Page 36 of He Who Sleeps

"I'm guessing from that smirk that you caught her," he said, forcing a grin that he knew looked queasy.

“I always catch her,” Ghost said as he pulled his mask off. The man talked little, and went without his mask less. Devil knew that Ghost, Rix, felt he lived two different lives—the one here, where he was free, and the one where he had to play nice in society. “God below...it was sweet.”

"It always is with her." That truth curled his lips in a genuine smile, at least. "Do you have a moment to talk, or do you need to go and clean up?"

“Live longer with her scent all over me?” Ghost grinned at him. “I can manage.” He was always more chatty after a session with their sweet victim. Ghost looked to him and then frowned. “What’s going on?”

"Come to the study." Devil knew it was empty because he'd checked only a few minutes before. They sat down in the comfortable armchairs and Devil sighed. "It's about this situation with Petra wanting to be with us all year round. I have committed to speaking to the Elders about it, but I don't want to go in there blind. They've allowed the pact to stand for three years now, but I know better than to assume that means they're fully behind it. I wanted to know if your dad has said anything to you about it? Or if he's given you any indication which way he leans on the subject? Or if there's anything he's said that we might be able to use as positive leverage when it's time to have that discussion with the Elders."

Ghost frowned. “Stephan...” he frowned harder. “This morning, he texted me...” Pulling his phone from his pocket, he tossed it to Devil. There wasn’t any lock on it, not that Devil didn’t know all the passcodes they would use. They were brothers, and they shared everything. The phone opened and there were several pictures of Petra bent over a grave stone, one in the arms of the angel in their kirkyard, her legs open, pussy dripping. Ghost grinned. “Think I’m going to have that one framed.”

Devil went past the photos and into his messages, opening the thread with Stephan.

S: You have done well. He is pleased. The Well here is high, swirling and frothing. Whatever you have put her through is working.

R: Everything for him, Sir.

S: One more night. The output from the girl must be potent and high, spill blood, as you always do, my son. Give Him a reason to reward you.

"Spill blood?" Devil felt himself frowning and tried to smooth it out before he looked up. "What does that mean?"

Ghost looked him over. “Youdoknow how I get down, right?” Devil did. He knew that Ghost’s knife wasn’t for show. Before Petra, he would carve up their sacrifice, and in his other life, he was quite handy with the scalpel he used as a vet, though he never harmed animals, only people. “A little blood in the mix makes it good for both of us.”

"Spilling blood just sounded a bit dramatic." Devil tossed the phone back. "We promised not to scar her, so it's not like you can cut deep enough for a lot of blood."

“He doesn’t know that,” Ghost said, completely fine with that fact, which said a lot. “All she needs is shallow little cuts to come torrents for me. And I just need the traces of it on myself to finish for her.”

Shit. Stephan had really fucked Ghost up if he needed blood to get off.

"So he's on board with the experiment?" Devil asked. "Can I count on his support when I approach the Elders about keeping her?"

“No.” Ghost looked to his best friend. “What he knows of this, he thinks it’s more pain than pleasure. He thinks we are grooming Petra into a pain slut.” He shrugged. “I mean we don’t have to do that, since she kinda is, I mean...for us.” He set his phone away in his pocket. “I’m all for keeping her, Finn.” He used Devil’s real name. “The need for her through the year is all consuming. But unless we have her under lock and key, making her suffer? I don’t think they are going to be into it. Stephan wants the suffering; he’s always focused on it.” He sighed. “Look how he fucking raised me.”

"Would they know if we did otherwise?" He knew it was a massive risk, but if Petra wanted them enough, she'd play along if necessary. "If we told them that's what we're doing—making her suffer to see if we can overcome the veil all year round, would they ever know that's not what we're doing?"

“Yes and no,” Ghost said. “Anything we tell them, they are going to be on the look out for, keeping an eye on. If we don’t tell them, go back to our lives like normal, or the normal they are used to, then they won’t know. Stephan doesn’t have anyone watching us until September, and they end their vigil November third. Finn, what’s going on? Why ask me now? I mean you already had your mind made up that you would ask permission. Plague and I were of the mind that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission, especially with the Elders.” He sighed. “She’s seen my face, Finn...”

"She's seen mine, too. And the others." Stitches had let that slip early on in the conversation. "She's determined to get under our skin without having a fucking clue how dangerous the game she's playing is." He shook his head. "The others have asked some questions that make me think this might be more dangerous than even I thought at first. Emerson has been digging into his old journals. He seems to think our fathers were killed because they were coming to the conclusion that the blood sacrifices they were making after being with our mothers were causing energy surges.

“Apparently Emerson's dad took his findings to the Elders and a few days later they were all summoned for the final sacrifice." All except your dad. He didn't say it, but the words hung there between them as though he'd shouted them.

Ghost sneered, his mind working through the information. The man was brilliant, and Finn knew the questions would start in moments. “And Stephan got away unscathed, and became an Elder. I always thought it would be your father, since he was their leader. It should have been,” he said with finality. “I asked Stephan, after it happened, why he was spared. He told me the Elders had decided it was to be his task to advise us.” He frowned. “Which led to more killings, and no mention of us procreating. Finn, our fathers were younger than us when they had us. Stephan is only fifty-nine.”

"Why would they choose him to advise us?" Devil rammed the point home. "Neon's dad was the academic. Plague's dad was the most devout. Is it because Stephan was the most easily molded to their will? Or did he play some other part in the dissolution of that group?"

“I honestly don’t know.” Ghost sighed. “That night, when we were brought in, stood with the Elders and were told it was our turn, I felt nothing except hope that he would leave me be.” His voice was quiet. “What he did to me... What he put me through... I thought it would be over. But no, the Elders tookyourfathers and left me with that fucking evil son of a bitch.” Ghost’s admission was candid and agonizing. It was the first any of them had heard this, and the fact that it was just Devil hearing it wasn’t a coincidence. Ghost played it close to the vest because he had to.

“They left all of us with him. Maybe it was by design. We were young enough to be influenced. We were just about to start our own devotions.” He looked up. “And we were all at an age that sex wasn’t important yet.”

"If this goes wrong, how far are you prepared to go?" Devil asked bluntly. He already knew that Leo and Emerson were ready to burn the Elders to the ground. He knew he was ready to do whatever it took to serve his God, and if that meant taking out the people standing in the way of feeding Him all the energy He needed to do His work, Devil would take the mission. But however much Ghost hated his dad, there was still that tie of blood and forced respect.

“For her? All the fucking way. I will never find another woman that enjoys this...wants it. She is solace in a world that simmers in filth. Nothing takes her from me, from us. Even if I have to slit every Elder’s throat to make it happen.” He grinned, then frowned. “Elders, now that I think about it, I don’t remember having seen in a long time.” He looked to his friend. “Where are Elder Dumfries, and Elder Gorgan?” he asked of two elders that they had seen at their own fathers’ houses before the purge.

"I haven't seen them since...that day." It still choked in Devil's throat to talk of the day of the sacrifice. "Do you think they were killed, too? I'd wondered whose place Stephan took to become an Elder." But you never asked those questions. Their rule was absolute. Or at least it had been until now.

“Something has to have happened to them. I haven’t seen any of them since before your fathers died, and aside from my father, I have never had contact with any of the Elders at the Temple. Have you? I mean you should, you are our leader, but my father contacts me.” He frowned.

"No, I just get contacts from the group email account or the central line," Devil said. "They never introduce themselves. I never know who's speaking. The only time we ever see them face to face is the ceremony on the second of November every year and even then we don't speak to them."

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