Revenant (The Midnight Society #3) (5 page)

Chapter Six

Aria

The house was eerily quiet this morning, I thought to myself as I stood alone in the kitchen. Shadow had woken up at the crack of dawn to prepare for his trip with Beau.

I had insisted on going along with them, knowing full well they didn’t exactly have complimentary personalities. Shadow was a brooding, no-nonsense, let’s-get-shit-done type of guy while Beau was…well Beau.

I figured at some point, the latter would say something stupid, like he always did, tempting Shadow to shut him up with a tire iron.

“I’d be an asset in this meeting,” I had told Shadow. “After all, I was the last one to see Lincoln, just before he was kidnapped.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Shadow had said. There was something cold about the way he spoke to me. Oh God, had Shadow possibly figured out what transpired between Lincoln and I?

“I love you,” I said.

He looked at me and nodded. “I love you too Aria, more than you can ever know.” He kissed me on the forehead, just before leaving me alone in the bed. The kiss, however, wasn’t one filled with passion reserved for people as madly in love as we claimed to be. It felt like a simple ‘I’ll call you when I’m free…maybe,’ type of kiss which I had experienced once in high school. That bastard never did call.

Shadow was doing it again, giving me the cold shoulder. Granted, he wasn’t as bad as before. At least last night he slept in the same bed as I did.

But he didn’t hold me or make love to me despite all my efforts to arouse him.

It tore a bit out of me when I had his cock fully in my mouth and he gently pushed me off saying, “I have a long day tomorrow. It’s best we both get some sleep.”

What man didn’t like having his dick sucked spontaneously by his woman?

One who was angry at his girl, that’s who.

Or worse yet, there was another woman.

It had all begun after Shadow received a text message on his cell.

What did it say? More importantly, who was it from?

Was it indeed from another woman? Maybe he was growing bored of me and had moved on to someone else?

“Men are nothing but a giant sack of perpetual disappointment.”

I turned around and saw Reiko standing by the kitchen bar, grabbing a frosted bottle of grey goose from out of the freezer.

“You want a drink?” she asked as she grabbed two highball glasses and set them on the table.

I nodded. “What makes you say that?”

Reiko poured the vodka. “I figured you had boy problems. I could tell by the way you furrowed your brow and bit the tip of your lower lip. That’s a man problems type of look.”

I raised my brow.

“Don’t worry, I’m having a set of those myself right now,” Reiko sighed as she gestured for me to sit.

I did.

She took the glass of vodka and raised it in my direction. “Cheers to us, sitting here like forgotten housewives, drinking at 10 A.M. in the morning.”

I clinked her glass and sipped the vodka, shuddering at the strength of the drink on my tongue. Reiko downed all of hers in one go.

“Cairo’s still not talking to you?” I asked.

Reiko shook her head. “No. He’s a meathead. I don’t get what the big deal is. Yes, I slept with Lincoln once, but that’s before Cairo and I were committed to each other. Not once had I been unfaithful to him, so why the hell is he making me out to be a slut?”

I was tempted to ask her what sex with Lincoln was like, but decided to bite my tongue. Something told me we were already treading in deep water with this conversation.

“Where’s Cairo now?” I asked.

“Who knows? He’s probably out by the water, wallowing in misery.”

I had no response for her so I took another sip of my drink, and allowed silence to roll over us like a gentle wave.

“You know what’s overrated?” Reiko finally asked.

“What’s that?”

“A woman’s virginity,” Reiko said. “For some reason, Cairo always believed that he was the one who took my ‘innocence’ away from me. The truth is, he was third in the batting order. He just so happens to be the one who stayed at home plate the longest. Though with the way things are going, I don’t think he’ll be there much longer.”

“You guys will work it out. The two of you breaking up over something as trivial as your sexual past is stupid, especially if you two love one another.”

Reiko sighed. “You don’t have to tell me that. For some reason though, the big lug now thinks our perfect love is tainted.” She shook her head. “He’s put the myth of my virginity so high up on a pedestal that he doesn’t see what’s most important.”

“And what’s that?”

“He was the first and only man I ever loved. Those other two instances, it was just sex. One meaningless and the other I had purged from my memory.” Reiko sighed and poured herself another glass. She intended to hit it hard this morning. “So what’s troubling you? Is Shadow going into one of his mood swings?”

I shrugged. “Lord only knows what goes on through that boy’s head. One minute, he’s Romeo reincarnated, showering me with fairytale love and affection, and the next thing I know he’s gone Hamlet, plotting revenge.”

