Magical

by Bria Berg

  “Very well,” Dracul relented, only because he was more than ready to take Tessa, but first, he needed to take care of her Protector. With a quick wave of his hand, a long silver dagger appeared in his upturned palm. He held it out to Tessa not in the least bit wary of her. “One last thing my dear,” he crooned. “I want you to stab this through your Protector’s heart. Any and all feelings you thought you had for him will die with him. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” Tessa forced herself to say as she accepted the dagger.

  Sam and Ethan began yelling, pleading with Tessa not to do it, but their captors only hit them, hard. This was the worst possible thing that could happen, and they were being forced to watch.

  Slowly, she turned to face Milo. His face showed nothing of anger anymore as he stared into her eyes. He wanted her to know he didn’t blame her; he wanted her to know how much he cared for her. She saw all this and more, her eyes filling with tears. Lifting her empty hand, she grasped his shoulder while pulling the dagger back to gain better force. With all of her might, she poured her power into Milo. Instantly he became aware as his amped up power washed over him. Tessa stared at him, communicating with her eyes and hoping he understood what she was about to do. Lifting the dagger higher, she turned and stabbed it into Dracul’s chest. His eyes widened in shock as he stumbled backwards.

  Milo reached out to the sky, bringing a bolt of lightning down into his hand and aiming it at the dagger lodged in Dracul’s chest. Without missing a breath, he called for a torrent of water and wind, also sending it into the dagger. Sam and Ethan realized what was happening, and they instantly freed themselves from their distracted captors then called the earth to infuse inside the dagger as well. The Elite surrounding them shook from their initial shock, but Jim sprayed a line of vicious fire, separating them from his daughter and the brothers.

  A blood churning scream roared from Dracul as he fell to his knees, smoke pouring from the dagger still lodged in his chest. A burst of wind came, and he lifted his arms to it, then he disappeared, leaving only a black char mark behind. The remaining Elite noticed his departure, and scattered since their master had fallen. Jim let the flames simmer into nothing and faced Tessa. He had betrayed Dracul, and though he might be defeated, the Elite witnessed it. He was no longer safe and could never go back. Tessa realized this when she saw his look of uncertainty. She glanced back up at the house, wondering if her mother and sister were still trapped in Dracul’s compulsion, or if it would die off with him.

  “I’ll get them,” her father said anxiously. “I’ll make sure they stay safe until every last of the Elite are destroyed.” They would want revenge, and Sandra and Hailey would now be targets.

  She nodded before he turned and ran inside the house. She spun back to Milo who was struggling to stand and rushed to help him. “Are you okay?” she asked, still a bit dazed from the events.

  “I’m good,” Milo said quickly. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No,” she said searching his face. He looked so tired and vulnerable.

  “We need to leave,” Sam said coming to stand beside them. “We need to get to safety then we can work all of this out.”

  Chapter 40

  Once they were home and safe, they moved to sit comfortably on the couches. Sam and Ethan were still anxious with adrenaline. Milo was still tired and worn out, and Tessa just felt dirty. Before they could begin discussing everything, Tessa stopped. “Can I shower first?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Can it wait?” Sam asked as all the brothers stared at her. They were all dirty, bloody and beaten, but there were more important things to put first. “We need to figure this out before anything else. We need to know if he’s really dead.”

  Tessa cringed, suddenly feeling the need to cry. “It’s just… I can still feel him on me. Please? I’ll be fast.” she whispered as a tear escaped her eye.

  Understanding washed over their faces. “I’m sorry,” Sam said, feeling regret. “Of course, go shower.”

