Made in Malice (Corrupt Credence Book 1)

NOVA

I rise to my feet, and both of their eyes track the movement. It’s almost eerie, considering they look so similar, yet there’s a distinct manner about them that makes it easy to know which is which. “I could say it’s been fun, but it would be a lie,” I tell them in lieu of saying goodbye.

“You’re not at all curious about what secrets they are keeping from you?” Lucian presses, but he’s probably bluffing. He just admitted he’s not going to tell me anything.

“Give me a reason to believe that you’ll actually tell me anything or that I should even believe it,” I counter.

“Nothing is free, lamb. What do I get in return?”

“I’m here, aren’t I? I gave you my trust when I got in the car with you. How about a little reciprocation.”

“Again, you didn’t have a choice. I wanted you here, and here you are.”

“There’s always a choice, pretty boy, some are just harder to make than others.” With that, I walk out of the room and head down the stairs at the end of the hall. I work desperately not to look over my shoulder to see if either of them will follow me, but I’m so anxious that my heart thunders in my chest, waiting for someone to grab me and throw me in a locked room or something. I follow the dim lights down the same path he took me through, barely taking my eyes off the space directly in front of me until I see the heavy exterior door looming twenty feet away.

My stomach does a summersault when I touch the handle and the knob twists, proving I’m not trapped in here. When I’m safely tucked into my car, my doors locked, I finally take a chance and look back up at the house. In one of the large upper windows, I see two dark silhouettes. The resulting chill catches me off guard, making me shiver in my seat, even with the balmy temperature.

As eager as I am to get off their property, I don’t speed to the gate. There’s a big part of me that’s worried they just let me think I’m getting away and they plan on keeping me trapped behind their walls until they decide to let me go.

I check my locks again before slowing to a stop near the iron barrier and quietly plead, “Come on, open up,” while gripping the steering wheel and glancing in my rearview mirror. I know they must have cameras or a sensor of some sort, but seconds tick by with nothing happening.

I nibble the corner of my lip, debating if I should leave my car parked here and scale the wall to get out. Even calling Alden crosses my mind, but somehow, I think that would get me in more trouble with him, and maybe even Rory and Astrid.

I let out a little squeak and jump as the motor of the gate kicks on and slowly starts to open. I hit the button for the Umbras’ gate directly across the road, pushing closer and closer to the metal until I’m finally out of their territory. Too bad I don’t feel much safer, even after I’m behind another wall, surrounded by even more strangers.

Nova

I contemplate skipping class when I wake up in the morning, but I force myself to get out of bed and go through the motions. I can sleep in tomorrow, and I might just stay in bed all day Sunday as a treat to myself.

I’m mentally exhausted. Between school, work, and Lucian, I feel like I’m barely treading water, and the waves are getting dangerously close to crashing over my head.

I snap at the first person who speaks to me, which just so happens to be a guy from my English class who had the nerve to ask, “How long have you been a hooker?” I knew he was trying to be funny about the bar name, but it proves that the word is out about my job, making me dread my shift tonight more than I already did.

“Probably longer than you’ve been wiping your own ass.” My face flushes. I don’t curse often, it’s just never been my thing, so it feels a little strange and proves I’m in a foul mood.

“Huh?” The guy’s mouth is slack, as if he doesn’t get what I meant.

“He’s too dumb to get it,” a voice I’m becoming very familiar with says over my shoulder. My back stiffens. I usually have a pretty good sense about when Lucian is near—probably a primal instinct for danger—but Nox is able to get up close and personal, and I had no idea.

“Hey, Morningstar.” The guy who was just insulting me nods to the voice emanating from behind me.

“Fuck off.” He says it plainly, with no heat or inflection at all, but the guy gets up and changes seats without a word in response.

Nox lifts his leg over the seat and plants his shoe on the chair next to me, climbing over the row only to drop into the same seat with a huff. “It’s early as hell, Nova.”

“I thought you didn’t bother with classes.”

I feel him staring at the side of my face, but he doesn’t respond. Eventually, I have to look over to see what he’s gawking at.

“How’d you know it was me and not Lucian?” he asks the moment I meet his gaze.

“How could I not?”

“Nobody can tell us apart, hence why dipshit called me Morningstar, so tell me how you knew, or was it a guess because Lucian doesn’t have this class?” He starts to nod as if he’s answering his own question.

