Chapter 13
Rei Kurosaki
I stepped through the main doors of Bloodburn Academy and immediately knew something was wrong.
The stares were not new. Ever since Dimitri had decided I was his personal project, people had been watching me.
But this was different. It felt like they were all in on some sick joke I had not been told yet.
I kept my head down and walked faster, clutching the strap of my bag until my knuckles turned white. My flower was clipped behind my ear like always. It felt stupidly important that day.
Someone shouldered into me hard from the left.
“Watch it, whore.”
I stumbled, nearly dropping my bag, and looked up to see some senior I did not even know smirking at me before disappearing into the crowd.
My stomach dropped.
Another person bumped me from the right, harder this time. A girl. She did not even pretend it was an accident.
“Slut.”
What the fuck was happening?
I tried to keep walking, tried to pretend I did not hear them, but the hallway felt narrower than usual. People were staring openly now. Some were laughing. Some were filming with their phones held low like they thought I would not notice.
Then a hand shot out from the crowd and ripped the flower straight out of my hair.
I gasped, my hand flying up to the empty space behind my ear as the red petals scattered across the floor.
“Fucking faggot,” the guy sneered. I did not even recognize him. Some football player type with a grin. “Heard you like getting your throat fucked in the woods like a cheap whore. Is that true? You let anyone stick their dick down your throat?”
I could not breathe.
My vision tunneled. My ears started ringing. I took a shaky step back, but someone else shoved me from behind.
“Rei!”
Marco pushed through the crowd and planted himself right in front of me even though he barely came up to most people’s chests.
“Back off!” he shouted. His voice was shaking. He never yelled at people. “Leave him alone!”
The football guy laughed. “Look at this. The little scholarship bitch is defending his boyfriend. How cute.”
Marco did not back down. He looked scared, but he stood his ground.
“Rei, I’m sorry,” he said quickly, turning to me. “I’m so sorry. I tried to find you before you got here. I didn’t know how fast it was spreading—”
“Marco,” I said, my voice hoarse. “What the hell is going on?”
He looked like he was about to cry. He pulled out his phone with trembling fingers and shoved it toward me.
“Just… look.”
I took the phone.
The video was already playing.
It was shot from somewhere in the trees.
I saw myself on my knees in the dirt, head tilted back, throat working as someone fucked my mouth.
The angle did not show the other person’s face, but it showed me clearly.
My hands were gripping their thighs. Saliva was dripping down my chin as I gagged around whatever was in my mouth.
It looked exactly like I was getting my throat fucked.
Because that was what it was supposed to look like.
My stomach turned violently.
I dropped the phone.
It clattered to the floor, but I barely heard it. My chest was tightening so fast I thought my ribs were going to crack. My vision blurred at the edges. I could not get enough air.
“Rei?” Marco’s voice sounded far away. “Rei, hey, breathe. It’s okay, just breathe—”
I could not.
I turned and ran.
I did not know where I was going. I just needed to get away from the stares. My shoulder slammed into someone. I kept running, tears already burning in my eyes.
I turned the corner too fast and collided with something solid.
A chest.
I stumbled back and looked up.
Dimitri.
His dark eyes widened the second he saw my face. I must have looked completely wrecked — teary, shaking, hyperventilating like I was about to pass out.
For one stupid second, all I could think was: Did you do this?
Of course he did.
Who else would have filmed that? Who else would have wanted to humiliate me like this?
My breathing got worse. My hands flew up to my hair on instinct, searching for the flower that was not there anymore. My fingers scraped over empty space again and again like maybe if I just kept looking, it would magically reappear.
It was gone.
“Rei,” he said, grabbing my arm. “Come here.”
I tried to pull away, but he was already steering me around the corner into a quieter hallway where no one was. He pushed me gently against the wall, caging me in with his body so no one could see us.
“Breathe,” he ordered.
I kept gasping, my hands still frantically searching my hair like a madman. My nails scraped against my own scalp. I could not find it. I needed it. I needed something to hold onto. I needed my flower.
“How could you?” I choked out.
Dimitri’s jaw tightened. “It wasn’t me.”
I laughed, but it came out as a sob. “Who else? There was no one there! It was just us in the middle of fucking nowhere and now everyone has a video of me—” My voice cracked. “Of me on my knees like some… some whore—”
“Rei.” He said it firmly. “Look at me. It wasn’t me. I would never film that. I’d tell you if it was.”
I could not think straight. My chest hurt so badly I thought I was having a heart attack.
Without thinking, I grabbed his arm - the one braced against the wall beside my head - and dug my nails in hard. I felt the skin break under my fingers.
Dimitri stayed there, letting me claw into him like my panic was something he could absorb.
“My mom,” I whispered. “She’s going to see it. Daniel’s going to see it. Everyone’s going to know what I—” I could not even finish the sentence.
Dimitri’s free hand came up and cupped the side of my face, his thumb brushing under my eye where tears were already falling.
“I won’t let this get out,” he said. “I promise. I’ll shut everyone up. I’ll find out who filmed it and I’ll make sure it disappears. Your parents won’t know. No one important will know. I’ll handle it.”
I dug my nails deeper into his arm, feeling more blood coat my fingertips. He still did not stop me.
“Why would someone do this?” I asked. “Why would they film that? It wasn’t even—” I cut myself off before I said too much.
Dimitri’s eyes darkened like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I’m going to find out. And when I do, they’re going to regret ever picking up that fucking phone.”
I leaned my head back against the wall, still struggling to breathe. My chest kept hitching with these awful gasps. I felt like I was back in that car one year ago.
Except this time, it was not my father dying.
