by Kim Cormack
She’d definitely seen him. He wasn’t difficult to miss. Grey grabbed her from behind, kissed her neck and started to sway her back and forth. She laughed, “Stop it Grey! I can’t even think!” Lexy smiled, as she attempted to struggle out of Grey’s grasp while giving Kayn a hint, “Picture him without the extra weight and take another look around.” Her sexuality confused friend from the banquet before their Testing was now the hottest guy in the room, next to Frost.
Grey released her, pouted and said, “I take offence to that.”
Lexy grinned as she turned to face her pouty Handler. She recreated his last move by cupping his cheeks with the palms of her hands as she stared deeply into his eyes and whispered, “You’ll always be the hottest guy in the room to me.”
She saw it register in Grey’s eyes as he placed his hands over hers and made sure she read his intentions loud and clear as he friend zoned her with his words, “We’re best friends, you have to say that.”
Lexy had to stop reaching in trying to retrieve his feelings. She’d become quite the hypocrite. She grinned at him and sighed, “Go have some fun. I’m all good tonight. I promise.”
He kissed her on the cheek, smiled at her, messed up her hair and danced away from her, leaving her standing on the dance floor with no partner.
She scanned the room to see if Kayn had figured it out and saw Zach take a page out of the Grey handbook as he grabbed Kayn from behind, and startled her. Kayn laughed aloud as she spun around to face him. Kayn’s new Handler took her hand, twirled her around and whispered something in her ear. It made Lexy feel better to see Zach doing his job instead of leaving the fledgling Dragon to fend for herself. Just as she was about to make her way through the crowd towards the table Frost snagged her around the waist and teased, “If I have to stay out here dancing, so do you.”
The whole clan gathered as a group again and danced until they were so exhausted they became a little bit giddy and someone began to do joke dance moves. They did the lawn mower and the sprinkler. They began to make up new ones like the race car and the teacher. Kayn added the tiger lizard, and spider rat. Grey added Frost driving. Frost didn’t find that one funny. It turned into a giant game of dance charades. They kept making up new ones until they were all doubled over laughing. Lexy noticed Kayn; she was sneaking another peek at Kevin.
Another slow song came on and everyone began to partner up. Frost had disappeared so Grey grabbed Kayn. Lexy smiled and used this as the perfect opportunity to sneak back to the table. Lexy was almost in the clear when she felt someone’s gaze. She paused and her eyes were drawn towards Triad’s seating. Kevin’s eyes locked with hers. He was seriously upset. Kayn wasn’t even dancing with Frost? Where was Frost? She scanned the room and saw him in a deep conversation with Jenna. He had the same expression on his face. Something was happening that she wasn’t a privy too. There was always some kind of clan drama. Lexy made her way back to her seat. She picked up her goblet of wine and took a sip from it while watching the looks that were being exchanged between Jenna, Frost, and Markus. What now? It was then that she noticed the squished yellow flower on Kayn’s napkin and her heart solidified in her chest. No… Not her. Lexy calmly got up from the table, and made her way towards the hall that led to the washroom. She paused before she entered the hall and lingered there until she was able to catch the leader of Triad’s attention. She signalled for him to follow her and then started down the hallway towards the privacy of the washroom. Kayn looked too much like Freja. From the moment she’d walked in to the banquet this one fact, kept slipping into her mind each time she’d noticed the King staring at Kayn. It was easy to read between the lines in this scenario. The King would want to spend the night with Kayn and the King was a violent beast of a man and she was using the term man loosely. Lexy knew that no one in her clan would disobey the rules to stop it. This particular scenario hit a nerve with her because her first time had also not been by choice and all first times should be a choice. Tiberius had front row seats to the depravity of her childhood and clan Triad was known for their flexible interpretation of the rules. How far would he be willing to go for what he desired? Now, that was the question.
The doors slid open and Tiberius entered the bathroom, Lexy walked directly into his embrace and whispered in his ear, “Help me stop this and I’ll do anything you want.”
