Wicked Thing (C.O.A Series Book 2) (31 page)

She knew that, it had been a conscious choice to leave them on.
She smiled and quipped, “I’m not sure taking them off would have been the greatest idea all things considered.” She wiped off her thigh and then tried to soak up the some of the blood with the left over Kleenex. Then she stood up and padded bare-foot across the mustard colored shag carpet towards the bathroom as she flippantly added, “And now it’s my turn for a shower.”

Grey called after her, “You know those blood smears on your ass from stabbing yourself almost suck the sexy right out of those, barely there, panties.”

He was still flirting with her…this wasn’t good.
She grinned, glanced back at him and teased, “Congratulations, your cold shower almost worked.”

Just as she was about to step into the shower, Grey knocked on the door and stated, “I just got a text from Markus. Apparently Trinity and Ankh are having dinner together at the diner. Shall we join them or just wait until the fighting starts?”

What in the hell were they doing?
She put her hair up.
There would be no time to wash it now because the newbies had lost their damn minds
. She answered, “I’ll be out in a second.”

A minute or two later she appeared with a towel wrapped around her. Lexy could feel Grey’s eyes on her as she wandered over to her bag. They’d both been dosed with pheromones. He might not be remembering his feelings for her. If he was, this time, it would be different because he knew about their history up front and he’d just proven he could walk away because it was the right thing to do, even when his senses had been corrupted by the spell of an immortal’s potent pheromones.
This would be alright. They’d be fine
. She announced, “Turn around unless you want an eye-full.”

Grey turned as she dropped her towel, slipped into her black lacy undergarments, and her jeans and t-shirt.
She was supposed to be inconspicuous, but she wasn’t sure that was a realistic expectation
. When she glanced up at Grey she knew he hadn’t looked away. He’d seen exactly what she was wearing.

Grey probed, “Is that new underwear?”

“When would I have had the time to go shopping? You’ve been with me every second.”

He smiled, tossed her shoes at her and sparred, “Not every second.”

She cracked an enormous grin and teased, “It’s not like we get to bring souvenirs back from the Summit or the banquet.”

Just as he reached for the door knob they heard muffled familiar voices. Grey grinned as he took his hand away, spun around and whispered, “Triad’s already here.”

Lexy smiled and casually responded, “Good, I need to take a round out of someone.” She hadn’t meant it to sound naughty. It had just been her mentioning that it would be lovely to kick someone’s ass this afternoon. A thought popped into her brain as she realized what that must have sounded like to Grey.
Triad’s here and then, I need to take a round out of someone. Oh, she’d just accidentally opened that freshly sealed can of worms.
Lexy winced as she followed him out of the door.
It didn’t look like Triad had entered the diner
.
They’d be coming in through the back door.
Lexy peeked through the window as just two eyes behind the business flyers that had been taped to the glass.

Grey whispered, “Can you tell who it is from here?”

She could see her. It was the waitress that was actually waiting on the table of the two clans. It was pretty funny. Poor Melody, she had no idea what she was looking for and Thorne was probably holding his breath waiting for her to pick out the second tier. Why in the hell were they having dinner with the enemy? She was totally being played. They all were.

Three girls from their clan excused themselves and went to the washroom at the same time.
That was highly suspect.
Lexy whispered, “Let’s go back to the room for a second. I left my knife on the bed.”

Grey turned looked at her and teased, “You really have to stop saying things like that when I’m trying so hard to behave.”

She shook her head as he unlocked the door knob. They both stepped into the suite and quietly closed it. Lexy grabbed her blade as Grey went into the bathroom and exuberantly waved her over with one finger pressed against his lips. Lexy tip-toed towards Grey.
There he was, in all of his evil nemesis glory. Man, had they ever won the stalkers lottery by staying in this room.
Tiberius was directing his whole group in the same little enclosed cement area by the office that Kayn and Zach had a magic induced sexy moment in earlier.
Why hadn’t he gone in the back door? Maybe, they’d all just walked around the building to scope out the situation?