  Milo’s concerned look caught her eye before she turned and hurried up the stairs. Once she was in the shower, she let her tears fall freely. So much could have happened tonight; she could have lost her entire family, and the brothers. What would she do without them? She almost lost Milo. What if she wasn’t able to fight off the compulsion, would she have been forced to kill him? The thoughts of what could have been filled her head as she continued to cry. She scrubbed her body until it felt tender; wanting to get every last particle off of her that Dracul might have left behind. When she was finished with her shower, she brushed her teeth, twice, then finished it off with mouthwash that made her eyes and lips burn. After towel drying her hair, she put on a baggy t-shirt and pajama shorts before going back downstairs to face the brothers.

  There was an empty seat next to Milo, but she situated herself in the armchair, pulling her legs securely against her body. Shame and guilt kept her from running into Milo’s arms. She knew he didn’t blame her for what happened, but he had still seen it, and she hated that Dracul did that to them both. He watched her sit alone in the armchair with a resigned look. He had failed to protect her again, and he wondered if she would ever forgive him. How was it that just hours ago he had been on the Ferris wheel, kissing her, thinking that everything was perfect and going to be alright?

  “How are you?” Ethan asked Tessa, watching her closely, not missing her slightly swollen and red eyes.

  She looked up at him, somewhat startled. “Tonight could have ended so differently,” she expressed, holding in a sniffle.

  “We’ve been talking about that,” Sam gently informed. “I think it’s safe to say we owe you our lives.”

  She shook her head, not daring to meet any of their eyes. “If not for me you wouldn’t be is this mess.”

  “That’s not true,” all the brothers said together.

  “It’s my fault, Tess. I’m your protector and I keep failing you,” Milo said with emotion. How many more chances was he going to get? This time could have easily been his last, and the next time may very well be.

  “It’s nobody’s fault but Dracul’s,” Sam stated bluntly. “Both of you stop trying to take credit for what that evil man did.”

  Milo scowled at Sam, while Tessa flinched from being scolded.

  Sam ignored them both as he asked the question they all wondered. “Do you think he is really dead?”

  “Milo hit him with fire, water and air before we got him with earth. If that didn’t kill him then nothing will,” Ethan said confidently.

  “He was smoking before he disappeared, and his screams,” Tessa shuttered at the memory as she spoke. “If he isn’t dead by now, he will be soon.”

  “If he is really dead, that is the best we can hope for. That still doesn’t leave us in the clear though; Dracul’s Elite might come searching for revenge, or there is also the chance one of his top people will try to take over the legacy he started,” Sam intoned.

  “It isn’t possible for anyone else to be as strong as he is, or was,” Milo said tiredly. “At least not yet anyways. His power, what he can make people do…”

  “Some of his Elite are pretty powerful though,” Sam said. “One lady made herself into an actual tornado, like she had become the element. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “That was pretty crazy,” Ethan agreed. “Wielding the elements is one thing, but actually taking on the form is something else entirely.”

  “I wonder if Dracul was somehow fueling them. Giving them increased power,” Milo pondered.

  “Like an amplifier?” Sam asked skeptically.

  Milo just shrugged. Dracul already had all the elements in his favor; it wasn’t too far of a stretch to think he might be an amplifier as well.

  “I’m curious to know what happened,” Ethan said to Tessa with a glint in his eyes. “Didn’t he have you under his compulsion?”

  “He did at first, but I somehow fought it off,” Tessa explained. Her stomach jolted in disgust at the memo
ries of what she had been forced to do.

  Ethan’s brow lifted. “You can’t fight his compulsion, it’s impossible. Unless…”

  “Unless what?” Tessa asked curiously.

  Ethan looked quickly to Milo and grinned before focusing again on Tessa. “Jim said that only true love can break Dracul’s compulsion. It’s all very romantic if you ask me.”

  Tessa sucked in a breath as her cheeks burned red. “Really?” she managed to ask. The notion sounded vaguely familiar, but she hadn’t thought of it until now.

  Ethan nodded still grinning. “He can’t reach a heart that is full with the purest of love,” he quoted Tessa’s father’s words.

  Sam looked back and forth between Milo and Tessa before standing. “I think I’m going to turn in for tonight. We can finish this in the morning. Ethan, you coming?” he asked when Ethan didn’t seem to take the hint.

