Sins Chaos

Chapter Twenty-Three

Aerin

I sighed as I brushed my wet hair, eyeing my brother through the standup mirror attached to the closet door. I was wearing a pair of green cotton cargo pants, a cream colored cotton blouse, and a pair of brown suede boots.

I pulled my short hair into a bun at the nape of my neck, still wet. As I applied a small amount of liquid foundation onto my face, I asked, "Is there any particular reason you're in my room? I'm not a toddler whose every move needs to be watched like a hawk and I don't have to be in the kitchen for another fifteen minutes, so it's not like I'm running late and holding you guys up. It's a conundrum I can't seem to figure out."

Klay, dressed in his usual khaki pants and polo shirt, sat on my bed and watched me apply the little makeup I occasionally allowed myself to wear like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Well, I wanted to make sure you were up. Roz wasn't quite up to the task this morning."

I closed my left eyelid, applying a thin line of brown eyeliner. "As you have witnessed for the past ten minutes, I'm quite obviously up and moving. And, let's not sugarcoat things here. You mean, as understanding and loving as Roz is pretending to be, he is still pissed at me." I repeated the process with my other eye.

Klay blinked, taken slightly aback. "Well, I don't think he is necessarily pretending, but pretty much, yeah. Can you honestly blame him, Rin? You lied to him for months about another guy and kept the fact that you were viciously attacked and raped from him. Hell, Rin, you lied to us all and you still are. I know better than anyone that you play things close to the vest, but c'mon. Even I have doubts that this guy is just a friend. If he was, you wouldn't be protecting his identity like he was Jesus Christ himself and Donny and I would know him."

He sighed, leaning back on his elbows. "You're protecting someone who isn't your boyfriend. How is he supposed to feel?"

At this point, Roz's feelings were still invalid. As harsh as that sounded, I was just trying to make it through the day in human form. I had been attacked, raped, and left to bleed to death. That was a lot for a seventeen-year-old girl to deal with; hell, any woman to deal with. Human or supernatural, that took a toll on the psyche.

And, as for my brother and Decker ordered protection detail, they could take their judgments and stick them...

Of course, he would come first. Come on now, he's the saint and I'm the sinner. That's never going to change.

That was especially true in Klay's case. In his eyes, even though Roz had a drunken one night stand with his baby sister, he could do no wrong and I was the devil in sheep's clothing.

It was beyond screwed up.

Welcome to my family.

I dropped the small pencil into my makeup bag. Yeah, I would probably feel better if I wasn't holding this secret so close to my heart, right next to the bigger and more important ones. Unfortunately, this small secret was connected to my much bigger, more important secrets, and I just couldn't take the risk at this point in time.

At the same time, I was trying to protect them. They had no idea what was really going on behind the scenes, what Kai and Eden were really into, who I really was, and, while I had no doubts at all that they wanted to protect me, this was my fight. They weren't ready to take this kind of thing on.

I dug the small eye shadow brush into the pocket of light brown shadow, applying it to my eye so hard that it hurt. I controlled my life. It was time everyone figured that out. I quickly applied the eye shadow to my other eye. I smeared on some clear, shiny lip gloss.

Done primping, I threw the makeup bag onto the bed, narrowly missing Klay's head. I turned around to face my brother. My voice was soft when I finally answered him. "Let's not play games here, Klayton Noah Auden. You mean, you don't know if this guy is just a friend or not. You can't be sure if I am covering for him to cover up the fact that I cheated on your precious friend. Let's just skip right over the whole beat to the brink of death and raped portion of the whole scenario so you can justify your feelings."

Klay shot up like a rocket on the bed. "That's uncalled for and you know it!"

"No, what's uncalled for here is that I'm the one who got raped. I'm the one who got attacked. Yet, I'm the one being treated like a criminal. You all can't wait to make me out to be the villain who devastated the hero. So, if you want pure, unedited honesty, you, Roz, and the others can take your questions, your accusations, and your judgments and go fuck yourselves seven ways from Sunday."

Klay's jaw dropped in shock.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, let's go get breakfast before I decide to get anything else off my chest."

He pushed his hand through his hair. "I'll, uh, follow you for fear of turning my back on you. You know, in case you decide to get anything else off your chest and go all female psychotic."

I laughed as I led him out of the room, even though I knew he was dead serious.

***

"Fancy seeing you here."

Oh, c'mon! You have got to be kidding me right now.

My back stiffened as I closed my locker. "I had so better be hearing your voice in my head, Cariad. If not, you better pray that when I turn around, you're already gone like the '90s."

Rian "River" Cariad—pain in my ass extraordinaire—chuckled and leaned against the locker beside mine. "And here I was expecting a warm, somewhat friendlier, welcome to my new school. You know, you squealing in excitement, jumping up and down, wrapping your legs around my waist—"

"Well, you always were delusional."

"And you're scared to tell your boy toy even a macromolecule of the truth."

Damn. He had me there. Hmm, tell Roz that the mystery guy I'd been hanging out with behind his back was a member of the Paranormal Military and happened to be related to him.

Yeah, no thanks. I was still good.

Oh, this so wasn't good. River and Roz were both a part of the upper echelon of the military academy. They were bound to have at least one run in.

I just hoped he wasn't going to cause trouble and that he would keep his big mouth shut. I didn't need my life any more complicated than it already was. I was seriously at my breaking point. I needed some downtime before I could even begin to handle this problem.

By the shit eating grin on River's face, the dark haired hunk built like a god had ideas of his own.

And that never ended well for me.

"I warned you..."

"And that's ever stopped me...when exactly, Inigo?"

"Can't you listen to me just this once?"

"I'd rather have him as a friend than an enemy."

I groaned. I didn't even know why I was attempting to fight this.

River placed a hand gently on my arm. "Aerin, I'm not going to blow your cover. I have absolutely no desire to come between you and your Prince Charming. You know this has to be played this way if you are to stay protected."

"Where have I heard that line before?" I muttered.

Before he could answer, the warning class was about to start sounded. Heading for my first class of the new semester, I hoped this wasn't going to come back and bite me—literally.