Chapter 11 – Rook #2
Kit looked between Corvus and me. “You know what, fine. I don’t have time for this shit.”
He shook his head, jabbing two fingers in Corvus’ direction. “When you see Ava Jade, tell her I’ll be waiting when she’s ready to come back to a real man.”
Ope.
Corvus rushed him. The self-defense instructor managed to dodge the first swing of his fist, but wasn’t fast enough to evade everything else.
My brother kicked his legs out from under him and he went down hard, eyes wide and empty from the knock to the back of his head.
Corvus crouched over him, not wasting a second before snatching up a fistful of t-shirt to drag him up only to knock him back down with a beautiful throw of his fist.
Kit’s head jerked back, blood spurting from his mouth.
I took a drag of my cigarette.
Corvus hit him again.
Dominique screamed.
Again .
My cock hardened.
Again.
Kit’s eyes rolled back.
“Stop it!” Dominique screamed. “ You’re killing him! ”
Blood sprayed over my brother’s blackout face. The beast inside on full display.
I shook my head, in awe of him. Aching to join him. But he needed this. This one was his and only his.
Dominique raced in, throwing a roundhouse kick to Corvus’ head. He was knocked to the side for an instant, but it didn’t stop him from getting right back on that motherfucking horse, pummeling him into the flagstone. Painting the entryway red.
Dominique tried again, jumping on his back only to be thrown off, her eyes wet with tears as she coughed, inhaling dirt.
“Please!” she shrieked, and I realized the plea was for me. “Make him stop.”
I took another drag and butted out the cigarette beneath my boot. “Sorry, love. This one’s between my brother and that sorry bastard there.”
Corvus hit Kit once more before dropping his limp body to the ground to lift his chest to the sky, tipping his head back in a feral roar. Breath so hot I could see the faint cloud of it in the night air.
He looked down at his handiwork, upper lip curling, hard breaths expanding his entire torso as he rose back to his full height, fist still clenched like he wasn’t sure if he was done.
I put my hands together in a slow clap, drawing his attention. “Damn, Bro. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked, and he stepped out of the way as Dom rushed in, falling to her knees at Kit’s side, trying feverishly to wake him.
Kit groaned and I frowned, a little disappointed to find he wasn’t dead after all.
“Want me to…” I indicated Kit.
“Do what you want,” he said in a distant growl, turning on his heel to leave without so much as another word. I watched his back retreat, not to the Rover in the parking lot, but around to the back of Briar Hall, no doubt to the trailhead that would take him back to the nest.
“Come on,” Dominique was saying, still crying, and it was hard to believe Ava Jade took self-defense lessons with this girl. This girl whose clothes oozed money and whose demeanor couldn’t be any more divergent from hers. Not to mention the divide in their skill level and ability.
Some people had a natural talent, a predilection for violence. Neither of these sad motherfuckers did.
“Get up!” she was shouting. “ Come on.”
I considered the knife in my boot for a minute before deciding they weren’t worth my trouble. Or the time. Time that we didn’t have.
The door creaked open as I stepped into the academy, the sound of fleeing footsteps all around as I strode toward the elevator, cursing the limp I couldn’t seem to contain.
By the time I got to the second floor, all the students who’d been lingering in the atrium, watching in the stairwells, from their windows, had fallen silent. Aware of the monster stalking the halls.
The drag of dissipating adrenaline from watching my brother finally come undone was almost too fucking much for my exhausted system to take.
But I knew how to fix it.
How to stay awake.
To keep looking.
My Ghost wasn’t safe. I knew that for certain now. We thought Becca was and look what fucking happened to her.
She’d be back by now.
If she were able.
Cold dread and white hot rage simmered and spiked in my blood, sputtering before either could be the fuel I needed to keep going.
I lost count of how many hours it’d been since I slept. But if this was how Corvus felt most days, I didn’t know how he handled it without a little something to pick his dead ass up off the floor.
The bathroom door banged loudly against the opposite wall as I shoved my way inside, flicking on the light switch.
My phone pinged, and I plucked it out only to shove it back in my pocket, fingering past the cool metal to the bit of plastic tucked away beside it.
Grey could wait for an update. Just a few minutes.
I set the small bag filled with white powder on the stainless steel counter, my mouth going dry.
How could I know it hadn’t been tainted?
Nah.
This fucker wanted us to destroy ourselves.
No carrion for the Crows .
He took away our outlet.
Outing Corvus took away his mask. Put him under more scrutiny.
And this…
This was the fucker trying to get me to sabotage myself. I didn’t know what he knew exactly, but blow wouldn’t render me useless. And it wouldn’t turn me against my brothers. What it would do was keep me awake for as long as I needed to be awake to find her.
It would make me a fucking wrecking ball of a human being, bulldozing everything and anything that stood in my way of getting to her.
I needed it.
Just for now.
I could stop.
I’d stopped before.
Before I could change my mind, I tore the baggy open, spilling the contents over the counter. I dipped my pinkie in the mound of powder and rubbed it onto my gums, tasting the familiar flavor.
Woody. It was pure. Had to be.
I waited a minute to be sure, feeling the small hairs on the back of my neck lift with the slow tickle of a high.
I fingered a card from my wallet, dividing the rest into two thick lines. Rolled up a bill.
My phone rang, and I set it on the counter, watching Grey’s number flash insistently on the screen.
“Sorry, Bro.”
I tapped ignore and put the rolled bill to my nose.