Caution to the Wind: Book One of the Elementals Series

by F. R. Southerland

Eva chose a seat. Callum sat in the chair behind the desk. Hesitant for a brief minute, Loren finally sat in a nearby chair, but she couldn't relax.

  Was this actually happening? Was she about to have tea with the Morgan family in Fairhaven Manor?

  Before her mind could thoroughly process it, Callum spoke again. He folded his hands on the surface of the desk, looking directly at her.

  “There is much we need to discuss. It’s late. An in-depth discussion can wait until tomorrow, after breakfast. For now, I'll hit the bullet points.” He paused. “Eva, Avery, and I were all granted abilities when we were young. We were told there was another.” He stopped there and once more focused on Loren. “Unfortunately, circumstances prevented us from discovering that person.”

  Loren followed so far, but she had more questions. She met Callum's eyes. His were blue and intense, shining.

  “How long have you had your powers, Loren?”

  “Since I was seven.” She was quiet.

  “Powers related to air?”

  “Yeah.”

  Callum leaned forward. “Do you remember how you got them, or the first moment you realized you could do incredible things?”

  She nodded.

  “And all your life you’ve wondered why, how?”

  She nodded again.

  Callum sat back. Loren risked a glance at Avery. He stared at her with the same intense gaze as his brother.

  It was a long moment before Callum spoke again. “We have been searching for you for close to twenty years. You're the one.”

  All she could get out was a single, shaky word. “Oh.”

  The silence gave her time to think but her mind was blank. She was the one. What did that mean?

  “She’s freaking out,” Levi said.

  Maybe he wasn’t wrong. Her breath came out in quick little gasps.

  “Levi, behave.” Eva's voice was stern.

  “Do you need a paper bag to breathe in? Put your head between your knees.”

  “Levi, you’re not helping.” When Avery snapped, Loren finally broke out of her trance. He looked more than annoyed. Levi fell silent.

  “I’m—I’m okay,” Loren said. “Really. It’s a lot of information and everyone keeps coming at me at once. It’s… too much.” She wasn't okay. She was far from okay.

  Callum looked at each person in turn. His gaze settled on Avery for a few moments longer before he returned to Loren. “It is a lot of information,” he agreed, “and precisely why I suggested we discuss the details tomorrow. To give us all some time to adjust.”

  Loren liked that idea and nodded in agreement. She rubbed her hands on her jeans once more.

  “We’ve had years to adjust.” Eva tossed some of her long hair away from her face with a graceful shrug of her shoulder. “But one more night won’t make much of a difference to me.” She looked at Loren. “Callum’s right. Discussing this won’t be so daunting after we’ve had a good night’s rest.”

  The door to the study opened and a maid stepped in, carrying a tray laden with tea and goodies. Callum gave the woman a kind smile and a thank you. She departed quickly and Callum poured the tea.

  Levi untangled himself from his laptop to snag the cup of hot chocolate. He took a couple sips from it. Loren gave him a shy smile, which he returned.

  She accepted her cup of tea. “I don’t know what to say,” she admitted.

  “You don't need to say anything. We’re all thankful to have found you.” Callum blew on his tea.

  Avery let out a small scoff and Callum fixed his younger brother with a sharp stare. Loren found that a good time to pick up her tea. Her gaze darted between them.

  “And you wanted me to stay home.” Avery's mouth twitched.

  “I won’t deny it ended in our favor.”

  Loren took note of how Avery’s jaw clenched at his brother’s words. She sipped her tea.

  “It was still risky.”

  “I was careful, Cal. I’m always careful. I know what I’m doing.”

  “That’s debatable.”

  Loren suspected this sort of exchange happened often. The brothers looked tired, jaded. Had she ever read anything in the papers about their less than amicable relationship? She couldn't remember. Witnessing the tension between them made her stomach cramp.

  Avery rose from his seat.

  “No arguing.” Eva was quiet, but firm. “No fighting. Not tonight.”

  Avery resumed his seat, eyes narrowed as he stared across the table. Callum held his gaze but said nothing.

