Badlands next generation.., p.43
Badlands: Next Generation Collection, page 43
Bella started forward, still holding my hand. “It’s going to be all right,” she assured me.
For whatever reason, I believed her.
When we reached the top of the stairs, I paused. Luce was at the bottom, two robed men on either side of him while another two stood a way back. Cam was mirror of him, and a guy I hadn’t seen before stood on the second to last stair in a relaxed stance.
It was the three guerillas in uniform that made me falter. Kevin was the only one I recognized. His voice had been easy to pick out, rivaling the sound of a shovel being dragged across cement.
“Astraea!” He placed a hand on his chest and exhaled exaggeratedly, feigning relief. We both knew full well he would rather me be dead. He was a rank below Hendrix with the same sized stick wedged up his ass.
“Dove,” Luce emphasized, “these men came all the way here to see you.”
“And now that you have, feel free to walk your asses back out the door,” Cam said.
One of the two men I didn’t know stepped forward. He had long black hair pulled back in a ponytail and kind eyes. He must have been new. “We’re here to bring you back home.”
Home? I locked my jaw and masked any further emotion before it could reflect on my face. A.R.C had never been a home to me. It had always been a prison that took away everything I loved.
“Wait. She’s leaving? She hasn’t mentioned going anywhere.” Cam played up being confused. “Has she said anything to you?”
Luce’s eyes found mine, his own mask firmly in place. “She hasn’t said much of anything.”
“She wouldn’t. She’s been…”
Luce and Cam both gave Kevin a look that I couldn’t see. Whatever it was had him trailing off. He raised his hands in the air, which caused every acolyte to shift forward like a well-oiled machine.
Fear flashing across his face, he immediately lowered them back to his sides. That gave me a feeling of satisfaction.
I’d never seen him afraid.
He was the one always doing the terrorizing. He cleared his throat and brushed an invisible piece of lint off his uniform.
“Mr. Deville—”
“Mr. Deville? No. Nobody fucking calls me that.”
“How would you like to be addressed?”
“What gave you the impression that you were worthy enough to address me at all?”
Kevin’s throat visibly bobbed. Watching him struggle for indifference would have been much more enjoyable if I knew what was about to happen to me.
“Look. We greatly appreciate you letting us know you had her—”
“Really? I personally thought the message he sent was a bit much,” Cam interrupted.
“Obviously it wasn’t clear enough,” Bella muttered. She finally released my hand so that she could prop her chin in her palm as she leaned on the upper banister.
“We’re not here to start problems. We’d just like to take her home.”
“That’s it, huh?” Luce jested. He crossed his arms and looked up at me again. “Come here, dove.”
“What? You can’t be serious!” His sister straightened and glared at him.
I wanted to tell her it was okay, but I didn’t trust myself to speak without giving away that it wasn’t. Keeping my expression neutral, I began to walk down the steps. I could have refused and remained where I was, but that’d only be delaying the inevitable.
I wasn’t surprised by this. Kevin had just said Luce let them know I was here. I didn’t understand the pang in my chest, though. It was foolish of me to think that whatever this pull to him was could be reciprocated. He owed me nothing. None of them did.
The man standing on the stairs turned his head as I passed him. The blue of his eyes was impossible to miss. It was multiple shades that overlapped.
Luce’s hand came out and took firm possession of mine just as I got to the bottom of the steps. My brows knitted. What was he doing?
He tugged me forward, then let go just to wrap an arm around me, tucking my body into his side. I was thrown into such a state of confusion that I missed the disbelief playing out on Kevin’s face.
“What is this? She’s not to be touched,” he sputtered.
“I’ve done much more than touch her,” Luce lazily taunted. “You still want her back?”
He made it sound as if we’d done something worse than kiss. From the way my face flamed, I knew Kevin would believe it. When I met Cam’s gaze, he gave me a wink and it dawned on me that he was in on whatever was happening.
“Yes,” Kevin nearly hissed. “What happens once she’s home isn’t up to me.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” the man standing on the steps expressed.
“Why don’t we let my little dove decide for herself?” Luce queried.
Every eye in the room settled on us. I’m sure the acolytes were watching too, behind the creepy masks they all had on.
“Do you want to go with them?”
Was this a trick question? A test?
I glanced over at Cam, and his eyes seemed to say, “It’s okay.” Luce tightened his hold on me, and I took it to mean the same. I shook my head and peered up at him. “No. I don’t want to go.”
“There’s your answer. Now, which one of you lucky three wants to be my messenger and relay that to your bullshit leader?”
The three guerrillas seemed to melt into each other, understanding that this situation had just gone extremely bad for them.
“Not a single volunteer?” Cam asked.
“Astraea. You know if you don’t come with us now how much worse things will get for you,” Kevin tried to reason.
Bella suddenly appeared on the other side of the man on the steps. “Has anyone told you that you’re not only rude but also incredibly stupid?”
A twisted grin spread across her pretty face. “She said she didn’t want to go. I heard her from the top of the stairs. I guess you missed that. I think that should disqualify you from being messenger.”
“That’s a good point, Bell,” Cam agreed.
