Claimed by the Dark Souls of VHA

Chapter Five

CHRISTIAN

I watch as Ava runs from the cafeteria, Emma and Alex both shooting us death glares before heading after her.

"You f!cking happy now asshole?!" I yank Ryders shirt from behind and he swivels to look at me with a stupid f!cking grin on his face.

"I think that went really well don't you? Now she'll know to stop f!cking with us. To think I wanted to f!ck her. Knowing she is a Sinclair ended that pathetic daydream." Ryder snorts and says it all with such venom. I watch as he latches onto the skank Candice and crashes his mouth to hers.

This is so damn disgusting.

He pulls away from her and her now puffed up lips from that heated yet vomit inducing kiss.

"Hate to break it to you, brother. You're the one who made a bee line for her. If you didn't come over here then this would never have happened. I was thinking of all the ways I could stomp her out like the leech she is. Thanks for making it so damn easy." He says while staring straight into my eyes, searching for something along the lines of knowing he is right, and that I am the one to have paved a way for his vengeance.

"Sinclair or not, she didn't deserve that." I say. Candice sports a shocked face that looks like I had just said the worst thing.

"Don't tell me you are growing a conscience there Christian. Ryder is your brother. Your loyalty is to him, not that trash. Remember that." She says and I bite the inside of my mouth.

"You better remember that you are nothing to either one of us. Just a glorified hole to ram into when the need rises. You think Ryder respects you? He doesn't respect a single person, not even himself. He'd gladly break any person apart because that is just how low of a guy he is. Better watch yourself. You're next." Ryder growls at me but I dismiss it.

"You f!cking know it's true Ryder! You were dead set on making her yours until I opened my sh!t mouth and told you she was a Sinclair. Now I have to live with the fact that I gave you the ammunition to gut her in front of the whole entire school! I'm done with this petty bullsh!t. You and I both know what it is that we feel for her." Candice turns to Ryder looking all sorts of angry, hot steam could be coming out of her ears.

"You were going to leave me for her?! Like hell you are Ryder. I am your girl!" She yells at him and his face hardens.

"Certified glory hole that I am completely done with." He pushes her away and takes off as do I. I search everywhere for Ava, but cannot find her anywhere. I finally find Alex and Emma and make my way to them.

"Have you found her yet?" I ask making Emma jump. Alex immediately stands and comes face to face with me, not the least bit scared. He's been an asset to our authority and I know all too well the look that he is giving me will come and bite me in the a*s later. He did warn us. A lot.

"You have f!cking nerve to ask us about her. What the f!ck is your problem with her anyway? I am truly dying to know how one girl can make two morons so hung up with hatred. So what she doesn't take your sh!t? You couldn't leave well enough alone so the only thing to do is break her in front of the whole school?" His eyes are laced with intense rage and on the inside I am feeling guilty as f!ck, but on the outside, I school my appearance so he doesn't get the better of me. Both Ryder and I are severely f!cked with Alex. For now, I play into his knight in shining armor sh!t. This is all an act between us.

"Ryder wanted her to learn her lesson for not respecting the chain of command." I say but watch as Alex's fists ball beside him, and his determination to keep calm, but he can be a psycho. I know this by learning the hard way.

"F!ck the chain of command! You two are the most pathetic human beings I have ever met and I am at a loss as to why I was ever scared of any of you in the first place." He eyes me with pure hatred before storming away, along with Emma. She decides to turn around and comes towards where I am still standing, seemingly paralyzed.

"I honestly thought you were the better one between the two of you. You both have such darkness inside of yourselves and I honestly think you both just hate the way her light penetrates through you both. She was the only one to stand up to the two of you. You couldn't accept that so instead you hurt her. Shame. Shame on the both of you." She flips me off and walks out.

I manage to walk away and just roam around campus just hoping she is ok. Telling Ryder her identity really f!cked things up. I walk by countless classrooms until I hear a piano being played coming from one of them. I inch towards the door and then I hear that voice.

Her voice.

This is the second time I have heard her sing and the second song that has her heart ripping in two to the words she is singing. There is more to her than meets the eye. She is not this self righteous mightier than thou kind of person. She is a down to earth, hiding behind a veil of immense pain kind of girl. She presents herself as a warrior but deep down she is someone that is hurting and broken, like us.

I wonder what happened for her to have become a possible shell of her former self.

I lean against the door, making sure to record her beautiful voice because knowing after all of this, I will not hear it anymore. She will never give me the time of day ever again. I lean on the door a little too heavily once the singing has stopped and am shocked when the door is swung open. I quickly hide my phone in my pocket. Her eyes are swollen, her face red, all signs that she has been non stop crying.

Because of you and your brother, asshole.

"What the actual f!ck are you doing here Christian? Come to gloat about your brother's performance at lunch? I don't need the reminder. Just leave me the f!ck alone." She tries to slam the door in my face but I stop it with my foot. I watch as she grabs her stuff and closes the lid to the piano. She storms past me but I can't allow her to leave so I grab a hold of her wrist and pull her to me. I cup her cheeks wanting nothing more than to pull her to my chest and comfort her, never letting her go.

