“There you are.” Ruby smiled, coming over with her hands ready to touch me.
I pulled her to me even quicker and kissed her with a heavy passion like we haven’t seen each other for days but I was just happy to see her alive and smiling.
“Wow.” She muttered when we parted. “You must have slept great.”
“Better to be awake.”
“Ready for another day?” Zayden asked.
“Why? Has Kole been through here?”
“No but it’s sure to happen eventually.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Jaylyn sighed. “He likes his sleep.”
“He didn’t come in last night, did he?” Adele asked.
I shook my head. “No. He made a nice place outside for himself. You know, like you do except with a real bed.”
“Of course he did.” Adele sighed, stepping towards the door. “Well, let’s see it.” We followed her outside and they saw the shelter Kole made for himself the night before that was bigger than the little shack we stayed in. “It doesn’t surprise me much. Go wake him up so you can see what you’ll be doing today.”
I took a step forward, ready to do it but Jaylyn held out her hand to me with her eyes on the shelter. “Wait. You better let me do it.”
“Why?”
“He’s not alone.”
Ruby laughed. “Really? One night and he had to get himself some company?”
“It’s Kole, isn’t it and he has two guests. I’ll handle it, okay? It’s not my first time.”
I looked at Troy, not knowing if that was really a good idea but he didn’t seem to argue it so I let her pass.
Chapter 54
Jaylyn
It should be me. I knew how to handle him better than anyone and I walked into Kole’s shelter. I turned the corner to see the bed where Kole was laying asleep on the left and two naked women were to his right. I wasn’t surprised but I sighed anyway and went over to him, kneeling down and trying to speak quietly so the others wouldn’t wake. “Kole? Kole. Wake up.”
I tapped him and Kole’s eyes batted open, trying to focus on who it was next to him. “Jay?” He sat right up like he was caught and looked next to him at the other women then sighed. “Oh, yeah. I don’t have to hide this. I fucked them both and it was great.”
I always hated how he chose to word things and rose to my feet with a sigh. “Just get up, would you? You have things to do today and this isn’t one of them.”
I walked away from the bed and let Kole get dressed. “Jealous, Jay?”
“Why would I be?”
“I don’t know. That look on your face. I’ve seen it before.”
“We’re not together. You can do whatever you want.”
“And I have. Thank you.”
I sighed again while Kole walked passed me to get his weapons on but for some reason, I looked at the bed.
“What?” He laughed.
“They’re not prettier than me.” It just came out and I didn’t even know why I cared so much.
“Thought you didn’t care?”
“I don’t.”
I walked towards the exit and Kole followed with another laugh. “You know, you’re really aggravating sometimes.”
“If I am it’s because you’ve made me that way.”
“I didn’t ask you to come in there and be all bitchy. Admit it. You just wanted to make sure they weren’t prettier than you.”
We were outside and everyone just heard what he asked me. Could he have been more embarrassing? “Can you just start your day away from me?” I didn’t know what else to say because maybe he was right but I wouldn’t let myself admit it in front of everyone, especially Troy.
“You can’t even say you didn’t because it’s easy to tell when you’re lying.”
“Away from me.” I repeated.
“All right then. Darius, you ready?”
“Yeah.”
Kole turned from the shelter he made and it slammed back into the ground. The sound of thunder made me spin around with a loud gasp. “Kole!”
“What?”
“You just killed them!”
He looked at the spot where the shelter was and shrugged. “So? I’m done with them.”
“So?! Are you kidding me?!”
“It was inevitable. They saw my wings. How did you think they got here?”
Ruby’s mouth hung open and she spoke in awe. “You let someone see them?”
“I don’t think they’re going to tell anyone.”
“Not now.” I said.
“I’ve never even seen them.” Ruby went on.
“I can show you if you’d like but I’d have to kill you after.”
“Why? I already know about you.”
“So, you’re saying I should just kill you now?”
Ruby’s eyes widened and she took a slow step back. “No. That’s okay.”
Kole laughed and walked to her, taking her arm. “Come on, Red. We’re going to need you today.”
“Not like last time, I hope.”
“No. This will be completely different. I’ll be putting you in life or death situations and we’ll see how well he can act under stress.”
“You know what? I’d really just like for you to kiss me again actually.”
“Don’t worry. Even if he fails, I won’t let you die. Trever would just—hang me if that happened.”
“Doesn’t sound so bad for you.”
“Yeah but it would be a slow death. He gave me that lecture when he started letting me sleep with you in his stead—which I probably shouldn’t have just said out loud.”
Adele’s mouth hung open like this somehow surprised her. It didn’t surprise me. It was Ruby. “You slept with Kole?! When?”
“It was a while ago.” Ruby said. “And who hasn’t slept with Kole?”
The other men all slowly raised a hand.