  “Awkward,” Levi said under his breath.

  Loren fixed her gaze on the desk and sipped her tea, hoping for the tension to ease soon.

  After more edgy silence, Callum continued. “The point remains. You’re here now. That's what's important.” He lifted his cup to his lips, wetting them.

  Loren refrained from asking questions though she'd already compiled a list in her head. She needed more answers.

  “Where do you live, Loren?” Callum suddenly asked her.

  “Oh, uh, Westacre. Downtown.” She omitted the bad neighborhood and the terrible apartment, but her cheeks burned all the same.

  “So close and we never knew.” Eva’s tone was thoughtful. Loren glanced over at her, seeing a furrowed brow.

  When Callum shifted to lower his mug, she looked back at him. He appeared pensive but didn’t share his thoughts. “It’s late,” he said instead, “and we have a busy day tomorrow. Best to turn in now and attempt a few hours rest.”

  He pushed back his seat and stood. “We’ll meet in the dining room at ten-thirty, after my meeting.” His attention fixed on Loren, smiling at her. “I’m sorry this was brief.” He turned to Avery and his smile vanished. “Please see that she gets settled in.”

  Avery nodded stiffly once and stood while Loren took a final drink of her tea and placed her cup on the desk. She quickly joined him.

  “I think you’ll like it here.” Levi grinned at Loren on his way past her, giving her a thumbs-up. Loren attempted a smile and hoped it didn’t reflect her lack of certainty. It was too soon to tell if she would like it here, but she hoped so.

  The others left the room and Avery and Loren remained. Wordlessly, he glanced at her. For a brief moment, Loren saw embarrassment and discomfort on his face, but it vanished seconds later. Maybe she imagined it. He stepped by her and grabbed the strap of the duffel bag. “Come on.”

  ~~*~~

  The room was exactly how she expected it—as extravagant as the rest of the house. Loren figured she could fit her entire apartment in here with ease. The bed was queen-sized and looked comfortable. She was bone-weary. Sinking into it would be heaven after the day she'd had.

  “Thanks.” She took the bag from Avery and placed it on a dresser. “I can handle it from here.”

  “If you need anything, there’s a buzzer here.” He showed her the intercom system on the wall near the bed. “It’s wired through the house. This button has a direct line to security. If there’s an emergency, press that. Otherwise, press this one.” He pointed to a smaller button. “This one will buzz and anyone near an intercom can answer it. After ten o’clock, it redirects to the household staff and they direct the calls where they need to go.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” She made a note not to press any of the buttons unless she absolutely needed to.

  “My room is down the hall. Turn to the right, five doors down, on the left.”

  Loren nodded and chewed her lip again.

  Avery still looked tense. It wasn't any of her business in how Callum had addressed him earlier. They were siblings, after all. She had to assume a lot of the tension came from having grown up together, standard sibling rivalry stuff. She wouldn’t know much about it. She’d never had any brothers or sisters. It still unsettled her.

  “I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.

  Loren nodded as she unzipped her bag. “Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” she muttered as she grabbed a handful of fabric.

 
Avery chuckled. “That's cute.”

  “What? Cute? What’s cute?” She faced him.

  Avery's gaze dropped to her hands. Loren realized she held a pair of her lacy panties. Her face burned as she tried to conceal them.

  “Everything.” He shrugged, grinning. “Cute.” There was a touch of laughter in his words. “Try to get some sleep, all right?”

  “Oh, um, okay. Yeah. Sleep. Right.” She laughed nervously. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, Loren.” The door closed with a soft click.

  Once he was gone, she let out a groan. “I am not prepared for this.”

  Chapter Four

  “You should try the waffles.” Levi speared a piece with his fork and shoved it into his mouth. The sight of the syrup soaked confection made Loren queasy.

  “I’m fine. Thanks.” She wasn't sure if she could stomach it.

  “Suit yourself.” Levi shrugged and mopped up some syrup with his waffle.

  Loren broke apart her toast. There was enough food here to feed an army. On a normal day, she would've grabbed a heaping plate, but not today. It was tough enough to keep down what little she had.

