Page 16 of The Black Lotus (Fatal Florals Duet #2)

TEN

ASTER

R age consumes me as I stride furiously down the stairs, my stomps rattling the house.

Who the fuck does that bitch think she is, taking my stocking .

Serena is huffing behind me, trying to keep up.

I reach my hand behind me, never slowing my pace and feel her hand clasp around mine, calming some of the storm raging inside me.

“Aster,” Serena pants. “What if it’s a trap?”

“Then it’s one they’ll find themselves caught in. She’ll be dead before she has a chance to try anything.”

I feel Serena tug on my arm, trying and failing to plant her feet to stop me, but nothing and no one, not even my worried vixen, will stop me from finding out who that girl was and what she’d left behind.

We get to the living room and I snatch the note and crush it in my hand after reading the words.

If you want your stocking back, then you’ll have to find me. Follow the clues that will lead you home. Deliver the girl into my hands.

First clue: A place you’ve been only once, where your touch was gentle and left no haunts.

My body jolts from Serena’s cold fingers wrapping around my hand that’s still gripping the note. My chest rises and falls as she takes the crumpled paper from me, silently reading it to herself. Her brow dips, her lips mouthing the words as she scans the riddle over and over.

If this cunt thinks I am going to hand over Serena to get my stocking back, she is sorely mistaken. I will kill her before her fingers even have a chance to touch a hair on Serena’s head. I will leave with my girl and my stocking and I’ll leave a body behind for Deputy Wiley to find.

There are not many places I haven’t been in Salem, though there are many I avoid.

I stick to what I know. I have a routine.

Places I go. People I hunt. Rules that no longer matter since meeting Serena.

The stocking she took was the only thing I kept when I left the orphanage.

I didn’t have many belongings when I first arrived and everything I did have was thrown away.

Regardless of who you are or where you came from, on your first Christmas each child was given a stocking to put whatever they wanted on it.

That stocking was the one thing that was solely mine .

When it was first placed in front of me, I stared at it, drowning out the voices surrounding me intent on telling me what to do with it.

Only when the paints and crafts were placed on the table I sat at with the other newcomers did my hands move to grab and create.

I ended up painting a fox watching a little lamb munching on grass.

The sky was dark and ominous in the background.

The caretakers thought the whole thing was innocent, complimenting me on my talents.

All except one; the one who punished me the most saw right through my art.

She didn’t throw it away, but she did whisper angrily in my ear that I am a devil just like my creators.

That comment warmed me at the time; someone more evil than my parents saw through my innocent tortured broken boy act.

One day I will kill her for the things she did to me and the other children, but today I need to murder the one who stole my stocking.

Serena’s voice brings me back from the past. “Where is the one place you didn’t kill?” Her fingers mindlessly tracing the note, searching for the answers in my eyes. Answers I don’t have.

I pace back and forth, my mind whirling through the memories of the places the riddle might be pointing.

There aren’t many places I’ve been to once without killing, but I grab a paper and pencil and start writing down the ones I can think of.

Serena watches from over my shoulder, her breath tickling the back of my neck.

If it were anyone else, I would have snapped their neck already, but because it is Serena doing it I feel more at peace.

A sense of zen one would feel after meditating.

After I finish jotting down the possible locations, we stare at the words together.

Serena’s hand reaches from behind me. “There.” She points at the word zoo .

And I smack myself for not realizing it sooner.

It was staring me in the face the whole time.

The one place my hands didn’t hurt anything.

The one place the orphanage took us to from my childhood.

An effort to make them not seem like a bad place; like they weren’t abusing the children who lived there.

Turning around to kiss Serena, I grab my burner phone, both of our jackets, and just as I’m slipping on my boots to go to the one place that had been a light in my dark childhood, Serena tugs at my arm.

“Aster, the zoo is closed.”

I look up to see the night sky greeting me. If I wasn’t so worried about Serena and drawing too much attention to us, I would break into the damn place.

Of course, she had to steal my stocking when I couldn't even get to the next clue until morning. I angrily kick my shoes off, watching them bang against the wall hard enough to dent the sheetrock. “Fuck!” I roar, my blood boiling. I stomp up the stairs, Serena hot on my tail.

“It’ll be oka-”

“How? How will it be okay?” I scream at the one lifeline I have left. I wince, instantly regretting my rage, knowing I messed up when Serena’s eyes darken a shade, her jaw clenching and her hands fisting. Probably to stop herself from hitting me . My shoulders slump. Fuck.

My face softens, and I reach out to touch her. “Serena, I’m-”

She flinches away. “Don’t,” she warns. She shoulder checks me walking up the stairs to our room before slamming the door shut.

Standing on the stairs, I gather myself, calming the fire inside.

I should not have lashed out at her; she was only trying to help calm me down, but when strangers touch my things, take what belongs to me, I lose all sense of control.

I inhale a deep breath and rasp my knuckles against the door, the only warning I give her before stepping in. I’m surprised she didn’t lock the door.

“Serena. I’m sorry.” She looks up, eyes glassy, anger still brewing within them. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay right there.”

Leaning up against the doorframe, my head tilted to the side, I give the best puppy dog eyes a ruthless killer like me can muster. She giggles a little but quickly covers it up and her scowl returns.

“Come on, Serena. You know you can’t stay mad at me.” I move towards her.

She crosses her arms and looks away. “Watch me.”

I stride towards her and sit next to her on the bed. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“No. You shouldn’t have.” She looks up at me and cups my cheek, her delicate fingers resting lightly against the small stubble of my beard.

“I know you’re upset. I promise we will get your stocking back and kill whoever that girl is.

” Her nails dig into my face. “But if you ever lash out at me like that again, you will be the next one to bleed.” She drags burning lines across my cheek, her fingertips red.

“And it won’t end with your dick shoved inside me. It will only be pain.”

I shiver at the thought of Serena in control, picturing her making red seep out of my body. My dick hardens against her ass, my body desperate for the release I know only she can provide. She tries to get up, but I pull her onto my lap and tighten my hold.

“If it earns me your forgiveness, you can cut me until nothing but your anger coats my body.”

She shifts her weight, accidentally grinding against my erection. The last thing she needs is my cock buried in her tight cunt. What she needs is my reassurance, my apologies, and my arms holding her until dawn breaks.

Pulling her off my lap, I tuck her in under the covers and then join her in bed. Wrapping my arms around her waist, she places her hand over my bicep, tugging it tighter into her. The one thing we need is sleep, to wake with a clear mind in the morning and start on our revenge.

No one threatens me. No one will get my vixen. Everyone will die. Blood will rain and peace will follow.