Wicked Thing (C.O.A Series Book 2) (6 page)

Her Handler glared at Frost and demanded an answer, “What did you do?”

Frost kept looking into Lily’s eyes as he replied, “We’re destroying one, to save them all.”

Lexy grinned.
They were trying to make a Dragon. Yes, they would need a Dragon in the group to ensure their survival but who would it be?

Grey, always the protector and restorer of emotions repeated his question, “What have you done?”

Lily turned to face Grey; she touched his cheek gently and whispered, “We did what we had to do. You know most of the time they don’t come back out of the Testing. Let’s just say we’re running a little experiment. If they survive, it worked. The plan’s already been set in motion, all we can do now is just wait and see.”

Grey didn’t shrug away from her touch. He remained there, staring into her eyes.

Lily whispered, “You don’t want to know the details. Trust me on this one.” She kissed his cheek gently and smiled.

Grey had found himself enraptured with Lily in the past. He’d fallen for her and it had ended rather badly. It irritated the hell out of Lexy that Frost had thrown Grey under the bus in an effort to stifle Lily’s ability after the banquet on the night before they’d left the three alone for the week while they were at the Summit. If they revived their romance because of that night this was going to be annoying. She glanced at Frost, while contemplating the wording of her rant.
He was visibly devastated
. Her need to punish him shifted to a desire to point out the facts. Frost noticed her watching him and when he met her gaze she stated, “They’ve been granted the tools to save themselves. If they follow their instincts, they will find their way out. It’s as simple as that.”

Frost’s lips curved into a grin as he nodded and replied, “You’re right, there’s nothing else for us to do here. We should leave.”

He left her side and wandered towards the other two.
Did she really believe that they had a chance?
Her mind replayed the expression on Zach’s face as the Testing closed above him.
It was time.
She closed her eyes and willed all thoughts of them to cease as she allowed herself to succumb to the emotionless void. Her mind became a blank slate and her heart a solid mass that no longer cared if she believed in anything at all. She felt her inner Dragon spread its powerful wings as it soared into the sky.
She was free of guilt, and void of pain. Oh, the freedom that this ability gave her could not be explained with mere words.
Lexy peered down at the stone beneath her barefeet and noticed a second set of feet in her peripheral vision. She noted that they were men’s feet and they weren’t Grey’s.

Frost whispered, “That situation is my fault. I’ll take care of it.”

What situation? She no longer cared
. Lexy kept staring at their feet.
Frost’s feet had black hairs on them. Hers appeared to have none at all.
She saw another pair of feet and knew those ones belonged to Grey.

He whispered, “It’s alright to care. Leave them on, Lexy. Let’s all go and spend some time together. I’m sure we can find something fun to do to lift our spirits in the in-between. Our people will get through this. We got through it.”

It was too late.
The cracks in her emotional dam had filled themselves in and it wasn’t losing water anymore. There was only one emotion that flickered to the surface in response to Grey’s words…
anger. Our people
…
They were all our people. All of the second tiers, trapped within the walls of that game left behind to suffer in their own personal purgatory forever. They should fight back! These third tier immortal pieces of shit had been controlling everything for so long and what were they to her? They were nothing.
It crossed her mind to run to the edge and leap from the edge of the Testing. She’d land in the desert of blood red sand, storm the castle and paint the walls with the blood of the third tier’s.
She was the strongest of them all
. Lexy looked down at the stone beneath her feet and had the overwhelming urge to pry it open like a can of magical sardines and take her people back. With her emotions shut off there was no filter to tell her she couldn’t do whatever insane thought passed through her mind. The wild thing that fought impossible battles and ran head on into walls took control of her actions. Lexy’s eyes darkened, she dropped to her knees and savagely clawed at the solid stone of the Testing, snapping and splitting her nails leaving them in bloody ragged shards. An image of others nails embedded into the sides of the well as she climbed up the stone towards the light of vengeance flickered through her mind. She heard the soothing somewhat muffled sound of Grey’s voice in the distance. She felt his hand against her back and it was as though some of the torment in her soul travelled away from her and into him as the warmth of his palm made contact with her skin. The solid mass of ice that encased her heart began to thaw with each loving gentle word that escaped his lips. If it had been anyone else that touched her she might have grabbed them by the legs and smashed them against the stone of the crypt as recklessly as a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. The adoration she felt for Grey controlled her actions, even now. The soothing tone of his voice lulled her inner beast into a sense of complacency.