“That sounds like Shadow alright,” Reiko said. “He’s not as bad as before. There was a time where I thought he’d never find any happiness in anything. You changed him though, Aria. You revived a piece of his heart which was long dead. The problem with him is he’s forever living within a self-written tragedy. I don’t know what it’ll take to get him out of there.”

“Once we find Calisto and put that twat in her place, you don’t think Shadow will be able to let it all go? Maybe then he’ll be able to move on?”

Reiko pursed her lips. “For the first ten years of his life, Shadow lived in an environment where happiness always was considered trivial. The Midnight Society raised their children to be better than everyone else at everything. It was a competitive environment where playing, laughing, dancing—all the things that made up a happy childhood—were considered a complete waste of time. Those early years of our lives, all us children belonging to this stupid organization was miserable.”

She spoke with such conviction that I knew she drew upon her own experiences.

“I suppose that’s why you and Cairo left,” I said.

“It was one of many reasons, but not the primary one,” she paused. “As for Shadow, the expectations for him to succeed have always been high, being that he was the sole male heir of the Tremaine name and the entire Midnight Society Empire. In Tristan Tremaine’s eyes, if his son was second best at anything, it was a sign of weakness and that opened the door for another family to step up and challenge their’s for leadership. You can imagine the pressure on Shadow.”

It sounded horrible—the burden of trying to live your life flawlessly, where every single mistake you made was scrutinized and used against you.

“And then Shadow’s parents were murdered. Since then, Shadow had transformed himself into this dark avenger on an endless quest to find his parents killer—who so happened to be his own twin sister. So here’s the billion dollar question: once all this is over, do you think Shadow knows what it’s like to just be happy? Especially since he lived his entire life thus far in misery?”

Reiko was right.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Gosh, I just don’t know.”

“Do you love him?” she asked.

“Of course I do. I love him with all my heart.”

“You’re good for him Aria, I can see that. Aside from Cairo, I’ve never been close to anyone else at the Academy—Lincoln being a one-off exception. Our competitive atmosphere never allowed us to have friends. With Shadow, I can safely say that he was the closest to a friend I had,” Reiko said as she nursed her cup. “We had a mutual respect for each other and not once did I ever feel the need to compete with him. He’s a good man and I want to see him happy. Just be patient with him. Anyone coming out of the Midnight Society’s ‘system’ never learned how to respond to our emotions properly. We all end up bottling it inside. I do it, Cairo does it, and Shadow does it. That’s an advantage ‘citizens’ like yourself will always have over us Midnight Society spawns—healthy emotional lives.”

“Isn’t it early to be deep in drink already?” a friendly voice asked.

We both turned around and saw Isadora standing at the entrance of the kitchen, a steaming mug of tea in her hand, the bag still in.

“Hey you,” I said warmly. “We were just having a friendly girls chat.”

She seemed intrigued. “Oh? What about?”

“The stupidity of men,” Reiko replied.

Isadora grinned. “That is why I married a woman instead.” She walked over to the bar area and took a seat on the free stool next to me.

“Vodka?” Reiko offered Isadora.

“It’s early, no?”

“My boyfriend is an asshole. Share a drink with me,” Reiko insisted. I could tell she was already a bit tipsy. Two glasses of pure vodka on an empty stomach would do that to a petite girl like herself.

“You convinced me,” Isadora said as she passed over her mug of tea. “Just pour it in.”

I looked at the two girls and smiled. It was nice having other women around to converse with and talk about silly things such as stupid boys, pretty dresses, and our hatred for crazy cunt-faced Calisto.

Despite having trust issues when it came to meeting new friends—thanks to Calisto—I was slowly warming up to everyone in this house. We all seemed to mesh together as one, big, dysfunctional but endearing family.

Perhaps I could tell Reiko about New Orleans and my incident with Lincoln? Maybe they both could be the support I desperately needed while dealing with this overwhelming guilt. Fuck the consequences if she didn’t take it well. Holding this secret in for one second longer was going to make me explode.

“Lincoln fingered me down in New Orleans. There was no sex, just some French kissing and two digits inside me.”

Reiko looked at me like I had nipples on my forehead.

Shit. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Now she might think less of me and see me as a terrible slut who betrayed Shadow’s trust. Heck, I didn’t even know what Isadora thought of me regarding this matter.

“Were you and Shadow together at the time?” Reiko finally said.

“We were on a bit of a break,” I replied. “Shadow was treating me like shit at the time by ignoring me and sending me away to New Orleans with Lincoln. I desperately wanted him to keep me by his side and take me with him to Hong Kong, but that’s not how things played out.”

