Page 84 of Circus From Hell

I need to ask Karma about her.

Arlo is the only one awake when I get back to the tent, and not for long if the way he’s rubbing his tired eyes says anything.

“Hey. Where did you go?”

“I paid a certain clown a special visit,” I grin, placing the bottle of whisky atop Karma’s vanity where Snake is curled up and sleeping soundly.

“Did you fuck him?” My head twists so fast to face him it nearly flies off. He gasps. “You did!”

I sit on the edge of the vanity and fold my arms. “No, I didn’t.”

“I can practically smell it on you. I know you did.”

I narrow my eyes on him. “I fucked his throat, okay? Had to put him in his place somehow.”

“Right… And that was the way to do it?”

“It was the most enjoyable way. Micha and Karma would have appreciated the state I left him in. Tears, spit, and cum covering his pathetic, bratty face. You two would look cute next to each other. Two brats in a pod.”

Micha still has his arm stretched over Karma’s waist, and Arlo is careful not to disturb either of them as he shifts away. I never thought I’d see either of those two sadists cuddling.

“Please don’t compare me to that maniac ever again. He gets off on fucking dead bodies and stuff.”

I raise an eyebrow and pointedly look at Karma. “Technically, so do you.”

“Technically,” he seethes. “Technicalities don’t count.”

“Anyway, I’ve got a special idea for Spiral. Micha will be picking it up later.”

“Don’t involve him in your plans. We want nothing to do with Spiral.”

“He’s onboard. I don’t think you know your stepbrother as well as you think.”

“I know him plenty, thank you.”

I shrug. “No need to be defensive. It was just an observation.”

I don’t like Arlo’s aggravated expression. I quite enjoyed it when he fell asleep on my back yesterday. He’s woken up on the wrong side of the bed, and that’s selfish, because anyone waking up next to Karma should be ecstatic.

“Come on,” I huff, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him to stand outside the tent so we don’t wake the others. He snarls but doesn’t fight. “What’s got you in a huff?”

“Nothing.”

“Right, so do I need to fuck the brattiness out of you as well this morning?” His eyes widen, and he looks away sheepishly. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Now tell me what’s up.”

He runs his fingers through his dishevelled blonde and pink curls. “Shit, I don’t know how to answer that.” Arlo sighs and watches the sunrise across the field. “We’ve had a messed-up night. I had some nightmares about those people in the house.”

“The ones that Karma ate?”

“Yeah, those ones. I don’t know how to feel. I know she can’t help it. That if I want to stick around, I need to get used to it. But I don’t know how to unsee things like that. It was so violent. I thought I was doing okay, but they came to me in my dream last night, begging me to save them.”

“You’re not wrong for feeling that way,” I say quietly. “But you’re right. If you want to stick around Karma, it’s something you’ll need to get used to. You shouldn’t have to do what you did last night. I agree, that was unfairly scary for you. We can come up with a better fix for the future to make sure it doesn’t get to that point again.”

Arlo smiles sadly, like he’s glad I appreciate how terrifying it could come across to him. Karma isn’t very good at empathy, and Arlo needs taking care of. Maybe I can help Micha take care of him.

I hadn’t realised that was something I might want.

Karma doesn’t need taking care of. She doesn’t need protecting. Steering, educating, hiding, maybe, but never protecting. I’m naturally a protector. I care about my pack, although I’ve never had the chance to have one, and these three have randomly come together to be exactly that. Even Micha, as tough as he wants to act.