The look Kevin gave me could have inflamed the entire Badlands. It appeared I was to blame for this.
“What the fuck was that?” Luce gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze and then dropped his arm. Everything thereafter happened within seconds. He nudged me towards the steps and both Bella and the man who randomly introduced himself as Ice moved me up to stand alongside them.
By then, Luce had already wrapped his hand around Kevin’s throat.
He was only about six feet tall, making him a few inches shorter. That didn’t hinder his ability to lift Kevin off the ground. The muscles in his back visibly flexed from the strength he was using, but even as he reached into his rear pocket and removed a glistening blade, he kept his hand easily secured around Kevin’s throat.
He drove the pointed tip clean through his right eye, going deep enough that I was positive nothing could repair it, but not so far as to kill him. The scream that tore through the air had goosepimples erupting across my flesh. I had never heard a man scream like this.
My lips parted at the first sight of blood. It trailed down his face without a discernible pattern, dripping onto the floor.
This was more satisfying than his fear. It was nice not to be on the receiving end of brutality for once.
Luce pulled his knife out and grinned. “There. Now you and your new roommate have something in common.”
Still holding him by his neck, Luce handed Kevin off to one of the acolytes. “Take him to meet Butcher.”
The guerillas that had come with him watched on helplessly as two acolytes silently did as they were told.
Who was Butcher? That was the second time I’d heard that name. No one else in the room batted an eyelid. This seemed to be normal for them. Given their faction, it wasn’t all that shocking behavior.
Kevin was carted down the hall I’d initially been down, his wails carrying through the house.
The remaining guerrillas made no effort to stop anything that had just happened. They remained seemingly frozen in place, the terror on their faces unmistakable.
“Now that the distraction is gone, which one of you nice boys is going to be the messenger?”
“I don’t understand. You were the one who let us know she was here…” the guerilla beside Ponytail said, his brown eyes bouncing between the different Savages.
“He let you know something all right,” Cam smirked.
Ice laughed under his breath; Bella sighed. Ponytail’s brow puckered, and then understanding cloaked his features.
I was left not knowing what was happening.
I’d been sure Luce had let them know I was here because he was going to give me back. Now he and Cam looked like a pair of rabid wolves about to tear into their prey.
Luce moved so that he was standing directly in front of Ponytail, holding a hand up to stop his acolytes from shadowing his movements. He leaned in, giving the illusion that he was about to say something none of us should hear.
“You get it, don’t you?”
An audible swallow and a nod. “You—”
Luce brought his blade up and pressed it to the man’s mouth. The same blade that still had Kevin’s blood on it. “Shh. She can’t know yet.”
What couldn’t I know?
What the hell was going on?
“I believe we have our errand boy.”
He straightened and took a small step back, sharing a look with Cam I couldn’t see due to him still facing away from me.
“What’s your name?” Cam asked, throwing his arm around the other guerrilla who’d been watching all of this in silence.
“Tim,” he replied nervously. “And that’s Calvin.” His hand motioned to Ponytail.
“Well, Tim. If Calvin is the messenger, that makes you the disposable one, my friend.”
“W-what? We only came because our Cardinal sent us. We have no issue with the Savages. All he wants is his—”
Cam shoved him forward. Luce turned and caught him around the back of the neck, slicing his throat in one fluid motion. Blood sprayed onto his shirt, saturating the fabric.
He didn’t care. He released his hold and tossed Tim aside, leaving him to fall to the ground.
The acolytes moved far enough back that their robes would be spared from the puddle of crimson that was rapidly forming on the floor. I was transfixed until Calvin began to panic.
“Shit.” He cursed and turned to run, much like I had the night they took me. Cam was there to stop him, just as Luce had stopped me.
“Woah.” Cam grabbed hold of Calvin’s shoulders and forced him to turn around, and with one foot, he swept Calvin’s legs out from beneath him.
I winced internally as they met the floor with a loud thwack. He stared up at Luce, his pupils dilated and nostrils flaring.
“Not gonna beg?” Ice questioned. The sound of his voice almost made me jump. He’d been still as a statue.
Calvin’s jaw tensed, but he didn’t respond.
“Look at that, kid’s got heart,” Luce goaded.
“I think we should make it easy on him.” This was from Cam.
“He still needs to send my message clearly. Would you like to do the honors?”
“Of course.”
Luce passed his bloodied knife to Cam and stared down at Calvin.
“This will only hurt for a minute.”
My hand flew to my mouth as Cam sliced into the cartilage of Calvin’s left ear. He fought to keep his composure, but within seconds his face crumpled, and he began to scream.
It was over within seconds. The result was that the majority of his ear was no longer attached. His bottom lobe became covered in blood, the upper portion nothing but an abnormally shaped lump. Cam held Luce’s knife in one hand and a blob of flesh in the other.
I felt marginally bad for Calvin, simply because I had no clue who he was. For him to be sent out on this search, though, he’d had to have proven himself somehow.
Cam tossed his blob down just as Luce stepped forward and crouched. Both of their faces had traces of amusement. It was so at odds with all they’d just done that I couldn’t help but be intrigued.
