Deadly Chaos (12 page)

Dakota reached out and touched Chaos on the shoulder. A jolt of energy slammed into him and shot up his arm to his chest. He glanced at Linda to see if she felt anything. Her face was blank. She was concentrating on Chaos. Whatever happened, Dakota felt stronger now as if touching her had infused him with energy. Think about it later, he told himself. He needed to protect the team. Dakota started to chant, and then stopped. “I smell gas.”

“I smell it too,” Kat said.

Was this what the dream had warned him about? Was Chaos going to get them all killed? Not on his watch. No one was going to die tonight. “Let’s move her toward the door. We have to get outside.” Hands still pressed against Chaos they started gently moving her toward the door. He knew they didn’t want to alert the entity but they all needed to get outside and fast. The room was filling up with gas. A small spark and they’d be dead. Chaos’s feet began to lift off of the ground.

“It’s pulling me apart,” Chaos whimpered.

He saw the look of pain on her face and it shredded his soul. She had to survive. He felt the knowing deep in the center of him. He had to help her, or die trying. “Mierde. Get outside, all of you. Now. I’ve got her. I won’t lose her.”

“No, Dakota,” Linda said. “We’ll all go together. Chaos,” she smacked Chaos across the face. “Chaos, pay attention to me. Imagine your loved ones here to help you. Picture your dad, your mother, anyone you’ve ever loved. Call to them in your mind and then picture them here. You have to do this or we will all die.”

Dakota saw when Chaos made the connection. He felt her heart rate slow down. He saw the images of her loved ones flash across her eyes. It was working. Whether she believed or not, she was calling the spirits. He saw them helping her. Her father looked stern. He wore a police officer’s uniform. Her grandmother was there too. Together they wrapped Chaos in a luminous blanket. It was a light he was intimately familiar with. She was safe now. “Let’s get her toward the door.”

Together they moved as a singular unit guiding Chaos toward the door. The lights flickered on and off now and he knew they were only a breath away from an explosion. Once one of those filaments caught hold of the gas in the air explosion was imminent. Chaos’s feet once again touched the earth.

“Chaos. You’re doing it. Your grandmother and father are here and they love you. Feel their love fill you with a beautiful bright light. Imagine that bright light filling you through your head down to your toes. Imagine it now.”

Chaos responded to Linda’s voice and command. He saw the light fill her, it came pouring down on her. She cried. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She glowed like the woman in his dreams - the woman who both haunted and intrigued him. Dakota didn’t have time to get sentimental. They were still in real danger and the next step would be the most dangerous. Meeting Linda, Sheila and Kat’s eyes they all nodded. “Three, two, one,” he mouthed. On one they all picked Chaos up and ran with her. They were followed by a violent roar. The front door deadbolt turned on its own, locking them inside. Dakota released Chaos, divided and sent his spirit warrior to the door. It opened instantly. Crumbling to the ground, Dakota watched as the women escaped unharmed. Pulling his spirit back into his body, he pushed to his feet and tumbled through the door. Linda caught him as the world faded and everything went black.

Chapter Sixteen

Tan Nipples and Eagle Wings

Chaos couldn't believe how calm they all seemed. Someone or something had just physically attacked her. She’d seen the ghost of her dead dad. They’d almost blown up. Dakota had split in two, she had no idea how there were two of him and yet it had happened. It freaked her out but not as much as the fact that he was limp as a dead snake. Kat, Sheila, and Linda worked together like a practiced team: ants marching toward a singular purpose. No one talked as they carried Dakota, unconscious but still breathing, to the car. And no one hesitated. Everyone knew exactly what to do, as if this were an everyday occurrence. With a lot of effort they managed to get all six feet of Dakota in the backseat of Linda’s car.

Chaos sat in the back seat with Dakota. Unable to take her eyes off of him, she had a million questions but no energy to voice them. If Linda could hear her thoughts, she wasn’t answering.

Linda drove. Chaos didn’t know where they were going. Sheila whistled in the front seat. Chaos couldn’t make out the tune.

Sheila’s whistle changed to a confusion of words and humming. “Have to believe we are magic. Nothin’ can stand in our way. Hmm hmmhm-hmhmhm hmmm-hm.”

