Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (71 page)

Since being on the Melded
World, the Twelve were finally at ease - with one another and with
their situation.

In a magical Target
Superstore, in the middle of a cataclysmic blizzard, they felt
safe.

The Fist, ever watchful
and protective, had lounged farther out from their circle. With
their great sparkling eyes, they guarded the children, witnessing
the transformation before them.

Well, at least, it had
been nice enough to forget about things for a few hours. We had the
time to enjoy ourselves for once
, thought
Anthony, looking back in his mind.

They had talked for a long
time. Then, the three youngest began to yawn, cracking their jaws
as they gaped. Their onsetting fatigue was fierce and unrelenting.
They were wilting fast before it.

Marianna had stood. She
asked if the boys could be good and stay put, for the girls were
about to venture deeper into recesses of the store to find pajamas
and change.

A deep silence had ensued,
followed by a few nervous cackles from Andrew.

Marianna had glared at him
until he was quiet. Then she had said in flat tones, once the girls
had finished, then the boys could do the same.

Anthony had told her it
was a good plan and that
all
males would be gentlemen and would indeed stay
put. This had garnered a loving look from Sophie and a thankful one
from Kimberly.

Moments later, the girls
had left.

It was not long before
high-pitched squeals, gales of laughter and rapid banter had come
floating back to the boys. The girls were being
girlie
and that got all their
attention.

The boys had all exchanged
smirks and smiles, trying to be cool. Although Anthony knew each
one of them was wondering. What it would be like to look upon the
girls as they wiggled out of their clothes and put on their
newfound pajamas?

Anthony had not been
immune to that curiosity. He found himself thinking hard on what
Sophie would look like underneath all the layers she wore. Though
he knew how blissful it was to have her in his arms clothed, still
he wondered. What was her skin like? Was she soft? Was she pale and
beautiful all over, pleasing and curvaceous to the eye? He let
himself ponder those thoughts for a time.

Then, he had shaken free
of them when he happened to look across the way and his eyes met
those of his longtime friend. He had always been able to read
Andrew like an open book. And he could tell without a doubt the
other boy was thinking the exact same thing about
Marianna.

They both had blushed
furiously and looked away.

A few minutes later, the
girls had all come back. They carried their clothing in their arms.
To a one, they had dressed in nightgowns or two-pieced sets of
varying colors, all a cotton blend of some sort. They had also
pulled their hair back to reveal their faces. And each wore thick
woolen socks and slippers on their feet.

Sophie had walked up to
Anthony in a flowing nightgown of modest cut, but still did not
hide the swell of her breasts or the curve of her hips.

Anthony had forced himself
to stare into her face as she asked him if what she had found for
his sisters was warm enough for them to sleep in.

He had glanced at Elena
and Mikalah. He was glad to see they were both wearing thick
cotton, footed pajamas encasing their bodies from neck to toe. He
had smiled at the bright swirling colors and patterns. He told his
girlfriend they were perfect, well suited for the cold.

She had smiled back,
giving him a quick peck on the cheek, mumbling it was time for the
boys to go and change.

He and the other males of
the group had come and gone in half the time it took for the girls
to dress. Most of them opted for sweat pants and the matching
pullover sweatshirts. To a one, they had all chose to dawn either
charcoal gray or brown or black-colored garments. They each wore a
pair of thick woolen socks much like their female
counterparts.

Jason had comeback wearing
a pair of dark brown corduroy slippers, a perfect match to his
sweats.

When Andrew and Louis had
seen them, they disappeared for a few minutes and each came back
with a pair of their own.

Anthony had been surprised
when Andrew tossed both him and Joaquin a pair, saying, “I knew you
guys would end up going back for some. I just thought I’d save you
the trip.”

Joaquin had muttered
thanks.

Anthony just nodded and
smiled at his friend.

They had reformed their
circle after, but the conversation was now muted and slow. Before
long they began to turn off the battery operated lanterns and one
by one drifted off to bed, sleeping two to a mattress. It gave them
all more than enough room to rest their heads, since all the
mattresses were queen-sized.

His sisters shared one,
having ample room for them to flop around. Andrew and Marianna had
chosen another. Jason and Joaquin had claimed one of the ones on
the edge. Hyun and Kimberly decided to sleep side-by-side, close
enough to hug one another. And last, Derek and Louis paired, which
had left the final air mattress for Anthony and Sophie. He was sure
the others had known they would sleep together. They had been doing
so since the first night in the Melded World. To the group, he and
the platinum blond were a real couple.

Anthony lay there now. It
was dark. He remembered how Sophie had crawled hand and knees
toward the opening of the double-wide sleeping bag they were using.
He recalled seeing, for a second time, the half-nervous,
half-curious look on her face. One second, she was anxious, the
next, prurient. He had wormed his way into the bedding before her
and had held it open for her to enter. She scooted her way in to
lie down on her back. He lay down as well, on his side facing her,
watching as she breathed deep enough to fill her lungs, a strange
expression on her face.

He was about to ask if
everything was alright, when she turned toward him and pulled
herself close. Astonishment made his face flush when he felt
beneath her nightgown and found she was naked. He was
self-conscious in an instant, realizing beneath his sweats, he was
nude too. The possibility had not even entered his mind. The idea
he might sleep without underwear at night was a forgone conclusion.
He had always slept that way. Feeling the periodic binding and
synching of undergarments had always made him feel uncomfortable.
It was downright bothersome in the middle of the night after a wild
dream or two.

He had just assumed Sophie
would sleep with at least her panties on. Being a girl he had
figured she would be more apt to keep layers of clothing between
them, especially due to the proximity they were about to
sleep.

