Thankfully, Raven got to Jaelyn’s house without getting attacked by assassins… and she started to wonder if Malachi’s threat rubbed off on them…
But when she made it home that night, she couldn’t even close her eyes without picturing Malachi.
Sitting there casually… smiling as if he knew everything she was planning…
Jaelyn got home at around nine. Probably hanging out with those guys she brought with her.
But even though Raven was awake, she pretended to be asleep so Jaelyn wouldn’t ask her questions…
She needed time to think.
Rationally.
Why Malachi knew all these things about her… How he knew everything she was thinking… How he knew her tells and how he could be twenty people at once.
He kept on switching personalities… nice to mean… cold to warm… His eyes hard to soft…
She didn’t know which one was real, or what he was planning…
Did he want to hurt her or help her?
This question had been swarming her mind like a hurricane since the day she met him.
She hadn’t slept well that night… maybe closed her eyes for a minute… but her body was pulsing with adrenaline, and she was hard to even stay still so Jaelyn wouldn’t question her.
But at around five in the morning, she sat up, unable to stay still anymore.
So she looked to her friend, who was sprawled across the bed belly-down and stepped over to her, tapping her shoulder.
“Jae.”
“What?” she said groggily.
“Want to come to the library before school starts?” she wondered.
Her friend threw a pillow over her face, making her black skin darken with shadows. “You want to do school before school? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Just drive me there, okay?” Raven said. “Then you can sleep in your car until I come back.”
Jaelyn rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
“I swear,” Raven said, smiling, “you can sleep anywhere.”
Jae lowered the pillow, glaring at her with her green eyes. “Just for that.”
She hurled the pillow at Raven, making a laugh escape her throat when she dodged it.
“I’ll get ready,” Jae said, “alright? But give me five more minutes.”
“Two,” Raven said.
“Four.”
“Three.”
“Fine,” she said, “give me three minutes.”
“And if you don’t get up,” Raven said. “Then I’m pouring ice water on you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”
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*****
Of course, thirty minutes later, Jaelyn pulled up in the parking garage about a block away from the library and fell asleep.
Raven found herself sitting in front of the library’s computer after walking five minutes from the garage.
She typed in her library number that she memorized at some point, and went to the library’s internet browser, typing: Malachi Igniser, in the search bar.
She scrolled through the list of websites; they were mainly social media.
Malachi Gropea.
Malachi Sal-Jecars.
Malachi Smith.
None of them were him…
So, she looked up Mario’s Diner, clicking “employees” on their website.
“There you are…” she whispered, clicking his name.
Malachi Igniser
Age: 17
That’s all it said.
“Wow,” she commented sarcastically, “that was helpful.”
She gave up then, admitting to herself with how secretive he was: she wouldn’t find anything on him…
No investigations… no restraining orders… and no records…
Damn… she came here for nothing…
Well, she guessed it was better than faking being asleep for the next hour.
So, she powered off her computer, standing up and throwing her bag over her shoulder.
A shadow rushed across the walls, making her double take, and she spun around, glancing around for anyone…
But there wasn’t anyone…
The librarian was gone… the fluorescent lights above Raven dim because they just opened…
She was practically panting, adrenaline coursing through her veins.
But she took a deep breath, explaining to herself, It’s okay. You haven’t been sleeping. It’s just your imagination…
But the fear burning her inside didn’t dissipate, so she rushed out of the library.
When she made her way down the street, the wind bit into her skin, so she ran the rest of the way to the garage, feeling her lungs clamp as frost and fire consumed her.
But she made it into the garage, the fluorescent lights blinking above her, making this seem like a horror movie…
But the silence was so loud… that it might as well be…
She looked behind her to make sure she wasn’t being followed, but she found no one… just shadows of the trees blowing… painting the sidewalks black.
She looked back ahead to see where she was going.
Her heart stopped.
