That was never going to happen while the demons were gaining strength.
Getting my shit together, I stood and looked at my surroundings. From what I could work out, I was in the part of the city that bordered the no-go vampire zone.
I had to get home, but I had no idea where home was. I’d only ever sat in the back of the van and had never seen the scenery as we drove. I didn’t have my phone, but I knew Ashley was at school and was never without her phone. At least, I hoped she’d be, because I had no idea how much time had passed on Earth while I was in the Shadow Realms.
19
The bell rang as I arrived at the school, and there were students everywhere, rushing to their next class.
I had no idea what day of the week it was, but there were three places she could’ve been heading to.
Contemplating leaving my weapons somewhere so I wouldn’t scare the other students, I quickly dismissed the idea because there was no way I was going to risk losing them to some asshole student who thought they were cool.
Bracing myself for the worst, I headed toward a group of three guys piss-assing around near the tennis courts, smoking dope, thinking they were the shit.
I used to be one of them. Well, maybe not the group I was approaching, but I still had the same attitude as they did.
Stopping a yard in front of them, I said, “What day is it?”
Their lazy gazes tipped up to me, barely taking me in through their drug haze.
“What day is it?” I repeated, trying to contain my frustration.
“Aren’t you the bitch whose brother ran off to join the bloodsuckers?” the guy smoking the joint asked before dragging in another puff of smoke.
The one and only. “Just tell me the day.”
“Fuck off, bitch.”
I sighed. “Why do we always have to choose the hard way?” Moving faster than their eyes could track, I slammed him to the ground with my foot and grabbed his hand, bending over so I could see his watch.
Tuesday.
“Now that wasn’t too hard, was it?” I looked up at the others, their mouths ajar and gazes locked on either my mouth or my assortment of weapons.
With a grin, flashing my pearly white fangs, I turned my back to them and strode toward the field where Ashley’s class was having a game of dodgeball.
I’d barely made it down to the field when Ash stilled, mid-game, a ball smacking her in the head. She didn’t even bother to tell off the asshole responsible because she was too focused on me.
Breaking away from her class, she raced over and threw her arms around me. “Oh my God, you’re alive.” She squeezed me even tighter before holding me at arm’s length so she could take a good look at me. “Do you have any idea how insane your brothers and boyfriend have been? They have been calling me every few hours, hoping you’ve made contact with me.”
As much as I was trying to pay attention to her, I got hung up when she said the word boyfriend. I would never get tired of hearing that word. Plus, the fact they’d been in contact with Ash meant they were safe.
Finally letting go of me, she dropped her hands to her sides and glanced at the teacher who was too focused on the game to even notice Ash was gone. Returning her focus to me, she asked, “Where have you been?”
“It’s a long story, which I will tell you after you tell me that Lana didn’t screw us over.”
She shook her head with a smile. “Lana stayed true to her word.”
Relief flooded through me, grateful my crew was safe and also thankful there was a very big possibility Lana would fight for the right side while being an ear on the inside in the meantime.
“So?” she prodded.
“Orphelia was waiting until everyone else had left, and then she tried to trap me there. Only, my Mom showed up, and—”
Her eyes practically popped out of her head. “Your Mom was there?”
“Only as an apparition through the veil. Anyway, I somehow ended up in the Shadow Realms with Mom, and she helped get me back here. Well, not here, here. I ended up in the city and made my way to see you.”
She raised a brow, a smirk playing on her lips. “Because you have no idea where your witchy coven is, I’m guessing?”
“No,” I snapped. “I wanted to see you.” When she raised her brow again, I said, “Fine. I have no idea where the damn village is, and I thought you’d be my best bet in getting back. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you and that I’m not ecstatic I’m seeing you. Because I am.” I gave her a sad smile. “I miss you.”
“Relax,” she said with an eye roll. “You know I’m not the jealous type.”
Ash looked over her shoulder at Mr. Travis, who was ripping into a couple of guys who thought it was funny to snap the back of a girl’s bra. Yeah, Max was nothing like these douchebags.
“Come with me.” Ash grabbed my hand and led me inside to her locker to retrieve her phone. She dialed a number then handed the phone to me.
I looked at the name on the screen—Finn—and put the phone to my ear just as he picked up. “Tell me you have news.”
The panic in my brother’s voice made my heart ache and made me want to slap myself for all the times I’d been such a bitch to him. He truly did care about me. “Finn.”
“Kali,” he said, relief flowing through his tone. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m fine. I’m at school with Ash.”
“Is that Kali?” Mason asked in the background. A second later, he yelled, “It’s Kali.”
I heard movement and background chatter, my name being mentioned every few seconds. “Stay right there. We’re coming to get you.”
I nodded, then realized he wouldn’t be able to see it. “I’ll wait down by the field.” I needed to get Ashley back to her class before Mr. Tovey noticed she was gone and sent out a search party for her.
“We’ll be there in ten.” He disconnected the call.
