Miscreants: Next Generation Read online

  COPYRIGHT

  MISCREANTS by Natalie Bennett

  © 2021 by Natalie Bennett. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where the publisher or author specifically grant permission.

  Cover Design: COVERS BY COMBS

  Editing by: Pinpoint Editing

  Blurb

  Love is madness.

  Love is anguish.

  Ours was ill-fated from the beginning.

  Crazier than crazy.

  Sicker than sick.

  Samael was the epitome of a beautiful nightmare.

  Together, we were poetry. The kind that bled and wept, a mess of euphoric bliss and heartbreak.

  I promised I’d be by his side until the bitter end, but after far too long I needed to be free of him.

  Leaving would be one of the hardest things I’d ever done. He’d come after me, of that I was sure. Many would lose their lives, becoming casualties in our war.

  When this was all said and done, our story would be whispered in darkened corners for years to come.

  A tale of a wolf pursuing a lamb, but with a masochistic twist. For even lambs have teeth, and this one bites back.

  Author’s Note

  By this point in the Badlands, I’m not sure how necessary this note is, but if you’re new or curious about what’s ahead (or behind), please know your limitations. If you have issues reading about very dark and depraved themes with zero regard for moral boundaries, this may not be the series for you.

  Miscreants is a frenemies-to-lovers standalone featuring an OTT anti-hero. You do not need to have read the prior books in the series to enjoy this one, but it does take place in an established dark erotic series with an underlying dystopian theme.

  I hope you enjoy these two as much as I have!

  Happy reading!

  —NB

  Reading Order

  Badlands

  Savages

  Deviants

  Outcasts

  Heathens

  Badlands: Next Generation

  Degenerates

  Hellions

  Renegades

  Miscreants

  TBA

  Misfits

  Tyrants

  Rejects

  Savages-2

  Outlaws

  Family Tree

  Romero + Calista

  Adelaide

  Lucifuge

  Belladonna

  Grimm + Arlen

  Nyx

  Samael

  Cobra + Blue

  Braxton AKA Butcher

  Cameron

  Lilith

  Contents

  COPYRIGHT

  Blurb

  Author’s Note

  Reading Order

  Family Tree

  Playlist

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  PART TWO

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Epilogue One

  Epilogue Two

  MISFITS

  DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND

  OTHER BOOKS

  KEEP IN CONTACT

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Playlist

  (Spotify)

  Good On Me—Vanic

  Ryan Caraveo—Nutcase

  SLAVES—The Pact

  Eminem—Leaving Heaven

  Sadistik—Lazarus

  SAINt JHN—Pray 4 Me

  Ryan Caraveo—Bubbles

  Palisades—Erase The Pain

  Niykee Heaton—Starting Over

  Sody—Maybe It Was Me

  Halsey—11 Minutes

  Awaken I Am—Blind Love

  Witt Lowry—Your Side

  SAINt JHN—Cult4Ever

  Halsey—Graveyard

  Lil Baby—Close Friends

  RITUAL—Too Deep

  Joyner Lucas—Fall Slowly

  Slaves—Heavier

  Billie Eilish—Everything I Wanted

  Written By Wolves—Tell You The Truth

  Jelly Roll—House of Cards

  Yelawolf—You and Me

  Gremlin—Love Me

  Halsey—Be Kind

  Halsey—Sorry

  Dermot Kennedy—Without Fear

  Ritual—Wouldn’t Be Love

  5FDP—My Own Hell

  Dermot Kennedy—Lost

  5FDP—M.I.N.E

  Gracie Abrams—I Miss You, I’m Sorry

  The Pretty Reckless—Only You

  Alyssa Reid—Badlands

  PROLOGUE

  Pray to the devil.

  Devour flesh.

  Kill for survival.

  For thrills, too, if that’s what you’re into.

  Where I come from, all of this is as ordinary as the sky being blue.

  My world—the Badlands—is made up of dark fantasies and endless terrors. You must pick a brand of evil and dedicate your life to it if you want to survive.

  Holding out hope that things will change is foolish. They won’t. No one is going to be arriving as a savior. Heroes don’t exist here, but there are plenty of villains to choose from.

  You can befriend a clan of cannibals. Work the farms that skin people alive. Join some other faction that’s managing to thrive. It doesn’t matter, as long as you find some form of allegiance. Very few can make it on their own.

  I’d heard what things had been like before power shifted, before the depraved and corrupted paved the future for a new way of living. I won’t bore you with the logistics; you’ll get to witness that firsthand.

  As for me and where I fit in?

  I was born a Savage and taken by another. The whole situation is complicated and chaotic, just like we are.

  Like our story is.

  Samael is as wicked as they come, the epitome of a beautiful nightmare.

  Crazier than crazy.

  Sicker than sick.

  The only man I’ll ever love.

