She surprises me by flying into the room, a maelstrom of nails and cursing.
Chasm intercepts her. Actually, he flings her right over his shoulder before moving over to the door and heeling it closed. He sets Kimber down in front of him and then grabs her by the shoulders, bending down to look into her eyes.
“I need you to calm the hell down, Kim,” he says as she sniffles, tears running down her face. Her teeth are gritted, jaw clenched, hands squeezed into tight fists. She flicks her gaze away from Chasm and over to me.
“So you’re just another one of his easy fucks, huh?” Kimber throws out, but her words hit me and bounce right off. I know Chasm better than that now. Better than her, too, apparently. I try to remind myself that she’s only fourteen, that she’s hurting, missing Parrish. Let her say whatever she needs to say.
“Knock that shit off,” Chasm snaps, and Kimber flicks her gaze back to him, pain brimming in her eyes. “You know better than that. You’ve been a bitch to Dakota since moment one.”
“Like you and Parrish haven’t!” she shouts back at him, flinging her arm out to indicate me. “You both bullied her, too. Don’t act like you’ve forgotten.”
“Of course I haven’t forgotten. I was … I didn’t listen to myself, Kimber. I got swept up in Whitehall’s bullshit the way everyone else does. Come on, you’re better than this.”
“Parrish is probably dead, and here you guys are, fucking in his room. It’s disgusting.” She directs her glare at Chasm this time, rage burning in her eyes. I can see the embers from here, ire that’s just waiting to be fanned into monstrous, roaring flame. “You’re both pathetic.”
“Listen to me,” Chasm says, reaching out to grab her arm. Even though she just saw me kissing him while he was butt-ass naked, she blushes a bit at the contact. A tiny spark of jealousy fires in me, but I clamp down on it. There’s no need for it here. “Nobody wants Parrish back more than we do. Nobody.”
“Whatever,” Kimber says, yanking her arm from his. “You two deserve each other.”
“You’re like a baby sister to me,” Chasm explains, trying to get her to look at him again. We both know what’ll happen if she tells Tess what she just saw. “There was never going to be anything between us, whether Dakota was around or not.”
Kimber turns one, last look on me, and I see it in her face: it doesn’t matter what Chasm fucking says, I am dead to her. Dead.
I’ve lost one sister already this week and even though Kimber and I have yet to find any common ground, I hate this. I hate it so damn much.
“Don’t worry,” she says with a saccharine smile, reaching up to push some of that pretty blond hair back. “I won’t tell Tess.” Kimber bats her lashes at me and then shoves Chasm aside before storming out the door. He watches her go and then closes it again, giving me a nervous look in response.
‘This is gonna be bad,” he says, grinding his teeth for a minute. “Mostly for you. Goddamn it.”
“It’s alright,” I promise him, yanking on the ends of my hair until my scalp stings. “What’s one more person trying to kill me?”
The joke is dry, and it’s not particularly funny, but Chasm laughs anyway. It’s not a nice laugh. Actually, it’s a very, very dark laugh.
“Kimber might be a freshman, but she’s a Whitehall student, Little Sister. I’m going to have to watch your ass even more closely than I’m doing now—and not just on campus. Here, too. Be careful with her. She’s a much bigger threat than you’d think. Everyone at Whitehall wants to impress a Vanguard. They’ll go to crazy lengths to accomplish that.”
“I’ll be careful,” I promise him, but I hate to see that one of my greatest fears is coming true. Kimber lives here under this roof with me. That gives her ample opportunity to fuck with my life in a way none of the other students at WHPA can. Damn, damn, damn. Fuck.
I look back at Chasm, but even though he’s shirtless and gorgeous and everything I’ve ever wanted in a lover, I can’t give into him. Even more so now that Kimber’s on the warpath. The Slayer can clearly see that we’re into each other, that we’re not holding back.
I’m sure he’ll just love the idea of Kimber hating on me.
One of his primary objectives seems to be to drive me away from everyone that I care about.
I hate how easily it’s worked thus far. Maxine. Danyella. Lumen. Tess. Kimber. Even Parrish might not want to be around me when he finds out that I screwed his best friend. I won’t be able to blame him either.
