Aftereffect (The Order of Ravens and Wolves Book 1)

by T. L Hodel

  “Looking at me like that, is a good way to get fucked, Mouse.”

  What? Oh shit.

  I quickly dropped my hand and tore my eyes off his chest. “I’m not looking at you.”

  “It’s okay, Mouse. Look all you want.” Micha smirked. “You can even touch.”

  I swallowed down my gasp. His swim trunks were starting to tent.

  “In fact,” Micha reached his hand down his shorts and adjusted himself, making absolutely no attempt to hide it from me. “I want you to touch.”

  Holy hell! I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t look away either. He still had his hand on his dick. Lightly stroking himself under his shorts.

  “How about it, Mouse?” He slid his fingers through my hair, up the back of my head and pulled me closer. Bringing his lips next to my ear, he murmured, “You want to jerk me until I shoot my load all over those perfect tits?”

  Thank God the kid Micha was swimming with came sauntering up, because I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done. A big part of me wanted to do exactly what he said.

  “Micha,” the kid called, making Micha yank his hand out of his shorts and take a step back. “Why are you up here? Talking to a girl?”

  Aw, he was so cute with his dark hair and freckles. I wanted to pinch his dimples.

  “Junior,” Micha sighed, and waved at me, “this is Riley.”

  Junior scanned me with a grimace on his face. “Thought you said she was pretty?”

  Well, fuck you too, kid!

  “She is pretty.” I had the brief thought of, ‘Oh my God, Micha thinks I’m pretty,’ before I mentally slapped myself. “She just needs to learn how to dress.”

  “Hey!” I huffed. “This uniform was not my idea!”

  “The only problem I have with the uniform is how much I want to fuck you in it,” Micha stated with a blank expression. “It’s your other clothes that are the issue.”

  What was wrong with jeans and a shirt? Everyone else wore them, including Mr. High-and-mighty. Just because I was a girl, didn’t mean I had to wear dresses and skirts. Yeah, like that was going to happen.

  “Um, Micha,” I said softly. “There’s a kid here. You probably shouldn’t say stuff like that.”

  Junior’s brows knit as his eyes rolled over me. “I’ve seen more dick than you.”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I hoped he was talking about his own dick, because the implications of the other, was not something I wanted to think about.

  “Bet you haven’t even see Micha’s dick yet. You kinda seem like a prude.”

  “Hey! What dicks I have or have not seen are none of your business,” I growled, pointing at Junior. “Besides, you’re what, like eight? Shouldn’t you be playing with a ball or something?”

  “I’m old enough to know girls wear makeup. You should try it sometime.”

  My face dropped. Micha and this kid totally deserved each other.

  “Well, I’ll let you and the future leader of the ‘Asshole’s of America’ get back to it.” I sneered at Junior, and then turned to pull on the door handle.

  Locked! God damnit, Mary-Lou!

  “She’s not very smart, either.”

  “Alright!” I spun around and shook my finger at the kid. “You listen to me, you little prick –”

  “What?” Junior snarled, “it’s not my fault you look like a boy. Shouldn’t girls have boobs?”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and shrieked, “Stop looking at my boobs.”

  “Can’t look at something that’s not there.”

  “Despite what this one told you,” I threw my thumb in Micha’s direction, “the whole asshole thing doesn’t work on girls.”

  “Seems to work for you.” Junior sang. “You were drooling over Micha a second ago.”

  That’s it! I was going to slap the hell out of this little prick!

  Micha burst out laughing, stopping me in my tracks. If I wasn’t so pissed at this little twerp, I might’ve enjoyed the deep baritone of his laugh.

  Instead I scowled at him. “What’s so funny.”

  “You’re arguing with an eleven-year-old.”

  “He started it,” I huffed.

  “Not my fault Micha’s had better girls than you.” He looked at Micha. “What happened to that blonde? She was pretty.”

  Assuming he was talking about Naomi, I narrowed my glare and shot back, “Yeah, well, I’ve had better guys too.”

  Micha’s laughter instantly ceased. “Junior go do some laps I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Junior stuck his tongue out and stomped down to the pool. I stuck mine right back out at him.

