“You have got to be fucking with me?” I called over the wind.
My hair whipped around me in the maelstrom and I turned to look for an exit route, finding Tahoma Mountain looming behind me. The clouds had descended, covering over half the mountainside, the sheer height of it towering beyond the perimeter wall. I felt tiny in its shadow, freaking minuscule, but turning back to the Night Keepers made me feel even smaller.
Saint strode forward with a dark grin on his face and I lifted my chin to look up at him, raising up on my knees as I tried to stand. He placed a hand on my head to keep me down and I shook him off with a snarl.
He pinched my chin between his finger and thumb, holding my gaze as a stone cold hate unfurled in his eyes.
“This is the sacred stone.” He pointed to the hulking rock behind him and I gave him a blank look.
“And?” I demanded. “Did you drag me all the way out here just to stare at a stupid boulder?”
He gripped my hair, yanking me to my feet and making me yelp in pain. I lunged for him like a rabid dog and he kicked out my legs so I slammed onto the ground on my back. My skirt rode up over my hips and Saint’s gaze dropped to my little black panties.
He dropped down to a crouch as I sat up, ready to fight him with everything I had if he dared lay a hand on me. He reached out for my skirt and yanked it back down to cover my thighs and my breathing steadied.
“You look afraid, Barbie,” he purred. “Do you really think we’d force ourselves on you? You’re the least desirable thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Tell that to Blake,” I said loud enough for the other Night Keepers to hear. “He fucked me like the sky was gonna fall if he stopped.”
My cheeks heated as I felt Blake’s eyes on me, but I kept my gaze firmly on Saint’s, hunting for a flash of jealousy. One ounce of it would give me something to hook onto. Some tiny ray of hope that this monster craved me like his friends did.
Saint reached into his pants’ pocket and produced a knife, making my heart fall entirely still. For two whole eternities, I stared at him, readying to fight for my life before he snatched my wrists and severed the zip-tie. I released a slow breath, keeping my features schooled so he couldn’t see how frightened I’d been.
Saint laughed as he got up, kicking the sand so it sprayed over me. “Blake fucked you before he knew you were a plague, Plague.”
I looked over at Blake, finding his jaw ticking as he glared at me. “I’d cut my dick off before I ever touched you again.” He spat on the ground and my heart twitched from the ice in his words.
“Then why did you come back after you spoke to your Dad?” I asked, painting a twisted smile onto my face. “You wanted that recording of me, sure, but you didn’t have to screw me to get it, did you?”
Blake’s hands curled into fists as his friends looked to him for a response. “It was the only way,” he said firmly and I laughed loudly enough to rub it in. Because I had him pegged now. And so did they.
“Enough,” Saint snapped.
I pushed myself to my feet, standing before them with fury in my heart.
“What do you want?” I demanded, knowing that if I ran they’d only catch me. Besides, running was a coward’s move. And I wasn’t going to let them see me blink.
Thunder crashed in the sky right above us and the wind dragged my hair out behind me and made their capes dance in the air. I would have laughed at their ridiculous outfits if they hadn’t somehow made them look so damn terrifying.
“This place is a burial ground for the bodies which were left in the lake by the Night People,” Saint said in a dark tone. “Bones still wash up from time to time…”
I shuddered, wrapping my arms around myself against the biting cold as Saint went on.
“They left this stone here as a warning of their power,” he growled. “And the legend of the sacred stone states that anyone who touches it willingly and gives the oath must become Night Bound to us. That means their soul will be owned by the Night Keepers along with their mind and body,” he explained and I looked to the rock with a grimace. “When you touch it, you’ll do our bidding, every single thing we want you to do, without question. Forever. You’ll be ours.”
I shook my head with a snort of dismissal. No chance, assholes.
“You’re going to touch it,” Kyan threatened and Blake nodded his agreement.
Lightning flashed through the sky, the jagged line of it carving a path all the way to the other end of the lake. The rain was about to fall, I could sense it in the most primal part of my being.
I glanced between them and tried to ignore the fear clawing up my spine. Something about the way they looked right now made them seem more animal than man. “There’s just one problem with that, douchebags. Saint said willingly. Which is never going to happen.”
The three of them closed ranks, walking towards me like devil hounds on the hunt for blood. I steeled my nerve as I lifted my chin and prepared to face them, refusing to budge an inch.
“Fine, don’t touch it,” Saint said in a deadly tone; his smirk said he wasn’t going to let me go. “The alternative is far worse.”
They continued closing in until they formed a triangle around me and their dark shadows seemed to consume every lasting bit of light in the sky.
“We’ll tell the whole school to fuck with you,” Blake growled and I glanced toward him with my heart thumping madly against my ribcage.
Kyan yanked my hair to get my attention and I turned to him with my teeth bared. “We’ll make every day insufferable, unliveable. Far worse than it’s been this week.”
They tightened the circle and Saint pinched my cheek, forcing me to look at him next and making my heart lurch into my throat. “You’ll have no friends and anyone who even glances at you too long will be severely punished for it. You’ll wish you were an Unspeakable, you’ll beg us to let you join them again.”
Their triangle closed even tighter so their bare chests were crushing me in the middle. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think straight. And I suddenly didn’t know which choice to make.
“Do you care about that pretty little roommate of yours?” Saint purred, making my heart clench for her. I couldn’t let him hurt Mila. Not because of me.
“And do you want the full, uncut version of our sex tape aired to the whole school?” Blake growled. “Do you remember how you begged me for it?”
“Shut up,” I snarled, but my voice was somehow lost to the wind and fear hammered harder against my chest.
I shut my eyes as I tried to block them out as they continued to whisper all the awful things they were going to do to me if I didn’t agree to this.
I hooked onto my dad’s teachings and dug deep for that inner place of peace he’d taught me to cultivate. A place no one could touch. Somewhere I could go when the world seemed impossible and the stress was too much.
I took one breath, two.
They were pulling at my clothes, my hair, trying to make me listen but I blocked them out. Forcing them from my private, inner space. I wouldn’t ever let them in there.
I have to make the right choice.
The right choice means survival.
The right choice means I’ll have a chance to beat them.