Chapter 10

Craving's POV

“No. No. I changed my mind. You know Envy? It's not worth the bother to have Desire come back alive. He'll just pollute Urge's mind. Just kill him now. If Lust's team interferes kill them as well.”

With that Tom disappeared off of the screen.

He had a kill order.

He had a kill order out on Desire...who just so happened to be my best friend.

“Now, now, now,” Envy stated from across the room, “Don't do anything stupid OK? The order is just for Desire.”

Envy and his team surveyed Lust and I. There were 5 cleaners all together. Lust and I didn't stand a chance getting rid of them. We had to make a run for it. None of them seemed to be expecting Tom to drop the kill order on them. They wouldn't have had their guns laid on the beds in the way they did. They would have been more on alert then they were now. Hell, I hadn't been expecting it either. I would have been more armed. I had come here unarmed thinking they would just want to give Desire a good scolding about running away.

That wasn't the case.

Something stupid.

Something stupid was exactly what I was thinking.

“Of course----” I started out before screaming out, “NOT!”

I dodged behind the bed. My heart was racing. Someone fired at me. I think it was Envy himself. The shot missed, firing instead out of the window. I found myself picking up the bed. Normally something like this would have been child's play for me to pick up...but it wasn't.

I struggled with it.

My chest almost caved in as I flipped the entire bed over towards them.

I threw the bed at them. I needed some sort of distraction. I needed time to get away. I needed time to get to Desire and warn him what that he had a kill order against him.

“Let's go!” I heard a voice behind me.

My chest felt so heavy. I started coughing. There was blood. There was blood coming out. Fuck. My body was failing me again!

I looked behind me and realized that it was Love.

He was pulling me out of the room at that moment. He pulled me into the hallway and we started to quickly descend the staircase.

“Slow down...Love, slow down,” I was yelling at him.

“Are you serious? There are cleaners behind us. We can't slow down!”

I didn't have the energy that I had before. It had been getting worse. Every time I moved I could feel it in my bones. I tried to hide it from everyone else but I was losing my strength. I felt as like Sampson did when Delilah had chopped off his hair.

The poison in my system was draining the life out of me.

Love kept pulling at me. He was pulling at my arm. We weren't going fast enough though. We weren't going nearly fast enough!

They were coming!

They were close behind us. The cleaning crew seemed to be sliding down the steps after us. I could see the shadows of the black figures. They moved so fast. It was almost inhuman! Even with Love pulling me down the steps in the way that he was it was useless. I wouldn't be able to outrun them. I wouldn't be able to get there.

“Leave me,” I told him as we made it outside.

“I'm not going to fucking leave you!”

I was so weak. I was no where as strong as I used to be. They were right on our tails. I turned around as we made it outside. I could see Envy. His team was dressed all in black. Two of them were behind us.

“Where do you think you are going?” a voice stated from in front of us.

Fuck.

I looked in front of us to realize that three of Envy's team members were in front of us. How the fuck had they made it outside the building before we did? Did they scale the building or something? We were outgunned. We were outnumbered. I wasn't trained to go up against other assassins. The cleaning crew was something else!

“Kill me,” I told them, “Kill me. Leave Love alone. I was the one who was going to warn Desire. I dragged him with me. I---”

“No,” Love replied, “If we go out. We go out together.”

I was so weak that I couldn't even smile though I wanted to. I wanted to tell him thank you. I wanted to tell him that what he said to me meant the world. I didn't have the energy though. All the energy I had I was using to cough up blood.

Envy crossed his arms as though deciding, “Jealousy, Rivalry. Kill them both and pack the truck. We'll go get Desire...”

Two of his operatives came forward with guns. This was how I died, then huh. At least it would be quick. At least I wouldn't die slowly from the poison destroying my system. Even better I felt a hand at that moment.

I looked to my right. It was Love. He was holding my hand. He was there with me. What more could I ask for? At that moment I realized that Desire had been right. This whole time, I had feelings for this guy. It was more than just wanting to fuck him. Wanting to fuck him was just an excuse. I actually liked Love.

