18

18

STACEY

Music is playing downstairs as more and more people flood the manor.

Before Barry left, he made sure his and Aria’s guards knew to check every invite and to search for weapons. I know I should be nervous, but I think the shots Ty made me take have softened my anxiety a bit.

I tried to call Nora earlier, but she declined it then turned her phone off.

Kyle told me to stop. She’s on her son’s side, no matter what. I don’t want any sort of relationship with her, but I don’t want Chris to have her blessing either.

Still nothing from Kade. He’s back in Scotland, and if Bernadette does what the doctor says and gives him a rest, he might reach out.

Base and Dez are downstairs decorating as per Luciella and Tylar’s demands, both dressed as superheroes. Since Base is huge in both muscle and height, he’s wearing the Batman costume, and Dez, slimmer and shorter, is Robin.

All three of us are still in the huge main bathroom, sitting on the stone bench in the middle of the room while we do our hair in the floor-to-ceiling mirror that spans the full wall.

We all have high ponytails on either side of our heads, backcombed and sprayed with glitter, and fake blood splattered over our skin. We wear short tutus and tight corsets, our Pleaser boots from dancing and socks that go over our knees. Luciella is in all white, so the fake blood stands out more – especially in her blonde hair – while Tylar loves being colourful, so she’s wearing pink.

I’m wearing all black, and my tutu is so short, I have to wear tight girl boxers to hide my ass. My corset nearly pushes my breasts to my chin.

We fit our Purge masks into place, the purple neon crosses at the eyes and mouth illuminating when we turn off the lights to check the glow-in-the-dark feature works.

Luciella uses a tube of fake blood to splatter her toy rifle, my bat and Tylar’s plastic machete, and then she writes on my chest Touch here.

I scoff. “Really?”

“It looks good,” she replies, laughing, then writes Hands here on her chest too.

We take a photo with our fake weapons, and after over fifty, Tylar tells Luciella she’s going overboard. We make our way downstairs to the main room, where a DJ booth has been set up in the corner, lasers and strobes lighting up the place, and the hoops sit in the middle of the dance floor, some of our older students playing around on them.

“You did good,” I say to Tylar.

“I’m a woman of many talents. Now – let’s drink!”

We walk into the crowd, and Base beelines straight for Luciella, but his eyes drop to the writing on her chest, and his jaw ticks. Taking a gulp of his vodka, he looks at Tylar. “Dez is like an impatient puppy waiting on you.”

She sighs and heads over to him.

Base glances at Luciella again. “Am I still getting the silent treatment, or are you going to talk to me, princess?”

She sucks on her teeth, narrowing her eyes. “Nope,” she replies and spins around, walking away from him.

His nostrils flare as he keeps his gaze on her, watching as she vanishes into the dancing crowd.

“She is a nightmare,” he says, shaking his head.

“You kind of are too,” I reply. “Points for consistency though.”

He huffs and finishes his drink, crushing the plastic cup. “Yeah.”

“Have you heard from Kade?”

He frowns. “No, why? He’s still working on that uni project overseas.”

“Oh.”

“Does Rhodes have a little crush on my guy?” he teases, and I shove his arm. “You have as much chance as I do with Ella. They’re the most stubborn pair. Emotionless assholes.”

I laugh. “They’re not.”

“If you say so,” he mutters, his eyes finding Luciella again. She’s asking someone to stop swinging on the hoop, and a guy says something to her – I think he’s telling her to chill out. Base rolls his shoulders and goes towards them.

I grab a drink and stand aside, watching everyone dancing around. The music is blaring, and my face is starting to sweat under the mask already.

Three hours later, the place is packed with swaying, sweating bodies, dancing to the heavy beat that’s making the whole manor vibrate. Dez and Tylar are tangled together and sucking each other’s faces off. Lu is ignoring Base while he tries to talk to her, and I’m attempting to not check my phone for the millionth time.

Eventually, my friends and I, and Dez and Base, are jumping among the crowd.

