Chapter 12

I had a dead girl sitting in my living room and the worst thing is I had no one to call. The only person who I even knew would understand was Cupid.

He shows up at my door with a sad looking face on.

"Listen. I can explain about Storm."

I had found out before I blacked out that Cupid had been trying to get with Storm. I thought it was the most pitiful thing in the world that he was going behind my back to get with him. It wasn't even that Cupid was my best friend. That was bad enough. The worse part was that Cupid could care less that we had been in the middle of suspecting Storm of having something to do with Lady's murder. He didn't give a fuck. He still went on to try to get with Storm as soon as possible.

If I didn't need Cupid right now, he wouldn't be here.

I had no choice though. I had no one else I could trust with this.

"Right now I have deeper issues," I explain.

He knows it must be serious especially after being caught red handed doing what the fuck he got caught doing. Cupid walks into the apartment at that moment and his mouth drops when he sees what I see.

"What the fuck?" Cupid asks.

Ebony was dead. She was stabbed in the middle of my room.

"I don't know what happened!"

I break down. The tears are running down my face at that moment. I feel so weak and useless. Cupid picks me back up and holds me.

"What's the last thing you remember?" he asks.

"Tempest was going to tell me what happened the night that Lady died," I explain to him, "Ebony was there. So was Ivory. Ebony was defending me. Tempest was blaming Lady for something. I wasn't sure what. Before she got it out I blacked out."

"Lady took over?" he asks.

I nod, shaking my head, "She did this."

Cupid looks over at the dead body. He shakes his head and then drops it. This was bad. This was really fucking bad.

"You can't go to the cops man."

"What?"

"You think they are going to believe what happened?" he asks me.

"I can prove it to them. I can take the pill."

"You would take the pill again?" he asks.

He has a point. The last time I took the pill I had completely lost consciousness. I couldn't do that to myself again. What happens the next time I take the pill? What happens the next time that I lose consciousness? Lady had killed someone. I don't know why. I don't know what happened. All I know is that this had to be done by Lady!

It had to!

"No. I wouldn't. I don't know what to do Cupid. I honestly don't."

"You didn't do this. You understand. These people were...murderers anyway."

"Not Ebony. You have no idea what the fuck you're talking about," I state.

"But she knew about it. Didn't she? She had to have known if you said that Tempest was comfortable around her to bring up that night," he explains.

He had a point but it wasn't a point I wanted to hear now. The tears were still rolling down my face.

"She wasn't a bad person. She was good."

"These people have secrets you don't know. Lady is getting her revenge."

"She was a fucking good person."

"Lady probably was before they killed her and hid it..." Cupid responds.

Right now I'm questioning Cupid. He is really acting as though he had a clue about what was going on. I'm getting so irritated at him. I wasn't going to take that fucking pill again if it wasn't for him. God knows what all Lady did when she had complete control last night. I woke up to a fucking dead body for god sakes. My life had just gotten so serious and I felt so alone. The only person I could trust with this secret was acting shady as fuck trying to basically say that Ebony had it coming.

"You have no idea what the fuck you're talking about," I tell Cupid.

Cupid must realize I'm upset. He raises his hands. He backs up.

"You're right. I was being inconsiderate. I'm sorry Demarco. I just want to make sure you're OK," he tells me, "These people aren't good people. I don't want to see you get too wrapped up in it."

I was already wrapped up in it. A dead woman was on my couch.

"Lady killed Malachi."

His mouth drops, "How?"

"I don't know how. I don't know..."

"I think I do," he responds, "When you started taking those pills you used to black out a lot during work. Sometimes you'd just walk. It was almost like you weren't yourself. Remember I commented to you about that?"

"Yeah."

"What if Lady took over at times you weren't even aware of. Maybe in your sleep..."

My heart races.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I break down all over again, "She's a fucking murderer. I fucking brought a murderer back from her fucking grave."

I was responsible for Malachi's death.

Cupid must realize I'm upset. He raises his hands. He backs up.

"Go back to the shop," Cupid tells me, "Go to work like everything is normal."

I look over at Cupid.

"Are you fucking serious?"

"I'll clean up here."

"Cupid I can't ask you to do that," I state, "This is my fault."

"No. No," He responds, "I told you to take the pill. I've known you since we were kids. I know you can't handle this. I'll do it for you. I'll get rid of the body."

"Cupid---no. We NEED to go to the cops. This is way over us."

"And what happens to you?" Cupid asks me, "You go to jail over some shit that Lady did? Listen. Just keep your head down. Don't talk to anyone. Not Storm. Not Tempest. Not your grandmother. Don't talk to anyone today OK? Just go to work and pretend like nothing happened. And I'll make sure no one ever finds out what ever happened to Ebony."