And I would never even have the chance to show it.

Love closed his eyes.

Gunshots!

I knew the sounds of those kind of shots. It was an assault rifle. An assault rifle here?

“Oh my god, Love...Love RUN!”

The gunshots weren't aimed at us. Someone was shooting. Someone was shooting at Envy's people though! Envy ran into the building. I watched as his operatives Jealousy and Rivalry were shot right in front of us. We didn't have time to even think.

Someone was helping us!

I was running as hard as I could right now. I was running not for me. I was running for Love. I was running for Desire. I was running for my friends.

“Give me the keys.”

Gunshots were still going off all around us. I didn't see who was shooting at Envy's team. I could care less though.

“I can drive...”

“The hell you can. Give me the keys...”

I gave Love the keys to the car and hopped into the passenger seat. Love was speeding off at that moment.

He was going maybe 90s miles per hour. I wondered if we were being chased but I couldn't tell. There was chaos at that moment. I just felt my body trembling. The poison was eating up my brain now it felt like. I could almost feel the poison breaking away at me. I laid my head on the dashboard. Love seemed concentrated on the road. He didn't seem to even notice. Good. If he didn't notice I wasn't going to say anything.

The poison was piercing through my stomach.

It was eating me from the inside out.

Love was distracted, “Did you see that? Someone saved us? Who the hell saved us? Do you think it was Allure...”

“No...Allure is a better shot. She would have took them all out if she had the drop on them.”

“Who do you think it was?”

“Our team isn't here. It's someone from outside our team...”

“Who?”

“Love I don't...I don't know...I----”

I could feel the fainting spell coming over me before it even got there. I started to feel Love's hand on my shoulder. He was trying to keep me awake. All I could see were pink and yellow lights for some reason.

“Craving? Oh my god. Craving, what's wrong? Craving...STAY WITH ME!” he was saying, “Craving...Craving, I----”

He was still talking but I couldn't hear sound anymore. All I could hear at this moment was pink and yellow lights. Damn. They were beautiful actually. When I turned to the left where Love was sitting, he was covered in all those pink and yellow lights. I wish I could tell him how sexy he looked in neon. He would have liked that. Love always did seem to like bright colors.

Love, I wanted to tell him, I don't want to just fuck you. I want to make love to you.

Love.

My love.

“He's coming around.”

I woke up to Desire next to me. I was back at the house. I was in the living room on the couch. I was covered in sheets. My body was soaked in sweat. It was kind of disgusting actually. I had a fever. I felt my body on fire.

“Desire...they are coming, they are coming!” I started screaming out.

I tried to get up but I felt this pain shoot throughout my body. The pain was something that I had never felt before in my life. It felt like I was being trampled over or something. It felt like a bunch of fat ass elephants decided my body was their playground.

I fell back down.

“I know...”

“No you don't understand. They are on their way now.”

“Allure and Urge are patrolling the streets. We know. Love warned us. We are on the look out. If they come for us, we'll be ready for them. I'm worried about you right now. Don't move,” Desire stated, “Take some of this.”

He was giving me this drink. I tasted it. It was so bitter and disgusting. I could almost throw up. I wanted to make a joke about something. I wanted to make Desire's sad face not be so sad anymore but I couldn't think of anything. Not even my sense of humor was working the way that it used to. Desire looked like he was the one who was actually laying here on his death bed instead of me. He looked so sad.

“That wouldn't happen to be the antidote would it?”

Desire shook his head, “I made it. It'll slow the poison down but it won't stop it. I don't know what the antidote is Craving. There is nothing I can do but slow it down...”

“Don't slow it down,” I stated.

“What?”

“Don't slow it down,” I replied, “I don't want to die slow Desire. I'm in pain. Can you give me something else? Can you give me something to end the pain?”

I noticed someone crying. I turned my head to the right. I turned to see Love. He had heard what Desire had said and now he was crying. Fuck. I didn't know he was right there. Love was sobbing out loud. For some selfish reason it felt good though. For some reason to know that Love cared enough to cry for me actually felt good.

