Badlands: Next Generation Collection, page 32
We spotted one another instantly. I raised my gun at them they pointed a bow and arrow and a long rifle at me. My mind flashed to Annie, and the arrow that had caused the decimation of her life.
In my hesitation, Trix turned around with a spatula in her hand. “Nyx? What the he—”
The rifle swung her way and a shot rang out, waking Addy just as a bullet slammed into Trix’s forehead.
“No!” I screamed, rushing for her.
Blood splattered across the stainless steel fridge and landed in the skillet she’d been in front of, sizzling and burning in the air. Her body fell back onto the stove, knocking the pan down as she fell. It landed on her right side up, burning her face.
Addy was yelling something but my mind had tuned her out. I snatched the pan off Trix, not registering the way it burned my hands, and tossed it across the kitchen.
My carelessness was a rookie mistake. One I knew better than to make. Emotions weren’t supposed to impair judgment. Had I remembered this, I’d have seen the end coming at the back of my head.
Everything hurt.
My head, my wrists, various parts of my body—and my mouth was like cotton.
Blinking, what transpired came rushing back, and suddenly I was wide awake. I jerked, swallowing a curse of pain when the cuffs around my wrist snagged.
Eyes darting around the room—which appeared to be the upper level of some kind of warehouse—I spotted Addy still knocked out on the other side, lying on a small mattress. She didn’t look hurt from what I could see.
Dim lighting lit the space and allowed me to better examine the cuffs around my wrists. They were locked around a metal drain that had rusted what looked like decades ago, but as I pulled and pulled, nothing happened.
From the far right, a door opened and closed. I tried again to break free to no avail. Worry for Addy trumped worry for myself. I wasn’t going to die like this.
It wasn’t my time yet.
“Dammit,” I breathed, turning my body as much as I could to see who was coming.
The skull of a deer was enough to tell me this was another Stag. His shirt gave away that he was the one who’d hit me with the gun.
He walked all the way to where I sat and then stopped, staring down at me through his creepy ass mask.
“My how the tables have turned.”
That voice…
My blood went ice cold, anger rolling in to stop me from feeling anything else.
“You fucking coward,” I spat at him.
He laughed loudly, as if I had just told him a joke. Lifting the Stag mask revealed his red hair had gotten a little longer, and he had a touch of facial hair, but his steely grey eyes were the same.
“Coward? That’s not nice, Nyx. Besides, we both know the coward has always been my brother. He’s too soft, too kind.”
Soft? He thought Cam was soft?
“I don’t blame him. He takes after our mother,” he continued.
“What is wrong with you?” I looked at him and only felt rage and disgust. How did I ever feel anything more when the person I knew was nothing more than a character he played to get what he wanted?
“Nothing is wrong with me. I’m much more human than you. I tried to stop you from being involved back at the beginning. You and Addy have always been stubborn.” He stepped forward and crouched down so that we were eye level.
“I want to know something. How do my sloppy seconds taste on the mouth of that Venom piece of shit?”
I smiled slowly at him. “I’ve never tasted shit when I’ve been with him, and I imagine that’s exactly how you’d taste. How does he taste on that blonde skank?”
He lost some of his coolness, glaring at me. It was then that I noticed his inverted cross tattoo had been covered by the Stag insignia.
“You didn’t kidnap me to have a dick measuring contest, did you? Because…” I eyed him up and down. “You lose, just like you always have. Is that why you betrayed your family? Your mom? You knew you’d never be what they thought you—”
The back of his hand collided with my cheek. A stinging sensation and the metallic taste of blood had me glaring back at him.
He reached out and gripped my throat. “Maybe you just need a reminder.”
“Fuck you.” I spit in his face, leaving bloodied saliva to run down his nose.
His grip tightened and he attempted to flatten me so that I was on my back. My wrists strained, metal cuffs digging into my flesh.
“Get off me,” I rasped, kicking at him.
A boot slammed into his stomach, sending him spiraling backward.
“What the hell happened to you?” I yelled at him, partially still disbelieving this person had once been someone I considered a friend. The same man who broke all the hearts that had once given a shit about him so carelessly.
He landed on his ass, face contorting in rage. “Your bullshit faith.” Launching himself at me, I tensed, preparing to kick him in his goddamn face.
The door banged open, waking Addy and causing Butcher to freeze almost surreally. His anger quickly changed to fear, and he took a step back.
I watched as another Stag entered the room. They ignored a confused Addy altogether and headed straight for us. By the robe they were wearing, I assumed they were someone important.
Two more Stags followed, each holding the arm of an unconscious blonde—Gwen.
“What the fuck is happening?” Addy croaked.
That was a good question.
“I did exactly as you asked,” Butcher seemed to plead.
The Stag remained silent; going right up to Butcher, he placed a hand on his shoulder. That’s when I saw the ink.
“You’re no longer needed,” a painfully familiar voice stated monotonously before producing a syringe.
It was shoved into Butcher’s neck before he could so much as blink. The Stag shoved him backward, leaving him to pull the needle out and stagger around. When turning to face me, he reached up and removed the mask.
