SWNOVELS Alluring Darkness: Chapter 30
Distancing myself from Raina is only partially working. I still can’t concentrate properly when she’s not in the room and I still sleep less than I normally do. And she still consumes all of my attention and makes my head go quiet when she’s near.
After burying another two bullets in my target, I steal a covert glance at Raina.
All week, she has been trying to mess with me the way she always does. But after her confrontation with Kaden yesterday, she seems to have accepted her new role a bit better. She stalked onto the outdoor gun range this afternoon and slammed our water bottles down by our stations, and then she has been sitting on the bench behind us ever since, sulking and glowering at us while we do target practice.
It takes everything I have not to smirk. I do love messing with her. It brings me joy like few other things do. But I need to get my dangerous emotions under control before I can start fucking with her again.
After firing another couple of rounds, I set my gun down on the small table next to my station. Shots echo from where my brothers are standing in their own designated spots. There are six more targets on this range, but none of them are occupied. Most teams prefer to train separately for the tournament, so it’s rare to find two teams on the same training grounds during these afternoon sessions.
I sweep my gaze across the grass before casting a glance up at the clear blue sky above. The sun is beating down on us, making a bead of sweat roll down my spine. I’m wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt, which probably wasn’t the smartest choice given that the heat of summer still hasn’t broken.
My gaze drifts back to Raina.
As usual, she is dressed as if she’s going to the mall or something. A white blouse, a short dark green skirt, and those white sneakers she insists on wearing.
A breeze blows across the field, making the grass ripple. It snatches at Raina’s short skirt. Blood pulses to my cock as the fabric flutters up, exposing more of her perfect thighs.
I just want to stalk up over there, bend her over that bench, and then fuck her so hard that she’s screaming my name until her voice shatters.
Shaking my head, I discreetly adjust my cock in my pants while forcing the thought out of my mind. I need to put distance between us. Distance. I grab my water bottle and drink deeply from it instead.
That damn woman is so fucking dangerous.
I slam the water bottle back on the table again and drag my hand through my hair.
Maybe I should just cut all ties with her and have her… disappear from Blackwater. Then there would be no risk of her realizing the power she has over me. And there would be no one to distract me. But then I wouldn’t be able to…
My thoughts trail off as a wave of dizziness washes over me. I blink and shake my head.
From her place on the bench, Raina studies me for a second. Then she gets up and starts towards me.
“Sit back down,” I try to snap at her, but my words are coming out all slurred.
I frown and shake my head again. My tongue feels weird. As if it’s swelling up. I whip my gaze towards where Rico is, and the world sways around me with the motion. I blink, trying to clear my vision.
“What’s the matter?” Raina says with a taunting note in her voice. “Having trouble speaking? Moving? Breathing?”
Right as she speaks that final word, my throat starts to close up. I try to suck in a desperate breath while Raina stops before me. Crossing her arms, she watches me with a smirk on her lips.
I try to take a step towards her, but I’m losing feeling in my legs and arms, and my knee just buckles instead.
“Eli!” Rico yells from somewhere on my left as I crash down on one knee on the grass.
“You…” I begin, but my throat and tongue are so swollen that I can’t press out the rest of the sentence.
Boots pound against the grass as my brothers sprint towards us while Raina leans down and wraps her hand around my jaw. I try to slap it away, but I can’t lift my arms.
With that sly smile still on her lips, she tilts my chin up so that I meet her gaze. “I told you I would put you on your back and make you choke on your own lungs if you ever forced me into a car again.” The smile on her mouth turns ruthless as she grins down at me. “Actions, meet consequences.”
Then she’s ripped away as my brothers reach us. Without her hand to hold me up, I simply tip to the side and crash down on the grass. My chest shakes violently as I try to suck air into my lungs.
Rico and Jace are immediately on their knees next to me, rolling me over on my back and opening my mouth as if to help open up my airways. It’s not working.
“What the fuck did you do?” Jace growls as he whips his gaze towards Raina.
