“No,” I said quickly. I’d tried calling him several times, but it hadn’t even gone to voicemail. The call didn’t even connect. And my heart couldn’t take what that meant. “I just know.” And I wasn’t going to let any other asshole in the world convince me otherwise. Not until I spoke to him and heard the truth from his lips. He was always in my corner and I was determinedly going to be in his through this.
She nodded, but didn’t look convinced. “Come on, let’s get some food.”
I followed her inside, wondering why she was risking her neck for me. I was tempted to distance myself from her just to save her from the Night Keepers’ wrath, but being cut off from the only real friend I’d made was probably just what they wanted.
I drew my shoulders back as I followed Mila into the hall. Eyes immediately fell on me and I ignored them as I headed across the room towards Mila’s usual table. Her friends were there already and Pearl shrank in her chair like I was the Swamp Monster come to drag her back to my lair.
“Tatum Rivers!” Blake’s customary holler from the Night Keepers’ table reached me and I ignored it despite the fact that ice ran down my spine. “Tatuuuum Riveeeers!”
I clenched my jaw, moving toward the empty seat beside Mila as she sat down. I was almost there. Two feet. One. A heavy arm fell over my shoulders and the scent of gasoline and shattered hearts told me that it belonged to Kyan.
“Looks like you’re lost again, baby. Let me escort you to your seat.”
I tried to jerk out of his hold, but he clamped me to his side with the full force of his muscles and I growled as he guided me away from Mila. My friend stared after me in dismay and I gave her a thumbs up as I fought not to look like a lamb being led to slaughter. If anything, I was a wolf being chained. But caging a wild animal didn’t make it any less wild. And they were going to find out how hard I could bite soon enough.
“I don’t need an escort, Kyan. Especially if you’re the male prostitute kind. And judging by your shady no-sex with high school girls rule, I’m gonna assume you spend your time pleasing dusty vag for cash.”
I jammed an elbow into Kyan’s ribs before he could respond and managed to slip away, using a move I’d learned in my self-defence classes to escape. I turned back the way I’d come, but he yanked me to his side again with a low growl of warning that sent adrenaline pouring into my blood.
I tipped my chin up to gaze at the hard lines of his face, the way his hair was falling out of its man bun and the swirling chaos in his eyes. But there was one thing I hooked onto beneath the rage and the hate I saw in his expression. Lust. Just like when I’d bitten him at the party, he was turned on by the way I fought. And that was a weakness I quickly scribbled down on a mental notepad in bold letters.
“Do you wanna continue to eat in this school?” Kyan asked in a dangerous tone that made my heart judder.
The threat was serious. The only place I could get food here was this dining hall. And if the Night Keepers had the power to cut me off from that source, I’d be screwed. I could go to Headmaster Brown, but I didn’t imagine the Night Keepers looked kindly upon people telling tales on them. No, food and water were a must.
Holy hell, how did my life come to this so fast?
“Yeah. So long as there’s no fish stew on the menu. I filled up on it this morning.” I smirked up at him like I gave absolutely no shits about what they’d done to me and his brows arched ever so slightly.
“You’d better watch yourself, baby,” he said in a tone that had heat seeping through to my core. “Saint might decide that’s the only thing you get to eat. The Unspeakables have a limited menu as it is.”
My heart pounded against the base of my throat at that name and he pushed me toward a table which was a sizeable distance away from the rest of the students, placed in the darkest corner at the back. By the toilets. There were fifteen people sat around it, some of whom I recognised as those who’d been running around after the Night Keepers at their party.
Oh, fuck my life.
Kyan dragged me right up to them as my pulse pounded against my eardrums. Some of them looked to me with wide eyes while others bowed their freaking heads to Sergeant Dickhole.
“Plague will be sitting with you from now on,” he told them, then turned to glance back at the room. “Tatum Rivers no longer exists. If you have to address her, you will call her Plague!”