“I hate you!” Love stated.

“Love...I just don't want to be in pain...” I asked.

“I FUCKING HATE YOU!”

Love ran out of the room at that moment. I didn't know where he went but I heard footsteps. I wanted to go after him but I couldn't even sit up at this point. My body was that weak. I felt like shit. I couldn't believe that this was how I was finally going out. To poison.

“Big mouth?” I asked Desire.

Desire smiled, weakly, “You always did have a big mouth. Love is just hurt. You know your car broke down from gunfire a mile from the hotel you were at? Love grabbed your body out of the car and carried you 10 blocks to get here.”

It was night outside. Jesus. The idea that Love had done so much to get me back to the house was amazing. I didn't believe it.

“He's special...”

“You should let him know that,” Desire said, “Don't tell me. You aren't dead yet Craving...”

“What's the point? Start something up with someone and I'm dying.”

I didn't want to put Love through that. It would have been easy to have let him know that I had a crush on him. It would have be easy to let him know how I felt. The fact is was that I was dying. There was no saving that. The only person who knew the cure to my disease was already dead. He had been shot and killed. Now I was going to die a slow miserable death. Why put someone through something like that?

Desire shook his head, “Remember how you felt about Ardor, your first love back in the days we were in training?”

I laughed at the thought. It had been so long since I had thought about Ardor. He was literally out of my mind for such a long time. He was the first person that I truly cared for though. After him I was so afraid to love again. I was so afraid to lose again.

“He was so weak.”

“Wasn't he?” Desire asked, “The boy couldn't cross a room without tripping over his two feet. Somehow you managed to love him though, didn't you?”

I laughed. I thought about how clumsy and ridiculous Ardor was. I missed him. I had to admit it. Even all these years later I still missed him.

“He was a lost cause from the beginning.”

“Exactly. You knew what happened to people who didn't make the cut. You knew from the beginning that Ardor wouldn't make the cut. The fact that he got as far as he did was a miracle. You knew and you decided to love him anyway. Didn't you. You gave him the choice to love you. Why not give Love the choice?”

I thought about it.

Shit.

Desire had a point.

Just at that moment the door opened. Desire jerked up but calmed down when he noticed it was just Urge and Allure. Urge had pistols in his hands. Allure had a rifle. They looked dangerous. I knew how deadly both were with their weapons of choice. Still. I knew the reputation of the cleaners. The cleaners were going to get here and it was going to be a fight of a lifetime.

Too bad I probably wasn't going to be alive to be apart of it.

Urge walked up to Desire. He put his hands on Desire's shoulder. He was comforting Desire. A part of me was happy that he was. The normal Urge wouldn't know how to deal but somehow he seemed to be letting Desire see his emotion. I couldn't have been mad at that. I couldn't have...

“How is he doing?” Urge asked Desire.

“You can ask me myself,” I replied, “I'm not dead yet.”

“Well how are you doing...”

“I thought I had more time.”

“The physical energy you exert makes certain poisons move quicker,” Desire replied shaking his head.

Allure shook her head, “What does that mean?”

Desire breathed slow.

We all knew Desire was the poison expert in the group. If anyone knew anything about poisons it was him. For some reason he was hesitating. I could see him struggling to hold back tears. I knew he was trying to be strong for me. I appreciated it. It would hurt to see him break down like Love did over me dying.

“You can say it Desire,” I told him, “I don't care. How bad is it...”

Desire shook his head, “I tried to slow it down as much as I could but if you get through the night I would be extremely surprised.”

Allure turned away. I saw the wet glimmer in her eyes.

“Craving...look. I knew we had some...falling out recently. I know---”

I stopped Allure, “It's OK”

I knew Allure well enough to know that she was a firecracker. Her first thought when someone slighted her was to kill kill kill. That is what I loved about her. I didn't want her to change for anyone including me. It was enough to see that Allure was actually crying now at this moment. It was enough to see that she had tears rolling down her eyes.