“It wasn’t a guess,” I tell him without another explanation. “Mind giving her the okay to get started?” I gesture to the teacher, who seems to be waiting for a signal from Nox.

He leans in so close that I can feel his breath near my ear. Without looking around, I know everyone is watching us, including the teacher. “Only if you agree to tell me how you knew the difference between us.”

I glance to the left when he pulls away and grit out, “Fine.”

“See you after class,” he says, then he tells the teacher, “Go ahead,” before getting up and walking right out of the room.

Once he’s gone, I feel everyone watching me again, but I try to ignore it and focus on the teacher. I should have stayed in bed.

True to his word, Nox is waiting for me when I exit the class. He’s leaning against the wall directly across from the room, but he shoves himself off as soon as I step out. I watch him move closer to me, and a tingle of awareness settles on my skin.

“Nice try, pretty boy.” I roll my eyes and stroll right past him toward the Union. I didn’t promise to tell him, plus I’m tired of constantly being worried about what he, or anyone else, is going to do and say to me. I just do not have the energy for their games today, and I have no intention of playing along.

LUCIAN

Motherfucker, Nox was right—we made eye contact for less than a second, and she knew. Even our family had trouble telling us apart at a glance, which we thought was hilarious, and it’s also why almost everything about us, including our plainly visible tattoos, match, but she can see right through us.

I start to trail behind my lamb, allowing myself to get distracted with the sway of her hips as she sashays down the hall. If she hadn’t turned the corner, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed Bella Quade standing outside of her office, her arms crossed over her chest as she eyes me with open suspicion.

I know her family is eager for the crown, since she or her brother are next in line to be president after our tenure, but I have no plans of relinquishing the power once I have it. I shift directions and walk straight toward her. Even with all the fillers and shit in her face, her mouth goes slack, and she looks around as if there’s someone who might help her.

“Morningstar,” she greets when I’m towering over her. I don’t acknowledge her with anything other than my presence, so she starts to fidget. “Can I help you with something?”

“How’s your brother?” I ask, completely disinterested in the answer, but eager for her reaction to me beating his ass.

Her lips pinch before curling into a sneering smile. “Well, thank you for asking.”

“I haven’t seen him around in a few days.”

“No worries, he’ll be back soon. Shouldn’t a young man like you be in class?” She tries to use the fact that she’s older than me against me, but that shit’s comical.

“Nah, no point, but I do have more important matters to tend to. Tell Derry I said hello.” There’s a twitch near her jaw, but that’s the only outward sign that she understands my warning as I turn my back on her and walk away.

When I stroll through the Union, not spying my target, I get pissed that I allowed Quade to distract me. I’m tempted to ask all the sheep who are gawking at me where she is, but that would mean actually speaking to them. I need to put a tracker on her, or at the very least her phone.

While I’m walking toward the rear exit to see if her car is still here, I send a text off to Nox, asking if he’s seen her.

My phone rings in the next second. I think about ignoring it, and if it were anyone else, I would. “Hello?”

“She didn’t come out of the class?” he questions after reading my text.

“Yeah, but I got distracted, and she got away.”

“What?” He sniggers softly, and it does something in my chest. It’s such a strange sound coming from him. I feel like it’s been ages since he’s found much joy in anything, even my fuckups.

“Yeah, and she fucking knew it was me before I even opened my mouth,” I admit.

“I told you,” he crows. “Did you get her to admit how she knows?”

“No, she walked right past me. Her car is still here though.” I search the parking lot and grounds for her, bouncing my gaze over the students sitting under trees and on benches, and come up empty.

“You checked the Union?” he asks, and I can tell he’s walking by the way his voice sounds.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll check the upper floors. You check the library,” he instructs.

“Fine,” I snarl, then hang up. I don’t let anyone other than him tell me what to do, and even then, it grates on my nerves.

The moment I enter the library, I remember the last time I was here, and I know she won’t be found hiding in the stacks. I need to ask her what happened that day in the study room and force her to tell me, but every fucking time I get around her, I get lost because I’m too busy pissing her off so I can stoke that fire that always seems to burn in her eyes.

I weave in and out of the shelves just to be sure, then head upstairs two at a time. In one of the study rooms, I find a guy fucking a girl who’s bent over the table. I see red for about a millisecond before I notice the long black hair spilling across the wood table, not my lamb’s honey blonde.

