Badlands: Next Generation Collection, page 44
“They’ll burn them once they have a few more.”
“They’re not burning now?”
“Er…no?” She toyed with a strand of her long blonde hair. “It’s just hot as hell out here, no pun intended.”
So, the bodies were essentially baking. And rotting. I was beginning to see why the A.R.C burned their corpses immediately.
The sound of a bell came from behind me just as something brushed against my legs. I twisted around to find a black goat. At least, I think it was a goat. It bumped my legs again, this time using the top of its head and releasing what I could only describe as a bleat.
“He wants you to pet him,” Bella explained. “His name’s Philip.”
I knelt and stroked Philip’s head. He bleated again and nearly knocked me down as he moved closer. He reminded me of the hounds the Cardinal kept, only friendly. Much cuter, too. The same amulet the acolytes wore had been fashioned around his leather collar.
“How did you end up with the A.R.C? You’re not anything like I would expect one of their girls to be.”
“I’m not one of their girls. I wasn’t born there. Quite a few of us aren’t. They separated me and my brother from our father when I was eleven.”
“And your mom?”
I swallowed, stroking the silky end of Philip’s ear. I never spoke about my family. No one ever asked. “She died the day she had me. My father said it was a complicated birth. He took care of me and my brother on his own until the day we found A.R.C.”
“That’s rough.”
I hummed my agreement. Rough was an understatement. They destroyed my life. I purposely left out all the grittier details because I hated thinking about it. Dad hadn’t always raised me and Amo on his own. There were three other people, one I considered a mother.
All of them were dead now. They died weeks before we finally stumbled upon A.R.C. What a mistake that had been.
“Did he leave you there?” Bella asked, her curiosity blatantly obvious.
“They didn’t give him a choice.”
“Then he’s still out—”
“No,” I said, harsher than I intended to. “He’s gone,” I added in a softer tone.
I could still hear the gun going off after he was dragged back through the woods. He’d fought so hard to save us.
“Is he food?” I asked, needing to change the subject.
If she was offended by my tone from moments ago, it didn’t show.
“We don’t name our food,” she laughed. “Though I’d eat him if I had to. He’s my pet.”
Male voices reached me, steadily growing closer. A loud burst of laughter drowning out their words.
“One sec,” Bella said, brushing past me. She disappeared around the corner, leaving me alone.
These people genuinely didn’t think I would escape. Underestimating me had never gone well for anyone. If—when—I decided I wanted out, I’d find my way out.
I looped my fingers through the chain-link fencing and stared at all the land spread out behind the compound.
Philip lingered nearby, pulling at some weeds on the other side of the fence. I blocked out the smell of baking bodies and shut my eyes, concentrating harder on feeling the slight breeze.
My mind was racing with all the possibilities of what could happen to me.
With a sigh, I unbound my fingers and stepped away from the fence. Bella hadn’t come back yet, but I was tired of standing in one place. It was too damned hot for this.
Even my cage had shade.
I started walking towards the shed-like building, bypassing the dais, crosses, and a decent sized patio.
When I realized I’d have to get closer to the ravine and the acolytes to investigate what the structure was, I changed my mind. Corpses didn’t bother me. Dead people couldn’t do me any harm. The living ones often did. That smell, on the other hand, was sickening.
I turned the corner and bumped right into Luce’s chest. I’d thought he was on the total opposite of the compound.
His hands went to my forearms to steady me, tightening when I tried to push them off. His dark brows narrowed the tiniest bit.
“Where in the fuck did you think you were going?”
“I was just walking.”
A small gasp fell from my mouth as he pulled me forward and turned me, planting my back against the side of the compound.
He let go of my arms and brought a hand to rest beside my head. My eyes dipped to his chest. Seeing he still had on the shirt that was covered in blood, I glanced to my left. Beyond a small fleet of vehicles, all donning the Savage insignia, I spotted Bella, Ice, and Cam watching us from near the front of the building.
I had no idea their cars were kept over here. There were acolytes crawling all over this place, so it wasn’t as if I could hop in one and take it for a spin, but I could see how it would look to catch me heading in their general direction.
“I wasn’t going to run,” I vowed.
“No shit.” He gripped my chin, forcing my attention back to him. “That’s the last thing you’d do.”
He said that with absolute confidence. And he was right. For now. I stared up at him, wondering what would happen next. His eyes delved inside me and prodded at something that’d always been there but had become quiescent.
There was a befuddling static that crackled between us and a progressively magnetic pull that made me want to lean into him. I hoped it was one sided, even if the idea of that was upsetting for reasons I couldn’t yet understand.
After a solid two minutes or so rolled by, I swore I felt him physically withdraw from me, but he hadn’t moved his body an inch.
“You know, you’ve got a lot of people wanting you back. Something tells me you’re not too excited about that.”
“Your something would be right.”
A faint smirk lingered at the corner of his mouth. “Then you’ll like the proposition I have for you.”
