"We're leaving," Ash growled. His eyes glowed and even Ember took a step back.
"Give me back my note," Lola demanded, standing her ground. From where they were standing nobody could hear them and they could hear nothing that happened in the school.
"We're leaving." He said again and took a step toward her. Lola took the opportunity to reach out for his hand but he grabbed her wrist and held her still. "You either come willingly or I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you out through school- ass first." He threatened.
His anger only seemed to grow.
"Let's go." He pulled Lola behind him as she kicked and screamed. For each refusal to obey, one more string was snapped in his consciousness until all that was left was uncontrolled, primal rage.
He dragged her around him and slammed her back against the wall.
Lola gasped and stared in shock. Ash was heaving, he fought to gain control of the anger that consumed him but all he wanted was to get Lola out of the school no matter the cost.
She fought his gaze, hardening her own, and fixed her sweater that fell down her shoulder.
"You do not get to decide what I do. Not any more than you already have." She seethed. Lola was just as angry as Ash, she just wasn't as strong.
"Except that I do." He said as he stepped closer, pressing her further back and brushing against her chest with his own. "because you are by a legally binding contract, property of Jax Blackwood."
"I'm his wife, not his object!" She pushed at his chest but it was like trying to move a stone that had become one with the ground it stood on.
"You are His in every sense of the fucking word and I have been assigned to protect you. I am stuck babysitting you so why don't you stop being so goddamn disobedient and just do as you're told!" His fist slammed into the wall next to her head and Lola turned and closed her eyes as shards broke loose. Lola turned her head back and narrowed her eyes to slits.
"Screw you." She spat and slammed at his chest. Ash grabbed her wrists and pinned them beside her head. He leaned in with a swirling darkness that sent a shiver down her body.
"I would love to, sweetheart," he said lowering his tone to a hushed whisper that still screamed loud in anger. Lola kept snaking around to get free from his hold. Ash leaned back, his voice turned monotone and his eyes were emotionless and dark.
"Unfortunately I'm too busy saving your ass while the guy you did screw couldn't care less."
"That's enough!" Ember growled loud enough that it was impossible for students not to hear her. Lola fell forward a step when Ash dropped the grip of her wrists but his eyes were still pinned down on hers. She fixed her sweater and glared up at him. His words were loud in her mind, reminding her of what she feared- that Jax didn't care.
"Step away from her." Ember seethed and walked up to Ash. She used her elbow to push him aside and grabbed Lola's hand.
"She's leaving with me," Ember stated and walked away with Lola beside her.
Ash panted as he watched the girls walk away. He fixed his shirt and clenched his jaw. His chest rose and fell heavily as he looked around the metal pipes, concrete bars, and laters that were messily thrown around him. His face tensed and he screamed out the anger inside of him as his fist pounded against the wall, this time inching deep into the concrete and leaving a hole the size of his arm.
Ember was driving back to the mansion at high speed and seething in anger. Lola winced and turned her head back and forth as the feelings surrounded her. She could feel Ember's anger and it was thrice as strong as anything Lola had felt before.
She sighed and turned to Ember.
"Can you please try not to be so angry right now?" Ember's head snapped to the side.
"Why?" She asked. "My brother's a dick. You should be a lot angrier." She clapped back.
"Because I can feel it- your anger and it's a lot more than a human usually feels." She said and narrowed her eyes as she turned her head.
"You can feel my anger?" Lola nodded.
"Back in the school, you could feel my fear, that's why you put your hand on mine," Ember said as the pieces fit together.
"I don't know how it's possible but yes, I feel everything," Lola said. Ember's brows were hunched together in question.
"It's because I have your blood in my system. It has to be. Did you sense me at school?" Lola turned in shock.
"You know about my blood?" She asked.
"I do but if anyone else ever says the same thing you have to be a lot better at lying." She said and raised a brow. Lola winced and agreed silently.
