by Vance, Ally
I dart soundlessly into the kitchen and pull open the drawers looking for a knife or anything sharp I can use to defend myself, but they’re all empty. Fuck. Another bang makes me jump, and I barely contain my scream of surprise. Steeling myself, I dash down the hallway and haul ass up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
The first room I look in is empty. The second was clearly once a teenage boy’s room; I can practically feel the dust coating everything in it like a distant memory. An almighty crash comes from downstairs as the front door finally gives way. Without further hesitation, I enter the room and shut the door behind me as quietly as possible.
With a bit of luck, I may have time to quickly search the room for something to use as a weapon. I look around and see a layer of typical teenage boy rubbish covering the desk in the corner. Next my eyes land on the bed, and the dark space beneath it.
I drop to my knees and swallow my disgust before reaching underneath. Arron used to keep a box hidden under his bed, and in it he would keep all the things he didn’t want our parents to find. To my delight, my fingers brush against the edge of what feels like a wooden box. Pulling it out, I flip the lid open and suck in a shocked breath.
Sitting on the top are photos of a younger Seth, and a woman who must have been his mom. Footsteps on the stairs break me out of my trance, and I nearly drop the box on the floor. I crouch down behind the bed and quickly rummage through the rest of the contents, wincing when pain slices through the tip of my finger.
Removing my hand, I inspect the cut and smile before sucking it into my mouth. I carefully dig through the box for the culprit and let out a sigh of relief when I see a switchblade which has sprung open, lying at the bottom.
I stay hidden behind the bed, but when footsteps approach and the door is flung open, it takes everything in me not to move or scream and reveal myself. I hold my breath not wanting to make a sound, but I can hear my heart pounding in my ears like a jackhammer; it’s so loud in fact that I’m almost surprised the intruder can’t hear it.
I remain crouched and terrified of being discovered. After a few moments I hear the footsteps start again, but now the sound is slowly fading as the intruder leaves the room. Letting out a quiet gasp of relief, I swipe the knife from the box. At least now I’m armed.
Slowly, I get to my feet and cautiously tiptoe my way over to the door and peek around the edge of the frame. A man with his back to me is making his way down the hallway, heading to another closed door at the end. When he turns the handle and goes to enter, I make a break for it. I no longer care about being heard…I need to get the hell out of here.
“Hey!” the man shouts, and I let out a piercing scream when I hear him start to give chase. I jump down the last few steps and bump into the wall of the downstairs hallway as I head toward the ruined doorway and freedom.
“Stop running from me!” a furious voice calls out behind me, stopping me in my tracks.
I spin around ready to defend myself. But when I see the features of the man standing several feet away, confusion closely followed by anger rushes through me. Piercing blue eyes gaze back at me, as familiar to me as my own, partially covered by a mop of messy blond hair the same shade as mine…I’m staring into the face of the last person I ever expected to see again, my brother.
“Arron?” I ask, incredulously, “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to take you away from here…from him. You have to come with me, Lee-Lee,” he replies, but when he takes a step toward me, instinct has me retreating.
“You fucking sold me, Arron. Why the fuck would I trust you, hmm?” I snap, my voice high as the anger at his betrayal burns through me.
“I had no choice. Caryn promised me you’d be fine as long as I paid off the rest of my debts by working for her. But when Seth took you and told Caryn she’d still have to pay off her debts with money or her own blood, everything got complicated,” he pleads, sounding desperate.
“Bullshit, Arron! You knew they would never let me go free. You should have done something…anything other than use me as a bet. I’m fucking sick of your lies. When will it end?!” I scream, pointing the knife at him when he edges another step closer.
Tears start to run down my face. As much as I want to, I can’t believe a single word he’s saying. Time and time again he’s done this sort of thing. He’s lied and used me, and I’m so fucking done with his shit.
“Drop the knife, Lee-Lee,” he orders. He looks so fucking hurt and broken that it tugs at my heart.