  Ethan jumped up from his seat. “Oh yeah, I’m completely beat.” He turned and began ascending the stairs but not before adding, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  Left alone, there was an awkward silence hanging in the air between Milo and Tessa as they sat across from each other, neither one wanting to make eye contact. Finally he couldn’t take it anymore, and quietly went to kneel before her. She flinched slightly as he took her hands in his, but didn’t pull away. When she finally raised her eyes to him, she looked terrified and pale. She was in love with Milo, he knew it and his brothers knew it, her father probably knew as well. The thought of him rejecting her now that it was all unwillingly out in the open like it was, tormented her.

  Milo searched her eyes for several moments, and then lifted a hand and grazed her cheek gently before bringing his lips to hers. A small gasp caught in her throat as he kissed her softly, before he pulled away. “I love you too,” he whispered.

  She sucked in a heavy breath. “You do?”

  A small smile formed on his lips. “My job is to protect you, and I thought I couldn’t do that if I followed my heart, but the truth is, I love you. I’ve known for a while now but I didn’t want to admit it or ruin our relationship. I didn’t want to push you into anything you weren’t ready—”

  But Tessa stopped him with a kiss of her own. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they fell back on the ground together. His hands grazed down her sides, settling on her hips as he pressed himself closer to her. Her hands were in his hair, moving down the muscles in his back, down to the hem of his shirt where she found his hot skin exposed. Their kisses turned deeper and more frantic as her own shirt rose up, and the contact of skin against skin was almost too much to take.

  Tessa began shaking as their desire deepened even further. Milo paused on top of her, breathing heavily. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded quickly, biting her lip nervously.

  He grinned slightly, stroking her hair back from her cheek. “What is it?”

  Taking a deep breath, she said, “I don’t want to end up like my mom. I want there to be only one guy, and one guy only… the one I love.”

  Kissing her forehead, he smiled as he widened the space between them, though he didn’t let go of her hands. “It’s okay Tess, I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

  She squeezed his hands. “That’s the thing. I love you and I do want you, all of you. I’m just scared.”

  Milo pulled her still trembling body into his arms. “When you are ready, you will know it. I will always be here for you. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Smiling in relief, she tilted her head up and they shared a few more sweet kisses before hand in hand, they walked up the stairs, separating at their rooms. Quickly, Tessa hurried to her bed and crawled under the covers. Not long after, the sound of the running water going on indicated Milo was showering. She lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling with her heart pounding, thinking about the kisses they just shared. Her heart swelled with joy knowing how well their lips and bodies fit perfectly together. There was a small part of her that was tempted to go sneak in his room, into his bed and be with him completely, but she refrained. There was no rush, and she was still scared of the thought of being with him in that way. They hadn’t known each other long, but they knew each other, really knew each other from all the time they had spent together, and the best part was that he understood her.

  She began to shake as she thought of the depth of what they had just done. Even being a young eighteen year old girl, she knew with all of her heart that there would be no other but Milo. What did that mean for them? What if things didn’t work out for whatever reasons, could they continue on as friends? No matter what, because of what they were they would always be in each other’s lives. It wouldn’t be easy not being together romantically, yet always being together in every other way.

  Her eyes grew heavier as her thoughts continued to dwell what might not be, and what could possibly be. Smiling slightly, a vision of the future filled her thoughts. She was in a beautiful wedding gown, Milo waiting at the end of the aisle for her, mouthing that he loved her. Sam and Ethan stood next to him, grinning and wagging their eyebrows up and down. Hailey stood opposite the men with Nicole of all people, beaming while her mother looked on with actual tears in her eyes. Tessa’s heart pounded as she neared Milo, knowing that she was completely ready to be his wife in all sense of the word. Then the scene changed. A newborn baby was cradled in her arms, while she and Milo smiled at the infant each exuding so much love. She leaned down, inhaling the soft scent of a new baby, a tear of happiness rolling down her cheek. Again the scene changed going further into the future. Three small kids were playing outside while Milo stood behind Tessa cradling her swollen stomach, kissing her cheek while watching their three children from the window. She could feel the baby kicking her inside, a feeling her future self knew well, but to her current being it was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Milo laughed softly feeling the movement too beneath his hands. The visions seemed so real, like she was actually seeing it, witnessing the events through her own eyes. Then suddenly the vision went dark, and Dracul stood before her laughing.

