Elemental Awakened by Helen Scott
14
Finn
The skin on my arm burned from where Tessa had touched me, like I’d been hit with a hot pan or something. As soon as the noise left my mouth, it broke whatever spell had been woven around us and she pulled away like I’d just slapped her.
“I-I’m sorry,” Tessa stammered as she went to stand up.
“Hey,” I said, linking my arms around her waist. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t…do this kind of thing.” She gestured between us. “And something hurt you, and I think it was me.” She said the last part so quietly, I had to wonder if she had even meant to say it out loud.
“Whatever happened, we’ll figure it out, okay? But I want you to know I don’t regret what just happened and I hope you don’t either.” I released her waist and tucked a lock of hair out of the way, the silky strands gliding through my fingers as I watched her expression as she looked at me. Her eyes darted away a moment later to her hand, and I turned to see what she was looking at.
The ring she was wearing on her right ring finger was glowing slightly. Well, part of it was. I tried not to react, not to make her any more skittish than she already was, but something had just burned my skin. Plus, there was something happening between us that I couldn’t explain, and I didn’t think she could either.
“I don’t regret it. It’s just not usually how I do things, that’s all,” she said.
I reached a hand up and cupped her cheek, running my thumb over her soft, smooth skin. “I don’t either. There’s just something about you that I can’t resist.”
Her eyes locked with mine at the statement, and I knew whatever it was, she felt it too. We were both quiet for a moment when she said, without blinking, “Will you tell me the truth about what happened to Brok?”
I nodded. “But you have to hear me out. Deal?”
She stuck her hand out in the small space between us, and we shook. Before we let go, I flipped her hand around and kissed her knuckles.
“Tessa, I promise I will never lie to you. Even if the truth hurts and is scary, I will always be honest with you. All I ask is that you do the same.”
“I’ll always be honest with you too.”
The sound of water pouring through the drip coffee machine had her jumping up off my lap and pulling that ridiculous dress down until it no longer displayed where my hands had roamed her body. I grabbed a cushion from the corner of the couch and held it over my lap. I didn’t want to ruin the moment by displaying the raging hard-on I had. I did the only thing I could think of to try and get it to go away—I started listing the rings of my home. Platinum, gold, silver, palladium, ruthenium, osmium. With each one, I took a deep steadying breath and tried to will my erection away.
Tessa came waltzing back in with two steaming mugs of coffee. Hers clearly had a splash of milk or creamer, while mine was as black as night, just the way I liked it. Her gaze landed on the cushion, and I saw a grin tug at the corner of her mouth briefly. She liked that she turned me on, that much was obvious, and I liked that it pleased her. In a moment of stupidity or bravery, I shoved the cushion to the side, the tent of my pants on display. The wide-eyed stare I got from her was totally worth it, then when she swallowed, I felt my cock twitch in response. The effect this woman had on me was nothing short of crazy. I watched, with some kind of strange satisfaction, as she regained her composure and handed me a cup of coffee.
“Do you mind if I take my boots off?” she asked, her cheeks just barely going pink once more.
“It’s your home, sweetheart, you do what you want. If you wanted to stroll around naked, I certainly wouldn’t stop you.”
Tessa laughed, and it sounded like a rush of waves hitting the shore, making me long for home for the first time in a long time. She unzipped the thigh high boots and pulled them off, along with the little socks she’d been wearing, until her long, creamy legs were displayed as well as her painted toenails. For some reason, they made her look even more girly than before. My mind quickly reminded me of the state Brok had been in when I first saw her, and I knew that no matter how girly this woman was, she was still a total badass.
She stood and tucked her legs underneath her on the couch as she sat back down, bringing the mug to her lips as she gently blew on the surface of the liquid. The mug was made to look like a sloth’s head with the handle being its arm, and just under its face, it said, “Hang in there.” I stared at it for a second, surprised by the plain white mug I had received when Tessa clearly had some interesting choices stashed away in her kitchen.
“So, are you ready to tell me what happened?” she asked, cautiously sipping on the brown liquid.
“Are you ready to hear me out?” I countered. There was something that had happened in her past, I didn’t know what, but it made me feel like some topics of conversation were landmines just waiting to go off.
“I’ll listen without interruption until you say the word…” She paused for a moment while she thought, and I struggled to suppress a smile. “‘Hippo.’ I’m assuming that’s not part of your explanation?”
“No, it’s not,” I said as the smile spread over my face, even though I’d tried to contain it.
“Okay, then you explain. I’ll listen until I hear ‘hippo,’ and then I’ll respond. I can’t promise how I’ll respond, but my ears are all yours until that point.”
