Awaken

  Awaken

  Half-Blood Academy Book 1

  Emily Ash

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Want more?

  Prologue

  Drake

  Rue’s lips tugged me awake, and I woke with a smile.

  “Mmmm.” I chuckled. My hands went below the covers to between my legs, brushing Rue’s hair out of her eyes. She licked and teased my cock just the way I liked it. Her hand tightened around my shaft as her head glided back and forth. As she picked up the intensity, I tilted my head back and let the pleasure build within me. I wouldn’t let her keep going like this for long. No, I’d flip her on her back and return the favor. I knew what Rue liked.

  “Damn, girl,” the words floated out of my mouth.

  “Drake? What the fuck?”

  My eyes snapped open. Rue was standing in the doorway to my room.

  “Rue?”

  I tossed the covers back on my bed to reveal a gorgeous brunette tucked between my legs. The woman sat back on her heels, her tits on full display. My heart thumped in my chest. It was a fucking nightmare. Only this was real. Rue ran out of my bedroom and down the stairs. I scrambled out of bed before realizing I was naked. In the dark, I fumbled for a pair of jeans. I tugged them on and bolted out after her. My cousin Izzy poked her head out of her bedroom door across the hall. “What’s going on? Rue here?”

  I ignored her as I ran after Rue. I caught up with her on the busy city street in front of the brownstone.

  “Rue, wait.”

  “Don’t fucking tell me to wait. Don’t say anything!” She pointed at me with her car key in hand. At that moment, I was caught up by how beautiful she was. Rue wasn’t one to get dressed up, and there she was looking unbelievable in a fiery red dress and high heels. She did it for me and yet there is no way that I could explain what had just happened. I walked forward, willing the right words to come to me.

  “No, you don’t get to try to make this right. This will never be right.” Rue turned on her heel and walked much slower to the driver side of her car.

  I wanted to say sorry, something, anything, but I didn’t. Rue stepped on the gas and left without a backward glance.

  “Problem, lover boy?” A college guy called out from next door at my uncle’s bar. He and his buddies laughed.

  “Go fuck yourself,” I said, turning to go back inside.

  Rue

  My foot slammed down on the accelerator as if I could somehow speed away from the pain. Inhaling, my breath came to me in sobs, and I had no one to blame but myself. I deserved to have my heart broken for trusting Drake again. Cool summer air poured in through the car’s open windows, whipping my hair across my face and causing it to stick to my tear-stained cheeks. Fuck Drake, I thought, wiping my face with the back of my hand. Mascara ran down my cheeks, stinging my eyes, and blurring my vision. With one hand, I navigated the curved back roads while rummaging in the car’s interior for a tissue. Unfortunately, the road curved right, and I stayed straight. I looked up in time to see the massive oak dead ahead. My high heel slipped off the gas. Before I could hit the brake, the car slammed into the tree head-on. The impact reverberated through my body, tearing muscle and breaking bones. I felt my body go airborne as the backend of the car pitched forward, the force sucking my body out of the driver’s side window and throwing me to the ground. My last conscious thought was of Mya. I didn’t want to leave my younger sister forever. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered as I took my last breath and my eyes fluttered shut.

  My soul pulled free from my body, floating upward to that great heavenly unknown. I couldn’t fight it. My body was too broken. Death had come for me. I didn’t see any angels or bright light, but an overwhelming sense of peace flowed through me like the warm blood that had pumped through my veins moments ago.

  Until the pain hit.

  My sole was yanked back and chained to a beaten body. I would have screamed if I could. No word or sound came to my lips. I couldn’t even breath. I felt the piercing pain of every broken bone; the throbbing ache of each internal injury. I prayed for death to come back. How long would I have to lay there and suffer before peace would wash over me once more? I hadn’t been a saint, but surely I didn’t deserve this hell. Agony joined in then, its arrival forcing out all conscious thought.

  Drake

  The woman was gone when I walked back upstairs. Who in the hell was she and why was she sucking my dick? I sat on the edge of my bed, my head in my hands as I tried to make sense of it. The young woman’s face floated before my eyes. I vaguely remembered her. She had come to the bar before and always ordered a dirty martini, straight up, double the olives. Tonight was the same. The images were grainy, but I remembered serving her. Then we got slammed. The bar filled up. I poured drinks all around.

  How was it that I could remember what the woman drank, but not how she got between my legs? I pulled my hands away and braced them beside me, staring at the floor.

  Son of a bitch.

  There just under the bed was the woman’s lacy black thong.