The strobe lights flash faster, and I nearly stop dancing as someone appears at the very back, away from the moving crowd. Someone tall, who wasn’t there before, leaning against the wall, watching me intently.

Too tall to be Chris.

Wearing black combat pants, boots and a black hoodie with the hood up, a man with a metallic silver skull mask – tipped up slightly to free his mouth – smokes a joint and watches only me as I move around the dance floor, Tylar twirling me around.

We go for shots, and my chest heaves as I wait for Base to pour each test tube.

I take the shot, and my eyes trace the room to find the person, but he’s gone.

When I slip out of the party and freshen up in the bathroom, I check my phone. If that was Kade, he would’ve texted me, or at least called to say he was okay, right?

I have a message from Barry, informing me that he’s boarding the jet now. Kyle wishes me a happy birthday and tells me to enjoy the party, apologising for not being able to make it. Technically, my birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but no one wants to throw a party on a Sunday.

When I go back to the main room, Tylar is standing by the DJ booth, the music lowering and everyone turning to face her. She takes the microphone and announces that it’s the games hour. She pulls flashcards from behind the booth and reads off them.

“Okay. First one. Down your drink!”

“Boring!” Base boos. “Something spicier, Spence!”

She looks over at Lu; Base is standing beside her with another tumbler of what I know will be straight vodka. “Kiss someone wearing a mask! Anyone who doesn’t is eliminated from the game!”

Oh God.I don’t want to kiss anyone.

Dez lifts Tylar with one hand gripping the back of her thigh, pushing up both their masks so they can devour each other like they’re starved animals. People around me do the same.

Lu’s mask is pushed up and she’s running away from Base, but she’s laughing. He catches her from behind, and I can almost hear her squeal as he lifts her and drags her into a corner. Then the crowd morphs, and I lose sight of them.

Everyone’s kissing, and I try to dodge their tangled bodies as I push through the dance floor, aiming for the kitchen to pour another drink.

A shadow appears in front of me, stopping me from going forward, and I look up to see the silver skull mask, but the mesh over the holes stops me from seeing the wearer’s eyes.

Although my insides scream at me to pull the mask up and see who it is, I pat his chest and try to walk to the side of him. “No thanks.”

He takes my waist and drags me to him, and I arch my back. “Um. No, sorry.” When I push against his chest, he doesn’t budge. “I’m not playing.”

It’s dark in here, but I do notice his gloved hand rising between us, his fingers tracing the writing on my chest. He smears the words with his palm, sliding the fake blood up my throat, blinding me temporarily as he forces my mask to lift then he stops at my cheek. At this point, I’m frozen, even as he smears the fake blood across my lips, dragging my lipstick with it.

“Are you real?”

My heart accelerates at hearing the voice I’m so familiar with, and I try not to smile. “I am.”

He pushes my mask all the way up so I can see again. “You’re real.” His voice is muffled from his own mask, but I would recognise it anywhere.

I nod while he traces my lips with his middle finger, his thumb pressing down on my bottom lip.

He pushes his mask up enough to reveal his mouth. I watch him with wide eyes as he keeps going, the mask disappearing inside his hoodie, hiding his unruly black hair.

His lips part as he stares at me, searching my face, dilated pupils taking me in like he’s never seen me before – like he’s looking at a fascinating piece of art. I’m speechless. Between his expression of awe, and the bruising all over his chiselled face, I can’t speak – all I can do is look at him the way he’s looking at me.

He curls his gloved fingers at my nape; my blood turns to ice from the touch, and I’m breathless from the electric current shooting through us. It’s a rush of butterflies I’ve not felt in a while that startles me as he eliminates the distance between our bodies.

“You’re going to play this game with me,” he whispers against my lips. He tastes like smoke and mint and everything I’ve missed. “The only person stopping me from pulling my gun out and blowing someone’s brain out is you – I need you. I can hear them. Taunting and laughing at me. I can fucking feel them everywhere, but I only want to feel you.”

