The Pretty Psycho (St. Vasili’s Academy #2)

9. Adrian

9

ADRIAN

Dead.

Almost everyone we knew and trusted at the Academy was dead. Dante and Jax returned thirty minutes after we found that letter, telling me with the looks on their faces what I already assumed.

My father sent his assassins while I was too preoccupied with other things, using an opportunity to strike where it hurt me the most. He always said I was too emotional, too attached to the people we worked with. How could I not be when these men and women laid down their lives for us every single day, sacrificing their own future because they believed in the cause?

At the start of the school year there were less than a hundred of them joining the program, and by the looks of it, at least thirty of them were now dead, but where was the rest? Did they take them? Did they manage to escape?

"Adrian," Dante's voice pulled through me, bringing me back to the present instead of staring at the bodies they left for us in the hall of the main building. I turned toward him, expecting more bad news, but when I saw the smile tilting on his face, I practically ran toward him.

"What is it?"

"We found them."

"What do you?—"

"In The Pit," he grinned. "They were hiding in The Pit. They barricaded themselves inside and kept quiet. They're okay. They're alive." They may be alive, but the others… I looked back at the pile of bodies left for us, like a fucking joke. My father loved his games more than he loved anything else, our family included, and this was just one more game for him.

He didn't want me dead, but he wouldn't stop until he took everything from me. He wouldn't stop until he killed the last person I cared about, because that's the kind of man he truly was.

Isolation was his favorite tactic, but the moment he sent me to the Academy was the moment he lost control over me. This place gave me Dante, Jax, Arseniy, and Ethan. This place made me see that the life I was living was as empty as the casket he had made for my brother, making everyone close to us think Dain had died. And I knew the truth. I knew he was still out there, somewhere, all alone, maybe even scared, because God knew what my father did to him.

He buried his son just how he buried my dreams, but he didn't expect me to be stronger than him. He never expected me to rebel, to start questioning everything he did.

"They're waiting for you," Dante murmured, looking at me expectantly. "I'll deal with this."

"We need to give them a funeral," I mumbled, unable to control the unraveling of the emotions in my heart. They were too young to die. Too young to live this fucked-up life.

They should've been out there, dancing, falling in love, living through every moment as if it were their last, and instead they were here, in this purgatory on Earth, wasting their time to appease mothers and fathers who didn't really care about them.

"How many have survived?" I asked, looking at Dante.

"Thirty-three," he said, wincing slowly. Gerard's assassins took out more than half of the people we knew. More than half who were part of The Brotherhood, and for what? To feed his ego? To tell himself that I would go back home?

Fuck this shit.

He should've known better. Before all this, I had every intention of locking him up somewhere, far away from here, where he wouldn't be able to hurt another person. But now… Now I had every intention of cutting him open, piece by piece, so that he would feel the pain of all these deaths.

"Are they still down there?"

"Yeah," Dante nodded. "Jax is with them, calming them down, but you know how it is." I did. There was nothing we could say or do to calm down a bunch of barely twenty-year-olds. "There's more," he said after a beat, making me look up at him again.

"What is it?"

"Dimitri called." That had my attention. "They're getting ready to leave, but there might be some complications."

"What fucking complications?" I growled. Fuck. I should've gone there myself.

I shouldn't have left her alone. What the fuck was I thinking?

"Hey, hey." Dante lifted his hands up, but his words did nothing to calm down the beast clawing at my insides because I dared to leave Vega behind. "I'm just the messenger."

"I swear to God, Dante," I huffed, closing my eyes. "If you don't tell me?—"

"She's gonna be okay. He said they'll be leaving in ten minutes at most, but some of the security cameras caught a big van heading toward the hospital. Arseniy thinks it might be our lovely assassins."

Great. Just fucking great.

I have never felt this powerless, this helpless. Not when my father took Dain away, not when my mother looked at me with the same hatred she had for my father. Not even when he tortured me, making me tell him about Dain and the things he was doing.

But I felt powerless now because the woman who was my entire world was kilometers away from me, already beaten by that fucker who took her whose name I still didn't know, while I stood here, looking at the carnage my father left behind.

"They're gonna be fine, Adrian," Dante murmured. "She's not alone." I knew she wasn't alone, but she wasn't with me, dammit.

"Just," I breathed out slowly, "let me know once they start heading this way. I want to be here when she arrives."

I couldn't keep on standing around and doing nothing. I had to plan. I had to talk to Jax and see where we were at with the rest of The Brotherhood coming in.

There were a million things I needed to do, and yet the only person, the only thought swirling through my head, was whether or not Vega would arrive unharmed.

I marched through the hallways of the main building, reaching the back entrance toward the tunnels underneath. This place used to bring me so much joy, so much power, but knowing that the culprit who had imprisoned Vega used these same tunnels to take her away did not sit well with me.

