Outcasts (Badlands 3)

“Cobra did.”

Ugh, no further information needed.

“Wait, what about you? What are you gonna use?” I stopped walking and turned towards him.

“I have everything I need. I was going to make you stay behind me, Knew your ass wouldn’t listen. Also what you need, because I need it too. I promised to make sure you got what you wanted.”

“Regardless, no one is going to fucking touch you. We need Noah and Vance alive but, kill whoever else moves. Just try not to get trigger happy, because foundation, and don’t shoot our own people.” He smirked at the last part, knowin my aim was pure shit.

“And you stay close to her,” he ordered Blue, suddenly serious.

“Stay close, got it. I don’t need to hear that twice.” She nodded.

How was I ever gonna thank him for any of this?

He’d turned his whole world upside down for me. He was getting ready to massacre in my name. What notion could be sweeter than that?

“Thank you is a real dismal way of—.”

“Brat we’ve been through this, you—.”

“Shut up and listen Grimm. Damn.”

“If my dad wasn’t hellbent on getting me back, your friends from the brothel would still be alive, your towns wouldn’t be being invaded, and——.” He gripped the back of my neck and brought me flush against him, forcing his tongue in my mouth to shut me up.

Blue shifted uncomfortably in my peripheral.

Grimm pulled away and looked down at me. “You wouldn’t have been taken by Noah for some bullshit reason that never existed; I wouldn’t have come to find you. We’d still be eyeing each other from across the room, neither of us making a move. You know I’d take you anyway I could get you.

He let me go and stepped away, his face shrouded by his hood. “You ready ?” he asked, holdin out a gloved hand.

I looked at the old prison as the first scream of pain tore through the air. My heart was pounding like I’d just approached a twelve foot drop, ready as hell for me to go over the edge.

I couldn’t say me and this new Arlen were well acquainted yet, but we understood one another just fine. My petals had wilted and thorns took their place. The demon in my head was wide awake, and the venom in my veins churned a thirst for carnage I couldn’t wait to satisfy.

I was a plague none were prepared for. I’d never felt stronger, and with Grimm forever lurking in the shadows, watching over me, I felt damn near invincible. To touch me was to touch death, and death always won.

“I’m ready,” I said, lookin back at Grimm, with a bright smile, and taking his hand.

Just like the hospital, sound echoed.

People’s yells of surprise, footsteps, and one single gunshot so far.

Grimm had seemingly vanished, but I knew he was close, I could feel him, and was proven correct when a body seemed to come from nowhere. Blue and I had been on our way up an old staircase when the man came tumbling down.

His head hit the solid metal railing, leaving a ringing crack and blood behind as he free fell to the level below, landing at an obtuse angle with a nasty soundin splat.

I wondered what it said about my relationship when I knew it was my man who killed someone simply by the way they were executed. Clearly, we were very compatible.

“That’s eleven,” Blue whispered.

We wound up in a long hall lined with cells. I heard a muffled sound comin from the end like a woman was in pain.

Blue and I slowly edged towards it.

There was a ton of dark spots inside the building, but the vaulted skylights that had been installed when the prison was built made it easy enough to see.

The sound was comin from a cell half-way to the end. I had the pretty lil dagger Grimm had given me in hand and was ready to cut shit. The weight of the gun reminded me it was there too, but that was my last resort.