CHAPTER FIFTEEN
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KULT WALKED AND BOUNCEDGarbagio in his arms at the back of the room. One final meeting before they all hauled ass to the swamps. Up to bat was Isla. Queen of the holies. Bravely negotiating her first rescue mission—a much larger gaggle of nuns than first considered. And boy did she do her homework.
“There are twelve Hatches in the swamps. I’ve been in contact with the Belle Eveque.” Clever move. “She’s approved it with their side for there to be a convent of sorts in each Hatch to accommodate refugees without family. Having twenty Sisters per Hatch all skilled in war-time service is sufficient to efficiently meet whatever needs may come. We’re trained to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and heal all manner of wounds. And of course, most of us are all single.”
“Sounds like a winner to me,” Harlow said at the table. “I say you can never have too many angels, especially during times such as these.”
Kult looked down at a squeaking Garbagio. “I sure don’t need more angels, do I? I got the best one right here.” He brought his mouth to his forehead, lining it with small kisses. “Ain’t that right? You and me, we’re gonna bust ass.”
“Kult,” Butterfly hissed before him. “Language!”
Kult presented a fa?ade of cooperation to Butterfly. Language. If she thought he was going to smudge up the brutal pristine truth with glittery bullshit embellishments, she was crazier than he’d ever been. Garbagio was their War King. Born in the dirty heart of a trash can, he would ensure he was raised and trained in the filthiest pains of reality.
“You want me to take him?” Pain asked, walking up.
“Only if you want to,” Kult said. “He’s grown on me. Like a parasitic tragedy. Kind of like you,” he said, eyeing Pain’s grin.
“I know what you mean,” Pain whispered, pulling the blanket back from the angelic face. “I barely like him already.”
“Wow,” Kult praised, chuckling. “We’re turning into sadistic marshmallows.”
“Speaking of sadistic marshmallows,” Pain whispered. “I’ve been thinking of a birthday gift for Garbagio.”
Kult eyed him, his sadism tickled by the darkness in his tone. “Yeah?”
“A portrait.”
Kult’s cock lurched at that word. Coming from Pain, it could only mean his very favorite thing. “Yeah? Tell me alllll about what you’ll need for it.”
“Well...certainly I want the filthiest pieces. Layered.”
“And where are we finding these pieces?” he asked, aroused out of his fucking mind.
Pain met his gaze, the world’s worst evils glittering in its gorgeous gray depths. “Where do you think?”
“When?”
“Before we leave town.”
Kult handed Garbagio to Pain and went to the table, leaning to Mary’s ear. “Meet me in our room. I need to fuck.”
****
“GET NAKED AND don’t talk,” Kult ordered Mary as he did the same.
Before she was barely done, he stormed up to her and fisted her hair, kissing her straight into the nearest wall as he yanked up her leg and lifted her.
“Get my cock in your tight cunt,” he grit at her mouth as she wrapped her legs around him. “You should be fucking scared,” he swore at her worried whimpers. “Because I’m going to fuck you harder than I ever have.” His dark lust came in hungry growls as she wrapped his cock in her tiny fingers and guided him to his feasting grounds.
He yanked her head back and shoved in, getting the first of many shrieks. Grabbing hold of her hips, he stepped back enough to create room and began hammering her pussy so fast he could start a fucking fire in it.
It was the fastest, most brutal fuck and as his orgasm tore through him, he made flower delivery arrangements for his beautiful, ever-accommodating wife with the criminally insane husband and his deranged appetites.
When his pulse neared humane, he leaned in and kissed her astonished mouth sputtering shock and awe in the holy-shit aftermath. “You’re a fucking angel,” he whispered, angling his head and praising those lips with his. “Not to lessen this glorious sadistic fuck but how many flowers do I owe you for this kind service you’ve provided me?”
“No flowers,” she whispered, her drunk gaze on him.
“No flowers?” he said, sliding his lips along hers, carefully petting her cheek. “What did I tell you about being too easy?”
She barely smiled and nodded. “Right.” She leaned and remained perfectly still as she performed her little angelic kisses on him. “That was a pretty... devastating fuck as you call them.”
“It was,” he whispered, holding her soft ass and pressing her body into his.
