by Jenica Saren
19
Ria
After about fifteen more minutes of incessant teasing and taunting from who I now deemed a whole lot of assholes, we all finally had settled down and started in on the shooting game that Beck and Rafe had chosen as a joint effort. They probably thought to humiliate me, but it turned out that I was surprisingly great at the first person shooter game. I didn't have to compete against the guys in this game, which probably had a lot to do with it, and they even made me my own profile which they infuriatingly named DeadlyOmen7. The humour was not lost on me, but I wouldn't ever let them know that.
In the game, I could play solo, which meant by myself, in pairs, which they called duos, or in a squad that consisted of four people. The goal was to survive by outrunning the deadly storm that came in circles and by killing other players as the circle got smaller. My eyesight was always pretty great and the screen didn't seem to really impair it at all, so I always managed to kill the other players pretty quickly. I ran into another player once who survived an entire game by hiding as a bush, which was a legendary item that you could pick up. No one ever saw them, and I was very impressed.
After another very solid victory for me, which had made about six in a row, one of the guys reached around me and plucked the controller from my fingers. I heard a collective sigh of relief from all the guys.
"Hey!" I exclaimed, turning on the culprit. It was Eliam, of fucking course. "Give it back!" Who would have thought I'd be whining like a petulant ten year old boy over a video game controller?
Eliam smirked that annoying and sexy smirk at me and I bristled a bit. He only smirked when he was being a cocky prick. "Dinner is ready and my brothers are just about tired of seeing you win. Isn't winning their hearts enough?" He chastised, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
My jaw dropped through the floor like an anime character or something and my inner self was reacting equally for once. My face seemed to say it all, and with one last smirk and a wink - a fucking wink? - in my direction, he sauntered back to the kitchen, presumably to let me stew in my now frazzled thoughts. It was like all basic operations had ceased to focus as I mulled over it all.
Their hearts? I won their hearts?
My own heart felt full to bursting and I almost felt as though I might cry. I had said it before and I was more than willing to say it again and again: I was a total relationship ho. That entire statement made the butterflies flutter around in my belly. Did that mean that they really cared about me? Or more? It had only been about a week, so it couldn't be love, but holy fuck was I game for these guys.
Wait.
Six of them.
One of me.
Holy shit.
It was like I had my own little harem. I wasn't complaining, but wow. It was a lot to take in.
I forced myself to zone back in on the world around me and saw the guys all sitting around with smirks that matched Eliam's own. Well, except Gray, who was smiling kindly at me, because he was sweet and not dick like the rest of these heathens.
"Take a picture." I snapped halfheartedly as I got up and strode into the kitchen with as much dignity as I could manage while they all snickered behind my back. I tried as hard as I possibly could to convince myself that they were amused by my magical pajamas, but even my own brain wasn't buying it. So smooth.
I nearly jumped up onto the counter like I had earlier once I reached the kitchen, but memories of that steamy encounter with Eliam just wouldn't allow it. Looking at him, he seemed to be thinking the same thing I was and I gulped hard.
Instead, I reached around him to stick my finger in the red sauce and licked it as un-sexily as I could. Which, you know, totally backfired.
Eliam laid a hot palm on my hip, holding me in place as his face dipped close to mine. His lips were dangerously close to my sensitive skin and I wasn't entirely sure I trusted my own self control. "I thought I told you to stay put?" He whispered into my ear, his hot breath dancing over my ear and neck, making me shiver.
"I'm not yours to control." I whispered back, looking him dead in his gorgeous, hypnotizing eyes. Another mistake. His eyes flashed briefly and then he smiled dangerously, heating me up from my core.
"We'll see about that." He breathed, his eyes still locked onto mine and making me tremble all over with both the threat and challenge laid out before me. The drastic change was still dizzying, and I wasn't even sure that he knew exactly what had changed.
A throat clearing from the doorway drew our attention and I flushed a very unappealing shade of read. I knew because my face was hotter than hell itself.
