The cheer of the crowd was so loud that it hurt my ears.
“Volkov!”
“Volkov!”
“Volkov!”
I stepped out into the arena, bright, blinding lights bearing down on me, making it difficult to see anything up in the stands. It was probably better that way. If I caught the faces of anyone up there, I’d hunt them down and kill them.
If I got out of there alive, that was.
My toes sunk into the sand with each step, my skin buzzing with excitement despite the danger I was about to face. Dimitri’s children took in the arena, his youngest, Illayana and Lukyan, looking around with wide eyes. It would be a sight to behold if you were seeing it for the first time, that was for sure.
There was only a moment to adjust to our new surroundings before that asswipe, Talon, appeared on the massive jumbotron suspended over our heads.
“Wow! Aren’t we excited?!”
The crowd cheered even louder, something I honestly didn’t think was possible.
“I present to you, the Volkovs, the most lethal and dangerous family in all of the mafia,” Talon continued. “You’ve all heard of the Bratva Butcher. Allow me to introduce you to his children. All cut from the same cloth as their murderous father. All born and raised to be ruthless, violent killers. And all brought here to you by me, to fight for their lives in what promises to be the show of a lifetime!”
I eyed Aleksandr, Nikolai, Lukyan and Illayana out of the corner of my eye, my interest officially peaked. Based on their behaviour down in the cells, I never would have chosen those specific words to describe them. Then again, the people I was looking at were suddenly not the same people I’d been locked up with for the past few days.
They were completely different. Gone were the squabbling siblings who fought and argued over every little detail, and in their place were hardened individuals, not a shred of playfulness or humanity on their faces.
Well, everyone except for the long-haired one. He raised his hand and waved to the roaring crowd with a smile on his face like he was some sort of superstar out on the red carpet, and they were his adoring fans. Then Aleksandr thumped him on the back of his head.
Ha.
“Now, I’m sure you’re all dying to know what we have planned for the family tonight.” Aren’t we all? “As these are not ordinary people, I thought something special was in order, something different. Something to even the odds a little bit and ensure there is a good, brutal fight for you all to see. So, tonight, it will be a fight to the death between the Volkovs and me. Or, more specifically, all of my men.”
Oh, shit.
The arena flooded with soldiers not even a second later, all coming in from different points of entry.
What in the Kill Bill fuckery is this?
“Back to back!” Dimitri ordered, and in unison, his children spun on the balls of their feet, forming a tight circle, standing shoulder to shoulder, facing out towards the small army descending upon us.
I stood outside of the circle with my jaw open. Who the fuck are these guys? The fucking military?
They conducted themselves like they were—on a battlefield, anyway. Moved as if they’d had some sort of formal training. It was like a flip of a switch. They went from being normal, everyday siblings who liked to roast the shit out of each other to serious, deadly soldiers in the blink of a fucking eye.
It was actually quite impressive. No wonder they were so notorious.
Dimitri clasped my arm, jolting me out of my daze. He moved me into position beside him as more of Talon’s soldiers entered the arena, so many that I couldn’t even fucking count. There had to be at least fifty of them. Probably more. Some of them carried weapons; knives, machete’s, axes, baseball bats. No guns that I could see, though.
How disappointing.
Fuck. Maybe I should have taken Talon up on his offer to switch partners.
“Aleksandr, with your sister.”
Dimitri 2.0 stepped back at his father’s command, moving next to Illayana.
Talon’s stupid, smug face was on the jumbotron, his arms spread out wide. “Have I delivered, or I have delivered?!” he roared.
The crowd cheered, stomping their feet and clapping their hands so hard and so loud that it felt as though the entire arena shook.
“Now, as this is a fight with the Volkov family, it’s only fair that all members of the family participate. And, would you look at that, we have another one right here!” The camera panned out, revealing Dominik.
He was instantly surrounded by soldiers. “What? What’s going on here?!” Dominik demanded, but no one answered him. The soldiers grasped him tightly, and he disappeared from the screen. A few moments later, he was thrown right into the arena with us.
Ohhh, karma is good.
“Father,” one of Dimitri’s son’s growled.
“Leave him. He’s mine,” Dimitri vowed. His gaze was locked on his brother like a lion sizing up its prey.
Talon continued to drone on and on, but I stopped listening. My eyes moved over the soldiers before me one by one, my adrenaline soaring. The thundering screams of the crowd fuelled the bloodlust pounding in my veins.
Never in my life had I been in a situation like that. I killed people for a living, sure. But that was through planning and subterfuge. Sneakiness and lies. I killed from the shadows. I embedded myself deep within people’s organisations, earned their trust, and then, when they least expected it, slit their throats.
Very rarely would I find myself in a position where I was forced to fight that many people at once.
That didn’t make me nervous, though. It made me excited. Exhilarated.
Finally, a fucking challenge.
It was going to be a complete free-for-all. No holds barred.
I couldn’t wait. I knew I was going to die; there were simply too many of them to even hope for survival.
At least I would be able to take a few of the fuckers with me, though. As many as I could get my hands on.