“Shit,” he curses, pulling out of her and reaching down for his pants in the same breath.

“Get out,” the girl starts, but her words fall short when she realizes who’s at the door, and suddenly, she doesn’t seem to mind being ass up over the table.

I walk away without bothering to close the door, so I hear when she calls, “Come back,” to which the guy spits, “Jesus, Ainsley.”

“That was a Morningstar,” she hisses, pushing past him as if she might follow me down the hall to the back stairs, but when she realizes I’m not slowing, let alone stopping, she stays put outside the door of the room.

After exhausting all the areas she could be, I leave the library behind, but the image of my lamb bent over the table, looking back at me as I watch myself sink inside her inch by inch, is a sight I can’t easily get rid of.

NOX

I know I’m in the right place before I even get up to the third floor. She’s the only one around here who seems to cause a commotion everywhere she goes.

“And it takes both of you to tell me this why?” Her words greet me as I step onto the third-floor landing. This is the same area where Lucian introduced her to me. Not many people hang out here, which is why we chose it. In the back of my mind, I’m wondering if that’s why she’s here, because we showed it to her, but that thought disappears when I see Nova backed into a corner with two girls in front of her and a guy standing a few feet away, watching.

“What the fuck?” I don’t have to work to sound like my easy to anger brother. I’m pissed just from seeing them teaming up on her, because that’s what this looks like. Everyone turns to look at me, and that’s when I see Grace and realize I was right.

Lucian and I have both fucked her on occasion, but we cut her off when she got territorial. I can’t say I’m surprised she picked up on the fact that Nova has our attention, but I’m shocked she’s trying to stake a claim, especially after Lucian warned everyone that Nova was off-limits.

Grace’s eyes slit as she flashes me a smile. “We’re just introducing ourselves.”

“Is that what you were doing?” Nova laughs incredulously.

I watch Grace’s full lips pinch. She probably wants to tell Nova to shut her mouth but knows she can’t do that with me standing here.

“I thought you were warning me off Nox and his brother when you said, oh, what was it? ‘Stay the F away from them, or else.’ Did I get that right?”

Grace runs her eyes over me quickly. I bet she’s responding to Nova’s ability to identify me and trying to see if she’s correct, but she would never be able to tell. She didn’t even know which one of us was fucking her.

I stroll past the guy standing to the side, who looks like he’d rather become part of the woodwork than be here, making sure I clip his shoulder as I do. Instead of wasting words on Grace, I speak to Nova. “You left something at the house last night.”

“I did?” Nova tilts her head, not realizing those few words would show Grace where both of them stand. Grace was never allowed in our house, and she knows no one else was either. Mission accomplished.

“What was it? I didn’t have my purse.”

I look over my shoulder, making eye contact with Grace. “What are you still doing here?”

“I’d like to know too,” Lucian says from the stairs. He must have come up here when he didn’t find Nova in the library.

“Great, is there nowhere here that’s safe?” Nova mumbles under her breath, which makes me smile. She has no idea how true her words are.

“Brother,” I greet Lucian in lieu of saying his name and confirming which of us is which, a tactic we developed long ago.

“He asked you a question. Why are you here?” Lucian repeats my inquiry while joining me, standing in front of Nova. It creates quite the visual, and I’m not sure Lucian even realizes what a statement it is. “Actually, I don’t give a fuck. Go,” he tells her with a jerk of his head toward the stairs.

Grace stomps off with her backup in tow without so much as a word in response.

“What was going on?” Lucian spins and eyes Nova as if to assess her for any evidence of what happened.

“Just your girlfriend making sure I know she pissed on you first.”

“I’m not into watersports, and she isn’t my anything,” Lucian tells her.

“I don’t think she knows that,” Nova sings and drops into the green chair behind her. It’s then I notice her bag and computer.

He continues to badger her. “Why are you up here?”

“Why are you up here?” she retorts.

“Looking for you. You made a deal,” I interject before these two start arguing. I don’t believe it will go the way either of them thinks. Lucian settles into one of the other two chairs as if he’s sitting on a throne. I drop into the last remaining seat.

“Remind me what deal that was, Nox?” Nova plays coy.

“How you can tell the difference between us,” Lucian supplies before I can.

