The ride was uneventful.
Arlen and Cali sat in the back on either side of Grimm, and I drove with Cobra riding shotgun. Every time I looked in the rearview mirror, Cali’s eyes met mine.
She had on a habit and hood with her cross necklace tucked in. She looked pure as ever, tempting the strongest man to wanna sin.
I parked the Jeep hillside, partially obscured and still able to see the lone church that sat center field.
“You got this?” I asked Cali and Arlen at ten till eleven.
“I can do this,” Cali answered with heady determination.
“That’s my fuckin girl.”
She beamed at me and climbed out of the car, blowing a kiss before shutting the door.
“What about you?”
“I got her back,” Arlen retorted, climbing out and circling around to walk in step with Cali. We watched them fall in line with the rest of the nuns rushing towards the church in the mirrors. The bright light made them all look like scurrying black dots.
“Did you bring it?”
“It’s right here,” Cobra said, pulling a utility bag from beneath his seat with an excited grin.
“You’re such a child, Bow-bow,” Grimm taunted from the backseat, using the nickname we’d given him when we were kids.
Cobra dramatically gasped and turned in his seat. “Is that a compliment from the reaper? Thanks man. I got love for you too.”
Ignoring their banter, I kept my eyes trained on the rearview mirror.
Patience was never my strongest virtue to begin with but where Cali was concerned, the shit didn’t exist at all. I knew she could do this—she’d done it multiple times before I entered the picture—but that didn’t make me feel any better about her safety.
Exactly on time, a figure dressed in all black appeared at the back of the church. I was more relieved than I was willing to admit.
“Let’s go.”
I was out the car before the last word finished coming out of my mouth, jogging towards the door. Cobra and Grimm fell in step beside me.
As people began filing out the front of the church, thanks to Arlen we were able to slip in the back. She held a finger to her lips to silence us and took the lead back the way she came.
The building went peacefully silent after the large doors slammed shut.
The moon shone through the stained glass windows and served as the only light in the hall.
“You look cute, brat, like a school girl.” She glanced over her shoulder and shook her head, flipping Grimm the bird as she walked.
At the end of the hall, she paused and put an arm out to stop us, pointing around a corner.
Peering around her, I searched the pews for Cali, spotting her kneeling in front of the altar. Father Azel—her uncle—was making his way towards her.
We filed into the room just as he reached her and touched the back of her head. Like a jack-in-the-box, she sprang up and turned around with a shit eating grin on her face.
“Hello, Father. Did you miss me?”
Her sweet voice echoed across the room. Azel faltered, visibly surprised. Cali stepped forward and shoved him so hard he fell back and tripped, landing on a pew.
“Lock the doors,” I directed Arlen as we moved past her.
Hearing my voice, Azel whipped his head around. His wide eyes took us all in and he blanched, hopping up and attempting to run.
“Hey!” Cali yelled, sticking a foot out to trip him. He fell into the aisle, landing at Grimm’s feet.
“You’re aging like shit,” Grimm told him, bending down and lifting him up by the head with one hand covering his mouth.
Cobra bypassed all of us, giving Cali a high-five. He went to the altar and began unloading his utility bag.
“Come here, baby.” I held my hand out. She took it and linked our fingers together as I draped my arm over her shoulder.
“Doors are locked; coast is clear,” Arlen announced, pulling her hood off.
“Where do you want him?”
“You’re letting me choose?”
“This is your show. We’re just the muscle.” Her eyes lit up like saucers and she did an excited shimmy.
Slipping out from beneath my arm, she spun around like a ringmaster and pointed to a large silver cross leaning against the wall.
“Can you use that to cross him up?” She looked at me and laughed at her own joke. “With those,” she clarified, pointing to the long metal chain Cobra had placed on the altar.
“We can make that work.” Grimm answered before I could, dragging a struggling Azel towards the altar.
I went and retrieved the cross. I carried it to the altar and I propped it up.