I look over at Ebony. She doesn't deserve this.

But I don't deserve to go to jail over this.

"OK."

"OK?"

I nod reluctantly. I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm thinking about how horrible of a person Lady is but I'm the one running away from Ebony's body because I can't handle this. Did that make me a bad person or just a really weak person?

I nod, "I'll head to work."

Cupid makes his way to the kitchen and starts digging through the drawers. He pulls out some gloves. I am on my way out the door when I hear him call back to me.

He says one last warning, "And remember Demarco. Don't talk to anyone."

~

I'm back at work but I can't focus. I drink so much water flushing out my system to get any remaining residue from the pill completely out of my system. I'm taking orders for all these girls and fucking them up so bad that I just decide that I have to close down the shop.

There is no way I can just pretend like everything is normal. There is no way in hell that I can focus on this store.

There is no way in hell that I'm going to give Lady a chance to come back. I have to make sure that I go back to the apartment and destroy all those pills once and for all. I can't believe I let things get this bad.

All these images of Ebony keep coming back to me. It would only be a matter of time before people would realize that she was gone.

Just as I'm turning off the machines I see the door open.

"Sorry," I say, not looking up, "We're closed for emergency reasons."

"Perfect that means you can leave with me."

I lift my head at that moment and I see Storm. He looks at me. I look at him. The moment our eyes connect something just breaks in me. I've missed him. I've missed his face. I've missed his look. I've missed everything about him. Storm looks over at me and I can tell he is probably thinking the same thing that I'm thinking. The look on his face says it all.

He walks over to me slowly. I can see that he is concerned. As he approaches me I remember why I was avoiding him in the first place.

"I can't talk right now."

"You've been avoiding me," he says.

No shit. After finding out what he did to Lady, things changed. I realized that Storm wasn't the person who I thought he was. Now that he was doing this I could tell that he at least cared about me, but now I may be the one doubting how I really feel about Storm.

"I can't talk right now," I repeat.

I start walking away but I don't make it far. Storm grabs me up. He pushes me up against the wall. Storm immediately starts kissing me. His tongue goes in my mouth. He rubs onto the side of my face, intimately kissing me and stroking the side of my face. I kiss him back rubbing up against his warm body. I can't help it. Before I know it we are both hard, pressed up against a wall feeling each other's bodies. He's the one who pulls off of me first and smiles slyly.

"I knew it was still there," he tells me.

"What?"

"Us. The chemistry we have. So now I'm kind of wondering why you've stayed away for so long. It has to have been killing you as much as it's been killing me."

"You want the truth?"

"Yeah."

I walk to the door. I open it in order to let Storm out. He doesn't walk through the door. He just stands right where he is.

"I haven't had time to think about us," I state, "I've been going through a lot of shit. Just a lot of shit."

He nods.

"I heard about Lady."

My heart drops.

"What?"

"That she is the number one suspect in Malachi's death. Supposedly there is a warrant out for her arrest," he tells me, "I'm sorry. I know you were close. I know---"

Storm stops talking. Somehow I've made it back over to him and I'm hugging him. He doesn't expect it. It shocks him into silence. When I do it though he holds me. He rubs my back allowing me to hug him as tightly as I want to. We hug each other for a long time feeling the warmth around one another. The feeling is perfect.

"She's a murderer, isn't she?" I ask him.

"I don't know," he responds, "Or at least I wasn't sure."

"Did you suspect it?" I ask, "Is that why Savannah shot her?"

There was silence at that moment. Storm pulls me back just enough to look in my eyes. Feeling our bodies up against one another feels so perfect. I never want to let him go but right now I know that I don't have a choice. I have to let him go.

He nods, "Let's go out for coffee. There's a lot that you need to know."

~

We get our coffees. Storm is very patient making sure that no one is around the coffee place. He makes sure that the waiter leaves. He doesn't drink the coffee. He seems too nervous too. I drink mine though. I wish it was a little stronger to be honest. I wish that things were a little different as well between us.

"I text my sister Tempest to join us if you don't mind. She should be on her way," he explains.

"Why?" I ask him.

"Well a lot of stuff happened last night supposedly. She wanted to tell me about it. I hope you don't mind."

"No. Not at all."

I wanted some insight on what happened last night as well.

"Before she comes I need to let you know about what you overheard," he explains, "Savannah did indeed shoot Lady. And we hid it so that Savannah wouldn't get in trouble."

"Why?"

"Lady was an addict. So was Savannah. So was Tempest..." he pauses and then states, "So were all my friends you met at the cabin."

"Including you?" I ask.

He nods, "Including me."

"Damn. I had no idea..."

He nods at that moment.

"Your cousin Malachi was our supplier. At first it was just normal shit. You know? Painkillers and shit like that. Then Malachi started experimenting into some...odd shit."