One of his men started to explain everything they were planning, “It’s in the water carafe for the second tiers table and it’s also been sprayed in their food. I compelled one of the waitresses to deliver that carafe of ice water to their table and that was roughly thirty minutes ago. We also set off gas in the air-conditioning system to knock out the mortals. In ten minutes there will be nobody left awake in that restaurant and it should be easy to go in and take the girl.”

Triad remained there in the hidden alcove for a good ten minutes, in complete silence while one of them watched the clock on his cell phone.

Tiberius announced, “Alright contestants, it’s time to play snatch a second tier waitress and dash. If you get caught just speak another language and make it convincing. It will take the police some time to find an interpreter and also give us an in, to get you out.” He started walking then paused, and added, “Please, do your best to avoid killing the humans.”

Lexy smiled,
Tiberius was actually quite funny when you were interested in what he had to say.

Grey scowled and whispered, “If you start mooning over Tiberius this early in the fight I will march right into that diner and stab myself in the forehead with a fork.”

He was jealous
. She turned and sparred, “You had no problem when I was mooning you as I walked away earlier.”

Grey looked directly into her eyes and quipped, “That’s the problem.”

Were his feelings for her coming back?

There was silence outside of the bathroom window.
They’d been sidetracked by their own drama.
They raced from the bathroom to the front door as they heard the jingling bells. Triad had entered the diner. They silently opened the door and after seeing that the coast was indeed clear they stepped out of their room and waited outside of the entrance, allowing Triad to think they had all of their bases covered.

Grey peaked between the posters and whispered, “Everyone’s out cold, even Thorne and Frey.”

If the thousand year olds were out cold the mortals could be damn near dead
.
That dumb ass
.
All of a sudden his witty commentary wasn’t that funny anymore.
One of the Triad walked out of the diner with the waitress slung over his shoulder. He walked directly into them. They all stared at each other for a second before Lexy ordered, “Catch her.” She decked the Triad and Grey caught the girl. She peered through the window between the posters once again, turned back smiled at her Handler and laughed, “It looks like Tiberius is on some kind of strange trip but he’s not down. His men are trying to restrain him. This is going to be fun. Go secure her in the motorhome, and grab everyone’s things. I’ve got these guys.”

Lexy entered the diner and the bells jingled, signaling her arrival. Tiberius was standing on the table fending off his men.
He was higher than a kite
.

He animatedly bounced around as he hollered, “The lava is coming… Come with me if you want to live.”

Five Triad men, turned to face her as Tiberius looked at her and his whole demeanor changed, “Well, hello beautiful.”

Lexy cockily strolled towards the scattered Triad and round house kicked the first one as the second one charged her she stabbed him in the stomach. There was only enough time to shove the third away as she broke the neck of the fourth
. There was always a method to her madness.
Lexy took off in pursuit of the one she’d only had time to shove away. She leapt over three of her clan member’s bodies and caught up with the Triad, snapping his neck before he made it into the kitchen. Lexy gave Astrid’s body a shove with her foot.
She was out cold.
She spun around and started to casually maneuver her way around the bodies towards Tiberius. He was still standing on the table panicked about the invisible lava that was coming.
It was strange to see him this way.
He was waving his arms in the air yelling, “It’s coming. You have to come with me!”

Why not play along for a minute?

Tiberius leapt from the table, and repeated his warning, “Come with me!” He darted towards the kitchen and out of sheer curiosity Lexy followed him as he mowed right over his fellow Triad’s bodies like they were not even there. He yarded open the large stainless steel freezer door and whispered, “We’ll be safe in here.”

Lexy couldn’t help herself; intrigued by his insanity she followed the leader of Triad into the chilly freezer. Inside, there were stacked shelves full of meat and frozen goods.
Because why wouldn’t you hide in a giant freezer to protect yourself from lava?
He started to block the bottom of the door with random things.
This drug induced hallucination was getting good. Why not let it play out for a second longer before she killed him? Oh yes…she had a job to do. As entertaining as this was she’d have to shut it down and get with the program
. She decided it was time to send her lava fearing consort off to dreamland. Lexy tapped him on the shoulder and spoke in a soft sultry tone, “We have five more seconds together do you really want to spend it blocking that door?”

