Chapter 9 Mackenzie #2
“Boo.” A low purr rumbles from behind, startling me, and I jump. As I turn to face him, his crystal blue eyes sparkle under the strobe of flashing lights.
“Boo, back.”
When he smiles, my heart plummets. Detonating every instinct inside me that tells me to run, but my boots stay planted by the urge to feel those sharp canines sink into my flesh.
He chuckles a sound close to a Carnegie Hall symphony as his fingers loop around the end of my lollipop. He slips it out of my mouth and into his—a grin curls around the stick.
“All right, I’m fucking out of here.” I almost miss the warrior goddess standing beside him, her familiar jade-green eyes piercing me. “I want to get as far away as possible from whatever”—she circles her hand in between us, her features crumbling in disgust—“this is.”
“Noir,” he calls over his shoulder as she takes off, without ever taking his eyes off me. “Meet back here at midnight.”
“What the fuck do I look like—Cinderella?” she snaps.
“Noir—” he growls
“Fine! Fine!” She swings from the doorframe, her glossy hair cascading over her shoulder as she tosses me a playful smirk. “I’ll be here. But do put your pet away.”
The heat in his glare reaches her, but the goddess only giggles before disappearing through the swinging oak door. When his eyes shift to mine again, his hostility melts—he smiles at me so dazzlingly it almost stops my fucking heart.
“So,” he drawls. "What's the word, Kenz?”
“No.” I shake my head.
“What?”
“You heard me.” I fold my arms over my chest, narrowing my eyes at him. “I don’t have the patience to deal with whatever the fuck this is tonight.”
“And what is this, exactly, Mackenzie?” His tone is taunting, but deadly all the same.
“You know exactly what I mean, Daxton.” I scoff, rolling my eyes.
“No, I don’t. Enlighten me,” he retorts, but his smirk seems to deepen.
It’s as if the motherfucker knows precisely what he’s doing to me.
He moves closer, so close his smoky cologne wraps around me like a vise grip I never want to let go as he looms over me.
“And to be clear, if you roll those pretty eyes again,” he tucks my hair behind my ear before his thumb gently strokes over my cheek, “I’ll give you a reason for them to stay that way for the rest of the night. ”
“Don’t fucking tou—”
The door beside us swings open, banging into the wall so forcefully that the picture frame on the wall next to it trembles, and I can hear the echo of screams from the other room.
A boy with golden skin that offsets his hazel eyes storms past us, muttering something I don’t quite catch. His full lips curl into a snare as his sharp jaw clenches. Hand balled into a fist, his knuckles bleed, trailing blood along the hardwood floors.
West darts after him, his wire-rimmed glasses reflecting the strobe lights.
Of course, a close third is a kid I haven’t quite learned the name of yet, but I can see why he’s a Horseman—his jaw is set in a way that screams don’t fuck with me, even though he’s polished. And dead last, but certainly not least—
“Mackenzie?” My brother’s eyes run over me, but Daxton still doesn’t move his hand.
“What the fuck are you doing here, nena?” He’s so caught up in his own world, never home, never available because he’s always working, trying to keep up with his mega-rich friends—I don’t think he’s had a moment to realize that anything serious is going on with Gavin and me.
And I’m sure West hasn’t told him anything, given his reaction.
“Gavin invited me.” I shrug carelessly, finally swatting Daxton’s hand off my cheek. But otherwise, I don’t move an inch—when it comes to RJ, I know what’s coming next.
“Go home, Mack! Go back to your dorm,” he says, walking backwards after his stupid friends. “I mean it, go home. Now.” He points at me before disappearing around the corner.
“Well, he seems…fun,” Daxton huffs.
“Yeah, my brother. So fun.” I sigh. “Ever since my father… Let’s just say he thinks he’s in charge now. You got any siblings?”
“Yeah, a few.” He chuckles as if remembering a fond memory, but his smile soon turns grim, something close to pain lacing his tone. “I’m close with some, but others…” he trails off.
“What happened?”
“Family drama,” he says simply.
“Mmm. I can relate.” But for some reason, I want to know more, so much more, even though I shouldn’t want to know anything about him.
“There’s not much to tell,” he responds as if reading my mind. “A while back, my father disowned one of my sisters, we all chose sides, and I’m sure you could guess how that went.”
“Oh,” I breathe, my brows creasing in the center. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. I still check in on her from time to time,” he says, a slight smile returning to his lips.
“Seems like she was one of your favorites.”
“Yeah, Nemesis was the best little sister anyone could ask for,” he says, looking toward the door—something lies beneath his gaze, but I just can’t quite figure it out. “She always knew just the right things to say. It was annoying how perfect she was sometimes.”
