Chapter 28: Forged in Blood: Chapter 26

I glance around the empty parking lot, certain this is where Dr. Underwood said for us to meet. A feeling of unease settles over me, but I breathe a sigh of relief when a lime-green Dodge Charger turns in and is followed by a second car. I shield my eyes from the glare of the headlights but still can’t make out the features of the person who climbs out of the passenger seat of the Charger until they get closer.

My stomach lurches. God, how could I have been so stupid?

“Hi, Opeelia.” Penelope says my name in her annoying singsong voice, and it’s like nails clawing down a chalkboard. I wince and take a step back, noting the guy standing beside her, preening in his football jersey and backward hat. Must be the driver of the flashy car and, if I had to guess, her latest boy toy.

“What do you want, Penelope?”

“I heard you were talking shit about me, Pee-pee. Telling people what a horrible bully I was to you back in high school.” She tilts her head and juts out her bottom lip, looking like one of those creepy sad clowns playing it up for an audience.

Dammit. I should have known this was a setup. “I just told people the truth.”

She lets out a shrieking laugh. “That you’re a freak and a loser who burned down our whole school?” The people from the other car come to stand beside her. I recognize Madison and her boyfriend—the quarterback who lost the fight in the woods—but not the other guy.

All five of them advance toward me, and I have nowhere to go but back toward the steep edge of the riverbank.

“What does it matter to you? Like you said, I’m a freak and a loser. Nobody ever listens to me anyway.”

She steps closer, her upper lip curled. “You fucking disgust me.”

“Why do you hate me?” I shout, my hands balled into fists. “What the hell did I ever do to you?”

“You came to my school and took my role. And besides that, I just don’t like you, Opeelia. You’re weird and you’re a freak. A reject.”

It hurts me more to remember Xavier’s words than it does to hear hers now. “You’re such a bitch, you know that?”

She snort laughs, her tiny nose scrunched up like she smells something rancid.

“What the hell did you bring me here for?”

“To finally do the world a favor and get rid of you for good, Pee-pee.” She sings the insult that’s haunted me for the last two years.

“It was a part in a goddamn play.” I glance at the steep ravine behind me. “You’re going to kill me over a part in a stupid play?”

She continues to advance, her cheap, cloying perfume invading my nostrils. “You know my dad blamed me for what happened at school. He took away my credit card for a whole year and stopped me from going to parties. I missed out on junior prom with Pete Hill.” She stomps her foot. “Goddamn junior prom!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t get to go to junior prom either. You know, on account of me being expelled from school after you made it look like I set an entire building on fire!”

Her lips twist in disgust. “My daddy always felt sorry for you. I wanted that part to make him proud, and you took it! He never looked at me the same again after that. Because you had to go and act like a spoiled little bitch.”

I shake my head. Penelope’s dad was a teacher at our high school, and he was always nice to me, but not in a way that would justify the level of vitriol she has directed at me since the day I met her.

I scan the parking lot for an escape, but there isn’t one. My heart beats so fast I can barely hear anything except for rushing water from the river below. The screech of tires from a third car racing into the parking lot reaches me, but I don’t bother to look. More of Penelope’s friends wanting to see her greatest achievement, I’m sure. But her face twists in confusion, and she looks behind her, saying something to her boyfriend who holds out his hands like he has no idea what’s going on.

The engine of the new car cuts off, and the headlights dim. The sound of breaking glass follows, and the headlights of the other two cars go black, leaving us with only the fading light of the sun. Taking the group’s distraction as an opportunity, I look around again for a way to escape. Fast-moving shadows blur toward me, freezing me in place. A scream is cut off abruptly by the sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones.

I need to run. Now. But before I can take a step, a pair of strong arms bands around my shoulders, a unique but familiar scent washing over me.

Sighing with relief, I find myself melting into Malachi’s solid warmth. My eyes are adjusting to the dim light, and I can make out Axl and Xavier. They’re holding Penelope and her jock boyfriend in the air by their throats.

Axl slams the guy’s head back against the hood of the Charger, and I wince at the sound it makes. Axl’s fangs glint in the light of the dying sun as he leaps on top of the jock like a hungry lion making a meal of a zebra. My heart stutters when he dips his head and shakes it like a rabid dog, ripping out the other guy’s throat.

My hand flies to my mouth as bile burns my esophagus. I want to yell at them to stop, but my mouth can’t seem to form any words.

Malachi presses his lips to my ear, and as though he’s reading my mind, he says, “They were going to kill you, sweet girl.”

I shiver in his arms, and he holds me tighter. In my heart, I know he’s right, but it doesn’t make this any easier to watch. Penelope’s crying snaps me out of my fog. Xavier has dragged her close enough that I can see her face etched with fear and horror, his giant hand still wrapped around her throat.

