing as they fit their big asses on the sofa and force Dima to stand. They all share a look but the only person acting normal is Vlad, that alone is evidence of how fucking weird this is. Freaks.

He crosses his arms over his and gestures to Val to bring up whatever they need to discuss, I expect an order not a question.

“Do you know where Yulia is?”

I have her last location, but I can’t go to her until I find Nina. They’ll ruin everything if they kill her, and I’ve learnt from my last mistake so I keep Vlad’s involvement out of my explanation.

“Someone was raiding all the houses, and they change the infrastructure if one of them dies.”

There’s no emotion in my voice, I could repeat everything I witnessed without it, but Dima moves, coming to stand at the back of the sofa, and I look at all the clueless angry faces circling me.

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