22. Ruin
Chapter 22
Ruin
There’s something moving in the woods.
While my brothers fight over the best kind of knife to stab Ted with—a carving knife, obviously—I walk across the back lawn to get a better look at the forest, ignoring the mountain for the trees. They sway in a cold breeze, rustling their long, spindly branches. The moon is waning, which means that the nights have been getting darker and colder with each one that passes. The closer we get to the winter solstice, the longer those nights become.
It’s easier to hide bodies in the winter. Fewer people exploring the outdoors means that there are less chances for people to catch you in the act of burning or burying a body. Yet my father has managed to expose every single kill he’s made, because he’s done a terrible job hiding them.
Or , more likely, he isn’t trying to keep them a secret.
Whoever dug a mass grave on the mountainside is either stupid… or hoping that someone notices.
Someone like me.
I hadn’t heard the news about the bodies; with our focus being within city lines, anything that our police scanners picked up that was past the line, we ignored. Or at least, I did. Thanatos has no reason to have missed that news, so he either thought it wasn’t important for us to know, or…
He was distracted.
I can hear their banter in my ear, even from this distance. Rage and Rebel are interrogating Ted to scare the shit out of him, while Thanatos keeps watch of our girl. That’s three men distracted, their focus for the evening being on making sure that Celia is both safe and having a good time.
Although my brothers could argue that I’ve also been distracted, I wasn’t spending my time counting cards at the blackjack table or staring at Celia’s ass from across the casino—I was actually working, keeping tabs on everyone who walked through the front doors. Only once the doors closed and no more guests were being admitted did I let my attention wander.
A shiver rolls down my spine, less from the cold and more from the memory of Celia’s skin bruising beautifully beneath my teeth. I thought that my knife was going to be my favorite tool to touch her with, but I was quickly proven wrong by the sounds she made as I sunk my teeth into her flesh. I lick the roof of my mouth, imagining the taste of her blood on my tongue, and shiver again.
I can’t wait for another taste.
But whatever is moving through the woods towards the bright lights of the gala is unhurried, taking its sweet time to get anywhere. It sways back and forth, unsteady on its feet or paws, as pale as the fading moon overhead. Only when it passes the tree line do I know what I’m looking at, and I quickly look around to check for event security. Of course, they’re focused on keeping the guests safe and secure inside , thinking that their cameras and motion detectors will keep them safe from rodents and fleas hopping across their lawns.
No one in their right mind would walk down the side of a mountain.
That’s how I know that the woman stumbling through the underbrush isn’t in her right mind—especially when I realize that not only is she barefoot, but she’s completely naked.
I pat my pockets, looking for my phone. Once I realize that I left it in Rage’s car, I frown and tap my earpiece with my fingertip. “Hey. Turn off her comms.”
Thanatos is the one who responds. “Why? What have you found?”
“Turn them off,” I repeat, stepping over an anthill on my way toward the naked woman. “Then get the doctor.” It was Than’s idea to have a medical team on standby in case any of us were injured tonight, and I’m sure he’s thrilled for them for actually be needed.
It doesn’t look like our father is going to show.
As I jog toward the trees, I keep an eye out for more people, not nearly satisfied enough when the shadows don’t move. Even the crickets are hiding, keeping their distance from whoever this woman is—or whoever is coming after her.
Predators don’t let their prey loose without a reason. If she isn’t dead yet, she will be as soon as she’s accomplished her purpose.
I need to find out what that is.
“Hey,” I call out, scrubbing at the scars on my cheek. I don’t have time to be self-conscious about them, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. The woman’s eyes are glossy and unfocused, her feet moving without rhyme or reason. She steps on rocks, snaps branches beneath her feet, stumbles into the uncut grass, and keeps moving forward despite the cuts and bruises all over her body. I spot burn scars on her arms, recently made, which make my own itch. “Hey,” I try again, clapping my hands. “Wake up.”