“Lift, strip, tie.” I pointed to each of us and grabbed the chain. Cobra cut Azel’s robes off and partially assisted Grimm holding him up as I secured his left and then his right arm on the bars of the cross.
“God, we’re all going straight to hell,” Arlen groaned.
Cobra paused and looked at her with a mischievous grin.
“Take a good look around you, sweetheart, cause you’re already there. This world is hell and that psychopathic asshole is the devil.” He pointed to me with the tip of his knife.
“So what does that make the rest of us?” she scoffed.
“Well, I’m clearly his most trusted, loyal, advisor,” he hyped, tearing the last piece of robe from the now constrained Azel.
“Grimm is self explanatory. He kills shit without discrimination, takes no bribes, and never fails to get the job done.”
“That’s actually pretty accurate,” Grimm approved, pulling Azel’s drawers down to his ankles.
“Cali is his beautifully insane, dark, maleficent queen.” He sighed dramatically and looked to the ceiling. “Even the devil needs love.”
I shook my head and looked at Cali. She stared back at me with an unreadable expression on her angelic face.
His spot-on definition did crazy shit to my head.
She just didn’t know how serious he was.
“That’s sickeningly sweet, but ya’ll aren’t that bad.”
“Of course, you would say that, Arlen, because you don’t know us…yet. But you’re more than likely dead anyway so tough shit for you.”
“Ya’ll don’t know us—”
“I know Cali.” I cut her off and put an end to the discussion. No one said anything; Grimm and Cobra didn’t even attempt to act surprised by my words.
Did I know what her favorite color or her favorite food was? Fuck no. Did I know every sordid detail of her past? Also fuck no. Did I give a shit about any of that? Again: fuck no.
I knew she was so broken she didn’t even realize it. I knew what she saw when she looked in the mirror was nothing but confusion.
I knew she was drowning inside herself and struggling to figure out who she was while the demons screamed at her to let them out.
I knew all of that because once upon a very shitty, unfortunate time, that was me.
I was her.
I knew her.
We reflected off one another.
She was my beautifully dark motherfucking queen.
She was mine. I wasn’t letting her go even when it was all said and done and she hated my fucking guts—because she would. That was inevitable. I destroyed everything good that I touched. She’d just have to hate me with her pussy sitting on my face.
“Why…did you tie him that way?” she asked, breaking the silence and staring at Azel’s shabby, pale ass.
“We’re going to make him suffer until we get some answers.”
She nodded and approached me, holding on to Arlen’s arm to move forward.
“Calista, sweet girl––”
I was behind him, slamming his face into the cross before he could finish. “You don’t get to address her! The only time you get to open your mouth is to answer questions or fucking scream.”
“He’s pissin on himself.” Cobra pointed to the stream of urine running down Azel’s pale leg.
“Typical.” I stepped away from him with a look of disgust. “Pick a tool, Pixie.”
Without a word, she studied the altar and hummed beneath her breath, selecting the yellow drill. She clicked the button and smiled at me when it whirred.
A shocked cry had all of us turning our heads to see a nun had come around the corner. She screamed and took off for the door.
“Fuck, I got it,” Grimm grumbled.
He hopped down the small step and took off after her.
Just before she reached the door, he lifted her up by the waist and flung her through the air. She bounced off a pew with a resounding boom and cried out when her body smacked the marble floor.
Grimm being Grimm wasted no time picking her up by the neck and squeezing the life from her body. She wildly swung her arms at him, gasping and kicking her legs. It took thirteen seconds for her to pass out and another two to kill her. She died so fast, if it wasn’t for him carelessly tossing her body over the back of a pew, it would be easy to believe it never happened.
“You have three strikes to tell me where David is, starting now.” My impatience was starting to kick in and I was tired of being inside the church.
“I don’t know—”
“Strike one—just because I know you’re about to bullshit me.”