When I handed Ash her phone, she crossed her arms over her chest, the cast on her arm making it look hella awkward. She glared at me. “If you think I’m going back to class after everything that’s happened, you’re even stupider than you look.”
I barked out a laugh. “Thanks. I look stupid, do I?”
She tilted her head to the side and shrugged. “Well…” Ash held her look for less than two seconds before she said, “I’m kidding. But I’m not going back to class. Do you have any idea how terrified we’ve all been? The only reason I came to school is so that you’d know where to find me if you turned up.”
“Look,” I said, feeling like the shittiest best friend in history. “As much as I would love to kidnap you and take you back to the village, I can’t. We need you here as our go-between for Lana.”
She stared at me for a few moments then groaned. “Fine. But you better come back and see me soon because I need my BFF.”
“I promise.”
Ash linked her good arm with mine, and we headed back down to the field. Mr. Travis hadn’t even noticed Ash had been missing for the last five minutes and was now refereeing a new game of dodgeball.
I sat in the bleachers with Ash beside me as I waited for my crew to turn up. It wasn’t long before I saw the familiar black van pull up on the road just out side of the school. “That’s my ride.”
Ash stood and hugged me. “Don’t forget your promise.”
I pulled away. “Never.” I hopped off the bleachers. “I’ll speak to you soon.” Before I could do anything foolish, like asking her to come with me, I raced in a blur across the field and jumped the fence, landing beside the van.
20
The doors opened, and my breath caught in my throat when I saw Max hop out of the van and my brothers, hunched over behind him, making their way out.
Max wrapped me in his arms, lifting me off the ground as he buried his head in my hair. He pressed a kiss against my neck before gently setting me down on my feet.
Next, Mason was drawing me into his arms. Then Finn and Kade joined in on the hug, m
aking me laugh.
Nessa popped her head out of the open door. “Easy. Give the girl some breathing room.”
My brothers backed away then hopped into the van. I followed them inside with Max closely behind me, his fingers entwined with mine, and I had a feeling he wasn’t letting me go anytime soon.
He probably wanted to tether me to his side, and I was completely okay with that.
Taking our seats, the engine rumbled to life, and we took off down the street.
All eyes fell on me, waiting for me to explain what the hell had happened back at the compound.
Doing my best to not leave out any details, I gave them a run-through of the events from the moment Orphelia trapped me in the gym, to the moment I stepped back into this world.
The look in Finn’s and Mason’s eyes was killing me.
“You saw Mom?” Mason finally asked.
I nodded. “And she told me to tell you and Finn that she loves you both and she can’t wait to come home. Dad, on the other hand, she told me to tell him to stop feeling sorry for himself and start being the father we deserve. But I’ll let one of you pass that message onto him.”
Neither of them argued with me, or told me that I needed to forgive him, which I was grateful for.
“So these elements,” Nessa said, bringing us back to the information my mother had told me, “there was a mention about them in one of the books Lana gave us. It says the power of a descendant will increase when bound to her four elemental sisters.”
In everything that had happened, I’d completely forgotten about what the books contained. “How many books were there?”
Max rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand, his fingers still entwined with mine. “Lana came through for us in a big way. She gave us seven books filled with spells that were lost to the Embers.”
“You’ve got enough spells in there to unleash hell against the Society,” Kade added.
“Hey,” Nessa said. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Kali still has a great deal to learn, and if what your Mom says is true, then we need to figure out your element as well as the others and see if we can learn how to bind you to each other.”
“Plus, we have to get back my Mom,” I said.
Nessa nodded. “That goes without saying. And by the sounds of it, we need to figure out how to bring someone through the veil sooner rather than later.”
Before I knew it, we were back at the village and I was desperate for a shower and sleep. Once I was clean, I popped on a pair of pajama shorts and a tank then crawled into bed where Max was already laying under the sheets, barely keeping his own eyes open.
I snuggled into his side and rested my hand against his bare chest. “This is not how I imagined our first time in bed together was going to be.”
He lazily opened his eyes as he chuckled. “Waking up can be good as well.”
An aching desire swirled around inside of me, but it wasn’t enough to keep my eyes open any longer. We were all dead tired after not having slept for over twenty-four hours, and right now, sleep was all I cared about. Everything else could wait until tonight when we woke up.
Amused by the irony that I was literally becoming a creature of the night, I slipped into a deep sleep, comforted by the warmth of my man beside me.
* * *
Darkness had fallen by the time I woke up. I rolled to the side, a smile breaking out on my lips when I saw Max lying there beside me, still asleep. Moving my fingers over his chest, I traced the lines of his scars and smiled again when I saw the heart-shaped repair job I’d done. I pressed a kiss over his heart then left a trail as I made my way up to his neck.
Max murmured, slowly rising from his sleep. Lifting his arm, he threaded his fingers through my hair as I continued my path up to his soft lips. He opened his mouth to me, exploring my mouth with his tongue, his grip on my hair tightening, pulling me closer.
Swinging my leg over him, I straddled his hips, a soft moan escaping as he slid his fingers under the hem of my tank, inching it higher as his hands made their way up to my breasts.
