by Kaitlyn Hoyt
Gasping, I bolt up in bed and then quietly cry out in pain when my body starts aching everywhere. I glance to my right and see Emma sleeping. My cry didn’t wake her up; Olive, on the other hand, sits up when I move.
Something wrong?
“I’ll be right back,” I whisper. I try to keep my voice steady; I don’t want her to worry. Closing her little blue eyes, she snuggles against my pillow and falls asleep once more.
Getting out of bed proves to be extremely painful. Each movement causes pain to shoot through my entire body. My head aches from hitting the hard wall, my cheek is swollen from being slapped, my hand is broken, and my stomach aches from the punches. Thankfully, my legs are fine, so once I am able to get out of bed, I am able to get out of the room.
Opening the door, I peek down the hallway. It’s empty, and the coast is clear. Colton’s door is closed, and the lights are off. Thankfully, he won’t see me tonight. I don’t really want to hear him freak out again. I walk down to Logan’s room and lightly knock. Logan opens the door and gasps when he sees my appearance. I must look as bad as I feel. “Can I come in?”
“What the hell happened to you?” Logan whispers loudly. Moving out of the way, he lets me come into the room. Liam and Colton are sitting on the ground and both of them jump up when they see me.
“Shoot.” I turn around and point to Logan. “Why didn’t you tell me that they were in here?”
“You didn’t ask.”
“What happened to you, Ryanne?” asks Liam. I look toward Colton. Oh dear, he’s livid. I open my mouth to talk, but the room starts spinning. I can’t tell where the ground is as the dizziness takes over. A pair of arms wrap around me as I sway backwards.
Knowing that they are Logan’s, I ask for him to heal me as more black spots start to cloud my vision. Logan sits down on the ground, taking me with him. My head slumps back against his chest as I feel the early stages of the healing begin. A numbing sensation moves through my body lingering on the obvious injuries. I gasp when I feel the bones in my hand mend back together. A hiss echoes through the room at the sound of my discomfort. I’m not sure which guy it came from. A tingling sensation sweeps through my stomach and moves upwards toward my head. The swelling on my cheek decreases, and the dizziness and the headache go away.
I feel Logan tense behind me when he is done healing. I turn around and look at him. He has his angry face on. In my mind, I picture Mr. Potato Head pulling out his angry eyes. “I provoked him on purpose, Logan. It was the only way I knew how to get out of there.”
“Logan, what happened?” Colton demands.
“It wasn’t as bad as it looked!” I turn around and point to Colton, “See, I’m all better.”
“All better? Are you serious? You come in here looking like someone used you as a punching bag.”
“Well, someone kind of did. That’s what I was trying to get Adam to do.”
“Adam?” Colton and Liam both yell.
I jump up and run over to them. “Shhhhh. Can you please be quiet? I don’t want to wake anyone else up. The less people that know, the better.”
“Did he…” Colton starts.
“No, I spit in his face before he could do anything.” The corner of Colton’s mouth moves up slightly. I see the smile that he is trying so hard to hide. He is still angry but not as much as earlier.
“What did he want?”
“My location,” I say. “Dravin’s mad because I didn’t give him any information last time, so it was Adam’s turn to try and get information from me.”
Colton reaches down and lightly swipes his thumb across my cheekbone. “You have blood on your face.”
I take a step back. I don’t like the tingly feeling that I get when he touches me. Well if I’m being honest with myself, I do like it. A little too much. Logan’s room is set up exactly like mine, so I walk over to his bathroom and splash water onto my face, cleaning away all of the blood. “It’s not mine,” I call out. “I broke Adam’s nose.”
“Really?”
Drying my face off, I walk back into the room. “I do know how to defend myself. I just have to improvise when I’m pressed up against a wall with my feet being stepped on and arms pinned above my head. So, I provoked him. When someone’s angry, they just react. They don’t think.”
“You purposely tried to get him to attack you?” Colton asks.
“Yes.”
“You’re crazy,” Colton says. I can tell that he is no longer angry. I think finding out that I broke Adam’s nose put him in a slightly better mood. At least I didn’t just let him brutally beat me.
