At the end of the hall was a large shutter that was lifted up, revealing a chain link gate. On the other side of the gate was a room full of neatly organized crap. To the far left was a wall and tables lined with boxes like the one I had gotten my first shirt from, and straight ahead were shelves of canned goods, boxed foods, and condiments.
Two deep freezers were running in the back, and to our right was another gate that led to what appeared to be a garage.
“Where did they get all of this from?” Arlen asked in awe.
The feeling was mutual. I hadn’t seen anything like this…ever, not even when I lived with The Order. Romero had a connection, a good one from the looks of it. Tito had a connection too, but the most overstocked item we had were tampons; everything else was the bare minimum basics needed to live semi comfortably.
“Well we were clearly meant to find this room so we could go through em,” Arlen commented, nudging me in the direction of the boxes. She took one side and I took another.
“I never got a chance to thank you for taking up for me.” I spoke softly in an effort to keep or conversation as quiet as possible.
“Are you serious? You saved my ass when someone else would have only worried about themselves.”
She had a point there. I could have made a run for it as soon as cannibal Bill hit the ground. Finding a pair of denim shorts that would fit me, I kicked my boots off and pulled them on beneath my long shirt.
“I was looking for my sister,” she added after a beat, turning around and beginning to dig in the boxes behind her.
Slipping back into my shoes, I rose and continued searching through another box. I started to respond but glanced around, and for the first time, I noticed the suitcases piled beneath the table and some of the more expensive clothing in certain boxes.
Finding a wallet in a pair of jeans, I flipped it open and stared at the identification card still inside. James Wallace. He was an official from Centriole.
“That’s not good,” Arlen whispered.
“Understatement of the year.”
There was only one possible explanation I could come up with. Romero was not finding random people to torture; he was making people disappear—many people, by the looks of it. Whole families, if the few diaper bags meant anything.
The wallet had to have been left by mistake. None of the other boxes contained belongings that were indicative of where they came from or who they belonged to.
I was struck with the cold reality that though we were connected on a level only we understood, that connection didn’t give me the magical ability to read his mind and know all his secrets.
What the hell was this man up to?
“So you never told me…is he good in bed?” she suddenly asked me, a wide grin on her face.
I was about to respond but saw the warning in her eyes and dropped the wallet. She quickly kicked it beneath the table.
“She never told me either,” Romero said from behind me, sliding his arms around my waist.
Locking the newfound information in my head, I spun around and wrapped my arms around his neck, accepting his hungry kiss. His skin was warm; wherever he’d gone, it was outside.
“Are you ready?” he asked, pulling away.
“Am I ready for what?”
“We’re going to play.”
This was insane. Period.
I looked at the large church and shook my head for the hundredth time.
“So, do we have a plan?”
“Yeah, kill everyone, make sure they’re dead, and go home,” Grimm tossed out.
“Gabe isn’t a loner like Azel; there’s going to be lots of other people in there.”
“I called in some friends,” Romero finally said.
I looked at him for an explanation but he didn’t give one.
“Do your friends wear creepy hooded robes and walk like cult members?” Arlen asked in a dry tone. “Cause they’re here.”
Turning in my seat, my jaw slackened as a surge of people in black robes washed through the parking lot and headed straight for Gabe’s abode.
“Let’s go.”
With no other choice, I climbed out and barely missed getting plowed over by a group of four…people.
“So creepy,” Arlen mumbled, coming to stand beside me.
It was majorly creepy. Everyone in a black robe had a white mask on and a large leviathan cross hanging around their neck. The inverted cross tattooed beneath Romero and his friends’ eyes was painted in the corners on either side of the odd masks.
My mind was screaming something at me but I couldn’t hear it or I didn’t understand. Where had all these people come from?
“Come on,” Cobra said, jogging ahead of us.
We were almost at the doors when a group of people in the black robes rushed through them, and they all began stampeding in. Glass shattered from others breaking in through the windows. A symphony of screams filled the air soon after.
By time I was able to walk in, complete pandemonium had erupted. Bodies lay on the floor, in the aisles, and over the backs of pews. The cross that hung on the back wall had been knocked down, tearing a chunk of drywall down with it.
Spotting Father Gabe in the back of the church trying to sneak away, I zeroed in on him and took off after him. I hopped over a woman who had had her neck gouged open, and a man whose nose was half-gone. Blood coated the marble floor, making me slip more than a few times.
I was a little surprised to find Gabe in his office alone, pacing back and forth. It wasn’t until I slipped in and shut the door that I saw he had a silver gun in his hand. Shock, recognition and anger played out on his features as he immediately recognized who I was.
“You’ve got to be shitting me. Calista.” He gave me the same smile he used to give right before sticking his dick in me.
I stepped forward and he raised the gun. I stepped forward again, and he narrowed his eyes. “So, this is what you’ve been doing?” He laughed a brittle laugh and shook his head.
“Where are your friends, Father? I was hoping we could all play.” I used the same line David had taught me, and the same innocent voice; he slightly wavered.
