Page 86 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Jake also looked that way and muttered, “About time.”

Lenna started walking towards Ciaran and Hope and somehow felt as if she was interrupting something. Ciaran’s arms around Hope’s chest and back held her face close to his, and all they seemed to do was stare at each other. Perhaps the Fifth Ceremony had given the woman some sort of concussion, or she had lost half her mind with all the new power in her veins.

The approaching steps seemed to take Hope and Ciaran out of their trance, and both looked up at once. Hope stood up with unnerving speed, already in her usual fighting and ready-to-kill stance, looking at Lenna and the person immediately behind her. She didn’t need to check to know it was Jake.

“Have we lost much time? How long was I…?”

“We’ve lost so much precious time, yes,” Jake cut her.

“What matters is that you are okay, Hope. Because, are you?” Nina walked past Jake and Lenna towards Hope, putting her pale hands on both sides of Hope’s face.

“I’m… different. But okay,” she looked at Ciaran, as if he somehow had or was the answer to a question she hadn’t asked. Fuck if these two weren’t awkward.

“Do I need to get in the middle of whatever the Fifth this is?” Ayla asked, a deep frown in her usually perfectly smooth and controlling face. Oh, true. She had only signed up to help Lenna with her Fifth. Nothing else.

“We’re rescuing Raoul,” Lenna said.

Ayla swallowed, glanced at Nina and said, “I’m in.” Then she stared at Lenna, her twin sister’s green eyes reading how-dare-you-keep-this-from-me.

“We must rush. That panomquake was the worst in centuries, and it’s surely caused total chaos worldwide. We need to use the commotion and every distraction and extract Raoul now.”

Ciaran was right. They had to rush before the roixers, the Roix Reigner, the Organ Mandor and Cardinals knew who else would catch them and exterminate them one by one. All for a panomquake to be their leverage.

“Raoul is in the Southern wing, fifth floor, second and last security vault,” Indianna said, and Ciaran Gave a map of the Beftac Center on the wall in front of them, tracing the place where Indianna had showed their ultimate goal was. The ultimate goal also known as Lenna’s childhood-discarded-and-somehow-returned-friend and Nina’s semi-identical-lost-brother.

“Every single door needs a staff badge,” Indianna continued. “We have mine, and Brendon issued two more at the Invisible Grand. So we stick in three groups. Before any of you panoms think about breaking the security doors: don’t. Lethal gases will release, on top of the roixers being alerted immediately, and you won’t live to see another ante meridiem.”

“Funny that the Beftac Center for Injured Beings is the one injuring beings,” Theon said.

“We take the safety of our patients seriously,” Indianna said matter-of-factly. “I think it’s better if each group has a panom, a skilled fighter and someone with common sense. Unless anyone else has a better idea?”

“Common sense is a myth,” Lenna scoffed.

“I’m not sure what we'll find inside. Many patients have probably collapsed with the panomquake, even if our machines are secured to them to prevent any unexpected disconnections, but this was an extraordinary one,” Indianna explained. “Two roixers are always stationed at the entrance of each security vault, so there will be four there. Inside the vault there is always one roixer and three healers. Please don't kill the healers unless absolutely necessary. I know every single one of them and we, they, are not the enemy here. We work our asses off to fix the damage my mother and her roixers constantly cause left, right and center.”

Right. Because Indianna’s mother was—

“Your mother is the Roix Reigner?” Hope asked.

“I wish it wasn’t the case, but it is.” Indianna’s lips tightened in a thin line.

“My mother was the Roix Reigner before her.”

To live knowing that your mother was ordering such atrocities being done, every single day… Lenna’s gaze unavoidably went to Hope and Jake. Talk about parents constantly committing atrocities.

Ciaran was looking at Hope and Lenna. “You two need to change into normal clothes. No chance we won’t be noticed with you two half naked in shiny beads walking down the corridors.”

Lenna allowed Jake a last top-to-bottom assessment of her indeed very exposed body, and the lust in his dark gray eyes made her want to melt. She then simultaneously Took the dress and Gave herself clothes appropriate for fighting. A zipped, long-sleeved, full-body black jumpsuit that wrapped every single curve of her body tightly. Especially—

“Fucking perfect ass, Brachyan.” Jake’s voice was guttural from behind her, low so that only Lenna could hear it. His muscular hands gripped her ass, and for a moment Lenna wished the whole rescuing was over so she could focus on those hands and everything she needed them to do.

For the sake of not fucking him in the alley in front of so many people, she only arched her back and pressed her ass against—There, his already hardening cock. She closed her eyes, all her concentration aimed at not squeezing his delicious length or rubbing her ass against it. Cardinals guide her to the Beftac Center right fucking now.

By the time Lenna had gathered as much composure as she could find, which wasn’t much, and had taken a step away of Jake, Hope was dressed in the black leathers that she always seemed most comfortable in, multiple weapons on her as usual.

After five minutes of briefing how each group would approach the security vault, they split.

Indianna, Nina, Ciaran, and Hope would go first. Lenna, Jake, Sasha and Theon were the next group. Jake had given Theon a deathly look that would have killed some people on the spot from a heart attack, but Theon had only shrugged, smirking. Lenna had asked them to keep their male-ego issues aside during the extraction, and suggested that smirks aside would definitely help her case.

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