Chapter 5
Rei Kurosaki
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t breathe.
The memory crushed into me, dragging me back one year.
The rain had been pouring so hard that night. I remembered the way his hands gripped the steering wheel as the car started to skid.
“Dad…”
The tires weren’t responding.
I could still hear the sound, the awful screech of rubber losing its grip on the road.
Everything happened so fast.
One moment, I was screaming. The next, my dad was throwing himself across the seat.
His body covered mine just before the impact.
I blinked hard, gasping, and the memory shattered. I was back in the present, tears stinging the corners of my eyes.
I refused to let them fall.
Not in front of him.
I forced my hands to stop shaking, wiped my face roughly with my sleeve, and got out of the car.
We were in the middle of fucking nowhere, a dense forest stretching out in every direction, and it was starting to get dark because the sun was setting.
It was eerie as hell.
The kind of place where people vanished and no one ever found the body.
Dimitri stood a few feet away, watching me with those arctic blue eyes that saw too much. His uniform jacket was open, revealing the hard lines of muscle underneath.
He looked completely at ease, like dragging someone into the woods was just another Tuesday for him, and it probably was.
“Why did you bring me here?” My voice came out rougher than I wanted, but I forced myself to hold his stare. “Are you planning to kill me?”
I said it with sarcasm. But then the truth hit me.
This was Dimitri Morozov. One of the Void Kings. He had probably killed people. For less.
He smiled. That scary smile.
“Oh, little fairy,” he said with his Russian accent. “Killing you would be too easy. Where is the fun in that?”
Before I could answer, he reached back and pulled out a gun. I stepped back fast.
Holy fuck.
Was he really going to kill me?
Dimitri saw my face and laughed. He checked the gun like it was a toy. “I am a little out of practice, you see.”
My blood went cold.
“What are you talking about?”
He stepped closer. Gun loose at his side, but I knew he could move fast.
“This is how it will go, Rei. You are going to run.”
He pointed the gun at the trees. Then back at me.
He winked like this was a game between lovers.
“And I am going to hunt you.”
I stepped back more. Leaves crunched under my boots, my heart beating loudly in my ears.
“You’re insane. This isn’t funny.”
“Look,” I said quickly, hands raised slightly, trying to sound reasonable even though my voice was shaking. “I’m sorry, okay?”
I wasn’t.
“I didn’t mean to kick you. Well, I did, but you wouldn’t let me go. You had your hand in my hair, and it wasn’t exactly nice of you either. Can we just… talk about this like normal people?”
Dimitri clicked his tongue, shaking his head slowly.
That smile never left his face.
“You’re running out of time.”
I swallowed hard. My mind raced for anything else to say, anything that might stop this madness.
“Dimitri—”
He lifted the gun, aiming it somewhere just past my shoulder. The click of the safety disengaging sounded like a gunshot already.
“I am giving you a head start, love.”
I opened my mouth to argue, to curse him - whatever might work - but the look in his eyes told me he was serious.
Deadly serious.
The sun disappeared completely behind the trees, plunging the forest into darkness.
So I turned and ran.
***
Branches hit my face and arms as I pushed through the bushes, and my heart pounded so hard it hurt while I ran with no idea where I was going, deeper into the woods and away from him. Tears made my eyes blurry, but I kept going anyway.
The memory stayed like poison in my head, showing me my dad’s broken body, the smell of blood, and the silence after.
I could not die here, not like this.
Behind me I heard him in the trees.
“Better run faster, little fairy. I’m feeling generous tonight… but that can change.”
His footsteps echoed somewhere in the distance. He wasn’t even rushing.
He knew he didn’t have to. The bastard was enjoying this.
Hunting me.
I pushed harder even though my legs burned and my lungs hurt, and I knew with a sick feeling that I was completely at his mercy. The worst part was that some twisted part of me knew this was only the start of whatever sick game Dimitri had planned for me.
I did not know how long I ran, whether it was minutes or hours, but my legs hurt and I could not stop. Gunshots cracked behind me, one after another.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Each one rang so close I felt the air displace near my ear, my shoulder, my thigh. They kept missing, but barely. The sound was deafening up close, nothing like the distant pops I’d heard in movies.
These were real. Meant for me.
I should have been pissing myself. I hated guns. I hated everything they represented. But right now, my heart was hammering so hard it might explode, and underneath the terror there was this twisted, fucked-up sense of… safety?
Yeah. I knew how insane that sounded. I was being hunted through the woods by a goddamn mafia heir, bullets flying around me, and part of me thought I was safe.
But this was Dimitri Morozov.
The bastard was legendary with a gun. They said he never missed. Not once.
The Void Kings didn’t leave loose ends, and Dimitri was their deadliest weapon. If he wanted me dead, I’d already have a bullet in the back of my skull.
These shots were deliberate.
One whistled right past my left ear, close enough to make my hair flutter. Another kicked up dirt just inches from my foot.
He was playing with me. Toying with his prey.
And it was thrilling.
God, something was seriously wrong with me.
I pushed harder and ignored the burn in my muscles, even though my uniform was ripped in places and the black flower was gone from my hair, probably stepped on somewhere behind me.
Sweat ran down my back until I saw it. The black car parked right where we started on the side of the empty road through the woods. I had been running in circles, and he had led me right back here like a dog on a leash.
I felt relief because if I reached the car maybe this game would end, so I used all I had left and ran faster with my eyes locked on the vehicle. A hand came out from the dark and grabbed my hair hard.
“Fuck!” I hissed as pain exploded in my head and I stopped fast, my back hitting a hard chest that was Dimitri’s, of course.
