Chapter 10.1

 Asami and Alice excitedly dragged both Alina and Emily through the crowds, Michelle lagged behind them while Jason and Melanie both walked at a slow pace with him keeping an eye on everyone. Melanie took advantage of the girls' excitement to come closer to Jason. She linked her arms into his and smiled when she noticed him not complaining but staring at her carefully.

"Who are you?" Jason asked her abruptly, his cold eyes bore into hers and she calmly looked back.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" Melanie smiled and he turned to look away.

"You act like you know me," Jason answered. "We've met before … haven't we?"

"You really don't remember?" Melanie giggled as she lowered her head. Her bangs obscured her face from his view of angle before she looked up at him, revealing her hidden face. "Does this jog your memory?"

Jason looked down at her and despite appearing impassive, his eyebrows betrayed his emotions as he raised them in surprise. Her features hadn't changed, however, the sweet but impish smile along with her gentle disposition had disappeared.

What replaced it was a smile that was curved in a maniacal demeanor, lush with violence and instability and her cold eyes were widened with an obsessive infatuation that was bordering insanity. Jason's memory flashed back to over a decade ago as she slowly licked her lips, exposing the split tongue she had.

Weeks after the failed mission in Budapest, Jason with the help of a local crime lord, managed to locate a group with ties to the mysterious hitmen that killed his team. Attacking their base, he came across several groups of girls cattled together in cages; this group was a gang of scavengers that trafficking girls that were appealing and selling the organs of those that weren't...

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Jason grimaced as he entered a small room that was at the center of the fortress. The stench of sweat and piss mixed with blood greeted him as he walked in and observed the chained girl that was barely moving.

Her size and stature told him that she was not even twelve as blood dripped from her mouth and between her legs while her purplish bruised skin informed him of her internal bleeding. Studying her, Jason realized that her wounds were methodic like they were carefully placed at where to hurt her most. It was obvious that the slavers were gutting her as a message to the other prisoners.

Hmmm, they sliced her tongue and stabbed her between the legs, Jason thought. Means they didn't intend to keep her as merchandise, probably cause she showed some spunk... These organ scavengers were clearly planning to kill her after having their fun… fucking hell.

Jason leaned down and used his new powers to try and heal her but he focused it mostly on her legs. As he healed her, she began stirring and, realizing that Jason was near her, she lunged forward and bit his right arm. Her teeth dug into his flesh and her blood mixed with his in her mouth as she stared at him with murderous eyes, eyes that showed her unbreakable resolve and need for vengeance.

"My, what beautiful eyes you have," he muttered as he forced her jaws open with his free hand. "So, who do you want to kill?"

Jason asked casually, as though he were asking her to choose her favorite ice cream and the girl snarled at him, a look of confusion flitting through her eyes as she watched him heal her.

"You can tell me. After all, we're the same," Jason whispered as he leaned in and the girl was stupefied as she looked into his eyes. The same dead look was reflected back to hers but whereas her eyes were filled with flaming vengeance, his were that of a black hole, the depth swallowing all light and emotion from its surroundings. "Who you want to kill?"

"Them," she whispered as she growled like a wounded animal. "I want to kill them all. Cut them, burn them, eat them … I want them to suffer more than anything!"

Jason had a cold smile when he heard her. He understood her emotions and couldn't help but feel like she was a kindred spirit that shared his lust for murder.

"Well, then. Would you like me to do the honors?" he asked as she looked at him bemused. "You're too weak to kill them. So how bout you use me to finish them off?"

"You?" the little girl looked at the boy who was about her age with confusion, not understanding what he meant.

"Just watch," Jason whispered as he lifted her up and left the room. He placed her against a wall while the surviving traffickers surrounded him.

With his superhuman agility, Jason started stabbing and shooting the scavengers. As he danced and weaved through the opponents, he ensured that each of his attacks were non-lethal but they were debilitating, and each trafficker collapsed with crippling wounds.

The girl watched all this in amazement, her eyes wide with surprise before she began giggling darkly, her malicious laughter full of glee as she witnessed the pain that the traffickers were experiencing. Before long, she began requesting Jason to torture them in different ways and her eyes shone with longing as she watched him follow her demented desires...

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"I see," Jason said as he looked at Melanie in the present. "You've grown up quite well."

"It was easy," replied Melanie as she changed back into a sweet girl. "I just needed to wear a mask, just like you."

Jason looked sideways at her, his face impassive, while she smiled at him.

"Is it not the truth?" Melanie continued. "We both pretend to be something that we're not while giving our inner monster a form. A name. Fenrir and Viperess. Ah, we're such a match."

Melanie blushed with a bashful expression as she covered her cheek with a hand while Jason looked away, a stoic expression on his face.

"I saved you," he said quietly. "But that doesn't explain your fixation on me."

Melanie skipped a few steps forward and turned around abruptly. She stood on her tiptoes and grabbed him by his collar, her face merely a centimeter away from his.

"Don't you remember what I said back then?" Melanie asked in a sweet voice while she stared at him with fervor. "I told you ... I dedicate my life, my body, and my soul to you. I'll be anything you want me to be. A soldier, a slave, a pet … it doesn't matter. I'll give you everything, as long as you keep me beside you."

Jason brushed her hands away while watching her carefully. Indeed, he helped her achieve vengeance and temporarily stayed with her while she was recuperating. But upon realizing that she had an infatuation to him, he left without looking back. Mary's betrayal was fresh in his mind and he was too focused on finding the group that slaughtered his brothers to be interested in a romance that wasn't real.

"And I told you before, I don't need anything like that," Jason said, his cold voice would have had anyone feel depressed with disappointment but Melanie shuddered with ecstasy. "Besides, what you feel for me isn't love."

"No, it's not," agreed Melanie with eyes wide with rapaciousness. "It's an obsession, a passion, an attachment that I have for you. I need you. No ... I want you."

"Shame I don't feel the same," Jason said.

"Not yet anyhow," Melanie whispered. "But I'll make sure you can't live without me. That, I promise you."