Page 27 of Eternal

DAMIR

“Into The Ether” by Leif Vollebekk

Present

I walked back into the hotel room after grabbing the food for tonight.

Voron was sprawled on the bed, her body flat against the mattress, legs bent lazily as she flicked through a file on her phone.

I set the bags down on the small table, grabbed the burgers and fries, and tossed one of the water bottles her way. “Thank you,” she said softly.

“Dinner,” I said, unwrapping my own burger.

Voron didn’t even glance up, she was too absorbed in whatever was on her screen, I could tell she was distracted, but that didn’t stop me from watching her as I opened the food.

I set her burger down on the table in front of her. No tomatoes, no lettuce, only the meat and cheese, the way she always liked it.

She looked at it, then at me, raising an eyebrow. “How do you know I don’t eat all that stuff?”

I took a bite of my own burger, swallowing before responding. “I pay attention.”

I stalk you and watch you eat every night. But yeah, let’s say I just pay attention.

She paused, clearly not expecting that answer, her eyes shifted from the food to me, like she was trying to figure me out. “That’s it? You just... pay attention? And how could you know, knowing I’ve never had a burger in front of you?”

“At the party, they had smaller versions as appetizers, and Kat gave them to you after taking out the tomato slices and lettuce. I just pay attention,” I said, giving a nonchalant shrug, pretending not to care. “Simple as that.”

“You really are a creep,” she said before taking her first bite. A moan of approval followed. “This is good.”

I leaned back against the headboard, watching her casually as she chewed.

She didn’t seem to mind the quiet as much as she let on, but I could see the wheels turning behind her eyes.

She was trying to put the pieces together.

Trying to figure out what I knew and how I knew it, but that wasn’t something I was going to explain.

“What else do you know?” she asked, her voice a bit lighter now, as though she was almost... teasing me?

I smirked, taking another bite of my food. “A lot of things.”

She shook her head, amused, clearly not buying it. “You’re really not going to tell me, are you?”

I smiled, almost as if I couldn’t help myself. “No.”

Her lips twitched like she might say something else, but then she shrugged and went back to eating.

After a few minutes her voice comes up. “The address is 1389 Winchester Avenue,” she said nonchalantly, glancing up at me. “Safe house, east side. Our thief’s hiding there.”

I chewed slowly, digesting both her words and the food. “Who gave you the address?”

She paused for a second, picking up a fry and biting into it. “The Don called me,” she said flatly, offering a shrug. “Guess he wanted to make sure I had it.”

I blinked, surprised. “The Don?” I repeated, eyebrows raising. That was… odd. Nikolai didn’t typically get involved in these kinds of things. He usually sent messages through Viktor.

“Yup,” she replied, focusing on her food again, looking completely normal. “I don’t know why he didn’t send it to Viktor, but whatever.”

I watched her for a moment, chewing thoughtfully. “I see. Did he say anything else?”

She leaned back on her hands for a second, glancing at me. “Nope.”

I nodded, my gaze lingering on her, she seemed at ease with me, and I don’t know why, but knowing it brought me some satisfaction.

A vicious little creature, but such a pretty one.

“What’s got you smiling?” she asked, eyes narrowing as she caught me looking at her.

Was I fucking smiling looking at her?

I forced myself to look away, my mouth pulling into a grin I couldn’t hide anymore. “Nothing. Just thinking how easy they made it for us now that we know where they hide.”

She chuckled softly, looking down at the food in her hands as she took another bite of her burger, her cheeks puffing out in the process.

Why do I want to smile even more?

There was something about the way she looked in that moment, with her cheeks full, her eyes half-lidded as she chewed, that hit me.

It was strange, cute, almost, in an oddly innocent way.

This is the woman everyone is so scared of? The woman I have to stop?

I cleared my throat, forcing myself to focus. This wasn’t the time for... whatever the hell I was feeling.

She shot me a weird glance, “What, you want to say something?”

I smirked, leaning back against the headboard, my voice deliberately casual. “You look cute when you’re not talking or threatening me.”

She did, pretty eyes, prettier lips, looking human in the sweetest way possible.

She froze mid-bite, her expression caught somewhere between surprise and annoyance, then she coughed, trying to play it off, but the flush creeping up her neck was enough for me.

“Too bad I like to talk and threaten people,” she shot back. “That’s my job.”

“Still look cute,” I murmured, the smile lingering even as I tore my gaze away.

A silence fell between us, she focused on her burger, and me on mine.

“We need to gear up.”

“Right,” she said, brushing crumbs off her fingers, her cold demeanor was back, but it felt... different. Softer, somehow.

In minutes, she had her weapons packed while I was still finishing my burger, the transformation was quick and really unsettling.

“We leave in ten minutes,” she said without looking at me.

I wiped my hands on the nearest napkin, my eyes lingering on her. I wasn’t used to being the one following orders. “Where’s the meet, again?” I asked, grabbing my gear.

“Industrial district. Neutral ground,” she said, adjusting the strap on her chest holster. “Nikolai’s men will cover the exit.”

“You’re quick,” I said, leaning back and rolling up my sleeves.

She didn’t slow, didn’t spare me more than a glance. “And you’re slow. Get up.”

A laugh rumbled low in my chest as I stood, grabbing my jacket, I slid my weapons from my bag, checking the clip of my gun.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her looking at me, or rather, at the tattoos snaking across my forearms. Her gaze was quick, assessing, before flicking back to her gear, it was subtle, but I saw it.

“What?” I asked, smiling too proudly. “Like what you see?”

She tightened the strap on her holster and smiled. “It kind of seems ironic, all that ink makes you easy to identify.”

“Maybe. But I’m not the only one wearing long sleeves year-round, hiding God-knows-what under there.”

Her hands stilled briefly before she slid another knife into a sheath on her thigh.

“No one’s going to ID me because no one knows who I am, including you.

” Her voice was calm, but the honesty in her words made me stop what I was doing and stare at her.

“I existed before the tattoos, and I’ll exist after them if it comes to that.

Because in between both, I won’t have a name. ”

Before the tattoos. After. In between: nothing.

That in-between is what interests me, because no one becomes nothing by accident, that’s conditioning, that’s detachment. She didn’t go off-grid, she erased herself voluntarily.

I nodded, pulling on my long-sleeve shirt over the fitted black base layer. “There. Better?”

Her lips twitched, not quite a smile, but close. “Marginally.” She grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, already moving toward the door. “Let’s go, partner.”

I followed, the ghost of a grin tugging at my mouth, she didn’t glance back, and I didn’t expect her to.

Whatever she was, whoever she was, she had walls built so high, they disappeared into the clouds, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me.