| Dark Devotion |

25

A B H I M A N

"Are you getting any sleep bhai?" Amaira asked me, a concerned expression on her face.

"How do you expect me to sleep when she's going through hell?" I snapped at her.

I had stepped outside to smoke once Ira fell asleep. She hadn't slept properly, and I had secretly given her a sleeping pill just so she could get a little rest. I had never been this stressed or lost in my life before. I had quit smoking because she couldn't tolerate the smell of it when she was pregnant, but I picked it up again.

It was the only thing that could help me relax a bit and prevent me from going out and slaughtering people. I couldn't be a ticking bomb right now. I had to be patient, even though it was killing me to wait and watch her suffer like this.

"How are you?" Amaira asked again, and I let out a humorless chuckle at her question.

"Does it even matter?" I inhaled the cigarette smoke deeply, but it was not giving me the fill I wanted.

"It does. You lost -"

"I know what I fucking lost!" I stared at her with an enraged glare. My hands were trembling in anger at the painful loss. But I had to keep it together for the sake of Ira. "Mind your own business." I sneered.

"You are my business! You need to talk about it, so you don't bury all of your feelings into that deep, dark hole like you always do." Amaira exclaimed in frustration, looking at me with a frown.

I flicked the cigarette bud away, my eyes were cold as I stepped so close to her that she had to take a step back.

"I will handle it the way I want to. I don't need you or anyone else to tell me what to do." My voice was low as I looked at her furiously.

A hand on my shoulder pulled me slightly back, and I glanced back to see it was Aditya who had stopped me. I hadn't noticed that I kept walking toward Amaira, forcing her to back away from me.

I directed my glare at him when he tried to pull me away.

"What are you stepping in for? You think I'm going to hurt my sister?" I roughly pushed his hand away and took a couple of steps back. Despite being angry, I wouldn't lay a hand on my sister, no matter how fucked up I felt.

"No, but you have pent-up anger and frustrations that you're taking out on your sister. If you don't want to talk about it, fine, but get your ass in the ring, and we'll take it from there." Aditya said calmly with his emotionless face.

I let out a scoff.

"Fuck off." I ignored him, making my way back inside when Aditya once again grabbed me.

"Or we can just settle it here." He said and threw a punch at my jaw. It made me take a step back; my head whipped to the side from the impact. I let out a low laugh as I moved my jaw and spat out when I tasted blood.

"Aditya bhaiya!" Amaira gasped out in shock and tried to step in between us, but he stopped her from intervening.

"Trust me. He needs this before he fucking explodes." Aditya looked at me as if he hadn't just punched me in the face.

"I won't go easy on you." I smirked, and he mirrored my expression

. "I don't expect you to." He said and threw another punch my way.

This time, I blocked it and sent him a strong kick to the side of his stomach. He grunted in pain as I hit him where I knew he got stitched up. Quickly composing himself, he lunged at me again.