Priest and his Anarchist

Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

priest

pretty comes in all shapes and sizes. And they all fit inside a coffin.

“ S ounds like I don’t give a fuck. There were a lot of girls here last night.” I perfected the art of ignoring Evie a long time ago.

“Priest!” The snapping of her fingers to get my attention grows louder before the mattress dips and she grabs me by the chin.

I yank myself out of her grip. “What?”

Her green eyes stay on mine from above.

“Are you fucking straddling me, Ev?”

When her mouth flatlines, the corner of mine twitches.

She crawls backward. “I said there was a girl at your house last night. Cute. Little. Blonde hair, big ass, and a charming smile—” Everything in this room reminds me of Luna. No matter how hard I try to erase it.

Fishing my phone out of my pocket, I tap on Instagram and scroll through my home page. “—at your parents.” My thumb stops. Evie and my sister have been close since they first saw each other. She’s probably the only other person alive who wasn’t born into the EKC but who can chill, and the only person alive who would ever do some dumb shit like touch me the way she just did.

“At the castle?” Halen wants to protect her, but she doesn’t know Evie’s father’s involvement, even if it is minuscule. Dad and I kept it that way until the time was right. As time passed, Evie would ask questions since her father also kept her out of it.

Evie lays down beside me, blowing her hair out of her face. “Why’d you choose that?” She points to the patterns carved between the panels.

“What?” I ask, tapping through my Snapchat stories.

Vaden’s face fills the screen, his pierced tongue out and his eyes wide. He takes a line, clears his nostril, and snatches the phone off whoever is holding it on the other side. He brings it closer, his lips to the camera.

“Did you fuck that poor girl and have finally landed your parents in some shitty lawsuit that not even daddy could get you out of?”

I shut off my phone, cutting off Vaden’s dimpled smirk and move toward the armoire.

“What?” Unable to find my mask, I close the last draw and rest against it. Evie fixes on me. “Did I fuck who?”

She crosses one leg over the other, her head tilting to the side when she leans up on her elbow. Her invisible claws plunge deeper into my brain. She does this to see if she can pull anything out. Nothing but death and darkness. She should already know that.

“The girl at Madship’s!”

I ignore her cheesy name for my parents.

“Luna.” I push up and grab my phone, heading into my closet. I need to get the fuck away from Evie before her relentless bullshit sets in and it’s too late to backpedal myself out of it. “Her name’s Luna.”

“Oh fuck!” She must have stood up because her voice was close again. “I thought she looked familiar. Shit. Wait—” I turn, tearing off my shirt and tossing it to the corner of the room. Starting on my belt, I give up and leave it unbuckled when I notice she isn’t dropping the topic. “What ever happened to her?” I’ll never answer a question I don’t want to. She’s never been fazed by that. She wants me to know that she saw her.

Popping open a drawer in my dresser, I loop the rope of my Calvaria around my wrist. “I almost killed her.”

Evie’s smile drops.

My eyes darken. “Multiple times.”

There are no longer any more questions.

***

I’ve never been able to feel the cold. I used to find it confusing, as if I lived in a universe with muted sensations. Tonight, however, was crisp enough for me to feel the whistle of winter over the tattoo on my neck.

Soft whimpers sound through the trees, turning me to Vaden. “They’re late.”

He shrugs. “There’s a first for everything.” He’s both right and wrong. They’re never this late. I need to call him. I’m about to reach into my pocket when footsteps pad over fallen leaves.

“Sorry, we’re late.” Moses Dale and his sidekick appear behind a tree, moving branches out of the way. “Kind of thought he might change now that you have the gavel.”

“Told you I wouldn’t.” I glance at Vade. “We don’t stop until it’s done.” Everyone silences as leaves rustle across the forestland. I’ll wait for one of them to say it first and then jab them in the fucking throat.

Moses’s laughter catches in his throat when the light from his phone illuminates across his face.

He looks between me and his phone. “No breadcrumb trails this time?” His fingers pinch at his screen. “What’s the stopwatch mean?”

