Chapter Ten （Heating Up）

CHAPTER TEN (HEATING UP)

HAZEL

I was lying in bed, staring at the moldy ceiling. Down blankets cushioned my entire body while my head sunk into the pillow. I could smell the strong scent of fresh linens and cotton. In my hand, I flicked my dad's gold lighter open and shut with sharp clicks.

Yesterday, Zero killed me. Today? Well, today there was now a cold water dispenser in my room, along with a small bookshelf holding a varied selection of novels. My nightstand had a small, stained glass light to read past lights out.

The nightstand was new too, something that had drawers. I'd been horrified to see a collection of vibrators in the top drawer—all still freshly sealed in their packages, ready and waiting for me to masturbate my life away at the asylum for the criminally insane.

Did he think I'd say: What's a lifetime of forced commitment when I have a five-speed suction vibrator! Oh wow, cold water, forget my mansion! I could take small refreshing sips in between marathoning vibrational abuse to my clit.

That wasn't even the worst thing. The worst was the little camera in the corner of my room. He hadn't even attempted to hide it. The blocky gray camera clung to the wall with all the grace of King Kong on a skyscraper. It even had a small blinking red light just in case I'd miss the fact I was being constantly monitored by a man who gave me a drawer full of sex toys.

Fuck Zero. My hand shot up to rub my neck, remembering the lingering press of his hand.

I snapped up in bed and determined that I should find my brother, once and for all. It would take my mind off what happened yesterday. Like the fact that Zero had killed me and I'd very obviously gotten off.

Did I really have to go and kiss the man while he strangled me? With a groan, I left my room.

"Hazel," a monotone voice said as soon as I stepped into the hall. I screamed, but before I could dive back into my sanctuary, Zero pulled me aside and shut my door. My head whipped around. Where were those annoying demons when I needed them?

Brown eyes roved over me and everything stood at attention—the hair on my arms, my nipples…

A demon slid into the hall—thank god.

"Doctor Stein!" He gasped before scrambling back into his room. Well, that wasn't useful.

Zero screamed perverse power with his black doctor's jacket. It had far too many buttons and straps. And his eyes were vicious, almost fox-like.

An evil scientist and his current obsession—this felt like a porno setup.

No, not a shot, doctor! Your needle is far too big for me…

"What needle?" He asked and I practically writhed against the wall in dismay. Great, now I was talking out loud without realizing it. I remembered the five vibrators he'd left in my room and my face flamed.

"I thought the nurses followed you everywhere," I said in dismay, pressing against the wall. Why was he so close?

"Yes, they usually do," Zero said. "But lately they've been lazy with keeping an eye on me." The tiniest smile lifted the edges of his mouth. My eyes bugged.

"What?" His own staff was spying on him? Zero's fingers slid across my jaw as he raised my face, tipping it up. He looked at my neck while I eyed the ceiling.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking for any lasting marks," he said. I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand from my face.

"You know there's no marks."

"Come with me to my office," he insisted. I felt like a specimen pinned to the wall. Zero was intense—far too intense for me to think straight.

"No, I need to find someone."

"Baz isn't going anywhere. No one is… including you," he stated. I ground my teeth.

"It's lunch," I countered with anger. "I need to eat."

"Eating… " he blinked. Did he forget people eat? He looked at his wristwatch. "Every day starting today, you'll come to my personal office at one pm." The command he spoke with had me looking at my feet. Was the blush reaching my ears now?

"Unless you send someone for me, I have no idea what time it is."

Why was this so hard? Uncle Vernon hadn't taught me how to interact unless it was the interaction between toxic chemicals. Conversation wasn't a skill I had much experience with unless yelling, screaming, and arguing counted.

It felt anxiety-inducing and frustrating to think I had done everything for this mission, only to realize I failed to study all the skills I needed. I could kill Baz in hundreds of ways but I couldn't get to him despite living in the same building. I could barely even make it to lunch.

For the first time, I admitted to myself that I was in over my head. I hadn't expected Baz to be in a place like this—an asylum full of secrets and lies. Where everyone was fighting and there were intricate social structures.