It was me.
“I hate this,” I whispered. “I hate that everyone saw me like that. I hate that they think I’m just some slut who lets you—” My voice broke again. “I’m not. I’m not like that.”
Dimitri’s thumb kept stroking my cheek.
“I know,” he said. “You’re not.”
I laughed weakly, more tears slipping down my face. “You don’t know shit about me.”
“I know enough,” he murmured. “I know you wear flowers in your hair because they make you feel safe. I know you’d rather starve than eat at home with your stepfather. I know you’d punch someone twice your size if they touched your friend. And I know you’re not a slut, Rei. You’re just mine.”
The possessiveness in his voice should have scared me.
Right now, it was the only thing keeping me from completely falling apart.
I kept my nails buried in his arm, grounding myself in the warmth of his blood under my fingertips. It was sick. I knew it was sick.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, even though I did not know what I was apologizing for. For clawing him? For existing? For letting him see me like this?
“Don’t be,” Dimitri said.
I let out a shaky breath and rested my forehead against his chest without thinking. I was still crying. I was still struggling to get enough air. But his heartbeat under my ear was helping me.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
Dimitri’s hand slid into my hair, careful where the flower used to be.
“I know,” he said.
I did not know what to say once I finally stopped shaking.
My chest still felt tight, like my ribs were pressing in on my lungs. My eyes were swollen, and my face felt sticky from the tears I had tried so hard to hold back. I stayed pressed against Dimitri’s chest longer than I should have.
“Come with me.”
I still did not know what to say. My head was too foggy to form any real argument. So I just nodded once and let him pull me away from the wall.
I stayed close to his side without really meaning to, one hand loosely gripping the sleeve of his jacket. Every few steps I reached up on instinct to touch the spot behind my ear where my flower used to be.
Nothing.
The absence of it made me feel even more exposed.
People stared as we passed.
Some whispered.
Others quickly looked away when Dimitri glanced in their direction. I kept my head down, but I could still hear pieces of what they were saying.
“That’s the guy from the video…”
“Morozov’s actually walking with him…”
“Did you see how wrecked he looked earlier? He was crying and everything.”
I hated that they had seen me like that. I hated that they knew what I looked like on my knees in the woods.
We were in the middle of the main hallway when a guy stepped right in front of us, blocking our path.
I recognized him vaguely - some senior from the rugby team.
He looked straight at Dimitri and spoke loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.
“Careful with that one, Morozov,” he said, smirking. “Heard he’s real easy. You might wanna get tested though. Guy like that? Probably gave you rabies or some shit. Filthy little slut.”
Dimitri smiled.
Before I could even process what was happening, his hand shot out and grabbed the back of the guy’s head. Then he slammed his face straight into the nearest wall.
The guy dropped instantly. Blood was already starting to smear down the wall where his face had connected.
Everyone gasped.
Dimitri did not even look at the guy on the ground. He turned, wiped his bloody knuckles on his shirt, and spoke loud enough for the entire hallway to hear.
“Let me announce this properly.”
Everyone listened.
“The other guy in the video?” He paused. “That was me.”
My eyes widened.
Not just mine.
Across the hallway, near the lockers, I saw Alexei and Ilya. Alexei’s usual blank expression had cracked. He seemed alert. Ilya looked genuinely surprised, his mouth slightly open as he stared at Dimitri. Both of them looked on edge.
Dimitri continued.
“I’ve got quite the extravagant exhibitionist taste, you could say.” He let out a cold laugh. “But let’s get one thing straight.”
He stepped forward slightly.
“This—” he said, pointing directly at me, “is mine. He belongs to me. And if any of you worthless fucks so much as breathe in his direction the wrong way…”
His voice turned deadly.
“…I will find you. I will drag you out of whatever hole you’re hiding in, and I will make sure you regret ever opening your mouth.
I don’t care who your father is. I don’t care how much money you have.
I will break every bone in your body, one by one, and when I’m done, I’ll make sure your family gets to watch what’s left of you beg for mercy. Do you understand me?”
No one spoke anymore.
He turned to me.
Both of his hands came up and gripped my face. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
When he pulled back, his thumb brushed over the spot he had kissed.
“Now scram,” he ordered.
They did not need to be told twice.
People scattered in every direction. Within seconds, the hallway was mostly empty.
The guy on the floor was still unconscious.
I did not know how to feel.
Part of me was mortified. He had just told the entire school that he was the one who had me on my knees in that video. He had made it very clear that I belonged to him.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I said. My hands were still shaking, so I shoved them into my pockets. “You didn’t have to announce it like that. In front of everyone.”
Dimitri tilted his head, studying me.
“I did. They needed to hear it from me.”
“You made it sound like I’m your property,” I muttered. “Like I’m just something you own.”
His eyes darkened.
“You are mine.”
I looked away.
“I didn’t ask you to protect me like that,” I said, even though part of me was grateful. Even though another part of me hated how much I needed it from him.
Dimitri reached out and gently took my wrist, pulling my hand out of my pocket. He looked down at my fingers.
“You didn’t have to ask,” he said. “I already decided.”
I pressed my lips together.
“…My mom. If she finds out about the video… if Daniel finds out…”
“They won’t,” he said, his tone absolute. “I already have people working on it. The video stops spreading today. Anyone who tries to share it again will regret it. Your parents won’t see it. I’ll make sure of that.”
I wanted to believe him. I really did. But I was still scared.
I did not care for Daniel’s opinions, but if he found out, he would make my life hell and my mom would take his side.
“You can’t control everything,” I whispered.
Dimitri’s mouth curved up.
“Watch me.”