Kings of Anarchy

by Caroline Peckham

  Saint and Kyan had already made it down the path and were heading towards the thick pines which lined the north bank of the lake, herding Stalker and Bait ahead of them and bickering as Saint demanded an answer to his burning squid question while Kyan laughed like he was the god of emoji knowledge and refused to tell him. I was fairly sure I got it, but then sometimes they used it in different context and I was lost again. But I didn’t care enough to try and force an answer the way Saint did. My squid ignorant self was happy enough to figure it out eventually.

  I jogged until I caught them, shoving Bait in the back hard enough that he fell sprawling to the stone path and skinned his palms.

  "Shit, sorry, dude," I said as Kyan roared with laughter and Saint smirked like the demon he was. "I didn't realise you were such a weak bitch and would fall down so easy. I bet Stalker wouldn't go down so easy, would you Stalker?"

  The asshole formally known as Toby blinked at me with terrified eyes and the most disappointing look of acceptance which really only made me want to punch him more. Sadly for me, Kyan beat me to it, clocking him in the temple so hard that when he hit the ground he actually blacked out.

  "Shit, do you think you killed him?" I laughed as Bait looked half inclined to piss himself.

  "You'd better not have, he hasn't even begun to suffer enough for what he did to our girl," Saint growled.

  Stalker groaned as he came around, so that was the end of that debate and I sighed as I tried to decide if I was disappointed or not. I guessed disposing of another body would have been a pain though. Especially as some people probably would miss Stalker. His family didn't hate him after all. I mean, they were definitely less than impressed when we sent them all of that evidence of his stalking, plus all of the slightly less true evidence of his drug habit. And drug dealing habit. But they'd probably still care if he died. At least for now. Maybe not so much by the time we were done with him though.

  While Stalker made a big old fuss out of coming around and pushing himself to sit up, I asked Kyan to hold Bait still while I took the pink Sharpie from my pocket and casually drew a dick on his mask complete with cum shot, thick veins and hairy balls which hung down on his cheek.

  "Every day, you'll draw the balls back on, hairs and all," I commanded as he just took it, looking at me like I was a monster. But was I the one who tricked an underage girl into sex? No siree, not me. So who was the monster here really? I mean, okay yeah, also me but also, also him.

  "Yeah, okay," Bait agreed like a little bitch which was a weird combination of satisfying and utterly unsatisfying.

  "Right, enough fun." I announced. "You two have a Pine Festival, or Spring Hoo-Ha or-"

  "A Spring Pine Cleansing," Saint drawled, because of course even a totally bullshit event that I just made up so that we could cut class and torture some low lives had warranted immediate memorising. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this didn't become an annual event from here on out. Assuming the Hades Virus didn't kill us all before then.

  "That's the one," I agreed. "Strip down to your boxers and start stuffing them with pine needles until no more can fit so that the Night People don't come and kill the flowers or whatever."

  "Trees," Saint snapped irritably, like that even mattered and Kyan smirked in amusement.

  Bait and Stalker quickly did as they'd been told and Kyan tossed his blazer aside before rolling his shirt sleeves back to reveal his ink. He turned his wrist Saint’s way and flexed his fingers so that the new squid tattoo wriggled a bit like it was taunting him and Saint’s jaw locked so hard, I wondered if it would ever unlock again. He held his tongue though, which was really a testament to how determined he was not to lose his shit in front of our victims because every time he’d locked eyes on that thing since Kyan had gotten it, he’d freaked out up until now.

  I stifled a laugh and rolled my eyes at Kyan as he smirked in a taunting way which said he wanted Saint to punch him. He really was a dickhead. Good thing I loved him anyway.

  Every time one of our victims winced at the prickle of a pine needle sticking them in the dick, I laughed my damn ass off and Kyan shouted at them to go faster, even when they were practically hopping across the floor as their bare feet got pricked with them too.

  By the time Monroe showed up, their boxers were bulging and the two of them looked hella uncomfortable with all of those prickles in their dicks. Dickles, if you will.