"Sounds like my cousin."

He nods at that moment, "There was this drug he used to give us. It made you think you were someone else. We all started using it but Lady got addicted to it really bad."

"Wait. A drug where she would change into someone else?"

He raises his eyebrows, "What? No. That's impossible."

Shit. Whatever drug he was giving Lady had to be some type of prototype to the pink pill. Storm looks at me like I just asked the weirdest question in the world.

"So how did this one work?" I ask.

"It was sort of like LSD. It had psychological effects. One day we would imagine we were kings and queens. The next day we'd imagine we were grand wizards. It was an escape. You know?"

"Escape from what?" I ask, "Your life is perfect."

"Perfect. You think?" he asks, "We are far from perfect. You've been around us long enough to know that. We wanted to escape and the drugs Malachi gave us made us escape."

I'm shocked but I want to be understanding of Storm. I can tell it hurts for him to tell this story. It must have been a really dark chapter in his life.

"What happened that night?"

"Well soon enough shit started getting...dark. All of us were changing and Lady was the worse. The others stopped taking it but Lady didn't and I didn't want her to get high alone so I took it too. Her personality just started getting...scary."

"Damn did you see it happening?"

"Yeah. I couldn't stop her though. Lady hit rock bottom. She lost everything. Her family disowned her and cut her off. That stopped the money from coming in. Then she started taking me down with her as well. I was at the lowest point in my life with Lady. We had nothing but I felt like it was OK because we had nothing together. Somehow she was getting more drugs. I only found out from Tempest later that Lady had been fucking Malachi in order to keep us stocked. Tempest and the others started getting worried about me. She's always been overprotective of me."

"And then what happened."

"When Malachi cut her off she became suicidal. She convinced me to go with her. We were going to kill ourselves that night. Lady had the gun. She was going to take me out first and then take herself out. It was going to be the last trip we took together."

"But then Savannah interfered and killed Lady. And we were so fucking high and fucked up we got rid of the body."

"Damn..."

"I know...do you look at me differently?"

I sigh at that moment.

"Addiction is a scary thing," I respond.

He put his hand on me, "Over the years I've been cleaning myself up. I'm not perfect. My life isn't what you said before. But honestly since you've come into it I realize that I don't need to be high anymore. I don't need to escape anything. Life with you in it has been perfect."

He reaches over and grabs my hand. He holds it.

"Lady is back though. And she killed Malachi."

"I remember how bad it got when she was going to kill me and herself all she could think about was killing. It's the drugs Malachi gave us. They eat at your brain."

"So why kill Malachi? Wasn't he her supplier?"

"He cut her off," a voice says.

We turn at that moment and see Tempest. She walks over to the table. I don't know how long she's been behind me or how much she heard but she seems to know exactly what we are talking about. Tempest sits down at the table at that moment.

"How do you know?" I ask.

"I know because he cut everyone off. I tried to reach out to him again the same day that he died. He told me Lady had contacted him and he was cutting everyone off because he felt like something had happened when Lady went missing. I think he suspected we did something to her."

"We did do something to her," Storm responds.

"She did it to herself," Tempest responds, "Savannah wasn't going to let that bitch take you out."

"It was my decision at the time too."

"Bullshit. She was manipulating you like she always did," Tempest replies, "She has a way of manipulating men. And I'm glad Savannah stopped her."

There is tension at that moment.

"You two have a lot to discuss. I should probably leave."

"Where are you going?"

I stop.

"Um...I was leaving."

"No you weren't," Tempest replies, "Me and Lady had a long conversation. She told me how you and her worked together. She told me you were only around to find out what happened to her all those years ago."

Storm looks over at me, "What?"

I can't deny it. It was even more complicated then what they were making it seem. Not only was I helping Lady but I was aiding.

"At first I just wanted to get close to you," I admit to Storm, "But then I thought you guys had something to do with killing Malachi."

"You thought I had something to do with killing your cousin?" he asks.

Tempest smiles, "I told you, brother. He's just another one of Lady's pawns. You got your heart so into this but now you see what his real plans were with you."

Storm looks disappointed. He is shaking his head over and over. He keeps doing it.

I feel stupid at this moment. Tempest has a smile on her face and Storm looks disappointed. It's clear that this has gotten under his skin.

"Is that it?" Storm asks me.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Is that the worst of it?" Storm asks, "What my sister is saying? Is there anything else you would like to add to that?"

I'm confused. Tempest is confused as well.

"What more do you need to hear?" Tempest asks, "He's up to something. He's sneaky. Drop him. What the fuck?"

"I'm not talking to you Tempest. I'm talking to him," Storm says, "Demarco. Is there anything else you wanted to let me know about."

