2. CYRUS

CYRUS

A heavy pounding on my door jerked me from my sleep and I grumbled while clutching my duvet tighter, "I'm not going!"

"Cyrus Anthony Sinclair, you come downstairs right now or else!" my mother's yell vibrated through the walls and down my spine. My eyes flew open so fast and I jerked up in bed.

"I'm sick!" I tried again, in a desperate attempt to make her leave me alone but her scoff echoed and I knew there was no convincing her.

"You've been in your room for three whole days. You think I don't know what this is about?"

She couldn't possibly have figured it out, could she? Worried now, I bit my nails and jumped out of bed, moving around in my shorts with a racing heart.

She's going to kill me. She's going to bury me alive and then my father will stomp all over my grave, piss on it, dig me back open just to beat me up, crush my bones, smoke it, then present it to grandfather who'd call me the worst thing he can ever say to any of his grandchildren.

A disappointment.

"Cyrus…" she's growling now. I can almost feel her fury, her heat, her anger blaring through the door. She's a menace when she's mad and doesn't get her way. I still had her handprint from when she beat me up when I was ten. Had to tattoo on it just to hide the damn thing.

"Erm… c-coming," I faltered and looked around. The window. I could escape and start a new life in Mexico.

Antonio would be a nice name-

"Cyrus, honey?" her sweet tone wiped my head clear and silenced my thoughts. "You know your fear only makes me stronger-" my door flew across the room with one powerful kick and I ducked fast enough to avoid another permanent scar.

"Mom!" she walked into the room, grinning proudly, absorbed in herself as she rolled her shoulders with all the seduction of her slender body. The atmosphere in the room dropped as she licked up every ounce of fear I had going on.

"Now, would you like to tell Mommy about this?" she presented her hand, smiling at me.

That hand mustn't touch a part of my skin or else I'm done for. She'd find the reason for my fear and can turn it to be my biggest nightmare.

"I'm not a kid anymore. I can handle it." brave words but when they made her frown and tilt her head, I stepped back three paces.

She paused in the middle of my room and looked around the mess. "If you can't clean up after yourself and hide away in your room, you're still six! Now tell me what's going on."

One little slip up. How the fuck was I to know one of the kids had stayed back after the match? His dorky eyes behind those glasses looked frozen in shock but then the bastard recovered quick enough to steal a picture.

"I'm changing schools."

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'? Why not? You never wanted me to go there in the first place. What happened to 'mingling with humans is bad for you'?"

She rolled her eyes, "I won't let you run from a responsibility."

Curse her sharp eyes and intuition, or did she advance somehow and could get the information from the first taste of one's fear? I'd expect nothing less from a descendant of the Demon of fear. She had the ability to instil fear and extract information from one's fear.

"You're eating healthy. All those girls flocking around you with their lust is good for you. Now whatever fly is buzzing in your business, you what?" she arched her brows, waiting for me to finish her statement.

"Get rid of it," I completed with a tight swallow, earning myself a smile.

"Good. I made pancakes," her voice was soft again and all that yellow was gone from her eyes leaving her black pupils. "Have some now and when you return, I'll open a nice champagne for my little demon."

Demon was a belittling name and she knew how much I hated that reference. I wasn't a demon, I was a god, and gods don't hide in their room just because some nerd who didn't matter on the face of the Earth had a picture of them.

Something snapped inside of me, fueling my insides with pride? Ego? I didn't know what but when I punched the kid hard across the face and watched him struggle to get up, to run away, I knew what it was.

I could never hide before a mere mortal, a creation of dust meant only to live a short life and die miserably.

His grunts mixed with the crickets chirping of the night. That was where he belonged in the grand scheme of things. Beneath me. Under my feet to trample and squish when I deemed fit.

I watched as he got up and tried to run. He had blood streaming down his face. His nose was probably broken. Fortunately for him, he wasn't wearing his plain big round glasses.

I let him think he could get away but a tight and painful kick inside my stomach reminded me of the dangers of being here too long. I hadn’t eaten in three days and thanks to someone walking in on the meal I prepared, I couldn't get much.

Now I was weak, hungry and angry. A terrible combination.

