Hexagon

Chapter 74: Thank the Stars

Hello all! It looks like my school is going to be closing down because of the coronavirus, so it's possible that I'll be able to get the next few chapters out faster (don't count on it though, it all depends on the amount of online work my teachers end up assigning)

Anyway, thank you to the following people for reviewing:

-Bluestream (x7)

-LionCinder

-HollyleafML

-ivystorm

-Runereader of the Nightwings

-xbloodywhalex (x2)

-Briarfang (x2)

-DragonClan (x2)

-Muziccat91

-xXPokePotterIslandXx

-KT-FeatherSage

*WARNING FOR GODS SAKE PAY ATTENTION TO THE WARNING* There are some extremely rapey situations this chapter, nothing explicit but damn it gets close (I got a little carried away trying to make Heathertail as evil as possible)

READER. DISCRETION. PLEASE. I'm going to ignore all and any flames. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Lionblaze's POV:

The world was spinning. My own footfalls echoed in my ears, loud and uneven as I dragged myself down the hallway. Everything seemed to swim together, and huge black blotches blossomed in my vision.

My head felt like it was full of helium. Empty and strangely light, like I was floating while searing pain burst along my temples. Another flare of agony, this time reaching around my head and down my neck, and I felt my footsteps falter.

I could have sworn I felt my brain itself throb. My stomach gave a nauseous twist.

Behind me, Crowfrost bumped the gun threateningly into the back of my head. Bile crept its way up my throat, the acidic burn making me gag. The black spots swam across my sight, blurring together and blacking out. My legs crumpled. Something hit the floor: my knees?

"Get up", came a derisive snap from behind me. I couldn't, my limbs felt leaden and useless. I wasn't sure what was happening. Was the concussion I'd been ignoring for the past few days finally coming for me, or were there some remnants of sedative that my body hadn't been able to flush out?

Heathertail stalked around me to stand in front of me. Through my blurry vision, I could see her casting a critical eye over me. I would have laughed, had I been able to. Of course she didn't want her new plaything to die.

The pounding in my head became a deafening roar. I felt my body heave, tasted bile flooding my mouth, and before I knew what was happening, I threw up.

Right onto Heathertail's glossy leather boots.

The blond gave a disgusted shriek and seemed to jump back several feet. I wish I had seen her face. My vision had blacked out almost completely now, and I felt what little consciousness I had left beginning to slip away. Within seconds, it was gone.

I woke up on a collapsable cot in a carpeted, somewhat nicer room. I slowly eased myself upright. Of course, I found my hands and feet still bound. No surprise there. I was in a plain, white-walled room with standard navy blue carpeting. A small clock fixture on the wall indicated the time: 1 am. I looked around the room, at the blocky white desk and forgotten plastic plant in the corner. It looked like your basic manager's office.

There was the thump of footsteps on the other side of the door. I heard a key jiggle in the lock, and quickly laid back down, feigning sleep. I heard the swish of the door brushing over the carpet, and the sound of heels sinking into the fabric as someone strode over to my side.

And then to my shock, there were hands on my face. But I felt no relief. I knew from the instant the cool acrylics brushed over my cheeks that these were not friendly hands. No, this was an enemy, and I had a dangerous inkling as to who had come to stand over my bedside.

The long nailed hand left my face, and predator stood up. There was a squirting sound, and sickly sweet mist filled the air. I wrinkled my nose. Was this bitch actually spraying perfume? In the middle of a battle?

But I recognized the scent. Imperial Majesty perfume, ironically the same fragrance my mother liked to use. This stuff went for some $2000 an ounce. I'm the son of billionaire parents, and even I think that's ridiculous.

I know only one person (other than Rubystorm) ostentatious enough actually to buy that piss-in-a-bottle they pass off as perfume.

Heathertail.

I knew it was her, but didn't let my body language show it. As far as she knew, I was fast asleep, locked in drugged slumber.

And then I felt my blood ice over.

There was hand on my neck. She trailed the point of a single acrylic nail trailing down my windpipe. It dipped into the spot between my collar bones, and stayed there. Then I felt her other hand, a small tremor went through me, and I fought the temptation to open my eyes and kick her as hard as I can. But she was armed, I wasn't, and it wasn't not worth the risk.

She pushed the hem of my shirt up to the base of my ribcage and laid her hand flat onto my stomach. I sent a silent prayer to StarClan.

Please, don't let her move. Please, don't let her do anything more.

As if on cue, Heathertail began trailing her hand slowly up my stomach, running her hand over hills and vales of muscle, and I could hear her humming. She was enjoying herself. It took all my remaining willpower to stay put.

By now, her talons had reached the rumpled edge of my shirt, now scrunched up by my ribs. She disregarded it, and slid her hand under. She was touching my breastbone. And then, to my complete and utter revulsion, she placed her hand resolutely over my left pectoral.

Right. Over. My. Heart.

I gave an involuntary full-body twitch at the effort of trying to keep still. Heathertail, likely believing that I had moved in my sleep, giggled girlishly.

And then proceeded to take her hand, which had been resting on my clavicle, and ran it teasingly under the elastic of my pants. I immediately began to panic, racking my brain, desperate. Has anyone ever touched me here? Because for the love of StarClan, I don't want Heathertail to be the first.

