Dale nudged me and whispered in my ear, "Don't do this with him, Lia. He's not a good guy."

I rolled my eyes, what was with everyone warning me off of guys? I wasn't looking to date, I wanted to have a little fun and that's it.

After a swift game of "eyes", we started.

We were pretty much equally matched. The blonde guy's partner was fairly average, as was Aviana and he himself, well, he was hella good.

But so was I.

There came a point in the game where the ball Aviana threw started circling around the rim of one of the cups and blonde guy, he extended his hand and fingered it right out. That was unfortunately legal, barely, but legal nonetheless.

I scoffed. If he could play dirty, so could I. The next time, when his own ball started ringing around one of our cups, I bent down, keeping eye contact with him, and blew ever so softly, as the ball flew up.

Soon enough, I was kind of tipsy. I stripped my leather jacket off and felt all eyes on my arms, on my newly exposed tattoos, but ignored them because I was simply too drunk to feel self-conscious.

I was a little uncomfortable with the ravenously hungry way the blonde guy stared at them though.

When Aviana threw the last ball into their only remaining cup, we both cheered at our victory.

Dale grabbed Aviana within the next few minutes to dance, leaving me with Rae. Then K.C walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her tiny waist and whispering something in her ear. She turned around excitedly, because he had just arrived, and I walked away, not wanting to witness their obviously private moment. I felt an arm come around my shoulders as I made my way upstairs, and I looked up to see the blonde guy.

I raised an eyebrow, "Do I know you?" I played coy.

"No, but I would like to get to know you. I'm Parker."

Parker.

For some reason, it was a bit of a turn off to realize that two people had warned me about this guy.

"And you are?" He asked, as he led me upstairs. That should have been the first red flag.

When I didn't answer, he smiled, "Whatever, I don't need to know anyways. As long as you're screaming my name, I'm satisfied."

And then he pushed me up against the wall, his hands everywhere, and his lips crushing my own. I responded without hesitation at first. But when his hands crept up my shirt, I shivered unpleasantly; something about him felt really, really, wrong.

I opened my eyes and pulled away, saying, "Um, Parker, I don't think I want to do this."

He glared, his eyes flashing irritatingly, "Fucking tease, you're going to do this. You're going to do this because you're Saunder's bitch and this is going to hurt him and Mason," he snapped as he pushed me harder against the wall; I could feel my back bruise.

He was doing this simply because he had some beef with Dale and Hunter?

I was mad. No, I was extremely pissed off. I pulled me knee up into his crotch, causing him to curl up into himself, before my arm reached back, my fist clenched, and flung forward, right into his pretty little eye.

He recovered quickly though, to his credit, "Dumb bitch, you're going to regret that."

I stumbled backwards, right into a wall. Wait, why was this wall breathing?

Then I heard a smooth voice say in a chillingly dark tone, "And you're going to eat your words, Davis," Hunter snarled.

He pulled me back by my wrist, so that he could step in front of me. He rolled the sleeves of his button down shirt up his forearms and Parker laughed, "You're coming to my house and picking a fight with me, Mason? How stupid of you."

Hunter chuckled darkly, "We'll settle this next Friday, Davis. I'll let you off the hook for now."

Before Parker could reply, Hunter threw an arm over my shoulder and walked me out of there. He didn't stop until we were out the door and in his car. He didn't look at me as he said, "I'm not going to say I told you so."

I scoffed, "Good, 'cause if you did, I might just sock you."

He groaned, "Dale's going to have a litter once he finds out."

"A litter? With Aviana?"

He turned to look at me, locks of black hair falling onto his forehead and framing his bluer than blue eyes, "You have no idea what just happened, do you?"

Confused, I asked, "What do you mean? Y'all have some beef with this dude and I mistakenly thought he would be a good lay. When I realized what a creep he was, I took a hit at his pretty little face."

Hunter laughed, "Yeah, you did get him pretty good, didn't you?"

I smiled smugly, "I did; I learned that from my brother," when my mind belatedly caught up with my mouth, my smile faltered and Hunter noticed.

He ran a hand through his hair, "Do you plan on coming with me to explain what just went down, or am I going to explain to Dale myself that his cousin was assaulted and I'm driving her home?"

"I guess when you put it like that I should come too, huh?"

Before he could go anywhere, I asked, "What are you going to do next Friday? To Parker?"

Hunter's eyes darkened, "That's none of your business. All you need to know is that he'll learn his lesson in due time."

No matter, it would have been easier if he told me. But I would find out one way or another.

Hunter was silent for a moment before saying, "I talked with Tessa a little more today."

I nodded, "You're learning."

Then, out of the blue, he was unbuttoning his shirt and I was left flustered, trying unsuccessfully to avert my eyes, "What-what are you doing?"

Hunter looked up, smirking at my discomfort, "Don't get your panties in a twist. Am I making you all hot and bothered?"

I glared, "No!" I denied, rather loudly.

At that, Hunter raised an eyebrow as if telling me that he could see right through my blatant lie.

I sighed, "Well can you blame me? I'm kind of frustrated, considering Blondie rubbed me the wrong way."

At my bluntness, Hunter laughed. He shrugged his button down off and that's when I saw it, the blackberry on his bicep.

"Oh my god. Is that- Tessa's?" I breathed.

Hunter smiled, clearly pleased with himself, "It is. You'd be surprised the sympathy I can conjure up for a person facing unrequited love."