“We could change that. Kole can be pretty fun.”
Kole immediately took Ruby’s arm even harder than before and started pulling her away from us with an obviously fake laugh. “Yeah. We’re not going to take that road. We’re going to take this one that leads us far away. Darius, you better be following because I’m not even going to look back to check.”
Ruby laughed and did it for him, seeing Darius jog to them to catch up.
“That was weird.” Troy muttered.
Zayden laughed to agree and turned his head towards Adele. “Want to know something else funny?”
“What?”
“I noticed you didn’t put your hand up when Ruby asked who hasn’t slept with Kole.”
I looked at Adele and the face she was giving me just made me want to smile. I already knew about that.
“Maybe because I—I—have—before—once—a couple times. No big deal.”
Zayden laughed. “It’s okay. You don’t have to act so nervous about it. You’ve just never told me that before.”
“It’s no big deal.” Adele replied, still sounding a bit nervous. “Kole’s just always around for that kind of thing. It’s how I know he’s like Darius because I’ve been a victim to it.”
“There are very few women who haven’t.” I muttered.
“It’s okay, Love.” Zayden smiled while he stepped in closer to her and put his hands on her arms. “I’ve always known that you weren’t that innocent and I’m not angry for it. The story might have been different if we met years ago but that’s not how it is. I’m okay with that.”
“Are you sure?”
“As long as I’m the only one that gets you now then yes, I’m sure.”
Adele lifted herself up on her tip toes and kissed him.
“All right you two. Time to start the day’s training.”
“Okay, Madam Carla.” Adele turned to Zayden and held her hands to his chest while looking up in his eyes. “I guess I’ll just see you later.”
“You can join us today, if you’d like.” Madam Carla said.
“I can?”
“Yes, you
just may even help.”
Adele looked back to Zayden and smiled. “Okay.”
“Yes, and that too.” Madam Carla sighed. “I’ll let you kids play that game after lunch.”
“Okay!”
“Troy, more drilling for you.”
He sighed. “All right.”
“But maybe we can do it inside today.” I said.
“Why?”
I smiled and touched my finger tips to his chest. “I don’t know. We can finally be alone.”
“I think she wants to have sex with you.” Zayden whispered rather loudly.
“Zayden!” I couldn’t believe he just said it so openly like that. I didn’t think that’s how he was.
“What? He actually had to ask why. I thought he needed a little help.”
“All right.” Madam Carla said. “You two are granted to go inside and do that but be sure you start drilling right after.”
It sounded perfect. Just what we needed to get Kole’s awful morning off my mind and replace it with something a little more—Troy related.
Chapter 55
Troy
She seemed eager to get me inside and I enjoyed seeing this from her but for some reason, I couldn’t shake why she might have really been doing it. This thing between her and Kole, whatever it’s supposed to be called, it was something. I could see her try to hide from it but there were other times where she truly did care about what he thought.
“Come on. What’s wrong?”
She seemed to notice my mood, at least enough that it wasn’t like hers.
“Nothing. It’s just―I’m sorry if you get upset but why did you really want to get me alone?”
She stared at me and it was kind of worse than I thought.
“Do you think I want to be with you right now to prove something?”
“No, of course not but you did lie. You cared that Kole was with those women.”
She turned away from me and her voice sounded more saddened although she tried to hide that too. “Old habits, I guess. Kole is always with someone else and I’ll always hate it.”
“Why?” I didn’t want to push her. I just wanted to her to admit what she already knows.
“Because I’m sad for him. He won’t let himself love. At least not anyone besides himself and that’s no way to live.”
“But it also sounds like there’s nothing you could do.”
“I know. I used to try―some time ago―when I was a different person but now I have you and I don’t have to try with you. You always made it so easy.”
“Oh, I see.” I joked. “So I’m the easy one?”
She laughed and got closer to me. “That’s not what I meant. You were never afraid to prove how much you wanted to be with me. You make it easy for me to love you and I do. My past with him is gone and I would never want to go back to it.”
It was still hard for me to believe though she seemed so sure. I guess she just didn’t want to fight about it and I didn’t either. I wanted to believe that she didn’t miss being with him in some way, even it was the smallest thing.
She kissed me and just getting to hold her this close to me again made me forget about it all for now. I knew she still felt something but what she felt for me was far stronger than anything else.
“Now, come on.”
She took my hand with that perfect smile and started leading me towards the back room where we sleep.
All we had was a couch or two but Jaylyn didn’t seem to let the limited availability affect her mood. She pushed me back on one and proceeded to climb over me, directing her lips to meet mine. It was hard to think of anything else from here except that she was mine and I was about to lay claim to her again. Maybe I didn’t realize it or we’ve just been in too close of quarters with everyone else lately that I haven’t had time with her like this in a few days. It made it that much more special to me that she was mine and always would be.
