Page 3 of Dark Embrace

I pull into my driveway at the same time as my brother. Killing the engine, I climb out and lean against the hood, crossing my arms over my chest. If it was either of my other brothers, I would ignore them and go inside, but Alaric never judges me, so I’ll stick around and hear him out. He slides his hands in his pockets as he approaches, stopping a few inches away in front of me.

“You know this doesn’t end well, right little brother?” He says in his ‘I mean business’ Dad voice.

“It’s already over.” I tell him. “She’s back with her parents. I’ll take her stuff over later in the week. Merry fucking Christmas, Ric.” I shove off the hood and shoulder past him. His arm is around my neck before I have a chance to do anything. In a fist fight, I would destroy all three of my brothers, but Alaric is a stealthy bastard. He’s lightning fast and dead silent when he strikes. I wrap my fingers around his bicep, trying to make room so I can breathe, but he uses his other hand to push on the back of my head and my vision starts to blur. He releases me as soonas my head starts to spin and I double over with my hands on my knees, gasping for breath.

“You don’t always have to be an asshole, Rune.” He spits, squatting down a few feet in front of me with his hands hanging between his legs. “I saw Josiah earlier today, he said he was supposed to be meeting Cali. You know damn well that I won’t allow a fucking junkie to live in this house.”

“I’m still fucking clean, Ric. Test me if you don’t fucking believe me.” I choke out, rubbing my neck. His gray eyes turn almost black as he stares into my eyes, probably trying to figure out if I’m lying. “I don’t think Cali is using again, either.”

“Why does that matter?” He cocks his head to the side, “thought you were done with her? Ya know, ‘Merry fucking Christmas, Ric’, and all that bullshit.” he says mockingly.

“Do any of you even know what love feels like?” I ask as I brush past him, ready for this night to just be over.

“If I ever fall in love, it won’t be with a junkie whore.” He shouts after me. I spin to face him, my hands balled into fists, but he’s already got his hands up in surrender and a shit eating grin spread across his face.. “See? You’re not ready to walk away from her. Sometimes the people we care about need some tough love. That girl loves you more than anything else in this world. Can you love her enough to help her through this?”

He doesn’t give me a chance to respond. He walks into the house and shuts the door behind him. I’m wound too tight to go attempt to sleep yet, so I walk inside and head to my workout room. I don’t notice Karrion waiting for me until the door is closed and the lock is flipped.

“Doesn’t anybody in this fucking house sleep?” I grumble, leaning against the wall to hear my overly annoying brother out.

“I love my beauty sleep,” he shrugs, “but when my baby brother peels out of the driveway in the middle of the night, it disrupts that beauty sleep.”

“Yeah, well, your bestie decided to get plastered tonight and her fucking friends left her alone at the bar. What do you expect me to do?” I arch a brow and watch in amusement as the wheels turn in his head. He already disliked Cali’s girl friends, now I’m willing to bet good money that they’ll be dead within the next twenty four hours.

“I’ll fucking gut them.” He growls, unlocking the door and slamming it closed behind him.

“Silas, you’re up.” I say sarcastically to the empty room. I doubt he would give a crap even if he was awake. I’ll be damned if I take advice from a man who plays video games for a living anyway. The lucky shit makes more money than the rest of us and always has girls falling at his feet. The last one he brought home almost didn’t make it out alive. She picked a fight with Karrion’s flavor of the week and he knocked her out for ruining his evening. She was lucky and got away with just an orbital bone fracture, but his fling never made it out of here. Karrion is all about equality, and has no qualms over hitting somebody, regardless of what's between their legs. Our parents tried their best to teach him the true meaning of equality, but it never stuck. Have you ever tried to convince a cat not to do something? It’s the same thing with K. He’s going to do the exact opposite of what you say.

I shake my head to clear the thoughts of my brothers and focus on the punching bag in front of me. Pale blue eyes fill my head as I get into a rhythm, two jabs, hook, kick, knee.Never stop moving. Protect your face.I circle the bag, continuing to land my strikes until I realize I’ve fallen out of my groove, I’m just aimlessly punching the bag. I angrily grab the middle of the bag and bring my knee up repeatedly until I can no longer lift my leg. Glancing at the clock on the wall, I see that it’s almost five am. I slump to the floor and drape my arm across my eyes.

“Calista is the sweet pea in this little pod, you’re some sort of angry pea.” Karrion says through his laughter. “Is there a type of pea that’s named after something angry?” He asks.

“A snap pea!” Cali squeals and claps her hands together. “That totally fits!”

“I don’t know what you two are talking about, I’m a bright ray of fucking sunshine.” I say, rolling my eyes at the two of them. It pisses me off when these two gang up on me like this.

“I love you, my little snap pea.” Cali sing songs as she squeezes my face and kisses my nose.

I sit straight up on the floor, pulling myself from my memory. Looking at the clock once again, it’s almost ten am. I pull myself to my feet, my thighs screaming in protest. I shut the light off and pull the door closed before making my way to my room to take a hot shower. Once I’m finished, I’ll figure out what to do about the woman I love.

Chapter 4

Calista

Waking up in the morning takes every ounce of energy I have. Never in a million years would I have expected Rune to treat me the way he did last night. My head feels like it’s being torn apart as I swing my legs over the side of the bed. I slowly make my way down the hall toward the bathroom, each step causing my stomach to do somersaults. When I reach the bathroom door, I find it locked with my annoying little brother on the other side.

“Please hurry, Warren, I’m going to throw up.” I plead through the door. A few seconds later I hear the shower start up and my heart deflates even more. I didn’t grow up in a fancy house like Rune, my parents were barely able to afford this tiny three bedroom, one-bath house. Rune offered to buy them a bigger place, but they refused, saying that they had more than enough already. My two brothers were never happy that they had to share a room, and often pulled mean pranks on me because of it. With Christmas only a few days away, this really was the worst time for this shit to happen. Warren is back home from college and Emmett will most likely be here as well, but his wifejust divorced him and took the kids, so I want to avoid him altogether.

Just as I’m about to give up this waiting game, the door flies open and I’m standing face to face with my older brother.

“You got ditched, too?” He laughs, but it's not an amused sound, it’s almost sinister. “Must run in the family, little sister.”

“Good to see you too, Elliot.” I jab, trying to squeeze past him to finally use the bathroom. His fist comes out of nowhere, hitting me directly in the stomach, causing me to throw up all over his chest. He stands there stunned while I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “No wonder you’re single, you pathetic piece of shit.” I spit, pushing him backward as hard as I can. Everyone assumes that just because I’m only five feet tall, that I'm just some weak little girl, but they don’t know that the man I love is the King of the underground fight arena. The back of his legs hit the edge of the bathtub and his arms fling out to the side, trying to catch himself from falling, but there’s no use. His ass hits the bottom of the tub, his head smacking off the wall with a satisfying thud. He stares at me in disbelief as I leave the bathroom and go back to my room. I need to get dressed and get the fuck out of here. I’ll go get a hotel room or something, but I can’t stay here.

I pull into the parking lot of the hotel and pull my phone from my pocket, quickly sending my friend Josiah a text. I’ve been clean for two years now, but at this moment, I just need something to take the edge off. A new text pings through, and I pull open the thread without checking to see who it’s from.

Rune: We need to talk, Cali.

Me: You had your chance to talk last night when youproved just how little I actually mean to you.

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