Page 83 of These Monstrous Ties
“Lucifer?” she whispers, covering her lipsticked mouth with her hand.
At first, I think she thinks I mean Satan. I start to explain, and she cuts me off, shaking her head.
“Girl, I know what you mean.” She laughs. “You didn’t go to AU?”
“No.” The answer is curt. It reminds me of Ria’s question from the year before. It reminds me of how much I don’t know.
Natalie sighs, puts a hand on my arm. I let her, even though I kind of want to fling it off.
“Lucifer leads the Unsaints,” she whispers to me, in my ear. As if I don’t fucking know. “Do you know what that is?”
But what the hell? I know what it is. It’s a group of rich ass prick boys that are too brooding for their own good.
“Nope,” I lie, ready to hear her version of these kids. Although, as I glance at Mayhem watching us from a small group of people, a drink in his hand and his eyes definitely on me, I have to remind myself they aren’t kids. As far as I know, they all graduated university already. They should be doing something with their lives. Leading their daddy’s companies or going off to law school. But they’re here.
Natalie practically squeals in my ear with the excitement of breaking down to me just what the Unsaints are. She leans in toward me, which means there’s exactly zero space between us and I start to feel uncomfortable. I tense, but she doesn’t notice.
“They’re like Masons, but like, the Masons’ kids.”
Second time someone compared them to that. I nod, encouraging her to go on, although I don’t think she needs encouraging. In my mind, they’re like the Order of Rain. But my brother just made that shit up. There’s no elaborate rituals, no Unsaints’ Night. No bloodletting except from the people he murders for his “business”.
“Kids of the Society of 6.”
I breathe a laugh. “And what’s that?”
She leans back, but her hand is still on my arm. “They really are Masons. But richer.”
“Got it,” I say, pulling my arm from her hand. I learned a fuck load of nothing. No surprise.
She stares at me a minute with wide brown eyes, and then she dips her hand into her dress and for a second I think she’s going to flash me. Instead, she pulls out two white, oblong pills.
She thrusts them toward me. “Best if you snort ‘em,” she whispers, winking.
I shake my head, holding my hand up to refuse. But then I hear someone sprinting through the door at our back and she narrows her eyes.
“Take them!” she hisses, and I glance over my shoulder and see Atlas nodding a greeting to a guy who just called his name by the fire. I take the pills and clutch them in my hand. Clearly, Atlas isn’t supposed to know she does them. As if these boys are saints or something.
Atlas leans across her and hands me my drink. I take it awkwardly with my left hand, since the pills are in my right and Natalie winks again.
Atlas takes a seat beside her, taking a sip from his own drink.
“You two making fast friends?” Atlas drawls, dark eyes flitting between us.
Natalie laughs and leans into him, taking his cap from his head and putting it on hers. Underneath, his blonde hair is a mess and he scowls for a second but then shrugs and rolls his eyes.
“You didn’t tell me this is Lucifer’s girl,” she mock-whispers, clutching his arm.
He throws his head back and laughs, but before he can say anything, Mayhem interrupts us.
“She isn’t.” He’s walks over from the fire and he has his arms crossed over his chest. He’s wearing a black tank, and his baby blue eyes are narrowed on me. I make out script on his triceps, and a skeleton with an open mouth, a butterfly in one eye socket. That means his arm isnotwhere his Unsaint tattoo is.
I finish half my drink, and I’m very aware the pills in my sweaty hand are going to dissolve if I don’t fucking move.
“But you said you were here because of—” Natalie starts to protest. But out of the corner of my eye, I see Atlas capture her mouth with his and she’s pulled into a noisy kiss.
My cue to stand to my feet. I do. Mayhem is still staring at me.Glaringat me is more like it.
“Gotta pee,” I announce, and he scowls. I spin around and go inside, leaving my drink on the porch. I can feel Mayhem’s eyes on me as I walk in.
