“If you thought being an Unspeakable was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Blake added in a devilish tone.
“Strip!” Saint roared, his patience snapping.
Bait dropped his boxers and quickly grabbed his junk to shield himself as he stood naked before us.
Saint bent down and opened up his book bag, pulling a coil of rope from it and slowly winding it around his fist.
“Stand against the flagpole with your arms behind it,” he commanded, taking a step forward with deadly intent.
Bait backed up, then again, his eyes darting around wildly as his body coiled with tension. I knew he was going to bolt before he even moved and when he darted away with a shriek of fear, I had to wonder how far he’d get, running naked from a wolf pack.
Blake whooped with excitement, ripping his blazer off and throwing it aside as he let Bait get a head start before tearing after him. I almost felt sorry for the kid as he tossed a terrified look over his shoulder, eyes wide, lips parted. Blake slammed into him with his best football tackle, taking him to the floor with a cheer of triumph as Bait crashed into the brick pathway and I had to cringe at the thought of it. Dicks and bricks should never mix.
Blake leapt up, grabbing his arm and hauling him back towards us as he crowed with laughter. Bait hadn’t won in his collision with the brick path and blood spilled down his chin as well as a huge graze on his hip and another on his elbow.
He sobbed as Blake shoved him back against the flagpole and Saint tied his hands firmly behind his back around it.
Blake grinned at me as he grabbed his cellphone from his pocket and trained it on Bait as he started up a live stream. No doubt all over campus, students were currently whipping out their phones and watching the carnage unfold.
“You are officially less than an Unspeakable,” Saint purred, circling to stand before Bait again as the others closed in at his back. I found myself moving to join them too, my shoulder brushing Kyan’s in an act of solidarity. “You will only eat if someone gives you scraps from their plate. You’re not allowed a single square of toilet paper. You won’t speak to anyone and they certainly won’t speak to you – unless they’re giving you an order. Because you are now officially the bitch of every single student at this school. As you endangered all of their lives, we’re giving them control over yours. If anyone gives you an order you now have to do as they say, not just the Night Keepers. Because you’re nothing anymore. Nothing but a ghost with no voice, no name, and no face.”
Bait whimpered as Saint retrieved a plain white mask from his book bag and a tube of superglue.
“It is your responsibility to make sure you wear this mask at all times to remind everyone that you are nothing and no one,” Saint said in a dangerous voice. “But to help you out, I’ll stick it in place for now. Once it falls off in a week or so, feel free to secure it however you like. But if any of us ever catch you not wearing it, there will be hell to pay.”
“I’ll wear it,” Bait whimpered, tears spilling down his face. “I swear. You don’t have to use the glue. I promise I’ll never take it off, I-”
“Maybe I should castrate you to stop you talking back?” Kyan suggested, plucking his hunting knife from my grip and moving forward until the blade kissed Bait’s balls.
A sound of pure terror escaped his lips and he froze entirely, staring up at Kyan like he was the devil incarnate. But I had a feeling the Night Keepers were far worse than the devil.
Saint chuckled appreciatively and proceeded to line the white mask with glue.
I watched as he prepared it and suddenly, his gaze lifted to me. He held the mask out in a silent offering, not a threat or a demand, just asking if I wanted to do the honours.
And as I thought of Tatum pinned beneath that piece of shit who’d been trying to hurt her because of this kid, it wasn’t a difficult choice to make.
I took the mask from him, careful not to touch the inside where the superglue sat before stepping forward to seal Bait’s fate.
Kyan backed up with a throaty laugh and Bait sagged with relief as the knife moved away from his balls. But it was short lived as his gaze fell on me instead, the mask ready and waiting in my hand.
There was a bitter acceptance in his eyes as I pushed the mask onto his skin, concealing the top half of his face with the white material so that only his eyes showed through, tears brimming in them as I pushed down firmly to make sure it wouldn’t move.