  What the fuck did you do? Rue and I had been through some shit. No one could deny that. I was an asshole. I could admit it. But I thought I had changed. The joke was on me. There was no redemption now

  Rue

  I woke at daybreak. The sky was lightening to a soft purple hue. I opened my eyes and could make out the shadows of the birds above me, chirping and dancing in the trees. The earth was damp beneath me as was my hair and dress. The thin material clung to my legs courtesy of the morning dew. The pain was still there, but it had morphed into a dull throb as opposed to the burning, piercing sensation that had robbed me of my consciousness. Hesitantly, I wiggled my fingers and my toes. They moved as directed, sending pins and needles through my nervous system as my body came back to life. I lifted my hand and touched my face. My cheeks, lips, and nose were all in place. My mouth was dry. I closed my lips and cleared my throat. Taking in a deep breath, my lungs burned and caused me to cough. Instinctively, I sat up and coughed a few more times. My knees pulled up as I sat forward, my forearm resting on them. I turned my head and looked around me and then at myself. I ached deeply, but my body was whole and healed.

  The car was another story. It was a mangled piece of metal. The realization that I was alive was soon replaced with panic. My adoptive mom, Felicity, would be a wreck herself when she woke and saw that I wasn’t home, but that would be nothing to how I would explain the car. If Felicity knew I was in an accident, she would lose it. The woman always worried about me, actually, about everything. She defined the word overbearing. It didn’t matter that I was now an adult and not the scared child she adopted all those years ago.

  I felt the panic rise in my body and threaten to take over. Anxiety attacks had plagued me my entire life. I had to act before this one took me under. With that, I knew what I had to do. I carefully stood, making sure that I truly was okay, and then I retrieved my high heels and the keys out of the car and started making my way through the woods back home. Running was always something I was good at.

  One

  Two months later…

  Rue

  I should’ve felt guilty, but I didn’t. I thumbed the last twenty before discreetly tucking the cash into my back jeans pocket and exiting the hall. When would dumb boys learn? Just because I was a pretty face didn’t mean I couldn’t hustle. Maybe next time they’d think twice before slapping their rent money down on the table. Who was I kidding? Of course, they wouldn’t. Not with their pride hurt like it was. They’d be after redemption.

  Perhaps I’d been a little bit ruthless. I suppose all men weren’t jerks, but I still wasn’t giving them their money back. Without my car and Felicity’s hands on the insurance check, I had to hustle double time to make enough money to leave town.

  The hinged door slapped shut behind me, silencing the drunken noise with it. I welcomed the street traffic and damped nighttime air. Lifting my face to the moon, I inhaled, drinking it in. Urban decay got me in a good way. It left me alone to do my own thing. In a way, I’d miss the vacant warehouses and crumbling cement when I left. I resisted the urge
to recount the cash. It should be enough. It had to be. If anything, the freak accident taught me was you couldn’t wait to start living your life. You might be dead before you knew it.

  I could feel Drake’s eyes on mine before I even looked up. When I did, we glared at one another with a bitterness that ran much deeper than a recent breakup. It was difficult to tell which emotion hit me hardest. Betrayal won out in the end. I had heard too many explanations, too many lies, to believe anything he said anymore. I would never be vulnerable to Drake ever again. That was a promise. Drake closed his eyes and silently shook his head. I knew he was thinking the same thing. That’s just how it was with us—a disappointment.

  I looked down at my phone. Dread filled my stomach. It was almost eleven o’clock. Even though Felicity was working late, she’d be home by now, freaking out that I wasn’t there yet. The missed calls and texts confirmed it. Mya was probably getting worried, too. My heart gave a squeeze at the thought of leaving my younger sister behind, but with her bright mind and outlook on life, I was confident she would bounce back from my absence. I thought of coming back for Mya after she graduated from high school, but who was I kidding, the kid was smart enough to be a Rhodes Scholar. She’d end up at a prestigious university somewhere that is if Felicity didn’t guilt her into staying close to home.

  I sighed. Suddenly the dollar bills hadn’t seemed worth it. I didn’t even look back at Drake. Instead, I pulled up my hoodie and cut through the alley, taking the shortest route home.

  Warm rain started to fall. I looked back up at the moon, noticing the approaching storm for the first time. Usually I’d welcome a good thunderstorm, just not when I was out walking in one. I picked up my pace as if I could outrun the raindrops.

  And I wasn’t alone.

  Right in the middle of the block-long darkness, I heard the footsteps behind me. I kept my fear in check. It was probably one of the guys from inside, wanting their money back. I needed the money, but it wasn’t worth my life. I turned and looked over my shoulder.

  I was wrong.

