Page 12 of Sour Lollipops and Sweet Nightmares (The Society #1)

Issac

“ T hat’s not milk.”

How Slater was able to see anything was beyond me.

The guy looked like he got punched in the face twenty times, after which he dunked his head in a vat of vinegar mixed with salt, and poked his eyeballs until they were red.

Levi’s vomit on the table looked better than he did.

And when I handed him a bottle of water, his first reaction was to complain.

I sighed down at him. “Do you want it or not?”

“Quit being a little bitch and take the damn water,” Ravi barked at him.

He was taking this shit a lot better than his brother.

Ravi’s eyes were less swollen than Slater’s and he got sprayed directly.

Apparently, they weren’t identical in every way after all.

Then again, Ravi may have decided to use pepper spray as lube one day because he was fucking bored. Sick son of a bitch.

“Fuck you.” Slater lifted his head and sneered at his brother, making me grimace. An expression should not look that painful. “I asked for milk, not water.”

Was he seriously arguing? His face looked like he had just come out of a nine-hour fuckfest with sandpaper.

“Milk doesn’t neutralize pepper spray, idiot.” That was a myth. Thoroughly rinsing the area was the most effective method, hence the bottle of water.

“You gave Levi milk.”

“Levi got sprayed in the mouth.” His taste buds would be fried for the next couple of days.

When he continued to glare up at me through his red, puffy lids, I growled, “Take the water or don’t. I don’t give a fuck.”

He could sit there and let his face burn for hours for all I cared.

“Fine.” Slater snatched the water bottle out of my hand and let out an ah as he tilted his head back and dumped it over his face.

Water wasn’t a problem for him now.

I set two more bottles on the floor beside him and looked back at his brother, who was groaning as he soaked his face. While those two worked on washing off their skin, Levi was chugging back his second gallon of milk.

“Slow down or you’re gonna make yourself sick.”

Levi looked my way with a stream of white dripping off his chin. “You have no idea what this shit?—”

My brow arched as he gagged, cleared his throat, and pushed down a heavy swallow. “You good?”

He coughed out a not very convincing, “Yup.”

“You sure?”

Levi nodded with tightly shut lips.

“If you’re gonna hurl, do me a favor and aim at Slater.”

Slater’s hand shot up, pointing at Levi. “Don’t even fucking think about it.”

Levi wasthinking about it. The grin tugging on his mouth told me that. But when he looked down at the carton in his hand, as if he was contemplating shoving more down his gullet, I took a step back. That was a crossfire I did not want to get caught in.

“I swear to God, Levi,” Slater warned.

To which Levi shrugged, “What?”

“If you take another drink, I will shove that carton down your throat.”

“Why so hostile?” Levi sang. “You’d think you were sprayed with pepper spray or something.”

Alright, that was kind of funny.

Slater did not agree. This time, he directed his anger at me.

“What the fuck, Issac?” He growled while twisting the cap off another bottle. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

“I didn’t see it coming.” That was a first.

I’d give little Miss Georgia Pyne points for that.

I did not expect that timid little thing to have pepper spray, let alone use it.

The girl couldn’t even look me in the eye without shaking.

When I sat down beside her, I thought she was going to have a panic attack.

Unfortunately, she maintained most of her composure. That was disappointing.

“You could’ve helped us,” Ravi swung his sneer my way. “Instead of giving her the third degree.”

Levi snorted. “He did more than that. You enjoy playing with those tits while we were over here in pain?”

Yes, I did. I enjoyed it very much.

Finished rinsing his face, Ravi stood up from the floor and flopped down in a chair. “I’ll tell you one thing… if that bitch is mine, I’m going to fuck her up.”

Suspicion narrowed Slater’s eyes as both he and Levi stopped what they were doing and turned Ravi’s way.

“What do you mean if she’s yours?” Slater asked.

Oh yeah, we forgot to let them in on that piece of information.

Ravi looked over at me. “You want to tell them, or should I?”

“Tell us what?” Levi demanded.

“It’s nothing.”

“Sure…” Ravi snorted. “If you consider Georgia being put in Craven House as nothing.”

“What?” Slater screeched. “And you didn’t tell us before?”

“Yeah,” Levi agreed. “A little heads up would’ve been nice.”

I shrugged. “It slipped my mind.”

Slater curled his lip at me. “It slipped your fucking mind?”

“Yes, asshole, it slipped my mind.” Poor excuse or not, it was true. Besides… “I’m not the only one who didn’t say anything.”

