As I walk into my next class, I inwardly groan when I spot the person who will be my extra help in this class. Stella is sitting at the back of the classroom, a satisfied smile on her face. Of course, Stella would be the one to volunteer to be in my pain class. Just freaking typical.

As I’ve managed to arrive late, again, there are no spare seats apart from right next to her. The universe hates me, I am sure of it. I glumly walk across the classroom and take my seat next to her without saying so much as a word. I look up to try and spot the teacher, seeing that they haven’t arrived yet. Huh, a teacher that shows up late, finally some luck.

Everyone is chatting, or on their phones. I reach into my bag for my own phone, glad I stopped by my dorm at lunch for it. I notice a couple texts from my brother. I frown and then open them, surprised by getting a message at all when we only talked on the phone last night.

I can’t help but smile a little at his frustration, knowing that my rejection of technology is a constant source of annoyance to my family. I go to reply, then I hear the door to the classroom loudly slam shut. I drop my phone, it hits the floor with a crack. Shit. I quickly pick it up and assess the damage. Fuck’s sake. A large crack runs right down the centre of the screen, several little cracks running off it. I can’t help but think that the shattered phone screen resembles the cracks on the arrow-struck circle of the twelfth mark. I tuck it back into my bag sorrowfully, I’ve had that phone for six years. I guess I’ll finally need to upgrade.

I jump again at the sound of something loud crashing down onto a table. I look up and see the teacher has loudly slammed a pile of books onto their desk. I gulp. There goes thinking I was maybe in luck with this teacher.

The teacher has long, black hair tied back in a low ponytail, pale-white, almost translucent looking skin, sharp features, and dark eyes that look like deep pools of nothingness. He’s tall and slim, but still somehow appears intimidating despite not having a broad frame. The look on his face is pure annoyance. Who the heck saw this guy and thought, ‘yep that’s the one, let’s hire him and give all the students nightmares?’ I shudder at the thought of this guy slipping into my nightmares, already feeling like he’ll be scary enough to handle in these lessons.

He looks around the room, pausing when he looks in my direction. Crap, what now?

“Stella, what are you doing in this class? You passed all three years of pain already,” he says, his voice is low and unpleasant. I turn to Stella, relieved it wasn’t actually me he was looking at.

“I know, it’s ridiculous, Uncle,” she responds, rolling her eyes. She jabs a finger to point at me. “I’m here to babysit this one, someone thinks she might have a little too much juice to play nicely with the other first years, but I’ve seen no evidence of that.” She huffs, and leans back in her chair, a look of annoyance that mirrors the teacher’s painted across her face, but her eyes hold a scheming edge. I flush, feeling every student in the room’s eyes on me.

“You are?” he asks me.

“Mackenzie Crowe,” I tell him, and he narrows his eyes at me and walks to the front of the class.

“I’m Mr. Tower, and welcome to pain class,” he says in a bored tone as he leans against his desk. “Pain is one of our strongest marks and one many people overlook because you cannot see it. The pain mark is very difficult to block and difficult to have any control over. I’m here to teach you control and how to use pain, without accidentally killing someone,” he explains, his tone sounding like he has repeated the same sentence a million times.

“Did you like the pain mark, Mackenzie?” Stella asks with a chuckle, and I glare at her.

“Fuck off,” I reply and turn back to look at Mr. Tower as he looks around the class.

“To use your pain mark is simple, you just imagine the mark and then the amount of pain you wish to cause that person. If you wish to kill them, you can. If you wish to paralyze them, you can,” he says and carries on listing as Stella whispers.

“I could have killed you, you know that, right?” I don’t reply or even bother looking at her as she speaks. “Stay the fuck away from Enzo and East, or I will kill you little Mac-ken-zie. The twelfth mark will be useless to protect you,” she says in a sweet tone, the tone is creepy as hell considering it’s laced with threat at the same time. I go to reply then I hear Mr. Tower speak louder.

“What’s your name?” he asks a blond guy in the front row.

“Sam Pagan,” the guy replies. Mr. Tower waves him over and straightens up off the desk. Sam stops in front of him, and Mr. Tower holds an arm out.

“Place your hand on mine and use your pain mark,” Mr. Tower says, and I lean forward on my desk to watch. Sam nods and does it. I wait for any reaction from Mr. Tower, but there isn’t any. Suddenly, Sam screams out, dropping to the floor. Mr. Tower grins sardonically, looking pleased with himself and making no move to help Sam up. What the hell was that?

“Pain is easy to stop and send back, as Mr. Pagan has just learnt. Another volunteer?” he asks, and there’s silence around the room. Who would be crazy enough to go up there?

“Uncle, Mackenzie just said she wants to volunteer,” Stella shouts out, and I narrow my eyes at her. Just friggin great.

“Both of you come up here,” Mr. Tower says, and Stella’s smirk only grows. She planned this. I slide out of my seat and walk to the front of the class, watching as Sam walks slowly back to his seat and gives me a worried look. I pull my eyes away from him and force myself to remember the protection mark Mr. Daniels’ taught me as I stand next to Stella.