I start to lower Seth’s knife until it’s hangs loosely in my hand before dropping from my fingers to the floor with a clatter. Arron closes the distance and wraps his arm around me, pulling me close, but I feel empty…hollow. His embrace no longer offers me comfort; it does nothing but increase the pain in my heart that he put there.
“I’m sorry, Lee-Lee,” he whispers.
Leeann
I freeze when something cold kisses my cheek, and glancing down, my heart stops when I see a gun in his grip. With the other hand, Arron twists my hair in his fist, pulling my head backward, and I stare up into his eyes. The love I used to see in them is gone; there’s nothing left but greed and malice, swirling in their icy depths.
“They’ll kill me if I don’t kill you and Seth,” he says, pressing the gun to the underside of my jaw, and I gape at him in disbelief and horror.
“Why don’t you just run?” I ask, my voice cracking with unconcealed pain.
“Because it’s not that simple, Leeann! And why should I care about you anyway. You or your new boyfriend,” he shouts. “I saw you both arrive at the apartment and how he looked at you. My fucking sister in his arms, and I was so fucking angry. It’s simple really. Either you and your boyfriend die, or we all will, and I’m not going to sacrifice myself for either of you.”
Jerking my knee up, I slam it so hard into Arron’s balls that he immediately lets go of me. I pull away from him as he lunges toward me and scramble to grab the fallen blade. When my fingers finally close around the grip, I raise it and stab it into his thigh. He yells in pain and surprise, dropping the weapon he’s holding to the floor where it lands with a thud. I hurriedly get to my feet before backing away, and a strangled sob escapes me as I stare transfixed at Arron’s leg, horrified at what I’ve done. Arron turns to glare at me, baring his gritted teeth as he takes hold of the slim handle of the knife embedded in his leg and pulls it out with a groan.
“You’re going to regret that, little sister,” he snarls furiously, throwing the bloodied blade at me.
I duck with a scream as it flies down the hallway, narrowly missing me. Arron reaches down and re-arms himself with the gun before lunging at me. I scream and try to dodge his outstretched hand, but he manages to get a hold of my hair. Pain erupts in my scalp as he roughly pulls me back, forcing me to lose my balance and sending me tumbling to the floor.
I quickly get onto my hands and knees, preparing to crawl away when he kicks me in the stomach. The blow is powerful enough to roll me onto my back, leaving me gasping for breath.
“Bitch,” he spits, and I flinch at the insult coming from his lips as he re-aims the gun in my direction.
The sound of screeching tires, and the roar of a powerful car engine distract Arron, and I look around desperately trying to locate a weapon. I notice the knife lying abandoned a few feet away, and while he remains otherwise engaged, I shuffle across the floor on my back toward it. When I’m close enough, I scramble for the knife, but the movement snaps Arron’s attention back to me just as my fingers close around the handle.
“Don’t move!” he shouts, flicking the safety off, and my heart stutters.
“Leeann!” I hear Seth shout, and hope flares in my chest.
Arron must see some of the relief on my face at the sound of Seth’s voice because he narrows his eyes at me, and his face twists with fury. “Is that him!? The killer you’ve been whoring yourself out to? When I saw the two of you together outside our apartment, I thou
ght my eyes were deceiving me. I couldn’t believe you would want him.”
“What did you fucking expect, Arron? He’s the only one so far who hasn’t betrayed or used me to save himself. He’s a better man than you by a long shot,” I hurl the words at him.
“He accepted you in exchange for a debt. You’re nothing more than a cheap slut to him, and yet you think you’re better than me?” he spits, and I flinch at the harshness of his words.
Arron dives at me, and I scream when he grabs me by the arm and pulls me upright.
“Get your fucking hands off her, or I’ll put a bullet between your fucking eyes, you worthless piece of shit,” Seth shouts as he comes into view.
He looks less like a bad boy and more like the trained killer I know him to be, and my heart jumps when I see the gun in his hand, pointed him pointed directly at Arron,
Aiming his own gun at Seth, Arron barks, “You won’t get to escape death this time, so don’t even bother trying to stop me.”
