Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Onyx: You cannot change what you refuse to confront.
I followed Hennessy again that morning of All Hallows’ Eve. She didn’t know I was behind her. For the past month, in my free time, I stalked her through the woods, to and from school, even on campus and wherever else she thought she was alone.
I don’t know what happened, maybe I was lonely or maybe I just wanted to test fate, but Belladonna’s poison had infected my blood without one fucking kiss. It was actually insulting how easy this girl stirred through my vein’s.
Day after day, I thought of nothing but her. She put a spell on me and I didn’t put up a fight for one second of it. Instead, I leaned into, seeing where it would take ahold.
During that time, I learned everything there was about her.
What made her smile, laugh, cry… how much she loved to dance to her Peruvian music under the night sky.
The way she fed all the birds every day, making the crows shit all over our estates.
The songs she listened to, the same ones she hummed out loud.
The mythological, folklore books she read, the magazines she’d skim.
She was quite the researcher. I studied the rituals she repeated every day.
She loved talking to Mother Nature and would often have conversations with her outside by herself.
The birds loved her as much as the wild animals did.
She fed raccoons, squirrels, and deer. I swear, I saw her trying to make friends with the wolves, coyotes, and bears.
The girl had no fear.
She spent most of her time outside, reading in the trees.
I learned her habits, her mannerisms, the way she giggled just right.
She was easy prey, never knowing I was there.
Stalking her quickly became one of my favorite things to do.
She was fascinating, and I couldn’t help but be drawn to her.
There was only one person she reminded me of, especially when she watered all the plants on the property.
She actually told the staff she could do it. She had a smile on her face every single time. It was her peace. It was crazy how much she knew about them, taking pride in each new leaf that grew from her nurturing hands.
Even then, as I watched her on my computer screen in my bedroom suite, she was swimming in the pool most nights.
She’d take a quick dip, coming in all hot and sweaty from dancing outside.
Her white bathing suit clung to her body in all the right places, with her tan skin radiating off the moonlight.
She looked like a goddess.
I also caught her swimming in the river behind the estate a couple of times. She wasn’t scared of what might lurk beneath the glossy dark water. She even added a fucking tire swing she found in the garage. She was quite the little swimmer and tree climber.
Her bedroom floor was covered with books upon books of information on mythology and occult history. She was proving to be quite the little witch indeed.
I never interrupted what she was doing. That wasn’t the point.
When she had first arrived, she was a job like every other one I was ordered to take on.
Somewhere along the way, between learning who she was inside and out, I got addicted to her.
I was looking forward to the next time I’d be able to follow her without her knowing.
You’d be surprised what you could learn about someone by just observing. I believe it was better than asking questions. People lied. This didn’t give her a chance to, and I conjured up my own conclusions about her. I was never wrong, having her right where I wanted her.
She craved me as much as I did her.
It was becoming harder not to feel possessive over her. The pressure to keep her at arm’s length no longer existed.
Now it was time to work my way in…
It was late by the time I walked into the Halloween party the next night. I was dressed as a Huntsman, with my crossbow slung over my shoulder.
The Legacy Council was doing what they did best on this night: sacrifice. It was a full moon, one of the most powerful evenings of the year for rituals. I didn’t partake. I wasn’t asked to. They knew what today signified for me. Having to numb my mind was the only thing on my itinerary tonight.
The demons were hanging off my back, heavy, demanding, and loud as fuck.
Shaking off the thought, I wasn’t much for dressing up. This was the extent of my costume: black slacks and a black button-up I often wore. If it weren’t for my crossbow artillery strapped across my chest, you wouldn’t know what I was. It was the only thing I needed to fit the part.
On top of stalking my pretty poison for the past month, my schedule was packed with class every day from morning until afternoon. Then I had fencing practice for two hours every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had two hours of crossbow training in the evenings.