He stiffened for a second and whispered his reply, “Let’s take this conversation somewhere private.”
She allowed him to guide her into one of the stalls, turned and said, “We don’t have time for this now.”
Tiberius closed the door behind them and questioned, “I want to trust you. Can I trust you? I need you to give me your word as a Dragon.”
She nodded and whispered her reply, “You can trust me. I give you my word.”
“Are you capable of keeping a secret from your clan…even your Handler?” Tiberius asked.
If she had to she could. Lexy met his concerned expression with a steady gaze, “I gave you my word. You’ve seen inside of my mind. You know what that’s worth.”
Tiberius’s eyes softened as he whispered his response, “I’m guessing you’ve heard about the virgin sacrifice?”
He’d said the words that she’d been thinking aloud. She nodded her reply and then added, “You know why I can’t let this happen.”
Tiberius’s expression softened as he replied, “We already have a plan to stop it. You need to understand, that if you’re a part of this and we’re caught, we’ll all be entombed?”
Lexy whispered, “You already have a plan?”
He touched her hair and explained, “Kevin came to me with several versions of his vision. At first I thought I could keep you out of it but there’s only one version of this plan that works and it includes you. I was going to tell you about this earlier but you took off before I had the opportunity to say anything. We’re going to need a member of the royal family on board in order to pull it off and you happen to have a personal relationship with one of them. If there’s a chance he’ll turn you in just forget I mentioned this.”
“No, he won’t turn me in,” she replied, with certainty. She’d never been able to explain her connection to Prince Amadeus or why he’d helped her with no gain on his behalf but she knew he would never hurt her. She was curious. Lexy looked into Tiberius’s eyes and asked, “I understand why Kevin’s doing this, but why would you?”
Emotion flickered in her enemy’s eyes as he responded, “I had a front row seat for what happened to you when you were a child when you shared your memories with me at the Summit. It’s taken you forty years to come through what happened to you on that farm. How could I claim to have feelings for you and then stand by and watch while someone you care about is violated?”
“You can’t love me” Lexy whispered.
Tiberius smiled and whispered, “I don’t.” He presumptuously leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips. She was stunned that he’d just done it without her permission. Her lips were still tingling as he began his explanation, “I know you recall the drama that ensued after I erased my grandson’s memories. Well, an unfortunate side effect of my ability is that I get to know the people they know and feel their emotions. I was already going to do this before you tried to lure me into your web of debauchery by promising me naughty things you have no intention on following through with.”
He’d planned to do it anyway. A wave of real emotion washed over her. Lexy’s lips remained parted. She could still feel the warmth of his against hers. Her enemy was willing to chance the immortal equivalent of death for the right reasons. She didn’t want to look into Tiberius’s eyes. He was acting like the man she’d had a brief opportunity to spend time with during the halftime of the Summit. It confused things for her.
“They should be here by now,” Tiberius placed his hands on a few of the hand prints and opened the stall with ease. Kevin and Patrick were waiting outside of the door. He signalled them in and the group squeezed into the stall togethe
r.
Kevin smiled at her and asserted, “Don’t accidentally lean against that button on the toilet seat. The stall will shrink.”
She imagined that they’d all had a similar messed up experience the first time they’d used the bathroom in this place. “I only figured that out earlier this evening,” Lexy replied to the boy that had briefly been in their clan. He’d just done the unthinkable to the girl he loved for the greater good and now here he was about to sacrifice himself for Kayn once again and she’d never be able to know.
Kevin began to catch her up with their plan, “Silas will be slipping Kayn something to keep the Dragon at bay. We’ll also be drugging the wine in the King’s suite. With any luck it should temporarily knock out the King and he’ll think he blacked out. There’s more to it but long story short we’ll need to use the room next door and it belongs to Prince Amadeus. Can you get us all in there?”
If the King drank the wine from his bedroom and if Kayn took Silas’s advice, this might actually work. There were a lot of ifs involved in this plans success. Lexy answered, “I think I can get us in the room next door.”
