by Lily White
“Nobody knows. The rule is they’re not allowed to talk about it. Not that they want to. You think he looks bad now? Just wait to see what he looks like when he comes out. Let’s just say nobody who has made the run messes with the Inferno again. In fact, most of them keep to themselves and stop socializing at all.”
Shock tore through me.
“Then why would anybody do it?”
Shrugging a shoulder, Clayton answered, “It must have been better than whatever price was asked of him.”
Unable to understand the insanity of a group of men who sounded more horrible with every new fact I learned about them, I turned my attention back to the podium to see who I assumed was Gabriel hand a bottle a bright green liquor to Brad.
As soon as Brad tipped the bottle to his lips, the crowd roared with life, eventually chanting for him to chug.
“What is he drinking?”
It looked like antifreeze from where I was standing, bubbles of air rising up in the liquid as Brad continued swallowing it down.
“He’s drinking Absinthe. It helps get him ready for the run.”
“How so?”
Clayton chuckled.
“It has hallucinogenic effects from what I’ve heard. Either that or they spike it with something in order to fuck with whoever is running. I’ve never drank it, so I’m not sure.”
Clenching my eyes shut, I watched as Gabriel took the bottle from Brad and led him down the stairs of the platform, the devil masked men following behind them, each carrying a flamed torch.
When they reached the edge of the woods where the second trail started, they paused long enough for people to stop cheering.
The horn blew again, the sound even more ominous now that I knew what it meant.
“Brad has a ten minute head start,” Gabriel explained, the microphone ensuring that everybody could hear his voice.
Turning to Brad, he said, “Run fast, little rabbit, because when you hear the horn blow again, your time has run out, and the first round of devils begin their chase.”
Brad didn’t hesitate to take off down the trail, his figure disappearing in shadows almost immediately.
Within seconds the music started again and everybody went back to talking amongst themselves and enjoying the party, none of them reacting to what happened as if it was disgusting or out of the ordinary.
“So that’s it? Everybody goes back to partying while he runs off to get tortured?”
Clayton eyed me from behind his mask before pulling it off to smile at me in reassurance.
“Hey. It’s really not that bad. He knew what he was getting himself into. You’ll see him again in a few hours and see that it’s just a game.”
My heart was beating in my throat, my stomach turning with the alcohol I’d consumed. Standing near the large bonfire, I could feel beads of sweat slipping down my temples and between my breasts.
With his mask still shoved up to the top of his head, Clayton looked out at the party beyond my shoulder. His eyes met mine again.
“Will you be okay for a few minutes standing here by yourself? I need to find a bathroom, or at least a bush where I can take a piss.”
Nodding my head, I pulled my arm from his and wrapped it around my abdomen. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
Clayton wandered off, and I turned to stare at the bonfire, the dancing flames and crackling wood stealing my attention from the awkwardness I felt for standing among a crowd of masked students, most of which I didn’t know.
I’d been at Yale for two years, but until Everly was moved into my dorm room following an unexpected reassignment, I’d never had much of a social life. Most of my time was spent in class or in the library studying.
The first year of law school was the worst, a grueling schedule that weeded out who could handle the pressure and who would buckle beneath it. But now that my second year had started, I’d been able to ease back on the constant work, which helped get me out among new people. Unfortunately, I couldn’t name more than a few of them.
And for that reason, I stood watching the fire, my eyes tracking the embers that floated up in the sky, the heat washing over my face despite the distance I stood away from it.
Several minutes passed, each one making me feel more nervous for standing by myself.
Around me, people laughed and talked, some dancing, others cheering each other on to drink more, be crazier, to give in to whatever irresponsible urge they had.
Feeling out of place, I let out a heavy sigh of relief when Clayton walked up behind me, his chest brushing my back. Walled in on one side by the heat of the fire, and on the other by the heat of his body, I found it odd he didn’t say anything.
I spun on my heel to smile up at him, but my heart dropped into my stomach as soon as I laid eyes on a devil mask, the carved wood design even more intricate and beautiful now that I had a chance to study it up close.
“Damn it, you scared me.”
Laughing, I held my hand to my chest, assuming that Gabriel had finally found me and had walked up to say hi.
Although I couldn’t see his eyes due to the small black mesh that covered that portion of the mask, I noticed how his neck moved as his gaze tracked down my body to where my hand covered my chest.
“Are you happy? I showed up to your torture party, so you can’t take personal offense.”
His gaze must have tracked up to my face, his neck angling to the right as he watched me.
It was unsettling being this close to him, especially because of the mask. Gabriel’s silence only made the moment that much more eerie.
“Are you going to say hi, or are we going to stare at each other all night?”
Reaching up, Gabriel pushed the mask up off his face, a smile curling my lips that flattened immediately when a set of cold, dark eyes met mine.
Stilling in place, I realized my mistake, my lips parting slightly when Tanner’s face stared back at me.
Fear chased down my body, coating my spine in ice, and I stepped back to place distance between us, but not fast enough.