Smiling, I persisted.
“Would you like me on my knees, Father, or do you want me bent over the desk?”
“I know what you’re doing, Calista. I wasn’t born yesterday. Don’t take another step unless you want a bullet in your skull.”
“I promise I’m harmless.” I held my hands up in a defensive gesture, slowly turning in a complete circle, facing him again with a smile. “See, I’m still your sweet candy girl.”
His beady eyes roamed up and down my body. I could guarantee if he touched his dick it would be hard—but then, he’d have to find it first.
“Where the fuck have you been?” He slackened his grip on the gun, quickly tightening it again when I moved forward.
“I’m just gonna have a seat, okay? My legs are sore. I’ve started this really intense exercise regimen. It involves my legs being around someone’s neck while they shove their cock inside me so far and so hard I can barely breathe.”
I hopped up on the desk and crossed a leg, propping my chin in my hand.
“Sounds fun, right? You should try it sometime. It almost sounds as good as all your delegates being brutally slaughtered right now.”
He snarled at me and flew across the office. Grabbing a fistful of hair, he pointed the gun right at my temple. “You always were a homicidal slut.”
“Aw, thank you.”
I winced as he shook me a few times back and forth, hitting me in the side of the head with his gun.
“Ouch. That really hurt.” I scowled at him, blinking away tears of pain, feeling a trickle of blood rolling down the side of my face.
“If this church is going down, so are you and I. Open your legs.” He glanced at the door, keeping the gun trained on me.
I stiffly spread my legs apart, reminding myself of what I was doing there.
“Do
you wanna hear a secret?”
He moved forward until he was in between my legs. “Tell me your secret, Cali.”
Eager to oblige, I wrapped one arm around his neck and leaned towards him.
“I found a lover, Father. I found a lover in the devil and any second now he’s going to come through that door and fucking tear you apart.”
He immediately stepped back. I grinned up at him. On perfect cue, his office door flew open with such force it left a hole in the drywall.
I watched his facial expression and stature go from smug and confident to shocked and terrified. His fear was tangible. Using his distraction against him, I kicked him in the balls and snatched the gun from his hand.
“I guess I’m right on time.” Romero stepped into the room and shut the door with his foot. He had bloodstains on his face and his clothes.
Gabe breathed something under his breath that I couldn’t make out clearly. He was looking at Romero as if the reckoning had arrived and this was his judgment day. Well, I suppose it kinda was.
Romero’s eyes dropped between my legs, bouncing back up to study my face. I offered him a smile and the gun.
“Get in the corner,” he directed Gabe, who scrambled to comply.
He came to stand in front of me and gently skimmed his knuckles near the area I’d been hit with the gun, taking it from my hand.
Beyond the office, I could hear the remaining windows shattering, the echoing boom of pews being overturned, and the occasional scream of someone new being discovered by the robed figures.
I reached up and touched the side of Romero’s face, feeling his rage building in his veins.
“There’s two left in the chamber.”
“You hear that, Gabriel? I’m gonna give you that many more chances to live.” He brought the barrel of the gun to my mouth. I closed my lips around it and ran my tongue up and down the cool metal. Pulling it out, he mimicked my action before lowering it between my open thighs. He grinned at me when he saw I had no underwear on.
I placed my hands behind me and gripped the edge of the desk as the hard metal was eased inside me. Gabriel’s breath audibly hitched when I groaned.
“You’re beautiful,” Romero mused, pulling the gun out and pushing it back in. My inner muscles stretched and clamped around it, a little gush of arousal lubing the barrel.
“Rome,” I sighed, bringing one hand to my clit as he slowly fucked me with the pistol.
The first empty click seemed louder than the carnage outside the door. My breath stitched, my arousal heightened.
“That’s one,” Romero counted. He twisted the solid metal inside me, going a little deeper. I increased the speed of my fingers, rolling my hard nub faster. The second click sounded. I whimpered and propped myself up on my elbows.
“Two,” he counted again, his voice a little deeper.
“You’re both fucking insane…mad in the blood,” Gabriel spat from his corner, not daring to move.
“We know,” Romero said just before the third click.
I felt a tightening in my lower stomach but I fought the feeling. There was hard metal inside me when I wanted him.
“Kill him and fuck me, please,” I begged. The gun immediately disappeared, covered in my juices.
I reached for his pants and fought to free his erection.
“Please, Deville, we can––” The gun went off twice, sending his blood and brain matter spraying up the wall. Romero tossed it to the side and entered me with one solid thrust before the priest’s body hit the floor.
“Fucking beautiful,” he murmured, kissing on my neck before wrapping a hand around it. I gripped his perfect toned ass and pulled him deeper, wrapping my legs around his waist. His cock filled me up, creating a deep suctioning sound every time he moved in and out.
“Harder,” I demanded, and immediately received.
I stared at the fresh blood running down the gray wall and felt the same tightening in my lower belly.
“I need you to come, baby.” He lifted me by the neck, bringing me to the edge of the desk so he could go deeper. His mouth hit mine hard, and animal instinct took over.