He shakes her like a rag doll. “Apologize to her,” he growls.

“I-I’m s-sorry,” she rasps.

Axl roars and jumps off the bloody corpse of Penelope’s boyfriend. He goes to his car and switches on the headlights, bathing the whole scene in a stark white light. My stomach lurches. The parking lot is strewn with the remains of four mutilated bodies.

Malachi presses a hand over my heart. “Just breathe, Ophelia. You’re okay.”

His voice feels like a warm blanket. Penelope’s cries grow louder. Fat tears stream down her pink cheeks. Xavier laughs and presses his face close to hers, taunting her. “I see you’ve had yourself a little accident, Penelopee.” I follow his gaze to the yellow stain on the crotch of her white jeans.

“What did you want with Ronan King?” Xavier barks.

“W-what?” Penelope blinks rapidly.

“Who is Ronan King?” I whisper.

Malachi presses his lips to my ear and shushes me, so I suppress my curiosity and listen.

Xavier shakes her again. “Why were you talking to Ronan?”

“H-he’s just … Someone slipped a note into my dorm room telling me he could …” She sucks in a shaky breath. “He’d help get to … That he could deal with Ophelia.”

“So you wanted Ophelia to overhear you talking about the Trials? Was the plan for Ronan to bite her and kill her so you wouldn’t have to?”

Tears race faster down her cheeks. “Y-yes,” she snivels.

“Who the hell is Ronan?” I ask again, unable to keep my thoughts to myself any longer.

Malachi sighs, his warm breath dusting over my skin. I guess he knows better than to shush me again, given that I appear to be incapable of doing so. “He’s one of the leaders of Onyx Society. Basically their version of us.”

I press my lips together and don’t ask anything more, leaving the interrogation to Xavier and Axl, who don’t take their eyes off Penelope.

“And did he have any part in this?” Axl asks with a vicious snarl.

“N-no. He r-refused.”

“But why do you want me dead?” I demand. It makes no sense. “You’re right. I’m nobody. Even if you hate me, this is …” I look around the parking lot that looks like a scene from a slasher flick. “I don’t understand.”

“People like you will never understand,” she spits, sneering at me.

Anger prickles beneath my skin. “People like me? Rejects?”

Xavier’s knuckles turn white as he tightens his grip on her neck, and he presses his face close to hers, his fangs on full display. “Who left the message under your door?”

“I d-don’t know.” She’s back to trembling with fear. “It was there when I came back from class.”

A rumbling growl rolls out of Xavier’s throat. “I think you do know.”

“I swear I don’t. Puh-please, let me go,” she whines.

Xavier glances at me. “What do you think, Cupcake? Should we let her go?”

I take in the tears running down her face. The raw fear in her eyes as they bore into mine, silently pleading with me to spare her. And a part of me can’t help but think she deserves every second of this. This girl has made my life a living hell, and she wants me dead. I suspect it will only be a matter of time before she pulls something else, but I still can’t let him do this. Not for me. I nod. “Let her go.”

“You see how merciful she is, Penelopee? Such a kind soul, our little Ophelia.” He hoists her into the air, and her feet dangle a foot above the ground. She claws at his arms, but her struggle is futile. “Isn’t that right, boys?”

Malachi and Axl hum their agreement.

Xavier grins wickedly. “Too bad we’re not.” With a single flick of his wrist, he tears her throat out and lets her lifeless body drop to the ground.

I freeze. My feet take root in the ground, and my mouth falls open on a silent scream. My limbs tremble. My stomach rolls. I’m going to be sick. Placing my hand over my mouth, I swallow it back down. “Oh my god.” The words are a mere whisper, but they seem loud in the quiet of the night.

Xavier crouches down and wipes his hands on Penelope’s blouse. “No god here to save you, Cupcake.”

“You just …” My eyes dart around the parking lot. More bile burns the back of my throat. “You killed them all.”

“They were about to do the same to you,” Xavier says with a shrug. “Not with quite the same flair as we pulled off, but they had no intention of letting you walk away from here tonight.”

“You can’t know that.” I insist.

“You know that, Ophelia. Come on, sweet girl.” Malachi tucks my hair behind my ear. “What the hell do you think they had planned?”

“M-maybe they just wanted to scare me?”

Axl wipes the blood from his shoe on Penelope’s jeans. “You’re not afraid of anything, Pyro. Pretty sure they knew that too.”

“I’m afraid of what you just did,” I admit, my knees still trembling.

Xavier grins. “Well, you should be afraid of that.”

I swallow down the horror and guilt that burn in my throat. Despite everything that just happened, I am grateful that they saved my life. “Thank you,” I murmur, although thanking Axl and Xavier, two men who have tormented me since the moment I met them, feels completely unnatural.

