Page 73 of Deviant Need

Pushing off the counter, I slap myself twice, hard enough that my cheek burns and heat blooms under my skin. Get your shit together. Just survive this party.

The door swings open, and I nearly walk straight into some girl. She stumbles, and I catch her arm to keep her upright. She grins up at me.

“Sorry,” I say, already letting go and moving around her, but she catches my arm and bites her lip.

“You’re Mikhail, right?”

“Da.” I wrench my arm away and keep moving. She’s calling after me, but I ignore her and head straight into Lev’s living room.

He doesn’t really live here, just crashes here when there’s too much work at the docks to bother going home. Everything’s black, walls and floors, soulless just like our family.

Lights shine down from above on everyone dancing, drinking, laughing without a care in the world. There are so many people crammed in here, I’m surprised the floor hasn’t given out yet. Alexei and Kelly stand in the back. Alexei drapes his arms over him and pulls him close, whispering something in his ear.

I spot Lev chatting with Gloria, leaning in close to whisper something in her ear that isn’t missing while his hand rests on her shoulder. His bald head catches the light. He finally shaved it all off instead of pretending those stress patches weren’t getting worse.

Gloria co-owns Yulian’s escort services, handles the business side while Yulian does whatever he does. She’s good at it too, better than most of us at running clean operations.

Lev can’t take his eyes off her, tracking every movement she makes. He thinks he’s being subtle, but he’s not. He completely forgets how to function whenever she’s around, turns into this awkward mess who can’t string two sentences together. We all give him crap about it constantly.

Calder sits on the couch with a bong, taking a deep hit before exhaling smoke into the air. My brain keeps replaying him making someone eat their own eyeballs. The wet popping sounds when he scooped them out, the screaming that dissolved into choking when he forced them into the guy’s mouth. I should be more disturbed, but I found it fascinating.

Heading over, I drop onto the couch next to him, reaching for the bong. He passes it over, and I light it, inhaling deep and holding the smoke in my lungs before leaning back into the cushions and exhaling slowly.

“You good?” Calder asks, glancing at me.

“Da, I’m fine.”

“Where’s Daniil?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like we’re attached at the fucking hip,” I snap.

He mutters something under his breath and takes the bong back, lighting it again.

“I bet you ten bucks Lev’s taking Gloria home tonight,” he says, smoke curling from his mouth.

“Make it a hundred.”

He chuckles. “Deal.”

The same girl from earlier appears, her brown hair falling down to her waist. She grins down at me and drops onto the couch next to me, her thigh pressing against mine. There’s no space to move away, and I sigh, already knowing where this is going.

She leans across me slowly, looking at Calder and pointing to the bong. “Can I?”

He hands it over, and she leans back, taking a hit without breaking eye contact with me. “Want to shotgun?” she asks, smoke still in her lungs.

Hell no. No way in hell am I inhaling her smoke.

I try pushing up from the couch, but Calder catches my arm and pulls me back down. “Dude, just relax for once. Why are all of you always so wound up? It’s exhausting just watching you exist.”

“You’ve met our father,” I point out.

She shifts closer, her hand landing on my thigh, and then she leans in so her lips are next to my ear. “Want to get out of here?”

“No.”

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

I roll my eyes. “Not interested.”