Page 10 of Wicked

He doesn’t understand. I want to maim Dorian already. If I was a man who gave into my urges, there would be no question whether Dorian Gray would live through the night. I’d make him pay for what he did to Candlewick.

“I’m not going to let emotion cloud my judgment,” I say. “This is serious. We have to stay focused on the plan.”

He leans in again, forcing me to feel the pull of our connection. “We don’t even have a plan yet. And sometimes it’s important to let yourself feel things.”

I stand there, not getting any closer to him but not pulling away either. For a moment, I allow myself to feel the full power of my desire for him. That’s what he wants, isn’t it? To make me feel something?

He has no idea how much I feel when it comes to him. That doesn’t give me an excuse to act on those feelings.

“I’m going alone,” H announces.

“What?” Candlewick and I say in unison.

“Anne and I can do this without getting anyone else involved. You should be seen in public, Candlewick. Get yourself an alibi in case I have to hurt Dorian. And it would be great if you could get my wallet from the Den of Dreams, Manny. I don’t need either of you for this.”

“But—” Candlewick argues.

“H, you can’t—”

H doesn’t have a weapon or self-defense training, and he isn’t himself tonight. He might do something he’ll regret later. This is crazy.

“Oh, I can. And I don’t have time to argue about it.”

Anne’s lips quirk into a wry smile. “I think you and I will get along just fine. Let’s get going, shall we? Does someone have a map and an address? I don’t know where this Dorian guy lives.”

Is she going to leave me? In the twelve years we’ve worked together, she hasn’t left me once in the middle of a mission.

“I still think I should come,” I say.

She just holds out her hand for my phone. I give it to her, not sure how to stop this from happening. What if Dorian hurts them? I don’t think she understands how unhinged H is tonight. She doesn’t know him the way I do.

But after she looks up the address, she simply hands it back and begins to shift. No discussions, no apologies.

“The whole riding in your claws thing doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. It would be better for your back, and—” H starts.

Anne grabs him unceremoniously with her front paw, then takes off into the night sky, not even bothering to glance back at me. Within moments, they’re too far away for me to pick out Anne’s gleaming scales in the inky dark.

She left me. I can’t believe it.

Candlewick stares at the sky. “Are they really not going to kill Dorian? I thought we were trying to give Buddy time. What’s H’s plan, tie Dorian up and then let him loose again, so he can call the cops and send H to jail?”

“H doesn’t even kill spiders,” I mutter. “He traps them with a cup and lets them outside.” There’s no way he’d kill a human being, is there?

The jail time for murder is a lot longer than tying someone up. But my real concern is H’s conscience. I know what it’s like to kill a man. It’s something that never leaves you, even if the man was a violent and cruel person who had to be killed to set good people free.

“To be fair, spiders are useful creatures, not abusive alphaholes who keep human beings as slaves. So…” Candlewick shrugs.

I guess that’s what Buddy was: a slave. I think back to the way Buddy looked at H earlier tonight. It was like H had hung the moon. And I certainly didn’t miss the love bites all over both of their bodies.

When the omegas in the pits died, H held them until their bodies went cold. He never learned that to survive in a situation like that, you had to protect yourself from dwelling on every tragedy. I don’t know how he’s going to react to Buddy bonding to someone else, but if I’m being honest with myself, a suicide mission to kill Dorian Gray isn’t completely out of the question.

You should be seen in public, Candlewick. Get yourself an alibi.

“We need to get to Dorian’s house,” I say, marching for the door.

Candlewick grabs my elbow. “We need to get an alibi.”

His touch feels so good, I lose my train of thought for a full thirty seconds before I remember what I was doing. “H is in danger.”

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