Thank you so much BlueRose_712 for the beautiful cover above! And all the covers I'm attaching to the end of this chapter! Give these awesome people some love for their amazing creativity!
Hey guys!
Sorry for any grammar and editing mistakes!
Please comment, vote, and follow!
Enjoy!
-&-
Chapter 2
"Is this it?" Raffie asked eagerly when we turned onto Haniel Drive and pulled to a stop in front of an old Victorian house.
"Obviously." Even though my voice was a little snappy, I gazed up in awe at the two-story manor. Adriel let out a dramatic sigh, but besides a warning look, he didn't say anything. Raffie and I followed as he stepped out of the SUV.
The manor was on the corner of the street, and lush green grass swept the front yard and around the side. Gray, stone steps lead from the driveway to the wooden front door. The porch was quaint, and rather small for the size of the house with a few stone pillars holding a terrace above it. The giant outcrop of bay windows running its length made up for it. The outside alone took my breath away, I was almost too afraid to look at the interior.
"Alright," Adriel quickly took on his 'get down to business' tone and began untying the thick rope holding down the boxes on top of the SUV. "Let's start getting this stuff into the house then we can figure out room situations-"
"Raffie and I are going for a walk." I cut off his orders with a loud yawn and stretched dramatically for effective. Dri's dark blue gaze instantly snapped to mine, and his strong jaw grit together. Sigh, I loved it when he did that.
"Don't argue, Larkin. The faster we get this done the-"
"Yay a walk!" Rafael cheered happily as she came bouncing around the vehicle and slipped her little hand into mine. The expert manipulator beamed excitedly up at her older brother. "Please, Adriel? I want to explore, and we'll be quick!"
Yeah, we weren't going to be quick, but I wasn't going to correct the kid. I knew the minute she turned on those puppy dog eyes he was a goner. No one could say no to the little twerp for long. Adriel's gaze was like icy stone until let out a long sigh.
"Fine. Whatever. Make it quick though."
"Yay! Thank you! Love you, bye!" With one last beaming smile, her little hand tightened around mine and she nearly dragged me away from the over-packed car.
"Be careful, Larkin."
"Always am, Adriel." I emphasized his name like he did mine and shot him a smirk over my shoulder as his sister continue to drag us down the sidewalk.
"This place is so cool!" Raffie exclaimed excitedly. There weren't many trees, but the few that rested in the yards we passed were tasteful and beautiful. The sidewalk dipped below foundation lines and ran along stone ledges that kept people's yards from the street. It really was a beautiful area, but I wasn't going to admit that out loud.
We were probably walking for about twenty minutes, staying strictly on the side streets, and avoiding the crowds at the center of town, when we stumbled upon another large, encompassing, open area. It was like an extra little town in the town. Massive, vine-covered buildings stared back at us, a courtyard with a water fountain sat directly in the middle, and a giant, granite sign reading 'Deshua State University' flashed brightly in the light of the sun.
"Oh wow! This must be your school!" Raffie's voice was as astounded as I felt.
I never thought a school this size would be found in the middle of nowhere like this. Then again, I didn't think a cathedral like the one in town square did either. What looked like dorms ran the length of the area, and little shops sat sparsely between the academic buildings. They were all made of the same red brick as the buildings in town, and looked just as old.
"Maybe you will like it there." She smiled up at me, her little head barely reaching the height of my chest.
"Maybe, but I'm not going to put much stock into it."
Her smile fell away, and that adorable pout she wore whenever she was confused pulled at her lips. "What does that mean?" I laughed as she tugged harshly on my hand.
"It just means that I doubt I'll like it."
"You could have just said that." She grumbled, but that pout fell away as she pointed towards the cobblestone road that led into campus. "Do you want to go explore?"
I weighed that question a lot more heavily than I needed to. A part of me felt guilty for leaving Dri to unpack the car all by himself—even though when I tried to help load it, he made a big fuss that I wasn't doing it right and took all the junk out to put it back in himself. Another part of me felt that same irresistible pull as I did with the cathedral. I couldn't look away, couldn't walk away either.
"Yeah, alright. Let's go."
She beamed happily before her hand tightened and started dragging me once again. "See! I told you this place was cool!"
I was too busy staring at the intricate designs that were carved into the bricks to pay much attention to what she was saying. They looked like prehistoric words, or symbols from a dead language. My fingers traced softly over the delicate designs, shivers running down my spine.
That's when I heard it.
Well, I wasn't really sure what it was, but it sounded like a soft, gentle lull brushing against my ears. I turned fully expecting to see someone standing behind us, but there was no one there. The noise came again, though this time it was more of a pulse pushing against me than a sound. I stepped away from the building, Raffie's hand still gripped in my mine as I walked towards the noise.
