The Beginning of Connie and Isaac: Blue Butterfly Series (The Blue Butterfly Book 3) (3 page)

I shot up, placed my still full mug of tea in the sink, and snatched up my satchel. Father watched me silently, and just as I reached the door, he called to me. “Are you sure you’re okay, smudge?”

I winced at his pet name, the name he’d called me since I was two when I painted him pictures consisting of red smudges.

Again, swallowing back the words, I nodded and gave him the best smile I could muster. “Women stuff, Daddy.”

He nodded, releasing me from his interrogation. I spun around and smiled to myself. Always worked.

“You suck his cock?” Tammy the school slut asked Bonnie when we were all in the showers after PE. I rolled my eyes when Bonnie nodded quickly. Lying bitch.

Mae looked over to me and smirked. I winked, tilted my head back and rinsed the suds from my hair.
His
face emerged in my mind when I closed my eyes, his cruel sneer making my stomach clench, and his vicious words making my eyes sting with the promise of tears. I shivered and snapped them back open just in time to witness a shampoo bottle skimming past my face, the velocity of it making me gasp. I snapped my head round, following its route, and growled when it hit Mae square in the face, her sharp cry triggering another snarl. “Oi, virgin, Mae. It’s your birthday next week. Maybe you’ll get some cock. Gift wrapped.” Everyone laughed. “Then again, I’m sure no lad will manage a hard on with your ugly fucking face.”

My blood shifted from my veins into my heart, my anger at their cruel taunts to my sister yet again making me scan the changing rooms for a teacher. Smiling when I found us alone, I leisurely switched off the shower and dragged the towel around my naked body as I scooped up the cheap shower gel the school supplied us with.

Mae blinked, trying to ignore Tammy as she turned her back on the bitch and carried on washing as I lazily walked past her. I kept my face straight forwards as I sauntered past Tammy who now had her face under the torrent of water. Smiling to myself, I squirted a liberal amount of gel onto the floor tiles around her.

As I exited the shower area I couldn’t help but grin when I heard Tammy’s squeal and then a harsh, hefty thud.

“Take that, you skank!”

I hissed as I ran through the field towards my house, the rain that had come on suddenly drenching me through. I regretted turning down Mae’s offer of studying for an hour in the library. Then I rolled my eyes to myself. Why she studied so religiously was beyond me. She was the cleverest girl in the whole school and she was the only student who didn’t actually need to study. Me, on the other hand, I was more interested in music, make-up and – Lee. I smiled to myself and re-read his note in my head.

Con,

I can’t wait until you see, and feel, what I’m going to GIVE you for your birthday.

L xxx

I knew without a doubt the silly twat thought he was going to get into my knickers at the party. I shook my head and chuckled. It was MY birthday, not his. He was going to be disappointed. No way would I ever let myself be as easy as Tammy. She thought she was clever because she’d lost her virginity, but what she didn’t know was what everyone called her behind her back. It frustrated me how all her so-called friends who talked about her slutty ways behind her back would call Mae out for her UN-slutty ways. Two-faced, or what?

I took shelter under a large tree as I looked up at the sky, trying to determine if it was just a quick storm and how soon it would pass. The clouds were black and I knew I was in for a bit of a wait.

A sound from behind me in the mass of other trees caught my attention and I spun round. A scream curled up my throat, and just as it was about to burst from me, he slapped his hand over my mouth. My eyes widened and I shook my head.

“Are you going to be quiet?”

I gulped but nodded, my fear of him making me concede easily. He was tall. I would say early twenties, and his dark blonde hair was long on top but closely cut around his neck. His eyes mesmerised me; their deep green glow utterly stunning. But they belied the evil inside him, the cruel twist of immorality that ran through every single blood vessel within him. He exuded raw power, a malevolence that physically touched me and made every inch of my skin erupt in goose bumps as horror made my heartbeat quicken.

“I didn’t tell anyone,” I blurted out when he removed his hand.

“I know,” he countered softly. For a moment he stared at me with an expression I couldn’t decipher. He looked like he was sad but then the glint of his vileness showed me just how dangerous he was. He blew out a breath. “You have got me into some serious trouble, Shadow.”

I squinted at him. “Shadow?”

He nodded, his gaze moving over my shoulder. “Mmm, your new name.” He brought his eyes back to mine. “Unfortunately my father is….
troubled
by my decision to leave you and your sister alive.”