“Please be patient with me,” I said, knowing that as soon as I started, she was going to be pissed. I just needed her to hear this whole thing out, see that it was all connected and somehow, she was at the center.
Tessa settled into the armchair she was occupying a little more and sipped on her coffee. A knot of dread coiled in my stomach at the thought of what her reaction would be, but she needed to know.
“Okay, so my roommates and I are a team that is tasked with tracking what you would think of as demons and returning them to the realm they came from.” I paused and watched her fingers tighten around her mug. For a second, I was worried she was going to break it. When she didn’t jump up and call me a liar or respond in any way, I knew she was going to stay true to the bargain we’d struck. I took a deep breath and continued, “So we’ve been training together since we hit puberty. Part of what we do is take care of the demons, either returning them or killing them. The problem is that human bodies aren’t meant to contain demon souls, so they burn up, literally. The more energy the demon uses, the faster they burn the body up. Usually, there’s an escape hatch of sorts, and the demon can eject itself from the body prior to death. After that, they only have an hour, two tops, to find a new host. Since the host is likely to be incompatible with their needs, they generally just get to a portal and leave Earth, but sometimes, depending on their mission, they have to stay and try and finish it, no matter the cost to themselves.
“Brok was possessed by a demon who was traveling through your realm and trying to remain undetected while he completed whatever mission it was he was on. When he attacked you, and subsequently us, he used too much energy, and the body he was occupying burned up. His spirit or soul or whatever you want to call it did escape, and that was what seemed to wrap around you like he was trying to possess you, but it didn’t work. We have no idea if he found a new body or not. I’d hazard a guess that his mission was something to do with you since he was so focused on you. It’s part of the reason I’ve been so worried about you.”
I stopped talking. There was so much more I needed to tell her, needed to find out about her, including why her damn ring burned me, but the completely blank expression on her face told me that I’d hit her limit. That, or she was about to explode with rage and try and kill me after I stepped onto that conversational landmine again. I really hoped it was the first one.
Part of me wanted to push on, to tell her everything, but I couldn’t, not when it looked like she was about to cry. “Hippo,” I said quietly, waiting for the storm to hit.
“You promised you’d tell me the truth,” Tessa said, equally quietly, as she stared down into the sloth’s head. She sounded like I’d broken her damn heart, and it was tearing at my own.
“I am. I swear on my mother’s spirit, I’m telling you the truth.” I sighed. If only she understood how important those words were to me. She didn’t, but that didn’t mean they held any less meaning.
“Why should I believe you?” she asked, incredulous.
“Because magic is real, and I think it’s connected to you somehow. All I want to do is keep you safe from whatever is going on. I just need to figure out what that is first.”
“Same question. Prove that magic is real, then maybe I’ll think about believing you.” Her tone was so serious, I knew that I had to do as she said or lose her trust completely.
“Do you mind if I get a glass of water?” I asked, nerves kicking in my stomach as she watched. I could be severely punished for what I was about to do. Revealing magic in the origin world was breaking rule numero uno. What other choice did I have though? Plus, I knew for a fact that this woman, this incredible human in front of me, could see caretakers, one of the most sacred beings in existence.
When she nodded her head, I practically sprang from the couch. I needed to get this done before I lost my courage. There was a glass sitting on the counter that looked like it was waiting to be washed or something. I grabbed that and some water from the tap and went to sit back down.
“Can we make the same deal?” I asked before I started.
“Hippo?” She quirked an eyebrow.
When I agreed, she nodded in return. I took a deep breath and pulled on my magic, letting it surge to the surface. I closed my eyes and could almost smell the saltwater and rain in the air. I felt the call of the water in the glass, the need for it to be free, to connect with the rest of the ocean, the moisture in the atmosphere. In my mind, my power flowed from me to the water in the glass and drew it upward, freeing it from its confines and letting it twist and bend in the air.
Tessa’s sharp intake of breath was all I needed to hear to know it was working. Without losing my concentration I let my eyes open, but what I saw was not what I’d expected. A purple glow filled the room, emanating from thin filaments that seemed to be coming from Tessa herself. Not only that, but there were multiple caretakers in the room. My heart froze in my chest. I’d never seen anything like it, and as much as I didn’t want to disrupt what was going on, the entire scene had me losing my concentration. In a realm that was devoid of most types of magic, that meant that the water came crashing down again, splashing all over Tessa, the caretakers, and myself.
“Hippo,” I said as I wiped the water from my hands and shirt.
