You know how much I love you guys, and even when I torture you with cliffhangers, it's with love 😇 But since you asked so much and so sweetly, here's the new chapter a little in advance! I post it even if my eyes are hurting today, that's how much I love you! So I hope you'll like it, and I wanna hear all your thoughts in the comments 😘

'They told me you a killer, a killer

I saw your collection of hearts and I should've known better, better

'Cause they told me you a killer, a killer

And I've got no doubt that the only way out of this thriller

...Is if I am a killer too'

He was a murderer, and I was the broken and reckless girl who had followed him.

It was how all the horrors movies started. Well, I hadn't seen many, but the few I'd sneaked out to watch with Spencer were enough to tell me I would end up buried somewhere, serving as fertilizer for those dry bushes, and I would most likely be in pieces, seeing the knife Blade had twisted expertly so many times.

My instincts should have kicked in, my survival instincts, and I should have been put into motion by a rush of adrenaline. But I was just standing there, paralyzed. Even my fingers were frozen in a weird bend; my lungs were a lost cause, and my heart, I didn't hear any sound coming from it in the silence. The only thing spinning was my mind as I stared at the man, the murderer, in front of me.

"I was 15, and it was juvenile jail for killing a guy during a fight."

I didn't know how much time had passed, but the shaky breath I took in filled my lungs as if they hadn't had air for an eternity. He could still be lying and luring me, yet when he wanted to, his clear eyes became transparent, and they were as he continued with a shrug,

"I guess the judge was lenient because the guy I killed was twice my build and it wasn't a big loss for society, so I only got three years."

"The birthday's freedom?" I asked in a croaked whisper as I still didn't know if I was breathing.

All I was focused on was his blue gaze and the unaffected expression on his features, as his famous smirk was just hovering and twitching at the corners of his lips, a million emotions playing in it.

"Yes, that day, and the first thing I did was buying this bike." He nodded towards the shiny engine behind us, and I was sure I caught a glint of nostalgia before he started to walk again, as if he could still feel the need to get away and break free. 

"I drove until Subrose, and then I celebrated. That's all I remember." His chuckle could almost make me forget what we were talking about, and I was taken back to our first encounter when he'd offered to make me forget, and I was tickling with curiosity.

Today, I was shivering in curiosity, and I followed him without even thinking.

"I've killed a few others during other fights, or for some drug deals gone wrong, but for those, I didn't get arrested." He answered the questions before I could ask, even if I didn't want to know.

The delivery he'd done before he'd made a 'detour' to see me was, therefore, drugs, which also meant he was still killing people at the moment. It was a lot to process, and my brain wasn't even beginning to when I wetted my dry lips with my tongue.

"How many?"

"Um..." The way he pulled out his left hand and counted on his fingers until the whole intriguing design was exposed to my eyes was frightening. "Six."

I swallowed hard. Six lives taken, six beating hearts, six futures full of promises. I might have swallowed six times just at those thoughts, while his piercing gaze looked at me sideways, waiting patiently for me to react or ask another question.

I opted for the latter; I had so many. "And your parents... what do they think of it?"

If his expression was casual before, here, it turned even more nonchalant as the corner of his lips twitched in a full smirk. Yet it wasn't reflecting in his clear eyes. "My mom died when I was 7, and I've never known my father."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know. I shouldn't..." As my faint voice trailed off, the only instinct I felt was to reach out for him, hug him, grab his hand, anything, and the fact that he was a murderer was thrown away.

Maybe my instincts were 'broken' or 'shitty', but I knew the pain of losing a loved one and the emptiness it left inside.

"Don't. It isn't like she was a lovely mother, and my father was probably a scumbag!"

"Did she hurt you?" I was a little lost with his chuckles, but it was clear they were hiding more.

"Oh no, she was too stoned for that." He shrugged, his gaze crossing mine just enough time for me to be sure he was telling the truth before he focused on the endless desert ahead.

