Wicked Thing (C.O.A Series Book 2) (15 page)

“Follow along, Agent McNeil; she’ll be healed before you have a chance to pick your jaw up off of the ground.” The saucy female agent teased.

It was a little bit funny.
Lexy raised one of her hands, waved at the lady and said, “Let me take my shirt off and hand me a towel before you shoot me. Blood stains tend to make things quite awkward at the laundromat.”

Agent Gingham politely replied, “Understandable, I’d imagine that they would.”

Once Lexy had taken off her shirt and been handed a towel to hold over her pants she made a suggestion based on experience, “Make sure the bullet goes straight through. It takes longer to heal if it’s left inside. It has to slowly work its way out.” She poised herself in front of Agent Gingham much to the new guy’s mortification and announced, “Alright, I’m ready. Go for it.”

Agent Gingham aimed and fired off two rounds directly into her stomach. It didn’t even knock Lexy off of her feet, even though her blood flowed quite graphically from the bullet wounds and soaked into the towel. She could already feel the warmth of her healing energy doing its job as the wounds closed up. Lexy wiped the blood off of her stomach and said, “Are we almost finished?” She glanced over at Mc Douchetastic and he was frozen in place with his mouth wide open.

Grey strolled towards the center of the rodeo grounds and scolded, “You’ve got blood sprayed all over your pants and it’s my week to do the laundry.”

Lexy grinned and said, “I’ll come along this time. Can’t you see that I’m topless? I did grab a towel and I also removed my shirt.”

Grey bent down, picked up a stone and rifled it over the top of the rodeo grounds and it disappeared into the sky.

Show off
.

He stood up, mischievously grinned at her and sparred, “Why didn’t you just take an extra second to remove your pants? I’m sure they’d all survive the sight of you in your underwear.”

She was wearing a G-string
. Lexy wasn’t about to take off her pants and stand there with her butt in the breeze. She’d given Grey a look that was supposed to shut him up and he hadn’t taken the hint, so she hooked one of her fingers over the thin lacy material on her hip and showed him.

Her Handler raised his eyebrows and flirtatiously teased, “Those are nice you wouldn’t want to wreck those ones.”

Lexy rolled her eyes at him and then glanced over at the new guy who now appeared to be having a panic attack. He was pacing back and forth incoherently muttering to himself.
Oh, no! They’d broken McAssface?

Grey chuckled from beside her, “You’re quite the inner commentary comedian today.”

Agent Gingham raised her eyebrows, removed a small concealed weapon that looked like a tiny gun and stated, “Agent McNeil just needs to chill out.” Without any explanation she shot him. It made a whooshing sound as it soared through the air and Lexy knew it wasn’t a bullet. A dart hit his thigh. Agent Mc Douchetastic teetered over and then crumpled. A cloud of dust rose around him as he made contact with the rodeo grounds floor.

Completely unfazed, Lexy glanced at Grey and added, “I’m going to need some of your energy if she’s going to keep shooting me before I’ve had a chance to have something to eat.”

Agent Gingham holstered her tranquillizer gun and announced, “Well, we might as well take a break. He’ll be out for at least twenty minutes. Hopefully, he’ll be relaxed enough to take it all in when he wakes up. Sometimes those ultra-realistic stick in the mud people are harder nuts to crack. Your clan will be showing up here and staying in the campground until you know what’s going on with the others. They’re bringing your things. I’ll send someone into town to pick us up an early lunch though. Any special requests?”

They gave her their lunch orders, closed up the rig and all of them sat in the grass outside chatting about the news, sports and random things that any group of people would be talking about at any given time. Lexy and Grey were ravenous by the time their meals finally arrived, having blown off breakfast for a silly spat. Just as they’d began to devour their lunches, the new guy woke up in the grass beside the group of casually chatting companions.

Agent Gingham passed her groggy fellow agent a styrofoam container and said, “I wasn’t sure what you wanted because we don’t know each other well enough yet. Hope this will do?”

