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It’s beenthree hours since we’ve come home from the ritual, baring tattoos inked with the ash of our first kill. How fucking convenient for the boy Halen killed to be marked up so badly that none of us could recognize him in the off chance that we did.
The tumbler resting against my mouth swirls with whiskey as the endless glass walls circle the rotunda-style tower. Offering a full three-sixty view of Riverside, it’s a watch tower, but no one is actually here to watch. It’s more of a space away from everyone and everything except for the people in this room.
“You gonna move the tower over to your property?” I ask Priest as he lights the tip of his cigarette.
“Yeah, in a couple months.” He blows out a billow of smoke. “Completion should be in a few weeks.” Lucky bastard. Bishop and Madison have been building Priest’s palace of nightmares since we were in high school. Vaden and I only just approved our plans last year.
It’s not surprising that the tower will be moved to his property, considering it’s burrowed in the mountains of the highest point in Riverside, behind the Castle.
Fitted out with opulence, a neoclassical-style bar centers the room and sets the overall vibe, beside a rustic industrially designed table that’s paired with eight modernized velvet chairs. No rooms, but two king-sized beds on either side, and if that won’t do it, there’s a monster U-shaped sofa. You’re up shit creek with the chesterfield if you miss out on the beds and sofa.
My mind keeps drifting back to the ritual. Bishop was older than Priest when he took the gavel, yet somehow, I know Priest is ready. Even if he isn’t, he’s going to have to be.
“Sit.” Priest gestures to the chairs around the table after rounding the kitchen that’s built into the back of the bar.
After Priest lowers to the head of the table, Halen sits to my right and Vaden falls opposite. River hooks her arm around Vaden as she lowers beside him and opposite Halen, as Stella connects to Halen’s right.
“We can start with what you have been doing for the past five years. Any hidden skeletons that we need to bury?” Priest’s gaze filters through the three of them.
The heat of Halen’s tension burns as the tongue of flames lick the side of my face. Nah. We ain’t doing that.
My chair scrapes against the marble floor when I push back a smidge, just enough to notice the cues when she’s trying to hide some shit.
The muscle in her jaw bounces when I snicker around the hollow curve of my glass. The only woman walking this earth who is close enough to flip my detonate switch.
“We’ll go first.” Air hisses through my teeth when the liquor burns down my throat. “What you saw on Perdita wasn’t the only time we were playing around. Pledges are for our enemies, but we also have recruits. They’re who are offered from families who owe us favors, money, whatever, and can’t pay up in time so they give us a kid—”
Vaden shuffles in his chair.
“Dark.” Stella gazes off into the distance.
River glares at me. “A bit much, don’t you think? Even I have damn boundaries.”
I flip her off. River’s said boundaries are why she and Vaden get on so damn well. I wonder what will happen if—I mean, when—that changes.
“What I was about to say before being interrupted, is that we eventually let them go. We set them up and fuck them off to another connected organization or order.”
Priest’s finger works his upper lip. “Sometimes. Wesometimesset them free. This is a new thing after reaching a compromise. I don’t give a shit about their lives, but War does, so we agreed that we’d eighty-six the parent who sent them in instead. How it unfolds, really just depends on, I don’t know," his eyes darken, “my mood.”
It’s painfully obvious how quiet Halen is.
“What organization or orders?” Stella’s head jerks back. “We don’t fuck with anyone else.”
“Midnight Mayhem.” I cut her off without addressing her. “You’re right, we don’t fuck with any other societies or orders, but these young people are not one of us. They can go wherever, and since Midnight Mayhem have now split into four different countries to run four styles of… acts,” I pause when the last word leaves my mouth because we all know they’re anything but, “it’s made it easier for us to distribute out the human payments. Again, we’ve only done this a few times now. It could change.”
With the risk of triggering him, I push through Priest’s earlier confession. “Or there are times when the recruits come from people who are connected to the world through a lesser family line, but want a closer title. They come to us as they are—” The bounce of my knee intensifies as I tap my Zippo against my thigh. “—and they leave us in a box, because none of us wanta fucking groupie as a wife. Except maybe Aire. Pretty sure he’d hit.”
Halen’s eyes slant on mine as the Zippo snaps closed.
“You mean you groom them?” Her tone is as flat as the expression on her face.
I shrug, leaning back in my chair and kicking out my leg. My gaze flickers down to her wrist, before traveling back to her face. “Sure, if that’s how you want to put it.”
“Then what?” Stella pipes up, and if I know Stella, which I do, I’d say she is way too happy with this. “This is kind of… hot.”
Vaden runs his hand through his hair. Stella stresses him right the fuck out. Unlike Priest, he has emotions. He shields them from most, but he has them. Not to be confused with soft, because he’d still take your head off.
He blows out a breath, his raven hair a mess and his cheeks pinched pink. “Stella. We don’t bring home strays. They’re for play, not to stay.”