  And my best friend.

  He’s my fiercest protector and my greatest enemy.

  I’m his peace and his torment.

  Ours isn’t a tale of benevolent, tender romance. It’s bloody and ruthless. It’s pain and sorrow, at times unforgiveable and enraging. It isn’t poetic or butterfly-inducing, but it is a love story. A love story about a girl and a boy, forever tied together in a beautiful purgatory of exquisite carnage.

  PART ONE

  “There is no greater love than the love the wolf feels for the lamb-it-doesn’t-eat.”

  Hélène Cixou

  CHAPTER ONE

  Four years prior

  Do you know the tale of Icarus and sun? He was warned to stay away, that it was dangerous. He knew this, and yet he still chose to get close. In the end, the very thing he longed for is what cost him his life. I thought that was tragic. r />
  Of course, the mythology behind it was probably more complex than that, but I preferred to believe he did it for a romanticized reason—like forbidden love.

  Although, the ending would be sad no matter how you looked at it.

  If my mom hadn’t given me a book of Greek myths, I wouldn’t have read about him. Out of the whole collection, this was the story that stuck with me the longest.

  It reminded me of a certain boy I knew.

  I was warned about him, too.

  They painted him as a miscreant without directly saying the word. I was made out to be an angel that needed to be protected from his degeneracy.

  If they knew that all the caution tape used to divide us only encouraged our rebellious curiosity, would they have done anything different?

  Would it have mattered?

  Just like in the story I couldn’t get out of my head, Samael and I ignored all the warning signs and red flags.

  There was only one thing I didn’t know yet.

  Which one of us was Icarus, and who was the sun?

  Tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, I rubbed at my face one last time before creeping out from behind the building.

  I’d been hiding here for the past fifteen minutes, thanks to that asshole Francis.

  I darted across the grass and stepped onto the walkway, pretending I’d been walking along it the whole time. Not seeing Bella or my brothers around had a sense of relief washing over me. They would’ve asked too many questions. It was embarrassing enough being so easily overtaken by him; I didn’t want to have to explain the situation to anyone.

  I hurried the rest of the way to Samael’s, waving to the few acolytes I happened to pass. He and his family’s unit sat closer to the main house where Bella and her parents lived.

  Reaching the front door, I smoothed down my shirt and then went inside. I never bothered to knock. Mom would have a stroke if she knew that. She was an etiquette tyrant. I caught the storm door before it could slam itself closed, pulling the oak one shut too.

  I twisted around and jumped slightly, finding Samael practically right in front of me. I hated when he did this—moved about like a freaking ghost.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You’re late,” he remarked passively before turning away.

  I followed him down the entry hall, scowling at his muscular back.

  “Is Bella here?”

  “No.”

  “Then isn’t she the one late?”

  We rounded the corner and went down the wide step that led to the family room. We were going to our usual hangout—the den that was Samael’s exclusive space.

  No longer in the main hall, the light coming in from the windows allowed me to see him better. His hair was damp, making it appear darker than it already was with a bit more curl than usual, indicating he’d just gotten out of the shower.

  He wasn’t wearing anything but a pair of grey lounge pants that hung a just low enough to see his well-defined V. On his feet were the customary black boots most of the guys sported around here. I made a conscious effort not to look at anything below his waist.

  “You trained today?” he asked.

  “Is the sky blue? You know my dad doesn’t let me skip class, no matter how pointless it is,” I tacked on quietly.

  “I’m looking forward to the day you realize you’ve severely underestimated yourself.”

  I rolled my lips into a pout. Leave it to him to hit the nail on the head without needing an explanation. It didn’t matter what he or Bella said to reassure me, I knew I wasn’t on the same level as the other Savages our age.

  If it were only Belladonna I had to compare myself to, I wouldn’t feel so bad. She shined brighter than all our peers. The problem was that it wasn’t just her.

  It wasn’t like I didn’t try. I really did my best, but nothing changed. I felt depressingly inadequate.

  Samael sat on the arm of the leather sectional. I went straight to the fridge in the back corner. As always, his mom had stocked it with some of her juice-filled mason jars. It had to be a form of art to get the taste right every single time. She did this specially for me and Bella.

  Samael didn’t drink it, which was a crime he should’ve been punished for. I grabbed one and popped the lid off, taking a generous swig. Drinking the cool liquid in this heat was one of the best feelings on earth.

  “You don’t know what you’re missing out on.” I sighed dramatically, savoring the different flavors.

  He stared at me with the same annoyingly obscured expression as always.

  “When’s Bella going to be here?” I cleared my throat and asked.

  We were supposed to be discussing how to sneak off the compound today. See, stuff like this I was good at. Need someone to make a mess of something and thoroughly screw things up? I was your girl.

  “Whenever she gets here.”

