Page 82 of Voracious

But if I had to place faith in one thing, it would be the woman sitting in front of me, it’s the same thing as believing in a religion, there’s no proof of what I know deep down withinmy bones that she was made for me. People believe in all kinds of shit with less evidence and logic. Ana is murderous and unbothered by anything, yet with me she’s not, that can’t happen unless something within each of us is held in the other person, calling out to home.

I kiss her cheek once there’s nothing left on her body and she’s solely in her mind. My offer is easy as I wrap the sheet around her shoulders and massage her nape.

“Pick whatever you want, and I’ll wear it.”

Her eyes spark with humor and she presses the tip of her finger to my nose. “A tiara?”

I nod while she thinks of something else and looks adorable as fuck with no violent thoughts. The snort laugh comes out before she can speak and I don’t even need to hear the words, I’d agree to anything she wanted, the lengths I’d go to for her are terrifying.

“Pink panties?”

There’s a pair laying on the floor showing her inspiration and my balls would be cut to fucking shreds, but I still nod.She sighs and loosely rests her arm on my shoulder, her fingers tapping in a familiar rhythm I can’t pinpoint against my back. It’s a light touch, there’s no sound but I can feel the softest touch of her fingers against my skin. When her phone vibrates, she eagerly stretches over me, trying to reach it. I know the alert, the one that is specifically to do with anything Nina related. She usually mutes everyone, and Valentin has joined her blocklist, keeping Vlad company after she said she doesn’t like seeing Vlad’s name because it reminds her he exists then Valentin decided to send her on jobs that weren’t violent. But this is limbo, she’s working on the basis the girl’s alive, somehow it’s worse than knowing she’s dead, there’s finality in that. Right now, there are too many outcomes for her to focus on.

My hellion is enraptured with whatever information she’s got, and her head pops up with the violent thoughts coming back.

Please don’t fucking run.

She finally understands that I’m here and she turns to me, showing me her phone rather than dealing with shit on her own. Oh fuck, the one place she’s managed to actually find sound information has to be a sex club. Seeing the host, I deflate knowing I’ll probably throw the fuck up watching whatever TRR are hosting live. It’s joint with a legal business, the same fucking club as last time.

Before I can agree,Valentin’s message from his burner phone comes through. The cunt is doing it purposefully, keeping her away from me as though my life doesn’t belong to her. Swiping it away because he can go fuck himself, I keep my sweet hellion in my arms and agree to whatever she needs.

Val Freak #2:

You’re needed at the warehouse. It’s family only so don’t bring Dima

He’s old and needs to stick to his bed time

I feellike I’m missing a limb and keep turning, expecting Ana’s crazed smile to be on me. It’s not and the prick in front of me is too dumb to realize his begging doesn’t work. My preferred crazy isn’t the one who walks into the warehouse. I don’t know if it’s the bloodthirsty expression but the similarities between Ana and her brother are eerie as fuck. They usually work in tandem going around the dirty fuckers and it gets lost, but I can spot her Vartanov traits in Vlad as he assesses my anger-management therapy chained to a beam.

His wife is going to go nuclear if he’s late for Verena’s birthday party or if he shows up covered in blood. Being a showman, he holds his arms up with a twisted smile and the violence in his voice has dickhead crying harder.

“It’s your lucky day, chuski, you get to sit and think while I do the same.”

The sadistic fuck is smiling ear to ear at the thought of the torture he’s going to inflict, it’s deserved but I’ve never been excited about blood. I prefer clean kills rather than burning my clothes and having to constantly wash the blood off my skin.

I pull the chains up so he’s suspended with only his toes bearing his weight and finally get fucking peace once the gag is back in his mouth. Vlad keeps staring at me, I know there’s going to be some bullshit out of his mouth and try to escape it, so I’m not held up away from my life longer than I need to be. Stepping out of the warehouse, my car is nowhere in sight. The controlling fuck is on my heels and lazily gets into the only method of transport.

He doesn’t wait to start his interrogation and for the first time I regret the decision I made as a teenager.

“Does pipsqueak know that you’ve claimed her?”

She knew what the necklace was, I didn’t need to explain shit. I wrote mine all over her body so if the diamonds didn’t work that had to. He continues and it’s freaky as fuck how much of the Vartanovs’ traits are passed in their bloodline, or their psychosis is man made from spending time around their cunt of a father.

“She’s a Vartanova, I’m not going to threaten you when Ana is more than capable of inflicting pain, just know that I’ll be handing her the knife when you fuck up after my brothers have given their punishments.”

Dramatic cunt.

Ana put her claim on me first when she trusted me enough not to hide, every little thing she’s done and how she’s slowly become herself just robbed more pieces of me.

He shuts up, having satisfied his need to threaten me, and the ache lessens knowing I’m going to see her soon. It doesn’t fully dissipate until we pull up to the Vartanovs’ estate and I hear her laugh before I see it as it filters through the open window. My sweet hellion stands holding Verena’s hands as she tries to push her little legs to run as fast as she can. I’m overshadowed by the birthday girl when she starts screaming for her dad. There’s longing on Ana’s face as she watches on, seeing the devil become human. Blinking it away, she straightens up and fixes her eyeson the air like a soldier.That’s how she’s similar to her brothers, the more time they spent with Len the more ingrained his conditioning is because he wasn’t a father, he trained children that happened to hold the burden of having him in their lives.

I had parents, my father is a cunt, and my relationship and feelings with my mother are complicated, but she was good, she tried to the best of her ability to give us what she could. I can’t hold it against the woman for being tasked with building a house and only given a spoon, but I’ve never longed for family, knowing the one I had were physically there. Ana doesn’t even have that, her entire life she’s had questions and hypotheses over what could be.

The two dumbasses stand guard at the door as though I’m doing something wrong as I go to her side. Fucking idiots, they haven’t grown up mentally despite the muscle they’ve managed to pack on and height they’ve gained since teenagers. It’s easy to act like Val and Tali don’t exist with my life in front of me. Ana studies the ground below her feet and I tilt her chin up with my knuckles. Leaning into her, my lips haven’t even brushed my lifeline when a gunshot rings out and something whistles past us.

My hellion hardens. She’s cute as fuck trying to protect me as though I don’t cover her entire body. Looking around me, she fixes onto the dumbasses and balls her fists, readying to go to war as Tali’s voice breaks through, full of shit.

“I was showing Val and didn’t notice the safety was off, my bad.”

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