What was it with this asshole and grabbing my hair every single time?
I winced and tried to twist away, but his grip was like iron, and before I could curse him, something cold pressed under my chin and forced my head back.
I froze while Dimitri’s breath was hot on my ear and his body stayed pressed tight against my back.
“You are not going to shoot me,” I said, trying to sound brave even though maybe I should have stopped doing that since he had a gun under my jaw.
He laughed, and that scary smile was in his voice even if I could not see it.
“Ah? How are you so sure, little fairy?”
I swallowed hard while the gun barrel dug into my skin.
“If you wanted me dead, you would’ve done it already. You’ve been playing with me this whole time.”
Dimitri hummed thoughtfully, like he was actually considering my words. His free hand stayed fisted in my hair, keeping me pinned against him.
“Smart mouth. I like that.”
He slowly moved the gun away from under my chin, and I almost relaxed until I felt the barrel slide lower, down my throat and over my collarbone. My eyes widened.
“What the fuck are you—”
The gun kept going until it pressed against my chest through my thin shirt and dragged over one nipple, the metal making it hard against my will.
I gasped and tried to jerk away, but his hand in my hair pulled me back harder and forced me to arch against him.
“Now, now,” he murmured. “Stay still. Wouldn’t want this to go off accidentally, would we?”
My breathing stuttered.
“You are sick. Get that thing away from me.”
Dimitri pressed the barrel firmer on my nipple while he circled it.
“Am I?”
He pinched the hard bud through the shirt with the edge of the gun, and it sent a shock straight to my dick. I bit back a groan because I hated how my body reacted. He leaned closer until his lips touched my ear.
“You ran so pretty for me. Did you like it, knowing I could shoot you anytime but chose not to instead?”
The barrel went lower and pressed against the growing bulge in my pants while I sucked in air.
“Fuck—Dimitri—”
“Say it again,” he demanded. “My name.”
I shook my head, but his grip tightened painfully in my hair, forcing me to stay exposed.
The gun rubbed slowly over my cock through my pants, the pressure just enough to make me throb traitorously.
“You’re hard,” he observed, conversationally. “Does being hunted by me turn you on, Rei? Does knowing I own your life right now make your dick leak like a desperate slut?”
“Shut up,” I hissed, cheeks burning. But my hips jerked again, chasing the friction despite myself. “You’re a twisted bastard.”
Dimitri chuckled darkly, rewarding me by pressing the gun firmer against my aching cock, stroking it up and down with the barrel. “Twisted? Maybe. But you’re the one getting off on it. Feel that? Your cock is begging for attention. Bet you’d come so fast if I kept playing with you like this.”
I tried to pull away again, but it was useless. He was too strong.
“Please…” The word slipped out before I could stop it. I didn’t even know what I was begging for, for him to stop, or for more.
“Please what?” he taunted, nipping at my earlobe. “Please stop? Or please make you come?”
I groaned, hating how my body responded to his crude words.
The forest was silent around us.
No one was coming to save me.
No one even knew I was here.
Dimitri suddenly spun me around to face him. The gun was now pressed against my stomach, barrel pointing down toward my crotch.
“On your knees,” he ordered. “Now.”
I stared up at him.
“Fuck you.”
His hand shot out, gripping my jaw. “Wrong answer.”
The pressure of the gun against my stomach increased.
I had no choice.
My legs gave out, and I sank down into the dirt and leaves, knees hitting the ground. Dimitri towered over me like a god of violence, his broad frame blocking out what little moonlight filtered through the trees.
He tapped the wet barrel of the gun against my swollen lips.
“Open that smart mouth.”
When I hesitated, he grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back.
“Open.”
I parted my lips. Then he pushed the gun all the way to the back of my throat. Saliva spilled from the corners of my mouth, dripping down my chin onto my torn uniform shirt.
My eyes watered, but my cock was painfully hard, straining against my pants.
I was fucking sick.
Every time he pushed all the way in, I gagged but I couldn’t pull away.
His grip in my hair was merciless.
I hated him. I hated how my hips twitched forward helplessly. I hated how close I already was.
“Eyes on me,” he snapped, yanking my head back slightly so I was forced to look up at him while he used my mouth.
“That’s it. Cry harder for me.”
The degradation made me angry but also fucking horny.
Then the most embarrassing shit in my life happened.
My orgasm crashed into me without a single touch to my cock.
I moaned loudly around the gun, body shuddering violently as I came hard in my pants.
I wanted to die.
“You just came untouched, didn’t you? So eager to be owned.”
Humiliation burned through me hotter than the orgasm.
I tried to pull back, but he didn’t let me.
He kept the gun sliding in and out, smearing my spit everywhere as I trembled and gasped around it.
I glared up at him, but the fight was draining out of me.
Dimitri pulled the gun out just enough for me to suck in a desperate breath, strings of saliva connecting my lips to the barrel.
Then he thrust it back in, all the way.
The barrel hit the very back of my throat and stayed there.
I gagged violently, throat spasming wildly around the thick metal.
I couldn’t breathe.
My eyes bulged, hands flying up to grip his wrist.
Dimitri held it there, buried to the hilt, watching me.
“Your life is mine now, little fairy. You don’t get air unless I decide you do.”
Black spots danced across my vision.
My lungs screamed.
I squirmed, scratched, choked, desperate animalistic sounds escaping around the gun. My body convulsed, legs kicking uselessly in the dirt.
Tears poured down my face.
My vision tunneled.
The edges went black.
The last thing I saw was his face, beautiful and terrifying, before everything faded.
When I finally lost consciousness, slumping limp in his grip, he finally pulled the gun free.