Disclaimer: I don't own The Covenant.

Co-Author: SkryyRyder

A/N: I love this story. I'm pretty sure Skyy does too since we're pissing out chapters. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Keep them coming as usual!

Fallen Now is Babylon the Great

Chapter 13: Blood is Thicker Than Water

-Reid's POV-

"I can't Reid. It's just... it's just not the kind of attention I'm used to. I don't like it. I just have a certain level of… dignity to maintain."

The words she'd spoken last night rang through my head. I finally figured it out. Her weakness. The thing that I could use in my favor to get her to do the things I wanted; to manipulate her. Guilt.

All I had to do was tweak the tone of my voice a little, make it seem like she hurt me, offended me. And just like that, she was sold. I kissed her twice last night. A girl who hasn't ever voluntarily kissed someone before kissed me twice last night. Once outside of Nicky's and once before she got into her car back at school.

That girl has some nice lips. Soft and sweet. And her hips felt very nice in my hands. That's the hardest part with girls like this. The first kiss. Now that that's over, I'll be at third base by the end of the month! Hopefully...

I can't forget who I'm dealing with here. The Virgin Mary isn't going to give it up without a fight.

I pushed that thought away. I still had till Spring break and it was only the beginning of November. I'm good. That's plenty of time. I'm just gonna ride my victory today and keep playing the sensitive guy card.

"Reid?" I turned to look at Ty as he buttoned up his oxford, almost ready to head to class.

"Sup Baby Boy?" I responded, carelessly running my hands through my hair. Who needs a brush?

"You're not... really gonna go through with that bet, are you?" My eyes narrowed in the mirror I'd been looking in and I spun around again to face him. What the hell is he playing at?

"Fuck yes I am. I've already got her wrapped around my finger. Putty in my hands." I demonstrated by wiggling my fingers. "Why the hell would you think I wouldn't?" was the real question.

Tyler loosened his tie a little before carefully smoothing his hands over his styled hair. "It's just that... Kate and Sarah seem to like her a lot. And she's a lot cooler than we all originally thought."

He has to be fucking kidding me.

"I'm not backing down from Abbot, of all people," I hissed, the mere idea making my blood boil. That's just what I need, Aaron to have one up on me.

"Yeah, well when Kate and Sarah find out, they're gonna be pissed. And you're really gonna end up hurting Babylon and she hasn't done anything to deserve it." When the fuck did Baby Boy get balls? He's almost in my face over here!

"Listen, no one is going to tell Kate or Sarah... and especially not Babylon. Get over you little crush on her and mind your own business." I don't usually talk to Tyler like that, but he's seriously pissing me off trying to be B's hero here. She's getting what's coming to her and that's the end of the story. Last week she was a big bitch, and now suddenly everyone loves her? Give me a break. If he knows what's good for him, he'll stay out of it.

"You know, you can be a real dick sometimes," Ty said darkly before shoving past me and out the door, slamming it behind him. Fuck. I hate fighting with him. I don't know what the hell his problem is. I'm not an idiot. I know he has some stupid schoolboy crush on her. I can tell by the way he acts. But he's just gonna have to get over it.

I walked out of my dorm a few minutes later, not liking the thoughts going through my head. Should I… step aside for my brother? Is this all worth it? I mean, I haven't gotten laid in almost a month, scared someone'll find out and it'll get back to Babylon. That would fuck everything up. I could just let Baby Boy have her since he apparently wants her so bad. But I'm doing him a favor by not letting him get involved with some little prude. He hasn't gotten laid enough yet for that. There we go; I could hook Ty up with some skank, take his mind off Baby...

I can't lie. I feel a little bad. I fucking hate my conscience. I like to pretend I don't have one, but it's there somewhere. She's falling for me. It's obvious. And here I am, plotting to love her and leave her when she could potentially date my best friend, someone way more suited for her than me. Not that Ty's some innocent angel, but he's a hell of a lot closer than me.

Another small, miniscule part of me feels… guilty. She's a sucker for it, buying into everything I say. And truth is, she isn't all bad. I felt really good at Pogue's party when she was clinging to me all night after that guy got too friendly with her. It's interesting having a girl actually trust me enough to protect her. It might've inflated my ego just a tad. And when she loosens up, she's kind of cool. I like seeing her have a good time. I guess I sort of like her. Not that that's of any consolation. I like most of the girls I fuck to an extent. It doesn't mean I don't screw them all over in the end.

