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Chapter 3
Three hours later I stood in my unpacked room with a wide smile. This was the first time I ever got to decorate something. I felt way giddier than I should have. I didn't have many decorations except a calendar hanging on one wall and pretty star lights hanging from the other. It was enough to make me happy.
"I can get you a desk tomorrow." I turned to see Adriel walking through the open door, another bowl of ice cream in his hands. "You're going to need it for school."
"Thank you." I gave him a large smile as he handed over the way too sugary snack. I wasn't really into junk food, but occasionally I caved for ice cream.
"I'll get you a new laptop too." He added and bent down to adjust the corner of my fluffy throw rug.
"I already have one." I mumbled around a mouth full of icy deliciousness. Adriel could be the biggest ass sometimes, but just as sweet and caring in others.
He raised a dark eyebrow and turned those blue eyes to the computer sitting on my freshly made bed. The beautiful dark green comforter with black intricate designs and matching sheets had been an eighteenth birthday present—from him. I wasn't expecting one at all really. No other foster family had ever gotten me anything, and it was so soon after the crash. I didn't deserve gifts. Yet, there it was, all wrapped up nicely in black ribbon when he foiled my running away scheme.
"This thing is ancient. You can't even download Microsoft Office." Adriel scoffed and flipped the computer over easily.
"It has Notepad. I think that's all I really need, right?" I finished off the rest of the dessert and set the bowl on top of the dresser bureau by the door.
"No, not for college. You're going to need everything."
Ugh. I didn't even want to go college. I only agreed for him, and because his parents had wanted me to. "Fine, whatever, but I'll buy it. I have money."
He chuckled and reached for the empty dish. "Not as much as I do, and I take care of my girls." Adriel leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to the top of my head before turning towards the door. I tried to ignore the way that simple action, meant to be endearing, made heat stream beneath my skin. I refused to admit it was a blush though. Adriel Marko would not be the one male on this Earth who could make me blush. Absolutely not.
"I'm getting take-out for dinner. Help Raffie with her room while I'm gone."
I sighed and followed him as he stepped out into the hallway. I hated when he wasted money on me, especially for things I didn't need, but arguing with him was useless. He always won. "They don't deliver?" I grumbled with a glance into Raf's room. It was painted in shades of yellow and pink, and she already had the walls covered in Nightmare Before Christmas posters.
Adriel shot me a smug smile over his shoulder as he stepped onto the first floor. "You can handle being without me for a few minutes, Lark." My gaze narrowed angrily at the infuriating man.
"I know. That's not why I want delivery." I snapped and refused to say anything else as he turned into the dining room, that stupid chuckle filling the air instead.
In all honesty though, I didn't like being away from him for long. From either of them really. Ever since the accident, the siblings were the only ones that made me feel safe. When they weren't around the world seemed colder, and far more dangerous. Raf made everything brighter and more loving. And Adriel... Well, he kept the bad things away. Nothing could hurt me with him there.
"How's it coming, Raf?" I called into her room.
"Good!" She hollered excitedly, her little head poking out from around the dark wooden door. "I'm almost done, want to see?"
I let out a small sigh and leaned off the stair's railing. "Sure, kid. Do you need help with anything?" I peeked into the room to see the dark mayhem that exploded everywhere. There were blue and purple glittery blankets thrown across the floor, stuffed animals scattered around and her clothes stuck out oddly from her dark blue dresser.
"Um, yeah! Can you help me with my canopy?" She stood on top of her twin four-poster bed, the black and glittery shimmer canopy clutched in her tiny hands. The thin metal bedframe was made to look like a carriage from Cinderella. I eyed it suspiciously as she held the sheer material up with a beaming smile. "Isn't this bed cool?! It's like the old owners knew I was coming!"
I gave her a small smile and reached for the canopy. "Yeah, Raffie. It's really cute." Not really my style, but it was cute. I flung the thin material over the top of the frame and started tying down all the little ribbons. "So, you and Dri really never met your aunt and uncle?" I asked lightly as she started tucking her blankets into the bed frame.
"No, but I think Adriel said something about them being close to mom and dad." Then she bent down into one of her boxes and held a photo up to me with that large, beaming smile of hers. "Look what I got!" She sang happily, and I jumped down from the bed to grab the photo.