  "What the fuck are you up to now?" Monroe asked, his eyes lighting with amusement.

  Turned out he was a savage bastard when it came to punishing these assholes too, headmaster or not. Seemed he took as much offence to them targeting our girl as the rest of us did and as he had gotten the three of us to swear blind he never had a thing to do with any of this shit, I guessed he'd decided to embrace his inner Night Keeper and punish the deserving instead of getting his panties in a twist about his job.

  "Now what?" Saint drawled from his sun chair which he'd made one of the Unspeakables go and fetch him when it became clear this wasn’t losing its appeal any time soon. He was working on his cunning plan to bring down a secret society run by billionaires all for the sake of our girl and Kyan after all. No biggie apparently. We weren't even allowed to pitch in until he was 'ready for our input' whatever the fuck that meant. I swear I heard him cackling up in his bell tower in the dead of night sometimes as he worked on his plan.

  "Now..." I said, casting my mind about for inspiration but Kyan beat me to it.

  "It's time for the great pinecone race," Kyan supplied, picking up one of the heavy, brown cones from the forest floor and throwing it at Stalker as hard as he could.

  It smacked him in the ass cheek, and he yelped as he leapt into the air and a big, red welt appeared on his flesh.

  "Fuck yes," Monroe agreed, his teacher persona well and truly shed for the time being.

  "You two need to run back and forth between this pine tree and the one down by the lake," Kyan instructed Bait and Stalker. "And try to avoid getting hit by the pinecones."

  "Guys," Stalker pleaded, his eyes actually looking kinda wet. New goal for today - I wanted that big motherfucker to cry. "You have to hear me out, I swear I never did anything to Tatum. She was my friend, I'm not the one who-"

  A pinecone hit him in the face with enough force to draw a bit of blood and Kyan roared with laughter as Monroe snatched another from the ground.

  "He said run," Saint barked, not bothering to rise from his seat as he continued with his work. "Or do you want to explain to your parents why all of the trees here died?"

  He was seriously running with this pine festival shit and I was all in. I stooped to grab myself a pinecone and Bait shrieked in alarm as he sprinted away.

  "Nothing like the sound of panicked screams in the afternoon," Kyan sighed and Monroe laughed darkly as he threw a perfectly aimed pinecone at Bait's back.

  "Sweet, sweet justice," I agreed, laughing with my friends and feeling this perfectly fucked up kind of happiness as we all bathed in our inner asshole together.

  ***

  By the time we'd finished up our little pine festivities with Bait and Stalker, they'd gotten to know a whole lot about pine trees. Like, how the cones tasted, how it felt to be whipped with their branches, how much it hurt to rub their asses against the bark for half an hour straight and best of all, how fucking sticky the sap was when smeared in their hair. We'd finished up by chasing them into the lake with more well aimed pinecones and though Saint and Monroe had ditched out after a couple of hours, me and Kyan had made the fun last until sunset.

  We headed back down the path toward The Temple and as both of us upped our pace, it wasn't all that hard to guess why we were so keen to get back.

  "She's in my room, tonight, asshole," I growled, elbowing Kyan as we half ran up the path towards the front door.

  "Pfft, that's for sleeping. She's fair game this evening and now that Saint isn't monopolising her time, I'm ready to make a repeat of Christmas."

  "Quit going on about C
hristmas," I snarled. Mostly because I was sick of hearing about it and seeing the way Tatum bit her lip every time he brought it up, a little bit because I was salty as fuck over it and a big bit because I was sick of being frozen out and I was ready to win my way back into her panties myself.

  "You know," Kyan said slowly, reaching out to hold the door closed as I made a move to open it. "She's already pissed about being left in class earlier. There's a good chance neither of us have a shot tonight."

  "For fuck's sake," I cursed, realising he was right. That girl didn't just quit the group chat for fun. It was code for 'you're all in the dog house'. "What are we going to do about it then?"

