Renegades: Badlands Next Generation

by Natalie Bennett

  After a solid two minutes or so rolled by, I swore I felt him physically withdraw from me, but he hadn’t moved his body an inch.

  “You know, you’ve got a lot of people wanting you back. Something tells me you’re not too excited about that.”

  “Your something would be right.”

  A faint smirk lingered at the corner of his mouth. “Then you’ll like the proposition I have for you.”

  “I think that would largely depend on what it is.”

  “Fair enough,” he retorted. “You can walk through my front gates and see how long you last out there on your own. Or…”

  As I waited for him to continue, the pad of his thumb began tracing the outline of my lips.

  “You stay here and become one of us.”

  Us.

  As in, a Savage.

  Was he serious? I waited for a punchline, but one never came. “Why would you offer that?”

  “I have a few reasons.”

  “I don’t understand. What would you expect in return?”

  His thumb stopped tracing.

  “You.”

  That one word was spoken with such clarity there was no way I could have misheard him or missed its deeper meaning. I didn’t know what to say. Words failed me.

  “I want you to think long and hard about it, because once you make a deal with me, there’s no going back.”

  “And if I agree?” I queried, finding my voice.

  “Simple. You’ll be mine.”

  There wasn’t anything simple about that.

  He was asking me to choose the Savages—him. Or my imminent capture and eventual death.

  “You wouldn’t let them take me?”

  “I’ve already fucking dared them to try.”

  He didn’t waver in his replies. Worse, I believed him. If something were his, he wasn’t going to easily give it up.

  “Before, when you said you liked your girls to let their guard down…”

  “You don’t need to worry about that.”

  “Isn’t that exactly what someone trying to get me to lower my guard would say?”

  That earned me a devious grin. “I don’t want you broken. I just want everything else.”

  What did that mean? I shifted and took a small breath.

  He wasn’t telling me everything, and I was certain he wasn’t going to.

  His hand was still on my face. Acutely aware that we still had an audience, including all the acolytes still going about their day, I acted before I could lose my nerve.

  I gathered my courage and boldly reached up to do the same. I expected him to pull away or look surprised, but he did neither. His skin was smooth and warm, the outline of his jaw fitting perfectly against my palm.

  “Tell me, what should I be worried about, Luce?”

  “There’s only one thing I can tell you, dove.”

  He leaned in and brushed his lips over mine with the lightness of a feather. “The Devil comes in many forms. I’m one of them.”

  With that, he stepped back and began to walk away, adding over his shoulder, “You have until tonight to give me an answer.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  All I could do was stare as Bella rambled about what Luce wanted me to do. I was still in the process of sorting through everything that had happened up until this point. Losing the girls. Being taken—by Savages.

  Cameron. Luce.

  Luce and me.

  His parting words and ultimatum especially.

  We were standing in the kitchen, Bella pointing out where everything was.

  Apparently, I was expected to make food. I knew how to cook. I’d learned from my father, and it had been a daily lesson for all the A.R.C girls, a requirement in the doctrine.

  “He’s fully capable of feeding himself, for the record. I was told this would keep you preoccupied.”

  “You’re babysitting,” I clarified for her.

  I wanted to say that showed how little a threat I was considered, but I’d seen the wickedness in this tiny princess’ grin. She could handle herself. More power to her for that.

  “I like to think of it as getting to know you.”

  “There’s nothing that interesting about me.” I meant that sincerely. I was an average young woman doing her best to survive the harshness of our world.

  “I beg to differ.”

  She hopped up on one of the counters and crossed her legs at the ankles. “My brother… he likes you.”

  Why did that sound like she wasn’t sure if she should tell me that or not? I think if I were a different kind of girl, it would have made me laugh, but I didn’t find that revelation or this situation all that funny.

  I began pulling open cabinets, searching for ingredients to work with. “That doesn’t make me interesting,” I mumbled, swiping two cans labeled meat broth.

  “You’re not interesting because anyone likes you. You’re interesting for who you are as a person. I’ve investigated the place you came from. You should be really screwed up.”

  I continued what I was doing and let her keep talking.

  “How’d you come out of this all so… normal? You must think we’re a group of psychos.”

  Both that question and her statement made me unexplainably sad.

  I sat down the bowl I’d just grabbed and turned to face her. “Normal is a word people use in reference to themselves when they want to put someone down for being different.”

  She didn’t say anything, but I think my words got through. I hoped they resonated a little bit if any of what she’d just said was about herself. I didn’t like labels, especially when they came from a place of misjudgment.

  Maybe that was why I didn’t put much stock in the rumors about the Savages. I wanted to make my own analysis, not go off what I had been told.

  I felt I was smart enough to determine the fictional from the factual.

  If I couldn’t with my head, as stupid as it may have sounded, my heart had never let me down, regardless how bruised and battered it was.

  “Thank you for saying that,” she finally replied.

  It was in this moment that I realized she reminded me of Dasia. Young and sweet with a haunted disposition. Thinking of her made me think of Claire and Marcy in turn.