Before I knew what was happening, Tanner reached out to cup his hand around the back of my head, his long fingers weaving into my hair where it was pulled up into a mess of curls.
He leaned down as my breath gushed from my lungs on a startled burst, his mouth slanted over mine without concern for whether I’d invited the kiss or not.
My body trembled at the contact, every muscle going weak as I melted against his chest, my lips parting as his tongue licked across the crease, demanding I allow him entry.
It was instinctual, my surrender to him, some long forgotten part of my brain recognizing his power over me. Scared, yet so filled with desire, I shivered as his tongue slid across mine, his teeth scraping against my lip with the threat of pleasure and pain.
Without thinking, I pushed up on my toes to make up for the height difference between us, my hands moving to his chest to find steel muscle beneath his shirt.
I didn’t want to admit to myself that, since the moment I’d first met him, I’d wondered what this kiss would feel like.
Now I knew it would disarm me in every way that mattered. Now I knew that it would steal away my ability to think and breathe.
Now I knew that there was no flame hotter than the heat of my body when Tanner was pressed against me.
The party around us must have disappeared without me noticing, because at the moment a horn was blown in the distance, the primal low bellow of sound that reminded me an entire world existed around us, voices filtered back into my awareness, jeers and hollers, people egging Tanner on to kiss me harder.
He let me go before I had time to rebalance my body, and I stumbled back to open my eyes and meet his.
Although his eyes were still the cold, dark stones I’d always known them to be, I finally saw that they were a deep moss green.
Tanner’s lips curled at the corners, dark laughter now surrounding us as his friends stepped up to pull him back. I wish I could h
ave said that his smile was friendly, but it was more an expression of hatred than anything else.
Anger coursed through me, my eyes scanning the other men in devil masks, my teeth clenching together to realize they were laughing at me.
From behind them, Clayton walked up with his mask in place, his expression hidden behind the leather.
“The horn blew, come the fuck on, Tanner. We’re first round.”
I didn’t recognize the voice of whoever spoke to him, but I stared as Tanner blinked his eyes and turned to run off with his friends. As they left, Clayton stepped up to touch my arm, his other hand pushing his mask up so I could see his face.
“What the hell was that about?”
Shaking my head, I cleared my throat and explained, “I don’t know. He just walked up and kissed me.”
My eyes tracked past him to watch Tanner and two other people strip off their masks, top hats, capes, jackets and shirts. All three of them were built like fighters, two of them identical with scars obvious on their bodies.
Turning to follow the line of my sight, Clayton spoke to me in a low voice.
“That’s Ezra and Damon Cross. They’re twins, if you hadn’t already noticed.”
I blinked, my eyes watering with tears I didn’t want streaming down my cheeks as proof that Tanner had an effect on me. Still, I couldn’t peel my eyes away from him, couldn’t stop staring at the strong plains of his chest, the smooth tan of his skin that stretched over broad shoulders, thick biceps, and washboard abs that made my fingers curl into my palms with the need to touch him.
He was too beautiful for words. Too damn gorgeous to be real.
“Hey,” Clayton whispered, “Did he do something to you?”
Without answering his question, I asked, “Who are Ezra and Damon in the group? What do people call them?”
“Violence and Anger. Both of them are lethal from what I’ve heard. You don’t want to know them. I avoid those two as much as possible. They have short fuses and will explode over nothing.”
All three of them approached the entrance to the trail leading into the woods, Tanner casting me one last arrogant glance before they laughed and took off in chase of Brad.
I suddenly felt sorry for any person who was running from those three. Why anybody would agree to it was beyond me.
“Are you okay? Did Tanner hurt you?”
I shook my head, finally opening my mouth to answer, “No, he just kissed me.”
Most guys would have been upset to know the girl they were dating had been kissed by another man, but Clayton only chuckled as he pulled his mask into place.
“He was messing with you. Don’t think anything of it.”
Except it was hard for me not to think anything of it. That kiss - that moment when Tanner’s tongue took possession of my mouth and his hand held me in place - had shaken me to the core, waking something inside me I’d never felt before.
Not wanting to talk about it, I changed the subject.
“How long does Brad have to run from them?”
Clayton scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck and glanced at the trail leading into the shadowed confines of the woods.
“Two hours. The horn will blow again in a half hour for three more to start the chase, and a half hour after that for the last three to go in. If he can somehow escape all of them, he’ll be fine. But if they find him...”
His voice trailed off, his face turning back to me. Through the reflection in the large eyes of his mask I saw how freaked out I looked in that moment.
“Brad will be fine. It’s just a game. You’ll see.”
Just a game...yeah, one only a masochist would willingly play.
“Come on, let’s go see if we can find Everly and peel her off Jase for an hour or two.”
Nodding my head, I wrapped my arm with Clayton’s and wandered off to find my roommate. Eventually we found her just as the second horn blew, her hand waving goodbye to Jase as he stripped down to run off into the woods.
Even though I wasn’t the person being hunted, I spent the rest of the time stealing glances at that trail leading into the woods, my heart beating faster when I wondered what they were doing to Brad where nobody could see them.