  Oh shit!

  There was a black look on Micha’s face, one that didn’t bode very well for me, or my churning stomach.

  “That last statement better be a lie, Mouse.”

  The closest thing I had to any kind of relationship – other than my first and only kiss, which was sloppy as hell – was when Scotty Miller fell on me during soccer practice. We were ten, and I nut-punched him for it.

  “Just wait a second,” I said, holding my palms out in front of me. “Nothing happened.”

  “Who the fuck touched you?” he yelled, muscles tense and ready to pounce.

  Everyone swimming stopped and looked up at us.

  “No one touched me.” I whispered, pretty sure that Micha was about to murder Scotty Miller.

  His fist slammed down on the door, making me jump. “Don’t fuck with me mouse!”

  “No one touched me okay?” I yelled. “I’ve only been kissed once and that wasn’t very good.”

  I could hear Junior laugh at my statement.

  Prick!

  “Besides,” I said, toning my volume down, “I’m not the one with a kid.”

  “Junior’s eleven, Riley.” Micha cocked an incredulous brow down at me. “My balls hadn’t dropped yet when he was born.”

  Well, that was graphic.

  Micha sighed and reached past me. Instinctively, I jumped out of the way. That was when I realized he was unlocking the door.

  “Go home, Riley.” Micha said, holding the door open for me.

  I ducked under his arm and cautiously slipped past him. Micha still looked mad, and I didn’t want someone to get hurt because he thought something had happened. “Seriously, no one touched me.”

  “I know. If they had, they’d already be dead,” he said before he shut the door.

  Chapter Twenty

  Riley

  Why was it so dark? I didn’t like the dark. That’s where the boogeyman lived. I needed to get to Mommy and Daddy’s room. I tried to get up, but my hands and feet were tied. Dread rocketed through my heart. Did the boogeyman get me? I wasn’t in my room. The bed I was laying on was too hard, and it smelled like Grandma’s flowerpots. I tried twisting around to see where I was, but everything was so dark. I needed my night light.

  “Mommy?” I cried out.

  She didn’t answer. Why didn’t she answer? Mommy always came when I called.

  “Mommy! Mommy, where are you?”

  I turned my head, searching for the comforting shine of Minnie Mouse. Nothing. Hot tears rolled down my cool skin, making me shiver.

  “Mommy?” I tried again. “Daddy? I’m scared.”

  Were they mad at me? I didn’t mean for Charlie to get hurt. I tried to hold onto his leash. He was just so fast.

  “MOMMY! MOMMY! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it!”

  A man’s voice cut through the air, silencing my screams. “Calm down girl.”

  My heart settled a bit when a soft glow lit up part of the room. I sniffed and watched a man in purple robes light more torches along the wall. At least the boogeyman can’t get me now.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Louis, child,” he answered, lighting the last torch. “We met at the park the other day.”

  “We did?” I asked, searching for something familiar. There was nothing. Not in the man, and not in the room. Just gray stone walls a
nd the soft echo of water dripping. Rope was around my wrists and ankles, tying me to a stone bed. Why would anyone want a stone bed? It was hard and uncomfortable.

  “Where are we?” I asked, my nose crinkling at the musty earth smell in the air.

  “The basement.”

  This place looked more like a dungeon than a basement, like the ones in the princess stories Mommy read to me. I shivered at the shrill whistle the wind made tunneling down the stairs. If this was what it was like to be a princess, I didn’t want to be one anymore. I didn’t need the pretty dresses. I just needed Mommy and Daddy.

  “Where’s my Mommy?”

  Louis walked over to a table draped in purple cloth. “She’s not here.”

  “Where is she?”

  “At home, asleep in her bed.” He pulled the cloth off the table, making things clatter together. I really wished I could see what was on it. “She doesn’t even know you’re gone.”

  “Liar!” I yelled.

  Mommy always knew where I was. She had eyes in the back of her head. Told me so when she caught me in the cookie jar.

  “Where is she, then?”

  “I don’t know.” I frowned. Where was she?

  “You see,” he said, “she’s not here, so you can stop screaming. Maybe she’s mad at you?”

