Chapter 8
Hale-storm
I taste the dirt mingling with my own dried blood in my mouth as the aftertaste of numerous blood fucks leave me a little stiff. My bare body is covered in the sands of the dry wasteland around us, and Hale’s bare body is draped around me.
Where the fuck are our clothes? What the hell happened?
I gasp when I see Cheyenne in front of me, and the tunnels that were once submerged and hidden underground are now cleared of all debris and open to all.
I did that. I opened the fucking grounds to Cheyenne’s dirty secrets.
The thick, impenetrable layers and layers of steel have been ripped apart and slung away from the tunnels to leave them vulnerable to access. The mess of warped steel is shredded and tossed like confetti to the ground.
“Holy shit,” Hale groans as he grips his head. “What happened?”
“I wish I knew,” I murmur as tears threaten my eyes.
“Baby, what’s wrong? Did I hurt anyone?”
“No. That much I know. The only ones we hurt are the ones who were hurting us. Nicholas… he’s…”
I can’t finish the sentence as my sobs threaten to surface, and he pulls me to his body to let my tears slide down his chest.
“It’s okay, baby. I’m here. I’ve got you,” he coos.
I curl into him as the full glow of the sun flickers and goes to hide behind the tinted sky. It’s late. What day is it? How long did it take us to come down?
“Hale, I went savage with you. I don’t even know what all we did,” I worry.
“We need to find some clothes, and then we need to find a way to contact Clay. Maybe there’s a radio or something in there,” he says while motioning to the abandoned tunnels I’ve revealed.
I’m still in shock, and now I know what just happened. A chill creeps up on me as a dark reality creeps into the light.
“I went phase three,” I gasp.
“Shit. How do you know?”
“Hale, I’ve been in one numerous times, and I’ve been in two enough to know I’m not capable of doing anything like this in either of those phases. I went three, and I went a hard three.”
“Yes you did,” Clay says as he walks up from absolutely nowhere.
I cover myself slightly as he tosses us a bag of clothes.
“What happened?” Hale muses. “How did you find us?”
“I knew where you would go. I knew Araya would be leading a hunt, and I knew she’d get us into Cheyenne with her phase three savage running the show,” he says with his back turned.
“And our clothes?”
“That I don’t know,” he almost jokes, and then his serious stance returns as I sniffle a little louder.
I pull on a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans before slipping on the desert boots. I wipe away my tears as Clay turns around to face our more modest selves.
“I’m sorry, Araya. I brought olophine if you need it.”
I shake my head while swallowing the oversized knot in my throat.
“I’m too depleted to go savage right now. How long did it take us to come down?” I ask while diverting the conversation.
