Kiss of War

Chapter - 1

ELIANA

Four Years Ago

ELIANA, 16; LEONARDO, 17

              The whispers. That's what I hated the most. Not that my father was being charged for murder. Not that life as I knew it was coming apart one brick at a time. It was the whispers I cared about.It started with one person, then spread like wildfire. The whole pier circled around me, sneaking not so inconspicuous glances at the bench where I sat.
I glared at a woman with a stroller, and she wheeled off faster, scared the cornered animal would attack. Scoffed at and looked down upon, that was what I was reduced to.
My skin crawled. I questioned my decision to come out in the first place. Staying home seemed like the wiser decision when my family name was plastered on every social media news outlet out there, but I couldn't. I'd rather suffocate in judgment than the lies the Roux Manor fostered.
Another lady with a stroller wheeled by incredibly slow, and I sighed. What was it with these baby mamas?
Abandoning the bench because I knew they wouldn't stop looking, I reached for the rusted green railing, giving them my back to disguise the fractures on my surface. And it was a good thing I did. I cringed when I caught my reflection on the waves, the lamp posts hanging over my head aiding my vision.
My face looked borderline unhealthy. Deep black grooves decorated the surface under my bloodshot eyes, making the clear blue color of my irises stand out like a blot on a landscape. Hollowed out cheeks followed before the bloodless form of my lips tied the knot on the badly wrapped present. I resembled a zombie, in its prior to devouring brains form.
Pale.
Alone.
Miserable.
"Are you expecting flowers to spring up in your stead, little vain monster?" a voice spoke behind me. That familiar low timbre sprung me back to the present, my body locking at the sound. Warning signs flashed behind my closed eyelids as I blinked slow.
Leonardo Bianchi.
He had a special aura about him, one that sucked up all the oxygen from a room, replacing it with danger. Breathing became harder as fear coated the walls of my throat. A prickle of awareness ran down my spine even before seeing him sometimes, and this time was no different.
My body protested as I turned around, but I had to before he sunk his claws in my back when I wasn't looking. Brown hair, the color of chocolate dreams, decorated the top of his head in unruly curls. Eyes like two uncut emerald shards pulled me in, and the slope of his aristocratic nose threatened to slice me if I made a wrong move, right along with the sharp line of his jaw.
In the span of a week, he'd turned a one-eighty. I couldn't blame him, but I also couldn't help mourning what I'd lost. I used to love basking under the light of the candle Leo always kept burning for me. But the boy with a crush had developed into a man looking for someone to ruin.
Me.
His black shirt was open at the collar, framing his lean, muscular body well. Grass stains decorated his knees as if he'd taken one too many tumbles on a soccer field, but I knew it wasn't that. His all black outfit told me all I needed to know.
He'd visited Isabella.
"What are you doing here?"
"Enjoying my front-row seat to a drama called Roux Family: A Shit Show of Epic Proportions,"
Leo taunted. "Gotta say, Narcissus, you make it extremely easy for me to do so."
I smiled, not buckling under the weight of his swift judgments. Keeping up with the charade of the
put-together girl was turning painful, though. My mask struggled to stay in place.
"You must be proud. Displaying your obsessions with such arrogance takes a special kind of
stupid to pull off. Should I get a restraining order to get you to keep your distance?"
I never wanted him close.
Not when we were ten, and he managed to steal my first kiss, even though I wasn't past the age of
believing boys were riddled with cooties. And certainly not at sixteen, when the only way he'd attach his lips on mine would be if he gained the ability to provide me with death's kiss.
"Go ahead and give it a try, sweetheart. Seeing your family swimming in further shit will only make my day brighter." My mock smile shattered, and my heart pounded so hard it hurt. He leaned forward, his six-feet-three inches making me crane my neck. "My word is law around here, Narcissus. I own the fucking world you live in, including the authorities. There is no version of this story where you come out on top."
"And somehow, that still wasn't enough to find your sister. I think running the town with an iron
fist is doing you worse than it is good. You're unearthing enemies everywhere, Bianchi." I regretted my words as soon as they left my mouth.
He had every reason to be mad. To hate me. What my father did I—I didn't even want to think about. I avoided it at all costs, but that didn't stop people on social media from tweeting, sharing, and posting about it. It was flaunted at me on every waking moment, and that took a toll when there weren't many sleeping ones.
My father killed a girl. He raped her, killed her, and then left her for dead. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat without bile assaulting my throat. Isabella was just one year older than me. I hadn't the slightest idea what Francis was capable of. My dad wasn't my dad anymore.
