Page 14 of Beautiful Dark Temptation

Assassin school or not, people needed tocalm their demons.

“What happened to you?” he asked, liftinghis chin.

“The Ark Boys,” I answered. I didn’t need toelaborate.

He chuckled. “Sucks to be you. You might aswell run while you got the chance.”

I probably should’ve but I had nowhere togo.

“I might have something to help with that,”he said, pointing at my bobbing knee. The antsy part of me alwayshad a limb moving. “Come see me at Harper House. Name’s Jack.” Hegot up just as Halloran walked in.

“Make sure you take it this time,” shesaid.

Jack pulled the paper out of her hands andwalked out. She watched him for a moment as if collecting herself,then turned to me with a smile. “And you, Tomás R.,” she said myname after flipping through the clipboard. “You fainted duringanatomy.”

I felt my face heat up.

“Every semester a student passes out. Don’tworry about it.” She seemed nice, checked my head, gave me someibuprofen, and sent me on my way.

I ditched the pills and opted for the weedinstead. So that Friday, I went in search of Harper House, whichwasn’t hard to find. All I had to do was follow the noise.

While Arcas house was secluded fromeverything, the other residential houses were all lined up in oneclump, the area buzzing with music, laughter, and people. Outsideof the cafeteria, I hadn’t seen so many people clumpedtogether.

Harper House was the last one on the street.Painted white with stone steps and large windows, it looked likemost of the other houses on this stretch. I started to knock whenthe door swung open and Jack stood there. For a moment he lookedlike he was going to bum rush me, but recognition dawned on hisface and he smiled. “Tomás, I didn’t think you’d come. Perfecttiming.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and we started backdown the block. “Have you had the opportunity to tour the Arcadianight life?”

“Uh, not really.” Dasher and I had spent thesummer studying, not partying.

“Well, you are in for a surprise.”

As we walked down the path, I watched Jackmake pit stops for deliveries and collecting cash. The guy wassmooth. He knew everyone by name, everyone knew him. They fistbumped, joked, and he was even almost soaked by a water game agroup was playing. It was weird to watch it. Yeah, they high fivedand called him for the drugs, but they didn’t invite him in, theydidn’t offer him a drink. He remained on the fringes. I knew howthat felt. Not really belonging anywhere. For him, it seemed bychoice. I wasn’t sure about me anymore. Maybe I could’ve been nicerto Fox when he saw Dasher and me asleep on the sofa together. Icould’ve explained that Dasher and I were just friends, but I hadfought back instead. Afterward, I could’ve explained to Kieran …yeah, the more I thought about it the more I knew I wouldn’t havebeen able to explain anything to that asshole without a fist. Yeah,no, I couldn’t have done anything different. I wasn’t one of them.I’d never be. And that wasn’t by choice.

We walked around a winding path. Thetemperature wasn’t that cold yet, but it would be colder soon.“Thanks for showing me around,” I said.

He shrugged. Then we reached a subsection ofthe division. A row of houses scattered in the field. “This, myman,” he said, “is the red-light district.”

When I gave him my huh look, he laughed andexplained. “Dude, the entertainment district. We have clubs, bars,restaurants, and houses for all types of kinks.” He pointed at eachhouse in turn. On the outside, they looked like regular framedhouses. Some like barn houses. He slapped my back a little too hardand we entered one of the closer ones. Once the doors opened, wewere drowned in spotlight and music. The windows had a privacyscreen hiding the inside of the place.

Smart.

I followed Jack to the bar. The house hadbeen completely gutted. There was a loft that overlooked thedancefloor and a bar, and a DJ on a raised platform. The rest of itwas open space. Every class, from first years to fourth years, werescattered throughout. Most dancing, some doing other things in darkhallways. Others at the bar.

It was awesome.

Jack handed me a beer and we clinked thebottoms before taking a pull. It’d been more than a minute since Ifelt so relaxed. Jack planted something in my hand. “That’s afreebie this round. Have fun,” he said, winked, and disappeared inthe crowd.

I shoved the weed into my pocket and gavethe place a good scan. My eyes made it to the loft where none otherthan the prince of hell stood leaning over the banister. Kieran.His black hair was perfectly styled to the side, despite thehumidity that had my curls turning to barbed wire. He wore a loosesalmon button down rolled at the sleeve revealing impressiveforearms, not an area inked. A leather bracelet around his wristI’d noticed before. But his eyes were the most remarkable featureon him. Contrasting with the color of his hair, they were an eerielight green. And when the light hit them just right, like now, theylooked as if they were glowing. Especially when they were staringat me and glowering. He did that glowering thing well, making mystomach knot, my palms sweat, and my body jittery as fuck. I wantedto punch him so hard, he’d wake up in the next century. Instead, Idid what I always did. I broke out my charm. I gave him a smile andlifted my beer in salute before taking another pull. I didn’t seeif he returned the gesture because I’d already turned around toface the dancefloor.

Fucker.

Fuck him.

I hated him.

I learned a few things about Kieran. Heruled Arcadia. Even the teachers took orders from him. He took hisschooling serious enough to pay attention, do his homework, takenotes. It was once he was out of the classroom that he became adick. He never ate with us in the cafeteria, always consulted hisphone for something, and he did the glaring thing very well. Thehairs at the back of my neck often stood on end whenever he wasaround me.

People expected me to run with The Ark Boys.But no thank you. I had to try college, so I could see what camenext with Maddox. Killing him had even taken a temporary back seat.I didn’t need or want the notice of The Ark Boys. I had evenconsidered asking Dr. Casera to move me out of that house buthadn’t decided if I wanted to move. The Ark Boys were mostly goneand when they weren’t, they spent a lot of time locked in one ofthe many rooms in the house discussing shit I had no interest in.It gave me free reign and I liked that. Better than sharing a housewith a dozen or so other guys. I could deal with it.

A girl approached me with a sly smile. Asheen of sweat coated her skin. Her blonde hair perfectly straight.She had blue eyes and was wearing form fitted short shorts, and atank top. “Hi, you’re the new student at Arcas.”

---