Page 75 of Scars of the Sun
I got swept up in the airy flurry that was my giant friend—Oh, god, was he my best friend? Besides Río and Sylvie, it was looking like, yes—and let him lead me to the cars. I got my overnight bag out of Orion’s car, returned his keys to him with a grunt of thanks, and let Delaney drive me away from Vera’s.
His little car was probably about two decades old, but it was clean with only a few random things making it slightly messy. A few drawings that looked to be from his students at the school, his hat from the coffee shop, a hot pink keychain.
I directed him to Río’s apartment, and when the sky opened up and dumped buckets on Antler Pointe, I was grateful that he’d offered to drive. Not that I wouldn’t have been fine on my walk, even in the dark, but it was definitely preferable to arriving completely soaked.
“Thanks for convincing me to take the ride,” I unbuckled and gathered my bag in my hands.
Delaney smiled and nodded toward the building, “I’ll watch you go up to make sure you get in there okay.”
I nodded and braced myself for the run to Río’s apartment. From here, the rain made it too difficult to scent whether he was inside or not, but my heart picked up speed in anticipation. My family and friend were… safe, but I was really starting to view anywhere with him as home.
RÍO
I easily lifted the garbage bags from inside and pushed my way out of the back door. While I went to the dumpster, the heavy door cracked against the can of tomatoes that propped it open, but it wasn’t the loud noise that had my hackles raising.
Mierda. I tossed the trash into the dumpster and called out into the night. “What do you want, Mara.”
My sister rounded the darkened corner of the building like she wasn’t just spying on me not a minute before. Her pinstripe vest and pants looked pressed and impeccable, so unlike the rumpled and ripped clothes I wore. Today had been another double shift, and more callouts had caused me to work register and back of house all damn day. These were my last duties, and I just wanted to go home to my princess. Good thing I’d given her a key, cause no telling what bullshit my sister would spit today. Was she finally here to kill me? Or worse—drag me back to our father?
She pouted and did a dramatic turn around, as if there was something to see back here beside the old brick facade of Vinny’s and the dumpster. The very top of the black dragon tattooed on her back was visible and a perfect match for mine.
I wanted to shake the sixteen-year-old me who’d spent that year trying to accept and truly settle into life with my father and sisters. One thing Mara and Cata could never talk shit about was my art, and when we got high one night off our own supply, they’d convinced me to make some sort of design for the three of us to get together.
Drawing my own interpretation of Kukulkan, the Mayan winged serpent deity, had seemed like a cool idea at the time, and my sisters, in the haze of enhanced marijuana, thought the sketches looked ‘badass’. Reading and drawing and drugs had been my escape in those days, when time to climb and explore had been scarce, and I’d been fixated on indigenous mythology from our mother’s homeland at the time.
I still wasn’t sure they knew the significance of the artwork, but it was a nod to our mother that they couldn’t reject. The enchanted ink that outlasted our healing abilities made sure of that.
“I can’t just wanna see you again, Yoyo?”
“No. I’m busy, if you haven’t noticed. And I have nothing to say to you, so if you’re not here to kill me or take me back, I’d appreciate it if these ambushes stopped.”
She cackled into the air, slight frame shaking without any consideration of how much she could fuck up what little life I’d scraped together for myself. “If this is an ambush, maybe you need to be reminded of what it’s like to be hunted.”
“¡Ya párale!All of you tortured me foryears. I got out, and I’mdone, Mara. I thought you understood that.”
Her laughter died as suddenly as it’d come on, and she stared into my eyes with no expression at all. I smelled the coming drops of rain a few minutes before they started hitting the top of my head, dotting my work shirt. Mara’s short, black waves twitched with the warm breeze that cycled around us, and my muscles reacted automatically to this side of her. How she’d looked before she became what truly haunted my nightmares. As a boy, I used to think of this version of her as Xiomara. My father’s most valuable and secret weapon.
Mara, who I’d once happily had in my blunt rotation, would disappear whenever the change took over. Hell, I didn’t even know if she truly realized how terrifying it was. Even though she’d eventually become Mara again and take care of me after fucking me up, she was neversafe.
“Sim. Você fugiu.” She spun on her spiky heel and stalked into the night, back toward the main road as a distant roll of thunder sounded across the sky.
I wanted to hit something, maybe punch a hole in the dumpster, but I just pivoted in the other direction, back into Vinny’s to lock up and get the fuck home to the only one that truly mattered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
RAMONA
The rain was relentless, and as quickly as I ambled from the parking lot between Río’s place, I was more than a little damp. Once I was in the semi-safety of the alley behind his building, I waved to Delaney who watched me run up the steps on the way to Río’s door.
Again, I didn’t have to knock, because he opened up as soon as I approached the apartment. Clad in a black cropped t-shirt and gray sweatpants of all things, Río looked a cozy dream with his hair falling in messy waves. His facial piercings glinted in the hall security lights, and I let him pull me by the waist into his home. My scent was becoming a central component of the space, and I wanted to crow in happiness that, once again, the only other scent was the fading trace of his sister.
“You already eat?” he asked after a greeting kiss to the forehead. “I brought some wings and fries from work and can warm ‘em up if you’re still hungry.” I rolled my eyes at that because I could tell from here that the oven was already on and that he was warming the food anyway.
“Sure. But lemme change out of this.” I stepped back and gestured to my damp clothing.
When I reached a hand for my bag that Río had taken and slung on his shoulder as soon as I’d crossed the threshold, he grinned lasciviously and wiggled his brows. “Need me to help you?”
I was already unbuttoning my shorts, not bothering to go to the bathroom or up by the loft. “You do that plenty.”