Now Arron’s focus is no longer fully on me, I manage to tighten my grip on the knife I picked up, and as I cry out, “No, don’t hurt him!” I swing the knife at my brother.
I’m not quick enough to stab him, and he easily catches my wrist, halting the progress of the blade. Using the force of the momentum from my failed attack, he pulls me into his hold.
“Lower your weapon and move away from Leeann, or I’ll kill you where you stand,” Seth orders, and I can hear the worry in his voice although his stance is rigid, and his hand holding the gun is steady.
“You won’t shoot me,” Arron responds in a condescending tone. He never takes his eyes off Seth though, as he holds the gun to my head and uses me as a shield. “Only one of us is going to walk out of here alive, and it’s going to be me.”
“How much do you want to bet?” Seth says, calling his bluff and taunting him with his weakness.
Seth’s lips lift with a cocky grin, and he doesn’t falter when he takes a shot, but Arron has already started to duck down farther behind me, and Seth misses his target. Blood splatters from Aaron’s arm where the bullet grazes him, making him shout out in agony. Arron returns fire, but he also misses. My blood is practically humming with fury at the betrayal and callous disregard my brother has shown me. I seize the momentary distraction and twist my body in his hold, driving the knife into his chest with a broken cry. I watch in fascinated horror as every inch of the steel blade I’m clutching in my outstretched hand sinks into his body. Arron stumbles backward, and Seth rushes toward us, swiftly disarming him as he hits the floor.
Arron yanks the knife out of his own chest, and he yells in pain as blood gushes from the wound I inflicted. I back away, looking down at the blood-covered knife in his hand. The same blood which flows in my veins is now pumping out of his body and coating his fingers when he clutches at his chest. I’m breathing hard. Terror, guilt, fear, all blend together into one emotion...pain.
My heart is breaking, and my brother is bleeding out in front of me. I sink to my knees next to where he’s lying and look down at him, carefully trying to avoid staring at the wound to his chest.
“Why, Arron? What was the point in all of this?” I ask, my voice trembling and thick.
“He did it to save himself and to get rid of the both of us for Caryn,” Seth says as he moves up next to me.
Seth
My blood fucking boiled when he held the gun to her head. I am an expert marksman and even with Leeann being in such a vulnerable position, I knew I could safely risk taking the shot. It would have found its mark if that coward hadn’t ducked down at the same time. When she stabbed the knife into her brother’s chest, my heart nearly stopped in shock. I knew she was a tough girl, but I underestimated her just like he did.
The blood continues to seep through Arron’s shirt; I’ve seen enough knife wounds to know she’s penetrated him deeply. Leeann’s tear-filled eyes meet mine, and I can see my pretty girl is starting to shatter. I’ll help hold her together, but I know she’s strong...strong enough to bring a man like me to my goddamn knees.
I understand some of what she’s feeling right now. No matter how tough you are, the gut-wrenching agony of taking a life for the first time is unbearable. In her case this is mixed with the pain of knowing that the life she’s taken belongs to someone she loves.
“Debts have a funny way of coming back to bite you in the ass. I tried to cheat my way out of facing the reaper by using you instead. I’m sorry, Lee-Lee, my luck ran out” Arron rasps, grabbing her hand with his bloody fingers, and if he wasn’t already close to death, then I’d kill the bastard myself.
“I hate what you did, Arron. I love you, but I’ll never be able to forgive you,” she says quietly, but he doesn’t hear her.
He’s lying glassy-eyed on my hallway floor, staring up at nothing. He’s gone, and good fucking riddance to him. Now I need to take care of my girl. I stand and walk over to where Leeann’s kneeling next to her dead brother with tears flowing silently down her face.
A jolt of recognition stirs inside me when I see my old blade lying discarded and bloody next to Arron, and I smile faintly at the old memories it triggers as I bend to pick it up off the floor. Mom gave me it when I turned sixteen, but after she was murdered, I didn’t want to carry this particular reminder of her around, so I hid it away. Leeann must have found it and put it to good fucking use.