My mouth fell open and he left me with that hydrogen bomb going off in my face, strolling away to re-join the other Night Keepers. Saint was giving me that smile again. Like he wasn’t even close to done with me. I flipped him the finger and the entire table of Unspeakables gasped like I’d just whacked him over the head with a baseball bat.
Saint was half way out of his seat when Kyan whispered something in his ear and he slowly sank back into it with his jaw ticking. The three of them huddled closer and the way they started talking in hushed voices made my skin prickle with unease.
I huffed as I dropped down into a free seat at the end of the table.
“Hi Plague,” a girl to my right said. She had mousy brown hair and freckles dotting her cheeks. She was a small girl, but that was by no means the continuing trend around the table. There was a guy at the far end who was the size of a damn tank. And he’d been one of the head-bowers!
“It’s Tatum,” I corrected her firmly and her eyes darted to a guy across the table on my other side for guidance. He had copper hair and a handsome, quirky sort of face. The others looked to him too and I guessed he was their leader or whatever. Though honestly, this Unspeakables bullshit was really going too far. Saint, Blake and Kyan were really embodying this whole Night Keepers legend thing way too much. They couldn’t just go around making people do their bidding because they’d pissed them off somehow. It was ridiculous.
“You’re Plague,” the guy said with a dark frown. “Whether you like it or not I’m afraid.” He gave me a pitiful look and I ground my jaw.
“If anyone at this table calls me Plague I’ll beat their head in, got it?” I demanded.
They all shared anxious glances and I had the feeling I was sitting at a table with a bunch of field mice.
The leader gave me another sad look and I glared back at him.
“I’m Bait,” he said, his tone softer. “We don’t wanna upset you. We’re on your side.”
I nodded stiffly, not liking being banded in with these people who’d clearly had their backbones surgically removed by the Night Keepers.
“I’m Freeloader,” the freckly girl said, offering me a friendly smile.
“What’s with the weird ass names?” I asked, bringing up the menu app on my phone. This day was enough to give me stomach pains as it was, but if I didn’t eat, I was gonna feel even worse.
“We have to relinquish our names as a commitment to making up for offending the Night Keepers,” the big guy at the end of the table said in his deep tone. “If we serve them well, they’ll forgive us and let us be part of society again. But in the meantime, we’re named after our crimes. So I’m Punch.”
My heart lit up at that name and a smile pulled at my mouth. “Does that mean you punched one of them?” I asked excitedly.
Punch’s eyes darted left and right like he expected a cat to come up and pounce on his little mousey head. “Yeah,” he breathed.
“Which one?” I asked, leaning forward in my chair. “Was it Saint?” I asked hopefully. Man his face would look so good punched.
Punch swallowed hard enough to make his whole throat bob. Then he shook his head.
“Kyan?” I asked, leaning even further forward. “Tell me you floored the cocky bastard.”
Everyone around the table was shifting uncomfortably and Punch lifted his napkin to dab at the sweat collecting on his forehead. He shook his head once more and I barked a laugh.
“You hit Blake?” I guessed and he nodded.
“I used to be on the football team. We got in a fight…” he whispered.
“And I used to be a cheerlea
der,” a girl beside him said. She had long auburn hair and a model worthy face, her eyes wide and darkest blue, glistening with tears.
“At least you used to be cool, Deepthroat,” Freeloader said with a pout. “I’ve always been at the bottom of the pecking order.”
“Oh boohoo. That just means I had a lot farther to fall from grace than you did,” Deepthroat said with a huff and I just had to freaking ask what she’d done to earn that name.
“Why Deepthroat?” I arched a brow and she pursed her lips as the others exchanged glances.
“I just offered Kyan a blowjob, that’s all,” she said firmly.
“Well, that wasn’t all, was it?” Punch muttered.
Bait waved a hand to hush them and curiosity burned through me. “Enough. You know we’re not supposed to talk about our previous lives,” he said firmly.
I turned to Bait with my lips parting. “Come on, that’s insane. Besides, they can’t even hear us over here,” I said in disbelief.
“Y-you n-never kn-know wh-when they’re l-l-listening.”