  Was she mad at me? Daddy told me bad men lied to little girls, and I shouldn’t listen to strangers.

  “My daddy will arrest you!” I insisted. “He’s a policeman, and you’re a bad man. He puts bad men in jail.”

  “He can try.” Louis chuckled, and waved at me over his shoulder. “Now be quiet.”

  I refused, screaming my head off.

  The sound pierced the air as I thrashed about, fighting the against my binds. Mommy didn’t like it when I acted like this. She called it ‘throwing a tantrum’, but she wasn’t here and I wanted to go home.

  “Enough!” Louis’s stern voice stilled my movements. Huffing, he turned around and crossed his arms. “You’re a stubborn little thing, aren’t you?”

  “I’m not little. I’m a big girl.”

  He arched his brow. “Do big girls cry like babies?”

  “No,” I agreed quietly.

  “Good,” he said, turning his attention back to the table. “Now stop acting out and be quiet.”

  My heart pounded loudly as he shuffled around, filling the air with tiny clinks. What was he doing?

  “I’m cold,” I whined, not sure if I was shivering from the temperature or out of fright.

  Mommy put on my warm jammies. I shouldn’t be cold. But when I craned my head to look, I saw a white nightgown instead of Minnie Mouse’s smile. Grandma bought me those jammies. I felt safe in them. I didn’t want this nightgown.

  “Where are my jammies? I want my jammies!”

  Louis released a long sigh and spun around. “You see this?” he said holding up a needle. I nodded and silently watched the light glint off the sharp pointy end. “If you don’t stop throwing a fit, I’m going to stick you with it and make you go to sleep. Do you want that?”

  I didn’t like needles and shook my head. He seemed satisfied with my silence and went back to what he was doing.

  It seemed like we sat there forever, before my ears twitched, picking up the distant sounds of footsteps. Relief washed over me. Mommy was coming.

  “Mommy! Mommy, I’m here.” I called out.

  Instead of mommy, four more robed men came into the room, followed by a little boy. Hoods cloaked their faces, allowing me to only see their eyes. Two pairs of blue, a green, and a brown. Each set focused on me. Out of all of them, it was the boy who sent a shiver up my spine. There was a meanness in his stare that I didn’t like.

  “Where’s my Mommy? I want my mommy . . .”

  “Where’s my mommy?” the boy mocked, climbing up and crawling over my flailing body. He sat down on my hips and brought his face inches from mine. “Your mommy’s not coming.”

  “Yes, she is.”

  She had to.

  “No, she isn’t,” he said with an evil smirk. “You’re mine now.”

  “No I’m not! I want my Mommy. I hate you!” I screamed in his face.

  “Alright, that’s enough!” Louis said, in a scolding tone. He pushed my head back down on the hard surface. “Do you want to see your mommy again?”

  I sniffed and rolled my eyes to meet him. “Yes.”

  “Then be a good girl, and I’ll take you back to your mommy.”

  Shifting my gaze between him and the boy, I warily said, “Promise?”

  “Yes.” He nodded and ran his fingers through my long hair. “I promise.”

  I wanted to see Mommy, so I tried to be good and stay quiet, as the other robed men circled around us. But when one of them held up a scary silver tube, my bottom lip trembled. I whimpered, shuffling away from the glowing blue end.

  “Shh,” Louis hushed, continuing to stroke my hair. “be still now. My son needs to mark you.”

  “Why?” I croaked.

  He tilted his head down at me. “So everyone knows you belong to him.”

  “I don’t belong to him.” I cried, kicking my bound legs. “I hate you! I hate all of you! Get away from me!”

  I was silenced by a harsh slap jerking my head to the side.

  “Stop it!” Louis barked down at me. “You should be honored that my son chose you. Now apologize!”

  Tears slid down my face, cooling my burning cheek. I didn’t want to get hit again, so I whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  Louis’s face softened. “That’s it. Be a big girl now.”

  I didn’t feel like a big girl.

  “Are you going to hurt me?”

  “Yes,” the boy answered matter-of-factly.

