God of Vengeance

I screamed into my pillow, frustrated in every possible way. I swear he was the reason my skin was dehydrated, and my hair fell flat. Last week I had a zit on my jaw.

ME?!

It was all because Volkov decided to have a peasant out of the blue.

Why did he pick a bodyguard from the body of the students when our families offered high quality and well-trained people for such a job. My bodyguards for instant had a long history of training and experiences regarding personal protection. Some of them were ex-assassins, ex-soldiers or year-long streetfighters. No matter how morally accepted their previous lives were, each and every one of them was hand-picked by our fathers and families to secure the best protection for us.

That’s why I didn’t understand why he picked someone from the streets, someone who attacked him and worked for the Serpents, the club that was connected to the Bratva branches in Chicago and Boston.

They were waring with the Heathens for dominance, status and power since I could remember. Clear enemies who tried to overthrow the others in every possible way to ensure a certain reputation for the future.

A dick comparison contest, if you ask me.

Still, it was a lot heavier and more aggressive than one might think. This wasn’t some simple club rivalry with little pranks and harmless jokes. People got hurt and might have or might have not died in certain critical situations.

I would lie if I said that I didn’t care about the whole club activities. I admit, I was nosy like that, but that was because I had to be aware of what was going on the whole time.

Plus, my brother and cousins were in the whole game so of course I worried for them, - though I’d never admit that loudly. But you could say that that was my way of showing that I cared.

Maybe that was also the reason why Levitsky irked me.

Since he came it has become harder to spy on my brother and Jeremy. He was everywhere, in every corner and prohibited me from getting the information I wanted.

Plus, what was that Jack Frost looking dog going to do anyway? He couldn’t protect a daisy for all I know.

I sighed a last time and reluctantly jumped up and opened my ponytail to brush through my golden hair. That peasant threw water in my face which is why I had to adjust myself first before getting out. I’d rather puke in my flat hand than let anyone see me unprepared or, God forbid, without any make up. That just would be scandalous.

I rushed to my bathroom, that was connected to my room, and checked myself in the mirror.

That imbecile didn’t even know how privileged he was to see me like this. I didn’t need much make up to be fair, because, quite frankly, I looked phenomenal, thanks to my mum’s genes.

Yet, I still grabbed the concealer and bb cream and blush and highlighter and brow pen and mascara to perfect it even more. I had to look flawless, needed to feel flawless when I stepped outside of my room.

I wasn’t an idiot. I knew quite well myself, that I was anything but perfect, but the others didn’t have to know. I was Maya Sokolov and I would act and look the way, just like how everyone expected me to.

Halfway through me getting ready I heard another annoying knock at the door.

I rolled my eyes and was seriously considering on shooting that guy in his leg to teach him a lesson. And that’s coming from someone, who didn’t particularly enjoyed guns. Maybe I’d ask one of my men to do it for me.

“Oh my God, wait a damn minute”, I yelled but the door flung open.

This guy can’t be serious?!

I rushed inside to give him a piece of my mind when I saw that it wasn’t Mr. Frost standing in my room, but my brother Nikolai.

I jutted my hip out, putting a hand on it.
“Can I help you, dear brother?”

“You’re late Maya, we are all waiting for you to leave! What takes you so fucking long?”

Nikolai stepped into the room with languid steps, like he owned this place. He grabbed a vase on my commode and almost let it fall before he caught it again, grinning at me.
My brother was a huge guy, in every meaning of the word. He was buff, tall and his personality was loud and wild.
He wasn’t the most mentally stable one – but to be honest, who was in this family?!

Though he looked huge and scary with his tattoos, that covered his whole body (which he wasn’t shy to show off since he never wore a shirt), he was a closet puppy through and through.

Nikolai has always been an amazing and overprotective brother and I loved him dearly, no matter what reputation he had.

He was bubbly and loud and loved to laugh. I remember him carrying me on his shoulder when we were younger or how he carried me piggyback when I fell and hurt my knee.

When I first got into make-up, he let me use his face to practice on him and he never complained about it.

In fact, we still had pictures of him ridiculously posing like how he thought girls would do.

 
When I was younger, I used to be a quiet and shy girl. I know, me, shocking! But when we were kids, the dynamics were spread differently. Mia was the talkative one... well before the incident and everyone was attached to her chattery, charming personality.

Me on the other hand was her less-fun shadow. Despite her loving black and going full on gothic with her style, she was the bright star and sunshine of the family. Everyone was drawn to her and loved to listen to her.

I’d never admit the way I felt unseen and even in some way jealous about the attention Mia got. She deserved all the attention and more, all the love and all the happiness in her life. If I had the chance to transfer everything good in my life, every positivity I experienced to her – I’d do it no questions asked.

Because that was the least, I could do, after what happened-

The sound of a breaking picture frame startled me out of my thoughts. My brother was looking at me like a caught, giant puppy. As if I didn’t see the shards, he tried to hide them by shoving them behind himself with his foot.

