Warning: blood, gore, shooting and murder :)

A body dropped with a thump behind me. I turned and looked at one of the men who I'd disabled in the beginning with a hand unto his throat as blood seeped between his fingers.

Peach.... saved me?

"Viktor?" she called and the sound of her voice cut through the fog my bloodlust created in my mind. Her hand reached out when I turned, cradling my cheek, brushing over my stubble. I realised she was wiping blood from my face.

"You aren't supposed to be here?" I stated though more confusion laced my tone than anger. How was she here? I'd made sure she was safe. I'd gotten her out. My mind was still slow, trying to decide whether she was a hallucination or not.

"I came back for your condescending ass," she grumbled at tagged at my blood stained arm, pulling me towards the exit. "The battle's lost Viktor. I don't know who these guys are but they have some serious military training. Everyone's moving out."

I moved with her though my legs were dragging like I was wading through thick water. Battles like this never lasted long. Bullets killed as fast as they flew and by the time more than a dozen had left different barrels, there was no hope.

"I prepared the jeep for us to go," Peach informed me and I wondered how as we both jumped over dead bodies in our hast escape down the stairs. "Where's Markov? I'm assuming you want to save him as well. We don't have much time."

"Dead," I said in a voice that matched his state. "Sniper."

"Fuck!" Peach cursed, stumbling a little in surprise. She turned to look at me, her brows frowning in worry for me I was assuming. I gave a her a dead stare back, which did not ease her one bit. "Later." she decided and laced her fingers through my bloodied ones, pulling me more down the stairs.

I focused on her hand. The feel of the cool calloused and slender fingers between mine. I grounded myself to her touch and the way my warmth kindled in the moment we shared. My mind slowly cleared as I matched her pace, not just following her on autopilot.

We reached the basement and Peach reached for the door first but I pulled her back, causing her to stumble lightly into my chest. I had to let go of her hand and put my hands around her smaller waist to stop her from falling over. Once she settled, I bent to her line of sight to get her attention.

"I go first," I commanded and I expected her to fight me on it but she didn't, nodding with a look that said she trusted me. God.... this woman.

I moved away from her, detaching myself hesitantly, not wanting to give my hands the time to get familiar with the curves of her body. I stood by the door, pulling yet another gun from my belt. I was down to just this Walther PDP but it was fully loaded and ready to kill.

The basement to my surprise was clear, all and our jeep which was hidden under a black tarp. Peach and I pulled it off in a haste and we got in, me in the driver's seat. The key was already in the ignition and I turned the machine on, pulling out of the garage, tears squealing and the smell of rubber invading my nose.

"Where are we going?" Peach asked, her voice calm and steady despite everything.

"There was a plan B. In the case that we had to fall back, there is a warehouse down the street where secret panic rooms have been installed."

"Do you think it's safe?"

"As long as you're with me and that you stay close," I stated, my voice cold and serious to get my point across. "When I tell you to run, you dash for the hills. When I tell you to hide, you have to be as silent as a grave and when I tell you to close your eyes, you keep them fucking shut no matter what you see or hear. Understood?"

"I can't promise you that," Peach said after a short hesitation. "I have to live as much as you do."

I wanted to put my arms on her shoulders and shake her. The world would be a better place without a man like me in it. She didn't quite grasp what I was trying to protect her from.

"Peach, I'm serious."

"I know!" she huffed out. "I know you are but... we started this thing together and I'll be damned if you die in the middle of it. I ca—"

I waited for Peach to finish whatever she was trying to say after cutting herself off mid statement. When it seemed like the words she was going to say stayed lodged in her throat, I let out a low sigh.

"I'll be fine as long as you are. Promise me that you will keep away from danger. At least listen to me once in a while," I pressed and Peach nodded.

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

We reached the warehouse before I wanted us to. The sky was dark, no stars showing through the thick layer of grey clouds that promised to bring a fresh layer of snow soon. I parked the car two blocks further than our destination because I just didn't trust what we would walk into. I turned the car off and Peach and I sat in silence until the loud cocking of her Hi-Point C9 broke the quiet.

I didn't like the idea of her thinking she had to kill to protect herself. Taking a life was no easy fit yet Peach did it easy.

"I should've brought a coat," she grumbled undoing her seatbelt and opening her door to jump out. In the cold, her body shivered and her scowl became more menacing.

I joined her and made sure to steer us through the back entrance. The panic rooms were underground and judging by the number of cars out here, some had already made it. I turned to Peach and put my finger over my lips. Seeing my look, she nodded whilst hugging herself for heat.

The warehouse was small, nothing much to look at but the panic room was on the opposite end of all the entrance doors. We had to cross over the wide space to get there. Crates lined the walls of the dimly lit storage, filled with different items from clothes to grenades if you looked in the right place. Going in, Peach and I first passed through a small corridor before I grabbed her hand and we begun dashing through the open space to get to the other side.