They spent the afternoon messing with the new guy until nothing appeared to phase him anymore. It didn’t take them long to figure out that this was the reason they’d been asked to join the Aries Group that day. They were breaking in the new employee. By the time the rest of their clan arrived the stodgy Agent McNeil had come to terms with the fact that there were some things in life that could not be explained. Lexy shook his hand before they left and he no longer feared the unknown. They watched the Aries Group pull away, waved and then the two made their way back to the cabin they had stayed in before the Summit.

As they strolled through the woods together Lexy announced, “That was kind of fun.”

Grey bent down picked up a stick and smiled as he answered, “It was, wasn’t it?” He found another and added it to his growing collection.

Lexy smiled knowing he was already preparing for the bonfire they’d be having that evening by finding some sticks for roasting marshmallows. She saw a good one and snagged it off of the ground as she made a suggestion, “If we travel off the beaten path, maybe we can find enough sticks for everyone?”

Grey shrugged and replied, “Sounds like a plan.” He swung back like he was preparing for a home run in a batting cage with his stick as he proposed, “We should play baseball one of these days when we’re looking for something to do.”

Lexy grimaced as she answered, “I guess we could do that.” They wandered towards a tree with a rather enormous wasps nest, hanging from a lower branch.

Grey glared at her and warned, “Don’t even think about it.”

And her shenanigans had been foiled by his logic once again
. Lexy smiled at her Handler and opted out.
He knew her so well.
She had totally planned to smoke the nest with the stick in her hand as she walked under it. As they strolled away Lexy fought the urge to run back and give it a good swat just to liven up their evening.

They began to scour the brush for sticks of the appropriate shape and size and once they’d found enough of them the two walked back towards the path, finding the camp easy enough, Lexy took a seat on the long log that sat in front of the fire pit as Grey ran into the motor home to grab a couple of knives so they could whittle the tips of their sticks into sharp hotdog and marshmallow piercing daggers. As they began to sharpen their piles of sticks, they did so in silence. Well, verbal silence. The woods were far from silent. In the background there were toads croaking and crickets chirping with the oddly timed wooing of an owl. It was the otherworldly serenade of the creatures that took over during the night in the forest. They were always there but in the daytime it was always less noticeable. For her anyway, Grey probably noticed everything. She finished her pile of sticks in record time and asked Grey if he’d made any coffee while he was in the motorhome, knowing full well he hadn’t.

He grinned at her and replied, “Would you like me to make some coffee, Lex?”

She winked at him and said, “That would be amazing.”

Grey had only been gone for a couple of minutes when the door to the motorhome creaked open and his head popped out and he sweetly asked, “Would you mind taking a stroll over to one of those cabins? We’re out of toilet paper.”

In forty years she swore he’d never looked before sitting down
. Lexy smiled to herself as she stood up and sighed, “I’ll be right back.” She wandered away from the motor home and began her jaunt down the pathway towards the rustic little log cabins they’d been staying in before the Summit. A part of her expected to hear voices as she approached the front stairs.
Left over memories from days gone by.
Lexy smiled as she glanced across the way at the cabin that Triad had been staying in, recalling Tiberius’s flirtatious escapades once again as she opened the door and wandered across the cabins wooden floor towards the bathroom. She grabbed the toilet paper off of the holder and the one from behind the toilet and then paused in front of the dresser recalling the notes they’d secured underneath of it many years before. Lexy haphazardly tossed the rolls on the bed and one of them unwound and rolled off of the bed on the other side.
Shit.
She crouched down and carefully removed the notes. She’d always wondered what Grey had written and because she was in a breaking all of the rules frame of mind she cautiously opened his letter, without tearing the forty-year-old envelope.
She was good.
Lexy made herself comfortable on the floor so she could sneak a peek at it.
It was probably all about Arrianna. That had been his frame of mind back then.

It read…
I know we survived the Testing because we had Lexy in there with us and I’m certain we’re all still friends. I hope we’ve all found happiness and love. Arrianna, tell me you’ve given me a chance by now. Lexy, I hope someday you get to know what it feels like to kiss someone and mean it. I pray you’ll find out what true love feels like and have a chance to feel safe in someone’s arms.