“I think that would largely depend on what it is.”
“Fair enough,” he retorted. “You can walk through my front gates and see how long you last out there on your own. Or…”
As I waited for him to continue, the pad of his thumb began tracing the outline of my lips.
“You stay here and become one of us.”
Us.
As in, a Savage.
Was he serious? I waited for a punchline, but one never came. “Why would you offer that?”
“I have a few reasons.”
“I don’t understand. What would you expect in return?”
His thumb stopped tracing.
“You.”
That one word was spoken with such clarity there was no way I could have misheard him or missed its deeper meaning. I didn’t know what to say. Words failed me.
“I want you to think long and hard about it, because once you make a deal with me, there’s no going back.”
“And if I agree?” I queried, finding my voice.
“Simple. You’ll be mine.”
There wasn’t anything simple about that.
He was asking me to choose the Savages—him. Or my imminent capture and eventual death.
“You wouldn’t let them take me?”
“I’ve already fucking dared them to try.”
He didn’t waver in his replies. Worse, I believed him. If something were his, he wasn’t going to easily give it up.
“Before, when you said you liked your girls to let their guard down…”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Isn’t that exactly what someone trying to get me to lower my guard would say?”
That earned me a devious grin. “I don’t want you broken. I just want everything else.”
What did that mean? I shifted and took a small breath.
He wasn’t telling me everything, and I was certain he wasn’t going to.
His hand was still on my face. Acutely aware that we still had an audience, including all the acolytes still going about their day, I acted before I could lose my nerve.
I gathered my courage and boldly reached up to do the same. I expected him to pull away or look surprised, but he did neither. His skin was smooth and warm, the outline of his jaw fitting perfectly against my palm.
“Tell me, what should I be worried about, Luce?”
“There’s only one thing I can tell you, dove.”
He leaned in and brushed his lips over mine with the lightness of a feather. “The Devil comes in many forms. I’m one of them.”
With that, he stepped back and began to walk away, adding over his shoulder, “You have until tonight to give me an answer.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
All I could do was stare as Bella rambled about what Luce wanted me to do. I was still in the process of sorting through everything that had happened up until this point. Losing the girls. Being taken—by Savages.
Cameron. Luce.
Luce and me.
His parting words and ultimatum especially.
We were standing in the kitchen, Bella pointing out where everything was.
Apparently, I was expected to make food. I knew how to cook. I’d learned from my father, and it had been a daily lesson for all the A.R.C girls, a requirement in the doctrine.
“He’s fully capable of feeding himself, for the record. I was told this would keep you preoccupied.”
“You’re babysitting,” I clarified for her.
I wanted to say that showed how little a threat I was considered, but I’d seen the wickedness in this tiny princess’ grin. She could handle herself. More power to her for that.
“I like to think of it as getting to know you.”
“There’s nothing that interesting about me.” I meant that sincerely. I was an average young woman doing her best to survive the harshness of our world.
“I beg to differ.”
She hopped up on one of the counters and crossed her legs at the ankles. “My brother… he likes you.”
Why did that sound like she wasn’t sure if she should tell me that or not? I think if I were a different kind of girl, it would have made me laugh, but I didn’t find that revelation or this situation all that funny.
I began pulling open cabinets, searching for ingredients to work with. “That doesn’t make me interesting,” I mumbled, swiping two cans labeled meat broth.
“You’re not interesting because anyone likes you. You’re interesting for who you are as a person. I’ve investigated the place you came from. You should be really screwed up.”
I continued what I was doing and let her keep talking.
“How’d you come out of this all so… normal? You must think we’re a group of psychos.”
Both that question and her statement made me unexplainably sad.
I sat down the bowl I’d just grabbed and turned to face her. “Normal is a word people use in reference to themselves when they want to put someone down for being different.”
She didn’t say anything, but I think my words got through. I hoped they resonated a little bit if any of what she’d just said was about herself. I didn’t like labels, especially when they came from a place of misjudgment.
Maybe that was why I didn’t put much stock in the rumors about the Savages. I wanted to make my own analysis, not go off what I had been told.
I felt I was smart enough to determine the fictional from the factual.
If I couldn’t with my head, as stupid as it may have sounded, my heart had never let me down, regardless how bruised and battered it was.
“Thank you for saying that,” she finally replied.
It was in this moment that I realized she reminded me of Dasia. Young and sweet with a haunted disposition. Thinking of her made me think of Claire and Marcy in turn.
My throat constricted and I turned back to what I’d been doing. Suddenly, I was glad Luce wanted to keep me busy. It would be nice to have a distraction.
A barrage of voices pulled my attention away from the window I’d been staring out and cut off what Bella was in the middle of saying.
I looked over my shoulder and watched a group of people trail in from outside. They didn’t notice me at first, but that anonymity didn’t last long.
A girl with chocolate brown hair was the first to spot me. She froze in place, causing a guy to slam into her back.