Olivia Newton-John? Great. Beside her, Dakota stirred. She watched the rise and fall of his chest. Light danced with shadow across his peaceful face as they drove past the street lights. The frequency of the lights told her they were back in the city now. She looked out the window and saw the sign for her hotel up ahead.

“Can you take care of him tonight?”

Chaos was sure she'd misheard Linda. "What?"

“I need Sheila and Kat to go back with me and help me cleanse this space. It’s not safe for the owners to go back in there until we do. Can you take care of him?”

“In my room?” Chaos never imagined they’d ask her to take care of Dakota. He didn’t like her and she didn’t know the first thing about how to care for him. What if Dead Bill showed up? What if she accidentally killed him or her bad luck did? “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Linda ignored her. “We’ll help you get him inside. He shouldn't need much care but he shouldn't be alone and neither should you.”

Chaos looked in the back seat of the car and realized she was right. Whatever had happened to him, they couldn't just leave him. If what happened tonight were real, and not a complete and total hallucination, he’d probably saved her life. “Okay.”

“Thank you.”

“My room’s over there. You can pull up alongside the building and the car will be mostly hidden.” She could only imagine what someone would think if they saw three women carrying a limp man to a hotel room. They didn’t need the trouble. They found a luggage cart and loaded him up on that, which made it easier. As they wheeled Dakota into the room, anxiety started to poke at her. How was she going to take care of him? What had happened back there? What did Dakota need? Questions about what had happened in that kitchen ate at her but she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to any of them.

“Give it time,” Linda said, apparently hearing her thoughts. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Let’s get him onto the bed. On three. One. Two. Three.”

Chaos had his head and shoulders. Linda and Sheila had his feet. It wasn’t pretty but they managed to get him on her bed. It’s a good thing he wasn’t hurt. Chaos turned to Linda. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He’ll be fine.” Linda brushed the hair out of his eyes. It reminded Chaos of something a mother would do.

“What happened to him?”

“Ask him when he wakes. It’s his story to tell.” With that, Linda turned and headed for the door. "Get some sleep. I’ll call you tomorrow.”She started to pull the door closed and then paused. “He may not be himself when he wakes up,” she warned. “Don’t hold anything against him.” Linda closed the door, leaving them with that ominous warning.

Sliding under the covers, it all came back in a flood. The choking. The pressure. The life being pushed out of her by an invisible force. The guilt when she thought that Dakota was dead. For the first time in her life she’d been willing to give it all up. Thinking Dakota was dead because of her was the worst feeling she’d ever experienced. It didn’t make any sense to her, logically. She’d been through worse and been closer to people, people who actually liked her. But a world without him just didn’t seem right.

To say tonight had been overwhelming was an understatement. Maybe it was feeling her dad’s love around her that put her over the edge. How he had gotten there and where he had come from she had no idea. What she did know was that her entire world had been turned upside down. Everything she thought she believed was gone and in its place she had confusion and uncertainty. Had it all been a hallucination? She was exhausted and people hallucinated when they were tired. Maybe the fatigue combined with the situation had caused her to imagine things that just didn’t happen. But what about Bill, she thought. He is real. You know he’s real. And Dakota, the man who split in two, was real, too. Beside her, he slept like the dead. Save for the steady rise and fall of his chest, she'd be checking his pulse for signs of life. She fell asleep watching him breathe.

Chaos awoke with the sensation of the warm sun on her face. It was welcomed like a kiss from a lover. The light was so bright it permeated her eyelids and turned them pink. She woke with the blessing of forgetfulness. But as reality has a way of making a quick appearance, it didn't hesitate this morning either. Lately it was the smell of motel air that brought her back to her surroundings. Today it was the sound of someone else breathing in her room. Dakota.

Chaos rolled over to find that Dakota had maneuvered himself under the covers sometime during the night. The polyester bedspread he'd been lying on was now bunched up on the foot of the bed. The sheet, pushed down to his waist, revealed a broad and naked chest. The eagle tattoo stretched across his chest from shoulder to shoulder. Beak wide open, the head of the eagle rested beneath Dakota’s collarbone as if the eagle were flying out of him. The ink work was intricate. It must have taken days to create the entire picture. Dark clouds tumbled behind the eagle as if it was flying out of a storm. The clouds took the image to a whole new level. The clouds looked dark and ominous but the expression on the eagle’s face was victorious. Such a detailed and specific tattoo, it had to mean something to Dakota. If he ever said two nice words to her, she’d ask him about it. For now, he slept.

