Page 35 of The Kiss Of Death
“I’ll deal with both of you assholes later.”
They released me, reluctantly surrendering my flag to Levi before retreating like cowards. Levi advanced slowly, his gaze piercing me with unsettling calmness. Every part of me trembled; tears had streamed down my cheeks, and I struggled to hold his gaze. But he didn’t speak. He just watched me intently, waiting for the tremors to cease and for me to regain control over my thumping heart.
“If only you had listened to me and refrained from meddling with my cameras, I would have found you sooner,” he deadpanned. “Because of your actions, there will be consequences.”
“The skull masks… It all came back. I…” I muttered, caught off guard by the words escaping my lips. “Thank you.”
He moistened his lips with a flick of his tongue as he brought his face down to my level. “Thank you for what?”
I couldn’t believe I was saying this. “For saving me.”
“You’re mistaken if you think I saved you.” Levi’s voice dropped to a low, menacing whisper. “I didn’t save you, little thief. I merely captured you, and for tonight, you’re all mine.”
“Levi, please,” she begged, as if the fear in her eyes would change my mind.
I rolled down a metallic chair in the middle of the classroom, pointing for her to take a seat. I hadn’t exactly planned out this little tête-à-tête, but her words “it all came back” captured my curiosity. She was hiding something I had to know. Something that broke her but wasn’t me.
“You can either spend your hazing with me or be at the mercy of the masked Tacticians in our dungeons with your Unifiers teammates. And you can be sure, generous as I am, I’ll ask them to be at their worst so that your nightmares appear like dreams in comparison. No one will save you, and your daddy will ship you back to your rich girl’s prison for the rest of your life.”
I stared at the party in the gardens where students were drinking big tanks of beers, regrouping the hazing students from the bullies to start the Hazing Night festivities. Kay and Tara led their group. Yet here we were, the both of us, alone. It was almost poetic.
Dalia finally capitulated and took a seat, folding her arms on her chest, accepting her fate. Her swollen eyes were red. What broke her? It couldn’t be those two brainless idiots. But what? Who?
“Good girl.” I went to the teacher’s desk and grabbed the bottle of alcohol in her top drawer. “Mrs. Yatz always keeps it there as a reminder of her recovery, yet she always thinks aboutdrinking it. She should just drink it, get back to who she really is, instead of thinking she could be better.”
“You think you know everyone because of your skills, but you’re wrong,” she spat. “You think so little of everyone because you can’t even stand to look at yourself in the mirror. Maybe she keeps the bottle because it reminds her of how far she’s come and how strong she is now.”
“You sound like my old therapist. And you underestimate me, Mercier,” I said, watching over the windows while stalking to her. “Looks like your useless house finished second, right behind us. Isn’t that wonderful? Your headmaster is bringing his ducklings into the forest for a boring hide-and-seek.”
“I get it. You’ll never forgive me, but can you at least forget about my existence, and I’ll do the same?”
Huh, I’d never seen her defeated before, her shoulders slumping. She was always bursting with hope and annoying optimism. Witnessing her stripped of her usual rainbow of colors pissed me the fuck off.
“I’m afraid I cannot,” I admitted, halting before her. “Now, shall we play a little game? I ask a question, and you must answer truthfully. If you refuse or lie…” I leaned in closer, my hand gliding down her neck until she jerked it away. “I’ll claim something of yours.” I gestured to the bottle and glass, posed on her side of the table. “Or you could spare yourself by helping Mrs. Yatz resist her pathetic urges.”
“If this is your version of a truth or dare game, you’re the pathetic one.”
“Think of it as our official first date.” My lips tightened in a thin line. Taking a seat in front of her, I hook an ankle over my knee. “We have until midnight. Isn’t it romantic?”
“Having me sequestered in a torture chamber doesn’t sound like a first date.”
I scoffed. “Semantics. Plus, some first dates are horrendous, the kind you never wish to experience again, and this is the standard I’m usually aiming for.”
“Fine.” She bit her inner cheek. “Ask away.”
“You looked terrified before you mistook me for your knight in shining armor. What scared you?”
She blinked, not expecting me to jump straight to the point. “They were about to force me to take a pill to do God knows what. Of course I was scared.”
I tsked. “Not the entire truth. What went on inside that mind of yours?”
She rubbed her hands together, avoided my stare, and gulped. “Nothing else.”
“Let’s test it, shall we?”
I headed straight to her, caging her. One of my hands kept her locked in the chair. The other slid the zipper down on her sweater to reveal the awful lace tank top she wore like she was some eight-year-old.
“Levi, stop.” Her lips begged, but her eyes widened, her skin shivering.