“Thank you.” I sit down on the floor and lean back against the wall. “Do you think they’ll ever stop? I don’t remember the last time I had a normal dream.” Colton walks across the room and sits down next to me against the wall.
“Can I suggest something?” asks Logan as he gets comfortable on the floor a few feet in front of us.
“Sure. Suggest away.”
“I think you should try sleeping with Liam.”
“Huh?” I say, right as Liam says, “What?” and Colton lets out a “Hell no.”
“Wait a second. I don’t mean it like that. I mean, I think that she should go to sleep with Liam. Just sleep. I think that if he touches her while she’s sleeping they won’t be able to get to her. It’s just a suggestion.” Colton starts shaking his head, so Logan goes on, “Would you rather she keep getting attacked in her sleep?”
“Well, no, but—” Logan interrupts him, but I stop listening to their conversation. My eyelids are starting to feel heavy. Curling into a ball, I lie down on my side and rest my head in Colton’s lap.
With a yawn, I say, “Wake me up when a decision is made.”
Colton
Ugh, I’m not ready to be awake. Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to fall back asleep. My back aches like I’ve been sitting in the same position for a long time. Leaning back, I hit something hard. Oww, I open my eyes and look around. Logan is on his stomach, sleeping with his head on his arms across the room. To my right, Liam is asleep on his back. My leg is numb; I start to move it when I hear a small breathy groan. Ryanne is sleeping on my leg…why? When I see her, the previous night’s events come back to me. She was attacked by Adam again.
My whole body is stiff and sore, but I don’t have it in me to wake her up. I lean my head back and close my eyes again. “I knew it. She gets to have all the fun,” Emma says as she enters Logan’s room. Hearing voices, Logan jerks awake and sits up.
“Ugh, it’s too early. Go away.”
“Did you guys have a party without me last night?” Emma asks. She sits down on the floor next to Logan and looks around expectantly.
“Ryanne got attacked by Adam last night. I healed her. She fell asleep in here,” Logan says while popping his back. Liam groans and sits up as well.
“Oh, why didn’t she wake me up? She got you guys…”
“She didn’t want to wake anyone up. She only wanted to find Logan, but Liam and I were already in here,” I try to speak quietly but loud enough for Emma to hear me.
“She wasn’t attacked again was she?” I glance down at her. Her hair has fallen over her face, hiding her features. Brushing her hair aside, I don’t see any injuries. She has lines from the fabric of my pants on her face, but other than that, she seems fine.
“I don’t think so.” Ryanne stretches her legs out and yawns. Despite her petite stature, in those shorts her legs seem to go on forever. I know that Emma catches me staring, but I’m past the point where I care.
Ryanne pushes herself up off of my leg and grabs her face, “Oww.” With her hand still covering the part of her face that was resting against my leg, she turns to me with sleepy eyes and mumbles, “Your leg is not very comfy.” I look away as she stretches her back and arms. I see the guys do the same. We’re not blind, and Ryanne is showing a lot of skin. Emma laughs at our reactions which Ryanne doesn’t hear or chooses to ignore. “Oh my gosh, I totally had a dream las
t night.”
“Really? What happened?” Emma asks.
Ryanne sits Indian style on the ground and starts to tell us about her dream. “I was at a mall, and suddenly everyone started to go crazy. I went over to find what the commotion was about and saw all these people lining up to see Christian Bale. You know me; I love the Batman films. However, I thought it was fake, so I didn’t get in line. I stood off to the side and laughed at a kid, who was literally in tears. Someone placed a hand on my shoulder and asked if I knew who that kid was.
“I said no and turned around to find Christian Bale smiling at me. Well, of course, I fainted when I saw him. When I woke up and saw him still standing over me, I turned around and threw up on his insanely cute bodyguard. He bent down to help me stand back up, and the last thing I remember is the crying kid yelling, “She knows Batman.” And then I woke up.”
“That’s what you dreamed about?” I try not to laugh, but that is the weirdest dream I’ve ever heard of.
“Yeah, and it was freaking awesome. You know besides the throwing up on the bodyguard part.”
