Deviants

by Natalie Bennett

  By the time they were finished, he was no longer recognizable as a human being. He was missing chunks of blonde hair. His skin was black, blue, and bloody. His body looked unnatural and clearly broken. They’d finished him off by carving a large leviathan cross down his stomach.

  Both men were breathing heavily, covered in blood and sweat. Unsure what to do, I slowly stood up with the intention to give them a minute alone. They’d clearly needed this one kill much more than I did.

  Romero’s eyes flashed to mine and cemented me to the floor.

  “Get the torques ready. We need a minute.” He spoke to Grimm but continued to stare at me. Looking between us, Grimm nodded, grabbed Jonah’s large, broken body, and left the room.

  “You were going to come in here alone with him.”

  Okay. That wasn’t the first thing I’d expected him to say, but I understood why he’d be pissed. I had never seen Romero lose control of himself, but there was a first time for everything.

  He wasn’t a get-angry-in-your-face kind of psycho. He was a silent killer. He raged inside and only showed it through his actions. He’d just brutalized a man and barely spoken a word the entire time. His eyes told a different story.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?”

  “I wasn’t,” I admitted. The steel in his voice had part of me ready to hide under the desk, but I refused to cower, and I honestly hadn’t been thinking. All I knew was that he couldn’t get away. Now that it came back to me, I saw how reckless it was.

  “I shouldn’t have done that. I won’t do it again.”

  “I know you won’t, because I’m taking you home,” he replied, cool as ice.

  “You’re going to keep me at your warehouse while you––”

  “That’s not our home.” He cut me off. “This isn’t a debatable topic. I don’t give a shit what you do once you’re there, but it’s the best place for you. There’s a fucking tiny army of Savages that will die for you there. There’s a doc on standby. I need you to do this without fighting me. It makes me fucking crazier than I already am every time you go off on your own.

  “I’d tear this whole motherfucking world apart if something happened to either one of you. I can’t lose you.”

  I swallowed, opened my mouth and then shut it again. He hadn’t said a damn thing wrong. He’d said everything right. The rawness in his voice tore at my heartstrings.

  “I will bring David to you alive. We can still end this together,” he added in a quieter voice.

  “Okay. I’ll go.”

  “Okay?” he asked in disbelief.

  “Yeah, okay. It’s the best thing for Baby S, and you just said you’d bring David to me. You took all my ammunition away before I could even load it.”

  I wouldn’t play at his emotional state. This was rare form for him, and that would be wrong on so many levels, so I eased back into his comfort zone with wit. I was becoming quite good at that.

  “Cali.” He gave me a whole different kind of look and I knew exactly what it meant.

  “Rome,” I retorted, pretending to be oblivious and failing.

  He was covered in blood and had just destroyed a man in front of me; he’d never looked fucking better. I don’t think I’d ever wanted him more.

  “Get up and turn around. I want you bent over that fucking desk.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  It was painfully intense.

  I was completely naked.

  He was behind me on his knees with his tongue inside my pussy and the handle of his knife easing in and out of my ass.

  I’d already come once. He pulled away and sunk his teeth into my right cheek. I bit my lip to stifle a moan. The knife disappeared and something wet replaced it.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see him holding his freshly cut fist over my ass, letting blood drip down the crevice. I could have come again from that visual alone.

  “Rome, hurry up.” I pushed back at him, arousal making my pussy clench when his onyx hues looked into mine. “Can you take your shirt off?”

  His pristine grin was full of devilry, disappearing as he pulled his bloody T-shirt off and let it drop to the floor. I drank in his wildly inked body, wishing I was facing the other way so I could stroke the wicked looking skull.

  He eased behind me, smearing his bloody fist up and down his dick before spreading my ass cheeks apart and shoving inside with no warning. The immediate pressure was overwhelming. I was so full of him, I thought I was going to rip in half.

  I choked on a scream, grabbing the desk to brace myself. He grabbed hold of my throat to keep me upright; his other hand lifted my leg and hooked it over his arm, leaving me to balance on one.

  He pummeled me. His dick drove into my ass like it had committed a crime against him and this was punishment. The blood quickly lost its slickness and all I felt was every solid inch of him thrusting in and out. It hurt in a beautiful agonizing way, a way only he had ever made me feel.

  “Fuck, Rome!” I gripped his wrists so hard my nails dug in.

  “Say it again,” he breathed in my ear, kissing down my neck.

  “Romero,” I moaned, as he picked up his pace, leaving me a quivering, screaming mess.

  “Play with my pussy, baby. Touch what belongs to me.”

  My hand immediately flew between my spread legs. It was a miracle I could concentrate. I fucked myself with my fingers while he dominated my ass.

  “You feel so fucking good. This will always be mine,” he growled, biting down on my shoulder and bottoming out.

  “Yours, all yours,” I agreed, feeling heat gathering in my core.

  His grip on my throat tightened, and he dug his fingers into my thigh. I felt his solid abs against my back. I moved my fingers to my clit, rolling it in a circular motion. “Holy shit, Romero! I’m––”

  I grabbed hold of his wrists with my hands, unintelligible words poured from my mouth, mixed in with a barrage of unrestrained moans.