Time to get this over and done with. I covered his distance in just two steps, grabbed him by the back of the head and slammed him hard against a wall nearby. With my arm tight over his neck, his legs dangled off the floor and fear flashed in those wide black eyes.

"Now here’s how it's gonna go." I should be able to hold out for about thirty minutes before going feral. I rummaged my mind looking for a quick and easy lay I could call over to my place and fuck. Maybe I'd pick up some girls along the way and fuck somewhere in a parking lot.

"You're going to delete that photo and forget what you saw."

"B-But I didn’t tell… anyone." he struggled to get the words out, fighting against my hold. It didn't feel like a fight if he wasn't even putting in the effort. It was just one punch.

Did humans grow weaker or did I just get stronger?

He shouldn't be so weak. He was a pretty well built guy. He seemed like he gymmed every once in a while. His shoulders were broad and muscles thick. I could feel it from his oversized hoodie.

"It's not what you said, it's the damn article," I growled, snapping back to his face. I was losing focus pretty fast, the hunger was making me dizzy and lightheaded.

"N-No one knows it's you."

Ah, of course. Humans and forgetting their intentions had a voice on their own. "No one should know but we don't know what walks amongst us, do we?" I saw my eyes flicker back and forth between black and gold in his fearful gaze.

Mother would sure love to drink from his pool of fear. I couldn't sense fear. It wasn't my department.

"W-What are you talking about?" he clawed my wrist, trying to get me to ease up on my hold but his struggle only irritated the shit out of me.

I could be anywhere but here right now-- hell! I wouldn’t have gone into hiding in the first place. How long ago was it that I felt fear? Afraid I had my cover blown. I couldn't just let this one live after what he had done to me… after what he knew…

"Take it down," I growled through clenched teeth and immediately, he was nodding.

"I will. Please let me go."

"It's no use. You know too much already-"

Shaking his head, he replied, "No. no, I don't know anything. I'll forget, okay? Please don't kill me."

"Oh shut up. It's not like you can suddenly activate amnesia…" did I have a cousin that could do that…? Fuck! I really needed to keep up with my family members but how could I when it was dad's sole mission to fuck anything.

I had siblings scattered all over the fucking globe. Wouldn't be surprised if brown eyes here was one of my step siblings.

"Please…"he begged again with tears in his eyes this time and I felt my cock jerk. Fuck! I needed to eat like right now.

His cry face wasn't so bad-- actually, he didn't look bad at all. Using one hand, I ripped a part of his shirt, ignoring his protest. I wiped his face clean of the blood and took a good look at him. I was a sucker for cry faces and it didn’t help that I was starving.

I could make do with anything right now.

I turned his face left and right, checking out his side profiles, "Hey, you're easy on the eyes, aren’t you?" and he had soft cheeks that I suddenly craved to sink my teeth into.

"Wh-What do you mean?" he trembled in my arms but held still for the evaluation.

A sick wicked thought crossed my mind and a smirk crept up my face.

"Please let me go," he suddenly looked alarmed. "I-I'll delete it. I'll take it down and I'll never tell anyone-"

"Oh, you won't," I mumbled, thinking to myself. I'd never thought about doing it with a guy before. Never had the urge, never fancied the idea. I believed I was thinking on my empty stomach, raging cock and half sanity because why the fuck was he starting to look really pretty?

"Tell you what, how about it becomes our little secret?"

His eyes brightened up with renewed hope and I saw him nod eagerly, "Yes. Oh yes, thank you."

What a clueless little thing! So I circled my hand around his throat with no gentleness or ease and yanked him closer, crushing him between the wall and my hard-- very hard body. He sucked in a harsh breath when my body slammed against him and I whispered just above his ears, "Then how about you and I make another secret right now?"

"What?"

"It'll be your secret we don't get to share this time. What do you say?" the warmth and feel of just holding a living and breathing human so close was already turning me the fuck on.

He smelled good. The smell of blood aside, his cologne was warm and inviting with a subtle spice to it. Even his skin-- I buried my nose in the crook of his neck and sniffed hard.

Fuck! All that warmth and softness.

I didn't know when I ground my cock against him, humping and seeking to draw out his pleasure.

"What the fuck are you doing?" this time, his voice was horrified.

"What do you think? Here’s a hint, take it out and stroke it.”