My mouth falls open. “Oblivious?”
“Just sharing my observations.”
“You were sitting in the pitch black next to a couple of corpses waiting to scare me! How amIthe one getting shit on?”
Viktor scoffs, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t even know you were working this job.”
“So you were just sitting in the dark with shit-scented corpses for no reason? That’s evenworse!”
Viktor waves me off, turning to rifle through his aged case for a particular tool. “Don’t be so dramatic. I work best in the dark. Look—half the job is already done.”
Sure enough, when I glance over his shoulder, I notice six of the fifteen or so bodies have been dismembered, each body part individually wrapped in a black plastic baggie and duct tape.
Wait…fifteen?I count the bloody bodies one more time to make sure, and let out a low curse.
“Something wrong?” Viktor asks without turning.
“I was just hoping this would be over with quickly. What the hell happened here? It’s a fucking bloodbath.”
He crouches with his bone saw and positions the blade at the shoulder of a partially-dismembered man. “That new drug that’s been popping up all over the city. Butterfly Dust. Ezra found out it was being made here. He took a group of Reapers in to take care of the problem.” He gestures around the room. “Now you’re all caught up to speed. Pick up a damn saw and get to work.”
“Fine.” I grab a bone saw off the floor. “It’s good to help your elders, after all.”
“I amnotold!”
“Whatever you say, gramps.” I turn my back to Viktor, kneeling and getting to work on the first body I see. He grumbles something under his breath, but I don’t care enough to figure out what it is.
The two of us work in silence for some time, neither of us willing to be the first to break the ice. I know Viktor is still pissed with me for last night, and while I want to blame him, I can’t.
Viktor is like a father to me. He basically raised me, took care of me when no one in the Sanctum wanted anything to do with me. Now, he’s in the same position I was. He’s grown older, and some people have even begun to view him as irrelevant—which is a mistake.
I’m one of the few people who know the full truth of Viktor’s story. If anyone knew who he really was, what he was truly capable of, they would never underestimate him.
I gaze at Viktor out of the corner of my eye, my chest clenching with guilt. I shouldn’t give the old man so much shit. He’s only looking out for me. Worried for my safety.
He always has been.
Viktor used to be the head instructor of Disposers-in-training, and though everyone looked down on me and bullied me, Viktor saw something special in me. He always stood up for me, always had my back, no matter what. We were close for a long time, but then I graduated from the Disposer program andbegan working full-time for the Sanctum, and I just… didn’t have the time for anything. The truly sad part is that Viktor and I drifted apart because we rarely got to see each other—and now, here we are. Distant strangers that used to be family. A pair of unwilling coworkers trying not to rip each other’s throat out.
It’s sad, but not unexpected. Especially with everything we had to give up to survive—like our humanity.
I sigh, focusing on my work instead of tragic memories. The past is the past, and nothing will ever change it. I just have to keep moving forward, hoping my next step doesn’t drag me into a pit I can never escape from.
The cleanup takes all afternoon, and I never make it back to work at LoveBytten. Late in the evening, I part ways with Viktor and head back to my secret apartment next to Grace’s, eager to take a shower, wash the grime of the job off my body, and check my cameras. Though, probably not in that order.
As soon as I open the door, I rush to the bedroom, standing an inch from the center TV monitor. My eyes take in Grace’s sleeping form hungrily, my head getting woozy from all the blood rushing to my cock. Reluctantly, I pull away from the screen and hop into the shower, cleaning my body three times before I’m sure all of the gunk is off my skin.
With a satisfied sigh, I wrap a towel around my waist and head back into the bedroom, excited to sit in bed, relax, and watch Grace until I fall asleep. Just like before, I walk up to the center screen, scouring the feed for my little obsession. Only, she’s not there. Not anywhere in her apartment at all.
My heart stops, an icy chill working its way down my spine as I realize the worst possible scenario has come true.
Grace is gone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GRACE
My phone ringsin the middle of the night, scraping at the walls of my subconscious, demanding I wake. For a few seconds I lay there unable to open my eyes, held by the chains of sleep and the warmth of my blanket cocoon. On the fourth ring, my adrenaline spikes, and I shoot straight up in bed, my heart hammering and vision blurred as I reach blindly through the dark in search of my phone.
