by Laura Wylde
I wasn’t sure if it was my own paranoia playing tricks on me or if I really did have all eyes on me as I walked across the academy campus towards the Hydra building. Either way, I kept my head down and my arms folded protectively across my chest, so I didn’t have to catch anyone’s eyes or get caught in conversation.
By the time I reached the right building, I could hardly catch my breath. I felt far more nervous than I should have done, which nearly sent me running in the wrong direction. It took every ounce of strength to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground while I gathered myself up. I didn’t want the boys to know that I was a mess.
“Megan!” a sharp voice yelled out, capturing my attention. “Megan, what are you doing?”
I span to see Zena in front of me with her hands angrily on her hips. She had two just as intimidatingly beautiful druidesses behind her, staring at me with piercing examining eyes. I immediately felt as small as a damn mouse.
“I’m…” I waved my hand around, not quite sure what the hell I was doing. “Nothing.”
“Really? Because it seems to me like you’re going to visit Connor which is a mistake.”
“It is?” I narrowed my eyes curiously. “Why would there be anything wrong with that?”
She rolled her eyes angrily. “Because me and him have a thing going on, that’s why.”
“Oh, you do?” I couldn’t help but wonder why I didn’t know that. Then again, it seemed like Connor had a lot going on with a lot of girls, so that hardly mattered to me. “Okay, well that is your business, not mine.”
“It’s your business if you are going to see him! I want to know why.”
“We’re working on a project, that’s why.” I shrugged one of my shoulders, trying to play it down as much as I could because I didn’t want Zena’s wrath. “I can’t help who I’ve been partnered with, can I?”
“What project is this exactly? Why don’t I know anything about it? It’s fucked up and weird.”
“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Zena.” Irritation brought with it a surge of inner strength. I really did have more important places to be than here. I had a dangerous mistake to make up for and I needed to get on with it because I wasn’t sure how I would be able to hack it if anyone got hurt because of me. “If your boyfriend hasn’t told you anything about the project, then it isn’t my place to, is it? You need to take it up with him.”
Zena opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, but it seemed clearly like she didn’t know what to say, so I took advantage of that and shot into the building. At least Zena being the worse of two evils had helped me to recover from my nerves. I practically ran down the hallway until I reached room number one.
“Oops.” I didn’t even have to knock on the door. Duncan swung it open as if he could sense me. “Megan, that was quick.” He furrowed his eyebrows at me. “You look like you are in a rush, is everything okay?”
“Urgh, I just ran into Connor’s girlfriend.” I rolled my eyes angrily. “And she gave me hell. Apparently, he hasn’t told her anything about this project and that has made Zena all paranoid and jealous.”
“Zena?” Duncan looked at me strangely. “He doesn’t even like Zena. So that seems like a really strange lie.”
I shrugged my shoulders, not wanting to get in the middle of that anymore. I was done. “Okay, well it hardly matters, does it? We have stuff to do. Are you doing something? Sorry, did I get in your way?”
“I was just going to gather up some more supplies and then we will get on. All the way to London.”
“London.” I nodded and turned to see Artemis. “Why do you think the demon is in such a big city?”
“I don’t know.” Artemis shrugged his shoulders helplessly as I heard Duncan leaving behind me. “It does seem strange. I have been trying to figure something out, but I can’t. I guess we will work it out when we get there.”
“Are we flying?” I asked nervously. He nodded. “Do you mind if I fly with you again, please?”
“Sure, that’s probably for the best anyway because the other guys have magic tracking devices to work with.”
“Thank you. I’m a bit nervous going all that way, so I’d feel more confident with you.”
“I’m glad I can make you feel comfortable.” He beamed brightly with pride. “I promise to take care of you.”
This was going to be my first trip to England and to the capital city. I never thought that my first time to London would be under these circumstances. Not that I had any real idea how it would be. But as long as we found a way to all work together, without arguing over stupid stuff, then we would get through it okay. I hoped…
My eyes were beginning to slide closed; exhaustion was overcoming me, my feet aching with every damn step. But I couldn’t give up now, I couldn’t let everyone else down. The guys didn’t seem to be feeling the same tiredness as I was, they were more than okay with continuing to look, probably all the way through the day as well, which was going to destroy me. But I would have to keep on going. We needed to find this demon.
“I think we might need to regroup,” Trevor suddenly declared. As I glanced up, I noticed that his eyes were on me. He seemed to be able to sense what was going on with me. “Have some rest and think things through. Because we’ve been at it all night long, wandering through this massive busy city and it isn’t going anywhere good.”
“I agree,” Connor shocked me by agreeing. “We need to come up with a new plan.”
“I actually know somewhere around here that we can get a room,” Trevor replied. “Get somesleep.”
I knew that they were doing it on my behalf, but I didn’t have the strength to argue. I hadn’t slept properly in what felt like forever, so I nodded and agreed with what they said. We all followed Trevor down a back road into a quaint-looking building that was definitely there to attract the magical clientele. I liked that because it allowed me to be me.
“Do you have any rooms?” Trevor asked confidently. “We could use a rest if that’s okay?”
