Chapter Text
It turned out Peaches had a real name. Lily-Rose. Not Lily. Not Rose. Lily-Rose. She made sure Seth knew that the moment he had asked her.
“I think I'll stick with Peaches,” he said as they stood in the middle of broken glass and toppled tables inside Jacknife Jed's. Richie was on the other side of the room with his cell phone stuck to his ear, already barking orders down the food chain.
“It's Lily-Rose,” the girl said again, this time more defiantly. Her eyes didn't flash yellow like Seth expected when culebras got pissed; no, this anger came from some human memory.
He held up his hands. “Fine. So, Lily-Rose, do you mind picking up a broom or something? Help out a little.”
“What makes you think I'm staying?” She crossed her arms over her flowy dress, the stance triggering something inside him from his own human memory.
“Oh, you're staying,” Seth said. “Trust me, it's much safer here.”
“Really?” She narrowed her eyes. “Tell me then. Who's Eddie and Kate?”
His hands balled into fists, knuckles still sore and red from hitting Richie earlier. He stalked over to Lily-Rose, and he was glad to see her drop her arms and her feet step back. Her eyes widened with fear. He liked that reaction. He liked knowing she didn't know; that the only thing she did know was that he was some son of a bitch in a suit that had hacked her maker into pieces.
He glared at her. “As of today, I'm your boss, and as your boss, I want you to pick up a fucking broom and sweep this goddamn floor, you got that?”
Frowning, she moved to the wall and picked up the broom as instructed.
Seth shook his head and headed to the bar to pour himself something, anything. Before he could, the front doors swung open as Scott ran inside. He removed his hoodie and scarf that protected him from the sunlight and said, “She's gone.”
Seth glanced at Richie, who had ended his call. Both of them walked over to Scott.
“What happened?” Richie asked.
“Kate,” Scott said, a vacant look on his face. “I went back to the blood well, and her body—she's gone.”
There were those words again: She's gone.
Seth stared at the kid. “What do you mean? She didn't just get up and walk away, did she?” For a second, he thought Kate might still be alive. Maybe Richie had been wrong.
But his brother's stoic expression told him not to get his hopes up.
“I don't know.” Scott rubbed his head. “She was there, and now, she's gone...” His eyes welled up with tears.
Seth sighed and put his hands on his hips. Fuck, not the kind of reaction he wanted to see.
On the other hand, Richie calmly clasped Scott's shoulder. “Hey, it's okay. We'll find her.”
Scott nodded, straightening his back. He sniffed and blinked several times to stop the flow of tears. Back to being the tough guy, not a kid who just lost the last member of his family.
At that moment, it occurred to Seth that he was on the outside looking in. After all, he hadn't been there in Kate's final moments like Scott and Richie had, hadn't been there to watch her draw last breath, hadn't been there to stop her from getting in that car with his brother. She wasn't even supposed to be there.
And why is that? It's because you did this, you bastard. You walked away from her, remember? Told her to go play in the darkness when she wasn't ready.
Seth stormed behind the bar and grabbed the nearest bottle of liquor. Tequila. Good enough. He headed toward the door. His gaze met Lily-Rose's, who was watching everything quietly.
“Where are you going?” Richie asked him.
“Out,” Seth said without looking back.
He stepped into the hot afternoon sun, knowing no one in that fucking bar could follow him.
**
An hour later, Seth was getting a blow job from some blonde in the bathroom of a gas station. With the tequila flowing through his body and a mouth around his cock, he almost felt euphoric. He closed his eyes and tried to shut out the rest of the world, but it was useless.
Uncle Eddie was dead. Richie was a culebra lord. Sonja turned out to be a backstabber. He let 33 mill slip through his fingers by helping the unholy snake queen kill Malvado. And now, Kate's body was missing.
He still hadn't talked to Richie about Kate. How did his brother know about Mexico? How did he know about the drugs?
And just like that, Seth's head was filled with images of Kate's hands stroking his face, his neck. That small smile on her face. Bright, so bright. Her soft voice: “I could never leave you.”
Shuddering, Seth's eyes flew open and he came hard into the blonde's mouth. She moaned and swallowed him up.
“That's a good boy.” Her bleary blue eyes looked up at him from the floor.
“Yeah, thanks.” He tucked himself back into his pants and zipped up.
The blonde rose from her knees and wiped her mouth. She held out her hand, and with an annoyed sigh, said, “That'll be twenty bucks, sweetie.”
“You told me ten in the parking lot.”
“Well, that was before you pushed me into this filthy bathroom and forced me to ruin my stockings.” She gestured to the run in her black leggings.
“Isn't that you want to call an occupational hazard?” Seth said, rolling his eyes.
She frowned. “Just give me my goddamn money, okay?”
As he reached into his pockets for the cash, he noticed the track marks on her skinny arms. It would be so easy to ask her where he could score some smack. Then, with a needle sliding into his skin, he really could shut out the world.
