“Oh you’re trouble,” Tempest starts. “But that makes me hate you a little less.”
Well. At least that’s…something.
Movement No. 14
Tempest
About a week ago, Yasmeena finally agreed to start practicing full-out. No more conditioning or long bouts of stretching, we’re to perform as if we were in front of an audience. With our debut performance coming up in a few weeks, we seriously have to start nailing our routines, or this campaign they’re turning our lives into is going to fall apart right before the audience’s eyes.
“I’m going to hold onto the bar with my right hand, but you’re going to bend back and grab my left leg,” Yasmeena explains as we get into our next pose.
At times, I wish I could see us in a mirror as we perform. My strength combined with her beauty, I think we’re quite the pair, especially once we’re fully dolled up in our costumes and makeup.
“Good,” she says, and I try not to find comfort in her words.
It’s hard, but I have to keep reminding myself that it’s better for everyone if I don’t develop relationships with these people. I’ve already let Taryn slip through the cracks, and I can feel Yasmeena reaching out, trying to kindle some sort of friendship, but I can’t let it happen. I need her and everyone else here to hate me, otherwise the end will just be a thousand times worse than it’salready going to be. I cannot afford to let Yasmeena any closer than she already is.
Especially not after how she reacted to that bite.Or how I did.
We move into a pose where I’m borderline sitting on the trapeze and Yasmeena uses me as though I’m a second apparatus. My feet are tucked beneath her shoulders as she pushes herself forward and up into another pose.
The warm feeling of her body against mine feels like electric currents shooting all throughout my veins, and I let that feeling fuel me as we shift into our next position.
The sound of footsteps comes from below, and I look down to see Khalid staring up at us. “You two seem to be doing quite well.”
“Thank you,” Yasmeena says as we get down from the trapeze. Khalid sounds genuine, but there’s also a broken quality to his voice.
Is he in here to watch us, or does he have some other motive?I don’t know Khalid very well, but from what I have seen of him, he’s very confident. There’s something solemn about the way he looks today, withdrawn even.
“What’s wrong?” Yasmeena asks, her face crinkling with concern. Clearly I’m not the only one wondering why he’s in here.
“Reina just broke some news to me,” he starts, and she gestures for him to get to the point. “You two should sit down.”
He looks upset, tears line his eyes, but it’s clear he’s more worried about Yasmeena than himself or me, and I respect it. She’s his family—his pack.
We take a seat on a nearby bench and he runs his hands through his hair, his jewelry clanking against more jewelry.
“There was a murder.”
“Another one?” she gasps, and every hair on my body, every tuft of fur raises in high alert.
“Roxanne was killed by a lupion,” he starts, and I watch inawe as the tears line Yasmeena’s golden eyes before they quickly vanish
“Tell me everything,” she says, her voice devoid of all emotion, and it fascinates me. Was this level of compartmentalization something she learned from trauma, or from her job? I wish to have this level of emotional control, but it also scares me.
It scares me, because I was hoping that when I take out Draven, they’d all be too emotional to continue fighting, and my pack might be able to safely retreat. I imagine Gemma will be rendered useless, but the rest of his people might not be as helpless as I originally thought.
Shit.
“She was weaponless, and bystanders stated there were no injuries or even a scratch seen on the wolf that did this,” he explains. “It was near The Cathedral, last night.”
Yasmeena's eyes widen as if she’s seen a ghost. “Okay, thank you for telling me.”
He kisses her forehead, giving her hand a squeeze, and then lets go.
“How is Kayoda?”
He shakes his head. “Not great, sweetie. He was working a shift at the hospital when she was rushed in, but it was too late. She’d lost too much blood.”
