63. Aurora #2
“I did look at you,” I lie, tasting the blood on my lips, letting my fingers rub up against him, pulling another deep grumble from his chest. He’s so focused on me that he doesn’t hear the gasp, but I do.
“Everest warned me away from you, he knew what our friendship really meant to me, and he told me I had to stay away from you.” I make sure to hold my voice steady as I talk, praying he doesn’t hear the deception, as his eyes search my stare.
“Come on, Bishop, you know what he’s like, how protective he is.
” I trail my hands up around his neck, pulling him in closer, as I sense what is about to happen. “It was all Everest’s fault.”
“Of course it was,” he snaps, accepting my fabrication, but when he moves to pull away from me, I panic.
“I always liked you more than a friend.” I keep his focus on me, and he looks at me in surprise.
“You did?” I nod, forcing myself not to cringe, as he lifts off the wall and steps into me even further. “I suppose one little taste of ruined cunt won’t be too bad.”
When he leans down, I brace myself, closing my eyes so he doesn’t see it coming.
Griffin smashes the lamp into his head, with as much force as he can muster, stumbling into me as Bishop drops to the floor.
“Aurora, run,” he gasps, shoving me away from him, but I rush back to him, moving to try and help him.
“I’m not leaving you here,” I cry, trying to carry his weight, but he’s still too unsteady.
“I think he drugged me, I can’t walk,” he grits out, every word taking maximum effort, and panic threatens to swallow me whole, as I almost crumble beneath him.
“My phone, it’s in the kitchen,” I choke out, moving us in that direction, as Griffin does his best to stay upright.
I’m not sure what Bishop gave him, but whatever it is, it was only enough to make him slow and unsteady, not to completely knock him out. So I just have to get us out of here, get to my phone, and then get us to the front door.
We both stagger to the kitchen, and I don’t look back when we get there, just push Griffin against the island so he can hold himself up, and then grab my phone from the counter. We both hear Bishop groan and Griffin tries to push himself to his full height, his gaze snapping to mine.
“Get the fuck out of here, Aurora, I mean it,” he breathes, readying himself to face Bishop again, but I ignore him, erasing the space between us and throw his arm back around my shoulder.
“I’m not fucking going without you.” I force him to move with me, ignoring his protests, as we stumble in the direction of the front door.
We almost reach it when Bishop tackles us from behind, sending us both crashing to the floor.
Griffin lands on top of me, forcing me to cry out in pain, but even in his drug-fueled haze, he rips himself off me, checking me over quickly, before pushing back to his feet and instantly rushing Bishop, both of them dropping to the floor.
Bishop hits his head, a pained sound escaping him, as the two of them start to grapple with one another.
Griffin slams his fist into his face, but without his full strength, Bishop is easily able to shove him off and climb back to his feet, but Griffin doesn’t relent.
He’s back on him again, slamming him into the wall with a thud, struggling to keep him at bay.
“Get out of the fucking house!” he screams at me, and for the first time, I listen to him, pushing up and running toward the door, my hand closing around the handle when Griffin roars.
I turn just in time to see his entire body flinching, before he stumbles back slowly, a choking sound leaving him, as he finally turns in my direction. It’s only then I see the knife plunged deep in his side, blood already soaking through his white shirt.
“Griffin!” I gasp, as his hands come up to his abdomen, clawing where the blade is now embedded, before taking a few staggered steps toward me.
“Run, Aurora, please,” he gasps, before turning back toward Bishop and attacking him again.
I watch in horror as he attacks him, but Bishop is too clear-headed, and between the drugs and the blood loss, Griffin is too slow.
Blood spills everywhere as he struggles, before Bishop reaches down and twists the blade, making him cry out in pain, as he uses his hold on the knife to shove him away.
Griffin collapses to the floor and he doesn’t get back up.
“Griffin!” The scream that tears from my throat is so raw and painful, that it doesn’t even sound like my own voice, as I throw myself toward him.
“Run,” he heaves, his lips trembling, as my knees buckle beside him.
A feeling like I have never known crushes me from the inside out, my eyes scanning the blood as it pours from his side. I shake my head, telling myself that this isn’t real, that none of this is happening, but no matter what I do, he still keeps bleeding.
“Go, Aurora, please.” I have never heard a more desperate plea from him before, sweat slick on his forehead, as his eyes start to lose focus.
“I’m not leaving you, so don’t you fucking dare leave me,” I curse, leaning down and kissing him with everything I’ve got. “I love you, Griffin Blake, and I’m going to get you out of here.”
I swear a ghost of a smile traces his lips, before he gasps, his body starting to shiver, as his eyes start to close.
I move away from him and crawl through the blood, desperate to find my phone.
I spot it, discarded near the door, and I rush straight for it, knowing I need to call 911, but just as my fingers go to clasp around it, I am dragged backwards.
Bishop flips me over, letting his weight press me into the floor, as I fight against him, his eyes cold with fury.
“A filthy whore and a liar now, hey? How the mighty have fallen.” Gripping me by the throat, he drags me forward and slams my head back into the floor.
Pain ricochets through my skull, but all I can register is his bloody hands closing around my neck.
Griffin’s blood. It stains his hands and mine, his fingers now spreading it around me, in a sick display of power that has tears streaming down my face.
“You were supposed to be fucking perfect, Aurora, fresh and untouched and fucking mine, but you had to let them have you, didn’t you?
” His hands tighten around my throat with every word, still slick with blood, and I can no longer find it within myself to fight.
“You let your brother fuck you.” Squeeze .
“You let that fucking heathen bend you over in your art studio.” Squeeze .
“And you let all three of them defile you in the woods like some fucking animal.”
My vision starts to blur, my body no longer able to keep putting up a fight, as darkness starts to claim me, but that’s the funny thing about darkness, it always coincides with the light.
Their faces are the last thing I see, as his hands are ripped away from me.