"When was this taken?" It was a picture of the three of us sitting around the kitchen table in Sacramento eating pasta. My mouth was stuffed with noodles, but Raffie was laughing and Adriel had that amused smile on his face as he watched me.
"Oh, I don't remember." She mumbled and turned back to the box. "But I think I remember mommy taking it. Adriel gave it to me a while ago and I kept it on my shelf." She gave up picking various things out of the box and lifted the cardboard to dump onto her freshly made bed. I tried not to roll my eyes. That kid always made a freaking mess.
"Do you care if I borrow this for a little while?" I asked as she threw the empty box in the corner with all the others. "I want to make a copy or two."
"Sure!" She beamed before tugging on my shirt until I took the hint and turned around. "Thanks for helping with the canopy, Lark. But I want to finish the rest of the room by myself." Her tiny hands pressed against the small of my back and pushed my body towards the door.
"You still have a lot to do, Raf. And your brother wants me to help—"
"But I want it to be a surprise!" She exclaimed loudly even though the little terror had wanted me to see her room in the first place.
"Alright, but if Adriel gets mad, I'm blaming you." I laughed as she shoved me into the hallway.
"Okay, bye!" Then she closed the door in my face. Well then. Children these days, I swear.
"She kicked me out too." I turned to see Adriel walking back up the stairs with a small smile on his lips and his cell phone dangling from his hand.
"Then why send me in?" I raised an eyebrow as he leaned against the railing of the balcony and shrugged his strong shoulders.
"Figured you would have more luck, being a girl and all." I rolled my eyes before glancing back down at the photo. Dri stepped closer, a sound of approval came deep from his chest. "I remember that day." He murmured and reached up to tap the picture. "You were so cute, stuffing your face with pasta."
My gaze snapped to his as my rib cage suddenly squeezed tightly over my heart. Did Adriel just call me cute? It took a lot to make me flustered, but that one simple comment made my pulse race. "Food will be here in twenty." Then he turned to walk towards the master bedroom.
"It's getting delivered?"
"Yeah, Lark. I just drove for eight hours straight. I'm not planning on going anywhere tonight."
"But you said—"
He paused at the entrance of his room, and turned to shoot me that arrogant, pig-headed smirk of his. "I'm almost finished unpacking. Want to help?"
"No." I snapped and turned on my heels to stomp angrily down the stairs. Freaking ass. He just loved fucking with my head. Well, fine, he can shove that smirk up his ass and talk to my back. Just because I felt more comfortable being around him all the time didn't mean that I needed him.
Maybe I would like this college thing.
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Maybe it was from the move, or just sleeping in the old creepy house for the first time, but my dreams were plagued with nightmares. I had hoped they were finally gone. I guess not.
There was no hint of those sensual images from the morning before, no matter how hard I tried to conjure them. It might not have been healthy, or sane, but those dark intense touches of the man in my subconscious were comforting in the moment. Now I only dreamt of fire and blood.
I stared blankly at the sleek marble of the cathedral town's square. My hands coated in dried blood. There was a darkness thrumming through the air, surrounding me, embracing me, whispering soft words that only I could hear. It spoke of pain and death, and told me not to fear the sharp blade pressing against my back.
"You want to be free, don't you?" The voice whispered against my ears. "Free of your fate..."
My fate... I had no idea what my fate was, or why the voice chose to care.
Something slid between my feet and I glanced down to see black fire creeping through the grass. It wasn't hot, but a slimy cold that crawled up my bare legs and tested the frayed edges of the white dress I was wearing.
"You're here."
My gaze snapped to the new voice. It wasn't dark and disembodied like the mist still wrapping around me, but I couldn't find the source of it either. "Hello?" I asked into the surrounding darkness.
"What a dream you are having." The voice said again, and I spun quickly around to find its owner. There was a man at my side, or at least, I thought it was a man. Any defining features were hidden by shadows and I only saw two pitch black eyes staring curiously through the darkness.
"I'm scared." I don't know why I admitted that to the man, but I knew it wasn't him I feared. I wasn't so sure I trusted my insides anymore.
