He was a Savage.
Like me.
The blood of the Badlands’ very own devil and his deviant queen ran through his veins. How could anyone ever have expected him to be anything less than what he was?
I was proud to call him a friend, and Satanas had blessed me with being able to refer to him as a brother. Especially since mine let me down in every single way that counted.
I entered the storage room and flipped on the light. It was no longer dark outside, so some natural lighting filtered in through an upper window.
“Luce said your name was Star,” I stated in a way to announce myself.
“Luce?” I heard repeated softly.
I sat all my items down on one of the tables before going to the metal shelves that we used to hold various goods. I could feel her watching me from where she sat on the ground.
“Short for Lucifuge,” I replied, not real sure what the hell I was doing. I guess I hoped that getting her to talk would make her less uneasy. I wondered what Luce had said to her. I could practically feel the apprehension wafting off her in waves, and she’d been relatively calm before.
“Like Lucifer?”
I laughed to myself. “Something like that.”
I grabbed a tube of peppermint scented cleanser, brushing powder, and a wooden toothbrush.
After dumping one of the boxes from the table, I loaded everything together inside it, then went to retrieve the girl. She looked much better than she did when I put her in the kennel. There was a blanket inside now too, courtesy of Luce I assumed.
“Come on.” I undid the lock and freed the latch.
She didn’t move. I watched a debate play out across her face. Instead of leaving her to wonder what was going on, I decided to be as up front as I could.
“You can take a real shower and then I’ll find you some food.”
That had her rising to her feet. Keeping the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, she came forward and exited the enclosure.
“Stay by my side.”
She nodded and fell into step beside me when I began to walk back towards the box I’d left on a table. The empty cuff dangled from her wrist, swinging aimlessly. I’d nearly forgotten she was in those. I could pick the lock to get them off, but I would wait until we got…
Where was I supposed to have her shower? I glanced down, only able to see the top of her head since she was looking straight.
We’d had a cubicle placed in the room Butcher was in, but that was only used to spray off blood if things got messy. Messy being anything from guts or bone matter.
There were a few spare bathrooms, but I didn’t feel comfortable with having her use them. It would have to be Luce’s room or mine. Bella’s could work too, but I was already imagining the commentary I’d get while waiting on Star to do what she needed to.
As we entered the main room, Star slowed. I followed the direction of her stare to the large inverted pentagram with our Baphomet’s head in the center. It hung on a massive tapestry just behind our dining table.
“Do you know what that is?” I asked, remembering Luce’s earlier words.
“Are you Lazarus?”
That was a name I hadn’t heard in a while, but it wasn’t unfamiliar. I didn’t know why a Savage symbolism would lead her to believe we were associated with them. This proved she really didn’t know who we were. But how was that possible? How isolated was the place she had come from?
“What do you know about em?” I asked, replacing her question with one of my own as we reached the stairs.
She shrugged, reaching to grab hold of the banister. “They’re private.”
Well, that didn’t tell me much of shit. I made a mental note to bring this up to Luce as we proceeded down the hall to my room. I opened the door and gestured for her to go in first.
She did so without protest, which reminded me yet again of something Luce had said.
“This is your room,” she noted.
I kicked the door shut with my boot in case Bella was lurking nearby. “What gave it away?”
“It looks like you.”
“I wasn’t aware a room could have a human appearance.” I carried the box to my bed and sat it down.
She took in my bedroom with the same curious nature she seemed to do everything else. There truly wasn’t anything that spectacular about the space.
It was once my father’s. Thankfully he’d done away with the boldness of the paint color before I took it over. That never would have worked. It was decent sized and decorated much like Luce’s room, only slightly darker.
I didn’t have the hints of lime green he’d added to his. Everything was black or gray. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my switchblade. The faint swish garnered me Star’s full focus.
She turned her head and fixed her pretty eyes on the blade. Unsurprisingly, no fear seemed to register. She simply stared. I liked that she wasn’t afraid of us. I wouldn’t have known how to deal with her otherwise.
“The bathroom’s through that door. If you want, I can remove the cuffs before you go in and shower.”
She nodded and walked over to stand in front of me, holding up the wrist still encased in one of the silver cuffs. Being as gentle as I could, I took hold of it and inserted the tip of my blade into the small hole meant for the key.
We were so close I could see all the things I’d been trying to pretend weren’t blindingly on display. Like her tits. Both were completely visible in what she had on. They weren’t huge by any means, but I was confident that I could fit them in each hand comfortably.
Swallowing, I worked quickly to pick the lock, concentrating on not taking another look below her waist.
“Was someone attached to the other side?” I asked to distract myself.
Her gaze dropped immediately, giving me the first real sign of emotion from her.
“They didn’t make it,” she answered quietly.
Her reply both interested and bothered me. I was no stand-up citizen, but chaining two girls together and dressing them in see-through gowns?
That came off creepy as hell to me, which said a lot. What was the reason? And what happened to the other one?