My hand lifted in the air, stopping one inch away from the smooth leather of his jacket, and dropping again, and like that a few times as I could feel the emptiness under. It wasn't slipping through any part of his unaffected stance, and it was impossible to guess when looking at him and hearing him, from his blue jeans to his dark leather jacket, and to the inks peeking out here and there, or his raspy chuckles and sharp words.

"Do you have other questions, inspector Dorothea?"

But I felt it deep in my guts.

My fingers went back to their twists and twiddles as he turned fully to me, and it was as clear as his piercing eyes staring at me under cocked eyebrows that he didn't want compassion or heartfelt emotions. He was a criminal; that was what he showed proudly.

"And your uncle, what did he think?"

"Pete? He's not really my uncle." He shook his head, letting out a chuckle that sounded more genuine as his eyes twinkled. "He was my neighbor before my mom died, and I called him like that. So now the old fella loves this 'title' too much!"

I smiled at the thought of the bearded man, and even more, trying to picture him with a little Blade, whom I couldn't imagine as anything else but a dangerous criminal in leather jacket.

"He wasn't in my life when I went to jail. I came here after, two years ago. So you were right, I'm kinda 'new around' Subrose, inspector."

"That's something I like to hear," I used his words from our Sunday 'party', meeting his sideways glance.

The atmosphere had switched again; it wasn't the same heavy, blood-curling silence as before, and my skin was warmer. Though it wasn't because of the steps we were taking as the scenery didn't seem to change, the same tumbleweed chasing us.

"And you?"

"Me?" He snapped his head to me, probably taken aback by the tone of my voice that wasn't a cracking whisper anymore.

"What did you think about... Do you regret it?"

"You have a lot of questions, you know?"

"Yeah, it's an old habit." He was raising so many questions in me, and now that he'd made me listen to my instincts, I couldn't stop them. Yet I didn't really expect him to answer.

"Um, I regret going to jail. That was definitely not a nice 'residence'."

"The tapioca?"

"Yes!" He offered me his disgusted grimace, and anyone who would have seen him in that instant wouldn't have imagined what we were talking about.

My head was still spinning to try to comprehend it, especially as he pursed his lips in a thoughtful expression.

"And about killing those guys..." He titled his head to the sky for a long minute, and as I observed the square angle of his jaw clenching and unclenching faintly and his eyebrows drawing together, I realized he may have never really considered this question.

"It was them or me." His gaze came back down to mine with a piercing intensity that made me reconsider everything.

Our realities, our lives were so far from each other, and all these gossips and tattletales, had they taken into account these details before calling him a murderer? It didn't always come down to 'seen' and 'heard'.

"And I don't regret to be alive right now, if that answers your question."

"I don't regret that you're alive either." The words escaped my lips without thinking – maybe from my guts – and I nibbled on my smile as I watched his dimple indenting deeper and deeper, starting to understand a little bit more all the dangerous nuances in it.

Though he still appeared like a mystery.

"I have one more question..."

"Yeah, inspector?"

I started to miss the 'Shooting star' nickname, but I was maybe asking for it with all my questions. I knew I had a lot, and for my defense, it was the first time he appeared so open, so I seized the opportunity.

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

Hearing it from him would have surely been less overwhelming than overhearing it from Diane and her rumors. I was tired of being the last one to know.

"I don't generally start my introductions to a chick like that!" He chuckled, this time lifting an inquisitive eyebrow at me. "You would've followed me if I'd told you 'hey, I'm Blade, I did jail time and killed 6 people, come with me'?"

That indeed didn't sound really inviting, especially in the silence around. Yet on our first encounter, he'd warned me that he only had 'bad intentions', and I'd still followed him.

"I had a gun." I shrugged, repeating the argument that had convinced me that day.

"And now?"

Now? I was still following him, even imitating his steps and stopping when he turned to face me, and there was no shiver of fear in my guts or any part of my body. I was going against everything I'd been taught, everything I'd heard or seen, and I was just trusting this sensation, this instinct deep inside. I didn't know why myself.

