Revelations: Fire & Brimstone Scroll 1

by Nikole Knight

  I blushed for the remainder of the drive.

  When we made it back to my dorm, the sun shone warm and bright, a pleasant breeze replacing the morning coolness. I faced the sun, absorbing its heat for a moment before following after my Secondaries. They reached the steps of my dorm building first, but I paused on the bottom step when a feminine voice called my name.

  “Riley! Hey, Riley.” Bethany waved from the parking lot as Sharon locked her car.

  Jai and Noel stopped at the top of the stairs, and I held up the universal finger-sign for, “Give me a second.” They nodded, and I turned to greet the girls.

  Jogging up the walkway, Bethany came to a stop with a happy smile on her round face. “Hey, you. I stopped by your dorm to invite to you to another movie night last night, and you weren’t there.”

  It wasn’t a question, but I understood the unspoken query. “Oh, I stayed with” —I glanced at Jai and Noel— “friends. I mean, at their apartment. We had a slumber party.”

  “Aw, that’s adorable.” Bethany giggled as I flushed bright red.

  Sharon joined us, scanning the guys behind me, and her eyes widened. “Holy shit, Beth, you weren’t kidding. Those guys are smoking.”

  Jai wasn’t smoking, at least not currently. I checked over my shoulder to verify. Nope. His black medwakh was tucked safely in the pocket of his leather jacket.

  They must have heard us talking about them because they descended the stairs to join our huddle. The girls exchanged an indecipherable look. Bethany smoothed her shirt, and Sharon cocked her hip out, twirling a bouncy curl around her finger. Like a lioness stalking its prey, she tracked Jai’s step until he came to stop beside me.

  “My, my, Riley is a lucky boy to have friends like you.” Sharon stuck out her hand with a sharklike smile. “Please tell me you have brothers because… damn.”

  Noel covered his mouth with his hand, smothering a high-pitched cackle of shock, and Sharon’s earlier words clicked. Smoking, as in, smoking hot, attractive. Oh, she was flirting. Perfect.

  Unlike Noel, Jai neither blushed or tittered. He smirked; swept his gaze over Sharon, head to toe in a way that twisted my stomach; and took her hand in his. “You won’t need to meet my brothers, trust me. I’m Jai.”

  “Sharon.”

  They shook hands, and my stomach landed somewhere near my toes.

  “I’m Noel, one of the brothers.” Noel shook Bethany’s hand, then Sharon’s. “But don’t waste those bedroom eyes on me, darling. You’re not packing the right equipment to tempt me.”

  He winked, and Sharon laughed. “A straight shooter. I like it.”

  “Not too straight.” He snickered. “But it saves me a headache later. Not to sound sexist, but some girls don’t take it well when they think you’ve been flirting all night only to find out you’re scared of vaginas.”

  At the word vaginas, I rounded on Noel, slack-jawed, eyes wide. Bethany blushed but joined Jai and Sharon who burst into raucous laughter. Noel shrugged, his tinkling laughter mixing with the rest, and I buried my face in my hands, utterly mortified.

  “Oops, I embarrassed Riley.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pressed his face into my hair. “Sorry, sweetheart.”

  Jai clapped Noel’s shoulder. “Putting aside Noel’s phobia of vaginas, it’s nice to meet you. Riley’s told us a lot about you girls.”

  I peeked out from between my fingers as Bethany and Sharon simpered with a matching, “Aww.”

  “Hopefully, it was all good things.” Sharon’s hand drifted over Jai’s arm, and something hot and bitter erupted in my stomach.

  “Only the best.” Jai winked, and the sour feeling rose to my chest, roasting my heart.

  Glaring at the pavement, I fought to control my mounting frustration. Why was he looking at her like that? And why did it make me want to push Sharon into the well-watered landscaping?

  I lost track of the conversation, too focused on my confusing but nearly violent annoyance. Bethany and Noel chatted away while Sharon devoured Jai with her gaze. He practically fawned under the attention, clicking his tongue ring against his teeth and grinning. He looked stupid, like a stupid… stupid jerkface.

  Nice one.

  Sharon giggled at something Jai said, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Oh, I love bowling.” Noel shook my shoulder, breaking through my dour thoughts. “You wanna go bowling, right, sweetie?”