Slater lifted his chin and twisted his neck to glare at his brother. “What the fuck, Ravi?”

“I don’t have to tell you everything,” was Ravi’s response.

While they looked alike and had each other’s backs, the Pierce brothers were the worst twins ever. Slater once forgot about Ravi’s allergy to latex—which he also had—and bought him the wrong condoms, while last week Ravi forgot his brother’s birthday was coming up, which was also his birthday.

Slater was annoyed, while Ravi was amused by his brother’s annoyance, but Levi was pissed.

He slammed his hand down on the table. “I am not giving up pussy for her. Bitch probably doesn’t know how to suck a dick.”

To be fair, no girl chosen for a bride would know how to suck a dick, so Georgia wasn’t the exception there. Pure and untouched was one of the main requirements aside from bloodline.

“Well, I guess you’ll have to teach her then,” I shot back at Levi.

“Why?” He rolled his shoulders back. “Do you know something? I swear to God, if I have to give up my Friday nights…”

Of course, that was the first place Levi’s mind went. He didn’t get pissed that he would have to claim someone. No, he got pissed at the possibility that he wouldn’t be able to stick his dick in every chick wandering around campus or at least wouldn’t be able to for a while.

I didn’t see monogamy ever being in the cards for Levi. He wasn’t any ordinary player—he was the player. His Friday nights were spent swimming in a sea of pussy. If Georgia ended up given to him, all that would come to an end.

Rule number one of the claiming was that the groom couldn’t fuck anyone else until he claimed his bride, and the groom couldn't claim the bride until she met specific parameters. So, we couldn’t just fuck her and get it over with. That was too easy.

The Society was nothing if not manipulative. Rituals were a way of life, just like seven was a sacred number. Seven families, seven marks, seven rituals, and seven trials we had to pass growing up.

Ravi and I used to joke about some guy being the seventh son, born on the seventh day, of the seventh month, until we found out that there was an actual prophecy about it.

Living long enough to have seven kids was tricky, especially for the wives. We had a lot of enemies, and the way we were raised meant most of us wouldn’t have a problem killing our parents. I’d happily cut my dad’s throat ear to ear with a big fucking smile on my face.

So, offing one’s wife after we got bored or she had produced an heir wasn’t unheard of. Some of us had already planned how to do it. I was going to choke mine to death while I fucked her, so I could breathe in her last breath while I blew my load all over her pussy.

“It’s not me,” Slater insisted. “I haven’t completed my trials.”

Seven trials to test our loyalty, or so they told us.

Each one was more twisted than the next, but all of them were based on the seven sins.

We never knew when they were coming. Sometimes it was a test, like when my father pitted my brother and I against each other.

That one was his version of envy, or sibling rivalry.

Other times, we passed because of something we did unintentionally.

Levi had banged well over a hundred chicks by the time he was seventeen and therefore passed lust. He wasn’t trying to pass anything.

He just liked fucking. Then there were the stupid ones.

Aiden passed wrath when he was fourteen because he wore red on the right day.

It was all very confusing and made absolutely no sense.

My father claimed I would understand when I took his spot, but I highly doubted it.

The Society’s rule book made the bible look small and read like it was written by someone with ADHD who was coming off a cocaine binge.

But it worked. We had been controlling the world from the shadows for over a thousand years.

“Says who?” Ravi shot back at him. “You think Dad would tell you if you had?”

Ravi had a point there. The General was a prick who liked to spring things on his kids to see how they would react.

Slater crossed his arms. “It doesn’t matter. There is no way that girl is a virgin.”

“Please,” Ravi snorted at his brother. “Georgia Pyne screams virtuous. I pity the guy who has to break her.”

When Ravi said break, he meant break. The claiming had four rules. Bend her, break her, bind her, and breed her. While the whole point was to produce an heir, the breed her part didn’t necessarily mean we had to knock them up right away. It meant fuck her, without a condom.

Wives and brides were always bareback. That was rule number twenty-three in chapter ninety-two of the ledger. The girls could use birth control, but we could not. Male essence must flow free with the Salem sister. That was literally how it was written.

The claiming wasn’t all bad. The bend her and break her part could be fun.

There was a rush that came from fucking with people.

It was like watching a deer freeze and look around the forest. They could feel danger in the area, but they didn’t know why or where it was coming from.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Georgia’s big green eyes round with alarm.