Question is: can she handle all our demons?
When we reach the clearing where the others are, Seth stops mid-swing of his axe. Jude stiffens, darting his eyes between all of us before settling them on Briella.
And psycho statue just narrows his eyes on the girl like the perceptive hawk he is. Under Raphael’s gaze, she crosses her arms over her chest, hiding her breasts. Yeah, he has that effect. But she still doesn’t lose her glare.
“What. the. fuck?” Seth chucks the axe on the ground. It skids to my right as he rushes over to Rory, who is still clutching his ear. The blood has slowed, but he looks like he lost a fight with a small chainsaw.
I meet Raphael’s eyes, but his gaze is still fixed on Briella. When he tilts his head, she slowly mirrors him, and I chuff a breathy laugh at her challenging mischief.
“Vincent, what the hell happened?” Jude summons me, hugging his elbows and staring all of us down.
“Fucking little bitch happened,” Rory growls without removing his hand.
Briella side eyes him. “Funny. I remember making you my bitch when you started screaming like a little girl.”
Jude lifts his brows, eyes widening at her audacity. Rory lunges for her, but I shove him back. Fire rises in his eyes, but he won’t attack again. Not with Raphael here.
The girl makes a kissing sound at the raging socio.
For the first time, Rory drops his bloody hand, showing the half-eaten, rare steak scrap of his former ear.
I shrug, gesturing to him. “She bit his ear off.”
“She what?!” Seth exclaims.
“He bit me. I bit him back. Simple as that.” She sniffs. “And precision of language,” she sasses at me. “I bit his earlobeoff.” She locks eyes with Raphael again. Fuck, bold little girly. “At least I didn’t squeal like a stuck pig when he bit me.” She side eyes Rory, but this time, Seth holds him back… until Rory swings his fist.
“Shit,” Jude mutters as the two get into it, kneading his brow.
Seth might not be as big as me or as tall as Jude, but other than me, he’s got the most musclesandthe steeliest jaw. Where Rory is all tunnel-vision, fist-throwing rage, Seth takes him down, one crafty attack at a time. By now, their masks are gone. Not that it matters much.
Girly is ours now.
Seth pins Rory in the dirt, one hand pressing against the roadkill ear, when he snaps his head up. “Does this mean weshould callhimVincent now because of the ear thing? Or maybe Van Gogh?”
Rory’s fist strikes Seth’s cheek, knocking him over, and they’re back to it, rolling around in the dirt. I look at Briella, noticing the girl’s impish smirk.
Raphael still hasn’t taken his eyes off her. Part of me wonders if he’s just assessing her next move or plotting her punishment…maybe imagining what she’d look like with a knife through her heart. Or whatever else psychos think of.
“One goddamn, monumental fuck up.” Jude rolls his eyes before glancing back at Briella. “But I gotta say, it’s the most entertaining goddamn, monumental fuck up we’ve ever had.”
“Top three easily!” Seth chimes in while the socio twists his arms back.
Jude lifts a brow. “Funnier than the half-dismembered dancing clown?”
I feel Briella shiver against me.
“Oh, yeah!” Seth laughs right before bashing his head back until Rory’s nose starts gushing blood like he’s imitating a bloody Picasso painting.
I don’t realize my mistake of keeping my grip too loose until Briella dives on my right, seizing Seth’s forsaken axe and swinging it in a mad fury.
6
Jude
“W-WHAT IS LEVEL 3?”
Citizen Soldier Playlist
