Page 40 of Fatal Vengeance

If everything ends in a bloody battle, then so be it.

“If we’re gonna do this right, we need weapons. Knives, guns, an endless supply of bullets. Maybe some grenades,” Creed muses casually.

I raise my brows at him. “Do you happen to know where we’d find such things? Because my usual weapons guy is out of the country at the moment.”

Creed frowns at me. “You have a weapons guy? Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?” He shifts in his spot, adjusting his dick while adding, “Fuck me, that’s kind of hot, Ember.”

I roll my eyes, though I can’t stop the smile that blooms on my face. “No, Creed, that was sarcasm. But please, do keep telling me how hot I am. I might reward you for your flattery,” I retort.

Griffin rumbles out a deep laugh and Asher pinches the bridge of his nose like he’s tired of us, but he snorts in amusement all the same when Creed nearly lunges forward and pounces on me.

Smacking the back of his cousin’s head, Asher says, “Alright, that’s enough. Let’s focus. We can ravage her all we want when we’ve got a solid plan of survival in place.” He arches a brow at Creed until he pouts and leans back again, giving up on getting his hands on me. Once satisfied, Asher rolls his shoulders back and looks around at each of us. “I might know someone who could get us what we need. So consider that checked off our list. But then what? Are we charging back to campus and risking innocent students’ lives in the crosshairs?”

My stomach drops at the thought. “No, absolutely not,” I blurt out, shaking my head. I won’t be responsible for any more lives lost. The only people who need to die are The Celestials, and I won’t feel a single ounce of guilt over it, either.

Griffin takes a deep breath, like he’s preparing himself for what he’s about to say. I watch as he steels his spine, sitting up stiffly and absently rubbing a finger over the scar across his neck. It makes me uneasy, knowing that every time he touches that scar, it’s a reminder of what his father did to him. I wish I could take that memory from Griffin and help him forget all about that betrayal, but I can’t.

We’re all just forced to live with our broken pieces, trying to make sense of the shapes we have left.

I sweep my eyes from Griffin to Creed, trying to read him and see how he’s doing. It hasn’t escaped my mind that Creed, my sweet, terrifying man, is struggling. I’ll need to broach the subject with him soon, but for now, it seems like talk of Celestial death has him focused enough.

“Midnight Mass,” Griffin murmurs, so softly that Asher and I lean in just a bit to hear him. With all eyes on him, Griffin swallows roughly and adds, “That’s when we’ll strike. During a Midnight Mass on the next full moon. All the senior members will be in attendance, and there shouldn’t be any stray college students around during the… the ritual, so… That’s our opening. I know where they're hosted.”

Chills erupt across my skin. Midnight Mass? That sounds creepy as fuck. I hold my questions in for now, because the look in Griffin’s eyes makes me think this isn’t something he wants to go into detail about.

Asher looks at the calendar on the wall to our right, which conveniently has the lunar phases on it. He curses under his breath, swiping a hand through his hair. “The full moon is in eight days,” he tells us, sounding a little defeated.

I wring my hands together in my lap as I ask, “Will we make it in time?”

“We have to. We can't wait another month to do this,” Griffin rasps, and Creed nods eagerly, like he’s just dying to spill some blood already.

I wait for Asher’s confirmation; he’s the one with the weapon connection. Tilting his head to the right, he finally sighs and nods, saying, “Fuck, it’ll be tight, but I think we can make it work. But we’ll have to leave tomorrow. Get on the road early if we want to make it to the guy I have in mind.” He peers at me, adding with a grimace, "I hope your sister doesn't mind us taking her car, but we don't really have the time to sort something else out."

"I'm sure she'll be fine with it," Creed answers before I can, rubbing his palms across his thighs, sweeping his honeyed eyes my way. "She might even want to come with. That asshole fathered both of you, baby. What if Genevieve wants her own pound of flesh from him?"

The way my heart starts pounding at those words is concerning. Like, maybe I’m about to have a damn heart attack at just the thought of coming face to face with my father and the rest of those Celestial cunts again, let alone leading my sister into the fray when she's managed to keep a low profile her whole life.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to go through with this now that we’re really planning it out, but there’s a bigger part that’s ready for justice. Hungry for vengeance. And I will get it, for my mom, for Annie, for myself, and for these guys and all they've suffered. Nothing else matters until we wipe The Celestials from existence. If my sister wants to help, then… I guess I can't stop her.

“Tomorrow, then.” I nod and take a deep, shuddering breath, trying to expel the nerves racing through my veins. I can freak out once we're on the road. But for now, there's nothing to get all worked up about. It'll be totally fine. I'll just keep telling myself that.

Creed claps his hands together, startling the rest of us. “Time to make some fuckers bleed,” he cheers manically before leaning forward and slamming his lips to mine a bruising, but all too quick kiss. Pulling back, he searches my eyes, and then murmurs, “I’ll kill them all for you, Ember. For your mom too. Every last member I see, I’ll slaughter them until I know I’ve made the world safer for you.”

“Damn you, Creed,” I say through a breathy laugh. I cup his face in my hands and drop my forehead to his. “How do you always manage to make the most barbaric things sound so damn sweet?”

He chuckles, followed by deep laughs from Griffin and Asher. With an easy shrug, Creed tells me, “It’s only sweet because you’re a little twisted too, baby.”

And that’s something I can absolutely agree with. Twisted, scarred, and traumatized, but damn if these three guys haven’t slowly started to piece me back together.

“I guess I am,” I whisper to Creed with a smile before pulling back and looking at the other two. “Now, who’s feeding me? I’m starved after all this talk of weapons and slaughter.”

"And dicks?" Creed chimes in, all innocent and serious, though his eyes are alight with mischief.

My cheeks flame as I drop my lips open in mock outrage, ignoring the way Griffin and Asher start talking about how exhausted I must be after the dicking down I got. Assholes. I grab the pillow closest to me, launching it at Creed, and missing entirely when he ducks out of the way.

Creed barks out a cackle, getting out of bed to get me food and starts cussing Griffin out when my big teddy bear begins to leave for the kitchen too. “Goddammit, Griffin, slow your big ass down. I’ll be the one getting her something to eat. Don’t ruin this for me!” he shouts on his way out the door, following right on Griffin’s tail.

I grin like an idiot after the two of them. Fuckers make me happy, even at the darkest hours of my life.

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