by Kim Cormack
Kayn wandered over to the minibar, grabbed a tiny bottle of wine and tossed another one to Zach without warning him. It exploded against the wall and she scoffed, “What in the hell Zach? You’re an immortal. Get it together.” She grabbed him another one.
Melody chucked them both their own keys and sweetly suggested, “Can you two go and trash your own room?”
They had their own room? She hadn’t been paying attention as Melody paid. They took the key, bid her goodnight and left her to enjoy her debauchery free evening. Kayn looked at Zach and they each downed an entire small bottle of wine. They tossed their bags into the room, dropped their coats on the floor and left. It would be smarter to only act like they were drunk. Kayn looked at him and questioned, “Which one of us gets the key to this room?”
He tossed it at her and replied, “If I need to get in, I’ll go get another one from the front desk.” As they walked to the elevator, he asked, “Are you alright with this job?”
“I’m not alright with it but I plan to do it anyway. If that’s what you’re asking?” She sparred as they stepped into the elevator. Kayn pressed the button to go down, looked at him and questioned, “Are you alright with it?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied. “I was blind drunk last time and it was fun but confusing fun. Does that make sense?”
The door opened as she responded, “More than you know.” As they strolled towards the pub, they both started laughing. She exclaimed, “Why wouldn’t they just kill us?”
Zach put his arm around her, gave her a brotherly kiss on the head and chuckled, “Jenna usually knows how things will play out. If she says this will work, it will.”
The Honey Pot Closure
She walked into the bar and quickly scanned the room. They were sitting in the corner on high stools at a dark brown marble pub style table. They had a couple of choices. They could order dinner and wait for them to notice them sitting there or they could stroll right up to their table, pull up a couple of chairs and sit down. She followed Zach’s lead by taking a seat at an empty table. They ordered a bottle of wine with some appetizers and decided to act like they were oblivious to their enemies. Kayn raised her wine glass and toasted, “To Hannah.”
Her partner in crime repeated her words, “To Hannah.”
They both downed their glass of wine in the name of the possible clan member they’d lost. They refilled their glasses and asked the waitress as she passed for another bottle. Kayn began to rub her thumb in a circular motion on her wrist. She wasn’t going to trigger her ability by doing this to herself.
Zach raised his full glass of wine and saluted, “To messed-up situations.”
Kayn raised her own and repeated Zach’s toast but before she could raise the glass to her lips, she felt their presence. There it was… the irritating sound of chairs being pulled up to their table. Kayn glanced towards the noise and smiled. Dragon. You are a sexy frigging Dragon. She met Stephanie’s eyes as she took a casual sip of her wine and coolly stated, “This is our first night off in over a week. If you’re looking for drama, go elsewhere.”
Her gorgeous dark haired vixen of a nemesis glared at Kevin and sarcastically complained, “How come we don’t get nights off?”
“You’re in the middle of one,” Kevin countered.
Patrick greeted them with a raised glass. He winked at Zach and asked, “Who are we drinking to?”
Zach grinned and with a hint of flirtation in his voice, he replied, “I’m sure it’s nothing anyone in Triad would be too concerned about.”
The one sweet Triad verbally jousted, “Try me.”
Zach was solemn for a moment before replying, “Her name was Hannah. We watched her before her Correction for a week. She didn’t survive and she was kind of great.”
Kayn could tell that Patrick understood what they were feeling. Stephanie also appeared to understand. She avoided looking at Kevin. She was doing a terrific job of it, until he cleared his throat and spoke her name. Kayn looked at him and there was something in his eyes that she couldn’t quite place. A look she’d never seen in the mortal version of him.
Kevin curtly enquired, “Why didn’t you just go to the hospital, heal her and take her? Why announce your presence? What’s your game move here?”
She took another sip of her wine and was bluntly honest, “What’s the point in rushing around? You can’t take her unless she’s healed and we can take her anytime we want to. Why not relax for a day or two? As I mentioned earlier, we haven’t had a day off in a while and quite truthfully, we’re still a little bit upset from our last job.”
The waitress passed by and Stephanie announced, “We’ll have a couple of bottles of whatever they’re having.” The waitress returned almost immediately with two more bottles of wine. She uncorked them and walked away.
“What’s to stop us from killing you the second you’re alone.” Kevin questioned as he poured a glass of wine for each one of his friends and then topped up theirs.
Zach looked directly at Stephanie and his eyes dropped to her cleavage and lingered there as he flirted, “Why don’t we just keep pouring the wine for a while and see where the night takes us?”
She took a slow seductive sip and sparred, “That sounds doable.”
Kayn quickly drank her whole glass of wine and then grabbed the bottle off the table and refilled her glass to the rim. A song by Rascal Flatts had begun to play. A song they used to listen to. It turned her impermeable Dragon scales to flesh.
Kevin’s eyes softened and his demeanor became uncomfortably close to the old version of him that she’d adored as he whispered, “Hey Brighton, you should slow down. This isn’t a race and you’ve always been a bit of a lightweight.”