  The corner of Kyan's lips twitched and he gave me an assessing look. "Maybe that's the answer. We do something about it together. She might not be so quick to shoot us down if we make a compelling enough offer."

  The grin that captured my lips in return was dirty as fuck as I wondered if she'd really go for that. She'd certainly been into it when we'd started down that line before and it had been pretty fucking hot.

  "You might be able to pick up some tips at the same time," I taunted and Kyan laughed as he released his hold on the door.

  "You might beat me at a lot of pointless shit, brother, but I will destroy you in a competition on fucking. You have my word on that."

  "It's not really your word that counts though, is it. It's more about who makes her scream the loudest."

  Kyan's dirty laugh announced our arrival into The Temple and Saint and Tatum looked up from the dining table where they'd been eating their dinner which we were three minutes late for, so of course Saint hadn't waited.

  He scowled at us as we sauntered in and Kyan strolled away to his room without a word as I moved to the table to join them.

  "Did you make him cry?" Saint asked curiously.

  "Of course I did," I said with an evil smirk. I probably should have felt a bit bad for the shit I was putting Stalker through, but every time I considered that I just thought about him jerking off in the bushes while watching our girl in her most private moments or photographing her while she was changing or scaring her in the woods and I just felt nothing at all aside from the desire to do worse and worse and worse to him.

  "Maybe you should just leave it now," Tatum suggested half heartedly, like she felt she should feel bad about what we were doing to him but just didn't. And why the fuck should she?

  "Just leave the organisation of the Unspeakables to us, siren," Saint tsked as he ate his pasta and I rolled my eyes for her benefit before diving in to eat mine.

  Kyan reappeared in a wifebeater and a pair of stonewashed jeans and fell on his food like a starving man, somehow managing to demolish all of his before the rest of us finished.

  "I think we should play a game tonight," he announced, smacking his lips with pleasure. "And to thank Tatum for taking such good care of us, I think she should be the prize."

  "What are you talking about?" she asked, arching a suspicious brow at Kyan before looking between me and Saint.

  "I call it, getting you over your fear of the catacombs," Kyan said, reaching for his belt and tugging his hunting knife free before banging it down on the table.

  "Who says I'm afraid of the catacombs?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at the murder weapon Kyan had decided to keep.

  "You haven't been beyond the gate down there since we killed that scumbag," Saint said dryly, like that was a normal subject matter to discuss over dinner.

  "Well, I...haven't had any reason to," she said with a shake of her head though there was a little hesitance which suggested she hadn’t wanted to either.

  "If you're not afraid, then prove it," Kyan dared. "We will give you the key to the gates and a five minute head start. If you can find your way out before we catch you then you can have an entire week of us following your commands instead of the other way around."

  "Speak for yourself," Saint scoffed and Kyan huffed irritably, throwing me a look.

  "I'm in," I agreed. "But I won't lose, so I'm not worried."

  "All I have to do is make it out to the beach before you catch up and I get you both as my personal servants for the week?" Tatum clarified, ignoring Saint as she looked between me and Kyan hungrily.

  "Yeah, baby," Kyan agreed.

  "And what if I lose?" she asked, realising there was a catch.

  "If one of us catches you, we get to fuck you down there in the dark," Kyan said with a feral smile that said the idea of using a crypt where we'd killed someone for a hook up actually turned him on more. Crazy motherfucker. Although…that did sound kind of hot, so I guessed I was a crazy motherfucker too.

  Tatum bit her lip as she looked between us and then glanced at the door which led down to the gym and the catacombs below.

  "That kinda sounds like I win either way," she joked and my smile widened as I realised I was actually getting a green flag here. "But what if both of you catch me at once?"

  I exchanged a grin with Kyan and shrugged lightly. "Same rules apply, sweetheart."

  Tatum sucked in a breath as she considered that, looking between the two of us like she wasn't totally sure for a minute, but the way she bit her lip said the idea was tempting her.