"Let me go Christian." She tries to slither away but my hold on her is tight.

"It's my fault Ryder said that. I told him who you were. I'm sorry."

You need to do more than just apologize sh!t for brains.

The hurt in her eyes is evident.

"Why would you do that?" She asks, almost in a broken defeated tone.

"I knew it would make him mad and I didn't want to watch him make a move on you. He takes what he wants from someone and leaves. I thought I was protecting you. He had his eyes set on you from the beginning and I just couldn't let that happen. Knowing you were a Sinclair riled him up to the point where he wanted you gone. He hates the Sinclair family." She tugs her wrist free from my hold and backs away.

"By doing all that, you painted a huge target on my back. I never wanted to be associated with the Sinclair name. I am not one of them. Those people left me to rot when they very well knew they could save me. I might have the last name, but as far as I am concerned, I have only one name and that is Ava. Period." I gulp to what she just said and she turns to walk away.

"Ava." I call out her name and watch as she turns back to me and sighs.

"Stay away from me. Both of you." Are her final words as she walks away from me. Complete dread fills me and I hate myself for what I put her through. I hate my step brother even more for outing her. I storm back to our room and blast my way through and slam the door shut.

"Where'd your sorry a*s run off to?" Ryder says as he opens the microwave to heat up left overs from the other night.

"Around." I say sharply causing him to raise an eyebrow at my harsh tone.

"Don't tell me you are still sulking after putting my foot down to the trash." He says and I see red.

"Stop f!cking calling her trash!" He starts laughing and keeling over from it.

"Sh!t man. She has got you wrapped around her little finger, huh? Thank f!ck that's not me." He shakes his head continuing to smile and I take my phone out of my pocket and hit play on the recording.

"What's this bullsh!t?" He says while taking his food out of the microwave, stirring it around with his fork.

"For once in your damn life just shut the f!ck up and listen." I raise the volume and her voice booms through my phone and I watch as his face morphs into something different.

"Do you hear that voice? Nobody rich and pretentious sounds like that and you f!cking know it. There is more to her story and I intend to find out. The right way. I know she hit a nerve with you but get the f!cking stick out of your a*s already. She is definitely no Sinclair." I go to grab my phone but Ryder stops me. I hear a ding indicating I have a school message and I watch as Ryder's face contorts into pure unbridled anger.

"What?" I say as I inch closer to my phone. I watch as he dumps his food into the garbage and storms off to his room. He is busy putting his boots on and when be puts those steel toed boots on, it means someone is going to get their a*s kicked.

"You going to tell me what happened on my phone?" I say to him, knowing damn well I can find out for myself by just opening the messaging app, but I want to see what has him all wound up to be putting on his infamous boots that scare the living sh!t out of me. I lean against his door just watching him seethe.

"Someone trashed her room." He says through gritted teeth.

F!ck.

She was right when she said we had painted a huge target on her back.

"F!ckers are going to find out the meaning of true horror tonight." He seethes, waiting for me to snap to it and come through with him.

"Give me a minute." This is all it takes for the both of us to hunt down the f!ckers who did this to Ava, all the while blaming ourselves for this colossal mess.

***************************************************

RYDER

It is one thing for us to f!ck with the girl whose last name so happens to be Sinclair, the one and only name I hate with every fiber of my being. It is a whole other thing when everyone else decides to tag team a chain of events that rips her more and more.

I make my way to the school office, the immense anger rolling off me in waves. Christian is right on my tail, making sure nobody dares says a word to me. I throw the office door open and head straight for the sound system that is used for morning announcements. The secretary pales when she sees the mood I am in and immediately bolts. I switch the loud speaker on.

"Attention all you f!ck wads that attend this f!cking school! When I have a target, that target is solely mine to deal with. Nobody and I mean nobody is to take it upon themselves to unleash havoc on what is mine. You are not doing me a service. To the f!ckhead that trashed Ava's room, you better show yourself or selves in the cafeteria in the next five minutes before everyone suffers the consequence. Just in case you don't believe me, I will be sending out a mass email of someones dirty little secret." I look to Christian who immediately sends out a message about one of the students and the mass of voices gasping has their attention now.

"Heed my warning. Guilty party presents themselves in the cafeteria or there will be more to come. You have four minutes." I switch the loud speaker off.

"What is the meaning of this?!" The principal that is probably too busy getting his rocks off with one of the underaged girls in his office since he is clearly adjusting himself, comes storming out of his office. We both turn to him to send him the only message for him to shut the f!ck up before we report his sorry a*s. He shuts up but it doesn't help matters much since Christian makes his way to his office and opens the door to see one of the junior girls running out.

"Still haven't learned your lesson from our previous discussion about not screwing the girls from this school?" His eyes widen and he gulps loudly.

"Christian, see to it that you send all the files to the police commissioner. It's time to get rid of the scum." I blatantly state making him drop to his knees begging me to not tarnish his reputation.

