Degenerates: Badlands Next Generation Read online

  “That’s where the girl came from,” Nyx said, moving to stand beside me.

  Annie had already fallen back into obscurity, watching over us from afar. I once asked why she did this; her reply was that she liked to see all angles for a clearer shot if she had to take one.

  “You think there’s anyone else inside the house?” I asked.

  “Yes, but they’re dead.”

  “How many?”

  “Two,” she replied.

  “That explains the quiet then.”

  “Doesn’t it always?”

  So who or what killed them? I stared through the clearing, waiting to see a sign of someone or something, but everything remained the same.

  With a defeated sigh, I strode forward, making my way through the next thicket. “I don’t get it, what were they running from?”

  “Don’t you mean, who?” a husky voice replied.

  I reflexively jerked to the side, accidentally knocking into Nyx. She tried to place me behind her, but behind her was another.

  He had a hand over her mouth and a knife at the base of her throat before she could even attempt to move out of his way.

  In the span of those few seconds, I found myself struggling for possession of my gun. Not much of a struggle, admittedly. It took less than three minutes to overpower me.

  The man used his size and strength to his advantage. My fingers closed around the metal, holding tight. By some small miracle I hadn’t flicked the safety off, or I’d have likely shot myself in my attempt to not the damned thing go.

  “Be a good girl and give me the gun,” he mockingly chided.

  I ignored him, throwing my weight—all one-hundred and twenty-five pounds of me—into his side.

  Not only did that fail spectacularly by him counteracting the move, but trying to move him was like trying to lift the XL with one hand.

  He swung me in a circle so vehemently did I not drag my feet I’d have been lifted off the ground. My palms burned from the friction.

  The trail was narrow, not allowing for such a turn which caused the left side of me to be grabbed by thorny brambles. I held back a hiss as they pricked my skin through my shirt.

  Before I could readjust my grip, my wrist was bent at an awkward angle, the bone instantly screaming in protest.

  “Ugh,” I grunted, fighting back the tears that came with the pain, internally spewing every curse word imaginable.

  “Drop it,” the man commanded, twisting further.

  I swallowed a whimper and a curse, gritting out through clenched teeth, “Bite me, asshole.”

  He laughed low and dark. “Be careful, princess. You might just get your wish, and not in a place you’d like.”

  A few amused snickers alerted me that we had an audience, that there were more of them hidden in the trees.

  His dig at who I was is what ultimately had me taking better notice of him and his comrade’s face. They wore skulls as masks, flecked with black and green. I knew what those colors meant, fucking Venom.

  I attempted to wrestle my gun away from him again, unable to hold in a second hiss when he bent my wrist back even further.

  What might have been the clicking of Annie’s shotgun came from the other side of the thicket. I couldn’t focus clearly when my bone was seconds away from snapping in two.

  I heaved a pained and angry breath, growling as I tore my fingers from the barrel. My body tensed, preparing for further pain that never came.

  Instead, catching me off guard for the second time, my assailant shoved me backward into the tree now behind me.

  A small gasp of air rushed from my lungs;rigid bark met my spine. He kicked my legs apart, and then placed his solid body between them. The safety was flicked off, and then the cool, metal barrel of the gun was set against the side of my temple.

  Words were exchanged around us; I couldn’t decipher anything that was said.

  My heart was beating furiously; body flushed with rage and something I couldn’t identify. I stared at the slits in the mask where eyes should have been, silently daring him to pull the damn trigger.

  “You know, there’s a thin line between fearless and stupidity,” he mused as if I’d spoken aloud.

  “Whatever you’re going to do, fucking do it,” I snapped. If he were about to blow my brains out, I preferred he just got it over with. I never feared death; I just wanted to know when it was coming.

  “Oh, make no mistake. I have a long list of things I plan to do to you, Adelaide—but you’re not near ready for me, yet.”

  I blinked at him, not sure why I was so surprised he knew who I was.

  Taking advantage of my disposition, he dropped one of his hands to my side, keeping the other in place with the barrel still to my skull.

  Calloused fingers delved beneath my shirt. My stomach flipped as they brushed against my bare skin, inflaming where they stroked. He pressed his body further against mine, causing the breath to hitch in my chest.

  I didn’t like how this felt. It shouldn’t have felt like this—like anything. A stranger’s touch shouldn’t have made my veins shiver and my blood sizzle. Most especially a stranger such as this one.

  Almost like he read my mind again, he leaned in until the mouthpiece of his mask was right beside my ear, whispering a dark promise.

  “I have to go now, but I’m very much looking forward to when I get to make you mine, Addy.”

  He stepped away after that, leaving me with my back against the tree, feeling a mixture of deeply confused and pissed off. His companion followed his lead, letting Nyx go without incident, and following him down the trail without a word.

  It wasn’t until Annie came bursting through the clearing, uncharacteristically late, shotgun cocked, my brother and Cameron behind her that I realized the prick had just stolen my Glock.

  “He shouldn’t have done that,” Luce said the moment his eyes met mine.

  “What do you mean, he?” I asked as Nyx implored, “You saw that?”