There was something profoundly final about covering him like that. A blank manikin looking back at us now which meant he could have been anyone at all. Or no one.
Blake cut the recording and laughter tumbled from his lips, quickly echoed by the others.
Kyan wrapped an arm around my shoulders and we all turned and walked away together, leaving Bait tied to the flagpole, naked aside from that ice white mask.
“So how about it, brother?” Kyan growled in my ear as I was jostled between them, a dark smile on my face for doling out justice. “You can’t say that didn’t get your blood pumping. Don’t you want to join us so that you can do that again?”
I laughed him off without giving an answer and I could feel Saint watching me like he was waiting on it too.
I held my tongue as we walked further down the path, but I had to admit, becoming one of them might not have been quite as bad as I’d assumed.
***
I paced back and forth in the gym as I waited for Tatum to show up. It was five past seven and I was filled with restless energy. I’d barely spoken to her since the night of the break in and the few messages we’d exchanged had been brief and to the point. I wasn’t going to put it past Saint or the others to check her phone and I was still hoping they hadn’t picked up on just how close I’d been getting to the girl they thought was theirs.
But that hope was a fickle thing. They’d seen me the night she’d been attacked. I’d been desperately trying to get to her. I’d plunged that knife into that scumbag. There wasn’t much chance they’d missed the way I’d panicked at the thought of her being hurt. Saint had already tried to call me out on it.
I just had to hope they didn’t realise how much I’d started to care about her. Although, if they really were inviting me into their fold, then maybe it didn’t matter that much if they figured it out. I’d certainly seen just how much they cared about her. And if that wasn’t a mindfuck in itself then I didn’t know what was. I hadn’t believed the Night Keepers were capable of caring about anything aside from themselves. But Tatum Rivers was a force to be reckoned with.
The door finally opened as I quit my pacing and Tatum strode in. I spotted Blake walking away after dropping her off and bit my tongue until the door swung shut behind her. She was wearing a matching sports bra and leggings set in a deep navy colour which really brought out the blue in her eyes. My gaze raked over every inch of exposed skin and curve of her flesh before I could stop myself. I cursed the fact that she was my damn student before ripping my attention away from her again.
“How were classes today?” I asked as she crossed the room and pulled on her gloves to start our bout.
“I don’t want to talk about classes with you,” she muttered, her back to me as she gave her attention to the gloves.
“Did you have something else in mind?” I asked, moving towards the ring and lifting the rope for her so that she could climb in.
Tatum huffed out a breath and moved to stand before me, but she didn’t raise her fists, glaring down at her gloves before tearing them off again.
“Were you the kind of guy who got into a lot of fights at my age?” she asked, her lips curling into something that was dangerously close to a little rich girl pout.
“What makes you think that?” I asked, my defences rising at the slightest sign of the class divide. “Because I clearly have such low breeding?”
Her eyes snapped up to meet mine and a frown tugged at her brow. “No. Of course not. I’m not assuming you did, I’m asking if you did…just forget about it. I’m
not really in the mood to spar today anyway.”
She made a move to walk away from me and I reached out to place an arm in front of her so that she couldn’t go. “Spit it out, princess, or I’m going to have to assume that you think I’m a common street rat.”
Her gaze flicked up to meet mine and the hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips before it died away again just as fast.
“I’m asking because…I want to practice brawling. I want to be ready the next time someone comes at me and I know I have to put them down if I want them to stop. I don’t ever want to hesitate to kill again. I ran from him when I should have stood and fought. Not wanting to stab that asshole almost cost me-”
“Okay,” I said, tossing my gloves aside too. “But don’t kick me in the balls, even if that is your most effective tactic.”
A snort of laughter escaped her and a dark smile tugged at my lips as I launched myself at her.
Tatum gasped in surprise a moment before I locked my arms around her and took her to the floor. We hit the mats hard and my grip was jarred loose, giving her the room she needed to throw her elbow into my gut.
