It was naïve of me to think once was going to be enough. When we started, the sun was pushing away the gloom in the sky; now, it was setting again.

  He alternated between fucking me with his cock or his tongue, breaking long enough to feed me and let me take a quick nap.

  I felt as if I’d been hit by a truck. My body looked as if it’d been tossed into a meat grinder. There was an imprint of a hand on my throat that I tried to cover by pulling my hair over my shoulders.

  My lips were still puffy. Bruising was beneath the denim of my shorts, also in the shape of a hand. I was concerned my pussy was too swollen; my labia looked like two fat pillows.

  Zane showed back up again as I was brushing out my hair, clean and freshly dressed.

  “No,” I croaked, my voice hoarse and raw.

  “No, what?” He tried for innocence and failed.

  “No more. We’ve had enough.”

  His boots thudded across the bathroom floor.

  I shut my eyes and internally groaned, feeling him step up behind me.

  “It’s never going to be enough.”

  Two strong arms slid around my waist, locking together just above my navel. I could have stayed as we were, paused time and letting all the hurt, worry, and uncertainty pause with it.

  He was warm and strong—this strange man I knew nothing about but felt as if I’d known my whole life. He wasn’t safe, though, and I knew his words weren’t directly in regard to sex.

  “Open your eyes, Addy,” he intoned softly.

  I did as he requested, met with the reflection of us in the mirror hanging above the sink.

  “What do you see?”

  I saw him and all his perfection—beautiful bastard.

  Dark hair was now flawlessly restyled—lashes to die for, oceanic eyes regarding me closely.

  The brand on his neck stood out the most. The one beneath my eye and inked on my right arm were a sharp reminder of our differences.

  “I see you. I see me.”

  “You see us.”

  I nodded slightly, holding his gaze in the glass. I did see us. But when we returned, I had no idea how this would ever work.

  Maybe he would get tired of me before then?

  “You are truly fucking gorgeous, do you know that?” His hands flattened and slid down to my shorts.

  “Zane, compliments will get you nowhere,” I huffed, trying to stop his obvious intentions.

  “I wasn’t telling you that to get something. This,” he easily shook off my grip and popped the button on my pants, “is mine whenever I want it.”

  I scoffed, sucking my teeth when he slid his index finger between my swollen lips.

  “You hurt, baby?” he questioned knowingly, pulling my hair to the side and planting a feather light kiss over his hand print.

  “You know it’s hurt.”

  “Let me make it feel better.”

  “Uh…”

  He bent his knees, dragging my shorts and underwear down as he crouched.

  “What are you doing?” I turned my head and looked at him over my shoulder.

  He spread my legs apart and ran his hands over the globes of my ass.

  “So perfect,” he said, more to himself than me.

  “Watch yourself as I make you come.” With that, he spread my lips and plunged his tongue inside me.

  I jerked at the feel of him and grabbed hold of the basin, curling my fingers around it.

  He ate me from behind, fucking my pussy with his tongue. I bit down on my lip to stifle my moans.

  “You taste so sweet,” he groaned.

  The sound of him feasting on my pussy and my untamable whimpers reverberated in the air.

  He must have sensed how close I was already; he shoved his tongue so deep inside me, I felt myself contract around it. “Zane,” I expelled on a low moan, gripping the basin so hard my knuckles turned pink.

  I looked in the mirror and saw the flush steal across my face as an orgasm erupted in my core.

  Before I could come down, he was back on his feet, shoving his dick into my pussy, covering my mouth to silence the scream of pain and pleasure.

  “Zane, please,” I panted, slamming a hand against the mirror and tucking my chin to my chest.

  It was too much. He was too much for me. Our height difference had me half lifted off the ground, the position we were in making me feel every solid, hard inch of him.

  “So fucking good,” he growled, fucking me harder.

  It hurt so bad it felt incredible, and my pussy grew slicker, another orgasm teetering on the horizon that I wasn’t sure I could survive.

  He grabbed a handful of my hair and wrenched my head back so I was watching us in the mirror.

  “Touch yourself, princess. Come one more time for me,” he commanded, swiping his tongue up my neck.

  My body was so strung out on what he’d done to it the past few hours that my hand shook as I brought it between my legs.

  I whimpered, feeling him move beneath my fingertips as I dragged them upward to my clit. I strummed it a mere two times before I came on a soundless scream, clenching around him as my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

  He held my weight as I became a puddle of orgasmic mush, drained and nerves beyond raw as he finished.

  He came inside me…again, cock emptying every drop of semen into my pussy.

  A kiss was placed on my shoulder as he pulled out.

  He was acting as if nothing had happened before I could even turn around, leaving his come to drip down my thighs.

  I didn’t bother looking in the mirror again; I couldn’t even recognize myself.

  “You can’t keep doing this,” I breathed, searching for something to clean myself off with.

  Obviously, I was an idiot, because this would have been better voiced about three rounds ago.

  “Doing what?” His tone told me to tread carefully.

  “Coming inside me. You’re aware how babies are made, right? That’s the last thing we need.”

  I turned the sink on and grabbed my old shirt from out of my gear bag, using it to clean myself up.