"You're pathetic. Pack your sh!t." We leave him to grovel on the floor and make our way to the cafeteria to see who warrants themselves to be at our level. We storm through the hallway and walk past all the horrified looks staring at us. We enter the cafeteria and are met with none other than Candice and her minions, all front and center.

"Should've known it was you." I say just eyeing her.

"I'm not going to beg for forgiveness because it is something I know you wanted to happen. She is a Sinclair and she doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as you. I did your a*s a favor." She stands tall with her arms across her chest. She eyes her loyal helpers to make sure they continue to stand by her side.

"Oh, so you took it upon yourself to dish out some vengeance to help me?" She smiles and nods like she has just had her first victory.

"Wipe the f!cking grin off your face you damn stupid girl. When I want vengeance, I seek it out myself. I do not need your f!cking help in any way, ever again. Just the thought of you revolts me. Ever consider all the damning dirt I have on your sorry a*s? Should I shed some light for all your loyal minions behind you? Maybe once they see what I have, they'll stay as far away from you as I will." I watch as her face falls and her entourage looks to each other wondering just what kind of dirt I have on her.

"How about we begin with the fact that while your bestie was crying her eyes out over the breakup with dear old Donovan over there, you were busy sucking him off in the bathroom?" Her BFF Britney gasps and marches forward with eyes full of pure rage and smacks Candice across the face.

One friend down.

"Or how about when you were yelling at all of them for eating, making them believe that they were all overweight, yet, meanwhile, you were shoving double decker burgers down that throat of yours?" She begins shaking her head for me stop. Her eyes become glazed and I just supply her with a sinister smirk on my face. I step mere inches away from her face.

"If you ever, and I mean ever lay a hand, speak a word, or do anything else to Ava, I will unleash hellfire on you. There are many other tasty secrets to hang over your head so you better make the wise choice." I then get closer to whisper in her ear the one thing I know will break her.

"You think you could make me come with your fake moans? No. Every time I stuck my d!ck in you, I was thinking of her. That's what made me explode every time. Her. Not you." That final threat makes her cry hysterically and she runs out of the cafeteria yet she runs out alone. Nobody seems to chase her down to make sure she is ok. One of her "friends" comes to me, slightly shaking, and hands me an envelope.

"He...here. This was under her mattress." I take it from their grasp as they scurry away.

"What is it?" Christian says and I shrug.

"Seems like cash." I say and grimace knowing that this must be all the money she has. I put it in my pocket and point to two boys who look like sophomores ready to piss themselves.

"Both of you, you're coming with us." They follow Christian and I to Ava's room. When I take a look at the damage I become angry once again. They didn't just trash the room. They destroyed it.

"Clean this mess up and you two sh!t for brains won't be on our radar. Place better be spotless by the time we get back." They nod and begin cleaning.

"Do you know where she is?" I ask Christian as we make our way to our room.

"Not sure where she went. Maybe she went to Alex?" My hands ball into fists at the mention of that name and I see red. Alex has played his part in this quite well for the past few years but I'll be damned if he claims her. I already have Christian wanting her. I am betting Alex wants her too. Actually, I know for a fact that he wants her. Who wouldn't honestly?

"If he wants to die than sure maybe she is there. I don't think she would put him in danger like that knowing how we are. What about that girl she is always with?" I say trying to calm the storm in my body but Christian gives me the look that I know will school my thoughts on retaliating against him.

Damn f!cker.

"Emma? F!ck. I forgot about her. Yeah, let me see where her room is." He pulls up the school database and finds it immediately.

"She lives down the hall from her." He says and we make our way to her. I have Christian knock on the door while I lean against the wall. Emma opens the door with a happy face that immediately goes away at the sight of us.

"Don't even think about asking for her. She wants nothing to do with any of you." I push off the wall and plant myself in front of her, pushing Christian out of my way.

"Don't f!cking give me sh!t right now Emma. Here. We got this back for her." I hand her the envelope and she takes it but Ava comes to her side and snatches the envelope from her friends hand. She looks so much different right now and it does something to the muscle in my chest that refuses to feel any ounce of emotion but when it comes to her, it begins to come alive.

"You see this envelope?" She asks in such a low voice. I eye the envelope and then eye her.

"This is what I am supposedly worth to the Sinclair family. This is all they gave me and sent me packing only to drop me off here without so much as a f!cking goodbye. You both firmly believe I am a Sinclair but this is what I think about the Sinclair name." She pulls out a lighter, dropping the contents into the garbage bin beside her and sets it aflame.

"What the..." Emma, Christian, and I all say in unison. She walks away and Emma just gives me a look that conveys how much I have f!cked up. She closes the door on us and Christian glares daggers at me and brushes past me. I stand there paralyzed and the muscle in my chest tightens once again.

I really f!cked things up.

No one in their right mind would scorch a wad of cash like that. Not a Sinclair. Not anyone, yet, Ava just did without remorse. Did I jump the g*n? Who the hell is this girl?