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“So, we’re the bait,” Bella stated sarcastically.
Luce pulled open the rear passenger door for me, and Cam helped me in, climbing up next so that he could sit beside me.
Bella sat on the other side of him, while Ice and Luce took their respective seats up front. Three other SUVs followed ours away from the compound, each holding four acolytes.
I stared out the window for the first half of the trip, taking in all the landscape and occasional dwellings. Two or three times we passed small groups of people going about their day, all shouting something I assumed was Spanish or Latin when they spotted the fleet.
“Is that bad?” I asked no one in particular.
“It’s a phrase of worship,” Cam explained.
“Oh.” I really needed to learn about the ins and outs of this faction.
“What can you tell us about this Rory person?” Luce asked after another few minutes.
“Bella doesn’t remember hearing that name, and our leads came up with a profile definitely not matching with Lilith,” Cam expanded on Luce’s vagueness.
I pulled my attention away from what appeared to be someone’s severed head stuck on top of a stick, serving as a mile-marker. What the hell was wrong with people? Was using wood really that inconvenient?
“All I know about Lazarus is what was whispered in the halls. Samael has a woman by his side named Rory, the sister of the Savage twins. I don’t remember ever hearing anything about a Lilith.”
“In so many words, someone at A.R.C is full of shit. The old story about your dad could be true. Or some woman is claiming to be someone she isn’t,” Ice listed.
“That’s my takeaway from it,” Cam answered.
“Then Samael would still be hiding Lil,” Bella stated, “to the point that people don’t even know she exists.”
I was lost in this whole conversation. I didn’t know anything about these people, or this Lilith. I’d heard rumors about Samael, though. I knew he had gotten a nickname that translated into evil.
I found Luce’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Is he really as bad as people say?”
“He’s worse.”
“Then Lilith, your sister,” I nodded to Cam. “She’s not safe?”
The car got so quiet I could hear the wind whipping by outside.
“That’s not an easy question to answer,” Ice spoke first.
“He’s always been more when it came to Lil. More protective, more obsessive, more possessive. He wouldn’t hurt her, but she isn’t safe with him either,” Cam explained.
“Samael has always been a wolf. Lilith is a lamb. What do you think the wolf does when no one is watching?” Luce added.
Nothing I wanted to say while Cam and Bella were in such close proximity. If he was keeping this girl hidden, he’d done a good job of it for no one to ever say her name.
“What’s the story he’s talking about?” I asked Cam, referring to what Ice had just said about his dad.
“In so many words, my dad had a kid with someone before getting with my mom. It supposedly died. I don’t know the exact details of how or why.”
That sounded like a real shit-show, and sad.
“How does the Lazarus and Stag thing work?” I changed the subject, not wanting to take him to a bad place.
“Lazarus is Stag, and Stag is Lazarus. Their alliance is basically two branches of a faction weaved together,” Luce explained.
“He took the best parts of both and created his own. That’s why you thought our insignia was theirs. So far, we’ve pieced together he has two,” Cam expanded. “The move’s as genius as it is insane.”
Everything they were saying fit the basic description all the rumors painted. He was a miscreant. He followed no laws but his own and took being ruthless to a whole new level.
