Elemental Awakened by Helen Scott
22
Tessa
It had been the weirdest twenty-four hours of my life up to that point, although I had a feeling it was only going to get weirder. When I left my room the next morning, the guys were all outfitted in different types of clothes, with different weapons and even a bag each of things they didn’t want to leave behind. We’d moved all of my important items and clothes into their house with a couple very cautious and quick trips to my apartment. The rest of my cruddy furniture was being left behind, and the landlady could do with it what she would. There was enough there that she could offer it as a furnished apartment if she wanted to, which made me feel a little better about saddling her with it.
As for my job? Well, I emailed Cait and told her I had to take an emergency leave of absence due to a family medical issue while apologizing profusely. If I had thought I could stay here and do whatever it was they needed me to do as the key, then I would have wanted to do that and try to live my life as normally as possible. That wasn’t an option though, not with the distorted that were trying to kill me at the same time. Still, I hated lying to her, but it was the best I could do.
I had reorganized and packed two bags, one rucksack full of clothes and another bag that was currently hanging across my body from a shoulder strap with some personal items that I couldn’t bear to leave behind since I didn’t know if I’d ever be back, like my ring. It had burned me so badly when Kai was working his magic that I’d been scared to put it back on, but that didn’t mean I could leave it behind.
The idea that I was going to Atlantis was surreal, and I still half expected them to pull out a camera at some point and tell me that they’d been playing a practical joke. They kept promising me that wasn’t going to happen though, so we were going ahead as planned. The last thing I’d done was texted Linda, telling her I was taking an impromptu girls’ trip and would be out of touch because my cell phone plan only covered the US. She’d expressed her concern but eventually told me to have fun. My heart ached at lying to her as well, but telling her the truth would only scare her and make her worry about me even more.
Thinking about Linda as we prepared to leave wasn’t helpful though, so I focused on the plan instead. According to the guys, there was a gate to the other four realms not far from here that they’d established when they first noticed the excessive distorted presence in the area. All we had to do was get to it, activate it, and go through before any of the distorted in the area knew what we were up to. I wasn’t sure how they would know, other than having people watching the house, but apparently, they would. When Finn stuck his head around the door, I knew it was time.
“Ready?” he asked.
I gave a sharp nod and stood, adjusting my bags across my shoulders and following him out. My mouth had gone dry as I’d packed my things, and I was struggling to catch my breath, even though I wasn’t moving quickly or doing anything excessive. As I focused on breathing with my belly, I got a good look at the four of them in what they considered their normal clothes, or normal for their realms. They were stunning.
Griffin was every inch the warrior with leather and cotton crisscrossing his body like armor. Kai was in browns and greens, all-natural looking fabrics that clung to his powerful limbs. Dresden was in whites and grays, the fabric looking loose yet almost like a rain jacket, as though it had some kind of windbreaker properties.
Out of the four of them though, Finn was the most jaw dropping. He wore an aquamarine, emerald, and navy blue colored suit that looked like it was covered in scales and would be more at home in tropical waters than walking down the street in our quiet little college town. The material clung to every muscle like a second skin, leaving little to the imagination. I had to force myself to look away or stay rooted to the spot as he walked in front of me, the firm round muscles of his butt flexing with each step.
It was the almost blade-like fins that ran along his forearms and calves that drew my attention back again though. They looked wickedly sharp and tempted me to touch them as though they were a siren calling to a sailor. It was only when Dres stepped between us and broke the spell that I realized my hand had been reaching out.
“They are deadly, and not just because they are sharp, so don’t touch,” Dres said before moving out of the way.
When I looked back at Finn, he was slinging a bag over his shoulders. The fabric had an almost golden sheen to it and was very clearly waterproof. It made me wonder what he couldn’t leave behind. Hopefully when we arrived, I’d have chance to ask him about it.
Once Finn was happy with how the bag was sitting, he turned and addressed all of us. “Okay, so the four of us will travel around you, Tessa. Dresden will be using his abilities to divert human’s gazes, while Kai will be monitoring for anyone else’s approach. I’ve got front, and Griffin’s got the rear. Any hint of trouble, we surround Tessa and make sure she’s safe, got it?”
The business mode of Finn was breathtaking, his control and strategy oddly formal. Before I could let my thoughts get out of control, Griff snorted and said, “I’m not complaining,” before shooting me a wink.