The guy behind the desk typed frantically on the machine in front of him. “I have one.”
“One is fine. We can deal with one.” Trevor nodded frantically. “Thank you very much.”
Right now, I was in complete agreement with Trevor. I could sleep anywhere so I wasn’t about to push for a room of my own when there wasn’t one. Even if I had to sleep on the floor. Artemis took my arm and let me up the stairs as we were taken to our room, which was for the best because I was beyond keeping myself upright.
“I think that this room will be perfect for you,” the man who worked at the hotel continued, in a smooth, hard sell type of voice. “You can have plenty of space to get comfortable and settled. Or whatever you want…”
There was a suggestion in his tone, but I didn’t pick up on it. Not right away anyway. I was too shattered to really understand what he was getting at, so I chose to ignore it. I didn’t even take note as we all walked into the room. My faculties were shot so I didn’t pick up on the strange atmosphere at all. Not until I saw it.
A bed. One bed. A big one, sure, one set up for a harem to sleep in. Or have fun in. Now, I knew exactly what that guy meant. He assumed that we were all together and wanting to spend the night (or day in this case) fooling around. A heat traveled through my body and hit my cheeks hard. I didn’t have an explanation as to why this humiliated me so much, it didn’t exactly matter if he got our relationship messed up, but still considering my awkward past with the dragons, it was too much for me to handle. I couldn’t be that close to any of them.
“Er, and this is the only room that you have?” Trevor asked. “There aren’t any… I don’t know, separate ones?”
“It is. It’s lucky that we even have this one. We’re always fully booked. We’re a great establishment, you know?”
“Of course!” Trevor agreed instantly. “I know that. Right, okay… I suppose we will take it then.”
God that bed looked comfortable, too irresist
ible for words. Sure, I thought that I would sleep on the floor if I needed to, but I so badly wanted to get on that bed I couldn’t stop myself. I found myself moving before I could even really think about it. The urge to sleep completely overshadowed everything else entirely.
Chapter 8
Connor
We all stood around the bed as Megan climbed into it and fell asleep in a heart beat. She didn’t even need to hit the pillow before her eyes closed and she shut off from the world. It didn’t matter that Duncan was supposed to be in charge of the investigation, I still felt like the leader, and in that way, I had let Megan down.
“Shit, we shouldn’t have let Megan walk around like that all night,” I groaned. “Look at her.”
“She didn’t say anything about being tired though,” Trevor tried to reassure me. “So, how could you have known?”
“I should have known. We all should have known. We need to be more aware of her needs. Just because we don’t need to sleep or whatever as much as she does, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be aware.”
I paced angrily up and down the room, blaming myself completely. Megan wasn’t angry with me, I didn’t think that she would look at any of us badly, but I did. I knew that I needed to consider her needs more. And not just because we had all been forced into this job together, but because she deserved to be treated well. She wasn’t a bad person. In fact, she was a real nice woman who I wanted to show my better side to. Up until this point, I had been a bit of an asshole for no real reason, and I absolutely needed to change that attitude.
“Okay, well I think for now, we all need to calm down,” Duncan jumps in using his business-like tone. “We made a mistake tonight, sure, but that’s something all of us can learn from. From this point on, we will all make an effort to look after Megan better because she is here with us and she needs that from us.”
I nodded and agreed with Duncan. Much as I could have punished myself about this forever, there wasn’t any point. It was done now, all that we could do was vow to be better in the future. Plus, he was right, we had more important challenges to undertake, so using this bedroom for that was the best way forward.
“What are you thinking?” I asked Duncan, allowing him to take charge. I had a few ideas of my own, but since I’d done nothing but prove that my judgment couldn’t exactly be trusted, this was for the best.
“We need to work with these trackers more. Work more carefully, because we either aren’t using them correctly or the demon is moving around a lot. I don’t imagine the academy would give us something useless.”
“Okay sure.” I could get on board with that. It seemed like a reasonable step in the right direction. “Let’s get everything out and sort through it. Take a look at the instructions, see what we might be missing.”
As Duncan got to work, organizing everything on the floor so we could all look through it carefully, I felt Artemis’s eyes piercing through me questioningly. I stared right back at him, but he didn’t immediately give anything away. It was almost as if he had learned something new about me and he couldn’t quite fathom it out. In the end, it was me who felt compelled to break the silence because I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“What’s going on, Artemis?” I demanded, a little harsher than I intended. “What is that look for?”
“I… sorry.” Instantly, he looked away. “I was just thinking about you… you and Megan, actually.”
“We aren’t fighting,” I bit back. “Both of us have been on our best behavior today. It’s all good.”
“I know. I wasn’t going to say that, it’s just…” He paused thoughtfully, clearly trying to figure out how to form whatever the fuck he needed to stay. It was a little frustrating, but I didn’t interrupt his thought pattern. Mostly because I really wanted to know what was going on with Megan. “Well, Megan seemed a little upset when she first got to our room because it seems that Zena confronted her about you and her, wanting to know what was going on.”