So I lifted my chin and an eyebrow, and with all the assurance I could muster, I replied, "You never know... Maybe I have one."

"Mhm... I knew you were hiding a lot under this skirt."

I may have spoken too soon about the shivers because they were definitely back on my skin, triggered by the devilish sparkle in his gaze as he was shamelessly running it over my silhouette, and I remembered that he was indeed dangerous. I would end up suffocated or burned with all his innuendos and even more crooked smiles.

It was the first time I glanced away for an escape, and I almost choked on my shallow breath as I took in what was behind Blade.

"See! My instincts aren't 'shitty'!" I exclaimed, almost jumping up and down to make him turn around.

I hadn't realized we'd walked so far up the small hill as I'd been too captivated by Blade's answers. But this in front of us was better than what I could have hoped for. 

My instincts weren't shitty. They were good; even better, they were amazing, and I may have felt the same rush of victory as when doing my spinning scale stunt just watching the breathtaking landscape.

A canyon, that plain little hill was hiding a canyon; it was part of it, and I watched in awe how here, the sandy colors were standing out in imposing and sculpted shapes, forming a unique gradation with the lights and shadows playing around. Even the dry bushes were more luxuriant here, with a few cactus flowers bringing fuchsia and white like a miraculous apparition. But what made it all more special was the sky, and all the colors the setting sun was adding to the scenery.

It meant we had wandered more than I'd realized, and mostly, it meant we were here at the most perfect moment to have the most beautiful view, and the most unique, as these colors would never ever be the same. It was magical.

"There's a wire fence."

Oh right, there was also this little detail that stood in the way and made us see the landscape through a hundred little squares. A little detail...

I turned to Blade and his cocked eyebrow, a slow Cheshire cat's smile forming on my lips. "You think this will stop me?"

I met his transparent blue eyes for just a meaningful second, and then, I ran to the wire fence, ready to fly as high as during my spinning scale performance. It was the perfect way to busy my idle fingers as I slipped them through the metallic squares, and even if there was less blurry chaos inside, I still had as much energy.

Yet I quickly realized it wasn't enough as my fingers were searing from my grip on the fence, and my energy lacked strength to propel my muscles up more than a few inches.

"Can you help me, please?" I glanced back at Blade, who hadn't moved from his spot, one arm crossed over his chest and the other holding his chin resting on his fist as he was taking a great delight in the attraction that I was once more, and my innocent look only turned his smirk slyer.

"You say it won't stop you, and you need my help?"

"Yes!" I abandoned my puppy eyes for a grin. "Now, come here and help me!"

I was talking to a murderer, yes. But the echo of his chuckle was the opposite of blood-curling, and the danger appeared somewhere else in his penetrating gaze for me.

"As you wish, Shooting star."

I was already lifting a foot as I expected him to give me a leg-up like any normal person. But of course, Blade wasn't normal or ordinary, and he walked behind me, grabbing my waist, and engulfing me whole in his dangerous aura from his hot breath creating goosebumps in the back of my neck to the rush of adrenaline in my veins as he easily hoisted me up in his arms.

I needed a few seconds to react and hold onto the fence, though I didn't really have to do anything as he handled me as if I weighed nothing, and I was left with my head spinning to only feel the trail of sparking powder along my neck, my arms, and my waist. 

I didn't know at which point my shirt had slipped out of the waistline of my skirt, but when his devious fingers landed on the narrow slit of exposed skin, I became clearly aware of this morsel of my body, which was not far from my guts.

When anyone could have feared that he would let me down, I had not a shadow of doubt through all the sensations in my guts. Besides, he was holding me securely, especially as his hands trailed down to give me a final push right on my butt, and my instinct, although disturbed by the statics tingling all around, told me that it wasn't by accident as his large hands lingered just a little too long.

"Ready?"

"Y-yes." I pulled out of my daze, as just like for my cheerleading stunt, I had to focus and I could only count on myself.