"If you two are done here," Beck drawled, a strange kind of heat in his eyes that made me think that the idea of Eliam and I being together was a huge turn on for him. Kinky bastard. Not that I had much room to talk, either. "I would like to eat." The way he said those words made it very clear that I was probably right.
I tried to keep a straight face as I stepped away from Eliam and his hand fell from my hip. "You ate five bags of chips already." I reminded him in exasperation.
"And? I'm still hungry." He shrugged.
I threw my arms up in the air. "Where the fuck does it all go?" I demanded, gesturing to his very trim physique. There was, no joke, not an ounce of fat on that man's body, and I swear he never stopped eating. Ever.
Beck stepped uncomfortably close to me, his arms folded over his chest as he towered over me. "I can show you, if you'd like." He purred, leaning his face down toward mine.
Oh hell no. Wait. Why not? Oh, yeah. Brothers. Near. Oh God.
I lifted my hands to Beck's chest and I practically felt him vibrating. Like, actually vibrating. It's like his veins were humming on some weird frequency. "Don't be a dick." I laughed as I gave him a little shove to send him a step or two back, just enough to make my great escape.
Or, I thought it was a little shove.
At my so-called "small" push, Beck went flying backward, landing on the floor and back against the refrigerator. My eyes were as wide as dinner plates as he rubbed the back of his head and looked around in confusion. I looked over at Eliam who was standing off to the side and rubbing his stubbled chin in thought. He didn't look the least bit concerned by what had just happened, just curious.
"Oh. My. God." I dashed over to Beck as quick as I could and knelt down beside him, my hands fluttering over him as I looked for major injuries. "I am so, so sorry! Are you okay?" I asked, my voice cracking a little from panic.
Beck rubbed the back of his head again and then looked at me as if contemplating something. "I think I'm a little hurt. A kiss might make it better." He said with a wink and puckered his lips.
I felt like pulling my hair out in frustration. Was this man ever serious for a single second? I smacked him on the shoulder, not even caring if it hurt him this time.
"Ow. You've got some serious guns there, hot stuff." He commented.
I looked around at the guys who had gathered around us where we sat on the kitchen floor. "What the fuck just happened?" I asked them all, looking from one set of eyes to another and feeling more anxious than scared, even though I knew that I should have been terrified.
Eliam was the one to make the first move, stepping forward with a sigh and extending a hand to help me up. "Come love, we need to have a chat." He said as I gazed warily at his offered hand.
"Um." I said eloquently. "I don't think so." I shook my head furiously and batted his hand away. The pushing incident was weird as hell, but an Eliam wanting to talk was way more fucking weird than just about anything else in the world. The unicorns could have leaped right off my pajamas at that moment and Eliam needing to talk would still be weirder.
He made an exasperated sound and ran his hands through his beautiful hair as I watched with more fascination than was probably acceptable. "Ria, this is bloody important. Be serious." He scolded.
"I am. The answer is no."
"You're being unreasonable."
"Literally everything about you is unreasonable
."
"Focus, you infuriating woman!"
"No! I mean, I am focused!"
"Then let me help you, dammit."
"I don't need your help!"
Eliam made a primal growling noise in the back of his throat that was equal parts sexy as hell and terrifying. I looked around at the others for help, but they were all just watching our verbal sparring match with rapt fascination and amusement. Fucking bastards. When I turned back to look at Eliam, he was reaching for me with both hands as if to help me up by force, which was a serious oxymoron, I know.
I threw my hands up at him, as if my palms could ward him off. And to my complete and total shock, they did. I watched as Eliam drew closer as if in slow motion, and crimson smoke-like light burst forth from my hands, sending the Brit soaring backward and into the kitchen sink.
I couldn't help the manic laughter that bubbled up in my throat and spilled out of me. Eliam looked on with fury and indignation in his eyes that only made me laugh harder than before. Before I knew it, I was joined on the ground by four other guys - not counting Beck, because he was still sitting there - all clutching our midsections as we shook and trembled with laughter.