  “We all did,” Cameron answered as he approached me.

  “And none of you thought to do anything!”

  “He had a gun pressed to your head, Addy. I’m fast, not stop a bullet fast,” Cam retorted, now checking me over like a mother hen.

  I looked to Annie who was even more quiet than usual. She blankly stared back, and while not dramatically unusual for her it felt suspicious to me right then.

  I returned my gaze to Luce, finding he was watching me closely.

  “Wha—ouch!” I jerked my wrist away from Cameron with a glare.

  “Sorry,” he said, giving me a sheepish smile. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, Cam, just sore.” In all actuality, I wasn’t sure if I were fine or not. The gun to the head thing scarcely fazed me.

  Nothing was terrifying about a gun, only the person responsible for pulling its trigger. And that man was the least bit scary.

  Not to mention the interaction was fast, a fraction of maybe ten minutes. So why was the feeling that he invoked not gone yet? I shook my head to clear it. This wasn’t the time to ponder that, not with Lilith, Sam, and Bella still missing.

  Cradling my throbbing wrist, I asked, “Where is Makayla?”

  “She’s with Butcher,” Luce answered, reaching a hand out to guide me back the way I’d come.

  “And?” I probed, wordlessly accepting his help.

  “You should let her tell you.”

  I wasn’t sure why it mattered, but whatever.

  “Where are they?” I demanded to know as soon as I was in hearing range of Makayla.

  She jumped, turning to flatten herself against the side of the XL, huddling closer to Butcher, as if that would ever protect her from me.

  I didn’t feel the need for pleasantries, and I wasn’t in the mood to pry answers out of anyone after what I’d just dealt with.

  Grabbing hold of Makayla’s jaw with my good arm, I forced her to look in my eyes and asked once again, “Where are they? Why are you in front me but they aren’t?”

  She sniffled, green eyes filling with water as her lips started to tremble. I didn’t feel an ounce of remorse for her. Had she simply told a higher acolyte what was going on my sister would have never gotten off the compound.

  Letting her jaw go, I reached out and smoothed down some of her wild brown hair, and then I leaned in and whispered in her ear just as had been done to me.

  “You have five seconds to start telling me something useful or the fear you feel now will be nothing compared to the pain I cause you.”

  Her entire body was shaking when I stepped back. It was unfortunate because I’d always liked Makayla, but her fuck up rested squarely on her incapable shoulders. She was a shit guardian and an even worse acolyte.

  “In District 9. The Stags, they took them. Di-District 9. The man in the deer mask,” she rushed out, stuttering over her words.

  “Man in a deer mask? Who is that?” I asked anyone that could answer.

  Whoever they were, she seemed to be much more afraid of them than me at the moment, which said a lot.

  “A Stag,” Cam answered, “they’re a new faction.”

  “Do we know anything about them?” Nyx asked.

  Annie was the one who answered, unsurprisingly. Being an acolyte of certain status meant she was alerted of any new changes in the Badlands that could affect us.

  “They sprang up seemingly overnight. Satanas has been steadily monitoring them for the past month or so,” she explained, adding quietly, “They are not an easy group to find.”

  Understanding her meaning, I looked back at Makayla. “Did you say he took them? As in kidnapped?”

  “Maybe, they were still there when I ran. I was trying to find help,” she pleaded her case.

  My fingers itched to rem
ove my Kambit and slit her fucking throat, leave her body right here on the side of the road for the vultures to feast on along with the other one.

  I couldn’t, though. Not when I still might need her. Shaking my head, I went back to the passenger side of the XL and prepared to climb in.

  “If they managed to take three Savages and an acolyte, they’re clearly not as new as anyone thought, or they’re suicidal. It doesn’t matter; we need to get to that District, now.”

  “I’ll call Dad,” Luce said as everyone began to move. “And for the record, I would never let anything happen to you, Addy. Bullet or no bullet.”

  I knew he meant that because I would have done the same for him, but it didn’t explain his utter silence in the heat of the moment.

  Still, now was not the time, so I nodded, hoisted myself up into the truck, and then slammed my door shut behind me.

  He and the twins piled back into the Jeep, dragging Makayla with them. Nyx and Annie got back into the XL, and then we were off.

  Chapter Four

  Quattuor

  Where the fuck did she come from?

  I took a deep breath, holding it a few seconds so more cannabinoids would hit my bloodstream. Turning my head to the side, I parted my lips and let the smoke expel out the passenger window, and watched it slip away with the wind.

  Where the fuck did she come from? I thought to myself for the fifth time, wordlessly passing the joint to Maliki.

  She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the middle of the fucking night.

  I gathered she’d left to find whoever the chick was that ran from us, but that didn’t explain the why, which raised my suspicions.

  Romero didn’t simply allow his precious baby-girl to roam around the Badlands; I knew that all too well. I had been keeping tabs on her for the past few years, even more so these last couple months.

  “She’s a cutie, and she told you to bite her while you held a gun to her head, so obviously she’s a crazy bitch after my own heart,” Trix said from the back seat.

  I grunted in response.

  “Honestly? I thought that would have gone differently between you two,” Tobias replied.