“Sam?” I choked out, too many emotions bombarding me at once—relief, anger, confusion.
“Hey, sis.” He gave me his signature boyish grin and knelt down so we were eye level.
“What the fuck is happening?” Addy repeated from across the room, directing it our direction.
“I know you’re a little confused, and I wish I had time to explain everything, but that isn’t possible. I need to go.”
“What? Go where. You have to come home. We’ve spent so long searching for you.”
He smiled, this time something akin to sadness. Sam had never expressed emotion like a normal human being, but I’d always been able to read him.
“He isn’t sick,” Addy abruptly pointed out.
I swept my eyes over my baby brother from head to toe. She was right; he looked better than he ever had before. His grey/blue eyes were bright, dark hair clean and shiny, and his skin was blemish free.
“I haven’t been sick for a long time, Nyx. But that’s not important anymore. You two being alive and getting back home is.”
“I don’t understand. What’s going on? Why aren’t you coming home? And why aren’t you sick? Buddy said you were sick.”
He stood up and grinned. “I am sick, sis. All in here.” He placed a finger at his temple. “Buddy did good. Everyone did as they were instructed except for this sorry fuck. As your brother, I feel obliged to make sure you’re never hurt, but that extends only to you and Addy.”
Reaching in the pocket of his robe, he removed a thin set of keys and placed them just out of reach.
“Sam.”
“We both knew it would always be you taking on Dad’s role. As it should be. That’s who and what you are. I’ve found my place elsewhere.” He began to move away then, placing the Stag mask back over his head.
“With the fucking Stags? Sam—”
He paused. “No. I’m playing the game now, sis. And I intend to be a top contender.”
My brain felt fried, as if someone had taken it apart, scrambled all the pieces, and then forgotten to put it back together.
“Sam!” I called after him, yanking at my restraints. We’d come all this way for him and he was just going to walk away?
“What about Lilith?” Addy demanded when he was passing where she sat.
He halted again, more suddenly. “Lilith will never be coming back; she’s exactly where she needs to be.” That meant she wasn’t safe, not if she was alone with him. That meant Blue wouldn’t be getting her daughter back.
“Samael! Don’t do this,” I begged him, uncaring that my voice cracked on the last word.
“It’s done, and I’m sorry for the casualties. I tried to keep the death to a minimum.”
“Cam…he was never meant to be one of them.” He stopped where the other two Stags stood and whispered something to them that I couldn’t hear.
“I leave you Gwen and Butcher as gifts. They were nothing but gullible puppets, and I have no use for them anymore. Take care of yourself, sis,” he added before exiting the room.
The remaining Stags dragged Gwen’s body over to Butcher’s and placed her beside him, and then followed my brother. I sat in stunned silence long after they were gone, unable to believe what had just happened.
We’d spent so much time and energy searching for him, and he’d known exactly what was happening.
Annie…Ace…Trix.
Did any of them die for anything other than some power struggle they had nothing to do with?
“Sam,” I called his name weakly, staring at the door like he would come back and this would all be a sick joke.
I knew he was gone. I had lost him too, and losing someone who was still alive hurt twice as badly as losing someone who was dead. One would rot, and the other would go on without you.
Nothing could make me understand why he chose to betray us too. My heart had no more pieces left to dismantle. The pain in my chest felt as if it would rip me apart.
“Nyx,” Addy called out to me, sounding as defeated as I felt, and just as confused.
Turning away from Butcher and Gwen as much as I could, I pulled my knees to my chest and dropped my forehead down.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat like that. It could have been minutes or hours. The door opened and closed, but I remained as I was until there was a tug on my cuffs and then they sprang open.
Lifting my head, I watched him pocket the keys my brother had left, and then I finally met his stare. There wasn’t judgment, pity, or anger, just understanding reflected back at me.
“Come on,” he said gently, helping me off the floor. “You walk out of here with your head high, and then you fall apart when we get in the car.”
I nodded numbly, leaning into the arm he wrapped around me, letting him lead me. “Butcher and Gwen are—”
“It’s being handled.”
He tossed the keys to Zane so he could free Addy, and some unspoken message passed between them that I didn’t care to decipher.
I barely noticed the old building being swarmed with Venom and acolytes. All I could think about right then was making it to the car.
Chapter Fifteen
quince
I had never learned to cry pretty.
My tears were the kind that left stains on my cheeks and made my eyes puffy. They weren’t diamond-shaped or quiet and they had come at a time I was raw from the inside out. But today, I managed to pull myself together enough to be where I was.
Standing in front of his door, I inhaled a deep breath and then pushed it open.
Two weeks.
That’s how long it had been since my mind was obliterated by scandal and betrayal, and my heart fell to pieces all over again.
One week ago, they woke Cam up.
Entering his room, everything was the same as before—only this time, his mother had gone, and he was propped up and staring blankly at a television Cobra had brought in.
I ignored his uncovered skin and how it was no longer smooth, instead focusing on his fresh trim and shave. He looked older somehow, not entirely in a bad way.
