THREE
WILLOW
A shocked squeal escapes me as he takes off, the engine of his bike growling. On instinct, my hold around his waist tightens. His bark of laughter is stolen away in a moment by the wind whipping us while we pass the hearse the cheerleaders took. It takes a second to register that I’m basically fondling his abs.
I hunch down and close my eyes. Blood rushes in my ears, my pulse speeding up. How can he get on this thing every weekend and speed through the tight turns of the bumpy trails with Phoenix? I don’t even think we’re going as fast as he does for a race.
We take a bend that he leans into for balance and my eyes fly open in panic. A scream catches in my throat. I glimpse the moonlight reflecting off Silver Lake through the pine trees. We’ve left the main road for a path that follows the edge of it. There isn’t a trace of the luxurious estates, McMansions, and huge cabin homes, so I think we’ve left the residential side of the gated community.
Dante angles his head back slightly, then guns it. My stomach drops and I shriek, clutching him tighter. His shoulders shake with his amusement at freaking me out. I pinch him and he grunts, retaliating by taking the bike through a narrow space between two sapling trees. I dig my nails into his skin when the bike goes airborne for a few terrifying seconds.
“Dante!”
My yell is barely out before we land. The jolt makes my teeth clack. “You’re an asshole!”
“So uptight,”
he barks over his shoulder.
The sound of music and the tall shadows moving in the firelight are a relief. We’re at the party. Dante’s thrill-seeking torture can stop.
He parks the bike by a cabin with glow in the dark paint streaked with messages to keep out and beware of the devil. It must be the one he and his buddies selected for the weekend. Other cabins are visible from here, but they’re far enough away to create a sense of privacy, each with their own themed decorations. An arch made out of thin white aspen branches with hay bales and carved pumpkins beckons for us to go through it for the main party.
I narrow my eyes at the eerie dolls Dante mentioned hanging from nooses in the trees. Several of them bear a likeness to me—one even has black short hair with a white streak.
“You’re sick.”
“Like them?”
His cruel grin is nauseating. “I did that one special just for you.”
He points at the one with identical hair to mine. I sneer and stomp in the direction of the aspen arch. The crunch of twigs and leaves behind me tells me he’s stomping after me. The path winds between trees until the music gets louder. The warmth of the roaring bonfire greets me around another copse of trees.
I have to admit, it looks fantastic. Everyone’s having a great time whether they’re in costume or not. The guys who put this together—Dante, Phoenix, and their crew of deviants—pulled out all the stops. I’ve never been to a party with my classmates, but this is pretty fucking rad.
The bonfire marks the center of everything. Orange and yellow lights are strung in zigzags above everything. People are roasting marshmallows, drinking, dancing, and running around with sparklers. Someone dressed as Darth Vader is the DJ.
Dante appears at my back like my own personal inferno. I quickly move away from him and make a beeline for the bonfire. Squinting into it, I tilt my head at the small shapes I find glowing in the flames.
“Are those little skulls?”
“Charcoal ones! Aren’t they neat?”
Luna Bishop turns away from a beefy football player named Chad and sidles up to me. “I’m sorry about the dolls. Please don’t think I’m awful, I feel terrible. I didn’t realize until after Dante, Lowell, and Easton picked them up from me and Ryder. I kind of get in the zone when I’m creating.”
I open and close my mouth. Luna isn’t exactly a friend, but she’s not a bitch to me like her bestie Eliana. Luna’s more about fixing crowns and self-love for all.
“It’s fine. They look good.”
“Want a drink?”
Chad offers.
“I’ve got it covered.”
Once again Dante appears behind me, offering a drink over my shoulder like he’s my boyfriend. The move is weirdly…territorial. I peer at him from the corner of my eye, but his attention isn’t on me, it’s on Chad, a challenge in his expression. I don’t take the cup, crossing my arms instead.
Chad holds up his hands. “All good then. Drink up. This goofy shit is way more tolerable with a solid buzz.”
His features scrunch. “Although, I guess you get off on all this Halloween shit.”
Dante laughs. Luna elbows Chad. He coughs, but doesn’t apologize.
“Totally,”
I say airily and pat my purse. “Brought my favorite vibrator so I can sneak away and take the edge off. It’s vampire-themed.”
“Nasty little freak,”
Dante mutters with a sharp grin before swigging from a bottle of whiskey.
Chad’s face goes slack. “That’s kinda hot.”