Kevin nodded at her and said, “Let’s do this. We’ll need to get back to our seats and act appropriately shocked when they take her.”
Tiberius opened the door for the two boys, gestured them out and added, “You two get back to your seats. We’ll wait a minute and follow.” He shut the stall behind them once again leaving the two of them all alone. Tiberius whispered, “Just in case everything goes wrong tonight. Can I kiss you goodbye?”
She nodded and as their parted lips met, her pulse raced and she thought of Tiberius’s words…Just in case everything goes wrong. Their lips parted and she stared into her enemy’s entrancing pools of ocular seduction. Oh, hell, they were probably going to end up entombed for a hundred years for this. What did she have to lose? Lexy, stepped towards him and became the aggressor, kissing him passionately. Her tongue slipped between his parted lips and he groaned, “Oh, sweetheart, I know I’m going to kick myself for stopping this but you have a Prince to speak to and we have a virgin sacrifice to stop.”
He was right…What was she doing?
They left the bathroom and walked down the long hallway in silence, enemies once again. They parted ways as they strolled out of the hallway without even looking at each other and Lexy made her way towards where she’d been seated earlier. The music had ceased to play and no more began.
The announcer came on and asked the stragglers that still lingered on the dance floor to take their seats. They all wandered back to the table. Grey pulled out Kayn’s chair before he went to find his own seat. Lexy smiled at her Handler as he passed her.
Grey grabbed a hold of her arm and whispered in her ear, “If I disappear for the rest of the evening are you going to be okay with that?”
She squeezed his shoulder, smiled and whispered back, “Do whatever makes you happy.” Paused, and teased, “Just don’t drink too much and puke in that bathroom again.” She wasn’t going to be around to peel anything off of his face.
Grey chuckled as he walked away. Lexy grinned as she made her way back to her chair and took her seat beside an unsuspecting Kayn. The fledgling Dragon smiled at her as she took a drink from her goblet of wine.
Kayn gave her a rather comic giant grin and asked, “Do I have purple teeth?”
Her teeth were fine. Lexy replied, “No, you don’t, and this makeup stays on for days. It’s like a temporary tattoo. Kind of cool isn’t it?”
Kayn sighed, “I wish it was a permanent tattoo. I will never be able to copy this masterpiece. I had no idea I could look like this. What’s going to happen now?”
Do not react. Don’t think about it. Lexy kept her mind blank as she responded, “It’s probably another sick and twisted show.”
Frost took his seat and Lexy didn’t dare look his way. She glanced across the table at her lifeline to humanity and he was grinning at her. Grey was obliviously happy that they were all together again. He probably thought nothing could rain on his parade. She looked back at Kayn and noticed the concerned expression as it flashed across her face. The fledgling Dragon could sense the dark cloud that had descended over their table.
Lexy tried to side track Kayn’s thought by gently touching her arm, to get her attention. She smiled, looked directly at Grey and whispered, “I love seeing him like this.”
Kayn grinned back at her as she replied, “Me too.”
Lexy looked into her goblet and there were a couple of yellow flowers bobbing around in the deep burgundy liquid. Oh, this is bullshit. They were trying to calm her Dragon down too. Now, she was pissed. She glanced up as she sensed her Handler watching her.
He mouthed the words, “What’s going on?”
It was her Handler’s job to sense her anger and attempt to rectify the problem before it got out of hand but there was little he could do in this situation. Lexy mouthed the words, “Trust me.” She casually disposed of her tainted wine by dumping it into Kayn’s goblet while she wasn’t looking and had her goblet refilled as the boy passed her seat.
Kayn turned around just as she took a drink of her wine. Lexy said, “I’m proud of you guys. You were amazing in there.”
Kayn looked into her wine, knit her brow and fished the flowers out of her drink with one finger. She wiped them on the napkin as she answered, “Could you see us in the Testing?”
Lexy replied, “No, but Winnie told Jenna how you were all doing every once in a while. Each clan’s Guardian and Oracles were able to witness parts of the Testing.”