Chapter 56
Adele
Training withered to less and less by late afternoon.
Zayden and I were first to gather outside around a fire while Jaylyn and Troy were still inside. I wasn’t about to be the one to go get them but eventually we didn’t have to. They came out on their own and joined us, stuck together at the hip.
It was nice to see her this way rather than this morning but now were just waiting for Ruby and Darius to be done.
We could hear the sounds off in the distance. Loud echoing shrieks of wood cracking and stones shattering didn’t exactly make the moment relaxing. Jaylyn would jump in Troy’s arms whenever a sound got louder and I knew she was becoming irritable from having to listen to it.
“Please don’t.” I said.
“He’s doing it on purpose. I know he is.”
“He’s training him. It’d seem less annoying if you didn’t think Kole lives his life to annoy you.”
“He kind of does though.”
I let out a long sigh, keeping my eyes on Jaylyn. She wasn’t always like this with Kole around, just recently when she’s with Troy and it was really starting to get to me. “Go ahead and say whatever you want but Kole is in our life and that’s obviously not about to change. It’d be better for everyone if you just accept it now.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“The side of truth. You don’t really want what you think you do. Kole gone means he’d take Ellie with him and everyone should know by now that you’d never want that.”
Jaylyn finally sat quiet in Troy’s arms and kept her face blank, her eyes staring into the fire so she wouldn’t cry. I didn’t mean to sound so—mean but it was the truth and she had to hear it from someone.
“It’s okay.” Troy muttered. “We’ll deal with it.”
“I only don’t want him around because of you. He’s unstable.”
“Kole is many things.” Ruby laughed as she approached alone. “But it’s lucky for you that firstly and most importantly, he’s loyal.”
Jaylyn laughed. “Loyal?”
“Not to you, obviously but to Trever and he would never allow Kole to harm them.”
“You seem pretty certain about that.” Zayden said.
“I know Trever. You haven’t noticed that he’s been the least hateful towards you? It’s because they’re planning something and you need to be alive.”
“Did Kole tell you this?” I asked.
Ruby shrugged and took a seat. “He didn’t really have to. If it was the plan, they would have been dead the moment they stepped into the city.”
“Then why give us the test if they already decided?”
“Why do they do anything they do?”
“Hey, Red! Come back here!”
Chapter 57
Ruby
I sighed to Kole’s voice and slowly got up after finally getting the chance to sit down. I was ready to kill him. “That was pretty pointless.” I walked back through the trees to find Muscles and Kole standing together. “What now? Torturing me all day wasn’t enough for you? Now you have to do more?”
Kole laughed. “No and that wasn’t torture. This is completely serious. We were just—”
“Let me do it.” Muscles cut in, taking a step forward. “Alone. Please.”
Kole looked between us and nodded. “I suppose that would be best. Just give me her answer when you have it.”
Muscles nodded and Kole left us to talk. At first we were just standing here, listening to Kole’s footsteps getting farther and farther away.
“What’s going on?” I finally asked.
“Can we sit?” Muscles went over to one of the fallen trees closest to him and sat down, waiting for me.
My look was even more confused and maybe even a little worried but I went to him and took up the empty space beside him. “What?”
Muscles had his eyes on the ground in front of him and waited through a long pause before he started to answer without looking over. “I’ve talked with Kole more in depth about what I could do to you if we—got intimate agai
n and I’ve agreed to his plan but he thought maybe we should run it by you first.”
I was watching him through his words but when he stopped and finally looked up, I had to look away because I knew what he was asking. “You mean testing your control with other women?”
“Yes.”
“And you really want to?”
“It’s not that I want to, it’s just—remember this morning when I came into the room and kissed you?”
“Of course I remember that.” Who would forget? It was the most perfect spontaneous kiss I’ve ever got.
“I could tell that you were surprised by it and everyone else seemed to be too.”
“I really was. It wasn’t something I’d expect you to just do. Why? What’s wrong?”
Muscles lifted his head again and looked right into my eyes. His were alive with fire and I couldn’t look away. “I dreamt about us last night and the night we had to part. It seemed peaceful at first, perfect but then everything changed. We were in your room and the bed was covered in blood. You were laying in the middle of it while I stood over you—you were looking at me but you weren’t looking at me. You were dead and it was my fault.” He looked away, closing his eyes like he was ashamed for even dreaming about it.
“It’s all right.” I said, leaning towards him for comfort. “I’m right here. I’m not dead.”
“But you could be!” He snatched, lifting his head with his words. “If I don’t know how to control the strength this way, you could be! I never want to see you like that again!”
He startled me a little and I just tried to think this through. “Okay. All right. All right. Okay. If this is something you think you have to do to protect me than go ahead. I don’t want you to feel this way. I don’t want you to be scared to get close to me.”
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