Chapter 34
THIRTY FOUR
ASHER
“This is all insane,” I knock back the shot of whiskey I moved onto when Ruella and Piper left. Corden followed alone, feeling a little out of his depth not long after Jacob told Stacey to leave him alone, she did just that but not before she gave him the date for a scan.
The man is having a baby with someone who isn’t my sister. I always assumed when they both figured out themselves, they would be together forever, and now he will be tethered to Stacey for the rest of his life.
I thought I was going to have to murder my best and oldest friend in the world, the man I would trust with my life and my sisters, but he is now the man who has destroyed what little of my sister I fought tooth and nail to get back.
She was starting to recover and open up again, her panic attacks over the past two weeks have been manageable.
Now I have no idea what damage has just been done.
“I know,” Jacob looks as defeated as Piper did when she left.
The urge to murder him vanished once I learnt the whole story.
It has all been a huge mistake, one that he will be paying for greatly once his parents find out, they have been planning the wedding between him and my sister since Jacob held Pipers hands when she was a baby, helping her toddle to the fridge for juice when I wouldn’t do it.
“She’s never going to speak to me ever again,”
“Give her some time,” I tell him as Daylan’s phone starts to buzz on the table. “Once she hears the full story, she might come around. I can’t say she will be able to be as close to you as she was. But she won’t cut you out of her life completely,”
Daylan answers his phone and starts to talk fast and low, he speaks in Italian, so we have no clue what he is talking about.
“I should have told her when I found out. Rue warned me this would happen. I deserve whatever comes,”
My brows furrow. “Rue knew?” There she is keeping secrets again, it’s like a compulsion at this point, but one I understand to a certain degree. With what she has been through and her fragile trust, she just never thinks to share anything with others, like she has never had anyone to depend on.
I am going to be that person.
“Yeah, but don’t blame her, I asked her to keep it a secret until I figured out how to tell Piper,” He huffs. “Even gave me a bloody deadline,”
I chuckle. “Yeah, sounds like Ruella,” I bump my shoulders with his, attempting to shift the conversation from my sister now I have changed my mind about killing him. “I thought you didn’t like Rue, now you care if I lose my shit at her,”
He sighs, knocking back his own three fingers of whiskey. “She’s growing on me,”
Daylan’s voice cuts through the growing noise around The Hollow Lantern, his eyes narrow, lips curling around each word in fury.
More Italian.
I really need to start learning the language so I can figure out what the hell him and his family are always dealing with. It’s always secretive and urgent, but the bloodlust I have seen first-hand from him makes me think this whole Duke crap is connected to something more.
“Non Mandare tutti a puttanesca. Ciao,” Daylan snaps and ends the call before he stands. “Come on lovesick fools. Time to go, I have stuff to sort out,”
“Hmm, wanna share with the group. Three heads are better than one,” I suggest knowing he won’t share anything.
“Nah it’s all good. Just some stuff with the family is all,”
“Okay,” We pay the bill and head for Daylan’s Porsche, where he takes another call in Italian on the way back to the Academy, this one not as urgent, but I hear a woman’s name being mentioned and the grip on the steering wheel increases to the point I think he might leave marks in the leather.
After saying my goodbyes and giving Jacob a reassuring hug I head to Ruella’s room exhausted.
The days keep coming at me hard and if I didn’t have Ruella to come back to, I honestly don’t know how I would cope anymore.
She’s quite literally, the best thing in my life.
I don’t care that we have only known each other for a short space of time, it doesn’t feel that way to me and I think it’s the same for her.
I knock and wait. The door pulls open and a tired white-haired beauty stands before me in thick knee-high socks, barely there shorts and my lacrosse jumper.
Devine.
I step inside, all intentions on picking her up and devouring her, but her hand stops me. Her head motioning behind her to my sister sat on the edge of her bed, red eyed and runny nose.
Shit, I forgot about my sister.
Like I said, everything vanishes when I am in Ruella’s presence.
I kneel before Piper and hold her hands within mine.
“Hey, how are you feeling,” I stop myself. “Actually, stupid question. Don’t even answer that,”
Her teary stare meets mine. “I feel numb Asher,” A tear rolls down her cheek, but I wipe it away before it drops from her chin. “I don’t know how I feel because it’s like I am in a void. Just floating around barely existing. I don’t know how to do life without him,” Her voice shakes.
“You don’t have to do life without him Pip. It was a huge drunken mistake, you know he doesn’t want Stacey, he never has, he has and always will only want you,”
She nods. “I know that, but this is too much. Rue told me what happened. How could he ever think I would ghost him, after everything. Then instead of giving me time, he went and fucked her to get back at me. Drunk or not, that is what he chose to do. It doesn’t even matter that I was drugged in a dirty cell, he didn’t even wait twenty-four hours,” Her tears stop and all I see if anger.
“He didn’t even wait twenty-four hours,” She whispers, repeating it to herself like she only just realised the truth.
“I’m sorry Piper,” I hug her because I have nothing else to give, no words or actions to help in this situation. Her heart has been ripped out of her chest in front of everyone and now she has to put the pieces back together. If that does or doesn’t include Jacob, that’s not up to me.
