Badlands: Next Generation Collection Read online

  “If it were me…” I thumbed my chin as if in deep contemplation, grinning slowly.

  I crouched again so we were eye level and dug around in the duffel, pulling out a steel pick hammer.

  “I’d make him listen as I fucked his daughter, and then I’d do to him what he did to my brother.”

  “And the mom?”

  “I can stick her in the oven,” Maliki suggested. “She’ll die either way, and it’ll hurt like a sonofabitch.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I like that idea.” Ace took the steel hammer from my hand and stood up.

  There we go.

  I watched silently as he moved around Trix, grabbed Jamie by the hair, and proceeded to drag her ass into her parents’ room.

  Mom and Pops screamed on helplessly, Jamie’s pleas mingling with their muffled protests. Ace slammed the door behind him and the level of noise fell dramatically.

  Her mother sagged into a puddle of helpless flesh, shaking her head back and forth.

  Things could have been different had she thought her lie through more thoroughly.

  But she didn’t, and now one my favorite prospects was dead and another man had lost the only blood he had left.

  All would be well soon, though. If Ace made it all the way in, he’d have a family willing to destroy anyone who caused harm or posed a threat to his well-being. Who weren’t afraid to retaliate against anyone, no matter how big, how small, or how fucking insignificant they were.

  All of them for one of ours, that’s how it worked. Loyalty, fear, and undisputed power would make the Venom name notorious long before I perished, and long after I was gone.

  Jamie’s mom vomited inside the oven and had no choice but to bask in it.

  The bile bubbled and burned, filling the air with a stench that might have been bothersome if we hadn’t dealt with worse.

  Not long after, hypertension had blood spilling from her nose. In the end, she looked like a giant roll of warm, pink flesh, dying slowly from asphyxiation.

  When Ace emerged from the bedroom, silence followed. After coming loud enough for all of us—including her parents—to hear, I could imagine Jamie felt ashamed right now.

  Sweat dotted his brow; the hammer was clutched tightly in his left hand. I grinned at the predatory look on his face. This was one of my favorite parts, watching what was left of a person’s humanity wither and die as something heinous took its place.

  Going right up to Jamie’s dad, Ace flipped the hammer around so that the claw would be doing the damage.

  “This is for Tucker,” he rasped.

  The man mumbled something that sounded a lot like, “Fuck you,” which was a valid rebuttal—also stupid as fuck.

  He’d gone despondent about twenty minutes ago. I couldn’t blame him; he knew he was going to die.

  I had yet to move out of the way when Ace delivered the first blow, and he swung a fuck of a lot harder than I was expecting. There was an immediate crack and bellow of pain. The second blow split the skull.

  The tenth hit had the man losing consciousness. Now that he’d gotten started, I let him go until he decided it was enough.

  Jamie shuffled out of the bedroom on the fifteenth, screaming like a wounded animal, launching herself in a sad rescue attempt.

  Tobias caught her around the middle, hushing her softly as she sank to the floor much like her mother had, yelling some bullshit to her father.

  “I don’t think he can hear you anymore, sweetheart,” Maliki told her, readjusting his own mask.

  I blocked her out entirely, focusing on the hammer currently obliterating a man’s head. I counted a total of thirty-two blows, all to the top and back of the skull. The force and severity of them caused numerous fractures, and blood went everywhere.

  The end result was something that scarcely looked human. It was definitely a sight I’d remember. Ace’s look of sheer devotion to his task only cemented the fact that I’d made the right choice with this one. Chest heaving, shirt drenched in blood, sweat, and bits of something fatty, he walked backward, dropping the hammer into the duffel bag.

  “I’m done,” he rasped, looking over at me.

  “I see that,” I mused, standing from the couch.

  “What are you going to do with her?” Trix gestured to where Jamie was huddled on the floor in a puddle of piss.

  My lip curled at the sight.

  It was fucking pathetic.