When he swung his steely gaze to me, I paused mid-step. There was so much devastation in his eyes that it lashed at the unsteady wall I’d placed around my emotions before coming in here.
What once was sweet had turned vile.
I knew he was aware of all that had happened and maybe more.
Luce and Ice made it a point of spending large portions of time with him, but sometimes there were certain things we hid from others so as to not feel vulnerable or weak. I knew what he needed to do that he wouldn’t in front of them.
He didn’t say anything; he just stared, battling the grief I knew tore at everything inside him. One tear rolled down his cheek and the dam broke.
I went to his side without him asking and perched beside on the bed, wrapping my arms around him as he broke down. His sobs were stifled at first as he attempted to hide his grief, and then his walls came down brick by brick.
His sobs punched through my gut, the pain raw and open. He’d lost his other half and his baby sister. He was going to bear the marks of our brothers’ betrayal for the rest of his life.
If anyone needed to let everything out, it was him. He sobbed into my chest, clutching at my leather jacket like a child who was lost and didn’t know what to do.
I held him in silence, gently rocking him back and forth and fighting my own tears. I needed to be here for him. His grief and pain would always be there, but eventually it’d be more of a painful throb than a crippling blow with every breath he took.
That’s when the rage would set in, and when that happened, I knew I’d lose him too, if I hadn’t already. He would never be the same again.
When he was done, he pulled away and stared at me a minute. He shut his eyes, leaning back against his pillow, and didn’t open them again. After, he squeezed my hand, saying all he couldn’t yet with words. It wasn’t long before his breathing evened out and he was sleeping.
I leaned over, swallowing a sob of my own as I placed a kiss on his forehead.
This wasn’t fair; it never would be fair, and we would go on because that’s how life worked. She was the biggest bitch I had ever met. She’d come in and wreak havoc, and then demand you keep going or that you give in to her alter ego: death.
Leaving the room, I pulled steady breaths into my lungs, doing pretty well until I spotted him at the end of the corridor. He looked so sad.
Daddy never looked sad.
“You been avoiding me?” he tried to joke but failed.
“I thought you needed space. Time to process,” I answered quietly.
“Or I just needed my little girl.” He pushed off the wall and slowly approached me, as if I were a skittish animal.
His words broke my resolve.
He pulled me into his arms, where I’d felt safe since I was a small child, and led me into one of the empty rooms.
Beside him on the leather sofa, it was my turn to break one final time. I soaked his chest and he let me, stroking my hair like he’d done a million times before.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this way for you,” he said more to himself than me.
I couldn’t reply.
I cried for all the friends I had lost and all the ones I knew had yet to follow. For the man who broke my heart and the brother who stomped on it. For that baby who never got to take his first breath and the little girl who suffered in that video—my parents, aunt, and Blue. For the Venom mourning losses of their own.
Lastly, I cried for myself and that naïve girl I had been. She would never be coming back.
Embracing who I knew I was but had never fully accepted meant shedding my old skin and proudly wearing the new one.
In this place, death could be an act of kindness, a necessary weapon. It was a small way to protect everyone I had left.
Walking in my father’s footsteps with a man I adored by my side didn’t seem too bad an outcome, but finding the will to keep going when everything got to be too much was something I would have to practice every day if I didn’t want my demons to turn on me.
EPILOGUE
We had two hours before we were to attend some mandatory family meeting.
Maliki now deemed fam by assertive mother and father, he and Zane had to be there too.
At the rate we were going, we’d be done long before then with enough time to shower instead of using the germicide wipes sitting on the work bench.
Another scream tore through the air as Maliki inserted the heated bat into Gwen’s pussy.
It was so burnt and swollen at this point that it reminded me of a giant pillowy taco, only discolored and rank.
Watching him work was one of the most entertaining things I had seen in a while. He was so into it, now bringing his old stiletto up to her tit, cleanly slicing off her nipple. She howled in agony, trashing in the chains that secured her from the ceiling.
There was old and new blood all over her naked body. The smell in the room had gotten too strong for me when she pissed herself, so I’d turned on the few small fans situated about.
No one knew where this shed was aside from Addy, Zane, and Luce. Everyone else assumed Butcher was dead. It was Luce who had them brought here and sworn the acolytes to silence.
I supposed his power was good for something, after all.
I fluffed Butcher’s hair with the few fingers I had free and circled where he hung across from Gwen.
We’d decided it only fitting they die the same way they betrayed everyone: together.
“This is for your brother,” I told him.
Placing a metal spike at the base of his spine, I held a hammer in my other hand and tapped the rounded end.
Cam was bedridden until he got control of his legs again. It was only fair Butcher lost the feeling in his. He immediately began protesting under his gag. I reached around and pulled it down so that I could hear him scream as I hammered away, breaking his spine bit by bit. I was careful not to kill him just yet.
I’d already burned a significant amount of his skin before tearing it off, just so he was aware how that felt, too. The curled pieces littered the dirt floor, something for maggots to feast on later.
