“No, I’m sorry.” Lucy pushed her tray away, her appetite apparently gone now. “Anyway, that’s why I’m the oddball here. This place has the best security in the country. There’s a team of security guards patrolling the grounds and halls at all times. But my dad, he won’t let me leave the house without Marcus. And because of my Aunt Em, the school has accepted him as my shadow.”
I chewed my bite of chicken before wiping my fingers and mouth. “I’m sure he has his reasons.”
She nodded solemnly. “Yeah. He has plenty.”
I took another bite of my chicken as I watched her face cloud over with what must have been bad memories. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized who Lucy was when I’d first seen her. The girl was talked about in the rock world like she was royalty and, as the daughter of a Demon, she pretty much was.
I had gotten interested in Demon’s Wings music when I was eleven. Caleb was a huge rock fan and it’d rubbed off on me. It was around that time that I’d heard something bad had happened to a few members of the band because of some crazy fan. I’d tried to find out what it had been about, but there had been very few stories on it. Someone’s PR must have been working overtime to make sure that the tabloids hadn’t gone bonkers with the full story.
I wondered if that was why Lucy’s parents were so overprotective, or if it had been something completely different. But I didn’t feel like I could ask. I liked her and didn’t want to pry. If she wanted to tell me, then she would.
My new friend was quiet for the rest of the meal. I finished up my lunch and we walked together to toss our trash. As we walked silently out of the cafeteria, I pulled my schedule from my messenger bag and looked it over. A computer class. Boring.
“What’s the rest of your day look like?” Lucy asked as she glanced down at the papers in my hands. Seeing what was next for me, she scrunched up her nose. “Do you know how to type?”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone?” It was probably way too soon in our friendship for me to admit that I’d gotten into trouble more than once for hacking. Computers were nothing to me thanks to the tutelage of Caleb and Angie. Angie more so than Caleb. My stepsister was more than just a pretty face, but it was that pretty face that had gotten her out of the hot water I figured most people would have to face for some of the cyber crimes she had committed.
“Then you’ll pass the class.” Her dark eyes scanned over the last class on my schedule, easily reading it upside down. “Awesome. The newspaper.” She glanced up at me, a grin on her face telling me that her bad memories were long gone, at least for the moment. “I’m your editor.”
“Great. At least I’ll have someone to talk to.” I put the papers away and turned toward where my locker was supposed to be. I hadn’t been to it all day so I figured I’d better at least find out where it was.
Lucy followed me, and it was only then that I noticed the slight shadow behind her. Marcus. Huh, so he didn’t have a secret passage. He just knew how to blend into the background. That was pretty cool. I lifted my head enough to met his gaze, tilted my chin at him in acknowledgement and then decided it was best to ignore him. I didn’t want to make Lucy uncomfortable by continuing to draw attention to her guard.
“Do you like writing? Not many new students want to join the paper. Especially with the way I run it. I’m a bit of a dictator when it comes to getting the weekly paper out.” Lucy had her phone in her hand now, her thumb skimming over the screen as she read through what I assumed was email or social media.
“I can handle dictators,” I assured her with a smirk.
Finally reaching my locker, I started working on the combination before answering her first question. “I like to write poetry and songs. I’m a huge music fan.” I lifted my eyes to meet her gaze, letting her know that I wasn’t trying to score points or blow smoke up her ass with what I was about to admit. “I’m a big fan of Demon’s Wings and OtherWorld. Drake Stevenson is a freaking god with the way he plays the guitar.”
“That’s awesome. Aunt Emmie will love you. She appreciates true fans of the guys.” She leaned back against the locker beside mine. “And Drake is something special.” Dark eyes brightened as she grinned. “I wouldn’t trade him for anything.”
My brows lifted as I got the locker open and I found a pink gift bag overflowing with pastel colored tissue paper inside. “What the hell is this?”
