Chapter 8

She didn't rat out Mordecai. Or scream for help.

I went in there with every expectation of her putting up a fight. I was going to take pleasure in her resisting me. I had fantasies of her face twisting in horror as I carved my name into her flesh. But she did none of those things. She fucking loved it.

"It's kind of hard to torture someone who gets off on pain. You should have seen her face… her body. I've never seen any woman cum that hard for me." I chug back a cold bottle of water before pressing it against my heated forehead.

Raithe shrugs. "So she's a little masochist. So what? Everyone has their limits. We just need to find hers."

Mordecai nods in agreement but doesn't look up from his book. "I tried to tell you. She doesn't fear us. Rich, privileged girls are rarely scared of anything."

The rage I've felt for months since that night of the Winter Solstice Ball has only tripled since I saw her face. "I will break her. I'll learn her weaknesses. We just need to find out what will hurt her the most."

"Maybe she's a sex addict. Don't let her cum again. That will be true torture for her," Mordecai drawls.

"Nah. That's not it. I'm going to do some digging. Dr. Hall is a fucking liar. She knows that blonde psycho in there is Libra Thorn. Someone wants that girl locked up, and I want to find out who. That will be the fuel we need to start a fire in her."

Raithe arches an eyebrow at me. "Where's your knife, Fabien?"

Why is he so fucking astute? "I gave it to her."

He sucks in a deep breath and bounces out of his chair toward me.

I throw up my hands. "Before you flip the fuck out, it's not what you think. That fucking orderly is trying to fuck her, and I'm not about to let anyone touch her but us. Not until we're done. I don't fucking share my prey with scumbags."

Raithe walks into me, forcing me back against the wall. "Don't forget what her family did to us, Fabien. The poison fields… Nocturnus… everything."

My heart races as he glowers down at me. How could I fucking forget the torment we've endured? We almost broke our backs working in those fields and nearly lost our lives at Tenebrose.

I cup his face in my hands, our lips only inches away from each other's. "I won't ever forget. It's just you and me and Mordecai. The only ones I trust. The only ones I don't fucking hate."

He nods and angles his head toward mine. I sigh into his mouth as he kisses me. His tongue dances around mine, sending tingles down my spine like little bolts of electricity. I cup his cock through his pants. "I love how fucking hard you get for me." I breathe in between his kisses.

He moans into my neck. "I want to feel your skin."

As I slip my hand down his pants and feel the heat of his cock in my palm, I let out a whimper.

"Pull it out so I can watch you play with it," Mordecai rasps as he finally looks up from his book.

I nudge Raithe back toward the bed until his calves hit the mattress. I yank off his pants before pushing him down.

"Get on your knees," he commands.

As I lower myself to the floor, my mouth salivates. I shudder as I wrap my lips around his thick cock.

Raithe lets out a deep moan as he leans back against the sheets. "Yeah, just like that. Make me throb."

I suck him hard, scraping my teeth against his skin as I bob up and down his veiny shaft. I lose myself to him. To the illusion of control. As his cock swells in my mouth, the weight of my demons loosen their grip around my neck.

I don't feel the ache in my chest. I forget about the scars on my flesh. "Cum for me," I rasp as I pull up for air to admire the slick layer of saliva I've coated him with.

He grabs the back of my head and shoves me back down. " Faster ."

Mordecai's scent envelops me as he stands over us, stroking himself. "Only us," he recites our mantra.

It's only ever been us. The three forgotten poison boys. With no one to look after us but each other, our bonds lie deeper than mere flesh and bone.

I work my tongue against his shaft as I slide my lips up and down, relishing in the way his cock twitches in my mouth. I moan around him.

"Fuck. Get ready to choke," Raithe grunts. He presses my head between his palms and grinds into the back of my throat.

I take a deep breath through my nose as his hot cum shoots out.

Mordecai lets out a moan and squirts his climax onto my face at the same time.

I gag for a second before I surrender. And then I drink like a thirsty man who's been wandering the desert for days without water. I suck him dry while he writhes and moans on the bed.

He tastes like salt and ash and nightshade. Like the sins of our past and the crimes we haven't yet committed. I suck and lick until I've consumed every drop of his essence.

Breathless, I wipe my lips with the back of my hand. "Only us."

Raithe's chest heaves as he comes down from his orgasm. With one hand still on my head, he reaches the other out for Mordecai. "Fuck… you two are my only salvation. My only mercy in this fucked up world."

Mordecai runs his fingers over Raithe's empty eye socket. "She's the devil between us. We can't let her win."

I rest my head against his thigh; my rage and sorrow renewed again. "Agreed. We can't let her manipulate us."

