Wicked Thing (C.O.A Series Book 2) (22 page)

As Prince Amadeus approached her, he started to apologize, “I’m so sorry. I had no idea my brother was going to do that. I wish there was something I could do to stop it but she looks so much like Freja.”

Lexy looked into his eyes and pulled the band-aid off quickly by opting out of beating around the bush as she said, “What if I told you there was something you could do? Would you do it?”

Prince Amadeus, stared at her and let out the sound of a breath…it was as though he’d stopped himself from verbally responding just before the sound had escaped. He stood there in silence with his lips still slightly parted.

She was putting him in an impossible situation. Lexy decided to take his silence as a maybe. She softened her expression and gave him some details, “All you have to do is dismiss the Guards. We have a plan to stop this, but it will only work with your help. No harm will come to your brother.”

Prince Amadeus exhaled and scolded, “All I have to do is dismiss the guards?” He started to pace back and forth, paused directly in front of her and questioned, “Do you know what you’re asking me to do?”

“The right thing,” Lexy abruptly responded.

His expression softened and she knew he was in, as he shook his head slowly and quietly countered, “You know what will happen if we get caught?”

“I do,” she curtly replied.

The Prince didn’t say anything else. He briskly marched over to the door, and loudly dismissed the guards. He closed it behind himself, turned around and addressed her, “You’d better have one hell of a plan.”

She met Prince Amadeus’s eyes with her own as she apologized, “We do. I’m sorry we’re dragging you into this. If there is ever anything I can do for you…” Lexy could tell by the expression on his face that there was no point in promising him anything when their future was this uncertain. He opened his arms and they embraced.

The Prince whispered in her ear, “Let’s just say true friendship is a rather difficult thing to acquire with my social standing and if ever I need anything I’ll let you know.”

Lexy pulled away from him and smiled as she looked around his room. She’d noticed the half dozen large four-foot-tall transparent crystals positioned around the room the last time she was here and suspected she knew what they were for. Lexy asked, “Those are for privacy aren’t they?”

“Yes, they are. Everything that goes on in the royal suites cannot even be monitored by the most powerful of Oracles. Let’s just say they’ve been placed there to disguise my brother’s rather sick and depraved habits with the ladies. You know there’s nothing the royals fear more than humiliation.”

Now, the success of their plan seemed even more plausible.
Lexy smiled, nodded and replied, “That’s what we’re counting on.”

There was a quiet knock on the door. The Prince strolled over and opened it, revealing her co-conspirators. Prince Amadeus grinned as he stepped aside and ushered them in as he announced, “Come in…Triad? This ought to be good.” He turned to Lexy chuckled and teased, “Aren’t you full of surprises today. Look at you all in bed with the enemy.”

She had to smile because that comment hit rather close to home. Lexy bit her lip glanced at Tiberius as her comic inner dialogue whispered,
Not yet
. They were about to do something that was utterly insane but to be quite honest for Lexy finding herself in insane situations was as common as brushing her teeth. Kevin, Patrick and Tiberius of Triad cautiously entered the room. Lexy could tell they were unsure as to whether or not they could trust Prince Amadeus. She nodded and directed her statement towards the group, “You can trust him. He’s a friend.” She smiled at the Prince.

He returned her gesture, took her hand and said, “I know he deserves it but I’ve been assured no physical harm will come to my brother. I hear you plan to drug him and set him up to be an embarrassment so you can save the girl. Now, that sounds like a fun filled evening I’d like to be a part of. Let’s just say I owe him one for a few things.”

Tiberius grinned at the Prince, extended his hand towards him and exclaimed, “I always knew you were the good brother.”

Prince Amadeus gave Tiberius’s hand a good firm shake as he replied, “To be honest I’ve always heard Thorne was the good brother where the three heads of clan are concerned.”

“He’s definitely the vanilla ice-cream of the three, I’d like to consider myself more of a butter pecan man, just as sweet but a little nutty,” Tiberius joked.

Patrick sprawled out rather provocatively on the Prince’s silk bedding and flirtatiously sighed, “These sheets are incredible, I could get used to sleeping on these.”

Kevin grinned, gave his friend a look and chuckled, “I’ll buy you some if you can promise me you’ll stay focused.”