Lucy didn’t even move. “It’s a ‘welcome to Malibu Academy’ gift bag. It has the essentials, according to the captain of the cheerleaders. The boys get one too, but it just has cologne, a bottle of water, that stupid pamphlet and—if they’re cute enough—your stepsister’s cell number.” I snorted at the thought of Georgia and that stupid parking spot sign as I lifted the bag and peeked inside. “There’s lip balm, a bottle of water, some kind of sickeningly sweet perfume, and hair spray.”
I shook my head as I lifted the pamphlet from the bag. “And this?”
Lucy grunted and pushed away from the lockers. “That’s the list of clubs and other crap, but it’s more of a hierarchy booklet if you ask me. It shows how popular you are by which club or sport you happen to be in.”
Opening the booklet, I saw what she meant. It had the sports and clubs listed in the order you would expect popular kids to be in first and ending with Latin Club. What was wrong with Latin? Rolling my eyes at the list, I dropped it back into the gift bag and replaced it in the locker. I wasn’t likely to visit my locker often anyway, so this crap could just stay in there.
As I shut the door, the bell rang. Lucy pushed a few curls out of her face as she moved a few steps closer. “See you in an hour.”
Chapter 4
Jace
The smell of coffee filled my nose and woke up all my other senses. Groaning, I turned over in bed, grinning when I found a warm body spread out beside me. My heart lifted as I sucked in a deep breath, only to frown when I inhaled a scent I wasn’t expecting. The perfume was different.
Fuck.
Lifting my head, I found the blonde—not the redhead I was hoping for—that I’d brought home with me the night before curled around one of my pillows like she was taking root in my bed. My gaze skimmed over what I could see of her. Nice face, I guessed. Or it would have been if she hadn’t caked on all that makeup that was now smeared across it. Her hair was long, which was probably what had attracted me in the first place. I was a sucker for long hair.
Long red hair...
Shaking back the thought of the girl I’d left behind, I continued my appraisal of the chick I’d hooked up with after the show the night before at First Bass. The covers were tucked under her arms, but I could still see the hint of cleavage, telling me that her hair hadn’t been the first thing to catch my attention. I’ll admit that I’m a breasts man. Always had been, always would be.
Hook-up Girl was also fair-skinned.
Other than the color of her hair she was a dead ringer for the one girl I wanted to forget, but couldn’t seem to push far enough from my mind. But unlike my feelings for the redhead on my mind, whatever I’d felt the night before concerning Hook-up Girl was long gone. I’d gotten what I wanted and now I had to get rid of this chick before she decided to stick around.
My phone buzzing with an incoming text pulled my gaze away from the blonde’s face. Grabbing it before it could wake my now unwanted guest, I saw that it was Grayson letting me know that he’d made coffee and was headed to the gym. The thought of coffee along with the lingering scent of it in the air helped set me in gear and I was able to force myself out of bed.
I’d figure out how to get rid of Hook-up Girl after I had a cup or two of strong brewed coffee in my veins. I didn’t want to be a dick about it, but I would be if it came down to it. Right then I just wanted her gone and as far away as possible. Regret was choking me. I felt like I’d just committed adultery, even though I didn’t have a girlfriend anymore.
Clenching my jaw, I grabbed the pair of boxers I’d tossed aside the night before. I pulled them on and
grabbed the first T-shirt I came to on my way out of my room.
The three-bedroom apartment I shared with Gray was bigger than the two of us needed, yet not nearly big enough at the same time. Maybe it was just that I was sharing it with Gray. I respected the rocker who was Tainted Knights’ founder and guitarist. He had mad skills and I knew he was the reason we had gotten noticed.
Grayson Knight, the actual man, I couldn’t stand.
I’d grown up with Gray. For almost half of my life I’d lived under the same roof as him, was raised by the same woman. My parents had split when I was ten, leaving me and my sister, Kassa, to fend for ourselves.
I barely remembered the man and woman who had given life to me and Kassa, but I did know they hadn’t been the kind of parents to brag about. The scent still lingered in my nose from how bad the house would smell after they would go on one of their all-night binges. Could still hear the laughter that echoed off the inside of my skull from the raging parties that brought strangers into our house while Kassa and I slept each weekend.