I most definitely never dreamed I'd have to deal with a sharp-tongued shifter seducing me and an overbearing ruler who wanted to watch me squirm under his tight grip.

Zero lifted my arm before placing his watch delicately around it. The hairs on my arms lifted. The strap was a worn, black leather. The face was gold. It was simple but old. The back of the watch face felt cold on my forearm.

"What's going to happen every day at one?" I asked.

"An examination," he responded, buckling the strap around my wrist. His fingers brushed up the path of my vein. "And therapy."

"Therapy?" I asked.

"Doctor Orson will no longer oversee your care."

"I… what? No—" Orson was the only direct connection I had with my hidden brother.

"I'm better suited for you," Zero said. My eyes dropped to his lips. He hadn't kissed me back yesterday.

"Can I refuse?" I asked. He ignored the question. He had a funny way of going deaf whenever it suited him.

"And I'll continue killing you," he said. I wasn't surprised. He probably had a checklist of deaths he wanted to work his way down. All the while I'd be slowly losing my mind, one way or another.

"Zero," I sighed, dropping my head back against the wall. His fingers slipped under the wristwatch and brushed my skin.

"Yes?" He liked me calling him Zero. There was something just under the skin of this man. Behind his half-lidded eyes, I could sense an ocean of emotion trapped beneath the ice. It was frightening.

"I have no idea what to do about you," I admitted.

"No one does," he said. He lifted his arm. My belly fluttered when his hand slid around my neck and squeezed ever so gently—reminding me of what happened yesterday. All my thoughts scattered in the wind.

"There are so many ways I'd like to kill you," he admitted. "And you're going to let me." The hand around my neck was bringing it all back and making it impossible to have a conversation. This was intimacy and pleasure that didn't break my rules. It wasn't sex. It was murder.

God, I was fucked up.

"I like your dress, Hazel," he whispered. I let out a shaky breath and tried to create some distance.

"The camera in my room?" I asked. Zero pulled his hand from my throat.

"You're here for me to study."

"I'm here to kill a basilisk. The sex toys?" I asked pointedly. He refused to answer for a moment, thinking of what he should say.

"I want you to be comfortable," he finally admitted.

"I'm not using them," I hissed. He looked at me quizzically then turned around and left. He just fucking left—walked away mid-conversation.

I stomped down the hall in the opposite direction and burst into the day room looking for a fight. What I saw brought me up short.

Gonzo was finally back and there was a small crowd gathered around him. His hands gripped the edges of his table tightly as he stared straight ahead with a death glare.

As I drew closer, I heard the group of shifters talking about Gonzo's lunch. His tray of food was practically overflowing. There was even a cosmic brownie. My mouth watered as I eyed the rainbow chocolate pieces underneath the unopened cellophane.

A lunch lady came over and plopped a cold can of soda in front of him.

" More ?" Gonzo asked in exasperation, his eyes pleading for it to end.

"Doctor Stein said to give you all the best stuff," she said before walking back to the kitchen. The group of shifters around Gonzo burst out laughing.

"Well, well, well," the biggest shifter said, smiling at Gonzo. I was pretty sure it was the Alpha of Rabids. He was a gnarly-looking asshole who insisted everyone call him Mad Dog Mick.

"Drop it," Gonzo growled. There was a flash of sharp teeth in his mouth.

"The guards told me some funny things about you and Doctor Stein," the Alpha wolf went on. Gonzo looked up at the guy and glared.

"They said you go to his personal office alone and that you come out barely able to walk." Gonzo's eyes bugged.

"It's testing!" Gonzo blurted out. "He does it to all of us!"

"Can't say I've been taken to Stein's private office for any one-on-one testing. You?" Mad Dog asked a woman beside him.

"Nope," she responded with a big smile.

"One-on-one time and next thing ya know, he gives you the ability to shift again. Also gives you a very nice lunch," he waved at the tray of food. "You see where I'm going with this, right?" His smile was smarmy. Even I felt like punching his mouth.

