“Ladies and gentlemen, your Maryland University Eagelettes.” Our section erupted in hoots and calls for Maddie before the spotlight hit her. Maddie and her dance team did a three-minute routine to a pop mash-up. She made us all very proud as she executed her twists and flips in her sparkly purple unitard. I looked over at Ruth, a few seats down. She had tears in her eyes, watching her girlfriend dance her behind off. I joined in the cheering once they finished. Maddie waved up at us as she ran off the floor. The game sucked, but it was worth it to be there for her.
There were some announcements about a halftime shoot-out competition. Two lucky winners were called from their seats to match free throws with two recovering patients from the children’s hospital.
“I’ll be right back,” Faeth said as she stood up. “You want something to drink?”
“Get me a Coke,” Sam said.
“I’ll have the same,” I replied.
“Okay.” Faeth smiled. “I’ll be right back.”
Cleo
Faeth slowly walked down the whitewashed cinder-block hallway under the guise of my cloak.
“You sure you want to do this?” she asked as she met me under an intense fluorescent light just outside the men’s locker room.
“Yes. Take over.” Faeth sighed, but took over the force of the cloak. I needed all my concentration to deal with De’Treshawn.
“He’s just a harmless kid,” Faeth said.
“Was that shit with the T-shirt harmless?”
“Yeah. Annoying and dumb, but harmless.”
“Well, Andrew said he put his hands on her, so we’re doing this. If Camila finds out, I’ll tell her I worked alone.”
“She won’t believe you.”
I smiled, flashing my fangs.
Soon, the team started filing out of the locker room, yelling and stomping as they rushed back to the court to seal the second half of the game with a victory. A few slapped the ceiling and pounded the walls as they went. I moved my head to the side to keep some senior from punching me in my invisible face. After a few seconds, I spotted that piece of shit De’Treshawn. He jogged past me and Faeth, a goofy grin on his face. I wasted no time getting inside his head. He was chanting the lyrics to some hype song they’d warmed up to, but not much else was going on inside his pea brain. I shifted deeper and planted the thought.
De’Treshawn stopped right in his sneakers.
“You okay, man?” his teammate asked, smacking him on the back.
“Yeah, I’ll be right there. Just gotta take a piss right quick.” De’Treshawn walked back toward the locker room, but I stopped him before he entered. Faeth checked the hall and the locker room for me one more time.
“You’re clear.”
I backed him against the wall with a hand on his throat. He gasped, feeling my skin on his, but he was blind to the source. And he didn’t believe in ghosts. His breath fucking stank, but I convinced him to close his mouth before I puked from the odor.
I looked him in the eye, making myself completely visible. “Nod if you hear me.” He obeyed. “De’Treshawn, nod if you understand.” He nodded again dully, searching my eyes for answers.
“Do you know me?” I’d been long dead before he’d enrolled in Maryland University, but a bench near the center of campus had been dedicated in my name. People talked. People Googled.
“No.” He shook his head.
“Good. You know Benny Tarver, though, don’t you?” De’Treshawn’s head flopped against the wall. He wasn’t all that intelligent, but his mind was strong. He wanted me out of his brain, and he was exhausting himself trying to shake me loose. “Look at me.” His eyes focused back on mine.
“Do you know Benny Tarver?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Stay away from her. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Stay away from her. If you don’t, I will find out and I will kill you. Do you understand?”
He swallowed nervously. “Yes.”
“Good, because I will kill you. Also, I’d like it if you never put your hands on another girl again,” I told him, releasing Andrew’s memory of his fingers gripping Benny’s wrist. “You know what I’m talking about, right?”
“Yes. I won’t do it again.”
“Good. Now, when you get back out on the court, I want you to miss five shots in a row.”
“Cleo!” Faeth yelled. I fucked up, but it was my ass, not hers. I held up my hand to hush her protest. She kept her opinion to herself, but she kicked the wall, hissing at me.
