Tainted, Book One: Possessed

24. Hold Nothing Back

Kerry

"For the last time, what Gemma don't know won't hurt her," I hissed. "Stop whining."

"Okay, okay!" Jax threw up his hands in surrender.

"Thank you!"

After a few hours of sleep, I was recharged and ready to wreck my revenge on Reilly Argaud. I called John and Jax, and we met up in the lobby of John's dorm. Now we stood at the top of the stairwell, just one door and a short hallway between me and my prey.

"You better stop worrying about me and start worrying about yourself," I told Jax. "Gemma'll just guilt me to death, but Gigi will string you up."

"Well, she was raised on a horse farm." Jax wiggled his eyebrows. "If she didn't know how to use a rope, I'd be disappointed."

John Morgen snorted.

"What about you?" I looked over at him. "Are you gonna get in trouble with your girl if we get caught?"

"Tara would be here with pom poms, cheering us on, if she knew what we were doing. He tormented her for months last year." He shrugged. "I didn't have to come along. I could have just told you where his room was."

We finished climbing the six flights of stairs and John led us down a hallway. This late on a school night, the dorm was quiet and dark, and I was glad for my night vision. We came to a stop outside the door John pointed to, and I pulled out a rolled-up paper.

I put the finishing touches on it that morning. It was time to give it instructions, fill it with power, and slide it under the door.

"I want to see!" Jax bounced on his toes like an excited kid.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, what did you draw?" John asked.

I unrolled the thick paper and showed them the dragon. It was only five inches tall and maybe seven inches long, but it had scales, horns, teeth, claws, and a wickedly spiked tail. I smirked as I saw John's eyes widen and Jax's jaw drop, then twitched the paper out of their hands to kneel at the door.

"Attack at night," I told the dragon. "Hold nothing back. Rest during daylight. Don't get caught."

I slid it under the door until only one corner stuck out, then poured power into it. The paper started to smoke, telling me it couldn't hold any more.

"Lesson number two." I used my thumb and forefinger to flick it into the room.

I met the others where they waited by the stairs. When the screaming started, we took off and hit the lobby huffing with laughter.

"Your hair's standing on end, Kerry." John's voice never changed in tone, but I could tell he was giving me a warning.

"Don't worry. I'm not gonna lose it. I called up too much power and didn't use nearly enough. See?"

I held my hands a foot apart and showed him how the blue sparks jumped from one palm to the other, making thin strings of spitting lightning.

"Whoa. What do you do with that?" Jax asked.

"It'll settle down on its own eventually. Or I could destroy something. When I get outside, I can release it into the air. Until then, I'll hold it."

"Is it uncomfortable to do that?" John cocked his head.

"Not really, but I'm used to it. Kinda feels like holding in a huge fart, I guess."

"When we start going on out on missions, I'm on your team." He grinned, which was a rare thing. "Don't forget."