Page 107 of Born into Madness
I know she’s right, but I still glance over her head to our dad. He nods, letting me know he’ll watch over Mia.
“I saw that,” she says.
“You’re my daughter, little witch, of course I’m watching your back.” He checks his watch and looks at me. “Thirty seconds. Watch your ass, Sasha.”
I tighten my grip on my knife and start walking to the front door. I’m making no attempt to sneak in. The house is surrounded, and all access to the outside world has been cut off. Whoever’s in here is trapped and waiting to be killed. They just don’t know it yet. I see the others run around the house so they can barge in the back while I kick my way in from the front.
As soon as I hear my dad say it’s time, I lift my foot and kick the door hard enough to bust it right open. When I cross the threshold, something inside me switches off. Whatever humanity I had is gone. The loud blaring of a TV has me turning my head to the right, and when I see the living room filled with young men, my mouth twitches at the corner.
“Who the fuck are you?” the guy closest to me asks. He stands up and puffs out his chest, but I don’t give a fuck what position he plays on the football team, he’s no match for me. I thrust my knife up through his chin and into his head before he can threaten to kick my ass.
“Holy shit!” one of the guys screams, but it’s cut off when Mia stabs him in the gut before punching him in the nose and knocking him on his ass. I take out one of the others with a deep slice from ear to ear that nearly decapitates him. Blood sprays over me, and when I wipe it from my eyes, I see my dad finishing off the last man in the room.
My Uncle Vitaly pokes his head in the room and looks around at the three of us. “Our family is fucking insane,” he mutters before walking past to check out another spot.
I follow him and then turn to the right to check another room. As soon as I see movement out of the corner of my eye, my instincts take over. The man doesn’t get far, and his scream is cut off when I shove my blade into his spine. I don’t have time to make his pain last, so I pull the knife out and slam it into the side of his neck before rocking back and forth so everything is shredded and there’s no chance he won’t bleed out.
Without waiting for his last breath, I stand back up and start heading for the stairs. I see Luka and Val disappear into the kitchen while Mia and my dad head down the hall to check the rest of the first floor before joining me. The carpet on the stairs is old and stained, and my vision begins to narrow as I think about Cyn’s perfect skin touching this disgusting, germ-infested place.
Blood drips from my knife and hands, leaving a trail behind me, and when I hit the top of the stairs, I’m met with a long hallway. Closed doors are on either side, so I take the first one and barge in. The young woman lying on the dirty mattress screams and curls into a ball. She’s not Cyn, so I leave and hit the next room. The woman in this one immediately starts beggingme for help, but I ignore her, too, and keep checking. The third door I open is different. The first thing I see is a man’s ass. He’s rearing back, about to thrust into whoever is beneath him, and for one terrifying moment I think it’s Cyn.
I lunge across the small room and fist his hair as I stab him through the back, piercing his heart as I yank him further from the bed and off the woman beneath him. Twisting the knife, I make his yells turn to garbled wails and then finally nothing but pained gasps. My eyes run over the naked woman beneath him, but it takes several seconds for me to convince myself it’s not Cyn. I do recognize her, though.
“Oh my god,” Brittney cries, trying to cover herself up. “Please don’t hurt me.”
When the body falls to the ground, my head jerks back to her when she says, “Sasha? Is that you?”
“Where’s Cyn?” I ask, already stepping back to the door.
“I don’t know. You can’t leave me here!” she yells, but I’m already out the door and onto the next one.
There’s only one room left. I’m not sure what I’ll do if she’s not in it.
I stop in front of the door, hearing my family come up the stairs behind me. When I turn the doorknob, I hear Cyn’s voice filter into the hall. Instead of her usual sweet tone, it’s shaky and filled with terror. I’ve never heard her sound so scared, not even on the night she watched me kill three men.
As soon as I open the door and see her pressed against the wall by some fucker who’s pawing at her shirt, I officially lose control.
Chapter 18
Cynthia
“Get off me!” I scream the words at Ben, but he doesn’t care that I don’t want this. He just seems annoyed that I’m fighting back.
“Calm the fuck down,” he yells at me, “or I’ll force you to drink more.”
He’d been so pissed when he opened up his trunk and realized I was awake. I’d gotten lucky and only mixed up Sav’s drink with mine at the very end. I’d drank enough to make me feel groggy and put me out for a few minutes, but I can tell it’s starting to wear off. I’m still sluggish and uncoordinated, but I’m awake, and that means I can fight back, even if it is turning out to be more sad than anything else. My mind instantly goes to Sasha and the graceful way he ends lives. Ben would already be in pieces on the floor if he were here. God, he’s going to be so pissed when he finds out I’ve been taken.
I smile at the thought, earning me a pissed-off scowl from Ben.
“What the fuck are you smiling about?”
A laugh escapes and I blame it on the Rohypnol that’s still running through my system. I feel slightly drunk, and it’s removing the filter from my words. I’d usually be knee deep in apanic attack right now, but instead I’m smiling at the thought of what Sasha is going to do to this stupid fuck.
“He’s going to kill you for this,” I say. “You’re so fucking dead, Ben.”
He glares at me while he pushes my back against the wall and leans in close. He’s not nearly as tall as Sasha, so he doesn’t have to bend down as much to get in my face.
“You shouldn’t even be here,” he hisses at me. “It should be Savanna, and if you hadn’t fucked everything up, it would be.”
