Badlands: Next Generation Collection, page 14
A bow like the one that killed Annie.
My spine stiffened, fingers squeezing the casing of the shotgun as my anger rose with each passing second. Anger and something else …something familiar that I’d been waiting for.
There was a savage predator that dwelled inside me. Spawned by the devil, she was soulless, reckless, and wild.
A grotesque deviant always ready to cause a little anarchy. Right now, she was impatiently waiting to come out and play.
It was time to set her free.
Not giving anyone a chance to stop me, I moved away from the window and went to the door.
“What are you doing?” Trix questioned.
Ignoring her, I flung the door open and stepped onto the porch just as the Stag with the bow release an arrow right into the old man’s skull. The truck’s high-beams made his blood look like glimmering crystals as it ran down his face.
They noticed me a second too late. I jumped off the porch, skipping all three steps, and walked to the end of the walkway.
“Hey, assholes!”
Four deer heads turned in my direction; behind me, I could hear the others filing out of the house.
I wanted to deal with the fucker with the bow more personally, so I lowered the barrel a bit, double-checked my safety was off, and pulled the trigger.
The sound of the shot seemed to reverberate through the neighborhood. My shell found its home, hitting the Stag in the side. She made a sound of distress, and stumbled back, tripping over the body of the old man now flat on the ground.
My next shot was to the Stag rapidly approaching me with a long bat in his hand. There were nails smashed into the wood of it.
I let him think I was out of ammo before raising the barrel.
I aimed for his head, putting a nice hole in his chest instead, shell shredding the flesh as it entered him.
My ears were ringing, but I scarcely noticed. The two remaining Stags looked as if they were going to run. Maliki was on one and Nyx the other before they had the option.
Ace darted around them to the truck and secured the keys, cutting the engine but leaving the headlights on.
I could feel Zane and Cam behind me, neither saying a word. Stepping over the Stag with the chest wound, I made my way to the woman now writhing on the ground in agony.
From my right, there was a sputtering noise as Nyx removed the mask of the man she was dealing with and used it against him, slamming an antler right into his gut, twisting so it went as far in as possible.
Using the barrel of my gun, I lifted the mask from the woman I was standing over.
The first thing that was brought to my attention was the inverted cross on her face. I experienced then the kind of rage that makes one remarkably calm.
“Hi, princess,” she coughed, grinning up at me.
I was over people using that as a fucking insult. It didn’t offend me. I owned that title proudly. A princess becomes a queen, and bitches like this one would soon learn to respect that. She wouldn’t be smiling for much longer.
I flipped the gun around and slammed it into her face twice. Her head dropped as I knocked her out cold the first time; there was a pop from purposely breaking her nose the second.
“That your nark?” Zane’s voice came from my right.
I’d heard him walk up—or more or less sensed.
“Yes,” I replied tersely.
“That’s Jesse,” Cam said quietly.
I looked over my shoulder at him. “Bring her in the house.”
Not bothering with an explanation, I tucked Annie’s gun beneath my arm and grabbed the bow from the ground. After checking the truck for arrows, I took some of those, too.
More would be coming, which meant I didn’t have much time.
Chapter Eighteen
Duodeviginti
She hadn’t said too many words to me since telling me she’d shoot if need be.
Not gonna lie, that coupled with her sexy smile had sent a heady dose of blood rushing to my dick. Really that was to be expected, since my dick was constantly on hard since I’d put a gun to her head.
Fucking had been a thing to me like every other man, but if I could climb inside Addie’s pussy and live there, I would.
It wasn’t just about fucking her, though; I wanted to consume her entirely. I had to know if she felt as much as me in such a short period of time. I’d never met anyone like Addy before.
She was a breath of fresh fucking air… Also, reckless as shit. She had no business opening that door and walking outside like a fucking hero in an action movie ready to lay some motherfuckers out. Although I may have felt something similar to pride.
Sitting in a recliner, I watched her, Cam, and Nyx work together.
Addy was pulling the family’s pictures off the accent wall and carelessly tossing them to the side. Most of the frames broke when they hit the ground.
Ace sat on the couch, twirling the truck keys around his finger.
We’d loaded it up a few minutes ago and, as soon as my princess was done with whatever the fuck she was doing, we’d be borrowing it.
“Get er up,” Addy said to Cam.
“What are you going to do?” Maliki was the first to ask, propping his elbows on the back of the couch. He was still doing his damnedest not to look in Nyx’s direction, and vice versa.
“I’m going to hang her up,” Addy replied softly, an innocent smile gracing her lips.
All three of mine looked at me as if to validate she was fucking crazy. I already knew that; it made her more attractive.
Cam easily lifted this Jesse bitch by the throat. “Where?” he asked as if it mattered.
“I want her centered. I don’t want to throw off the rest of the room’s décor,” Addy replied.
Cam obliged without further explanation. I wondered how long he’d been doing shit like this for her, which had, “Let me do it,” leaving my mouth before I could think about it.
Everyone stared, but I didn’t give a fuck. I pushed myself out of the recliner and walked over to the wall.
Cam shrugged and let me take his place, stepping back to watch from a few feet away.