  “You cannot kill me,” he whispered. “I will come for you again.” Then he reached out, caressing her cheek. The touch stung, as if scorching her skin as she screamed.

  Chapter 41

  Tessa jerked up with a shriek, panting when she realized she was still in her room. Swallowing, she looked at the clock to see that two hours had passed since she went to bed. Milo burst through the door first, flipping on the light and looking wild as he searched for a threat. It didn’t take long for both Sam and Ethan to also come rushing in, ready to fight. When none of the brothers could see anything wrong, Milo approached Tessa.

  “What happened? Are you alright?” he asked sitting next to her, pulling her into his arms. “You’re shaking.”

  “I just had a nightmare,” she breathed out. “It seemed so real.”

  Milo pulled away slightly to look her over. Her hairline and forehead were soaked with a cold sweat, and on her cheek, two red lines went down to her jaw. “What happened here?” he asked gently. “This wasn’t there before.”

  Tessa’s hand went to her face, the same spot Dracul had touched her, and burned her. The skin felt raw and painful as she gasped. “Dracul did this to me in my dream,” she whispered. “How is this possible?”

  Milo froze at her words while Sam and Ethan came nearer to get a closer look. “What happened in the dream?” Sam asked.

  Still shaking, Tessa vaguely recalled what she had seen, leaving out the details of what she was dreaming before Dracul came into the picture.

  “What if she had a vision?” Ethan asked quietly. “Dracul wouldn’t be able to connect to her in a dream, but if she was in a vision, he could have interfered.”

  “He’s dead!” Tessa shouted frantically. “Is he haunting me or something?”

  “He might not really be dead,” Sam admitted softly. “We talked about the possibility earlier while you were in the shower.
Milo infused the dagger with water along with the air and fire, neither of which are his actual element. We hoped it would work the same, but there is a chance it didn’t. Now with your vision, I think there is a pretty good chance he is still alive.”

  Tessa shuttered, and Milo squeezed her tighter trying to comfort her. “It’s going to be alright Tess,” he said. “It might have really just been a nightmare.”

  She shook her head. “It all seemed so real.”

  “If it was a vision, it would feel very real,” Ethan said. “What were you dreaming about before he appeared?”

  She stiffened, glancing sideways at Milo quickly as her cheeks burned. “It was nothing.” There was no way she would reveal those particular imaginings to the brothers.

  Ethan looked at her skeptically. “If it was a vision, it wouldn’t have been nothing. Did it have anything to do with the future?”

  Flinching, she sucked in a breath. “Why would that matter?” she asked in a shaking voice.

  Ethan studied her a moment. “If you were having a real vision it would be of the future, most likely yours or those you are closest to. It would be more than a dream; you’d be able to feel, taste or smell things as if they were real. Was it like that?”

  Eyes filling with tears, she could only nod. If what she saw was her real future, it was more happiness than she had ever thought possible before. She had a family, she was a mother and a wife.

  Ethan leaned back, letting out a breath. “Visions are rare to even the Gifted, but maybe amplifiers have been known to be able to see the future before. We need to do more research to know for certain. That explains why Dracul interrupted your vision though; he must have somehow felt you on that certain thread of magic and went after you.”

  Sam was watching Tessa closely, judging her reactions and taking them for fear. “It isn’t set in stone Tessa, whatever it was you saw. Things can change based off of the decisions we make every day.”