by Ashley Black
And then he was gone. He just ran out of there, a blur of black intense mayhem.
I refused to follow him. I needed to be alone. I needed to process what the fuck just happened. I wasn’t sure what to think anymore, I was so confused.
“That man is certifiable,” Brett said quietly; he was now standing, and had fastened his hands around my arms. I noticed him flick his head gently for Clarissa, who has clucking her tongue angrily at the destroyed artwork, to leave us be for a moment.
“You need to cease all contact with him. I’ve seen his type before. They’re obsessive. Dangerous. They never give up.” He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry I held this stupid show here. It was a dick move, I admit. I wanted to hurt you. Because God knows, woman, you have hurt me. How could you…” he trailed off. “With him? A fucking rock star? How do you think that makes me feel!?”
I had no words. I only shook my head.
Brett surprised me by taking me briefly in his arms for a moment, and we simply but awkwardly embraced. It felt nice to be held by him again. “I hate you so much it hurts,” he sighed into my hair. “You realize that? I am not a very nice person to be around at the moment. I need some space to think.”
I nodded. “I hear you there. Me, too.”
“So was it just… infatuation with Mr. Cellrager or something more?” Brett asked, an edge to his voice.
Hell to no. I wasn’t ready to have that conversation with him yet. I shook my head. “I can’t,” I stammered.
“Why?” He sounded angry now.
Tears were stinging my eyes.
We were momentarily interrupted when someone set down a cake box. “Arrived at the door.”
Brett didn’t even ask if I wanted a piece, he just grabbed two plates on autopilot and forks and sliced into the beautiful marbled round cake with Congratulations scrawled across it in pink frosting.
He angrily speared some onto a fork as he pierced me with his bitter gaze. “You think you love Mr. rock star, is that it?” he asked.
“I don’t know what I feel,” I said honestly. “He is…” I trailed off, and besides, I thought this line of questioning was so hypocritical of him. What about Clarissa, for fuck’s sake?
“What?!” Brett stuffed an impossibly huge bite of cake into his mouth as he considered me through narrowed brown eyes that glittered with barely restrained rage. The man looked like he was about to explode.
“Like I said, I don’t want to discuss it right now,” I said.
Brett plunged his fork into the cake again, and demolished another sizable bite. The man was eating angry. He was so going to get indigestion later.
“He is so what?” Brett pressed.
“Maddening!” I groaned. “Look. I won’t deny it, there is clearly an attraction there all right? I got caught up in it, I might have even thought I was in love.”
Brett snorted as he swallowed his cake, shoved still more into his mouth, and he sprayed crumbs at me as he fired his next question. “How do you feel now?”
I spread my hands helplessly. “I don’t know; can we please stop talking about him, Brett? I could just as easily be asking you these questions about Clarissa,” I groaned.
“Clarissa and I are not anything. That was a mistake. We were both drunk; it doesn’t make it all right, for sure, but it is what it is. My future is not with Clarissa.” His voice fell softly. “I thought it was with you. But I’m not sure of anything anymore. Except this, You truly are fucking toxic.”
I could barely believe what I was hearing. The man was giving me fucking whiplash.
Brett licked his lips as he finished the remainder of the large slice of cake he had just destroyed in front of me, and he bristled with arrogant defiance.
“You’re right.” I glared at him. “You are not a very nice person to be around at the moment.”
Then my phone beeped. I looked down at it.
Thorn.
You’re welcome
What the fuck did that mean?
Then Brett started coughing. I stared at him in alarm, his face had turned crimson, his hands were at his throat, his glassy eyes widened in horror. “Elena… I think… strawberries,” he rasped. His face was puffing up rather quickly before my eyes, cheeks taking on a doughy appearance and pushing up into his eyes, making them watery slits of terror and pain.
I quickly placed a call through to 911.
“Your allergy kit!” I freaked. “Where is it?”
“Not here.” He slurred around a fat tongue, his head was so swollen and blotchy now, I barely recognized him. This was bad. Very bad.
