Wicked Thing (C.O.A Series Book 2) (30 page)

Of course they did. She’d known they weren’t ready
. Lexy groggily shuffled around and sat up in bed.
It felt like someone had beaten her with a baseball bat while she was asleep
. She stretched, glared at Jenna and grilled, “What in the hell were those things? Those were some seriously messed up looking Lampir.”

Jenna grinned and retorted, “They were Lampir that had been infected with Stryk venom. This Lampir had captured a Stryk to use as a guard dog, knowing that Lucien wanted him put down. Their venom is passed by saliva and well, they have a slight spraying problem as I’m sure you noticed. In my dream it sprayed a partially turned mortal, some kind of chemical reaction happened and when the change was complete there was a deformed Lampir with an extra dash of crazy that spit Stryk venom. I had that vision shortly after the five returned. I didn’t realize it was a time sensitive situation or that it had spread as far as it had. Markus told me that you and Grey dealt with a nest a couple of years ago just outside of New Orleans.”

Lexy replied, “We found a cave and there was a full grown Stryk lying on the ground beside dozens of eggs. It appeared to be dead. Grey burned the cave and we left. We didn’t actually have any experience fighting one.” Lexy recalled the reptilian like eggs in the nest that they’d destroyed.

Jenna grinned as she added, “They have pretty potent venom in their saliva. It actually stunted your healing ability. I didn’t see that happening in my vison. Both Arrianna and Orin had to heal you because we couldn’t risk going anywhere in that town and setting a tomb up for you to heal after Frost told me you’d put down over twenty in that room before he showed up and you didn’t appear to be healing. That’s never happened to any of our Healers before, so we destroyed the other hive without even entering the premises and they were forced to put down a few infected mortals. I thought we might be able to sneak into this town and sneak out without any mortal casualties, but we were forced to call in the Aries Group because we’re going to need a large scale accident to cover this up and we don’t have the time in our schedule to stick around for a couple of weeks to be certain the situation has been contained. We have a ridiculously crazy amount of jobs ahead of us, we’ll be working steady for the next four or five months at least. As of this moment that town and what happens to it is out of our hands.”

Lexy hated leaving anything partially finished. It felt like they’d just done half of a job and walked away leaving a mess behind for the mortals to clean up. She quizzed, “Why did you guys wait this long to wake me up?”

Jenna answered, “We left you asleep because we couldn’t risk dosing you up with their venom again. By the way… How are feeling?”

“Sore, my muscles are throbbing and that’s not normal for me. I’m usually long healed by now,” Lexy replied as she unwrapped the sandwich and chomped into it.
This toxin could be used as a weapon on a Healer.
She swallowed her mouthful of sub and asked, “You didn’t mention what the venom did to me…did you?”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t say a thing. When I was a child there was a group called the Legion of Aries. They took part in the first mass Correction of immortal children in Rome. You know the story. I was one of the seventeen original children of Ankh saved by the Guardian Azariah. Let’s just say the name The Aries Group doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. They fund us and they’ve done a miraculous job at covering up after us and protecting our identities but out of all of the names they could have come up with, why that one?”

Lexy teased, “Wasn’t Delores Aries the founder and original funder of the group?”

Jenna grinned and replied, “Point taken.”

Lexy had already devoured a whole sub and she had begun the second one. She swallowed her first bite and asked, “So, what’s our next job?”

Jenna smiled as she answered her question, “We don’t want to lose this new second tier, so you and Greydon will be inconspicuously watching the five while they try to complete their first job. Hang out in the background and when things go south you two make sure you grab the new girl.”

Stalking was always fun
. “Are they already messing up?” Lexy asked. She couldn’t help but smile because they’d had a mission that very morning and it had gone epically wrong.
Discovering a new Healer power stifling repellant wrong.

The motorhome pulled over. Grey pulled back the curtain to the sleep quarters, stuck his head inside and announced, “This is our stop sweet heart. Let’s go and see how are our newbies are doing.”

