Elemental Awakened by Helen Scott

17

Tessa

“You here, Tessa?” Griff’s voice called out.

I tried to respond, but my body and my voice were frozen in fear. There were too many what-ifs for me to relax. Like what if the other guys were threatening Griff? What if the only reason he was trying to lure me out was because they were going to hurt him or his roommates? Could I live with myself if the intruders did hurt them? It was all too much, and as much as I might regret it, I couldn’t give away my position.

Footsteps had me holding my breath again as they entered the bathroom. This time, there was no dragon guarding me though, and when the curtain pulled back, I squeaked in surprise. Griff’s blond hair and pale eyes stared back at me. For a moment, I was too stunned to speak. His eyes were different, but before I could notice what had changed, the relief of it being Finn and his roommates who’d survived the fight overwhelmed me.

The knot in the back of my throat barely had chance to form before my lower lip quivered and the tears began to fall. My breath came in short, shaky gasps, and as I tried to get myself under control, Griff was there, pulling me tight against him.

“I’ve got you, dove,” he said, his voice filled with the promise of fire if I needed it and tenderness if I preferred that instead. Considering how gruff he’d been when we first met, the tenderness surprised me.

Before I could protest, he swung me up into his arms and clutched me against his chest, where the sense of warmth and security I felt was overwhelming. It wasn’t just the fact that his chest was huge or the heat that he was radiating felt like being outside on a hot summer day, but the way he was gently humming. It was quiet enough that only the two of us could hear it, but it was definitely happening. I could feel the vibrations of his gravelly voice coming through every inch of me that was touching him, even though I could barely make out the tune.

When we returned to the living area, Dres and Finn were cleaning up piles of ash. My stomach turned at the sight, and I snuggled tighter into Griff’s embrace. I felt like I was on one of those rides at the fair where it spins so fast that everything blurs and the floor drops out, but you stay in place and only occasionally get glimpses of the world as it should be.

“You’re okay, dove, we wouldn’t let them hurt you,” Griff whispered against my hair. I could swear that he even pressed a kiss to the top of my head, but we didn’t know each other well enough for something like that, did we? Though I kind of liked that he’d called me ‘dove.’ There were pretty birds, gentle and kind, plus I’d always found their cooing comforting, kind of like the way Griff was holding me now.

“Who were they?” I mumbled, trying not to let my brain do that thing where it goes off on a tangent to protect me from what was actually going on.

“Demons. They’d possessed some students and were looking for you,” Dres said, his tone cold and clinical. It seemed at odds with the man I’d been talking to only a few hours earlier who’d cooked me dinner. Had it only been a few hours? It felt like a week or more had passed in the short amount of time between dinner and now.

“We need to get you back to our place where it’s safe,” Finn said. Evidently, the two of them were done cleaning. It was presumptuous of him to assume I’d go back to their place with them, but I also knew I wouldn’t feel safe on my own. There was only so much I could handle without needing some help, and I was quickly reaching that limit.

“Can you put me down?” I asked Griff quietly.

“Are you okay to stand?”

I nodded, and for the first time, I realized why his eyes looked so different. There was no blue in them at all. They were the palest yellow, almost completely white, but not in a creepy dead way. There was a warmth to them that made them look more like the center of a flame. He released my legs and let the rest of me slide deliciously down his body. I was suddenly very aware that I was only in panties and a T-shirt. “Can you give me a minute to put some pants on?” I asked, looking between the three of them.

It seemed like I wasn’t the only one who was only just noticing the clothing situation. A faint blush stained Dres’ cheeks, even though it was hard to see through his dark facial hair. Meanwhile, Griff was trying not to look, so he was staring at the ceiling, which was apparently better than my naked legs. Finn, however, was ogling me with appreciation written all over his face. I could still feel his hands on me like they’d been when we were on the couch together.

Dres cleared his throat.

Finn and Griff both nodded, so I disappeared into my bedroom area that was separated from the rest of the space by a few folding room dividers, but what I found there made me cry out. A strangled noise of distress escaped me, not enough to be a scream but not silent either.

The stomping of three pairs of feet startled me out of my fear, which until that moment, had frozen me to the spot.

