Page 25 of These Monstrous Ties

But he doesn’t really look like a bonehead. With dark hair, dark green eyes, and his head cocked to the side as he stares at me, he looks deadly serious. Like he might actually kill me before the night is over.

Before I can think of a response, Lucifer jerks me behind him, and steps up into Ezra’s face.

“Back. The fuck.Up.”

Ezra stares at him a minute, jaw clenched, and then he does. He backs up. And he turns to the girls and snarls, “On your knees,” again. “Lucifer.” His eyes flick to his. “Get your shit together.”

Lucifer turns to me. “It’ll only be a minute,” he whispers. And then, before I can ask what the hell he’s talking about, he pushes me in line with the girls.

Who are on their knees.

He steps back.

I look around, shaking my head.

“I’m not going to tell you again,” Ezra snarls to me.

Ria, on her knees beside me, catches my eye. “Come on, Lilith,” she whispers with a grin.

I’m staring at them, my mouth open, when Lucifer breaks rank, comes forward, and pushes me down, his leg hooking around the back of my own knee, forcing me to the stone floor, too.

I twist my head and stare up at him, humiliated.

“What the fuck was that—” I make to spit at him, but he shoves three fingers in my mouth. And I bite down immediately,hard.

He doesn’t even frown.

He gets to his knees in front of me and shoves his fingers further into my mouth, down my throat, until I’m gagging.

With his other hand, he pulls me close, his fingers digging into my shoulder. “Stop talking,” he whispers. The fingers in my mouth press further, tickling my uvula. I gag again, and the guys all laugh. My face burns.

“Stop talking, or this will get so much worse for you,Lilith.”

I gag again, and my stomach clenches. I don’t remember the last time I ate, but I’ve had a lot to drink. My head is spinning and even my ears are burning. My knees hurt on the cement, but I can’t get up, not with Lucifer trailing his fingers down my throat and holding onto my shoulder.

“Do you understand?” he asks me.

I nod.

He takes his fingers out of my mouth and then stands to his feet, glaring down at me before joining the rest of the Unsaints.

Ezra starts to talk again. He sounds amused.

“The Death Oath comes before Lover’s Death. It’s theessenceof Lover’s Death.” He takes a fucking knife out of his back pocket.

I want to get to my feet, but a girl on my other side with long red hair shakes her head, her gaze meeting mine. Reluctantly, I stay where I am.

Ezra steps up to the redheaded girl, staring down at her, the knife in his hands. If he raises that knife to her, I’m going to get up. I’m going to knock him on his ass. I don’t care that he’s twice my size.

But as he lifts the blade, he lifts up his shirt. I jerk back, confused. And then I see a skull tattoo on the left side of his abs. In black and grey, smoke pouring from one eye of the skull, a ‘U’ carved into the other eye.

I see Lucifer watching me. Everyone seems to be holding their breath.

What the fuck is this shit?

Ezra holds the blade to his own skin, above his tattoo. And this close, I can see that he’s actually going to do it. He’s going to cut himself. I know, because there are pale white scars through the mouth of the skull tattoo. Right next to the line of blood he now cuts into his skin with the knife. He keeps going, until it reaches the length of the other scars, nearly six inches.

My eyes are going to bug out of my head.