Taking the opportunity of sleep to study him, she allowed her eyes to dip down his body. He possessed a broad chest with just a sprinkling of hair down the center to his naval. The sheet covered his hips and legs, not allowing her eyes to wander any further south. His smooth olive skin pulled tight over his muscles and beckoned for a touch. Uncomfortable with the urge to touch him, Chaos slid out of bed. Standing, she noticed his jeans wadded up on the floor and his underwear, too. He was naked.

Chaos hadn’t seen a naked man in a long time and certainly not one with Dakota’s assets. She allowed herself another look. The thin sheet hugged his legs and hips, leaving very little to her imagination. Feeling someone watching her, she glanced back at his face only to find his eyes peacefully closed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a man in her bed. Not that she could or would do anything about it. Anyone that got close to her got hurt. Some died. She wouldn’t risk another person’s safety for her own pleasure.

But she could look and enjoy the view. She took him all in. His tan nipples nestled in the eagle’s wings. The way his eyelashes rested on his cheeks. The trail of hair that dipped down beneath his belly button. The size of the bulge under the sheets. It was the nipples that drew her attention back. Small, pink and perfect on a large manly chest. The contradiction of the two mesmerized her. Chaos found her mouth watering at the thought of tracing her tongue around those nipples. She licked her lips.

“Don’t think I’ve ever been looked at like that.”

Chaos jumped, gulped back her desire, and blushed. "Fuck," she muttered turning away. She was mortified that she’d been caught. She pretended to rifle through her suitcase on the dresser and tried to act nonchalant. She didn’t care what he thought, right? He was just part of the team of folks who were hopefully going to get rid of Dead Bill. He was a means to an end.

“Can’t.”

“What?” Chaos stopped moving and turned to face him.

“I can't fuck. Too tired. Sad, right?”

Chaos didn’t imagine their first conversation would be like this. She felt like he had the upper hand. She didn’t know how to respond. “You don't look too tired,” she said, casting a glance at his crotch.

“Sporting a hard on isn't fucking. But you could.”

“Could what?”

“Fuck.”

“You?”

He propped himself up on his elbows and pinned her with a heated look. “Is there anyone else in here?”

Chaos shook her head and swallowed hard. She actually wanted to take him up on the offer. She wouldn’t. Couldn’t. She took a step back and crossed her arms over her chest. “So you’d just lie there and I would do all the work?”

He nodded. “Works for me.”

“Doesn’t sound like much fun,” she said, turning away from him.

“Doesn’t it?”

Actually it did. Tall, dark and demented turned her on. She was so messed up. Her libido was taking over her brain and her lack of experience made it difficult to fight. "You haven’t said two words to me since we met,” she said giving up on the banter. He had the upper hand and there was no way she was getting it back. “Yesterday you actually slammed a door in my face and swore.”

“You heard that?”

“You weren’t quiet about it and now you’re coming onto me?”

“Guess so.”

She didn’t have a lot of relationship experience, hell she barely had any social experience. Interacting with people on a friendly or flirtatious level just didn’t happen. She skipped out before most people had the opportunity to say hello. But despite her lack of social graces and relationship skills, this didn’t feel like a normal conversation. “This is uncomfortable. Weird.”

“Weirder than last night?”

Something in his eyes changed, as if her answer was important to him. “Nothing was weirder than last night."

Disappointment flashed across his face quickly. Lust replaced it. “So, about that fuck.”

The ring of a phone prevented her from responding.

“Saved by the bell. Would you answer that? It's Linda. My phone is in my jeans pocket.”

Chaos picked up his jeans, fished around in the back pocket and then dropped them on the bed. She allowed herself one last lingering glance...from the way the sheets molded to his thighs...to his bare chest and full mouth, he made her feel like a wanton hussy. A hussy that hadn’t had any action in a long time."Get dressed," she said shaking it off. She answered the phone. “Hello?”