He stopped the insanity, looked directly into her eyes and whispered, “Kiss me, and then kill me before it gets to us. This is the shittiest way possible to die.”

Tiberius truly believed he was somehow in the middle of a volcanic eruption. She took a step towards him, gently kissed his lips, and snapped his neck. His body slumped to the floor. She gave him a kick to make sure he was going to be down for the count for a while before shoving the boxes aside and stepping out of the freezer. Lexy bumped right into her concerned Handler.

Grey looked into the freezer, saw Tiberius’s body, with her tell-tale crimson red lipstick smudged on his lips. He chuckled, placed his arm around her and said, “Having a moment in the freezer with lava boy?”

She grinned and questioned, “Is the motorhome parked out front?” Lexy closed the door on Tiberius and locked it, smiling as she walked away.

Grey had already moved all of their clan’s bodies except for one. She saw what Grey was doing and smiled as she lugged Kayn’s body out to the motorhome. After plunking Kayn down on her bunk she noticed that he’d already collected all of their belongings from their motel room.
He was good.
He really had to quit messing around. They had to get some distance between them and both of the other clans before this girl woke up.

Lexy dashed back into the diner and asserted, “Come on, Grey. We need to get out of here.”

Grey was busy posing the sedated Trinity and Triad in inappropriate ways …together.
She loved that idiot, he really couldn’t help himself
. She took in the comic majesty that he’d created.
Wow
. Lexy shook her head and stated, “If anyone ever asks me who did this I am so throwing you under the bus. Come on Caligula, let’s get out of here before everyone starts waking up.” She grabbed her side-tracked giggling Handler and ushered him out the door while prodding, “I’m serious! We have to get out of here!”

Chapter 18
Adventures in Babysitting

T
hey got into the motorhome to the complete and total silence of their drugged youthful companions. Grey turned the key, started it up and drove away as she took a little tour around to see what he’d done with the waitress.
Where in the hell was she?
Lexy opened the closet.
No waitress?
There was a sign on the locked bathroom door that read, ‘Waitress in bathroom.’ She sighed as she opened the bathroom door. The waitresses body was sitting in the shower slumped over on one side.
Come on Greydon. Where were they supposed to pee?

Lexy locked the latch on the outside of the door and shook her head as she made her way back to the front of the moving vehicle. As she slipped into the passenger seat, she complained, “Where are we supposed to pee?”

He grinned at her and teased, “Go by the side of the road like a man. There’s toilet paper in the closet.”

She shook her head and sighed, “Just drive.”

Grey passed her the empty pop can from the cup holder in the dash and shrugged, she questioned, “Seriously?”

“I’ll find us somewhere to go. Once we’re safely off of the highway we’ll have more options,” Grey replied as he began to mess around with the radio. He stopped for a second, turned to face her, and whispered, “Why would you kiss that tool while he was under the influence of something?”

Oh, she’d known that was coming
. Lexy smiled and explained, “He asked me to kiss him and then off him before the lava got to us. It seemed like a reasonable request.”

Her partner in debauchery gave her an extremely unimpressed look. Grey found a station worth listening to and cranked up the volume, signaling without either of them having to say another word that he was going to try to let the knowledge of that kiss go. For a while they rode in silence, with nothing but the sound of the music and the steady spinning of tires to pass the time, eventually Grey started to sing along, serenading her with his undeniably charming off key falsetto. He turned off of the highway and started the usual evasive maneuvers to lose the other clans by taking the backroads. The bumpy dusty un-cemented side roads were definitely not helping with the ability to hold it and the need to use the washroom went from maybe I might need too, to urgent.

Sensing her predicament, he laughed and said, “It’s probably safe to pull over for a minute, pee speedy my friend.”

When she got back inside, Grey was reclined in the passenger seat.
He was pretending to be asleep. He wasn’t of course, because she’d been gone for five minutes.
Lexy made herself comfortable and decided to do her part in evading the other clans. As she pulled out she twisted the steering wheel sharply and he smoked his head on the window.