Badlands next generation.., p.46
Badlands: Next Generation Collection, page 46
I should have known that falling in love would be inevitable. Our story wouldn’t be one of love, though. It was a tale of possession and carnal passion weaved with a scarlet string of fate that refused to break. It was the forming of a bond between three fucked-up souls.
And if I’d known what was coming, I still wouldn’t have changed a thing.
The road to hell was paved with blood and sorrow.
But at the end of that road was an empire, the devil, and my salvation.
TWO
They saw me as a light in the dark, not realizing that the darkness they feared was me all along.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I left her sleeping in my bed.
I’d be back before she woke up. If I could have watched her sleep all night, I would have. It was hard not to stare at her. Star wasn’t just gorgeous. Something primal inside me had woken up. He and I met about the same time I took Kevin’s eye out. I’d had to welcome his ass to the fucking party of me and my new personalities.
Slipping out into the hall, I made my way downstairs to where Cam and Ice would be. The compound was quiet, but I knew acolytes were patrolling the outside of the building.
I keyed in the code for the playroom and went inside. Cam hadn’t had an issue with pulling his scarecrow down so I could hang Kevin up. There were still pieces of her flesh rotted to the meat hook when I placed it through Kevin’s back.
Ice was positioned by the makeshift investigation board he’d pieced together with Maliki. I had decided to put it in here to prevent Star from coming across this information prematurely. Some of it she didn’t need to know at all.
“Have fun?” Ice asked, shooting me a smug grin.
I flipped him off. They knew I was going to fuck her, but what was originally part of a grand scheme to enrage the factions after her had been replaced by my carnal need to possess her. Knowing that I was her first and last… that was deeply satisfying.
“You’re going to start a riot over this,” Cam joked.
“That’s the plan.”
“This is going awfully far for just a plan,” Ice remarked.
“We already discussed this. Star isn’t a loose end. She’s mine. Plan or no plan, she was mine.”
I circled around Butcher and went to get a smelling salt so I could wake Kevin up.
He was in worse shape than I’d ever seen him.
There’d been so many holes drilled and cauterized that his legs were two rotting puss sticks. Why the fuck couldn’t he just die? He was more resilient than an armored cockroach.
I held the smelling salt beneath Kevin’s nose and waited for him to rouse. His head lifted with a groan. I nudged his body so the meat hook would swing, and the pain that caused did a fine job of waking him the rest of the way. He cried out, turning his head left to right, looking fucking ridiculous.
One side of his face was crusted with blood, his empty eye socket a round, gaping hole.
“We need to have a chat.”
“Fuck you. Demonic pieces of shit,” he rasped.
“Ouch,” Ice laughed.
“Insults aren’t necessary, Kev,” I reprimanded, giving him another swing.
I detected the telltale sign of skin splitting apart. He yowled this time, his arms flailing to get himself down.
“That’s bewitching,” Cam said, watching as the back of Kevin’s uniform became even more saturated with blood, turning the entire thing a deep maroon color.
“Every time you struggle, you make this worse. Tell me where I can find Amo, and I’ll get you down. Don’t bullshit me either. We all know he isn’t dead.”
“You’re going to kill me anyway.” He coughed, heaving and trying to catch his breath.
“I’m not going to kill anyone, not tonight. Are you guys planning to kill someone?”
“I’m not aware of any murderous mischief,” Ice replied.
“I’d have killed him already,” Cam shrugged, continuing to polish the blade in his hand.
“See? Now, I’m feeling good tonight, so I’ll count down from five and give you a chance to tell me what it is I want to know. Five…three…on—”
“Stags,” he damn near yelled. “Amo is a Stag.”
“Damn, that fits your theory perfectly,” Ice said, moving closer to our board.
“Addy was actually the one who brought it to my attention. That’s why they left so fast. They had a lead.”
“How did that come about?” Cam wondered out loud.
“You already knew?” Kevin accused.
“The fuck do you think?”
I grabbed hold of his shirt and jerked, pulling him off the hook.
The spliced end tore through his back, leaving ribbons of flesh and fabric behind. He screamed, continuing to do so as I carelessly dropped him to the ground.
“I’m going to need you to shut the fuck up.” I lifted my boot and pressed it down over his mouth, squishing his cheek. “You done?” I asked after a minute.
He nodded as best he could, and I removed my shoe.
“They’ll rip you apart boy, just wait.”
“Do you know how pointless it is to talk shit when you’re about to die? Do you somehow feel better now that you got that off your chest?” I turned to Cam, who already had what I needed in hand.
I took the chain from him and began to wrap it around Kevin’s body, flipping him when necessary.
“You said you wouldn’t kill me.”
“I’m not killing you. I’m simply helping you to an untimely death.”
I tested to make sure the bindings were secure, then hoisted Kevin up, hitching the round metal hoop over the end of the bloodied meat hook.
The chain cinched, metal digging into the raw, open wounds on Kevin’s back. I withdrew my buck blade and made quick work of him. Keeping my word not to kill his ass, I made a few deep cuts that ensured he would bleed out eventually.
