Riot by Tillie Cole
Reaching the center of the pit, I threw Master to the ground. I took hold of his hair and wrenched him up until he was on his knees. I looked up, and my breath caught when I saw that every other fighter in the pit was looking my way. The crowd that had not yet met their death watched with wide eyes as I circled Master.
Luka, Valentin, and Zaal moved closer to me. Their eyes were bright with their recent kills. Blood covered us all. We looked wild and insane.
We looked like Blood Pit warriors.
The fighters around us closed in, until a large circle kept Master trapped. I watched as he raised his head and met the eyes of every fighter. Then I saw his face drain of blood even more when he clicked his fingers. That click would once have ordered his males to obey.
As they stared at their former master with circled lips and clenched hands, I could see the realization sink in.
“They are no longer your slaves,” I informed him, my voice rough from the fight.
Master blinked and I stepped back, holding out my hand to Luka, Zaal, and Valentin. Master watched every move I made.
“Master,” I said dryly, “it seems your tournament has been taken over. You cannot command loyalty. Loyalty is earned.”
The Wraiths that had helped in the revolt pushed to the front of the circle, led by an older man in a suit. “Abel,” Master hissed. Abel nodded slowly.
“The champions you so love, Master,” I said sarcastically, “are the Volkov Bratva and the Kostava Clan of Georgia.” Master stared at Luka, Zaal, and Valentin. I pointed to Luka. “Luka is the knayz, once a prisoner of the Alaskan gulag. Zaal, one of the Kostava twins you experimented on for years right here in the pit.” I then pointed to Valentin, who was rocking rabidly on his feet. His knuckles were white as he clutched his picanas. “And this,” I said, “was your sister’s—”
“Bitch sister’s,” Valentin corrected and bared his teeth.
“Bitch sister’s Ubiytsa.” Valentin stepped closer to Master, and I added, “His name is Valentin Belrov … he is Inessa’s brother. Inessa, you know. But to you she is 152. Your High Mona. The one you left tied up and hanging on for life in the basement.”
I didn’t think it was possible for Master’s skin to blanch even more. But as he stared at Valentin, Valentin who had tipped his head back and roared out his pain, I was wrong. Valentin ran forward, and sent the tips of his picanas through the back of Master’s calves. Master roared out as the picanas pegged him to the ground.
Luka reached out and dragged Valentin back. For a second I thought he would fight Luka to kill Master. But Zaal stepped up to his side, helping keep him in place. Valentin glared at me instead.
“Finish him,” he ordered with a deep harshness. “End him!”
Casting a glance around the room, I saw every fighter that Master had enslaved watch me, pure hope in their eyes. Hope this was it. This was the liberation every one of us craved but never believed we would get.
As I stepped closer to him, Master looked up at me. Narrowing my eyes, I said, “This ends today. From this point on, this pit will not exist. The gulags that Luka has told me of will be destroyed one by one. Your associates will be murdered. Your name will be forgotten.” I pointed my Kindjal to every one of the fighters thirsting for his blood. “We will all leave this place.” Bending down, I said, “We will all get our names back. We will live … in freedom!”
“I made you!” Master hissed, and stuttered through the pain Valentin’s picanas where causing. “I made all of you! In this arena you were gods!”
“No,” I said, slowly shaking my head for emphasis, “we were slaves. But out there, we will be whatever we want. As I have been told it should be.”
“Ilya,” Luka said, and I met his eyes. He nodded, telling me to get it done.
So I did.
Walking to stand behind Master, I surveyed all of the fighters and the mesmerized crowd, Master’s investors who had profited from our imprisonment. Taking one of my beloved Kindjals, I slowly raised it high. With a thunderous roar, I plunged it straight through the top of his skull. I kept screaming as I did. The remainder of my hatred and fury released and drifted to the ceiling.
The males were quiet in the aftermath. They all stared at Master, dead, bent on his knees.
This time he was below us.
He had submitted to our collective strength.
