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“It’s too dark in here for sunglasses, Roxy. Are you hungover again?” he asked. “Maybe you need to work on your drinking problem.”
And then you realised that even showing me all of those parts of yourself weren’t enough.” “Enough to what?” he snarled. “Enough to change the way I see you. To make me hate you any less.” He flinched minutely at my guess, just enough for me to think I was right about
A defiant grin hooked up the corner of my mouth and I spun back to look right in Darius’s eye as I dropped down into his usual spot at the end of the couch. Everyone in The Orb fell deathly silent. Out of the corners of my eyes I could see them all backing up.
Darius’s jaw clenched. “Orion told me you’ve been drinking.”
“Right. Because he’ll actually kill me where you prefer to just make me so miserable I’m tempted to end my suffering for myself,”
“Fuck off, you’re not suicidal,” he replied dismissively. “Nobody burns as hot and cold as you do if they don’t love life.” “You don’t know anything about me,” I snarled. “Yeah I do. And that’s what you can’t stand,” he replied darkly. “Because we’re the same you and me. Both fucked up, broken pieces on a game board that’s bigger than we can cope with. Both hoping to find some way of winning despite the odds being stacked against us all the damn time. Both addicted to things that push our boundaries and make us feel alive. Because at the end of the day, even feeling the worst of things is
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I’d rather be sobbing with sorrow, screaming in fear, laughing until I was breathless or riding the very edge of a high than just keeping to the middle path. The thing I feared most in life was boredom. I didn’t want to live an easy life, I wanted to blaze through an adventurous one and I’d choose to burn out entirely before I’d let myself whither in emptiness.
“Because we don’t get to choose our obsessions. And you’re mine.”
So the first time you choose to message me without me messaging you first, it’s to send me that shit? I frowned, wondering if he was right about that. Did I really never message him first? Probably not. I’d learned a long time ago not to give assholes too much attention anyway. Douchebags liked to think the world revolved around them and I’d have nothing better to do with my time than sending them countless messages. Which was not true.
personally found it hard to forget the casual way he referred to me as a whore or the general creepy ass fact that his hat had his grandma’s soul knitted into it. I mean, what the actual fuck? You couldn’t pay me to wear something like that. And
I sure as shit didn’t want it near me. What if she was in it, lingering amongst the head sweat, dandruff and loose hairs, whispering to him about the way my skirt was too short or my attitude too slutty for her liking?
Diego huffed and Darcy gave me a look that said I was treading the line of bitch. I replied with a look of I know but I don’t care and she smirked at me.
“Good work, Vega,” she said, jotting down my time. “You’re first back.”
“Dedication in all things usually pays off at some point,” Prestos agreed with a smirk.
It’s no surprise that the Vegas made top spots as the most powerful students we’ve ever had attending the academy.
if you’re the best there will always be someone who wants to challenge you for that place.
“And I think we’ve also come way past the point of no return with them. If we’re destined to be locked in this power struggle with them for the rest of our lives then I say it’s time we concentrated everything we’ve got on learning how to beat them.” “Hell yes,” Darcy agreed. “One of these days, I’m going to be the one knocking them onto their asses in the mud.” I laughed, my power stirring beneath my skin as if it liked the sound of that. “I think it’s time for us to accept who we are. We’re the lost Vega Princesses, Heirs to our own throne and the most powerful assholes in the whole of
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They said you’d been seen charitably donating your time to showing Roxanya Vega around Tucana.” I snorted a laugh. That paper was so far up our parents’ asses that they’d never dare release a story saying he’d been dating a Vega, even if they had a photograph of him screwing her.
Darius gritted his teeth, his muscles bunching as he continued to lift the four hundred pound weight above his chest.
“I took her to that sushi and karaoke place on the east side of town.” Darius barked a laugh as he placed his weight back on the rack and sat up. His muscles bulged from the workout, the Phoenix and Dragon tattoos which danced with each other on his back gleaming with sweat. “No wonder it went to shit then,” he taunted. Caleb narrowed his eyes on him in return. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?” “Well for one thing, Roxy doesn’t eat fish, or meat, or anything pretentious that comes in tiny little squares. So I’m betting she thought sushi was fucking disgusting,” Darius replied with a snort of amusement.
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“I’d take her over to Clearmont Park on the west side of town,” he replied. “You think she’d want to go for a walk in the park?” Caleb scoffed. “No. I’d take her there because they’ve got the best burrito truck in town parked up by the main gates every Saturday night and she practically has an orgasm every time she eats Mexican food.”
“No. Every Saturday there’s a bike meet in that lot. And street races to win bikes. So I’d take her to that and after she’d beat every fucker there and won their bikes from them, I’d take her to Blue Lake,” Darius added. “Why? That bar isn’t even on the west side,” Caleb pointed out. “I know. But they stock fifty different types of tequila and have over a hundred tequila cocktails on the menu. Plus they play good music and she loves dancing.”
“She does,” Darius replied with enough confidence to say he was sure of that. Apparently he’d been paying rather a lot of attention to her because I had no fucking idea she could even ride a bike let alone the rest of it.
“And she wouldn’t say yes anyway so this is a pointless conversation. Like you said, she hates me.” Darius’s gaze darkened even further with that remark and for a moment I could have sworn I felt…pain. Shit.
I raised an eyebrow at that because it sounded suspiciously like Darius was trying to protect the Vegas by tormenting them instead of his motivations being about maintaining his own power.