  At the endearment, Bethany sent me a big-eyed grin, and I blushed. “What? Bowling?”

  “We should go this weekend. We’ll all be busy next weekend with Thanksgiving, and finals will sneak up on us before we know it, so we probably won’t find time later,” Bethany said, tracking Noel’s hand as it tucked a curl behind my ear then lowered to rub my back. “What do you think?”

  “I have plans Friday, but Saturday, I’m free as a bird,” Sharon said.

  “I’m sure we’d be available, but we’ll have to see if we can fit it into Riley’s full social calendar.” Jai ruffled my hair with a teasing smile, but I didn’t think his joke was very funny.

  Stepping out of reach, I ducked away from his touch and snuggled into Noel’s side. Jai’s smile faded, his brow furrowed in confusion. Sharon laughed, but Bethany was too busy checking her phone agenda to notice Jai’s poor joke.

  Noel accepted my impromptu cuddle, bending at the waist to whisper in my ear. “It’s okay if you don’t want to. I just thought you might enjoy it.”

  “I’ve never been bowling,” I confessed into his shirt, and his arm snaked around my waist and squeezed.

  “It’s fun. Do you wanna go?”

  If it meant Jai and Sharon being in the same room, then I really didn’t. But that was silly. I was being selfish. I wanted to keep my angels all to myself, but just because they made other friends didn’t mean they wouldn’t want to be my friends anymore. And if Jai and Sharon liked each other—like, liked each other—then why should that matter to me?

  I didn’t want to be the sourpuss putting a damper on their plans. “Okay. Sounds fun,” I said, and Noel squished me against him with a proud grin.

  “Excellent.”

  They finalized plans for the coming weekend, exchanging numbers as we all headed into the dorm building. Jai stopped at the bathroom, and we parted with Bethany and Sharon at my room. They waved and walked to the end of the hall to their own room.

  “See you Saturday.” Bethany waved at Noel, then shot me a mischievous wink. I escaped into my room before she did anything more embarrassing.

  “I always liked Bethany,” Noel mused as he shut the door behind us. “She’s such a sweetheart.”

  “She’s a good friend,” I mumbled, inspecting the mess Brian had left in our room.

  I kicked his discarded clothes over to his side of the room and chucked the leftover fast food bags into the garbage. He was such a slob; it was disgusting.

  “Riley?” Noel clasped the back of my neck and massaged the tension from my muscles. “What’s wrong? Do you not want to go bowling? It’s really okay if you don’t.”

  My roiling emotions were as bewildering as they were scary, and I had never been good with words. Instead of answering verbally, I spun in his hold and wrapped my arms around his middle. It was strange, initiating physical affection, but it was getting easier. I sighed when Noel returned the embrace.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” I inhaled his floral scent, and it settled my soul. “I think I like hugs.”

  “I like hugs, too.” I heard the smile in his voice, and when he kissed the top of my head, I felt like I was levitating.

  As our hug loosened, I withdrew with a sigh, but he captured my face in his hands before I could step away. With less than a foot between our faces, his gaze flitted over my features. I didn’t know what he searched for, but I allowed his perusal. He studied my eyes, then my nose, chin, my mouth. He paused there, and my lips parted.

  The air around us thickened with something I had no name for, and the
purplish starbursts around his pupils darkened. I loved the way his eyes changed, but I was curious as to the causation.

  “Riley…” Noel’s voice was thin but deeper than normal, a little breathy. It did funny things to my tummy.

  “Y-yes?”

  Noel blinked, his irises lightening once more, and he stepped back and dropped his hands from my cheeks. “Nothing. Never mind. Do you have any homework to finish for tomorrow?”

  The abrupt change of subject threw me, and it took me several seconds to rewire my train of thought. “Um, maybe.”

  Raking a hand through his long hair, Noel nodded toward my bed. “Well, better get everything done. I don’t want your grades dropping because we’re monopolizing your time.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  I felt oddly cold as I stumbled to my bed and retrieved my laptop and backpack. Noel and Jai had a knack for throwing me off balance, and the foreign feelings igniting within me were growing in magnitude. It scared me more than I wanted to admit. But whatever these emotions meant, I prayed my angels wouldn’t leave me to face them alone.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “And you think that’s appropriate? Canoodling with girls in their rooms? That is not the behavior I taught you!” Ms. Janet hissed through the phone, and I swallowed the tears clogging my throat as I paced across my dorm room.