"I can imagine why." Those black eyes tore from mine to glance around at the desolate town. His gaze landed on the cathedral. "Don't worry about the church. It is nothing."
"What does that mean?"
The man smiled. It was the only facial feature I could see peeking out through the darkness. I didn't step away like I probably should have when he raised a shadowed hand to my cheek. "Don't listen to the voices, Larkin. Their only goal is to destroy you."
Then he was gone and the nightmare faded into blackness.
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I gripped the pristine new touchscreen laptop in my hands, refusing to look over at that beyond satisfied smirk pulling on the devilish man's lips. "Just because some random person agreed with you, doesn't make you right." I grumbled but kept my gaze locked on Raffie as she chased some birds in the middle of the courtyard a few feet away.
"Don't get pissy because I won."
"It wasn't a freaking competition." I snapped and my fingers curled tighter around the brand-new cardboard box. It was noon the next day, and I had pushed the weird nightmare aside to try and enjoy the day with them. We had been shopping around town all morning. Adriel bought a new bed since the master didn't have one, a nice sectional for the living room and got me a desk that was way too big for what I needed.
Then we got into a very heated argument, in the middle of an entertainment store packed with people, over which fucking laptop to buy. I wanted a simple Dell that looked sturdy enough in case I dropped it—which I probably would—and could download Microsoft Office. Adriel wanted me to have the newest one they had. It could flip from a computer to a tablet instantly and had a bunch of built in features I was never going to use. I refused to let him buy it. It was well over a thousand dollars and I didn't need it. But like always, he refused to listen to me and it didn't help that the worker—who was just trying to make a sale—kept agreeing with everything he said.
"Just say thank you and move on, Larkin." His blue eyes were locked on his sister as well, like the gaze alone would keep her from running off.
"Thank you." I grumbled, even though I wasn't happy about it. Then a sneaky thought crept into my mind and I had to force down a pleased smile. I still had the receipt in the bag. I would just wait until he started work tomorrow, sneak down to the town without him and return it for a cheaper one. I could just stuff the extra money in his nightstand for him to be mad about later.
Oh yeah, totally doing that.
Dri gave a pleased nod and a "you're welcome" before letting the subject die away. "There's something we need to discuss, though." His tone was nonchalant enough, but I could hear the underlying concern there. I shifted uneasily. Usually whenever Dri said we needed to have a discussion it wasn't something I was going to like.
"Okay..." I muttered disdainfully.
"I'm starting work tomorrow, and I'm expecting it to be a full-day thing."
Alright, I already knew that. It was impossible for Adriel to not work. If he wasn't locked in his room doing school work, he was doing part time jobs for some construction company back in Sacramento. Now that he was done with college, I was fully expecting him to be at work 24/7. Even though after the accident he did quit his part-time job to finish school quickly, become Raf's guardian, and move us up here. It was the longest I had ever seen him not working.
"I just..." He let out a sigh and eased further back against the bench. "I just want to make sure you're going to be okay while I'm gone." I hadn't realized how close we were sitting until his arms dropped heavily onto my shoulders and he gripped my upper arm endearingly. I hated how the gesture sent warmth shooting through my veins.
"I'm not a kid, Adriel. I can handle being alone with Raffie for a few hours." I snapped and refused to feel guilty about my tone. Even if the actual thought of him not being near made me nervous I wouldn't admit that to the guy. They hadn't left me alone since the crash, so I wasn't sure how well I would handle their absence. I didn't really want to know.
"I'm not worried about Raffie." The look in those dark eyes as they flickered to mine made my stomach flutter. It did that a lot around him.
"I'll be fine." I spoke softly, trying to reassure myself more than him.
"It's the longest you're going to be alone since—"
"I know. I'll be fine. Stop stressing out." It was only making my own anxiety go through the roof. I could handle a day away from him, more even. Besides, it wasn't like he could go to college with me. I would have to learn how to function without them at my side eventually.
Adriel didn't say anything, but that hand squeezed my shoulder gently and his thumb rubbed against my skin. I tried to not pay too much attention to him. He was just trying to be comforting, and completely oblivious to how my body reacted to him. I already found him way more sexually attractive than I should have, but add on those recent sultry dreams of mine, and I was a live-wire ready to snap. Every single touch from the guy, no matter how simple, made my body crave things it couldn't have.