Eliam extracted himself from the sink and adjusted his sleeves as though it was a nervous habit, which it probably was. "Don't you want to know what just happened?" He exclaimed loudly in an attempt to be heard over our vociferous amusement.
I wiped a tear away from the corner of my eye as I was laughing so hard that it actually hurt. "I don't even care anymore, I'm probably dead anyway." I managed on another burst of guffaws. It was all honestly a lot to handle. Not that I couldn't handle it, but it was a lot, and I really didn't deal with too much stress very well. Not the part of myself that I had ever been the most proud of, but a part of me, nonetheless. I had either died of a heart attack when I'd witnessed his betrayal, or I had died when I was stabbed in the damn back - literally - by a psychopath preacher-zombie. Neither were how I had imagined myself going out, but such is life. Or death? Such is death? Was that right?
Eliam stormed right on up to me and knelt down to put his face so close to mine that all I could taste was the chocolate-like sweetness of his breath. "Oh, you are very much alive, love." He said in a deep, seductive tone. "And you're alive because of me." His last words were on a whisper that sent chills of fear skittering down my spine and caused my hairs to stand on end. If it hadn’t been for the horror-moviesque nature of his words, it would have been hotter than hellfire.
His eyes caught mine as they lit up, like actually lit up, and I balked. My laughter stopped almost immediately in my state of shock and I backed up until my back was pressed against the cupboards, the sharp corners of the wood digging into my spine with the amount of force I was using to press into them. If I was particularly luck, I would fall backward and into Narnia – something much more normal and realistic than the hell I felt as thought I was now in.
"What the actual fuck?" I gasped. I really was fucking dead. And if I was in heaven, Eliam the great asshole would definitely not have been with me. So, it must have been hell. I was finally paying for my sins.
I heard all the guys groan collectively, but I couldn't look away from the familiar and strange man in front of me.
"Did you do the glowing eye thing, E?" Gatlin demanded rhetorically. Oh, lovely, so they were all in on it. My roommates were fucking aliens.
"Are you ready to talk with us yet, Ria?" Eliam purred like the predator he obviously was.
I rubbed both hands over my face and buried them in my hair, having a little internal freak out. "Did you turn me into an alien, too?" I asked softly, hardly daring to breathe lest my new alien self kept on living. I wouldn't live as an alien. That wasn't fucking happening.
Eliam looked at me in complete shock for a moment before he and the guys burst into their own rounds of laughter, this time with me as the subject of their amusement. Once he had calmed down enough to look into my doubtlessly terrified eyes with his own determined ones, which had turned back to their normal, non-luminescent violet, he straightened his face as best he could and tried not to look as amused as I could tell he was. "We didn't turn you into an alien, Ria. My god, do you also think the moon is a spaceship?"
I didn't bother telling him that yes, I did in fact think the moon was a spaceship. It fucking rings. Non-hollow objects don't ring, okay? Besides, those astronauts looked like they had seen some serious shit, and a giant hunk of rock wasn’t going to do that to someone. Just saying.
"Then what the hell did you do to me?" I challenged.
Eliam rolled his eyes at me and then grinned like the cat who ate the damn mouse. (Me. I was the cursed mouse.)
"You're a Sin now, just like us."
20
Ria
I felt like I was going to hurl. My head was spinning with my father's words ringing in my ears from when I was just a little girl, telling me that there was so much sin in me that I was nothing but sin. Telling me that I was evil. Telling me I was a demon or devil. Telling me that there was no redemption for my soul.
"No." I choked out, the tears in my eyes filling my vision completely.
I wanted nothing more than to run from the room and into the middle of some busy road somewhere, but the nausea wasn't letting me move a single inch. The memories, the trauma, I couldn't keep living with it all in my mind where it could follow me wherever I went. I even swore that I had heard Eliam say those words to me, validating my nightmares and darkest fears.
