49. VANYA

“Why did you do it, Vanya?” she cried. “Why did you let him kill me?”

I shook my head and tried to explain things to her, but no matter how hard I tried, the words just wouldn’t escape.

My eyes dropped to her stomach. Her skin was suddenly being ripped open, and Charlene was clutching at the organs that were threatening to spill out. Blood pooled at her feet, soaking the carpet.

She made a strange sound, which made my eyes snap back up to hers, but they instantly dropped to her mouth. Her lips were being sewed shut as I watched.

Stitch after stitch.

Then everything suddenly went black. It only lasted for a few seconds before lights suddenly blinded me. I raised my hand and shielded my eyes as much as I could. Slowly, the lights dimmed until I could see clearly.

Charlene stood a few feet away, her tear-filled eyes accusing. Behind her, a man stood with his face hidden in the shadows. He laughed as he stepped forward, closer and closer to her. His laughter was cut off abruptly as he plunged a knife through her chest.

“No,” I screamed, reaching for her, but unable to help.

***

My body jerked upright in bed, the scream that had risen in my throat dying down to a whimper when I realized where I was.

I leaned forward and raised shaky hands to push the sweaty hair from my face. Turning my head, I stared at the empty space on the bed next to me.

Ezra had climbed into bed with me and. Devrim had promised that he would join us after his shower, but there was no sign of him ever climbing into bed.

Swallowing, I stood on shaky legs and made my way to the door.

The killer had threatened them. What if he goes through with his threat? What if Devrim and Obsidian are in danger?  What if he already got to them?

With my panic increasing, I hurried down the hall towards Devrim’s room, but found it empty. A search of Ezra’s room revealed the same, so I hurried downstairs, thinking that they might be in the kitchen or the living room.

There was no one in the living room, but an empty glass stood on the coffee table. So they had been here, but where were they? They wouldn’t leave me alone after what just happened, would they? Unless they were out searching for Betsy, but then I would have been informed about them leaving.

The soft click of a door closing snapped me out of my thoughts.

I stayed rooted to my spot by the end of the stairs and listened to the approaching footsteps. Not even a second later, someone walked right past me and entered the kitchen. He walked straight to the fridge, but lingered in front of it for a few seconds before he opened the door.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it sure as hell wasn’t what I saw.

My gasp made his head snap in my direction.

The fridge door slammed shut, leaving us in the dark again.

“Vanya…” Devrim swallowed loudly. “W-where’s Ezra?”

“I don’t know.”  I moved forward until I reached him and pulled the fridge door open again. “What happened?” I breathed.

“Nothing.” He tried to step into the dark, but I reached out to grip his arms.

My eyes darted over his chest, taking in the red marks covering his skin from his neck down to the band of his gym shorts. There were bruises too, some dark blue and others in ugly yellow.

I reached out with a shaky hand and traced one red mark with my fingertip.

Devrim gripped my wrist and pulled my hand away.

“Who hurt you?” I asked him. “Don’t tell me that this is nothing, Devrim.”

He pursed his lips and pushed the fridge closed before he moved away. I followed, blocking his exit.

“You are not leaving this kitchen until you－”

“Vanya,” he interrupted. “I promise you that I’m fine.”

“You’re hurt.”

“Who’s hurt?” Obsidian questioned as he entered the kitchen.

“Nobody,” Devrim answered before I could utter a word. “Are you hungry?” he directed the question towards me.

I shook my head. Eating was the last thing on my mind. “Is there any news on Betsy?”

“Not yet, but everybody is looking for her.” He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me against him.

For a moment, my body relaxed against his until I remembered the cuts and bruises on his chest. Tilting my head back, I waited until I knew he was looking at me.

“Please tell me who did this to you,” I pleaded.

Devrim swallowed loudly. “Remember… earlier what Obsidian said to you?”

He said a lot of things to me… including the fact that he didn’t want me as a mate because I was too weak.

“I want to make you bleed,” Obsidian said. “I want to hurt you while I fuck you.”

My eyes widened when everything clicked together. He wanted…

I stumbled away from Devrim with a hand pressed to my mouth. Obsidian was the one who bruised him and cut him.

“Look, it’s not what you’re thinking, Vanya.” Devrim reached out, but I moved away and turned my attention to Obsidian.

I could just make out his silhouette in the dark. He stood leaning against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed over his chest as he watched us.

Other than refreshing my memory, he had been surprisingly silent.

Feeling shaky, I stumbled into the living room and sank down on the nearest couch. Images flashed through my mind. Obsidian torturing the man, Obsidian licking the man’s blood from his knife, getting turned on by what he was doing.

He hurt Devrim.

He tortured Devrim… not to the same extend as he had tortured that man, but he still hurt him and got off on it.

“Vanya,” Devrim said softly as he crouched in front of me. “He didn’t hurt me the way you’re thinking.”

“He tortured that man,” I breathed. “He cut him up and he liked it.”

“I know.” He reached out and took hold of my hands, gripping them between his, he moved a few inches closer. “I know what you saw, I know that it scares you and I know that this will be hard for you to understand, but I need you to listen to me before you make any accusations towards Obsidian.”

I nodded.

“Obsidian likes… inflicting pain. It’s called sadism. What we did is completely consensual. I asked him to show me...” Devrim swallowed loudly. “I… it… I－”

“He loves it when I make him bleed,” Obsidian interrupted. “Devrim is a masochist. He likes the pain I give him.”

“Is it true?” I asked Devrim.

“Yes. I like it when he uses his knives on me. I fucking love the pain just as much as he loves inflicting it.” Devrim leaned closer. “You understand, don’t you, Vanya? It wasn’t like what you saw with that man. I gave him permission to hurt me.”

It was hard to wrap my head around it. How can someone enjoy being hurt? Consensual. Devrim asked him to hurt him, but does that mean that I was just supposed to accept it? What if things got out of hand? What if Obsidian got so caught up in causing the pain that he forgot who he was hurting?

“Vanya?” There was a pleading note in his voice.

“I need to think,” I muttered as I stood. “Just… just let me think.”

Walking over to the kitchen sink, I filled a glass with some cold water and took a few sips.

I didn’t understand it and I knew that I wasn’t going to make sense of it in one night, but I also knew that disapproving of it wasn’t going to make them stop. Obsidian and Devrim were building their own relationship and it was clear that they were both into the same stuff which made me happy, because it meant that they had something in common.

If I had to be honest, it made me a little jealous.

I wanted to bond with Obsidian too. I wanted our relationship to be built on something other than senseless fucking.

But the thing they had going scared me.

Lowering the glass, I stared down at the contents in the sink. I grabbed the first thing that would work as a weapon and clutched it tightly in my hand as I turned my attention to Obsidian.

After blowing out a shaky breath, I closed the space between us and pressed the item against his neck. I had to stand on my tip-toes to get my face as close to his as I could which sadly didn’t do much to make me appear threatening.

“Vanya, what－”

“You scare me,” I told Obsidian. “I’m trying not to judge too much because I don’t really know you and I might not truly understand the extend of what this is you have going on between the two of you”－I pressed the item tighter to his skin as I leaned closer－ “I swear to god, if you hurt Devrim in any way, I’m going to cut off your balls and feed it to the birds.”