"It's experiments," Gonzo said. His face split in the meanest smile I'd ever seen as he stared the other man straight on. Wasn't that a big no-no with Alphas?

"Oh really?" Mad Dog barked out, not reacting to Gonzo's direct challenge.

"Guess what they say is right, tricksters are willing to do anything . Does he strap you down to do it or do you just bend over willingly?" The entire group was wailing in laughter. Gonzo looked furious.

"I'm going to fucking kill him," Gonzo growled at the food. He suddenly spotted me and a charming smile spread across his face like none of what was happening mattered. In less than a second he was striding over to me as if he couldn't hear the laughter behind him.

"Hazel," he sighed. His eyes swept back to the shifters in the room, glaring at them. They wandered off with chuckles. That wasn't normal, was it? Alphas didn't just walk away when glared at. They certainly didn't let people look them in the eye in a challenge. Was there something about Gonzo I didn't know?

The Rabids Alpha called him a trickster. I wasn't familiar with the term. Was he not a wolf?

"Where were you?" I asked. Gonzo let out a breath.

"Let's talk somewhere more private." As he swept me across the room, it became immediately obvious that no one was looking at me. Which was a distinct difference from before, when no one would leave me alone. They'd been hounding me for days to join their Wards.

Gonzo walked past the tray of food without a second glance. I lunged over and picked it all up before he guided me out of the room and down a new hall. My eyes slid up to see sharp red teeth painted on the wall near the ceiling. This had to be Rabids' Ward.

Gonzo led me to his room. I walked in and plopped down at his desk, prepared to have a decent meal for the first time since I'd been here. This wasn't what I'd call five stars, but after nearly a week of the bland, stale food this was everything I could want. I popped the can of soda and took a sip.

"It's even cold," I sighed before setting it down and reaching for the cosmic brownie. I slowly started to devour it.

"Did Stein do something to you while I was gone?" He asked suddenly. I nearly choked on my brownie. It was hard getting the fudgy chunk down my throat. Wouldn't that be embarrassing? Dying from a fucking cosmic brownie in Gonzo's room. Then I'd reincarnate and have to run from the room in horror.

"Where were you?" I asked, sidestepping his question. I hated to sound needy but I was. He'd offered me help when I needed it most, and then was gone for nearly two days. I was in over my head. I needed an ally, and I wanted it to be him.

Shit , what was I talking about? Want, want, want. I couldn't want anything. Not until I killed Baz.

"It was Doctor Stein," Gonzo said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"What does he do to you?" I asked. Gonzo marched over and dropped to his knee beside me. He collected my hands in his. There was an earnest honesty about the way he looked at me.

"Did he do anything to you while I was gone?" He asked again. "Please." The please did me in—the closeness, his hands holding mine. I nodded. Gonzo let out a breath.

"I failed you," he said, getting up. I didn't understand what I was feeling. Strange . I felt so strange that this man felt responsible for my well-being.

"I don't need your help with Stein anymore," I said. Gonzo's head snapped to me, his nostrils flaring.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Because he's not bothering me."

"Why isn't he bothering you, Hazel?" He asked.

"Look," I snapped. "I need to find my brother." I felt desperate at this point to find Baz. My life had never felt this conflicted. I could almost taste freedom and it was fucking with my head. I kept wanting things so badly that it felt like it was suffocating. Like Gonzo. I wanted him but I couldn't have him—couldn't even entertain it. Not yet. And what was happening with Zero? What was happening with me ? I looked down at the pink dress I was wearing, twisting the fabric in my fingers.

I needed my freedom and I needed it now.

Gonzo sighed and stretched out his neck.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I didn't mean to push. Just… be careful with him." There was something he wasn't telling me. I opened my mouth, ready to demand the information he had, then snapped my mouth back shut. I had to stop being distracted.

"The truth is he drugged me and locked me in a padded cell. Fucking sleeping pills," he grumbled to himself. Gonzo leaned against his desk and watched me use the plastic spoon to eat his mac and cheese.

