The Fall (The Siren Series)

by Higginson, Rachel

  More tortured crooning bellowed through the doorway and I had to hide my giggles in the pillow. Ryder let out an exasperated sigh and pushed off his knees to stand up.

  “Stay here,” he told me. “I’ll deal with him.”

  I didn’t really want him “dealing” with Chase. I wanted Chase to forget our whirlwind romance. Okay, it wasn’t exactly a whirlwind romance. It was more like two weeks of using Chase to fulfill Nix’s requirements.

  I pushed myself into sitting and crossed my legs in the middle of the bed. I felt bad for Chase. This party was supposed to be a good time right before he left for college. I should have been down there saying goodbye to him before he left, but selfishly I wanted to stay up here with Ryder. I wanted to stay cocooned in this room and dream about a life away from all this. I wanted to stay wrapped in Ryder’s arms and steal more kisses.

  “Hey man, what’s up?” Ryder asked through a crack in the doorway.

  “Ryder, what the hell, Dude?” Chase’s drunken slurring immediately changed from Casanova to angry-bull. “What are you doing in there? Where’s Ivy?”

  Chapter Ten

  “She’s in here,” Ryder admitted. “Did you need something, Chase? We’re kind of in the middle of something.”

  “Are you?” Chase bit out, sounding somewhat sobered. I cringed and stared at my hands. They were making nervous wringing motions on my lap. I hated this part. “Are you in the middle of something?”

  “Come on, Man,” Ryder tried to sooth. He got his hand up just in time to stop Chase from shoving the door open. Chase hit the door with a loud thud. “Now is not the time for this. Go back to your party. Go have a good time.”

  “You son of a bitch!” Chase shouted at him.

  “Calm down,” Ryder gritted. “Look you guys haven’t been together for months. You’re leaving in a few days. Think about it, Chase. Don’t start something over this.”

  “I want to talk to her, you conniving bastard. Let me in.”

  “She’s not into you anymore, Dude. Just walk away. Be a man about this.”

  I knew Ryder was working hard to talk Chase down from this ledge he seemed intent on walking, but he probably should not have said that last part.

  I had been sitting there, stunned and depressed while they hashed it out. Depressed because I hated the disappointment Chase had to face. And what had he ever done to me? He had been nothing but respectful and sweet. It was my fault he got pulled into this, but he was the one that had to pay for it. And I hated that for him. My skin felt too tight and my insides shriveled and fell into the black hole that was my heart. But I couldn’t help but be shocked by his sudden commitment to this. We had hung out lots of times since we broke up. We were all part of the same group now and he had never been overly ambitious in getting back together with me. I knew he still liked me, but I kept myself at a distance from him so his feelings wouldn’t grow stronger.

  Yet here we were.

  The most bizarre thing though, was that I hadn’t seen him in a few weeks. The curse should have somewhat worn off…

  And that’s when Chase tried to shoulder his way in the room again. He must have used more force this time, because Ryder couldn’t stop him. He came barreling into the door, cracking a piece of the wood as he went and shoving Ryder halfway across the room.

  “What the hell, Chase!” Ryder hollered at him.

  Chase found me immediately and dropped to his knees in front of the bed. “Ivy,” he whispered.

  My gut twisted and bile started to climb the back of my throat. “Chase, what are you doing?” I asked gently.

  He took me in with blurry eyes and his face hardened so quickly that I grew a little self-conscious. I wiped under my eyes with the backs of my hands and realized I must look ridiculous. I’d been sobbing into Ryder’s shirt for more than an hour and my mascara had to have painted my entire face by now.

  “Why are you crying?” Chase demanded, his drunken slur almost completely gone. “What did he do to you? Did he hurt you?” He stumbled to his feet and swayed precariously before catching himself.

  “No!” I assured him. “I’m just going through something right now and-”

  He spun around and faced Ryder. “Did you do this, Sutton? Did you make her cry?”

  “She told you that she’s going through something right now.” Ryder took a step forward and Chase matched him.