I grunted as the wind was driven from my lungs and she pressed her advantage, rolling us with a sharp thrust and locking her hand around my throat as she shoved me down onto the mat beneath her.
Her grip tightened and I threw my fist into the inside of her elbow, forcing her to buckle forward before catching her waist, flipping us over and locking her beneath me with my hips.
She fought like a wild animal, her fists pounding into my ribs and sending pain scattering through my body.
I grunted as I scrambled to catch hold of her wrists and the moment I did, I used pure force to pin them to the mat above her head.
She wriggled wildly beneath me, but with my hold on her wrists and my weight driving her down into the mat, she was immobilised.
“Fuck,” she spat, panting heavily and I offered her a smile.
“You’re not done yet,” I pointed out. “At this point you’d want to headbutt me hard enough to break my nose. I’d rear away from you, you strike at my balls and then a solid throat punch the moment I flinch enough for you to get a hand free. Besides, if you’d been holding a knife like you were that night, all of those punches you dealt me could have been stabs.”
“But they weren’t,” she hissed, her blue eyes blazing with shame for a moment before she blinked it away. “When he caught me, even when he got me on the ground, there was a part of me which didn’t want to use that knife. To strike a deadly blow-”
“Don’t beat yourself up because you hesitated to kill someone,” I growled. “That just means you’re a good person. Not that you’re weak.”
“But what if it happens again? What if I’m overpowered like I am now and I hesitate to make the killing blow, and-”
“You won’t hesitate,” I promised, knowing she needed to hear this over pretty reassurances that it wouldn’t happen again. “You know what it takes to survive now. If there’s a next time, you’ll be ready.”
“I can’t sleep at night, worrying that I’m not really as strong as I think I am. That even my training isn’t enough to-”
“It’s not your skills that need any help. It’s your bloodlust, you need to trust in that darkness inside of you to keep you alive. That’s what makes you a survivor. How much sleep have you lost feeling guilty for killing that asshole?” I demanded.
Tatum hesitated, like she was afraid to voice the truth to me. “None,” she breathed. “I think about it and I try to feel guilt, remorse, pity…but whenever I remember the way it felt to drive that blade into him I just feel…relieved.”
My lips curled into a smile as she admitted that and I couldn’t deny the twisted part of me which loved that answer. She was as ruthless as me, maybe even as bloodthirsty too…
“Tell me how much you want to make the Night Keepers pay,” I urged in a low voice, wanting to know if she planned on honing that merciless part of her into a weapon she could use to strike at them or not.
She shifted beneath me and my heart pounded as I kept her pinned there, liking the view way too much but unable to pull back.
“I’m going to make them beg for mercy before the end,” she hissed. “I’m going to make a list of each and every way they’ve hurt me and make them pay the price for all of it. And I’ll use every weapon I’ve got at my disposal to bring them down.”
The venom in her tone sent desire rushing through me and as she shifted beneath me again I was sure she could feel just how hard I was for her, but I still couldn’t force myself back. It might as well have been me who was pinned to the mat, my deceitful body aching with need as I kept her there at my mercy.
All this talk of revenge was better than any dirty talk I could imagine, her words making direct contact with my libido and making me want her more than ever.
“They want me to become the fourth Night Keeper,” I admitted. “They want me all in with them. But-”
“Do it,” she growled, the rise and fall of her chest coming faster as her eyes lit at the idea. “We can take them down together from the inside out.”
There had been a thousand objections, protests and sound reasons for me to reject their offer up until that moment. But as I looked into the eyes of the girl they’d wronged and saw that familiar thirst for vengeance dancing within them, I realised that none of them mattered. All that mattered was taking those boys down, serving their heads up on a silver platter for her and bowing at her feet as she bathed in their blood. If she wanted to achieve that goal with my help then I was willing. She could have me, to help, use or abuse. I found I didn’t even mind which. If she wanted me then I was all in. I’d already killed for her once, so there was no denying the lengths I’d go to to protect her.