I felt as thought I was teeter precariously on the edge of insanity and reality, not really sure what was happening but living it all the same.
Or, at least, it seemed like I was?
I could sense, rather than see or hear, people moving about. I could feel the tension in the air and it was smothering, overwhelming, suffocating. I felt something boiling in me, hot and agitated, pushing at the seams and boundaries of my very being. I tried to make my senses catch up with the world around me, fighting off the sense of vertigo that seemed to be attacking my brain.
"Ria, calm down!" Someone shouted.
"Make her stop!" Another voice yelled, hurting my ears through the fogginess.
The hot feeling was starting to push outward, making my skin feel warm and uncomfortable. The world around me was blurry and unfocused, but I could sense that something was very wrong. I also got the feeling that whatever was happening was my own doing, and I couldn't even make my eyes focus, let alone stop whatever mayhem was taking place.
I felt myself being moved and my vision was suddenly overtaken by a violet haze of smoke, or maybe it was fog, I had no clue. It felt as though the cloud was charged with an electric current that was swimming through my veins, paralyzing me. I tried to scream, but I couldn't seem to find the right way to make sound come out. My brain was scrambling. Through the fog came a bright light, and I knew what was coming next, so I braced myself.
Instead of being the light at the end of the tunnel that I completely expected, I found myself staring at my own face, my own self, storming toward me with fury blazing hot in my own eyes. It was my inner self, but it was like I was seeing her - me? - in 3D for the first time, instead of just in my mind; my actual eyes could see me - her? - as though corporeally manifested, like actually right fucking there.
My inner self marched right up to me until we were face to face, and my own was likely frozen in utter shock. I was prepared for the end-of-life speech, words of wisdom, my fate being decided and announced to me. I was not prepared for what happened next, like at all.
"Snap the fuck out of it and get a damn grip!" My inner self snapped at me. And then she slapped me hard across the face.
I had always sort of laughed at the people who would talk about out of body experiences and the sensation of being slammed back into your body, like a cord was yanked by a crazy body builder, but that's what it felt like. I felt myself falling at a dangerous speed - down, up, backward, forward, sideways, I had no clue. It just felt like I was be
ing sucked into a dangerous vortex or a whirlpool, not that I knew what either of those things felt like at all.
I snapped my eyes open and gasped, sucking in air as though I had been stuck underwater for too long. I was sitting in the kitchen still, but the guys were scattered all around me, holding their heads or their midsections. The kitchen was completely destroyed, with the cupboard doors hanging precariously, the sink faucet was apparently a fountain now (I'd always wanted a fountain), and all of the decorative knickknacks were in varying states of destruction and disarray. More saddening than that was the pots and pans of food that had just been prepared stuck through the walls or on the floors.
And worse still, was that I was being cradled in Eliam's arms, with him hunched over me as though protecting me from a natural disaster.
I tried to scramble up and was amazed at my lack of dizziness or nausea. I actually felt pretty fucking great. You know, except for the fact that Eliam's arms might as well have been solid steel bands wrapped around my body.
"Are you gonna buy me dinner first, or...?" I asked, directing the question to the man-cage. I couldn't even turn my head toward him because of the angle at which he was bent around me. It seriously could not have been very comfortable, but what did I know? Guys are fucking weird.
He lifted his head at the same time five others did the exact same thing. I wasn't going to ask what happened, because I was feeling great and honest to goodness did not want to know. Bizarre shit wasn't my forte. "Are you back to normal now?" Eliam asked warily, adjusting his position to better accommodate my very mobile form.
When I craned my neck to turn and look at him, he looked fucking terrible. I mean, he was still sexy as sin, but he looked exhausted and completely drained. The rising sun peeking through the large bay windows shocked me half to death and I had a hard time deciding which thing most concerned me: the state the guys were in or the fact that an entire night had passed in a matter of minutes - if that.