“How many shots are you gonna miss?” I asked De’Treshawn.
“Five.”
“Good.” I cleared all memory of me out of his head, leaving my simple instructions and very serious threats in my wake. “Now go play with your friends.” I shoved him toward the court and watched as his stumbling turned into a casual jog. He’d be fine.
Faeth punched me in the shoulder. “Threatening to murder him wasn’t enough? You want him to fuck up the game?”
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t, but Dalhem said—”
“Our master doesn’t give a shit about college basketball, okay? It’s fine. Baby Dick Boss will be a little bummed ’cause he fucked up the game, but that’s it. It’ll be fine. Come here.” I led Faeth down the hall to the vacant handicapped bathroom.
“What?” she asked as I locked the door behind us.
“Give me your form.”
Her mouth popped open to argue, but it was useless. I was stronger than her, my blood much more powerful. But suddenly Faeth’s shoulders sagged as she figured out what I’d planned to do.
“She’ll know it’s you.”
“Just do it.” I didn’t know why—yeah, I did. I felt this bizarre need to be the last person to touch Benny. The girls in the house didn’t count. I wanted to mark her in some way. I knew De’Treshawn would follow my orders, but I had to erase him from Benny’s mind or at least try to distract her. I couldn’t explain the urge. She didn’t deserve it, but it was just something I needed, the control.
Faeth and I grasped palms, and when she closed her eyes, I took her complete form, including her clothes, and gave her mine. I opened my eyes and looked down at my new body. A few inches taller and a little wider. The jeans she picked were actually pretty comfortable. The ponytail she was sporting was a little too tight. I repeated the word “home” a couple times to check the accent she’d been using with Benny.
“She and Sam asked for Cokes,” Faeth told me.
“Okay. Don’t try to fuck Andrew. He’ll know it’s you.”
“Asshole.”
Faeth headed back to the stands while I waited in line at the concession counter. The game was about to start when I got back. Benny stared at me curiously as I handed her and Sam their drinks. I paused a moment to look at Sam. She looked like shit. Meanwhile, Benny was eying me.
“What’s up?” I said, trying to imitate Faeth’s usually light demeanor.
“Nothing. I…nothing.” Benny looked behind us. I glanced back and watched as Faeth’s subtle behavior slowly gave me away. She had a hand on Andrew, but she was a little tense. I was never tense with him. And she didn’t react to Benny’s stare. No matter what, Benny always got a reaction out of me. She turned back to the court and drew in a deep breath through her nose. She froze and I knew she had my scent. Oh well.
I settled in and slipped my arm around the back of her seat. A second later, I found myself touching her shoulder. It had been a while since we’d been this close. Her callousness had a physical presence of its own, and I didn’t like to get near it. I didn’t want it to rub off on me. But De’Treshawn changed the game, changed my needs, so I savored the moment, let my fangs drop behind my lips as they throbbed. Her smell. Her body heat. She was hot and uncomfortable, I could tell, but she would never let on. And she didn’t ask me to move my arm. No one could ever see Benny squirm. That wasn’t part of her plan.
De’Treshawn did exactly w
hat I told him to do. Three tanked three-pointers and two horribly missed lay-ups. After the last shot, his coach pulled him out of the game. With him on the bench, Maryland University barely won by three points. We filed out slowly and waited for Maddie outside the arena. After she bought my Faeth routine, I shot a text to Andrew, telling him I’d be back to sleep with him later, and joined the girls as they walked back to the house. They were all a-titter about some party the Sigma boys were throwing after the game. I’d pop in and check on them throughout the night, after I checked on a few other things. They didn’t notice that Benny and I were slowly lagging behind.
Before we reached our yard, Benny grabbed my hand and held me back. It took everything I had not to growl at her or laugh in her face. Her bravado was hilarious.
“What did you do to him?” she seethed.
