Page 18 of Eternal
And right now, I’m standing in the alley behind Cyrille’s building.
He was dead in minutes. And he deserved it, even if it wasn’t for the Bratva.
Using women as exchange deals already sealed his destiny for me. I think I’d kill him even if it wasn’t the mission, to be honest.
Dead. Gutted like the trash he was, and it felt cleaner, smoother, than I’d expected.
I light up, watching the cigarette flare as I take a slow, deep drag, letting the smoke slide through my lungs. There’s something about inhaling poison that’s calming, like flirting with death simply to remind myself I’m still alive is actually working.
No cuts, no feelings, no breakdowns.
The phone buzzes, breaking my peace. I don’t have to look to know who it is.
Viktor.Always calling right on time.
“It’s done, Vik.” My voice comes out soft. “You should’ve seen it, he was practically begging. Kind of ruined half the fun, you know?”
On the other end, Vik is laughing. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“I don’t need an audience for every kill.” I flick ash off the end of the cigarette, leaning back against my bike as I stare out at the city lights. People hugging each other, smiling, running.Happy. “Besides, you might’ve gotten in my way.”
“You keep that attitude, and I might let you handle all the messes and social interactions here,” he retorts. “Kat’s here too, by the way. She’s been hysterically asking for you, waiting for you to wrap things up. She wants to know if you’re ready to call it a night and come back home.”
Home.
I can hear Katarina’s voice in the background, “If she thinks she can just go off playing the lone wolf, she’s got another thing coming, and that other thing is me.”
I can picture her eye-roll from here. “Tell her if she misses me, she could’ve called,” I say, smirking. “No need to send a jet to fetch me.”
Katarina chimes in. “Okay,Visha,I missed you. But seriously, come back this time, you’ve been outside of thecountry for months. Plus… there are plenty of trashy men in Vegas waiting for you.”
“Only because you asked so nicely,” I reply, taking one last drag before lifting my heel to smother the cigarette’s glow, then dropping it in the trash.
I can almost hear her grin through the phone. And then there’s Viktor, sighing loudly. “Okay, enough you two. Az, come back to the penthouse, and we’ll wait for you to take the jet home. Oh, and good job,Kroshka.”
Good job.Two words. And my heart immediately feels warmer. It’s absurd, this quiet desperation for a pat on the back.
I’ll never tell him, but in some twisted way, he’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a family. I’ll never tell him how his faith in me feels like oxygen. Viktor is the first to give me the one gift no one else would, a chance to turn my rage into purpose.
He sawme, believed me when I said I couldn’t go back to that house, and for that, a part of me will always feel like I owe him, and maybe that’s why I feel like I’d kill for him as much as I’d kill for myself.
“I’ll be there soon, I promise.” I murmur, hanging up.
I swing a leg over my bike, and I rev it to life. My legs shift, and the old scars make themselves known, on my thighs, covered in ink now.
Years of training, of blood and sweat, all to become this lifeless.
I have a list to get through. I’ll hunt down every last piece of this twisted game and make them pay for what happened.
The scars on my skin are still here, the blood isn’t anymore, and so, I learned to embrace it.
And now, I'm Bratva's little secret destructive weapon.
They know me asVoron.
5
DAMIR
