Page 39 of Judas (The Lito Duet #2)

Chapter twenty

Judas

T his is weird—feeling anyone against me in this way, that is.

Part of me is warring with the young boy inside who has been starving for something more than anger and resentment.

While the other side is ready to snap Sadie’s neck for her entity touching what isn’t hers to touch.

I can’t, though, it’s not Sadie’s fault.

Then there’s the fact that I still need her alive for when Nadia gets here.

Stick to the plan, Lucien, no matter the anomaly. We cannot fail.

The darker one is a bit lenient right now, which is odd, but I’m not deviating.

I need her to sin and that’s what her gift is.

Wrenching her away, my hand still tangled in her hair, I drag her along with me.

Aiming for the door then the living space of the cabin.

The strange cackling she has produced in the past is now making its grand appearance.

I wonder if she has a much darker part of her, like I do.

Lingering about in the recesses of her mad little head, waiting until it needs to show its face.

Her tittering gives way to slurred words and some that make no sense at all.

I thought she was speaking in tongues on our way up here, but there’s no way this gibberish is tongues.

It’s too chaotic, as if there were several people speaking blended languages at once and the volume is too low to understand.

Reaching the common area, I lead her over and drop her where the other buckets of blood are gathering.

The girl hisses, actually hisses, when she gets too close and one nearly sloshes over after she lands beside it.

Unable to contain the laugh that escapes me, I observe her when she bounces up like some sort of spring-loaded toy—my era, of course, not hers.

Not Bathory, now, let’s poke this one.

“Name, give it,” Ordering the dweller.

Back at the island, giving the registrants that hold our interloper down a quick check, I turn and lean against the counter.

Arms folding over my chest, mimicking disinterest when that is not even remotely close to the truth.

This is far from reality, but in essence, I’m dying to know more.

Yearning to know about the ones that have taken my sweet girl hostage.

And from the looks of it, for a really long time.

What I don’t understand is why she is on Risperdal and is still acting so manically.

She’s young, underweight, and hasn’t taken her medication in days.

While unable to control the switching back and forth, she seems much less erratic now while she’s cooped up with me than she seemed when I plucked her out of her home.

It’s not working because she’s not a schizophrenic, Lucien. She has whole people living inside of her.

“That doesn’t matter, Mother. She still would have been more subdued when I abducted her than she is now.”

“Ooooohahaa,” Sadie sing-songs. “You are one of many, too.”

Not as fond of this voice as I was the last. It’s scratchy and slightly shrill—unnatural.

“Name,” I bite.

“Shhhhhhhhhh, we don’t ask what we don’t need to know.”

“Name.”

“Name, name, name, name, name, name, name…“ she repeats several times over.

Sadie’s arms reach out, similar to a crucifix, and it reminds me of the riot at Darkwater when I did something similar.

I hate how much she resembles me in her most uncontrolled moments.

Actually, it really irks me how much she is like everyone else and not quite individualized.

Well, for the most part, when her riders take over.

I’ve seen the real girl underneath; the immature behavior she still exhibits as a sixteen year old.

How she clings to the things that a younger child may gravitate to—she’s been like this for a really long time, I’m coming to realize.

My sweet girl hasn’t been young all her life, and here she is now, about to break into a world she won’t survive.

All because I deem it—and if that power isn’t intoxicating, I don’t know what is.

“Name!” I shout this time and that’s what catches her attention.

She comes to an eerie stop and sneers. Standing there, drenched in blood, angry, resentful, problematic, and all fucking mine.

“Kate Batts.” The name comes across in another hiss.

“The Bell Witch? What does the Bell Witch and Elizabeth Bathory have to do with a young girl from Michigan?”

Don’t dig any further, Lucien. We don’t need to know who all inhabits the girl. Make her sin.

Hmmm. Interesting.

“Never mind, come here. I have a gift for Sadie.”

“She’s tucked away for safety.”

“Bring her out.” I don’t have the patience for this.

When I kill her, after she takes Nadia out, then Sadie’s extra souls will hit the express lane back down to hell.

There’s no need for me to fight them now.

Pushing away from the counter, I wave the lunatic over and let her get a good look at what I’ve presented for Sadie.

A younger guy, somewhere in his early twenty’s.

I assume the other dead man is an older family member of his.

They may have very well been looking for shelter but I decided not to take any chances.

With another wave, Liz—er—Kate, saunters over and stands directly between me and the schmuck restrained to the table.

Leaning in, I cage her with an arm on each side, hands gripping the edge of the counter as I ghost my mouth near her ear.

She’s vibrating with a sick sort of darkness—something deep inside me relishes the thought of winding it around my fingers so tight she begs for me to liberate her.

I have a feeling Kate will bite, and it will fester. We can’t have that.

“I got this for you, Sadie. It’s safe to come out, I promise not to hurt you.”

My breath barely moves the strands of her hair which have been effectively glued to her face with the remnants of blood.

However, the way she starts to tremble and breathe heavier lets me know my darling niece is back with me.

I don’t wait; if I do, she will shut down and someone else will surface.

This is her chore. She needs to do this because as much as I want the three of us dead, I still cannot kill the innocent.

Snatching a knife from the counter, the metal scratches across the top in that unsettling scrape, I hand it to her.

Low and behold, I have to force her to take it.

Lifting her hand and prying the fingers open, I close the digits around the hilt while staring down at her. Horrified pale-blue eyes full of tears.

“What are you doing to me, Lucien?” Sadie barely gets the words out in a loud enough pitch for me to hear, but I catch them anyway. I love the way her voice drenches my name in fear.

“So pretty when you’re scared, Sadie. It’s okay, I will walk you through everything.

I see the longing in you. Wanting to be accepted and not judged for being different.

That’s all you want, isn’t it? You keep looking for someone who will understand how broken your mind feels sometimes and can help you find peace with it.

I’ll be that for you, sweet girl, if you want me.

You’ve gone far too long being watched, scrutinized, and vilified all because your psyche works differently than others.

Let you in on a little secret, Sadie, mine does too—my brain is like yours.

Letting me hear other voices, communicate with beings who don’t exist outside of my body.

They treat me poorly sometimes, have me do bad things, but all is forgiven in the end.

Do you want to belong somewhere where you’re understood?

Be with people like you, who will choose you even when you’re screaming and fighting them?

It can be us against the world, Sadie. There is no shame with me.

I’ll protect you, teach you how to manage them without needing the medication—I’ll love you. ”

If I had a heart, it would have broken then, seeing her crumble under the pure need to be accepted and adored.

Hate that for her, honestly; it’s a weakness and something we will need to break sooner rather than later.

As sure as the world is round, I doubt she will have the backbone needed to end Nadia’s life if I let her continue this way.

Which is why we are here now, ready to carve into this person neither one of us know—ready for her to transgress.

“Wh… what do I have to do?”

“That’s my girl. You’re going to kill this man, and I’m going to help you do it.”

With one hand wrapped snugly around hers that’s holding the blade, I lift the other and cup under her chin.

Holding her head straight, I press another soft kiss to her temple.

She will watch what she does. The smell of blood covering her skin, the feel of her in my grasp, and the knowledge that this girl will finally be the fucking answer has my whole being throbbing.

“Sharp end down, sweet girl.”

When she complies, I smile. Not having to do much to get her to press the blade to the man's neck. My heart’s beating so hard it’s about to fly out of my throat but we aren’t stopping now. Not when I’ve waited forty years to belong to someone as much as they belong to me.

“I’m going to put pressure, then I want you to drag it back alright?”

“O… kay.”