by L. A. Casey
"You looked pissed, bumble bee."
I was still holding onto Alannah's hand as I looked to my left and up at Kane's marred yet stunning face. "Because I am pissed," I said over the noise of the ongoing crude remarks directed at my boyfriend. I looked to the crowd of pulsing vaginas and growled, "They are disgustin'!"
Kane put his arm around my shoulder and chuckled. "He only has eyes for you, no if, and, or but about it. Only you."
I looked at Kane and smiled, and I put my free arm around him and squeezed. "You know, I kind of love you."
Kane's eyes widened for a moment as he looked at me. He gave me a squeeze before he said, "Yeah? Well, I think I kind of love you too, bumble bee."
I playfully rolled my eyes at the nickname he came up with last week after deciding Bee was too short and not interesting. He added the bumble onto my nickname and has thought him Albert Einstein since that day. He told everyone to call me that, but anyone who called me Bee still called me that while Kane was the only one who added on the bumble. It's beyond adorable, and I'd never tell him it, but I secretly loved it.
I looked away from Kane and back to the platform Dominic was up on and chewed on my lip, then screamed when the man he was fighting suddenly speared Dominic to the ground. I could hear his back slap off the ground from where I stood. I pushed away from Branna and Alannah and made a beeline for the platform. I pushed through the crowd of people while screaming for the fight to be stopped; it wasn't stopped though, if anything, Dominic losing the upper hand was getting people more pumped and hyper.
I started to panic when I looked up and saw the man on top of Dominic, viciously punching him. I screamed bloody murder but no one heard me and if they did, they thought I was cheering the fight on. I even tried to jump for the platform but I couldn't reach it. I was choking on my sobs and blinded by my tears when arms came around me from behind. I felt myself being lifted up and out of the crowd.
"He is okay," Ryder's voice said in my ear.
I was set down in front of my sister and Alannah who both hugged me and asked if I was okay. I shook my head and looked back at the platform and felt my heart leap when Dominic wrapped his legs around the man he was fighting and somehow pinned him to the ground. It was then Dominic's turn to deliver blows, and he did, but the man didn't, or couldn't, guard his head to lessen the impact of the blows. He smacked his hand off the ground and a second later Dominic stopped hitting him and was on his feet. He was bleeding from his eyebrow and nose and sweat covered his body, but other than that, he actually looked okay. The other man however, was on the ground writhing in pain.
"Give it up for the undefeated champion of Darkness… RAMPAGE!"
I jumped at the sound of the voice coming through the club's speakers but I ignored it when Dominic jumped down from the platform and was swarmed by people. I moved towards his direction and pushed through the crowd until I managed to get in front of him. I didn't think he knew it was me when I jumped at him, because he didn't put his arms around me until he tried to look down to see who I was. When he realised I wasn't a crazy fan girl, he put his arms around me and lifted me up. My mouth was right next to his ear so I kissed it and cried as I said, "I'm so sorry."
Dominic squeezed me and kept walking. I had my head buried in the crook of his neck so I didn't know where Dominic was heading until I heard Skull's voice, a door opening and closing, then nothing but complete silence. Well, silence except for my sobs.
I felt myself being set down on a bed and then Dominic kneeled down in front of me, which made him the same height as me since I was sat down too.
He wiped at my face and sighed. "Why do you do this to yourself?" he asked me.
"I can't help it; he was killin' you! I can't stomach the sight of it; it kills me when they hurt you. I hate it!" I cried and shoved him at his shoulder.
He gave me a small smile. "I'm okay, pretty girl. I've got a hard head."
"What about the rest of your body?" I snapped and wiped at my running nose.
Dominic grinned at me. "The rest of me is always hard, especially when you're around-"
"Cut the messin' out, I'm being serious with you!" I growled.
Dominic sighed. "We had a blow out before my fight so there was no way I was going to lose. I was too pissed not to take it out on that guy and win."
I frowned, that guy was beaten pretty badly.
"I made you that mad then?" I asked and looked down.
"Look at me," Dominic said.
I did and almost started to cry again. "Why is it always the face?" I murmured and wiped away some of his blood from his eyebrow with the back of my hand.
Dominic smiled and closed his eyes. "Yes, to your question about making me mad. You did sink your claws in with that remark about Damien."
Well, I was fucking glad he wasn't in the room when I said even worse things to Damien. I didn't regret them though; he needed to hear what a prick he was for doing Alannah wrong.
"He did her wrong, Dominic. He took her virginity then said he would only be her friend 'cause he didn't do relationships. I fuckin' hate him for hurtin' her so bad. He knew she liked him and yet he still did this to her and treated her like nothin' more than a hole to stick his dick into. I thought he was nothin’ but a nice lad, but I was very wrong. What he did was cruel, and I told him exactly what I thought of him and if you can't deal with that, then I am sorry you feel that way," I said, and then looked away from his burning eyes.
"What did you say to him?" Dominic asked.
I shrugged. "I'm not gettin' into it. If he wants to tell you what I said then he will, but I doubt it."
"Why do you doubt it?" Dominic questioned.