“Damn, Nyx.” His gravelly voice was full of amusement as he wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her steady.
Her stare caused everyone else to take notice of me. There were four of them in total, all with their eyes now aimed in my direction. Bella hopped off the counter and came to stand next to me.
“This is Star.”
The girl with hair two shades blonder than hers was the first to leave their quad.
As she got closer, I was able to make out the strange color of her eyes, like a cloud when it rained. The Savage insignia was inked on her skin, as were a few other various tattoos.
“I heard my brothers had found a girl. I had to see it for myself.” She reached the kitchen, and Bella went straight to her open arms. “I missed you.”
“It hasn’t been that long, Addy,” Bella laughed.
Now knowing which faction this was, I could place names and family dynamics without needing to know what they looked like. Addy had to be short for Adelaide, the older sister.
Looks wise, she was an even mixture of Luce and Bella.
Nyx skirted around them and the large man who was nearly a shadow at Addy’s back, offering me a smile.
She had even more tattoos than her cousin did and looked somewhat exotic. They were both truly beautiful girls.
“Where did they find you?” she asked. The way she was staring at me, I felt as if she were trying to figure out a puzzle.
“They took me from an old farm.”
My answer caused the man behind Addy to laugh. She rolled her eyes at him and then joined Nyx in assessing me.
“Did Lucifuge tell you nothing?” Bella asked once she hugged Nyx and the guy who was with her.
“It’s Luce,” Addy replied, as if his name itself explained everything.
“What’s your whole name?” Nyx asked.
“Astraea.”
She blinked, then shared a look with everyone in the kitchen, leaving me on the outskirts. Again.
“I’m Maliki, and that’s Zane.” He jerked his chin in the direction of his friend.
I’d already pieced together who they were in my head, and his introduction confirmed I was right. This meant the Savage and Venom alliance was real. It wasn’t another gossip-spread rumor amongst the guerrillas.
No wonder tensions were supposedly mounting. Other factions would be scrambling to get on their good side, isolate, or strengthen the numbers within their own groups.
Luce, Cam, and Ice eventually filtered into the gathering.
More conversation I couldn’t follow flew around, as well as a couple of jokes. I could see the way they all fit together, effortlessly and without any awkwardness.
I checked my stew, turning the burner off after double-checking it was done.
Fading into the background, I returned to my vantage point that allowed me to see out the window. I didn’t mind not being noticed. It was nice to simply exist for a minute. Though, the view would be better if there wasn’t a huge fence imposing on it.
Call me bitter, but I had a thing against anything that formed an enclosure. A cage, essentially. I understood why it was necessary. If I took Luce up on his offer, I would have to get used to it.
Cam stepped up beside me, joining in my solitude for a few minutes.
“Admiring the scenery?”
I glanced up and gave him a semi-smile. “Something like that.”
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
I glanced over my shoulder and saw that’s what everyone else had begun doing. I had been standing here longer than I thought.
“Would that be strange?”
“Can I give you a tip?”
I nodded and he leaned a bit closer to my ear. “If you want to sit at our table, then never be afraid to claim a seat.”
I knew it was a metaphor, but he made it sound simple. Why were they so willing to accept me? It couldn’t be this easy to join them. Couldn’t.
Cam subtly nudged me before going to fill his own bowl.
Not thinking too much into what I was doing, I followed his lead. He wordlessly filled a second bowl and offered it to me. I trailed him over to the table and took a seat between him and Luce, putting me directly across from Zane.
I didn’t know much about him, other than that he’d came from the slums and risen very quickly to the top. His eyes were on the same color spectrum as Luce’s, lacking the intensity. That could have been because I didn’t have a lure to him whatsoever; he was merely an attractive stranger.
When I sat, conversation continued to flow as if my presence was entirely ordinary.
“You made this, right?” Addy asked. “It’s good!”
“Everything’s good to someone who can’t cook,” Zane joked.
“She gets that from our mom,” Luce laughed.
“I’m telling her you said that.”
“Then I guess I’m telling Dad what you and Z did in—”
“Ew, please don’t ruin our appetites,” Bella cut in.
“How do you feel about the Savages?” Zane asked me outright, and the first time that evening, conversation died down.
“I don’t feel any way about them,” I answered honestly.
“She didn’t even know who we were right away,” Cam pointed out.
There was a prolonged silence, the sound of spoons hitting bowls filling the emptiness. Maliki’s eye caught mine and he grinned, which I didn’t think anything of until he started to speak. “Whatever happened to Pepper?”
Nyx nudged him with her elbow and scowled.
“What?” he feigned innocently.
“She’s around,” Luce replied dismissively.
Addy wiped her mouth and raised her perfectly plucked brows at him. “By around, you mean?”
“She’s alive and well.”
“I almost forgot about her,” Cam mused.
“The two of them were the ‘it’ couple a few months ago,” Maliki continued.
