Water’s Edge (A Series of Sharp Edges #1)

20. Ripp

CHAPTER TWENTY

ripp

I ’ve never been fond of humans. They’ve always been merely a source to feed upon, but this sheriff who has Mattie so worried is more than a bug to crush. He hurt her, scared her, and I’m the only being who’s allowed to do either. I can smell his stink even from up in the trees where I’ve been observing him.

He has paced around the river bank all morning, contemplating out loud to himself. Every trivial thought, meaningless drivel, comes out of his mouth as though it’s the breakthrough he’s been waiting for. He considers himself to be above average when it comes to his intelligence, but he’s still yet to find the new clue I’ve hidden in the mud.

Mattie’s name has been mentioned more than once, and my self-control grows thinner each time. If I left him as a soulless sack next to the water right now, he’d never be able to say her name again. The only thing holding me back is the chance it might turn back on my little bug somehow. Humans are easy enough to deceive, though, so it shouldn’t take much effort to send his investigation in a completely different fucking direction—away from Mattie. According to his rambling, she’s his lead suspect only because she’s “the strange girl who lives alone in the Hellsmouth woods.” His assumption is correct, but his reasoning ignites me with rage.

One thing I do know about humans is that they’ll always default to blaming the vulnerable. They’ve never been kind to anything different from themselves, always ready to spit upon the poor and look down upon the female of their species. I should just snuff them all out now. However, I can use this asshole’s biases against him.

I wait for a pause in his obnoxiously constant stream of consciousness to send a whisper down from the trees. “A woman couldn’t commit this type of atrocity. The brilliance it would take, the strength. Could that tiny thing really be capable of all this?”

The sheriff cocks his head to the side and scratches his chin. He kicks the mud around until his boots are thick with it. Finally, the toe of one connects with the brim of a baseball cap. Mattie’s unwanted gift from the other night was useful for something. He won’t need a hat where he is now. As he kicks it free from its muddy prison, the sheriff’s disposition changes. Suddenly, he’s chatting loudly to whoever is on the other end of the radio and scrambling to bag his new discovery.

My short-lived victory wanes as he announces to the radio that he still wants to head to the roadhouse to question Mattie. A growl shatters through me, causing birds to break from the trees, and the sheriff stumbles backward, just barely catching himself before landing on his ass. His eyes are wide, and he looks around nervously before scattering like a roach back up the path.

Gravel crunches as the patrol car rolls into the Foxfire parking lot, pulling me from my thoughts. I’ve been hiding here since he left the river, and I’d be annoyed at how long it took him to arrive if I didn’t have aneternity to wait. He flicks his cigarette and snuffs it out with his now-clean boot without bothering to pick up the remains. His sour soul taints the air around him as he strolls into the front door, not bothering to hold it open for the person behind him.

Mattie hasn’t arrived yet, but he doesn’t know that. I imagine he’ll order a light beer that tastes like piss and attempt to court Tally, who’s already bustling behind the bar.

I don’t have to wait much longer for my little bug to arrive. Her distinct scent drifts towards me as she steps from the car, and sharp pangs of need stab at my insides. I salivate at the thought of her desire coating my tongue, but at this moment, I need to push my urges aside to warn her.

Silently, I leap down from the trees and wait until I’m a few steps behind her to call to her. “Mattie,” I growl. She jumps and spins to face me, her chest heaving and her eyes wild.

“What the fuck?” she yells, her voice full of agitation instead of the fear that filled her just the second before. “You can’t just sneak up on me like that!”

“I can and I will, little bug.” A smirk tugs at my lips, and her eyes narrow. She wants to challenge me, and my cock twitches at the thought. “I came to warn you.”

Mattie’s shoulders drop like I’ve placed the weight of the world on them. A different emotion stirs in my chest. Sadness? Guilt? Do I actually regret saying something that caused her discomfort? “The sheriff is inside the bar. Arrived just before you did. I’ve been watching him, and…”

“Of course you have, you fucking stalker,” she interrupts, throwing her head back with a laugh.

A growl rumbles from me, and my hand twitches, ready to lunge for her throat. If she was any other human, I doubt I’d have control over the monster inside me. Instead of anger, though, the need to wrap my hand around her throat and squeeze is from the desire to suck that fire from her until my name is the only thing she screams. “If you’d let me finish, I’ve been watching him, and you were right. He suspected you at first, but I left him a gift, something that should have him scrambling in a different direction.”

Mattie’s mouth falls open, and tears pool at the bottom of her eyes. All the fire in them is gone. “What am I going to do. What am I going to do?” Her voice is pleading, and that uncomfortable feeling stirs in my chest again.

“Did you not hear me? I’m leading him awry, and if that doesn’t work, Mattie, I’ll take care of him. No one, and I mean no one, is allowed to hurt you except for me.”

She sniffs and moves her boot around in the gravel. “That’s not as comforting as you think it is, you know?”

My eyes narrow, and I storm across the few feet between us until her nose almost touches my chest. “Mattie, you’re going to walk into that bar and pretend like it’s just another day. Don’t fucking give yourself away because you think you’ve already been caught.”

“You don’t understand. People like him already look down on people like me. Even if I wasn’t guilty, I already am because I’m poor. Because I’m a female. Because I’m an outcast. All those things they already consider a crime.” Tears stream down her face, but a hint of a flame returns to flicker in her eyes.

“Money is only one type of power, little bug. That darkness in you is power too.” I reach my hand out and stroke her cheek, thumbing across the tracks of her tears.

“I’m just so exhausted from keeping this act up, day in and day out. I killed those men, and they fucking deserved it. Before them, I tried to contain myself. I surrounded myself with normal people, tried to contain my pain and my rage. I let myself become a ghost. I just wanted to be something to them, to be a story they told. Anything to make me not this, but I’m done giving away pieces of myself to feel something.” A heavy sigh comes from her lips, and she closes her eyes before leaning in to me.

“I just wanted to feel like a normal girl, not this broken mess. But broken glass can still cut you. I got sick of being abused by assholes in the bar, so I became the dangerous one. I started picking them off instead. I didn’t want to accidentally hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.”

My arms wrap around her and pull her deeper into me. She doesn’t need to explain herself. I’d help her clean the stains from this Earth without asking a single question. The last person I saw disrespect her was dead before they hit the ground. I push her back so I can look into those emerald eyes that never fail to tear through me. “Mattie, you’re going to go into that bar and hold yourself up like the goddess of death you are. You will not give him a damn thing other than the gift of being in your presence. I will handle the rest.”

“Please don’t leave me here alone,” she whispers, gripping my arms with her small hands.

“You’re never alone,” I whisper back to her and tap the vial hanging from her neck. “I’ll be right outside watching.” I kiss the top of her head before releasing her. Her sweet scent fills my nostrils, but the darkness in it is growing. Her vanilla and lavender is now mixed with an undeniable smokiness. I’m not sure how much time I have left to figure out how to complete the ritual.