Before I can tell him he doesn’t have a chance in hell with me, Dante pulls me away. Once again I experience the strange sense of possessiveness from him. I test it by heading for the other side of the bonfire. He stays close, making it clear I’m not here by myself. I don’t get what he’s up to.
“You want this or not?”
He wiggles the cup and some Coke sloshes over the rim. He licks it from his knuckles. “I didn’t spike it, if that’s what’s got your pitch black panties in a twist. Just rum.”
“No thanks. I’d rather not be under any influence around you. It won’t make you more tolerable.”
His amber eyes harden and a muscle jumps in his jaw. His features are accentuated by the skull face paint.
“Suit yourself.”
He downs my drink and chases it with another swig of liquor from the bottle. I watch, transfixed by the bob of his throat. A drop leaks from the corner of his full lips and I track it as it rolls down his bare chest.
“You came.”
The voice startles me out of my trance. Ugh, I can’t believe I was checking out Dante. What is wrong with me? No freaking way would I ever go for that jerk.
“You,”
Dante says with a frown.
“Daniel,”
I supply when it’s clear Dante forgot his name.
Seriously? We’ve gone to school with him for years. He’s a junior that sits next to me in my poetry class. He’s a little intense and likes to stare, but he writes wicked poems. Again, the perfect reminder that Dante’s a self-absorbed dickhead.
“My sister is here. Our dad encouraged me to get out of the house, too.”
He jerks his chin toward Eliana dancing with her friends by the fire. “He thinks I spend too much time alone.”
Dante’s frown deepens and he shifts closer to me. There he goes with that possessive thing again. I inch away as subtly as I can, but he follows. Daniel’s gaze bounces between us and twists his fingers in his shirt sleeves. They’re wrinkled as if he’s been doing it a lot.
Lowell, Dante’s other best friend and partner in homework-stealing crime, is nearby. He can’t keep his eyes off Eliana. He’s not the only one—his friends Ryder and Easton are also fixated on her. The three of them are inseparable. If they all like her, they’d probably have no problem sharing her between them. Uneasiness moves through me at the look on Lowell’s face and I turn away.
“Are you here by yourself?” I ask.
Daniel nods, then shakes his head. His eyes flick to Dante, then return to me, gleaming with intensity. “I’m just waiting for her to get here.”
“Cool. Have a great time.”
Dante clamps his long fingers around my wrist and tugs me along.
“Dude. Fucking rude, much?”
I complain as we leave poor Daniel in the dust and head for Lowell.
“Don’t care.”
He tosses a distrustful glance back at Daniel. “I’m not spending my night with that guy waxing poetic about the moonlight gleaming off his crush’s porcelain skin or whatever.”
“You have very deep-seated aggression issues towards literature. And what’s up with you not letting me breathe without you around?”
His shoulder hitches and he shoots me a flat look. “It’s a party. The damn party of our lifetimes. Mischief Night and Halloween only fall on a weekend every six years.”
He pulls up short before we reach his friends and whirls on me, angling his head close so his words are only for me. “Don’t you want to make that a weekend to remember?”
“Yeah, it’s cool, I guess.”
“Come on.”
His warm breath ghosts over my lips. “You love this shit. I know you do. Bet you’re wet as fuck because we’re in the middle of the woods at night.”
Air rushes out of me. Ignoring his lewd remark, I put space between us to cool off my overheated face. “If I hang out with you, will you give me my ID back and stop being weird?”
The corner of his mouth kicks up and he walks backwards. “If it gets you to party with us, your ID is mine until Sunday morning.”
My shoulders sag. “Fine. Whatever.”
I’ll just steal it from him later.
“Here, man.”
Lowell trades bottles with Dante. “Broke into my old man’s liquor cabinet and raided it for the good stuff.”
“Top shelf. Nice.”
Dante swigs the dark liquor and hums in pleasure. The sound is downright sinful.
“Spooky girl.”
Lowell eyes me, checking out my legs. He offers a mint tin full of little white tabs while Dante is distracted talking to their friend Ryder. “You want a party favor?”
“No.”
“Relax, it’s just E. Makes the lights look nice.”
“I said no.”
Movement from the corner of my eye catches my attention and I meet Daniel’s eye. He’s a few feet away, leering at us.
“Bro, you come on way too strong.”
Ryder helps himself to a tab and puts it on his tongue for me to see it perched next to the silver ball piercing. He swallows it down and winks at me. “The lady refused. My bad—”
He circles me with a cocky grin, fingers caressing my arm. “—the gothic queen. This look would be a great addition to my portfolio. The bone structure of your cheeks is chef’s kiss. Will you let me draw you sometime?”