A soft moan slips free as he captures my bottom lip between his teeth.

“Make them go away, Freckles.”

“Make what go away?” I manage to ask.

“The voices.”

I try to speak, to say who knows what, but he silences me with a brutal kiss just as “Crawling” by Linkin Park starts blasting throughout the room – along with some cheering and whooping. I’m already too caught up in the feeling of him all over me to focus on anything else.

Kade keeps his lips on mine as he backs me against the wall, sinking his tongue into my mouth with desperation as he lifts me into his arms and presses me against it. Two solid walls keep me in place as my hands grip at his shoulders and I wrap my legs around him.

I should stop this, stop him from caressing my bare thighs and pushing his palms up to my ass, but I can’t. I need him just as much as he needs me – my mind has been going haywire for months, and I want to keep kissing him. And since everyone’s too busy devouring each other, basically in the same position as us, I’m not shy about rolling my hips against him.

I feel his teeth, and I melt into the kiss, pressing my lips back to his and wrapping my fingers into the material of his hoodie. He’s breathing heavily, gripping my thighs and ignoring his mask slipping off and falling to the ground.

He’s hard, and for the first time in so long, I feel like I can let go – all the worries, the stress, the anxiety gone.

“I need you,” he whispers against my throat as he nips at the skin there. “I need to know you’re real. I need to know you’re alive.”

“I am,” I cry, tilting my head to the side as he leaves a wet trail to my pulse.

I shake through my whimper as he marks my throat, his hands all over my body, not caring that we’re in front of hundreds of people.

I halt his hands as he tries to pull down my underwear. “No. We’re surrounded by people, Kade.”

He lifts his head, confused for a second as he stares at me, and then he’s kissing me again, bringing his hands to my waist instead.

Slipping my hand under his hoodie to grip his hair, my gaze clashes with Luciella’s, and I freeze in his hold.

She won’t know it’s Kade groping me and making me soaked between my legs. It’s too dark, and he has his hood up and his back to her. Unless they have some sort of psychic twin thing going on like in movies.

We should stop – everyone else is going back to dancing, and some people are looking at us.

Before I can tell him to, he snatches himself away, grabs his mask from the floor and pulls it back on. He backs away as I try to gather myself, my chest rising and falling. I frown in confusion as he keeps putting more distance between us, and then he turns and pushes through the dance floor.

I’m frozen, my heart hammering in my chest, pressing my fingers to my tingling lips. I take a step in his direction. Where are you going? Come back. But Lu is in front of me before I can chase him through the crowd.

I’m still touching my lips as Lu asks, “Who was that?”

I pull my mask back into place and walk past her, needing to follow him. She shouts something, but I’m aiming for the door he just slipped through.

My nerve endings are on fire, and my heart is beating so hard, I’m shocked it’s not visible through my blood-smeared chest.

As I push through the crowd, I pull my phone from the side of my corset.

Me:Where are you?

The pulse in my neck spikes, my heart hammering in my ears as it shows he’s read it, but he doesn’t type back.

I chew my lip, my feet already carrying me away from the party and into the main entrance, where the grand stairway sits. If I go left, I can go to his wing and look for him, or I can take the grand staircase and check the second and third floor.

My phone dings in my hand.

Kade: You looking for me, Freckles?

Me: You can see me?

There’s no one around.

Kade: From every wonderful angle.

I glance up at the security camera, the little red light blinking. There are another three surrounding me at each corner. Kade’s watching me through them.

Me: Where are you? I want to see you.

Kade: And I want to see you run.

Clenching my thighs, I look up at the cameras again, my eyes flickering between them all, before my phone vibrates again.

Kade: Run and hide. Unless you want everyone to witness me fucking you? Having an audience won’t stop me – I’ll take you in front of the entire party.

My lips part as I reread the message multiple times, and I must be insane, because warmth gathers at my core at the thought of Kade chasing me, catching me and then fucking me. I’m even considering not running, just standing here until he comes for me.

But then where’s the fun in that?