Lexy grabbed her backpack and Jenna passed her a credit card and said, “They used their credit card at the Comfort Inn. Trinity is already there and Triad is on route.”

She followed Grey out of the motorhome. Lexy smiled as she noticed that they were leaving them by the side of the highway on the outskirts of town with miles of nothing in every direction.
Wonderful
.

Frost unrolled the passenger side window and hollered, “I’ve called you a cab. They said, ten minutes. Good luck you two and stay out of sight. We’re leaving, we have another job so you might want to make sure they don’t take off in that motorhome and leave you guys behind.”

Grey yelled back, “Thanks for the heads up,” as the motorhome drove away. They stood there watching it as it became nothing but a small speck as it disappeared into the horizon.

In less than ten minutes a cab arrived and they both hopped into the back seat and Grey announced, “We have a room at the Comfort Inn.”

They got out at the lobby and found out that their room had already been paid for. All they had to do was take the keys. Their room was on the first floor and it was a splendidly seventies looking suite with sexy mustard yellow shag carpeting and all of the bathroom fixtures were baby blue. They spent the remainder of the afternoon figuring out where Trinity was staying and they were on the third floor directly above the five newbies. They had both the main picture window cracked open and they had a clear view of the little cement alcove by the office from their bathroom window. The restaurant was on the other side of them this was the perfect room to keep tabs on the others, and if they didn’t leave the room until it was imperative, they wouldn’t have to risk being seen. Lexy recognized Trinity’s conversation immediately. It was Thorne, Jakob, Glory and Frey’s voices. The two of them peeked through the curtains as they passed and then dashed to the bathroom to see if they were headed upstairs. Kayn and Zach were standing in the area in front of the office.
Oh, no.
With quick thinking they began the steamiest make out session in front of the office. It looked like they’d successfully pulled it off as Trinity continued talking and the group began to scale the stairs. Lexy looked at Grey. There was a problem…they didn’t stop their steamy make out session after Trinity walked away. They switched positions and it appeared as though neither of them was at all capable of rational thought.
Kayn must have inadvertently used Frost’s ability
. Kayn began to fumble with the button above Zach’s zipper.
Oh, shit…should they stop them?
The pheromones Kayn had siphoned off of Frost were working overtime. Lexy looked at Grey and he shrugged. Of course he was fine with letting them go at it while under the spell of Frost’s ability.
That dirty stinker.
If the passion filled, make out session had started as a distraction it definitely wasn’t anymore. There was pillow talk and everything going on.

“I want you so bad,” Zach whispered against Kayn’s hair.

A random passer by hissed, “Call the number on the door and get a damn room.”

They shoved away from each other.
That snapped them out of it
.
Oh, thank goodness.
Lexy thought she was going to have to blow her cover and douse those horned up teens with a hose. Kayn covered her mouth with her hand. Zach leaned back against the wall and slid down it until he was sitting in the corner on the cement with his face in his hands. Kayn did the same against the other side of the wall. They were both obviously trying to calm themselves down.

Zach gave Kayn a weak smile and whispered, “That’s one powerful ability you’ve borrowed, Brighton. Five more seconds and I would have taken you right here in public. Without any ability for rational thought, I might add. Do you get to keep it, or does it go away?”

“I honestly have no idea,” she whispered. They sat there, just staring at each other, both of them confused over what had just happened between them.

Zach struggled to stand up and chuckled, “My legs feel like they’re made of Jell-O. For future reference, that’s how you kiss a guy.” He gave her a roguish smile and held out his hand to help her up.

She took his hand and stood up. Kayn grinned at him and said, “You didn’t do so bad yourself. That would be what has Melody so hot and bothered.” She brushed her shirt down and then stepped forward and began to wipe the lipstick off of his face and made an attempt at fixing his hair. He shook his head and began to wipe off the lipstick that was smeared around her lips with his thumb, and then he patted down her hair a bit.