I wanted it to happen slowly. His adrenaline and noradrenaline levels had to rise, and his heart would start to work overtime in a failed effort to save him. It was one thing to kill and end it quickly, another entirely to make someone feel their life slipping away.
That was my favorite part of death: watching it arrive and seeing it leave. I reached out and felt his pulse. It was throbbing already. Due to his other injuries, he could die sooner than I wanted.
Wouldn’t be the end of the world. There was bound to be another man in his place sooner rather than later.
“You did all of this for nothing. To try and get back someone who doesn’t belong to you.”
“She’s A.R.C,” he coughed, choking on his own saliva.
“Then why is her blood on a Savage’s dick?”
He sucked in a sharp breath. Leaving him to moan and whine, I walked over to the bulletin board. It was ironic he tried to claim her, considering they were legitimately trying to give her away.
I looked at everything we’d compiled since yesterday. Cam joined Ice and me, whistling low once he did the same. “And I thought our family dynamic was jacked-up.”
“Compared to most of the Badlands, the Savages are the Brady Bunch.”
Ice’s eyes flashed to the upper corner, and his jaw tensed. “Then there’s him.”
“Are we really surprised?” Cam asked. “Samael was the hybrid result for a next generation. I think everyone overlooked that. I doubt he was as sick as that doctor said. You know he disappeared too? I think this was something the kid had been planning for a while.”
Our mutual agreeance came loud and clear.
“So, you and the renegade?”
I shifted my attention to Ice. “What about us?”
“Is it solid? She’s it?”
“Would I have told you guys that if she wasn’t?”
“What about the initiation?”
“That isn’t happening until we deal with what’s in front of us.”
“She has to do something to prove herself. You know we don’t just let anyone in,” Cam finished. “Not even our moms had it that easy.”
“You think she’s capable of being queen?”
“She’s my choice, so it doesn’t matter, but you know she is.” I wasn’t sure why he would even ask. He knew half of the things that I did. We’d investigated together.
Astraea was nowhere near as harmless as she came off.
She and her brother were brought up to kill whenever it was necessary and not give a fuck about the repercussions that could come later.
A.R.C murdering her father had been their first mistake. You didn’t take in a wild animal and then off the only person who could handle it. All those scars on Star’s back? That was the proof that they couldn’t fucking handle it. I would make them pay for each fuckin one.
“She’s got it in her,” Cam added, gesturing to our board.
I read from left to right, laughing to myself. Our lives were twisted and complicated as shit, but I wouldn’t change a damn thing about em. Everything always panned out in the end. The paths each of us took were always dark and fucked-up, but they led us to exactly where we were meant to be.
I didn’t believe in fate or soulmates, but I knew Star’s world was meant to collide with mine.
“How long you think it’ll take the A.R.C to respond to that message you sent?” Cam asked.
“A day or two tops.”
“If you wanted an immediate response, you should have sent one about that precious V card.”
“Precious?”
He started to laugh, causing Cam to shake his head
“All joking aside, are you two cool with this?”
“I was on board before you were,” Ice pointed out.
Cam made a sound between a scoff and a grunt. “Bro, what kind of friends would we be if we weren’t? If you’re happy, we’re ecstatic.”
Despite the way he looked at her, I believed he meant that.
If I had any inclination that Star felt the same pull to him as she did towards me, I’d have avoided the girl like the plague.
I couldn’t do love triangles. I didn’t have the time, patience, or pussy-whipped mentality it would take to stay in the running and not kill any other man who dared touch what I saw as mine.
I didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with people who got caught up in some push and pull bullshit either. If you knew what you wanted, you found a way to get it.
I wanted Astraea. I got her.
Now, I was going to do what was necessary to keep her.
I was going to plant myself inside her pretty little head so thoroughly, she’d never be rid of me.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I knew he was there.
We were beneath his comforter, but I was the only one naked. I could feel the fabric of his briefs or something pressing against me. I was probably the only one sore, too. A good kind of sore. For once.
I glanced back and up at his face. He was propped on one arm, staring down at me in the same way he had when I was locked in his storage room.
What did someone say after they’d done the things we did? All I had to go off was gossip, and I refused to use what A.R.C had taught me about being a good woman.
A smirk settled on the right side of Luce’s mouth, making him look even better than he needed to first thing in the morning.
“What?”
“You’re over-thinking.” He lifted a strand of my hair and rubbed it between two fingers. “You aren’t going anywhere. We made a deal. You’re mine.”
“But—”
“You offered something, and I took it. We fucked. We’ll be doing that a lot.”
I rolled onto my back so that I was looking straight up at him. “Is that all you want me for?”
His eyes narrowed subtly. The bed dipped as he shifted and then stood up.
He reached back for me, and I gave him my hand. Out from beneath the comforter, I finally saw the bruises on my body. A smile simmered as I studied them, following Luce into the bathroom.