  My throat constricted and I turned back to what I’d been doing. Suddenly, I was glad Luce wanted to keep me busy. It would be nice to have a distraction.

  A barrage of voices pulled my attention away from the window I’d been staring out and cut off what Bella was in the middle of saying.

  I looked over my shoulder and watched a group of people trail in from outside. They didn’t notice me at first, but that anonymity didn’t last long.

  A girl with chocolate brown hair was the first to spot me. She froze in place, causing a guy to slam into her back.

  “Damn, Nyx.” His gravelly voice was full of amusement as he wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her steady.

  Her stare caused everyone else to take notice of me. There were four of them in total, all with their eyes now aimed in my direction. Bella hopped off the counter and came to stand next to me.

  “This is Star.”

  The girl with hair two shades blonder than hers was the first to leave their quad.

  As she got closer, I was able to make out the strange color of her eyes, like a cloud when it rained. The Savage insignia was inked on her skin, as were a few other various tattoos.

  “I heard my brothers had found a girl. I had to see it for myself.” She reached the kitchen, and Bella went straight to her open arms. “I missed you.”

  “It hasn’t been that long, Addy,” Bella laughed.

  Now knowing which faction this was, I could place names and family dynamics without needing to know what they looked like. Addy had to be short for Adelaide, the older sister.

  Looks wise, she was an even mixture of Luce and Bella.

  Nyx skirted around them and the large man who was nearly a shadow at Addy’s back, offering me a smile.r />
  She had even more tattoos than her cousin did and looked somewhat exotic. They were both truly beautiful girls.

  “Where did they find you?” she asked. The way she was staring at me, I felt as if she were trying to figure out a puzzle.

  “They took me from an old farm.”

  My answer caused the man behind Addy to laugh. She rolled her eyes at him and then joined Nyx in assessing me.

  “Did Lucifuge tell you nothing?” Bella asked once she hugged Nyx and the guy who was with her.

  “It’s Luce,” Addy replied, as if his name itself explained everything.

  “What’s your whole name?” Nyx asked.

  “Astraea.”

  She blinked, then shared a look with everyone in the kitchen, leaving me on the outskirts. Again.

  “I’m Maliki, and that’s Zane.” He jerked his chin in the direction of his friend.

  I’d already pieced together who they were in my head, and his introduction confirmed I was right. This meant the Savage and Venom alliance was real. It wasn’t another gossip-spread rumor amongst the guerrillas.

  No wonder tensions were supposedly mounting. Other factions would be scrambling to get on their good side, isolate, or strengthen the numbers within their own groups.

  Luce, Cam, and Ice eventually filtered into the gathering.

  More conversation I couldn’t follow flew around, as well as a couple of jokes. I could see the way they all fit together, effortlessly and without any awkwardness.

  I checked my stew, turning the burner off after double-checking it was done.

  Fading into the background, I returned to my vantage point that allowed me to see out the window. I didn’t mind not being noticed. It was nice to simply exist for a minute. Though, the view would be better if there wasn’t a huge fence imposing on it.

  Call me bitter, but I had a thing against anything that formed an enclosure. A cage, essentially. I understood why it was necessary. If I took Luce up on his offer, I would have to get used to it.

  Cam stepped up beside me, joining in my solitude for a few minutes.

  “Admiring the scenery?”

  I glanced up and gave him a semi-smile. “Something like that.”

  “Aren’t you going to eat?”

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw that’s what everyone else had begun doing. I had been standing here longer than I thought.

  “Would that be strange?”

  “Can I give you a tip?”

  I nodded and he leaned a bit closer to my ear. “If you want to sit at our table, then never be afraid to claim a seat.”

  I knew it was a metaphor, but he made it sound simple. Why were they so willing to accept me? It couldn’t be this easy to join them. Couldn’t.

  Cam subtly nudged me before going to fill his own bowl.

  Not thinking too much into what I was doing, I followed his lead. He wordlessly filled a second bowl and offered it to me. I trailed him over to the table and took a seat between him and Luce, putting me directly across from Zane.

  I didn’t know much about him, other than that he’d came from the slums and risen very quickly to the top. His eyes were on the same color spectrum as Luce’s, lacking the intensity. That could have been because I didn’t have a lure to him whatsoever; he was merely an attractive stranger.

  When I sat, conversation continued to flow as if my presence was entirely ordinary.

  “You made this, right?” Addy asked. “It’s good!”

  “Everything’s good to someone who can’t cook,” Zane joked.

  “She gets that from our mom,” Luce laughed.

  “I’m telling her you said that.”

  “Then I guess I’m telling Dad what you and Z did in—”

  “Ew, please don’t ruin our appetites,” Bella cut in.

  “How do you feel about the Savages?” Zane asked me outright, and the first time that evening, conversation died down.

  “I don’t feel any way about them,” I answered honestly.

  “She didn’t even know who we were right away,” Cam pointed out.

