Page 3 of Pretty Monsters

He nods. "Yep, so you and I are going to ghost in as the maid sets out in the morning to go get the pastries the fat fuck likes every day. We'll only have about thirty minutes before we need to be ready to slip back out though."

"Is there a preference?" I ask, but I don't really care.

"I'll let you come up with that after you look inside the envelope," Lucien says.

I'm guessing whatever it contains is what has him out drinking by the fire. I sit down and take a peek inside. A normal person would probably vomit, or at the very minimum utter a curse word or two.

Pictures of grown men and children burn my retinas. My hand clenches around nothing, and I can't wait to feel the hilt of my knife filling the void. There's a special place in hell for people who hurt children. I like to think it's my job to send them there.

"Knives it is then," Lucien says, reading my expression.

I nod, and throw him back the envelope. I get up and start to head back to the mansion, sure that his sister is safely locked away for the night.

"Oh, Sinclair," he calls out.

I stop and turn around to face him.

"Stay away from my sister. I don't know what her story is, but my dad seems hell bent on keeping her separated from everyone."

She's beautiful and innocent. The urge to break her calls to me. I'm not sure what it is about her that makes me want to see some cracks in the perfect façade she presents to the world. She would be even more beautiful with an imperfection.

Maybe because she seems so fragile as she is, and imperfect things always seem to endure more than the perfect. Ever see a snowflake withstand even a single day? Flowers bloom and wither away. Yet, here in this wood, I'm surrounded by craggily, old trees that will surely outlast me.

Either way, it's better for Damian to keep her locked in a tower, especially when there's more than one monster living under the same roof.

I Am Justice Incarnate

Sin

Lucien takesthe long way to Lakeshore, the ritzy town the soon-to-be dead fucker lives in. Predictably the enormous house is at the end of a street filled with other enormous houses. All of them set apart from each other, which aids my cause greatly. The further away the neighbors are the less likely anyone will hear him scream and end the fun early.

He's going to scream. That's certain. How long he screams just depends on how much time Lucien can give me.

Unfortunately, since this is rich asshole country, there are cameras everywhere. If we even drive down the street we risk getting picked up on security footage. Instead Lucien drives down a forest road a mile away from the kiddie-lover's compound.

While he sleeps soundly, dreaming his sick fucker dreams, Lucien and I move through the forest like fog rolling across the ground. We're barely seen, not heard, and vanish without a trace. Despite the undergrowth and fallen leaves, we don't make a sound as we move quickly through the trees.

The animals know we're here though. Birds stop their morning song the closer we get, and the scurry of tiny rodents can be heard as we move along. Unlike humans, animals always know when a predator is nearby.

I'm not sure why Damien is sending us after this particular sicko, but I don't ask those reasons. The only concession I've ever gotten was that I'm only sent to take care of the truly evil.

Perhaps it's hypocritical of me to judge. There's not a shred of doubt in my mind that I'm a monster, but I don't kill for money, and I don't sell or use children for money either. I'd like to think it sets me apart from the human stain I plan to gut and throw away as the garbage he is.

When we finally get to the wall surrounding his property, Lucien takes out an electronic device from the bag he carries with him. After he pushes a few buttons he puts it back in the bag.

"The cameras are set to a loop. We won't be picked up on any recordings, but we still have to be in and out before the maid returns."

I have another demand he always made for me. I would not kill an innocent person. No employees, witnesses, no one. There is only one person who deserves the end of my knife or a bullet, and that is the person who hurts innocent people, especially if they do it for profit.

Someday Damien would be introduced to the end of my knife, but not yet. Not until I could do it without turning my only friend against me.

With the cameras offline, Lucien and I move to the service entrance, where apparently the maid always enters and exits the property. At this time, about an hour before dawn, the shadows on this side of the house hang like curtains blocking out everything.

The whir of the gate's gears kicks on, and we wait until she's pulled out before we slip inside. The back door is locked, but not unexpected. I pull a small tool kit from my pocket and extract my tools. Within seconds I have the door opened, and we let ourselves in.

At the base of the stairs Lucien stops. "Go have your fun, but remember not to leave any evidence. I've got to go take care of some evidence myself."

He notices the look on my face, and the way I've already pulled a knife from a sheath strapped to my thigh.

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