Raithe nods as he sits back up. "It's time to show her that the true horrors of this place are us."

Absentia felt like a prison at first. It still is, but now we have the freedom to roam around within its twisted halls. As long as we don't try to escape, the asylum is our playground.

It didn't take long for us to make nice with the orderlies. We do their grunt work, the shit jobs that the doctor requires of them. Raithe, Mordecai, and I clean toilets, mop floors, and even change bedpans. We turn our heads when Gorman and his buddies steal pills from the infirmary, we keep our mouths shut when they have their fun with some of the other patients—prisoners, and we cause distractions with the doctor when they need to be in two places at once.

In return, they don't fuck with us. After six months in this rotten place, our power grows over theirs. It's all part of the plan to get the fuck out of here. Soon, we'll be free of this place. And once we're on the outside, we can turn around and burn it the fuck down.

We have no loyalty to anyone but each other. But the atrocities that have been committed here over the years are enough to make me sick. There are ghosts who roam these halls, disturbed spirits who will never find peace. I'll be damned if that ends up being us someday.

One thing I know for sure is Libra Thorn is worth her weight in gold. She's a cold-hearted bitch with psycho tendencies, but there's no way her family put her in here. That's not how rich people punish their kin. If her parents wanted to lock her away, it would be in a beachside villa somewhere, not this shithole.

So that means she's pissed off someone more powerful than them. Richer than her own family. And that is what I consider leverage.

I slip into Dr. Hall's office right on schedule. She's making her rounds, and the short, stocky orderly we call Weasel, gives me a nod before standing watch.

Her desk is pristine and free from clutter, as usual. I remember the first time I prowled around in here, the shock that swept through me when I realized all the files were empty. Not missing, just non-existent. The dutiful citizens of Raven's Gate have no fucking idea what this place really is. It's not a treatment center for sick people to get better. It's a fucking prison. A place where people go to be forgotten. A cesspool of lies and deceit for those who you want to make disappear.

There are no medical charts or files or notes. Dr. Hall's yellow pads are full of doodles and grocery lists. She's a fraud. A watchkeeper for the misfits and outcasts of society. The warden over all those who dare to piss off the wrong people. I'll give her a slower death than the others .

But what she does keep are receipts. Payments from those who buy her silence and obedience. The amount of money the Graves family has paid to keep me and the boys locked up in here would almost be flattering if it didn't sicken me so much.

I open drawers and filing cabinets in search of anything new. Weasel taps on the door three times, signaling that my time's almost up. My heart races as I flip through her ledgers. I scan the pages as fast as I can.

I need more time. Fuck.

There's nothing here except the same old shit. Endless paper trails of money paid by some of the most prominent families in Melancholia—Graves, Harker, Wickford, Crane, and others. I can only imagine the centuries of blood and betrayal that these payments are tied to. Not to mention the ones recently made on our behalf. But nothing new.

Which leads me to believe that whoever put Libra in here has even more to hide than I thought.

Weasel knocks one more time, a final warning to get the fuck out before Dr. Hall rounds the corner.

I tuck in her drawers and cabinets before bolting out of there. As I pass the stocky orderly at the door, I slip him a vial of my blood. Years of ingesting and breathing in poison have left our veins permanently laced with it. And it's a small enough dose for someone as mundane as Weasel. He'll get a temporary high before he throws it all up, but it's not enough to kill him.

I race down the hall toward the cafeteria where I find Cook waiting for me at the back door to the kitchen—our usual time and meeting place. He hands me a brown paper bag, and in return, I toss him a vial too. The irony of bartering with my blood is not lost on me. But it's how I survive.

I round another corner and run smack dab into Kitty. I purse my lips and brace myself. The waif-like apparition screams in my face. I take two steps forward and scream back. Her eyes widen as if we haven't done this a hundred times before.

She tucks a white strand of her hair back behind her ear and whimpers, "Meow."

"Good, Kitty." I pat her on the head before she vanishes. I'm sure she had a real name once, but it's long been forgotten inside these walls.

Fucking hell. I sometimes can't believe how normal this has become. But I don't want to get used to it. I want fresh air, open roads, and food that doesn't taste like medicine.

Finally, I head to the gym, where I find the Terror Twins jumping up and down on the weight bench. I kneel down and offer them the bag. "Sweet treats for evil deeds?"

The two little blonde girls giggle as they barrel over, their eyes lighting up with delight when they discover the lollipops inside.

I give them a wink. "You know what to do."

They nod and don't waste any time peeling the wrappers off before popping the bright red suckers in their mouths. " No sleep ," they both chant in unison.

A wave of euphoria flutters through me. I can't wait to hear our little freak scream.