  There was a prolonged silence, the sound of spoons hitting bowls filling the emptiness. Maliki’s eye caught mine and he grinned, which I didn’t think anything of until he started to speak. “Whatever happened to Pepper?”

  Nyx nudged him with her elbow and scowled.

  “What?” he feigned innocently.

  “She’s around,” Luce replied dismissively.

  Addy wiped her mouth and raised her perfectly plucked brows at him. “By around, you mean?”

  “She’s alive and well.”

  “I almost forgot about her,” Cam mused.

  “The two of them were the ‘it’ couple a few months ago,” Maliki continued.

  This was interesting. I didn’t know Luce had been exclusive with anyone. I pictured the way he was with me, putting a faceless girl in my place, then promptly scrubbed that from my brain.

  “We weren’t anything like what you’re doing a shitty job of implying.”

  “Had we been, she would be sitting where my dove is.” His tone was casual, giving nothing away. “Now, if you’re done trying to get a reaction out of her, let’s get started on the reason you stopped by.” He stood from the table and carried his bowl to the sink.

  Maliki and Zane followed his lead. Shortly after, Cam and Nyx vanished to talk privately, leaving me with Addy and Bella.

  “Does he usually just leave you alone like this?” Addy asked.

  “This is my first day not being locked away.” I didn’t realize how true this was until after I said it. In more ways than one.

  “Are you really this sweet?”

  I scoffed, unable to help myself. No one who had been around me long-term would use such an adjective when describing me.

  Sweet was Bella and Dasia. It was poppies thriving in sunshine. I never got the chance to be. I’d been raised to be something else entirely. Without belonging to a faction, there was no other choice. I was a rose plucked free of all its petals, leaving nothing but thorns to grow in their place.

  “Nothing about who I am aligns with that word.”

  “Thank Satanas for that,” she breathed. “Lucifuge would have eaten you alive. Don’t get me wrong, you’re going to have your hands full, but at least you’re not as delicate as you look.”

  I didn’t think I looked delicate at all, but I supposed no one saw themselves as other people did.

  “When do you come back again?” Bella asked her.

  “We have a few more leads to chase, and then we’ll swing through here.”

  “Anything about where she might be?”

  “You know I won’t tell you anything like that unless it’s solid. I see what it does to you when we come up empty-handed.”

  Bella grew quiet and nodded, pushing back her chair. “I’m going to take a shower. I trust you won’t do something crazy like run off.” Without waiting for me to reply, she turned and walked away.

  Addy stared after her with a slight frown on her face. “Do you have any siblings?”

  “I had—have—an older brother.” I corrected the terminology. I wasn’t placing a death certificate on Amo’s head until I had proof he was gone.

  He was even more resilient than me. If I could make it this far, I believed he could do the same.

  “Really?” Addy sat taller in her chair, strumming her fingers on the tabletop. “What’s his name?”

  “Amo.”

  The strumming stopped. “Hm,” she hmphed through folded lips. “Is he still at A.R.C?”

  “Maybe. I haven’t seen him in a long time. The girls are kept away from the boys.”

  She nodded and stood but didn’t go anywhere. Her cloud-colored eyes seemed to soften as she regarded me.

  “Have Cam or Luce mentioned a tape to you?”

  “No…” I schooled my features, knowing precisely what she was talking about.

  “Okay, well, if what I think is happening is really happening, the
n you and I will have plenty of time to talk and get to know each other. Right now, I need to go see what they’re doing.” She smiled and pushed in her chair. “If you’re what he’s been waiting for, he’ll be very good to you. I sincerely hope you do the same.”

  She left then, leaving me to wonder how she could have seen any of those tapes I was on. Who else at this table would have seen them? And why did everyone seem to think Luce and I were going to have some stellar relationship? Was the pull between us that obvious?

  My thoughts whirled at a speed that was hard to keep up with. I wanted to hit pause and just breathe for a minute. Life kept flipping me this way and that.

  I took my bowl to the sink and rinsed it clean, staring out the window when I finished. Nightfall was getting closer, which meant my time to plan was getting shorter.

  When me and the girls first decided to run away, it all seemed so simple, but the world was forever changing. I found it unrealistic to think that things were remotely the same as they had been when I was eleven years old. Being locked away didn’t stop time from moving on.

  My chaos wouldn’t stop it from continuing to do so even now. The A.R.C was out there without the key to sealing their alliance. The Stags were out there, the man meant to marry me amongst them, his bride now holed up with the Savages.

  After the message Luce just sent, I had no idea what was going to happen in response.

  There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that something would.

  But they weren’t the only ones I had to worry about. Various factions and people looking do exactly what I was doing were all out there somewhere, fighting to find their place in the Badlands’ hierarchy.

  The choice I needed to make seemed rather obvious. I was raised to be a survivalist. The only rule in life was: there were no rules. You had to do whatever was necessary to make it.

  Aligning myself with the Savages made logical sense. I wasn’t worried about the initial acceptance; I was bothered by what would come after.

  What did being his mean?

  What would become of me once I made a deal with the devil?