Cali stepped up beside me with the drill in her hand and looked to me for instruction.
“Make it hurt.”
“Make it hurt,” she repeated. Her eyes travelled over every inch of him, landing on his hands. She stepped closer and raised the drill to the back of his left one and held the button down.
The drill bit spun around, only twisting his skin at first, gradually drilling into his flesh.
“Stop! Please just stop!” he screamed in agony.
I gently pulled Cali’s hand away, revealing the tiny hole she had started to make on the back of his hand.
“Stop crying and pull your shit together. We haven’t even hurt you yet.” I sighed and patted the top of his head. “What kind of man pisses himself and cries because of a little good old-fashioned torture?”
“Same question, Azel—where is David?”
“I haven’t seen him in months,” he whined.
“But you’ve talked to him. You always talk to each other on the phone. You know where he is; I know you do!” Cali interjected, yelling in his face.
“I’m telling you truth. Why would I lie?”
“Because you’re a sorry sack of shit.”
“Because you’re at strike two,” I added behind her.
She sighed and raised the drill again, pulling back with a shake of her head.
“Why are we even wasting our time on this sicko when he keeps a ledger of addresses in his office? He’s not gonna talk. They never talk. We might as well just make him scream, make him bleed, and then kill as many of them as possible. David will show himself if you start killing off his most important members. With the ledger, we’ll know exactly where to find them.”
“She has an excellent point,” Cobra agreed, smacking a hand over Azel’s mouth to muffle his screams.
“What do you think?” I asked Grimm.
“I think it’s rhetorical. And why did it take her so long to get lost in the woods?”
“Do your thing.” I gave her the green-light, curiously watching for what she would do now.
I fucking loved watching her mind work, figuring out exactly how badly she wanted to make a motherfucker scream. That pretty little head of hers was full of a festering sickness. When she finally broke free of her chrysalis, she would be fucking incredible.
She smiled at me and grabbed for Azel’s flaccid cock. The tip was still wet from his piss.
With no forewarning, she jammed the drill bit into his urethra. He was screaming before she even held the button down. My own cock couldn’t decide if it wanted to shrivel itself inside out in fear or stay rock solid while Cali drilled a hole into another man’s dick.
Cobra looked at me and I nodded.
Within a second, he had his own cock out and was spreading Azel’s ass cheeks apart, lining himself up.
“Let’s see how you like being on the receiving end for once.” He shoved himself in dry—just like they used to.
Cali immediately stopped and dropped his bloody member, peering around with large eyes as Cobra pounded into Azel’s ass.
“Holy shit,” Arlen sputtered.
“Don’t think his shit is gonna be too holy anymore,” Grimm joked.
Azel twisted in his restraints, crying out for mercy and not receiving any. Cobra’s dick became tinged with blood as he drove in and out of his ass.
Cali’s mouth opened and shut. She licked her lips and stepped back. Feeling my stare, she wiped her bloody hand on her habit and set the drill down.
“I’m going to get the ledger.” She excused herself and took off quicker than a mouse.
I watched Cobra for a few minutes but quickly grew bored. Azel had turned into a whimpering broken record. “Let’s wrap this up.”
“Thank fuck, finally. My dick was getting chaffed.” Cobra pulled out and jumped back as Azel defecated all over the floor.
“God, that is disgusting,” Arlen shrilled, darting towards the back hall, shielding her eyes.
I yanked the cross amulet from around his neck and stood in front of him. Grimm placed one hand on the top and the other on bottom, pulling his mouth wide open, breaking his jaw apart.
I shoved the amulet in Azel’s mouth and Grimm slammed it back together, pushing the cross straight through the roof of his gums, blood dripped down onto the silver pendant and leaked over his lips.
Glancing down, I laughed at the sight of his bloody dick. We’d done this same routine so many times it was nice to have it shaken up a little bit.
“Bleed him out and then find Arlen.”
I left them to it and walked off in the direction Cali had gone.