"Larkin? You okay?" I barely heard the kid ask as I started pulling her in the completely opposite direction from where we were heading. "Larkin?"
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
But I didn't answer her, I couldn't. My mind had completely focused on that sound. We were headed towards an outcrop of trees, a large bouldering face pressed behind them that I hadn't noticed before. My gaze zeroed in on the rocky mountain the school seemed to be pressed up against. Was that there the whole time?
"Larkin? Larkin, you're scaring me. I don't want to go in there—"
"Hey, you two!" A voice shouting across the courtyard finally pulled me from that sound pulsing through my brain. My eyes snapped over to the well-in-shape blond jogging quickly towards us, a small smile pulling on a pair of full lips.
I instantly shoved Raffie behind me and pulled out my regular 'fuck-off' attitude I used on random strangers. "Can I help you?" The guy, who looked around my age if not a year or two older, raised a blond eyebrow at my tone but didn't drop that charming smile.
"I was just going to warn you about going in there." He nodded towards the small patch of woods I had been making a bee-line towards. "Some people were saying they spotted cougars in there a few days ago." His eyes, that peaked briefly at me over the tops of dark sunglasses, were a dark, warm, brown that tried to melt away at my insides. Tried to, at least.
"Oh... Okay, well thank you for the warning." The noise had completely disappeared, and I instantly felt like a moron for trying to drag myself and Raffie towards it. Who just endangers a kid like that?
The guy's pleasant smile grew, and I was suddenly very aware of how white and perfect his teeth were. That must have taken years of braces and whitening treatments. No one's teeth were that flawless. "Yeah, no worries. I'm Luke, by the way." His hands stayed buried in his jacket's pockets and didn't reach out to shake mine, which I was actually pleased about. I hated shaking strangers' hands. You never know what they have been touching.
"Um. I'm Larkin—"
"And I'm Raffie!" Rafael peaked around my waist with that beaming smile and squeezed my hand tightly.
The guy, or Luke, or whatever, turned that same smile on her and nodded his head. "Nice to meet you, Raffie." She giggled and immediately went back to hiding behind my back. I rolled my eyes.
"She's not really shy, she just pretends to be." She pinched me hard, but I ignored it. Luke just laughed, and the action was all that unpleasant. He really wasn't a bad looking guy. Actually, he was pretty damn attractive, and if it wasn't for the unnerving feeling he shot through my entire system, I would have been laying the flirt on thick. In front of Raf and all.
"You two just move here?" Luke asked casually enough, but I knew better than to ignore my instincts, and all of them did not want us around the guy. No matter how nice he was.
"Yeah, how did you guess?"
He shrugged casually enough, but I noticed how his sunglass covered gaze flickered briefly towards the mountain. "Deshua is a pretty small town. Everyone has been here their whole lives. You get to know who's new and who's not pretty quickly."
"What about the college? I'm sure you get a bunch of new people here for school all the time."
That charming smile fell slowly until it resembled more of a smirk. "School doesn't start for another week, and most out-of-towners don't stay long."
I raised my eyebrow in disbelief. "It's a pretty big school for just townies."
He laughed. "Townies. It never occurred to me to call us that. Some people do stay, just not all ten thousand that flood in every year. Do you plan on attending?"
"Yeah, I start this semester."
That smile was back, delightful as ever. "Awesome, I'm a junior, but I'm sure I'll see you around."
Don't count on it, bud. No matter how charming and attractive he was, I wasn't going to let that override my senses. Besides, boys were just boys. If anything growing up on my own has taught me, it was how to play the game and come out on top. I never got flustered. No matter how attractive the guy was.
"Listen, I got to go get some stuff together for my apartment. It was nice to meet you though." He nodded, before leaning slightly to the side to shoot a smile at Raffie. "Nice to meet you too, Raffie." She giggled and pressed further into me. "See you around." He called over his shoulder as he turned and walked away. I breathed out the bubble of tension that had swamped my chest.
First the dream, then the weird noise dragging me to those trees, now this guy? I had enough excitement for one day. "Let's head back now. I'm getting hungry."
"Yeah, okay!" Rafael sang happily as she came back around to my side, all that scared fear from before gone. "I want some food too. Do you think Adriel finished unpacking the car?"
I let out a rugged sigh as I steered her away from the woods and back towards the street. "Knowing him, he probably left all the big stuff for me to get." My eyes flickered back to the trees, with its weird, commanding noises, and hidden man-eating cats. I had a sick feeling this place was going to have a lot more excitement than I thought.
-&-
Adriel actually didn't leave me the big stuff to unpack, but he did leave all my stuff. "Fucking moron. Stupid, piece of crap..." I grumbled viciously under my breath as I heaved my heavy boxes off the top of the car and placed them on the green lawn.