She’s standing right above me while Kaden has one hand around her arm and the other holding a knife to her throat. But she isn’t paying him any mind because those glittering green eyes of hers are locked solely on me as she replies.
“I poisoned him, of course.”
“Jace, help me get him up,” Rico orders. “We need to take him to the hospital wing.”
My body spasms and gurgling noises come from my throat as I drag in rattling breaths that barely make it to my lungs. I try to sit up so that I can cough, but my body refuses to obey me. Disbelief pulses through me as I stare back at Raina from where I’m lying on the ground.
“Don’t bother,” she says, speaking to my brothers but keeping her eyes on me. “By the time you get there, he will already be dead.”
Lightning zings through me at the way she looks right now. Even with Kaden pressing a knife to her throat, there is no mistaking that she is the one in control here.
Her long black hair flutters in the air as a gust washes over her. There is a cruel smirk playing over her luscious lips, and her green eyes are glittering with ruthlessness as she stands above me and watches me choke and spasm on the ground.
She looks like a fucking goddess of death.
My personal goddess of death, come to exact vengeance on me.
Fire sears through my veins.
Never in my life have I been so furious and so fucking turned on at the same time.
Jace and Rico shoot to their feet at her reply. Panic and fear flash across their faces as they whip their gazes between me and her. I know that I should probably be scared too. If her words are to be believed, I will be dead within the next few minutes. But the only emotion pulsing through me is stunned disbelief that she had the fucking balls to pull something like this. And a tiny bit of admiration too, because damn, I am impressed.
Metal glints in the bright sunlight as Jace yanks up his gun and shoves it against Raina’s temple so hard that her head tilts to the side. “Give him the antidote.”
“Who says there is one?” Raina replies, casting him a nonchalant look.
“You have three seconds to produce an antidote before I shoot you in the head,” Jace growls in a voice so vicious that the grass around him seems to shrink back into the earth. It’s a voice I have rarely heard from him.
“You have two seconds before I slit your throat,” Kaden adds.
“Go ahead. Kill me.” A smirk curls Raina’s lips as she nods towards me. “But then he will also be dead.”
As if on cue, my limbs jerk uncontrollably as the poison ripples through me. My throat closes up even more. A flash of primal panic, one that has been engrained into humanity since the dawn of time, flashes through my mind as I suddenly find myself unable to get any air into my lungs. Gurgling noises rip from me as I try to suck in a breath through my swollen throat and constricted lungs.
“What do you want?” Rico screams, his voice almost breaking on that final word. Desperation pulses from his entire being as he throws out his arms helplessly and stares at Raina while repeating, “What do you want?”
“I want you to beg.”
Shock pulses across the field. But I’m starting to have trouble concentrating. I used to be able to smell the grass and soil that the back of my head is resting on, but now I can’t smell anything anymore. My chest shakes as I try to fight a breath into my lungs. There is a terrible coldness in my unresponsive limbs.
“You want me to give him the antidote?” Raina continues. She even sounds like a goddess of death now. Cold. Cruel. Utterly untouchable. “Then get down on your knees and beg me for his life.”
They don’t even hesitate a second.
Kaden and Jace toss their weapons to the ground immediately, and then all three of them drop to their knees before her. They form a short line between her and my shaking body, as if they can protect me from her insanity with their own kneeling forms.
“Please, Raina,” Rico says, his voice pulsing with desperation. “I’m begging you to spare his life. Please, give him the antidote.”
She arches a dark eyebrow and slides her gaze to Kaden and Jace. “I said, beg.”
“Please, we’re begging you,” both of them blurt out in unison.
If anyone else had been the recipient of this massive fucking powerplay that she is executing, I would have been so turned on that I would’ve fucked her into the next century. But unfortunately for her, I am the recipient. And she has made a huge fucking mistake now.
She has made my brothers get down on their knees and beg. Humiliated them. Made them plead for my damn life.
I’m going to fucking kill her for this.