Badlands: Next Generation Collection Page 4

  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 fearlessness 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 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 harder 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. 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, a combination of deeply confused and pissed off. His companion followed his lead, letting Nyx go without incident.

  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 but not stop-a-bullet fast,” Cam retorted, checking me over like a mother hen.

  I looked to Annie, who was even more quiet than usual. She stared back blankly.

  I returned my gaze to Luce; 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 was fine or not.

  The gun to the head thing scarcely fazed me. There was nothing terrifying about a gun, only the person responsible for pulling its trigger.

  Not to mention the interaction was fast, maybe ten minutes, maximum. So why was the feeling that he’d 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’s 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 and 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?”

  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 quietly 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 remove my Kambit and slit her fucking throat, to leave her body right here on the side of the road for the vultures to feast on.

  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 through 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 who’d run 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.

  “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 ba
ck 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 would; she was heir to the strongest faction the Badlands had.

  No, it wasn’t a faction—it was a satanic fucking 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 to 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.

  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, braking slightly 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 sleeping motherfucker, and a fortified stainless steel door 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 Venoms’ 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 between me and what was rightfully mine.

  As everyone began to get out of the truck, we remained seated. Trix paused and gave me a questioning look, but 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. 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 being 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 desert.

  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 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 a place 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.

  I heard the whispers…how I wasn’t supposed to have survived the taking of Centriole, not when the devil had a marker on my head. I’d been cast aside, forgotten about, and written off as dead.

  No one expected the kid thrown to the wolves to return leading entire the pack. And now that I was back, stronger than I’d ever been, I had no forgiveness for those who doubted me.

  Continuing up the path, we passed the massive garage that had just gone up a few months ago. Both of its doors were wide open, and on one side was my tech guy—Gizmo.

  He had a pair of headphones on and was fully immersed in his latest trinket.

  On the other side were a few men and women sorting through our latest supply run.

  Hearing loud laughter spilling from behind us, I knew the evening was just now getting into full swing.

  “You in for the night?” Maliki asked, following me up the stairs that led to the front door.

  “Yeah, you?”

  “Depends on Gwen.”

  I smirked, looking at him over my shoulder. He’d been with her since we were nineteen, proving he had a fuck of a lot more patience than I did, because he’d been dealing with her melodramatic bullshit steadily for seven years.

  We walked the length of the upper deck to the steel door, pushing it open to enter the house.

  The aroma of hot food met us right inside the entrance. Voices came from the kitchen, one belonging to Trix. Heading towards them, I made sure not to track any dirt on Meg’s freshly shined pine floors.

  “I’ll see you later,” Maliki said, stepping away in the direction of the back hallway where our bedrooms were.

  I nodded, continuing the short distance across the open floor plan. I hadn’t wanted any hidden corners when I’d had the house built. There was nowhere for anyone to play a round of hide-and-seek if they chose to sneak in or run from me.

  The only games I played were on my mattress or in the shower—or occasionally the back of my truck.

  “Mi hijo,” Meg greeted with a smile.

  I place
d a kiss on her timeworn cheek, discreetly doing a health-check when I stepped back. Her wise hazel eyes were gleaming with energy, which meant she’d had a good day today.

  Further proof was the large spread she was preparing in my kitchen and the animal print clip in her gunmetal grey hair.

  “Anyone give you any issues?” I asked, watching her stir something that looked sweet in a large mixing bowl.

  “No, no. If they did, I know how to handle them,” she replied. “Plus, I have Demon and Grizz,” she added with a wink.

  I nodded, spotting, Grizz, the bear of a man himself at the table with Trix, cutting up fruit. I always put Meg in charge when I went out.

  She was to be respected and had never taken anyone’s shit.

  Grizz I trusted, and I knew he would never let any insubordinate fuck think they could get away with disrespect if they felt the need to try her.

  We were a gang of killers; there would always be the occasional scuffle or two.

  I didn’t want Meg getting between that, which is where Demon came in.

  I watched her flounce around the kitchen for a minute longer, telling her about the initiation before announcing I was going to take a shower. She waved me off, now dumping whatever she’d been mixing into a glass dish.

  It took a lot to make sure she always had an ingredient to cook with, but she’d done everything for me. I’m not sure what her life plan had been before my dad propositioned her.

  Whatever it was, she’d given it up to raise two wild boys in the absolute slums.

  I could vividly remember all the times she’d gone hungry just so Maliki and I could eat. I really didn’t give a fuck how much it took to ensure she lived like a queen, never wanting for anything.

  I’d heard the details about my birth mother, and I could positively say I would never replace Meg for the mental bitch if she were still alive.

  I didn’t mind crazy—fuck, I loved crazy—but there was a good kind and a bad kind. Mom sounded like the latter, but that didn’t necessarily mean I wouldn’t have liked to know her.