“I tttt-tr-tr-trttripped,” I stuttered out between chattering teeth. How did it get even colder in here? Is there a breeze? I hunched inward like my damp clothes were going to insulate me or somehow transform into a hot shower, but it wasn’t working.
“Did anyone see her fall out there?” He looked around, pissed as hell, but no one had because I was trailing behind everyone else pretty much the whole way, and I didn’t want to say anything. He turned back to me, anger clouding out his disbelief, and I shook my head.
“No one s-s-s-saw,” I chittered, shaking my head. “My f-f-fault-t.”
He crouched down in front of me and rested a hand on my leg, and it was so warm that it burned through the fabric of my pants, making everything else just feel colder. “As soon as we’ve got you fixed up again, we’re going to have a little talk about this. I— we trusted you to watch out for yourself, Azzie, which includes asking for help. This isn’t… we’re going to talk about this.”
“F-f-f-fuck.”
“Yeah, fuck is right.” He rolled my one dry and one blood-sodden sock off, then helped me stand up and proceeded to undo my belt and remove my pants. He rubbed my legs down roughly with a camp towel before wrapping it around my waist and sitting me back down. My legs were completely bare, which was super unpleasant, but he couldn’t doctor the scrapes through pants.
While Tai worked on disinfecting and bandaging my legs up — there was one particularly deep gouge where I’d grazed myself on the broken branch I tripped over, and that was the one that had bled into my sock — Spider got all the top layers off down to my sports bra, because although my layers were mostly dry, all of them with sleeves were soaked from wrist to elbow.
“You know cotton is a terrible idea for bad weather, right?” He was using baby wipes to clean dirt and unidentifiable smears of green and black off of my hands while talking, and I nodded grudgingly.
“I didn’t think the high performance stuff would be warm enough, and I didn’t get dressed intending to stick my hands in puddles,” I mumbled. “Wicked the water right up my arms.”
“Mmhmm,” he agreed, giving up on the wipes and grabbing a bottle of water to rinse my arms and hands off. “You would’ve stayed warmer with just the one layer than with four of the wrong kind.”
I nodded, not saying anything. He was right— they were right, and I’d ignored everything I knew about operating in shitty weather, then compounded my errors by not saying anything when I got hurt.
“Lemme see those hands,” Tai said, calm and non-judgmental. It was more than I deserved, but just made me feel dumber than if he’d yelled. Tears pricked my eyes and I tried looking up to stop them from leaking out, but Luka was there with what looked like a humongous metal thermos, pressing it down into my hands. It was warm.
And it smelled like chocolate.
“What the fuck—?” Both Tai and Spider were staring at what I now realized was a really big mug with some kind of sensor towards the bottom, the LED screen showing “135.”
“It’s a smart mug,” Luka explained earnestly, holding my hands around it. “I found it in the gear room and no one else wanted it, and— and I like cocoa,” he smiled, sheepish and blushing.
My adorable warrior-god was blushing. Because cocoa.
I stared at him, bemused by his magical powers to conjure hot beverages.
“I charged it up at the bunker, and took all the packets I could find from the pantry, I have like six boxes worth, so drink it while it’s hot. No, really, it’s the perfect temperature — I waited until it was ready to bring it to you.”
I stared up at him as I took a sip, the hot liquid radiating warmth from my inside out, driving the chills right out of me. Tai went back to fixing me up, shaking his head with a chuff of breath, and Spider went to find Sev and Sasha to tell them a potentially dangerous fire wasn’t needed after all. Because their brother likes cocoa.
Luka helped me get clothes on as Tai finished each damaged part, putting me in some fleece-lined leggings and shushing me when I tried to protest my lack of pockets. “Wear these to sleep in,” he argued, “you can reassemble your armory before we leave.” And that made sense — and also these were super comfortable and warm sooo…
Before I really registered what was going on, I was fully clothed in my warmest layers and being shoved into an emergency sleeping bag laid out on a pile of hay with my hot cocoa and a protein bar. Everyone else was still shuffling around, hanging up gear to dry, and eating jerky and protein bars and plain (unheated, un-cocoa’d) water, and I was so toasty warm and comfortable that my stupid eyes wouldn’t stay open and—
Tai
“She’s out cold,” my brother said softly. He peeled her hand off the magical cocoa dispenser and handed it back to Luka with a nod of approval. “Your hot chocolate addiction just made shit 70% easier. Thank you.”
