72. Dimitri
DIMITRI
The minutes ticked by, each one as long as a lifetime.
Memories flitted through my mind like the world’s most horrifying movie.
My mama’s body, lying bloody and facedown on the concrete floor.
The memories distorted into waking nightmares.
Mama’s golden hair turned dark, and she became Sienna.
Blood spilled from her fingertips, her chest, her stomach.
I reached out to her, but couldn’t reach.
When I pulled my hands back, they were drenched in red.
I clenched my jaw against the surge of nausea as I tried to stay in the present. Sienna needed me to be focused.
I tried calling her again. Nothing.
Sergey drove down the winding country roads at double the speed limit, but it wasn’t fast enough.
Please be okay, baby. I can’t live in a world without you.
He slowed just before the driveway and turned the headlights off. The crunch of the gravel would give us away, but I didn’t care. If the Souleater was here, let him fucking come. I was ready for him, and this time, there would be nothing left of his mangled body to resurrect.
My eyes strained as I peered out the window. The front door was open and the porch light was on, casting light onto the front lawn where the shadowy forms of three bodies lay.
I was out of the car before I’d made a conscious decision to move.
“Lights on!” I shouted to Sergey as I sprinted across the grass. One of the shadowy forms moved, a vicious snarl cutting through the night air.
The headlights flared, illuminating Vovk standing over Sienna’s and Maxim’s bodies.
“No. No!” I crashed to my knees beside them. “Sienna!”
“Dimi.” She choked on a sob and it was the best fucking sound I’d ever heard because it meant she was alive. “You’re here.”
“I’m here, baby. I’m here and I’m never leaving you again. What happened? Are you hurt?” She was covered in blood, her hands bright red.
“Not my blood. Maxim. Check Maxim.”
An agonized, strangled sound escaped me at the blood drenching Maxim’s front.
The thud of footsteps grew closer and then Aleksei crashed onto his knees beside me. “Maksyusha, no. No, no, no,” he cried.
“I’m sorry. I tried,” Sienna cried.
“Prosnis, Maksyusha,” Aleksei whispered. “Ya tebya lyublyu. Pozhaluysta, prosnis.” Wake up. I love you. Please, wake up.
Sergey shoved Aleksei to the side and tore off Maxim’s shirt. “Gunshot wound, but it’s clotted.” He leaned down, eyes fixed on Maxim’s chest. “Still breathing. We have to get to the hospital.”
Sienna let out a cry of relief as Aleksei and Sergey carefully lifted my best friend’s unconscious body.
“Aleksei, take Ilya with you to the hospital. Sergey, I need you here,” I barked, refusing to take my eyes off of Sienna. “You sure you’re not hurt?”
“No, I—” Her words cut off with a gasp and then she let out a horrific scream that would become fodder for my nightmares.
Her back arched and hands clutched the ground as Vovk howled and I sat there, helpless to do anything.
“I’m in labor,” she panted, her face contorting with pain.
“Something’s wrong. Baby’s coming too fast.”
“It’s okay. We’ll take you to the hospital and everything will be fine.”
She shook her head and cried out. The tendons in her neck strained as she threw her head back in pain.
Sergey returned. “Anatoly and Lev are checking the perimeter. What do you need?”
“She’s in labor. Help me stabilize her as I pick her up.” I lifted her in my arms, and she screamed. “It’s okay. Everything will be okay,” I repeated, though I doubted my frantic voice was soothing.
Sergey ran ahead to open the car door, but Sienna clutched my shoulders, her fingers digging in hard enough to draw blood. “No. I need—” Her words broke off with a cry. When she’d regained her breath, she said, “Shower. Hot water. Please.”
I froze, locking eyes with Sergey. I couldn’t think of two people less equipped to handle this situation than us.
“The faster we get to the hospital—” Sergey started, but Sienna was already shaking her head.
“No. I can’t.”
She let out another scream, and I fucking felt the contraction ripple through her stomach.
“Anatoly says the house is clear,” Sergey said.
Okay. Okay. Maybe I could put her in the shower to ease the pain and then we could go to the hospital. Foolish or not, I couldn’t deny my wife.
I headed towards the front door. Vovk followed closely as I carried Sienna inside and down the hall to the bathroom.
The room was cramped, the tub way too small, and I wished we were back home.
..with phone reception and doctors and people who actually knew what the fuck they were doing.
The shower heated while I stripped her clothes off as gently as I could, each one of her screams like a dagger to my heart.
I lifted her into the tub and pulled her between my legs so her back was to my chest and the spray landed on her belly.
Her cries quieted and the air was filled with her labored breaths.
“I’m so sorry, malyshka.” I kissed the top of her head, sending out a silent prayer to the universe.
Please don’t let her die. Take me instead.
Helplessness unlike anything I’d felt since I was a ten-year-old boy in that warehouse, watching the light fade from Mama’s eyes, crashed over me.
Tears streamed down my face just as they’d done that day twenty-five years ago… the last time I’d cried.
“I’m so fucking sorry for not keeping you safe.”
Her head lolled against my chest. “You’re here now.”
“I’m never leaving you again.”
Her ability to answer was cut off by another agonized scream as her belly rippled and her muscles seized.
Vovk let out a howl beside the tub. I snapped at him to be quiet but reared back when I saw him for the first time in the light.
His face and chest were covered with blood.
Maxim’s? My vision swam when I looked down to see Sienna’s hands covered with it.
No. My wife’s hands should never be tainted like this.
My fault.
My fucking fault for not protecting her.
My heart pounded as I took a washcloth and gently scrubbed it off. The water ran red as she let out another excruciating scream.
“My back,” she cried out. “Hurts.”
Okay. This I could do. I dug my thumbs into her low back and her breath hitched.
“I’ve got you, baby. I’m right here. Fuck, I’d take the pain away if I could. I’d fucking take it all away.”
Sergey knocked on the doorframe, his eyes pointedly staring at the ceiling. “Pakhan?”
I wanted to shoot him for intruding while Sienna was this vulnerable. “Close your fucking eyes,” I barked. “What is it?”
“We found the Souleater’s body,” he said in Russian. “It’s in the back yard.”
My heart fucking stopped beating and I involuntarily tightened my hold around Sienna. She whined and pushed at my arms. I instantly loosened my hold.
“Dead? How? Are you sure?”
“He looked like he was fucking mauled.”
I turned my head to the wolf resting his head on the side of the tub.
“Are you talking about the Souleater?” Sienna asked weakly.
“Yes, baby.”
“He’s gone. Vovk and I took care of him.” Her hair matted to the side of her face while her back arched with pain. “I made sure he was really dead this time.”
My mouth gaped as my entire world shifted because the woman in my hands, my beautiful, incredible, stunning wife, had rid the world of the monster who had haunted my nightmares all of these years.