“I think you’ve made your point.” Jaylyn laughed. “You’re happy.”
“Yes, well, I may have.” Ruby looked at Darius and kept her seat next to him.
“Happier?” I asked.
Darius kept his smile and still had his eyes on Ruby. “Much.”
We all laughed, not even noticing Zayden walk out of our sleeping quarters alone. I think I noticed first and immediately wiped the smile from my face. Others did after me and looked up where my eyes were. I was frozen, even my breath stopped when Zayden was staring at us.
Here it comes.
Chapter 14
Zayden
I knew leaving them alone may have been a bad idea. They were all sitting close to each other and laughing together like there was no war.
“Having fun out here, are we?” My eyes were focused and still, almost threatening to what I was seeing.
The girls looked at each other and both moved a few inches away, maybe hoping to ease some of my stare. It only helped a little.
“Better. I’m gone for five minutes and you four feel it necessary to get acquainted.”
Troy looked worried. “Zayden, we were just—”
“Enough. You don’t need to explain it to me. Really. They need to explain.”
Jaylyn looked over at Ruby nervously and spoke slowly like she was really wondering if I noticed she wasn’t wearing her mask. I noticed. I already assumed it would come off so she could eat and this was the first time I was seeing her. “Explain what?”
I was just so mixed about what to do. The fury was just growing inside me and I approached her, pulling her viciously up to her feet. “About this.”
I didn’t give anyone time to protest, not even Troy when I struck Jaylyn across the face with a dagger in my hand.
“Zayden!” Troy sprung right up when Jaylyn reacted to the pain but I wasn’t buying her innocence.
“What are you?”
Jaylyn turned her head back to me with her cheek covered and slowly lowered her hand. Blood smeared against her skin but there was no cut.
Troy turned her chin to him with an annoyingly high level of concern and saw it for himself. “What just happened?”
“The lovely Kalu Assassins have been hiding a secret.” I said. “Want to see another?”
Ruby hurried to get to her feet and back away even with her injured ankle. “Zayden, wait.”
“Why? Don’t want to get angry?”
“Please. Things get bad when I get angry.”
“I know and I want to see it.”
She wasn’t going to let me get close to her so the next best thing was to do something else. I went over to one of the bags and pulled out that ruby dagger she seemed to love so much.
“I wonder what would happen if you never saw your precious possession ever again.”
“Isn’t that pointless? We’re being sent to our deaths, remember? I kind of am already never going to see it again.”
“Then I guess it won’t be such a big deal if I throw it in the river where it will be lost forever.”
“Zayden, what are you doing?” Darius asked quietly.
“Relax, Darius. I’ve got this. She’s bluffing.”
“I’m not.” Ruby argued. “You are.”
“Oh, so you don’t think I’ll actually do it? All right then.” I held onto the blade and lifted it like I was ready to throw it far behind her to the river.
“Zayden, wait!”
I paused from doing it. “Then you are bluffing.”
“Fine. Just put it down. I’d rather you own it than have it be lost forever.”
“Oh, I see but here’s the thing, red isn’t my color.”
Her eyes widened when I raised the dagger again but this time, I really did throw it.
She turned to follow it with her eyes, screaming while it made its splash in the river. “No!”
The wind suddenly grew strong around us and she turned back to me. Her eyes were blood red like her hair but her pupil was gone. It was just a red iris with red veins being forced to it from the whites of her eyes.
“You didn’t have to do that.” She was looking right at me; I think.
“It would seem I did.”
She was taking steps towards me and I was ready for whatever she planned to do but something happened. She took her next step and sunk into the ground up to her elbows so she couldn’t move or at least not every good.
“Ruby, settle.”
I turned my head and Adele was out of the shelter, walking towards us.
“You know what he did?!” Ruby tried moving around and the ground started to crack like she were going to break free.
“Yes but you’re not to kill him.” Adele gripped her fist and the cracks Ruby made disappeared and the ground tightened even more around her.
“All right, Adele! Fine! You’re crushing me!”
“Prove it!”
Ruby had her eyes closed, taking heavy breaths. When she looked at Adele again beside me, her eyes were once again their unique golden tone.
“Watch your temper.” Her fist relaxed and Ruby was pulled from the ground.
The next thing I knew, the ruby dagger had thrown itself from the river, back to the bag I had it in. Better assurance that Ruby wouldn’t get angry about it again, I guess.
“What are you doing?” I asked when Adele just as quickly turned away.
“I just saved your life but don’t expect me to do it again.”
She walked back in the shelter and left us all in this awkward moment.
“Sorry.” Ruby said softly. “I told you bad things happen. Ouch!” She reached down to her ankle and had to sit down.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Being angry makes me stronger and it makes me forget about wounds I have.”
I was feeling much more relaxed about this than I thought from the beginning. They had some kind of special trait that made them advanced and I could relate.
“Then I think it’s time you were healed.”
Ruby perked up and finally had a smile. “You mean it?! You’ll actually let her do it?!”
