Page 227 of Like Grim Death: Part One
“But I know it’s not easy for you, either. I know it’s bizarre and fucked up and I’m sorry. I should’ve never dragged you into it and some days…”
She takes a deep breath, like steeling herself against what I’m going to say next.
I let my eyes flutter closed. “Some days I wish I could take it back, because you deserve better.”
“I want to see her.”I hate the way my voice bends and breaks around those words. It only feeds into what my father truly believes, anyway.I’m a coward.
Silence on the other end of the line. Then, “Soon.” The word is cold and clipped and surprises me, because I expected a verbal admonishment, or for him to hang up. But before I can revel in the shock, Dad speaks again. “I assume she’s still alive?”
I lift my gaze from where I’m sitting on the floor. Sevryn is occupying a black, wing-backed chair, his gray eyes on mine. His tattooed hands are clasped in his lap, and he’s got this feverish look in his eyes like he wants to eat me alive. Not out of anger. But some kind of hunger. The top two buttons of his white shirt are undone, and I see the tattoos on one side of his chest. One side only.
Absentmindedly, I reach for the edge of my hat.
The hunger grows in Sevryn’s young face. His lips part and I see the muscles beneath his shirt rise. Fall. He doesn’t want to eatme.It’s the answers on the other end of the line he’s starving for.
I can relate. Now we both have a chokehold on girls inside of a haunted city. At least mine is. I don’t know who Sevryn is waiting for, or where she is.
Sevryn doesn’t know though, what I’m supposed to do with Ella. What I have to finish for us to get what we want. He understands my job is related to her, but he thinks I’m only supposed to test her loyalty.Scelusis just that. A test to find out if those from the outside are worthy.
But my dad has already decided Ella isn’t.
Even so, Sevryn thinks she’s only going to get left by Maverick if she fails. He has no idea I’m the one manipulating her into disloyalty in the first place, to try and make it easier for me to kill her.
“It would be too obvious,” I growl the words to my dad. “I can’t here.” Which is exactly what he told me to do at The Madilyn. He said it was urgent, for reasons he didn’t decide to give me. And I know the “she” he’s referring to.
It isn’t my girl, or Sevryn’s fantasy.
And when I knock my head back against the wall and feel the clock ticking down, it isn’t Natalie’s deep brown eyes I find inside my mind.
It’s Ella’s green ones. Pale skin. Dark red hair. Submissive, obedient, she could take it all. Then I see Maverick, demanding I finish inside of her. He was fucked up. Red eyes, nervous energy. Fucked up, but despite what we did,in that moment, he was testing me. He knows something is up, but he doesn’t know what, and he wanted to see if I’d truly hurt her and him by risking getting her knocked up. No matter what happened, heneededher. And he needed me to refuse.
I did, but he still walked away.
Cain helped me after that, just like he helped her when he snuck inside their house to grab his shirt back before we left for Liber, so Ella wouldn’t suffer Maverick’s wrath for something beyond her control. Then he helped me carry her to the only room in Liber hidden from the rest of my brothers.
Is that brotherhood, or something else?
Are we playing this game correctly? Are we passing the tests? I yank my hat off, letting my scalp breathe as I toss the hat to the floor and massage my temple with two fingers, all under Sevryn’s gaze.
He has to go back to his room before five in the morning. We’ve got about ten minutes. Rain gets up early, and Lucifer will check in on him. They’re on the same floor now, and I’m sure Luce will bring Rain down to let Sid sleep.
Now Sid might trust Sevryn a little though, the way I overheard her and Ella’s conversation in the hallway.
Sevryn detests lying. He wants to help. After he found out Sid shot someone for Lucifer, for Rain, he admires her a little.
I should hate him for exposing more to the girls, but I can’t find it in me to do it.
“You’re going to wait, aren’t you?” I croak out the words to my dad. I think of Natalie. Opening my eyes to meet Sevryn’s, I think of his ghost girl. Who knows if she’s still alive? If he saw her breathing before he came to Sanctum for his initiation, she was probably kept unharmed only as an incentive for him. The 6 see a bond and they exploit it, before they fucking rip it to shreds. When I look at Sevryn, I know that so well now.
Images flash behind my eyes. Lucifer. A red rope. A circle. Dirt in his nails. An inhuman scream. The kind a person makes when they’re on the brink of death.
What will happen to us this year?
“You had the opportunity, and you didn’t take it.” My dad’s voice is brittle, like ice. “I came to The Madilyn to tell you I needed this sped the fuck up, or did you miss all of that? Did you know Lucifer was speaking to Elijah late last night, begging him to protect you all from RC?”
I clench my teeth and think of seeing Lucifer in the darkened hallway after I manipulated Ella into coming with me upstairs. Luce had his phone in hand. But what he asked me…How does he know what I did with Samson? Has Elijah found out Edith’s part in it all?
“Which means I’ve paid very close attention toeverythingthat’s gone on inside thatsecuremansion of yours and your friends.”