Zach grinned and teased, “If you’d kissed me like that earlier, we’d still be in the bathroom.” He stared at her for a second before he started back-pedaling, “We were drugged by your ability. I was just kidding about the bathroom thing. We’re friends. We are always going to be friends. Just friends. I know that. Just like I know that in this life we’ve been given, sometimes we’re going have to do things we normally wouldn’t do. This doesn’t have to be a big deal if we don’t make it one. We kissed and it was hot, but we did it so Trinity wouldn’t see us. There was a method to our madness. On a happy note, you calmed yourself down faster this time. If they’d sensed the pheromones they’d be down here already. We’ll just go back upstairs, tell them what happened and figure out another way to get into the room.”

Kayn smiled at Zach and responded with a slow nod. They climbed the stairs and once they were out of ear shot Grey chuckled, “Consider me impressed, I didn’t know our little Zackie boy had that in him.”

Lexy perched on the edge of the tub as Grey stepped away from the window, put the baby blue toilet seat down and sat on the lid, using it as a chair. He slipped off his t-shirt and whispered, “It’s seriously hot in here. I’m in dire need of a cold shower.”

So was she
…Lexy found her eyes drawn to the over-sized bulge in Grey’s jeans and she quickly averted her gaze but not before he caught her sneaking a peek. The arch of her foot ached so she began to massage one of her barefeet and Grey reached forward and whispered let me get that for you. I think I’m the one that ended up owing you a massage.”

He began to knead her sore heel wearing arches with the expertise of forty years of bets and losses
. She shouldn’t be letting him do this right now.
Kayn had dosed them both with Frost’s pheromones. She could feel the aching need for him return as his hands worked their magic on her feet.
She didn’t want him to stop.
It was selfish, she knew that but he also knew about everything now. He started to massage her calf and then up into the sensual area behind her knee. It forced her to move closer to him and she knew she should stop him but the pheromones had also affected her. She allowed him to gently tug her even closer as his fingers caressed her soft supple thighs with professional expertise.
They were far too close.
His finger grazed the area that always made her squirm and she gasped. His eyes lit up as he gently teased her again by softy feathering another touch between her legs. Her lips parted as his moved towards hers. They were both lost in the spell of the sensual magic.

Their lips were almost touching when Grey abruptly pulled away from her and stated, “I need a cold shower and you need to leave before we do something that you’ll regret.”

The reality of what they’d almost done smacked her in the face.
He was right. He knew he wouldn’t regret anything because he wouldn’t remember. He was trying to be a stand-up guy.
Lexy cleared her throat as she stood up and as she left the bathroom she said, “I’ll have one after you’re done.”

She briskly walked over to the bed as the shower started in the other room. Lexy leapt onto the bouncy mattress, buried her face in the soft pillow and screamed. She laid there for a second completely still.
Trinity knew they were here. They had too. There was no way they missed those pheromones, and even if they did, Jakob was with them and he had heightened hearing.
Trinity was staying in the three rooms directly above the five.
They knew
…

There could only be one reason that Trinity hadn’t already taken off with the girl. They must not know who she is. They’re waiting for Ankh to figure it out and then they would just take the new second tier from them and it would be like taking candy from a baby. They had three rooms. They must have a large crew here against five newbie Ankh. Well, they were about to get a surprise. Lexy knew she could find the new second tier in the time it took to have a cold shower. She grinned as she dug in her back pack and removed the switch blade in the front zipper compartment. Lexy slipped off her jeans so she wouldn’t get any blood on them, grabbed the black plastic bag that was always in her bag for situations such as this and placed it beneath her as she sat on the bed on top of it in her G-string underwear. She was going to knife herself to freshen up her ability.

Grey strolled out of the washroom and said, “Don’t do it unless you have the bracelet.”

She smiled and opened the palm that contained her brand of Ankh; it was holding the spelled bracelet that she’d been given long ago.

He grinned and said, “Fine then, go for it.”

She knifed herself in the thigh, purposely missing the artery and then she yanked the blade back out. Blood gushed from the wound as her thigh heated and began to heal as the blood pooled on the plastic bag beneath her.

Grey disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a box of Kleenex. He tossed it at her and teased, “You’re going to have to throw out your underwear.”