NOVA
Despite what Lucian said, I am dumb. I shouldn’t be here, not in this house, not even on this island. I should be back home in my crappy apartment, dreading my next shift and wondering if I’m going to make enough to pay rent and go to the grocery store.
The realization that I want to stay makes me think I should have my head examined. I knew I was lonely, but I never thought I would sink to these levels, yet here I am, in the house of the guy who called me names and humiliated me because he’s making promises he won’t keep, but I want him to. How can I know with everything in me that this is a mistake, but still want to make it?
“Here.” Nox pulls a velvety black blanket off the couch and drapes it over my legs. The weight is welcome, even though I’m not really cold. The movie is winding down, and it’s super late. I should be sleeping, considering I need to get up in the morning for school. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t just stay awake and start walking home soon so I can shower and stuff, but I don’t know how to get out of the gate, and I sure don’t want to try to climb it. With my luck, I’d impale myself on one of those pitchforks.
“Thanks. Do you think you could give me a ride home before school?” I ask Nox.
He lifts his eyes over my head, checking in with his brother. After a second, he agrees. “Sure, we can give you a ride. What time is your first class?”
“Eight fifty-five, but I need to shower and stuff. It might be easier if you just took me home now.”
“Nah, we’ve got you.”
“What if Rory or Astrid ask where I’ve been?” I’m not sure they would. Heck, I feel like I rarely even see them at this point, but it could happen.
Lucian enters the conversation. “Tell them you were here.”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to affiliate. They are not going to tell me anything if they think I’m friends with the enemy.”
“Are we friends, lamb?” I can’t tell if Lucian’s question is condescending or genuine.
“I didn’t say that,” I hedge, because it feels like a trap.
“I want to be friends.” He leans in when he says it, getting closer to me than necessary, and it messes with my head.
“Do you even have friends, Lucian?” I don’t mean it as an insult, but I could see how it would sound like one.
“Sheep can’t be friends,” he counters.
“So that’s why you call me lamb. I’m a baby sheep.” I’d actually gotten comfortable with the nickname, but hearing that he thinks I’m like all the other idiots bothers me more than what I thought the name originally meant.
“Nope.” He slowly shakes his head in denial, and his lips curl up. I should be worried, because when he smiles, it always spells trouble for me. “You want to know why you’re my lamb?”
I nod, because I don’t want to admit it out loud. That way I can deny it in the future if he tries to use it against me.
“How badly do you want to know? Enough to kiss me if I tell you?”
I glance over at Nox, not sure I heard Lucian correctly, but he’s just watching me as if he’s waiting for an answer. “You don’t want to kiss me,” I counter.
“The question is, do you want to know badly enough to let me kiss you?” he challenges, neither confirming nor denying my claim.
“You want to know how far I’m willing to go to get what I want,” I surmise.
Lucian shrugs lazily, and his eyelids lower. A warning bell goes off in my head and body. This Lucian is more dangerous than the one who’s willing to get up in my face. This is the Lucian who can be careless and not understand his own strength. The problem is, I don’t understand the warning, which makes it hard to heed.
My instincts are warring. Kissing him would be a disaster, but there’s a part of me that wants to know what it would feel like to be ruined. It’s just a kiss, right? It’s not like I’m agreeing to more. My stomach does this funny dip, like I’m turned on by the thought of what more could mean. That should be enough to have me running from this house, but it’s not.
“Tell me first,” I counter.
“That wasn’t the deal.”
“How do I know you’ll follow through?”
His lips part in a grin, showing me sharp white teeth. “I always follow through.”
“I’ll tell you if he doesn’t,” Nox offers.
“You know?”
“He’s my twin,” Nox says as if that should tell me everything.
“Fine,” I agree, hoping he can’t tell there wasn’t much reluctance on my part.
“Come here.” He notches his head back a little.
I shake my head. “You said you would kiss me, not the other way around.” I’m not going to lie, it feels good to tell him no. I like getting a rise out of him.
Lucian licks his teeth behind his lips, and my stomach drops into my lap.
Please don’t let me be a bumbling idiot if he really does this.
I lean forward to grab my water, and the moment I take my eyes off him, he strikes, grabbing hold of the back of my neck and bringing my face right up to his. Our eyes lock, and my chest rises and falls sharply. I brace for him to shove me away and tell me what a whore and a loser I am for falling for his joke because he would never want to kiss me, but it doesn’t happen. His light blue eyes dip down to my lips before he shifts his head and brushes his mouth softly over mine.