Reiko shrugged. “Well then, welcome to the Lincoln quickie club,” she said as she raised her glass and took down another healthy gulp. “Whatever happens while you’re single or on break is fair game. There are no rules to live by.”

I turned to Isadora to seek her thoughts on the matter. “Well?” I asked.

She smiled. “I never judged you.”

I felt relief. They weren’t looking down on me for it. That was good.

However, the person who really needed to know the truth was Shadow. Was it wise to tell him though?

“Second question, does Shadow have a right to know?”

“Yes,” Reiko said.

“Yes,” Isadora replied.

“Shit,” I muttered.

Reiko rested her hand on my forearm and looked at me with drunk and sad eyes. “I’m on the verge of losing the most important man in my life, and all because I was foolish in having him believe that he was the only man I’ve physically been with. Now the truth is out and Cairo thinks I’m a liar. Our trust is broken and that’s something that’s harder to repair the longer the lie is kept. Tell Shadow now because I promise you this, all the dark secrets you keep will eventually rise to the surface and when they do, it’s never pretty.” 

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Chapter Seven

Lincoln

The bitch did drug me.

The last thing I remembered was collapsing on the bed and falling asleep. This was after I found all the two-way speaker systems and a set of hidden cameras in the room.

It took me just a little under an hour and despite having to tear apart chunks of the drywall to get to them, it was well worth it when I was finally blessed with sweet silence instead of Calisto’s annoying chatter.

That didn’t last long however. As cruel fate would have it, it was Calisto’s voice that woke me up. She sounded like razorblades scraping against glass.

“Lincoln, it’s been a long time my love.”

I couldn’t see a damned thing. “You blindfolded me?” I asked.

“I have also tied your arms and legs to all four bedposts and stripped you naked. You remember doing that to me during one of our little late-night fuck sessions one cold, winter evening?”

I didn’t answer her.

“You acting shy now? The big, bad, dominating alpha male is finally at a loss for words? Come on Lincoln, don’t be shy. Talk dirty to me.”

“You’re a walking slut factory and I can’t wait to put a bullet through that harpy face of yours. Is that dirty enough for you?”

She giggled.

Suddenly I felt her fingers dance across my body, delicate little flutters that brushed over my shoulders, my stomach, my nipples, and finally at the tip of my cock. What the fuck was she doing?

“Let’s fuck,” she whispered into my ear. I felt her bare breast push against my chest, her hard nipples circling around my flesh.

“You’re a fucking wackado,” I said. “If you think I want to go anywhere near you, you’re out of your mind.”

“I like it when you struggle.”

Her hand found the shaft of my cock and then slowly, she began to pump it with long rhythmic strokes across my full length.

“You can’t fool me, Lincoln,” she continued. “You say all these nasty things about me but your cock betrays you. A man’s dick always tell the truth.”

Fuck.

Here I was, bound and naked by this murderous psychopath, and my dick refused to hang low for her. She literally had me by the balls.

“It’s a technicality,” I said, refusing to give in to the pleasure. I forced myself to remain ambivalent to Calisto’s touch, as amazing as it felt. She always did give a great hand job.

“Give in, Lincoln,” she purred.

Never.

“Let me see that sexy look on your face, the one you have when you’re in a perfect state of bliss.”

No. I refused to.

Suddenly I felt the warmth of her mouth slip over the head of my engorged cock.

Fuck me.

Calisto moaned while her mouth continued to slide up and down my erection, allowing the tip to push against the back of her throat.

I pursed my lips together, refusing to allow any sounds of pleasure to escape from me. I tried to think of something that turned me off, like the time I watched Donald Huff eat a whole pie in under a minute. There was also eggplant. Boy did I loathe the taste of eggplant.

It was no use. As much as I hated Calisto, she definitely knew how to pleasure me. With one hand pushing down the base of my cock, she continued to suck me off while she unleashed desirable moan, pretending like there was a clitoris hidden in the back of her throat.

Don’t cum Lincoln. Don’t you dare fucking cum. If you do, the bitch has won.

I closed my eyes and summoned all the tantric energies inside of me, holding back the continuous waves of pleasure inflicted on my hardness. Calisto’s soft mouth threatened to create a cataclysmic orgasm that could end the world.

Think of eggplant. It’s utterly unsexy.

It took all my discipline not to give in to her, but I somehow I managed. I survived round one of her filthy attempts to get me off.