I knew that she cared about me. I knew that at the end of the day it was all love.

“I should stand guard,” Allure replied, “I'll post my rifle out of the window. If anyone comes from the front yard I'll take them out...”

“No,” Desire replied.

“No?” I asked confused.

“You guys should leave me here with Craving,” Desire told them, “They want me. Tom wants me dead. You guys go back. There is no need for more people to have to die.”

“That's not going to happen?”

We all turned to the staircase. It was Love. He had overheard what Desire was saying and he was walking down the steps. I realized that Desire was crazy if he thought these people would leave him.

At this point we were family.

We were a very dysfunctional, very odd and very dangerous family...but we were family.

“Love this isn't the time to be playing hero?” Desire stated.

Love rolled his eyes, “Hero? Heck no. You are a man-stealer. You stole Urge from me, I be damned if you steal Craving too...”

Desire and I looked at each other. There was SO much to what Love had just said. I wasn't sure if he was joking or half joking or dead serious. Was Love claiming me as his man or something at this point.

“Love...”

“Nope. I won't have it,” Love stated, “Like I told Craving, if we go out...then we all go out together...”

There it was. A smile.

It was kind of cute and amusing to see Love share this backwards show of support to Desire. Calling someone a man-stealer and then saying that you were willing to fight with them until the end.

“Settles it. I'm keeping guard,” Allure stated.

Allure didn't waste anytime. She opened the window to the front yard. She started to use her rifle and her scope to survey the yard. I knew how good Allure was with that thing. If anyone got anywhere close to the house she wouldn't hesitate to take them down. She was a beast with it. I knew she wasn't going to go anywhere no matter what she said.

“Allure.”

“What? Shouldn't you be saving your energy?”

“No. I was just going to tell you that you know you have to take care of your boys.”

Allure turned back to me.

She winked her eye at me.

“Of course. What would you idiots do without me?” she replied.

She turned her attention back to the yard.

At that moment I looked over at Urge and Desire. I wondered if Love felt uncomfortable around them still. He seemed to. He moved away when he realized how close they were. He walked completely on the opposite side of them. He was next to me but seemed to be trying to avoid them all together. I knew how he felt about Urge. I wondered if he still felt that way.

“Urge,” I said.

Urge grunted, “Hm?”

I didn't expect much but a grunt from him. It wasn't like this guy was new to death. Out of everyone I was sure that he was the one who probably was going to miss me the least. He was probably most concerned with how my death would effect Desire. The funny thing was---I liked it that way. I liked the fact that Desire had that person there who would do anything to take care of him.

“Take care of him...” I said.

“I---” Urge started.

“I don't want an excuse. Take care of Desire.”

I knew I was blowing up their spots. I knew that Desire and Urge weren't even on that level yet, but we also all knew it was just a matter of time before they were back playing star-crossed lovers again. I could tell by how Urge was over Desire, protecting him.

“I don't need anyone to protect me,” Desire replied.

“Yes you do. You like to play all tough but you know you love the idea of Urge protecting you,” I stated.

“Oh god. The poison has gone to his brain,” Desire replied.

“Listen. I'm just being honest. You both know that what's about to happen. I don't have the time to be playing subtle. I'm on my death bed.”

Urge shook his head, “Listen. I um...I...”

“You---Mr. Urge have been flexing your muscles since you walked through the front door. You've been hoping that Desire would notice. Don't act like ever since Desire came back your shirts haven't gotten tighter and you haven't been doing extra push ups to try to impress him...”

I could tell Urge was embarrassed.

Desire was laughing, “Aww...is that true...”

Urge looked away.

He wasn't good with this kind of stuff. I knew he wasn't. He stood up and crossed his arms. He was looking away acting as though he hadn't heard what I just said.

“Desire what's so funny?” I asked, “You noticed. You were just telling me, the other day was it? You were just telling me how you had that wet dream where Urge is dripping wet out of the shower his muscles all flexing. His dick all hard. And then you just throw him down and suck---”

“---CRAVING!” Desire stated running across the room at that moment and whispering something in my ear, “Shut up, shut up, shut up...”