  Levi continued to shovel food into his mouth. To him, this was just any other day, but for her it was the start of a new life.

  She was aware of his gaze on her, but she kept her eyes on her plate. Her fingers toyed with the crust of her toast.

  “It won’t be that bad, you know. Some conversation, a demonstration—”

  Loren looked up. “Demonstration?”

  “Well, I figure.” His shoulder lifted again and he scooped up some eggs with his fork.

  When she didn’t speak right away, Levi went on. “You have powers. Avery, Cal, Eva... they'll want to see what you can do. And I'm curious about it myself.”

  It didn't give her any assurance at all. She started to chew on her lip again, but stopped. “How exactly do you fit in here?” Her gaze drifted to the tablet Levi had brought with him to breakfast. Between that and the laptop he'd played on last night, Loren had her suspicions he did something meaningful.

  “Are you asking if I have powers? No—unless you count a genius level intellect as a superpower.” Levi flashed her a half grin. “I handle the security and all things magical and technical.”

  “Magical and technical?”

  “Or as I like to call it ‘magitech’.”

  She had questions, but she kept her mouth shut. Levi bit off a piece of bacon before he continued.

  “Cal hired me not too long after Old Man Morgan died. I started out being the go-to guy for their security system upgrades. Of course, I'm not stupid. I figured out the whole superpower thing right away. I managed to convince Cal not to fire me. I’m the best at what I do. And, well, the rest is history.”

  She chewed her toast. “What exactly does a magitech do?”

  “I do the computer stuff, right? Building databases, security, making cool gizmos and gadgets, hacking.” Levi shrugged. “And I do the magic stuff. Research on history, searching for anomalies, magical pulses, studying spells… stuff like that. I’m pretty damn good at it.”

  Magic. She wanted to say magic didn’t exist, but Loren knew better. After all, she had powers. Avery had powers, and though she had yet to see any evidence of it, Callum and Eva had them too. “It’s uh all new to me.”

  Levi gave her a look over his coffee mug, his attention diverted from his tablet to study her for a while. “You have abilities. You can do stuff boring guys like me only dream about, and it’s all new to you?”

  “I just mean my experience is limited. Until last night, I didn’t know anyone else had powers.”

  “Really?”

  Where was Avery and the others? A distraction would be welcome right now. Levi seemed like a nice guy, but she didn’t know him. The conversation was awkward.

  Loren tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and dropped her gaze. “Yeah, really. Uh, I guess I was sheltered? And I kept my powers to myself because there wasn’t anyone who could do what I could do and it made things hard.”

  “Yeah, all right.” He glanced to his tablet again. She waited for him to say something else, but the conversation had ended.

  Loren took another sip of her tea and watched the clock on the wall. She still had twenty-five minutes before she needed to meet with the others and she'd spent enough time in Levi's company. He made her more anxious than she liked to be.

  “I think I might take a walk around the mansion.”

  Levi didn’t look up. “Sure. Knock yourself out. Don’t get lost.”

  “Uh, yeah, okay.” On her way to breakfast, she had taken a few wrong turns. Loren wasn’t eager to repeat the experience. The heat crept into her cheeks at the memory of her blunder and was glad she’d faced away from him when she did. “I’ll see you here? Twenty minutes.”

  “Yep.” Levi didn’t look at her.

  Loren hovered a couple seconds, waiting to see if he’d say something else, but he was absorbed with his tablet. She pushed the door to leave, but it met with some unexpected resistance.

  “Hey,” Avery growled.

  “Oh, god, I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone was on the other side of the door. Sorry.” If she was red in the face before, she must be neon now.

  “It’s fine.” His voice was gruff and he gave her a mildly annoyed glance. Loren kept her distance while Avery moved over to the buffet table and began to fill a plate.

  Levi looked up from his tablet, grabbing a napkin to wipe at his chin. “Did you just wake up?”

  “What if I did?” Avery stuck a fresh strawberry slice into his mouth. He eyed Loren as he took a seat at the table. “He said ten-thirty. I slept in.”