“Griffin, once we leave this house, protecting Tessa is our primary goal, not trying to get in her pants. You can work on that when we land.”
“Whatever you say, bossman.” Griff gave a faux salute.
“For that matter, keep your mind out of the gutter while I’m trying to concentrate, please.” Dres sighed and cut his eyes to me at the last moment, and I knew that he meant both of us, which made me want to giggle like a high schooler while trying not to be embarrassed by perfectly healthy thoughts.
It hadn’t escaped my notice that Kai was the only one who wasn’t talking or even looking at the rest of us. I wanted to kick myself for giving in to some weird four in the morning desire to make out with him and destroying the tenuous friendship we had before it even got started.
When Finn opened the front door, all those thoughts fled from my head though. We exited the house, and I watched as the four of them each took turns placing their hands on the door and muttering something under their breath. After each one, the door seemed to glow a little more, until Dresden put his hands on it as the last out of the four. The door glowed brightly for a moment before all the light coming from it vanished.
“Is it always that complicated to lock your front door?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
“No, but we don’t know when we’re coming back, so this will protect it from anyone human and demon alike, unless they know the pass phrases and have some of our blood.” Griffin showed me the palm of his hands as he spoke, and I could see the small pricks all over the skin that had welled with blood. They had dried and were probably already healing as he spoke.
“Wow, you guys are super metal,” I said, shaking my head as I tried to absorb the new information.
“Everyone be on guard,” Finn growled out as he started walking down the steps.
I followed him, and I felt Griff move into place behind me. Kai and Dres followed after that and caught up with me a few seconds later, moving to stand on either side. There was some awkward tension coming off Kai, or maybe it was just in my imagination. I looked at the ground so my eyes weren’t focused on the man who’d insulted me or the man who I wanted in the worst way, especially in that damn suit. It was then that I noticed Kai wasn’t wearing shoes and was walking in the grass where possible.
“It helps him connect with the earth to sense if we are being approached,” Dres said, answering my unspoken question.
I felt more than saw Kai’s head whip around to look at the two of us. When I turned to face him, I knew a blush blazed on my cheeks.
“If she wants to know something about me, she can damn well ask,” he said to Dres before turning away once more.
“How does it work?” I asked quietly.
Kai sighed and turned to look at me. “I can’t talk about it here, but when we get to Atlantis, I’ll show you.”
I nodded, surprised by his answer. Part of me had expected him to just ignore me completely. “Thank you,” I said quietly. I saw him watching me in my peripheral vision. His expression was unguarded curiosity and I wanted to turn and confront him about it, but now was definitely not the time.
The longer we walked without seeing anyone, the more suspicious I became. It was like the beginning of a postapocalyptic movie, where there was no one except the main character, and it made chills run down my spine. I needed some sort of distraction, something to prevent me from imagining the worst-case scenarios in my head. Unfortunately, the only things I could think of would be the type of things that would get us killed, you know, if we were in that movie. I couldn’t think about if zombies were a possibility. I mean, if demons were real, then they could be too, right? So I kept my head facing forward and began to count my steps.
I almost got all the way up to a thousand before I lost count and started again. I’d thought it was just me getting distracted, but I noticed the guys’ stances shift as they moved, becoming more graceful, their hands hanging by their weapons, their steps lighter.
A click to my left had me looking over at Dresden, and I wasn’t sure if he’d made the noise or something else, but when I looked past him, I saw a small group of people heading toward us. Three men and two women were making a beeline toward us, their speed only increasing as they got closer, to the point that their legs were blurring in my sight. They were all younger, like they should be students going out for lunch, but they didn’t have that easygoing vibe. There was definitely an aggressive undertone to their movements.
My heart started to race as the guys drew closer around me and essentially blocked me from their sight and them from mine. From what I’d seen, each of them was dressed from head to toe in black and white and carried a variety of weapons. Through the cracks between the guys, I could see that the woman who’d been in front was blonde and lithe, her movements making her look like a dancer as she seemed to glide toward us. The black robe-like clothing she was wearing had a single white circle over where her heart should be, as though it were a badge.