The pill comes to mind. Tempest is looking at me. She just wants a reason to prove me right and end things between Storm and I because she doesn't trust me. A part of me knows that I never plan on taking that pill again.

I never planned on becoming Lady again.

"No," I respond.

"Fine. Then let's get out of here baby," he tells me.

He offers me his hand.

I look at it.

"Baby?" Tempest asks.

I'm shocked but I'm amazed as well. I take Storm's hand as he helps me out and we leave the table, leaving his sister in shock that her plan to break us up didn't quite work. All I know is that Storm trusts me but at the same time I'm well aware that I'm keeping a secret from him. A secret big enough to make Storm hate me forever.

~

"Damn baby," I moan, "Just like that."

Storm is eating me out. We are back at his apartment. I don't want to leave either. Right now He has me on the bed. At first I'm lying flat but his tongue feels so good that my body curls up into a little ball.

"Poke that ass out," he aggressively says in the sexiest way.

He pushes down at the center of my back. I arch my back so that my ass is on his face. Then he starts eating me out again. This time he goes deeper pushing his tongue deep into my ass while grabbing onto my waist. He holds tightly to my waist keeping me balanced. The feeling is so amazing that I start to shiver.

He grabs my dick and brings it between my legs. He starts sucking my dick from the back.

"Oh shit..." I say thru clenched teeth.

He laughs, "Am I not doing it right? I never sucked a dick before obviously."

This was a big step. It was different fucking and eating ass but Storm was actually willing to suck my dick right now.

"You're perfect."

He licks the head and takes the shaft as far into his mouth as he can. He uses a little bit of teeth but slowly stops using it. He lets his lips slide up and down my shaft. The whole time he grabs onto my ass cheeks shaking them hard. His wet saliva drips up and down the head of my dick. I can feel the orgasm coming. My dick tightens.

Storm doesn't stop sucking even as I start moaning louder and louder. He continues to suck even as I begin nutting, pushing out my warm semen into his mouth. Storm takes every last drop of it swallowing it completely and licking his lips afterwards.

"Tastes amazing," he tells me, "I can get used to that."

I smile at that moment, "Damn you're turn."

"OH word?"

He lays down and right before I suck his dick I see him pick up his phone. He's noticed some text messages.

"What's wrong?"

"Damn...it's Ebony."

Fuck.

MY heart drops. All of a sudden I'm scared.

"What happened to her?" I ask.

"No. This is Ebony reaching out to me. Ivory is missing..."

I'm confused.

Ebony was alive? Ivory was missing?

"Ivory? How?"

"I guess last night they switched dresses in the bathroom. Ivory didn't want to hang with Miles so she sometimes makes her sister do it. That's when we found out that Miles was getting Lady high. Ivory freaked out on Lady. She went to confront her. Never came back."

"Oh my god..."

"I know. I'm telling Ebony to call the cops."

"Wait," I respond.

"What?"

"Please don't."

Storm drops his phone. He looks at me though. He's concerned.

"Do you know something about this?" he asks me.

I have to tell him. I have to tell him or they'll call the cops and I'll go to jail for this shit. There was no way I was going to be able to explain to the cops that I can change into Lady without taking the pill. There was no way in hell that I was going to take the pill. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to explain to people that Lady was the one who killed Ivory and not me. All of a sudden I'm panicking. I don't know what to do.

"Storm I don't want you to hate me," I tell him.

"What are you talking about?"

He's suspicious.

"There is something else. Something I didn't tell you."

He is scared. I can almost hear Storm breathing heavy at that moment.

"Demarco what did you do?"

I pause. I have to tell him about the pill. I have to tell him about everything right now. Just at that moment there is a knock on the door.

"I'll be right back," he tells me, "We'll finish this conversation."

He gets up.

I am panicking. I reach for my phone in order to call Cupid. He still must be back at my house cleaning up the mess.

As soon as Cupid picks up the phone while Storm is out of the room I just start talking at the speed of a million words for minute.

"Cupid I don't have time to explain. I'm about to tell Storm about the pills. I need to make sure all of them are destroyed. Every last one of them. I have to make sure that Lady is completely gone out of my life. She is fucking up my life and I can't do this anymore."

There is a voice on the other line that answers me.

It's not Cupid's voice.

"Too late."

All of a sudden I have a feeling. A draft of wind. It's cold. It's not coming from inside me though. It's coming from outside. I just know I have to get up out of the bed at that moment. I start walking over to the front room. When I get to the front room I see Storm. He's talking to someone. The person was on the phone. They drop their phone.

Storm's face seems speechless at that moment but it is only matched by mine. The person looks over at me and smiles. We come face to face.

Finally,

Lady smiles at me, "Demarco. It's nice to finally meet you in person."

To read the next chapter in advance go to www.crushedcrown.com