Hallows: Duets

Wild Card

Sleep Token- Granite

Dante

I have no idea how I got dragged into a f*****g breaking and-entering double date with Ashley, Anthony, and Lily, but here I am. Standing outside of Ash's parents' house while she breaks in to leave some money in their safe. I f*****g love this girl and things are not looking great for me, right now. Her soul is fighting mine inside of me and I can't control it.

This is nothing like David's. His soul was easy to take control of. He gave in to me without fear or hatred. We had known each other for so long. I had tasted bits of him for years before we made an official connection. By then, I knew all of him. Ash is a wild card. She's awakening things inside of me that had been dormant for a long time.

Her playful demeanor inside of me slips by all the time. Like now, I know we're not supposed to be breaking into this house but my body is alive with excitement. Even a twinge of sadness. The ache isn't very big but I feel it under everything else. It's like she has all these layers of emotions and the top ones are the strongest. Her happiness and it's followed by guilt, and then concern. But under that, there's fear and anger. They're just as strong as my own. Earlier, when she hit Madison with the tray and punched Halestorm in the stomach, we both enjoyed that together. I played it over and over again during class.

The heat she's gifted me is blazing hot inside and I can't get enough. It all flares extra bright when we touch and I want to be touching her all the time. I am obsessed.

"You got a real bad fever with this one," Anthony whispers next to me as Ashley shuts the front door and locks it.

"Yeah," I nod as she runs into my arms.

She looks up at me with tears in her eyes. I can smell it in the air around her and I have to resist the urge to lick them right off her face. My jaw locks as my mouth fills with saliva. I guide her back to the car. It takes her a moment to gather herself and her emotions start to shift. The anger flares brightly along with the excitement.

"His name is Gerardo Ruiz. This is the address," she passes her phone up to Anthony. "He's killed four of Clara's girls already. The girls told Beli that other men always show up before the girl is escorted into the basement. Some of the girls have been down there already. The place belongs to Stephano Rey. They say they usually have a good time but this new guy, Gerardo. He gets carried away. I'll get him to let me in so he can call his buddies,"

"Wait," I lean forward to look at Anthony. "Have you and my girlfriend been sneaking off on little missions like this for Kelly?"

"We're not sneaking off. It's my job. It's his job to protect me," Ash pulls me back.

"And Kelly is aware of this?" I ask.

"Yeah," they both answer.

"How many times have you f*****g done this?"

"Six," they both answer at the same time.

"Why am I just hearing about this right now?"

"You're a front runner," Tony shakes his head. "This is grunt work,"

"Grunt work?" I laugh. "You motherfuckers have my f*****g human doing grunt work with you?"

"I am having a great time," Lily laughs. Anthony takes his eyes off the road very briefly to smile at her.

"You handed her over to Kels to train. What did you think she was going to teach her? Run numbers? She's only got the eighth-highest score in math," he points at her. "And that's because we're on her ass about it,"

"Hey, I'm trying my best. f**k off," she defends herself. "Dante," the tone she uses to say my name this time is not my favorite. "What's the problem? This is what I've been doing from the start. Now you have a problem with it?"

"Yeah, I do have a problem with it now," I sit back.

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

"Aww, this got gay fast," Lily turns away from us in the passenger seat.

"Anthony has my back. I have his. Other times Teegan and Beli come with us. That's happened twice. Tonight it was just us two and I invited Lily and then you. I thought you could use a night out. You've literally been inside the house the whole time we've been back and then the dorm. It's why you're getting obsessive. You need to get that stuff inside of you pumping. See where it takes you. I know it's definitely changing the way I play,"

"Yeah, man. Get out of your shell. Kill a motherfucker killing hookers. They're people too," Lily agrees. "Wait, that's what we're doing, right?"

"Yes," Anthony nods.

I look at Ashley knowing exactly what she's doing with the two of them. A part of me knows that's a horrible idea but then again she has told me repeatedly that she wishes Tony would find someone so he's not always watching how happy Kelly is with Carter.

Okay, I hear it now. What the hell is she doing to me?

"Yeah, okay," I agree.

"Yes," Anthony and Lily cheer from the front of the car.

"This is coming from you," I accuse her. She looks up at me confused.

"What is?"

"Ash, are you possessive and worried about me all the time?"

"This is a weird conversation," Lily laughs. "Right? Or am I just high as f**k?"

"You're high as f**k," I say.

"That might bite us in the ass later," Tony shakes his head. "They never forget,"

"You guys are weird," Lily shakes her head. "Let's play some Paramore. Wait, do you guys like Fleetwood Mac? I've got some on my iPod. Rhiannon is my favorite. If I ever have a daughter, that's what I'm going to name her,"

"Oh, my god. You are high as s**t," Ash laughs.