Jesse didn’t look that old—I’d say maybe nineteen. Age wasn’t shit, though. She knew right from wrong and had chosen to betray my girl. I gripped her slender throat and pinned her where Addy had instructed.
Her smokey eyes flickered to mine and she nodded to herself. She seemed different, like she’d switched into a whole other mode.
Moving to the end table where she had sat a dish cloth and rubbing alcohol, she lifted the rag and proceeded to drench it in the strong solution, nearly emptying the clear container.
She carried it back to where I stood and forced the cloth into Jesse’s mouth just as she started to regain consciousness.
“Hold her right hand out, Nyx,” she instructed, going for the bow next.
I had good idea where this was going; still, I watched her work, damn near fascinated.
Nyx took Jesse’s arm and extended it outward as far as it would go.
“Wait,” Addy said to herself. “She needs to be all the way awake.”
She sat the bow down and reached behind her, pulling out the Kambit she’d retrieved as soon as we came in the house.
Stepping up beside me, she gently nudged my midsection to scoot me out of her way. Then, she removed Jesse’s clothing. Not just the maroon robe—everything.
Dragging her blade over all the fabric, she cut off the bra and her underwear, leaving milky flesh nude and exposed.
The shotgun wound still leaked blood, running down Jesse’s leg to drip onto the floor.
“Wake up,” Addy chirped, shoving two fingers straight into hole the casing had made, twisting them as Jesse came to, screaming and coughing around the rag in her mouth.
“Damn,” Trix muttered as Addy dug her fingers in deeper.
Jesse squealed, kicking her legs and trying to get away. I easily kept her pinned.
“I think she’s awake, princess,” I implored.
Addy hmphed but removed her bloody digits, promptly wiping them on the side of Jesse’s face.
“Let’s see if you smile about this,” she whispered to her.
Once again, she grabbed the bow, but this time she placed an arrow in it.
“Got er?” she asked Nyx, placing the tip of the bow against Jesse’s wrist, drawing the arrow back.
“Do it,” Nyx encouraged.
Addy let the arrow go, sending it clean through Jesse’s flesh and into the wall. The chick squealed like a pig, legs still trying to kick out.
“Why the wrist?” Ace asked as the girls moved to the other arm.
“So her body won’t come loose. The median nerve should sever and paralyze her hands,” Cam explained.
“Oh,” Ace replied, knowing damn well he didn’t know what the fuck a median nerve was.
Addy did the same to the other wrist, nailing it into the wall.
“Zane?” she questioned softly.
I let Jesse’s throat go and looked over at her. “What is it?”
“Will you please break her legs?”
Damn, she asked so sweetly. How could I say no?
“Addy, you know—”
“I know this isn’t going to bring Annie back or get me any closer to Bella.”
I raised my brows. I think that was the first time I’d heard her speak her baby sister’s name.
“I was going to say you know all you need to do is ask. It doesn’t have to bring them back, princess.” I grabbed the right ankle Jesse continued trying to kick at me. “It just has to make you feel better.” With that, I gripped the bitch’s calf and kept one hand on her ankle, jerking hard to the right, snapping the bone out of place beneath her skin.
She screamed to high hell and back that time, making a gagging sound when she was unable to expel the vomit from the pain, forced to swallow it all back down.
Addy stepped forward and ran a hand over the flesh. She traced back and forth across the broken bone as I did the other side.
“I’m not going to kill you, Jesse,” she said after a minute. “I’m going to leave you hanging on this wall for your new friends to come and find. Hopefully you’re still alive when they arrive. If not,” she lifted one shoulder in a slow shrug, “it won’t be the end of the world.”
She tossed the bow to the side and reached for her Kambit, spending a mere four minutes cutting the inverted cross brand from beneath Jesse’s eye, flicking the flap of flesh off her blade before carving a larger version into Jesse’s naked chest.
When she was done, she stepped back and examined her work, nodding in satisfaction.
“We can go now,” she said to no one in particular.
“Wait,” Nyx objected. “Let me see a lighter.” She held out her hand out to me.
I wordlessly pulled one from my pocket and placed it in her palm.
She flicked it and brought the flame to the rag Addy had soaked in alcohol, setting it aflame.
“Now we can go.” She passed the lighter back and headed for the door, following Addy.
I took one last look at the woman who had chosen the wrong side. Her chest was heaving, perspiration beading on her forehead and rolling between her tits. Both legs were broken and each arm bowed to the wall.
She looked like a broken marionette, slowly bleeding out. The last thing I saw before stepping out of the house was her losing consciousness again as the flame reached her mouth.
We made it out of the neighborhood without incident.
Addy sat between Trix and me, her head resting on my shoulder as she dozed. Her soft breaths fanned over my skin, making it hard to concentrate. There was dried blood on her fingers from fishing in a bullet wound. It only added to her allure.
She looked good beside me, like she belonged there.
In the back where she would have been were Maliki and Nyx. I’d done that on purpose. In the bed of the pickup were Ace and Cam, who could have been brothers—not in looks but personality.
“How far you think this will get us?” Trix asked, speaking quietly so she didn’t wake Addy.