But the much bigger, much louder part of me is screaming no. It's telling me that I want her to myself and I only want her for one reason. I want her underneath me, or on top of me; I don't care which. I want to be able to touch and bite and lick every part of her. That tight stomach, those perfect tits. I can just picture her full, bee-stung lips around my—

"Hey Garwin." I felt a hand push my shoulder back slightly, trying to stop me from proceeding down the hall. I met Aaron's eyes and smirked. What does this douche want?

"Something I can help you with Abbot?" I said snidely.

"Just trying to get the down low on your progress. How're things going with the little priss?" Aaron looked smug. Too smug for my liking. Time to rain on his parade.

"I'm gonna have that bitch on all fours barking my name by January at the rate I'm going Abbot." I smirked when his face dropped and he scowled. Yep, my mind's made up. There's no way I'm backing out of this. It's on. Tough shit if feelings get hurt. They won't be my feelings.

I raised my eyebrow curiously when Abbot's cocky look returned. "Yeah, well let's not forget about the new stakes, huh?" I had completely forgotten about the increase in the bet until just now.

Aaron pulled a hand sized, silver camcorder out of his bag and handed it to me as discretely as possible. "Later Garwin," he sneered before walking off. I looked down at the piece of technology in my hand and bit down on my lower lip. How am I going to pull this shit off?

It's a bitch getting through the day with your best friend mad at you and the girl you're trying to hook up with is avoiding you. Or at least, I think she's avoiding me. Seriously, I haven't seen Babylon all day.

And that's strange.

I stepped out in to the quad and noticed Babylon walking with Kate and Sarah to our normal table. She carried her lunch in one hand, yep another salad, and was using the other to talk to the two girls. I rolled my eyes and headed over to her, a satisfied smile in place.

"Hey girls," I acknowledged them.

The three hot chicks stopped yapping and looked up at me. Kate and Sarah looked like they were in complete awe of me. I can't blame them; I'd be in awe of me too.

Just think ladies, you both missed out on this…

"Hey Baby…" As soon as I said her name, Kate and Sarah headed to the table, leaving Babylon to talk to me. She blushed a little bit and I took this opportunity to lean in and place a kiss on those soft, sweet lips.

As soon as our lips grazed she pulled away, her eyes wide.

I had to play her weakness, I knew that. I let my eyes narrow, and gave her a hurt expression. "Why'd you pull away?" My voice was sugarcoated; there was no way she was getting out of this looking like the good guy.

"I just… I…" She stuttered those grayish blue eyes staring up at me in shock.

"I thought we were past this whole thing, you know…" I sighed heavily, taking her free hand in mine. I rubbed my thumb over her knuckles and looked her deep in the eye. "Is it bad that I want to show my girl some affection?"

The look on her face was amusing. She was technically my girl now. I hadn't exactly asked her out, but I'm Reid Garwin. I don't have to askgirls out. If I set my sights on one, they're mine. It just becomes common knowledge.

"I'm just not comfortable with you know… PDA." She looked away, her eyes showing that she felt guilty.

Ok, so she didn't feel comfortable with me. She didn't feel comfortable kissing me in front of people. What the hell? Is she embarrassed to be seen with me? Is that the problem?

My agitation must have triggered an emotion that I didn't realize because her face fell.

"Reid I'm sorry…" she started but I shook my head.

I dropped her hand and blinked a couple of times; making it seem as though she had hurt me. I wasn't hurt; no I refused to believe that. I was just irritated that she felt like she had to hide the fact that we associated with each other; that we we're going out. Like I'm not good enough. If she keeps acting like that, at least I won't forget the reason I'm ruining her rep. She needs to be knocked down a few pegs, and badly.

"It's fine. I just thought, you know, since we're dating…"

A look of shock registered over her face; she was not good at hiding how she was feeling. Seriously, you could read Babylon like a fuckin' book. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"Reid… really I didn't mean it like that," she covered for herself.

"I just wanna be able to show you how I feel about you… withoutyou giving a fuck about what everyone's gonna say."

That was a good line. Damn… I'll have to use that again. I am seriously the fucking kingwhen it comes to thinking on the spot. They should give an award for that or something.

