Page 90 of Like Grim Death: Part One
Fuck that. I have a lot of fucking thoughts.
“Are you going to tell us who the fuck this is? And why you put her inhere?”I manage to ask, my voice strangled. “Is this some kind of fuckingshow?”I want to touch my own throat, the way the deep gash in this woman’s is slit. It doesn’t expose anything but a fuck ton of blood, and that’s the scary part. It didn’t take but a single cut to kill her. Did she bleed out? Where? Why was she movedhere?To shock us?
Where did that film come from?
The sharp tang of iron beneath the smell of decay suddenly seems all-consuming, and I want to get the fuck out of here. But I stay exactly where I am, meeting Elijah’s gaze again.
He looks calm as he studies me, hands in his pockets. “Ourinitiate,”his eyes cut to Lucifer for a second, “delivered this for you. He loaded up the film too.” He looks to me and almost as an afterthought, he says, nodding toward the body, “Take a good look, Lucifer.”
I furrow my brow, darting my gaze from Lucifer, who is perfectly still, to Elijah. There’s something between them I don’t understand. “Who the fuck is this? And where did those videos come from?” Unease is like a caress on my scalp, raising the hairs there.
Elijah lifts his chin. “You always seem so shocked at just what we can unearth, Maverick.” With those words, he smiles. It’s serene, and it makes my blood pressure spike.
I take a deep breath in through my nose—big mistake; I feel bile burn at the back of my throat with the stench of death—and out through my mouth, trying to let Dominus’s bullshit go. “What, exactly,” I keep my voice low, “is the fucking purposeof all this?”
His eyes narrow, but instead of reprimanding me, he only looks to Lucifer.
Long seconds pass as he stares at my brother.
Lucifer is gazing down at the body. His expression doesn’t change, but it’s like he can’t look away. He takes in her oversized shirt, sticking to her body, but floating in the water too, like her hair. Like the shirt is too big. Like maybe she… wore it to bed. Was dragged from sleep.
My fingers itch to grab the gun at my back, but I resist. “Luce.” I say his name carefully.
He doesn’t react.
I glance at Dominus, because it feels as if something is still transpiring between them that I don’t get. Like they both know who this woman is, and I’m the only one out of the loop.
Elijah has a strange smile plastered on his face, but it doesn’t meet his eyes. In fact, he just looks really fucking tired. I wonder how the investigation into Edith’s brief kidnapping is going with RC. He has a lot on his shoulders, but I have to wonder how much of it is the 6’s own making.
“Tell him who it is, Lucifer,” he whispers.
My throat feels tight, my abs clenching as I drag my gaze to my brother again. His face is paler than usual, which is saying something. A feat, really, for him. The shock of his black hair against white skin is startling, and for some reason, I take a step back from the baptistry.
The body.
“Luce.” My voice breaks on the word.Ella. Sid.What did it do to him, seeing them? The same thing it’s doing to me? But it’s with bitterness I imagine he felt nothing at all when Ella’s innocence played.
He still doesn’t look at me.
Elijah glances at Lucifer, then me. His smile vanishes. Whatever momentary happiness he felt putting us in our place is gone. “Well until he can figure out how to speak again, I’ll fill in the gaps of silence.Thisis what happens when you don’t obey the edicts of our organization. When you think you can say tofuckwith hundreds of years of ritual.” Elijah’s jaw clenches as he stares at me. “Do you understand?”
I shake my head. “No,” I say, throwing up my hands. “I don’t fucking understand. Lucifer, whothe fuckis this?” I stare hard at the side of his head, but he still doesn’t move. He doesn’t say a fucking word.
Elijah’s gaze shifts to Lucifer, and I know he feels it because I watch a bone in his jaw jump, just above the bandana around his neck.
But it’s still Dominus who speaks next. “You got very lucky with Sid, Lucifer.”
A slow smile pulls at Luce’s lips as he adjusts the bandana, but he stays silent.
“And you should begratefulElla is stillbreathing.”Elijah’s gaze is on me.
My blood pressure shoots up. I canfeel itinside my veins, weighing down on my chest. I want to reach for my gun again and go home. It takes an effort to stay here. “Whatthe fuckis going on right now?”
Silence echoes.
The scent of the corpse lingers thick in my nostrils, down my throat. My temper is fraying, and I feel like I’m going to toss Elijah’s dead body down in that baptistry too. But before I can say a word, Lucifer moves.
He leaps across the corner of the shallow pool to get to Elijah as fast as possible, an inhuman roar leaving his lips. One hand goes to Elijah’s throat, the other curls into a fist and he swings as he lands, but this isn’t Elijah’s first fight.