Luka beamed at him, and cradled the mug against his chest possessively. “I’m only sharing with her, you know.”
“That’s fine,” Spider conceded, but I saw the way his eyes tracked Luka’s movements as he ducked away to make another cup for himself. My brother was definitely planning a cocoa coup, because Spider had a crazy addiction to coffee that wasn’t even cured by the swill the Army provided.
“We need to talk,” I gestured for us all to gather up, not at all worried our voices would wake Azzie; she was so wrecked she could probably sleep through an explosion.
The Callises had tossed down a dozen bales of hay from the barn loft — we broke two open to make Azzie’s bed, and were using the rest for seating for now — while the Viper Twins had gotten all the gear and outerwear that needed it spread out to dry, hanging up all the rain ponchos over the biggest gaps in the walls and doors. It did shit to keep out the cold wind, but helped block the little bit of light we allowed ourselves.
Once Sev and Sasha were relieved of fire building duty, they’d done what they could to secure the perimeter, but at least two of us needed to be on watch at all times. It wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference against soldiers from Salem if they tracked us out here, we were more concerned about random wanderers trying to escape the weather too.
I gave us a few minutes to eat a bit, then turned to Jason Callis. “What’s your plan.” It wasn’t a question, it was an order for him to report, using the same voice I’d used on my guys as a superior officer seeking intel.
He didn’t immediately respond, but he didn’t bristle at the tone either. He smirked, with a soft chuckle and a glance at his brother, then complied. “We’ll take off from here, whenever you do. The four of us will go east. You go elsewhere.”
Sasha immediately stiffened, arms crossing, and glared at him. “Excuse me?”
Jason glanced over at his brother again. Ryan’s eyebrow shot up and he took a deep breath, shaking his head. “She didn’t tell them.”
“She said she wasn’t going to.”
“Yeah, but I still expected her to.”
“Tell us what?” I asked coldly, holding up a hand to stop Spider from doing anything Azzie would be pissed about later, like shooting those assholes.
“We were forced to communicate with our father,” Ryan sounded incredibly pissed about that, but it was clearly about having to talk to his dad and not for having to tell us. Sasha and I exchanged looks. Ryan ignored us, continuing, “and he’ll be waiting with a small army.”
“Fuck! Seriously?!” Adriana looked horrified, and glanced over at our sleeping girlfriend. “I knew you had to contact him, but why is he coming all the way out here?”
Jason stared off at nothing. “He’s pissed. He thinks we’re pussying out for leaving early and not showing any results, because we’re not telling him shit about Azzie. The base manufactures vaccine, end of story. He thinks if we stayed, we could establish a pipeline out of the base for it — like no one would fucking notice if some went missing from every batch?! Dumbass.”
“Why bring an army then? And do you mean an actual army, or just a bunch of
dudes in the back of a pick-up with rifles?” I’m not sure if Luka really thinks they’re redneck, militia-types, or he just wanted to insult them, but either way all that got was smirks from the Callises and Slopes.
“Not just dudes with rifles,” Ryan chuckled humorlessly, “and he has it in his head that we’ll turn around and lead them onto the base the way we got out, and then he’ll take charge. I’m sure in his mind, he’ll be running things within a day… my dad has delusions of grandeur, can’t understand why no one has recognized his obvious superiority yet.”
“He’s a fucking psychopath and you need to keep her as far away from him as possible,” she said, genuinely worried, and I focused on Ryan.
“He going to be a problem?”
Jason answered, shaking his head at me. “The present Azzie gave us should be enough to satisfy him, and then we just need to convince him that there’s no chance to get back on base, nor would anyone want to. The threat of firebombing might be enough.”
“Maybe,” Ryan said quietly, not looking convinced. “Regardless, no one is going to tell him — or any of the family — about her,” he reassured us. His brother and the girls nodded, and I believed them. “But our dad is fucking uncanny at figuring out which pieces need to be removed from the chessboard, and it’s best he doesn’t know any of you even exist. So we go east, you go… not east.”
I nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Any idea why she wanted to keep that from us?” Sev asked, not even pretending to be casual about it.
“It was yet another betrayal,” Jason answered, looking away. “She didn’t want any of you to retaliate, which seemed likely with how things went with her foster family. You didn’t get your pound of flesh from them, so…”
Sev nodded. “Fair.”
“So are you going to retaliate?” Ryan asked belligerently, scanning all of us with a cunning intensity.
I snorted. “No reason to. You burned your own bridge, right? We don’t have to do a thing and you get gone.”
Jason nodded, still staring off at nothing and no one, his regret palpable. His brother shoved him. “It’s for the best. They’d cage her, one way or another.”
Jason nodded again, and sighed. “Doesn’t mean I won’t wish things were different.”
“When you write your fanfic, you can have us run off to Bali with her and spend every day swimming in the ocean, and every night licking the salt from her skin.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“It’s been said.”
“Hey Ryan? Next time I’m eating some pierogi, I’ll think about you and your pizza, yeah?” Sasha chuckled evilly while Ryan growled, flipping him off.
“Did you just call Azzie’s pussy pierogi?” Gemma asked, appalled.
“I’m gonna fuckin’ tell her,” Adriana threatened gleefully, “see if she lets any of you get a taste then!”
Spider and Luka grinned at each other, the smug bastards, then Luka looked over at Gemma and deliberately wiped his hand over his mouth. “Sweet like fuckin’ candy.”
“You motherfuckers,” Jason hissed, looking between them. “BOTH of you? You fuckin’ sons of bitches—”
“Fuckin’ knew it!” Gemma crowed, shaking her head. “Fuckin’ knew she’d be worth dipping my toe in the pussy pool—”
“Jesus, Gem, I thought you were joking,” Adriana pushed her sister, who braced her foot and knocked her back.
“Nope, gonna get a taste of that righteous little bitch eventually,” Gemma swore, looking over at our innocently sleeping girl. “Ruin her for any other oral—”
“My tongue is pierced,” Sev informed her, “as is my cock, in five places. Tai over there has a fuckin’ giraffe tongue, have you seen how long it is? Freak of fucking nature, that one. And have you noticed how big Spider’s hands are? Or how disturbingly long his fingers are? And then there’s Luka. He carried her, both of them wearing full packs, for about twenty minutes earlier at a fast clip and wasn’t even breathing hard — I’d guess he can hold her over his head for twice as long. And Sasha once pistoned a bitch non-stop for twenty-five minutes — yeah, I timed it because it was a fuckin’ dare. Not to mention monstrous cocks run in our family, and the three of us are packing goddamn Louisville Sluggers in our pants. Do you really think you can compete with any of us?”
“Dude, stop exaggerating,” I said, making a face at him and flicking my tongue. “Giraffe tongues are like twenty-one inches or something. Mine’s only like four.”
“Fuck me,” Gemma breathed out in awe.
Adriana began to cackle, pushing at her sister again, who was staring at me with disturbing focus that made me shift back unconsciously. “Looks like Jason won’t be the only one writing fanfic,” she crowed.
“Now that I’m thoroughly unsettled,” Spider said, projecting over the shit-talk being tossed back and forth between every person currently awake, “we need to get back to business. It’s almost three now, sun will be coming up in a couple hours. I’d like to be back on the move by 6:30 at the latest. Tai and I will sleep now, wake us up in an hour and we’ll keep watch the rest of the night, okay?”
Sasha and Sev nodded, essentially volunteering for first watch.
“You four are heading out at the same time, going east?” Ryan nodded at him. “We’ll go over the map in a few minutes. First, we need to talk about Azzie.”
Silence.
“From now on,” I said, looking between my brothers, “someone sticks with her at all times. Especially at night.”
“She doesn’t like the dark,” Luka said, frowning at her sleeping form. “After being blind. It’s why she was almost paralyzed in the culvert. I didn’t think about it, once we were walking.”
“Didn’t seem that dark to me,” Sasha said, nodding at him.
“She has problems with her eyes,” I said. “Gets some night-blindness, some nights worse than others.”