Patrick launched himself off of the bed, and wandered over to stand beside Lexy as Tiberius told Amadeus of their plans.

Lexy didn’t want to be impressed but Tiberius could be quite personable when he wanted to be. She found herself wondering what it would have been like if they’d met under normal circumstances.
What was she even thinking? They’d never been normal. Neither of them had.
The rest of the group shook hands with the prince and it was as though they were all long lost friends as they began to adjust their plot to the circumstances. They even managed to devise a plan for if everything went wrong.

Kevin took the lead of the conversation, “We’ve been trying to drug Kayn all evening. We don’t know if she took the flower from Silas and actually understood why she needed to ingest it. He wouldn’t have been able to explain anything. He probably had just long enough to pass it to her. What are the odds of her eating a flower that someone passed to her if she’s had no explanation? If she objects, she’ll be entombed and if she hasn’t been sedated. Fighting back is in her nature now. We’ve created a second opportunity to drug both the King and Kayn. The carafe of wine in the King’s room has also been drugged. If that doesn’t work, we’ll make sure our party disturbs his…”

It actually might work
.

In no time at all the group had devised a perfect cover story. Amadeus had them up to his room and they heard a commotion while they were drinking out on the balcony.

The group of them stood out on the balcony quietly listening for the start of trouble in the adjoining room. Lexy glanced towards Tiberius and caught him watching her. He immediately turned away, knowing he didn’t dare make his interest obvious while she was in the company of the prince.

Prince Amadeus whispered in her ear, “I’m probably not supposed to act jealous because I’m married to someone else and nothing has ever happened between us.”

Tiberius had turned away a second too late.
Lexy was flattered as she teased, “After watching me fight at the Summit, your family would never allow you to be with me.”

“Nonsense,” Amadeus teased. “You’d be an amazing princess. Nobody would dare mess with me they’d be afraid my wife was going to kick their ass.”

Wife…that was funny. She had Grey, so marriage wasn’t really an option. This is my Handler. He needs to sleep with us, it’s important that we maintain our bond. If I go on a murderous rampage he’s the only one that can stop me. The Handler Dragon bond could definitely be considered a marriage of souls and what was marriage…if not that?

Lexy knew these particular courtyards overlooked a gorgeous botanical garden. She inhaled the intoxicating scent of the flowers and the visual had sprung to mind as she heard voices in the room.
It was starting
. The King’s voice boomed and they were out there watching as the King began his verbal attack on the girl he obviously thought was Freja. Their whole plan hinged on the King drinking from the goblet of wine on the table in the master suite. They watched as he drank straight from the carafe and knew he’d be out cold in no time. They would have to allow the scenario play itself out for a couple of minutes. They watched as the King glared at Kayn for a second, swung back and smoked her cheekbone so hard with the heavy carafe that she covered her face with her hands and lost her footing. She staggered a few steps backwards, the wall stopped her from falling.

Amadeus cursed under his breath and hissed, “That’s enough of this shit.” The Prince strolled over, grabbed a large ceramic vase from a pedestal as he passed it, wound up and his brother passed out cold before he had the opportunity to smoke him with it. Prince Amadeus took a well-timed step back against the curtained velvet wall just as Kayn removed her hands from her face. She pushed away from the wall, wobbled around for a second and then closed her eyes. Amadeus stealthily slipped back into the room next door.

Lexy whispered, “We’d better get in there.”

Tiberius winked and said, “I’ve got this.” He left her side and strolled straight into the room. Kayn opened her eyes again to find Tiberius standing in front of her.

Tiberius winked at her and teased, “He tagged me in. The King was far too drunk to keep going.”

Kayn could barely stand, she gasped, “What?”
Tagged him in?

He laughed, “I’m only joking, don’t get your panties in a twist.”

She quietly slurred, “Did you drug me?”

Tiberius gently touched her face where she’d been injured and chuckled, “You drugged yourself.”

Kayn staggered sideways towards the tapestry on the wall, and tried to grab a hold of it to stop herself from falling. She was clutching it with both hands as she crumpled to the floor. The heavy material landed on top of her.

Lexy walked up to Kayn’s crumpled body, socked Tiberius’s arm and hissed, “He tagged me in. What’s wrong with you?”