I cradled Brett in my arms as we awaited help. I did what I could to comfort and ease his distress. This was a nightmare. A horror show. Aaron’s little joke about the title for my reality TV series was not far off the mark.
I was shaking, when another message pinged through from Thorn.
Well? I’m waiting? Where is my thanks?
Thornton Darko had just tried to kill Brett.
Ninteen
I met Thorn in as neutral a location as I could think in Ashby. It was a little coffee place called ‘Cave in a Wall’; the place was underground, the walls lined from floor to ceiling with books. I did not go alone. Aaron was sitting in the corner pretending to read a book, and Daniel was awesome enough to wait just a little down the road in his BMW for a quick getaway.
As Mr. Cellrager himself slid across from me in the little booth I had found not too far from Aaron, he wore his characteristic head to toe black, the coat buttoned right up practically to his strong chin. He looked like he hadn’t slept. Since Brett had been hospitalised and later saved from a severe allergic reaction, I had received a ridiculous amount of messages from Thorn asking to see me again. I couldn’t. I refused. For just under a week, I buried myself in my writing, and got more done than I ever thought possible.
I had even started writing the book Thorn had asked me to write, not because he wanted it, but because I thought it was a damn good idea. But mostly, I had been doing a lot of thinking. About Brett. About Thorn. About what I wanted. Fair to say, I was still as confused as fuck. But Thorn was scaring me. I needed more time, and besides, I still cared very much for Brett. I hadn’t given up hope on us yet. It wasn’t fair to Thorn, no matter what I was feeling for him, for me to continue to see him when I felt the way I did. Besides, the man, I was convinced, although I had been unable to uncover any proof of this, had tried to kill Brett.
“How is Brett?” he asked, like he truly cared about my answer.
“He lived,” I said flatly.
Thorn nodded. “I’m so relieved,” he breathed, and reached for my hands.
I clasped them tightly in my lap, hiding them from view.
He frowned and bit his lip, considering me for a moment. “You don’t believe me.”
I shook my head, blinking back tears.
“I have no idea how strawberries came to be in that damnable cake. Really.” His voice had taken on a pleading tone.
“I’m heading out to one of my favourite places to write some new material,” he continued when I said nothing to this. He flicked an airline ticket to Mexico across the table to me. “I want you to come with me.”
I stared at it dumbfounded for a moment. “What?!”
Thorn flashed me a bright smile, dark green eyes aglow. “Let’s get away from this place for a while.”
I continued to stare at the ticket, unable to look at him. “I can’t,” I said finally.
“Why?” He sounded confused.
“Because…” I trailed off. Shit. This was much harder in person with his formidable beauty and intensity bearing down on me. Stay strong, Elena, I coached myself. “I wouldn’t want to give you the wrong idea,” I started slowly.
Thorn threw back his head and laughed.
“Why is that funny?” I scowled at him.
“Too late. You are a magnificent tease. You have already given me the wrong idea several times over, and many other ideas since. Here’s
one of them.” Thorn placed a little jewellery box on the table.
My eyes widened in horror. Hell to no. This couldn’t be happening, not when I was about to break the man’s heart.
“No!” I pushed the box back. “Don’t.”
Thorn’s brows raised in surprise. “So presumptuous! I’m not asking you to marry me. Are you crazy? We barely know each other!”
“Oh!” I felt my shoulders fall forward in relief.
He opened the little box, and presented a gorgeous white gold necklace – with a little raven affixed to it – its eyes were tiny red rubies that glinted up at me accusingly. It was beautiful. I loved it. I thought I might cry, but stuffed the tears back down. “It’s beautiful,” I breathed.
“I want to be with you, Elena. The men in my line had a tradition, when they realized they had fallen in love with someone. They had one of these little raven necklaces crafted for them. It was a pledge, I guess,” he sneered, a look of distaste flickering across his face. “The modern day equivalent to a promise ring is what I would call it. But it means so much more than that. I have no soul to promise you, I said that much to you before.”