  This whole ‘family’ was a waste of Badlands resources and oxygen. We’d come in and torn it apart with very little force, clearly doing everyone a favor.

  “Leave her alive. Now, she can feel how I do,” Ace replied.

  Trix, Maliki, and Tobias all looked to me for the final decision.

  “Works for me,” I said with a shrug. “Matter of fact…” Stepping to where she was huddled, I lifted her up and dragged her towards the back door.

  Tobias opened it wordlessly for me, moving to the side so I could get through.

  “Pleas—”

  “Shut up.”

  I lifted her body and damn near tossed her from the porch. She looked at me, a mixture of terror and confusion as to why I’d brought her outside.

  “Run.”

  Her hesitation lasted less than a second; she took off stumbling towards the thick patch of trees.

  “Where do you think she’ll go?” Trix asked, leaning against one of the porch post.

  “Doesn’t matter. She’ll be dead in…I give it two weeks,” Tobias responded.

  “Less,” Maliki refuted.

  He was the one I was inclined to believe.

  “Let’s grab what’s salvageable, bag it, and get to the truck,” I ordered, turning around and going back inside the house.

  “Get your head together and help us,” I said to Ace. “I can’t have you zoning out after a kill. That reflects back onto me.”

  He inhaled and exhaled two deep breaths, wiping his bloody hands on his even bloodier jeans.

  “You’re right. I just need—wait. I’m in?” he questioned, giving me a goofy ass smile.

  “Yeah. ” I stopped and turned my head. “Hang on.”

  Everyone with the exception of Ace heard, and we filed outside, leaving him to follow.

  “What the fuck is she doing all the way out here?” Trix asked.

  I didn’t answer; even from this distance I could see the inverted cross inked on the side of her face.

  As she darted across the backyard, she noticed us for the first time.

  I saw the exact moment she realized that she had just exposed herself to a group far fucking worse than whatever had sent her running in the first place.

  Chapter Two

  Duo

  This girl was lucky I loved her.

  I could think of a million other things I’d rather be doing than keeping guard while she got laid.

  Again.

  Hearing a can drop, I laughed around the last apple slice I’d just sucked into my mouth. Her muffled moans increased slightly in volume, disturbing the crickets chirping away nearby.

  Pushing off the wall of the warehouse, I stretched my arms above my head, lazily rounding the corner and smacking right into a sturdy form.

  “Holy shit,” I choked out around chewed up bits of fruit.

  Reeling back, I placed a hand over the heart that had just about escaped through my chest.

  “You okay?” he asked, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

  “Fuck, Luce. I thought you were Dad.”

  “If I were, you’d have been screwed. You’re slacking, sis. You should have heard me coming long before I got here. I even stopped to talk with Annie.”

  I wanted to punch the smirk right off his damn face, but he was right. I should have heard him. Had he been our father, I’d be back on a rigorous training schedule before I could so much as bat an eyelid.

  “Whatever,” I grumbled, refusing to actually tell him he was right.

  “Speaking of screwed…” Smirk still in place, he moved around
me to the front of the building.

  “Don’t you dare peek, you pervert,” I hissed, grabbing for his beefy arm.

  He brushed me off as if I were an annoying fly. “Addy, I’ve seen Butch fuc…” Catching himself, he shook his head and laughed. “You’re right. I shouldn’t watch.”

  Narrowing my eyes at him, I stepped into his personal space. “I really want you to finish that first sentence.”

  If Butcher was messing around on Nyx, I would decapitate his balls one at a time, fry them up in a skillet, and shove them down his freaking throat.

  She had blinders on when it came to him.

  I didn’t.

  I’d heard crazy stories about Uncle Cobra when he was younger, and it seemed the twins were following right in his footsteps.

  Both hid their inner problems in the form of vices, Cameron in an entirely different fashion. He was also a sweetheart, whereas Butcher had a plethora of attitude issues.

