Page 24 of Queen of Hell

I wave my hand at her in a dismissing motion. “We’ll come back to that later,” I tell her. “I cannot believe you’ve given my demons a nickname.”

She drops the teabags into the mugs before turning back to me, raising her brows in question. “Well?”

I kick my boots off and stand to grab a set of pyjamas from the chest of drawers next to the bed.

“Not exactly,” I say as I turn to face her once again. “Let me grab a quick shower while you finish the tea and then I’ll phone Xave and explain.”

When I walk back into the room after my shower, Poppy is sitting at the table with two steaming mugs of tea. I walk over to her and grab one of the mugs. When she grabs the other, I make my way over to the bed.

“Come on,” I tell her. “I need to be comfortable for this conversation.” I place my tea on the bedside table and drop onto the bed to grab my phone out of my bag.

She moves to the other side, placing her tea down and moving back to sit against the headboard before picking up her tea and taking a sip.

“So, um, Xave’s going to be alright with me being here for this, right?” She asks quietly, looking intently into her tea like it holds the answer.

“He was the one who told me I should trust you with this part of myself, Poppy, and this concerns you now just as much as it does me and him. Especially after tonight,” I tell her as she looks up at me, her eyes widening at my last statement.

“W-what does that mean, Kenzi? A-am I in some kind of danger or something?” Her breathing becomes fast as I see the panic rising in her eyes.

“Poppy, you’re not in danger. Calm down.”Fuck! I am so fucking bad at this shit! I lean towards her and place my free hand on her knee, watching as she visibly relaxes at the contact. I look down at my phone and place the call to Xave, hitting the speaker and placing it between us on the bed before grabbing my tea.

“Hey, baby. Did you manage to beat all your frustrations out on some unsuspecting idiots tonight, or are you calling because you need me to come up there and fuck them out of you until you can’t even remember your own name?” His voice lowers towards the end, almost growling out the last part of his sentence.

I look up to roll my eyes at Poppy and she quickly looks down at her tea, but not before I see a blush colouring her face.

“Hey, Xave. You’re on speaker and Poppy’s here. I need to tell you both what went down at the fight tonight,” I tell him, and then laugh when he lets out a choked splutter.

“You could have warned me, Kenz. Gods, I swear you love to make my life as awkward as hell. Hello, Poppy. How are you doing with everything? We’re not going to have any problems with what you know, are we?” He asks in an icy tone.

She looks at me and starts shaking her head, her blush deepening. “N-n-no,” she stutters. “I-I’m not going to cause any issues. I-I swear.” Her eyes are wide as she looks at me like she’s begging me to make him believe her.

“Ugh, shut the fuck up, Xave, you’re scaring the poor girl half to death over here. You’re the one who told me to trust her, so this is me doing just that.” I look at her and wink. “If you didn’t want to share me, then you maybe shouldn't have suggested it in the first place.” Poppy’s blush gets deeper at Xave’s choked out groan.

“Okay, Kenz,” he manages to choke out as I giggle. “You win. I apologise if I scared you, Poppy, but protecting Kenzi is my top priority. I hope you can understand that and forgive me.”

“Oh, um, sure. Of course I understand,” she tells him. “And I’d never do anything to hurt her.” She looks at me, letting me see the sincerity in her words.

“Okay, now that the introductions are out of the way, we may have a little problem. Take a guess at who was at that little fight club you sent me to tonight, Xave. Let me give you a hint, they’re fucking arseholes and I want to stab them.”

“Please tell me you stayed away from them and didn’t do anything crazy,” Xave says as Poppy gasps when she catches on to who I mean. “You said I had two weeks to come up with a way to handle this, Kenz.”

“I’m insane not stupid, Xave. Although I can’t say the same for Clay, considering the goon squad surrounded me in an effort to intimidate me after my fight. Which, by the way, ruined all my hard work tonight. So, as I wasn’t allowed to kill anyone tonightandit doesn’t look like I’ll be getting laid any time soon,” I say with a roll of my eyes, “I’m already in need of either another fight or a job. Oh, and he now knows I’m here, and the new girl, since he got hisbrothersto hold me still while he removed my mask.”

“He. Did. What? What the fuck, Kenz! I’m going to kill those cunts for putting their hands on you!” He’s shouting down the phone and I hear a crash and the smashing of the glass he must have thrown. I look at Poppy and I’m shocked to see the same anger mirrored on her face.

“Gods, Xave, calm down for fuck sake. And I thoughtIwas supposed to be the dramatic one,” I say with a small laugh, trying to ease some of the tension I can practically feel coming through the phone. “Besides, if there’s any killing to be doneI’llbe the one who gets that pleasure.” I smile.

“Actually, Kenz,” Poppy says, looking from me to the phone and back again. “I’ve got to agree with Xave. What the actual fuck? Firstly, how in the hell did they manage to get close enough to remove your mask? Secondly, is this going to be a problem? Oh Gods, it is, isn’t it? We’re going to walk into breakfast tomorrow and have a war on our hands. Fuck!” Her breathing starts to speed up as her anger turns to panic and she grips her mug so tight her knuckles go white with the strain.

“Poppy, you need to calm down and take a deep breath,” Xave tells her, calming down himself now he has someone else to focus on. I take the mug from her hands and place it with mine, then I take her hands and give them a small squeeze.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Poppy, I swear. They know you’re under my protection now, and I told them to make sure every one of the rich arseholes who go to this university know you’re off limits.” Her mouth drops open at my words and I give her a small smile. “Don’t look so surprised, I may not be good at all this friendship shit, butno onefucks with those I consider mine. Not even four seriously hot arseholes who manage to get the drop on me by distracting me with their god like bodies.” Her breath hitches and she gives me a small smile.

“Well, they're not exactly my type,” she says quietly, then giggles. “But I can certainly understand the fascination. They are definitely very pretty to look at.”

We both look down at the phone as Xave clears his throat.

“Can wepleasefocus on what’s important?” He growls. “What exactly happened tonight, Kenz?”

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