There’s at least a half mile between the gala and the forest, and I carry the woman the rest of the way back, careful to check that she’s still breathing for the entire trip. She doesn’t blink and doesn’t speak, her lips hinging open and back shut every few seconds, her eyelids fluttering without closing.
Thanatos meets me at the side of the venue, a scowl on his face as he checks his phone. Guests are required to check theirs at the door, yet he managed to keep it. Sensing my question, he shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter. Where did you find her?” Stepping forward, he brushes the raven hair from her eyes and curses, ushering me through an unguarded door. “Sara, hey, hold on. We’ve got a doctor. Stay with us.”
“This is Sara?”
He clenches his jaw. “Yeah, that’s her.”
What was she doing outside?
We check for security before darting ahead toward our team’s setup on the far end of the lot, the two of us keeping to the shadows beside the building to avoid detection. A few cameras are mounted overhead, so we’ll have to remember to scrub the evidence and bribe whoever watches the feed.
“Do you think it was him?” I ask, ignoring the dread swirling in my gut. If it wasn’t our father, then there’s another cruel bastard kidnapping and murdering people in our area. Part of keeping bratva activities under the radar is monitoring your territory and its occupants; something as big as this going unchecked spells bad news for the Baranovas. “She’s really pale.”
Thanatos glances over his shoulder at her, his scowl deepening. “Yeah, she is. Check for track marks.”
I angle our bodies so that the light spilling from a nearby balcony falls across the girl in my arms, and we work together to check her for marks, finding over a dozen along her arms and between her fingers.
Scrubbing a hand through his salt and pepper hair, my elder brother frowns as he stares at Sara’s limp body. “Sakovia didn’t answer his phone, but Serena says they’re ready at the van. C’mon. We don’t have much time.”
My attention wavers as I stare at Sara. She looks close to a corpse with sunken eyes and dry, cracked lips. My concern doesn’t linger with the girl, however, quickly switching targets as Celia’s bright smile flashes in my mind. “How is Celia? Did she hear anything?” If she sees Sara like this, I’m not sure how she’ll react. Relieved that we found her? Horrified at the state she’s in? Or angry and ready for blood? It’s hard to know, but my body burns at the prospect of seeing it hit her all at once. Which one will dominate—the desire for revenge or the anguish from the loss of life?
We both fall silent as we cross the final stretch of lawn to our destination. I listen to what our brothers and Celia are up to now. Her microphone has been off since Thanatos disconnected her earpiece from his cell phone, but Rage and Rebel’s voices are clear. They’re trying to convince her to watch one of the shows. I can hear her asking for Thanatos in the background.
It must be killing him to ignore her.
“He was standing right there, and then all of a sudden, he looked at me and… ran off.”
“Maybe he had to pee really badly.”
Thanatos visibly deflates at Rebel’s suggestion.
“Stop lying to me. I know that something is wrong.”
“I’m not lying,” Rebel says unconvincingly, his voice lilting at the end. He never was a good liar.
She turns her ire onto Rage. “My earbud isn’t working. What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.” At least Rage can be honest about that. “Eat your salmon.”
“Tell me where Thanatos and Ruin are.”
The corners of my mouth curve into a smile. Hearing my name on Celia’s lips is quickly going to become a favorite of mine.
Once we reach the van, Than knocks loudly on the side window. “Open up.”
Using a cargo van as a mobile trauma station was Than’s idea, but Ezra was the one who approved the setup. It’s been gutted from top to bottom, save the two seats in the front, in order to transform into a discreet ambulance, complete with a stretcher, a dozen types of IVs, a monitor for displaying X-rays and vitals, a mini fridge filled with blood and other medical supplies, and a bunch of other shit I can’t name. All I need to know is that it’ll work.
I just didn’t expect to need it so soon.
The sliding door on the side swings open, revealing a red-faced Wren Sakovia. He wipes sweat from his brow before gesturing for Thanatos to bring Sara forward.
I raise an eyebrow at the flush across his assistant’s cheeks. Do they not know how to run the AC?