  I saw colors I didn’t even know existed.

  It felt so good, I started crying while I was coming.

  “Cali.” I heard him laugh and opened my eyes.

  I was leaning my head back against his chest, missing the part where he came and it was now running down my ass crack. He stood me up and kept his arms around my waist.

  Slowly turning in his arms, I laid my cheek on his damp chest and shut my eyes. When I finally looked up at him, I placed a soft kiss on his lips.

  Being in his arms brought back the things in my head I’d temporarily pushed aside. I needed to process all it meant and ask a question I already knew the answer to, because it made too much sense. First thing first, though; I needed to get out of damn Jericho.

  “You ready to burn a church down?”

  His soft laugh was the only response I needed.

  We watched the church burn together. Jonah and the delegates burned with it.

  His broken body was secured by the padlocks on the front door. The roof groaned and shifted as parts of the old building caved in. Flames reached into the darkened sky as our sign of victory. We had no lead on the other bishop or David, but this was still a pretty big deal.

  “Romero, who is your real father?”

  I kept my eyes trained straight ahead. I didn’t think he was going to answer me.

  “David made me, but that pathetic piece of shit will never be my father. Or yours.”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Grimm shift beside him, uncomfortably.

  That had me turning my head to meet his stare. “Brock is.”

  What?

  “Brock is what?”

  “Your father,” he said calmly.

  “The cannibal? Grimm’s––that would make––”

  “I’m your half-brother,” Grimm cut in.

  What the entire fuck?

  This wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting Romero to admit David was his father; the evidence of that was astounding. David hugged him, and David had only ever hugged his sons. He didn
’t let any man that close to him without making a power play. That’s why the hug had always bothered me so much.

  He came from The Order. He and Grimm weren’t blood brothers, and Brock clearly was Grimm’s father, making the signs point back to David.

  One of the most obvious red flags was the fact that he was able to leave the Order at all, and only David would have allowed that. If it were anyone else ,they’d be dead, but Romero was his son, and David’s sons were like gold to him.

  He and Brock weren’t close. Jonah told him his father was proud of him—referring to David—and that’s what really honed it in for me.

  Romero owned the Badlands. He was strong and lethal. He was everything David would be pissing himself in joy over, because he was his son.

  My brain was ready to implode. Romero did a lot of morally questionable things, but I knew he’d never touch me if I was his sister. I didn’t ever consider the possibility of my real father being a goddamn cannibal. Or that the man I thought was my father might have no relation to me at all, depending on who my mother was.

  “This is…this is…”

  “It’s a lot to take in, I know. Why don’t you and Arlen ride with Grimm? We need to go, and I know you want space.”

  Glancing up at him, I wasn’t sure what to say.

  We all began branching off, leaving the burning church behind us.

  Romero remained silent as he walked me to the passenger seat of the second jeep.

  “I love you. Just thought you should know,” I said softly. I didn’t need a special moment or shining stars, and I was likely to kick his ass if he tried to give me a candlelit dinner, so what better time than the here and now?

  What better time than when I needed him to know I was still all in? It would always be him in the end, even if the foundation beneath our feet caved in and the walls came tumbling down around us.

  “I know you do, baby.” He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips to my forehead. “This shit won’t always be easy. Love…is just a word to me, but you taught me how to define the feeling. It’s how I feel inside, and how fucking insane you make me. I want to kill you half the motherfucking time, but the need to keep you is overwhelming.

  “You’re the queen to my king. I’ll worship the ground you walk on as long as you always walk beside me.”

  “I’ll always be beside you. I don’t need perfection, Rome. I just need you and all your insanity.”

  He cupped my face in my hands, kissing me hard before stepping back again to open my door. I climbed inside and watched him walk away.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  We drove for hours.

  The first two, it was awkward as hell.

  Three was unbearable, and I had to say something.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I tossed out honestly.

  That apparently was the right thing to say; Grimm seemed to relax visibly. I studied him from my peripheral. We looked nothing alike. His skin was tan and covered in tattoos. His hair was dark brown with naturally lighter strands on top.

  He kept it brushed back or trimmed short. Same with his beard; it was either full or freshly shaven. His eyes were dark, too.

  Everything about Grimm had an edge of darkness about it, just like the man himself. He was quiet and hard to read. I could easily see how he and Romero had ended up so close.

  He let out a sigh and glanced at me a brief second before giving the road his attention. “I meant it when I said someone should have been there for you. I’m not sure how this all works, but I’m here now. Always.”

  I nodded, finding it hard to voice a worthy response. The feelings talk had drained me enough already, and this was something I needed to process in my own time.

  Silence reigned again, but it was different. Companionable.

  By the time we reached where we were going, my head was still all over the place, and my ass was numb from sitting for so long.

  It all momentarily faded away as Grimm approached a twelve-foot barbed-wire fence. All I saw was an expansive desert-like field.