God. I really needed to find a distraction soon, or poor Dri was going to have to deal with my hormonal grumpy ass. No matter how hot I found the guy, there was no way I would ever try to do anything with him. That would just fuck everything up. He was Adriel—pig-headed, arrogant, cocky, caring, endearing Adriel. That would all change if I made even one move on the man. No matter how badly my body wanted me to.
"Did you sign up for your classes yet?" Dri asked casually a moment later as Rafael started to skip towards us. He let go of my arm to drape his where it was originally against the back of the bench.
"No, registration is in two days. The email said to wait for that." I muttered as I tried to shove down the electricity that was shooting through my skin. He nodded and gave his sister a small smile as she came to a halt.
"I'm hungry, can we go get tacos or something?"
He raised a dark eyebrow, amusement lighting those blue eyes. "Tacos, huh?" Raf beamed brightly up at him with those big blue puppy eyes she adopted whenever she wanted something. The kid was a hustler, and a smart one at that.
I rolled my own before running my hand through the tangles in my hair. I didn't like wearing the long dark curls down much, messy buns and ponytails were my go-to, but Shelby had gushed more than once about how beautiful she thought my hair was. I wore it down for her, like that small action would make up for what I did to her and her husband—to their family. I would never be able to make up for that. Not in a million years.
"Yes please!" Raffie cheered happily, her small hands reaching up to pat his strong shoulders. Ugh, strong shoulders. I really needed to stop thinking about him like that. All strong, hard, and stony. It wasn't good for my sanity.
"What do you say, Lark?"
"Huh?" I tore my eyes from the sight of those very shoulders, straining against the fabric of his t-shirt. Adriel's lips pulled slightly at the corners.
"Tacos. You want some?"
"Um, yeah, sure." I refused to feel embarrassed at that smirk. If I just pretended like he hadn't caught me gawking at him, then he would pretend to.
We spent the rest of the day unpacking and waiting for the delivery truck to bring the recently bought furniture. There was a rather large storage shed in the backyard where we put all their great aunt and uncle's things. The more we moved stuff around and took things to the shed, the more relaxed I became. It was starting to feel like our home, and never having had that before, it made me more than a little excited.
"Careful or I might think you're actually starting to like it here." Adriel's chuckle completely wiped the smile from my face.
"It's not horrible." I grumbled and bent down to finish adjusting the sectional how I thought it looked best.
"Give it a chance, Angel. You might actually like it here."
My eyes snapped to his as that name passed his lips, but he was bent over a side table polishing the dust away. That stupid nickname came from Raf the first time we met and she had said that I looked like an angel. Her parents had laughed, they thought it was cute. Adriel just smiled before giving me a polite 'hello' and disappearing into his room.
I didn't think he really thought anything of me back then. He was always at school, or locked away in his room and despite polite greetings in passing, we hardly ever spoke. He would occasionally call me Angel though—on the rare moment we were in the same room longer than five minutes that is. I had liked it. Boys called me pretty and beautiful all the time, but none of it compared to how it felt when Adriel said something as simple as 'Angel'.
Now it was just a sick reminder of what I took from them.
"Whatever." I muttered just to show him I didn't care what he thought. Which was a complete lie.
He sighed, but I ignored it and turned to walk up the stairs. "Lark?" I groaned and tightened my hand around the banister. I really was not in the mood for some long reprimanding speech.
"What?"
"If you really didn't want to come here all you had to do was say so. I wouldn't have made us move." The look crossing those blue eyes tore at my heart.
"I know. I know, I'm sorry. I'm just being a bitch, ignore me." I eyed those strong shoulders of his that I seemed to have a hard time not drooling over earlier. Would it be a little obvious if I threw my arms around them right then?
Probably.
"I really do think this will be good for us." He gripped gently onto my forearm and that steady gaze made heat pool in my stomach.
"I know you're probably right." I admitted disdainfully as his hand fell away, the touch leaving a hot mark against my skin.
"Does that mean you're going to try?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure." I waved away his amused look and turned back towards stairs. Even if I didn't want to, it's not like I would fight him about it. I didn't like going against what he wanted, and I always caved.
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