On Saturday mornings, I was either at a fencing tournament, practice, or crossbow conditioning later in the day, particularly for the Brotherhood events. Sundays, I spent my time with the Brotherhood. It was meetings in the evening and everything that entailed.
It was how I remained the best in our university division. If I was going to do something, then I was going to be number one, end of story. All I ever wanted was to make a life for myself out of the Graves and the Brotherhood, but the older I got, the less that became my reality.
It was what I’d worked so hard for, determined to make it happen for myself no matter what.
It didn’t feel like a sacrifice to miss out on the normal stuff guys my age were doing.
Once I understood who I was and what steps I had to take, I used both sports as an outlet, focusing my anger on my opponent rather than my family legacy.
To me, that was enough.
Tonight was Halloween, marking fourteen years of my own personal hell. I hadn’t seen much of Hennessy, but that soon would change. I’d been preparing for it.
All I wanted to do tonight was forget, whether it was with booze, drugs, or pussy, but preferably all three at once. I fucking hated parties. I was trying to distract myself from my worst enemy.
Me.
I wasn’t much for drinking and drugs. I hated being out of control. Tonight was different, though. It was the one night of the year when I didn’t give a shit about anything other than wanting to forget by any means necessary.
The house was packed with Academy students, drinking and acting a fool.
The Hawthornes always put on one hell of a Halloween party.
It was their yearly event. Caspian was always the life of the party.
He was quite the ladies’ man. We all were.
Pussy was thrown at us on a daily basis, making it far too easy to get my dick wet.
Another reason I liked the chase…
Speaking of hunting, my mind didn’t steer from my Hennessy, and like liquor, they were both bad for me.
I knew her every track, her every routine, every place she liked to disappear.
I knew her eating habits, when she showered and when she slept.
There wasn’t anything I didn’t know about her anymore.
I studied her, watched her. Her thoughts weren’t even hidden from me. I knew it all.
I shoved away my own reckless ones, knowing my sister was somewhere at this party stirring up trouble I’d probably have to save her from. Getting back at the family was what she did best.
The party was just how I expected it to be. The place was crowded, alcohol flowed freely, and music blared throughout the estate. As the night progressed, people started scattering everywhere. The manor was bursting at the seams, both inside and out.
All the colorful lights danced in sync to the music blaring from the speakers, filling the night air with a mix of house and top 40. Some people were playing pool or shooting darts while others were in the pool or the hot tub. Women walked around wearing next to nothing.
Then there was me and the Brotherhood, snorting lines of cocaine, and smoking weed and cigarettes while chicks found our cocks to grind on to the beat of the music.
I made my rounds, flirting it up, gaining potential pussy, all while avoiding the chicks who I’d already had the pleasure of pissing off.
The place was stocked with liquor, beer, and food. An endless supply of whatever your poison might be. Again, Hennessy flashed before my eyes, and the more I drank, getting lost in drugs, the harder it was to push her out of my thoughts.
One thing was for sure: this party was a free-for-all.
“This is some good shit,” one of the brothers hollered, snorting a huge rail off the hand mirror in his hand before passing me the blunt.
We were sitting on one of the couches in the game room with the coffee table in front of us, lined with mountains of cocaine and stocks of pills of all sorts.
People were walking around everywhere, smoking weed, popping pills, fucking out in the open, all while kicking back an obscene amount of booze.
We were all on the same page, wanting nothing more than to just forget. Everyone was always running from something, especially in this town.
Most of the women showed up half-naked, dancing on poles, brothers, and each other. It was just the way the wealthy loved to party. The seedier the better. There wasn’t anything money couldn’t buy you or buy you out of, including murder, and I learned that fourteen years ago that day.
I placed the blunt in my mouth, sucking in long and hard, holding the smoke in for as long as I could. It was when I noticed it was laced with something that I started to see trails. The guilt was eating me alive.
As the night continued, so did the usual festivities. I was Onyx Devereaux, putting on a good show.