Lexy glanced at Frost and he was pensively staring into his goblet of wine, tracing the rim with one of his fingers. He knew and he couldn’t say anything. When Kayn turned to look at Frost, Lexy placed the yellow flowers from Kayn’s napkin back into her wine. It would be easier for her if she was slightly sedated, up front. She wouldn’t have a chance to drink from the goblet…
The trumpet played again. Lexy braced herself. She took a deep breath and did her best to maintain the blank emotionless expression on her face. This would be a true testament to her inner Dragon. She couldn’t shut her emotions down. She had to be cunning not reckless. Nobody in her clan could know what they had planned…not when the penalty was entombment. The four of them would be the only ones compromised if the whole plan went south. She glanced up at her Handler and checked herself; if he heard her thoughts he would never allow her to go through with it. This one time even Grey could not know.
A man dressed in some seriously flamboyant clothing marched to the center of the room. He cleared his throat and announced, “As decreed by pure blood immortal law. The unbroken Dragons shall surrender themselves to the King.”
Kayn glanced at Frost and his voice caught with emotion as he whispered, “Stand up and walk over there. You have to go. It’s not a choice.”
Kayn spun around to look at Lexy and whispered, “This isn’t seriously happening?”
They weren’t going to do this. She wasn’t going to let them do this… Lexy squeezed her hand under the table. She looked into her eyes, and said, “If you don’t go willingly they’ll take you by force. Do you trust me?”
Kayn responded, “Of course, I do.”
Lexy squeezed her hand again and said, “Then stand up with all of the grace and dignity you can muster and walk to the center of the room.”
As Kayn rose to her feet, their entire table was furious but no one more than Lexy. She didn’t care what happened to her. She was going to stop this.
Markus mouthed the words, “You have to go.”
Kayn walked around the table with her head held high. When she reached the center of the room, she glanced back at the table filled with both her friends and sworn enemies and in true Dragon form she mouthed the words, “I’ll be okay.”
Lexy was so proud of her.
The frilly man summoned her to follow him and Kayn began to walk behind him. They walked out of the archway.
Chapter 12
There was a long intensely volatile moment of silence in the room as everyone fought to reign in their reaction to the virgin sacrifice predicament their clan member had found herself in. It was more than that…it was everyone in the room. You could hear a pin drop. Lexy’s heart thudded in her chest with both nervous energy and lack of faith in her acting ability. She was lying by omission… to everyone. Lexy took a deep calming breath. She had to appear to be just as shocked and mortified as the others were. This was not a rule or a law. The King had created one to suit the situation and unfortunately there was no Guardian present to veto the King’s twisted demands. Second tiers had no rights. Grey looked directly into her eyes. She was trying to remain composed, but knew she was far too calm to be believable. Grey wasn’t stupid, he knew that she was up to something. She’d seen that all too familiar expression of disapproval on too many occasions to misread what he was saying to her with only his eyes. It meant, don’t you dare do anything stupid, Lexy.
She met her Handler’s probing gaze and whispered the words, “Go help Zach deal with this. I’m fine.”
Perhaps, she should have reworded that last sentence. I’m fine usually never meant she was really fine.
Grey gave her a skeptical look. He calmly rose to his feet and made his way towards Kayn’s panicked Handler. She was a fledgling Dragon but he was also new at this whole Handler thing. Zach needed to understand that this was a good example of an occasion where he’d need to stand down. Grey had been in Zach’s shoes at one time. He’d been the Handler of the girl that was taken by a Prince. The only difference being that she’d been taken by the good brother and Amadeus hadn’t touched her. This situation was different. The King wouldn’t be feeding Kayn pastries and chatting about life. He’d be taking out his unresolved feelings for her mother on her in an alcoholic fit of rage. Grey had made his way a couple of seats down to where Zach was seated. Lexy watched as he began to reason with Kayn’s agitated Handler. Before Lexy had the opportunity to even think about what her next move would be she heard a voice behind her say, “Prince Amadeus requests the pleasure of your company.”