Well, that was sappy and predictable. She wouldn’t want him any other way.
Lexy smiled.
It was him that she’d kissed and him that had made her feel safe.
She carefully placed the note back in the envelope and secured it underneath the dresser as though it had never been disturbed. She stood there allowing her heart to ache for only a moment about the love that could never be before collecting both of the toilet paper rolls and leaving the cabin. Just as she reached for the door one of the floor boards creaked. This caused her to pause briefly and gaze back at the room. The complaint in the aged flooring had not been there five years ago. Perhaps, it happened today to remind her that there would always be a creak in her heart for her Handler. This wasn’t news to her but the timing was indeed strange after reading his note. Even if she endeavored to get over Grey her soul would always have a weakness for him just as the wooden flooring now appeared to have a weakness for her. She stared at the dresser one final time before closing the door behind her and descending the stairs. This time she didn’t glance up at the cabin with thoughts of Tiberius. Lexy kept her eyes directed at her footing as she made her way back towards the motorhome where Greydon was already sitting outside on the log waiting for her with a steaming coffee in one of his hands. She thought of his written words, and swallowed the lump in her throat. The love she felt for him swelled up in her heart as she watched him watching her approach. The door opened and Frost stepped out of the motorhome carrying the condiments for the hotdogs. Lily followed with a package of wieners in one hand and a coffee in the other.
Their alone time was over.

Grey placed his coffee on the ground by his feet glanced up at her and said, “They brought toilet paper with the groceries.” He leaned forward, and was just about to start the fire with his ability as Markus’s voice piped in from behind her, “Hold that thought, Grey. We’ve been summoned back to the in-between. The last clan made it out. Before you start questioning me, I have no idea which one.”

All of the color instantly drained out of Frost’s face and he appeared to be frozen in place. Lily skillfully pried the condiments out of his clenched hands and stated, “I’ll put these away for you, hun.”

Lexy wanted to be hopeful. She truly wanted to believe it was their people that had made it out but she’d been let down too many times. She couldn’t allow herself the luxury of hope. The whole group of them dashed through the woods and into the Ankh crypt hidden beneath the forest floor. None of them spoke about it, but as they met up with the others Lexy tried to read the expressions on their faces. If any of them knew the outcome it was impossible to tell. She knew better than to ask. They all climbed into their tombs and the lids unceremoniously slid shut with the grinding sound of stone against stone. Lexy closed her eyes as the rose quartz that encased her body began to strobe with blinding light.
Please, let it be Ankh
. Her stomach lurched as her tomb was shot into the heavens while strobing with brilliant explosions of light. It paused as always before beginning its swirling uncontrollable descent and as soon as she felt the wind rippling wildly against her flesh and through her hair, Lexy knew she was descending into the in-between free of her tomb. The exhilaratingly euphoric sensation of her reckless descent now came with the built in instinct that told her it was time to use her energy against the impact. Lexy slowed her fall in those final moments as the endless desert of their clean slated arrival sight came into focus.

Chapter 9
Welcome Home

They all landed side by side once again in the white sand wearing only the sparse coverage of their white god and goddess attire. Azariah was nowhere to be seen. Lexy caught the joyful expression on Jenna’s face and she knew they’d made it out.

Their Oracle addressed the anxious group, “Our clan made it out, they should be here any second!”

They’d actually made it out.
Frost’s eyes were glistening with tears of happiness. She felt moisture forming in her own, and blinked it away.

Grey beamed as he flung his arms around Frost, embraced him while excitedly announcing, “I knew it! I knew they were going to make it out, I could feel it! You got the girl, buddy.”

Frost’s expression changed. Lexy knew why. She’d survived, but Kayn wasn’t going to be the same girl and she was going to be pissed at everyone that knew about the plan.
They were going to have another Dragon.
Lexy allowed the thought to sink in for a second while watching the celebratory hugs and laughter.
There was going to be a new Dragon.
She continued to follow the group on their stroll through the warmth of the welcoming sand as they awaited the return of the three. Grey glanced back at her and raised both of his arms into the air, silently cheering.
He was deliriously happy
. Lexy returned his smile.
She was going to have a murder buddy for those cut throat jobs. That might be fun.