“You and I know that’s not how this game works.” I keep my eyes level on his. They may be called the Gentlemen, but there’s nothing gentle about how they work, and I’ll never turn my back on a snake. Lost in the middle of a treaty formed by our parents and grandparents, Moses and I have come to a mutual understanding over the years, but that’s not to say we’re amicable. One second inside a room we’re all in, and a nine wouldn’t even be able to blow a hole through the tension.

Vaden’s particular beef is not so simple. Judging by how shifty he’s been tonight, I’ll go ahead and say his nights partaking in the Hunt are numbered. For their convenience, not ours. Unless you count scrubbing Gentlemen brain matter off my ten-thousand-dollar Jordans. There are stories that circulate about why Vaden feels the way he does about the Gentlemen and why they hate each other so much.

None of which is the truth.

“Who have you got with you?” War asks, his eyes shifting from me to Moses. The more time he spends with my sister, the less I can tolerate him. I don’t need either of their morals spilling over the EKC. Thank fuck she’ll never—ever—have any say in how this gavel is slammed.

Vaden’s shadow emerges from behind War, his lip twitching. The lollipop he’s sucking on slides over his pierced tongue. “Or by all means.” He smirks. “Please break the rules.” His words stop me.

Moses folds his arms in front of his chest. “Trust me. I have my own reasons why I won’t and why I agreed to do this.”

My muscles ease as I glare at Vaden. Thought I’d enjoy his brand of crazy after the ritual, but it turns out he’s more like a wild animal that I’ll have to retrain. The ritual consisted of three steps.

The first kill.

The burning of said kill.

And the ignition of the curse. It hits one member after punishing us for our ancestors’ mistakes. Everyone always assumed it’d hit me, but it’s become obvious that it landed on Vaden. He’s now someone we have to watch. Keep an eye on, until he goes full dark and tears ours out. Pretty sure I’m the only one who has noticed, but War isn’t too far behind. He’s smart if the equation didn’t involve Halen.

Moses shuts off his phone. “How often do you want this done? I thought you were joking all those years ago, but times are different now. Aren’t you busy runn?—”

I step into his space. Moses isn’t small by any means, but he and I know that my size is the least threatening thing about me. Leaning down, I whisper, “As many as it takes.”

He backs up beside his right-hand bitch boy. Once he’s a safe distance away, he tsks. “Maybe it’s gone for good. Ever think of that?”

The muscles in my jaw harden when my teeth clench. It’s not until they’ve both disappeared through the trees that I push the words away and turn to War, who looks extra fucking annoying tonight.

Pushing past him, I make my way through the ragged path.

“You sure about this?” War calls out from behind while following my steps.

Ignoring War has become easier as time goes on. I’ll always appreciate what he offers, but loyalty has never been there on his part the same way it has with Vaden.

“Just shut up and follow my lead, War.” I drag my eyes off him and slide into my car.

Vaden pauses outside his own, a door open and his tatted hand resting above the top. I tap my window down when his head tilts to the side, his focus clearly not moving from me. “They could kill her. You know. Maybe they’d bleach-wash her.”

Fucking Vaden. I don’t answer, revving the engine and forcing it into first. I haven’t even reached the end of the road when my pop’s name flashes over the screen.

“We’ve got a problem, son.”

I roll my eyes and glance out the side window. “What is it?” Cirque de Diavolo fades in my rearview mirror as I drop the clutch and hit one-sixty.

Tonight was the first night of a game that we’ve altered the rules for. Will it work?

“What did you find out about Luna’s whereabouts after leaving you?” At the mention of Luna, my eyes shift to the rearview mirror, expecting her to be there.

“What Dad told me.” My neck cracks when I bend it.

“And how much of that do you think was the truth?”

“Spit it out, Pops. I don’t have all night and in under five minutes, your granddaughter will be hovering around my shit like the damn police.”

He pauses again. I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna like whatever he has to say.

I’ve not even held the gavel for one week, and it’s already feeling flimsy.

“She’d been going back and forth between the US and Spain, visiting with her parents, but there’s no trail of her being there.”

Trees zip past, and the light on my speedo burns through my retinas. “I know everything.”

Silence. “Everything?”

