Dirty Wicked Prince (Court Legacy Book 1)

Sloane

Dorian bolted, and I almost lost him in the tall grass.

That said something considering he grabbed me.

He dragged me literally alongside him. Two boys ahead of us were yelling and screaming. I didn’t recognize either one, and when the pair of us got in the clearing, I identified them as two boys from school. I didn’t know their names, but I recognized them as kids from the Court, Dorian’s posse.

The guys were shouting in the direction of a lake and where Dorian and I’d been searching, I hadn’t seen it until now. It’d been hidden behind the tall grass.

One of the boys was completely wet, like he’d gone in the water, which was crazy. The waves of dark water lapped in the night breeze, and it was basically pitch black out here.

“The fuck’s going on?” Dorian’s voice boomed in the air. He finally let go of me, and I nearly stumbled. He went so fast. Both boys shot around, and Dorian’s eyes expanded. “Ryder, what the hell?” he said to one of them before facing the other. “Josh, that you?”

The guys ran toward Dorian and me. The one he called Josh was wet, completely soaked when he got to us.

“It was an accident, Dorian,” Josh panted, his face completely red. “I went after him, but I couldn’t get him.”

Dorian’s face twitched. “Who?”

“That kid Bru from the team.” Josh shot his finger in the direction of the water. “We were trying to initiate him and—”

“Initiate him into what!” I screamed, but Dorian was shaking Josh.

“Bru’s fucking out there?” Dorian shot out, but when Josh nodded his head, he let go. He ran toward that dark water.

And went in.

He hiked his thick legs until the water got him to his waist. He glided in then, pulling broad strokes while the water lapped and chopped around him. He called Bru’s name, turning and going deeper into that dark water. The waves covered him, and I screamed, racing out toward him.

Ryder jerked me back.

“Don’t,” he urged. Josh took my other arm. Ryder’s expression turned grim. “You’ll get lost too.”

Lost.

This isn’t happening.

My brother wasn’t out there right now, and Dorian hadn’t just gone underneath the dark water to get him.

I couldn’t even see Dorian now. He’d disappeared, and I shoved both the guys off me.

“Bru!” I went into ankle-deep water, cupping my mouth. “Dorian!”

My gaze searched rapidly through the moving waves, but no words returned to me. The lake was so dark and completely unsteady.

No.

Sickness swirled my gut, and I honest to God thought I’d be sick all over myself. I couldn’t breathe, but I tread deeper into the water. I couldn’t just stand here and do nothing.

“Bru!” I swam up to my waist, whirling around. “Dorian!”

“Sloane!”

Dorian’s voice shot me in his direction, his voice and his voice alone. I couldn’t see him. It was too dark, but a large shadow was coming closer and closer through the dim water.

He was dragging something.

Dorian was on his back, physically dragging another body with him. He labored, pulling his arm through the water while his other one grappled around another. I recognized my brother under his arm.

He wasn’t moving.

My brother was chillingly still, his eyes closed and his limbs simply wading in the water.

“Bruno!” His name shrieked from my lips as I stroked out to meet the pair. At this point, Ryder and Josh caught wind of what was going on, and both boys swam out to assist.

With Dorian’s help, they were able to get my brother onto the shore, but as soon as they laid him down, my brother lay limp. Panicked, neither Josh nor Ryder knew what to do, but Dorian dove in.

“He’s not breathing,” he said, and I almost did throw up then. Dorian cleared the way and out of nowhere, he started performing CPR. He began chest compressions, performing mouth to mouth right after. The first set did nothing, and I watched in horror as my kid brother continued not to breathe.

“Bru,” I gasped. My brother was completely ghost white.

“Come on, Bru. Fuck,” Dorian gritted, his blond hair soaked and sopping over his brow. He pressed his big hands to my brother’s chest again, and out of nowhere, my brother gasped and coughed up water.

Oh my God.

“Bru!” I reached for him, but Dorian guided him to his side. My brother spat out more water then, gagging on it.