We had no idea how many tunnels there were or if that person would be able to slip through again without us noticing. This whole fucking area had to be sealed closed, even if it killed me to do that.

We’d built our whole organization in these tunnels, right underneath the Academy, while my father and Andries were none the wiser. I made promises in these tunnels, in these caves, and that motherfucker had managed to put a stain on all those amazing moments and memories by taking the one woman I loved.

My fucking woman.

The damp smell of these caves flickered through my nostrils, and as much as I hated this place now, it still felt like home. It still felt like the only place where I could drop the mask I'd been wearing for so long and just be myself. I didn't have to be the perfect son here. I didn't have to be the perfect heir.

I just had to be Adrian Zylla. Their leader, their commander.

The sound of the several voices talking at the same time reached me the moment I stepped into the tunnel leading toward The Pit. I smiled softly remembering the first night Vega came here. I took her out through these same tunnels, ignoring Yolanda's bickering and Gabriela's stern look. I should've taken her back to my cabin that same night and locked the door, so that she would never be able to get away from me.

But I was a stubborn fool whose obstinacy almost cost me the best damn thing that had ever happened to me.

"What are we going to do now?" somebody yelled out, and I could hear Jax's muffled voice, trying to talk over the cacophony of voices.

I came through the entrance into The Pit, seeing them all huddled next to each other, talking animatedly, scared for their lives. I climbed into the ring we had made for the fights and yelled out, "Now we fucking fight!"

Thirty-four pairs of eyes turned toward me, seeing me for the first time since I entered.

"We chose you for a reason," I boomed. "We chose you because we thought you'd be able to withstand the storm and fight against the current!" They needed the boost. They needed to feel powerful, to erase that fear lingering in the air. "You." I dragged my eyes over every single one of them, seeing Jax standing with his arms crossed over his chest next to the makeshift bar that was left up since the last fight. "You are the best fighters at the Academy." A murmur passed over the crowd. "Now," I smirked, "if you don't want to stay, you know where the door is. I won't stop you and neither will Jax." They looked between themselves, contemplating, weighing their options. "But if you leave, you won't ever be able to come back. That much I can promise you. I need warriors and not Mommy's and Daddy's children. I need people who would stand by me and fight, because that's what we do. We. Fucking. Fight! Until our last breaths. Until our hearts stop beating. Until every option is used. With weapons, with our bare hands, with our hearts, we fucking fight. So." I lowered my voice, breathing heavily, feeling the hope slowly bloom in my chest. "Are you with me or," I smiled, "are you cowards?"

The room erupted in cheers within seconds. Men and women jumped up, pumping their fists, yelling, celebrating, and as my eyes sought Jax's, seeing the little smile playing on his lips, I knew we'd be okay.

Because there were no other options. There was no surrender.

"No gods, no masters!" I bellowed, followed by the full crowd chanting the same.

"No gods, no masters!"

Gerard Zylla had no idea who he was fucking with.

I was nervous. My palms kept sweating while I kept dragging them over my pants. My heart was stuck in my throat as I kept pacing from left to right, waiting for Vega, Arseniy, Dimitri, and Yolanda to arrive. Jax was standing not too far away from me, making fun of my current pacing and earlier yelling at Dante when he told me that Vega had been attacked.

Vega. Was. Attacked.

A-fucking-gain.

He was lucky I didn't bite his head off when he tried joking about the situation, because there was nothing funny about it. I had no idea if she was hurt, or if she needed me. Fuck, what if it was worse than the last time? And where the hell were Dimitri and Arseniy?

They said they would protect her, but it was obvious they were good for nothing if this was what would happen every single time I wasn't around.

"She's fine, Adrian," Jax said, but his words did nothing to calm down my racing heart. Until I saw her with my own eyes I wouldn't be happy. I wouldn't be able to stop.

To hell with waiting and giving her space. She was sleeping in my cabin, in my bed, wrapped in my arms even if I had to restrain her to keep her there. I wanted to take it slow, to give her time to get used to the idea of us, but no. Hell to the fucking no.

She wasn't sleeping anywhere else but with me. I would become her shadow if need be, but she wasn't leaving my side.

"Just remember." Jax laughed, obviously finding all of this amusing. "Try to speak in full sentences instead of those animalistic grunts you've been gracing me with since we came out here." I speared him with my eyes, not even a bit amused with the way he spoke of this.

"She could've died."

"But she didn't."

"I wasn't there!" I bellowed, unable to contain the rage inside my body for one second longer. "She was?—"

"She's fine," he cut me off and came closer to me. "She was able to survive twenty years of her life without you by her side. I'm sure she'll be able to survive all of this as well." It wasn't rational. It wasn't normal, not even close, but I was jealous of all those that got to be in her presence during every one of those years when I didn't even know she existed.