She brought her knee up,
placing it on his thigh.

Feeling her body so close
to his own intimate parts startled him. He had come near to jumping
out of his skin. He could felt his throat constrict, cutting off
his ability to breath.

“
Don’t be nervous, Tony,”
she had whispered. “I don’t think I can handle this if you are. It
would weird me out.”

Anthony gulped, somehow
remembering how to breathe. “I’m… I’m - uh, sorry, Soph. I just
didn’t expect this. You know? For you to be… well, you know,
in
only
your
nightgown.”

“
I know, right?” Her tone
lightened. “I totally didn’t think about it until I was about to
climb into the sleeping bag with you,” she had begun. She looked
into his eyes, searching.

Anthony tried to exude
some degree of calm and maybe a slice of confidence along with
it.

“
I have slept like this
since I was a little girl, my mom always -,” she had stopped,
giggling without warning.

He smiled through a frown
of curiosity.

“
She said it was healthier
to sleep this way.” She giggled deeper in her throat. “She said
girls should ‘air-it-out’ now and again, so I always
have…”

He gulped, a vivid visual
coming to mind that he pushed away almost at once.

“
Funny
thing, Sophie, I have always slept the same way too,” he grinned
with her, feeling better. His confession continued: “When I felt
you and I realized I was without my… you know, my boxers, I sort of
just wigged out. I mean, knowing there were only two layers
of
thin
clothing
are separating our – um, I mean from touching us … Ah, you know
what I mean!” His voice had gone hoarse and musky. “I got
scared.”

“
Oh,” she had gasped as
cute as button. “When you put it that way, I could see why you… oh
my, Tony!”

To him, she had sounded
demure and shy at first. But he noticed she had not shied away. She
had not moved her leg from his. Rather, she did the exact opposite
and hooked her heel about the back of his knee and pulled herself
even closer to him. They were touching, not smashed together like
before in the dark at the front of the store, but touching
nonetheless.

He had closed his eyes and
submitted to the hundreds of images of her racing through his mind.
He knew even if he fought them, they would overwhelm him to the
point of stupefaction. He did not want to come across looking like
an idiot. So, he had let them run over him, through him and pass in
the matter of a few heartbeats. He accepted the fact that, in his
heart of hearts, in the center of his mind where he made his
innermost decisions, he wanted her. He wanted her as man wants a
woman. There was other way to put it, no other way to describe it.
It was what it was and there was nothing else to it. He knew his
upbringing and his lack of knowledge in that given area would be
enough to give him pause. He knew he would approach that particular
act with care and caution, but it was out there now. He loved
Sophie Reed. He wanted to know everything there was to know about
her - even what she looked like underneath her
nightgown.

No, this was not the time
for half-truths.

He wanted to know
in detail
what she
looked like underneath her nightgown.

He was about to say
something, peering at her through the semi-darkness just as someone
turned out the last of the lanterns. He realized she had already
fallen asleep. Her mouth was open a fraction of an inch, a soft
snore coming from her. She was a lion cub purring.

She fell asleep in my
arms! Even though she is half-naked and I am half-naked, she fell
asleep in my arms.
There had never been a
thing to strike so deep into the core of Anthony Herrera. That one
notion – her feeling completely secure in his embrace – made him
marvel. Here he was just a normal kid from Highland Park. And yet,
a gorgeous, blonde-haired girl had just wrapped her near-nude body
around him and slept like a baby. He was the luckiest sonofabitch
he had ever known.

It had been a wondrous
thought.

Until another thought
intruded.

This was same
blonde-haired beauty he might not remember. Once he dived into the
shimmering pool of water at the center of a majestic cavern and
retrieved the Legacy of Truth all bets were off.

*****

He must have dreaming
about the thought or thinking about it in some off-handed fashion.
That had to have been the reason he had awakened so sudden in the
night. He did not remember when his own arm had crept about the
girl’s shoulders. He had done that in his sleep. His arm was now
beneath her neck and looped about onto her back.
Yeah, it had to’ve been in my sleep.
He stroked her shoulder blade, feeling her warm
skin through the sheer weft and weave of cotton beneath his
fingertips. He let his hand roam a bit, but halted its’ random
caresses at her side just below the swell of her breast. He gave
her a quick hug, then with care unwound his limb from
her.

She stirred again in her
sleep, murmuring something unintelligible as she half-turned from
him. He extracted his legs from hers. As gentle as he could manage,
he sat up. He squirmed from the sleeping bag and stood with obvious
deliberation. He did not wanting to shake the girl too much with
his movements. He found his slippers, walked into them and made his
way away from the others.

He had not gone far from
the area they had encircled with space heaters when he began to
feel the cold of the night. A few steps beyond that he turned and
made his way back in search of his jacket. It was too damned cold
to go anywhere far without it.

He found it exactly where
he had left it. With alacrity, he put it on and walked in total
silence from the sleeping area, zipping it up as he went,
minimizing the noise. He shoved his hands in the pockets of the
jacket, snaking his way through the throng of clothing racks and
shelving. He picked his way through, angling in a sort of
crisscross fashion, toward the doors leading out to the upper level
parking lot.

As before, the storm was
still pounding the landscape with unrelenting abandon. The wind was
creating eddies of snow and other debris so high and so wide,
sometimes it was the only thing he could make out beyond the
double-paned, glass doors. He stepped closer to the transparent
portal. He rocked back and forth on his feet, amazed at the drop in
temperature with every inch he moved further from the heaters. He
could feel the cold already chapping his cheeks and making his nose
itch with its’ icy dryness.