Lust (Saints & Sinners #1)

Chapter 22

22

brAD

T he air’s thick with tension as I strip down.

“This is creepy,” Luke says.

Already nude, he sits on the edge of Cody’s bed.

The day after he experienced the Moment, we arranged a meeting with the Sinners. Unsurprisingly, Seth fought against this as much as he could.

“It’s too soon.”

“We don’t know what will happen.”

“I want you guys to know I’m totally against this.”

Despite his adamant objections, in the end, he was outvoted. We’ve come this far, and if there’s a chance this could work, it’s worth the risk. I only hope I still feel that way once Luke and I finish.

“At least Cody put on fresh sheets,” I say, trying to make light of the situation as I finish removing my pants and briefs.

Do I want to fuck Luke in my friend’s bed? No. But considering why we’re doing this, we can’t afford to be interrupted by Alexei or Matteo, so this is for the best.

I stack my clothes beside Luke’s and grab my phone, checking to see if Seth or Cody have messaged. Once Cody’s prepped at the old church, he’ll give us the go-ahead.

And we’ll begin.

As I sit beside Luke, he has a far-off look in his eyes. I hook my arm around him, resting my head against his shoulder.

Last night with him was perfect.

Heavenly.

Not just how good he fucked me, but as hard as it was to hear what he was going through, I was honored to be the guy there for him when he needed someone. He’ll never understand how much I respect him for what he went through, what he endured to get through that. Just like he can’t understand the feelings I’ve developed for him over this short time we’ve shared.

“I feel like a sacrificial virgin,” Luke says.

“Don’t worry. I worked hard to make sure you’d never feel like a virgin again.”

He chuckles.

To think that, even with everything on his mind, he’s able to laugh, it’s some kind of miracle.

I pull my head away from his shoulder, and he turns to me. “That first vision wasn’t too bad,” he says. “Cody talked me through what to do, so we’ll see if I can get a handle on this enough to figure out something that will help us find this thing and stop it from hurting anyone else.”

As his gaze meets mine, he looks so serious. He shouldn’t have to think about this. His biggest worries should be if he’s gonna get an A on his French test. Deciding whether he’ll go to the next Alpha Alpha Mu party. Maybe thinking about someone he wants to ask out…

Not having Luke in my life like this isn’t something I like to think about, but if there were a way to spare him all this dark shit, even if that meant a lifetime of misery without him, I would choose his happiness over my selfish desire for him to be with me. Guess that’s easy to say when we can’t change the past.

My phone buzzes on Cody’s nightstand.

“That must be them,” Luke says. He crawls back on the bed as I confirm it’s Cody.

All set here. We’ll give you a few minutes to get set up on your end. ;)

I doubt it’ll take us that long, but maybe it’ll give me some time to set Luke at ease.

As he lies back, his head against the pillow, he’s on full display for me, nude, but clearly stressed.

“This isn’t like the other things we’ve done,” he says. “It’s like getting a physical.”

“You know you’re not obligated to do this, right? At any time, you say the word, and I’ll explain it to the guys.”

He turns to the window, his lips twisting into a frown. He takes a moment, and I already know he’s not gonna back down even before he shakes his head.

“I feel guilty enough for that guy I saw before. I’m not gonna let that happen to anyone else.”

“Can’t blame me for trying.” I lie alongside him, and regardless of all that’s on our minds right now, we both perk right up.

I run my thumb across his cheek, stroking gently. His breath hitches, like he’s bracing himself, before he closes his eyes. I give him a kiss, savor his mouth, our tongues working through a familiar dance as I reposition so I’m straddling his leg, our bodies pressed up against each other. Luke’s arms hook around me, drawing me close.

I reach over to the nightstand and grab the lube I placed there earlier so we’d be ready. I pull away from our kiss long enough to ready myself, then rise to my knees, crawling between his legs, which he spreads wide. Once I’m positioned, he raises his legs, gripping the backs of his thighs. Offering himself up to me.

I lube up my fingers and pump plenty for that tight hole before pushing the head of my cock against it. He’s tenser than usual, surely from the stress.

“Sorry,” he whispers, his expression straining, though I’m not applying any pressure.

“Hey, hey. It’s fine. It’s just you and me,” I assure him, massaging his thigh.

He takes a few deep breaths, then nods. “Okay.”

I go slow, and gradually he eases up for me. After some time and effort, I finally get inside him. I lean down and give him a kiss he eagerly accepts.

“Here we go,” he whispers into my mouth.

He closes his eyes, and when he opens them, they’re black, like that day he had the vision and last night.

I still as a wave of sensation moves through me. It’s gentle at first, but then there’s a powerful blow, like a gust of wind slamming into me from the front.

I’m not looking at Luke anymore.

We’re at a party. Kids our age all around with red Solo cups, chatting.

Is this the fairgrounds?

No, I recognize where we’re at: the backyard of Alpha Alpha Mu. They’re dressed in sports gear—a theme night, I’m guessing.