  “It wasn’t like that. We just watched a movie—”

  “And then took part in all kinds of debauchery? You think I’m stupid, you wicked boy?”

  She ranted and raved for another fifteen minutes as I tried to explain, but she never let me. Interrupting my every attempt, she seethed with disappointment and rage. How did she know I watched a movie in Bethany and Sharon’s room? She always figured out my mistakes at some point. It was useless trying to hide from her.

  Swiping at my tears, I finally shut my mouth and let her yell. Submission was easier; it always had been.

  “You’re grounded, you hear me? Go cleanse immediately, and don’t you dare leave your room except for classes.”

  “But we’re going bowling tonight,” I said, regretting it instantly. I could practically hear her swelling with fury.

  “Bowling? With those sluts?” Static filled the connection as she muttered to herself. “Cleanse now! An hour in the shower tonight—”

  “Ms. Janet, please!”

  She snarled, past the point of logic. “An hour, Riley! And if I hear you’ve stepped one toe out of line, I’ll be making a call to the dean and pulling you from classes.” Horror washed over me, and I slumped onto my bed, defeated. “Have I made myself clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And your punishments?”

  “I’m to cleanse now and do an hour in the shower before bed.” I sniffled, wiping at the moisture dripping from my nose. “And I’m grounded to my room except for classes.”

  There was a long silence, and I thought perhaps she’d hung up on me. But she finally spoke, her voice gentler. “Good boy, Riley. This is to make you better, you know that, right? You’ll be a good boy, now, won’t you?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Excellent.” She hung up without a goodbye.

  As I put myself back together, one pitiful piece at a time, I cleared the tear tracks from my cheeks and blew my nose. I tucked my phone into the drawer and smoothed my clothes. Jai and Noel had stepped away to do “angel stuff” for the afternoon to free themselves for bowling tonight, and I’d stayed in my dorm as promised. But they would be back soon. I needed to cleanse before they returned.

  Afterward, I felt hollow and empty. As much as I worried over tonight, I had been looking forward to bowling. The disappointment crushed me as I curled into a ball on my bed and fought off childish tears.

  There was a knock on my door, followed by Jai’s voice. “Riles? Can I come in?”

  Things had been weird between us this past week, but neither of us addressed it. Jai acted like everything was normal, and I tried to do the same. But whenever I thought of Sharon typing her phone number into Jai’s phone, the bitterness would return.

  When I didn’t answer, Jai opened the door and stuck his head inside. Spotting me on the bed, pale from my punishment, eyes bloodshot, his expression darkened. He charged into the room, his aura blackening with every step until he loomed over me, fists clenched in anger. I curled into a tighter ball.

  “What’s wrong? What the fuck happened?” he all but shouted, and I flinched, cowering away from his wrath.

  I couldn’t do anything right today, it would seem. First Ms. Janet, and now, Jai. I ruined everything.

  “Hey, hey.” His tone calmed, his voice kinder than before. “Riley, what’s going on? Talk to me.”

  As he crouched before my bed, he reached for my hands clasped around my bent knees. He took one into his warm hands and rubbed circulation back into it. The touch was so tender I could barely stand it. I burst into tears.

  “Fucking Hades, Riley. Come here.” He drew me forward, and I threw my arms around his neck with a sob. “What’s wrong? Was it Brian? Did he fuck with you again? ’Cause I’ll kick his ass to Timbuktu!”

  I shook my head, hiding my face in his shoulder. “No, he didn’t do anything.”

  “Then what happened? You’re freaking me the fuck out, right now!”

  “I can’t go bowling,” I blurted, my breath hitching on another sob. “I wanted to, but I can’t. I’m sorry.”

  Rubbing my back, he hugged me close, my legs hanging on either side of his crouched body. “It’s okay. If you don’t want to go, we don’t have to.”

  “I wanted to.”