  I took another sip, unbothered by his bluntness. I’d been friends with him way too long for it to get to me anymore.

  Samael came off like an impenetrable wall of ice, but that was just his surface. Beneath that solid barrier were so many layers I’d stopped keeping count. I was lucky to know the sides of him he never showed anyone else. His mysterious aura had all the girls on the compound marrying him inside their heads.

  Samael was sinful. His eyes were the deepest shade of brown—closer to black. Sometimes when I looked at them, I felt as if I were staring into an endless stretch of midnight. His hair was just the same. He kept the obsidian locks long on top with a mid-fade. And since he was stuck in his house the majority of the time, he’d made good use of the exercise room.

  So, going off looks alone, I completely understood where they were coming from. Thank Satanas my other best friend was his cousin. We knew he was more than something nice to look at.

  Since he was still staring me down, I focused on the Baphomet tapestry hanging on the back wall.

  “Were you crying?”

  “No...”

  Crap. How could he tell? I’d delayed coming here for this very reason. Normally I wouldn’t care if he knew or not. At my best or at my very worst, Samael stood by me without judgement. I couldn’t tell him about this, though. It was too embarrassing. Plus, if I told him then I’d have to tell Bella, and there was no way she’d let it go.

  “Lilith,” he pressed.

  “I didn’t cry. You know it’s hot outside.”

  “That doesn’t even make sense.” He stood up and began walking towards me.

  “What are you doing?” I eyed him suspiciously.

  “Seeing if you’ll lie to my face.”

  He stopped directly in front of me. With the fridge at my back, I couldn’t retreat unless I shoved him away. Much shorter than he was, I tilted my head back and looked at him.

  Did he really have to be this close? I could see every one of his irritatingly long lashes. And I noticed how nice his lips were. I blinked in surprise when he took hold of my face. His deft fingers wrapped around my jaw, forcing me to stay focused on nothing but him.

  “You showed up late because you were crying. Who did it?”

  “Are you…are you trying to use your charm to interrogate me?”

  “My charm?” He laughed and immediately stepped away.

  I loved his laugh, but I’d never tell him that. I clutched the mason jar tightly, feeling heat explode in my face. “Stop laughing, you know what I meant.”

  “So, you have been paying attention to me.”

  “Why does that sound like a fact?”

  “Am I wrong?” His antagonizing tone was accompanied by a matching grin.

  Another rush of heat bloomed in my cheeks. “D-Don’t even go there. You’re my best friend—like a brother.”

  His smile vanished before I finished speaking. He didn’t wear any specific expression I could name, but there was something in his eyes I couldn’t explain. It threw me totally off kilter.

  “It’s really not a big deal. You’ll think it’s stupid,” I sa
id with a forced smile.

  “You’re psychic now?” he prodded dryly.

  With a sigh, I recapped the mason jar and made a show of going to sit it down on an end table. Samael followed, his aura blazing behind me. I turned to look at him, fiddling with an end of my hair. He wasn’t going to let this go.

  “Francis—”

  “The same little bitch who’s always bothering you?”

  “Huh?” My brow furrowed. “Francis is a boy.”

  “I know.”

  “Oh, yeah. Him…” I trailed off with a nervous laugh. I didn’t know why I was having such a hard time spitting this out—maybe because of how humiliating it was. But I told Samael everything.

  “Lilith,” he pressed.

  “He stole my first kiss,” I muttered.

  I’m sure my face was well on its way to turning a shade of hideous tomato red. I bravely risked a glance at Samael, trying to gauge what he was thinking from his facial expression. It was impossible, as per usual.

  “You didn’t want to kiss him?”

  “No!” I didn’t mean to shout, but how could he ask that? I was seriously offended. “That’s gross. I’m not remotely attracted to him, and his personality is complete garbage.”

  “Why the fuck were you embarrassed to tell me then?”

  “Because I couldn’t stop him. You know my dad makes me train like a slave. That’s why I don’t need you or Bella to tell me I’m not weak. I can’t even stop some idiot boy from kissing me.”

  I didn’t mention the first kiss part again, but that was really bothering me too. Childish as it may have been, I hadn’t wanted it to be with that dipshit. Samael had gone well beyond kisses at this stage in our lives, though. That’s why it was even more embarrassing to be explaining this to him.

  “You said I’m like a brother, right?” He stepped forward and took my face in his hands. I was hit with a fresh sense of déjà vu.

  “Um…”

  Too close. He was too close!

  Before I knew what was happening, his mouth was on mine. My mind blanked, rendering me unable to react right away. He teased my lips until they parted, tongue slipping in between.

  He came closer, and the feel of his body had heat rising in mine. My entire chest tingled. I think my heart was about to break apart its cage. Was this really happening right now? With Samael of all people? I thought I’d hidden it well, the fact that I liked him more than a friend should.