But maybe, just maybe, on some subatomic level, I always knew. Arseniy spoke of his long-lost sister more than he spoke of anything else. Or, well, Dimitri spoke of her, all things considered. But I knew of her. I knew she existed. I just never thought it would be the girl who would steal my heart.

And I couldn't even be angry about it.

If it made her happy, I would carve it out and serve it on a platter. Her enemies were my enemies now, and I only regretted meeting her so late, when everything felt so fucked up. When I had my father in the back of my mind, because I had no doubt that he would try to use her against me.

Jax's phone rang, and he answered by the second ring. "Okay," he murmured. "Yeah." The fucker started laughing, looking at me. "I'll tell him."

"What?" I asked the moment he finished the call. "Who was that?"

"That was Dante." Jax chuckled, putting his phone back into the pocket of his coat. "He just saw them on the cameras passing through the gates. They should be here any minute now."

"Hmmm." my eyes narrowed at him. "Why were you laughing?"

"Because," he started again. "Dante saw you on camera and he said you look like you need to take a shit."

"Oh, fuck off," I grumbled. "I don't," I stammered. "Do I?" Shit, I didn't want to look constipated.

Jax kept laughing, finding this entire situation amusing, and I had half a mind to kick him in the face. I couldn't wait for the day when he would fall for someone. Although, seeing how he was here, waiting with me when he definitely didn't have to, told me there might have already been somebody. And that somebody was probably in the car with my girl.

I was about to ask him about Yolanda and the time they'd spent together, but just as I opened my mouth, the sound of the car tires crunching on the gravel road had me turning around. My eyes zeroed in on the sleek black Audi A7 slowly coming toward us.

Too fucking slow.

My foot was tapping, my fingers itching to touch her, to make sure she was all right. I couldn't see due to the tinted windows, but I knew she was there, sitting inside. Probably grumbling if she already saw me, because I knew my girl had claws and she wasn't done using them on me. Fuck, I was getting hard just thinking about her nails on my skin. Of her teeth on my lips.

She would be my undoing, and I didn't mind bleeding for her. I didn't mind giving her anything she wanted, if she would only stay with me.

Just stay with me , I thought to myself. Please, God. Please make her stay .

The closer the car came, the more I could see who was inside. Arseniy was the designated driver this time, Dimitri sitting right next to him, and what a shit-eating grin he was wearing as he looked at me. I was absolutely sure all of them thought this was all very funny, but I still couldn't see Vega. I still couldn't get my heart to slow down.

Jax came closer to me, his presence vibrating with a nervous energy I could understand, especially since I suspected that something was going on between him and Yolanda. I took one look at him, but his eyes weren't on me. They were focused on the car that was slowly coming to a stop, while his fingers twitched, mirroring my own.

"I guess I'm not the only one looking constipated." I chuckled, making him look at me.

"Shut. Up," he grunted. "You've no idea what you're talking about."

"I think I might have an idea." I grinned, turning toward the car.

Arseniy jumped out first, followed by Dimitri, and I fucking hated the look on Arseniy's face. Shit really went down in that hospital, and there was definitely a need for cleanup.

"It's so good seeing you again," Dimitri said, stretching, just as the back doors opened, revealing a head of blonde hair. Definitely Yolanda.

Jax was next to me one second and rounding the car in the next, heading toward her. I couldn't hear what was said or what was going on between them, but Yolanda looked like shit. She turned toward me, letting me see her blotchy pale face and a fear so obvious it shook me to my core.

I couldn't wait any longer.

I crossed the distance between me and Vega's side of the car, pulling it open and almost tearing it off of the hinges.

"What the fuck?" she said the moment she saw me, her eyes wide and filled with annoyance directed at me.

There she was.

My sun.

My girl.

My. Fucking. Girl.

My lungs expanded as if I could finally breathe. My muscles filled with renewed energy while my hands trembled, desperate to touch her. She looked almost the same as this morning, but the sight of her bloodied hands made me stop abruptly.

"What happened?" I breathed out, grasping her hands in mine without a second thought. She tried pulling them back, but I wasn't budging. "Bambi?" I looked at her, seeing that defiance in her eyes, but she stopped trying to get away when she really looked at me. I was done hiding my emotions from her. Done with shutting her out.

I would tell her everything there was to know in due time, because she deserved to know everything. The good, the bad, the terrible. She deserved to know the kind of baggage I always carried with me, and I just hoped she'd stay.

She looked over my shoulder, and whatever she saw there, or whoever she saw, had her calming down.

