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To everyone who ever screamed at the hero to murder the bad guy and the hero was like, “Nah, that’s wrong”, and you were like, “Get a fucking villain in here to deal with this shit.” These are your villains.
READ CAREFULLY NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS amor et melle et felle est fecundissimum love is rich with honey & venom
“Can I tell you a secret, Sid?” I feel his words against my lips, his eyes locked on mine. He’s always had such beautiful eyes. “I’ve always wanted to fuck you.”
“You weren’t the only one who couldn’t help themselves.” I turn to go. He doesn’t follow. But when I reach the bottom steps he says, “It wasn’t like that.” I glance over my shoulder at him, cocking my head, knife still in hand. “That’s what all the worst men say.”
“You look so beautiful,” he says softly, trailing his eyes back over my body, meeting mine again. “You’ll be the most beautiful corpse I’ve ever buried, baby girl.”
“Come for me,” he growls, his voice hoarse. “And don’t you dare fucking look away when you do. I want to see what kind of face you make when you finish all over this knife.” He licks his lips. “I want to remember it when I’ve got your blood all over my hands.”
watching her inhales and exhales, wondering what it might be like if they stopped. If her life was snuffed out. I know what it’ll be like. My own personal hell. One I won’t survive. I had a flinch before, empty gun pressed to my forehead. I won’t again. Not if she isn’t here. I’ll just have to meet her on the other side.
wondering what it might be like if they stopped. If her life was snuffed out. I know what it’ll be like. My own personal hell. One I won’t survive. I had a flinch before, empty gun pressed to my forehead. I won’t again. Not if she isn’t here. I’ll just have to meet her on the other side.
“I’ve been told that you’ve been bad, Lilith. I’ve been told you were never taught how to be good. But tonight, we’ll cleanse you, okay?” He nudges my ear with the tip of his nose. “And when you’re done paying for your sins, there won’t be much left of you.”
What do I want from you? Everything. Every-fucking-thing. Your life. Your heart. Your fucking soul. All of it. I want it. I want you. Covered in my blood, bound to me in yours.
“I like it when you run.” He leans down close, runs his mouth over my jaw. “Just so I can show you that every time,” his teeth scrape against my collarbone, “every fucking time, Lilith,” he picks his head up, eyes inches from mine, “I’m going to catch you.”
“Don’t test her, because she’ll beat you, Luce. She’s not like your usual girls.”
“I’ve always given a fuck about you. I would bleed for you. Kill for you.” He steps closer, reaches for my trembling hand, pulling it from my mouth, to his chest. “I would die for you, Sid.” My eyes slowly find his, my breathing shallow. I feel his heart beating beneath my hand. “What would he do for you, Sid? What would Lucifer Malikov do, for you?” He pulls me close, hand on my low back. His lips press against my brow. “You deserve the world. I’d burn it down before I let anyone give you less.”
And it isn’t hatred I see in Maverick’s light blue eyes anymore. It isn’t loathing or even anger. It’s grief. The sickest kind of grief, because we’ve both got scars. We’ve both got wounds that don’t show. But when you’re a child of the 6, you pray for scars. It means you fucking survived. But the girls…they won’t. And that’s another scar that’ll dig deeper than the rest.
“The 6 deal in murders and politics and lies and money with so many commas you wouldn’t know how to pronounce it. They deal in the deaths of the defectives and blood ceremonies and secret societies and doing whatever the fuck they want. The Unsaints? We just do their bidding. And their bidding involves you in one of two places.” He licks his lips and holds up one finger. “In the ground.” Another finger. “Or carrying my fucking baby.”
“Don’t look at him. I’m the one asking you a question, Lilith. You don’t need his permission for anything.” His runs his tongue over his bottom lip. “You need mine.”
Brevis ipsa vita est sed malis fit longior. Our life is short, but made longer by misfortune.
I’m surprised to see it’s light outside through the intricate stained glass lining the walls. I assumed that the 6 worked in the night, under the cover of darkness. But I guess when you’ve got Satan himself on your side, you don’t need the darkness. You are the darkness.
This is no place for a hero. I’ve never needed one of those. Heroes back down when blood spills. Villains fucking dance in it.
“You weren’t precious, Lilith,” he says cruelly. “You weren’t fucking precious. You were dressed like a demon and you had a gun on your hip and defeat and excitement mingling in your eyes.” He steps closer, crowding my space, but I don’t back down. “You were going to hell that night, and fuck if I wasn’t gonna come with you.” He grabs my hand, pulling me into his body. I inhale his scent, cigarettes and fucking pine and I wish he smelled like anything else in this moment. “You weren’t precious and you damn sure didn’t need saving. But I did.”
If Satan was a wild boy with a hot temper, come to earth to fuck us all, he would look just like Lucifer Malikov.
“It means you never leave me, and I never leave you, and I don’t care if you hate me right now, I don’t care if you’d rather suck Jeremiah’s dick for every night of your fucking life.” He smiles coldly. “Because you’re mine, and you were born for me. So we could end this. And you can get the fuck over whatever you think you feel for your brother’s burnt corpse, because you’ve never been for him.” He takes a deep breath, his other hand winding in my hair, tilting my throat up. “You’ve always been for me.”
“I love you, Sid,” I whisper against her ear, “and I don’t need to hear it back. But I need you to know it. I might not be very good at it, but I love you, and I think I always have.”
What if it’s you?” His grip on my chin loosens but his arm around me tightens. “It might be,” he admits, words soft. “But not like that. Never like that. And even if I do...” he takes a breath. “Even if I do, I’ll never leave you. We can fuck each other up again and again, but I’m not leaving. And you’re not running. At least,” he smirks, “not very far.”
“No one else’s. Ever. We’re done. This is it. Hate me, love me, fuck me, run from me. I don’t care. You’re stuck with me.”
Cruentis semper manibus. Always with blood on your hands. “The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” Three dots, and then another text. That’s Poe, The Premature Burial. You can ask Sid all about it. Maybe you can get some advice, too, on how to run from your monsters, Maverick. Because that girl you wanna keep locked in your basement? She’s getting out.
