Page 32 of These Monstrous Ties
Taking my own life would have taken bravery that on that Halloween night, I’d had. I’d been confident my life wouldn’t get better, and I felt good about making that choice. About taking my life and death into my own hands. But by the time I’d finally earned Jeremiah’s trust just enough to live alone in the hotel, I hadn’t been brave any longer.
I also couldn’t get Lucifer out of my head. I still can’t. But I never expected to see him again. He had left me in the psych ward, for Jeremiah to find me. And Jeremiah had tried to take me that night himself, before he knew who I was. Lucifer had warned me about him, but turns out, Lucifer was the worst monster.
I’m not just going to kill him for my brother. I’m going to fuck up his life like he’d fucked up mine when he took away my choice. When I’d sworn that oath to him, and he to me. He didn’t keep his end of it.
I’ll take my time enjoying his death, like I hadn’t been able to enjoy mine.
* * *
It’san unlikely source that leads me to Lucifer’s whereabouts.
Around midnight, I’d taken the seven flights of stairs down to one of the kitchens, the industrial one that had been intended for serving meals for the entire hotel. It’s busy, as it usually is in the middle of the night. People who work for the Order of Rain don’t keep normal hours. And the people that aren’t working are getting high, and thus, hungry.
One of my brother’s guards is down here, sitting on top of a mini fridge, ironically used for the kitchen staff. As if the glistening stainless-steel monstrosity isn’t enough. The guard isn’t, thankfully, Kristof, so I let go of the knife strapped against my waist band, tucked beneath my baggy black t-shirt under my hoodie.
Trey reaches his fist out to me and I pound it, nodding toward the string cheese in his hands.
“This place serves gourmet meals and that’s what you’re working with,” I tease him. Trey is young, just a year older than me. He shaves his head, and a black stud glistens from above his eyebrow.
He grins. “Cheese is dank,” he says with a laugh.
“Why’d my brother let you off your leash?” I duck around the head night chef, Chasity, as she makes her way through, reaching for a spice on the stainless-steel counter. I glimpse meat browning in her pan. I sit down beside Trey.
He frowns at me, his bright eyes narrowing. “You’re a bitch, did anyone ever tell you?”
I shrug, slap him on the knee. He has a hole in his too-big jeans. I know he can afford ones that fit, but everything about Trey’s clothes are too big.
“Every day, pal,” I answer him, stuffing my hands back in my pockets.
I see his eyes flick to my throat, and he shakes his head. I thought I’d pulled up my hoodie enough to cover the bruises but apparently not.
“Kristof is a dick bag,” he says, then he chomps off another bite of string cheese.
I frown. “You know, you’re supposed to peel off strings of the cheese, not bite it off like a wild animal.”
He pops the rest of it in his mouth and chews with his mouth open, right in my face. I laugh, jerking back. He crumples up the plastic wrap and tosses it in the trashcan beside him.
“Did you come here to piss me off or to eat?”
I watch a flame shoot up from Chasity’s pan and she whistles. So do most of the staff. I’m not into meat, but it does smell damn good.
My stomach growls, and Trey hears it. His eyes go wide.
“You motherfucker. There’s enough food in this place to feed Alexandria and you’re starving yourself?” He pinches my thigh, coming up nearly empty-handed. “Besides that, I could break you in half. What’s going to happen when Kristof comes for you again?”
I laugh at that. “He won’t. Or I’ll kill him.”
Trey winks, rubs his hands over his jeans. “That’s a good girl. But you’re right,” he sighs, “he probably won’t. Because if he does, youandJeremiah will kill him. No one wants to die from both Rains.”
I roll my eyes.
“Seriously,” he says, punching me lightly on the arm. “What Kristof did was fucked up.”
“You mean what my brother ordered him to do?” I counter, brow arched. I cross my ankles, flex my feet in my white sneakers.
Trey suddenly looks uncomfortable. He clears his throat. I’ve never heard him say anything less than positive about my brother, even though I know he’s a monster. We all know. Trey looks down at his own shoes, slip-on Vans with holes in them. He really doesn’t give a shit about his appearance.
I can relate.