“Why not? I’d like to see how it works on someone else and not that Darius hasn’t enjoyed carrying you around all day, I’m not encouraging it. So, go ahead.”
Ruby smiled in excitement and Jaylyn went over to her, reaching for her boot and started to pull it off.
“Easy. Easy! Easy!” Ruby said with more intensity each time.
“I am!”
“You’re doing it wrong! From the heel! The heel!”
“Okay!”
Jaylyn got it off and Ruby took a relaxing breath. “Shit, you’ve never taken someone else’s shoe off before, have you?”
“Can’t say that I have. Now hold still.”
We watched Jaylyn pull up Ruby’s pant leg and got a good look at her ankle. It was bruised with splotches of purple and Darius sounded remorseful about what he did. “I am so sorry.”
“It’s all right.” Ruby tried to laugh through the pain so she sounded happy about it. “If I wanted to kill you for it, it would have only been too easy with all of the previous opportunities I had.”
“So, why didn’t you?” I asked. I guess the thought just confused me.
Ruby looked over at Darius instead of me and smiled. “No point in wasting a good thing.”
He smiled back and I turned my attention back on Jaylyn. I didn’t even want to think about what that meant and I watched her put her hands on Ruby’s ankle. Her eyes started to glow with a fluorescent green shine, lighting the area around her. It was incredible beyond belief.
“Oh, shit! Your eyes are glowing!” Darius said by the mere sight of everything around him turning green.
“It’s part of it.” Ruby said while watching.
“Tell us more about these ailments of yours.” I said.
Jaylyn laughed. “It’s not an illness, Zayden. We call them enchantments or gifts for short.”
“Tell us about t
hem. I’m beginning to assume that your convincing smile is a natural trait.”
“Ah, yes. That’s just genetics. My gift is called the Healing Heart. It goes beyond just what it sounds like. I can heal any wound inflicted to any life form and can feel the presence of life when I choose to use it. I can also feel a person’s emotions and sense what kind of a mood they’re in so I’d know if someone was lying.”
“You can obviously heal yourself too.” Troy said.
“Yes but it’s a little worse than that. I guess it would be called a flaw because I don’t have to do anything for it to work. So in a situation like this, where we’ll surely be sentenced to death, I can only die if my brain is shut down. Better known as a traditional beheading or simply by disconnecting my brain from my spinal cord.”
“Dually noted.” I said. “I’ll be sure to inform the executioner so it’s done properly.”
“Awe, gee, Zayden. That’s sweet of you.”
“No problem.”
Her eyes faded and Ruby’s ankle looked normal colored again like it never happened.
“Better?” Jaylyn let her go and waited for a response.
Ruby moved her foot around to get a better idea if it was better or just a different color. I wanted to know too. “I don’t feel any different. It kind of went numb for a while until you tried ripping it off.”
“Then test it.”
Ruby put her boot back on and stood up, walking around for a second and even hopped on it a few times. “It feels fine but I have a better idea. Let’s try working it.”
She took her cloak off and started taking off her red leather coat after, throwing it on the ground where she was sitting.
I looked right at Darius. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was literally right next to him in tight golden colored pants that shown off every curve right in his face. I knew this wasn’t helping.
He even watched her walk over and pick up two fallen tree branches from the ground, tossing one to Jaylyn. “Catch!”
“And what am I supposed to do with this? Beat you with it?”
I tried not to laugh but I would have liked to see it.
“If you think you can.”
Ruby spun her stick around in one hand and Jaylyn stood up confidently to the challenge. “Oh, well, in that case, I’ll just have to make you regret that.” She took off her cloak as well as her gray leather coat underneath.
Troy sat next to her and just looked up; his eyes widened even more, mine rolling in the process. Was it necessary to strip in front of them and make it worse? I wanted to ask but didn’t. I was more focused on seeing what Troy was saying before we met them about how they matched us. Jaylyn was wearing an outfit with green leather and fabric and green happened to be Troy’s choice color. Red was Darius’s and blue was mine. It was unusual because it was exactly like the three of them. They probably didn’t know it yet because we weren’t exactly wearing color. We were still dressed in our armor like it were a uniform.
“Can’t wait.”
Ruby swung toward Jaylyn and she immediately brought up her stick to block, stunning us all. “Placement, Ruby! Not here!”
“We’ll get there.” Ruby turned her stick and swung the bottom half up towards Jaylyn.
She flipped backwards to get out of the way and landed up on the rock she was sitting against.
“What are you doing?” Troy asked.
“Running. What’s it look like?” Ruby answered.
“I’m not running. You neglected to figure the rules of a proper engagement as I was unprepared for it.”
Ruby laughed, echoing it around us. “Oh, please, Jaylyn! Spare me your pretext formality and give me what I really want.”
“Gladly.” Jaylyn took a breath and jumped off the rock. She landed in a forward handspring next to Darius and kicked Ruby backwards in the chest with both feet then flipped back to hers. She made it look easy.
