Page 49 of Lies That Bleed
How could I be so stupid? No jewelry. She could see the panic in my gaze as I was unable to contain my fear that she would destroy the locket.
“Give it.” She held out her hand.
My heart pounded in my chest, and simultaneously another lieutenant took Tetra’s cane.
“I need that to walk, you asshat,” she snapped.
Oh crap.
Lieutenant Ashendell tore away from me and ran up to Tetra. “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?”
Suddenly there were fingers on my neck and I froze, peering over at Kohen in shock when he pulled my necklace off and popped it into his mouth!
What the hell?
Lieutenant Ashendell made Tetra do one hundred push-ups and then came back over to me. Her gaze fell on my neck and her eyes narrowed.
“Turn out your pockets,” she ordered.
I did without question.
“Open your mouth,” she said next.
I did.
“Where is it?” she growled.
“Where is what, ma’am?” I said in the rhythmic answering tone they preferred.
She reached out and grasped the sides of my cheeks, hard.
I felt movement behind me but I dared not turn around to look, and Lieutenant Ashendell’s hand fell away from me almost as soon as she’d touched me. I was about to wonder why when I felt her. Liana.
My creature walked out from her line where she had been standing with the others and strode over toLieutenant Ashendell, pausing a mere six feet from her.
The lieutenant narrowed her gaze at me. “You will not get special treatment.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered, staring straight ahead and ignoring the fact that my creature was threatening her.
‘Go back in line,’I told Liana.
Liana reached her head forward and sniffed Lieutenant Ashendell’s leg, causing the lieutenant’s eyebrows to raise.
“Controlher,” she said to me through a clenched jaw, but I could hear a slight shake to her voice.
‘She won’t hurt you. She was bluffing. I like her,’Liana decided, and then strode back over to the line with the others.
Bless the stars! This firebird was going to give me a heart attack.
“Sorry, ma’am,” I said, and Ashendell rolled her eyes, stomping off to make fun of the fact that Tetra could only do twenty push-ups.
I wanted to tell Tetra that they would give her a Fleet-issued cane. It wouldn’t be cute like the crystal one she had now; it would be rubber and safe for her and others. But I couldn’t say a word. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how Kohen had my special locket inside his mouth.
Chapter
Fourteen
An hour later we were waltzed into the building as some older soldiers grinned and tossed immature comments our way. The training facility housed boot camp cadets, and then also higher-level soldiers doing advanced officer training.