  Luce peered down at me, smiling, completely unfazed by my temper.

  “Anyone ever tell you you’re a lot like Mom, all unnecessarily hostile and violent?”

  “Psh, way to change the subject.” I moved back and crossed my arms.

  He mimicked my move, cocking his head to the side.

  “Knock it off,” I huffed irritably.

  I hated when he did that.

  Lucifuge looked so much like our father it was borderline disturbing. Same hairstyle—faded on the sides and long on top—inked, solid build, and tall.

  Mom said he acted like him, too, which was even more disturbing because all the girls his age had begun to take notice. I could go my entire life without hearing about my brother’s wild sexcapades and be just fine.

  We stopped talking, sharing a knowing look when harsh whispers drifted from inside the warehouse.

  Three minutes later, there was a faint squeak, and then the steel door slid open, its track making a soft whirring noise. Butcher stepped out, shirt tossed over his shoulder and still adjusting his pants, face set in a hard line. It softened, splitting into smile the second he glanced up and saw Luce.

  “You done for the night?” he asked my brother, pulling his shirt over his head.

  “Yep. Are you?”

  “I finished.” He grinned, and they did that guy handshake thing.

  “You two are disgusting,” I snapped.

  “It’s part of life, Addy. Sadly a part you won’t ever be allowed to experience. Poor princess,” Butcher sighed, patting my shoulder with his sweaty hand as they walked by.

  I glared at their backs until they disappeared around a bend in the path, disk lights guiding their way.

  “You know that’s not true, right?” Nyx said, finally appearing in the doorway.

  “I don’t care about any of that.”

  It was a partial lie; I did want it—one day.

  I was twenty-two years old and hadn’t been remotely serious about anyone.

  Well, there was one guy, an up and coming acolyte I’d been crushing on, but he threw up when my dad asked to speak with him.

  That ended whatever could have been between us real quick.

  He not so mysteriously came up missing shortly after. I hadn’t attempted anything since. If a man cowered in front of Daddy and couldn’t handle my brand of crazy, then he wasn’t for me. I wouldn’t change to placate anyone, and my family was not replaceable, so he had to be prepared to handle everything that came with it.

  “I know that’s not true, but I’ll pretend to believe you.”

  “After what I just did in honor of our friendship? You don’t have a choice,” I joked.

  She smoothed down her long, dark ponytail and adjusted her boobs inside her tank top.

  “How do I look?” she asked when finished, holding her henna covered arms out to the side.

  I batted my lashes and smiled. “You look gorgeous, like you just got fucked against a shelf in a storage warehouse.”

  Laughing, she flipped me off and pulled the door closed behind her.

  “So, what was Butcher’s problem?” I asked her as we started up the path my brother had just gone down.

  “I heard what Luce was about to say.”

  “Hmm,” I hummed, “and what did he say in response to that?”

  “Nothing,” she sighed, “and that’s the problem.”

  “Nyx…” I trailed off.

  In times like these, I found it was best not to say anything at all. She and I had been over this a hundred times.

  I didn’t understand the dynamics of their relationship and no longer tried to. Nyx wasn’t just my cousin. She was my best friend, my sin-sister. The private diary no one would ever be able to crack, the strength I needed when I felt I wasn’t strong enough.

  After growing up inseparable, I knew her. She kept her feelings safe-guarded when it came to Butcher. On countless occasions I’d told her she could do—and deserved—so much better than what he was offering.

  This had to be a negative side effect of first love because she was far from a doormat, and Uncle Grimm and Aunt Arlen adored her, as did her baby brother.

  We rounded the bend in the path and came up behind Luce, Butcher himself, and Annie.

  I’d expected to see her—I was the one who’d told her to wait here—but the other two should have been farther than this by now.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, wedging myself between Luce and Butcher so I could see.

  “We don’t know yet,” Luce answered.

  I followed his stare to where Mom was talking to one of the acolytes who had removed their mask.

