My eyes meet hers through the thick, steel bars of the cage, and I witness with satisfaction the moment of her realization of who we truly are. Her eyes widen, and her lips part, as if she means to say something, before they slam shut once again into a stern line. The look of momentary panic and confusion disappears from her features, replaced by an expression of utter malice, and disdain, that makes me feel all warm and tingly inside. I had wondered if she hadn't managed to put it all together earlier with our interaction on the quad, and then in the student cafe, but now, staring into those stunning fire-filled green eyes, I see the truth.
She's going to attempt to thwart our authority every chance she gets. She doesn't fear us, at least not yet, but what I have planned for my new little sister will rapidly change that. I tear my gaze away from hers, and meet the ref's questioning glance, and with a slight nod of my head, he immediately understands that no fight will commence. He won't dare go against our orders, since we're the ones who fill his pockets with cash, and his bed with willing whores.Let's see what you do now, violent little psycho.
The crowd around us is silent, as if this were a crypt, all holding their breath for the masters of Soule. They know what Olivia doesn't yet: that the three of us have little to no mercy, we rule with an iron fist, and that we crave bloodshed, and have no loyalty to anyone but ourselves. We control everything and everyone in this place tonight, and soon Olivia will be part of that equation.
"What the fuck is this? Let's go, Ref!" I hear her furious demand of the ref, when she notices him indicating that the cage door should be reopened. The other fighter, Wendy, clearly knows who we are. Although there is a look of displeasure across her fine features, she doesn't bother to utter a single word. She's from Soule, lives in our world, and knows exactly the power that we wield. She's very aware that a mere word out of any of the three of us means she’ll never fight again. If only the purple-haired she-demon currently berating the ref understood that. I guess it's up to us to make her, and I know that I, for one, am going to enjoy the process immensely. My boot on her neck, forcing her to heel, will look beautiful against her skin and violet hair.
An enticing humming runs through my veins at the prospect of breaking Olivia Springhill's mind, body, and spirit. Of watching her lying broken beneath me, utterly destroyed, with only whispered pleas leaving those lips I crave to bite and bloody. Her fury is a siren's call to me, beckoning me to come closer, and to wrap my hands tightly around her neck until all the air leaves her lungs, and those precious sea-glass eyes stare at me in a mixture of horror, disdain, and defiance. What would my name sound like falling from her bruised and battered lips?I long to find out.
I watch with undisguised amusement as she rattles the steel bars in anger, her eyes searing with the promise of violence and hate. "Who the fuck do you think you are?!Huh?!Answerme, you three fuckers? You think you're big men, hiding behind fucking stupid ass masks, and trying to scare me?! You think I'll cower and fall at your fucking feet?! Come in HERE! Come so that I can break all of your faces!" She screams, her skin glowing with a red hue from how worked up she's becoming.
One glance back at River and Damon tells me all I need to know, and I already suspected. They're completely enraptured by her. She represents everything they crave.Someone who won't back down. Someone to destroy. A challenge from the mundane, bullshit, privileged world we live in.It would have been so much easier and better for Olivia had she cowered at our feet. We would have quickly lost interest after playing with her for a bit, but this, the way she fights us, is too intoxicating to pass up.
Damon glides forward toward the bars, a predator ready to attack his prey. She watches him closely, sizing him up as if she genuinely believes she can take him on. I almost want to allow it, knowing how worked up Damon is right now. However, it would mean her inevitable death, and I'm not quite ready for Olivia to leave this earth. Not until I've taught her to revere and fear me. My eyes narrow on him, when I witness him swatting and arguing with the air around him.Is he having one of his episodes? How much did this ass snort and drink tonight?
"I've got him," River mumbles at my side with irritation, and steps toward Damon, speaking quietly to him so no one else can hear.
It's not like everyone watching doesn't already think he's certifiably insane, they do. It's part of his charm, and just one of the reasons he's the boogeyman of their dreams. I don't see fear in Olivia's features, despite the show Damon is putting on, as River tries to bring him to heel.Good fucking luck with that. Shit, I hope the psycho doesn't have one of his fancy blades on him. I would hate for River or someone else to get stabbed.Whatam I saying?I just don't want to have to deal with the clean-up that always seems to go hand-in-hand with one of Damon's unhinged tantrums.
Damon pushes River away, and rushes into the cage, as the ref and Wendy both exit in a panic. Olivia immediately goes into a defensive stance, preparing to protect herself against him, as he laughs like a complete psychopath and taunts her, moving in close, getting within inches of her, and then dodging away, all while cackling viciously and obnoxiously. The sound is getting on my nerves, so I can only imagine what it's doing to Olivia.
"DAMON!" I shout, and that gets his momentary attention. He stops moving, even though his body is still jittery, and he can't seem to hold my gaze. I nod my head at him, allowing him to see the promise of violence in the depths of my eyes if he disobeys me. He's not to seriously harm her, at least not yet. I have plans for my new, unwanted sister, and he will not deny me the pleasure of seeing them through. With a massive grimace, he gives me both his middle fingers, and moves to lean against the cage bars away from Olivia. He's breathing heavily, and again mumbling to himself, so I know it's nothing but a temporary reprieve.
"Shit." River's stare meets mine, before returning to watch Damon with a narrowed gaze.Shit indeed.If we're not careful, this will be a bloodbath, and we'll have to pay off a lot of spectators to keep them silent, that or go on our own killing spree.
"What do you want, assholes? What, no one can fight unless you say so? That's absurd! You're not kings, just wannabe dictators!" Olivia moves as close to the cage wall in front of me as she dares, while keeping Damon always in her peripheral vision.Smart girl.