Lexy heard her Handler’s voice clearly now as he whispered in a soothing tone, “I know of the most beautiful place. We can relax and just lay there in the sun together. It’ll be fun, I promise…”

Her bloody fingers froze in place.
She needed to fight someone or kill something
.
She didn’t need to sit in the frigging sun
. Against her will her pulse slowed and her mind left the past behind and returned to the here and now.
What had she been doing?
She lifted her hands and looked at her bloody fingertips, knowing they were healed she licked the blood off of one of the tips to make certain.

She heard Frost’s voice as he whispered, “Well, that’s not disturbing at all.”

Grey jokingly scolded, “The third tiers might be watching us. We can’t have you trying to dig holes in the top of the Testing we’re supposed to be behaving ourselves and pretending to be easily tamed. Although, I’m certain they understand you can’t be domesticated after what you did during the Summit.” Grey held out his hand and gently prodded, “Let’s get out of here.”

A light breeze tossed his wheat colored hair in front of his eyes. He squinted, crinkled up his nose and gave her an adorable grin. Lexy wiped the rest of her blood on her sarong and scowled as she took his hand.
He understood that a part of her would always regress to that wild thing that he’d found in the woods while her emotions were turned off.
Lexy took her hand away as soon as she was on her feet again, stared him down and coolly sparred, “I’m sure your job as my Handler would be far less complicated if I just wanted to watch sunbeams through trees while you pick flowers and listen to birds but that’s not what you signed up for. It’ll be a cold day in hell before you’ll find me sitting next to you singing uplifting songs while you strum on your guitar. I’m a Dragon. My job is to take that guitar out of your hands, bust it into a million unsalvageable slivers of wood and kill something with it.”

Grey smiled at her overly hostile response and sweetly replied, “I wouldn’t have it any other way…Do you need a hug?”

When in doubt, annoy the hell out of her. Those were his go too emotional anchors. He was doing it on purpose. He was a smart one. She’d give him that.

Lexy turned back to look at her Handler and he was whispering in Lily’s ear. She tossed her glistening silken midnight hair and animatedly laughed.
With no filter in place this pissed her off.

Grey noticed she was watching him and he left Lily’s side, wandered towards her and stated, “I love you just as you are, Lex.”

Right, just as I am. Until morning when you wake up and forget that we’re in love.
Lexy looked at her Handler and sighed, “Spare me your inspirational fortune cookie quotes and grab your balls out of Lily’s back pocket so we can leave.”

They all grinned at her well timed jest as they linked hands.
For her
,
this was always the best part.
The scenery flashed with brilliant white light and in an instant the four of them were rapidly descending through the in-betweens sky of blue towards the endless clean slate of the white sand desert. They slowed just before making contact and landed on their feet. Travel to the in-between was only surpassed by the womb like feeling of being wrapped in safety and warmth as they landed in the clean slate of the desert. She met Frost’s solemn expression with one of her own.

Grey looked directly at her grabbed his manly bits and teased, “Still have my balls. I’m good to go.”

Lexy scowled at him and gave him a gentle shove into the sand. He landed with a humorous thud, followed by a puff of dust that filled the air around him. He coughed a couple of times and then laughed even harder. When the cloud of sand had cleared her Handler was sprawled out flat on his back in the sand. He started to make sand angels proving that her hostility hadn’t managed to tick him off.
When she was in this state, his endless supply of optimism annoyed the hell out of her. Grey was a sneaky one. He was making her feel annoyed,
‘
feel’ being the operative word. She knew what he was doing.

Grey stopped making sand angels. He sat up, tossed a handful of sand in her direction and teased, “Come on, Lex. You know you want to make one.”

Lily sat down beside him, before she could even wrap her mind around the merits of making sand angels and she started to draw pictures in the sand with one of her fingers.