  The man moved ungodly fast. He was on me, slapping his filthy hand across my mouth and slamming me against the slick brick wall before I could react. I couldn’t even gasp. My feet dangled off the ground, pinned up by the man’s knee. His body pressed hard into mine. I gripped at his forearm as it dug into my neck. It was pointless. I dangled off the ground helplessly, unable to process how this had happened.

  The man’s face was inches from mine. I had never seen him before. My eyes flashed with fear, and he smiled. His teeth were blackened, his mouth reeking of the decay. He bent close, inhaling my scent. “I found you,” he said with delight as if we had been playing a game of hide and seek. His pupil turned to liquid ink, and flames filled his eyes. I heard the blade flick out from his hand.

  “Where should we start?” He brought the silvertip up to my cheek. “Maybe just a little taste?” I didn’t dare flinch. “Or should we dive right in?” The blade traced my heart. The man licked his lips. I pushed my back harder into the wall. The grout cut it into my skin. His face came closer to mine as he inched toward my neck. I prayed the bricks would break and swallow me whole. He traced the blade along with his finger. The tip bit into my chest. I winced despite myself.

  The man barked out a cruel laugh. “Oh yes, this is going to be fun,” he purred into my ear.

  His pleasure, coupled with my pain, awoke something deep inside me. I already had scars on my body. I wasn’t planning on anymore. I felt the heat uncoil before it consumed me. Blinding white flames erupted from my fingertips. The man screamed and gripped his arm, freeing me. I dropped to the ground in a crouch position. One good thing that came out of my relationship with Drake—he taught me how to fight. The man quickly recovered, but his lunge toward me was met with a swift kick in the groin and a punch to the face. I pulled back with my opposite hand, ready to strike again. As I did, the man thrust his blade at me. Instead of following through with the punch I had planned, I twisted his hand, causing the edge to run into him. His expression froze in shock. Thick black blood bubbled out of his shirt like hot tar. I jumped back. The man dropped to his knees. Looking up at me, he growled and opened his mouth to speak. But it was too late. Before a word could escape, he exploded into a swirling mass of darkness. I shielded my eyes and felt a warm white fire surround me, protecting me. Within seconds the darkness lifted, and I was left alone in the alley.

  Two

  Drake

  What in the hell was she doing here? Guilt thumped in my chest. I jerked to a stop at the sight of Rue stepping out of O’Neil’s and into the night. I didn’t want to look at her, and yet I couldn’t look away. This was my turf. She knew that. What happened to our mutual agreement? Who was I kidding, Rue never played by the rules, and either did I.

  That is unless she wanted to see me? My heart rate picked up at the prospect. I hated myself for it. Her steely gaze told me that hadn’t been the case. I closed my eyes and shook my head. No, Rue would never forgive me, and I didn’t blame her. A slew of words threatened to spill out of my mouth, mostly cursing myself. I had to learn to let her go. I didn’t deserve her. I could spend a lifetime questioning my choices and never understand them.

  I swallowed the bitterness back and turned to walk inside. Rue was on her own.

  “You’re late, Drake,” the deep voice boomed over my shoulder.

  I nodded to my uncle that I heard him and hung my coat up behind the bar. The Thursday night college crowd was in full swing. The pool tables were packed, pitchers of beer flowed, and the girls were plenty. I tried to focus on that last fact.

  “Oh, I know that look,” Kate said, working the taps to fill a couple of tall drafts. I attempted to ignore my cousin as if that would make her shut her mouth. “You ran into Rue, didn’t you?” she continued.

  My scowl answered her question.

  “Why did you two break up again?” she asked.

  Again. I repeated the word to myself before saying, “Hell if I know anymore.” That was a lie. I knew damn well why weren’t together anymore. I just wasn’t going to tell Kate. I didn’t need another person thinking I was a piece of shit. “Where are these going?” I motioned to her tray. Kate pointed to the group of college guys racking up another game at the far table. I nodded, taking the tray without another word.

  A tall redhead winked at me as I crossed the bar. I smiled naturally in return. Maybe it was time I tried to forget about Rue. I held on to that hope and made a mental note to get the girl’s number on my way back. I had to move forward — nothing like a pretty new face to make you forget the past.

  “Dude, she hustled you.” I overheard one of the guys say.

  “She can hustle me all she wants with tits like that. I just want to put them in my face.” The other guy replied, pretending to motorboat an invisible pair of breasts in front of him.

  His buddies all laughed.

  Rue. She was at it again. She could hustle with the best of them. Anger instantly pulsed hot in my veins. Let it go. She’s not your girl anymore. And if I was honest, her breasts were nice. A polaroid memory flashed in my head. I shook it away. She was the past. I focused on the present and the thought of this dumb ass making a pass at Rue. I laughed out loud.