Page 305 of Boys Who Taint

I frown as I place the helmet down and approach him while he’s digging out something from the dirt behind her grave. When I’m near, he stands up again and slowly turns to me. The white mask on his face gives me chills.

“You buried that here?”

“With the ghosts, where it belonged, until you brought out the worst in me.” The dark grin beneath the mask makes my entire body burn up. “I warned you to stop playing with me.”

He puts in the red contacts, and something about that feels so incredibly familiar here in this very same cemetery where I buried my sister.

“Wait a minute,” I mutter. “You were here that day.”

He smirks. “So you finally realize. Yes, I attended her funeral. I had to be a witness to the destruction I caused. I had to see the tears in your eyes. I had to see the hatred … so I could kill the part of me that cared.”

He leans over to pick up a couple of pebbles, tossing them in the air, and a shiver runs up and down my spine from the mere memory of my Ghost hitting my window with them.

I take a step back, but he grips my throat and leans in to whisper. “I haven’t told you to run… yet.”

The pebbles drop to the ground.

Two more masks appear from behind his back, and he flings the masks to the forest floor beyond the cemetery, where they’re picked up by two ghostly shadows, one with a black-out tattoo carrying a bag while the other runs his fingers through his ashy-white hair.

My throat clamps up.

Apollo. Grey.

“You were waiting here?” I mutter.

“I messaged them that you were a very naughty girl on my bike,” Levi replies.

“Great atmosphere for a fuck, don’t you think?” Grey asks as he puts on the mask.

“I brought the toys,” Apollo says, masked up and holding a whole bag filled with God knows what.

“Wait, but your wounds,” I mutter.

“Stop worrying about my body, and start worrying about yours, because when I get my hands on you … you’ll be begging me to stop,” Levi growls. My heart begins to pound as he pulls me closer, fingers digging into my flesh. “Now … are you ready to run for me, Firefly?”

I nod.

A diabolical grin spreads on his face, and he pulls up the black balaclava. “Wouldn’t want the ghosts to come and haunt you.”

Not one second do I wait before I bolt off through the cemetery, zigzagging past all the headstones with three of those fuckers on my heels. They’re fast, vicious, and insatiable, like predators set loose. And the prey they’ve turned me into has me wildly turned on.

I run as fast as my legs will take me, through the woods and back again, circling to evade their grasp as all three are on my track.

“How long do you think you can keep running away from me?” Grey barks.

“As long as it takes you to catch me!” I yell back, running like my life depends on it.

“Oh, I will fucking catch you, don’t you fucking worry, Freckles,” Apollo growls through the woods, setting my body on fire. “This is what I fucking trained for.”

“C’mon then!” I taunt, zigzagging through the woods back to the cemetery, back to my sister’s grave where I started.

Suddenly, a dark figure runs into me from the side, and I shriek as we both fall to the ground. He crawls on top of me and pins my hands above my head, deep brown eyes staring into my soul. “I told you I will always find you.”

I try to wriggle loose because I’m angry I got caught already, but he won’t let go.

“Oh no, you’re not fucking going anywhere.” He grins as he inches closer. “I’m going to tie you up and bottle you like a goddamn firefly that only lights up for me.” His tongue dips out to lick my neck, leaving a hot, wet trail in his wake. “And you’re going to beg me to fuck your goddamn brains out.”

“Fuck yes …” I murmur.

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