I tear away from Penelope’s lips, an unfamiliar voice pulling my attention.
Two guys stand at the edge of the spring, staring us down like they own the fucking place with their hands on their sides. And Dylan does not seem amused.
“What the fuck do you want?” Dylan growls.
Penelope clutches me tightly, hiding her naked body behind mine when I spin around to face them.
“Sorry, this water’s taken,” I say, quickly tucking my dick back inside my pants and zipping up.
One of the guys, the pretty one with the chiseled face, snorts. “I wouldn’t want to step in that pool of death if I was offered a million fucking bucks for it.”
“Oh, fuck no.” Dylan pushes Pen aside and walks to the middle of the spring to confront them, all in his bare naked ass. “You got beef with me? Just because I’m fucking around?”
“No.” The big, muscled guy folds his arms. “I’m wondering if she’s the girl worth dying over.”
Penelope shivers behind me. “What are they talking about? Who are they?”
“I don’t know,” I reply. “But I have an idea.”
“Nobody’s dying tonight,” Dylan retorts. “It’s a fucking party. There’s enough booze for everyone.
Dylan gets out of the spring with his half-hard cock dangling freely, but that doesn’t stop him from walking up to them and picking his clothes off the ground right in front of the dude’s feet.
Ballsy.
“Yet it will never be enough to satisfy my craving …” the too-pretty-to-be-here motherfucker says, cracking his knuckles. “For blood.”
Fuck. This is gonna go bad real quick.
Dylan snorts and puts on his shorts, lacing the belt through before responding. “Why? You jealous of all the ass I get?”
The dude’s eyes narrow, and his nostrils flare. “Nathan.”
Oh fuck.
Dylan gets up in his face, but he doesn’t seem the least bit intimidated. “You’ve got some nerve saying that name out loud to me, Phantom scum.”
The crowd around us grows quiet. Some stop dancing and kissing and stare while others immediately leave. A dark cloud hangs over this party, and everyone here knows what’s coming.
“No one invited you to this party, snake,” the guy replies.
“There is no fucking party without me,” Dylan hisses back. “What’s your fucking name?”
“Kai Torres,” he replies. “Now I’m gonna give you a choice. Hand over the girl, or suffocate.”
I can see Dylan’s body growing rigid, his fingers curling into a fist.
Fuck.
“Don’t!” I growl. “Remember what your father said.”
“You scared?” The Phantom boys laugh.
Until I add, “Don’t do it, Dylan!”
And their smiles dissipate instantly.
Dylan raises a fist.
“Wait!” Pen suddenly yells, and Dylan’s fist stops halfway through the air.
“Penelope …” Dylan warns her.
“If I’m the one he wants,” she says, stepping forward. “I’ll take responsibility.”
“Fuck no,” Dylan rasps.
“You don’t make the fucking rules here,” Kai retorts, then he looks at her. “Come here.”
Penelope quickly grabs a towel lying on the side of the spring and wraps it around her tits before getting out of the water. The fabric barely covers her body, the bottom of her ass along with that beautiful plug still visible, and I just know those fuckers can see it too.
My fist tightens.
We were supposed to lay low. Quiet. Not make a scene.
Guess we won’t be living up to what Dylan promised his dad after all.
“What do you want from me?” Penelope asks. She swallows, bravely facing them with her head held high. “If you leave them alone, I’ll do what you want.”
Why would she do this? She was there, but she didn’t participate. This feud is all on us, yet she’s willing to throw herself in front of us.
He whistles loudly. “Everyone. Out.”
All the partygoers swiftly grab their stuff, panicked by Kai’s sudden dismissal.
Kai suddenly grabs her by the throat. “Nathan’s in agony because of you.”
“That wasn’t her,” Dylan says through gritted teeth. “It was us.”
Kai pulls her closer to him. “Yet he overheard Felix telling her he would’ve killed Nathan for her …” Kai grins as he grabs her wrist so she can’t escape. “Sounds to me like she’s the one responsible.”
It’s taking every ounce of self-control for Dylan not to attack right now. And even I’m on edge.
Kai grabs Penelope’s chin to force her to look at him. “And she’ll be the one to pay.”
“Let her go,” Dylan growls.
“Or what? She offered herself to me,” Kai replies, and he turns around. “C’mon, Josh. Let’s get the fuck out of here and play with our shiny new toy.”
“Oh yeah …” Josh replies, and he tears the towel off her body with ease. “ I wonder if she cries as ugly as her sister did.”
My eyes widen.
Oh fuck.
That’ll do it.
