SWNOVELS Alluring Darkness: Chapter 22
Confusion creases Raina’s dark brows as she steps out of my car and closes the door with a thud. She frowns up at the forest before her while my brothers park their own cars next to mine on the otherwise empty gravel patch.
“This is where we’re having our team training session?” Raina asks, that dubious expression still on her features as she turns her head to look at me. “In a forest?”
“Yes,” I reply.
“Doing what?”
“Seriously?” Rico’s voice interrupts before I can answer. “You picked up another bat?”
I glance behind me to find Jace strolling towards us with a baseball bat resting on his shoulder. Next to him, Kaden is shaking his head while twirling a knife in his hand. Rico moves around his own car to meet them.
“It was just sitting there unattended,” Jace replies with a grin. “I couldn’t just leave it.”
Rico snorts. “Of course you couldn’t, Golden.”
“Hey.” Jace swings the bat off his shoulder and points it menacingly at Rico. “The guy without the bat should not be rude to the guy with the bat. It’s Bat Etiquette 101.”
“Bat etiquette?”
“Yes, bat etiquette.”
“Stop saying bat,” Kaden interrupts. “Or I swear I’m going to snatch the bloody thing out of your hands and crack both of your skulls with it.”
I can see Jace about to open his loud mouth and say it, just because he feeds off chaos, but I doubt Rico’s grandfather would be pleased if Kaden cracked Rico’s skull open, so I speak before Jace can set those events into motion.
“Actually,” I begin.
All three of them stop their bickering and turn to me. Raina does too.
“Do you have any more of those?” I finish, nodding towards the bat.
Jace’s brown eyes light up like sparkling amber. “Do I have any more? Is that even a question, dear brother?”
“Yes or no?” I demand.
Changing direction, Jace heads back towards his car while jerking his chin at us. I follow. Next to me, Raina begins to move too.
I throw out my arm, blocking her path, and cut her a hard look. “Not you.”
Glaring up at me, she grinds her teeth in annoyance and crosses her arms. But she remains in place while the rest of us follow Jace to the trunk of his car.
When we’re all there, he pops the trunk and then sweeps his hand dramatically over it.
My eyebrows climb higher as I stare down at a pile of what has to be at least eight bats.
Rico laughs, his eyebrows raised as well, and repeats, “Seriously?”
Jace pointedly raises a finger while shooting him a serious look. “You never know when you might need a good bat.”
“Well, that time is now,” I say before Rico can start teasing him again.
Reaching into the pile, I pick one up and then start back towards where Raina is still standing, watching us suspiciously.
Wooden clattering from behind informs me that Kaden and Rico pick up bats too.
“You’re welcome,” Jace calls as he slams his trunk shut again.
I chuckle. Glancing back at them, I find Rico flipping him off over his shoulder and Kaden spinning his knife in his hand one last time before sliding it into its sheath and hefting the bat instead. Jace grumbles under his breath as he runs to catch up with them.
Warm winds whoosh across the fields and slam into the tall trees before us. Leaves rustle and branches shake as the winds whirl through the forest for another few second before everything goes silent and still again. A couple of birds caw from somewhere deeper into the woods.
Raina is standing with her back to the trees. She’s wearing a short white skirt today, paired with a tight brown shirt that dips a little down her ample cleavage. Her long black hair flutters behind her as another gust, a much gentler one this time, sweeps through the air. I study the white sneakers she’s wearing as I come to a halt two steps in front of her.
Why does she insist on dressing like that? This is a school for assassins, for fuck’s sake. She could at least put on sensible footwear. Those shoes are going to get ruined in this forest today.
“So… what?” Raina begins in a snarky tone, her arms still crossed over her chest. “We’re playing baseball in the woods?”
My brothers come to a halt as well, flanking me. For a few seconds, the four of us just stand there side by side, watching her.
“Not exactly,” I answer at last.
Her gaze drifts over our muscular bodies and the bats on our shoulders. I wait for fear to flicker in her eyes. It doesn’t.
Frustration wells up inside me.
What the fuck is wrong with this girl? Why is she never afraid of anything? If she had been a normal person, she would’ve been reduced to a trembling mess begging for permission to surrender long ago. But no matter what I do, I can’t seem to get this girl to break.
“Since you’re so bad at hiding, I figured we would help you train,” I continue when it becomes clear that threatening silence has absolutely no effect on her.
She flashes me a mocking smile. “How sweet of you.”
“We’ll give you a one-minute head start.” Using the bat, I point towards the forest behind her. “And then we’ll hunt you.”
“Sounds dreadfully boring, but okay.”
“How about we sweeten the pot then? If you can manage to stay hidden, we’ll leave you alone for an entire month. I won’t mess with you. Nothing. For a whole month.”
She cocks her head. “Huh.”
“But if we catch you…” I add, donning a vicious smile. “Then I will let my brothers fuck you.”
For the first time, a hint of surprise flickers in her eyes. And she raises her eyebrows as she says, “Your brother?”
I rake a deliberate glance up and down her body. “All three of them.”
It’s a lie, of course. I have absolutely no intention of ever letting my brothers touch her, but I’m trying to find something that will scare her. Something that will terrify her and make her finally wave the white flag of surrender. Something that will prove that she is just like everyone else, that she will break underneath the weight of my insanity and that she isn’t worth all the time and energy I spend thinking about her. Proof that I shouldn’t be obsessed with her.