I grasped the wire tightly as he pushed on my behind, and I swang my legs over the barrier, all in one swift motion, and as elegantly as possible. I even did a victory pose. 

Here there was no one to bring me down. There was only the infinite of nature and Blade as he joined me, climbing the fence more easily than I had, more expertly...

"Thank you," I told him as he wiped his palms on his thighs.

"My pleasure." He grinned mischievously in reply, though I was already thankful that he hadn't peeked under my skirt while helping me. He hadn't, right?

His wicked gaze was making me doubt, so I turned to the landscape.

The sun had lowered just an inch, now adding brighter red on the tallest canyons and leaving a darker blue behind us. Even Blade was in awe in front of it, and I could almost glimpse all the colors of the scenery reflecting in his clear gaze, the warm rays of sunshine relaxing his features to form what seemed like a true smile.

"I think you owe my instincts an apology," I sang out as we walked closer to the edge, and more sculpted forms appeared to us.

"Okay, maybe your instincts aren't shitty... for this," he emphasized the last part with a lift of his eyebrows, casually taking a seat on the edge of the cliff.

"For everything." I offered him a confident grin before peeking over the edge because the way he was sitting with one leg hanging in the empty and the other folded to perch his elbow could have misled anyone to think he was on his couch, and not above an abyss.

Yet there was indeed the empty below, with enough meters to make it a fatal fall on the rocky ground under, even though the sharp rocks of the canyon were forming a few steps along the slope, so we could surely catch ourselves if we fell. I wouldn't have taken a seat otherwise, right...

Once seated close to the edge, there was something that made the landscape even better as my feet were swaying over the abyss, and I didn't think about the dangers. I didn't think about anything, just the calming view in front, and although I had no idea where we were, it would become my secret place.

"You know you're crazy?"

My peacefulness was already interrupted by Blade's question, though it wasn't in a bad way, and I liked the tickles his rasped voice created on my skin when he was close. Besides, it was only fair that he interrogated me too, even if this sounded too much like an affirmation.

"The slope isn't too abrupt, we can't fall much, and there was no sign or barbwire on the fence, so it must be some kind of touristic place. It's safe."

"I wasn't talking about this." The sun had barely descended of a few inches, but the mischievousness was fully back on his features, dancing in a play of shadows and lights from his right dimple to the arch of his eyebrow, and I didn't need to ask him to clarify.

"'Crazy', 'reckless', yes, there are a few gossips going around." I shrugged as if it was nothing, as if it hadn't almost pushed me over the edge one hour ago.

I was glad he didn't raise, and he probably saw it as he was back to examine the freckles all over my face, or maybe trying to pierce the mysteries of my insanity.

Maybe I was really crazy because, in this instant, as he was fixing me with this penetrating depth, I overlooked the unique sunset, not giving it a second glance, and mostly, I overlooked the fact that he was a murderer.

All that was left in my mind and all my body was him, the crystalline colors in his eyes, the contrasting dark pink of his lips, and the pull they aroused inside. I wasn't sure exactly what to call it. Curiosity? Lust?

I itched to wipe off the hint of smirk to find out what it hid under, and I wanted to dive deeper in the paradisiacal waters to meet the depths of his gaze.

So instead of raking my brain for a logical answer, I followed his advice. I closed my eyes, and I felt... his presence so close, his piercing eyes on me, the breeze that made his contrasting and intoxicating perfume engulf me, and that sparking tug inside my guts.

Like for our journey here, in two seconds, I knew where to head, leaning in and meeting his lips – almost meeting his lips because I stopped one millimeter away to let out a shaky breath, while he took in a sharp inhale.

None of us was moving, despite the cracklings our lips hovering over each other were creating in the tiny space, and while for me, the cause was clearly a remain of flitting insecurity, I desperately sought his gaze to understand why he hadn't closed the gap and to make sure his instincts were telling him the same.