He let go of me to start the shower and dropped his briefs, recapturing my hand when the temperature of the water had elevated. This shower not only had a spicket on the ceiling, but there were smaller ones on the walls. I held my hand up to one, watching the stream spray through my fingers.
Luce had his back to mine. He hadn’t said a word since we’d come in here. Replaying all he’d said to me the night before, I began to see how my question could be taken the wrong way. It was partially insensitive.
I let him wash up in peace, giving him the space to think while I did the same.
I pulled my hair over one shoulder and gingerly started to wash my back. The pain had lessened dramatically, but after being pressed into Luce’s mattress the previous night, some of the marks were tender. It was so worth it.
If that’s what good dick was, now I knew why the girls liked it. Though I couldn’t think of a single guerilla or Exarch worth risking my life for.
The mere thought of any one of them putting their hands on me more than they already had made my stomach churn. Men who preached righteousness had been shown up by a man they swore was the devil. My devil, now.
Luce’s hand wrapped around my wrist, bringing me back to the present.
“Let me.” It wasn’t a question.
He tugged my purple body sponge from my hand and gently began to wash my back.
His breath fanned onto my neck, tickling and causing all the tiny hairs to rise. I had never been ashamed of nudity or my body, but I hadn’t ever had the chance to be this free with who saw it, either.
I was comfortable with Luce. I didn’t have to hide behind a demure demeanor or risk him tying me to a cross when he got upset. He hadn’t shied away from my flaws or belittled me for them like others had done. None of the Savages had, but it meant more to me that he hadn’t.
His thumb brushed over the barcode on my hip. “This has to go.”
I glanced down at it. “You’re not cutting it off me.”
“I’ve got a small amount of decency,” he refuted. “I have the perfect replacement in mind.”
“Feel free to share. I don’t like it either.”
He brought his fingers to my back, tracing the outline of my scars, careful with the way he touched the most recent lashes. “Do they hurt?”
“Only for the first few days. Some have been deeper than others. It depends on who’s holding the whip and what I did.”
He paused for a second and expelled a deep breath.
“No one’s ever going to touch you again.”
I turned to face him, replacing his touch with the spray of water.
“How can you say something like that and know for sure?”
“I’m not just saying that, dove. I’ll kill any motherfucker who lays a hand on you.”
He snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me flush against his hardened frame.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me for doing what I promised I would.”
I gave him a small smile, bringing my hands up to cup his face. He was so ridiculously gorgeous, all the way down to his dark and dirty soul. I wished I could have frozen time so we could stay just like this. I had to choose reality over fantasy, though.
Whatever this was between us, it was as intense as it was fragile.
If he truly meant what he’d said the previous night, we had a very long road ahead. We had to learn who the other was and how to co-exist. Things wouldn’t be easy or blissful between us, but being right here in his arms? It felt right.
There was a frequency between our souls that couldn’t be explained. I wanted to see this through. I had to.
“What I said a while ago… I didn’t mean it how it came across.”
He ran a hand up my back, then down. “Explain that.”
“I don’t care if that—”
“You should care.” He tried to pull away from me. I wasn’t having that. I wrapped my arms around his neck to keep him still. Or, I tried to. Holding Luce in place was like trying to hold onto a tank.
He unwound my arms and leaned back slightly, keeping hold of my wrists. “What the fuck was that?”
“You didn’t let me finish! Stop being such a moody asshole.”
I barely blinked before he had me pushed against the slick, tiled wall.
He tilted his head to the side and stared down at my face. “What did you just call me?”
“A moody asshole.”
He started to laugh, which in turn had me glaring up at him.
“No one talks to me like that.”
“I’m not no one, I’m—”
“Mine,” he cut me off and his lips claimed my mouth as if he needed to solidify his possession.
I didn’t dare push him away. My body screamed its soreness as I granted him access, matching the fervor of his kiss.
Calloused fingers delved between my legs, strumming and teasing me until I was breathing heavily and hardly able to concentrate on kissing him back.
He grabbed my hand and placed it on his cock. It was hard, pulsing against my palm.
I gently traced around the two metal bars situated just beneath the head. I wrapped my fingers around him as best as I could, applying pressure as I glided them down his entire length then back up.
The slight change in his breathing had me doing it again, repeating the motion until he was capturing my wrist and forcing me to stop.
He spread my thighs and grabbed one of my legs, hooking it over his hip. I looked down to watch him, biting my lower lip when he started to ease himself in before slowly withdrawing.
The pain and discomfort from the day before mingled with soreness, but I didn’t want this to stop.
He continued to tease me, running his tip up and down my slit.
“You like watching?” he asked, pressing in and withdrawing again.
“I like seeing you inside me,” I breathed. “Feeling you.”
He groaned. “Don’t say things like that, baby. This will be over a lot sooner than either of us want it to be.” His grip on my thigh tightened, and one hand came to rest on the base of my throat.
He pushed inside me, seating himself fully. I dug my fingers into his slickened shoulders, trying to get used to this new position. My pussy gripped his thick length like a vise, and I spread my legs further.
