Chapter nine

Holding in a scream Nicole looked up to see a tall dark figured in the shadows. Ava on the other hand was already screaming her lungs out until the perpetrator stepped out of the shadows with a wide grin on his face. Looking up Nicole knew she would recognize him if she had seen him somewhere, heck anyone would recognize a face like that even if they had seen the person in passing.

The man in front of her had curly brown, black hair that cascaded down his forehead a little. His brows bushy with no facial hair but a very well-defined jaw line. His eyes were what caught Nicole's attention the most, silver gray eyes, he's definitely a stunner. Taking this stranger in one last time Nicole winced slightly when she heard Ava's loud shriek coming from behind her.

"Lyron you piece of shit, what is wrong with you?"

Lyron as in Ava's little hook up buddy and ex-boyfriend?

Mocking her back Lyron held up his arms, scrunched his face and made his voice sound like a females' voice.

"Lyron OMG what are you doing, can't you see that I'm still taking a dump out in the wilderness where any predator can hunt and catch me."

He saw that! Nicole knew she was already sober but hearing Lyron say that out loud made her sober up even more. He saw her squatting in the middle of nowhere and taking a piss, a piss with no protection covering or hiding her vagina. Oh, my word. With any luck she hoped he had been too busy looking at Avas' one than hers. It's not like he hasn't seen hers before and besides, who knows how long he has been standing there in the shadows spying on them.

"Shut up dick face."

Nicole was surprised, this was the first time she had heard Ava cuss. It did not sit well with her the way it sounded, it almost felt unnatural. If only Tammy was here, she would have agreed with her.

"Relax sweetheart, its nothing I haven't seen before. Besides it's not like my brothers were looking at yours."

Brothers? Remembering that they had crashed into something when they tumbled backwards, Nicole spun around only to realize that were three more bodies behind them. looking up Nicole was met with a set of grey silver eyes, just the same as Lyron's'. This one though looked to be slightly older than him but a little scary. His eyes held a sense of danger, coldness and emptiness all in one. He had the eyes of an emotionless man but seemed to try and hide that as much as possible.

"Hi, my name is Lucien and no I wasn't looking at... your female parts. I didn't even realize you were there."

Nicole believed him when he said he wasn't a peeping tom like his brother Lyron but had a feeling that he was lying about not knowing that they were there.

Turning to his left she noticed a man who was the polar opposite of Lyron and Lucien.

He had dirty blonde hair with two-line cuts on the side of his head. His eyes a dark brown almost black like color with a tattoo of some type of symbol under his eye on his left cheek. Nicole could make out some type of tattoo picking out from under his black t-shirt but couldn't quite see what it was.

"Evening ladies, name is Riccardo, and I definitely wasn't looking. My fiancé would have my head if I did."

"Fiancé? Aren't you too young to be engaged?"

Giving Ava a lop-sided grin he tucked his hands into his jean pockets and responded.

"Too young, wow, more like it was about time."

Confused by that statement Nicole turned to the last person. Looking at them from their feet up, her lungs stopped operating for a milli second and her heart skipped her few beats as she made eye contact with grey eyes. Grey eyes that were so bright they almost looked like stars. This man was a creature out of this world, a creature Nicole had only read about in novels. His brothers were gorgeous, but this man was out of this world.

His short black hair stood out in spikes as one side of his hair was shaved. His dark bushy brows stood out while one had a scar in it almost reaching his eye. His jaw looked so sharp it could probably slice one's finger when touching it. One ear was covered in black piercings while his nose had a black nose ring on it.

His white t-shirt made his one arm covered in tattoos stand out. Nicole couldn't quite make out what it was, but it had caught her attention. Just like Riccardo he had tattoos picking out on the side of his neck, but she couldn't quite make them out.

Time seemed to stand still as they both took each other in. His eyes grew darker the longer he looked at her while she felt her body turning hot. Her heart suddenly picked up pace as she saw him moving closer to her, slowly like a predator cornering its pray. Damn it was really getting hot in here. Everything else seemed to fade out as their attention remained sorely on each other.

Standing on the side Riccardo grinned at Lucien and Lyron as they both watched the scene unfolding Infront of them. Ava couldn't keep her excitement in as she clasped her hands together smiling like a proud mother,

Coming into focus and seeing the scene in front of them, Tammy and Charlotte appeared, slowly approaching the rest of the gang.

"Nicole, Ava, are you guys alright?"

Snapping out of their trance Nicole stumbled back, shocked and confused at what was happening. Stepping back a few steps the stranger in front of her turned towards Charlotte, seeming looking displeased.

"Where have you been? I'm not in charge of babysitting you, Stryder."

"Relax Jesus Christ, why would you babysit me when my hubby is more than capable of doing that, right love?"

Love? Looking at Charlotte, Nicole and Ava only realized then the look Riccardo had been giving Charlotte. He looked at her so full of love and care and held her hand so gently almost as if he was scared to hurt her.

"Wait Charlotte, you're engaged?"

Leave it to Ava to address the elephant in the room. One of the elephants in the room either way.

"Of course, who did you think this big ass was feeding every night."

Charlottes' statement seemed to have broken a bit of the tension, making everyone laugh while some of the guys blew out whistles. Looking in Charlottes' direction once again, Nicole smiled when she saw Riccardo dipping himself into Charlottes' neck, causing her to release a couple of giggles in the process.

Tammy on the other hand looked uncomfortable with the new strangers surrounding them and even more so she looked at Charlotte with betrayal dancing in her eyes. Walking up to Ava and Nicole, she took them both by their arms and gave the friend group a grumble of a goodbye before pulling them towards the party.

"Wait come on guys, the night is still young, come stay with us a little."

Looking in Charlottes direction, Tammy pulled her face and gave a short sharp reply back.

"Sorry, we've got important stuff to tend to tomorrow."

Pulling the two girls away Tammy led them away from the party towards the dorm building.

"Woah hold on, what the hell Tammy. What gives?"

"Zip it Ava we need to get to my room quickly."

"No."

Snatching her arm from Tammy, Ava stood her ground, folding her in a defiant motion. Nicole on the other hand stood still and let Tammy hold onto her arm, even though they both knew she wouldn't go anywhere.

"What the hell was that. You were so rude back there and for what?"

"Look Ava, I can't explain it to you right now, but I need you to stay away from them, Charlotte and Lyron mostly."

"Why, in case you haven't realized you're not the boss of us okay. I can handle you and your 'the world sucks and I hate everyone' but that doesn't give you the right to control us, right Nicole."

Looking between the two girls Nicole really didn't want to pick sides but Ava was right.

"You were rude to them Tams, whether you like them or not that was very rude, and Ava and I weren't ready to leave yet."

Mostly because she never got to get that guys' name and she was really sober right now. Image being sober 4 hours into a party.

"Look, I need you guys to trust me okay, that whole group is dangerous, and you need to stay away from them."

"No, you know what I think, I think you can go jump of a bridge. Nicole and I are going back to that party, and you can go suck it."

Taking Nicoles' arm, Ava led her back to the party, leaving a devasted Tammy behind who had no idea what to do, how to let her friends know that they were in danger as long as they stuck around Lyron and his troop.