We bit and sucked at one another, having the same carnal need to devour one another. I rolled my hips, meeting him thrust for thrust.
Things poured from my mouth I thought I would never say. The smell, sighs and moans suffocated us until the pressure inside me unexpectedly burst, sending electric shocks up and down my spine and my come soaked his dick, running down the crevice of my ass.
He followed after, coming with me when his cock jerked and triggered another rush of pleasure.
We stayed pressed together; body to body, soul-to-soul, breathing each other in.
He pulled back and gripped both sides of my face, planting one last lingering kiss on my lips.
“We’re gonna be legends.”
I pecked his cheek, feeling warmth in my chest from his words. He helped me off the desk, steadying me on my trembling legs. We walked back through what remained of the church, passing hooded figures that stopped what they were doing when they saw us.
I was blissfully unaware of what was really happening.
When the church went up in flames, we stood and watched, and I loved the way the fire warmed my face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I think I was starting to befriend the strange girl who dwelled within one part of me.
The devil on my shoulder reached out a hand to my fallen angel and they formed a truce.
Over the next two weeks, things were relatively peaceful. Every day, I fell a little more for my beloved monster. Our demons played at our feet while we got lost in one another over and over again.
I chose to live in my bubble of bliss for just a while longer before summoning the courage to bring up Tito. I hadn’t heard from him, but I figured if Tito knew anything about Simon’s death, his common sense had kicked in and he was playing it safe.
It wasn’t until the third week things got strange.
I was woken up by the noise.
It sounded like the biggest block party of the century was taking place inside the warehouse. Swinging my feet out of bed, I walked across the floor, feeling the bass vibrate through my soles.
Flipping on the bathroom light, I frowned at Arlen’s cosmetology job in the mirror, lifting my temporarily dyed strands of hair. She’d been struck with the idea after hearing Romero tell me I brought color to his world. His exact words: “It’s always so fucking dark in my head. You make me see color again, vivid colors: pink and blue, green and purple.”
He said this while we were in bed so I wasn’t sure if I’d fucked him so hard he saw a rainbow when he came or he was being sweet.
I splashed some water on my face, swirled some mouthwash, pulled my shoes on, and left the room.
People were everywhere.
Some wore the hooded robes from the night we burned down the church; others barely wore anything. They all had the inverted cross tattooed beneath their eye, or somewhere else visible on their bodies.
Five Finger Death Punch’s Cradle to the Grave blasted through the air at a deafening decibel.
I shoved my way through dancing, writhing bodies, from people openly fucking and rude assholes who wouldn’t move when I said excuse me.
Glancing over the banister, I saw Arlen’s usual resting spot on the couch occupied by Cobra and a busty brunette. Hanging down from the ceiling was a large flag with the official symbol of Satan printed on it.
By the time I made it to the lower level and headed towards the back of the warehouse where the doors were wide open, Cut the Cord had began to play and I’d tripped over two dead bodies—both nuns.
I reached the doors and took a minute to gather my composure, not wanting to believe what was obviously right in front of me.
There was a large crowd gathered around the man sitting like a king on a throne in the middle of a clearing. Someone had painted a pentacle in the dirt. There were four wooden stakes hammered into th
e ground at different points of the star.
“Here’s the woman of the night,” a soft voice said, almost right in my ear.
I sidestepped and did a quick onceover of the redhead who had come up behind me, noting her tattoo was located on her neck.
“Oh, he got you good,” she laughed, staring at Romero a little too intently for my liking.
“Can you speak like a regular human?” I cut off her view and leveled her with an unimpressed stare.
“Calm down and look around you. Everyone looks at him the way I do.
That’s what happens when you start sleeping with a man with power.”
I blinked at her, not saying a word.
“You had to know you were consorting with the devil,” she scoffed.
“I…” I let the sentence die, looking back out at Romero. She was completely serious. I’d already established that the Savages were a fucking gang of cult worshippers of all things, worshippers of Romero to be more exact.
Having knowledge of something and physically seeing it, though, were two entirely different things. The man I adored was revered as the actual devil. It wasn’t just a nickname. I felt like I’d taken acid and was still on a trip.
“He has you now, sweetheart. I can already see the web he’s woven around your poor little soul. One minute he adores you, the next you’re scared shitless he’s going to kill you for blinking wrong.” She tossed her cigarette down and snuffed it with the heel of her shoe.
“Whose fucking idea was it to give him something so pure? Your corruption was unquestionably going to happen.”
“I was never pure.”
“You have a heart, darling. That’s good enough.” She brushed past me and walked into the crowd.
“Goddamn it.” I dropped my head and closed my eyes, pressing my hands to my temples. I didn’t fully yet understand what did any of this meant.
Lifting my head, I locked eyes with his and like a tethered ball and chain he pulled me to him. People openly stared at me as I walked by, eyeing me with curiosity.
“What the hell is this?” I wasted no time asking as he turned me around and sat me on his lap, pressing my back to his chest.
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