Page 101 of The Darkness is Calling

Another signal, and our sniper on the roof begins cutting down, one by one, those who fall within range of his rifle.

From the moment this meeting was arranged, I was suspicious of it. Even though it was taking place on our territory, it all seemed too good to be true. And I have never believed in those fucking unicorns.

But our attackers don’t back down either. Two grenades land beside me, forcing me out from behind the car. I jump to my feet and start firing in their direction until I hide behind another vehicle. One of my men covers me, shooting at the attackers set on me, forcing them to take cover until I reach a safer spot.

We need blood!

Here, a boevik is wounded, but his crimson face gives me no satisfaction. Only more rage.

I want the bastards’ blood.

The gunfire exchange is like a Chinese water torture, stretching my nerves and patience tighter and tighter.

I hear Yar desperately shouting for Sasha, who throws himself with a knife at a masked man who has come too close to him.

“I’m out of bullets. What do you want me to do?” the youngest yells back.

Without hesitation, I shout to him. “Take this one. But it doesn’t have many left.”

I sincerely hope these bastards don’t know Russian and don’t realize the ugly situation we are in. I suspect they are Albanians, the ones supposedly allied with the Italians to piss us off.

I knew I should have shot that bastard Tristan Romano back at the Christmas party. I would have spared myself a great deal of trouble if I had listened to my voices that night.

Ekaterina’s face at that party returns to my mind. The tempting pearls I want to see again around her throat, her bare back, the smooth skin I constantly crave...

A deeply inappropriate moment to be aroused, but I’ll be damned if the mixture of blood, bullets, and her slender throat is not truly enticing.

But with every passing second that I realize I am getting late, my body grows more tense, and my fury rises to increasingly dangerous heights.

“I’m in a hurry, boys,” I shout to my men, exactly as a bullet flies near my head.

Then, when I manage to shoot one of them in the head and he drops to the ground, a bullet comes from an uncovered angle and hits me in the shoulder, less than a handspan from my heart.

“Suka,” I curse through my teeth.

Because of the adrenaline, the pain barely echoes through my body. Everything unfolds like a nightmare meant to keep me away from dusha moya.

I don’t get the chance to assess my situation, because a grenade lands beside me, and no matter how fast I move, the explosion throws me onto the cold asphalt.

And then silence.

Fuuuuck...

For one second, I feel nothing but darkness, where time stops in place.

I only hear a melody played on the piano, so sad it tears apart the soul I did not even know I had.

All at once, a wave of pain slams into me, like a truck crushing my body. I can barely move. I can barely breathe. All I know is that I must do it.

A sharp ringing floods my ears, while two shadows take shape above me and grab my arms, lifting me from the ground. But they are not my men, and a new rush of adrenaline takes over when I realize they are taking advantage of my moment of weakness, dragging me toward one of their cars.

“We’ve got him,” one of them says to someone, reality still confused inside my head.

Where the hell is my sniper?

With what little strength I have in this moment, I try to break free, but it is useless. I receive a blow to the back of the head that cuts the strength from my legs completely.

The voices scream.