I shook my head, and rolled my eyes a little at that.
“But traditionally, the raven contained a splinter of the Warlock’s soul inside of it. This is powerful, and not a thing to give someone on a whim or flight of fancy. You would not just give such a precious thing to just anyone.” His dark green eyes stared into mine meaningfully.
“I will take your soulless raven any day,” I joked as my fingers touched the lovely piece of jewellery. I lifted it reverently from the box. Really? I reprimanded myself. You’re going to try to joke about this? There is no lightening the significance of this Elena! His feelings were choking me.
Thorn smiled sadly. “The ritual is a bit of a bitch so I guess in a way, I’m glad I have no soul to put into this tiny bird.”
“You are truly insane, you realize that?” I couldn’t help but laugh. “And giving me this. Really, Thorn? Is this any less crazy than asking me to marry you?”
He laughed so hard his shoulders shook with it.
Oh, fuck me dead. I loved the sound of his laughter. His non sinister, warm, happy, careless rumble. It was infectious. I loved how it lit up his dramatic intense face.
I loved… him.
I loved… Brett.
I sighed.
“So I visited a practising Warlock,” he went on seriously. “And he helped me do some binding work on the little raven.”
I dropped the jewellery in alarm.
“Relax, you look like I just told you I cursed the thing!”
“What did you do, Thorn?” I asked, my heart starting to pound.
“Whenever you want me – I will always return to you – that locket binds me to you.”
“And if I don’t want you?” I ventured in a trembling voice.
“I hadn’t considered that possibility,” he admitted. He took up the raven necklace, and fastened it around my neck. I let him. I was stupefied. There were no words as he sat back and watched at me expectantly.
I thought briefly about running, but used the awkward stretch of silence to gather my thoughts instead.
“You do want me, don’t you, Elena?” he asked softly.
Tears blurred my vision. “No. I’m sorry. I can’t do this anymore, Thorn.”
He slumped back in the booth, the corners of his mouth turning down.
Don’t look at his mouth! I ordered myself sternly. So I looked at the polished wood of the table between us.
“I don’t believe you.” His breath came out in a shaky rush – like I had punched him in the heart. I winced.
I studied the condensation ring of my glass on the table. It was truly the most mesmerizing thing I had ever laid eyes upon.
“Look at me,” Thorn insisted.
Fuck no. Bad idea. I kept my gaze downcast.
“Elena?” His voice cracked slightly.
Unbidden, I found my hand rising up to grip the little raven protectively, and then I flinched as if it burned me. I stared at him ; this was the worst, this was how Aaron had coached me how to do it. He told me I had to do it this way, because anytime I had tried to be nice about telling someone to fuck off out of my life, they ended up even more enchanted and beguiled by me.
Yes, crazy, but no, not really when I looked upon the antics of the badass enchantresses in my family. These words were so cruel, though. I had practised them over and over again with Aaron, in front of the mirror, and now I was going to tell my muse, the most wonderful fucked up mistake of my life - Thornton Darko - I didn’t love him in the cruellest way I knew how.
“No, I don’t want you,” I said. “I never really did. I was bored. I teased, you responded.”
Thorn’s stare was unwavering.
“You were a little experiment to me. I wanted to test whether I could make a rock star fall madly in love with me with words alone; that’s what my proposal to tease you every day of December was about. You gave me some great material for my book,” I smirked. “One I was going to write anyway, by the way… you know, the book you insisted I write about… this situation. Well, I was already ahead of you, I already thought of that.”
He was shaking his head. “No.” His fists were clenched before him on the table and trembling.
“Yes!” I insisted. “I used you, Thorn. I know you big bad ass rock stars aren’t used to that happening. But I did. I had a lull in creativity, it happens. You were a welcome distraction, and you gave me solid gold, by the way, thanks for that. But…” I shrugged. “There’s nothing more you can give me, I got what I needed. So this is goodbye.” I rose to my feet.
