Toxic Part Two (Celestra Series Book 7.5) (36 page)

“Dude.” Drake marvels. “You’ve got a baseball bat down there?”

Brielle walks in and breezes over.

“Talking about Gage?” She says it so nonchalant and so correctly pegged the phallus in question all eyes redirect themselves to her. “What?”

I close my eyes briefly and try to blink out of this nightmare. Surely this is some toxin-induced hallucination. We couldn’t possibly be sitting around the Landon dinner table discussing Gage Oliver’s private parts and the list of suspects that may or may not have ogled at their size and stature.

Drake nods over at Gage. “Shoot me a crotch-shot, would you?” I’m sure his curiosity is working overtime. Just the thought of every person at this table imagining Gage and his area is totally embarrassing and disgusting. I hope to God Mia doesn’t feel the sudden urge for a glass of water or the imagery might haunt her forever.

“Skyla.” Gage says it sharp and clear. His dark lashes hover low as if this entire conversation were absurd. “It was back in May. I was getting dressed in the gym and I heard someone giggling. I thought maybe whoever it was might have seen me but I wasn’t sure. Chloe told me at Demetri’s party earlier this summer that it was her. You were already plenty upset with me so I didn’t think telling you was the best idea.”

“And what did she tell you today?” I don’t miss a beat.

Mr. Condom in his right pocket
thinks he can keep things from me but I’d like to know every last underwear-deficient detail. And—I’d like to steer the conversation the hell away from his considerable, crotch-shot worthy size for a moment.

Gage presses back in his seat, looking decidedly uncomfortable as if he and Chloe had been caught in yet another lewd act.

Anger flashes through me like a fire. “I’m starting to think that it really was you rutting with Chloe in the butterfly room a few weeks back.” Did I just say that out loud?

“What?” Logan balks as if I had just accused Gage of chopping the paws off a litter of puppies.

Gage digs his palms into his eyes for a moment. “Skyla, that wasn’t me,” he says exasperated. “And just a few minutes ago, Chloe was saying she noticed you didn’t wear your ring anymore—she asked if we were over.”

“Oh,” I say stupidly. I just want to crawl under the table. What if it’s all true? I wouldn’t put it past Chloe to sneak into the gym to catch a glimpse of Gage in the buff. And, of course she’d be more than willing to point out the fact I no longer sport my faux en
gage
ment ring.

“So?” Chloe leans in deep over the table, with a serpentine smile. “What is it, Skyla? Are you and Gage still together? Or aren’t you?”

I glance over at Logan—
Logan
who proposed to me just hours before, although it feels like a dizzying lifetime ago. His sad eyes pull down over me as he gives a quiet nod.

“Ethan,” I snap at my stepbrother so loud he startles at the call of his name. “She cheats on you. She slept with Pierce Kragger in my bedroom and I needed to bleach the walls because she blistered them with that skank smell she leaves behind.”

Chloe’s mouth rounds out as though I had just dropped a bombshell.

What’s with the surprise? Hadn’t I just accused her of doing the same thing with Gage?

“Who cares,” Ethan quips. “It’s not like we’re together.”

I look at him in disbelief and shake my head. Drake and Brielle nod as if they know exactly what the hell he’s talking about.

Doesn’t anybody around here take a relationship seriously?

Logan and Gage press in with the weight of their stares and a roll of nausea pulses through me.

Do I?

Chapter 101

Team Skyla

After that miserable crotch-inspired conversation, the entire lot of us actually sat in the family room and watched a marathon of horror movies like one big dysfunctional family.

Mom and Tad came home with baby Beau who apparently didn’t suffer any great ill effects, or at least, according to Mom, those great ill effects were impossible to trace. Nevertheless, the teen population disbursed to the privacy of their bedrooms. As for me, it’s time to pick up Emerson from the Kraggers’, lest they forget I’m using her as my treble pass.

Logan and Gage walk me down to the edge of the driveway.

“You mind if I come for the ride?” Gage dusts over me with a morose expression.

“Yeah.” Logan hitches his thumb toward his truck. “I’d better get to the bowling alley and check out a few things. Take Gage,” he says it sad, depleted. “I’d hate for you to venture into Kragger territory alone.” He cups the side of my face and smooths his thumb over the high ridge of my cheek as if he were yearning to kiss me.
I’ve got relations duty tonight. See you in my dreams?

