Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
She’d had the natural instincts of a hunter even at such a young age. She’d taken her time, developing her skills, not striking too fast and giving herself away.
“There was one woman, Polina, who always looked after me.”
There was an ache in Maya’s heart that tore at Gorya. Her features were composed and her tone serene, but he felt her sorrow. Polina meant a great deal to Maya.
“She made sure I had clothes and food. She protected me as best she could from the men coming in and from Blum.” A small note of humor crept into her voice. “She insisted on tutoring me with books she’d get from stores. Sometimes I’d steal books so she wouldn’t spend what little money Blum would give her as her share of the wages she’d earned. She never asked me how I got them, but she suspected.”
“She sounds wonderful.” He’d had his cousins growing up. At least she’d had Polina.
“She was. The others were very nice too, but she went out of her way to treat me like family. She knew I could slip out under the guards’ noses and kept urging me to leave, but I didn’t want to leave her. And it seemed like I was acquiring knowledge at a faster rate.”
She fell silent again, and with her silence came the heavy pressure of sorrow weighing down her heart. Again, sorrow didn’t show on her face.
“Keep going, Maya,” he encouraged gently. “What happened to Polina?”
Maya’s hand dropped to her thigh, and her fingers slid up and down over her muscle in a small self-soothing motion. “The men came looking for women to take to their party. By this time, everyone knew that whoever went wasn’t coming back, and it wasn’t because they were set free. Polina would pretend to be sick. She would make herself vomit, and Blum’s men wouldn’t choose her to go with the two men who came for them. One was Carl Bortsov, the other Davyd Chugunov; both had insisted they wanted Polina on more than one occasion. I think everyone knew she wasn’t really ill.”
Gorya followed the graceful movement of her hand as it came up to stroke her throat. He could almost feel the lump there.
“When she wouldn’t go with them, Blum’s men dragged me out of the shadows, tore my clothes off, beat me with a wire hanger and raped me in front of her. They told her they would keep it up until she went with Bortsov and Chugunov of her own free will. Bortsov and Chugunov thought it was great sport and joined in.”
Gorya’s gut tightened into hard knots. Fists formed. He locked down the demon in him, roaring to be released. This was about Maya and how extraordinary she was. How she built herself up from a child ripped apart by monsters and made herself into pure steel.
“Polina said she would go with them. I never cried. I made certain I didn’t, but she said she would go anyway. Then she told me to stick to the path. I knew what she meant. She wanted me to get out of there. Blum and his men had their eyes on me. I had turned thirteen. I might look very young, but age didn’t matter to them. We knew we’d never see each other again.”
She raised her eyes to meet his. For one moment, her eyes glittered with tears. “I knew what it had been like for you when your leopard burst free and you killed all those men. I struggled to keep from doing the same thing. I wanted to. It took everything in me not to let go. I didn’t care if I died, as long as I could kill them and keep them from taking Polina. She was the one who prevented me from shifting. She kept shaking her head and murmuring that she loved me, and it mattered to her that I lived—that I had to live.”
She was breaking his heart. Two tears dripped down her face, but she appeared unaware of it, while that was all he could see. His heart ached—a new sensation for him that was rapidly becoming too familiar. He felt he’d known her a lifetime, and yet he’d barely spent more than a few hours with her. Why did it seem as if she belonged with him?
“I left right after they took her. I followed them to the party house and watched. I shouldn’t have. I knew better. There wasn’t anything I could do to save her from the things that went on there, but I wanted to never forget. I wanted to be there with her. She wouldn’t have wanted me there, but I needed to be for myself. And I saw the man who orchestrated the parties.”
Again, her eyes met his. “Some nights, when I fall asleep, I see those men. Their faces are burned into my brain. There were so many. Young, old. So depraved. They conducted meetings, and the women were expected to serve them meals and drinks and anything else they desired. They were treated as if they were toys, not humans. As the evening wore on, the men became worse than any animal.”