Free Legacy (Endlessly Book 2) by C.V. Hunt Page B

before I opened it I knew it was Lex and Jenny.
    “Are you ready for some fun?” Jenny chirped.
    Verloren’s thoughts echoed in my head: I thought we were about to make our own fun.
    Lex looked me up and down. “You might want to bring a jacket.”
    “Where are we going?” I asked
    “Flying, ” Jenny told me. “Down to the beach.”
    I glanced back at Verloren.
    “You can bring him if you want. I’m taking Jason,” said Lex.
    Jason’s name stuck to our thoughts like a remnant from a troubling dream.
    “As long as he’s not afraid of heights.” Jenny smiled at Verloren. “We’ll meet you outside.”

     
     
     
    8 tin man
     
    We dressed for warmth. Verloren helped me put clothes on and I teased him with my observation that he wanted to do the exact opposite. Most of my clothes were spaghetti top sundresses or halter tops and skirts. With them I could dress myself and fit my wings and tail.
    What jeans I owned had their backs slit for my tail, and were modified with a button at the top. I never had trouble with them. My t-shirts and sweatshirts were modified in the same fashion: two long slits up the back creating a flap in the middle that would lie between my wings and a button on each side to keep it in place.
    It was the usual scene in the common room. Aubrey was reading. Coylene and Fabi were talking. A stereo was playing The Used at low volume. I thought to myself: Someone has good taste in music. I almost ran over Verloren trying to get to the mudroom, until I saw the demon. He leaned on his pool stick waiting for Cory who was trying a difficult shot.
    In the mudroom Verloren grabbed his leather motorcycle jacket, reminding me of how he missed his bike.
    We’ll get it here for you somehow, I thought, handing him my oversized trench coat. I’d like to go for a ride. I’ve never been on a bike before.
    “That won’t be as fun as what you are about to do,” he said, folding my jacket and zipping it up inside his coat.
    We left through the steel door and climbed the dark steps. Lex and Jenny were laughing at Jason and Josh horsing around. Now I understood why the concrete room below the tree was so big. I watched Verloren get a running start before he jumped up toward the hole. The full moon was barely a sliver through the thick foliage of the trees.
    “Oh wow!” Lex said when she saw me. “Can I see the back of your sweatshirt?”
    When Jason saw us his smile vanished, but he kept himself composed. I turned around, allowing Lex to run her hand along the bottom, seeing how it was attached.
    “That’s pretty cl ever,” Jenny said, peering over Lex‘s shoulder.
    “Wish we’d thought of something like that,” Josh added, pulling off his sweatshirt.
    Jenny and Lex followed Josh. The girls wore the familiar bikini tops under their sweatshirts. I glanced back and saw Josh had already shifted. His skin resembled Lex’s in her grotesque form. It was gray-hued, thick, wrinkled, and rough, like that of an elephant. His face caved in and lengthened and his wings spread wider and thicker than Lex’s. His talons protruded, twisted, gnarled and broken.
    Jenny and Lex shifted at the same time. This time I noticed more pitting and thickness in Lex’s skin, while misshapen teeth jutted from her mouth. Jenny’s spine twisted, contorting her entire body into a hunched, lopsided form. Her face was as flattened as the others, but her body and skin were far more beat-up. Her condition looked painful, but if it bothered her she didn’t let on.
    The grotesques looked nothing like their former human selves, but they were easy to identify by their builds and gestures.
    Josh turned and extended his massive wings. He squatted, then jumped, and flew through the trees. I could hear the soft thrum of his wings above us. Jenny followed his lead.
    Lex handed her sweatshirt to Jason, then wrapped her arms around his chest from behind. She was almost his height and didn’t have to strain to reach his ear.
    “I won’t