  I whimpered when he took the silver tube from one of the men. He scanned me, then looked up at Louis. “Where do I put it?”

  “Wherever you like son. I’m partial to the back of the neck, just under the hairline. It’s easily concealed.”

  “Is that where you put it on Mom?” the boy asked.

  Louis nodded.

  “Maybe I should put the mark somewhere people can see it?” the boy growled sliding his gaze to the green-eyed man. “I wouldn’t want someone getting ideas.”

  “You want to talk about that now, boy?” green eyes asked. “Or do you want to mark your woman? If she’s anything like her mother, you’re in for a treat.”

  My brows furrowed. “Did you hurt my mommy?”

  He smirked and leaned down, his green eyes gleaming mischievously. “If your daddy doesn’t start listening, then I’m going to play a game with your mommy.” I shrunk back when his knuckles grazed my burning cheek. “Do you want to play with us, little one?”

  I shook my head. No, no I didn’t.

  “Ryker!” Louis roared. “That’s enough!”

  Green eyes rolled his eyes. “Relax,” he sighed, straightening his back, “I was only having fun with the child.”

  “She’s not yours to have fun with.”

  Ryker grumbled and glared at him so hard I thought he might hit Louis. I was so caught up in their friction that I forgot about the boy. That is, until my head was twisted to the side. Instead of screaming, like I wanted too, I rolled my eyes back up to Louis.

  “Be very still now.” He smiled while brushing his thumbs over my forehead. Despite feeling the boy’s fingers on my skin, I listened.

  If I was good, I could go home. That’s what he said.

  “You have to be strong now, can you do that for me?”

  I nodded.

  “That’s a good girl.”

  Ryker snorted. “You shouldn’t coddle her.”

  “Feel free to handle it however you wish when it’s your son,” Louis replied.

  “Which one?”

  Hatred flooded Louis’s eyes. He looked up at the other man and growled, “I can’t stop you from playing your sick games with your son, but you’re not getting mine!”

  “But he’s not yours, is he?�
�

  One of the blue-eyed men cleared his throat. “Can we do this and get this child back to her parents before they wake up and notice she’s gone?”

  “We have time. I gave them a heavy dose,” Louis said. “Are you ready doctor?”

  The other blue-eyed man nodded, and held up a needle. “She won’t remember a thing.”

  I didn’t have time to contemplate the needle because the boy pressed the tube against my neck and searing pain rocketed through my system . . .

  I bolted up, covered in a fine coat of sweat and out of breath. It took me a second to register that I was in my room, not some underground torture chamber. My heart hammered as I swept my hair off my forehead. It was just a stupid dream. I must’ve fallen asleep. My sketchbook was laying open on the bed beside me.

  Moonlight poured in through my window, casting my room in a soft light. Couch, bed, desk, and Ripley’s jacket. All familiar things. Even Micha’s bag sitting on the floor gave me some sense of security. Speaking of Micha . . . Where was he? What happened to ‘where you sleep, I sleep’? I shook my head. Was I really wondering why the bane of my existence wasn’t here? Either I was a sucker for punishment or that dream really got to me?

  I looked down at the eyes of the phoenix staring up at me and shivered.

  “Do you want to play with us, little one?”

  I slammed my sketchbook shut, blocking out the sinister voice.

  “Get a grip, Riley. It was just a dream. You’ve had them before.”

  Maybe a hot shower would help.

  I got off the bed and walked in the bathroom, comforted a little more when I flicked on the light. I don’t think I’d ever get used to the opulence in this house. Here I was, plain old boring me, in a bathroom fit for royalty. The shower itself had four heads, which made it feel like I was standing under a warm rainstorm. The shower in mine and Mom’s apartment had two settings. A slow trickle, and peel-the-skin-off-your-bones, and I never knew which I was going to get. I kind of missed the game of chance I played every morning.

  I peeled my clothes off and stepped into the shower. The hot water rained on me, seeping warmth into my tense muscles, while rinsing the cold sweat of my nightmare down the drain. I couldn’t chase away the chill in my bones though. A thick cloud of steam was filling the air, and I still shivered. I couldn’t shake my eerie sense of familiarity.