Chapter 16 PAYBACK'S A BITCH.
LUCIEN'S POINT OF VIEW.
My car darts off the road with furious speed, taking me to school in minutes. The engine’s low growl vibrates through the cold morning air, rattling in the bones of anyone close enough to hear. My leather jacket cuts against the wind, its weight like armor. The moment my car pulls up. I see the heads turn before I’ve even turned off the ignition.
Without sparing anyone a glance, I step out of my car, toss the key to the school chauffeur I never use, and head towards the horsemen.
They lean against the steps, their usually playful expression gone, and replaced with a murderous one that mirrors mine. The moment Kai notices the glint in my eyes, he mutters, “Someone’s going to bleed today.”
He's right.
Even the crowd feels it, as their eyes shift, and their phones are already in their hands, because when I walk in like this, everyone knows it's for war.
The moment I step through the school's doors, everyone parts for me like I'm a fucking god. But I'm not here for them, I make my way to the one place I knew he'd be, and as I suspected, Matt’s in the quad, watching the practice session like he's still king of the fucking field.
My shadow falls over him before my voice does, and he notices as he looks back in shock.
“Get up.”
He must think I'm fucking Santa Claus, because he laughs, pumped up with all false bravado. “What, you gonna—”
The sentence dies when my fist connects with his jaw, popping it out of place. The sound is sickeningly clean, as the force of my punch has his lips split open.
The smell of copper and metal fills the air as his blood flows down his bruised jaw. His breath whooshes out as my knee drives into his ribs. He lets out a grunt as my foot meets his face, knocking him to the floor.
"Get the fuck up." My hands are in my pockets, and my expression is one of masked calm, but the horsemen know I'm not to be fucked with.
The field fills up quickly, as everyone rushes in from various parts of the school. The teachers stand in silence, as they pretend to be focused on something else.
They knew better; no one would dare utter a word to stop me. He takes his sweet time getting up, groaning with every move of his limbs, and for some reason, it ticks me off the wrong way.
My knee meets his midsection before he can fully stand straight--or attempt to.
"Ah!" He groans in pain and spits out blood.
I grab him by the collar and slam him into the concrete wall hard enough that his head bounces. His eyes roll for a second before he tries to speak, but I don’t let him.
With one last punch, I make a final statement;
"No one fucking touches what's mine. If I have to repeat myself, this will look like a Christmas decoration, compared to what'll happen to the next sorry fucker." My voice is loud enough for everyone to hear in the field.
Then I let him slide down the wall, crumpled, coughing blood onto the floor.
Without wasting a second, I walk out of the hall, and the horsemen follow behind me as I move on to phase two of the plan.
Roxanne.
"Should someone get Sloane?" Kai asks, and I nod once. He snaps at a junior who scampers to do his bidding before the words fully leave his mouth.
We wait by the hall close to the girls' locker room for her, and a few minutes later, she appears. Dressed in jeans and a sweater, she walks up to us. Her hair is pulled in a low, unflattering bun, and she appears pale as she shivers and pulls her sweater around her to get warmer.
My blood burns hotter with the desire to crack Matt's jaw further.
"Hi." She greets, her voice trembles with the words. The horsemen nod at her in greeting, but I just stand in silence, watching her and deciding whether or not my appetite for chaos would be satisfied after today.
It wouldn't be; I'd need more.
Taking off my leather jacket, I wrap it around her shoulders to keep her warm. It's big on her, with the jacket falling to her hips as she pulls it tighter around her body.
"Thanks. What are we doing?"
"Mass destruction," Kai responds, smirking.
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A few minutes later, the hallway outside the girls’ cheer locker room is quiet, with just the scent of expensive perfume, and moisturizer in the air. We lean against the wall, waiting until she passes by.
On noticing us, she pauses, and looks at me with what's supposed to be a menacing glower. "Stay away from my boyfriend, you fucker." She says, but I keep my lips sealed, waiting till she moves to walk away.
Her bag hangs open. I drop a small, elegant container inside--her own moisturizer bottle, but with something extra mixed in. A concoction I mixed myself; a slow burn in liquid form.
Knowing her, she’ll use it without thinking. She’ll feel the itch first, then the blotches, then the swelling untill her hands look like a bad allergic nreaction..
After what feels like the sweet calm before a wreckage, the sound of an ear piercing scream permeates the air.
"Finally." Theo mutters, standing straight.
"My hands!" Roxanne lets out another ear curdling scream, as the sound of cheerleaders scampering to her aid follows. Then, they scream too, their horrified shrieks sounding like a lulluby to my ears.
The doors slam open, as everyone rushes out in fear. Roxanne walks out with her hands held out, they look like someone had poured radioactive liquid on her hands as she itches away at it furiously.
"Itchy hands, Roxanne?" Kai asks, mocking her with an amused smirk.
She turns to him, while still itchingg her hands , and she shrieks again. "You!" She turns to me. "You did this to me!"
"Remember this; No one, touches what's fucking mine."
She runs down the hall, probably heading to the nurse's office, but she woudn't find a salve, not threr anyway.
I already took care of that.
She'd have itchy, blotted hands for at least two weeks.
"Good work here fellas." Cassian says. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a waiting appointment I need to follow up on. See you at the spot tomorrow, Sloane." He dosen't waste another second, as he puts his air pods on, and heads thw opposite direction.
"An appointment?" Sloane's voice cuts through the silence.
"He's going to have sex." Theo says, without filter; and Sloane blushes visibly as she instinctively hides behind my arm.
Our hands are intertwined again, even though no one's watching.
"Get the fuck out, you fuckers. My girl and I have to be somewhere."
They nod, and follow behind Cassian, to raise one hell or the other on some unfortunate sod.
Sloane turns to me; "Where are we going?"
"Anywhere we want, school's over." I replied, and she furrows her brows like a cute rabbit.
"But there's still a few classes for today."
"Not when you're with me." I winked, and pulled her with me. "Where do you want to go?"
She muses for a few seconds before she says, "Ice cream, popcorn, and a movie?"
"Sure, we can go to my private theatre."
"You have a private theatre?" Her eyes are wide with shock.
I chuckle heartily, and nod. She squeals, and jumps like a child beside me, and I make a promise to myself;
She'll have as much of whatever she wants, as long as I'm alive.
Later that night,, my appetite for revenge hasn't been satiated. I’m stretched out in my chair, the silence of my apartment screaming at me, with the glow of my laptop painting my hands in cold blue light.
“Hijack the school’s announcement system,” I tell my tech guy over the phone.
He chuckles. “Oh shit, I recognize that tone. You want to fuck shit up."
I send him the file, a slowed-down, amplified audio of Roxanne and Matt’s little back-and-forth from last weekend. It’s nothing anyone should hear in public, which is exactly why I want it broadcast during first period.
I imagine the sound flooding the halls early in the morning, with neither me, Sloane, or the horsemen to withess the chaos of the whispers turning to laughter, then to open-mouthed shock as the former queen-bee of Ravenscroft high is pushed forther away from her crown.
They wanted to play games.
They wanted a spectacle.
I smiled,my white teeth sharp in the dark.
“They thought they ciould fuck with what's mine? I’m just getting fucking started.”