Toxic (Denazen #2)(3)

Electrifying each other.

The kiss built slowly, all-consuming and raw. I was flying. The warm sensation creeping from my stomach to my spine and through my limbs was like mainlining pure adrenaline. It stole my breath while somehow breathing new life into me.

“I like the feel of your skin when it’s wet,” Kale whispered into my mouth as the rain kicked up again. He pulled back a bit and caressed the outline of my jaw, then let his fingers drop to the neckline of my tank top. “But wet clothes are annoying. They make it hard to get to you.”

I nodded and tugged on the shoulder of his dripping T-shirt. Leaning forward a bit, I nuzzled his ear and whispered, “I think the best way to fix that is to lose the clothes.”

He leaned away and, in a flash, had his shirt pulled over his head and tucked safely through one of his belt loops. “Okay.”

Not exactly what I’d meant—but no complaints from me. Kale was ripped. I opened my mouth to tell him we should head back to the hotel, but he kissed me again, and all coherent thought evaporated.

Every inch of me was alive and humming—and then, suddenly, in pain.

Like someone had wrapped a rubber band around my chest, it was impossible to breathe. I struggled to fill my lungs with air but ended up choking instead, a series of body-wracking coughs lodging in my throat. Each fingertip burned like it was pressed against a red-hot stove burner, and every muscle felt ready to snap. It was hell.

Holy shit—we’d been struck by lightning.

It would have been logical if David hadn’t been on the ground below, attracting electricity. But maybe he’d left? I pulled away with a gasp, heart nearly freezing as my legs almost untangled from the bars.

Blue eyes wide and confused, Kale reached for me. “Dez, what happened?”

“I don’t know.” Even though the early September air had a definite chill, sweat beaded across my forehead. My heart thundered as every muscle twitched. Everything felt hollow and raw. After a few seconds, my breath finally returned to normal, and the air cooled a bit.

I leaned against the cold metal and closed my eyes as Kale pulled me close. With both his arms wrapped tight around me, I took a deep breath. “All of a sudden it was like—”

An entirely new feeling—an intense wave of vertigo—came out of nowhere, accompanied by the sensation of rushing air. I slipped backward on the slick metal, legs unraveling from their perch like they were made of pudding. My knees caught the bar for a fraction of a second before the entire world flipped upside down. In a flurry of misty rain and bright ribbons of light across the sky, Kale disappeared.

And so did the crane.

For a brief moment, nothingness. The world spun into blackness as my arms flailed, trying to grasp something—anything—solid. Once my fingers brushed the side of the crane, but thanks to the rain, they slipped effortlessly off.

A sudden stop jarred my body, the halt of momentum slamming me violently against the side of the crane. My head connected with the metal in a deafening clang, and everything blurred and stretched before finally snapping back into focus.

“I got you,” Kale huffed from somewhere over my head. He’d stopped me from falling, strong hands clamped like a vice around my wrists, and started to pull me up—but his foot slipped. The squeak of rubber against metal threatened disaster. A low curse escaped his lips as we dropped several inches, and in that moment, I was sure we were going down.

When my body stopped swinging, I turned to the side and peered over my shoulder. It was a long way to the bottom—which didn’t bother me as much as the sudden stop it ended with. I hoped Kiernan made it down all right. The voices of everyone below drifted up—an occasional hoot, followed by roaring laughter. They had no idea what was going on up here.

“Hang on. I need better footing,” Kale called. He sounded completely confident as he wound his leg between the two nearest rungs, then bent his knee and wedged a foot under the one below.

I didn’t share his confidence. The constricting feeling was creeping back, making it increasingly difficult to take anything more than short, shallow breaths. My muscles burned, and my throat was sore. Like I’d been screaming.

Something horrible nipped at my subconscious. An unthinkable thing that turned my blood to ice.

“Kale,” I said, trying to keep calm. There was a noise—an odd hum—that kept getting louder. It was making things spin a little and had started drowning out all the ambient noise. “I think—”

His face appeared over the edge, the rain from his hair hitting the top of my head in soft plops. “I have you, don’t worry. Get ready. I’m going to pull you up.”

He adjusted his grip on my wrists, and the fire spiked—then exploded. The pain trickled up each finger and to my shoulders. From there, it leaked into my chest and crept down my legs. It was like someone had ripped me open, lit a bonfire, and stitched everything back up with a rusty needle. I kicked out, trying to hook the edge of my sneaker around the closest bar so I could grab the crane, but it kept sliding off.

The movement jarred us both, causing Kale’s grip to shift just a little.

“Dez, stop moving!” There was a slight trace of panic in his voice. That in itself was enough to freak me out. Kale didn’t panic. He was Mr. Stone Face in a crisis. Another part of his training.

Normally he wouldn’t have had an issue holding on—those muscles weren’t all for show—but with the brief rain and my insistent squirming, his right hand slipped past my wrist, over my thumb, and then free. Instantly, the fire in my limbs cooled a little. Not enough to stifle the pain but enough to be noticeable.