  There was a guard shack on either side of the lone gate. Three acolytes manned each one. They had guns similar to those the skinners had carried.

  Two held what looked like thin tow chains turned into leashes for the beasts at the end of them. They were funny shaped and had spots.

  “Are those fuckin hyenas?” Arlen asked incredulously.

  “Max and Toby,” Grimm answered, almost affectionately.

  “They’re kinda cute,” I mused.

  A buzzer went off, and the gate slid open with a clicking sound. Our small fleet of vehicles pulled through and continued down a long road.

  “Where exactly are we goin?” Arlen asked after a minute rolled by.

  “Home. The house is just up ahead.”

  “You sure it’s not a prison?” I mumbled.

  He laughed aloud and shook his head.

  “Holy shit.” I stared up at the monstrous house rising in the distance.

  “Your man’s been holdin out,” Arlen breathed.

  The place was gorgeous, but I wouldn’t call it a house.

  I heard a whirring noise and turned my head to see a golf cart heading off across the field.

  “There are acolytes at the gate and four sets of two that constantly circle the fence,” Grimm explained.

  “His following is crazy,” I said, more to myself than them.

  “He’s loyal to those loyal to him,” Bryce stated. “They have homes on the rear of this property and everything they could need: food, water, clothes, and electricity.”

  “So he has a compound full of devil worshipping psychos?” Arlen sarcastically drawled.

  I smiled and shook my head.

  “Romero is the devil, so I guess he has an army of worshipping psychos.”

  Before she could say anything else, we were pulling around a circular drive and stopping.

  Romero was at my door the second my seatbelt was off. He pulled me out and looked me over from head to toe.

  “What do you think?” he asked once he was satisfied I hadn’t harmed myself on our journey.

  “I think you need to explain why she’s here.” I not so discreetly pointed at Dhal. I had full confidence he wanted nothing to do with her in that way’ she still wasn’t living us under one roof.

  “I wasn’t making a pit-stop to drop her ass off. She’s not staying, so don’t start your girly shit,” he smirked and took my hand, leading me towards the front door.

  We were the last to enter the house. Cobra was already leading Arlen up the stairs, boasting about her being his new housemate. The second the conditioned air hit my skin I noticed a few key elements.

  1: The house wasn’t actually that much larger than his warehouse and had the same setup—almost.

  2: Romero had a lucarative lifestyle because of his position; he had nice, luxurious things.

  3: The whole satanic theme was ten times worse here than at his old place.

  The main ceiling fixture was a black ram head in the center of an inverted pentacle that held four light fixtures.

  The large flag was on his open dining room hall, but black and white and instead of red and white. And the wall fixtures were deep golden ram heads that served as placeholders for candelabras in the shape of inverted crosses.

  Everything else was normal, if not a little too masculine––all dark brown hardwood and charcoal coloring.

  Romero didn’t bother giving me a tour or explaining his décor; he led me straight up the stairs and through a set of black double doors at the end of the hallway. He had me shoved against the wall with his mouth devouring mine without giving me a chance to look around. I kissed him back, greedily.

  He let me go and stepped away, running a hand over his lips. I inhaled the smell of him and looked around the room. The bed was black, large, and wrought iron. There were matching dressers and leather loveseat. A flat TV hung on one of the charcoal-colored walls.

  “It
’s very you,” I said, taking note of the Sigil of Baphomet on the ceiling above his bed.

  “You don’t find it creepy to have the symbol of Satan staring at you while you sleep?”

  “That symbol represents my life.”

  Right, he had a point.

  “We need to talk.” He peeled me off the door and led me to the sofa, sinking down with me on his lap.

  “I have the doc arriving tomorrow to check you over. I’ll be here until I get a lead, but I’ve got a lot of shit to catch up on. You’re free to do whatever you want here.”

  I nodded. I wanted him superglued to my side, but that really wouldn’t be the best idea for us considering how up and down we could get.

  Plus, someone had to make sure the Badlands stayed in order––that someone being him. There had to be something left to keep.

  “I get it.” I trailed a finger across his jawline.

  “And there’s a gathering tonight. I wanted to give you a heads-up.”

  “A gathering? Oh, fuck that!” I jumped off his lap and glared down at him. “You’re not doing that freaky goat shit with someone else. You can just cut off your dick right now if you expect me to be okay with that.”

  His mouth twitched, giving away the fact that he was trying to hold back a smile.

  “I would never let anyone touch my dick but you, Cali. That was an initiation; I won’t be claiming any other woman like that in this lifetime. This is just a gathering because I’ve been gone so long. I need to update them on what’s happening and let them see your face.”

  “Oh.” What else could I say? I was beginning to see this whole devil/king thing wasn’t a role or him playing a character; it was real life, our reality. I could accept it—no, I did accept it. I would proudly stand by his side like the queen I was.

  “How are you handling everything?” he asked.

  “Honestly, I don’t know.” I shrugged.

  I hadn’t given myself a chance to analyze what anything he’d said earlier meant. “I don’t consider either of those men my father. One used me, and the other left me. I’m more concerned about what was done to you.”