Holding my breath, I wait for panic or fear, or anything that will give me the proof I need, to flood her eyes.
Two seconds pass.
They feel like a fucking lifetime.
Then a sly smile spreads across her lips as she flicks her gaze up and down the four of us. She licks her lips. Not nervously. Seductively. Fucking seductively.
“I see,” she says.
I’m still so stunned by her ludicrous reaction that all I can do is to stare as she spins around and then takes off into the trees.
Branches snap underneath her white sneakers as she bolts into the forest.
Leaves rustle as another wind washes over the landscape.
I stare at the white skirt flapping around those perfect thighs of hers before she disappears from view.
“I thought you didn’t want us to touch her,” Kaden says. His voice is cool, neutral, but I can hear the hopeful undercurrent to his words.
“I don’t,” I reply simply.
A disappointed noise comes from his throat, but he doesn’t argue. None of them do. They all know me well enough to understand what I’m doing. To understand that I’m trying, by any means, to break the absolute enigma that is Raina Smith.
“That’s one minute,” Rico observes eventually.
Shaking off the strange emotions that had settled over me, I draw in a deep breath and adjust my grip on the bat. With the confusion gone, excitement fills my chest instead.
I grin. “Then let’s go hunt.”
Jace lets out a whoop as he takes off straight after Raina. The rest of us exchange a glance, and then spread out so that we will be coming at her from all sides.
Afternoon sunlight filters in through the canopy above as I make my way deeper into the forest.
Raina will be able to hear Jace coming, and then she will adjust her position after that, which means that she will run straight into one of us instead.
Snapping branches and rustling leaves and thudding footsteps come from my left. I can just about see something white flapping between the tree trunks where Raina is no doubt running with Jace on her heels.
She swerves right, heading closer towards me. I match her pace, moving silently between the trees as I wait for her to come into view.
Her heavy breathing echoes through the woods.
Amusement swirls inside my chest. Well, she won’t be competing in any long-distance races any time soon.
A branch sways before me.
Then Raina comes crashing through.
She screeches to a halt, and her eyes go wide with surprise as she sees me. I flash her a wicked grin.
Whipping around, she sprints in the other direction. I take off after her.
Adrenaline pumps through my veins, and I have to resist the urge to let out a whoop as the thrill of the hunt washes over me, turning me almost giddy.
It takes all of my self-control to keep my pace slow so that I won’t overtake her. Even with her running at full speed, I could’ve caught her within the first few minutes. But what would be the fun in that? After all, I’m trying to frighten her. And what could be more terrifying than being hunted through the woods by four killers?
I catch glimpses of her white skirt between the trees as she zigzags through the forest. But every time she’s about to go too far, one of us steps in and forces her to change direction again. My heart pounds in excitement as we continue herding her towards the predetermined spot.
There’s a section where the ground rises drastically. It’s not even a slope. It’s just a sheer rock face that juts up from the ground. And that’s where we’ll corner her.
Anticipation crackles through me as we draw closer to it. Once I can see the gray rock wall between the trees, I slow down and scan the area ahead of me. I know that Raina is here somewhere. I heard her run in here. But now, she is apparently hiding.
While lazily twirling the bat in my hand, I prowl towards the open area in front of the rock wall.
Still no sign of Raina.
Something flashes in the corner of my eye right as I’m about to break through the tree line and emerge into the open space. I yank up my bat instinctively.
A crack sounds as a thick tree branch slams into the bat with enough force to send chips of wood spraying through the air. If I hadn’t blocked it with the bat, that strike would have knocked me to the ground.
Surprise flickers through me as I snap my gaze to the person wielding the branch.
Raina.
I lurch towards her improvised weapon, but she knows that the element of surprise is lost now, so she quickly leaps back instead and sprints across the open area. But before she can get to the trees on the other side, Kaden appears from the woods in front of her.
She skids to a halt and spins in the other direction.
Only to find Rico walking towards her.
Snapping her gaze to the spot halfway between me and him, she moves as if to dart in that direction instead. Then her step falters as Jace saunters out from the trees there.
While still holding the thick branch before her like a weapon, she backs towards the tall rock wall as the four of us advance on her in perfect sync.
Her chest heaves, but I think it’s more from the long run rather than fear because her green eyes sparkle with life as she draws the branch through the air in front of her like a sword.
My brothers spin their bats in the air in an incredibly synchronized motion. I toss mine to the ground instead as I stride towards Raina.
Once I get within striking distance, she swings at me. I duck. The branch whooshes over my head with considerable speed. For someone with such a soft-looking body, she’s surprisingly good at swinging unwieldy branches at people’s heads.
But when her strike doesn’t land, the force of her momentum leaves her wide open. Straightening again, I throw out an arm and grab the branch before she has even finished swinging it.
She tries to yank it back, but I wrench it out of her hands and toss it to the ground several yards behind me. I take a step forward. She takes a step back.
This wasn’t even challenging.
Because she’s so loud when she runs, tracking her was incredibly easy. And she has no idea how to avoid being herded. But even despite all that, I have to admit that I am a bit impressed. If she had been just a little faster, that first swing would’ve taken me in the side of the head. Then she could have escaped this trap we set for her.
But she didn’t.
And now, it’s time to pay.