I glanced at the pale-faced guy who’d spoken. He was the smallest person at the table; his blazer was two sizes too big for him and even his lanky black hair looked oversized for his head.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“S-squits,” he stuttered.
My heart tugged at how royally screwed up this guy clearly was. He looked like he was about to spontaneously combust at any moment.
“Squits?” I wrinkled my nose. “What did you do?”
Squits glanced at Bait who shook his head then he stared down at his lap and didn’t look up again.
I pursed my lips, glaring at Bait. “He already has enough people telling him what to do, don’t you think?”
Bait’s brows lifted and he retreated into his seat a bit. “Sorry I just…it’s the rules.”
“Screw the rules,” I growled. “What happened to you, Squits? And do I really have to call you that? What’s your real name?”
“We can’t tell you our real names,” Freeloader said in a hushed tone.
Holy shit these kids are messed up.
Squits lifted his head, wetting his lips and glancing at Bait again who said nothing this time.
“I had an accident at o-one of their p-parties,” Squits said, his face turning a nasty shade of red. “I-I’d eaten a bad b-burrito…they h-had to pay a cleaning crew to c-come and c-clean the c-common house.”
“That’s it?” I scoffed. “I mean, yeah that sucks. But you didn’t exactly mean to do it. If anything, the burrito is to blame.”
“I-I-” Squits tried but Bait spoke for him.
“He shat on Saint’s favourite coat,” Bait breathed.
“A hand-stitched Dior, single-breasted cashmere coat,” the whole table murmured in unison.
I burst out laughing and everyone stared at me like I’d lost my mind. But I legit couldn’t breathe. “That’s too fucking funny, Squits.”
“It’s not funny,” Bait said firmly, waving his hand at me to try and quiet my laughter.
“They’re looking!” Freeloader exclaimed.
“Be quiet, Plague,” Punch begged of me as I wiped tears from under my eyes.
“Oh man, I wished I’d been there to see his face,” I said as Squits gazed at me like I’d just thrown Saint onto the table and started feasting on his flesh. Which wasn’t a bad idea come to think of it. He would definitely give me indigestion though.
I decided I needed to hear everything they’d done to the Night Keepers ASAP, but it was clear Bait was gonna be a stickler for the rules. They all were, but they were also designed to respond to the authority in my tone. So if I cracked Bait, I’d crack them all.
I turned my attention to my menu app and frowned as half of the usual foods were missing. “What the hell? Where’s the fresh pasta? And the burgers? And the pizza.” Oh god, not the pizza.
“We get limited options,” Bait told me, his brow creasing. “You can have soup or salad. They have all kinds of staff under their heel in the school. Admin, kitchen staff, the janitors…”
I gaped at him like he’d just told me the world was ending. Sure, I liked the odd salad or soup from time to time. But every day? No…
“What about fries?” I hunted the menu but came up short, lifting my head to find everyone shaking their heads mournfully. I slammed my palm down on the table in anger. “Screw this.”
My day was bad enough without being denied junk food if I wanted it. And after the morning I’d had, I needed something cheesey and greasy in my stomach to sate me. I rose to my feet, rounding toward the kitchen but Bait suddenly dove in front of me like he was taking a bullet.
“Sit down,” he pressed, placing a hand on my arm. I glared at his hand and he quickly removed it like my gaze had burned him. “Please, Plague. They’ll come over here. They’ll punish us all. That’s how they get the newbies to fall in line.”
I glanced over his shoulder to the Night Keepers who were rising from their seats. I glowered at them before shifting my attention back to Bait.
“You’re not the one they’ll hurt for this,” he rasped and my heart twisted at his words. It was sick, twisted and most definitely effective.
“Alright,” I breathed, stepping around him and turning toward the girls’ bathroom. I glanced over my shoulder, spotting the three assholes dropping back into their seats and my shoulders relaxed. I wasn’t going to be a whipped bitch by any means. But it looked like my dining hall experience was decided for now.