  I wanted to gag on the testosterone in the room, but I could see how serious Chase was. And Ryder wasn’t exactly backing down.

  “Yeah?” Chase sounded completely sober now. “And I’m asking if you had something to do with that.”

  “What goes on with Ivy is none of your business, Merrick.”

  Now they were on a last-name basis. This was just going to escalate from here.

  I hopped up from the bed and stepped in between them. Holding my arms out in both directions, I attempted to settle them down.

  “Stop, Ryder,” I hissed at him. “You’re antagonizing him.”

  Chase took this opportunity to grab my outstretched hand and tug me toward him. I stumbled a little off balance and then crashed into his chest. He held my hand up between us and linked our fingers.

  “Is he hurting you, Ivy?” Chase asked gently. His surfer-boy blonde hair fell over his eyebrow and his sapphire blue eyes stood out on his tanned skin. He was such a great guy when he wasn’t under my influence. I couldn’t wait for him to be out of here and away from me. He could have any girl, then. He would be free of me.

  “He’s not, Chase,” I promised soothingly. “We’re just talking. He’s helping me go through something.”

  Chase’s jaw clenched and his grip on my hand tightened painfully. “I can help you, Ivy. I’d love to help you.”

  And this was what I hated most about myself. Chase, this incredible, gentle guy had now twisted into a dark shadow of himself. This wasn’t who he was. This wasn’t the guy that I knew.

  And I had done this to him.

  “Chase, you need to let me go.” I forced the words out from my dry, scratchy throat. He shook his head and crushed my hand in his grip.

  Ryder stepped up behind me and laid two claiming hands on my shoulders. “Let her go, Merrick, or I’m going to make you let her go.”

  “You can try, Asshole.” Chase stepped forward again, taking the challenge. Unfortunately, I was still sandwiched in between them.

  “Enough, Chase!” I pushed on his chest with my free hand, but he quickly captured it and smashed it in his aggravated grip. He didn’t even acknowledge I’d spoken. Instead, he stared Ryder down behind me, emanating hostility and cocky control. I decided to appeal to the curse, hoping he would see a little bit of reason. “Chase, please, you’re hurting me.”

  Chase looked down at me, seeming startled by my words and it gave Ryder the opportunity he had been waiting for. Ryder grabbed my waist and yanked me out of Chase’s arm.

  Chase did not like being separated from me. One second after Ryder set me down, Chase bull-rushed him around the middle. Both of them flew across the room into one of Phoenix’s numerous dressers. Everything cluttered on top shook with the impact and toppled over, including one bottle of cologne that crashed to the floor and spilled open. The heavy scent of male musk filled my nostrils as the boys wrestled around in front of me.

  Both of them landed hard punches that smacked against skin and cracked bone. I screamed at them to stop but they didn’t seem interested in my opinion. I ran to the door and shouted down for Phoenix. I was too afraid to leave them alone to hunt him down and had to hope he heard me over the thumping base and our rowdy peers.

  Chase and Ryder continued to punch and wrestle each other, simultaneously destroying Phoenix’s room and each other. I kept screaming but they would not listen.

  At one point, Ryder had Chase beneath him and landed several solid hits on Chase’s nose and jaw. I thought that would be the end of it. I could tell Ryder was holding back some. I had seen him attack Taylor last fall, after I wal
ked out of the hotel I had been beaten in. And Ryder was scary as hell in a fight.

  But Chase was his friend. And this fight wasn’t necessary. I thought maybe Ryder realized that.

  Chase was relentless in his attack though and scrounged enough energy to shove Ryder off him. Ryder jumped to his feet and put his hands up in a show of truce, but Chase looked ready for more.

  “Come on, Chase,” Ryder reasoned. “This is ridiculous. Let’s settle down, go have another beer or something.”

  “You’re such a bastard, Sutton,” Chase growled. “You knew she was mine! What kind of person does that? What kind of guy takes another man’s girl?”

  “She’s not your girl,” Ryder stated firmly.