Kassa had slept, at least. I’d been too worried for my sister to shut my eyes on those nights. What if one of the drunk, high strangers went into her room? She was just a little girl, but I’d seen a few strangers looking at my beautiful little sister with a glazed look in their eyes and knew instinctively that this person could and would hurt Kassa if given the chance.
We’d gone into foster care after our parents had abandoned us, but hadn’t stayed there very long. I’d felt safer at the foster home, and there hadn’t been anyone who looked at Kassa the way those strangers had. Alicia St. Charles had shown up out of nowhere, wanting to adopt a little girl, but when she’d seen me with Kassa she’d taken us both. The court system had done cartwheels to get the paperwork taken care of in only a fraction of the time it normally would have taken for Kassa and me to become hers.
Almost overnight I’d gone from sleeping in a bunk bed in my foster family’s guest bedroom, to sleeping in a king-sized bed in my own room. I’d learned quick that Alicia St. Charles was a woman like few others. She was a powerful woman in the judicial system in Bristol, Virginia. She was a ballbreaker in the court room. At home, though, she was a loving mother to my sister and me. Alicia took care of us, loved us as if we had been born to her.
Our new peaceful family didn’t last long, however.
Less than a year after we’d become officially hers, Gray’s mother had died and his father had pushed Gray off onto his sister-in-law, Alicia. Alicia hadn’t even blinked when she became responsible for yet another kid—even the moody pre-teen her nephew had been. She welcomed her late sister’s son with open arms, treating him like her own son as much as she did me.
Gray was a year older than me, and he let that year gap be known really quick from the moment he moved in with us. Twelve to my eleven at the time, we’d butted heads from the moment Gray had taken up the room on the other side of my sister’s. He was always trying to outdo me at everything. If I made a team at school, he became captain. If I liked a girl, he kissed her first. If I wanted a new game or toy, he’d either played it already or broke it before I could touch it.
Alicia hadn’t understood why Gray and I couldn’t get along when we were growing up. At least once a week she had to break up a fight between the two of us. I knew it broke her heart, but I couldn’t help not liking her nephew.
Maybe I’d been jealous. Or maybe it was because Gray really was a douchebag at times. I didn’t know which it was, and hadn’t taken the time to examine my feelings. Through my eyes, I’d always thought Gray was a dick. He took what he wanted, when he wanted, and didn’t care about the consequences.
The only things we had ever agreed on was taking care of my sister and Tainted Knights. Those two things were really all that mattered, though, so it was enough to make me tolerate the guy.
Most of the time anyway.
I was on my second cup of coffee before I had the brain power to go back to my room and get rid of Hook-up Girl. It took nearly half an hour to get her out of the apartment. She was a clinger and I couldn’t stand clingy chicks. Nothing turned me off faster than a chick who used whiny, temper tantrums to get their way. By the time I was alone, it was after four in the afternoon. I needed a shower and something to eat before I headed over to First Bass later.
Tainted Knights’ contract with Harris Cutter was only for weekly shows on Thursday nights. The rest of the time was our own. Gray and I didn’t have to get an extra job because Alicia took care of our bills, so the money we made at First Bass was plenty for us. The other guys weren’t as lucky and had extra jobs that took up a big part of their down time.
I didn’t have to go to First Bass as often as I did, but I liked hanging out with Harris. He’d become a close friend. Maybe the only one I really had. I wasn’t tight with my bandmates. We played music together—killer music—but that was all. I didn’t hang out with Kale, Sin, or Cash unless we were partying after a show. Gray was their friend, not me.
I was getting out of the shower when my cell started going off. I picked it up as I wrapped a towel around my waist and looked down at the picture of the girl on the screen. Shaking my head at just how beautiful my sister was, I hit connect and lifted it to my ear. “Hey.”
“What are you doing, big brother?” her sweet voice said, filling my ear.
