Page 20 of Crucible
Seth doesn’t ever give up control of Zeke’s body until he’s good and ready. The only one who can make him is Bane, and that animal is an even bigger pain to deal with. Bane doesn’t givea shit what problems Seth causes us as long as he isn’t trying to hurt Zeke.
It’s as convoluted as it sounds, but this is our life—a never-ending cycle of violence and blood.
My gaze unwillingly returns to the girl.
She has no idea what kind of hell she’s walked into, but the moment she wakes her ass up, we’re going to show her.
Isaac and his flock aren’t the only reason we’re hiding on this mountain. Zeke, Seth, and Bane don’t do well around others, and we refuse to let the courts lock them up, so Khalil and I took our brother and fled.
“No can do,” Seth taunts. His mouth is already filling with blood when he bares his teeth more than smiles at Khalil. “Zeke’s sleeping.”
Beating Seth to a pulp will get us nowhere, so I walk over and wrestle Khalil off him. He hurls obscenities and threats as I put distance between them while Seth rolls onto his side and groans. I don’t have to question if Khalil got in more than a few good shots.
But he’s still no match for Bane, and we don’t need him waking up if Khalil does too much damage to Zeke’s body.
I shove Khalil to the other side of the room, back near the door, to keep them apart. Khalil wastes no time trying to put his fist through the wall. The only thing he succeeds in doing is splitting the skin around his knuckles. The moment he draws blood, I stomp over and snatch his hand away before the idiot breaks it.
Khalil shoves me away, and my spine smarts when I fly back and crash into the bedpost. The tides have turned, and we’re glaring at each other now as we both try to remember why we can’t tear each other apart. Unlike me, Seth won’t bother trying to break it up. He’ll gleefully watch us kill each other, so I quickly get my temper under control.
Khalil does the same.
“Fuck, it feels good to be free.” Seth rises to his feet and stretches Zeke’s muscles as if he’s indeed been caged for months.
Six, to be exact.
The last time Zeke split and let one of his alters take over had been after a particularly bad nightmare—one terrifying enough to feel real. It had taken us weeks to force Seth back, and during that time, he’d nearly driven us all insane.
Hence Khalil’s reaction to seeing him back.
“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it,” Khalil snarls at him.
Seth feigns a pout and then takes a bored look around the room. I see the moment his gaze catches on the cuffs still looped around the bedposts from the last time he visited us. For the first time, he looks nervous, casting a wary look at us.
I hold his gaze, silently communicating that we’ll use them again if he steps even one foot out of line.
Seth snorts to save face and then returns his attention to the sleeping girl. “I see you two finally stopped being boring,” he says coolly. “Who’s the toy, and when can I play with her?”
“We don’t know,” I answer. “We just found her here, same as you.” Seth hums, the green in his eyes turning acidic as he stares at her. And then he reaches down to adjust his hard-on. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Why not?” he challenges. Seth’s amused gaze flicks over my shoulder, and then he’s smiling like he knows something I don’t. “I’m not the only one.”
Frowning, I look for Khalil and see he’s gravitated back to the bed again. He’s got one arm resting on the canopy as he stares down at our mystery girl with this intensity that can only mean trouble.
I can see him tracing her curves, and there areplenty. He’s making a roadmap of every line he wants to explore—and all the ones he’ll stomp all over if she doesn’t play ball.
Khalil Poverly is somewhat of a legend back in the civilized world—not just from his fighting days but how voraciously he pursued the opposite sex. He was the same in high school, bedding all the girls in our town—and the neighboring ones, too—like it was his mission in life to fuck himself to death.
Going cold turkey had really taken its toll on him the most. It even got so bad he begged me for a handjob once.
I…don’t want to talk about it.
“Stay focused,” I snap.
I don’t bother keeping my voice down, either. The girl hasn’t woken yet and probably won’t anytime soon. The cabin could collapse around her, and she’ll likely sleep through it. From the way things are going, that just might happen.
The idea of fighting my brothers tastes like ash in my mouth, but we don’t need the trouble this girl will inevitably bring.
We need to get rid of her.