Calvin sat on the ground, moaning loudly, shoulders shaking and holding a hand to the side of his head.
Luce grabbed his jaw and forced him to look in his eyes, placing a hand over his mouth to muffle his moans.
“Your hearing in that ear may be sort of fucked, but sooner or later you’ll hear better in the other one. That’s precisely why you’re going to give your Cardinal this message word for word. You’ve only got one chance to get this right, so pay close attention.”
He brought his mouth to the ear that wasn’t gushing blood and spoke each of his next words with purposeful articulation.
“Tell your Cardinal, and I can’t stress this last part enough. It’s the most important thing you need to remember,” Luce implored. “Tell your Cardinal, the Savages said he can go fuck himself.”
Luce dropped his hand from Calvin’s mouth and stood.
“Take him right to their doorstep. If any of them try anything, feel free to have some fun.”
The remaining acolytes surged forward, giving me a chance to notice the white masks covering their faces and leviathan amulets draped around their necks. They began to drag Calvin away, his cries of pain trailing behind them.
Cam handed Luce his knife back, and he wiped the bloodied blade on his shirt before repocketing it. I studied the floor, taking in the mess and smell that came with bloodshed as Tim’s lifeless body continued to twitch.
“I’m not cleaning this up,” Bella exclaimed.
Luce and Cam looked over, their eyes resting on me for a few seconds, both void of any noticeable emotion.
“Don’t want you to. I want you to do me a favor and take her outside for a few minutes,” Luce said.
“Come on, Star.” She reached around Ice and grabbed my hand, tugging me off the steps.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The sun rested high in the sky, its malevolent eye unblinking. Heat wrapped around our limbs like a hot-blooded serpent. The contrast between inside and outside was incomparable. It was like going from a freezer to an oven.
I brought a hand up to shade my eyes, dragging my gaze from left to right. Everything looked just as it had from the upper window, only two times larger.
There was a hint of stench in the air, one that reminded me of death and burning bodies.
“What did you do to my brother?”
I glanced over at Bella and saw a smile on her face.
“That wasn’t normal for him?” I still didn’t know what exactly had just happened, but I was even more curious now.
Bella scoffed and looped her arm through mine, leading me to the right.
“The being a cocky asshole and casual killing thing, that’s all Luce. I cannot tell you the number of people he’s occasionally killed or tortured in one week.”
“Okay…”
“Taking a man’s eye because he didn’t like the way he looked at a girl… that’s not Luce.”
As we turned a corner, my stomach did that stupidly annoying flip. “I don’t think he did that for me.”
“Psh. I know my brother. He’s protective over his family and his Badlands. That’s it.”
I wasn’t convinced. “He seems to be that way with Ice and Cam…”
She laughed, and the sound was like someone tapping a glass with a fork. Bella was perfect proof not to judge someone by appearance. Her looks and sweet demeanor would make you think she was delicate. I highly doubted that was the case.
“Luce doesn’t have friends; he can’t afford to. He’s got family. The acolytes. Ice and Cam. Heck, even Zane. That’s his family.”
Zane? I’d heard that name before. I couldn’t place it right then, though.
“Does that mean I’m an enemy?”
“Nah, I think you’re good. You’d be dead or being painfully tortured by now. We believe in gender equality.”
I was more confused now than I had been in a long while.
He let A.R.C know where I was. He could have killed me or given me back. He hadn’t done either. And now sending Calvin straight to their doorstep… was he trying to start a war?
Bella stopped walking, resulting in me doing the same. Releasing her hold on my arm, she turned so that we were facing one another.
“It’s not really my place to tell you what he’s up to, and honestly, with Luce you will never always know everything. Remember that for future reference. It can be rage inducing.”
“Is Cam like this too?”
“They have a lot in common. But for the most part? No way,” she laughed.
Turning so that we could begin walking again, she continued. “Cam is sweet even when he’s cruel.”
I didn’t know him well enough to agree or disagree with that. Calling him sweet felt like I’d be underestimating what he was capable of.
“He’s been through a lot. We all have, but Cam got the worst of it. I think he has a complex now, like he failed or something and has to make up for it somehow.”
Bella was rather open. While it was surprising, I didn’t mind. She wasn’t telling me anything that would incriminate or endanger her family, but even if she did, I had no one to tell.
I got the sense she needed this, the freedom to talk to someone who would listen. I remained silent and eyed the side of the building, realizing how large it was as we neared the next corner.
The smell in the air intensified as we turned, causing me to stop walking again.
Where was it coming from?
I searched the backyard, swallowing at the site of the massive crosses. They were different than the A.R.C’s. They had the Leviathan shape and were much larger, all three of them evenly spaced.
A large wooden dais was a few feet in front of them. The sun reflected off a Savage pentacle that had been engraved in its center. Beyond all this, at the furthest end of the yard were a flock of acolytes doing different tasks.
A small wooden building was situated behind them, mesh fencing keeping something inside. The culprit for the smell was the ravine like split in the ground, off to the right of them.
I watched on in silence as Tim’s body was carried over and tossed into it.