Ruby flew to the ground, hitting hard then rolling backwards up on her feet with her stick still in hand. It was impressive how she held on. “That’s it? If it were me, that would have killed you.”
Jaylyn laughed. “Oh, I seriously doubt it.”
I watched them begin fighting each other while moving a distance away but it was obviously more playful than the scuffles I was used to seeing.
“Damn. Have you ever seen anything so attractive in your life?” Darius asked.
“No. Not ever.” Troy replied.
I saw the looks they were making while they watched and needed to know while we were finally alone or as alone as we would get. “What exactly happened out here?”
Their looks immediately changed when they looked at me.
“What do you mean?” Troy wondered.
“I know you did something.”
“He didn’t do anything.” Darius said. “I can vouch for that. It was them.” His voice lowered when he turned his eyes to Ruby. “This feels wrong. We didn’t expect this.”
“The feeling will pass. What did they do?” Darius and Troy shared a look and I gave up at that point. “You know what? Forget I asked. Just keep it to yourselves.”
“You’re not mad?” Troy asked.
I laughed. “No. I knew this was going to happen the moment you told me they were women. It didn’t matter where they were from but I knew it even more when I saw what they looked like. Just don’t get too attached, okay? It’ll make it harder for when the time comes.”
“What are you saying?” Darius asked anxiously. “You’re actually going to let us?”
“To an extent.” I made sure the terms were clear before they broke out in a full smile. “You know what’s out of the question and it’s because they’re already dead.”
“Then what else is there?”
I would have gladly responded but Troy quickly turned and punched him in the arm for is remark. “He didn’t mean it. A little contact will be good enough until we get back to Randal. It’s better than the look but don’t touch arrangement.”
“No, it’s just going to be more of a tease this way.”
“Why does everything have to be about sex?”
“Because everything is always about sex. You can’t tell me you haven’t once thought about making her squeal.”
“That’s not what I imagine it sounds like but thanks for bringing the thought back.”
“As where it should be. You’re welcome.”
“All right, Darius.” I said, finally cutting in to their back and forth bickering with a long sigh. “Yes, thank you but sex will be out of the question. I know the way you’re used to doing things so if you don’t want the only physical contact I’m granting you then you don’t have to have it.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want it but we’re still a couple days away. I’ve never hung around a woman for that long and definitely never done it waiting for sex.”
“Well, time for a change then.” Troy smiled. “You know you want to. Look at her. Ruby is—well, she’s—” He snapped his fingers, trying to land on the right word.
“Different.” I filled in for him.
“Yes, in easier words. In a way, I’d kind of say she’s like you. Well, you know, from what we’ve seen so far. We don’t really know her.”
Darius looked back towards Ruby again and his voice became quieter as he watched her. “Yeah. Too bad.”
I have never heard his voice like that before. It was like he cared. Darius actually cared—about a woman. That was two astonishing things in the same situation but neither Troy nor I said anything. I didn’t want to get into it here and definitely didn’t want to spark a hope in him. I’ve said it before; they’re already dead—as pretty as they are.
Chapter 15
Darius
I watched Ruby take another swing toward Jaylyn and it was like watching her in slow motion. Her body in action was incredible and I wanted to see it firsthand. She just seemed so energetic and fun, not to mention downright sexy. I wanted to know everything about her, experienc
e everything with her. She was probably every bit as fun to have in bed. There wasn’t a moment when I wasn’t imagining her taking control over me. That would be worth allowing but I didn’t know if that could ever happen. I knew what we were doing. I knew why they were with us now and it wasn’t going to end well. The longer it was on my mind, the worse I felt.
They walked back to us and tossed the sticks into the fire.
“What?” Ruby asked, probably seeing me still watching.
“Nothing.” I answered, finally getting the chance to eat what I had been cooking before it burnt from me being distracted for so long. “That was pretty impressive. So, I guess it’s better?”
Ruby smiled and sat herself next to me just a little closer than last time. “Of course. Jaylyn is a miracle worker. I didn’t doubt it. I just needed my foot to wake up.”
“Well, now that it is, you want to show us how yours works?” Zayden asked.
“You haven’t seen enough?”
“We saw you get angry but I know more happens. I want to see that part.”
She was still at first. I didn’t exactly know what this gift of hers was. Zayden seemed to only know a little bit. It had to have been something he squeezed out of Adele.
“Well, who do you want dead besides us because I can’t kill her this way. Believe me, I’ve tried. Her healing power counteracts mine. Annoying.”
“I didn’t say you had to kill a person. Kill a tree or something.”
Kill something? She could just do that?
Ruby lifted her eyebrow like she was confused and only made that expression sexy coming from that face. “A tree? You want me to kill a tree?”
“What’s the problem? Don’t think you can?”
She took a breath and her eyes turned red again. I couldn’t look away even if it did look like a red dot covering up her golden iris. “Shit, that’s hot.”
“Watch it. You don’t know who you’re messing with.” Her eyes were still on Zayden but they were still amazing.
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