“You want to fight inmyhouse, inmycage? You haven't earned that right, Olivia! Get on your pretty knees and beg me,beg us, and maybe, just maybe, if you beseech us appealingly enough, we’ll allow you to continue with your fight,” I taunt her, keeping my voice even and my expression blank. I can hear the mumblings of the crowd around me. They're wondering what's so special about this girl that she's warranted our attention. Let them wonder, I don't give a flying fuck about their opinions or curiosities. They're nothing but maggots anyway, a means to an end.
"Unfuckingreal.You’re insane, asshole. That’s never going to happen," Olivia hisses, the veins in her neck standing prominently with her restrained rage.
My eyes slide down every line of her sinful curves, and I can feel my cock swelling in my pants.Stunning. Riveting. Dangerous.She's all of those things, and yet I sense there’s still so much more hidden behind fiercely drawn, thick steel walls. Olivia Springhill ismine, ours, and she just hasn't realized it yet, but she will. Every part of me wants to take her apart, section by section, and dissect her to see what makes her tick. Where does all that fiery rage come from? Who's hurt her in the past to make her this way? All these questions, and so many more, swim through my mind, making Olivia even more dangerous. She's managing to occupy too much of my thoughts, and for her, that might as well be a death sentence.
I see the moment Damon loses his patience, and is no longer heeding my command. He suddenly rushes forward and takes a swipe at her, and she instantly dodges his attempt at touching her, and counterattacks with a strong kick to the side of his upper chest, which has him taking a few stunned steps backward. The crowd around us gasps, then goes deathly silent, as they watch Olivia do something no one in Soule would dare do if they wanted to keep breathing.Fuck.
My eyes are pinned on her body movements, as she prepares to fight against Damon's threatening presence. She'ssin personified.Lilith, but sexier in her glory, refusing to bend to the demands of lesser beings.Us.All of us, here on this useless, tarnished plane of existence. My need to destroy her is almost as great as my need to taste her, and that should be causing alarm bells to blare in my head. Addiction to anything is not in my nature, and yet I can feel Olivia Springhill becoming the exception.
An unhinged, toothy grin crosses Damon's lips, as he throws a punch, and narrowly misses hitting her face. I move closer to the cage opening, River doing the same, so we can be privy to what they’re saying to each other, and in case we have to grapple with Damon to keep him from killing her.
"You know it's only a matter of time before he loses complete control," River mutters at my side, but I don't dare to remove my eyes from the two figures circling each other in the middle of my cage. "A dead plaything is no fun, Cross." Perhaps he's right, yet I can't utter the words to leash Damon. In fact, I'm not even sure they would actually work, with how riled up he is at the moment.
My gaze follows the stunning tattoo of a realistic angel, gracing her back beneath her sports bra, and the way her torso twists and writhes, and her muscles contract and clench, in time with the threat from Damon. She's pure corruption put on this earth to tempt men, to distract us from our purpose, but no matter how intriguing I find her,we find her, she can't win against Mayhem. No one can be allowed to stand against us. Our rules and laws are absolute in Soule. I’ll never permit myself or my brothers to be the weak link in our empire, and prove my father right.
"You prepared to explain to your dad why your new stepsister is either broken or dead, Cross? ‘Cause that's very likely to happen," River mutters through clenched teeth, as Damon tries to take out Olivia's feet from under her, andmanages to land a jab at her shoulder that causes her to wince, and raise her hands higher to block his next shot at her face.
"Cross, stop this fucking shit now!" A large booming voice yells and catches my attention, forcing me to remove my glance from my current object of obsession. Displeasure immediately washes over me as I witness who it belongs to, as he rapidly makes his way toward River and me from the other side of the cage.
Sim Melfort.Who does this motherfucker think he is, making demands of me? I get tunnel vision as he stops before me, his massive, muscular body humming with outrage. I’m no longer paying any attention to what's happening in the cage, which, for Olivia, could mean her death at Damon's hands. The way Sim meets my gaze and holds it, as if I were just any fucker off the street, has my hackles rising, and the fury that I keep a tight rein on skyrocketing to cataclysmic proportions.
"What the fuck is this, Cross?" Sim demands, his blue eyes glaring into mine without fear.
I feel River moving closer, preparing to launch himself at one of our best fighters. Do I believe that River can take him?Maybe, but not without bloodshed.A low murmuring commences from the crowd. Sim is one of their favorites in the cage, and although we've had disagreements in the past, he's never openly defied us, until now, that is. He breaks the connection between us, and quickly looks in Olivia's direction. The way he glances intensely at her has my chest tightening, and something deep inside of me coming to life, a possessive rage that threatens to make me more beast than man.Mine.The thought blares through my mind loudly, and my fists are ready to break his face, regardless of the consequences.
"Back down, Sim, this doesn't involve you." River chest bumps him, and gets right in his face. They’re evenly matched in height, but Sim has a lot more stacked muscle, which won'tdeter River in the slightest. He may look the most innocent and laid back of the three of us, but he loves violence just as much as Damon and I do.
"Fuck you, River, this a hundred percent involves me if you're going afterher." Sim shoves River with a growl. Confusion races through me; how the hell does Sim even know Olivia? She's been here two days, and to my knowledge, Sim no longer attends classes at Soule University. My hand strikes out as I grab Sim by the back of the shirt, forcing him to turn around to face me, and my other hand seizes his throat in a tight grip. I know he can easily break the hold if he wants to. He's a trained MMA fighter, and although my grip is firm, it's not yet obstructing his airway.
"How the fuck do you know Olivia Springhill?" I demand.
