—12—

I was brought to Lucero's room, never did I notice this before but it smells so much like him.

He places me on his bed and sits down beside me. "How was your day?"

I feel a poke on the side of my tummy making me giggle from the feeling. "What?"

"How was your day?" He says again and pokes me for the second time.

"It was ok, I hung out with Jenna. She's a nice person." I continued, "What happened to Ángel?" I sit closer to him without realizing and look at his now bored eyes.

"He's dead." He answers calmly and could hear him whispers very lowly under his breath. "should've killed him with my power and make him fucking suffer."

"What was that?" I pretend to not hear him.

"Nothing." He brushes off and pulls me onto his lap.

I look at him in surprise but his face is not giving anything of what he's feeling at this moment.

"You must tell me if the cloak guy, no, I mean Steven finds you again. He can manipulate people, that's his power. That's all I want to tell you."

"His name is Steven?" He nods. Wait. How did he know? "I never told you about Steven, how-?"

"I always know." He pats my back twice and tells me to get off.

So what even was the point of me getting on his lap?

"Oh, ok." I decided to let it go. Inhaling sharply and standing up. "About that study-".

"Don't worry, it was all an act, you're not going back to school where I know you suffer more than when you're with me." He shrugs.

I see.

I nod and decide that school is important but my safety and safe space is more important.

"Sir, Mr. Rhys brought a guest." A man says from outside of the room and leaves.

"Do they usually report back whatever goes on in this house?" I get up from the bed ready to leave the room and see who this guest is.

"Not all. Only a few." I hear his footsteps behind me and know he's following right behind.

Soon we reach the 1st floor and from the stairs we can hear chattering and squealing from the other room.

I look at Lucero for permission and he nods.

We enter the room together, I have the biggest smile on my face because Rhys told me before that he will bring his girlfriend soon, the date was a huge success.

He keeps telling me how good of a girlfriend she is and she cares a lot about him. So, being excited is an understatement.

I practically run to the room and am ready to tackle whoever the lucky girl is to the ground.

But I stop myself before I can reach her within an arm length and my smile and happiness level all drops down to zero.

She is his girlfriend?

Her? Why? I thought his girlfriend was funny and kind. She's not even close to being kind. She's a bully!

"Cara! I want to introduce you to my girlfriend.." Rhys inches closer to Zara and pulls her into his arm. "This is Zara. Zara this is Cara, my best friend I told you about!"

Zara has the sourest face on and her glare intensifies when Rhys says the word 'best friend' as if it's the most poisonous word she ever heard.

"How come?" Zara asks, her hands fold and push in front of her chest.

Rhys confusingly asks "What?"

"How come you're friends with a nobody like her and why is she your best friend?" She spits out harshly.

"Watch your tongue." The man behind me stands tall and shields my body from Zara.

"I didn't know you two knew each other." Rhys says and tries to stop the tension between all of us.

Lucero stares at Zara and then back at Rhys. "Didn't know you have a taste for this kind of thing." He says, eyes looking Zara up and down judgingly.

"I-"

Before Rhys gets to say anything Zara stands up for herself. "Didn't know you have this taste." She points her claw at me and takes one step closer.

I take a step back and don't know what happened but after Zara tries to get closer to me and looks into Lucero's eyes, she just stops completely.

"Don't you dare." Lucero says in the deepest voice, he sounds possessed.

Rhys panics and stands in front of a shaking Zara. "Luc, stop! Please!"

I can't move, it's like there's a barrier between me and whatever's in front of me. Like I'm in a cage.

Putting my arm in front of me trying to reach Lucero is hard enough, how am I gonna stop whatever's going on?

"I gotta go." Zara mutters like she's in a trance and walks out the door in a flash.

"No!" Rhys runs after her.

I see Lucero's reflection in one of the mirrors in the corner and caught a glance of his eyes. It's red.

I gasp and stumble back. He turns around and steps out of the room ignoring me.

His eyes are venomous. He is definitely possessed.