Page 9 of Scorching Lies

I use other things.

Things that could ruin us.

Pain. Blood. Money. They all have one thing in common. Control. It’s what makes us the most powerful college students at Hawthorne Elite.

Money brings us anything we want. Everything.

Blood spilling, well that brings us fear. Drinking it in like the devils we are.

Pain. Causing it and living in it. They go hand in hand and my addiction to it will be my greatest downfall. When they all bring me back to my little killer I know it will be me who does her in but what they don’t know is I’ll follow her down to hell. The hellfire of what we are, what we’ve become, will bring us both to our end but she’ll be at my feet when she falls.

When we were kids my brothers pampered her with love, gifts, and adoration. Her hold on them, my family, even her father was unmatched. I can still see her wide smokey eyes looking up at me with curiosity. Short blonde hair bouncing with each laugh escaping her pink lips. My hands twist the leather of the wheel remembering the way my hands would sweat whenever she came near me. It’s like my body knew she was the burning sun, forbidden to look at, a burning star forever out of reach. The singe on the tips of my fingers is a sign that we’ve orbited too close to each other but what’s an inch closer?

A taste.

A drop of blood.

I need to feel her skin under mine. Heated. Flushed.Searing.

CHAPTER FIVE

KENNA

It’s been three days of nightmares. Three days of me waking up to a soaked bed. Sweat and tears mix into my skin through the terrors that take over my body. Each night I wake to the same thing. A dark voice in my memories, sobs rattling my chest, and exhaustion have been my constant this week. It’s what led me to the same place each night for over a week, my muscles spent, and my energy so low I could barely manage to force my legs to make the distance back to my dorm.

Ally texted me earlier asking if I wanted her to grab me something for dinner, but my stomach groaned at the thought immediately. My body couldn’t handle as much fast food as she ate, but I stopped at Murphys to grab a few things the other day, so I knew there was something in the fridge for me to make. Making it back to the dorm was the only thing keeping me from stuffing my face and it damn sure wasn’t getting easier to walk. Crossing into the courtyard only two buildings from my dorm, I spot a large SUV sitting off to the side of our parking area just under the broken street lamp.

Keeping my head forward while I peeped over my shoulder, my gaze rolls over the dark tinted windows where the heat of someone’s stare meets mine. Chills run down my spine with the feel of someone's eyes boring into me. Gripping my hoodie sleeves, pulling them over my hands, I pick up my pace attempting to make it into the lit space just ahead. The dorm building appears in front of me after a couple seconds of power walking, the strain on my legs screaming at me, but I can finally see the large glass double doors.

My building is tall and wide with three stories of decent sized apartment shaped dorms. The outside is old style Victorian with flower baskets on the outside of each window. Our campus keeps the lawn well kept with flowers, bushes, and greenery. Our headmaster has a green thumb. Our entire campus has massive rod iron fences surrounding the grounds that stretch to just over six feet tall, but it’s the sharp diamond shape points on each post that grabs people's attention. Our families poured money into this school, making damn sure that it had the appearance of a castle, built perfectly for their little royalty elite brats. Money has never been a problem for me, but after losing everything it’s the least important thing in my life right now.

The Stone brothers don’t think I belong here, after all I don’t flash my wealth around like most of these spoiled shits, and well, I killed their dad. At least that’s what they want me to think. The problem is I can’t seem to make myself believe I didn’t, other than the voice in my ear when my eyes close. It tells me that they’re there to help me and they make promises that, from what I can tell, have not been kept. A door shutting has me jumping back into the here and now, my head whipping around to see a tall lean figure standing in the shadows near the SUV.

“Fuckkkk.” I breathe.

I’m only a full yard away from the door handle, but footsteps behind me almost have my body locking into place out of fear. That SUV? Yeah, I’ve seen it around campus before, it’s one of theirs. It’s one of the Stone brothers or their right hand man, G. Scoffing at his one letter name seems to snap me out of my fear induced shock. My steps pick up until I’m almost sprinting the short distance.

Why am I running from them?

Reaching out for the door, my fingers close over the cold metal when a heavy body slams me into the glass, cracking my head on the hard surface.

“Because your body is smarter than your head. It knows a viper when it sees one.”

His voice is muffled by my ear pressing against the glass. My head swims from the force of his weight throwing me against the door. It takes me a few seconds to come back to the present, my eyes blurring for a moment. He must feel my muscles bunch, preparing to struggle, because his laugh is low and deadly, prompting me to pause.

“Come on killer, you think I’d let you get away so soon? Don’t tell me you don’t enjoy my body being on top of yours.” His voice is still too low.

“Get- get off!”

Bucking against his heavy arms that are holding me in place, I begin to heave from struggling against him. Heated fingers brush the fallen hair from my face, revealing a lethal Ryker looking like a snake ready to strike. The way his eyes roam over me with disgust has me biting into my cheek until blood spills into my mouth.

“Get the fuck off me!” My palms shove against the glass.

Only moving an inch, his chuckle is low and dangerous. The scent of musk, danger, and fire lingers on his skin, assaulting my senses as he pinches the sides of my face with one hand. His thumb and pointer finger digging into my face, pressing my skin against my teeth.

“Looks like the little killjoy found herself out all alone in the middle of the night. Don’t you know better than to walk the campus after dark princess?”

Shaking my face so hard the skin on the inside of my cheek split against my teeth. Growling under my breath, I refuse to give him anything other than indifference. Two more steps and his heated body is flush against me digging me into the door even more. Rolling his gaze down my frame they stop on my legs.Theleg. The one place I hate having attention. He sees it and that’s enough to make my stomach recoil. It’s not the blood, or the forceful way he controls my body, or even the fear drowning me from the inside out. No, it’s anticipating the look of horrified disgust that I know is coming.

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