Urge all of a sudden was paying attention again.

He wasn't only paying attention. He was smiling and licking his bottom lips. It was Desire's turn to be embarrassed. His face was completely red. He couldn't even deny it. They all knew that I wouldn't lie about something like that. Sure Desire had told me that in confidence but I was saying this to them for their own good.

“Look,” I told them, “I may not be around to protect you Desire. That is my biggest regret in these last 6 years. I'm your best friend. I'm like your bigger brother. I may not like Urge. Hell...I may not even like him for you. But if I'm not around, the only person I honestly believe can protect you is Urge. He's the only person that loves you more than I do.”

That was when Urge did the oddest thing.

“He's right,” Urge told Desire.

There was so much pure emotion in his eyes when he said it. I knew he meant it. There was so much fucking love between the two of them. It was almost making me sick how much love was between the two of them.

Urge had walked over to Desire.

Desire had stopped. Urge's muscular arms wrapped around Desire. It was so warm. It was so calm and touching how he held him. I knew there was so much love there.

“Yo are you going to fucking kiss him or what?” I picked on them, “Stop being a pussy...”

Urge kissed Desire. He gave him a long hard kiss and Desire enjoyed every moment of it. I could see Desire, the boy with the iron will, completely bend to Urge. All of a sudden he wasn't this brick wall who never folded to anyone anymore. Urge wasn't this robotic assassin with an icy gaze anymore.

Right now...

Right in that moment.

They were lovers. Plain and simple.

Desire had turned to me, “Why don't you stop being a pussy now, best friend?”

“I don't know what you're talking about?”

“Oh you don't? Love...”

“Shut up. I'll tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Love asked.

I turned to Love.

He was sitting right over me. He was sitting right over me. I knew I had to tell him now. I had to tell him now or it would be too late. Desire was right. It was now or never. I had to stop being a pussy. I had to tell him how I felt. I had to break it down to him. I had to finally open up to him. I couldn't tell Urge and Desire to do something I was afraid to do.

“I don't have much longer to live...” I told Love.

“You don't know that. You don't know...”

“Yes I do. Listen Love, I have something important to tell you. Remember that night that we were having sex in the kitchen. Sorry guys. Yeah we had sex in the kitchen, by the way. Remember that night?”

Love nodded.

“Yeah.”

“I dropped you. Remember? Well. What I want to tell you is that I would never have dropped you on purpose. If it wasn't for the poison. I would never have dropped you...”

Love shook his head, “I just assumed you were being silly.”

“There's nothing silly about this?”

“About what?”

“About me and...me and you...and...”

“Guys!” Allure interrupted at that moment, “Guys someone is coming up to the house. Someone is coming up to the house waving a white flag. Should I take him out!”

“Yes!” Urge stated.

“No!” I replied.

“Take him out. I agree with Urge,” Desire replied, “It is a trap. Envy is trying to catch us off guard.”

“No. Wait. I don't think it is. Let the person in,” I replied.

I just had a feeling in my gut that this person didn't mean us any harm. Why would Envy be waving a white flag? I saw the kind of firepower that Envy had in that hotel room. We didn't have a fraction of that kind of firepower. Envy wouldn't have been waving a red flag even if there were just three members in his team left.

Envy would have come in here guns blazing.

He had received the kill order.

We all knew what that meant. Tom wouldn't have time for Envy to sit around and play coy with us. This was something else. This was someone else...

But who...

Allure took charge at that moment like I knew she would, “Urge come to the front with me. Desire and Love, protect Craving.”

Desire and Love stood on both sides of the couch. Allure stood on the furthest corner of the room. Urge gave Love one of his pistols and used the other one in his right hand. I watched as he went to the door. I heard the tapping on the door.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

My heart was racing. I wasn't the only one nervous. I could hear Desire's heavy breathing next to me. I noticed how Love's hand was trembling slightly as he held his pistol.