  “I wasn’t aware there was a fucking thesis to follow,” I said, rolling my window back up.

  The truck grew for a silent for a minute before they changed the subject.

  Now aware I wasn’t going to be discussing my ‘feelings’, they began to converse with one another about trivial shit, Ace soon being dragged into one of their long-standing debates.

  Maliki picked up on my irritation and grinned, turning on the stereo to drown them out.

  Thank fuck for him.

  I leaned back in my seat, watching the dark scenery flash by. My mind wandered right back to my lithe little blonde. I’d been wondering when we would officially meet. It was only natural we someday would. She was heir to the strongest faction the Badlands had.

  No, it wasn’t a faction—it was a fucking satanic cult masquerading as a gang.

  Whatever territory they wanted, they took it. They were partnered up with all the big time suppliers, providing whatever trade someone desired to ensure they could obtain the same.

  Nearly everyone wanted to climb in bed with the devil. For a good while, I was one of the rare ones who didn’t, and for a laundry list of reasons. From what I knew, there had never been any faction that could come close to matching their level of power. I was well on the way of changing that.

  I’d busted my ass to make sure I never needed the Savages for shit. I strengthened my family by creating a new breed of Venom and placing us higher and higher on the list those wanted to partner with.

  Until recently I didn’t have a desire to change my standing, but shit happens, and I’d been offered an exclusive deal.

  “Home sweet home,” Maliki intoned, slightly braking near the entrance to the hidden pathway we’d created.

  He made a slow, sharp turn, making sure the heavy-duty truck didn’t go into the ravine that was damn near impossible to see in the dark.

  We bumped along for a good six minutes until the wooden gate began to take shape. Our idea of security was a state of the art alarm system designed by one of our very own, and two Venom watching the gate at all time.

  If anyone decided to risk it all and come beyond that, they wouldn’t be going anywhere else ever again. We rarely worried about shit like that, though.

  Home was no longer a rat-infested subway station. Home was now an actual dwelling with water distillation and tank-less propane.

  There was a solid roof over my head in place of unpredictable concrete crashing down and killing some poor motherfucker sleeping, and a fortified stainless steel door to get through in place of too many entry and exit points.

  We passed through the gate and drove a bit further up the grassy road where Maliki parked the truck between a few of the other Venom’ vehicles and cut the engine.

  “Are we going to talk about what happened back there?” he asked quietly.

  “You know what happened.”

  “Z,” he protested.

  I sighed, cracking my neck. There wasn’t any bullshitting Malik no matter how often I tried.

  He was one of the only people on this rotting, shithole of a fucking planet that knew me—the real me.

  He’d been by my side since the time I was locked away like a rabid dog inside a prison cell—to when I emerged from the underground like a fucking phoenix and slaughtered anyone who stood in-between me and was rightfully mine.

  As everyone began to get out of the truck, we remained seated. Trix paused and gave me a questioning look. I waved her on.

  “It wasn’t the time to put that plan in motion,” I explained now that we were alone.

  “No shit, Z. You know that isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the way you must feel right now. You’ve been foaming at the mouth to devour this girl’s soul for a long ass time now.”

  “You know I don’t do emotional talks, Malik. And if I did I’d tell you I’m fine as always. Five minutes isn’t enough to leave any lingering effects,” I added in a more serious tone, telling myself the same thing.

  I liked logical explanations for shit, things that made sense, like two plus two is four.

  There wasn’t anything logical about my internal reaction to, Adelaide Deville, but that wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have right then. I couldn’t make sense of it, and it’d been a long fucking day as it was.

  “Come on,” I told him, reaching for the door handle.

  Once out of the truck, we started up the leveled dirt trail that ran between the shed-like houses we’d built for the other Venom.

  We had just begun spreading our roots three months ago, but for those that chose to reside at the main base, there was no way in hell we would all fit inside the main property.

  That sat at the very end of the trail, held above the entire piece of land by various wooden beams. From my balcony, you could see the treetops, and where they ended began stretches of pinkish tinged dessert.

  The smell of bud and hooch lingered in the air. One of the units had music playing loud enough for everyone to enjoy. Those that weren’t taking a leisure day were working.

  There was always shit that needed to be done—orders to be filled, maintenance to be up-kept, supplies to be replenished.

  We may have been forced to adapt to a desolate wasteland, but we made sure we thrived in the process.

  Everyone greeted the two of us as we passed, genuinely happy that we’d returned. This was why I had done all I had. Why I gave these people somewhere of comfort instead of a derelict reformatory like my father had resided in.

  Why I refused to subject them to the shitty fucking subway I’d been forced to dwell in, eating the unfortunate critters that wandered too far down the tunnel.

  They would have stuck by my side through all that with zero complaints, just so they had the sense of family and a place to call home, but I didn’t want that for them.

  My people had food, clean water, and an actual purpose.

  In turn, they helped me achieve, and hold, a position of power that I’d been born to claim.

  It was their never-ending gratitude and devotion that motivated me.

  Why one day the Savages, and everyone else would learn exactly why I wasn’t like my father.