Page 5 of Voracious

“I need a favor and you can’t say no.” I’ll give her anything she wants and nod. “Ana has nowhere to stay.”

Except that.

Trying to soften my tone doesn’t work as I spit, “Fuck no.”

She’s annoying as fuck, a little ball of vengeance with a death wish. If Ana was cold, she wouldn’t turn up the heat but set the world on fire so it matches her birthplace, the hellion.

Katya lightly stamps her foot, turning into a child and pouting up at me. “Please, Dima. She doesn’t have anywhere to live and I’m restarting school.”

Nowhere in her sentence did she give me a reason to give a fuck.

She nips my bicep and tries to go for charm as she smiles up at me.

“You train her anyway, don’t make a girl sleep on the street. You wouldn’t do that because you’re my big brother and I love you.”

She’s not a girl, Ana is barely a fucking human. There’s only violence in her flickering eyes, and I don’t know what shit she’sseen that would become my problem.Katya obviously thinks different as she continues smiling up at me and makes her eyes wider.

Growing up in a child brothel is the obvious reason for Ana’s wiring being wrong. I’d have to make sure she doesn’t see anythingadultand that’s too much effort for me to go through for someone I like, never mind whatever she would be classified as.

My vegan sister would rather be punched in the face than eat meat, so I give her my condition.

“Have a steak with me and I’ll say yes.”

Her jaw drops like it’s criminal when she’s been part of the Bratva for years and killed, but animals are off limits to her soft heart. She gets all whiney and her voice goes high pitched, not matching the woman who has beat the shit out of grown men.

“That’s not the same, at all.”

I lean down and cross my arms over my chest, proving her wrong.

“You want me to do something that’s against my moral code.”

Muttering to herself that I’m annoying, she gives up the argument and I don’t have to experience the hellion as a houseguest.

I observe Ana as she walks out from the small hallway still with blood all over her, she pulls a knit hat over her head, uncaring about the blood, as I pick apart her features trying to work out what it is that seems wrong. She would pass for average but there’s something about her face that doesn’t fit, all sharp lines covered in a youthful softness. Her hair is dyed but countless people change their hair color, it’s something deeper that looks fake as fuck. Like the uncanny valley, real and counterfeit at the same time.

The little hellion has wiped her face, leaving it tinged in pink and fucking skips over to me, ready for her fight tonight. She’slike a baby deer, a murderous psychotic one, but a baby deer, nonetheless. I’m going to kick Val’s ass for dumping her on me. The intention grows stronger legs when she opens her mouth.

“Do you want to swap opponents? Mine is smaller,” Ana says without any conscious thought of the insult behind it.

Katya chokes on her laugh as I look Ana up and down. She’s five foot nothing and I’d have to lean down just to use her head as an arm rest, for fuck’s sake.

My ego stops me doing as she wants, and it overshadows the joy I’d feel at seeing her get ripped to shreds. Turning without giving an answer, she follows after me and has the sense to shut her mouth as we go to the warehouse for tonight. If she starts talking to herself again, I’m going to rip her tongue out of her mouth.

Her head falls back as soon as she gets in the car, and she closes her eyes, focusing on her breathing as I drive. Her meditation is weird as fuck. It doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I’ll always be creeped out knowing as soon as she snaps her eyes open there’ll be no semblance of humanity and only an insatiable taste for blood.

Stasya and Katya think it’s some misogynistic thing, that her psychosis is unnerving because she’s a woman when I don’t have the same reaction to the men. It’s not. I’ve been around the Vartanovs for long enough to know they’re nutcases, but they can play pretend at being human. Ana can’t, her eyes are too dull. There’s no light behind them as though she’s already dead but she struck a deal with the Grim Reaper to keep one foot in this world.

Her lips begin moving. She’s talking to herself again and I watch her out of the corner of my eye. There’s no pause in the conversation, she’s not only talking to herself but she’s responding too.

The journey from one crime scene to the other is thankfully short and I pull up outside the abandoned factory on the shore. She dramatically drops her chin, and her eyes do that maddening thing where there’s a blue tinge under the brown. I’m going fucking crazy because it disappears when she blinks again.

Getting away from Ana before I pluck her eyeballs out of her head to see them closer, I leave her in the car to do whatever sacrifice is required for her to prepare. Val smirks, the prick, as he looks over my shoulder and sees whatever weird shit she’s doing now. We’ve seen her slap herself across the face, hold the blade end of a knife without a single emotion on her face, and all manners of crazy shit. She’s not doing that now though. She kicks the car door open like a child before jumping out of the SUV as she pulls her hat further down to cover the blood already staining her hair.

I don’t give a fuck about being seen as weak and restart the same conversation with Val now that he has authority as a Vor.

“You need to put her under someone else, I’m going to end up killing her.”

He’s a little shit and I regret looking out for him when he was a teenager. He pats my shoulder, giving me a tight-lipped smile and keeps his voice low as Satan’s mistress walks toward us.

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