“What’s wrong?” Finn demanded as he moved to shield me from whatever the threat was.

“My bed…” I breathed.

The pillows and clothes I had shoved under my duvet were punctured. Not just that, but stabbed and slashed as well. Fluff from the pillows was spread over the bed, as though when they had realized that it wasn’t me, they needed somewhere to vent their frustration. Or that was exactly what they’d planned on doing to me—tear me apart. The thought sent shudders down my spine.

What had I done to them? I didn’t even know these people, or demons, or whatever they were. Was it to do with the magic Finn had been telling me about? The thought soured in my stomach. It was the only thing that made any sense.

“Grab what you need, you’re going to stay with us for a few days.” Griff’s eyes were fixed on the damage done to my bed, but he wasn’t seeing it any more. I could almost see the memories dancing over his mind as he looked with unseeing eyes at what my fate was supposed to have been.

I knew I should protest, that I was a strong, independent woman and didn’t need them looking after me, but in that moment, all I wanted was to comfort Griff and to be comforted by them. I wasn’t stupid enough to insist that I be on my own right now. I’d leave for now, figure out what was going on, then come back.

I just had to not jump any of them in the meantime.

The weird magnet sensation surged out of nowhere, like water suddenly coming to a boil, but this time, it was pulling me between all three of them, not just toward one. Not just toward Finn.

My feet stumbled forward until I was standing directly between all of them. I tried to breathe through it, to ride the wave of sensation, but I was worried that the wave would carry me onto one of their laps, like it had earlier with Finn. All three of them together meant I couldn’t let that happen. I wasn’t sure what was going on between us, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, which meant keeping my hands—and the rest of my body—to myself until I understood the situation.

I pulled on some leggings and ankle boots before putting some stuff in a bag. The idea of leaving my home because I was scared weighed on me, but I knew it was the right thing to do. What I didn’t know was what the hell I was packing. I started rifling through my dresser, which was against the wall next to my bed, and pulled out sweaters and T-shirts, throwing them all into my backpack and a duffle I had extracted from under my bed .

The three of them watched me pack at first, but when I started pulling panties and bras out, they quickly dispersed. It didn’t escape my notice that they stationed themselves throughout the apartment in a way that looked like they were preparing for an attack. If any other demons tried to break in, then they would have hell to pay. Griff was the closest, so I was guessing he was guarding me, while Finn leaned against the wall by the door to my apartment, and Dres was propping himself up on the edge of the kitchen counter, a good midway point between his two roommates. I wasn’t sure what the plan was, but it seemed like they had one in place for any further attacks.

I slipped into the bathroom and grabbed the stuff I couldn’t do without, along with my ring from the edge of the bathtub. I paused for a moment and looked down at my hand, the skin was still red and angry where the ring had heated earlier. My therapist had tried to convince me that it was all in my head, the dragons, my ring, all of it, but standing there now after someone had tried to kill me and staring at the red ring of skin on my finger, I knew that my therapist was wrong. There was no way this was all in my head, not after everything I’d seen and experienced the last few weeks.

When I just started picking up random stuff and throwing it in the bag, along with the necessary bits and pieces, I knew I was stalling, but the pack rat side of me had come out. I didn’t want to leave my nest, my home for the past couple of years. It was mine, one of the few things in life that had been, and these asshole demons were attacking me here, ruining that safe feeling that I’d always had when I was home.

Finally, I was satisfied that I had what I needed, as well as enough stuff that I didn’t strictly need, so I grabbed my sketchbook and my laptop and admitted defeat. It was time to let someone else watch over me for a few days while I wrapped my head around the fact that not only was Atlantis real, but so was magic and dragons and demons, and when I started listing it all in my head, I could feel the freak-out coming.

The night’s events may have delayed it, but I knew myself well enough to know that at some point, I was going to lose my shit. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be around the guys or not when that happened. At least if I was with them, I was safe…well, relatively. My only concern was how Kai was going to feel about this. We weren’t exactly best buds, and now I was going to be crashing at his place for who knew how long. Somehow, I didn’t think he’d be pleased.