"You look good eating," he said with a smirk. I felt my face heat. "Also, as soon as I got out of solitary, I talked to all the Wards. I hope it makes up for my disappearing act. I think it'll help you focus on finding your brother." I looked at him and felt strange again.

"You helped me?" I asked. He watched the spoon come to my mouth.

"Mhm." He wasn't even listening to me. I pushed the food aside.

"What exactly did you do for me?"

"I helped you out with the Wards." He flashed me a smile.

"What does that mean?"

"They won't be bothering you anymore. I've made it clear that you don't want to be in their gangs." So that was why the demons were missing and no one looked at me in the big room.

"And they said okay that easily?" I asked. Gonzo picked up the can of soda and slowly licked the rim where my mouth had been. Then he took a drink. I watched his throat as he swallowed.

"I'm very convincing," he said. Yes, he was. I eyed the closed door and cursed myself.

"I did something for you," he said suggestively, setting the soda back down in front of me. The implication was thick in the air. Our agreement was simple—he does something for me and then I do something for him.

"How do I even know you actually did what you said?" I asked.

"You saw. Not a single person approached you."

My eyes darted to the watch. It was close to one.

"What's that?" He asked, lifting my arm to look at it. "This looks familiar…" his eyebrow raised. "Stein's watch?"

"Yes," I sighed. "Don't think anything of it."

"Hazel, don't be naive."

"Naive?" I snapped. "He gives you things too. Want to talk about that?" Gonzo laughed.

"He's fucking with me, princess. We hate each other. Also, I'm not a beautiful woman."

"Who's to say that's what he's into," I countered, trying to ignore the fact I was blushing because he called me princess and followed it up with beautiful. Stop , I hissed at myself but the fluttering in my belly wouldn't go away.

"Are you trying to distract me?" Gonzo asked, leaning forward to brush the hair behind my ear.

"I have to go to Stein's office soon," I said.

"Oh really ," Gonzo said like that delighted him. A wide smile stretched over his face. He leaned in closer, pressing his mouth to my ear.

"Hazel, it's time for my kiss." My heart pounded in my chest as he guided me from the chair to his bed. I couldn't even look at him as he sat down beside me.

"Just a kiss," he whispered, holding my face. I swallowed thickly as he pulled me closer. His lips grazed mine and my mouth opened right away. "Mmm, so willing," he purred before pressing kisses to the edges of my mouth.

"No reason to shake, princess. It's just kissing." He rubbed my arms before his mouth finally settled on mine. There wasn't time to be embarrassed over trembling before I was swept away. I opened my mouth and kissed him back. The next thing I knew I was beneath him in bed and his mouth was dragging down my throat.

"Don't," I gasped, pressing on his chest.

"I'm not going to break your rules," he rasped back, biting my lower lip as he held himself above me. I lost myself in the kissing again. It was overwhelming. He knew just what to do to keep me delirious and stoke the fire. His hands pressed on my thighs, spreading my legs.

"Is this okay?" He asked. I nodded. His body lowered slowly onto mine, his elbows caging in my head. I could feel him everywhere, weighing me down.

"Is this okay?" He rasped, nipping at my ear. How much further was he going to go, asking each time if it was okay? Making me give him permission I shouldn't be. Making me say it was okay even though that was a lie. I shouldn't be in bed with him. Shouldn't be kissing him.

He ground himself against me, groaning into my ear. I felt the firm shape of his erection dig between my legs.

A pathetic whimper came from me. Gonzo dove in and captured my mouth as if he wanted to taste the sound. I shook beneath him as he ground against me again. His mouth left mine and traveled to my ear.

"Tell me to stop," he said softly, thrusting. My legs spread further apart and my mind was ready to say yes to anything.

"Keep going," I rasped, pulling his face to mine and kissing him harder. I had no idea I could feel pleasure through all our clothes. His hand slipped behind my back and he encouraged my body to move with his, his hand guiding me back and forth in rhythm with him.

I gasped and he immediately stopped moving.

"We're just kissing, aren't we?" He asked, panting against my neck.

"This feels like more than kissing," I whispered. His body vibrated with a chuckle.

