Lady Killer (Dead Girls Club #2)

1. Luz

Chapter one

Luz

Woods, Hollow Oak University

“ S weet goddess, I’m in love.”

I looked up from Aaron’s steaming corpse to find three figures in the dark, watching me, the lightly falling snow giving them an almost ethereal look.

Normally, I was more aware of my surroundings, but trying to perform open heart surgery with household tools in the woods in the middle of the night had been a pretty consuming task.

“Nixon, Alister,” I said, working to keep all emotion out of my voice.

The twins were easily recognizable, even in the dark, however, it took me a minute to place the man between them. As I squinted at him in the darkness, a memory surged forward in my mind. He was the one who’d been watching me at the police station the last time I met with the detectives.

Compared to the twins, his average build seemed almost small, and in his blandly preppy outfit, he looked like he belonged at a country club, not chasing after killers in the woods. Still, his shock of platinum hair was undeniable.

Is he wearing leather loafers? In the snow?

Tilting my head to the side, I decided to take an educated guess. The three of them had already caught me ripping the heart out of a guy’s chest. What else did I have to lose? “Everest?”

A satisfied cry broke out. “She’s perfect,” he cooed ominously as he moved toward me before coming to a sudden halt, as if he was holding himself back.

Next came Alister’s deep voice. “Luz—?”

“What the actual fuck?!” Nixon yelled, which was more in line with the response I’d been expecting.

“I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure what you’re asking,” I said, not sorry at all .

He started to stomp toward me, only to be immediately restrained by the other men.

“Touch her and lose a finger,” hissed the newcomer.

“Excuse me, Everest, is it?” I said, trying to buy some time to organize my thoughts. My voice snapped his attention away from the now-cursing Nixon, and I swore I could feel his smile beaming at me from across the distance.

“Everest Collins, but call me Ever, please,” he purred, dropping his hold on Nixon and taking another couple of steps toward me.

“Stay away from her,” Alister commanded in a low tone.

Everest, or Ever, ignored him, sliding his hands into his jacket pockets and tilting his head to the side as he looked me over . . .

And Aaron’s messy corpse.

He let out an easy whistle. “Bolt cutters, nice. I was wondering how you managed to crack open the rib cage, but those would do it. Very DIY. I like it.” And then, with the same nonchalance as if he were simply inquiring about my plans for the weekend, he asked, “Do you know what you’re going to do with the body or are you winging it?”

“Jesus, Everest, this isn’t a fucking Murder 101 meetup,” said Nixon .

I ignored him.

He was obviously still pissy about getting stabbed in the hand.

I dropped Aaron’s heart on the plastic tarp I’d laid down, and it landed with a satisfyingly moist squelch , sending a splatter of blood across the body and my shoes.

“I have a plan,” I began, looking again at Everest and trying to get a read on his intentions.

The man’s madness made him utterly indecipherable and unpredictable. Something to consider in the future, if I made it through tonight alive.

“Although the snow is a complication,” I admitted.

“Ooo, let me take a guess!” he replied as he squatted next to the tarp, placing his elbows on his knees as he continued to inspect the body with a keen eye.

My eyes darted from Everest to the twins.

Alister’s grip on Nixon relaxed as they watched their . . . friend? associate? . . . with varying expressions. Alister looked almost wary while the other wore his trademark perpetual scorn.

“The jaggedness of the split along the sternum is a result of using the bolt cutters. The breaks in the bodies found so far were much cleaner, along with the removal of the heart itself. Whoever killed the others likely had access to proper surgical tools, which means you probably aren’t our serial killer,” he began.

“However,” he continued, “I suspect that if we were to test this piece of shit’s blood, we’d find traces of the same drugs that were present in one of the victims . . .”

Surprise shot through me. The GHB I’d found in Aaron’s stash had been damning enough for him to die. Learning that one of the victims had been drugged with it before her death only confirmed that my decision to kill my “friend” had been the right one.

“But something tells me that has more to do with poetic justice than anything else,” Ever wheedled as he looked at me.

“He deserved to die.”

“No doubt, no doubt,” he murmured, bringing his hands up to steeple his fingers under his chin.

“This is bullshit,” Nixon began to argue before the other man snapped a single hand up in the air, effectively silencing him.

“You aren’t the one sacrificing the virgins,” Everest started, “but this is an undeniable response to their deaths. If you were a copycat killer, you would’ve picked another girl, another virgin, which this asshole was decidedly not. Not only would it have been an homage to the original killer, but it would have been much easier for you to overwhelm and kill another woman.