  “It’s going to happen sooner rather than later.”

  I froze.

  “We can’t have a kid together. One, hell no. Two, our factions—”

  “They’re going to be in an alliance,” he cut me off. “That’s how I know your brother.”

  I fixed my shorts, staring steadily at him. I didn’t feel all that surprised by this. I’d known that he and Luce were up to something; admittedly not something this huge.

  “Why would you do that?”

  “I didn’t. Luce came to me.”

  Why would he do that?

  “And you accepted a deal?”

  That was stupid of you.

  I didn’t even make deals with Luce.

  “Give me some fucking credit, Addy. I’m not stupid. I know your kind isn’t exactly the most trustworthy. I have an insurance plan.”

  “My kind?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “And what insurance…?”

  The smug look on his face told me I’d guessed correctly before I could speak it aloud.

  I swallowed, feeling like a fucking fool. Of course. It was me. That only made too much sense. No wonder this asshole said I was his; I legitimately was, thanks to Luce’s deviance.

  I wasn’t all the way acquainted with the ‘political’ side of running a faction, but I did know how iron-clad most deals tended to be, and this one was not some simple trading of biscuits for tampons.

  It was an alliance between the two largest gangs the Badlands had, just like the radio had predicted. Was that a fucking omen?

  “Why are you just now telling me this?”

  His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I didn’t think it held much relevance until you let me stick my dick in you.”

  Ouch. I laughed, looking towards the ceiling with a shake of my head.

  I bent down, ignoring the soreness radiating through my body as I pulled Annie’s shell case from the gear bag and looped it over my head, and then I zipped it up and grabbed that, too, rising back to my feet.

  “Are you about to throw a tantrum?”

  He sounded far too amused for my liking. I ignored him, heading out into the bedroom.

  “Addy—”

  “Quit talking, Zane.”

  “What the fuck did you just say?” His footsteps were right behind me.

  I grabbed Annie’s gun from where it was propped against the wall.

  “Oh, right, maybe I should start speaking in terms you understand.” I whirled around to face him, not actually realizing how close he was.

  Refusing to take a step back in spite of the look in his eyes, I stayed the path.

  “What I meant was shut the fuck up.”

  He blinked almost as if he were surprised I’d just said that to his face.

  “Aw, what’s wrong? Are you about to throw a tantrum?”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw. He reached for me and, almost reflexively, I slammed the butt of the gun into his stomach.

  He barely keeled over, merely grimacing with a grunt of discomfort.

  “I didn’t mean to…know what? Never mind. You deserved that.”

  I took advantage of his slight pause and hauled ass into the hallway and down the stairs. It was like reentering the real world after being lost in his for so long.

  “Don’t run now, princess,” he called to me, his tone completely normal.

  “No one is running from you, dickhead!” I yelled up the stairs, belatedly aware that everyone else in the house was staring at me.

  “Addy?” Cam questioned in concern, standing from where he’d been sitting beside Maliki.

  Zane appeared at the top of the steps, a completely unreadable expression on his face.

  “What happened?” Nyx questioned, appearing from behind the kitchen island.

  “Nothing.” I moved away from the bottom of the steps to the dining room table.

  “My princess is upset about the deal her brother made,” Zane announced when he reached the first floor.

  “Wrong,” I shot back. I wasn’t mad about the deal. Hell, it was pretty fucking smart in the big picture. Team up with the big baddies? Hell yeah. It was the secretive parts of it and me being tossed in the middle I didn’t like.

  And not everyone was like us.

  Not everyone would see past the transgressions caused by Zane’s mother and father. It wasn’t fair, but neither was life.

  “What deal?” Nyx asked at the same time Cam shook his head.

  “You knew?” I accused, shooting daggers at him.

  “I figured it out.”

  Zane stalked towards me. I slid into a chair and gripped the gun, positioning it so that the barrel was facing his stomach.

  He was undeterred, continuing on his path. “You gonna shoot me now, baby?”

  “If I need to,” I replied coolly.

  He pulled out the chair across from mine and sat down, though the fluid way he moved made it seem like he went from standing to sitting with a simple fluttering of my lashes.

  The smirk on his face guaranteed retribution. I shifted, cocked the shotgun, and smiled sweetly at him, silently telling him to fuck off.

  “Well, this is certainly a new kind of foreplay,” Cam observed.

  “Nah, this is vanilla shit, man,” Maliki commented, amusement coloring his tone.

  This is what he considered vanilla?

  “Maybe you two should take a time out,” Ace suggested.

  “Yeah, are you hungry? You should eat before we hit the road.” Trix jumped in, shuffling off to the kitchen.

  “Okay, come with me.” Nyx walked behind my chair, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me up.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To talk.”

  Nyx remained silent, listening intently to everything I had to say.

  “This means I have to kick your brother’s ass,” were the first words out of her mouth after I finished.

  She didn’t laugh, so I couldn’t gauge how serious she was. It wasn’t an issue. I planned to fuck him up on sight. It had been a good while since we tussled. Sure, getting into fights with men wasn’t real lady like—not typical of a princess. That was pure bullshit around here.