“Exactly what you wanted me to do…princess.” Something in her blue eyes wilted my anger away, along with Faeth’s guise. I watched Benny’s face as her fears were finally confirmed. She hadn’t imagined my smell. Faeth hadn’t been acting a little strange. She’d been with me for half the night and she’d hated it. I leaned down and, foolishly, I licked her neck. She tasted better than I remembered, like sweet cream. She shuddered and wobbled closer to me.
This was the part she couldn’t fight. For everything Benny thought she knew, she was never able to grasp one simple fact. She needed someone to love her and to touch her in a certain way. I was the only person who could give that to her, and she’d fucked it up. Would she admit that to herself? No, never. Benny was never wrong. Still, her body betrayed her. Her tits remembered how well I’d sucked them. Her clit hadn’t forgotten the loving treatment it got from me. Her whole body remembered how hard I could tug and spank. Her footing gave way and she stepped a little closer. Sweet almonds and vanilla flooded my nose. I embraced her, another stupid move, grasping her ass with both my hands. I couldn’t say what I was thinking. My pussy was in control.
My fangs pricked her skin, and my tongue and lips followed, easing the pain away. I wanted to bite her. My fangs ached with the need. And in that same moment, I wanted to snap her neck. She doesn’t deserve this, I reminded myself. She didn’t deserve me. I repeated the motions, my lips, my tongue, my teeth, feeling her blood pulse harder against its hold in her vein, until a slight whimper escaped from her mouth. It would be so easy for her, if she would just take a moment to see. If she could just understand where we went wrong, I would have ended her suffering right there and then. But that was asking too much from a version of Benny that never existed. A version of Benny I used to love. A version I’d made up.
“I have to go,” she whispered tightly, right on cue. We’d reached the limits of her control.
“I’m sure you do.” I released her and watched her quickly walk back into the house.
Chapter Five
Cleo
I lounged in Tokyo’s den on the mountain of pillows and cushions she liked to call a couch, throwing in the air a baseball I’d taken from one of the boys across the street. It thudded against the ceiling above my head before dropping back down into my palm. It wouldn’t be long before I made a nice dent in the black plaster. Andrew was catching up on his own much-needed sleep. I’d sent Tokyo down to Moreland’s, just to get her out of my hair. She wouldn’t come back quietly, but she would at least be somewhat sated. I needed time to think.
I’d been avoiding all contact with Benny for a few days, but I couldn’t stop thinking about her, even when I was with my girls. De’Treshawn had followed orders nicely and left Benny alone, so the boys told me. There was something more I felt I should do. It was the clock and the calendar. In this body, I had all the time in the world. I didn’t age. Rarely tired, as long as I had blood. I would always be this way. Doing something about De’Treshawn Boss’s efforts to step to Benny reminded me how stupid I was for ever caring about her. She couldn’t even thank me for getting that piece of shit out of her hair. Instead…instead nothing. We were back in the same place.
I needed to acknowledge how worthless my life had become. Immortal, and all I can think about is this bitch that never cared whether I lived or died.
As the baseball slammed into the ceiling again, Camila appeared on the other side of Tokyo’s door. I was surprised that she knocked.
“Come in,” I said. Ginger appeared beside her before they opened the door. They came and sat on the floor beside me. “What’s up?”
“You tell us,” Camila said.
“Uh, I’m just lying here. You came looking for me.”
“De’Treshawn Boss?” Camila said. I got that Ginger and Camila were demon-bound. I got that they were married and took this whole queens-in-control thing very seriously. Technically, I had to answer to them both, Ginger as queen of our nest and Camila as my maker, but I really fucking hated when they did that good cop / bad cop / Mom / best friend shit. I saw them glance at each other out of the corner of my eye. One last silent meeting of the minds before they laid into me.
“Who ratted me out?” I asked.
“No one ratted you out. We’re just worried. What is going on with you?” So Ginger would be friend cop this time.
“Nothing,” I replied.
“It’s not nothing. Listen, Cleo. I know your breakup with her was difficult, but you need to deal with this situation with Benny,” Camila said. “You don’t have to coddle her like the other girls, but you can’t threaten guys who show an interest in her.”