They were, and it was quite clear in his eyes as they flicked down like a single nod, and with the faint flicker, the night seemed to fall all at once on his gaze. He was leaving me the choice again with a warning look that meant 'Kiss me if you're crazy', and I had the answer in my guts as I crashed my lips on his.

Instantly, I found back all the sensations from our first kiss: the smoothness of his lips, the contrasting vigor as he returned the kiss as eagerly, the indelible taste invading my mouth, while a sparking trail was spreading throughout my whole body. 

Yet there was something more than last time, something that made my head spin and caught my breath in just a few seconds, and I didn't even try to find an explanation.

Maybe it was because our lips were more frantic, maybe because my movements were a little bit more daring from my tongue tracing his lips to my hands wandering from his prickling cheeks to the soft hair at the nape of his neck. Maybe it was the danger of the edge so close, or maybe just the fact that we couldn't be called strangers anymore. But I didn't care. The tingling growing in my guts told me it was craziness, and I was gladly getting lost in this insanity as he deepened the kiss.

Now it wasn't only my head spinning, but each of my nerve-endings joining one by one. As for my breath, it was completely captured by his lips, and I realized I should have taken a breath before, as sadly, it was the reason I had to pull away too soon.

I kept my eyes closed though, taking in everything for a little bit more, and I became aware of some details I hadn't noticed in the rush of our lips, like how hard my heart was hammering against my ribcage, how hot my skin was despite the fresher breeze, and how closely his arms were keeping me. He was still filling almost all my senses that way, and actually, all my senses as I opened my eyes.

His gaze was already on me, of course, as magnetizing and mysterious. Yet there was no hint of dimple or sly smile on his redder lips as they were parted to breathe unevenly.

Had I wiped it off like I had wished to? It looked more like I'd smeared something else instead.

"Oh, sorry! I put lipstick all over." I giggled, trying to clean off the mess of red I'd left behind, but all I got were tickles as his lips moved under my pads.

"No need to." He grabbed my hand, pulling it away for me to see clearly the Cheshire cat's grin stretching his lips, and with my red lipstick smeared all over, it made the slyness even more apparent. "Because I'm going to kiss you again."

Once more, I didn't get to take a breath as he brought me closer in his arms, and my instincts were definitely telling me he would kill me with those devious lips.

***

Murderer, killer, I was starting to grasp the nuance. A killer was someone who killed, took a life; a murderer was someone who did it for evil reasons.

"I guess I drop you here like last time?"

A killer didn't always have a choice; a murderer always did.

"Yes, I'm not crazy to this point!"

A killer's first intention wasn't to kill; a murderer's intentions were solely to kill.

"Thank you for this nice trip."

A killer didn't premeditate; a murderer did.

"Anytime, Shooting star."

I felt the nuance. 

Blade may have had wicked intentions written all over his gaze, but he hadn't had a choice to kill, and his first intention had been a survival instinct. Besides, he'd said it himself: he never planned anything.

The gossips should have considered this nuance because the man in front of me may have been a killer, but he wasn't a murderer; otherwise, I wouldn't have stood on my tiptoes, and when I stopped for a second to gaze into his eyes, I could catch the nuance in the crystalline shade. It strengthened my momentum, and it was maybe also the impish smile, which lifted one corner of his lips.

He knew what I was about to do. It was our ritual. So I left a kiss on his right cheek like always, though each time my lips were closer to the corner of his smirk and slower, and I wondered where I would end up if this kept going, when this would keep going.

I had no doubt it would as I felt it in my guts when I walked away and gave him one last glance. I would see him again, and that made the way home so different from last time.

I focused on my guts and the warmth there, not on my chest, and I didn't even think or take a breath before reaching for the handle of the white door.

"Dorothea Duncan! Where were you?" This had a sense of déjà-vu, and apparently, I wasn't the only one to think that. "Again!"

"Hi, mom. Where's dad?" I asked as I glanced around the room, and here, the scenery gave me no déjà-vu.

