Discovering Synergy, page 20
“The demon possessed another student’s body and must’ve used it to get to close to Lailah. With it hiding in human skin, the wards wouldn’t have been activated in their weakened state. Once it was out of the host, we got to her as soon as we could.”
“Did her powers present?”
“You could say that. We just did the ritual to renew the wards. From what I can feel they are stronger than ever. Beth, I’ve never seen anything like it, she took a thread of each of our powers and bound them together to do it.”
“Are you telling me the ground shaking was her?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m telling you. Try standing next to her while she’s doing it. That shit’s fucking intense.”
“Brayden, language,” Beth chided. “I didn’t raise you boys to have such foul mouths.”
She never seemed to scold the others when they swore. Just me. Maybe it’s because I don’t do it very often.
“We’ll be at the house soon. Do you have a room set up for her?”
Beth huffed at me, “Of course I do! There’s been a room ready for her before she even landed in the country.”
“I should’ve known better than to question you,” I said before I hung up and hopped into Jay’s jeep. We took off with Parker following us on his bike.
Once back at the house, we all filed in behind Micah, who was still holding Lailah. Beth met us at the entrance, “Micah, her room is going to be the north one off the common room.”
Beth opened the door for him, flipping on the light so he could make his way to the bed without running into something. As he settled her, Beth drew back the blackout curtains, so the moonlight shone in through the glass French doors.
“I want to make sure if she wakes up in the night, she can see her surroundings,” Beth said answering our questioning looks. “We should also have someone stay here so when she does come around she won’t be freaked out being in an unfamiliar place.”
“I’ll stay,” I said before any of the other could volunteer. “If she starts freaking out when she wakes up, I have the ability to ground her powers. I’ve done it once before.”
Beth nodded her head, “Sounds like a good plan, but I want to chat with you all a moment. Let's step out into the living room so we don’t wake her.”
Stepping out of her room brought us to the hub of the house. It was a common area that we called the living room that each our bedrooms faced. If we weren’t in the library, chances were we were here. I settled into my favorite battered leather armchair and the others ended up in their respective spots around the room.
“Things are going to change for Lailah now that her power has manifested. I’m going to need your help making this transition as smooth as possible. If she is as powerful as you say Brayden, I don’t want her tearing down the house around our ears,” Beth said perched on the edge of the couch cushion.
“She’s going to have tons of questions when she wakes up, how do you want me to handle that?” I asked.
“Manage what you can, but I would like to have a face-to-face chat with her. I realize that she’s comfortable with all of you, but I need to start building my rapport with her since I’m going to be the one she comes to with her needs,” Beth sighed rubbing her temple. “Once she finds out that I knew all along, I have a feeling she is going to be very angry with me. I can’t say I blame her, but I hope she will see the reason.”
“Have Cami here for that conversation. That will help,” Parker pointed out.
“If you’re straight with her and give her facts, she will handle it much better than appealing to her emotions,” Hudson offered.
“Letting her know that no other secrets will be held from her is also going to be something she needs to hear. Her having access to everything and everywhere will prove that to her,” Micah said, surprising me he realized that about her.
“Getting her back into a routine as fast as possible will give her some stability,” Jay added drawing everyone's attention.
Beth smiled at us like a proud mom. “My, it seems you’ve really figured her out.”
“It’s not that hard. She’s an open book to those she feels comfortable around,” I said shrugging my shoulders.
“That brings me to the other thing I wanted to address.” Beth’s demeanor changed and she shifted from the loving mom into the fierce protector, pinning us all with a pointed stare. “I expect all of you to treat her with the respect she deserves. We always knew that you would need to Bond with Synergy and now seeing it’s a woman it's not lost on me how that will happen. Not the way you have been attracted to her like moths to a flame. Hear me on this, boys. If any of you disrespects that sacred Bond and the gift that it is, heaven help protect you from my wrath. Do I make myself clear?”
We all bobbed our heads in agreement having experienced Beth’s anger at least once in our lives. It was not something any of us needed a repeat of.
“Excellent! I’m going to fill Cami in on what’s been happening while she was enjoying the party and failing to do her job,” Beth said smiling at us once again.
I did not envy Cami and the hell she was going to pay when Beth was done with her.
“Don’t ream her out too badly, we told her that we would take care of Lailah while she had a little fun. We are as much at fault as anyone,” Parker said speaking up for Cami.
“Oh, I’m fully aware you all fucked up tonight Parker. It would be wise for you not to remind me of it while I’m feeling forgiving,” Beth said as she left the living room.
“Shit, did you hear her drop the f-bomb?” Hudson said cradling his head in his hands. “We are so fucked, I don’t even want to find out what our punishment will be.”
“Nothing we can do about it now. Might as well make the best of it,” I said standing and heading to my room.
I wanted to change before I camped out in Lailah’s room for the night. Once out of my Halloween costume and in comfy sweatpants, I quietly entered Lailah’s room, which was lit only by the light of the full moon. Looking at her lying on the bed in her yellow dress made her look like some fairy tale princess. I walked over to her, brushed a few rogue curls out of her face, and let my fingers trail down her cheek. She moved into my touch as if even in her sleep, she knew it was me. Sitting down next to her I studied her face looking at her for the first time as Synergy, the sixth element. Her skin seemed to glow with a faint golden light, her power pulsing just under her skin. I reached out, took her hand in mine, pulled it up to my lips and kissed the back of it. I let my lips linger longer than I should have, but it was harder to fight her pull now that her power was released.
I set her hand back down and tried to move away, but she clutched my wrist as if her life depended on it. Unable to keep myself from grinning, I let myself be trapped by her. As the minutes passed I realized she wasn’t going to let go of me, so I did the only thing I could. I stretched out beside her letting the length of my body rest against hers. Letting out a contented sigh, I watched as she nuzzled into me as though having me here was a normal occurrence. If the others were to find out about this, they would be so pissed, but that was a risk I was gladly willing to take. They were going to need to learn to share her sooner or later because she was ours to treasure and protect for the rest of our lives.
The End of Book 1
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About the Author
Elizabeth Knight lives in the Phoenix area living off of iced coffee and misters trying to keep cool. When she's not reading into the wee hours of the night she is writing her own stories to keep people up at night.
Elizabeth Knight, Discovering Synergy