“Everything,” I repeat, my lip curling into a snarl. “Keep looking. It’s not that.”

Thirty minutes later, I pull up to the curb of my house, the engine rumbling as Halen jogs toward the car behind mine. The racing scene keeps the girls preoccupied, but War is starting to feel guilty for excluding Halen. Like I knew he would.

Someone bangs on the top, and I wind my window down to Vaden, his gaze on War’s car behind mine.

“Losing him.”

I cut the engine. “Nah. Only so far. He’s a Malum.”

Vaden lowers his attention down to me. “Wanna talk about tonight and the little doll you left out in the open for Moses?”

My lip twitches. “Not really. And besides, we’ve got someplace to be tonight, remember?”

Vaden’s eyes darken as he slides into the passenger seat and shuts us inside. “You wanna talk about whatever it is that you’re about to take me to tonight?”

Obsessing about Luna isn’t where I need my head to be, but I find myself there anyway. Her beige-blonde hair is always tied back by the silk of a ribbon. It reminds me of her. Ethereal, yet a mind twisted enough to form a knot. She’s simply my longest project yet.

With a light tap of the accelerator, we both fly into our seats as Vaden toys with the music.

“I have to show you something that I don’t even know what it is right now. But this?” I turn my arm over at Vaden. “Stays between us.”

Vaden doesn’t pat my ego. “Us…and the voice in my head, yep.”

The trip into the city feels longer than usual, and my fingers work the back of my neck to untie the tension. Vaden’s slumped over against the window, long since falling asleep. At least he’s sleeping. If I remember the tale of the curse, it went something along the lines of it stealing your soul while you sleep.

I’m hoping he doesn’t sleep too long if that's true, since there’s not much of his soul left to take.

My car stops outside two concrete gates that hide whatever mystery is behind it, the engine idling beneath me. Vaden stirs back to life, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands.

“We here?”

I don’t answer. Minutes pass. Metal scrapes against concrete, exposing the ancient mansion on the other side. Pillars as tall as the house line the front porch in a desperate attempt to remain relevant in a world obsessed with ostentation. White cement walls fill the space, where black and gray frames line the Victorian-style windows. Like a hint of time, the hardwood floors line the steps that lead to the patio.

“My surprised face is about the same as my non-surprised face,” Vaden muses, biting a cigarette into his mouth and lighting the end. “But this feels different.”

“Because it is. I’m not supposed to be telling anyone.”

“So you bring me?” He turns, smoke curling around his words. “Not War?”

“Why War? Because my father and his we’re best friends?” When he doesn’t answer, I tear my eyes away from the building. “You and I both know I don’t give a fuck.”

A veil of smoke leaves Vaden’s nostrils.

I shrug. “The moment he fell in love with my sister was when I knew I could never trust him the way I want to. Why do you think Kings have never fucked each other and shit? This is not gonna fly. Ever.” Deep carvings over the front door leave rumors of death. “And besides, he’ll be busy with all of that Malum shit to be around for this.” His pupils dilate every few seconds as if he hadn’t quite adapted to the light.

The fuck.

“And me?” He raises one dark brow. Pretty boy. He’s always had a softness around him that made the girls comfortable to be themselves. We’d tease them when we were kids, saying Stella took all the Vitiosis genes, since Brantley, was a badass motherfucker when he was Vaden’s age, but turns out no.

We had it all wrong.

“You’re not called in for another year. I’m sure you’ve got nothing else to do with your precious time?” I don’t wait for him to answer as I climb the steps, staring back at the front door.

“What’d Daddy B say about this place?” Vaden looks between me and the house.

“Nothing. Was fucking vague as always. Mumbling about it being a Hayes’ secret.”

The key slides into the hold with ease, and I twist it sideways. Tall windows of stained glass reflect onto the wooden floor as the door creaks open onto spiderwebs laced over the corners of every room.

“Jesus. What the fuck?” Vaden slows behind me.

I pull out my Zippo and light the end of my cigarette, magnifying the inside by the burning ember.

Vaden’s face pales. “Holy shit.”

Yeah. Holy shit.