"'Cause I said some things that almost knocked him off his feet. I wasn't kind, but he needed to hear what I said. He can't continue treatin' girls the way he has. He has no respect for women, and it was time someone put him in his place, so I did."
Dominic lifted my chin, so I was looking at him. "Bronagh, what did you say to my brother?"
My heart was pounding, but I didn't answer.
"I saw him practically run out of the club. I haven't seen him that upset in a long time. He doesn't lose it unless my parents are somehow brought into… the mix."
I wanted to die when his eyes flashed with realisation.
"Tell me you didn't mention my parents to him," Dominic snarled.
I almost swallowed my tongue as I looked away from Dominic's burning eyes. That didn't last for long though, he gripped my chin and forced my head up until I was looking him in the eye again.
"Answer me, Bronagh. Now," he growled.
I felt my eyes well up with tears - he was so mad that it scared me. I wasn't scared of him doing anything to lash out and hurt me. I was just scared of all the other damage he could do without actually laying a finger on me.
"I told him that based on the description you gave of your parents he wasn't very different from them. They only looked out for themselves and nobody else and so does he," I whispered, and then held my breath for Dominic's reaction.
The silence that followed felt longer than only a few seconds.
"I told you he is the way he is because of my parents and then you throw them in his face by saying he is exactly fucking like them?" Dominic said in a tone that wasn't aggressive but merely calm, and it frightened the life out of me.
I knew it wasn't right to answer him back when he was this angry but I couldn't let him defend someone that hurt my friend so badly. "He is like them! How can you say he isn't? He isn't into the bullshit they were into, but he does carry the trait of not carin' about other people. He would use and abuse girls-"
"He doesn't abuse them," Dominic cut me off with a scream, making me jump back on the bed.
Dominic followed me though and when I realised he was following me, my heart jumped up into my throat.
"He fucks bitches that want to be fucked by him," Dominic snapped as he grabbed my hands, got between my legs and applied his weight onto my bod
y pinning me in place. "He doesn't spew false promises to get pussy because pussy falls directly onto his lap… or onto his cock it would seem."
I screamed and tried to lash out at him. I hated when he referred to women as 'pussy'. I hated when he referred to me as that word back when he first kissed me in his bedroom, so I wasn't about to lay quietly while he referred to other women as that word, especially when one of those women was my friend.
"Don't call Alannah that word. She is more than just a hole for Damien to stick his dick into and so is every other female he and any other lad come into contact with. I know the majority of the girls he has shagged just wanted sex with him, but a lot didn't and it is disgustin' that he will be nice and romantic before he touches them, but afterwards he doesn't even speak to them! How can you condone that?" I bellowed.
"Because he is my brother, and I love him!" Dominic shouted into my face.
I shook my head and glared. "You can still love him but not agree with what he does. If you talked to him about-"
"About what, Bronagh? You want me to sit my brother down and ask him to take a break from the only thing that makes him feel something?" Dominic growled.
I scoffed. "His purpose on this Earth isn't to fuck everythin' with a vagina and pulse, Dominic! If he needs sex all the time then maybe you should consider that fact that he is a sex addict-"
"You need to shut the fuck up because you have no idea what you're fucking talking about," he spat. "He isn't an addict, he just fucks girls because he likes to. Loads of people like sex without attachment, and Dame is one of those people!"
I used my forehead to push his head away from mine when he tried to press it against me. "Well, he needs to reevaluate his life because he hurts people by usin' them, and that is exactly what he did to Alannah. He knew she wouldn't be one of those girls who didn't care; it was written across her face how much he hurt her!"
Dominic glared at me. "She had sex with him too, Bronagh. She didn't have to if she didn't want to!"
I screamed and struggled under him. "You don't get it; he used her attraction to him against her!"
Dominic shook his head. "I'll talk to him about that then but you just stay away from him. Throwing someone's dead parents in their face is disgusting. I thought you would be more sensitive than that since you know what it's like to lose both your parents."
I was dumbstruck as he got up off me but quickly sat up and said, "My parents were nothin' like yours!"
Dominic shrugged. "You loved them and Damien loved ours regardless of their choices in life, and yet you still used them as a verbal weapon to hurt him. I never thought I would be disappointed in you. I know you speak your mind but that was low, Bronagh, real low."
A lump formed in my throat when he turned and walked towards the door of the room.
"Where are you goin'?" I shouted.
Dominic didn't turn around as he said, "To find my brother and make sure he is okay. I'm going to do what you want and speak to him about hurting Alannah since it means so much to you."
The cloud of anger that hovered over me started to fade away as I said, "Thank you-"
"But I'm doing it alone, I need to be away from you right now."
My heart broke as he started to walk away from me.
"Are you breaking up with me?" I asked, my voice shaking.
Dominic paused and hesitated before he said, "No, I'm not. I love you, Bronagh, but I would be lying if I said I didn't hate you a little bit right now. I need to leave just until we cool off."
I felt tears fall from my eyes as I said, "You said you would never leave me… you promised you wouldn't."
Dominic sighed as he reached the door of the room. "And you promised you would never hurt me. I guess we both broke our promises."
