the last thing I want is to look like Lakyn beat the shit out of me when we get wherever we're going. Somehow, I just know it would make him happy—and I only want him to suffer. Clenching my teeth hard enough to hear them creaking inside my skull, I pop open the pack of cigarettes just to have something to keep me busy for the next miserable minutes before I can at least walk away from him for a little bit.
I just need some fucking silence, some air that I don't have to share with the two people who ruined my life by killing the only good thing in it.
Just as I light it, taking that first puff to dull the edge of my rage a little, I remember what Daphne said to Willa when she had the knife pressed against her throat. Right here. In this seat. It wasn't just a random knife… it was the knife Willa used on that guy we found at the park. When she chose to kill that random couple instead of me.
Turning around in my seat, I find Daphne with one leg extended across the backseat, her back against the door as she watches the priestess that I know hasn’t moved. I can’t see her, but she’s bound with rope and gagged with a sock and more duct tape than I really think is necessary.
But I don't give a shit what they do to the goth princess, I'm just wondering if she’ll distract them enough to let their guard down so I can kill one—or both—of them tonight.
"Hey," I say, blowing smoke into the backseat, and I actually manage to smile a little when I see Daphne flinch as the cloud hits her in the face. "I want that knife you took off the couple in the woods."
"Why?"
My rage ratchets up another couple of notches and so I take a long drag, letting it soak in before I blow the smoke right at her. "Because I want it."
"It's not the only knife I have," she says, tilting her head a bit as she narrows her eyes at me.
"Then it shouldn't fucking matter if you give it to me," I snap.
"Fine." Rolling her eyes, she grabs her backpack from the floor and digs through it, slapping the handle of the knife onto my open palm a few seconds later. Just as I wrap my fingers around it, she takes out another one, but this blade is folded in until she swipes her thumb over the side and it swings out, clicking into place.
It's black, and although it's shorter than the one in my hand, I can tell it's very sharp—whereas the one I'm holding is more than a little well-used. The guy had it with his fishing gear, but I'm oddly comforted by the fact that Willa cleansed any lingering residue of fish off of it by stabbing it into the asshole thirty-something times. Somehow that tiny bit of knowledge makes it easier to swallow that Willa ended up gutted by the same knife. Daphne leans back against the seat and I realize I've been staring at her when she says, "See something you like?"
"No." I'm sure my face shows how disgusted I am by her bullshit attempt at flirting before I turn around and set Willa's knife on my thigh. The blade belongs with me. It's tied to both of us, and even though it looks clean… Willa's blood still touched it. This thin piece of metal took her life, and so, in a way, it's my last connection to her. More powerful than the hair tie around my wrist, and a hell of a lot more helpful.
"Think you can actually use that?" Lakyn asks, glancing over at me.
"Wouldn't be the first time, Pops."
He just laughs, low and quiet, and the way the lights from the dash cast his face in shadow makes him look creepy as fuck. "We'll see about that." Flicking his cigarette out the window, Lakyn takes the next exit. "I think we'll try out our party favor and then get some rest before we hit the road again to go find your auntie in the daylight."
Whatever.
It's hard to believe this town exists because it's surrounded by so much empty black. I can't see shit more than ten feet off the road, but in the distance the light pollution forms a bubble of gray haze around this random pitstop of civilization somewhere in Arizona. Unfortunately, Lakyn isn't headed toward