Chapter 6
SIX
FRANKIE
The girl from the pool. This is interesting.
As soon as I saw Siri making her way inside, my gaze deflected to the woman walking beside her. She may have clothes on now, but the memory of her impressive body is still fresh in my mind and rather than study my cousin, I take my fill of her instead.
She is certainly beautiful and a step up from most of the girls who attend Rockwell. Even now I realize that. It’s in the way she conducts herself. The aloof barrier she holds in front of her and the disinterest she appears to have for just about anything. Coffee aside.
I noted the way her cheeks flushed with pleasure as she took her first sip. The sparkle in her eyes and the way the foam clung to her lips before her tongue swiped it away. I studied the way her hands gripped the cup with tense knuckles, revealing she was more affected than she wants to portray and her erratic breathing that showed she was affected by me against her better judgment. She doesn’t want to be affected by me. She is angry about that and playing it cool. Will she be the challenge I seek? I fucking hope she doesn’t let me down, which leads me on to the reason I summoned Siri.
“It’s time to dish out the crap.”
Siri chuckles as I throw her words back at her and my heart swells with affection for my spirited family member. Of all my cousins, Siri is my favorite. I think of her as a sister and she may as well be one. She is friends with Summer, my younger sister, who is due to come here next year. Siri has been in my life since I can recall memories and despite the fact we argue incessantly, I would kill for her and she knows that.
“You came here for your freedom – think again.”
I’m direct and Siri groans, placing her head in her hands.
“Fuck, Frankie. Can’t you just loosen the chain a little?”
“Firstly, don’t swear. It’s not a good look.”
She opens her mouth to object and I hold up my hand.
“Secondly, the chains are there for your protection and if you think I want to face your father and explain why some stupid jock robbed his daughter’s virginity, you have obviously forgotten where we come from.”
Siri groans, her face disguised by her hands, her foot tapping angrily on the floor in an obvious tantrum.
I take a moment to enjoy the spectacle because Siri can’t disguise her emotions, no matter how hard she tries.
Her friend remains impassive, but I detect a calculating gleam in her eye as she sips the coffee, an innocent bystander in a world of male domination.
I lean forward. “There is a way of loosening the chains a little.”
Siri’s fingers part and she peers through them, causing a small chuckle to spill from my lips.
She is so cute—a child, really. Brimming with impudence and sass and yet full of loyalty and adventure.
“I’m listening.”
She lowers her hands and I detect the interest in her eyes as she sips her coffee, waiting for me to speak.
“In one week’s time there is, well, a challenge for want of a better word, that may be the answer to your problem.”
“I’m listening.”
She leans forward as I lean back, enjoying the power I hold, increasing her impatience.
“Spit it out, Frankie.” She goads and I nod, sipping my own double espresso as I stare directly into her eyes.
“It’s called The Claiming and happens after dark in the dungeons.”
“The what and where?” Siri’s eyes shine with excitement as I knew they would. When you exist in our world, darkness resembles a comforting friend, and I have said two words that she will adore. Dark and dungeon.
Her friend says nothing and her expression doesn’t change and I wonder what she’s thinking now.
Siri interrupts my thoughts.
“What does it involve?”
“It’s an ancient tradition that has been a forgotten one until I revived it yesterday.”
“That figures.” She rolls her eyes. “I repeat, what does it involve?”
“An equal number of guys versus girls meet at the entrance to the dungeon. The girls get five minutes head start to navigate a way out of there. There is a tunnel many believe was dug by a band of desperate prisoners that leads to the river. If the girl reaches the other side evading capture, she is free.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Siri whispers.
“Then she is claimed by the first guy who reaches her.”
“As in?”
She sounds worried, and I relish her fear.
“Claimed for the semester. They become an entity. They don’t look at another and spend all their free time together, unless they agree to a hall pass to hang with friends or attend clubs or study. They hang at parties and have one another’s best interests at heart the entire time and are chained, if you like, to one person.”
“Like girlfriend and boyfriend.” Siri chews on her bottom lip.
“But what if someone gross claims you? What happens then?”
“You do your best to win, Siri. You can’t be claimed if you escape, remember that, and you earn your freedom of choice.”
“This claiming sucks. I’m out.”
Siri glares at me with defiance and her friend is like a locked book beside her. I can’t figure out her thoughts on this because her expression hasn’t changed once during the entire conversation.
“That is your choice, Siri. Take part in the ceremony and hope a decent guy claims you, or if you make it to freedom, it’s with the knowledge that every single guy on campus regards you with my warning ringing in his ears.”
I lean forward and fix her with my usual sinister smile.
“I will hurt anyone who touches you.”
Her face pales and her breathing intensifies and as she digests this information, I turn to her friend and regard her with interest.
“What about you?”
She sets the cup down and shrugs.
“We’re not talking about me. I have no restrictions on my freedom and I can do what the fuck I like.”
Her eyes flash as she deliberately swears, my earlier warning to Siri thrown back in my face.
I fix her with a steadfast look before dragging my eyes away to my defeated cousin.
“I was given advice before we came here.”
“Let me guess, my folks, perhaps?”
Siri sighs and leans back heavy against the seat as I nod.
“Your mother told me to back off. To allow you breathing space and only interfere if you are in danger.”
Her smile brightens. “Good for mom.”
I shrug. “And your father instructed me to watch out for you and if so much as one fucker lays a finger on you, I’m to break it before dismantling his manhood permanently.”
Siri once again places her head in her hands as I whisper, “Guess who I’m most afraid of?”
Cassie chuckles and I direct my hooded gaze to her.
“Something you find amusing, Cassie?”
I love the fire burning brightly in her eyes as she regards me with a smirk. “Yes. You speak as if Siri has no choices but the ones you are giving her. She is her own person and would probably consider them, but will ultimately make up her own mind.”
It amuses me to picture Siri with any choices other than the ones presented to her by family and I fix Cassie with a dark sneer.
“So, you would prefer her to fuck her way through campus and then return to her family as a common whore?”
“I never said that.”
For the first time, she leans forward and holds my attention with her sparkling eyes as she says with a hard dose of determination in her voice.
“I like a challenge. I rise to them in fact, so as a counter offer on her behalf, allow me to put out another option.”
She bats those long lashes and whispers, “If Siri makes it through the tunnel into the river, then she is free and you back off and allow her to make her own decisions like the free woman she is.”
Siri nods emphatically beside her but I don’t break eye contact for a second with her friend as I say huskily, “On one condition.”
“Name it.”
Her voice is like the soft whisper of an angel trapped in the devil’s web and I say with dark resonance etched on my words, “You take the challenge with her.”