Leo's eyes lit up, and the blood vessels on my cheeks expanded, painting my face scarlet. I wasn't a cruel person, I'd just been poked restlessly for the past week, and Leo brought out the bitch in me.
He lowered his face to mine, obliterating my personal space. The world around us paused. A mesmerized public prepared to witness the lion tearing into his lamb. A hand curled around my blonde hair, and I froze under his touch, my heartbeat erratic, fear mixing with exhilaration.
"It might have not been enough then, but you'll come to find out I'm very insistent on getting the things I want. And what I want, my little vain monster, is your father's head on a pike if proven guilty." He tilted his head, eyes focused on mine. "I wouldn't mind seeing yours standing next to his either."
That hand tugged on my strands. His face was so close, his intoxicated breath fanned on my cheek. I didn't doubt he could do it. I pulled, but when it came to pushing, no one stood a chance against his barreling form.
"An eye for an eye, Roux."
"Makes the whole world blind?" I spoke past the lump in my throat, quoting Gandhi. "I am not my father, Leo. Don't box me in with his sins."
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and you, Eliana Roux, you are the whole damn harvest. I'm past sparing people when the same compassion wasn't shown to my sister." Leo's green-eyed twin haunted my dreams enough as it was. I didn't need him piling on more guilt. I moved, aiming to detach my body from his, but like a python, he wrapped me tighter in his asphyxiating grip. I sucked in a breath, fisting his shirt.
"Don't you have a better way to spend your time, Bianchi?" Asshole. "Or do you enjoy being a bastard far too much?"
"Hm... being a bastard to you is starting to become my favorite pastime. What can I say? Your daddy's cruelty lit a spark in me."
A spark? Yeah, no. The blazing heat his body emitted hinted at a ten foot tall fire, waiting to consume me whole.
"So what? Are you gonna start stalking me now? Did you follow me here?"
"Stalk you?" A condescending smirk bloomed on his lips. "Nah, sweetheart. I'll save you the Ted Bundy experience until after the trial." He twirled a strand of gold hair between his fingers. The jut of his jaw was so close to my lips, his stubble left a trail of electricity and what-ifs dancing on my skin. "But if you must know, I'm meeting Serena. You know? The pretty to your ugly?"
I flinched. The angry little green monster inside of me that lived and breathed for moments like these rose kicking and screaming like a drunk, awakened sailor.
Serena had been my best friend ever since we used to wear diapers to make fashion statements. And Leo was right. She was indeed the pretty to my ugly. She had everything. Her mother was there for her, while I only saw mine once in a blue moon. And her dad was a respectable lawyer, while
mine was the one needing his services.
Serena was the perfect to my flawed.
"Green looks rather ghastly on you, Narcissus."
I flinched again and pushed at his chest until he finally released me. I gulped in the fresh air that
traveled to my lungs, now that his overbearing presence wasn't stifling it.
"You know, with such high self-esteem you possess, Bianchi, I wonder if that Narcissus nickname
should be reversed."
The mop of curls bounced as he shook his head. "The pet name is here to stay, Roux. It suits you
perfectly."
I strived to argue, but the butt of the cigarette (I hadn't even noticed he had), came dangerously
close to my pinky. He rolled it closed, a few inches away from my hand on the railing, and I tugged my arm back, shocked.
"Some advice for old time's sake, Narcissus. Be a good little girl tonight, get on your knees for me—" A wicked smile illuminated the contours of his face. "And pray. Pray for your father's pardon, because if he had a hand in my sister's death, you won't like the outcome."
A pang made a mess out of my insides. They were all over the place, twisting and churning with anxiety.
Much to Leo's disbelief, I did pray. Every day I prayed that this wasn't real. That the next day I'd wake up, and this nightmare would be all but a memory. I didn't want Isabella dead, and I didn't want my father to be a murderer. Why couldn't he understand that?
"Leo!" a high-pitched voice called from behind us. Our gazes both snapped to the source.
My stomach got hollower when a genuine smile pulled on Leo's lips when he caught sight of Serena. She looked like a fairy, a brown bob framed her heart-shaped face, and the knee-high blush dress she wore flowed with the wind as she waved to Leo like a maniac.
I bit my bottom lip, a stinging sensation overtaking my eyes. Serena was supposed to be my best friend, but it seemed like she was settling in on the opposite side of the camp. Her excitement stagnated when she saw me. Suddenly, her wave felt more like a goodbye rather than a hello, lackluster.
I didn't bother returning the sentiment.
"See you tomorrow, Narcissus." Leo clucked his tongue on the roof of his mouth as he retreated backward. "Can't wait to see how busted those knees look."