A shadow stood before her… the light above him blinking…
Oh, God… she was going to die…
But the figure stepped into the light, his golden hair glistening in the hard lighting, making the angles in his face sharper…
When his black eyes focused on her, she breathed out quietly, “Malachi?”
He tilted his head to the side innocently, smile angling to the right. “You okay, Princess?”
She took a step back without knowing it. “Did you follow me again?”
He nodded, but eyed her head to toe, narrowing his eyes. “You okay?”
She just breathed for a moment. “You… what do you want?”
He just watched her, but she could tell he was planning something with the dark look in his eyes. “You look… a little pale.”
She shook her head, trying to clear her mind at his sudden concerned self.
“I’ll see you at school, okay?” she responded, brushing past him.
But he caught her arm, making her brows draw together when she looked to him, seeing him turn to her, studying her head-to-toe.
“Ray,” he said.
She tried pulling out of his grip, but it only tightened, so she glared at him, the previous fear turning into burning rage.
Wow… she was going through mood swings, wasn’t she?
“What?” she snapped.
He looked her over for a moment. “You’re tense,” he noted, “and you were looking behind you like you were being followed.”
She shook her head. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
“What was me?” he said.
The shadow… but he knew… At least… he should’ve known…
“You’re messing with me,” she responded, clenching her teeth. “You always do.”
He only pulled her toward him until she clashed to his chest, so close she could feel his skin heat hers.
“Raven,” he responded, “were you followed?”
She struggled against him, only feeling his free arm wrap around the small of her back. “Let me go.”
“Answer,” he demanded.
“Apparently,” she said sharply, “by you.”
He was silent then, eyes burning with something she couldn’t name, but she struggled harder, only to find him holding her tighter.
“Don’t dodge the question, Raven,” he said.
“You do it all the time!” she responded back.
“Ray,” he pressed.
“Let—me—GO,” she demanded.
“Answer the question,” he said back.
“Let go now,” she threatened, “or I’ll make you.”
“Raven.”
A millisecond after he finished saying her name, she twisted out of his grip, making him gasp and reach for her but she dropped down in a crouch, sprinting away seconds later.
But he somehow teleported to where she was heading, making her slide along the pebbles when she came to a halt.
She backed away, gasping as her body grew colder and colder.
How did he do that?
“Leave me alone,” she ordered.
He didn’t move from his spot. “Who’s after you?”
“I think you know them, why else did those three boys know you?”
“I killed them to save you,” he responded, stepping to her now.
She continued to take steps back. “For all I know, you could secretly be a psychopath like them.”
His eyes darkened, and he stopped in his tracks when she did, fifteen feet of air between them.
“Psychopaths put on great fake faces,” she continued, “and I don’t trust you.”
“Ray,” he said almost softly, “I want to save you, alright?”
“Bull,” she said despite her still being unsure. But still managed a stern tone. “Now leave me alone.”
He took a panicked step toward her. “Don’t leave.”
She gave him a concerned look. “Why?”
“I can’t let you leave, Ray.”
Her heart pounded wildly against her rib cage, making her lungs seize when she tried to come up with a plan.
Okay, Raven, she thought. Either run past him and risk getting caught or run away from him and risk getting caught by assassins because I don’t have a Goddamn car.
Ugh… why did Jaelyn have to park on the second floor?
She took the latter, spinning around on one foot and rushing away from him toward the end of the garage…
But once again, he appeared in front of her—closer this time—and she didn’t have time to stop so she just spun to the right with him following, and found herself at the tail of a car, Malachi at the hood, eyeing her with his sharp gaze while she returned the look, both of them gasping from the exercise.
He sprung to the right, and Raven moved with him, and she found herself at the hood, him at the tail.
He then launched to the left, but this time skirted around the car, and she took a second before she responded, darting toward the end of the garage.
But she was too late, and he caught her arm, reeling her against a cement post.
When she hit it—for some reason—it didn’t really hurt, it was like she hit a wall of one of those inflatable houses…
And seconds later, he backed her against it, her chest pressing against his, and she could feel his strangled breathing.