I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across my face at the sound of her voice. Kassa was an angel, there was no other way to describe her. With her long, thick blond hair just a few shades lighter than my own, big blue eyes, and a voice that could talk anyone into doing anything she wanted, there was no other word for her. Kassa was everything good in the world. At least in my world.
Gray had always teased her and called her a caterpillar, but I knew she was a butterfly.
“I’m getting ready to go out. What are you doing? Alicia still at work?” Kassa was in her last year of high school or I was sure she would have followed me and Gray to California. Alicia was a workaholic, now more than ever since we were all old enough to take care of ourselves, so Kassa was alone a lot now. She had friends but none that she would have been heartbroken to say goodbye to.
The day Gray and I had left, she’d sobbed until she’d made herself sick. I missed her and wished she were taking up the third room of the apartment. Maybe if she were there I could tolerate Gray a little more. Hell, I knew I could. Kassa was able to flip a switch in Gray that no one else could touch.
“It’s Friday night, what do you think I’m doing?” Her sweet voice turned sassy and I laughed. Knowing my sister, I figured she was camped out on her bed with a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream and a rerun marathon of her favorite shows. “Alicia is always at work; you know that. It seems like from the moment I could cook my own dinner she started working herself to death. I’m worried about her, Jace. She needs to slow down, relax a little. She’s looking pale.”
My stomach tightened at the thought of Alicia sick. I loved her, and hated the thought of something happening to her. The few times I’d seen her sick I’d stressed myself out thinking she was going to die. She was so strong all of the time that the rare occasions when she looked like she was an actual mortal like the rest of us I’d thought I was going to lose her.
“Convince her to come out to Cali for Thanksgiving,” I told Kassa as I dried my hair with a second towel. “I’ll order a big dinner and she can relax.”
“I’ll do my best,” she said with a sigh. “I miss you guys.”
“We miss you too, Kassa.” I missed her, but I knew Gray did too. He was always in a better mood after talking to her. It only lasted about an hour, tops, but at least he was a little more bearable during that hour.
“Maybe I’ll get to come out and see you and Gray even if Alicia can’t make it.” The hope in her voice was like a punch to the gut.
“I’d like that,” I assured her. “So will Gray. I’ll tell him…” I didn’t want to tell him, but I would. The less I talked to Gray the
better for the both of us—me and my sanity especially.
Kassa laughed. “I’ll tell him. I was going to call him when I got off the phone with you.”
“Oh, I see. He’s your favorite, so you call him last to talk to him longer.” She giggled at my irritated tone, but I was grinning at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Teasing my sister was one of the few things that brought me comfort these days. “You love him more than your own brother. Traitor.”
“I love you both equally,” she was quick to assure me. “He just needs me more than you do.”
I couldn’t argue. As much as I disliked the rocker, I had to admit that he really did need Kassa more than I did. Which was saying a hell of a lot, because I didn’t know what I would do without my sister. “Yeah, yeah. Excuses.”
“It’s true.” There was a pause on her end and I realized it was because she was getting an incoming call.
“Speak of the devil. It’s him, isn’t it?” It was about the normal time Gray talked to her, so I knew it was him now.
“I don’t have to answer it if you want to talk longer,” Kassa promised me.
I rolled my eyes at my reflection. “And keep Gray from his daily dose of Kassa? Nah, I’ll pass. Love you, Kas.”
“Love you, too, big brother.” She blew me a kiss and then disconnected.
I stood there, staring down at my silent phone, but my mind was now completely off of my sister and my pain-in-the-ass roommate. The picture staring back at me made it hard to breathe for a moment as I took in the sight of long, auburn hair and eyes bright with a look I’d created in those amazing baby blues.
I’d taken that picture after kissing her, so her lips were swollen and damp. There was a slight flush to her cheeks because she was about to make all my dreams of us together come true. Just looking at her in that moment I’d felt like I could conquer the world as long as she kept looking at me like that.
The girl on the screen stared up at me like she would love me forever, for another two seconds before the screen went blank. My chest tight from the memories, I tossed my phone onto the sink and gripped the edges as I sucked in one deep breath after another.