“You’re a strange girl, Ryanne,” David says from the doorway.
“Never claimed to be anything else.” She stands up and walks over to him, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” At the confused expression on David’s face, Ryanne laughs and leaves the room.
“It’s not from a movie, big guy. Dr. Seuss said it!”
“Dang, how does she do that?”
“I’m awesome!” she yells from down the hallway. I start laughing. Even David laughs at that. Pushing myself off the ground, I walk past everyone and out of the room to take a shower and get dressed. Hopefully the hot water from the shower will relax my stiff muscles.
“Happy birthday!” Emma shouts at me as I come into the living room. I stop short and look around the room. Nothing is out of the ordinary. She runs over to me and gives me a hug. “Why didn’t you tell anyone that it was your birthday? We could have done something.”
“Because I didn’t want anyone to know.” I glare at David. He’s the one that probably told everyone.
David says, “Oops,” but I can tell that he doesn’t mean it. Because of the short notice, they didn’t have time to plan anything. We have bigger things to worry about right now than a birthday.
Larkin is sitting at the table. “Can you take me the store now?”
“Sure.” he stands up and walks over to me.
“What are you going to the store for?” I just shake my head. I don’t have to keep it a secret, but knowing that it’ll kill Emma to not know, I decide to leave her in the dark. With a smile, I wave at her as Larkin transports us out of the kitchen.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I’m humming “It Girl” by Jason Derulo as I skip down the stairs. I feel so much better after the shower. I decide to wear my Avengers t-shirt and jean shorts today. I’ve been on a superhero kick recently.
Entering the kitchen, I go over to the food bowl and fill it for Olive. Thanks. She starts eating, and I walk over to the sink to do the dishes. Emma comes over and starts to help me. I keep humming because the song won’t get out of my head. When the last plate is put away, I turn around and see all the guys sitting at the table, eating. Dirtying more dishes. Emma and I groan but don’t say anything. Boys gotta eat, I guess.
I glance around the table and see a couple empty seats. “Where are Larkin and Colton?” I sit down in the chair next to Liam.
“Colton needed to go to the store,” David says through a mouthful of cereal.
“Please swallow before talking. No one needs to see that,” Emma chastises him. He smiles at her—a big toothy food covered grin. I can’t help but laugh at her disgusted expression.
“What did he need to go to the store for?”
“He wouldn’t tell us,” Emma doesn’t like to be left out of the loop. By her pout, you’d think that someone just took away her favorite toy.
“Hopefully, a birthday present,” David mumbles.
“A birthday present for who?” David’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t answer me. Everyone is looking down at their food. “Whose birthday is it?”
“No one’s.”
“It’s Colton’s birthday, isn’t it?” I ask. Liam and David just nod. Logan and Bragden keep their attention on their cereal.
“Are we going to do anything? Why didn’t he want me to know?”
“It’s not just you. He didn’t want anyone to know, but I kind of spilled the beans,” says David.
“Are we going to do anything?”
“There’s not a whole lot we can do…” Liam replies.
“There’s always something we can do...” I think about it. What could we do that didn’t involve leaving the house? “We could make him a cake at least.”
“Ha, I can barely make toast, and you want me to bake a cake?” Bragden says. I don’t doubt him. He doesn’t seem like he’d be a baker.
“Well, Emma and I could bake a cake. I’m sure we have enough ingredients here.” I walk into the pantry and start gathering the supplies. There isn’t a box of cake mix. That’d be too easy. We’ll have to make this from scratch.
Placing everything on the counter, Emma and I start to organize all the dry ingredients into a pile. We’ll need them first.
“How do you know how to make a cake from scratch?” Emma asks when I start to measure out all the ingredients.
“I used to bake with my mom on weekends. I’m really surprised I wasn’t a fat child,” I smile as I remember baking with my mom. We’d always make a mess and have to spend more time cleaning than baking. “For some reason, I remember the measurements…or at least I think I do.” When I have all the dry ingredients measured out, I turn to Emma, “Can you mix all those in a large mixing bowl?”
“You got it Rachel Ray.”