Suddenly, there’s blood splattering across the side of the house before I’m beside a man with a spear through him. The impaled guy from Cody’s vision.

A fireball explodes, fire all around me, and there’s the charred man Cody saw, crawling across the ground.

These flashes are so quick before I find myself back in bed, staring at Luke, whose wide eyes are back to normal, his jaw hanging open as he gasps. He’s pale, trembling beneath me.

“Luke?”

He continues trembling, like he’s having a seizure. Though his eyes are on me, it takes him a minute to recognize me.

“Oh my God,” he mutters as tears well in his eyes. His arms wrap around me, and his shaking intensifies.

“It’s okay, Luke,” I say as I pull out of him. “I’m here. I’m here.”

I hold him close. Cling to him so he knows he’s safe as long as he’s in my arms.

“I saw,” I say. “At least some of it.”

He leans back and looks at me with wide eyes, studying my expression. “What did you see?” He listens as I tell him, then says, “Yeah. It really rattled me seeing those kids screaming and the two bodies again.”

I comfort him some more before texting Cody.

Fortunately, Cody’s fine, and like the first time with Luke, he didn’t share the vision.

We dress and head out to meet the guys at the old church. Even though his shaking has subsided, Luke keeps holding his hands like he’s trying to steady them as he gives Cody and Seth a quick summation of his vision. He glosses over bits, so I fill in gaps and details he may have missed.

“Why is it different from the first vision?” Seth asks.

Cody’s lips twist into a frown. “Something must’ve changed.”

“What if it’s something else Luke did without realizing it?”

“We can’t put this on Luke,” Cody says. “It is interesting there’s no fairgrounds, but then the same two deaths after? Maybe those happen at a different time than we thought?”

“The kids we saw were dressed up,” I say, thinking the detail might help something click into place. “One of the frat’s theme nights. A girl was dressed as a cheerleader, one guy as a football player, and another as a hockey player. We need to talk to someone who lives there and find out when they’re having a sports-themed party.”

Seth closes his eyes. “No need. There’s one this Saturday.”

The blood in my face drains. “What?”

“They sent out reminders about it today.”

“Then we’re just in time,” Luke says, sounding more hopeful than he has since he had the vision.

“ In time? ” Seth asks. “We’re supposed to figure out what to do about this in two fucking days?” He curses. “We don’t even know what we’re dealing with.”

“We do have some information,” Cody says. “It’s a large creature, for one.”

“And now we know when and where,” I add.

“Seth’s not wrong, though,” Luke says, a first from him. “What the hell are we supposed to do about a fucking monster? This thing was like nine feet tall when I saw it torturing that guy. Are we gonna get a gun or something?”

“I’ve already considered all this,” Cody says. “There’s a spell in the Sinners’ bible. We can create a circle that can trap animals or people.”

Luke’s eyebrows tug closer together as he makes a face like when we were first telling him about all this stuff. “And you know this works?”

“We’ve tried it on each other,” I assure him. “When we were first playing around with the book. It works. We don’t know that it’ll work on something from the Rift, but it’s not that far-fetched.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Cody says.

Luke glances between the three of us, like he’s waiting for someone to point out that this is a horrible idea. “And what are we supposed to do with it once we have it trapped? Is Cody gonna tell it its future? Is Seth gonna push it to kill itself? Is Brad gonna fuck it to death? Am I gonna fuck Brad and lift it off the ground?” He huffs, rolling his eyes and turning away from us.

Everyone’s quiet for a moment before Cody says, “As far as killing the thing, you guys know what we can do.”

He looks at me like it should be obvious, and I turn to Seth, who seems just as thrown.

Cody motions to the stack of bricks in the corner of the room, and it fucking hits me.

I cringe. “Really?”

“It could work!”

“ Could being the operative word,” Seth adds.

Luke spins back around. “What are you guys talking about?”

“It’s something else we learned we can do,” I say. “Together. If we concentrate, we can—”

“It’s probably better just to show him,” Seth says, and I have to agree.

I fetch a brick from the stack and set it in the center of the pentagram. Cody, Seth, and I position ourselves to form a triangle around the pentagram.

“Luke, you need to get behind me,” I say.

He glances around the room like he’s trying to work out what we’re about to do. Then he steps close to the wall.

Cody, Seth, and I glance at each other, then grip our crosses and focus on the brick. Despite having done it before, it’s been a while, so we might be a little rusty.

I steady my breathing, feeling a familiar sensation swirling in my chest, radiating from there out to my arms. It moves into my hands, like they’re vibrating with energy. The more I concentrate on the brick, the more I lose awareness of time and my surroundings.

And then the brick starts vibrating.

I can’t see it, but I feel it in my gut as it speeds up, and a second later a sound like a shotgun fills the cellar. Dust explodes in the air, bits of brick launching at bullet speed, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier inside the pentagram. The pieces drop to the floor, and the dust begins to settle.

I turn to Luke, whose mouth hangs open.

“Fuck,” he mutters.