“You’re an asshole,” she hissed, panting.
“I know.”
She glared, still gasping. “Let me go.”
He returned the sharp look. “Can you just listen? Or are you physically incapable?”
“Leave me alone!” she snapped.
“Raven,” he pressed, “I’m trying to save you.”
“STOP IT!” she cried suddenly, covering her ears as all her thoughts overlapped.
He looked shocked for a moment, leaning down to her face, but it was covered by her hair.
“What?” he wondered softly.
A single tear slipped down her cheek, but she screamed in rage, “Stop getting in my head!”
He looked concerned at her sudden outburst. “What do you mean by that?”
What did she mean?
What did she MEAN?
Confusing her? Threatening her? Saving her?
What did he want to do? Kill her or save her? What was he really planning?
If he wanted to kill her… they why hadn’t he already? If he was a psychopath… why did his grip never burn?
She was questioning her sanity because she knew she needed to hate him… Loath him… but she found herself wandering closer…
He was in her head, every second, every minute, every hour.
She had to worry if he’d been following her everywhere… lurking in the shadows and watching her every move…
What was his original goal? What was his current goal? Why was she screaming inside?
WHY didn’t she say no when he asked her if she liked him?
She looked to him then, seething.
But his expression caught her off guard…
His eyes were dark… but they looked softer than she’d ever seen them. The smile that usually curled his lips gone… and he looked genuinely… concerned…
As if he knew what was happening… What she was thinking… Why she was screaming at him…
But how could he?
No one was that empathetic… and it was impossible to read minds.
It was fantasy.
She still found her words even when she was practically sweating with his body heat. “Let me go.”
He didn’t hesitate with a response… his eyes didn’t even shift color. “No.”
So, she slapped him so hard across the face, her hand stung, but other than a surprised grunt, he didn’t move off her.
So, she shoved her fist against his chest, unable to reach anywhere more tender…
He still didn’t even sway.
“Get off!” she screamed, landing another punch. “Get off me!”
“You have thirty seconds to get your anger out,” he stated, a bright red bruise developing where she slapped him. “Then I’ll intervene.”
So, she kicked his shin, only making him grunt in pain, but he still didn’t move.
“Let go!”
She started pounding his chest, squirming from under him and kicking him at the same time, though other than wincing in pain, he didn’t sway.
After a moment, she relaxed against the back of the post, gasping for air.
He certainly wasn’t painless… just knew how to keep his place…
“Please…” she whispered, sweat glistening on her forehead, pasting her raven hair to her temples.
“You’re done already?” he wondered. “You’ve got ten seconds.”
She just stood there, panting as he eyed her thoughtfully. “Five seconds.”
She closed her eyes.
“Four.”
She inhaled.
“Three.”
She held it.
“Two.”
She exhaled.
“One—”
Before he could utter the end of his countdown, she struck him hard across the face with all the strength she had left, and thankfully, his grip loosened.
So, she broke out of his grasp, darting toward the end of the garage, managing to escape through the opening before Malachi even started after her…
She caught him off guard…
If that was even possible…
But a block away, she could hear his voice echo across the buildings, “RAVEN!”
She turned down the street, not knowing where she was going, but didn’t really care.
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*****
After about five minutes of running, Raven found herself trailing off into a slow walk once her flight-fight-freeze response slowed to silence, and she was gasping, her sides burning like her lungs were on fire.
She stared up at the buildings above her…
Somehow… she made it to old town…
Why did she come here?
She was just running, that’s why, she had no intent of where to go or why…
She just ended up here…
After she stopped to take breaths, she glanced behind her to see if Malachi was following…
Not even a shadow of him… just the streetlights above lighting the path she came in a bright glow…
She turned to where she was running.
Whereas before her… the lights were dimmer… and it felt like the darkness of the morning was bleeding into the sidewalk.