Axl dismisses my gratitude with a shrug. “We were in the right place at the right time.”

“We knew she was up to something nasty,” Malachi says, his breath warm against my neck.

“Wait. What?” How could they possibly know that?

Axl shoots Malachi a stern look. The kind that makes Xavier let out a psychotic laugh and Malachi mutter something unintelligible.

I step out of Malachi’s embrace and turn so I can see all three of them. “How did you know she was up to something nasty?”

Axl shakes his head. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.” He turns to leave, but I refuse to follow until I have answers.

“No. How did you know she was planning something?” And then I remember what Malachi told me about vampires being able to tune into the emotions of the people they’ve bitten if they choose to. Axl must have been monitoring Penelope. Which means he likes her enough to tune into her thoughts.

My heart sinks, and I’m filled with shame for believing for even one second they were being kind to me because they like me. But if he likes her, why did he just …

My head swims with confusion. I need to get away from them and sort through the jumble of thoughts and emotions clouding my senses. I shrug out of Malachi’s arms and walk away from them. It’s not fully dark yet. I’ll take the bus back.

“Where the hell are you going?” Axl calls after me.

I ignore him and carry on walking, but a second later he and Malachi fall into step beside me. “Where are you headed, sweet girl?” Malachi asks. “Our car is the other way.”

Tears burn my eyes, but I blink them away. “I can get the bus.”

Axl grabs my forearm, stopping me in my tracks. “Get in the fucking car, Ophelia.”

I tip my chin up and glare at him. “Why her? Of all the girls who fawn all over you, why did you have to like her?”

Axl blinks at me, but it’s Xavier’s sadistic laugh that rings in my ears, and I realize he’s standing with us now too.

“What the hell is so funny?” I bark at him.

He holds onto his side, still laughing like the psycho he is. “You think Axl liked that stuck-up bitch?”

Malachi’s face wrinkles like he smells something foul. “He took one for the team biting her.”

I’m so bewildered. I stare at Axl, hoping his expression might give me some clue as to what’s going on here, but he simply glares at me. “You don’t like her?” Well, of course he doesn’t, he just allowed Xavier to claw out her throat. But I still don’t understand what’s happening.

Xavier presses his lips close to my ear. “He said she tasted even worse than she smelled,” he says, his hot breath making me shiver.

I blink, my mind swimming with questions and my brain fogged with confusion. But Axl’s expression only grows angrier. His jaw tics as he glares at me. “So why did you bite her?” I demand.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he growls.

I shake my head. “Not until you tell me what’s going on. You hate me, but you showed up here tonight and stopped whatever Penelope was about to do. Why? And why did you bite her?”

Xavier snickers. “He only wishes he hated you, Cupcake.” He flicks his tongue over his fangs, which are still on display, and eyes me like a prime rib, giving me an idea to make Axl talk. Or squirm. Either is fine by me.

I arch an eyebrow. “Do I smell bad too?”

Xavier grins. “You smell sweeter than cupcakes, baby. I’d bite you in a heartbeat if it wouldn’t get me in a whole heap of trouble.”

Malachi groans. “So fucking tempting.”

Well, now I have even more questions, but first, Axl. “But he said that I stink.” I jerk my thumb at the wall of vampire muscle towering over me, vibrating with anger.

Xavier grins at Axl. “You told her that?”

Malachi scoffs. “Such a fucking liar.”

Axl snarls and stalks toward their car, calling out over his shoulder, “Go get the fucking bus if that’s what you want to do.”

“Why did he bite Penelope?” I ask the two remaining vampires.

Xavier curls a lock of my hair between his fingers, that wild-ass smile still on his lips. “I think you must know the answer, Cupcake.”

I shake my head. “I don’t.”

Xavier rolls his eyes, but Malachi answers. “So he could know if she had any shady shit planned for you.”

“But why?”

Xavier tilts his head, his eyes raking over my body and making heat bloom between my thighs. “You’re ours to fuck with, Cupcake. Only ours. That means nobody else gets to even look at you funny.”

Malachi stands behind me, and Xavier presses up against my front. Their warmth and proximity make me shiver. “And anyone who tries,” Malachi says with a throaty growl.

“Will regret the day they were born,” Xavier finishes, then he sinks his teeth into his bottom lip. A possessive growl vibrates through his body and into mine.

Oh, hell balls. My brain short-circuits. This can’t be happening right now. They’re playing with me. They have to be. Guys like this aren’t attracted to girls like me, no matter how much they’re looking at me like I might be their next snack.

“In the car. Now!” Axl shouts across the parking lot.

Xavier grins. “I guess we’d better go before he busts a blood vessel.”