Page 34 of Broken Embers

“He’s dead,” she says quietly.

“You sure?” I ask. The words tumbling from lips that feel numb. My brain seems to have left my mouth on autopilot as more stupid words escape. “The last time he got up. Like the fucking Terminator.”

Valeksa nods but feels for a pulse once again. “Not even genetic enhancements have a chance against a bullet.”

“Unless they’re a cyborg.” More fucking stupid words spew from my mouth and I shove my hand over my lips feeling something sticky on my fingertips. I look at them—blood!

Just then, I hear my name yelled from the dark.

“Sabrina!”

I turn and see him.

Oleksi.

He’s running toward me, face drawn tight, eyes locked on mine like I’m the only thing that matters in this entire fucked-up world.

And for the first time in days, as he wraps his arms around me, lifting me effortlessly off the ground and crushing his lips to mine. The pain fades away, and I feel like I can finally breathe again after five days of holding my breath.

11

SABRINA

The SUV hums softly beneath us, its tires grinding along the mist-slick mountain pass as dawn teases the edges of the horizon. Ivan’s behind the wheel, silent and focused, and Oleksi hasn’t left my side. He’s here—solid, warm, genuine—his presence the only anchor keeping me from unraveling completely. I stare out the window, but all I see are ghosts. The last five days loop in my head like a bad film reel: the cold tiles of my cell, Valeska’s voice whispering in the dark, Mikhail’s hands where they didn’t belong, his eyes devouring me

My fingers brush my throat, where Mikhail’s hand had circled it, and inside, it feels raw. I close my eyes, and I’m being slammed against the wall again with that big brute grinding himself against me. Suddenly, I feel like I need a shower. I lift my hands. The blood is gone. One of Oleksi’s men had helped me scrub it off with bottled water and hand sanitizer.

I don’t know whose clothes I’m wearing - they could be Syd’s or Nadia’s. Both women stand at least four inches taller than I do and have slightly larger frames. Clyde fashioned a belt for me so the jeans I’m wearing don’t fall off. The shirt hangs on me. But I don’t care. At least I’m no longer wearing those white scrubs, stained with Mikhail’s blood.

Nikolas is going to burn them and any items that Valeska and I were wearing when we escaped. My feet feel heavy when I move them, and I glance down. They are a pair of running shoes that are two sizes too big, but at least my feet are covered and not freezing. I snuggle against Oleksi’s side, and his arm tightens, drawing me in.

I tilt my head slightly to look out of the tinted windows. Mist swirls around us, thick and relentless, until the trees are nothing more than shadows, gray smudges on the edges of the world. The early morning stillness adds to the eeriness.

I don’t know where we’re going. All I was told was that we need to lie low until later in the day when we’re going to the next safe house. I’m trying not to think about the past week or earlier. The last time I saw someone get shot in the head… I suck in a shaky breath as an image of my father jumping in front of a bullet that was aimed at me when I was only twelve flashes through my mind.

Bile rises in my throat, and I give myself a mental shake to clear the images from my head. But they don’t want to go and make me feel like I want to climb out of my skin and leave it behind like a forgotten coat. I close my eyes, but the darkness there is no better. Memories flicker like a broken film reel, stopping and starting with every breath.

The road curves, and I feel the shift, the way the tires struggle to hold their grip. Ivan is unflinching, his silhouette sharp against the dull light. Beside him, Syd is sitting quietly and watching the world go by. No one speaks. But I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to think. I just want to sit and lean into Oleksi’s strength and feel relieved that I’m out of that hellhole.

Syd switches on the radio, and Oleksi pulls the blanket beside me over my body. Light music fills the large armored SUV.

I feel my body drift with the motion of the car, lulled by the soft music and the steady beat of Oleksi’s heart beneath my ear. My eyes grow heavy, and I start to drift off, but as I hit that plateau where my dreams usually whisk me away, I’m back outside the facility with Mikhail’s finger pressing cruelly into my throat.

I jolt awake, and Oleksi hugs me tighter. “Are you okay?” His deep voice rumbles through his chest, and I feel his lips press into my head as he presses kisses on it.

“Yes, I just had one of those falling dreams,” I lie.

“You’re exhausted and went through an ordeal,” Oleksi says, his voice filled with concern. “We’re almost there,” he tells me. “When we are there, you need to have a shower and curl up in bed.

I look up at him and smile seductively. I know what I need. I need to feel this man’s lips all over my body, teasing me, commanding me, pleasuring me. I need to feel his fingers swirling around my clit before he licks and sucks on it. Readying me to drive his long hard cock into me. Burying himself deep inside me as he pushes us over the edge of ecstasy. Leaving me sated and exhausted to sleep into a sleep so deep there are no dreams. Not snapshot memories of the past five days, or one of the most horrible nights I can remember having.

“I know what I’d much rather be doing than just curling up in bed,” I whisper huskily, my lips curling into a seductive smile as my hand brushes his already hardening member through his jeans.

He smiles and runs his hands up my inner thigh, stopping at the apex of my legs. I move my ass so I can press my pussy against his fingers and my arousal at his touch is instant. Electrifying. And a need the likes I have never felt before hits me like a sexual meteor, nearly splintering my control as the need for the release I know only he can give me burns through my nether regions.

Oleksi leans in and kisses my neck. I close my eyes and breathe as he starts to rub me through my jeans, and I can feel myself getting juicier as my arousal spikes.

“Does that feel good, baby?” he whispers in my ear, blowing hot air into it and sending goosebumps down my body, and turning my nipples into tight wanton pebbles. “Is your little pussy hungry for me?”

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