“Ryder,”
Dante grits out. He moves between us, putting me at his back while he squares off with his friend. “Lay off. She’s not interested in your classic come on.”
My stomach dips. Why is he acting jealous?
While he’s busy, I slip away from them all. I won’t leave without my ID, but I can’t spend the whole party with him. Between the notes, how he treats me at school, and the suspicious change of heart tonight, it’s too much. Something is up with him.
“Oh, hey!”
Luna jogs to catch up with my purposeful strides. “Have you gone down to the lake yet? It’s so pretty tonight with the full moon. Want to walk there with me?”
As long as it’s far away from Dante. “Sure.”
“I really am sorry about the dolls.”
Luna bites her lip.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m used to it. People in this town are pretty quick to judge based on appearance. They don’t like anything different from what they consider normal.”
Her gaze falls to the ground. “Yeah. My parents are the first to tell me that. Dad judged my mom way before he got to know her. They’ve always taught me not to do that. I feel like you don’t get close to anyone at school. If you ever want to hang, or even just want someone to listen, I’m always around, okay?”
A tiny glow of warmth swells in my chest. I offer her my first genuine smile of the night. “Thanks.”
Luna was right. The lake is beautiful at night. We stroll to the end of the dock and I crane my neck to admire the huge harvest moon rising over the treetops.
“Imagine growing up with this as your view from your bedroom window every night,” I mumble.
“It’s pretty cool.”
At my questioning side-eye, Luna tugs on a piece of her teased strawberry blonde hair. “Oh, my parents’ friends have a house here. Well, they’re sort of a big group of family friends—Phoenix’s parents, his cousins, my parents. Anyway, we’ve both spent a lot of time here growing up. Every summer we spend a week together in the cabins on this side of the lake.”
I don’t know what to say about her idyllic life, so I turn my attention back to the lake.
We spend a few minutes there, then walk along the beach that’s nice enough to belong to a vacation resort. She talks my ear off about her art projects and a showcase she wants to enter.
I’m content to listen to her talk, my guard finally lowering enough to relax. Luna fumbles with her phone when we circle back.
“Shit, that’s Eliana asking where I went. We’re supposed to start the costume contest Dante put us in charge of. I’m going to head back, but don’t stay out here by yourself.”
She waves and hurries off.
Instead of going back to the party, I take a path with a sign that says cabins. I want to explore. I pass Dante’s cabin and laugh at one decked out with a Monster Mash song theme.
“So this is where you snuck off to.”
Dante’s voice is smooth with a hint of humor. He leaves the darkness he lurks in, stepping into a patch of moonlight. The skull makeup gives him a more sinister vibe. “Out here, by yourself in the woods.”
I spin around and lean against a tree. “I just needed a break.”
His trench coat billows as he saunters toward me. He plants a hand over my head and tips my chin up.
“Did you? Or were you hoping I’d come find you?”
“What are you doing?”
I whisper.
Right when I think he might pull something insane like kissing me, the smarmy flirtatious mask drops. I go cold all over at the truth he hid underneath. His hatred for me burns in his amber eyes.
“What am I going to do with you? All alone. No one to hear you screaming for help.”
“Dante.”
I don’t like his sinister tone. “Look, let’s go back to the party.”
“Too late for that.”
The smoothness vanishes from his voice, his words taking on a rough edge. “You were always meant to end up like this tonight.”
Shit. Shit. My heart races. I knew he was up to something. I never should have let my guard drop.
Is this why he started sending the notes?
As much as I love Halloween, horror movies, and all things macabre, I’m actually a huge pansy. No one knows I’m terrified of spiders, and find latent ninja skills when I accidentally walk into a web. I was afraid of the dark until I was ten.
“Dante—”
Shoving away from the tree, he reaches into the pocket of his long coat and pulls out a wad of dark fabric.
“I know these woods better than you ever will. Don’t get caught tonight, and you’re free to enjoy the rest of the party weekend or leave. But if I catch you?”
He doesn’t tell me what the consequence is, but the expression on his face makes me stumble back a step, tripping on my skirt. The thin material rips. His mean chuckle echoes through the empty woods.
“Run.”
“This isn’t funny.”
Dante pulls on a hooded mask with a skull that reminds me way too much of the Ghostface mask in the Scream movies. My favorite horror franchise is a nightmare I’m now living.
He takes a threatening step in my direction that stops my heart. I bolt, not waiting around to see how serious he is. Fear takes over and the woods blur together in the dark as I race away.
I never should have come here tonight.