The Damned
{The De Luca Crime Syndicate}
This is a story about survival.
He has "Questa Cosa Nostra" tattooed on his chest while she has "Жизнь за жизнь."
This thing of ours VS A life for a life.
La Cosa Nostra VS the Bratva
She is running from her...
At the start of every chapter, there will be a snippet of Nandini's past from the beginning.
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Natasha Irina Volkov stood in that extravagant, mirrored bathroom and patted her face, bringing colour onto her pale face. She wasn't made for hot weather therefore, mostly spent her time indoors and only went out for certain missions. She sighed at her tired, pale and tankless expression, knowing that it would stay that way until she was sold. Like cattle.
Turning to her escort, she smiled, "Pensi che stia bene?" She spoke smugly, before sighing when the guide didn't speak and instead glowered at her. {Do you think I look good?}
She stuck out her tongue before walking out of the bathroom, her tight leather bodysuit feeling even tighter when she became a spectacle to everyone as soon as she stepped out of her room. She held her head up high and walked in a straight line, her hand on the hilt of her dagger on the left side. The training room wasn't something special except that only she was allowed to train there, all alone like she would be for the rest of her life.
Panting, she slid down the glass wall of the training room, unravelling the boxing tape around her knuckles and watching as the guards drag her opponent out of the room, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. She did that. A few years ago, she wouldn't have even dreamt of plucking a rose but here she was, beating people twice the size. What has she become? She didn't want to do this since the start but now, it is the one thing she looks forward to. Even after they re-booted her brain, using electricity and even after they had broken every single finger and asked her to fix it herself. She was still here. Every torture she had endured had strengthened not only her body but also her mind. The interplay between body and mind when in trauma is essential to someone like Natasha who's past is filled with both mental and physical and to be able to distinguish between the real and façade drives people crazy. The mind says "did this trauma really happen or did I make it up?" and the body, with it's aches and pains, with it's specific type of memory says "It was real."
Here at the Academy, however, every few weeks, all their memories had to be "reset" so it was the mind that forgot what they had been through but the body still regained that memory of training therefore no knowledge was lost but it made every candidate unpredictable which is exactly what is needed.
A voice sounded from the door, "Natasha?" She looked up to see who the unsure sound came from but scoffed when she saw Alexandria Cortes.
Cortes was beautiful, if she had to say so herself but of course, everyone here was. Beauty is a weapon against men who think with the wrong head. It may be sad to say, but for women, to be beautiful is to be powerful. Whether you like it or not, it is true that part of women's power has to do with their appearance.
