BEFORE
Link
Love is ten kinds a crazy, right?
Especially when you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with when you’re still in high school? The girl who is gonna elbow her way into more chapters of your autobiography than your folks, your car, and your best friend? The one who’s got Satan on her speed dial, at least accordin’ to all the parents in the Stonewall Jackson PTA.
Ridley Duchannes is every mother’s nightmare—and a whole different kinda nightmare for their sons. Let me put it to you this way: If you can get away, run. Don’t walk. Because once you’re exposed, you’ll never get a Siren outta your head.
If they ever make a vaccine for Ridley Duchannes, I’ll be first in line.
But once you’ve been exposed, things get a lot more complicated. Rid’s like those killer viruses they’re always talkin’ about on the Discovery Channel. She changes everything—including you.
What I’m tryin’ to say is, it’s too late for me. I’m headed down a one-way street, with no stoplights and no brakes. The craziest part is that I don’t even wanna turn back, and you wouldn’t, either. You don’t need a Caster mood ring to tell you that.
Because there are three kinds of girls in the world.
Good girls.
Bad girls.
And Ridley Duchannes.
Rid’s in a category all her own—and trust me, she’s earned it. She’ll let you peek in the window, right before she slams the door in your face. She does what she wants, says what she wants, and lovesick guys like me still write songs about her.
Sure, she scammed me into comin’ to New York with her and joinin’ a Dark Caster band. She even pretended we were goin’ there to make all my dreams come true, instead a settling her debt with Lennox Gates. Not every girl bets her boyfriend’s future in a Caster card game, that’s for sure. Like I said, ten kinds a crazy.
And the part that’s even crazier? How much your life feels like it’s over when she’s not around to wreck it anymore.
But I’m gettin’ ahead of myself.
It all started with a fire.
CHAPTER 1: NOX
Ring of Fire
Nox woke up on the floor in the back of the SUV. The last thing he remembered was the car driving away from what was left of his club Sirene … before Silas’ thugs started beating on him and he blacked out.
Not that it mattered.
Between all the smoke he’d inhaled inside the burning club and the two Dark Casters kicking the crap out of him, he wasn’t sure how much more he could take. Mortals weren’t the only ones who had their limits.
The car rolled to a stop, and a moment later, the sunlight blinded Nox as the driver opened the door.
Silas Ravenwood climbed out and stood over him, smoking a cigar. “I’d like to say it’s been fun, kid. But mostly, you’ve been a huge waste of my time.” He flicked his cigar at Nox, missing his face by just inches. “And a waste of a Caster. Not that I’d expect much more from the son of a whore.”
“Good one. Never heard that one before.”
Silas punched him in the face, sending a spray of blood across his cheekbone.
Nox clenched his fists, but he didn’t move. There was no point anymore. Ridley was safely gone, and he was going to take his beating like a man. He had known this would be coming when he set fire to Sirene instead of delivering Ridley and the quarter Incubus to Silas Ravenwood as promised.
But I’ll kill you one day, Silas. I swear to God. Then you can rot in the Otherworld with Abraham.
Silas stood in the shadow of the alley. “See you in the next life, kid. It’s sure as hell your last day in this one.” He slammed the door, and the driver pulled away from the curb.
Once Silas was gone, the real beatings started. Enough blows to the head, and Nox barely remembered his own name. Even worse, he had no idea where he was, or where they were taking him.
The river was his best guess. Maybe they’d toss him in like a sack of kittens.
I’d be lucky to get off that easy.
Then the SUV stopped at a red light.
Nox could see the cloud of smoke above the club in the distance. He was still staring at the smoke, dazed, when the side window next to him shattered.
A hand the size of a dinner plate plunged through the glass.
Sampson dragged one of Silas’ men out through the window and unlocked the door before the driver even realized what was happening. Instead of hitting the gas, the idiot came out and tried to take on close to seven feet of angry Darkborn.
Bad move, big guy.
Silas’ other lackey was still in the back with Nox, and he jumped out to help. Sampson hurled him headfirst into a sign, leaving the guy’s face almost as cut up as Sampson’s hand. Nox crawled out of the car and stumbled to his feet, but the fight was already over. The driver and one of Silas’ thugs were knocked out cold, and Sampson finished off the second guy, who was bleeding under the sign, with one hard stomp from his size fifteen Red Wings.
The Darkborn grabbed Nox by the arm and shoved him into the passenger seat of the SUV. “You’re welcome. Now get your ass in the car.”
“Sam, look at your hand.” Nox could barely get the words out, but he pointed at the gashes slicing through his friend’s skin and the blood running down his arm.
Sampson yanked his sleeveless T-shirt over his head and tugged down the ripped Sex Pistols one he was wearing underneath. “Wrap it around my fingers, but not too tight. I’ll take care of it. After we get out of here.”