“Can you call Daylan to come and get me. I just want to go to sleep,” She sniffles as she grabs her things from the floor. Ruella stands at the door still, observing.
“Sure,” I call Daylan who comes and collects her.
“Stay with her until Max gets there,”
“Of course. Come on beautiful,” He puts his arm around her and pulls her tight as he guides them down the spiralling stone staircase.
I close the door and drop my head to the wood with a deep sigh. Warm hands trail down my spine, then wrap around my stomach as Ruella’s forehead rests on my back. We stand there in comfortable silence until I turn around and place a thankful kiss on her mouth.
“Want to take it out on my body?” She asks and I chuckle.
“What did you have in mind?”
One brow lifts and my stomach flutters like a teenage girl as she lowers to her knees before me, she takes the hair tie from my wrist I always keep there for her, and I watch mesmerised at the sight of her giving herself over to me.
Yep. I fucking love her.
***
I toss and turn for what feels like an eternity while Ruella sleeps deeply beside me. I have noticed that the more time we spend together, the deeper she sleeps. Like she can finally rest soundly, and I give myself an imaginary pat on the back for being the one to make her feel that way.
I huff out an aggravated breath before turning over to check the time. 3am.
Great.
As exhausted as I was when I turned up here, and the energy I just expelled getting Ruella to scream my name twice, should have me sleeping like a baby. But here I am, wide awake and my dick isn’t even hard.
I glance over at my sleeping vixen, lifting my hand I softly trace a line down the skin of her arm, and enjoy the shiver that rolls through her.
Even when she is dead to the world, my touch affects her.
I place a light kiss on her lips before sitting up, reach over for the packet of cigarettes I left on her nightstand.
I light one and head over to her window, cracking it open slightly and resting my elbows on the stone sill taking in the night around us.
If I didn’t already know how batshit crazy this whole academy was, I would think it a beautiful sight.
A sky clear of clouds, the silver moonlight shimmering over the tops of the trees as they slowly sway in the chilly breeze.
The gothic building with grand spires reaching for the stars that are visible.
I take a final drag before stubbing out the end and flicking it out the window. It doesn’t matter how beautiful it looks on the outside, this place is a cesspit for the worst of civilisation.
As I make my way back to bed, I notice a book laying on top of the bedside table. Ruella has mentioned the fantasy and romance books she like to read to pass the time.
“Time to see what all the fuss is about,” I whisper to myself as I get back into the covers and get comfy against the headboard.
I switch on the lamp that barely gives enough light to even see the front cover of the book.
I pick it up and read the blurb. Something about a half-siren, half-human.
It doesn’t sound too bad to pass the time, or it will be so boring it will send me to sleep. A win-win.
I open the front and the bookmark falls out onto the covers, the photobooth style images catching my eye due to the white-haired stunner I have come to know extremely well. I pick it up to admire when I notice her face is smushed up against another girls.
My heart stops.
A million things rushing through my mind at once as I try to piece together what I am seeing. I look down at a still sleeping Ruella, but this time through a new lens.
My stomach rolls and I feel like I might be sick, the hand she unconsciously places on my stomach burns so much I need to get it off me.
I slide out the bed as quickly and quietly as possible, all the while my mind races with all the new information.
I pace back and forth by the bed as her chest rises and falls without a care in the world. All while mine has exploded. Everything I thought I had coming with her is a lie, every plan and future I was putting together has tumbled like domino’s and I don’t know what to do now.
It takes another couple of paces to realise I need to move fast while she doesn’t know what is happening. She won’t lie herself out of this one now. I need answers and I want them now.
I grab my phone and head into the bathroom, closing the door to a jar so I can muffle my voice but keep an eye on her form in bed.
Jacob answers immediately.
“What’s wrong?” He asks. “Is Piper okay?”
“Piper is fine. I need you to quickly grab Daylan and the handguns your uncle sent. Come to Ruella’s room asap but don’t knock on the door,”
“Ash man what the hell is going on?” I here shuffling in the background as he gets ready.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I nip the bridge of my nose. “So, I picked up one of Ruella’s books and a photobooth style photo fell out and she’s with someone,”
“Please tell me you haven’t reached the level of psycho where you want to kill anyone who has ever dated her? The guy in the photo’s don’t matter,” He sighs.
“It’s not a fucking guy!” I whisper shout, double checking through the door to make sure she still sleeps.
“Then who?” He asks as he must close his door behind him.
“It’s Marlowe,”
Silence.
“Marlowe Astor?” He eventually asks.
“Yeah,”
“I’m on my way,” Then the line cuts out.
I make my way over to Ruella, no doubt dreaming of all the ways to stab me in the back. I thought she was starting to trust me and let me in more as I did her, only she was playing me the whole time.
I run my finger down her skin once more, this time with a pain in my chest I don’t think I have ever felt before. Her skin doesn’t goosebump and the usual shiver of pleasure never comes, this time her arm pulls away and her brows furrow in her sleep. Her body even notices the difference.
“I hope you know what you have gotten yourself into little vixen”.