"What if you have a boy?" Tony asks.

"There is only one name worthy of my son. Lucien," she giggles. "Rhiannon is negotiable but Lucien isn't. What about you guys?"

"Uh," Ashley hums. Lily and Anthony burst into laughter.

"Your faces," she chokes out.

"I will f*****g kick your dog if you do that again," Ashley growls at her.

"Oh, no. Don't kick the dark lord. He's a baby," she stops laughing.

"The dark lord," Tony repeats and shakes his head.

"Lily, I didn't even ask if you wanted to come with me," Ash says and she removes her jacket.

"What the f**k?" I look down at her. She's wearing a f*****g dress. A black strapless dress clings to her body like a second skin. Her full breasts look amazing in this.

"Do I look amazing or what?" she muses. "Kelly gave me this when I told her you were coming,"

"Why is my heart beating the way it is?" I try to breathe in properly and I can't seem to make my lungs expand. A loud ringing in my completely distracts me. "Wha-what is happening to me?"

"Oh, sweetie. Are you having a panic attack?" Lily asks. "Here use my inhaler,"

"Your what?" the ringing in my ears slowly begins to fade. She holds up her hand. "That's a pipe,"

"What did I say?" she grins wickedly.

"Inhaler," the three of us answer.

"You're f*****g with him," Ash bursts into laughter and puts her arm through the little space between the seat belt and the passenger seat to hug her. "That worked. Good job, Lily,"

Lily looks back at Ashley. Her smile completely fades away and she turns back around.

"You okay?" Tony asks her.

"Yeah," she nods. She's pale and I feel my heart race again. Her essence is kicking my ass right now.

"You never answered my question," Ash changes the mood. "Do you want to come with me to distract the guy? You're always dressed amazeballs,"

Lily opens her mouth to speak and inhales through her mouth but she's just absolutely stuck.

"Is this about what we talked about yesterday?" Ash asks her. Lily kind of nods. "Carter told me to tell you to keep these in your room." she reaches into her coat and takes the weapons he confiscated this morning out to give back to her. There is no f*****g way Carter gave those to her. Did she seriously steal those from him? He's going to kill her when he finds out. "We can just go in there and shoot everyone on sight. Clara knows who all of those guys are,"

"What about your plan?"

"We don't have to have a plan tonight. It's just more fun when we do. We get to dress up and stuff. The first time we did this, Tony dressed up in a Spiderman costume. I have pictures. You can share them with your group,"

"Is she for real?" Lily looks over at us. "Like this is who she is?"

"Yeah," Anthony nods. She inhales sharply and shakes her head.

"I'm not crazy am I?"

"You definitely are but just not about this," I shrug.

"Well," she takes her weapons back. "What happens when she's mad?"

"People die," Anthony laughs.

"Huh," she nods. "Where did she come from?"

"That house we broke into," he grins.

"That was a house? Oh, my god. Kelly was serious? You were raised in the Southside? How did you end up at the Academy?"

"I got a scholarship," Ash shrugs.

"Okay, you punk rock motherfuckers sacrificed something to the dark lord for this, didn't you?" she laughs. "People like her don't exist. I need to shake this off. I want to meet the girl from the statistics Sloane was talking about. Can you give me that?"

"f**k, yes. Look at this. Kelly gave me this. She is the coolest boss I've ever had. A little bit of a control freak but that's what makes her special,"

"Oh, my bats. It's a matte black desert eagle," she whispers and takes it from her. "I think this is custom. I've got to ask her where she gets her s**t done. I paid this f*****g dumb nutsack in Oregon to do my twins black last year and I threw them out because it literally looks like he spray painted them with a can. Carson was pissed when I blew up his house. He should consider himself lucky I waited until his family left for school and work. I wasn't that mad,"

"You are all over the place. This entire ride has been a rollercoaster," Ash smiles at her. "I like you. I can't wait to hear you play. I can't wait for us to make our first masterpiece together. Please, come do these guys with me,"

"Okay," Lily nods. "Mostly because no one has ever asked me as nicely as you did just now,"

She unbuckles her seat belt and the two of them climb out of the car. I climb through the center console and take Lily's seat. Ashley rings the doorbell and waits for someone to answer the door. When a man opens the door she lifts her leg, I'm just now noticing she's wearing black pumps. She kicks the guy in the chest sending him staggering back into the house. She holds the door open for Lily who storms inside and immediately starts firing.

"Oh, my bats. Carter is going to lose that bet," Tony laughs. "I have the worst boner right now,"

"Has Ash been like this, this whole time?" I ask him because while I know she's riding her new friend high, Ash isn't this nuts.