  “Fair enough, but you look like shit.” Levi broke out into a grin.

  “And yet more attractive than you.” His tone was flat.

  “You’re still jealous about the hair, huh?” Levi chuckled.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly it.” Avery paused to look at Loren. She wished she hadn’t lingered. This was a small glimpse into the personal lives of Morgan family and associates. It wasn’t much of a glimpse and even though she sensed tension between them, they knew each other and here she was—an outsider.

  “Are you leaving?” Avery asked, giving a small nod toward the door.

  “I’m uh going to walk around until it was time for uh whatever we’re doing.” Her gaze shifted to the clock. “But it’s almost time and I—”

  Avery took a swig from his juice. “Stick around. Cal’s never late. He’ll be right on the dot. Like fucking clockwork.”

  “Okay.” Loren resumed her seat at the table. Avery's focus was on his breakfast, but Levi stared right at her. She didn’t like the way he looked at her. It made her uncomfortable.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I haven’t known you for long. Barely even twelve hours and yet… I think I’ve figured you out.”

  She swallowed and tried not to fidget. “Oh?”

  Avery looked up from his plate. “Levi.”

  Levi didn’t break his scrutinizing stare. She shifted in her seat.

  “No, see, I think you’ve been alone a lot. You’re socially awkward—and well, awkward in general.” Levi brought up his drink and sipped from it. “Correct me if I’m wrong. I studied psychology for a few semesters. I understand people.”

  Despite her efforts, Loren’s bottom lip found its way between her teeth again. She said nothing. He wasn’t wrong.

  “Levi, stop it,” Avery warned.

  “You’ve been isolated. You’ve tried hard to fit in. You had problems with that, and I don’t think it’s just because of your abilities. No, you were afraid of something else—are afraid of something else.” He paused, eyes narrowed. “Rejection? Abandonment?”

  Loren wanted to bolt from the table. She wanted to hide. Her stomach knotted more and her queasiness returned. She swallowed hard and blinked a few times.

  “Are you an only child? Parents dead?”

  �
��Uh…”

  “You want to be noticed, but you want to hide too. You want to hide so someone can find you. Someone who can reassure you that—”

  Avery slammed his hand down and the tablecloth ignited beneath his touch. The flames spread out from his fingertips with incredible heat.

  “Shit!” Levi scrambled back, digging for something in his pocket. Loren stood quickly, knocking over her tea.

  Avery didn't move. His gaze remained fixed on the burning tablecloth.

  “Avery,” she called. He was in a trance, peering into the flames as if he'd never seen fire before. “Avery!” The room filled with smoke and the acrid stench of burnt cloth and wood.

  “I’ve got it. I’ve got it!” Levi rushed forward. There was something in his hand. It looked like a black ballpoint pen. Loren involuntarily gasped as he drove the point of it into Avery's upper arm.

  That broke the trance. Avery shoved at the other man. Levi stumbled, but caught himself.

  “It's okay now. Problem solved. It’s under control.” Levi grabbed the fire extinguisher from beneath a nearby cabinet. Within minutes, foam covered the table and the fire was out.

  It had been years since Loren had suffered from an asthma attack. When she’d gotten her powers, the attacks had ceased. But with the air thick and stifling with smoke, she couldn't breathe. Levi opened a window and the smoke wafted outside. She sucked in a breath.

  She stared at the burned tablecloth before she lifted her gaze to Avery. He’d sunken back down into his seat. His fingers carded through his hair.

  “I’m fine.” The calmness of his voice surprised her. If it had been her, she'd have been less collected.

  “You’re welcome.” The sarcasm was clear in Levi's voice. He put the pen device back in his pocket. “Had to do it, man. You know that.”

  “Had to do what?” Loren didn't know exactly what the pen device did, but it stopped Avery. More of an explanation would've been nice.

  “You pretentious son of a bitch.” Avery lifted his head, a glare directed at Levi. “What gives you the fucking right?”

  “Hey, your powers were out of control. You know the rules Cal put down. At any sign, I’m allowed to—”