Page 93 of Anathema Codex

NINETEEN

Cults for Dummies

LAKYN

I clear my throat and shift on my feet as I stare at the golden spikes rising from her hair like a fucked-up tiara. I don’t get why Trixie is dressed up like some kind of demi-god, or why she looks so fucking happy about it, but she’ll snap out of it as soon as we get to talking. She’ll remember that she’s the miserable bitch that I know and hate, and she’ll hop in the fucking truck to go see Ichabod. Once that’s done and over with, she’ll be out of my fucking hair forever—and his.

“Been a long time, Trixie,” I say to her in an even tone as I cross my arms over my chest and rock back and forth on my feet. But if she hears me, it’s not registering. “Beatrix St. Germain,” I say a little louder, feeling the agitation rising like a fury inside of me. “You there?”

Her eyes finally tear away from the kid long enough to look into mine. Her smile falters slightly as a look of confusion briefly flashes in them, then she turns her attention back tohim. The latest bane of my fucking existence.

“I can’t believe you found me,” she says in her brand-new, warped tone of voice. She holds her hands out toward the kid and when he takes a step forward, I reach for the back of his shirt and yank him back where I want him.

“Stay,” I tell him in a testy tone, a grin starting to slip across my lips.

“Oh, kind sir,” Trixie intercedes with a brief shake of her head. “Here on the Holy Ground of Light, we don’t treat each other with anything other than love.”

I arch an eyebrow at her incredulously, my grin faltering as my mouth opens slightly. Trixie’s never been all there, but I think wherever ‘there’ was may have gotten lost somewhere at the start of the road behind us.

Well, there’s only one way to snap her out of this shit.

“Ichabod misses you,” I continue conversationally. When the kid snickers next to me, I give him such a withering glare that his eyes lower to his feet and he scuffs the dirt with the tip of his sneaker.

“Who? I’m sorry,” Trixie replies with a kind smile. “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

I go rigid.

Anger courses through my veins as I take a step closer to her and peer into her eyes.

“Come again?”

“But you, I’ve missed you greatly, dear friend,” she says reaching over to lay her hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Have you been well?”

What the fuck is happening right now?

He nods with such vigor that it makes me want to smack the back of his head to see if I can get it to bobble even faster. Red shuffles a little closer to me and I control the urge to give her a withering stare. Apparently, that doesn’t work on the holy ground of whatever, and it’s frustrating me as much as it’s pissing me off.

But it also gives me an idea.

“When I tell you to,” I say to her out of the corner of my mouth and she looks over at me in confusion. I lean a little closer and turn on a mega-watt, charming smile. I can see the realization in her eyes of what I want her to do, and while I would love to do it myself, I can’t go back to Ichabod with Trixie’s blood on my hands.

I’d never hear the end of it.

“I’ve been better,” the kid says, rubbing the back of his neck. A sigh escapes from Trixie as she reaches forward and wraps her arms around him. The way her chin rests on his shoulder, eyes closed, almost like she’s trying to give him some kind of touchy pick me up, has me more ready than ever to tell Red to take her fucking head off.

Not yet.

“When you’re done feeling up my kid, let’s chat,” I snap in a loud tone.

“Oh, Lakyn,” she murmurs as she opens her eyes and looks at the kid. “I’m so happy that you brought your father to us. We’ll help him heal any anger he has in his heart as well.”

She thinks…? She can’t possibly…

“Um, Trixie?” I intercede, snapping my fingers at her to get her attention away from the kid. When she looks at me with those hazed over eyes of hers, my heart drops into my fucking stomach. “Are you… high?”

Her having her wires crossed on who’s who right now doesn’t fucking matter, but if she’s smacked up on something, that’s going to bring a shitstorm her way that even her little holy sun fuckers won’t be able to protect her from.

She places a hand to her mouth as she giggles, looping an elbow with the kid’s. The longer he stands next to her, staring at me with that smug look on his face, the more I wonder if I should cut his goddamn head off too.

---