The two hours passed quickly as students drank more and became more rowdy with the deepening night, many people practically fucking out in the open where anybody could watch them.
While I was quiet for the most part due to everything that had happened, Clayton and Everly laughed and drank, unbothered by what was going on around us.
The horn blew again at the end of the two hours and I jumped in place at the sound of it.
We all turned to stare of the trail leading into the woods, people laughing and cheering as Tanner and the rest of his group emerged carrying Brad between them.
Hogtied, covered in what looked like mud, and stripped down to nothing but his boxers, Brad’s body thumped heavily against the ground when they dropped him at the head of the trail.
Panic rose up inside me so fast that I felt dizzy from it.
My hand tightened over Clayton’s arm, my eyes locked on Brad’s unmoving body.
Voice barely a whisper, I couldn’t help the words that poured over my lips.
“Oh my God. Please tell me he isn’t dead.”
Racing forward, my legs moving as quickly as they could in the ridiculous weight of the clothes I was wearing, I ignored Clayton’s shout for me to stop, ignored Everly laughing and calling out that it was all a big joke.
Brad looked dead where they’d dropped him on the ground, his body unmoving, a puddle leaking out from beneath his legs. Maybe he was just unconscious, but seeing what I assumed was urine leak out to create a ruddy path with the dry dirt beneath him, I hoped that hadn’t been a sign that his body had given out.
Above him, the Inferno boys laughed, one kicking a cloud of dirt at his legs, pointing at the rivulet of urine working a path away from his body like it was the funniest thing in the world.
Around me, students jeered and hollered, the music still loud and pumping as I closed the distance to the trail and dropped down at Brad’s head to check and see if he was breathing.
“He’s fine, Luca,” Gabriel said, laughter implicit in his voice. “He passed out. “We didn’t kill him.”
They were all laughing, nine distinct, dark voices taking pleasure in Brad’s helplessness and my fear. Fuckers. I wanted to hog-tie every one of their asses to see how much they liked it.
“Somebody help me untie him.”
The knots in the rope were too tight for me to remove, angry red lines in Brad’s skin from how they’d used the ropes to carry him. He was breathing as far as I could tell, his back moving with every shallow inhalation.
Glancing up at nine grinning faces, sweat beading down their chests that glimmered in the firelight around us, I demanded, “Somebody help me.”
My eyes sought Gabriel first. He was laughing too hard, his white teeth sparkling in the flickering firelight. Scanning my gaze over the rest of them, I landed on Tanner who stood back, his scowl partially hidden in shadow.
Anger surged through me, sweat trickling down between my breasts from the heat of the fire surrounding us.
One by one, the Inferno boys dismissed me, taking turns stepping around Brad and me to make their way to the main party, admirers clapping them on the back and cheering them on. As each one moved away from where I crouched next to a helpless hogtied man, my frustration spiked higher. It only served to short-circuit my rational mind, to make me act without thinking of the consequences.
Only Tanner remained as I glared up at his arrogant face, his lips curling into an amused grin as he dismissed me like the others and moved to step around me.
I should have thought before I reached out to grab his leg, should have remembered I was dealing with an asshole who couldn’t care less about the problems he caused.
Not having expected me to block his path, Tanner tripped when my fingers locked on his ankle, his
body tumbling forward to land on the ground with a heavy thump.
The crowd behind us went silent, only the music lingering within the shadows of night.
Pushing up on his arms, Tanner twisted around to look at me. One would think there would be fury in his eyes, but what I found there was somehow more terrifying.
Enjoyment.
Challenge.
Ruthlessness toward a woman who had made the stupid mistake of touching him without permission.
His voice was a low rumble of thunder beneath the music, so soft that only I could hear it.
“I didn’t realize you wanted to play.”
His dark eyes glimmered and his mouth twisted at the corners.
“I suggest you run.”
Fuck...
Instinct took over, another moment where my logical mind packed its bags and took a sudden vacation. Pushing to my feet, I wasn’t faster than him, and with his large body blocking the path leading back to the party, the only direction left was into the woods.
My body was moving faster than my thoughts, my feet tripping over the skirt of my gown as I raced into the shadows.
Running through the woods at night is not something I would recommend, but doing so in a mask and Victorian gown only made it that much harder.
The music faded into the distance as I fled, my pulse hammering in my throat as my ears pricked at every tiny noise. I didn’t hear the pounding of footsteps behind me that it didn’t mean much.
Ripping the mask from my face to fling it away, I came to a fork in the path, my gaze drifting up to see what I thought was rope hanging from the branches of a tree. Panic tore through me, my body turning right in hopes Tanner wouldn’t find me.
Barely able to drag in a breath due to the tight corset I wore, I had to stop, my mouth gaping to drag in air as I planted a hand against the trunk of a large tree. The bark was rough against my palm, the sensation somehow snapping me out of my flight instinct.
For a brief second, I could think again, anger at myself for how I’d run without standing my ground.
Steeling myself to turn around and find my way back to the party, I grit my teeth and decided I wouldn’t let Tanner and his asshole friends push me around.