Page 27 of Lourdes & the Mafia
My fingers tap an impatient rhythm against the table. “Well, it’s not like anyone can possess my magic. It’s… hereditary. Only my death would ensure the magic passes on, and even then, the magic chooses the bearer—oh fuck…” My heart seems to tumble in my chest, and my stomach twists into knots. “Please don’t say what you’re thinking. My family wouldn’t try to kill me.”
“There is only one way to know who is out to get you, and that is finding the person who harmed you. Something only we can do. So, Lourdes, will you allow us to help you?”
Something about the way Ramiel frames the question makes me feel like I might not have an option no matter what I say. But surprisingly, it doesn’t scare me.
It should. They should scare me. At the end of the day, I don’t know these men. I know one of them from a vision and nothing more.
And everything they’re offering conflicts with who I want to be now. Before, I would have jumped on the chance to work alongside three hot guys. To have them take care and resolve my problems for me.
But after Dimas left me broken, I’ve been trying to put myself back together again. And in my reconstruction, I’ve realized that I’m not going to be the same as I was before. I don’twantto be that person.
I want to be someone new.
Someone who can handle her own. Someone independent. I’d vowed it. No more leaning on others.
Yet… I have to be realistic. I look around at their faces, hopeful, stern.
Ramiel says I’m special, but I’m just a seer. I don’t wield great power. I can’t teleport or shift. I don’t have claws or demon minions. I’m no use in a fight, a fact that was proven when that bitch stabbed me and Ibarelygot away.
Realistically, IknowI can’t handle this on my own.
And I’m too afraid to face it by myself.
I should bid them goodbye. Ask them to take me back. Go to the Krakens. Better the devil I know than the hellhounds I don’t. But my pride stops me from making that request.
Because I can picture Naomi’s face when I tell her what happened. And I don’t want to rely on the charity of her men. I don’t want their pity.
And these men aren’t offering me pity.
They’re offering retribution.
Justice.
Has any other idea ever tasted this sweet?
Decision made, I look up at the three of them. I feel their magic pulsing around me with bated breath.
“Fine,” I agree. “I’ll let you help me.”
Kane
Thepromiseofretributionmakes my magic simmer along the surface of my body, ready to explode. This is my normal. Violence. Torture. It breathes through me, and I feed it like it’s instinct, because at this point, it is.
I may dislike what Lourdes stands for—weakness, in every measure—yet I willkillfor her. Because Ramiel commands it. And because if it hadn’t been for them, Lourdes never would have fallen into Sinful in the first place. She never would have blasted me backwards with an invisible barrier. She never would have exposed such fragility inside me.
I can feel the flames of hell flickering around us. Our magic as brothers combine together in a full force of fury. I know they’re feeling the same, if not similar, emotions to mine. They want vengeance.
They want bloodshed.
“I have conditions!”
Just like that, my magic zaps back within me, and I blink at her with disbelief.
“Conditions?” Lorenzo echoes, his confusion mirroring mine.
She nods vigorously. “If you’re going to help me, I have conditions.”
The audacity of this witch.