“If she was so perfect, why did your father disown her?” I know this may not be the time to get deep, but something inside me is drawn to him in a way that I can’t put into words.
“Love.” He huffs out a chuckle, tugging on one of the strings connected to the many heart-shaped balloons floating in the air. “Either way, she doesn’t need me anymore in this life. I wasn’t the best brother to her anyway—I couldn’t stop my father.”
“You’re her big brother. She’ll always need you.” Reaching up to cup his face, I watch as his eyes widen before he meets my gaze. “RJ may be an ass, but he’s my big brother, and I’ll always need him. I’m sure she needs you too.”
For a single moment, a glint sparkles in his deep blue eyes—sadness mixing with regret, doubt brushing against a truth he refuses to face, and what he feels could never be again—and then it vanishes without a trace.
Daxton takes my hand. “Come on, I heard there’s a tunnel of love somewhere around here. Let’s go find it.”
“Shit, shit. Fuck!” I take my phone out of my pocket to look at the time. In all of this, I had forgotten about Gavin.
“What?” he lets out.
“I was supposed to meet my boyfriend, Gavin”—I look at the time once more—“twenty minutes ago.”
*CRUNCH*
The sound snaps my head up. Daxton looms over me, shoulders squared, eyes narrowed as if he’s holding on to his patience by a thread.
His jaw flexes—sharp, violent—and I watch the stick tilt as the entire candy shatters between his teeth. The muscle along his jaw feathers hard, like he’s holding back a storm and barely winning.
For a second, I forget how to breathe. God, he looks lethal when he’s pissed. And the way he’s staring at me right now makes me almost recoil—he seems ready to burn the whole damn house down just because I said another man’s name.
“I don’t care whose name you say, just as long as you remember…you’re mine.” His voice trembles with untold truths, things he’ll never say, but I can see the things he doesn’t want me to—I feel the sharp pang of anger coursing through my veins as if it were my own.
“Can you?” he says.
“Can I what?” I ask
The one corner of his mouth curves into a smirk. “See the things I don’t want you to?”
“I never said that.”
“Yes, you did.” He reaches out to drum his fingers along my temple. “In here.”
“You can hear my thoughts?”
He leans down until his lips ghost over mine. “Every last thing you’ve said.”
I’m sure I’m the deepest shade of crimson I’ve ever been. “How is that even possible?’ I whisper.
“How can you feel emotions, belle ame? Things just are what they are. Try not to think too hard about it. Wouldn’t want that pretty brain short-circuiting.”
‘There has to be a law against this. This has got to be a fucking felony—jail, sir. Straight to JAIL!’
“Your outrage is cute, but sadly, there isn’t one.” He grins, and those goddamn canines make me melt into the fucking mindless puddle that I’ve become prone to being around him.
“Well, stop. I don’t need you raking through my head.” I sound more annoyed than I actually am, and a part of me wants to drop the act. Daxton Mortis is getting deep under my skin, and I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help it.
“How deep, Kenz?” He tugs me closer, until the only thing I breathe is him. “How deep have I burrowed under your skin?” His words, whispered ash that do me in. “Because you’re under mine so deep it hurts.”
“I can’t do this.” I plant my hand in the middle of his chest, stepping out of his grasp before leaving the dining room. I weave my way into the backyard, swerving around a group of girls taking selfies with a life-size cardboard cutout of Cupid.
Soon, I find myself at the entrance of the tunnel, craning my neck to look around for Gavin or Tiffany, but I don’t see either of them.
A disorganized line stretches the length of the backyard, and everyone is shivering and waiting to get on.
The wait isn’t bad, but still, the night is brisk, and I wish I had brought a jacket.
“Here, have mine.” That same voice I’ve just escaped comes from behind, so close my legs almost buckle. His heavy leather jacket sweeps over my shoulders, but I shrug out of it before it even has time to settle on me. Swinging around to face him, I shove his jacket back in his direction.
“Just stop, okay. Please just…stop.”
“Why? It’s clear we want the same thing.”
“I don’t want anything with you,” I snap at the Adonis in front of me, willing my voice to stop trembling, willing the lies to be the truth. “What I want is to find my boyfriend. What I want is for you to leave me alone.”
“You’re not fooling anyone, Mackenzie. Least of all me.” He shakes his head, sliding his arms back into the scuffed leather of his jacket before popping the collar, and for some inexplicable reason, my pulse stutters. “Since you can’t find your precious boyfriend…let’s go together, hm?”