"We're making out and dry humping through our clothes. I'd call it kissing."

"Would someone else call it kissing?" I asked.

"Most everyone," he assured me. I bit my lip and then lifted my wrist to look at the watch. It might be time to go. Gonzo grabbed my arm and pressed it to the bed before I could.

"I need to see what time it is. I'm not going to piss Zero off."

"Zero?" He asked.

"That's what I call Doctor Stein," I admitted bashfully. It felt weird to talk about Zero while in bed with Gonzo. Not bad though.

"I see," Gonzo said with humor. "You still have time. Don't look at the watch."

"How much time?" I asked, not trusting him. He chuckled and kissed me again. His lips were soft and his tongue was teasing. Gonzo had to be the best kisser in the world. Not that I had any other experience, but I could tell by his confidence. He kissed me to make me shut up, knowing it would work.

"Can I keep going?" He asked, his hand smoothing across my lower back.

"I should probably go…" I didn't want to go. I wanted him grinding between my legs.

"Are you fucking Stein, Hazel?" He asked, startling me.

"Of course not." My teeth ground together. "Are you!" I countered maturely.

"Absolutely not," he purred. "I prefer pretty redheads. Five more minutes."

"Then we'll be even for you talking to the Wards? No more kisses?" I asked.

"Not even close," he whispered. We were all tangled up and I could feel the hard press of his cock between my legs. His mouth dragged up my neck, little bites trailing upwards. I shuddered as his teeth pressed against my skin. Gonzo ground against me and I moaned.

"Five more minutes," I rasped out in agreement. Gonzo thrust harder, picking up speed. His mouth fell to mine and owned it. I kissed him wildly, repeating the same thing over and over: five more minutes . My hips moved against his until I was desperately grinding against him.

"Are you wet, Hazel?" He asked, making me shudder. I nodded. He groaned against my ear. "Are you going to be able to come like this?"

"I don't know," I rasped. Tension was tightening low in my stomach.

"Have you ever come before?" He whispered. I swallowed and nodded. I was unwilling to tell him I'd never come with someone's help. I hadn't even done it for myself. Only dreams and death had gifted me orgasms, but Gonzo was getting me there. It was going to destroy me. This little crush I was harboring was deepening into something I couldn't shake off. Maybe after I killed my brother we could… date or something like that.

I gripped Gonzo's orange jumpsuit tightly, not wanting to let him go. We could have something after this. Something I didn't need to hold back on. Something real. I was so close to freedom.

"Keep grinding on me just like that—" he cut off with a groan. "Fuck that feels good. Hazel. Keep doing that." Knowing I was making him feel good made my own pleasure deepen.

"Gonzo," I whined. He gripped my chin and began rubbing his face against mine like an animal marking his scent. Five minutes had likely passed, but I was close to something. It was growing with each grind of his cock through our clothes.

"Are you going to come for me, princess?" He rasped into my ear. I wrapped my legs around him tightly as I moaned. Something in the very back of my mind was telling me to stop. That I was breaking my rules. That I needed to wait just a little longer but I couldn't stop. Not when… God, not when I was going to—

Shock accompanied the orgasm. My eyes widened and I gasped. His cock ground between my legs and I writhed beneath him in pleasure.

A terrible screeching echoed through the halls. Gonzo flung himself off me and covered his ears in pain.

"Hazel Fury…" Zero's voice hissed through the static whine. "Come to my office immediately." The speaker cut off and I looked at my watch. Shit, it was well after one, and now I'd been summoned like a naughty student to the principal's office.

Gonzo gave me a thorough look over and then smiled, pleased with what he saw.

"Guess we'll call it quits for now," he commented. I shot out of bed and looked in the bathroom mirror. I looked like a freshly fucked mess.

"Shit," I hissed.

"Better hurry," Gonzo said. My eyes bugged and I ran for his door.

"You made me late," I growled as I flung the door open.

"How thoughtless of me," he responded with a chuckle as I darted from his room. He'd done this on purpose. What the hell was going on between him and Zero? Whatever it was, I felt like I was right in the middle of it.