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“Taking a man’s eye because he didn’t like the way he looked at a girl… that’s not Luce.”
As we turned a corner, my stomach did that stupidly annoying flip. “I don’t think he did that for me.”
“Psh. I know my brother. He’s protective over his family and his Badlands. That’s it.”
I wasn’t convinced. “He seems to be that way with Ice and Cam…”
She laughed, and the sound was like someone tapping a glass with a fork. Bella was perfect proof not to judge someone by appearance. Her looks and sweet demeanor would make you think she was delicate. I highly doubted that was the case.
“Luce doesn’t have friends; he can’t afford to. He’s got family. The acolytes. Ice and Cam. Heck, even Zane. That’s his family.”
Zane? I’d heard that name before. I couldn’t place it right then, though.
“Does that mean I’m an enemy?”
“Nah, I think you’re good. You’d be dead or being painfully tortured by now. We believe in gender equality.”
I was more confused now than I had been in a long while.
He let A.R.C know where I was. He could have killed me or given me back. He hadn’t done either. And now sending Calvin straight to their doorstep… was he trying to start a war?
Bella stopped walking, resulting in me doing the same. Releasing her hold on my arm, she turned so that we were facing one another.
“It’s not really my place to tell you what he’s up to, and honestly, with Luce you will never always know everything. Remember that for future reference. It can be rage inducing.”
“Is Cam like this too?”
“They have a lot in common. But for the most part? No way,” she laughed.
Turning so that we could begin walking again, she continued. “Cam is sweet even when he’s cruel.”
I didn’t know him well enough to agree or disagree with that. Calling him sweet felt like I’d be underestimating what he was capable of.
“He’s been through a lot. We all have, but Cam got the worst of it. I think he has a complex now, like he failed or something and has to make up for it somehow.”
Bella was rather open. While it was surprising, I didn’t mind. She wasn’t telling me anything that would incriminate or endanger her family, but even if she did, I had no one to tell.
I got the sense she needed this, the freedom to talk to someone who would listen. I remained silent and eyed the side of the building, realizing how large it was as we neared the next corner.
The smell in the air intensified as we turned, causing me to stop walking again.
Where was it coming from?
I searched the backyard, swallowing at the site of the massive crosses. They were different than the A.R.C’s. They had the Leviathan shape and were much larger, all three of them evenly spaced.
A large wooden dais was a few feet in front of them. The sun reflected off a Savage pentacle that had been engraved in its center. Beyond all this, at the furthest end of the yard were a flock of acolytes doing different tasks.
A small wooden building was situated behind them, mesh fencing keeping something inside. The culprit for the smell was the ravine like split in the ground, off to the right of them.
I watched on in silence as Tim’s body was carried over and tossed into it.
“They’ll burn them once they have a few more.”
“They’re not burning now?”
“Er…no?” She toyed with a strand of her long blonde hair. “It’s just hot as hell out here, no pun intended.”
So, the bodies were essentially baking. And rotting. I was beginning to see why the A.R.C burned their corpses immediately.
