Page 43 of Vicious Knight

He takes a few steps but stops and turns back to me, his face contorted with the combination of trouble and the moonlight.

“What?” I stare him down but the instant he glances at the closed coffin that contains the picture of his family, I know he’s going to ask me something to do with it.

“Have you banished the memories of your family? Have you moved on?” He searches my face, giving me a frosty stare. “I’m not in your unit yet but I still don’t think we should lie to each other.”

This guy has some balls on him. I’ve had to kill men for less than questioning me. This guy is putting me on the spot and I sense he already knows my answer.

“No. I’ve neither banished the memories of my family, nor have I moved on.”

“Then how must I?” He balls his hand into a tight fist at his side.

“Consider the guidance a favor, Pledge. It’s what you need to hear to be on my unit. If I didn’t want you on my unit, you wouldn’t be here.”

He straightens, his fist loosens, and the tension in his shoulders subsides. He gives me a curt nod and glances at the coffin again. “They were murdered, and I wasn’t there.”

“Neither was I. For mine.”

“Sorry.”

I dip my head and he leaves.

It doesn’t take much for me to think about what happened to my family. Especially when I’m reminded about it. My memories of them are a dark mixture of pain, sadness, and grief. I hardly remember the good things.

The pain from losing them will be forever engraved in my soul.

It’s late when I get back to Erebus.

I walk into my apartment, close the door and leave the past outside, behind me.

The automatic lights snap on and the four Prussian blue walls of my living room greet me, along with the silent glare of the flatscreen TV taking up most of the wall to my left.

I left the TV on earlier by accident and I see that the computer is on, too, unlocked. Anyone could have broken in and had a field day with my secrets and the ones I keep of others. I have enough shit on there that could put me and said others away in a federal prison for life.

My fucking brain has become scanty since a certain virgin stepped into my sphere of existence.

And now that I’m alone with my thoughts and my rock-hard dick, Ivy Yegorov is dancing around in my head again.

She didn’t really leave. She and her music, her glossy pink lips, smooth skin, and that silver-blonde hair.

It’s getting worse. This obsession of mine.

The unsatisfied part of me that didn’t get what I wanted from her last night is pushing me to the edge.

I know I’m supposed to control myself, but I only do that when I want to. Not because I must.

That’s why I purposely walked by Ivy’s dorm on the way here. The lights were out in her room so I assumed she’d gone out.

My little deer is not asleep. It’s eleven, so it’s late enough to assume she could be. But I know she’s not. Especially not after last night.

Ivy is a night owl anyway and there’s something about the darkness that soothes her when she's troubled. At the same time, she fails to factor in that monsters like me love the darkness, too. It’s where we can be who we are without restraint.

Where did she go tonight?

The library? The coffeehouse? The auditorium? They’re all still open.

Or maybe she’s with someone.

A guy?