Page 11 of Temptation
I lifted my head up, my eyes colliding with Dylan’s. A thousand emotions played there before he hid them behind the cold mask of a psychopath. Like a stormy sky with sun burned leaves of the autumn, colors swirled in them while he kept staring at me.
He removed his fingers from my mouth, and saliva ran down my chin. He was everywhere—in front of me, around me and now in me. The future I dreamed of seemed so far away, so out of reach.
He lifted his hand and started dragging his fingers over my cheek. My skin burned where he touched me, but it wasn’t the same burn I felt every time Ash touched me.
It was the disgust, the shame, the pain, all mixed in one. I felt them in my chest, like a burning ball preparing to explode. His cold fingers traced a path from my ear, all the way to my lips, resting on the bottom one. I ground my teeth, stopping myself from opening my mouth and biting him.
I had to calm myself. Now more than ever, I had to be smarter than them.
“We need to do this, Little One,” he crooned, and all I wanted to do was scream. Goosebumps erupted all over my skin when he lowered his head, his nose lined up with my neck, inhaling me, scenting me. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
I closed my eyes, pressing my nails into my palm harder. I wanted to forget I was here.
I wanted to be back in the library with Ash. I wanted to tell him how much I loved him. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t the one that chose to leave. I wanted him to know that he was the best thing that had ever happened to me.
“And now we will get to be one.” He pressed his lips to my neck. “We will be unstoppable, Skylar. You and me, we will have everything we ever wanted.”
Except for freedom, I wanted to say. I would have everything he wanted me to have, but nothing I wanted.
Men were very good at this, pretending that they cared about the things we wanted, when in reality, all they needed was to have somebody they could show off in the world and pretend that they had our best interest at heart. They covered our eyes with silky scarves and promises of paradise, while they burned our world to the ground, leaving only ashes and pain behind.
Men were masters at this game of manipulation, skilled to make it seem as if their dreams and their needs were our own. They learned how to manipulate our urges so that they would reflect their own until we would lose who we were.
And losing one’s identity would be as if you never lived at all.
The handle of the dagger dug into the back of my neck where he held my hair. Looking over his shoulder, I saw the two guards looking at each other then at us. Were they humans at all? Were all these people aware of the depravity going on around them or did they just follow blindly, thirsty for power, thirsty for things that only darkness could bring?
Dylan moved away from me and pulled something from his pocket. Something I’d tried hiding from him. A secret that ate me alive, but the secret that also kept me standing when everything else seemed to fall apart.
My eyes widened at the sight of two pills in his palm, and I couldn’t look away.
“It’s time, baby. It’s time to fulfill our destiny.” He took one pill with his other hand and lifted it up to my mouth. “Open up.”
I didn’t want to, but the blurry memories of oblivion they brought came flooding in, and I couldn’t resist the urge to take them in. Just one more time. Just to forget for a little while.
I wanted to feel how I felt not so long ago, where the skies weren’t so dark, and where the color blue was the color representing my favorite person.
I opened my mouth, eagerly waiting for him to press it to my tongue. At the same time that he did, he lifted the other pill to his mouth and placed it inside. In sync, without moving my eyes from his, we both swallowed, our throats working in unison.
Lauren whimpered from behind, but I couldn’t give a fuck about her anymore. This was about survival—my survival—and if this was the way, if playing Dylan’s game was the way to stay alive, I was going to be the best damn player this world had ever known.
I remembered people in colors and the lyrics of the songs I’ve listened to, but I never thought I would remember Dylan in the color of violence and pain.
But blue wasn’t so bright anymore and cerulean eyes weren’t salvation, but damnation. As he lowered his head, and as my teeth tingled while my blood rushed through my body, preparing for the darkness to come, Dylan pressed his lips to mine, swallowing the cry that erupted from my lungs.
3
SKYLAR
We swallowedpoison because it helped us sleep at night, but what should I call it when I kissed my brother? How much poison should I swallow to forget his lips on mine, or the tingling in my body as the pill started working its way through my system?
How many nights should I squeeze my eyes to forget the way he tasted, or the sweet lies rolling off of his tongue as he pushed me backward, right next to Lauren who still hadn’t moved from her bent-over position?
He lifted me on top of the altar with ease, grabbing my hips, dragging his hands over my bare thighs. It took me a moment to realize that the dress I wore rode up, revealing my bare legs. But as the colors exploded in front of me and the monsters turned into friends, all I could see, all I could feel, were the eyes of the one I loved.
Ash.