Thorn was breathing hard, I saw his nostrils flare, his mouth was a line of pain; I couldn’t bear to look directly in his eyes right now. “Witch!” he barely breathed, his whole body quivering with rage. “How could you be so fucking heartless?”
“I think you already answered that when you called me ‘witch’,” I tossed over my shoulder as I walked out of there.
He let me go, but I felt his gaze on my back. It was hot and angry.
As soon as I was outside, I ran around the building down the road toward Daniel sitting in the BMW. I almost made it to the passenger side door when a heavy hand slammed down on my shoulder and spun me around.
Thorn. Jesus. He looked on the verge of tears, his dark hair askew from his hands raking through it. “Who?” he roared in my face. “Who the fuck are you?”
Twenty
“Get your hands off of her!” Daniel had launched himself out of the car in a heart beat.
I waved him off. “Please,” I shot him a pained look. “Let me handle this.”
He looked unconvinced.
“Who are you?” Thorn repeated again. “To do this to me!”
I tried to turn away again, because I was about to burst into tears.
“I love you, Elena,” he insisted brokenly.
“Well buddy, take a hint, the lady doesn’t love you, so maybe you should back the fuck up and take your freak show else where,” Daniel suggested, angling his imposing body between me and Thorn.
“Be careful, babe!” I heard Aaron shout as he ran down the street toward us.
Thorn punched Daniel in the face.
Holy shit.
Daniel was a big guy, but the punch had clearly caught him off guard. He fell sideways – out for the count, blood trickling from his nose. I crumpled to my knees, touching his face, and I heard Aaron start screaming.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?!” I yelled at Thorn. “Get out of here! Now!”
“You lied to me,” he said quietly. “I don’t know why you’re doing it, Elena. But I know when I am being lied to. You love me. I know this; I’ll be coming back for you.”
I didn’t trust myself to speak. When I looked back at him, he was astride a mean-looking black motorcycle, and roared out of my life.
He had not looked back. Not once. Because, as he h
ad promised, I shivered, he was coming back for me. I needed to give my lawyer friend Abby a call, because fuck me, I needed a level head to speak to; what were my options? Should I go into hiding for a while? Should I get a restraining order? Who would take me seriously? Normally, people like Thorn had to take those out those things on people like me. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken Aaron’s advice. What I said had broken the man’s mind clearly. I shivered, remembering the way he had stared at me before he punched Daniel.
I started crying. I was the ridiculous architect of my very own nightmare. All that teasing. Finally… it had come back to bite my ass. Most men had taken it well, no harm done. But Thorn? Shit. I couldn’t have anticipated falling in love with him, or he with me. But my heart belonged to Brett. We were in trouble for sure. He still hated me. But I wanted to figure that out. I wanted to give us a chance. Someone like Thornton Darko sucked all available attention, focus, and oxygen from the room – he was too big to allow me to think straight, and I needed my mind working right now. More than ever. I believed that Brett’s life and mine depended on it.
Later that night, I wrote in a satin bathrobe. I hadn’t been able to write in my normal lingerie since Thorn had bruised my flesh that night. I couldn’t bear it. I felt like he had marked me everywhere. The bruises were fading, but persisted, much like reality. I wanted to write to escape it. My bags were packed neatly near the door. I planned to leave tomorrow morning. I couldn’t stay here. As far as I was aware, Thorn and his freak army didn’t know where Aaron lived. I considered it a relatively safe place to hide, although that Aaron allowed me to stay at all after Thorn broke his lover’s nose was beyond the call of duty as a friend. Fuck me. Thorn was hurting people in my life now. First Brett, now Daniel.
I know he insisted he didn’t have anything to do with strawberries ending up in that cake, but I believed him as far as I could throw him, which I couldn’t, the man was freaking huge. Thank God for Aaron, I would feel safe at Daniel’s pad. This house, however - I cast a nervous glance about me - not so much. But just to be sure, I had organised security nonetheless. It made me feel better to know they were out there guarding me against a rock star who also happened to be a fucking powerful warlock with an army that already hated my ass.