  “Well, then why can’t you?”

  The truth teased the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it down. I couldn’t tell him about Ms. Janet. He might get mad or, worse, laugh. Normal nineteen-year-olds weren’t supposed to get grounded. He wouldn’t understand.

  “I-I, um, I don’t feel good,” I finally said, and Jai gripped the back of my neck and forced me out of my hiding place.

  Scrutinizing my red nose, watery eyes, and pasty complexion, he frowned. “No offense, but you’re not looking too hot, either. What’s up? You nauseous?”

  I didn’t have to lie when I nodded. “Uh-huh. I just—I don’t feel good.”

  “Okay. We won’t go bowling then. It’s fine.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  At my apology, he laughed. It wasn’t cruel, more sad than anything, but tears flooded my eyes again. He pressed his lips together, smothering a smile.

  “You have nothing to be sorry for. You’re sick. You can’t help that.” He ruffled my hair, then cupped my cheek. “We’ll just let Bethany know we need to reschedule.”

  Relief coursed through my veins as the tightness in my lungs loosened. “Okay. You’re not mad?”

  “No, shortstack. I’m not mad.” He gathered me into his arms again, and I went willingly. “Why would I be mad?”

  I shrugged, and he chuckled.

  “Okay, come on.” He stood with me still in his arms, and I wrapped my legs around his waist to keep from falling. Supporting my weight with an arm under my butt, he carried me toward the door like a toddler. “We’re going back to the apartment. Gideon will make you some hot soup. Noel will bundle you in blankets and toe socks. And we’ll have a movie marathon, okay?”

  I wasn’t allowed to leave my dorm room, but the offer was too good to pass up. Technically, I was still kind-of obeying since I wouldn’t be going bowling. And I didn’t want to lie around my dorm while feigning sickness. Jai and Noel would insist on staying near me, and Brian would throw a fit.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if I stayed at their apartment.

  “Okay,” I agreed, and Jai rubbed my spine in comfort.

  He carried me one-handed as he snagged my sweatshirt and backpack with his other hand. Juggling his cargo, he somehow opened the door and managed to lock it behind us. Hopefully, Brian had his keys with him.

  “Oh my God, Riley? What’s wrong? Is he hurt
?” Bethany rushed down the hall from the bathroom, and I burrowed into Jai’s chest to hide.

  “Hey, Bethany. I’m actually glad I caught you. We’re gonna have to take a rain check. Riley’s not feeling good.”

  Jai hitched me higher on his body, and I blushed. I was acting like a little kid and looked like one, too, wrapped around him like a monkey. But at this point, I couldn’t care less.

  “Is it bad? Does he need to go to the hospital?”

  Jai shook his head. “No, he’s just nauseous. Probably caught a stomach bug.”

  “Oh, were you the one throwing up earlier?” Bethany’s hand landed on my arm, and I tensed. “I thought I heard someone getting sick while I was jumping in the shower.”

  “Shit, Riles, did you vomit? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  My lungs constricted as fear teased the back of my throat. I wasn’t a good liar, and my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I nodded once, praying they stopped asking questions, and thankfully, they did. They resumed their conversation, allowing me to bury my face in Jai’s neck again.

  “Sorry to back out at the last minute—”

  “No, of course not. I’m just sorry he’s not feeling good. Wait, where are you taking him?” Bethany’s voice held a note of suspicion now, and Jai tensed.

  “To our apartment. He’ll be more comfortable there.”

  A beat of silence followed. And then, “Where’s Noel?”

  “Running errands. I’ll probably have him pick up some Pepto-Bismol while he’s out.” Jai patted my back. “Does that sound okay?”

  I shrugged. I hated Pepto-Bismol, but I wouldn’t argue.

  “So, Noel will be there, too?” Bethany pressed.

  Jai ground his teeth, his tone sharper than before.

  “Yeah, Noel will be there.”

  Bethany’s hand tightened on my arm, and I peeked over my shoulder and met her worried blue-gray eyes. “You can stay with me if you want, Riley.”

  “I wanna go with Jai,” I said, and she pursed lips.

  After another wary glance in Jai’s direction, she nodded. “Okay. Well, feel better. Let me know if you need anything.”