Page 12 of Beautiful Dark Temptation

“That’s fucked up.”

“Yeah. This place isn’t named after apeaceful place. It’s named after a sanctuary for bastards. That’swhat we all are. Bastards born into a family who discarded us.”

I turned my eyes up to the night sky. Thedots so far away made me feel sad. What Dasher said made me evensadder because I realized why Maddox sent me here.

We were the throwaways.

Chapter Six

Kieran

I’d been here five minutes and already got atext from Wren.

Wren:Fox is in the henhouse. Almostkilled a dude.

The little information I could gather wasthat someone had broken into our house and kicked Fox’s ass. Sohelp me, Fox had better have put that fucker down. Dr. Casera asheadmaster knew his place. He enforced the same rules we did. Don’tunbalance the status quo and Fox, Wren, Henry, River, and I werethe status quo in this school. We had built a legacy and no one.No. One. was taking that away from us.

I pushed into the main office and Dasherlifted his eyes to me. Dasher being here put everything inperspective. Fox had one weakness—Dasher. After the initial shockof my arrival wore off, he scowled. Dasher and I had a verycomplicated relationship. If it hadn’t been for Fox, the fuckerwould be six feet under, crutches and all.

Mrs. Perkins, Casera’s assistant, gave me awide-eyed look. She popped out of her chair, her breasts bobbing inthat low cut dress she wore. The best feature on her, truth betold. I’m sure she used a year’s worth of pay at this school to getthem done. I’m thinking that’s why Casera kept her on staff.“Kieran,” she said, “perhaps you should wait.”

I didn’t wait. I barged in. “Whathappened?”

Fox sat in one of the chairs, his long lithebody stretched back, feet extended and crossed at the ankles. Outof all of us, even me, Fox was the most volatile, but he had thegrace of a swan. “Meet Tommy R, our new roommate.” Fox’s smirk madehim look two seconds away from bashing something. Insanity drippedbehind his vivid blue eyes. He sported a bruise on his chin and aswollen bottom lip.

“It’sTomás.”

I turned to the intruder and almost lost theability to breathe. The guy’s brown hair fell around his face incurls. Thick lashes framed his large dark eyes. Like two dark pitsthat threatened to pull me under. His nose a perfect feature on hisface, and his lips were full but not pouty. The fucker wasbeautiful. And every part of me took notice. The compulsion toinspect his body had me vibrating along the edge of my skin. Iinstantly nipped the desire and turned it to anger instead.

“I’m not addressingyou,” I spat out,pulling myself out of the lapse of judgment and back to sanity. Iliked the way his face morphed into something that had to be himpissed off.

“Kieran,” Casera started. “Tomás is a newstudent and is living at Arcas.”

Fox snorted behind me.

“I don’t think so.” I glared at Dr. Casera.“We had an arrangement.”

Dr. Casera did not have many years left onthis earth and I’d just taken one. I’d meant to take a few more ifhe didn’t withdraw this guy from my house. “He has A status.”

No way. “Who?”

Dr. Casera straightened his jacket. “You arewell aware that we do not provide that type of information.”

I turned to Tomás. The name meant nothing tome, but that was the point in Arcadia. Our ancestry erased themoment we accepted entrance into this fucked up place. “Who areyou?” I asked, approaching the guy.

“Tomás, you do not have to answer that,” Dr.Casera ordered. He sounded two seconds away from shitting himself.“Kieran, you know better than to…”

I reached for Tomás to shake the truth fromhim, but he had been ready for me. It’d been so damn long since Iactually fought a student at this school. I hadn’t thought it evena possibility. But Tomás reacted like a beast. He was untrained andclumsy. A wild thing. He caught me in the face with the firstswing, the second didn’t land. I sideswept him, trapped him againstmy chest in a chokehold. I felt his body writhe as if I’delectrocuted his ass. He grunted, pushed me back against the deskwith all his weight despite my hold over his throat. At this rate,I’d kill him in two seconds and the fucker didn’t give a shit.

Wild didn’t begin to explain his reaction.He’d gone into berserker mode. He slammed my ass into the desk.Pain shot up my spine and I bit back a grunt. The desk shifted withour weight, and I felt myself falling, still holding onto histhroat, when arms took me around my waist and Tomás was ripped awayfrom my arms. Fox had me pinned while Abe, the security guard, hadshoved Tomás to the other side of the office. The guy paced like anangry cat ready to pounce again. His face red, sucking in oxygen.He didn’t like being pinned from behind. That was something I’dexplore later. Learning your enemies’ weaknesses always came inhandy one way or another.

“That is enough! Mr. Morrison, take Kieranto the chamber.”

I turned to Casera. “You’re kidding.”No,fucking no.Arcadia University handled their own crimes, hadtheir own security. They didn’t send anyone outside for the cops todeal with and the chamber was a slightly ritzier version of a cell.It still meant isolation.

“You just attacked a student. I will nottolerate…”

Fox started to laugh. An all-out creepy Foxlaugh that did not invite others to laugh with him. It was the typeof laugh people heard right before necks were broken. The type oflaugh you heard in nightmares. “I think we’re going to head out,Dr. Casera,” Fox said. “You should’ve warned us about the newbie inour house. I had every right to put a cap right into his brain hadI been armed. You,” he pointed at Casera who blanched, “failed tofollow protocol. This is on you. Abigail, let my brother go.”

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