“I think you fucked me so hard I heard wedding bells. And in that case, I guess I’ll take a wedding ring for my services.”
He froze and pulled his head back, staring at her. “Are you being cute, Mary?” he wondered, his pulse doing flips in his blood at that strange request.
“I am cute but...” She shook her head with a smile and clear blue eyes. “I’m very serious. I’ll take a simple wedding band. Silver. And my name tattooed over that mess you started on my cock.”
“Mary,” he said, grinning. “Such audacity.”
“I’m learning.”
“You are,” he praised, back to soft kissing. “I guess I’ll see what I can do.”
Their gazes locked for many seconds and his cock jerked at the lust that entered her gaze.
“You want something else, Mary?” he whispered, getting her breathless nods.
“I want you to make me come like you just did.”
“Fuck yes, always yes,” he gushed right on her mouth, turning for their bed.
****
KAPHAS FINALLY GOTCeleste alone in a corner and kissed her, not caring who saw. The eager way she kissed him back confirmed the needs he felt in her. Her hungers created a million strands of tension in his muscles, emotional and sexual. Whenever they hit her, he couldn’t think of anything but how and when he’d meet it. After his near eternal death, her needs were off the charts and his need to answer them was hot and hard on its heels. But nothing satisfied him more than seeing his power’s marks on her. They dusted her fair skin like midnight freckles in various places.
“Are you my Angel?” he whispered, never getting enough of the answer to that question.
“Always,” she said, her fingers pulling at his neck. “I need you.”
“So, we’re doing this in broad daylight now?” Kult wondered behind him, bringing Kaphas’ smile as he turned. It grew at seeing his favorite giant sadistic brother eyeing him while armed with a Garbagio bundle. “Come say hello to your nephew,” he ordered. “He fucking misses you.”
He chuckled, staring down at their sleeping miracle. “I think he has your mouth,” Kaphas mused.
“Yeah?” Kult said, looking. “And your nose, maybe.” He eyed him with a grin. “He’s got my balls, I know that. They’re massive,” he whispered.
“My turn,” Butterfly sang as she swooped in for the baby.
Kult spun away with a “Whoa, whoa, we have a schedule.”
“And you took Pains spot, so it’s my turn.”
She reached out again. “Hold on,” Kult evaded. “This wasn’t a time swap, it was me graciously taking on extra. If you want extra, then you’ll have to step up your game.”
She stood with her jaw dropped, hands on hips. “Is this my baby or not?”
“He is, but that doesn’t make you a dictator who can make and break rules on a whim. He’s perfectly fine and sleeping thanks to the work I put in.”
Kaphas smiled at Butterfly’s happy grin as she put her hands behind her back. “Least let me kiss him.”
Kult edged over. “Keep your grabby hands right where they are, thief.”
She giggled and leaned in, filling his face with all the kisses. Kaphas looked down at Celeste, her smile straining her face as she watched.
“Is my lil’ Bagio starting family wars?” Butterfly cooed. “Is he? Oh yes you are. We’re all gonna fight over you, yes we will. And guess who will win? I will.” She straightened and pointed in Kult’s face as she walked off. “Loosen your stark strings.”
“Like hell I will,” he cooed at the baby before aiming a kill look at Kaphas. “Two months from now and I’ll be the only one who can comfort him.” He spotted Pain and carefully moved the baby to his shoulder. “Gotta run, Loverboy.”
Kaphas watched him walk race to Pain, eyeing the wrath on his face. He wore it like a birthmark and he wondered if maybe it was. It reminded him of the unresolved things in him. He’d passed his backlash power to Celeste, and she’d used it to cancel his death program and rewrote her own. But what would become of his brothers’ demons partitioned inside him? He didn’t like not knowing that. Quantum had intended to take them from his brothers for his soldiers, but Kaphas had beat him to it. Once he informed him of that, he’d ask if he could take them from him. He didn’t like having them around Celeste, even though she had his power. They would never put their filthy fingers on her.
“I’m supposed to be helping my sisters pack for this trip,” she said, getting his attention.
“Don’t you have things that need packing in your room?”