“Get it out, man,” Dorian called, and I didn’t know what to say.

He’d just saved my brother’s life.

He’d just done that. Right here in front of me. Able to breathe again, my brother looked at me, and I nearly decked him in his face.

“Bruno Sloane, what the fuck were you thinking?” I chose to say to my brother instead, shaking. “Why would you go out there? Why would you do that?”

“I’m sorry,” he panted. His hug was so weak in return. “I was stupid. I’m sorry.”

He needed to do better than that. I pulled back, and Dorian and I helped him sit up. At this point, Dorian was on his knees, but he was shouting.

Ryder and Josh were the victims.

“What was this?” Dorian roared, his face completely red. He shot a hand toward Bru. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is. You know that shit is fucking banned—”

“What shit?”

Dorian whipped around in my direction, his big body panting with heavy breaths. He pulled back his hair. “A haze,” he said, nearly growling at Ryder and Josh. Dorian frowned. “We used to do them a long time ago.”

“Who’s we?”

Dorian’s expression traveled grim. He outlined his lips. “Old members of the Court. Not us, but our fathers and their fathers. It used to be a way they used to initiate new members.”

I faced Bru. “Is that what this was?”

Bru said nothing, rubbing his arm. “Sloane…”

“What is the haze?” I asked Dorian. I raised and dropped a hand. “Go and kill yourself?”

“I had to just make it across the lake,” Bru admitted, frowning. He couldn’t even look at me at this point. He put a hand on the ground. “They told me if I made it across, I was in.”

I couldn’t believe this. All of this was so ridiculous, and Dorian was seething. He shot a finger toward Bru, but faced the other boys. “This shit is banned, bro. Fucking banned for a reason.”

He started to grab Ryder since he was closer, but the boy raised his hands.

“Wolf told us we had to,” Ryder shrieked, turning his face before the blow that was obviously coming. He waved his hands before Dorian could strike. “He said we had to, or the Sloane kid couldn’t get in.” He frowned at him. “You didn’t know?”

By the look of shock that struck Dorian’s lovely face, it appeared he hadn’t.

But that didn’t mean much to me.

This was how he operated, him and his crazier-than-fuck friends. They did this shit to people. All bred from the same cloth.

And I was apparently very, very wrong about him.

I was wrong about everything. It didn’t matter if Dorian Prinze had a soul or not. It didn’t matter if he cared. This was still the wicked Legacy he came from, and there was no place for Bru in it.

That went double for me.

The result would be nothing but poison and most certainly would end in my brother’s death. I started to help Bru up, putting my shoulder under his arm. I got him to his feet, but when Dorian started to assist, I raised my hand.

“Stop it,” I said, his eyes twitching. I shook my head. “Just don’t. I appreciate what you did. Saving my brother, but don’t.”

I did appreciate it. He did save my brother’s life, but we couldn’t do this shit. This was some fucked-up mess.

Dorian raised a hand, like he actually did care. “Sloane…”

I raised and dropped mine. “I just can’t with you, okay?” I studied the area, all of us drenched and two of us almost dead. That was the result of him and his people. All of this was on them, on Wolf. My jaw clenched. “I can’t have anything to do with this toxic, elitist shit.”

It really would kill us in the end, and it might kill Dorian himself.

And how beautiful he was. Dorian stood still in that dark moonlight, his wet T-shirt clinging to his big body, his jeans damp and doing the same. He really did appear that dark prince.

But it wasn’t a compliment. He was toxic, and he came from cruelty. It didn’t matter if he showed me flashes of something else.

Dorian’s hands clenched at his sides, like he was doing all he could not to do something else. I carted my brother away, no time to see what he’d do.

I didn’t care anyway.

“This wasn’t his fault,” Bru said, angling a look back. He shook his head. “Sloane—”

“Don’t.” My brother hadn’t listened to me at all since we’d gotten there.

He was going to listen now.