My eyes snapped open to see Heathertail's face inches from my own, painted lips pulled into a blinding megawatt smile, eyes iced over but simultaneously burning.

"I was wondering when you'd stop pretending", she remarked sweetly. And then her lips were on mine.

Cinderheart's POV:

I was guiding the others, my footsteps desperate and hurried. In truth, I had no idea where Heathertail took Lionblaze. I had only seen which way she had taken him. We had come upon another small warehouse area, and I scanned the empty shelves, desperate for a flash of reddish blond hair, anything. Anything that would tell me where Lionblaze was. The others didn't wait either. They hurried between the shelves and crept into corners in light, predatory treads. I didn't follow them. Instead, I cast my gaze through the storage area.

This is it. I reasoned quietly to myself. The southernmost wing of the building. I know I saw Heathertail take him this way. They can only be here.

I looked around. This area had a very high ceiling, complete with skylights. There was a steel catwalk running along walls where the second story would be. Every couple hundred feet, there's a door and window. The managers' offices?

And then I saw it. On the way other side of the room, on the corner of the opposite wall, the shutters of the office were drawn tightly down, but not tightly enough. I could see the faint light of a lamp casting through the plastic shutters.

I silently gestured Ivypool onto the walkway while asking the others to keep a expressions steeled over in determination. I led the way onto the catwalk with Ivypool practically breathing down my neck. In hindsight, it might have been smarter to let her go first. She was the only one who was armed, and was significantly less likely to accidentally blow her foot off.

We reached the door. Ivypool leaned forward to check if it was locked, but I didn't let her. I silently gestured to the bolt stunners strapped to her thighs. She raised her eyebrows and gave me one with no other hesitation, perhaps remembering the ease with which I had shot down the targets on the Spring Fling.

Feeling the weight of the bolt stunner in my hands, I took a step back and raised my leg. Then, taking care to focus the majority of the blow on the weak spot by the keyhole, I kicked down the door.

The door flew open with a bang, so loud I was surprised that the Dark Forest grunts didn't come running at the noise.

However. The view I was greeted with once the door was out of the way put the grunts out of my mind completely.

I saw him. My boyfriend, face clammy and tinted green as if he'd recently thrown up, stretched out on a collapsable cot on the floor. Heathertail had put her mouth on his, shoving her tongue so deeply into his mouth it looked as if she were trying to taste his tonsils. I could see her hand, shoved under his shirt, pressing on his chest.

And then I saw red.

Her hands. In his pants.

It was as if any rational thought in my mind had promptly died. My muscles contracted, springing into furious action before I had the chance to give them my permission. I was charging at her, the gun forgotten, and caught her around the middle. Heathertail went sprawling across the navy carpet and I was on top of her, ripping and punching every bit of her that I could reach.

If my anger at the festival had been a wildfire, this was an inferno, roaring and blazing with the fury of the hellfires themselves. Forget injuries, I wanted to kill her. See her blood on my fingers, spreading across that pretty navy carpet.

Heathertail was screaming like a wounded animal, fighting back with little success. All her battle experience did little to serve her now. I was too angry. The wild, furious beast inside of me wanted blood.

There was a bang, and I watched as the spark in Heathertail's frigid blue eyes flickered and died. She collapsed backwards onto the carpet in a pool of her own blood. There was only one person that could have shot. And sure enough, when I looked up, Ivypool was standing above us, holding the bolt stunner.

"Is she dead?", I asked hopefully.

"No", Ivypool answered flatly. "I don't have the materials to kill her on me."

Confused, I gestured to the knives on her belt. Ivypool laughed drily. "You didn't really think the Dark Forest would let me anywhere near lethal weapons willingly, did you? No. These are dull. I'd be lucky to butter toast with these, that's how dull they are."

I stood, and gave Heathertail's lifeless form a brutal kick. She slid across the carpet, leaving a bloody smear on the otherwise clean fabric. Then I hurried over to Lionblaze, who was still sprawled on that cot, helpless.

He was trussed up like a pig for slaughter.

His eyes were closed tightly, and it looked as if he were straining, trying to keep what little had remained in his stomach from making a reappearance. But it was the just drying tear tracks on his cheeks that made me feel the sobs come up myself.

Ivypool behind me was silent as she handed me a sharp little knife. "This should be just sharp enough to cut the zip ties", she said quietly.

Ivypool didn't show a lot of emotion. But it was clear, as the muscular, intimidating girl behind me looked, that she was fighting back tears of her own. I couldn't blame her. She had likely never had to see a comrade in arms in such a humiliating position before.

She drew a smaller, likely just as dull blade from her belt, and got to work sawing through the ties that bound Lionblaze's legs. I could tell it took a lot of effort. It took me almost three minutes to complete cut through the zip ties on his wrists. I let his head rest on my lap as I got to work on his wrists, rubbing them to help restore circulation.

His eyes opened slowly. His dazed amber stare locked onto me, and I saw the corners of his mouth twitch into a smile of relief.

His voice was raspy when he spoke.

"Thank the Stars you came."

End Chapter 74

With all the times Lionblaze has had to save Cinderheart, I think something like this was long overdue. What about you guys? What do y'all think of my badass Cinderheart?

Reviews are always appreciated.

Azra out!