I’m so surprised by the gentle contact that I actually let out a little sigh that I would never admit to if grilled, but thoughts of softness evaporate when he roughly nips my lip then pulls me even closer so he can slip his tongue into my mouth. It’s not a kiss, it’s far too demanding for that. I’m breathless within seconds as butterflies erupt in my stomach.
He tastes sweet, like the lemonade he’s been drinking, with a bitter bite I’m not sure I won’t crave later. When he curls the tip of his tongue around mine, my body reacts, arching into him without any conscious thought to do so. The fact that he can make me respond to him, and that I want to curl into his lap and purr like a content kitten, is alarming, yet not enough to have me pulling away.
His hand on the back of my neck curls into my hair, and he grasps my locks in his fist, tugging my head back and opening my mouth more for his invasion. Later, I’ll wonder how he knows my body better than I do, but right now, I’m just trying to keep from being swallowed by his presence.
Lucian bites my lip again, and this time, it stings a little, but I still don’t want him to stop. He makes a deep sound that rumbles up from his chest and hums past my lips. My insides ignite with knowledge. He’s just as affected as I am, and that makes my clit tingle.
I pull back, breathing way too hard, but he doesn’t release my hair, so I’m trapped staring into his eyes. Neither of us speak, but as the moments pass, I begin to brace myself for his inevitable laughter, but it doesn’t come. Instead, his free hand comes up, and he brushes his thumb over my bottom lip.
“Tell me,” I say softly, trying to keep some sort of wall between us.
He tilts his head so his mouth is close to my ear. My eyes slip closed when his warm breath teases me. “I call you lamb because no matter how hard you try to hide it, I can see just how sweet and innocent you are.” His tongue flicks my lobe, and I inhale sharply as he sinks his teeth into the flesh.
Without warning, he moves lower, biting and sucking. I know he’s leaving a bruise, but I still don’t stop him.
After just a few seconds, he releases my hair, and I pull away from him too slowly. I’m embarrassed to look up because I know my face is flushed and the truth of his words will be written all over my expression.
“Next time I kiss you, it won’t be on a bargain. It will be because you asked me for it,” Lucian supplies, relaxing back into the couch as if nothing happened. I, on the other hand, could use a trip to the bathroom to freshen up or at least gather my wits.
“I’ll take a trade, a bargain, hell, anything I have that you want. I’m in,” Nox adds, making Lucian chuckle.
It lightens the mood just enough that I’m able to look up from my lap and pretend I know what’s happening in the new movie that started.
“Your car will be here in the morning for you to go get what you need, then I expect you back.”
“I have school. I’m not missing it.”
Lucian turns his attention back to me, and I swear there’s something different about him, but I can’t put my finger on it. “I don’t trust them or anyone in that house.”
“They have answers, and I’ve already proven I’m willing to do what it takes to get them.”
He bares his teeth, but it’s definitely not a smile. “We will get the answers together.”
“You still haven’t explained what I’m supposed to tell them about you suddenly not wanting to kill me anymore.”
“Tell them the truth—that you find us irresistible.”
I snort. “No, really.”
Nox actually gives me useful information. “Tell them we befriended you and make them think you don’t trust us, but it makes things easier at school. All the founding families have an…arrangement. We present a united front to others. They’ll buy it.”
“How do you know?” I press.
“Because they’ll want to. They’ll also try to use you to get information on us. The Umbras have been out of the loop for a long time, so they’ll be desperate to get their hooks into the next leader, which happens to be me,” Lucian divulges.
“I still can’t believe you’re going to take over as the president of the school.”
“Among other things.” Lucian nods once.
“When?”
“Not soon enough. It’s late. You can sit here and pretend to watch this movie, or we can all go get in my bed.”
I turn my head toward the TV and do exactly as he told me, because I have no doubt he’ll try to push for the other option if I give him a chance.
LUCIAN
I watch her drive from the house with a strange feeling in my gut. She’s only going across the road, then to school, but a part of me doesn’t want to let her out of my sight. I like how she makes me forget about the things that have consumed me for the past two years or more. I also like that Nox isn’t hiding in his room all the time.
I let the curtain drop and turn away, so I’m not tempted to follow her. I told her I was having her car swept for bugs and trackers, and I did, but I didn’t tell her I would be installing my own. I open the app on my phone just to make sure it’s working, and there’s a little blip on the screen nearing our territory line. I did tell her about the gate access I placed in her car. She seemed surprised and a little suspicious, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from her.
“I’m getting in the shower,” I announce to Nox and toss my phone on the bed.
“Are we really going to school?” he complains, not even bothering to open his eyes.