  “To hell she’s not!” Chase shouted and then leapt through the air at his friend. His expression was contorted with rage and hatred and a surge of fear for Ryder burst through my blood.

  My heart expanded with concern for him and every muscle in my body tightened in anticipation. My feelings swelled with the crescendo of an ocean wave during a storm. I felt everything for Ryder in that moment. I felt a hundred feelings I couldn’t even name. But I didn’t want him to get hurt anymore. I couldn’t stand the idea of it. Especially because all of this was for me.

  Chase shouldn’t feel this way right now.

  And Ryder shouldn’t have to protect me.

  Those profound thoughts swirled around my brain in one climactic moment. I felt the pop before I heard it, a fast build in my chest and then a burst of blinding light. It sprang from my body as if I were a water balloon that had just ruptured, spraying everything around me in the yellow light.

  But it wasn’t just an image or a reflection of some inner power; it held a powerful force that whooshed through the room, upsetting everything in its path. Papers were blown off dressers, furniture skidded out of place, Phoenix’s bedding whirled around and settled back even more disheveled and Ryder and Chase were knocked apart and sent to opposite sides of the room.

  I rubbed my eyes to see if I was hallucinating.

  I was not.

  Ryder looked up at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. Phoenix slammed through the room in the next moment. He was just as in shock as Ryder, but I didn’t think he saw the burst of light. Instead, he looked around at the mess of his room and ran a hand through his hair.

  Chase blinked up at me from the floor. He lay sprawled out on his back, looking more confused than anything.

  I didn’t know how to explain what happened to Chase.

  I couldn’t even explain it to myself.

  But in the strangest twist of all, I didn’t have to. Chase stood up and looked around the room completely befuddled. “Ryder, man, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I just kind of lost it, I think.”

  Ryder stood up, too, equally at a loss for words. He brushed off his thighs and jammed two hands through his extra-wild hair. He stood there, with his hands buried in his dark locks, elbows cocked out to the side and a sliver of skin flashing me over the waist of his gray shorts. He had a bruise purpling his right eye and his lip had been cut open and trickled a drop of blood.

  He looked primitive and wild.

  He looked savagely beautiful.

  My heart pulsed for him, for his touch, for his closeness. I imagined myself back in his embrace and an aching spread out from my belly to the tips of my fingers.

  Chase stumbled back another step in that exact moment and turned his attention to me. I held my breath, waiting for another explosion between the guys.

  “Ivy, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?” he looked so concerned and incredibly embarrassed, but gone was the feral possessiveness that had clouded his startling blue eyes before. He seemed no more interested in throwing me over his shoulder and dragging me back to his caveman cave than Phoenix did. “I don’t know why I acted like that. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m so, so, so sorry. You probably think I’m so crazy now. But I would never hurt you. And I don’t… I mean, I know you broke up with me. I’m not sure-”

  Whatever had just happened, seemed to have knocked some sense into Chase. So I cut him off and quickly assured him everything was fine. “Chase, it’s not a big deal. I’m fine. Ryder’s fine. You had a little too much to drink, but you’re fine now. We’re all fine.”

  I kept using the word fine like it would make everything fine.

  It wasn’t.

  I wasn’t.

  And I could tell Ryder had about three hundred different ways to tell me how not fine this whole thing had been; but thankfully he kept his mouth shut.

  “You should go back to the party,” I encouraged Chase. “Your friends are down there. Everyone wants to say goodbye. Go have fun. Ryder and I will deal with this.”

  Phoenix winced.

  “Are you sure?” Chase asked anxiously. I could tell how badly he wanted out of this room.

  “Of course,” I promised him. “Go! Enjoy your last night before you’re a big college guy.”

  He relaxed a little at my teasing. “Alright, Ivy.” He walked past me but hesitated at the door.

  Phoenix had moved into the room and started straightening his dresser out. He looked down at his shattered bottle of cologne and winced again. Ryder started to pick up the broken pieces of glass and Chase and I had an awkward moment to say goodbye.

