Souls Unfractured (Hades Hangmen, #3)(91)

“Sixteen,” the kid replied. I closed my eyes.

Opening them again, I asked, “Where’s your mama?” The kid looked up at me. I saw his expression change. His eyes lowered. He swallowed.

Viking pointed at me. “Flame ain’t angry. It’s just how he talks.”

I frowned at Viking. “How did I f*cking talk?”

Viking shrugged, and rubbed his hand under his nose. “Like you, brother. Don’t sweat it.” Maddie laid her head on my arm. I breathed normally, hating how I could never f*cking speak right to new people.

Asher rocked on his feet, looked real f*cking sad, and answered, “Died a few months back. She… she killed herself.” He looked up at me and pointed behind him. “Hung herself on the tree out back.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “I found her. And poppa… he blamed me. Said it was all my fault.” He shook his head. “But he beat her. Made us go to that church he loved so much, and we hated. She killed herself because of him, but he blamed me. Mama was still so young, she was only eighteen when she met him. She couldn’t go on any longer.”

“God…” Maddie whispered, clearly in shock. I closed my eyes and thought, just like my f*cking mama. It was all exactly like my f*cking life.

When I opened them again, AK was standing in front of me. “Your call, man. This kid’s your blood.” I stared at my… brother… and my heart pounded. I had a brother. I had a f*cking kid brother… again.

The kid held my gaze. He stepped forward and asked, “What’ll happen to me now? I can’t…” His breath caught, and he shook. “Don’t take me to that church. Please… Josiah, please… I got no other family, and I hate that church more than anything.”

“It’s Flame,” I corrected, too busy thinking about that f*cking church. The kid’s eyes widened.

“Flame,” he pleaded. “Don’t make me go there.”

Maddie squeezed my hand. When I looked down at her, she was staring right back up at me with those huge eyes. Taking a deep breath, I faced Asher and ordered, “You come home with me.”

The kid paused, then choked on a f*cking pained sob. Viking moved forward and slung his arm around Asher’s shoulder. The kid tensed, but he relaxed straight away into Viking’s huge chest, f*cking curling himself into Vike’s hold. Just then, I knew that Asher wasn’t like me at all. He didn’t have my condition. He could be touched… He—

“… can be touched,” I finished, under my breath. Maddie’s hand lay on my chest. She’d heard me. My arm lifted to lie over her shoulder and I pulled her closer, holding the one person I could touch. Placing my mouth close to her ear, I whispered, “He can be touched, Maddie. He ain’t like me.”

“I know,” she replied, and hugged me tighter. “That’s good, Flame.”

Viking walked past me toward the bikes, away from the f*cking corpse. With Asher under his arm, he asked, “Little f*cking Ash. You ever been to Texas?” Viking stopped dead in his tracks and looked back. “Fucking Ash, brother. Flame and Little Ash.” He shook his head and smiled. Turning back to Asher, he asked, “You ever been on a bike?”

“No,” Asher replied in a timid voice. “But I’ve seen one. And I’ve always liked them.”

“Good thing, brother. Because where you’re going, you’re gonna learn to f*cking love them.”

AK followed them both without saying a word. I stood there just breathing, staring at the old shithole of a house. Maddie walked in front of me. “What now?”

Pushing a loose strand of her black hair behind her ear, I said, “I need you to wait out here.”

Maddie stilled, then dropped my hand and walked to the bikes. I headed back to what was left of my poppa on the ground. Bending down, I picked up his f*cking torn up corpse in my arms, and carried it into the house, back to the cellar. Without even looking at its face, without even looking down into that f*cking pedo cell, I threw it into the hellhole, throwing in that f*cking cursed blade with it.

In seconds, I stood at the front door, and reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my lighter and brought up a flame. I stared at the orange flames, feeling the flames in my blood stir in response. Then I walked through the old doorway for the very last time, and flicked the open flame onto the cluttered dry floor. I shut the front door behind me, and just f*cking smiled. Lifting my head, I saw Asher on the back of Viking’s bike, wearing leathers far too f*cking big for his paper thin body. Then I climbed on my bike. Maddie was already waiting, her arms coming around my waist as soon I sat in the saddle.

AK rolled his bike beside me, and asked, “What now, brother?”

Focusing straight forward, I said, “I got one more place to go.”

AK revved his engine, and said, “Then f*cking lead the way.”

We pulled out onto the dirt road. I smelled the smoke of burning wood. And I smiled again. I smiled knowing that that f*cker would burn to ashes.

We hit the main road, and I tore up asphalt heading for one last place. AK and Viking were right on my back wheel, not one f*cking car to be seen on the road.

My chest tightened as we approached the building I hated most. When the old church came into view on the deserted country road, I pulled my bike to a stop out front.

Sliding off my bike, I turned to Maddie. “You stay here out front with the kid. This won’t take long.”