I didn't really have a lot of stuff, and besides a few worn out, raggedy clothes from my childhood, everything in those boxes had been giving to me by the Markos's. Adriel and Raffie were sitting casually in the manor's living room as a I lugged a few more boxes into the large foyer, ice cream stuffing their stupid mouth-holes.
"Ass." I hissed under my breath as I plopped a heavy box labeled 'Larkin's books' down. I didn't even like to read, but their parents had bought a bunch anyway.
"Watch your language." Adriel snapped from the old purple sofa left over by his great aunt and uncle. I rolled my eyes but was too tired to argue.
I sat on the cool wood floor just inside the front door and gazed around the grand interior. There was a large staircase that lead to the second floor, a living room that ran the length of the left side of the house, and the dining room with its large, mahogany table and connected pristine kitchen on the right. I hadn't been upstairs yet, but I had a feeling it would be full of the same old Victorian furnishings as they rest of the place.
"Are we going to keep all this stuff?" I called into the living room without moving an inch off the floor.
"Try to be more respectful, Larkin. They just died and gave us their house." Dri sighed as he stood to his feet. "If you guys want to get rid of their things, we can probably sell them. But its staying until we can get our own."
"I'm fine with their stuff..." I mumbled as I climbed back to my feet and headed for the door. I still had five or six boxes to bring in, then I had to figure out which room Adriel deemed me worthy enough to have.
"Fucking hell!" I shouted when the cardboard box I had pulled off the car collided with the moron who decided to make my life difficult. He raised one dark eyebrow, his lips pulling into a small smirk. "You scared me." I snapped as I side stepped around his athletic body.
"Sorry." Adriel chuckled, which automatically threw his apology in the trash. He wasn't sorry. He enjoyed scaring the shit out of me. I was surprised though when he started to help carry the rest of my stuff inside.
"Thank you." I mumbled when all the boxes were finally out of the car and covering the floor of the foyer.
"Hm." He didn't say anything else, though those blue eyes were sparking in amusement.
"Which room is mine?"
He shrugged and ran a heavy hand through his dark hair. My eyes lingered briefly on the muscles moving in his arm as he did before I forced them away. I wasn't going to risk getting caught staring at him. He would never let me live it down.
"Which ever room you want. I told Raffie you can have first pick."
"Really?!" I didn't bother hiding my excitement, and the soft smile that grew on his lips made it worth it.
"Yeah."
"You're the best. Thanks!" I wrapped my arms around him in a quick surprise hug before taking off for the stairs.
The steps fell away to a small balcony overlooking the foyer, with a metal railing keeping people safe from toppling over. The second floor was one long hallway with two doors on either end and two facing the balcony. I checked behind each one and found four bedrooms, a full bath and a tiny linen closet I hadn't noticed. There was a master bedroom with a master bath that I almost took, but then my too-damn-nice-self decided to let Adriel have it. He deserved that more than I did.
I took the room at the far-right end of the hallway. It was bigger than the other two and both outside walls had casement-style windows. There was a beautiful, wooden, bedframe and mattress pushed against the back wall. I let my fingers brush against the dust on the shelf nailed into the drywall and smiled at the room. Yeah, I could make this mine with no trouble.
"Pick one yet? I want to start bringing stuff up." I turned to see Adriel leaning casually against the doorframe, strong arms crossed over his stony chest.
The afternoon light streamed through the window and washed over his handsome frame, those blue eyes flashing in its soft rays. My heart clenched when he looked like that. A slow, burning anger—at myself—pushed the fire starting to spread through my veins away. I turned back to stare at the walk-in closet.
"Yeah, this one's good."
"I was almost certain you would pick the master." He chuckled and stepped over to one of the sliding windows to test the frame.
I shrugged and turned back for the hallway. "Yeah, well, you're the old one. Don't adults get the masters?"
His laugh followed me as I started walking towards the stairs. "You're eighteen, Lark. You're an adult too."
My smile disappeared as he followed behind me. I had always felt like an adult, being eighteen meant nothing to me. I knew how to take care of myself by the time I was ten, and I knew that the real monsters were just people pretending to care. The only time I ever felt my age, or like a kid at all, was when the Markos came into the picture. They took that burden off my shoulders, and slowly convinced my heart that I could trust them. That I could be a kid.
And I killed them.
"Hey. You okay?" I hadn't realized I was shaking until Adriel's hand was suddenly wrapping around my wrist and steading my grip on the box I had bent down to grab. I shook those dark thoughts away and shot him a reassuring smile.
"Yeah, yeah I'm okay. Can I have ice cream now?"
"Sure..."
But I didn't wait for the chocolate dessert. I just turned for the stairs and started dragging the box up with me. A shot or two of vodka was what I really needed. Anything to make unpacking more fucking bearable.
-&-
Hope you guys enjoyed!