“Alright,” I agreed. “I’ll accept their offer. And I look forward to spilling more blood at your side.”
The smile she gave me was bright and filled with her desire for vengeance; it was beautiful in a damaged, twisted, fucked up kind of way. And in that moment, I knew that she had me in her grasp. I couldn’t deny the pull I felt to claim her, even if I knew I couldn’t act on it. But I could do this for her. I could walk into hell at her side and mark three demons in my crosshairs. I just hoped we’d still be smiling on the other side.
My dreams were filled with the ghosts of my past. Memories echoed through me, but it was a blur, like watching it all through a rain smattered pane of glass and I was reaching toward whoever lay on the other side of it. My sister’s laughter called to me and my father’s gruff voice sounded in the distance. But I couldn’t get close to them no matter how hard I tried. I needed to surround myself with their love, their words of comfort. Dad would tell me I did the right thing, Jessica would say I wasn’t a killer, I was a survivor. And they’d both tell me to face my demons down no matter what it took.
My body shook and a murmur of longing escaped me just before burning hot arms closed around me and I was pulled back into a hard chest.
My breathing immediately slowed and I took comfort in being held like that. But as my mind drifted closer towards consciousness, my thoughts sharpened and I blinked awake, glancing down at the tanned arms of one of my captors. For the longest moment, I let myself drown in the feeling of him so close, my heart drumming out a hungry rhythm as I breathed in his spicy scent. I’d ached for comfort in my dreams and found a monster holding me when I woke. I was surprised by the power I’d somehow wielded over this man who hated me with the force of a hurricane. And yet now, he was holding me against him like he wanted to heal every wound he found in me. And I was selfishly letting him, taking what I needed as my dreams ebbed away and I clung to the comfort of his embrace.
My tongue was wet and heavy in my mouth, my breathing becoming shallow as I recalled being pinned beneath the might of this cruel creature. It seemed like a lifetime ago now. Sometimes, I wasn’t sure there was anything left of the Blake Bowman I’d met on my first day at Everlake, but othe
r times it seemed like he was lurking beneath the surface, peering out at me from behind his hate-filled eyes, begging to be released. Especially since he’d driven that blade into Merl. A part of me wanted to keep luring that smiling golden boy out from the depths of his flesh and never let him fade away again. But another, more vicious, scorned part of me wanted to see him burn up in the heat of the sun.
I clutched his arms, forcing them apart and getting out of bed as he grunted something incoherent, rolling face down into my spot.
“You broke a rule, douchebag.” I planted my hands on my hips and he groaned into my pillow. I bent down, shoving his side and forcing him to roll onto his back in the centre of the bed.
He cracked his eyes open, smirking at me through a haze of sleepiness and amusement. My heart thrashed at the sight of him spread out like that, looking so temptingly delicious that the most depraved part of me wanted to crawl back into bed, knot my fingers in that unruly dark hair and wake him up fully. But he’d already broken a rule. And I didn’t need any more excuse than that to execute my first punishment. So I stuffed my wild libido down into a box and padlocked her up tight.
“Well, what are you gonna do about it?” he growled, his deep tone sending tremors down to my toes. He slung an arm over his eyes, clearly intending to go back to sleep, but fuck that.
I headed out of the room in the black nightdress Blake had chosen for me to wear last night. And by chosen, I mean he fished out the first thing he found in Saint’s closet and tossed it at me.
I strode into the kitchenette, the eerie rise and lull of Saint’s music filling The Temple.
The crypt door was ajar and the sound of Saint cursing and grunting carried to me from beyond it. Last night, I’d made a mental note of each and every one of the Night Keepers’ crimes against me and I intended on serving them justice equally whenever they broke any of my rules. So I knew exactly how Blake was going to be punished this morning.
Kings of Lockdown: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep Book 2) Page 8