The cuff popped open after another slight twist of my blade, freeing her wrist and giving me a glimpse of faded bruises.
“What’s your name?” she asked before I could inquire about them.
“Cameron, but you can call me Cam.”
She nodded more to herself than me, rubbing the area the cuffs had been covering. “Thank you, Cam.”
“Wasn’t a big deal. Do you want me to carry the box?”
She shook her head and lifted it herself, staring up at me once she’d gotten a good grip. Damn, her eyes. They were a soft gray with a warm undertone, set beneath dark lashes. I needed to stop staring, but that was easier said than done.
Her cheekbones were high, nose small like her chin and slightly upturned. She looked as fragile as a doll, but I was beginning to think that was far from the case.
I cleared my throat and rubbed the back of my neck. “Uh, you can go and get cleaned up.”
“You’re not coming?”
Fifty different responses came to mind for that. I stepped around her and scooped the cuffs off the floor. She hadn’t presented the question in a sexual manner. That would have drastically changed my answer.
“I’m going to wait out here. Just leave the door open.”
“Okay…” she trailed off.
As I watched her disappear into the next room, a million questions and theories began rising to the forefront of my mind.
CHAPTER NINE
I fought to keep my breathing even, struggling to keep my shit together. Being asked about Marcy so directly was like a punch to the stomach. Losing her and Dasia cut me deeply.
They’d done nothing to deserve what happened to them. They were kind, obedient, and followed all the rules. Look what that had gotten them. Look where each of us ended up.
We’d always been
the core four.
In a matter of days, two of us were dead and another was missing.
Claire’s fate was up in the air. I still had no way of knowing where she’d wound up. I was essentially on my own.
The last time losing someone hurt this much, it’d been the day I was separated from my older brother. I had no real recollection of our mother, and my father had been absent from my life since I was eleven years old.
That hadn’t been either of our decisions. I missed him dearly, but that ache had become dull as time went on.
Feeling the wetness of tears on my cheeks, I used the heels of my hands to scrub them hastily away. Keeping grief at bay was a battle I needed to win.
If I allowed it to consume me, I wasn’t sure what kind of mental state I’d wind up in.
I had to be strong for my father and the girls, and more importantly for myself. It’s what they would have wanted and expected.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I took a deep breath then let it out slowly. Needing to focus on what was before me, I looked around the bathroom, belatedly realizing Cam was letting me shower alone.
I hadn’t been able to do that, well, ever. The girls of A.R.C always washed beneath a guarded eye. Our restroom wasn’t this nice either. The asylum was so old and run down that the showers were all in need of a major upgrade. Some didn’t have hot water.
I knew everyone was fortunate to have access to running water, so I’d never complained. It was a luxury.
I sat down the box Cam had given me and went to inspect the unit.
He had one massive square shower head attached to the ceiling, and a single knob instead of two.
It was a matter of common sense to operate. Red was clearly for hot while blue was cold. I turned the water on and stepped back to let it warm, removing my ruined gown. I didn’t see anywhere I could throw it away, so I chucked it onto the floor.
My reflection watched my every move, the dirty girl in the glass as unsure about this situation as I was. This environment was nothing like what I had been forced to become accustomed to. I wasn’t free, yet I had never been freer.
I traced over the barcode that was tattooed on my hip, the ink a permanent reminder that someone I didn’t know owned me. Or they thought they did.
Digging through the box, I found most of the things I would need. It was an even bigger eye opener. It’d been drilled into my head that the people outside of A.R.C were merciless and uncivilized.
Had I encountered a group like the woman from the old farmhouse, I would have agreed.
Whoever this faction was, they were accommodating for the most part. I could’ve done without being put in a cage, but they hadn’t harmed me, and I wasn’t afraid of them. I didn’t want to push my luck, though, so I gathered up what I would need for my shower and carried it all to the open cubicle.
By the time I’d fought with my hair to remove all the tangles and figured out how to use the powder in a tin can, at least an hour had gone by.
Cam never came in or called out to me.
The dress fit me better than I was expecting it to and lacked the smell the blanket carried. The top and middle were tight while the skirt flared slightly. It wasn’t something I would ever pick for myself, but it was better than nothing.
The moment my hair moved, my scars would be visible, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.
I ran my hands over the skirt, then returned to the other room.
He was still there, lying back on his bed and staring up at the ceiling. Without having to announce myself, he sensed my presence and slowly sat up, staring without immediate comment.
I took this time to study him. He didn’t look anything like Lucifuge. His hair was a cool shade of red and his eyes were silver. The tattoo beneath the right one was the same as Luce’s, but the number of tattoos he had in general wasn’t nearly as vast.
“You look good,” he finally said, rising from the bed.
“Thanks. I didn’t know what to do with the box.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
I clasped my hands in front of me, discreetly attempting to eye his body.
He was muscular yet lean. In this lighting I was able to see what I’d felt the previous night when my fingers had grasped his shirt.
