She stalks me, dragging the bat along the wall. “You marrying Darian and having his babies could have been a solid plan in our fight against the Exodus, what with such fine breeding, but you had to go and fall for him like a fucking fool.” She cocks her head to the side. “And now you’re a liability.”
“Let’s talk about this, Lauren.”
She stops and laughs. “Talk?”
“Yes… Please, I’m begging you, whatever is going on inside your head, it’s not true. I’m not your enemy. Nothing has changed.”
Her smile takes on a dark edge. “Nothing has changed?” she asks, spinning around and walking back to the body. “Then you won’t mind me killing him? He’s an enemy of the Antichrist, right?” She raises the bat above her head, about to strike his skull, and looks at me. “I bet he won’t be so pretty when his head is bashed in like a melon.”
“No!” I rush forward before I can think clearly, and a victorious smile twists her mouth.
“No?” she asks, bat poised to strike. “I thought you said nothing had changed. So you’re a liability, after all.”
She sets off after me, and I let out a terrified gasp as I flee down the hallway, but I don’t make it far before Antonio appears out of nowhere and blocks my path. “In a hurry somewhere?”
I glance behind me to see Lauren dragging her bat along the wall, a manic grin contorting her facial features.
“It’s over, princess,” she taunts. “Your precious Greta isn’t here to save you this time.”
Hope flares as Ari walks around the corner and takes in the scene, her short hair swept off her puckering forehead.
“What’s going on?” she asks, glancing from Lauren and the bat to Antonio, who blocks my only escape route.
“It’s a misunderstanding,” I rush out, at the same time Antonio says gruffly, “She escaped the room.”
Ari’s brows shoot up, and she looks genuinely surprised. “Thomas abandoned his post?”
“Who knows,” Antonio replies, his eyes on me. “The boy sprouts an erection at the slightest thing, so it wouldn’t surprise me if our little girl here used that to her advantage.”
His knowing smirk makes me sick to my stomach. I try to escape past him again, but he grabs me by the shoulders and shoves me so hard that I fall to the floor. “Stay down, bitch.”
I scramble away and press myself against the wall. From this angle, he appears even taller and bigger, and I realize I can’t escape past him without a weapon.
Ari studies me. “Is it true that you’re in love with the Elder?”
I look from her to Lauren to Antonio and back to Ari. “Eat horseshit, all of you.”
Antonio bursts out laughing. “Horseshit? I like that. Very original.”
“You think you’re so fucking brave, huh?” Lauren says as her heels click on the floor.
She puts the bat beneath my chin, tilting it up, and I swallow as my heart drums an irregular beat. “You’re ours now, princess, and we don’t have to pretend to like you anymore. You’re nothing but an Exodus slut.”
I feel tears trail down my cheeks as she smiles cruelly, and my gaze flicks to the others, seeing the hatred sparkling in their eyes. For years, I considered them my family. I trusted them. We planned our revenge on the Exodus together. We were fighting for a common causetogether.But it’s obvious now that they never cared about me. None of it was real. Did Keith and Carlo hate me, too? Did they pretend to care for me? Was it all a lie? Did the Antichrist use me as a pawn from the very beginning?
“Don’t look like such a kicked puppy. I promise we won’t hurt you and your precious boyfriend—much.”Lauren’s honeyed voice cuts through my warring thoughts.
She raises the bat to swing it at me, but before she gets the chance, Darian appears behind Ari and wraps his arm around her neck.
It all happens so fast. One minute, his eyes meet mine over Ari’s shoulder, and the next, a sickening snap fills the room.He launches himself at Antonio next, and I use the moment of surprise to throw myself at Lauren’s legs. She topples to the floor with a yelp, and we tussle for the bat.
“You fucking bitch,” she says, kneeing me between my legs as I try to secure her wrists. Then she rolls over onto her stomach, reaching for the bat, but I grip her by the hair and slam her face into the floor, breaking her delicate little nose with a loud crunch.
“Fucking gross,” I mutter, launching forward to grab the bat.
Lauren looks up, cupping her bleeding nose, her eyes filled with anger. In a swift move, she takes off her heel and drives it into the back of my bare calf.
I cry out as white-hot pain sears through my leg, leaving me whimpering and breathing heavily.