“Leeann, let me get you out of here,” I say, offering her my hand to help her up.
She looks at me with her blue eyes awash with emotion, but I can see the ever present ice and steel in her gaze, hiding behind the pain and loss. I know that even though her heart is battered and bruised, she isn’t broken.
She takes my hand, and I haul her onto her feet before wrapping an arm around her and leading her down to the basement.
“I killed him, Seth. My own fucking brother, and I’m not even sorry about it. What’s wrong with me?” she laughs bitterly, and I take her face between my hands, tilting it up to meet mine.
“You may not regret it today, tomorrow, or even the next day. Hell, you may not feel sorry about it ever. He carelessly traded your life away to serve his own goals, and now you’ve returned the favor. Don’t analyze it. You’ll drive yourself fucking crazy,” I tell her. “The fucking high I get from taking the life of someone who deserves it is everything I breathe for, baby.”
“It hurts,” she whimpers, and a tear escapes from the corner of her eye.
“Let all that pain out, then stand up and face the memories head on,” I tell her, and I crash my lips down on hers.
We’ve got blood on our hands and fire in our fucking veins. Our lips meld, and I tangle my bloody fingers in her hair. I don’t care about the fact I’m staining her skin with my touch because she’s doing the exact same thing to me.
I told her I wanted to corrupt her and to see her painted with blood, but I never expected her to be the one wielding the blade like a damn paintbrush.
“God, you’re fucking beautiful, Leeann. I wanted to ruin you, but you’ve ruined me right back,” I murmur against her mouth, and she smiles, pulling on my hair and scratching her nails down my back.
Bypassing the bed, I push her into the bathroom and start to undress her. I fucking need her, and judging by the way she’s tugging at my clothes, she’s just as hungry for me.
“I want you, Seth,” she whines, palming my cock through my jeans, and I growl, grinding against her hand.
When I finally have her naked in front of me, I push her into the shower and switch on the water. She gasps at the chill and then giggles when the electric system kicks in and swiftly heats it to the right temperature; I love the happy sound bursting from her lips.
Our hands are everywhere, roaming all over each other like two horny fucking teens. When she drops to her knees in front of me and runs a teasing tongue down the rigid length of my cock, I nearly knock myself out when my head falls back against the tiles.
“Fuuuck, that feels amazing, pretty
girl,” I groan, closing my eyes as I try not to jerk my hips and shove my cock down her throat the moment she takes me in her hot little mouth.
I’m breathing hard and desire takes over. My hand drops to the top of her head, and as I start to guide her, she lets me. When I hit the back of her throat, she gags but then swallows around my cock, and I nearly come.
“Fuck, Leeann. I want to fill your sweet pussy, and if you keep doing that, I’m going to come before I can,” I grunt, easing her back.
Leeann grins up at me, and the smug look written all over her face makes me laugh. I pull her up onto her feet and move her, so she’s standing with her back against the warm tiles while I remain under the spray of water. Running my hands down her sides to grip her hips, I bury my face in her neck, biting and nipping at the soft skin.
I slowly kiss and lick my way down her body to her full breasts, taking each nipple into my mouth and swirling my tongue around the tightening buds before I continue my descent to where I want her the most. Letting go of one of her hips, I trail my fingers down between her thighs and tease the wetness I find there.
“You’re so fucking wet, baby,” I say, pushing a finger into her tight heat.
“It’s all for you,” she gasps, “What are you going to do about it?”
“I’m going to devour your pussy until you’re coming all over my face and tongue while screaming my name,” I retort as I lift one of her legs over my shoulder and drive my tongue inside her, enjoying the long moan of pleasure that flies from her mouth.
Leeann
Oh, God, his mouth and that devilish tongue which he knows full well how to use. I can already feel the orgasm building, and I dig my nails into his shoulders while he devours me just like he promised. This should feel so wrong, but I no longer care because it feels so right.