  “Thanks for being so cool about this.” Chase gave me a crooked grin while he cheeks heated with embarrassment.

  I shrugged. “That wasn’t you.”

  He nodded, accepting my answer because it was truth.

  He let out an exhausted sigh. “So… I don’t really know how to say goodbye after all that. I guess I kind of ruined whatever friendship we had, huh?”

  I let out a shaky laugh. “We’re fine, Chase. We’ll chalk it up to bad booze.”

  He laughed a little more naturally. “I’m all for blaming the booze.”

  “So where are you going? I’ve never asked. Which college is the lucky institution that gets Chase Merrick as their prize freshman?”

  He gave me a warm smile and leaned back against the doorframe. “Carleton College. It’s uh, the one I told you about before. The one in Minnesota.”

  I couldn’t stop the full-grin from breaking open my face. Chase had wanted to go there since I met him but his parents weren’t impressed with the school. They had even offered a no-questions-asked spring break if he would pick the college they thought best for him.

  “That’s amazing, Chase! I’m so excited for you!” I gushed with happiness because despite what had just happened, he really did deserve every good thing in life. “How did your parents take it?”

  He cut me a sideways look. “Not well.” He shrugged and then let out another nervous laugh and nudged my foot with his. “But this girl once told me that I needed to go there. And I started to think that she was right. My parents will always want what’s best for me, but at the end of the day, I’m the only one that can really know.”

  “Look at you,” I teased. “Already so wise and well-adjusted. Looks like you made the right decision.”

  His eyes flickered over my face and then over to Ryder. “Looks like it,” he agreed.

  Awkward silence fell between us and I was nervous about taking us right back to the place where he tried to beat the crap out of Ryder again. “You should go back to your party,” I suggested. “I bet they’re all looking for you.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m glad I got to see you though, you know, before I left.”

  “Me, too.” And I really was glad.

  “Make sure Sutton takes care of you, Ivy. Make sure he stays good to you.” His words came out sincerely and wrapped with warmth but they still hit me wrong.

  Ryder and I weren’t together.

  Couldn’t be together.

  “We’re just friends,” I whispered.

  He stared at me like I had two heads but eventually shrugged it off. “Oh, right. Well, then, look me up if you ever decide to run for offi
ce. In about four years I’m going to be a pretty kick ass campaign manager.”

  I smiled easily again and promised, “If I ever run for office, Chase, you will be the very first person I call.”

  He grinned at me one last time and then disappeared down the steps and back to his going-away party.

  I jumped into the cleanup crew and straightened Phoenix’s comforter and pillows. Soon enough everything was back to its place and the cologne had been mopped up as best as we could get it.

  Phoenix looked at us, still not understanding what happened. “Are you guys sticking around or…?”

  “We’re going to take off,” I assured him. “But thanks for the invite. It’s a great party.”

  Phoenix grunted. “I don’t want to know how great. You were in my room after all.”

  I blushed beat red but Ryder laughed. “It wasn’t like that, Phoenix.”

  “We’re just friends,” I rushed to defend our relationship.

  Again.

  “Right,” Phoenix drew out the vowel and started walking backwards to his door. “I’ll catch you two friends later.”

  After Phoenix left, Ryder turned to me and quirked a brow. “Just friends?”

  I lifted one shoulder and pressed my chin to it. “Best friends.”

  He rolled his eyes but didn’t push it. Taking my hand he led me downstairs and out to his deathtrap of a vehicle.

  “I don’t want you to stay here,” he admitted while we hovered around the passenger side door. “But I don’t want to take you home either. Can’t we just leave tonight? Can’t we just start driving and decide where to stop when we get tired?”

  I collapsed against his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist. I pressed a kiss against his heart and then shook my head. “We have to make it so he can never find me. When I run, I have to disappear completely. But he’s done his damage this week. He’ll give me a week at least, so I don’t have another nervous breakdown. He’s a little afraid to make me completely crazy.”

  “Shows how little he knows you,” Ryder growled.

  “Why? Because I’m already completely crazy,” I tried to joke.