“See that’s why I don’t like it when you enter my room! I don’t remember a single incident were you didn’t break my stuff, Niko!”

I rushed over to him and pushed him out of the room. In the corner of my eyes, I caught a certain bodyguard that I was definitely NOT going to look at right now.
Me and my skin were stressed enough!

“Hey, just hurry, okay?! The guys are waiting.”

“I seriously don’t get it. The initiation was weeks ago, how often do you want to beat up clueless students in one semester?”

“Is that an honest question? Because if it was up to me, I’d do it every weekend.” He smiled brightly, like as if he was not talking about beating up people just for fun.

“I still don’t get it. What do you guys have to talk about now? Do y’all want to reminiscence about how wonderful you beat up those people? Plan the next mischief?”, I tried, but Nikolai looked right through me. His go-happy demeanor disappearing.

“That’s none of your business, Maya and you know that. I told you before to stop asking about the club.”

“I feel like I have a right to ask, since you kick us out of the mansion whenever you have those unnecessary meetings” I leaned against the doorframe, a mocking smile on my lips.
“You guys are like kids in elementary school, that tried to be all secretive and cool by meeting up in the bushes and denying anyone access. But we all know that those little boys just made up some totally uncool things or had one embarrassing secret and flipped it like they were the ones, with the most popular opinions.”

I chuckled to myself, completely ignoring the slight movement in the corner of my eye.

“How do you know so much about little boys’ secret, Maya?” My brother furrowed his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes towards me. “I’m pretty sure, you didn’t have any male friends in school”

“I didn’t, because you made sure of it”

“Fuck yeah I did! So don’t go around talking about dicks like that in front of me!”

I chuckled frustrated. “God, Niko, I didn’t talk about that?! I was talking about little boys as a metaphor.”

“Don’t care. Stop talking about the male gender in my presence, it makes me want to kill them”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms in front of my chest and only then Nikolai seemed to realize what I was wearing or rather were I was standing with what I was wearing.

He threw a look to the side where Ilya was standing, and his face darkened more immediately.

He didn’t particularly like Ilya. Or rather didn’t trust him. That’s at least what I’ve heard when I eavesdropped on a conversation he and Jeremy had.

I heard that Ilya and some other guy ambushed them during a ride. It’s a weird way to get to meet someone, let alone to make them your bodyguard.

I didn’t understand Jeremy’s choice, never understood any of his decisions to be quite honest.

Recently he was obsessed with this silver haired, British girl who was attending the rival university.

She wasn’t… ugly, I guess but she wasn’t me either.

I never deemed Jeremy to be stupid but obviously he was blind and then again not as smart as he ought to be.
I thought at some point he would realize that him and I were meant to be, that we were the perfect heirs for our families but since that British girl appeared, it’s getting harder to convince him.

And as if that wasn’t already annoying enough, did he bring this guardian dog along who was more often than not in my vicinity, bothering me like period cramps on holidays. 

“Maya. Go and get ready now and put on something decent.”

I scoffed at Nikolai’s words.

“That word doesn’t belong to my wardrobe, Nikushka”

“Stop calling me that”, Nikolai almost pouted. Since we were children, he hated it when I called him that.

I rolled my eyes and slammed the door shut to finish getting dressed. It took me another 15 minutes because I refused to hurry, just to please Levitsky.

When I opened my door, two ice blue eyes greeted me.

“Jesus”, I exhaled  “you could’ve waited at the car” I gave him an arrogant look before passing him with an eyeroll. I knew my mini-white-dress was anything but decent and it gave me great pleasure to think, that Ilya was probably salivating upon watching me from behind.

He had to. Like everyone else.

I might’ve exaggerated the swing of my hips a bit too.

“You like my dress, Levitksy?” I mused, not looking back at him as I heard him following me. My heels made their well-known click-clack sounds that gave my confidence a boost while his steps behind me sounded heavy and deep.

“Do you understand that as decent?”

I smirked.

So, he was looking.

Bingo.

“Are you perhaps bothered or is your predator just showing?”

The sound of my shoes was the only noise echoing between us for a moment.

“Cheap is not my style, Miss Sokolov”

I hated it when he called me by my last name. You would think, he did it out of respect, but I knew, trust me I  knew, he was doing that to mock me. He was making fun of me. He always did that.

Because the way he said it was different. He didn’t use that tone with anyone. He wasn’t belittling anyone but me.

He did that the moment we first talked, not falling for my attitude or even slight flirt-attempt so I could pass him and sneak over to Jeremy.

I remembered it so well.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I bit on my tongue to not let out an embarrassing squeak. When I turned around the tall, new blonde bodyguard of Jeremy was looking down on me.

“Do you need anything, Sokolov?”

His stoic face didn’t move when his cold voice reached my ears.
I scrunched my nose before jutting my chin. Though his face didn’t move, his voice audibly dropped when mentioning my last name. Like it was a joke. Something so unserious. Like he couldn’t believe that that was my last name.