I had a better plan than fighting my menu choices though – which admittedly was the bitterest of pills to swallow. They took away pizza dammit. Freaking pizza. But one good thing had come out of it. I’d just found myself a small army of Night Keeper haters. I just had to reinstate their backbones and make them rise up together. Which was clearly gonna be way easier said than done. But I always did love a challenge.
***
The never-ending school week finally ended and I was mentally exhausted as I headed back towards Beech House after dinner on Friday. Saint, Blake and Kyan had ensured I was firmly outcasted, making me sit at the front of every class I shared with them until the students in my other classes refused to sit within two seats of me too. Everyone but Mila was treating me like the name they’d given me. Plague. I’d even heard Pearl and Georgie talking loudly about how they’d always had the feeling there was something wrong with me. And now a rumour was circulating that I’d spilled tequila on Kyan Roscoe’s chest at the initiation party and licked it off before he could stop me. It was taking everything I had to keep it together, but every morning I woke up, I fixed my mask on tight and refused to let it crack until I could be alone again.
A group of students skirted around me on the path and tossed the name Plague at me like it was fucking hilarious. If they hadn’t moved in packs, I would have thrown a few fists to shut them the hell up.
As I walked, I tried calling Dad for the millionth time this week, but his phone was dead. Wherever he was, I knew he was protecting me by doing this. But it cut my heart to ribbons to know he was out there all alone with the whole world turned against him. By Wednesday, I’d cracked and read the entire news article about him.
I was at war with myself over the evidence they’d presented. CCTV footage had shown him leaving the Apollo Company in California three months ago. Several Hades Virus samples had gone missing that night and his was the only access pass to have been scanned in that evening.
What were you doing that night, Dad? Please tell me you aren’t responsible for this…
The air swirled around me and a rumble of thunder in the distance made my heartbeat quicken. The world felt alive tonight, nature prickling with tension as it awaited the oncoming storm.
I gazed across the lake to Tahoma Mountain rising right into the clouds. Lightning flashed high up around its peak and the hairs raised on the back of my neck. The sky was deepest blue, colouring the whole world in that same forbidding tone. Sometimes,
I almost believed the legends about this place. If there was any location in the world that they could exist, it would be here. And the idea of the Night People really lurking in the forest made me up my pace in the direction of the dorms.
I was looking forward to getting out of my school uniform and into something comfy. Then I could spend the evening with Mila and some mindless Netflix show. I was so grateful that she hadn’t disowned me like the rest of the student body. I didn’t know why though. On the surface, I knew people had a reason to hate me. The Hades Virus was becoming an ever-present threat in the world; it had killed thousands upon thousands of people already. But I wasn’t to blame for it. And neither is my dad, dammit.
I could feel my rage rising again and pushed it down into the pit of my belly. Dad had taught me how to survive the end of days. And though I was sure this wasn’t the apocalypse, I could still draw on the gifts he’d given me. The tools he’d taught me to keep a level head, the way to contemplate a problem without getting emotional about it.
Survival came down to one thing ultimately. Choices. And if you made the wrong ones, it would cost you your life. So when it came to the Night Keepers, I wasn’t going to act irrationally. I had to face my enemy with as much cunning as they showed me. Had to hunt for weaknesses and exploit them to my advantage. I had to be patient, mindful. I could never give them the reaction they wanted, because if they saw me breaking, they’d start picking at those cracks. They’d rip and claw their way into my being until I was consumed by their cruelty. So I could never, ever let them find a way in.
I headed up the path into the trees, the world darkening around me as the storm drew closer. A few girls up ahead started running and laughing as they jogged inside, anxious to escape the storm before it broke. Electricity crackled in the air so fiercely, I could taste it on my tongue. My instincts told me to hunker down and I was more than happy to comply as I hurried up to the entrance to Beech House.
Just as I reached the door, strong arms surrounded me and I yelled in alarm as I was hauled backwards into a solid chest. Panic tumbled through me as a black linen bag was dragged over my head.
Kings of Quarantine: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep Book 1) Page 17