The tawny sofa and armchairs were filled with only the embroidered cushions, and the only eyes on me were my mom's blazing ones and the judging stare of an angel figurine on the bookshelf.

"He's back at work because he has a lot to finish."

This meant one thing: he wouldn't be here to ground me and send me to my room, so I would have to endure my mom's endless sermon before going to my room.

"He'd come back earlier especially to see you at the game, and you weren't there for half of it. Can I know why? And you also have to explain why it's now your cousin the captain."

"Uh..." I pondered which question to answer, and it was choosing between a rock and a hard place. "I was feeling dizzy after my stunt." I decided on the rock apparently.

Yet my mom wasn't as understanding as Rachel. 

"Dizzy?! 'Never ever abandon a game', don't you remember?" Her freckles were becoming more visible, like her wrinkles, and as she shook her head disapprovingly, I knew where we were going. "Daisy finished a final performance with a sprained ankle!"

Here we were... The perfect Daisy, the perfect cheerleading captain, the perfect girl, the perfect daughter, and I would never meet the standards she had set, no matter how hard I tried. It wasn't my shooting skills or my capacity to calculate the speed of meteorites that would make my parents' eyes shine as much as she did.

"Dorothea, look at me when I talk to you!" She tapped my fingers to grab my attention and stop their fiddling.

"Your sister cheered so well the team that they won with an exceptional penalty kick, and do you know how the game went today? They lost!"

If their quarterback had been more focused, it surely wouldn't have happened, and I'd at least avoided him all the worry and pity I seemed to inspire him.

"And will you explain why you aren't the captain anymore? All the hard work and time you–"

"I know. It's Diane who stole my place," I muttered, the tensions in my jaw being for more than this place, and for a second, it widened my mom's narrowed eyes in a dumbstruck expression.

"Why?"

"Um..." I averted my gaze to my fingers again. "I missed a training..."

As I'd imagined, the anger was back in an infuriated gasp. "Again?! Where are you disappearing these days?"

I didn't know; it was the truth. Yet if told her this, I would have to explain why, and it would lead us to 'I was hanging out with a murderer – killer, more exactly'. It didn't sound like the wisest answer. She already resembled too much a jailor with her arms crossed over her chest, her pink apron doing nothing to make her look less imposing, and in this instant, I grasped another thing about Blade.

If he was like this, a killer, it was certainly because he was an orphan, and he'd had no one to protect him or ground him. It wouldn't have happened if he'd had parents like mine because I knew that I wouldn't be able to go out of my room just if they learned I was hanging out with a criminal, which was the reason I had to quickly find a lie to say to my mom, and a plausible one. It couldn't be a place where there were people who could contradict my alibi.

"I asked you a question, Dorothea!"

"The cemetery." That was the only place that came to my mind, and after all, it wouldn't be the dead who would tell on me. "I was at the cemetery." I peered up just in time to see her arms drop along with a sigh.

"Okay, go to your room." Her voice was softer, and although she quickly straightened up, smoothing her perfectly ironed apron, I still caught the emotion that had chased away her anger before she shook it away too. "And next time, try to go at another moment, and let me know."

I nodded, my chest shriveling more than when she was scolding me, and as I walked to my room, I looked up, sending a silent apology to Grandpa. He would certainly understand, and it was a case of force majeure. Maybe he would have even liked Blade.

No, cliffhanger this time 😁😇 Though there are still so many unanswered questions and promises... 😉 

Do you think Dorothy will be a killer or a murderer? 🤔🤫🤭🔫 And do you have any idea about the answers to all the questions we saw in the prologue? Why? Who? 👀

Let me know all your suppositions in the comments and all your thoughts about what we learned about Blade! He seems to have opened up, but is she right to trust him and her shitty instincts? 🤔😈

And also, don't forget to vote ⭐ if you liked this kiss and all the chapter 😘💕🌠🥰 You're my best motivation to write, so tell me if you want more!