My heart was beating fast in my chest and I tried to match Peach's pace so I wasn't dragging her across the floor. Before we could reach the door, a shot rung out, then another. I thought the bullets were headed for me, slightly ducking my head as Peach let out a small scream but the shots had a different destination. Ahead of us, crates that had been held by a crane were dropped, falling to block our path. I pulled Peach to a stop and a few rushed steps back as large wooden boxes crashed before us, sending splinters of wood everywhere.

"Viktor?" Peach asked scared as my mind worked a mile a minute to figure out where the bullet came from. I looked at the angle the chain of the crane was hit and turned to look at my six.

Peach's eyes were already in that direction, a swarm of heavily armed men rushing into the warehouse. They must have been fifteen or twenty. I couldn't tell.

"Run," I said lowly and Peach and I dashed.

There was a staircase that led to an upper storage so we made a b-line. Shots rung out behind us. As we quickly made our way up the stairs, I saw an emergency box with a fire extinguisher and a sharp red axe.

Peach who was ahead, reached the top floor first. More crates, nowhere to go. Turning behind us, there was an open railing where when I looked down, the men in black had their guns trained up at us. I pushed Peach further into the floor as bullets wheezed over our heads.

A plan came to mind. A bad, reckless and mostly dangerous plan. These men came for me, for my Bratva and they had taken out my uncle. These men were mine. The R.B prints on their bulletproof vests told me as much. I owned their souls and they had betrayed me.

They deserved to be punished and the only fitting punishment was death.

I pushed Peach behind a crate and crouched down with her for a second, putting my plan in motion in my mind. I would get out of this alive. I knew I would but the means were not some I was going to be proud of.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" Peach was panicking. Her breathing was erratic and her eyes were moist. I knew she didn't let her tears fall because she wanted to be strong but no one was strong when facing down death.

No one but me.

Death and I had become acquaintances of sorts. He followed me around everywhere I went, all my life and I'd learnt to accept him. At this moment, I knew that his presence lingered in the air. He brought out the worst part of me but my demons were going to save Peach today. For beings full of such evil and malice, they were going to do a good deed, save a good person. I worried for the repercussions of my next decisions. I worried of what Peach would think of me.

Would she fear me? Hate me? Condemn me? There was no way of knowing until the deed had been done but I was going to prevent her from seeing it happen.

"Peach," I called in a soft and calm tone. "Baby, listen to me."

She was hyperventilating. She'd run for long, she was scared and unlike me, these kinds of situations must scare her so I did what she would. I cupped her delicate face in my hands that had stilled from their shaking. For now anyway.

"You're not dying," I told her. "I won't allow it."

"We're surrounded," she stated the obvious and then anger pushed through her fear as she glared at me and tried to move her face from my hold but I wouldn't allow it. "How the fuck can you be so calm Viktor? We can't die until all this is solved."

Humans were fickle creatures. There was a moment in my time with Peach when I figured she slightly yearned for that darkness that not many come back from. She wanted to see what was on the other side and I think somehow, her family had brought that influence on her but now, I'd never seen anyone with so much fight to live. I wondered what changed it, scolding myself when I thought it might be me.

"I have a plan," I told her calmly. "But it'll only work if you do something for me."

"You have a plan to save us from twenty men with guns. We don't have that many bullets," she said trying to reign in her fear. "What is it you're going to do?"

I shook my head. I couldn't tell her. "You don't worry about that. The only way my plan works is if you stay crouched behind this crate. Cover your ears, close your eyes and hum until I come for you."

"Are you mad?!" Peach hissed but there was no malice in her words. Only worry.

I suddenly wished she'd known my mother's simple lullaby. There were many English translations of the song but I wanted her to sing to herself in Russian and block out the chaos as I had done many times as a boy.

Ne lozhisya na krayu! Pridet seren'kiy volchok. Don't lie on the edge! The little grey wolf will come.

And the wolf did appear. Many times in the form of my father's fury, my brother's psychopathic form of love and the birth of my demons. Just as the lullaby stated, the wolf dragged me into the woods by my side. There was no escaping for me. There was for Peach.

"Just do it," I instructed her and she stared at me, wondering what was on my mind.

"I trust you Viktor but only with my life. Not your own," she stated softly and scooted back, doing as I asked. She shut her eyes, pulled her knees close to her chest and laid palms over her ears. Then she hummed.

I left her, i walked to the rail, looking over the men below and talked to them in Russian. Their guns were pinned over my chest but I didn't care.

"Brothers," I begun. "Not only have you dishonored your Bratva but you have committed treason against your Don. Such will not go unpunished but I request we put the guns down, yes? Finish this the way our ancestors would. Flesh, blood, bone and blade."

There was one thing our Bratva was known for and that was our pride in hand to hand combat. We produced the best close range fighters and should these men want to die in glory, even in the eyes of whoever sent them, they would die by a blade. That is why I was not surprised when all their guns clattered to the ground, disabled.

"Plot', krov', kosti i lezviye," They repeated after my last statement, my declaration of how I'd prefer to die.

I went down the stairs but as I descended, I broke open the glass emergency box and picked out the red axe.

The Butcher had come to play.