Page 49 of Deviant Illusions

The fucked up moment doesn’t stop when she moves to the side without a smudge of her lipstick. Instead, Harkin takes her place and I nearly audibly gag. It’s fucking nasty and no one reacts to it. The fuckers all act like this is normal.

Harkin steps back and the old woman lifts her aged hand to his cheek. Her palm ghosts over his skin, the same way someone would a child despite the fact they’ve just swapped saliva, and she whispers something too low for me to hear. She traces the same shape Lizbeth did. Starting under his left eye, she strokes down his cheek to his jaw then across his chin to go back up and stopping beneath his right eye.

Lennox doesn’t look at me as I gently nudge him with my elbow. All these weird cunts are setting off a million alarm bells and he’s the person who’s supposed to be on my side. But his focus is on the old woman as she swipes her stick in the gap between Delilah’s parents. They part, standing like soldiers at her side until she passes them. Lennox takes two steps forward in the same dutiful manner then lowers his head as he extends his hand to help her up the small steps to the altar.

Rowan forgets anyone else exists, his elbow slamming into mine in his haste to get to her. There are only three steps between him and the woman, but he’s nearly running as Lennox calmly walks closer to her. She looks at them, her eyes hardening, and Rowan freezes in his place. Oh fuck, he better not tongue her.

She doesn’t acknowledge Lennox as she makes the same motion with her stick as she did between Delilah’s parents. Lennox takes hold of her hand and Rowan takes her other side. This close with the three of them standing together, I can see a resemblance. They have the same light, near white eyes. But where my uncles have darker hair, hers is free from any color.It’s pure white and the contrast of the deep panther head makes it appear even starker.

The freak of a woman slowly makes her way to me. Her eyes assess every inch of my body and I fight the urge to cover myself with my hands. Despite being clothed, she’s able to strip me bare with her creepy fucking eyes.

She stops in front of me, and her features are perfectly symmetrical. Rowan and Lennox bracketing her adds to the symmetry and she presses the serpent end of her stick directly between my feet. I look down my nose at it, then flick back up to her eyes that haven’t left my face.

“You,” she croons, “are the first.”

Every pair of eyes is enraptured with whatever bullshit is going to come out of her mouth. Probably because their tongues have been inside it.

She lifts her chin, pressing her stick harder to the ground. Her finger is curled, and her nails are painted to match her skin tone. It’s the same thing my mom would do, and she would never have them another color as though she needed them to blend in. I’d always think it made it look like she was wearing gloves, but now I realize it was a habit. Something of her mother, the weird fuck who tongues everyone, that she kept.

“Helene,” I deduce, and she smirks.

She nods once, slow and disconcerting. “Yes, sweet boy.” Rowan tenses, and hate emanates from him, solely directed at me. If he’s jealous of his mother speaking to me, he can fuck off and keep the weird cunt. It’s immature when he’s in his forties and I’ve never cared about grandparents. His hate intensifies as she strokes my cheek and whispers, “You’ll pay for destroying what I created.”

I pull my head out of her path and give her the polite smile the old Kane had perfected. Only, I’m not that boy who wantedapproval anymore and I couldn’t give a fuck about having any family who don’t offer me the same.

“Sit down,” I say while smiling. “You don’t want to miss youronlygrandson’s wedding.”

Her eyes darken and the serpent loudly scrapes against the stone floor as she drags it back, leaving behind a small groove. And I must be fucking seeing shit because Rowan’s fingers curl around her hip, pulling her into his side. The fur of the hide is flattened, and he possessively holds his mother the way a lover would. Filthy fucking cunt.

He walks her to the empty pew like they’re a couple without anyone showing an iota of disgust at a son clearly lusting after his old mother. What in the fuck have I got myself into? Better yet, what the fuck has Delilah forced me to be surrounded by?

Lennox turns his back to them as he steps into my line of sight. He lowers his voice and I have to strain my ears as he says, “No questions, little shadow.” His lips don’t move as he takes his place at my side. “Not here, not now.”

I have a million questions, all of them are about Rowan. Mainly if him wanting to fuck his mom is normal or if he’s lost his mind recently. But I stand, silently waiting for a woman who is already mine to come to me.

Low murmurs come from the pew as I turn, focusing on a spot on the stone rather than whether Rowan is begging to be breastfed as a grown man. Fucking freaks. All of them are fucked up and need putting down.

The murmuring turns to shuffling and, like a car accident, I can’t stop the intrigue making me turn. Thankfully, Rowan isn’t stroking one out as he stretches his hand to touch his mother’s thigh with the tip of his little finger. It’s Harkin who exits the pew as Ruby enters the large hall. She stands at the back, looking at her father with the same neutral expression she had when we were children. Her partner turns his head slightly,acknowledging that she’s there without looking directly at her as Harkin follows her out through a small, wooden, arched door.

They’re not in the other room for long when Ruby walks out alone. She takes a deep breath and her steps echo around the space until she sits beside Daigon, leaving an inch of space between them. He doesn’t touch her or soften. He simply widens his thighs until the edge of his knee nearly touches hers. Her head snaps down at the contact but she quickly looks up and everything else in the world is forgotten at the sound of a heavy clanging.

The arched door slams open and the clanging gets louder. A heavy chain is wrapped around Harkin’s fist, and it drags along the floor as he walks through. The three feet of the entwined metal trailing behind him roughly jerks from whatever he’s attempting to pull.

My brows slowly come together, and I tilt my head as though that will allow me to see around the stone wall. I can’t see anything inside of the room, so I take half a step forward when delicate fingers curl around the stone trim.

Delilah’s fingers.

She tries to fight something, her nails scratching the old stone, but she’s pulled forward. Her neck is the first thing to come into view. Specifically, the fucking chain around it.

Harkin drags her out of the room as he wraps the chain tighter around his fist. There’s a handprint blooming across her cheek. Lennox steps in front of me, pushing me back with his shoulder firmly pressed to my chest as he speaks without moving his fucking lips again, repeating, “Not now, not here.”

Looking at me over his shoulder, he narrows his eyes and shakes his head. The expression is wiped off his face when Rowan takes his place at my other side and a scream builds in my chest.

Delilah stares at me with angry tears in her eyes. If it wasn’t for the chain around her fucking neck, she’d be an ethereal vision. Her hair is in loose waves and the lace dress wouldn’t look out of place in a castle. But she’s barefoot and bites back her wince as the motherfucker tugs on the chain to keep pulling her forward.

Glee shines on everyone’s face. Other than Ruby, who doesn’t look at her baby sister. She looks at me, imploring me to do something without telling me what. I’m the ignorant party, the only person who doesn’t know what the fuck is happening. But that’s not true either, because I know more than Delilah does.

In some twisted fucking fate, she’s my sanity again. The secret place where everything makes sense.

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