“Clearly, you wanted to make some sort of statement with what’s-his-face here, so I’m guessing you planned to move him to a more visible area? Leave his body to be found there, just like the others?”

I shrugged. That had been my plan, but I hadn’t counted on the snow creating tracks.

“Did he hurt you?” interrupted Alister with a growl.

The rush of the kill had dulled my sense of pain, but his question forced me back into my body. I reflexively wrapped an arm around my ribs, which suddenly throbbed to life along with the lump on my head.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“So, he didn’t suffer enough is what I’m hearing,” Everest said in a breezy tone.

“Do the ones who truly deserve it ever suffer enough?”

One of the twins snorted, while Everest simply sat there contemplatively for a moment before speaking. “That’s an interesting question, Starbright, one I look forward to discussing with you at length in the future.”

“Absolutely not,” said Alister, finally releasing his twin to stomp up to Everest’s side.

As fascinating as this all was, I was starting to get antsy. The Blackwells had caught me, literally red-handed. That they were killers themselves had tempered their reaction, but I was effectively at their mercy right now.

Everest ignored the angry man at his side and instead reached out to swipe a bit of warm blood from the body with his finger.

“What are you— Oh.” I cut myself off when he popped his finger into his mouth and licked it clean.

“Tastes like blood.” He stood to his full height, cracking his neck and winking at me.

Where did they find him?

“Well, it’s been fun catching up, Alister, Nixon,” I started babbling. “And it’s been lovely to you meet you, Everest, I mean Ever, but I need to deal with this.” I gestured to the rapidly cooling corpse at my feet. “So, if there’s nothing else that I can help you, gentlemen, with . . .”

Nixon stalked forward to join the other two, scoffing. “You murdered someone at our school, and you think we’re just going to let you get away with it?”

“Ay, Dios mío.” I’d lost my patience. “You’ve been standing there nattering like little old ladies. Kill me or leave me alone and let me finish.”

I didn’t want to die. But I also refused to live simply to suffer the Blackwells.

Nixon reached behind him to go for his weapon, only to be stopped by the others .

“Maybe I wasn’t clear, Nixie,” Everest said coldly. “Touch her and you lose a finger. Harm a single hair on her head and you die.”

“Everest—?”

“And not even big brother will be able to save you.”

Nixon threw his head back and roared at the sky, “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

I wondered if he’d explode, resulting in even more bodies to clean up. Although, if they all killed each other, I could probably just walk away and let the police assume one of them murdered Aaron.

Instead, he threw his hands up in defeat. “Fine, but she’s your fucking problem,” Nixon snarled, turning away and stomping toward the trail.

“Ignore him, darling, you’re not a problem,” said Everest placatingly as he reached over Aaron’s corpse to try and pet me.

I narrowly managed to sidestep his touch while shooting him an incredulous look.

“Although, he’s right. You will have to answer to Lucian for killing the boy on Blackwell land.”

I gritted my teeth, fighting to ignore the surge of fear in my chest while mentally calculating if I should make a run for it. My ankle was barely healed, and it would be hard to make it through the building snow. At the same time, it would be just as difficult for them, especially for Everest in those loafers . . .

Before I could make a move, Everest was at my side, while Alister watched me with a laser-like focus.

“Don’t run from me, love. Not unless you’re ready,” Everest said lowly.

I swallowed. “What—?”

“I don’t chase, Luz, I hunt. Always remember that.” His voice was absent of any lightness, and my knees nearly buckled under the weight of his promise.

My eyes darted nervously to Alister, and for the first time since the three of them had stumbled on me, I felt like I was in true danger.

“Tsk, tsk, Starbright,” Everest chided. “Now don’t look at him like that, that’s not fair. He’s not going to save you, not tonight, and certainly not from me.”

He reached for my hand, and this time, I didn’t pull away. Instead, I suppressed the shudder that ran through me as his cold, calloused fingers wrapped around my sticky red palm.

Everest tugged me closer to his side, completely oblivious to the blood smearing onto him from me.

Looking up at the violent maniac next to me, I was finally able to make out his eyes .

They were the palest blue I’d ever seen, like shards of ice in the coldest months of winter.

“As I was saying, we’ll have to take you to Lucian, darling . . . But how about I make it worth your while?”