“Confronted her? About what?” I couldn’t work out what Zena would have to say. “I don’t get it.”
“Well, she said that she’s your girlfriend and she’s annoyed that you’re hanging out with Megan.”
“Obviously Zena isn’t my girlfriend, so I don’t know anything about that.” I rolled my eyes. “You know as well as I do that nothing has ever happened with me and Zena. Not a kiss or anything.”
“Yes, I know that. I wasn’t really getting at that,” Artemis continued. “It’s more the fact that Megan was upset.”
I considered that for a moment, really thinking about Megan being upset if I had a girlfriend. I liked it a whole lot, and not just in a stupid male pride manner. But because I wanted Megan to like me.
“You have been… I don’t know how to describe it.” Artemis cocked his head to one side. “You haven’t exactly been nice to Megan since we’ve been spending time together and I just want to know how you feel about her.”
Hmm, now that was a real question. How did I feel about Megan? Or more, how much did I want to confess about how I felt about Megan? I knew that I liked her more than I wanted to, she intrigued me more than anyone ever had before, and that I didn’t want to just kiss her and fool around with her, I really liked her.
And that was what scared me. How much I liked her. Maybe that was why I acted out around her and tried to push her away because committing to anyone was a terrifying concept. It had to be the perfect woman. Megan scared the living shit out of me because she could have actually been that woman. For me, at least. I knew that the other guys liked her, but I couldn’t put myself out there to be vulnerable for them not to feel the same way.
“She’s okay.” I shrugged. “When we aren’t arguing, we get on well enough.”
Artemis didn’t reply for a beat too long. “Yeah, I like her a lot as well. I think Megan is wonderful.”
When he said that, I sensed the depth of those words. He really meant them. Artemis was closest to Megan out of all of us, he had really built up a bond with her, and that appeared to travel deep. That stirred something up in my chest, it created a real buzz inside of me for Megan. It made it much more acceptable for me to fall some more.
In reality, I adored her flame-red hair, the smattering of freckles over her cute nose, the way that her cleavage popped out when she folded her arms over herself. I enjoyed her fiery personality as well, even when it clashed with mine because no other woman had even bothered to try keeping me on my toes before. Megan made it impossible for me not to react to her which thrilled me as much as it irritated me. I had met my match in her.
“What about the other guys?” I hissed quietly to Artemis, letting some of my vulnerability show.
“Do they like her too?” Artemis seemed surprised that I had ever asked this question. “Can’t you tell? Trevor stares at Megan like he would follow her to the end of the earth if she wanted him too, he clearly thinks very highly of her. For a guy who’s normally more focused on himself and what he’s doing, never troubling himself with everyone else, he has been locked in on Megan for this entire trip. When you see it, it’s all you will see.”
Woah, how self-centered had I been to not pick up on any of this? “And Duncan?”
“Duncan is besotted as well. He might not admit it, but I can tell. She is under his skin.”
If Artemis was thinking this way, then he’s been keeping his eye out for a reason, because he was in to Megan as well. We finally had the perfect girl in front of us, one who we could all agree on, and I had been fucking it up royally. Because I couldn’t handle the depths of my feelings, I had been making a mess.
“Shit, what do I do?” I asked Artemis desperately. “How do I make up for how I’ve been?”
A smile stretched from ear to ear across his face as he recognized that I was leaning the same way as him and the rest of the guys. However scary commitment felt to me, I wasn’t going to allow Megan to slip through our fingers because if she was the one for us then we would never find anyone el
se like her.
“You could try being nice?” Artemis suggested with a playful wink. “That would be a good place to start.”
Weirdly, the idea of just being nice felt off because it wasn’t quite me. But I was going to have to try something wasn’t I? Continuing down the path I’d been going wasn’t about to work.
“Come on, guys,” Duncan hissed, grabbing our attention with his annoyance at us. “We need to get this sorted here. Are you going to help us track this demon or sit around chatting all day long?”
I wanted to sit around chatting, to get more of an insight from Artemis about what my next move regarding Megan should be, but Duncan was in charge and I could already see that he wasn’t about to let us get away with this.
“We’re coming,” I confirmed. “Don’t worry. We will find this bastard one way or another.”
Me and Artemis settled down with Trevor and Duncan to get a plan in place, but much as I attempted to keep my eyes on the prize and my focus where it needed to be, I couldn’t seem to stop myself from day dreaming about Megan. It appeared that being honest about my feelings for her had my head in a real spin…
“I can’t stay up any longer,” Duncan groaned after a couple of hours grafting hard. Now it seemed like we had fine-tuned the working of the tracking device, so it was just going to take us using it when we were ready. “My brain aches with all of that. If I don’t shut my eyes soon, then I’m going to drop dead on the floor.”
“I need to sleep as well.” Trevor yawned widely and stretched his arms high. “But Megan is asleep.”
Duncan didn’t seem to sense that it probably wasn’t right to climb into bed with Megan, so he just did it. I watched him with wide-eyed horror as he made himself comfortable, albeit on top of the covers, like that. He was comfortable already, settling down to sleep without a care in the world. Not even my glare could make him take note.