“Oh, come on. You know that was hilarious,” Tiberius chuckled as Lexy swung at him again. He dodged out of the path of her fist, grinned at her and deviously flirted, “Hold that thought. I’ll let you smack me around later.”

Tiberius was incorrigible but Lexy no longer felt the need to deny her growing attraction to her alluringly suggestive adversary because today they were allies. As were Kevin and Kayn. She watched as Kevin knelt next to the girl that he’d loved enough to destroy during the Testing. He gently caressed her bruised cheek, glared at the King’s crumpled form that lay within arm’s reach and said, “It’s probably for the best if one of you guys moves the King’s body into his bed.”

The Triad with the beautiful soul named Patrick replied, “I’ll do it.”

Amadeus wandered back into the room with stellar timing and announced, “The hall is still clear. I’m guessing everyone is out cold?”

Prince Amadeus grabbed his brother’s legs and helped Patrick lug his deplorable excuse for a sibling on to his bed without being asked.

Lexy watched them for a second and then added, “Strip him down, it needs to be believable. Kevin, can you bring Kayn into the other room?”

Kevin answered by lifting Kayn’s body and gently cradling her in his arms as he carried her limp form into the next room. Where they’d covered the floor with one of the Kings sheets so they could easily soak up the mess they were about to make. Prince Amadeus and Patrick stripped the King down and as Patrick tugged off his final article of clothing he comically exclaimed, “Well, at least we know why he’s such a dick. He doesn’t have one and he’s got to throw his whole being into it.”

Lexy grinned.
She really liked this kid
. The Prince and Patrick went into the other room to make sure Kayn didn’t wake up alone and blow the whole thing. They were all unsure of her abilities strength and needed her to play along.

Kevin wandered outside with Tiberius. They had to make sure their story was believable. They stood on the balcony, making sure they were being obnoxiously loud as they drank from there goblets. Lexy strolled into the King’s suite, kind of looking forward to setting up the horrifying struggle scene as she plotted where the blood would go. Kayn had already done a wonderful job tugging the curtains from the wall but the room would need more. It needed a gruesome amount of blood. If there was blood everywhere this whole virgin sacrifice scenario would be buried and never repeated. She was going to set this up to be a humiliation unlike anything the Royal family had ever seen. Lexy glared at the King’s unconscious nude form sprawled out on the bed. She looked at her pinky and was pretty sure her pinky finger was larger than his manhood.
Well, now she just felt kind of sorry for the abusive psycho
.
It was sad really.

Kevin stuck his head into the room and whispered, “She’s awake. I’m going to keep out of sight. It’s better if she doesn’t know I’m involved.”

Lexy nodded at her co-conspirator, understanding why he couldn’t take credit for saving her. Kevin couldn’t risk the possibility that any act of bravery or love on his behalf would draw Kayn’s heart back to him when she needed to be able to move on with her life. She walked out onto the balcony and left Prince Amadeus and Patrick to deal with her. Kayn appeared to be confused and a bit groggy but she was awake.

Patrick, the gentlest and most beautiful Triad wandered over, stood above where Ankh’s fledgling Dragon lay and spoke first, “We’re not going to hurt you. You’ve been drugged to subdue the Dragon. You probably don’t recognize me, do you? It’s Patrick, and this is Prince Amadeus. You’ll have to stay hidden in here with us for a little while.”

Kayn felt her face, and winced as she questioned, “Am I remembering this right? Did Tiberius just help me?”

Patrick grinned and replied, “It was Lexy and Tiberius. Oddly enough they were in on it together. Shocking, I know, but none of us were down with the new sacrificing a virgin policy.”

Kayn stared at the prince with distrust in her eyes and Prince Amadeus added, “I’m friends with Lexy, and I was also close friends with your mother, Freja. I helped her escape. My brother won’t know what happened. He usually blacks out, when he’s been on a bit of a bender and he never remembers a damn thing. We’ll need to make it look convincing though…”

Amadeus walked towards Kayn carrying a couple of large chamber pots and placed them on the floor in front of her. The good Prince handed her a knife and said, “We’re going to need a lot of your blood. Enough blood to cause embarrassment to the royal family. That way, none of this will be questioned.”