Page 24 of Sinful

“No,” I choked out. “I don’t. I’m just here until I’m released.”

“You will never be released,” he murmured. “None of us will until death finds the monster holding the keys.”

I exhaled shakily.

“Now, if you’re a good cupcake, I’ll reward you with those keys. Do you want your freedom, Vanilla?”

“Yes,” I rasped.

“Then do what you’re told. Go to Cady. Distract her however you can. Tell her you’ve seen Sirena and she’s fine. That the watchers are just protective assholes. That she has the goddamn flu. Whatever your pretty, little, extraordinary mind comes up with.”

“And then?”

“And then, maybe if you do a good enough job, I’ll be closer to handing you the fucking keys. Trust me when I say God has nothing on my kingdom of paradise.” His breath feathered along my lips. “My keys open all doors. Even the doors where cupcakes wear masks and want pretty mute girls beneath a full moon. Think about it.”

And just like that, he pulled the fork free from beneath my eyelid and stepped away.

“Sirena?” I whispered.

A crooked smirk cut his lips upward.

“Paradise, Vanilla. Now get to fucking work.”

CHURCH

Istared into the flames dancing in the fireplace in our living room. We didn’t often light this thing up, but Ashes had it roaring when Stitches and I had come back from getting winter supplies. We’d hauled it all into the house, having spent several thousand dollars on it all. Winters here could be brutal. It was probably one of the reasons why Chapel Crest was situated where it was. Students weren’t able to escape more than half the year. Made life easier for the people in charge.

Because of the dancing flames, I knew Ashes was struggling with something. He kept pacing the room, flipping his lighter open and closed. Clearly, he was trying to gather his thoughts. I watched the flames, worry unfurling in my guts. Stitches simply sat on the other end of the leather wrap-around, looking to the ceiling. Ashes said Sirena had been sleeping for hours now.

That was good. She needed the rest.

But seeing Ashes pace the way he was made me think we had a new issue to tackle.

Like we needed any fucking more issues.

“Shit got weird today,” Ashes finally said, stopping and letting out a shaky breath.

“How so?” I looked over at him, taking in the way his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed and the way his blue eyes wavered.

“Sirena.I took her to shower. She didn’t want me to look at her. I get it. I do. That wasn’t the problem. I turned my back on her and let her get inside the shower. Everything was going fine. Then she got out and walked past me completely naked and soaking wet. She didn’t respond to me calling for her. I didn’t know what the fuck was happening.” He breathed out.

“She doesn’t talk or respond much anyway, if at all,” Stitches said, frowning. “So what was weird about any of it?”

“She walked out like she was in a trance. She went straight to the front door and pulled it open. I managed to get to her the moment she made to step outside.” His blue eyes widened. “Her eyes.She wasn’t there. It wasn’t until I got her back to the couch that she started to come out of it.”

I rubbed my eyes, my frustration coming through. “I’ll call Doc. See what he says. She was sleeping peacefully when I was up there.”

“Maybe it’s her meds,” Stitches added, a note of hope in his voice. I knew what he was thinking, though. He was praying she wasn’t losing her damn mind.

“Trauma does fucked-up shit to people,” I continued. “Maybe that’s all this is. We’ll watch her. If it happens again, we’ll figure it out. We always figure it out.”

Ashes let out a sigh. “It was just weird, man. She was fine afterward. Pretty much just went to sleep.”

“We’ll watch her,” I repeated.

We fell silent for a long time. The knock at the front door had us on our feet. It was rare that anyone came to our house without an invitation, and I knew damn well I hadn’t invited anyone.

“Maybe it’s Cady?” Stitches wrinkled his nose and awkwardly adjusted his dick in his pants. He’d mentioned she threatened to feed him his own cock if she didn’t get to see Sirena. Obviously, the threat meant something to him as he made a move to protect himself.

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