“Look at you. You're a mess.”/Ain't that the truth, princess.
He didn't need to be high to see Kate nodding in agreement at him.
Seth shoved a twenty into the blonde's palm and slipped out of the bathroom.
**
When Seth returned to Jacknife Jed's, the sun was setting. A long ass day finally coming to an end. He expected the bar to be filled truckers standing among the broken tables and bloody floors. Instead, he only found Cristobal wiping down the bar counter top and Lily-Rose sitting at a table with her hands on her lap. At least the place was cleaned-up now.
Seth approached the bar. “Where is everybody?”
“After last night, I don't think we're ready to open yet.”
“Oh, yeah? Who put you in charge?” He glared at Cristobal and smirked when the culebra didn't talk back. “Where's my brother?”
“Taking care of some business.”
Fuck, what was Richard doing behind his back?
“And Scott?” Seth asked.
“Kid passed out on the couch in the office about an hour ago.”
Good. Let him sleep for the next hundred years. He needed it.
Seth turned to Lily-Rose. “What's wrong with her?”
“I'm hungry,” she said, lifting her gaze to him. Her face was pale and her green eyes glassy.
And he knew she wasn't craving a Big Kahuna Burger and milkshake.
Seth turned back to Cristobal and raised his brows.
The culebra shrugged. “Don't look at me. I already ate.”
Seth curled his lips and walked over to Lily-Rose. The girl kept her hands on her lap, but if she was hungry enough, who knew what might happen next?
“So, you probably have a lot of questions—”
“I know,” she cut in. “I'm a vampire now.”
He blinked. “This isn't like that Twilight crap, okay? You see, there are these things called culebras. They're like vampires, but they're snakes, and Carlos—he's the one who bit you—gave you some of his venom.”
Lily-Rose nodded. “Okay, but I still need to feed, don't I?”
Seth sighed and looked back at the bar. Cristobal was gone. Just great. He pulled up a chair next to her. “If you want my honest opinion, I don't think that's a good idea. Once you get a taste of blood, you're going to want more and more until it's all you can think about. You're young and hungry. You don't know how to control yourself yet, so I wouldn't get all excited about feeding.”
She narrowed her eyes. “And what makes you an expert?”
“Ever heard of the Titty Twister?”
She shook her head.
“Case closed.” He rose from his chair.
She jumped up with him. “I'm not an idiot. I know you don't like us.”
“Us?” He cocked his head and put his hands on his hips.
“Us. Vampires. Culebras. Whatever.”
“Listen, Peaches...”
She recoiled at the name. “It's Lily-Rose.”
“Listen, Peaches, this is your new life now. I don't know who you were before last night, but this is who you are now: a bloodsucking snake vampire. And I'm sorry this happened to you. You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Lily-Rose sank back to her seat. Somehow, she seemed to lose more color in her face.
“Fuck,” Seth muttered under his breath. He returned to his chair too. “That was harsh, I know. I didn't mean—”
“My name is Lily-Rose Chambers. I'm nineteen years old. I was on my way to Austin for a rally. A couple of hundred of us had signed a petition to save the killer whale. We were going to march to the capital.”
Well, that explained the hyphened flower name, and the ridiculous head piece and hippie clothes.
She continued, “I had stayed up all night making my signs and I overslept. I was running late, so I didn't have time to eat. I decided to stop at the first place I saw.” She waved her hand. “This shithole. I stopped here for a quick bite to eat, then you guys showed up. Well, you know what happens next.” Her eyes glistened with tears. “This morning, I was supposed to be at a rally to save the whales. Instead, I was sweeping up glass and mopping up blood. But, I guess I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, right?”
For once, Seth kept his mouth shut.
A pair of headlights washed over them. He watched through the window as Richie turned off the engine to a red corvette and entered the bar.
“Where is everybody?” Richie asked.
“I was wondering the same thing.” Seth walked over to his brother. “Looks like we need a new marketing campaign. Something like 'If you don't die, your next meal is on us.'”
“You're hilarious,” Richie said.
“Where were you anyway?”
“Busy setting up our empire, brother.”
“Our empire, huh? You see, I wasn't sure if you had forgotten that Jacknife Jed's was a two-person deal.”
Richie gave him a slow smile. “Of course not.”
But Seth knew his brother wasn't telling him everything. Sooner or later, he'd get it out of him. He slapped Richie on the back. “Did you eat dinner yet?”
“No, why?”
He pointed to Lily-Rose. “She needs to feed.”
Richie's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. “You sure about that?”
Hell, he wasn't sure about anything anymore.
Seth whistled. “Hey, Peaches.”
With a scowl, Lily-Rose approached them.
“Richie here is gonna take you out to dinner,” Seth said.
She looked at both of them skeptically. “Really?”
Richie opened his mouth, his fangs jutting out from underneath his lips. Lily-Rose smiled at him before doing the same.