She looked down at her feet and then back up at me. "I'm not used to…well..." She stared up at me. "Having a boyfriend or anything…" She swallowed hard, for some odd reason I found that to be really hot.

I'd like to see what she looked like swallowing a hot load of Garwin nectar.

"Can we, umm—take it slow?" she questioned me.

I released her hand and she looked a bit disappointed at first, but I brought mine up to her cheek, cupping it gently and leaned into her. Her face looked a bit taken back by my actions. She probably thought I was going to go in for the kill, but I'll do what she wants… I've got all the time in the world. Or at least until Spring Break.

I pressed my forehead against hers. She gave me a coy smile and I grinned back at her.

"Anything for you B," I stated pressing my lips against her forehead.

She let out a heavy breath looking a bit relieved. I made the Great Babylon sweat. Damn, she must be into me more than I realized.

I am so gonna own Abbot's ass in this bet.

I took her hand and led her back over to the table; surprisingly she sat really close to me. Close enough to where I could smell her; a mixture of some sort of sweet perfume and some flowery scent. It threw me off guard, because I really liked it. Girls usually smelled too fruity for me, but she was more flowery. I liked it.

"Everything ok?" Sarah asked raising an eyebrow.

I for one knew that she and Kate had been eavesdropping; it's hard for the two of them to mind their own business. And that's exactly why I was worried that Tyler's little schoolboy crush on my girl was going to ruin my bet. He might just go and open that big mouth of his to Kate or Sarah and divulge my secret.

"Yeah, everything's fine," I assured her.

Babylon gave me a small smile and opened up her salad, falling into a conversation with the two girls on the other side of the table.

Caleb, Pogue, and Tyler joined us. Just to spite Baby Boy for being such a dickhead earlier, I slipped my arm around Babylon's shoulders and pulled her into my side. She glanced at me with a sexy grin and I pressed my lips to her cheek.

Catching Tyler out of the corner of my eye on the other side of Babylon, I could see his jaw set tightly as he placed his tray down. The dark haired girl under my arm blushed and Kate and Sarah awed at their boyfriends who both snickered.

"You guys okay?" Caleb asked glancing from Tyler to me.

I cast a glance over at Tyler who looked at me and then back at Caleb.

"We're fine…" Baby Boy answered. That's right. You better neverforget blood is thicker than water.

I simply nodded my head, not bothering to remove my arm from around her shoulders. Babylon sifted through her salad, and I decided I should ask her out tonight. She told me she wasn't working, so what better night than tonight?

"Babs." She looked over at me. She must be getting used to me calling her by her nicknames. She use to hate it… then again, she used to hate me. I smirked to myself. "I was thinking that I should take you out tonight, maybe dinner and a movie?"

The smile that was on her face faded and she looked back down at her salad. I didn't even have to say anything and she already felt guilty. Wow, I'm getting way to good at this. I was startled to see that those blue eyes were looking back up at me.

"I'm sorry, I can't." She said softly, her gaze shifting back down again.

I was confused, I knew she didn't have to work, so what was keeping her from going out with me? Biting my bottom lip I searched for a reason, "Do you have some other meeting or something to go to?" I asked carefully. She shook her head. Okay, now I'm getting kind of irritated. "Then why can't you go out?"

She hesitated at first. "I—I have to babysit…" She gnawed at her bottom lip nervously. "My mother has to take Amma to the doctor's and then she has to go in to work… so I offered to look after Shena and Gen."

My mouth formed a small 'O' and I sighed. Ok, so this was going to be a bit more difficult than I originally thought. Before I could respond she opened her mouth again.

"You could um, come over for dinner… if you want." She offered glancing across the table at Sarah and Kate who were both giving her encouraging nods.

I knew I liked those two.

I smiled and pulled her closer in to me, "That'd be great. I'd love to see your sisters again." She gave me a small smile. "Maybe we could all hang out and watch a movie after?"

She looked at me, the look in her eye I couldn't read, but she simply nodded her head and then slipped into a conversation about what her mother did after Kate questioned her. I peeked over at Tyler who was simply shaking his head.

Don't hate Baby Boy. I sighed to myself. Dinner with the family… just another way to rope in, not only Babylon, but her family as well. Before Spring Break they were all going to love me.