"I did sense you at school. You're feelings- it was like they guided me to you." They sat quietly in question. Nobody had heard of a Doe before so they didn't know what the effects of drinking Lola's blood were.
"But how can my blood still be in you? That was over a week ago." Ember shrugged her shoulders in answer to Lola's question.
They arrived at the mansion but before Lola could get out, Ember locked the doors to the car.
"You should now...the letter said that you healed me- it explained what your blood did and now Ash knows." She warned.
Lola stiffened.
"What else was in the note?" She asked. Ember tilted her head and her eyes dragged over the estate.
"I don't want to tell in case I get it wrong but the bottom line is, be careful, be safe- and, Lola, be afraid," Ember warned.
Lola walked straight up to the guest room while Ember waited for her brother by the entrance.
She closed the door and leaned against it.
Melissa.
She took out her phone and sent a text.
-I'm at the mansion, I'll explain when I see you.
She never wanted Melissa to feel left out again so anything that happened now, Melissa would be the first to know about it.
She walked around the room and dragged her hands through her hair. The grey mesh carpet would soon have track marks from her constant pacing.
Lola tried to make sense of everything but it did her little good.
Too many pieces were left unturned to see the whole picture. Not only did her blood heal, but whoever she healed she could feel their emotions and their presence.
The altercation with Ash was very much present in her mind and each time she let herself think about it the anger grew fresh.
"What the hell is happening." She asked the empty room and sighed as she leaned back against the white desk by the wall.
A knock on the door had Lola running across the room, all the while hoping she would see Jax on the other side of the door.
"Mrs. Graves, lunch has been prepared. Unfortunately you'll be dining alone so would like me to bring the food up here or would like to eat at the table?" One of the housekeepers said the second Lola opened the door. Her last nerve was pressed. She didn't ask for much- in fact, Lola had asked for nothing but still, she was forced to stay behind in a town she desperately wanted to leave to protect the people who did want to live here. A girl had died. A girl that Lola had seen almost every day since moving to Wild Cliff.
Mrs. Blackwood had indebted the Cliftons and Melissa's future was at stake because of that. She was forced to marry a man she had only met once or twice.
And now, that same man who she shared a bed with and who declared that he would never let her go because he cared- the man who wanted to deserve her love, couldn't even show up to eat lunch with her. He couldn't come and tell her that lunch was ready. He couldn't answer her texts and instead sent replacements for all of the things that he should've been present for.
The cup ran over and Lola glared at the housekeeper though she was not the one in the wrong.
"Where is he?" Lola seethed.
"Where is who?" the housekeeper asked in a strained smile.
"My husband, where is he?" the housekeeper gulped roughly.
They walked downstairs and the housekeeper stopped before the hall to the study began.
"The key please," Lola demanded. The housekeeper looked down the hall warily and reluctantly handed the spare key to Lola, taking it off the chain. Lola rushed over in rage. The sailor blue walls looked black and the red on the frames around the paintings had never looked so much like blood before. Everything enraged her and she saw beauty in nothing.
Lola unlocked the door and barged into the study.
She stopped in the middle of the room. Ash was leaning back on the armchair with one leg crossed over the other.
Ember stood in the corner with her arms crossed over her chest and Jax leaned over the table as he gathered some papers. His eyes shot up and locked with Lola's and he saw the pain that was about to turn ugly.
"You send the housekeeper? What, Ash wasn't available anymore?!" Lola walked up and slammed her hands down on the desk.
"I never asked to marry you. I never asked to be part of this fucked up family situation you got going and I begged over and over for you to let me go but you refused! Now you hide away in your office without so much as a text and expect me to be an obedient piece of ass that you can fuck whenever you get bored of your life. Well fuck you, Jax." She turned around with one goal in mind; to get the hell out of this house and out of Wild Cliff. Before she reached the door Jax was in front of her. His face didn't change, no expression to show what he felt.
"Everybody out." He ordered without breaking eye contact with Lola.