I jump out of the water and onto the edge, swiftly putting on my clothes before I approach Dylan.
But he’s radiating energy. Like something took over his body.
“What did you just say?” Dylan rasps under his breath, his eyes lowering.
Yup. It’s definitely happening all right.
“Why are you talking about my sister? What did you do to her?” Penelope asks Josh as he drags her away. “Did you bully her?”
“Enough,” Dylan says through gritted teeth, cracking his fingers without even touching them.
“Did you say something, snake?” Kai glances over his shoulder. “Yeah, thought so.”
Suddenly, Dylan lunges at Josh, fishing a knife from his pocket midair, only to thrust it into Josh’s shoulder.
Josh cries out in pain. “You motherfucker!”
Within seconds, Dylan’s pulled it out again only to jam it straight into Kai’s arm, who releases Penelope from his grip, and she falls on the ground.
All the people who were still around start to scream and run away from the party.
“Pen, run!” Dylan roars at her.
But she’s frozen to the ground.
Fuck. I gotta intervene.
Dylan’s eyes connect with mine and then with her.
“Ali. Take care of her!” he yells as he bolts off with the bloody knife still in his hand.
And the two Phantom fuckers chase after him.
Just as he wanted.
“Dylan!” Penelope yells, frantically looking through the woods. “They’re coming!”
I help her off the ground. “You okay?”
BANG!
Penelope’s eyes widen.
I turn to look at where the sound came from, but I’m pretty certain I know what it was.
Gunfire.
“Stay here,” I tell her.
“Fuck no,” she says, quickly grabbing her dress and swiftly putting it on, then grabbing her little bag. “I’m coming with you, and we’re gonna take those fuckers down.”
It’s not a question. It’s a command.
And I can’t fucking help but oblige.
Dylan
I’m running through the woods as fast as I can, circling the bonfire while simultaneously avoiding anything these Phantom fuckers throw at me. Knives, sticks, fucking rocks they picked up off the ground.
Until Kai pulls out a gun.
BANG!
The shot fires and ricochets off the tree right beside me.
I skid to the right and jump over a bunch of rocks, headed straight toward The Edge.
I should’ve brought my fucking gun. Fuck. Too much is at stake.
I have to lead them away from her.
I don’t want her getting caught in the crossfire.
“Get back here, you fucking son of a bitch!” Josh shrieks. “If I catch you, I’ll chop your fucking dick off!”
BANG!
Another shot fires into the rock I briefly hide behind before I run farther up the hilly area near The Edge. A path leads underneath a large overhanging rock, and I bolt through it, only to head left immediately, climbing up the steep hill.
Kai’s right behind me, shooting into the bushes at random.
“Come out, come out, wherever the fuck you are, snake!” he yells. “You know I’ll fucking catch you.”
When they’re right underneath the rock, I jump down. I land right on top of Kai, and we fall to the mossy ground, tumbling around in the leaves.
“Motherf—Get off me!” he growls. “I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
He attempts to aim at me, and I grasp his wrist. I’m not going down without a fight.
But this fucker is strong, and I can barely hold on, the gun getting closer and closer to my face.
Josh wraps his hands around my neck, tugging hard, and I’m fucking choking trying to hold on to Kai’s wrist so he won’t fucking shoot me.
Suddenly, someone drags Josh away from me, and I can finally fucking breathe again.
Now it’s time to snuff out theirs.
BANG!
The gun goes off, the bullet flying straight past my ear, grazing my skin.
Blood oozes down my neck, but I ignore it and fight for control.
“Dylan! Catch!” I briefly turn my head because the voice catches me off guard.
Penelope.
Fuck. What is she doing here? I told her to run.
She throws me her knife, and I catch it just in time before Kai shoots again.
I slice through his face.
“FUCKKKK!” he screams, grabbing his eye. “My eye!”
I snatch his gun from him and slam him in the head with it, knocking him out. Blood pours from the wound as well as his ear. He might be dead, but I don’t even fucking care. All I’m focused on is getting that fucker Josh.
Alistair’s got both hands wrapped around Josh, who’s kicking and jabbing him wherever he can. Penelope fishes another knife from that little bag of hers and holds it over his neck so he’ll stop thrashing around.
“Let go of me, you fucking snake!” Josh growls.
“You threatened me,” Penelope hisses. “I don’t take that lightly.”
“Nathan deserves retribution,” he barks back.
I wipe Penelope’s knife on my pants. “And what about Eve?”
An unquenchable fire begins to rage inside me as I crack my fingers while walking toward him. “You fucking bullied her until she cried?” Pure fury courses through my veins as I approach him.