“It’s Miss Sokolov to you.”

For a mere second his upper lip twitched but he chose to not comment on it and just waited for an answer for his previous question.

“Do I need a reason to visit my brother?”

“He is not available right now.” He maneuvered himself smoothly in front of me, blocking my way.

“I think he can answer that himself!” I shot back and tried to side-step him, but he reacted quickly.

“He told me to keep anyone, including you, out.” He towered over me, his ice-blue eyes the only vibrant thing about him when he looked down at me with a stern look. I kept myself from swallowing when my body reacted to his intensity.

“I didn’t know, you were the official guard dog of this place.” I cocked my eyebrow, my words like venom.

“Now you know.” He answered completely unaffected, before adding, “Miss Sokolov.”

I bit down on my jaw.

He was mocking me. My name sounded like a joke on his tongue.

Who the hell did he think, he was?

I bit down on my teeth. I’d rather wear sweatpants for the rest of my life and be the sole disappointment of Karl Lagerfeld than to show him, how much I was bothered by his words.

By him.

Instead, I scoffed as if he just told me a bad joke.

“It shouldn’t surprise me, that you are a tasteless little, boy.”

He was silent for a while before he spoke, his voice having yet again a mocking undertone.

“At least I don’t wear a pink thong under a see-through white dress.”

My eyes widened and without thinking I turned around, attempting to cover my behind but also to give him a piece of my mind.
But turning around in the speed I did was apparently a stupid move because a) it showed the effect his words had on me and this stupid asshole saw a vulnerable side of me and oh, b) we were on the top of the stairs and when I suddenly turned around, I lost my balance.

I gasped, missing the railing with my hand as I flew backwards. Automatically, I shut my eyes, prepared to feel the worst pain ever, but … it never came.

Instead, my mind and body registered an arm wrapped around my waist and another body pressed against mine.

Slowly I opened my eyelids, and I felt my heart hiccup. My eyes widened when I looked at a pair of familiar ice blue ones.

I blinked, slowly, as if I was afraid that I’d miss a moment if I moved too fast.

It was like time stopped for a moment, our surrounding disappearing and it was just his frozen eyes that were staring into mine and weirdly, they didn’t seem as frozen as they usually were.

Ilya’s chest was pressed against mine, his one hand was holding the railing while his other was slung around me like a security blanket. I was so close I could feel his heart beating against mine as if they were trying to punch each other through our ribcages.

Or maybe tried to reach each other, I didn’t understand.

His gaze was fixed onto mine before it slowly traveled along my eyebrows, my nose, my cheeks and finally reached my lips. I shivered, not being able to keep myself from swallowing as his lingering eyes felt like a stroke everywhere he looked.

My eyes dared to level down and I couldn’t ignore how his tongue darted out to wet his bottom lip, his breath brushing against mine.

For some reason my body heated and I started to feel somewhat dizzy.

I don’t know how long we stood like this, how long I felt his hot breath against my mouth and his eyes boring into my soul.
My body got hotter with every passing second and I couldn’t stop my nipples from hardening.

“So, it is pink, huh?”

My eyes widened at his words and as much as I tried to keep my cool, I couldn’t help my face from heating up. My brain started working again and I remembered why we were exactly in this position.

I furrowed my eyebrows and flattened my hands on his chest, pushing him but not as forceful as I could. Then slowly my brain filtered the information he was saying.

“Y-you didn’t see it through my dress?” I hated that I stuttered when I started talking. My voice sounded raspy.

He shrugged; a shadow of a crooked smirk was visible on his lips. I didn’t know his cold face was even able to smile. “I was just guessing.”

His eyes darted down again, trailing the same path along my lips and jaw and neck and I felt everywhere he was looking at, as if he was drawing my body with a hot pen.

His other arm let go of the railing and I felt his fingertips ghosting along my thigh. I bit down on my tongue to not let out a surprised gasp because I would rather eat dirt than to give him any more chances to see me out of control.

His fingers were barely touching me when I felt him stop at the seam of my mini dress.

“For someone who is so scared to show their panties, you sure do wear tiny dresses, printsessa”

I swallowed at his words but jutted my chin out and straightened my back in his hold.
Two could play this game.

“It’s not about me being scared of someone seeing my pink thong” I leaned closer, whispering the next words seductively. “It’s about who deserves to see the pretty laces that are protecting my sweet cunt.”

I felt Ilya’s chest inhale and his grip around me tightening for a mere second. I pulled back with a sly smile when I saw his nostrils flare.

I lifted a finger and trailed down his jaw before adding a sweet “Now take your filthy little hands off me, before I scream for Nikolai, mhkay?”

With victory I watched Ilya’s face setting back to stone. He covered the lust in his eyes and the flames in his blue irises made way to his stone-cold gaze. Roughly he pulled me back onto the first step of the stairs and passed me, bumping rather harshly his shoulder against mine on his way downstairs.

I smirked. Oh, this is going to be fun game.