Shameful by May Dawson
70
Legacy
Lucas slapped me again,and my head jerked to the side. I tried to punch him, and he blocked my punch, slapped me again. Pain exploded through my face. Blood hummed through my ears, the rest of the world suddenly muffled.
I couldn’t hear anything. All I could see was his furious face as he came towardme.
I feinted, then punched him across the face. His head snapped back, but he twisted and grabbed me, yanking me against his body. The two of us fell together, scrambled across the ground. He managed to get on top ofme.
He was incredibly strong and for a second, when he pinned me, I felt the same flash of submission that I had before.
Old habits die hard. But they don’t ownus.
He was starting to grin, as if he knew what was going through my head, when I slammed my head up into his mouth.
My forehead slammed into his teeth, and he pulled back, blood running down from his mouth. Arrogance will get anyonehurt.
I gathered my legs, trying to throw him off me, but he fought back, his hand going to my throat. He began to choke me the same way he had before.
The world faded black around the edges. Through the haze, I could see Rhett and West, fighting their way to me. Rhett had managed to grab a gun from a shifter he took down and he headed toward me, but then another shifter raised their gun at West, started to pull the trigger. I tried to call a warning but my throat was blocked, and all I could do wasgag.
Rhett glimpsed my face, somehow understood what I would’ve said and spun, searching for what I was looking for. He pulled the trigger before the other guy could get a clear shot at West, and the man fell. West turned, realized his brother had been watching hisback.
My fingernails sank into Lucas’s forearm, trying to pull him away. I knew my men would try to help me, but I wanted Lucas on my own. I had to find my own way to defeathim.
Tania suddenly slammed into Lucas, and for a second, the pressure was off my throat. I drew a desperate, ragged breath.
“Fuck you for hurting my best friend!” Tania yelled. She punched Lucas across the jaw as hard as she could.
Lucas slammed her head down into the concrete. He might’ve hit her again but Courage was there, trying to kick Lucas in the head. Another shifter ran toward the two of them and Lucas abandoned Courage and Tania to turn toward me. We might’ve broken up, but the creep still had eyes only forme.
“Legacy,” Lucas said, the word rolling off his tongue.
The two of us fought and rolled into the pool. The ice cold water was a sudden shock. As the two of us struggled, we sank down, locked together, surrounded by churning water and bubbles.
I kicked out away from him, desperate to draw a breath. The two of us surfaced at the same time, both of us gasping. My lungs burned.
Then he jumped on top of me and pushed me down, holding me under the water. I kicked and fought, trying to escape.
Then I felt a cold, charged current flowing around us both. The hair on my arms began to standup.
Our ghost wasback.
I kicked out desperately. Lucas was smiling down at me through the water, his face fixed in a maniacal grin as he held me under.
“If I can’t have you, no one can,” he said, his voice muted by the water. “You’ll be alone forever in the afterlife. Unmated. Unwanted. Un—ggh!” His voice cut off as he suddenly dipped below the waves.
His eyes were wide with panic, and air bubbles slipped steadily from his mouth.
A dark blot in the water spread aroundhim.
I kicked up for air, surfaced and drew a ragged, aching breath.
Lucas’s head broke the surface. “Helpme!”
He was dragged under again as if the ghost were playing withhim.
Then he bobbed to the surface again. His desperate, bloodshot eyes met mine. “Legacy, help!”
“Nah,” I said. I got out of the water, my legs shaky, but still managed to stand tall. “You tried to drown me in your bullshit. Now you can just drown.”
The ghost pulled him down to the bottom of the pool. His arms broke the surface one last time, and then a dark blot spread across the surface of the water.
When the dark blot disappeared, his broken body was floating on the surface of the tranquil green water.