The way he spat out his father’s name made me aware of some issues but it was his other revelation that made the blood in my heart freeze. “What? But you can’t go back on it. Please,” I begged as I tore off my coat and tie and started to unbutton my school shirt, the rain pouring down on me and soaking me to the skin beneath the thin white cotton. I knew he wanted me, I saw it in his eyes, and if I had to lay flat on my back and let him take what he wanted to save Mae then I’d do it a million times over. “You can take what you want, but please,
please,
don’t hurt Mae.”

He grumbled at me, his words indecipherable as he took hold of my fingers and stopped me from continuing with my actions. “When will you listen, you defiant girl? I am not going to fuck you. You’re thirteen for fuck’s sake!”

“But...”

“There’s been a change of plan.”

I stilled, my mind tormenting me with the options now available. I knew he was going to kill me. I knew it. And when a forbidden tear dropped from my eye, all I could picture was my beautiful sister, her soft smile, her gentle manner, and her strength. I would miss her so much but if this man kept his word then she would most probably be joining me soon. I stared up at him, my body now lax as I accepted my fate. I couldn’t overpower him, as hard as I would try. The rain matched the storm in my soul but I nodded. “Please.” I slid to my knees before him, my submission making me angry with myself. “Please make it quick, and if possible I would like to go without any pain.”

He rolled his eyes and took my hair in his grasp, making me squeal as he yanked me up. “I’m not going to kill you.”

“And Mae?”

He shook his head. “If I were you I’d be more bothered about your own wellbeing right now.”

“But…”

He sighed again. “My father wishes you to join his family earlier.”

I couldn’t move. Although I had been terrified of what was to come, I still had the comfort of another year to say my goodbyes to the people I loved. Yet now, everything was being snatched away. “W... what?”

“Mmm,” he mumbled with a slow nod. “However.” I still remained immobile, the frantic beat of my heart making it difficult to breathe. “I managed to secure you another few months.”

I blew out a breath of relief. Thank God!

“Yet we have another problem.” I didn’t like the way his voice dropped and his tone turned apprehensive. “He’s rather… angry. And because I’m his son, he feels the need to make an example of me… and you.”

“Me?”

He nodded. “He’s going to make your initiation rather… awkward.”

“My initiation?” I felt stupid that I was repeating him but I couldn’t manage to find my own dialogue.

His eyes narrowed. I blinked in shock and flinched when he lifted his hand and tenderly stroked his fingertip along my cheekbone. My body locked up but my bones felt like jelly, the wobble inside me not matching the rigidity on the outside. His bright green eyes found my blue ones. “There’s something about you, Connie Swift, that makes me feel…” He coughed and dropped his hand, the softness in his expression disappearing until a more hardened one overtook him. “You’ll need training to be in with a chance of withstanding his torment.”

“Training?” There I went again.

He nodded and turned around, his body retreating into the shadows of the woodlands. “Be ready. Midnight, the night of your birthday. I’ll come for you.” And then he disappeared, my eyes widening when he appeared to just evaporate in front of me.

My heart ached. I ran into the seclusion of the trees and bent, the vomit that surged from me dribbling down my nostrils when my mouth couldn’t cope with the fierce reflux.

It seemed that the year I’d had left with my family had now been cut down to a week. I heaved again when the thought of what was to come fractured my spirit.

THE MUSIC HAD
stopped. The empty cups and plates were scattered about. Numerous presents were stacked on the sideboard, unopened. Food and drink was crushed into the carpet. All the party guests had gone, and I stood silently staring at my pretty sister, who was asleep on the large sofa in the front room.

Her long black lashes hemmed her cheekbones as her pink, plump lips parted to accommodate her deep breathing. She stirred, mumbling something I couldn’t understand as she shifted under the cover I had placed over her tiny body, and turned over, one of her hands tucking under her cheek as she nestled back down.

My parents had booked into a hotel for the night to give us space for our birthday party, and I’d said my goodbye to them hours earlier. Now, as I stared at my sister, my heartbeat became too slow for the rush of blood within my nervous body. I was terrified, horrified to even imagine what was to come. I knew the man wouldn’t back down on his word and that he would be here at the stroke of midnight.

I glanced at the clock – five minutes.

I knelt before Mae, tears forming in my eyes as my heart ached and refused to let the words flow. I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t bid her goodbye. She was my other half, the secondary beat in my chest. Although I’d been a bitch to her on more than a million occasions, I loved her with my entire soul. She was the gentility to my boorishness, the peace to my war, and the conscience to my immorality. But more than that, she was the regular beat in my heart and I knew, the moment I closed the door behind me, that it would never beat properly again.