Valentin broke the silence by facing the fighters in the stands and calmly ordering, “Kill them all.” He pointed to the rest of Master’s people. The fighters didn’t move. Then they all looked to me. My chest filled with pride when they waited for my command.
Luka stepped forward. “You are their champion. They will only take orders from you.”
Taking hold of my blade’s handle, I ripped it from Master and kicked his corpse to the floor. Turning in a circle, I then raised my blade into the air and ordered, “Fucking kill them all!”
The room seemed to shake violently with revenge and the sheer need to cull. The fighters attacked as one. They charged the crowd, weapons held high.
Valentin gripped my arm as he retrieved his picanas from Master’s legs. “Go,” he pushed. “Get Inessa.” He looked to the crowd. “We’ll get these dicks.”
I nodded and ran. Racing out of the tunnel, I pushed my legs as fast as they would go and followed the directions Maya had told Valentin last night. Valentin remembered everything, including the way to moy prekrasnyy.
Descending the steps that led to the lower basement, I then rounded the corner, sprinting down the narrow hallway. I arrived at a metal door and without pause kicked it wide open.
My stomach dropped at the sight that greeted me. Inessa was tied up by ropes, her pale skin dripping with blood. Maya was holding her up, the young female easing Inessa’s pain.
Hearing me at the door, Maya looked up. Her eyes immediately filled with tears and she said, “She is losing consciousness.” Maya sniffed. “I have tried to keep her awake, but the blood…”
I took my Kindjals and, moving to the tight ropes, sliced through them both. Inessa immediately collapsed on Maya. Before Maya herself fell, I grabbed Inessa. When I saw her lashed bare back, her blood pooled on the floor, I instantly saw red.
I breathed through the anger until I composed myself enough to push Inessa’s hair from her face. She moaned as I held her in my arms. I tried my best to avoid touching her open wounds. Inessa’s eyes rolled open and her sleepy gaze met mine. She tried to smile through bruised lips. “Moy voin,” she whispered. “My Ilya. You have come for me.”
Her eyes closed. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I called, “Inessa?”
Maya moved beside us. “She keeps slipping in and out of consciousness. She needs help.”
I turned to sprint back upstairs, when Maya asked, “Is it over?”
I heard hope lace her words. Turning, I replied, “Yes.”
Her hand lifted to her mouth and tears fell down her cheeks. When I moved to the door, I realized Maya didn’t follow. When I looked back, she rocked on her feet and said, “I … I don’t know what to do now. This is all I’ve known. My family doesn’t want me.” She lifted her hand to her scarred face. I saw the fear of the unknown in her expression.
My chest cracked at the little-girl-lost look on her face. I stared down at Inessa and recalled how much affection she had for the young female. Looking up, I said, “You come with us. Inessa loves you like a sister. You belong with us.”
Maya stared for several frozen seconds, then she choked out a sob. My heart squeezed for the youngster. “Come,” I ordered, and fled into the hallway. I smiled when I heard the sound of Maya’s light feet following behind us.
I raced up the stairs and through the tunnel. I suddenly stopped when I looked at the pit. It was done. There were fighters milling round the pit. When I looked to the stands, I saw Luka climbing to speak to the fighters, Zaal by his side. The Bratva knayz and the Georgian Lideri. Valentin hung back and waited at the bottom. The fighters all stared up, waiting f
Luka cleared his throat. His knuckle-dusters were still on his hands. “Warriors,” he began. The males all listened intently in absolute silence. “My name is Luka Tolstoi. This will not mean much to you yet, but I am a product of the gulags that Arziani—your slain master—owned.” He next pointed to Zaal. “This is Zaal Kostava. He was raised in this pit. He is one of you.” He pointed to Valentin. “As is he. Valentin Belrov.”
The males looked to one another in confusion. “I’ll keep this short. I belong to a powerful family in New York City. It is in another country, America. We have recovered the files of most of you. In those files are your names and where you are from. Many of you have family. Some, like Valentin and Ilya, your champions, were kidnapped from an orphanage. You have no family.” He paused, then said, “Today, you are free. You get to choose what to do with your life. For those who discover they have family, the guards that helped plan this riot will help you find your way home. Those of you who have none, you are welcome to join me in New York.” Luka placed his hand over his chest. “If you want, there is a place for you in my organization.”