“I don’t like the way he just said ‘my misery’ like that’s some kind of constant state he’s in,” he said. “I mean, it’s not that bad is it? We haven’t been so blind that we’ve just totally fucking missed the fact that Darius is actually that unhappy... Have we?” I exchanged a loaded look with Caleb and pushed my hands through my mohawk as I expelled a breath. “He’s been blocking me out of his head for a hell of a long time,” I said with a frown. “But he just let the walls down and…fuck, I think we really screwed up. He’s
I stepped closer and snatched his Atlas from his hand before he could stop me. I flipped it around to look at it, expecting something from his father or maybe a newspaper article. I did not expect to see a photograph of Tory Vega in her underwear and a pair of filthy walking boots.
But with his emotions still wide open to me I could feel how much that thought tore at him. It actually hurt him to think about getting rid of her. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Max, I’ve never…I can’t stop thinking about her and wanting her and hating her all at once.”
“I know,” Darius growled. “But we would stand by you even if the whole world found out you were the son of a mortal, let alone being a bastard. What difference does it make anyway? Your power comes from your father. So fuck anyone who would give a shit about your blood not being pure enough. There’s no better man or woman to sit in your father’s place after you and if your stepmother thinks she can replace you with Ellis, she’s fucking deluded.” “Too fucking right,” Caleb agreed, looking straight into my eyes. “I always thought your mom was an asshole,” Seth added thoughtfully. A warm smile
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“You mean Lionel beats him?” I growled because I was so fucking sick of us having to pretend we didn’t know about that shit. Darius locked his jaw but the emotion I caught from him confirmed it. “He never used to pay Xavier much attention but ever since he Emerged…” “Fuck,” Caleb said, even though it wasn’t really necessary.
“We’ll figure it out,” Seth swore. “Somehow.” “He’d rather kill him than have the world find out what he is,” Darius said and the hopelessness pouring from him broke something in me. “That’s not going to happen,” I snarled. “I swear it.” “Me too,” Caleb promised. “The four of us can do anything if we set our minds to it,” Seth said confidently.
“Your issues are our issues,” Caleb agreed, gripping Darius’s shoulder. “We stand together in this like we do in everything else,” Seth said, nodding firmly. “So what are we going to do?” Darius asked, a faint glimmer of hope shining in his
Darius: Don’t I get a reply this time?
For half a second I almost snapped at her. Like some small, insane, teeny tiny psycho deep down inside of me wanted to tell her to back the fuck off of Darius even though I knew she was only joking. But in that half a second I thought of him as mine and I didn’t want her or anyone else near him.
Darcy had already gotten changed into the little black dress she was wearing as part of her costume and she tied a floor length red cape around her shoulders next so that she looked like a Vampire from the mortal stories.
I strode away from him, heading back into the crowd but immediately felt a hand latch around my wrist. I growled, turning sharply, expecting to find Seth there but instead I found a tall man with a thick black cloak and a psycho killer mask over his face. “Having fun?” he asked and my heart fluttered at the sound of Orion’s voice and the scent of cinnamon sailing over me. His chest was bare beneath the cape and
Orion swung at him in a blur of motion, pinning Seth to the wall by the throat. “Don’t you talk about her like that you piece of shit!”
He strode up to Seth with his fangs bared. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you. I don’t care if you’re an Heir or if I end up in Darkmore Penitentiary for the rest of my fucking life. I’ll take any fate for her, so just remember that when you’re playing your little game, Capella.”
“Screw you,” she snapped. I was genuinely surprised. I imagined she would have mentioned
Darcy put on a casual expression and I was surprised at her acting skills. But then again, she had been fucking a teacher for who knew how long and no one else knew about it.
For some reason, I didn’t laugh along. In fact, I didn’t feel much at all.
stared at her for far too long. The Vegas, to the very core of their beings, had iron wills. It was why we were trying this different tactic. But the frightening thing was, I saw my own will mirrored in hers at that moment. Even on the verge of oblivion, she fought. She refused to give in.
Her eyes widened as she realised what I was offering. And sure, she could just use her own wings to fly up there but riding on a Dragon was practically against the law. Especially if you asked my father. He could banish me from the Dragon’s guild if he found out. I could hear him now, Dragons are not pack horses. But I didn’t give a shit. I’d break that rule for her. Hell, I was beginning to wonder if I wouldn’t break a few more for her too.
oh she has a point there, I saw that and you did look hot,” Roxy commented, making my heart lurch in a strange way. But she continued as if there was nothing at all odd about her admitting she found me attractive.
lay down and she curled against me, laying her head on my chest and fitting so perfectly into the curve of my body that it was like she’d been made to fit there. The ache in my chest lessened as I held her close, my fingers toying with the rainbow coloured strands of her hair as her heavy breathing fluttered against my skin.
I re-read the names again, noticing the fact that two of them were to do with Xavier and wondering if the two women’s shelters were relevant to him too.
“Shit dude, you can’t break up with someone who was never yours in the first place,” I said, shaking my head as I walked away from him.
I turned and stormed from the room before she could respond, my heart breaking into a thousand pieces. And not because of the lies the Heirs had told about us. But because for the first time in my life, I truly felt alone.
If my reputation was going down the drain, then so was his.
He dragged me to my feet in an instant and wrapped me in his arms.