“It’s simple, anyone with a brain should know.”

“Then spill it.”

She looks Lucian dead in the eye and says, “You make my skin crawl, he doesn’t.”

I watch my brother’s eyes darken to the point where I actually think I might have to get between them, but he calmly says, “I think the word you’re looking for is tingle.”

Nova lets out a peal of genuine laughter while her blue eyes nearly sparkle. I can tell by the softening expression on Lucian’s face that he’s not immune to her delight, even if he’s the one she’s laughing at.

“I didn’t know you have a sense of humor, pretty boy.” She’s still grinning.

“I don’t,” he deadpans in response, which makes her shoulders shake as she hauls her computer into her lap.

“So what are you threatening me with today?” Her voice almost sounds bored.

“No threats,” I say quickly, cutting off Lucian, who already had his mouth open to answer her.

“Here to do schoolwork then? Oh yeah, that’s below you.” She taps her short black fingernail against her lip, pretending to think. “What else could it be? You haven’t told me that I’m garbage yet today, is that it?” She manages to sound helpful while mocking him.

I bet this is making Lucian crazy. He’s never had a girl not be a simpering mess at his feet, yet she doesn’t even seem intimidated.

“Well, you are related to the Umbras, or so they claim.”

“Lucky me.” She lowers her head to look at her computer, and I can feel her pulling away.

“Why are you here instead of in the library? Isn’t that where nerds go to study?” Lucian is watching her closely, which tells me I should too. When I glance over, I see a slight shifting of her features right before her chin tips up just the tiniest bit in defiance.

“If I were a nerd, I wouldn’t need to study. Nerds don’t get placed in remedial classes.” There’s a sour note in her tone. It makes me think he said something to her about her classes, and that one must have hit home.

“Still, why aren’t you in the library?” he presses, ignoring the remarks about her not being smart.

“Not my scene.” She shrugs, but it’s forced.

“Does it have anything to do with you running out of the study room scared with your arm all scratched up?”

“I wasn’t scared,” she counters while blinking rapidly. “I may have been startled, but not scared.”

“What are you talking about?” I question Lucian.

“Ask her.” He doesn’t take his eyes off Nova.

“What’s he talking about?”

Nova’s eyes shift from left to right as she looks at both of us. I can see her mind working, but I have no idea on what. “If I tell you, will you leave me alone for the rest of the day?”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Lucian and I answer at the same time.

“Which is it?” she questions, watching us again.

“For the day,” Lucian concedes, but I can tell by his tone he has other ideas.

Nova flicks her tongue in her mouth but answers soon after. “There was someone in the room who grabbed me and tried to pull me in.”

“Who was it?” Lucian asks, leaning forward.

“I don’t know. It was dark, and all I cared about was getting away. They were gone by the time I went back.” She tosses her hair over her shoulder while admitting the last part, as if it bothered her to disclose that she ran away in the first place.

Lucian stands abruptly and grabs Nova’s wrist. I don’t miss her flinch, as if she thought he was going to do more than circle his fingers around her arm. “They did this?” he questions darkly, running the fingers of his free hand along some light red marks on her arm, then higher to push the sleeve of her shirt up, exposing little freckles all over her arm and a slightly yellowish bruise.

“Mostly, why?” She shimmies her shoulder, making her sleeve drop to cover the bruise while trying to dislodge his touch at the same time.

“Because I want to know whom I need to hurt. Nobody touches what’s mine, and what do you mean, mostly?” he asks, still all up in her space. I doubt he even realizes how possessive he’s gotten of her and why.

“The bruise was a result of me provoking you.” She’s glaring up at him with unrefined anger.

“What?” Lucian freezes as if he’s not even breathing.

“Forget it, it was an accident.” She tries to sit back in the chair, but there’s nowhere for her to go to get away from my suddenly nosy brother.

“What does she mean, Lucian?” I question, because she’s acting like he did it to her.

“You can tell me what happened, or I will follow you around until you do, or maybe I’ll just take you home until you’re ready to talk.” I know which option he would like best.

“I told you it was an accident,” Nova grates out through her teeth.

“How did this accident happen?”

Her nostrils flare as she inhales deeply. She’s probably trying to decide if not telling him is worth the fight. “In the cafeteria.” The lilt of her voice suggests she’s trying to remind him of something.