I saw myself in him, and that scared me. It took most people weeks, if not months, to get the tattoo of someone who wasn't family. I was a rarity in the fact that I could feel so much for a person in so little time, even a day would suffice. Even though Hunter didn't have nearly as many tattoos as I did, the fact that two days listening to Tessa's problems and he cared enough for her tattoo to appear, showed that he shared this unique curse.

That absolutely terrified me, because he had somehow managed to save himself from that curse, until now.

When I didn't smile, he frowned, "Are you not proud of me, this is all your doing, you know?"

I shut my eyes tightly at those words. I felt a stinging pain as I realized, yes, this was all my doing.

"I'm sorry," I choked out, "You're right, this is all my fault."

I felt a warmth over my hand and opened my eyes, to see Hunter's hand, marked with one of his black angel wings, lying over my own fierce phoenix. I looked up to see concern in his eyes as he asked, "I don't understand, you're acting like this is a bad thing."

I nodded, "It is, don't you see?"

Hunter shook his head, "No, I don't see. I'm happy, can't you see that? I may not understand why you no longer want to care for people enough to bear their tattoo, but I am thrilled to do so. I feel like I've crossed a thousand hurdles to finally get where I am. It's like...I've got so many issues, but I am just so happy that those issues haven't changed the fact that I'm human. I have solid proof of my own humanity now, because, honestly, what is more human than empathy, than love?"

I was in awe to say the least. But I couldn't help but feel like he was being naive, "You're so lucky that the universe has let you keep your faith in humanity. But it hasn't been as good to me, Hunter. These tattoos, every single one of them abandoned me, except for Dale, I suppose. But I guess it will only be so long before he follows suit."

Hunter shook his head, "I know Dale, he would never abandon his family. Now let's go, we have to tell him about Parker Davis before he busts a nut in worry."

I sighed, but nodded, "Ok."

He took his hand off mine and I couldn't help but miss it. I watched him pull on his shirt and button it up fast as lightning. I shook off the ridiculous feeling of loss and followed him back into the house.

Dale's reaction was not what I expected. I thought he would tell me he told me so, scream at me, hell, I wouldn't have been too surprised if he had a heart attack but I was shocked when he crushed the red solo cup in his hand, spilling cheap beer all over his hand as he growled out, "I'll fuck the little bastard up."

Aviana, who stood right beside him, and she seemed to be the only sensible person aside from me as she asked, "The hell?" At the same time that I said, "Excuse me?"

Then K.C and Rae were there and when K.C asked what was going on, Dale snarled, "Davis thinks he can fuck with one of ours and get away with it."

At this, K.C's face darkened and Rae clung to his bicep, whispering something in his ear that calmed him down a little.

He spoke in a scary voice, "No matter, we'll take care of him in the ring."

Aviana and I both cried out, "What?!"

They were obviously talking about some form of organised fighting and both Aviana and I were clueless to this sport of theirs.

Rae, on the other hand, didn't seem the least bit surprised by this astonishing development.

K.C swore under his breath, "Shit, sorry man, it completely slipped my mind. I forgot you haven't told them."

Dale slowly met Aviana's eyes nervously, as she stood, her arms crossed and her hip cocked, "Tell me what?" she asked in a bone-chillingly calm voice.

Dale gulped, "That you're the most wonderful girl I've ever met and I love you forever?" He smiled uneasily.

Everyone except Aviana and I stifled their laughter. I would have been amused by the scene of Dale groveling at Aviana's knees too if I hadn't been just as in the dark as her.

"Oh really?" Aviana asked.

Dale nodded fervently.

Then she hooked an arm around Dale's waist and said, "Let's take a walk, shall we, babe?"

Reluctantly, Dale was dragged away by Aviana.

I huffed, "Does anyone want to tell me what's going on?"

When Hunter wouldn't meet my eyes, I turned to Rae, whose face was as guilty as she was.

She sighed, "The guys go to this underground fighting arena thing every Friday."

"Is that even legal?" I inquired, seething.

K.C smiled, "Not entirely, I suppose."

I nodded stiffly, trying to process this information, "And by the guys, you mean?"

"Myself, your cousin and K.C," supplied Hunter.

I huffed once again, crossing my arms over my chest in irritation, "And nobody thought to inform me of this mind-boggling fact?"

Rae cringed visibly, "In the guys' defense, even Aviana didn't know until now. If anyone finds out, it's always by accident. Including me. I only found out because my boyfriend was secretly going somewhere every Friday night and I got suspicious and followed him."

"Fair enough," I said, "But do you expect me to be okay with this?"

Rae laughed, "You'll accept it eventually. It's part of them and to be honest, you're taking it far better than I did."

I had to ask, "And how did you take it?"

K.C frowned, "She didn't take it. She broke up with me for two months."

At this, Rae said, "But I couldn't stay away, could I Care-bear?"

K.C reddened at her pet-name and I interjected, "And that's my cue to leave."

I turned on my heel, walking out of the house. I had just gone out the front door when Hunter caught up with me, "Need a ride?" He asked, falling into step beside me.

I nodded, "Yeah, I do."

On the way home, I asked, "So Dale's going to fight Parker next Friday?

"No. You don't need to worry about your cousin, he's just talking shit right now. He knows Davis is better than him. I'll probably fight him next Friday."

For some reason, that didn't ease the tumbling anxiety in my stomach in the slightest bit.