Allure had her finger on the trigger of her rifle. Was she so good with close range as she was with far away?

Tap.

Tap.

Urge looked back at Allure.

“Open it,” Allure instructed.

Urge opened the door and hopped back drawing his pistol up. The dark figure walked into the room. The figure had on a gray trench coat. The face was covered in an old beat up ski mask and gloves. I didn't recognize anything about how the figure walked. My team was on guard though. They were watching him like a hawk. The figure had an assault rifle in his hand.

Assault rifle...

Just at that moment the person reached into with his gloves on and was pulling something out.

Something went flying from across the room.

It was Desire. He had thrown a knife. I hadn't even noticed he had knives! The knife had hit the door behind the person only inches away from the head.

“I missed on purpose,” Desire told the masked man, “You make another move and you die...”

“Wait...” I told them, “This man. This man saved Love and I. Didn't you. You saved Love and I earlier today against Envy's team. You shot at them so we could get away with that assault rifle.”

The masked figure nodded.

I continued.

I was connecting the dots. I was saved before. I remembered.

My eyes squinted at the man, “Not only that. You saved me before didn't you? That day that Temper was about to blow everyone up in a shack, you killed him. Didn't you?”

“Why have you been protecting us?” Allure asked him.

The man didn't say anything. He still had his hand in his pocket. His eyes were focused on Desire. Desire had another knife in his hand.

“Desire let him take his hand out of his pocket.”

“Fine.”

Just at that moment the man took his hand out of his pocket. He had a vial in his hand. There was liquid.

Finally the man spoke.

“It's a cure,” the man said, “It's a cure for the poison that Temper used. It can save Craving.”

“Oh thank God. He's an angel!” Love stated.

Love was crying. I couldn't believe it either. This man had come out of no where. He had come out of no where and he had saved me multiple times. He was like some sort of guardian angel.

At that moment Love took a few steps forward to get the vial from the man.

All of a sudden the knife went flying across the room. It was Desire! Desire never missed with his knives. One of Desire's knives went into one leg of the guy. Desire sent another one of his knives only seconds later. It went into the guys other leg. What the fuck was wrong with him?

Urge ran over to Desire to try to hold him back but somehow Desire evaded him. Desire skated underneath the Urge's feet and kicked Urge against the wall!

“Desire calm down!” Love was trying to say.

Love tried to hold him back but Desire managed to get away from him too. Desire was faster than I had ever seen him. For some reason there was this wild look on his eyes. He was going after that man with a crazy urge. There was something that Desire knew that the rest of us didn't. Either that or he had gone completely crazy!

“Desire what the fuck is wrong with you!” Allure was screaming.

Desire wasn't going crazy.

“That voice! That voice!”

I didn't understand what he was going crazy about. Just at that moment Desire had another knife in his hand. It was his final knife. He was going to finish the man off.

He was standing in front of the man. The man was crippled at this point. His legs had been impaled by knives. He now had a knife to his throat.

Desire was ready to kill my savior.

“Wrath...” Desire stated, "I know that voice anywhere."

He was delusional. It was so sad. He was still delusional about everyone being Wrath. I felt kind of bad for him. It was almost like the boy who cried wolf. I was on my death bed and my best friend was still losing his mind over some crazy stalker he had in his past.

“Desire,” Love shook his head, “Wrath is dead. Wrath didn't kill your fiance.”

Desire looked over at Love.

“What are you talking about? Wrath didn't kill my fiance...”

Love turned away. I was confused. I was so fucking confused. Why was Lust acting funny?

"He doesn't know what he's talking about,” Urge replied, “Do it Desire. Kill him.”

Now Urge was acting funny. He was acting desperate. I felt like I was out of the loop. Maybe it was the fact that I was dying. Maybe I had missed something when I was knocked out. Everyone was acting very odd. Desire seemed to be acting the most odd of all of them.

Just at that moment Desire lift the ski mask.

Holy shit.

“He's right...”

It was Wrath!

To read the next chapter now go to www.crushedcrown.com