Zaal stepped forward. “I am Georgian, the leader of my people in Brooklyn, New York. If you are Georgian and have nowhere to go, I will give you a place among our people.” Zaal looked at Luka. “Our two families are joined. It is your choice.”
Luka looked to Viktor, who was waiting at the rear of the pit. He nodded and Viktor disappeared. “Right now, we must leave.” Luka’s face frosted with coldness. “We are going to destroy this pit and all the dead will remain in it. You have thirty minutes to leave.”
Then the males turned and headed for the exit doors. A sound from behind caught my attention. When I listened harder, Maya said, “It is the monebi. They are being released, too.” Maya sighed. “There are children here, too. The chiri are getting them out. There has been housing made available for them by these males.” Maya pointed to Luka and Zaal. “For the monebi, too.”
My head swam with a thick fog. It was all too much to take in. Inessa moaned again, her eyes fluttering open. Spurred forward by her glazed gaze, I ran into the pit. Valentin saw me first. In no time at all, he rushed to me.
“Inessa,” he called. I stopped when he reached us. I saw Valentin’s expression darkening at the state she was in.
“We need to get her help,” I said. Luka nodded.
“We have a plane that can get us to New York. We have a doctor waiting for us on board.”
I stared at Luka in confusion. Luka placed his hand on my shoulder and said, “You have a home with us. Inessa is Valentin’s blood, you are her male.” He smiled over my shoulder at Maya and said, “And you are her new family. You all come with us. The males and females that need our help will follow later.”
Inessa moaned again and I held her tighter. A sudden rush of emotion settled within me as I stared at her. “Thank you,” I rasped to Luka, my chest tightening.
We were free.
This was real.
When Inessa moaned louder and shifted in my arms, Valentin leaned over her, pushing her matted hair from her face. “Inessa,” he said softly. It was strange to see such a brutal cold male so soft and caring with my Inessa.
As his voice carried to her ears, Inessa’s eyes flickered open. I could still see the weakness, the confusion in their depths. But my heart raced when she smiled and held up her little finger.
A pained sound left Valentin’s mouth, and he linked his little finger with hers. Inessa smiled, then whispered brokenly, “You … came for me…” She sucked in a breath, then sighed. “Big Brother Promise … my Valentin…”
Inessa’s eyes closed. When I looked to Valentin, he had tears tracking down his cheeks. In a soft voice, he said, “Let’s go home. I want to go home to my Zoya.”
I could tell by Luka and Zaal’s shocked faces that Valentin was never this way. This calm and … at peace?
“Let’s go,” Luka agreed, and we all followed behind. When we left the stairs to enter the night, I gasped when fresh air filled my lungs. Maya had found a blanket and placed it over Inessa. As the cool breeze caressed Inessa’s cheeks, I held her closer, needing her warm touch.
I scanned the outside of the pit, all metal fences and towers. A shiver ran down my spine. For a moment, I remembered being brought down these steps as a child. In a flash, the memory had gone. And I was glad. I never wanted to think of this place ever again.
Males dressed in black ran from a machine waiting in the grass. “A plane,” Zaal informed me as I stared at it blankly. “It will take us home.”
The machine brought me trepidation, but I climbed the stairs and entered the small space, driven by a single promise: It will take us home …
We would have a home.
I snarled when a male in a white coat tried to take Inessa from my arms. Valentin placed his hand on my arm. “He is a doctor,” he told me. “He will help her.”
Staring at the fearful male, I told him, “I will lay her down. Just show me where.” The doctor eagerly nodded his agreement. He led the way, and I laid Inessa down on a bed, chest against the mattress so her back could be treated. I sat down on the end of the bed, taking hold of her hand. The doctor looked at me with a raised brow. “I’m not going anywhere,” I told him plainly.