"It bugged her at first, but yeah. I mean this is what she's been doing for years. She didn't kill them before, but once Kels gives the order, she doesn't stop. You seriously never bothered to ask Kels what she had Ash doing?"

"I just figured Kels wanted a friend. One that didn't have a d**k," I shrug.

"Oh, she did. I won a bet on it. Two Mil," he looks up at me with a smile.

"What was the bet?"

"That she was going to f**k her,"

"When did you make this bet?" I laugh.

"Ashley's first day of school. When she turned around and brushed up against you and she shut you down. I said, damn. She has to be gay and then she said. Bet I can f**k her and I said. Nah and she said two million and I said. Yeah, okay. Then we shook on it,"

Why am I as surprised to hear that as I am right now?

"Does Ashley know that?"

"Nope. You are the third person to know that. You found the love of your life because Kelly and I are f*****g terrible friends. I think I found mine in kindergarten and Ash just brought her back to me. I used to break into her house and leave sunflowers on her bed after her mom died. Carter and I got her back when she got kidnapped," he swallows hard. "I'm kind of mad at myself that I let myself get caught between Kels and Carter,"

"I don't think it matters, Tony. I think s**t happens a certain way cause that's the way it's supposed to happen. What if we had protected Lily the way we did David? She wouldn't be the Lily she is now. Dwelling on the what-ifs is a disrespect to all the s**t we've survived. Accepting it hurts the way it's supposed to. We couldn't do what we do now if it didn't,"

"When is the last time we talked, man?" he sighs heavily.

"The night you helped me bury the old man's body,"

"That was twelve years ago," he huffs. "Did you see her face?"

"Who's?"

"Lily's. I don't think anyone has ever been nice to her. Except for maybe Carter. That's f****d up. Carter is an absolute piece of s**t,"

"She was f*****g pale," I nod. "If we do end up telling her. That girl is going to live and die for you, man. She's into all that Goth s**t,"

"Ash loves you that much too. You know that? She's always worried about you and David. Even before Summer started. You should take him up on his offer. That s**t had to hurt him when you told him you weren't ready to share her, yet,"

"I didn't say that. I said I wasn't ready to feed. As in adding another soul to theirs,"

"Maybe but if I felt bad. I can't even imagine how he felt. He and Teegan didn't drive here together. Teegs had been here all day with Mrs. Dubois,"

"They're f*****g?"

"They've been f*****g two years, dude," he laughs. "You're so dense sometimes. Mrs. D wanted to stop after she had a pregnancy scare, but he decided to say goodbye, I guess,"

"What the f**k is taking them so long?" I ask. Just as I'm about to open the door, the two of them walk out of the house. They climb into the back seat quietly and give us both a smile.

"Well?" Anthony asks.

"We missed two. They weren't there but Gerado was," she reaches over and hands him a piece of paper and a disposable camera.

"Dammit," he sighs. "We're going to have to look for them. Call Kels. See what she wants us to do now,"

"Okay," Ash takes her phone out and chirps Kelly.

"You okay?" Kelly immediately answers. "You never call me when you're out,"

"We missed two," Ash informs her.

"Oh, s**t. I forgot. Is it Juan something and Alberto?"

"Yeah,"

"They're dead. Carter caught one trying to f**k with Lil Scrappy. The other one was keeping watch. It was a fun Friday night. Sorry, I forgot to update the information. That's on me. Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're good,"

"Body count?"

"Five, three," Lily answers.

"Five, three," Ash tells her.

"Nice. All right. Sending in the clean-up crew. Get home. It's hella late," she cuts off the connection.

"Damn," Ash sits back. "It could have been even. Lily got a little excited,"

"It's the blood. It's just so shiny,"

Anthony and I look at one another. He smiles and starts the truck.

"Tostilocos?" he suggests.

"Yes, please," Ash jumps up. "Dante, you have to try them. We're going to get a bunch of snacks and we're going to make you try them all,"

"This is going to be hilarious," Anthony laughs.

"Lily, do you- Lily? Oh, s**t. She passed out," we all look back at her to see her head hanging forward. Ash puts her hand to her neck. "I think she's just sleeping. Her breathing is normal. Lily?"

"Mmm," Lily mumbles something under her breath.

"Aww, she has the sleepies," Anthony coos. "Fix her head. I used to get the sleepies when we first started doing this," he tells Ashley. "Adrenaline would rush through me and then boom. Nap time. She should wake up by the time we get to the dorms with snacks,"

I am not cut out to be human. Ashley's emotions have taken me on a f*****g spin. This is why I never leave the house. I hate interacting with people. Next time, I'm making up an excuse and just hanging out in my suite or in my room. I need to get a grip on her essence or I am going to lose my s**t. I have a whole lot more respect for this girl. Her life seems to be running at full speed and she handles it beautifully.