He was talking like he knew her. Even if he remembered everything, he didn’t know her anymore. “You don’t know me anymore,” she replied. Kayn picked up her refilled glass and took a rebellious drink from it. He looked into her eyes and something flickered in them again. Was that pain. Was it anger or a little of both?
His eyes darkened as he spitefully agreed, “No, I don’t know you at all anymore. Do I?”
There was some serious animosity in that statement.
Zach addressed the other two, “Let’s play a game of pool. This conversation just became way too intense for my mental state.”
The three highly intoxicated looking frenemies wandered away from the table leaving the two of them alone. The waitress showed up with pork bites, jalapeno poppers and a mountainous plate of nachos. She was hungry and Kevin looked like he wanted her to choke on a pork bite. She ignored the scowl on his face as she dipped a jalapeno popper in some sour cream and ate it. It was smoking hot! Ouch, damn it! She was forced to spit it into a napkin. Kevin had some serious animosity going on but her goofy moment involving her scalded tongue made his eyes soften. After she downed her entire glass of wine to put the fire on her tongue out, Kayn looked at him and said, “So, how awkward are we going to make this on a scale of one to ten? Everyone else appears to be having a good time. It’s horrifically cold outside so I’m not leaving. You’re free to go and sit at another table if you can’t stand the sight of me.”
Kevin finished his glass of wine and poured himself another, in silence. He stared at his glass and admitted, “How awkward is this for me? I’d say it’s about a ten and if I couldn’t stand the sight of you that dream would have been a hell of a lot easier to swallow.”
He knew about Frost. He’d talked about dreaming about her while he was trying to get into her pants during the week before the Testing. A part of her had thought that was part of the game he was playing. The look she’d been trying to place was contempt. She could read it now, loud and clear.
He leaned in, stared into her eyes and whispered, “I had to watch that happen. Do you know what that was like?” She whispered back, “As a matter of fact I do. I’ve spent two years witnessing your sexual exploits in dreams.”
He stared into his glass of wine as he whispered, �
�That wasn’t what it was supposed to be like.”
She couldn’t look at him. It wasn’t what it was supposed to be like for the girl she use to be but she was different now and she’d enjoyed every dark twisted second of it.
He reached over, grabbed a jalapeno popper, dipped it into the sour cream and ate it. He smiled at her and said, “They’re alright now. You won’t burn your tongue.”
The pub kept playing a list of songs that reminded her of her mortal life. A simpler existence. A time when they’d been each other’s worlds and the highlight of her day was being with him in a field, watching the clouds drift by. An alternate reality where her soul would have never believed being his enemy was possible. She forced herself to keep going as she ate a popper that didn’t melt her tongue. She met his eyes, knowing a part of her would always miss who they were in that beautiful time before they disappeared.
He slipped his hand over hers and whispered, “What I had to do to you in the Testing, destroyed me too. I think you understand why I had to do it but I just needed to say the words, at least once. I’m sorry.”
The emotionally agonizing moment echoed through her memory more often than she cared to admit. Kayn whispered back, “I remember the feeling of your blade as it slid across my throat. The all-encompassing devastation. I thought I was safe with you. I used to think that you destroyed me. You were the one person that had that ability. I’ve been seeing things differently lately. That blade made me more. Good or bad, you made me the Dragon that I am today…Thank you.”
He squeezed her hand, then let it go, releasing her from the carefree mortal memories that would always bind them. Kevin cleared his throat. His voice was thick with emotion as he whispered, “I need to go.”
There were tears in his eyes. It felt like it was really him. Old emotions surfaced, causing confusion within her. She struggled to remain on task. “Stay,” she persuaded, as sentiment moistened her eyes.
His expression darkened. Kevin wiped her tears away and coldly reprimanded, “Dragons don’t cry. Dragons never cry.” He walked away and left her there.
Kayn turned down the sound on the cell she’d stolen from his pocket and tucked it into hers. She waved at Zach to signal she was leaving. As she walked back to their room her mind scrutinized their conversation. He’d almost had her sucked into believing that their friendship could still exist and then he’d given her what she needed to shut her emotions for him down. That night she dreamt of him and who they used to be. She awoke with the beauty of her mortality still fresh in her mind. Dreams are torture. Bullies that visit you during the night, taunting you with moments lost and things you can no longer have.
They left as soon as Zach returned from his exploits. They were both still drunk so Melody had to drive until well into the next day. Her conversation with Kevin had been strangely therapeutic. He had his memories back and they’d had a moment but it didn’t change how she felt about Frost. Time had strategically moved the chess pieces of her life. It had altered her wants and given her the closure that she hadn’t known she needed.
It felt peculiar having only the three of them driving through the endless Alaskan darkness into the unknown. Kayn was sitting in the passenger seat next to Mel as she drove. The snow coming at the window had the appearance of a swirling vortex leading them into another world. Her phone buzzed. She grabbed it out of her pocket and looked at it. There was a text from Frost. It was only a week and a half late. It read, “Are you still mine?” She stared at her cell for a moment and then replied, “Are you still mine?”
A second later her phone vibrated again and the message on the screen read, “Always.”