While Sakovia checks Sara’s vitals, his assistant notices my stare and gives it right back, giving me a once-over from head to foot. “You look good, considering.”
She seems familiar.
It takes me a moment to piece together where I know her from, finally settling on a memory of her tending to my burns during my latest stint in The Box. I grunt, not really caring for her opinion. I feel fine. Achey, with some skin irritation from the net scraping against my burns and reopening a few wounds, but good overall.
This is the best I’ve ever felt in my life.
Considering.
When the medic—Serena, I realize, spotting the embroidered name on a duffel bag hanging over the back of the front passenger seat—sticks an IV into Sara’s arm, College Girl doesn’t even flinch. “I didn’t numb the area,” Sara mutters to herself. “What’s she on? Where did you find her?”
“In the woods.”
“What?” Serena’s eyebrows pinch together. “What the hell was she doing in the woods?” With a shake of her head, she dismisses her own question. “Never mind. Do you know what drugs she’s been given?”
“Not a clue.”
Serena glares at me, like it’s my fault that she’s been shot up with an unidentified street drug. “Then you’re dismissed.” She slams the sliding door shut, leaving me staring at my reflection in the van’s shiny black paint job. I don’t recognize much beyond pale, white blob , and I’m immediately thinking of Sara again—the most recent pale, white blob that may or may not survive. Not that anyone asked for my opinion, but I have little hope that Sara will pull through. If there’s one thing I’m familiar with, it’s death. And this girl?
She’s been marked for the grave. Once someone is marked, there’s nothing mortals can do to keep them alive.
I draw in a deep breath and stare up at the clouds obscuring the half moon, painting a hazy glow in the night sky. The mountain scape lingers just below, a row of sharp teeth capped in white, glowing brighter than the clouds as the moonlight blankets the snow.
What happens next with Sara is out of our hands.
But what happens out here, in these woods, on this mountain…
With our father.
…is in our hands. I know exactly what I’ll do when I find him. I can feel his presence in my veins, like a sickness that latches on and won’t let go until you die. He hooked his claws into Sara and made her sick, too, infecting an innocent girl with his madness.
No one else has to die by his hand.
Loose gravel crunches under my boots as I turn away from the van and walk towards the woods. Thanatos calls out to me from behind, but it’s easy to ignore him. All of the voices in my head—the ones ringing in my ears, the man shouting at my back, and those surfacing from the depths of my mind—blur together until all I hear is static.
There’s a specific feeling that arises when I make the decision to kill someone. It’s a physical sensation—a tug in the back of my skull that pulls and pulls and pulls until the space behind my eyes begins to ache, my teeth feel like they’re being pushed back into my gums, and every bone in my body feels the pressure to snap. Being near Celia has lessened the tension so that I can breathe without that feeling getting in the way.
But right now, what I need most is to let that feeling in.
To let it guide me across the asphalt, beneath the arcing branches of an unkempt forest, and into the flurries of snow turning black in the shadows.
I’m going to kill my father before he hurts anyone else.
Celia’s voice suddenly cuts through the noise in my head, the image of her wide, sparkling eyes paired with the sound of her bubbling laughter as we tumble together on the trapeze net. I turn to the mountain and leave the sound of Celia’s voice behind, following the general direction that Sara appeared from moments ago. I’m looking for a path that Sara might have taken down, but of course, I find none, the tracks invisible in the dark. If she descended the mountain alone, it’s a miracle that she made it in one piece.
Unless she didn’t travel alone.
Unless someone stripped her naked only for the final stretch.
Unless that someone is still here, lurking in the shadows, waiting for his bait to lure in a catch.
A twig snaps behind me, and I spin around to face the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun.
My blood runs cold at the wicked smile glowing in the moonlight, the man’s eyes a similar shade to mine, his hair as unkempt as Emil’s, his muscle mass matching Nikolai’s, and his voice as deep as Thanatos’s. “Let’s go for a walk.” His eyes flash silver in the moonlight. “ Yuri .”