“You don’t have to. You can keep your lazy ass in bed and leave her to me.”
“Fuck off.” He slits his eyes. “You were ready to kick her off the damn island.”
“Good thing we can rely on each other to knock sense into the one acting like an idiot.” I slam the bathroom door and strip. My cock has been aching since I woke up this morning after only a couple hours of sleep. The room fills with steam before I even step under the water.
I lean my forearm against the glass wall, imagining my lamb on the other side, where I’d make her watch me fist my cock while she kneeled, looking up at me. Her eyes would try to stay on mine, but she would lose the battle and watch me stroke myself. Her lids would be heavy with the lust she would deny feeling. I work my palm up and down, twisting my wrist so the head of my dick brushes the cold, hard glass, and a groan hums up my throat.
My balls constrict, and I tighten my grip, moving up and down as my breathing becomes harsh, and I pinch the tip, feeling sticky pre-cum on my palm. If she were here, I would make her lick off every drop. My hips jerk at the thought, and I know I’m going to come way too fast, but I don’t try to stop the rising tide.
I lean my head back, pulling in cooler air as I jerkily fist myself while thinking about her.
NOVA
I should have known something was going to happen. My morning had been far too easy. I didn’t see Rory or Astrid, and Bridgit ignored me as if she didn’t even see me, which I’ve realized is the better option if you ask me. When she does talk to me, it’s always strained, as if she thinks I don’t belong here, or maybe I’m projecting.
I know my day is about to take a turn for the worse when I hear the bathroom door open and several sets of feet enter while I’m closeted in the stall. I hurriedly wipe and pull my pants up and wait, even though my mind is telling me to get out of the bathroom.
“Come out,” a male voice says, and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end. I don’t know that voice, and it shouldn’t be in here.
I pretend they are not talking to me and reach into my bag to search for my phone. It’s on my mind to call Nox, since he made me promise I would, but while I’m still deciding what to do, the option gets taken away from me when the door is kicked open, and I narrowly avoid getting hit with the swinging metal.
There are five people standing between me and the exit, all wearing black robes with hoods to cover their faces. My throat tightens while my mouth goes dry. I don’t even get a chance to say a word before one of the hooded figures rips me out of the stall and pulls me toward the group.
LUCIAN
“What the fuck?” Nox asks as we both see an ambulance parked at the steps of the building.
Dread settles in my stomach, but I’m telling myself to ignore it, even as I speed to the entrance and throw the car in park before it’s fully stopped. The loud clunk that happens draws a bunch of attention from the onlookers, but I don’t waste time with that.
“What’s going on?” I ask the first person I get close to once I’m out of the car with Nox right beside me.
“Someone got hurt,” the guy says lamely.
“I get that, you fucking idiot. Who got hurt? What happened?”
“A girl. Someone found her in the bathroom.” He backs away a few steps, and my gut drops again.
Nox shoves some people to the side as we hustle toward the school. The Union is pretty much empty except for some staff, but I spot Rory near the bathroom door with his hand in his hair.
“What’s going on?” I demand the moment I’m within shouting distance.
He turns his head, and his eyes go from worried to icy hard. “Why don’t you tell me?”
“I just fucking got here.”
“Stand back, stand back.” An EMT pushes the door open, and I see a stretcher getting pulled from the room, but my eyes are drawn to the blood on the floor, and I can’t seem to look away until Nox curses.
“Jesus, what the fuck happened? Nova? Nova!” He calls her name, but the person on the bed doesn’t move as she’s rushed toward the exit.
“Is she alive?” I croak out.
“Unresponsive. I knew I shouldn’t have let her come here.” Rory hangs his head in defeat.
My feet feel rooted to the ground, but everything inside me is swirling with rage. I just touched her last night and felt her warm lips and eager breaths. How could this happen? I glance around, and the buzzing in my head amplifies to a deafening level.
“Who did it?”
I don’t hear an answer, but there’s something shoving me forward. I look over my shoulder and see Nox, red-faced and pissed, ramming me to get me moving. “Lucian, get your ass going,” he yells, and I skid forward.
“This is your fault.” Rory’s words ring clearly in my head. “I let her come, but you put the nail in her coffin.”
“Fuck you!” I scream, ready to rip his goddamned head off, but Nox wraps his arms around me and keeps shoving me back.
“We’re going to the hospital.” He keeps saying it over and over, but the words don’t mean anything. “She needs us.” That redirects every nerve in my body, and I stop fighting, stop thinking about revenge, and hope for something else.
There will be time to burn this place down when I know she’s okay.