His smooth skin was broken into sections of scars. I didn’t know then that they were spread out like this—one of his elbows, the back of his right forearm. From what I’d felt last night, I knew the worst of it was on his back.
The scarring on his face was harder to see, it was nearly the same complexion as him. I wondered what happened to cause this. He hadn’t reacted in pain when I touched him, but I knew however this occurred had been an extremely painful experience.
That realization had a burst of anger flaring within me. I was disgusted that someone could do this to another human being.
It didn’t take away from his attractiveness in the slightest. Like Luce, he had a unique beauty that was all his own.
I knew my attempt to be discreet had failed, but he didn’t point out my ogling. He gave me a friendly smile that was hard not to return.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes,” I replied before he could finish asking. I was beyond the point of hunger by this point.
The ache in my stomach had ceased and left behind a steady pang.
“Follow me.” He walked away without checking to see if I did as he asked. I was near desperate to have something of substance—he didn’t need to worry.
Whatever he had on kept trickling to my nose, the smell reminding me of honey.
I took in my surroundings as we returned to the lower level. I wouldn’t go as far as calling the place a house. The shape was all wrong, and I remembered what the exterior looked like from the night before.
It could’ve been a factory, but it wasn’t quite that industrialized. Wherever I’d been brought, the building was well maintained and full of nice furnishings. The air was cool as well, another exuberant and rare luxury for most. This coupled with the room containing various goods had my desire to know who these people were magnifying.
As we bypassed a black circular couch, there was a painting on the floor in front of it impossible not to notice. A bold red Baphomet was encased in the same type of pentagram that was hanging on one of the walls.
The symbol painted on the front door of the farm came back to me.
“This was at that house.”
“Yeah. My dad tagged it years ago. We’ve freshened it up a few times since.”
“What does it stand for?”
“It’s a key part of our faction,” Cam explained.
“Demons?”
“I guess we’re something like demons. We do follow a devil.”
A devil. Not the devil.
So they weren’t Lazarus. I should’ve known that by now. That group was extremely secretive with their whereabouts. I doubt they brought in many random outsiders. Besides, Samael had his own revered nickname.
What confused me was the tattoo beneath their eyes being nearly the same.
No wonder his had looked so familiar. Most factions wanted to be unique and stand out amongst the others. The Lazarus now had double insignias similar to two other factions. I was tempted to ask him about it but then thought it better to keep my mouth shut.
Who knew what asking questions would get me or potentially disclose? Cam seemed much friendlier than Luce, but that didn’t mean anything. A friendly face didn’t make the person wearing it harmless or innocent.
“Have a seat.” Cam gestured to a long table, continuing to the kitchen. “Is there anything you don’t like? Allergies?” he asked, pulling open the fridge.
“Whatever you have is fine.” I appreciated the question, but I wasn’t about to get choosey.
He leaned back so he could see me.
“I asked you if there was something you didn’t like.”
“Ghee,” I replied, pulling out one of the high-backed chairs.
“D
on’t blame you for that. I have to say, that is some nasty ass shit.” He made a face and then started pulling things out of the fridge. I watched him pour something into a dish and then place it in a microwave above his stove. When he glanced over and caught me staring, I quickly looked away.
After a few minutes he sat a bowl in front of me along with a glass of water.
I stared down, trying to decipher what is was. A delicious aroma emanated from the steam and made my mouth water. A portion of white rice was piled neatly on cubed meat sitting in brown broth.
Chunks of what I dared say were cooked apples were evident too.
“Taste it,” Cam implored.
Never one to turn down food, I lifted my spoon and scooped up a sample portion, blowing on it before putting it in my mouth. Flavor exploded on my taste buds. The meat itself was spiced, tender and juicy. I knew right away this was lamb. A gamey texture became distinguishable as I chewed.
“You like?”
I nodded around my bite, ready to pitch the spoon and chug down the contents of my bowl.
“It’s sweet lamb curry,” Cam said, pulling out the chair two seats down from mine. “My mom makes a fresh batch every two weeks.”
“How?” I questioned once I’d swallowed another bite.
Lambs weren’t just walking around to be poached and eaten. “Where is the meat coming from?”
“A few places, but the largest set-up is in Centriole,” he replied proudly.
I combed through my mind, trying to remember what that was. I’d heard of this place in my lessons. When the answer popped into my head, I instantly sat my spoon down.
“The fallen kingdom?”
He leaned back in his chair and gnawed his lower lip. “I forgot people called it that.”
“Are you a—”
The sound of a door slamming shut cut me off. I glanced over my shoulder to see Luce coming in from outside. He headed straight for us. If swaggering was a person, it would look like him. Effortless and natural. His confidence was unmistakable.
When he reached us, he whispered something in Cam’s ear before rounding to the other side of the table. Whatever he’d said had Cam looking between the two of us with furrowed brows.
Renegades: Badlands Next Generation Page 7