I couldn't take it as I burst out into laughter.
"Holy fucking shit! This is too much!" Who knew if Alaric ever told Tanner of my deep-rooted situation, but his comment was said so casually that I couldn't help but laugh like crazy.
It relieved the tension running through me, and the exhaustion that begged to take me down for the count.
Tanner has to be one of those rare gems saved by Alaric and Bianca before the world destroyed him with ridicule and disgust.
"C'mon, Calvin and the Trouble Musketeers. Drag your pride and let's get to the medical center so none of y'all die. I'm not going to waste time explaining to Jade that y'all were fighting over who got to carry her back and died of magic exhaustion."
"Mean," the four of them mumbled and Calvin sighed. "I'm perfectly fine."
"Good. Carry Lisette," Tanner declared and looked over to me. "Are you okay or can you wait for Bianca to recover to be fully examined?"
Yup. He definitely knows.
I'm sure the others could perceive his question to be in relation to my mental health and wanting to stick to one examiner. I was comfortable with Bianca and no one else.
"I can wait. My body is just a little sore. Ceil will be able to aid me if anything else arises."
"Where is he?" Calvin asked as he approached me.
"Knocked out. I pushed his limits a little by leaving him behind to ensure Jade and Shadow Jade would be okay, but I'm sure if I hadn't left him, he would have gone back anyway."
"For Shadow Jade?" the quads answered as Zeke moved to help Zion and Zeus was aiding Zackery.
"Yup." I wasn't going to hide the fact that something was brewing between Ceil and Shadow Jade.
Too bad he's a shy butler and she's just young and extra shy.
"Makes sense," they replied and all four of them yawned. "Fuck."
"You guys better make it to the damn medical center or I'll drag each of your asses there on purpose," Tanner scolded.
"Rude," they mumbled, but they quickly followed Tanner as he opened a portal with a simple command. He walked right through, followed by the brothers.
That left me with Calvin. When he reached me, he offered his arms. "Need a lift?"
"Hmph. I'm not one to ask for help," I noted and crossed my arms over my chest. The nerdy look he gave me made me eye him carefully. "What?"
"You did really good," he praised and lowered one arm to continue to extend his other hand. "I know you don't need my help, but I remember you said something about portals making you dizzy."
I narrowed my eyes at his extremely good memory. I looked at his offered hand and gave up. Placing my hand in his, I looked away.
"You're an annoying assistant of Jade's."
"Queen Jade adores me." He purposely used his nerdy voice. "You'll get used to me. I'm not too bad to be around,"
I stared at him as he took a step forward, but I held his hand tightly, which made him stop to look back at me.
"What?"
"Would you treat me the same if you knew I was something other than who you see?" I wasn't sure if he'd get what I was suggesting, but he took the time to think about it even though the portal was losing its force.
"I don't judge people by appearances," he declared with pride. "Whether I was plus sized or the person standing right here and now, you wouldn't have stopped talking to me now would you?"
"No," I admitted.
"Then who am I to judge?" He shrugged and looked away. "As long as your heart is pure, you deserve to be surrounded by those who will lift you up and accept you no matter what flaws you hide behind a mask of worries and fears."
He squeezed my hand and looked back at me to smile.
"We better go or Tanner's going to scold us."
"Charles will regret not seeing you through," I couldn't help but say those very words as I stared into his eyes. They darkened in a mischievous way while his lips spread up in a devilish smile that would make any woman - or guy - quiver.
Whether out of fear or lust.
"I know," he said with pride. "When that day comes, I'll rejoice because I'm free from the shackles he wished to keep me in."
He tugged on my hand and we began to walk into the portal, but I couldn't help but smile widely as a single tear ran down my cheek.
Free from the shackles he wished to keep us in.
United As One And Shadow Loving
~CALVIN~
* * *
Emerging out of the portal after the intense massacre of those creatures allowed me a moment to breathe.
For five seconds...
My instincts kicked in as I turned my body in time to catch Lisette before she could hit the ground.
Fuck.
"Lisette?" I questioned and had her up in my arms in seconds.
"Round and round and round we go! When will the experiment stop, no one knows! We...eee." Her head fell right back, and I knew right then she'd passed right out.
How does she survive portals into other universes if she got knocked out by this?
"I knew she'd pass out."
My head looked to my left to see Tanner approaching. I quickly questioned where Jade was, and he answered my question with, "She's being stabilized, as are the Maxwells. Portal travel isn't fun when you're out of balance. It's like being high while chilling on a rollercoaster going at top speed for hours on end. Lump all that sensation into ten seconds and you have knocked out syndrome."
"Glad I have experienced it yet," I muttered and glanced down at Lisette.
She'd clearly been hiding how hard the last events had hit even her, but now that she was unconscious, her pale skin and weakened state were obvious.
"Where are we going to place her? She'll freak out if we leave her in a medical room and she wakes up."
I'd read enough of Lisette's file to learn a list of Not-To-Do's when it came to taking care of her unconscious state. One important one was not to leave her in a room alone while asleep.
Meaning she had to be with Ceil or anyone else that she wouldn't wake up and immediately attempt to kill.
"You're not due for a nap, correct?" Tanner asked as he helped take Lisette out of my grasp. I followed his lead as he turned around and began to walk down the hall he came from, which was a silent way of telling me to follow him.
"No. I'm not tired," I replied.
Quite the opposite, really. I'm dangerously wired and would love to blow off some magical steam.
This was one of the reasons why I didn't "show off" my lethal potential…and maybe why Papa Dearest didn't see how threatening I was.
Good fucking riddance.
Tanner walked into a room to our right, which gave me the chance to look to my right and see that Jade and the Maxwells were in beds and all knocked out. I hadn't seen the four of them look so down like they were now, which left me a bit worried for their well beings.
My eyes couldn't help but pause on Jade's sleeping figure, her arms hooked up to IVs; one was for fluids while the other was to infuse various magical boosts to help her regain her elemental balance.