Max was right. Waking up could be good.
His hands made their way back to the hem of my tank, and I sat up, ready to get my clothes off faster than I’d ever undressed in my life, when there was a knock on the door.
We stilled, and I placed my finger on my lips, telling Max to be quiet because I so wasn’t going to put off this moment for another time.
There was a thump on the door. “Kali? We know you’re both in there.” Mason’s voice carried into my room. “We’ve given you as long as we can, but we have to go now. So, finish up whatever you’re doing in there and get your asses out here because we’re leaving in ten minutes. Nessa thinks she’s figured something out.”
When I was sure Mason had walked away, I groaned as my gaze ran down Max’s half-naked body. “Don’t suppose we can wrap this up in five minutes?”
He sat up and cupped my ass in his hands. “We are not rushing this.” He brushed my hair behind my shoulder and placed a tender kiss on the soft spot below my ear. “We better go find out what’s happening.”
“I hope whatever it is, is worth it.”
And it was. While we’d been busy sleeping during the day, the rest of the crew got stuck in the books Lana had given them and found a spell on testing the different elements held by the witch.
Once known, we would pick the most powerful of our kind. Then we could form our bond and unlock another power inside of us, making us able to perform spells we could only dream of.
My skin buzzed with anticipation. I could’ve kissed Lana had she been with us. What she’d risked to help us, none of us would forget.
“Do the other descendants know about this?” I asked, sitting in a private jet on our way to Bali. Apparently, there was a sacred ground in one of the island’s jungles that would amplify the energy we needed to find my element.
Nessa nodded, leaning back in the seat next to Finn, opposite where Max and I were sitting. “The other factions are working on uncovering the elements as we speak. Once we know who and what everyone is, we’ll bring the strongest together and perform the spell.”
“What if I’m not the strongest of my element?”
Nessa smiled. “You were the strongest as a child, and I’m positive nothing has changed. Plus, you have more riding on this than any other descendant. You will be one of the chosen.”
I was nervous and excited to meet the others like me. But thinking about that demon-possessed one made me nervous. Having someone as strong as I was could be a good thing, but it had also proven to be a very bad thing. “The others are good, aren’t they?” I asked, confirming what she’d already told me when we first met.
“Yes. You can relax. They are on our side, and providing we have one of each element, we can put an end to this war once and for all.”
And get my Mom back.
I moved so that my back was against the side wall and crossed my legs, a small smile forming on my face when I saw Mason sitting on the sofa with Liam and Kade, working on adding a new member to the bromance as they played on some gaming console. “How long are we staying in Bali?”
“We can’t be sure,” Nessa said. “Once we know what we’re dealing with, we’ll come up with a plan. It will be easier and quicker to bring all of you together at a central location.”
“I’m guessing there was no spell in those books that would open up a portal.” I hated being away from where my mother was. She needed us, and I felt as if I was abandoning her.
She laughed. “No. Not that we’ve found so far.”
“Not everything is simple,” Finn said, making me roll my eyes. Such a typical thing for him to say.
Max rested his hand on my knee leaning against the partition between our seats. “Just because they haven’t found the spell, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
I smiled at him. His faith in me went far beyond that of anyone else’s.
An argument broke out amongst the guys, s
napping me out of my thoughts. I shook my head as I listened to Kade try to justify that he hadn’t just cheated and that if the game allowed it, it was all fair.
It was nice to hear them egging each other on. It reminded me there was more to life than this war, and maybe every once in a while, it was okay to just have fun. But there was nothing fun about being stuck on a plane for over six hours.
Sure, I had Max there to keep my mind occupied, but all I could think about was what would happen once we knew my element. I was sure I was an earth elemental. The way it called to me and allowed me to draw on its power had to mean something. I didn’t feel that way about the air around me, nor the water running through the tap or at the pond when I’d met with Ash.
Fire? I hadn’t encountered any since I’d been awoken and had absolutely no desire to light one. Although there was a very real fire burning under my skin every time something pissed me off or I so much as caught a glimpse of Max.
But those didn’t count.
I had to be an earth elemental.
A few hours later, we had touched down in Bali. My legs were aching from being confined to an aircraft for so long, and I was itching to let loose and run two hundred miles—or at least one.
A car picked us up at the airfield and drove us to a secluded resort amongst the outskirts of the rain forest. The rooms were located in the trees, and we were sleeping two to a room. I almost lost my shit when I thought I’d be bunking with Nessa and was relieved to hear that I was with Max. My brothers were in another, and Kade shared with Liam, leaving Nessa with a room to herself. I thought it quite fitting considering she was the eldest out of the group of us.
Max closed the door behind us, dumped our bags on the floor, and curled his hands around my hips from behind me. “You should’ve seen your face when Nessa only collected four keys.”
I turned and hooked my arms around his neck. “If I’m being forced to come to this paradise island, then I had better be staying with you.” I stood on my tippy toes, kissed him before breaking away from his hold, and headed toward the two large doors.
Shadow Realms- The Complete Series Page 41
