They swung open the cage door, cattle prods at full power, humming with electricity. The man lazily lifted his hands in surrender. "Now, now." He said softly. His voice was like velvet. "No need. I'll do as you please." The man in the cage said, his...
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Mitroshka crouched naked in the snow painting his bare chest in the blood of their latest kill while she harvested its still beating heart. The great bucks blood was still steaming hot when Theo dug her teeth into its most choice organs.
Before, the rawness would have made her wretch. Now she was too tired to care, and the nutrients flooding into her body made her and the beast within feel something close to alive again. Some broken piece of her began to mend as well. Some will she'd almost forgotten. Her burning eyes turned to Mitroshka, who watched her with a sick interest.
For the past two weeks while she regained her strength, the mad brother had been her constant companion. Kiril had been gone as often as he could- tending to Ivan, and to the burial of the men Dancer had killed. That's what he'd told her. She thought the truth of it lay in the way he stared at her every time they were together. The displeasure at her rejection.
Theo didn't mind- Mitroshka was much easier to please, and since the threat that she'd made from her sickbed he'd made no attempts at cruelty towards her.
'Take care, vessel. You can trust no one now,' Dancer spoke her warning from within. 'It'll do you no good to ruminate on the perceived friendliness of these ones.'
'I can trust my brother too,' she thought as she tore into the tough sinew and muscle of the deer heart. Dancer hummed in a disapproving way but said no more. Theo knew these disagreements would come to a head at some point, and she didn't desire the madness that would come with it, so she treaded into more agreeable territory. 'We need to see him again. Augustus.'
Before Dancer could acquiesce, though Theo knew she would, she rose to her feet in the snow and faced Mitroshka. "I need to hunt alone. You slow me down," she proclaimed daringly.
Mitroshka's face twisted with offense. "I slow you down?" His tone was incredulous. "Nevermind the speed of those human legs of yours- it was my teeth that felled this beast in the first place."
Theo raised her chin in defiance, though kept a dismissive look in her sharp eyes. "You recall what happened last time I used my other legs in the presence of weaklings like you."
Mitroshka's upper lip lifted to flash his teeth in a half grin, half snarl. She knew he truly meant neither. "Fine. But do not wander far."
"I will go where the prey takes me." Theo waited for Mitroshka to turn his back to her as he scraped now cold, congealing blood from beneath his fingernails before she spun on her heel and started off in a light jog towards the cellar. She couldn't go quickly for fear of causing suspicion.
The trek was much faster than the first few times she'd made it. Her leg stayed stable and steady beneath her, and the only things that truly troubled her anymore were the silver burns that were so reluctant to completely heal.
When she reached the edge of the small clearing, she noticed they had upped the guard on the door. It was probably her own fault- one of the two men must've spoken up about a faceless intruder.