“Now, I don’t expect you to use your full power, Stella,” he says and Stella chuckles, mumbling something I can’t hear, and likely don’t want to. “But, I expect you to show Kenzie how strong pain can be. Kenzie, I want you to try and use your pain mark against Stella,” he directs us, clearly thinking I don’t have a chance as he nods at me. Stella holds a hand out, and I call my protection mark, imagining it covering me and then picture my pain mark, the two seem to work well together in my mind, but I have no idea if this will work until I take her hand.

I force myself to forget the pain she made me feel at the party and place my hand in hers. There’s a slight wave of pain that shoots up my arm, but I concentrate, pushing the pain mark into my mind and imagining it hurting her. I glance up to see her eyes widen, seconds before she starts screaming and trying to pull her hand away, but I don’t want to let go. All I can remember is her threatening to kill me. To hurt me like she did before.

“Kenzie, stop this now,” Mr. Tower shouts, but I don’t see anything other than Stella screaming and the pain mark in my mind. I briefly imagine the twelfth mark, the arrow and the broken sphere, and I start feeling the mark burning on the back of my neck just before everything goes black.

* * *

“Kenzie,” East’s voice says gently as I blink my eyes open. East is holding me on his lap, my head on his shoulder and his hand wrapped around my hip.

“What happened?” I ask, looking around the room and seeing that we are in my bedroom, sitting on my bed. The curtains are open and the room is tidy. Thank gods, I cleaned up my underwear from the floor this morning.

“Mr. Tower had to knock you out when you used too much pain on Stella. You nearly killed her, Kenz,” he says gently, and I remember it. I couldn’t stop myself, and it felt like the mark was taking me over.

“Don’t worry. Some powers are harder to control, and pain is addictive. I have that mark,” he tells me, and I rest my head back on his shoulder. I feel safe around East, and I’m thankful it was him that found me. I glance down at his soft-blue shirt, and his tight jeans. He is looking as sexy as ever.

“I couldn’t stop, and then I pictured the twelfth mark . . .,” I say and stop talking. The mark just popped into my mind, pushing out the pain mark, but she was still screaming. So I must have still been hurting her. Everything is blurry, but I couldn’t have been holding her for more than a couple of minutes, or Mr. Tower would have stopped me sooner.

“The room shook, just before he knocked you out. I was walking past and ran in,” he says gently, moving to stroke my forehead. I stay still as I feel his hand get warm. He’s healing me.

“The room shook?” I ask when he pulls his hand away. I move a little and become very aware that I’m on his lap, all alone in my room. I try not to blush as he speaks, his voice is so seductive and he doesn’t know it.

“Yes, like an earthquake, but it was no earth power,” he replies. I nod, still a little speechless, and now I can’t think about the pain class at all. Sexy East is in my bed, holding me. Kelly is never going to believe this.

“Why are we in my room, and why am I in your lap?” I ask, and he chuckles.

“Don’t you like being on my lap?” he asks me, his tone dropping and his voice becoming even more seductive. I move my head up in confusion, wondering why he would flirt with me. A stray lock of his blond-tipped hair falls into his eyes, and as I reach up to push it out of the way, East meets my eyes. His gaze is full of desire, something I never thought I’d see directed at me. East has never looked at me like this before.

“East–” I start to say, and he kisses me. I freeze for a second, in shock, and then I respond by gently kissing him back. East’s hand slides into my hair as he deepens the kiss, the kiss is so powerful that I can’t think straight until he pulls away. Sexy East kissed me.

“Shit! I shouldn’t have done that,” he says in a gruff tone, moving me off his lap and standing up off the bed.

“Why? You wanted it as much as did,” I say, ignoring the trickle of doubt that comes into my mind. Did he not like the kiss?

“Ryan will go crazy. You’re his little sister, and—” he starts, and I cut him off, not willing to listen to excuses.

“Just leave,” I say, gesturing at the door. He stares down at me, not moving.

“Kenz,” he starts again, and I stand up, crossing the room and holding the door open for him.

“I’ve always liked you, East, but if you’re not prepared to be with me because of your friendship with my brother, then I’m not chasing you like all the girls I knew growing up, did. I’m not one of those girls, no matter how much I liked that kiss,” I say, and he chuckles, then it stops, and his eyes widen.

“Shit, you always liked me?” he asks, walking over and using that seductive voice again. I don’t breathe as he stops in front of me, so close that all I can do is look up at him. I know he can see how upset I am, and I hate that, I don’t want him to know he affects me.

“Always,” I answer, and he leans forward, kissing me gently, and then stepping back.

“I’ve got to call your brother,” he says with a little cheeky grin, but I know he is worried.

“East, are you sure?” I ask, and he nods.

“I want to date you, and I can’t do that if I’m lying to him. So, I’m going to tell him, and then I’m taking you out on a real date,” he says, making me blush.

“And, how do you know I’m going to say yes to that date?” I ask, and he chuckles slowly as his eyes rake all over my body before finally landing on my eyes.

“Kenz, I know you’ll say yes,” he replies confidently, before walking out of my room. I want to say no, but as I glance at his jean-covered ass as he walks away, I know I’ll say yes too.