 You bet
. I press my lips into his open palm.

“Night,” he calls, heading to his truck.

I toss Gage the keys to the Mustang.

“You drive,” I say.

Chloe and her manipulative behavior drained me beyond reason—too bad there’s no toxin that can cure Bishop of her wicked ways. And, thanks to me, not even death was able to contain her.

We hop into the Mustang and Gage fires up the engine, lets it run a good solid minute before carefully backing out of the driveway. It feels safe like this with Gage in the driver’s seat. He has a way of making me feel sheltered, protected.

We cover a majority of the island sunk in silence, our grief thick and smothering–nothing but an entire ocean of heartache that Chloe dumped over us.

Gage pulls off a secluded street that leads to the Kragger compound and places his warm hand over mine.

I lunge at him, wrap my arms around his body and my chest heaves with a quick burst. I miss Gage so much. I miss who we were and how much he loved me. I miss the way my fingers would dig into his hair and how his lips were never strangers to mine.

He takes a sharp breath into my neck, and I can see his thoughts spinning out like a reel. Gage and me at the bowling alley the day I arrived on Paragon. He seizes at the sight of me with an intense desire, cringes when he sees Logan and I hitting it off. Gage flips the page in his memory and reflects on kissing me at a pool party. I remember that night. We were trying to fool the entire island into thinking we were officially a couple. He speeds through scenes, Ellis’s parties, the butterfly room, the day we first said I love you. Gage writes a song with the montage of kisses that swirl through his mind.

“That was so beautiful,” I whisper. “Thank you for sharing.”

“I want to share everything with you.” He pulls back. His dimples flare on and off with approval. “Skyla, what is it that you need me to do to gain your trust again?”

“I do trust you.” It speeds out of me. A hot boil ignites deep in the pit of my stomach. Of course I trust Gage. Don’t I?

He shakes his head just barely. “I love you so much that it actually hurts. I’m in agony, Skyla.” He washes over me with his cobalt beauty. “I’m all torn up inside because of what’s happened to us.” His brows crease. “I’m really afraid. I’m afraid Chloe finally won and now you’ll never be mine. I can’t breathe—there’s no air without you,” he chokes it out in a whisper.

I lean in and hold him for a very long time. I can’t bear this pain. It’s all too much. If these feelings corrode our relationship for another wasted moment, he’s right. Chloe won.

“We’re going to get through this,” I say. “I know we will.”

I can feel it deep down inside, but the Logan-shaped hole in my heart begs to differ.

***

Once I arrive home, I walk Emerson upstairs to my room after her daylong play date with Daddy, only to find Chloe sitting Indian style on my bed with her head sunk in a book.
Origin of a Vampire,
by Addison Moore
.
Figures. Chloe is probably reading up on her lineage.

“Out.” I hold the door open as Emerson takes a seat at the desk.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Emerson tosses back her midnight hair. Her pale face gazes at Chloe in all her dark beauty. “Maybe we can talk about old times—reminisce. Is Skyla up to speed on all your mysterious secrets? Or should I fill her in?”

Chloe smirks with disgust.

“Please,” I scoff while plucking off my shoes, “I know all about her deadly offenses—Ethan, you, my dad.” I snatch my West sweatshirt off the floor. “By the way, she lives to steal my boyfriend.” I just called Gage my boyfriend! I think that means we’re back on track. I’ll have to call him and tell him the good news. We’ll have to celebrate before this whole faction war comes to a close and I feel guilty as hell for being in the same room with him.

“That’s it?” Emerson directs all the abhorrence she can muster at me.

“Yeah.” I shrug. “She gutted Ethan like a fish and now she’s resigned herself to a servitude of gifting him blowjobs. It’s almost worth having her under the same roof, knowing she suffers a fate worse than death.”

“There’s nothing wrong with Ethan.” Chloe shakes her head.

“Other than the fact he’s not Gage.” I’m quick to remind.

“Neither is Logan or Dudley, or whoever else you’ll be using as your consolation prize.” Chloe skewers me with a look of insolent pride as if she’s in the know on some big secret that’s yet to play out in my future.

“And who will be with Gage?” Emerson asks, amused by our banter.

“I will.” Chloe gleams over at me. “I’ll have him, and he’ll worship me.”