Her heart soared and she became instantly annoyed with herself. Why hadn’t he tried to contact her? It had been more than a week. She wasn’t mortal anymore. Perhaps, the fact that they hadn’t spoken in a week didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things? What was a week in forever?
Mel glanced at her and said, “It was him, wasn’t it?”
Kayn smiled as she stared at his words on the screen and replied, “Yes.”
Her friend teased, “I don’t suppose he had some brilliant excuse as to why he hasn’t been messaging you back?”
Kayn looked at her rather puzzled as to how she’d known. Kayn hadn’t said a word about it.
Mel grinned as she explained, “You didn’t need to tell me anything. You’ve been repeatedly checking your cell phone for messages and scowling all week.”
She smiled and stared at the wild looking warp speed snow coming at the windshield. It was a rather hypnotizing sight to behold. Kayn responded to Melody’s earlier statement by saying, “I have a feeling Frost doesn’t make it a habit of doing the whole excuses thing.”
Melody grinned again and replied, “No, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t. How do you feel about that?”
“You can always count on people to be exactly who they are.” Kayn answered as she smiled, knowing she’d chosen a difficult road.
Zach passed them both a travel mug full of coffee. He stood there balancing between the two seats by hanging on to the back as he surfed the snowy highway. He sighed, “Skootch your butt over Kayn, I’m going to grab one of those for myself and then I’m coming up here to sit with you ladies. It’s painfully boring back there by myself.”
As soon as Zach released his grip on the back of their seats and stepped away. Melody purposely swerved a bit and he toppled over, falling to the floor with a thud. Mel apologized, “So sorry sweetie. There must have been a little bit of black ice back there.”
“Sure…black ice. “He sarcastically quipped.
Kayn heard him fumbling around in the kitchen. Zach reappeared with a spill proof coffee mug in hand and slid into the seat next to her.
“Thank you for not hitting anymore black ice while I walked up here,” he sparred.
With an icy expression on her face, Mel countered, “You never know when that pesky black ice will reappear. It’s such a random thing.”
Kayn decided to keep out of this one. Mel was pissed. Zach had once again bedded Satan. Had she slept with Kevin, it would have made his ‘I had to do it’ explanation a little bit more feasible. He didn’t have to do anything. He wanted too.
Her phone vibrated. She took it out of her pocket and looked at it.
The message read, “See you in Mexico beautiful.”
This was going to be a long drive.
Zach read the text over her shoulder. He raucously yelled in the enclosed space of the front seat, “Yes! We’re going to Mexico!”
Melody glanced at Zach and said, “With only two of us trading off the driving, this is going to be an exhausting drive. Go and get some sleep. We’re driving straight through.”
As Zach stood up to leave, he added, “Brighton, you’re learning how to drive as soon as I get the chance to teach you.”
Kayn smiled at him and said, “It’s been four months since the Testing and we haven’t had the opportunity to breathe yet, but I’m all for it.”
The days were painfully monotonous as they powered through the rest of British Columbia and the states. Kayn made meals and got them coffee while they drove for seemingly endless hours. As they travelled south, they began to shed their layers of clothing. Once in Mexico, they were given the name of a small town on the coast where they’d be meeting up with the others. They arrived at their destination at dusk the next day. It was an inconspicuous little fishing village. Zach texted Markus for directions and in a few minutes the exhausted trio of travellers pulled up the driveway of a ritzy looking resort. They grabbed their bags full of summer gear, locked up the RV and made their way down the cobblestone walkway towards the sound of voices. Kayn was barefoot, wearing a spaghetti strapped summer dress overtop of her bikini. She couldn’t find her flip flops and didn’t want to wait one more second to see him. They wandered into a courtyard lit by torches. The vivid colors of the flowers were not at all masked by the loss of natural sunlight. The fragrances in the air were glorious
but not nearly as wondrous as the sight of Frost sitting with his back to her at the bar. He turned around. It was as though he’d sensed her presence. He grinned as he got up and strode towards her. She sprinted into his arms and they embraced. He spun her around in a circle and they joyously laughed as the others began to greet each other and embrace. She had to end her moment with Frost to have one with everyone else.
Markus interrupted the group as he announced, “We have a couple of days here before we travel a little further inland to visit an Ankh crypt with a purpose I’m certain the newbies will enjoy.”
Melody was standing beside Orin. She glanced at her father and questioned, “What special purpose?”
Orin placed his arm around her and recanted, “It’s going to be way more fun to watch you guys if you have no idea where we’re going.”
Frost approached with two enormous fish bowl sized Pina Coladas and passed her one. He raised his glass and cheered, “To a couple of days off in paradise.”
They clinked their hilariously gigantic glasses. Kayn took a sip of her tasty treat as she followed him back to the outdoor bar.
She placed the heavy glass down on the counter and took a sip from the straw. That was better.
Frost glanced at her and flirtatiously questioned, “Did you miss me?”
Her eyes travelled from his seductively devious eyes to his sculpted chest and then down to his chiseled sexy abs. She sparred, “Did you miss me?”