“Keep it subtle,” Adriana recommended, staring me down. “She won’t appreciate feeling like you’re babysitting her — it’s why she didn’t tell anyone she was hurt.”
“Girl can’t stand being a burden,” Gemma agreed. “She won’t want to feel like she’s being coddled, even though you absolutely have to coddle her.”
“She’ll take it easier if you let her feel useful in other ways.” Adriana apparently had the spirit stick now. “Treat her like an equal and she’ll accept help. Treat her like a princess and she’ll fight you every step.”
“She’s been sick for years, that can fuck you up inside,” Gemma said quietly, and Adriana was clasping her hand tightly. “Make you feel like all you are is your disease because it’s all anyone seems to focus on. You never did that before, so don’t start now.”
Adriana leaned into her sister, pressing their foreheads together, speaking so softly I could barely hear her. “She gave as good as she got… fuckin’ better sometimes.” Adriana looked over at Azzie. “We’ll make it up to her someday. I’m gonna tell Sam everything when we get home, and he’ll figure out something. Maybe Rafe too.”
“You will not,” Jason hissed, and she startled, looking around before focusing on him. “You or Sam aren’t telling Rafe shit about her, understand?”
“Worried he’d steal your girl? The one who isn’t actually your girl?” Adriana really knew how to grind that salt into the wound, and Jason looked away, clenching his jaw. Almost felt sorry for the guy.
Gemma snorted, rolling her eyes. “Dude, she’s got Banana-hands, Giraffe Tongue, and the Slugger triplets. She wouldn’t even notice Rafe. He isn’t a threat.”
“Bullshit,” Jason and Ryan echoed at the exact same time, as Adriana made a face, saying, “Bitch, please! No one doesn’t notice Rafe. And he can hold his own— I mean, I don’t know personally, but Gia hooked up with him last Fourth of July at the lake? She’s still pining for him… And if he’s anything like his brother— sheeeee-it! Gonna make some lucky bitch very happy if he ever settles.”
“As much as I’d love to h
ear all the juicy deets about this Rafe fella,” Spider said, flatly, “we’re going to table this discussion, look at the map, and then get some fucking sleep. Got it? Good.”
Chapter Fifteen
Azzie
“—sorry, sunshine, but it’s time to wake up.”
That voice. It was deep and rumbly and made my girlie bits tingle, but I’ve never hated anything more in my life.
Fuck you, sexy voice! You don’t tell me what to do!
“Azzie-pie, my little sweetpea, don’t just grumble and entrench deeper, you need to wake up.”
That other voice. Also deep, not quite as much gravel in it. Still caused tingles down my spine, making me shiver.
I’m going to punch that voice in the nards.
“Do you think she means she wants to nut-punch me, or just my voice? And how does that work? Is she going to punch the little dangly thing in the back of my throat? Are those the balls of the vocal tract?”
“I think my little sunshine here becomes a rage monster when she’s sleeping, and I wouldn’t question any level of violence right now, so it’s time to bring out the big guns… You know what you have to do.”
“Tickle her until she cries?”
I repositioned, pulling my blanket tighter. “One finger creeps near my sides and I’ll rip it off and feed it to the next person who touches me.”
“No, the big guns. You know what you have to do. Make the sacrifice.”
“Sonuva—! Fine.” That voice wasn’t sweet and cajoling anymore, it sounded bitter and angry. That voice shouldn’t ever sound bitter! Oh, no! What the hell was happening—? “If you wake up right now and get ready to go, I’ll make you cocoa.”
I cracked one eye open and peered up at Luka. He was kneeling next to me with his fists clenched on his thighs, looking off in the distance, huffing breaths like it pained him to give up a single, precious packet of his hoard. I tilted my head, studying him, trying to figure out what he reminded me of, then it hit me. “You’re a dragon, guarding every drop of cocoa like it’s a gold coin in the enormous pile you’ve amassed. You’re content to merely touch your treasure, luxuriate in it, until it’s threatened and then you’re ready to breathe fire and destroy everything in your path.”
Book of the Lost: AAV-07d25-11: (A reverse harem, post-pandemic, slow-burn romance) (The JAK2 Cycle, Book 3) Page 17