“You …” Penelope stammers, the knife trembling in her hand. “You could be the reason she jumped.”
“Hey, I can’t help that bitch killed herself,” he responds through gritted teeth. “I’m not responsible for what bitches do.”
Tears well up in her eyes. The knife in her hand drops to the ground. The pain on her face is too much to take, even for me.
Fuck laying low.
My nostrils flare. “And I’m not responsible for what I’m about to fucking do to you.”
I thrust the knife deep into his abdomen, twisting and turning it until his guts spill out.
He groans in pain when I pull out, blood gushing from the wound.
“Pin him to the ground,” I tell Alistair.
Alistair kicks him in the shins, knocking Josh over. His body lands on the muddied ground with a thud. I pick up the knife Penelope dropped, clutching them both, before I grab one of his hands. “Grab his other hand.”
Alistair doesn’t even say a word and just does as he’s told while Penelope stares at us, still silently trembling from what she just found out.
Some random asshole from the Phantoms made Penelope’s sister cry. Fuck knows what they did to her that was so bad she couldn’t bear it. Just that one act could’ve been the catalyst to why she jumped from The Edge.
All of it culminating to this point in time.
Alistair and I drag Josh to a clearing farther up, away from the trees, with Penelope right behind us watching our every move.
I won’t ask her to help. But I also won’t allow her to stop what I’m about to do.
Josh is groaning loudly. “Fuck, it hurts.”
The music from the party is loud even this far away. “Rip Roach” by xxxtentacion blasts through the skies, amping me up.
“Don’t move,” I bark at him, and I pin his hand above his head. “This is gonna hurt even more.”
I jam the knife straight through his hand and into the ground.
He shrieks like a banshee, whipping his head and other hand around.
“Hold him down!” I yell at Alistair, who smacks him in the face with a fist.
Josh’s eyes roll into the back of his head, and Alistair pins his hand above his head while I ram Penelope’s knife straight through.
He howls in pain, kicking around with his feet.
“My hands!” he shrieks.
“Dylan …” Penelope rasps behind me.
When I turn to look, I spot the gun Kai used to shoot me in her hands.
I must not have noticed her picking it up while Ali and I were busy dragging this fucker back. I get up, ignoring the screaming fucker behind me. I walk to her and hold out my hand. “Give it to me.”
She shakes her head. “No. I want to do this.”
Fuck.
I knew there was a chance she’d risk it.
That was why I told her to run.
But I should’ve known girls like her don’t turn the other way when on the road to trouble. She faces it head-on.
She goes to her knees in front of Josh, who’s bleeding from every hole we created.
“Please,” he begs, shaking his head. “Please, don’t do this. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Without saying a word, she aims for his dick and shoots.
He cries out in agony. “My dick!” And he vomits all over himself.
She gets up and chucks the gun at me, the look on her face stoic, emotionless, like it came easy for her.
And my jaw actually drops.
That was … sick.
A smirk forms on my face.
Impressive.
I tuck the gun into my pocket while she pulls a medium bottle of whiskey from her bag, clearly snatched from the party.
Perfect.
When she’s about to take a sip, I steal it from her hands.
“Hey, I need that,” she says.
“Watch,” I say, and I splash the contents all over his body.
“What are you doing?” Josh mutters, coughing up blood. “Oh God, please, don’t do this, I don’t wanna d—”
“Die?” I interject, pulling out my lighter. “Too late. You’re already a walking corpse.”
“Wait, no, no, no, I’ll do anything you want, I—”
In the middle of his sentence, I set fire to him.
His shrieks are like music to my fucking ears as he’s being roasted alive, unable to even crawl away.
A perfect ending for a miserable little bug like him.
Alistair whistles as he plucks some branches off trees and picks off some freshly fallen twigs, tossing them all on top of Josh. The fire intensifies when I pour on some more alcohol, emptying the bottle, then throwing that onto the pile as well.
The massive fire is much bigger than any bonfire in the neighborhood, and my God, is it a sight to behold. My fiery fucking heart is all pumped up from this blaze, and I loud from the sheer adrenaline.
I’m sure some people who fled the scene wonder what the fuck is happening here. And I don’t fucking care. They can fucking watch him burn.
I glance at Penelope, flames dancing in her eyes. “You wanted our help … you got it. Catch.” I toss the knife back at her, and she actually catches it. Maybe I truly underestimated this girl … and the darkness in her heart.
“Go home, Penelope,” I say. “And don’t tell a fucking soul about tonight.”