I don’t know what frightens me more, the fact she had the nerve to say it in my room, on my bed, or the fact every cell in her body believes it.

“Let’s play a game, Chloe.” Emerson teases with a husky tone.

“No,” Chloe snaps. The look of tempered fear in her eyes is enough to confirm the fact Emerson has Chloe by the balls.

“Let’s play a game of hangman,” Emerson says it slow, vindictive, as though the secret she’s wielding like a sword was buried in her words.

“Did Chloe hang someone?” I’m fascinated. “I totally wouldn’t put it past her. I bet she’s tried every modality possible to force someone to give up the ghost.”

Emerson looks up at me with her clear blue eyes and scoffs. “You don’t know the beast you’re entertaining.”

“Oh, I so do,” I’m quick to retort. “It doesn’t get more beastly than having my father killed.”

Emerson stabs Chloe with her dagger-like eyes and the temperature in the room plummets to a primitive chill. Chloe is posturing through her anxiety, but I can see the map of fear written all over her as she twitches unnaturally over my mattress.

“What’s going on?” I feel like shaking Emerson until the secrets spill out of her ears. “What did she do?”

“She’s still doing it, Skyla. Can’t you see?” Emerson needles her with a relentless brand of hatred I thought only I was capable of exuding when it came to Chloe. “She’s a criminal. She’s too ashamed to admit all of her indiscretions.” She spears her revulsion in Chloe’s direction. “I can make you dance. You’re my own personal marionette doll. Dance bitch.” Emerson doesn’t crack a smile, just glowers into Chloe like she’s the devil herself. “It’s going to be one hell of a year at West.”

Chloe flinches.

“Oh, wait, I didn’t tell you?” Emerson widens her eyes with delight. “I had my dad transfer me. I’d hate to stay at East and be the freak on campus. At West, I’ve already got a built-in bestie. Isn’t that right, Chloe? It’s going to be you and me again. Just like old times.”

Chloe’s face turns an ashen shade of grey. She jumps to her feet and makes a beeline out the door without the polite forethought to say good night.

I swoop in on Emerson.

“Tell me everything you know or I’ll sink you in blue Jell-O by midnight so help me God.”

“Shit.” She blinks back a moment. “Do you even fucking understand there is no second resurrection? It’s one and done, so don’t go threatening me.” She stabs a finger in my chest. “I don’t respond well to threats in the event you haven’t noticed.”

Perfect. Now she’ll have both Chloe and me as her afterschool bitches.

I take a deep breath.

“Look, it’s really important for you and me to be on the same team. I hate Chloe as much as you do. I really need to know what you have on her. It must be something huge to make her run for the door like that.”

“It is,” she assures. Emerson dives on the bed and the canopy shakes as if it were an earthquake. “Whatever. I’ll tell you in the morning. I’m fried.”

“You will?”

“Yeah, but you need to keep quiet about it. And trust me, if word gets out, I’ll know it was you.”

“Why would I say anything?”

“It’d be impossible not to.”

***

I tire of playing riddle of the Sphinx with Emerson. The riddle of the Sphinx was easier to solve—the answer was man. In Chloe’s case, the answer is
beast
, but what else could she possibly have done to earn that title?

I crawl into the butterfly room and find Gage sprawled out, sleeping with his arm up over his head. He looks unblemished like a marble carving. His thick lashes curl up perfectly. Any woman in her right mind would die for them, for him in general.

Here it is, the last leg of our journey, according to Logan. Once the faction war ends, we’ll land on another battlefield, the terrain in the shape of a heart.

I lie down beside him and watch his chest rise and fall. He’s so sweet and gorgeous I want him to be mine. I ache all over for Gage.

He groans and rouses. His lids slit open revealing bright pink tracks layered over the whites of his eyes.

“Hey, beautiful.” He places his hand on my hip like he’s done it a thousand times before. “Everything go OK?”

I nod. The last thing I’m going to do is drag Chloe and her whirlwind of secrets up here like some smelly dead carcass, and I do believe a carcass is involved.

“Guess what?” I whisper.

“What?”

It’s easy like this with Gage. Like I had made a wrong turn and was lost and now I’m found, safe right here next to him.

“I love you, Gage Oliver.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Are you hiding anything?” I ask point-blank.