The others seemed to hang back, giving her space to do whatever it was she was going to do and waiting for her to signal them. She yelled something, and all of them began to move forward once more. I wasn’t sure if she’d done anything or not, since my vision was limited to what I could glimpse between the warriors that were protecting me.
When Griff spread his hands and a circle of fire surrounded them, I thought for sure they’d stop, but they didn’t, they just kept coming straight through the flames, even as the fire licked its way up their clothes and their skin. My stomach turned as my mind filled with memories of fire and the smell of my own skin burning under the flames my mother had created. I knew now wasn’t the time to have a panic attack, but PTSD waited for no one.
When the guys stopped and prepared to fight, it was like my ability to focus on the present stopped as well. I clutched my damaged hand to my chest and sank into a crouch, praying that everyone would just overlook me and take care of themselves while I had a mini meltdown. The guys crowded closer around me. I could feel their magic whipping out from their bodies, just like when they’d set the wards around the house. I even heard the clang of their weapons, but I couldn’t force myself to move, to help, to do anything other than be a useless blob on the sidewalk.
Griff’s fire blazed out from his hands at every turn, and though Dres was in front of me now, I could see the flash of Finn’s suit as he spun and whipped his arms toward his opponents, the blades slicing through their skin like butter and making them howl in pain. Kai was fighting too, he had daggers that I hadn’t noticed before and was twirling them like fan blades. Anyone that came close enough got a hunk of whatever the blades could reach sliced from their bodies.
A moment later, and Dres had to step away. One of the black and white clad people had made their way past my other three warriors, and Dres was my last line of defense. Wind picked up out of nowhere, and I could see it moving like little mini tornadoes in front of us. After a brief moment of speeding up, one of them slashed outward, whipping across the man’s face until a thin red line appeared and blood began to ooze down his cheek. I glanced up at Dres, who began stalking toward his enemy, throwing his hands out this way and that, and though I couldn’t see anything coming from them, I could see the effect it was having on his opponent.
The man was forced to the ground and looked like he was skydiving, his cheeks flapping in the wind as he tried to hold his ground. When Griff sent a stream of fire into the wind that Dres was controlling, it seemed to suddenly come alive, or at least be visible, and it was terrifying. The fiery gusts consumed the man in front of Dres, and I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming as he fell to the ground, unmoving.
I knew from experience the pain of fire was overwhelming, that it stopped its victim from thinking about anything other than what they were experiencing, and my mind seemed to merge what I was seeing in front of me with what had happened in my past.
“You need to be cleansed. If they won’t perform an exorcism on you, I will. I will not suffer evil in my house, but fire is cleansing, so that’s what we’re going to use.” The click-click of the gas stove lighting echoed in my head, along with the rush of flames. The confusion and pain filled my head now, just as it had then, and I could feel the same heat on my skin.
It was only when the blue shimmer of Finn’s legs came into view that I was able to think around the memories. A moment later, his face was in front of mine. Even though I saw him there, I couldn’t make my body react, it was still stuck reliving the past. My vision seemed to fade in and out as memories tried to take over.
“We need to move, little siren,” he said, calmly but firmly, leaving no room for me to argue. It wasn’t even that I wanted to argue. No, I wanted to follow him, but I couldn’t make myself move.
“The fire triggered some kind of episode. Her brain is too focused on the pain of the past, so you’ll have to move her.” Dres’ voice cut through the static that seemed to be surrounding me and forced me to pay attention.
Finally, after a long moment, I was able to look Finn in the eye.
“You’ve got this, just stay by me,” he said.
I nodded, and he stood, pulling me with him. The two of us began making our way from the group that was still fighting, and as we backed up, so did Dres, Griff, and Kai. The attackers were picking themselves up off the ground and coming at the guys again, but most of them were bleeding or seemed unsteady on their feet.
It was only as we rounded a corner that I realized that we were heading to the pier that was just off campus. It went out over the lake I’d thought Finn had been messing around with earlier. The group of attackers seemed to gather themselves together once more and charge at us. Finn dropped my hand and went to help the other guys, leaving me alone on the sidewalk with the most epic fight I’d ever seen happening in front of me and the lake behind me.
As though they sensed my distress at being left alone, the dragons I so often drew popped into existence all around me. I expected them to vanish right away at the clang of the weapons and the sizzle of magic, but they didn’t.
Instead, they roared.