Round two of my cock endurance came shortly after. I felt Calisto mount me. Her pussy clenched tightly around the head of my cock and then slowly, she descended until I felt her smooth, round ass press up against my inner thighs.

Oh Christ.

“I get to fuck you now, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” she teased.

“I hate you,” I seethed, doing my best to suppress any hints of enjoyment in my voice. “You’re vagina is as pleasant as a sack of gravel.”

I was lying of course.

She ignored my comments and moved up and down my shaft, periodically grinding herself against my pubic bone.

“Come?” she asked, almost in an innocent voice that caught me off guard.

No, Lincoln. Don’t come. This bitch can’t win. She can’t know how much I still enjoyed being ridden by her.

“How about now?” she asked as her fingers tugged on my nipples while she continued to ride me rhythmically.

Don’t show any signs of enjoyment. Leave it only with an erection. An erection in itself means nothing—hell I wake up with an erection every morning. It’s the act of coming that will weaken me before her eyes, and she knows it.

“You’re resisting me,” Calisto said. “Which is fine. I like the struggle. It fucking makes me hot.”

Her pace quickened as she began fucking me with more urgency.

“What will get you off, Lincoln? Tell me.”

“Not you,” I hissed. The sounds of her bare cheeks slapping against my legs sparked that untamable fire inside me. I added, “You cow,” just for good measure.

“Think of Aria then, my brother’s sweet girlfriend. She always had a smoking body and a firm set of tits. And those lips, wouldn’t you just love to have them on your cock? You could come all over her face while she looks up at you with those innocent eyes.”

And that’s when I came, spilling all my lust into the evil bitch.

Once again, I had failed with my self-control. The visualizations Calisto painted of Aria was the finishing touch to this act of sexual torture.

I felt Calisto dismount and then her mouth was all over my cock again, draining the last ounce of my pleasure into the back of her throat. The pleasure soon turned into a sensitive pain that shot through my body, electric pulses that made my body shudder.

I bit my tongue, refusing to give in to her sadistic game by begging her to stop. She continued sucking, periodically stopping to moan “Aria, oh Aria,” feigning her own orgasm.

It took a few moments before my cock softened and Calisto’s jaw tired out.

“Did you enjoy that, Lincoln? Just like old times, wasn’t it? This time, however, you were the one getting dominated.”

“It felt like sandpaper,” I said ambivalently. “Sandpaper dipped in battery acid.”

“So Aria gets you off, doesn’t she?”

“No,” I lied. “I pictured pulling on a piece of fiber wire wrapped around that wretched neck of yours, and that got me off.”

She laughed.

“Liar, liar, cock on fire. If there’s one thing I know about you, you fail when it comes to showing any self-restraint.”

I didn’t say a word.

“I wonder what Shadow will do if he finds out you had a fling with Aria?” Calisto asked.

“Nothing happened between us.”

“Now that’s a lie, and we both know it.”

I froze. Could Calisto possibly know about what happened between Aria and I? No, it was impossible. How could she?

“Come Lincoln, spill the beans. How tight was her pussy? I want to know. I’m not going to lie that I had my own fantasies about her as well.”

“Shut up,” I spat.

“What did she taste like? Most people have a taste when you kiss them. I’ve been told I was a dark chocolate taste. You, my naked friend, have a hint of cinnamon. So tell me, what did Aria taste like?”

Like the sun.

“Oh, silly me, I know exactly what her mouth would taste like. It’d taste like Shadow’s, wouldn’t it?”

She was laughing at her own joke.

“Seriously, Lincoln,” she continued, “I have to wonder, what is it about you that makes you such a failure? Aria’s my brother’s girl—my brother as in your best friend. Don’t you know the meaning of the word loyalty?”

She was right. There was something wrong with me. Why had I allowed myself to get involved with Aria? It was wrong.

Luckily, Aria was the better person and had enough willpower to put whatever was between us to an end. She was stronger than I ever was, possibly one of the reasons why I fell in love with her.

I suddenly felt the rope loosen on my left wrist.

“Time to let you roam free, my little slave,” she whispered in my ear.

It took a minute for me to wrench my hand free, but by that time, Calisto was gone.

With my free hand I removed the cloth bound over my eyes.

Nailed to the wall, in front of the bed, was a poster-sized picture. It was a photo of Aria and I, sitting on the swing at Isadora’s island the night of the wedding massacre.

Our lips were locked together in a farewell kiss, one which stated that we’d never be together, so long as there was Shadow.

Scrawled on the glossy picture, in red marker, were two simple words that ripped through me like a bullet.

Shadow knows. 

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