  "Remember how good it felt when we had you pinned between us before," I purred and Saint huffed irritably, but everyone ignored him. We didn’t need a wet blanket dampening our three way plans. He needed to get on board or stop pouting about it.

  "Okay then," she agreed, the light in her eyes saying she was at least a little tempted to lose on purpose. Game on.

  "Are you even going to try and run, baby?" Kyan asked with a cocky laugh and she rolled her eyes as she pushed to her feet.

  "Watch me, baby," she mocked, her whole demeanour shifting as she got herself into the headspace to win. But she was sorely fucking mistaken if she thought that was going to happen. I never lost at anything. Definitely not something with a prize this fucking good.

  "The keys are in my nightstand," Saint said, still looking pissed off, though there was something more to his expression now too. "Your five minutes starts now, siren. So you'd better run."

  "Asshole," she cursed as she tore away from us and bolted up the stairs to find the keys.

  I grinned as I stood too, heading down into the gym with Kyan at my side, laughing like all his birthdays had just come at once.

  We made our way to the gates which led down into the catacombs and as I turned back to look for Tatum, I was surprised to find Saint following us down too.

  "I thought you didn't want to play?" Kyan teased as he rolled his shoulders back and I realised why he'd made the effort to change into something easier to run in. Asshole. But I’d beat him even if I had to do it in my school uniform. Tatum was still in hers too, so she would have to deal with it the same as me.

  "I don't," Saint drawled. "It's still against the rules to fuck her. But if either of you manages to catch her and does then I want to make sure I know which of you will need to be punished for it in the morning."

  "Riiiight, that's why you wanna watch," I mocked and he cut me a glare but before we could say any more, Tatum shot down the stairs and raced towards us with the keys in her grasp.

  "Catch me if you can," she taunted, running straight up to the gate and unlocking it as fast as she could.

  "Three minutes and twelve seconds, siren," Saint warned and adrenaline spiked through my veins as I prepared to give chase.

  "That's more than enough time to win," she swore before ripping the gate open and racing away into the dark.

  Kyan moved to the gate and started rattling it against the wall so that the sound of the metal against the stone clanged loudly in the dark passageways, hopefully making her fear for her damn life.

  "I am the dark in the dead of the night!" I bellowed, my voice echoing down into the crypt.

  "Hear me roar!" Saint and Kyan both yelled in response and the sound of our voices were rewarded by a shriek of fright from Tatum as she raced away.

/>   I cupped my hands around my mouth and began howling so that the sound of my voice would chase her into the dark and Kyan joined me so she knew that two beasts were hunting her tonight.

  Shit, this was hot. I was getting hard already and we weren't even chasing her yet.

  We got more and more excitable as Saint kept us informed of the time and when he began counting down from ten, we were both literally bouncing up and down with the promise of the chase.

  "Three, two, one-"

  Kyan shoved me into the gate and I punched him in the kidney as we launched ourselves into the dark with only the faint light from his cell phone to guide us.

  We were both howling and shouting, our voices echoing all around us as we raced into the catacombs.

  In our freshman year, right after the three of us had laid claim to The Temple and the catacombs beneath it, we'd decided to take on the roles of the Night Keepers officially and we ran our first ever initiation right down here in these tunnels. We had made literally every student in the school run around down here in the dark with us while we used night vision goggles to track them down and scare them shitless. It had been funny as fuck, but better than that, we'd soon learned every nook, cranny, crypt, coffin and dead end down here by heart.

  The tunnels went on and on endlessly, but in reality, there was just one main path through the centre of them all and if you veered off you would just take a loop around before being spat back out onto it again. That meant that unless Tatum was damn lucky, she was bound to have taken one of those turnings and all we had to do was stick to the main route to cut her off when she returned to it.

  Kyan kept grabbing and shoving me as I tried to break away from him and laughter bubbled in my chest as I pushed back at him, but I soon realised I wasn't trying all that hard to get ahead. Because he'd gone and planted the seed of the two of us claiming her together and now that he had, I found that I liked that idea a damn lot.