Page 65 of Judas

Managing a slight nod, he leans in and pushes his foul mouth to my forehead and kisses the skin there. Breathing in the scent of him and the forest, my hands move on their own volition. The right slides beneath my jacket and grips the knife peeking out of the waist of my jeans. I yank it out as Lucien leans back from pecking his disgusting maw to my brow then plunge the blade into his stomach.

Chapter twenty-four

Judas

Shoving her as hard as I can, I force Nadia away from me. Something snags her foot and she falls to the ground again—clumsy bitch! The pain in my stomach is overwhelming, the heat that is accompanying it isn’t any better when it pulses through me with every heartbeat. Dropping my hand to the knife and feeling around to determine where she got me, I leave it there, knowing better than to pull it out. That’s how you bleed to death, our natural instinct is to take away the threat, while survival lies in the pain. Blood is seeping from the hole now, but it’s not enough to make me lose momentum. Lifting my head, I see that Nadia is already gone. Hightailed it just as I knew she would; she’s good at that, running. Coward.

There’s a commotion to my side which draws my attention away from the oozing wound in my abdomen. There’s the trollop, fumbling with the line I have suspending Sadie before the cross. Where she will take her last breath—just as God intended. Seeing Nadia there, unraveling things she has nobusiness toying with, sends me into nothing less than full blown wrath. It consumes me from the feet up, putting the searing pain from the stabbing to shame. As the heat creeps higher, my eyes fog over with red—she’s going to mess everything up, my whole life’s work will be for nothing.

No chance in hell, Nadia. Not in this lifetime, nor the next.

Stalking over, I grab her by the back of her head and start slamming her face first into the base of the crucifix until I feel her go limp. You would think she’d learn not to turn her back on people by now. Stupid. Letting her go unceremoniously, she crumples to the ground and I take hold of the cord again. There’s plenty of length to keep Sadie winched high. I fist as much of the cable as I can then look between mother and her forsaken child. So different, the two of them, but it is I who bridges them together.

Sadie is beyond fucked; there’s no saving that poor girl from the life she is going to live unless those who are living inside of her are banished. She won’t have to wait too much longer to be rid of them, not when I have all the answers. Then there’s pathetic fucking Nadia—weak minded, weak bodied, and takes up space she has no right to. Somewhere between the two of them, I sit. When I say I’m the bridge, I am. I connect Nadia’s seemingly normal working mind with Sadie’s broken one.

A smile breaks across my face at the absurdity of it all. How stupid is it to think that I could have helped the both of them strengthen their rickety and jilted bond rather than leaving them broken and in a heap of blood, flesh, and charred wood. Wishful thinking, I guess.

The pain of the knife is beginning to smart in my stomach. She got me good, but nothing will stand in my way now. Not when I finally have them both in front of me and am capable of following through with the promise I made many years ago.

“But Mommy, we no leave. Is safe in the little house. The girl has rain, but I make her happy one day. I promise,” I plead.

”I know, baby. We have to go though. We can’t stay here anymore, Gene says our time is up.”

“Him’s not nice to you, or to Nadia. Can’t take her with us? You say I share you with her, why her not come with us? I’ll be a good boy, Mommy, even share my food so we no have to buy more. Water, my toys, she can wear my light up shoes.”

“Oh honey, there are big people things that make it where she can’t come with us. I know you want her to, but she has to stay,” Mommy replies.

“What if I take hers? Make her leave with me and we all go to sunny place?”

“Lulu, we don’t talk like that. You can’t make anyone go anywhere with you, especially the sunny place.”

“Her can chose to go, and I can help her.” I lean into Mommy’s shoulder as she grabs the few things we brought into the little house with us. “One day, Nadia will be mines and we will live in the clouds with you.”

“Lulu…”

“Yes, Mommy?”

“Be gentle with her. She’s a little girl.”

Lifting my right foot, I lean slightly and use it to kick Nadia over. She grunts at first, her manicured brows creasing together—how does someone stay so damn pretty in prison? Is it not enough that her existence has flipped my world upside down from the beginning? Now I have to look at how ignorantly perfect she appears with blood dripping down her contused and split forehead. Little girl, Mother used to say, whatever. Doesn’t matter what she says, Nadia isn’t little anymore and a ‘girl’ is putting it mildly. She’s revolting and her sole purpose is to die.

Stepping over her, bracing a foot on either side of her waist, I snag the line and heave my sweet girl farther from the ground. Leaning away from the embedded knife, I pin the extra slack to the earth beneath my shoe. I then grab Nadia and drag her into a sitting position. Taking a brief moment, I rake my digits through her mane once more; it’s so soft it slides through my roughened fingers with ease. I am operating on borrowed time but there’s no way I’m going to do this without touching her before she ceases to live.

Catching multiple fistfulls, just like I did with the cable, I prop her right where I need her and start to coil the cord around her skinny neck. I wind it over and over until it’s layered and is going to take more than a simple tug to pull it loose. Holding the free side, I collect the end with Sadie’s weight pulling on it, and remove my foot from where it’s pinned. I ease the wire through my hand until tension takes hold and it tightens around her throat without snapping her cervical vertebrae.

Maybe later—I want to watch her suffer for now.

Holding onto the unanchored tail, I use it to lower Nadia’s unconscious body back down to the ground and place my foot on her chest. Pinning her there, where she belongs: below me. Sadie’s weight tightens the makeshift noose until Nadia’s face begins to turn pink and the lack of adequate oxygen drags her out of her nap.

Teasing her, I coo, “There you are. I was beginning to think you checked out and would miss all of the fun.”

I can’t help it, leave me be.

Her blown-out silver eyes dilate with a swiftness when her gears get back on track and she comes completely to. Of course; why am I not surprised that she would start panicking and thrashing under my body’s mass? Her daughter had more control than this, well… after I pulled her out of the trunk. When she was in there, she was vicious. After a moment, Nadia seemsto figure out she won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. A slight tug brings her attention to the tether I have looped around her neck. Bewildered orbs follow the line and, ope, there it is.

She blanches as her hands shoot up, reaching for the cord, desperate to grasp the line. Being the understanding brother I am, I let her find a good hold but it doesn’t matter. The moment I allow it to, Sadie’s weight will choke the life out of her if not snap her spine completely.

“Little bit of a predicament there, big sis. Just had to go and piss me off by stabbing me. Now look at you, trussed up like a hog. I kinda like you like this—getting to watch you suffocate and see the life drain from your infuriating face. The best part is that I don’t have to do much of the heavy lifting, if you will. Sadie’s got that taken care of. Makes me wonder if the cable will tighten as she thrashes around. Maybe I should light her on fire after all. Like some Salem witch trial and watch her wiggle and burn while simultaneously strangling you. Between you and I, I hope your eyes pop right out of your sockets. Kinda like Kace’s did.”

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