Page 48 of Temptation
The world abandoned me a long time ago. If this angel beneath my head and that demon with dark hair were my salvation, then I was going to take it. I would take them however they wanted me, even if it was just temporary.
10
DYLAN
The lighton the bedside lamp flickered, throwing shadows on her sleeping face. These were the rare moments where her eyes weren’t filled with anguish and her lips weren’t laced with poison meant to harm me.
These were the moments I cherished lately because the relationship the two of us had before our wedding seemed to be gone. The easy-going banter, the love that connected us, the history we had, it all evaporated into thin air.
I knew she said that she loved me. I knew she touched me with no reservations during the evening, but she still didn’t tell me everything. There were secrets hiding in parts of her and I needed her to tell me everything she knew. I was almost certain that group of theirs was planning something, and I wanted in.
Not because I didn’t want her with them, but because I wanted this madness to stop. I wanted the Order to stop existing, because I knew that the only way any of us would ever be free and safe was for them all to disappear.
We needed to cut off the head of the snake, and that was easier said than done.
My phone started vibrating in the back pocket of my jeans, and I didn’t have to take it out to know who was calling.
She’d been calling for the past hour and I refused to answer. I refused to get out of this house and leave Skylar alone, just so that I could go appease the one parent that failed me more than the other one.
Wasn’t it funny? Our parents were supposed to be our saviors, our protectors, yet more often than not, they destroyed us. They took everything good about us and replaced it with everything bad.
Skylar slowly rolled to the other side, showing me her back instead of her front. Unable to avoid the inevitable any longer, I stood up from the bed, careful not to wake her up, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind me.
My phone rang again, and as if on cue, the scar on the back of my neck started itching, driving me nearly insane.
I pulled it out of my back pocket and stared at the name written in capital letters. I fucking hated seeing it. I hated remembering what it stood for. The memories that came rushing back every time I saw it were not something I wanted to be reminded of.
Skylar hated this house, but I loved every single inch of it. I loved it because it wasn’t tarnished like the house of horrors I grew up in. It didn’t hold that moldy smell hiding in the corners of the rooms. It didn’t remind me of nights filled with panic, hiding in my closet so that she wouldn’t be able to find me.
My hand shook as I held the phone. As soon as it stopped ringing, it started mere seconds later.
“I told you not to call me,” I barked, walking down the stairs. “We have nothing to talk about.”
“Oh, I think we do, darling.” Her melodic voice rang in my ear, sending shivers all over my body.
I sat on the last stair with the phone pressed against my ear, and my other hand in my hair.
“What do you want?”
“To talk.” She snickered. “Is it so wrong that I want to see my only son?”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m five years old, Joanna. You all but ran away when I asked you about that night. Don’t fucking bullshit me now.”
Silence enveloped me, with only her breathing breaking the suffocating air. “Fine,” she huffed. “I need to talk to you. There are things you should know, baby.”
“Don’t. Call. Me. That,” I gritted out. “Don’t fucking play the games you used to play.”
“Dylan—”
“Where?” I cut her off. “Are you back in Winworth?”
“I am. Meet me at the house in half an hour. I’ll wait for you there.”
With those words, the line went dead, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the turmoil brewing inside me. I didn’t want to leave Skylar alone, but I didn’t have a choice.
* * *
Hope was for fools,and fear for the weak.