  I was the daughter of Romero Deville and Calista; those two were a whole different type of crazy. Why would I be spared that insanity?

  I wasn’t born with a soul, so the devil sold me his. This princess wasn’t soft, sugary or sweet. I was a self-contained hurricane of bloodshed, chaos, and beautiful macabre.

  Right now, there was a typhoon making a mess of things inside my brain, and it was named Zane Belial. I sucked in a deep breath and then blew it out, as if that would send him away. It didn’t. It was just another thing circulating, demanding my attention—like Annie, Bella, and now this alliance.

  “You two would have ended up together even without the deal,” Nyx added after an elongated silence.

  “Why would you say that?”

  “I just know,” she quipped. “The way you two look at one another, and knowing you as well as I do, you probably fell in love the second he placed your own gun to your head. That’s like, destiny or somethin.”

  I almost smiled at her mother’s accent popping out, but the L word had me ready to declare my best friend a traitor.

  “Love? I can’t love him, Nyx. I just met him.”

  “Love isn’t a can or can’t. It’s an emotion,” she retorted, “and you can love whoever the hell you want to. Only you can decide what you do or don’t do. When it comes to matters of the heart, time is irrelevant, and so is everyone else’s opinion. Don’t let anything or anyone make decisions for you that you’ll be living with the rest of your life.”

  Wow. That was deep, coming from her. I looked over and studied her face, the porch light showing her honey eyes were downcast.

  I wondered how much of that spiel was words she wished someone would have said to her.

  “Is that about Braxton?” I asked softly.

  She laughed humorlessly. “No, Adds. I’m not pining over the man who didn’t love me like I loved him. I’m not numb from having to kill a woman we considered a best friend. I’m the same Nyx I’ve always been.”

  I looked away from her and stared down the barren street. “No, you’re not. You aren’t the same. After that, no one would be. Not even me.”

  My words were a bitter truth even to my own ears.

  I felt as if we’d been living in black and white, and now we were seeing the world in color. I hated that I had to lose twice to gain that knowledge.

  I’d lost Annie, but it taught me that none of us were invincible.

  I’d lost something to Zane. I had never been innocent, so the meaning mattered little, but it taught me to be more careful with my decisions.

  “For me, it’s death,” Nyx began solemnly. “I heard it since I was twelve. Death’s daughter. I didn’t fully understand then, but I do now. It feels like everything inside me is dying, and all that’s left is this…fucking demon that feeds on anger and pain, and gets high off everything dead.”

  She stood before I could respond to that, announcing that she had to use the bathroom.

  It seemed today was the day to make my goddamn heart break. I watched her go, staring forlornly at the front door after it shut behind her.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Septendecim

  I was still sitting on the porch, massaging my temples, when I caught sight of him. He was perched on one of the telephone wires. Had he not flapped his wings, I wouldn’t have noticed him.

  “Charon.”

  He shifted a bit as if he understood. The silver charm around his tiny foot let me know I wasn’t officially bat-shit and conversing with a random crow. I’d honestly forgotten about him.

  He cawed once as if to speak, and that’s when I heard the engine.

  I looked down the street, scanning the darkened streets of the neighborhood. It was growing louder, which meant it was coming closer.

  I scrambled to my feet, paying no mind to the soreness lingering between my legs.

  “Turn the lights off!” I demanded, slamming the door behind me as I entered the house.

  “What is it?” Zane questioned, looking up from the bag he’d been repacking.

  I refused to look at him.

  “Someone’s coming.”

  Trix and Cam immediately did as I asked on the first level, and Ace headed to the second.

  Going to one of the front windows, I pressed myself against the wall and peered through the curtains.

  Zane and Maliki did the same at a window a few feet down on the opposite side of the door.

  I opened the break-action and lowered the barrel away from the body of the shotgun to double-check the casings. Seeing it was ready to go, I brought the barrel back up until I heard it click.

  I preferred to use the Kambit. The kills meant more, were quieter, and I never had to worry about running out of bullets. But I’d forgotten to attach the holster around my waist.

  “What’s going on?” Nyx inquired, appearing behind me from wherever she’d just been.

  “Look,” I whispered, nodding my head to the truck that had just turned into the cul-de-sac.

  “Their lights are on high,” Maliki noted.

  I watched as the driver of the truck put it in park and left it idling before he or she could get out. Four other Stags followed suit. Their deer masks were belligerent in the night.

  I expected them to come right for us; instead, they began to approach the house off to the left, the one where I’d seen an older man peering out the window.

  “Are they looking for us?” Ace asked an obvious question.

  I wasn’t sure how they knew what street we’d wound up on, but it seemed trivial at this point. They kicked in the door of the old man’s house and three filed inside.

  Not five minutes later, they emerged dragging a salt and pepper haired man wearing flannel pajamas out into the street by the back of his neck.

  He had a lame leg, which was evident in the way he dragged one behind him and nearly crumpled when forced to the asphalt.

  On his knees, they said something to him I couldn’t hear. He didn’t once point our way to give us up, though. Not liking whatever he had to say, one of the Stags stepped forward and placed a large, curved bow against the center of his forehead.