“There’s a town called Econo that leads to a stretch of road going straight to our rendezvous point. We should be able to make it there.”
She nodded and resumed staring out the window.
I didn’t bother mentioning that we had no way of knowing if the acolytes Luce went for or the Venom I had Tobias go for were there and gone, hadn’t arrived, or had run into their own trouble trying to make it to us.
We’d be going in blind, just the six of us. I was confident we could all handle our own, but six against thirty was still six against thirty if these motherfuckers were waiting on our arrival.
The idea didn’t thrill me. If anything happened to her…well…I’d hate to be any poor bastard in the vicinity.
We had to go for these kids regardless, so it was more a wait and see situation. Again, against the grain of how I usually operated.
“You are keeping it, then?” Maliki asked after another few minutes of silence.
It was a random time for him to bring this up, but I supposed now was better than never. I glanced down at Addy for a second, shifting my gaze back to the road before nodding. “Yeah, she’s mine.”
“Good,” he replied after another few seconds.
I agreed with him.
She was good for me, but the sad thing was that I was a fucking toxin to her. I didn’t care because I was a selfish fuck who’d decided I would have her the second I knew she existed.
I didn’t even know what she looked like yet, and she was mine. All long before Luce came to me with his suspicious ass deal.
Yeah, I wasn’t an idiot, and I damn sure wouldn’t be making the mistake my father did by trusting Luce’s words. He was too much like his fucking father.
His actions would speak for themselves. As for my princess, I’d planned to take her from them all along, and then Luce took it upon himself to deliver her to me like a pretty parcel.
Maybe I should have told her this instead making it seem as if the deal was the only reason she was mine.
I’d wanted to hurt her.
I wanted to learn to love her, too. This was fucked. I’d never loved in the capacity of a typical relationship.
Addy made me feel just human enough to do it, but I couldn’t break her too much for that to happen, and it bothered me.
As a kid I often wondered why I was hated so much, why I was the one who suffered the consequences of my parents’ actions. It hurt at first, but eventually the pain faded and this person—who I was now—began to make it numb.
Maybe I was just like my dad after all…a hopeless fuck who’d lost every bit of his mind long ago.
Yet I still wanted the girl.
Cam had been right. It was her. And by some fucking miracle, I wouldn’t ruin the woman who was perfect for me.
Chapter Nineteen
Undeviginti
I woke in an unfamiliar setting.
Lifting my head from Zane’s rock hard shoulder, I rubbed my ear, pulling my hand away when I remembered there was dried blood on it.
The truck’s AC blew quietly, adding some relief to the mugginess outside. My stomach grumbled angrily at me for only giving it liquor and tarts the past forty-eight hours.
“Sleeping Beauty’s hungry,” Nyx intoned from the backseat.
“Hey, girl.” Trix flashed me a cheery smile.
I forced one in return, letting it slip when I realized how fake it was.
There was a pounding at the base of my skull. I wasn’t sure if it was a simple headache or if my brain about to explode, trying to keep up with everything happening around me.
It felt as if I’d been living through this for half my life. Bella was gone, Luce was a deceitful asshole, Nyx was fucked up, and Annie was dead.
Beside me was another change I was learning to accept. He was also one small thing helping me keep my shit together somewhat. Ironic how that worked out…my should-be rival was the only constant in my world right now aside from Nyx, and I wanted to cling to that as if he were a life-vest and I was drowning.
He hadn’t changed since the day in the woods. I think Nyx was right—that was disturbingly concerning.
I’d ponder that later.
Right now, I was far more interested in the town he was driving through. It wasn’t abandoned. In fact, it looked like something right out of an old western.
There was a small group of people pushing wheelbarrows down the sidewalk all loaded with what looked like potatoes and rice, stopping to stare at our passing vehicle.
“They don’t look very western,” I mused aloud.
“No, they look like judgmental dicks,” Ace replied through the truck’s center window.
“Where are we? And where are we going?”
“The last town we’ll see until we hit Windmill,” Zane replied. “We’re running on air at this point, so we need to find another car. And you need substance.”
“You think any place around here has a phone?” Maliki asked.
“Maybe Kit’s Diner, Inn, and Brothel?” Cam drawled sarcastically.
I’d spotted the same odd-shaped building as him. It looked as if it had been a decent motel at one point; now, not so much.
The structure was tall, chunky, and depleted. There was a vacancy sign flickering in and out right beneath a large piece of plywood that had all three names written on it.
Zane, of course, pulled into the side parking lot and looped around to right beneath the main lobby’s awning, and cut the ignition.
“You can’t be serious?” I looked around Trix, trying to see inside.
“It has everything we need right now. Maybe even a car.”
“They spelled ‘diner’ wrong,” Nyx pointed out.
We turned our heads back to the sign. Dinre.
“That says a lot about the quality of pussy inside,” Cam commented.
Trix and Ace found that hilarious.
I shut my eyes and took a deep breath, blowing it back out when Zane opened his door.
“Come on, princess.”
I opened my eyes and looked over at him. His hand was outstretched, waiting for me to take it.
