Tempting Darkness [17+] ✔

Chapter 1

       "Good. We're almost there anyway."

       Almost there. Great.

       I kept my disgruntled thoughts to myself as I gazed at the barren landscape. There were some trees scattered here or there with a lone house in the distance, but the area was mainly grassy hills as far as the eye could see.

       I hated it.

       "Explain to me why you're dragging us here again?" I grumbled and kicked my feet out until I could rest them against the other window. My head was still a little foggy and all warmth seemed to have left my body, and yet all I wanted to do was fall right back into that dream. I had some serious urges that needed to chill.

       "I don't understand why you're still complaining." Adriel sighed with a shake of his head rather handsome head. "You applied to this school anyways."

       "Because you told me to."

       "I did not."

       I scoffed and shot him a bewildered look as those sneaky lips of his tried to hide a smirk. "You said, and I quote, 'You better apply to Deshua University, Lark, cause we're moving there'. And I said," I cleared my throat for dramatic effect, "'What if I don't want to go to that piss poor school?' and you said 'don't care, it's happening'. So, I applied and here we are."

       He didn't try to hide his chuckle, and let me tell you a laughing Adriel was not common. "That does sound like something I would say."

       "Because you did say it."

       He rolled those bright blue eyes, his grip casual though it never left the steering wheel. "Our great aunt passed away and left us her house. I got a job here, there's a good school system, and it's cheaper than California. Simple as that."

       "Simple as that." I mocked with a sardonic laugh. Yeah right. It's not like they were lacking for money. The Markos family was loaded, and their parents left them a shit ton that Adriel controlled. Not that I was legally allowed to any of it, but he still provided for me.

       I had been in foster care for as long as I could remember, always bouncing from one home to the next. Until the Markos came into the picture. I was sixteen when they put me with their family, and lucky enough to stay there until my eighteenth birthday. They had been the nicest people I had ever been with, and I had been with a lot. In a lot of crummy places too. The Markos' paid for my extracurriculars in high school, my senior class trip, they even put money away for me for college.

       They were the closest thing I had to a family in my entire life, and when I turned eighteen, I tried to run away. Run as far and as hard as I could, but Adriel wouldn't let me. Even though I got his parents killed.

       "Are you excited for college?!" Raf asked for the thousandth time since I got accepted into that stupid university, and I tried not to let her see my eyes roll.

       "Just beyond elated." I didn't bother hiding the sarcasm. I knew she wouldn't get it, and even though I was one-hundred percent sure her brother did, he didn't say anything. I didn't give one rat's ass about college, besides the fact that their parents had wanted me to go.

       I was perfectly fine finding some mediocre job and living my life as best I could until I died. But then Dri decided he was not about that, and no matter how many times I told him to shove what he wanted up his ass, I ended up applying anyway.

       "Why don't you major in art? You like that stuff."

       I give the intrusive male a small shrug and went back to staring out the window.