“Whatever. He did more than show interest in her and you know it. Shouldn’t you be protecting her from guys like that? She’s your pet. Isn’t that your job?” I ignored Camila’s growl and threw the baseball at the ceiling again. This time it made a little dent in the plaster.
“My job is to protect her. De’Treshawn wasn’t going to hurt her and you know it. You aren’t protecting her. You’re screwing with her head. You’re practically stalking her.”
“I’m stalking her?” I looked Camila right in the eye. I couldn’t top her in a fight, but she was tempting me to try. Ginger glanced at us both, then slid her hand into Camila’s lap.
“Both of you, stop.”
I looked away and fired another shot at the ceiling. Camila sighed. “You know this isn’t about me. That’s not why we came here. You know how important Benny is. We can’t help you if you cross Dalhem.”
“Fuck Dalhem,” I muttered.
“Oh, fuck Dalhem?” Camila’s dander was right back up again.
“Yes.” I let the baseball drop to the floor behind me as I sat up. “Fuck him. He doesn’t give a shit about me, so why should I give a shit about him? All he cares about is Benny’s precious feelings. I could have ripped De’Treshawn’s head off his spine and licked his face like a lollipop. Dalhem would have slapped me on the wrist for getting blood on the floor, but just because it has something to do with Benny, you two have to come in here so we can have a very special episode of Everybody Loves Benita. Why do you think I hate her so much?”
“You don’t hate her,” Ginger replied.
“Whatever. It’s his fault she acts like an entitled princess. It’s his fault you let her do whatever the hell she wants.”
“Is that what you really think?” Ginger asked.
“Yeah. It is. You said it yourself.” I motioned toward Camila. “We have no control over these girls. Once we’re bound, they walk all over us. We give them whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as they are safe. But with Benny, neither of you can even say no to her, even when she’s being a complete dick. Which makes no sense for you, Ginger. You’re not even bound to her. If it weren’t for Dalhem, you’d tell her when she’s acting the ass out, but you don’t. You’re afraid of the holy master, so his little brat gets whatever she wants. She’s president of this chapter and she could give less of a shit about the sorority or the girls and you both know it.”
“So who do we blame for you?” Camila said “Who’s turned you into this out-of-control asshole? Who t
old you it was okay to behave like this? We know you have Andrew following her around during the day, Cleo. I know that you fucking licked her. I could smell you all over her neck. I won’t even get into how not okay I am with that. And that has nothing to do with Dalhem.”
“Who the fuck told you about Andrew?”
“Faeth,” Ginger replied. “She’s worried about you too.”
“You say it like I’m a junkie. I know what I’m doing. Just leave it alone. Okay?”
“No. We won’t. You could have fucked up De’Treshawn’s brain forever, not to mention his basketball career. What would you have wanted us to do then?”
I laughed. “De’Treshawn’s basketball career? Are you serious?”
“We all have a responsibility here,” Camila said. “But you can’t see past your own selfish feelings. This has nothing to do with Dalhem. I know I gave this life to you, but you made a choice to stay in this house, and that choice did not include threatening or harming our feeders or innocent students.”
“Well, which is it? Am I a life ruiner or a stalker?”
“Cleo.” Ginger let out a deep breath. “We know you love Benny.”
“I don’t.”
“Cleo.” Ginger gave me that look. I know how my behavior came across, but that didn’t mean she was right.
“No. You have no fucking idea what I went through with her. You think you do, but you were human when it all went down,” I told Ginger. “You still can’t get inside her head. She let me in. I know what makes her tick and I know what she did to me. So don’t tell me how I feel and how I should act.”
“But I can tell you that we care how you two act to each other. Jesus. I just wish you two would get back together,” she said.
I laughed so loud I was surprised none of the glass in Tokyo’s apartment shattered. “Yeah, I won’t be doing that.”
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