She shook her head, knowing that she needed to get all thoughts of darkness out of her head…
She was fine… Malachi was far behind… she was safe now…
But the coil in her stomach didn’t dissipate.
“Oh, hey,” a voice echoed from behind her, making Raven spin around, searching the darkness for Malachi, “look. A little girl. How cute is she?”
It wasn’t Malachi…
A red, leather jacket covering a dark T-shirt… black jeans flowing down to his ankles…
She recognized the color of the jacket anywhere… Bright but dark… like velvet mixed with roses…
The color of blood… but somehow more terrifying…
Raven backed away a step.
“You’re…” she whispered, “you’re one of them.”
The man chuckled, and now she could tell he was leaning against the side of a building, eyeing her head-to-toe with his dark eyes. “Yep.”
But someone from behind her caught her shoulders, and before she could scream from the gesture, he had a knife to her throat.
“Shhh…” he murmured into her ear. “Don’t fight back and we’ll make this quick.”
Why did his voice sound so familiar? Whereas the one behind her didn’t?
Raven’s lungs seized. Every breath she took only adding to the weight in her chest.
“Why are you guys so eager to kill me?” she managed to ask without her voice straining from fear. “Malachi—”
“Is a betraying, idiotic asshole,” the one who leaned against the wall said.
“The man we work for…” the boy’s voice whispered in her ear, “wants you dead on the spot.”
“Anyone who turns against our boss has it coming for them, Raven,” the other boy said, drawing a dagger from his belt. “Malachi may be the strongest, but he has one weakness.”
“You,” the boy behind her whispered, breath burning her neck like acid.
“I’m…” she said, “not his girlfriend. He wants to kill me, too.”
“He was supposed to,” the boy in front of her said, turning to look at her with his black eyes. “Ten months ago.”
She just breathed for a moment. “Why are you telling me this? Wouldn’t it be better to lie and say he’s a psycho, so I stay away from him, being more vulnerable?”
The guy in front of her looked to his friend, amusement lighting his eyes. “She’s good, huh?”
“You want to know the answer to that, Raven?” the boy behind her whispered angrily. “Because one: we don’t lie about our traitors. Even if it benefits the capture; it’s against code. And two: you’ll die anyway. More will come, and more, and more. We won’t stop until you’re annihilated.”
She gulped.
“Scared?” the boy in front of her said, tossing the dagger in his hand like it was a toy.
“No,” she lied.
“You know…” the boy behind her said, “Malachi could have bad intentions and we’re just not telling you. He could have good intentions and we’re being honest. But you’ll never know the answer, will you?”
The dagger sliced deeper into her skin, making her choke at the pressure.
But before the blade went a millimeter deeper, a loud rumble echoed through the buildings, a car speeding toward them at hundreds of miles an hour, and the boy behind her yelped as it got closer, dropping the knife and jumping out of the way.
But Raven dropped to the ground, coughing as she looked up to see the headlights getting closer, blinding her…
It almost looked like a light into heaven…
But the car broke, the front wheels turning to the right, so the back wheels spun around in a circle, creating a quarter-donut before stopping, the side of the car inches from touching her face.
She stared at the metal in shock, knowing she was about to die if the person hadn’t stopped in time, but before she could think of why someone drove so aggressively toward them, the driver’s door slammed shut.
She thought she would hear someone say “what are you doing? Standing in the middle of the road?” Probably reprimanding those boys like a normal human being.
But a male figure went straight up to the boy who had her in a hold and socked him across the face, making him collapse onto the cement.
Before she even knew it, Malachi caught her arm, reeling her up and snapping, “Let’s go.”
And then he made her sit in the passenger seat of his SUV, him getting in the driver’s seat seconds later and hitting the shift into drive, slamming on the gas as he sped toward the man he just punched, watching him jump out of the way again when Malachi drove passed them.
He was silent for a couple minutes, and Raven stared down at the dashboard, seeing him breathing heavily from the corner of her eye.