Deep, bassy music began to play, signalling that the games were about to begin. We all prepared in different ways. Dimitri cracked his neck, one side then the other, before putting his fists up. Lukyan jumped up and down on the spot, shaking out his hands. Illayana cracked her knuckles and let her hair down before tying it back up in a tight bun. I stretched my arms above my head, twisting my body at the waist, left to right.
Talon’s soldiers shifted from foot to foot, tossing their weapons from hand to hand. Some of them looked nervous, sure—it was a nerve-wracking situation—but most of them had smug smiles plastered to their faces. They knew how drastically outnumbered we were. That they were going to win the fight.
I felt the need to say something, so I went with what came naturally. “If we don’t make it out of this, Your Royal Grouchiness, it has not been nice working with you.”
What a bold-faced lie. Those last few weeks… I’d never felt so alive. But I would take that secret to my grave.
Dimitri grunted. “Same to you, devil woman.” Our gazes clashed. He could see I was full of shit. I could see he was full of shit. Neither of us acknowledged it.
What cowards we were.
“Let the games begin!” Talon roared.
Things kicked off with a motherfucking bang. There was no hesitation. No fucking around. Everyone just ran forward, throwing themselves right into the chaos.
Without a weapon, I was at a disadvantage, but that didn’t last long. I didn’t need a weapon to kill someone.
It came naturally to me.
I dodged multiple attacks as I ran, blades whistling past my skin by a hair’s breadth. When I returned with my own strikes, I didn’t falter. I dodged left and struck out with a roundhouse kick to a soldier’s face so hard that he spun through the air, landing roughly on the ground. I ducked under the swing of a baseball bat and front-kicked a soldier right in his solar plexus before lashing out with a punch to the left and then the right.
I jumped back, narrowly avoiding the sharp edge of an axe, and then side-kicked a soldier in his chest.
It was a never-ending, brutal onslaught of attacks. I would defend from one side just to be attacked from another. The adrenaline hammering in my body helped mask the pain of the strikes I couldn’t avoid.
All I could do was fight, fight, fight. If I stopped, if I slowed down for even a moment, I was dead.
Despite the fact that I was very much preoccupied with trying to keep myself alive, I couldn’t help but be…distracted, my gaze constantly seeking out Dimitri.
We weren’t technically partners anymore. At least, I didn’t think we were. It wasn’t a round in the games. It was an execution. A massacre with only one outcome. It was every man for themselves. And yet, I couldn’t help but follow him with my eyes as he worked his way towards his brother, prepared to help him if he needed it.
Strong hands grasped me tightly, and I locked into a grapple with one of the soldiers. Shit. We wrestled, his stupid face an inch from mine, his yellow teeth bared in a growl.
Yuck. “How often do you brush your teeth, dude?” I asked, disgusted. I gripped his vest tightly, using it for leverage as I jumped up and kicked him in the chest with both feet. We both flew back. I swung my arms behind me, planting my hands on the ground to flip myself and land back on my feet in a textbook backflip.
In the span of two seconds, I clocked one soldier sneaking up behind Illayana as she pummelled someone with a rock and one soldier swinging an axe right towards Lukyan’s throat.
Panic pushed me into overdrive. Not for them. I didn’t know them. Didn’t care for them. But Dimitri did.
If he were to witness his children fall, it would break him.
Cursing, I rolled along the sand, snatched up a knife with each hand and hurled them in their direction with every bit of precision I possessed.
My blades hit their targets, one slamming into the soldier’s chest, the other burying deep into another soldier’s forehead.
I only had enough time to watch them fall before a heavy body landed on top of me. Pain blasted through me from my shoulder, hot and burning. I screamed. I swung my elbow back, hitting my attacker in the nose and knocking him off me.
I pushed to my knees, gritting my teeth at the pain slicing through me with each movement. Reaching back, my fingers curled around the hilt of a blade.
Argh, fuck.
One, two— “Son of a bitch!” I cursed, yanking out the knife. “Fucking cunt.”
The solider responsible for stabbing me in the fucking shoulder was holding his nose, blood dripping between his fingers.
“Here. Have your fucking knife back.” I threw it right at him. His head snapped back when it sunk deep into his forehead. He thumped to the ground, sand wafting into the air around his now-dead body.
A quick rotation of my shoulder told me the wound wasn’t serious despite the blood I could feel dripping down my back. Fatigue started to weigh on me, but I pushed through it, getting to my feet.
Chaos surrounded me on all sides. People fighting. Screaming. Blood spraying through the air. Cries of pain echoing out into the night. It was complete and utter mayhem.
I glimpsed Dimitri across the blood-soaked battlefield, locked in a brutal fight with his brother. Every now and then, he’d have to drop his guard with Dominik to defend an attack from one of Talon’s soldiers. It propelled me toward him, overwhelmed with a feeling of desperation.
I fought my way over to him inch by inch, punching and kicking, slicing and dicing with weapons I picked up along the way. I ignored the aches in my body, the cuts and bruises on my skin, and fought with a single-minded focus, one thought in my mind.
Get. To. Dimitri.