When he opened the door and closed it after him, I burst into tears and fell back onto the bed. There was a pain in my chest that hurt so much, it felt like there was a weight pressing on it. I forced myself to breathe in order to control my sobbing.
I knew I was sticking up for my friend when I lashed out at Damien, but there was no escaping the fact that I had formed the divide that was just placed between Dominic and me. I could have chosen my words differently when speaking to Damien, but no, I had to go for his heart by bringing up his parents. Dominic was right; I should have never thrown them in his face, all the things I spewed before I said that would have been hurtful enough.
"Stupid!" I cried and punched the pillow next to my head.
I continued to cry for what felt like an age and eventually cried myself to sleep.
I woke up with a jolt some time later and groggily crawled from the bed I was on until I was standing on the floor. I was a bit unsteady on my feet because of the heels I was wearing, but after a moment or two I got a handle on my legs and walked steadily towards the door of the private room.
When I opened the door, I was met by laughter and some low music that was nothing like the volume that had been blaring earlier before Dominic's fight. I closed my eyes at the thought of him and tried to overlook the pain in my chest. I repeated in my head that we didn't break up, and we were only apart because we were cooling off. We would speak soon; he was probably in my house right now pissed off that I wasn't there waiting for him.
I reached for the handle of the door and closed it behind me after I stepped out into the hall. I then walked down the hallway in the direction that led back into the nightclub. The laughter and wolf whistles I heard made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I got goose bumps when I stepped out from the hallway and looked around the club. The dance floor was empty except for two girls dirty dancing with each other in time with the sensual music that was playing low. I glanced towards the circle but found that section of the club to be black because the lights were switched off. I jumped when I heard a deep, rumbling chuckle come from my far left. I looked in the direction and spotted three men sat around the very booth Dominic and his brothers always sat at. Two of the men were in their forties or fifties while the other was a younger lad, probably nineteen or so.
The man who was chuckling looked in my direction and stared at me for a moment before he gestured with his finger for me to go to him. I didn't know why but instead of walking straight towards the exit, I kept my eyes on the man's as I walked towards him. He smiled at me when I reached the booth and held out his hand for me. I took hold of it and moved when he gently pulled me down to the spot next to him.
"What is your name, beauty?" he asked me, his accent not Irish but American.
"Bronagh," I replied as I still just stared at him.
His hair was jet black, his eyes were a light hazel colour, and his skin was lightly tanned. There wasn't anything exceptionally remarkable about him; he was just a good-looking man, average even, but he had something about him that made me want to be close to him. It was the weirdest feeling I had ever gotten in my entire life; I knew he was somebody important just by looking at him. He had a dominant status about him and, to be honest, I was curious to know who he was.
"Such a pretty name for such a pretty girl," the man smiled before reaching out and wiping under my eyes with his thumbs. He smiled at my eyes lingering on his, and then asked, "Why are you here?"
I swallowed before I said, "I came here to watch the fight that was on earlier, but I fell asleep in one of the private rooms."
He grinned and asked, "You like watching the brawls?"
I shook my head. "No way, I actually hate them but me boyfriend fights in them, so I have to come along for support or he gets mad."
He raised his eyebrows then, but lowered them as he reached out again and smoothed my hair back from my face. He was very gentle when he asked, "Who is your boyfriend? I bet on the fights; he might have won me some money in the past."
The other men in the booth snickered at this, but I didn't look at them, I kept my eyes on the man next to me and answered, "Dominic Slater, he's the undefeated champion of Darkness. He always wins his fights."
I didn't know what I was expecting when I answered the man's question, but growling from the young lad across from me wasn't it. "That pussy gets lucky in his fights."
I was instantly mad.
"He just happens to get lucky in every single fight then?" I asked the young lad as I looked away from the man next to me. I was instantly aware that he was somehow related to the man next to me because he looked so much like him, just a younger version.
"He is a pussy, bitch," the young lad snarled.
I glared right back at him. "Well, you know what they say? You are what you eat."
The young lad grinned at me while the two other men burst into laughter. I jumped a little when the man next to me put his arm over my shoulder as he laughed. "Get my picture with this Irish beauty. It's not often someone shuts my nephew up."
I looked to the man as the other older man across the table snapped a picture on his phone. I looked to him then when he began tapping on it and reached over handing it back to the man next to me.
Referring to them as just 'men' was hurting my head so I asked, "What is your name?"
The man next to me opened his mouth to speak when the phone in his hand rang, causing a smile to light up his face. "I don't think he has ever called me back so quick before." He chuckled then answered the phone and said, "Nico, my boy, how are you?"
My full attention was on the man next to me when he said the name Nico.
The man held his phone away from his ear a little when screaming spewed from the receiver. The man nodded across to the other man across the table. After the nod that man got up and walked in the direction of the hallway where all the private rooms were. I furrowed my eyes as I watched him disappear down the hallway; I kept looking in that direction waiting for him to reappear, and when he did, he was dragging a person's body by their legs in our direction.
"Omigod," I screamed in horror of what I was seeing.