She nodded as desire spilled over into her sweet angelic smile. “Did you want to help? Unless you have things that need packing.” She sucked in a breath. “We can help each other?”
“Since I swore to never leave you, I guess we will help each other.”
He kissed her as she giggled. “I didn’t mean never leave my side.”
“Maybe I did.”
“You’ll get sick of me if you do that. Ask the Sisters,” she whispered.
His smile faded as he recalled her prayers before he’d died. “Thank you for praying at the hour of my death,” he half teased, watching her smile get abducted by the memory.
She lowered her head. “I...I kind of panicked and...maybe I lost faith. A little.” She cast her gaze to the side. “A lot,” she confessed, pained. “I was so scared, I forgot all the words,” she whispered, the Kevlar freckles on her temple doubling in size.
“I thought that only happened with my beauty?”
Her laughter burst out, making his powers hum and spin.
He asked, “Your room or mine?”
Her face sobered. “For what?”
“To pack. If you’re able to focus past my good looks.” Fuck, he loved making her laugh.
“I may have to be blindfolded,” she said, hooking her arm in his. “My room first, I think.” She tugged him along and his powers settled down as he went. “Believe it or not, I have tons of stuff. I’ve been a packrat since I was a young girl,” she explained.
“Tell me all about it,” he said, wanting to know every bit of her.
He smiled as she threw open the lid to her past and began flinging out all her things as fast as she could, like a child sharing her favorite secrets from her treasure box. The whole time, his powers wrapped each one and hid it in a safe place inside him that no demon or darkness could ever reach.
****
“Two hundred nuns?” Bishop marveled to his Petite as they entered the Basilique for their meeting.
“Two hundred certified nurses trained for war-time duty,” she clarified. “Who also pray.” He opened her chair and she sat. “Sister Isla was very nice,” his Petite said, making him wonder why he didn’t just say yes already. She’d get what she wanted as always. “We were thinking a convent of twenty Sisters in each Hatch to care for the refugees that may not have family. I don’t think we’ll be sorry about having them, that’s for sure. They can help with everything she told me. Farming, child-rearing, elderly care, education, medical stuff.”
“We’ll vote about it,” he said, getting her squeal and hug. It was merely a formality. They’d all say yes, he was sure.
“So, when are they coming again?”
“They’re supposed to start getting here tomorrow.”
“So exciting,” she whispered, all smiles.
“We need to schedule the meet and greet. I’m sure Mah-Mah has plans already cooking.”
“How many will be attending that?”
“All of them and all of us. Us, meaning those in any kind of leadership role in the Hoard.”
“Where do you plan to put the... Quantum King... person.”
He chuckled at her hesitation. None of them knew what to refer to him as. “Well, the Creole Kings are in the North Swamp and I’m thinking it’s a good idea to have him north of our swamp, near the bridge.”
“Like a shield?” she asked, her excitement spilling over even while she attempted to hide it from him. He understood that. As a child, there was always a thrill tucked inside every deadly hurricane that came their way. To this day, it never failed to ride his blood with everything else. Like terror now that he had shit he couldn’t lose.
And now this. He wasn’t sure what he feared more. The shit going down in the world or the half-humanoid King with soldiers capable of quick and utter destruction coming to live in his swamp.
All the more reason they needed their own upgrades. For external and now internal threats. It was one thing to have gifted people but having these AI’s susceptible to hacking and or malfunctioning was a big fucking mon Dieu.
Thankfully, Lesion and his Creole King counterpart were working on something to give him and his men a boost with Nitro’s saliva. If it worked the way they thought it would, Bishop would build all the physical upgrades they needed. He never bragged but there wasn’t anything he couldn’t create if his mind could imagine it.
All he knew was they needed an edge. And he knew that from the day they left to go check on one of their AI’s that went rogue. What do you know, before he could utter the fucking worry, it happened. Bad fucking sign. And according to Seer and the Creole Kings that accompanied Zodak to the castle, the power this rogue bot was capable of brought all the ‘oh shits’ to a fas-fas boil in the fucking pot.
Bottom line—this was their swamp. And like always, he’d find a way to protect it against all threats. God-made, man-made, and tech-made.
****
Coming Soon!
SWAMP KINGS