Maya moved beside me and patiently watched what the doctor was doing. I smirked when the doctor raised a brow at her, too. She lifted her chin to show she wasn’t leaving, either.
As the machine began to move and propel us into the sky, I kept my gaze on the doctor as he patched up moy prekrasnyy. As we sailed into the clouds, I glanced down at the pit. Flames were bringing down the towers. I could only imagine what it looked like inside.
Appropriate, I thought, as I watched the orange and red flames climb ever higher. The Blood Pit was my hell. Engulfed in flames with all its evil burning inside. Now it had been transformed into the hell I’d always believed it to be.
I watched it burn until it disappeared out of sight.
Then I watched my Inessa.
I watched her breathing.
I watched her sleep in peace.
The two of us now completely free.
15
LUKA
I breathed in deeply as I saw the bright lights of New York glitter in the distance. Zaal sighed beside me. “Thank God,” he muttered, and I nodded my head. I felt exactly the same.
I glanced to the back of the plane. The doctor had attended to Inessa for many hours. She had been cleaned, courtesy of Maya, and was now sound asleep. The doctor had given her drugs to help her sleep peacefully. He said she needed sleep to heal. Ilya had had to be restrained when he’d seen the doctor about to inject her with the needle. Valentin had been able to calm him, promising it was nothing like those Master administered.
The doctor had removed her bracelet, too. The drugs and medication he had given her, and would administer over the coming days, were designed to clear the Type B drug from her system. When she woke, she would be cleansed of the drugs she had been forced to endure for years.
I next looked to Ilya. For most of the long flight he had kept vigil by Inessa’s side. Eventually, he had washed and changed into spare track pants and a T-shirt. His hand still lay in Inessa’s, his head resting on her narrow mattress. Maya slept in a chair at the end of the bed. Valentin sat in the closest seat to his sister. The scarred male hadn’t said much on the flight home. Like Zaal and me, he had washed and changed. But then he had moved to be near his sister and hadn’t moved since.
I’d caught him watching Ilya from time to time. But it wasn’t in aggression. Valentin had always been an enigma. I had never, since the day I had met him, gotten a handle on what he was thinking at any given moment in time.
His eyes were always cold and assessing. The only time I had ever seen him soften was when he was with Zoya. Only that female seemed to be a balm to the torture he endured inside. Yet since Inessa had been found, since she had called his name
Zaal and I had braced ourselves to hold him back from Ilya. But as Ilya never left Inessa’s side and he now slept beside her, his hand tightly hanging onto hers, Valentin had watched him with a new expression—acceptance … maybe happiness?
The male appeared happy. His sister had found love. Like he had with Zoya, Inessa had with Ilya. We had all learned that life was easier to adjust to when you had someone beside you, helping you along the way.
“We will be landing in ten minutes,” the pilot called over the speaker. I let my head rest against the seat.
My knee bounced up and down in excitement. In ten minutes I would see my Kisa. We would all be reunited. I allowed myself to sigh in relief that we had all come home alive. The chances that one of us would not had been high. I couldn’t have faced that person’s female lover if that had been the case. I knew that neither Zaal nor Valentin could have faced Kisa if it had been me.
I thanked God that we were all home safe.
Minutes later, the plane’s wheels touched tarmac. When we rolled to a stop, Viktor helped the byki open the plane. I looked out the window, and my heart flipped and swelled in my chest when I saw Kisa get out of a car. Her brown hair blew in the evening breeze. I could see her eyes searching for me through the windows. Several more cars arrived. I smiled when Zoya and Talia got out and stood beside my wife.
I felt Zaal tense beside me. He immediately heaved a sigh of relief when he saw his fiancée. The door opened and the stairs were brought to the plane by one of our males that worked at the airfield.
Valentin got to his feet, pressing his hand to Ilya’s shoulder. Ilya jumped to his feet, his fists braced to fight. Valentin didn’t flinch. Ilya blinked the sleep from his eyes and then relaxed his shoulders. His blue eyes immediately looked down to Inessa.