“Rachel Ray is a chef, not a baker.” I inform Emma.
“Same difference.”
“Not really.”
“Hey Logan,” I call to him. “Is it possible for a mage to get fat?” I don’t think I’ve ever met a mage who was fat. They’ve all been big but that was because of their muscles. I glance over at Bragden. He’s the largest mage I’ve ever met, but there’s not a single ounce of fat on him. I’ve never been on a specific diet before, but I used to consider how many calories I was consuming. Now, I just eat whatever is available.
“Not really,” he tells me. “You can gain a few pounds, but the magic in our bodies keeps us healthy. It heals anything that’s not supposed to be there.”
“Is that why I don’t have to take any of my iron pills anymore?” I haven’t really thought about that much. Before I came into my powers, I was anemic. I had to take iron pills every morning.
“Yeah, your body recognized that your irons levels were low, and they basically fixed that. We’re meant to be fighters, so the magic keeps our bodies in optimal conditions.”
Emma walks over to my iPod and turns some music on. With a laugh, I return my attention back to the ingredients in front of me. I start mixing the milk and vegetable oil together, and when Emma is finished with the dry ingredients, we combine the two. Adding in the butter and vanilla extract, we search for a mixer. I give it to Emma and start spraying the pans.
She turns on the mixer before placing it fully in the bowl, and cake batter flies all over us. She screams and jumps back, dropping the mixer into the bowl. Cake batter continues to splatter everywhere. I rush over and turn off the mixer. I slowly turn toward Emma with my mouth hanging open.
She covers her mouth with her hands and starts cracking up. We’re both covered in cake batter.
Emma walks over and grabs a handful of flour and throws it at me. I turn at the last minute, so it only covers my hair and clothes. I gasp and stare at her with wide eyes. Did she really just do that? I grab a handful and throw it at her, but she doesn’t duck soon enough. It hits her in the middle of her face. St
aring at me with a white powdered face, she huffs, sending flour everywhere.
All the guys at the table start cracking up. We glare at them but don’t do anything. It is pretty funny. I walk over to the cake batter and decide to mix it. Emma obviously hasn’t used an electric mixer before. I add the eggs and continue beating it for a few minutes. While I am doing this, I give Emma instructions on how to make the chocolate icing.
I finish pouring the batter into the pan, when I hear Emma exclaim, “Oh my gosh, this is heavenly,” she says while eating a spoonful of chocolate icing.
“Hey, save some for the cake.” She sticks her tongue out at me and continues eating. I place the cake in the oven and turn around and assess the room. We created a very large mess. I turn back to Emma and start laughing all over again. “It Girl” plays through the speakers. Emma jumps up and rushes over to me, dancing. I refuse at first, but this song has been stuck in my head all morning, so I join in.
Might as well have some fun.
Colton
Larkin transports me back into my room. I place the bag on my bed and walk out. From upstairs, I can hear music playing in the kitchen. I think I can even hear Ryanne singing along with it. I walk down the stairs and into the kitchen and freeze.
Are my eyes deceiving me?
Ryanne and Emma are in the middle of the kitchen, singing and dancing along with “It Girl” by Jason Derulo. The most shocking thing is the state the girls are in. They’re a mess. Liam, Logan, Bragden, and David are all sitting at the table, watching them and laughing.
I look back at the girls. Ryanne has flour and something else stuck in her hair. Her dark hair now has a whitish tint. Emma has flour caked to her face and chocolate on her nose, but neither girl seems to care. Their outfits are covered in what looks like cake batter. Emma sticks her hand into a bowl and wipes chocolate on Ryanne’s face. She screams and retaliates with more flour. I lean against the doorframe to watch. Larkin walks into the kitchen and instantly starts cracking up.
Both girls stop and look our way. Their eyes widen when they see us. Ryanne tries to hold her laughter in, but she falls to the ground laughing. Emma stares down at her silent for a few seconds before she starts laughing again. She walks over and sprinkles sugar on Ryanne, who is still on the floor. Ryanne snorts from laughing so hard which makes everyone laugh. She gets up and walks over to me.