“Did you really think you knew all our secrets?” Seth asks snidely.

If Luke wasn’t here, I’d fucking throw Seth against the wall and demand he get over himself and treat Luke like the Sinner he is. But I quiet my rage, ignore the asshole remark, and explain to Luke what just happened. “It’s something we stumbled upon in the Sinners’ bible and tested out. We can’t do anything as powerful as you can on your own, but if the three of us focus, we can cause some motherfucking damage.”

“Apparently,” Luke notes. “But is that gonna do anything to this creature? Something that’s alive?”

“Why don’t you get in the middle, and we can test it,” Seth says with a nasty smirk.

“Seth,” I snap. “That’s not funny.”

His gaze shifts to the floor; he knows that was too far.

“I’ve researched this,” Cody says, pulling our attention back to his proposed solution. “Imagine how much pressure it takes to make a brick explode. If that can’t kill that thing, then nothing else is gonna do it either.”

“Yeah,” Luke says, “but if we can’t trap it, then we’re fucked because I doubt this thing will stay still long enough for you to focus as hard as you need to pull it off.”

“Do you have any better ideas?” Seth asks, and I shoot him another glare. “That one wasn’t me being an asshole,” he says. “I’m genuinely curious.”

My tense jaw relaxes.

Luke’s gaze wanders around the room. “I feel like we’re being too hasty here.”

“We only have two days,” Cody reminds him.

Luke nods. “I agree that we have to do something . Let’s at least arm ourselves with some real people shit. Dobbers used a shotgun.”

“He was also from a family of hunters,” Seth says. “How about we do ourselves a favor and not wind up shooting each other while trying to kill the Slasher?”

Luke chuckles. “I wasn’t suggesting guns. More like baseball bats and pepper spray.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I say. “If our powers don’t work against it, at least we’re armed.”

“Okay,” Cody says. “We’ll text about the details as we figure out what’s what. Sound good?” He glances around.

Not sure if any of us are making very comforting expressions. Our solutions are speculation, but it’s all we’ve got.

After Cody calls the end of the meeting, he and Seth head out, leaving Luke and me alone in the cellar.

Luke faces the full-length mirror, staring at his reflection, clearly lost in thought. I can’t imagine what’s going through his head.

At least the guys and I have some experience with this. Not trapping a monster, but with our powers. We managed to develop these over time, acclimate to the realization that there was much more to the world than we’d ever considered. Luke hasn’t had that advantage.

I approach him. “I know it’s a lot to trust that we can pull this off, but we are strong. You saw what we did with that brick.”

His gaze meets mine briefly before he looks away. “It’s not that,” he mutters.

I step behind him, hooking my arms around his waist. He doesn’t resist me, relaxing in my hold.

Since the vision, it’s the first time I feel like as long as I can protect him, everything will be all right.

I kiss his cheek, then whisper, “Please, Luke. Talk to me.”

His reflection looks into my eyes. “Brad…” He hesitates. “There’s something from the vision I didn’t share with you. I was worried you might have had the same experience, but I can’t imagine you did; you would have brought it up.” He presses his lips together, and a subtle shake returns. “I tried to approach the impaled man, but I couldn’t. The burned man, for some reason, I could. He was writhing on the ground in agony…such excruciating pain. Then he reached out to me, and I saw his eyes. And I just knew…”

“Knew what?” I ask, though the way he’s acting, I fear I might already know the answer.

“It was me.”

My heart sinks. My gut twists up. “No…no, that can’t be right.”

“I know it in my fucking blood.”

A jolt of certainty moves through me. “We have to tell the guys. We’ll handle this ourselves.”

I’m about to head out to catch them, but Luke grabs my arm. “No, Brad. That’s why I was worried about telling you all. I need to do this. I’m not leaving you to fight this thing alone. If we can stop it from killing others, then we can stop it from killing me too.”

After what I heard him do to himself last night, I’m not surprised by his courage, but at the same time, unlike him, I’m such a selfish fuck. I’d rather know he’s safe than worry about anyone else.

“Luke…” I choke up as I say his name. My vision blurs with tears. “You can’t do this.”

His reflection breaks eye contact, and he turns to face me, my arms still keeping him close, since he’s activated this primal protective instinct within me.

“Even if you guys got it without me, I’ll always feel like a coward if I don’t. So I don’t want you to tell the guys. Please. There’s already enough to figure out without having to deal with that too. I don’t want them to worry about me. Between the two of us, we’ll be worried enough.”

Looking at his face and thinking about the one I saw in the vision, it’s horrifying to consider that this could be a possible future for my Luke.

“I—” I don’t even know what to say. Everything’s an objection or an attempt to trick him into not following through with this.

Before I can say anything else, his lips crash against mine.

I firm my hold around him, welcoming his tongue into my mouth as we embrace.

Despite the terror he’s awakened within me, now that I know I might lose him, I just know I must take advantage of every moment…every fucking second with him.

As long as I fucking can.

Because I know nothing I say will change his mind.