Grey grabbed her hand and teased, “That’s not how you make sand angels.”

Lily grinned at him and pointed at her drawing. It was a stick figure with wings. She started to laugh and said, “Fine.” As she laid down beside him in the sand and moved her arms and legs up and down a couple of times. Lily was smiling when she sat up and looked at the impression she’d made in the sand behind her. “That is pretty cool.”

As Lexy observed the two she realized that she was being ridiculous.
He wasn’t flirting with her he was just being himself.

Frost smiled at her as he piped in, “I’m curious, when did the thing with Melody start and how did you get away with it for that long without anyone knowing about it?”

Grey grinned at him and responded, “You know I usually keep the details of my little dalliances to myself. It was a little bit uncomfortable when Orin found out, but I was just the relief pitcher. I always knew her feelings were elsewhere.”

Lily looked up from her now larger sand creation, smiled and exclaimed,” It was a surprise to find out she had a thing with Thorne. I definitely didn’t see that one coming.”

Frost couldn’t help himself. He remained standing barefoot in the sand beside where Grey was seated as he questioned, “I’m curious, were your feelings elsewhere too?”

Without a moment’s hesitation Grey looked at Lexy winked and sweetly replied, “Always.”

He meant platonic love. Best friend love.

Grey changed the subject, “I have an unrelated question. In forty years I’ve yet to figure out why sometimes we need the tombs to travel and other times we just walk through the crypt?”

Lily smiled at him and replied, “We need help from our clan’s Guardian to move back and forth between the realms via crypt. The white room is the equivalent of one of our personal tombs, but it’s operated by our Guardian Azariah. The only difference being, that we can operate the tombs all by ourselves using one of our own healers. We can go to the in-between without permission. It’s like travelling on earth, sometimes you need a passport and sometimes you don’t.”

That made perfect sense
. She watched Grey as he intently listened to Lily’s answer to his question. He was a truly beautiful person with his welcoming smile, sun kissed golden chiselled chest and strong looking arms. There was such character in his flaws. The true beauty was in his ice blue eyes and the way they glistened in the sunshine that reflected off of the white sand of the in-between. For a moment she found herself lost in them.
Damn him. How was she supposed to move on from the one person she’d been born to love?
Grey reached up for Lexy’s hand and his eyes crinkled in the corners. She took it and helped him up. He kept a laughably firm grip on her hand instead of letting it go once he was standing. She peered down as he loosened his grasp and laced his fingers through hers.
Frost had probably been trying to deter another Lily and Grey hookup by talking about the Melody one. He was trying to help but all he’d done was remind her.
She kept holding his hand even though the thought that crossed her mind had stung a little.

Grey smiled at her, and whispered, “I say we go and find something fun to do.” He glanced at Frost and added, “How long do we have?”

Frost smiled as he replied, “Take as long as you need. Come find us when you’re ready.”

“Come on, gorgeous. Let’s go find one of those hot springs and decompress.” Grey playfully announced as he towed her away from the other two. She went with him willingly, knowing they needed some time alone.
It felt like their rhythm was off
. As they wandered through the endless white sand desert of the in-between under the brilliant sky of multi-hued blue, their laced hands swung back and forth to the soft repetitive rustling of their footsteps in the sand.

Chapter 4
Handlers and Dragons

S
he couldn’t remain angry at him; she’d never been able too. When she held his hand everything within her became peaceful and warm. When her eyes met his she knew Grey was just happy to be with her. Her Handler was both the cause of her turmoil and the only way to truly find inner peace. Their relationship was complicated to say the least.

Grey smiled warmly and said, “Do you ever think about the day we met?”

All of the time
. Lexy smiled as she thought about him being snared in one of her hunting traps while cursing up a storm. She’d been alone for a long time. A wild thing living in the woods with a pack of stray dogs, eventually they’d left her too. Lexy squeezed his hand and thought about how she’d felt when he’d followed her home and showed up at her cabin. She’d been annoyed by his presence at first but after a few minutes of his companionship she was sold. When he’d asked her to come with him she’d gone willingly. Well, planned to go before some uninvited guests had attacked her little sanctuary in the woods.