"I'm okay," she murmured, giving me those eyes. God, I could drown in their depths. I’d never met another person with heterochromia, and I never knew how fascinating it was.

Her hand lifted up, landing on my cheek. "I'm really, really okay, Adrian. But I'm tired." She smiled. "And I would actually like to get a nice, hot shower and just sleep. For two days straight, if that's in any way possible."

Right. "Right," I murmured out loud and started moving back, allowing her to exit the car. I could feel the rest of the group looking at us, but I ignored them all. They could get their questions answered later on, and if they wanted a show they wouldn't be getting it.

Not right now.

Vega slipped out of the car, too slow for my liking, and if I wasn't already looking at her, I would've missed the deep wrinkle etched between her brows or the barely-there shaking of her legs. She held on to the door of the car, looking at everyone with wide, amused eyes. "I'm fine, people. Stop looking at me like I will fall apart any second now."

"Oh, trust me." Dimitri laughed. "After seeing what you did to those men, I don't think you will fall apart. As a matter of fact, I would like to ask you to always be absolutely nice to me, because I am seriously afraid of you."

"Ha ha," Vega mocked.

What men? What the fuck happened in the hospital?

"Adrian," she mumbled, pulling my attention to her. "You're glaring at Dimitri."

"What fucking men?" I barked out, earning an eye roll from her.

"Here we go."

"Vega?"

She took a deep breath before turning toward me, giving me her full attention. "There were two men who came into my hospital room, trying to kidnap me. Again, might I add." My eyes volleyed from her to Arseniy and Dimitri. They were supposed to protect her. "So, I killed them." She shrugged.

"You killed them?"

"Yeah." Those mismatched eyes rolled again. "I killed them. It's not the first time I killed a grown-ass man. I'll probably do it again."

My eyes closed, my blood pressure skyrocketing. At this point I would end up in the hospital with cardiovascular disease because these people kept fucking testing my patience.

"So she was alone?" I asked no one in particular, but everyone knew who it was directed to.

"I was with her," Yolanda piped in, and if looks could kill, she would've been dead on the spot the moment I opened my eyes. Jax glowered, moving her closer to him, but none of them were safe from my rage.

"Hey, she's okay, Adrian," Dimitri piped in. Wrong fucking move.

"You were supposed to protect her!" I bellowed, needing this anger, this wicked energy, out of me. "You told us you would protect her."

"And we tried!" he yelled back. "But we were only two people and we couldn't exactly cover everything."

"You should've told me. I would've?—"

"You would've what?" Dimitri barked. "Come on, Adrian. We all know you wouldn't have been able to get there in time. None of you would've. So chill the fuck out and stop yelling. Everyone's tired. Everyone wants to shower and sleep. You can save your yelling for tomorrow."

But I wasn't done yelling. I wasn't done being pissed off. I took a step toward Dimitri when Vega's voice stopped me.

"All right. That's it. I'm out of here." She turned away from the car, walking slowly in the direction of the dorms.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" I asked, hating the way my voice sounded. I wasn't angry at her. I was angry at everyone else, at the world, the universe, you fucking name it. She was all alone and I should've been there.

I guess I was mostly angry at myself.

She stopped and turned around slowly, glaring at me. "I'm going to Yolanda's room to shower and hopefully sleep."

"No."

"What do you mean no?" There it was. My little firecracker was back.

"You're not going to Yolanda's room."

"Well." She chuckled darkly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't exactly go back to my own room, unless you magically fixed that building."

"We didn't fix it."

"Then that means I'm going to Yolanda's."

"Goddammit, Vega!" My hand dragged over my face. She was testing my patience.

I was a man on the edge, ready to snap, to burst, to do something. Anything. Sleepless nights, tiresome days, they were all catching up with me, and the last thing I needed was for her to defy me right now.

I started charging after her before she could say another word. Her wide, wild eyes, her disheveled hair, they were making me crazy.

"Adrian." The warning in her voice was clear, but she should know by now that I rarely listened. One of my arms went underneath her knees with the other around her back, lifting her up effortlessly, before I started walking in the direction of my cabin. "Let. Me. Down." She bit out every word, glaring at me while I smiled, looking ahead of me and ignoring the snickering coming from our friends behind us. "Adrian!" She punched my shoulder, rambling the entire time, but I wasn't letting go.

There was only one place she would be sleeping tonight, and it was my bed.

She reluctantly wrapped her arms around my neck, making me smile even harder.

"No, you don't get to smile like that. This means absolutely nothing." She kept saying the same thing over and over again, and I had no idea if it was because she wanted to convince me, or because she had to convince herself.

"Oh, Bambi." I looked down at her, feeling better with her in my arms. "Just keep lying to yourself." I'd be the one telling her the truth even when she didn't want to hear it.