  A few porch lights from acolyte dwellings shined into the clearing they were standing in, illuminating them perfectly.

  “She looks….worried,” I noted.

  “And like she’s about to murder someone,” Nyx added from behind me.

  Only one of those was normal for her. Mom wasn’t a worrier—not often, anyway.

  “Cali!” Dad called, his voice booming across the space.

  At his approach, the acolyte respectively bowed her head. Dad ignored the woman completely, focusing solely on Mom. He wrapped his arms around her middle and forced her to turn into him.

  She protested for a solid five seconds before he said something that had her putting her hands on his shoulders.

  This wasn’t anything new. They had never hidden their oddly endearing way of loving each other. I’d moved into one of the cabins on the compound for that reason alone. Hearing your mom and dad go at it like jackrabbits nearly every night was traumatizing.

  I squeezed past Luce and Butch to find out what was going on, since none of them seemed inclined to do so.

  Nyx followed only after Butcher tried to take hold of her hand.

  Dad saw me first, repositioning Mom so she was tucked under his arm.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, glancing between the two of them.

  “The kids snuck off the compound and no one knows where they are,” Dad replied. “Jesse and Makayla are missing, too.”

  “Samael?” Nyx asked.

  “He went too, sweetie,” my Mom responded softly.

  “Yeah, I thought so,” Nyx quipped. “I’m gonna go find my mom,” she said to me.

  I nodded, watching her set off in the direction of the main house.

  My cousin, Samael, had never been allowed to wander the compound. All his lessons and training had been done inside with close monitoring, and for good reason.

  He was every bit like my Uncle Grimm—with one exception. He had a primary immunodeficiency, something he had just started receiving treatment for because his parents had just had a proper diagnosis.

  To think it was okay to be out and about, especially off the compound that was the safest place he could possibly be, baffled me. He was smarter than this.

  “And because he went, Bella went,” Luce said from nearly right behind me, staring after Nyx.

  “Which is why Lilith went,” Butcher said, referring to his own baby sister.
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  It made sense that the three of them would go off together; they spent all their time in each other’s company.

  It was incredibly foolish, but I had no room to really speak on that because I was known to be reckless.

  “I’m thinking Jesse and Makayla either weren’t paying attention and went after them, or they decided to make a life altering, very unwise decision and encouraged them.

  “We don’t know when they left…sometime between noon and four, because they climbed into the back of one of the supply trucks to get past the guard shack. It’s back now. They aren’t,” Dad explained.

  He seemed rather calm for a man who had no idea where his youngest daughter was.

  Then again, I couldn’t recall one time I had ever seen my Dad non-composed or overtly emotional.

  I had a side of me that was a lot like him in that regard.

  Then, there was the side of me that was just like my mother, feeling too much of everything and refusing to bend for the devil’s will.

  Luce had described it best. We had chests encasing hearts of gold, but were born empty vessels that lacked a soul.

  In its place was something far better though, all thanks to the man we called Dad. Sometimes, it was difficult to balance the psyche that came with who we were, but we did the best we could.

  I kept my demons under lock and key, placating them with a bit of bloodshed every few weeks.

  If I didn’t, things turned ugly.

  Something devoid of humanity clawed at my insides until I gave it what it wanted and fed its debased desires. In turn, it grew a little stronger.

  Thus far, I’d managed to keep it complacent.

  I feared the day it refused to be caged. It already stained my insides with its malignant presence. Luce never seemed to have an issue controlling his as I did—the fucker.

  Some would say we weren’t normal, but I believed the definition of that word was skewed, based on personal interpretation.

  “We have to find them, Rome. Sam can’t be out there,” Mom stressed.

  He said something in response, but I was already brainstorming a map of all the places they would have gone.

  “We will, Pixie. I’ll send out a few groups of—”

  “Don’t do that,” I cut him off, catching the tail end of whatever he’d been saying.