Was he angry? Was he scared? Or did she hurt him enough to make him visibly look as if he were in pain?
“Malachi…” she whispered.
His hands tightened on the steering wheel as if her voice made him enraged… so she shut up then, knowing now wasn’t a good time to piss him off.
Not when he could easily drive off the road when he’d get angry enough and possibly crash into a tree.
But she had to think for a moment…
Did he actually… save her?
He punched that mysterious assassin in the face… then proceeded to almost run over him… and now he clearly was not in a good mood.
And she still wasn’t hurt.
By him, though… she could still feel the blood trickle down her neck from when the boy was about to slit her throat.
Her skin turned cold at the thought.
She was about to die… she was seconds from lying on the floor, inhaling her own blood and choking on it…
If Malachi hadn’t been there… where would she be now?
But she opened the glove compartment, shuffling through the contents.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Malachi look in her direction.
“What are you doing?” he demanded sharply, his tone scraping her skin like thin knives.
She didn’t respond.
“Raven.”
No response.
“IF YOU DON’T GET OUT OF MY THINGS RIGHT NOW,” he yelled, “I’M STOPPING THIS CAR AND—”
“Okay! Okay!” she yelled back, closing the compartment and wrapping her arms around herself.
She wasn’t angry… she felt bitterly cold… the car’s heater only adding to the chills passing through her.
“I was just looking for a bandage…” she whispered then, looking down to her feet.
He was silent for a moment. “Are you hurt?”
“No…” she lied.
“Raven.”
“It’s not like you care,” she said then, pulling her legs up to her chest and holding them to her, staring out the window while watching the lights from the city pass by.
“Why are you doing that?” he said then, but she didn’t move from her position.
Though, she still responded quietly, “Doing what?”
“You’re curling up,” he noted, looking to her then out the windshield. “Why?”
She only shook her head. “I do this a lot.”
“Why?”
“I…” she breathed out, “I don’t know… It’s just a habit, I guess… It makes me feel safe even when I’m not.”
He was silent then, and she returned the silence, staring out the window while watching the ocean’s waves dance with the stars’ reflection.
Almost five minutes later, Malachi pulled up to Raven’s house, parking the car on her driveway.
She looked up then, seeing the windows still drained to black… The way she left them.
“What are we doing here?” she said then, sitting up and dropping her legs. Then her voice lightened somehow, “Is my mom home? Did you just confront me to take me to her or something?”
“Rave—” Before he could finish his sentence, she opened the door and darted up the porch steps, jamming her key into the lock and opening it.
“Mom!” she called into the house, the light of hope somehow turning into euphoric energy. “Mom!”
“Raven,” Malachi said from behind her.
She turned to see him standing by the door, shutting it.
“She’s not home,” he said, his eyes dark when he looked to her. “I brought you here so you can pack some of your favorite things. We’re leaving right after.”
She blinked, but her brows drew together. “I thought you said I could stay with Jaelyn.”
He shook his head in disappointment or defeat, she couldn’t tell. “Change of plans.”
A spark of anger ignited inside her. “You can’t just take me.”
The same burn appeared in his black eyes. “We can leave now, if you want, Raven. With nothing. Just the clothes on your back and nothing else. Is that what you want?”
“You don’t get to reprimand me!” she yelled back. “I am my own person! You can’t just kidnap me, Malachi! I have a family! Something that you apparently don’t have!”
He glared at her, the comment she made purposely to get him angry not affecting him in the slightest.
“Raven,” he said, gaze sharpening, “go—pack. You have two minutes until we leave, and I’ll carry you out kicking and screaming if I have to.”
“Where are you taking me?” she questioned instead.
He thrusted a finger to the staircase. “GO PACK.”
Seeing no point into questioning him further, Raven stormed up the stairs, finding it relevant to show her anger through this action instead of him responding like a broken record, making her even more frustrated.
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