Chapter 55The girl hangs from a tree branch with a rope around her neck, her long dark hair covers her face and she has the letter J carved into her abdomen. It's not hard to miss the message. She looks very similar to me and the J has to be for Josie. “Mason give me your phone,” I pat his pockets in search of it. He reaches around to his back pocket and hands it to me.“Call Deacon and tell him to lift the wards, we are porting out of here now,” he orders. “Okay,” I nod, not fully sure what he's on about but there's something I need to do first. I open the camera and start snapping pictures of the body.“What the fuck are you doing you psycho?” Mason snatches the phone from me. “I’m not done,” I try to take the phone back.“Yes, you are,” he growls, “I’m deleting that shit off my phone,” “Mason, how many people can we really trust right now?” I ask him. “None without screening them,” he frowns. “Then give me back the phone, there is evidence right in front of us and I can tell
Chapter 56Walking through the academy is much less embarrassing than expected, we only see a few students and they give us a wide birth. They're probably scared they might get mistaken for one of us if they get too close and then get assassinated. “Where are we staying?” I ask as we enter Ruby house.“Back in our apartment,” Luke smiles. “Is it safe?” I frown, I can't imagine having half the wall missing is the safest of places to stay. “Yes, all fixed and we have upgrades. Bulletproof glass, reinforced walls and a whole new security system,” he explains. “I need to call my mum and let her know we won't be returning, can I borrow someone's phone because I left mine,” Theo says as we arrive at our door. Mason hands him his phone and pushes open the door to our apartment. Beeping begins to sound out and he punches a code into a box on the wall, silencing the alarm. “I'm going to take a shower,” Luke says, leaning over to kiss my cheek before releasing my hand and heading into his
Chapter 57The next morning I wake up on top of Axel, Theo is snuggled in on one side and Luke is on the other. I'm not quite sure how this happened. I'm a little disappointed that Mason isn't here but I don't think group snuggling is his thing. I wonder if I could crawl into his bed with him for some one-on-one time. I gently extract myself from the bed, careful not to wake anyone and I creep out of my bedroom. I place my hand on Mason’s door handle and I'm about to open it when I hear a noise behind me. “What are you doing?” Theo whispers.“I want to cuddle with him,” I whisper back.“Fine, but I'm coming,” he sighs.“Come on then before he wakes up and gets grumpy,” “You are going to get us in so much trouble,” he laughs quietly. I push the door open slowly and freeze when Mason rolls onto his back. He is only wearing his boxers, his stunning tattoos on full display. Theo urges me forward when Mason’s breathing evens out and we each crawl into the bed on either side of him, we in
Chapter 58After showering as fast as possible I dash back out in my towel. Voices in the living area stop me and I grin when I hear Mason and Theo are back. I'm about to walk out to greet them when I hear my name mentioned. I pause, focusing my hearing to listen in on their hushed conversation.“How long are we going to try and keep this up for? It's not fair,” Theo says.“As long as we can, it's for her own good,” Mason responds. “You saw how scared she was Theo, she's not ready for that,” Luke reasons. “And what if she's never ready, what do we do then?” Axel asks.“Then we deal with that too,” Mason grunts. “I just think we should let her decide for herself,” Theo sighs. “We will, just not yet. She already has so much to deal with, she doesn't need any more pressure right now,” Luke says. “I’d also like to remind everyone that we have a huge responsibility weighing on us already, we don't need to even consider the possibility of adding any more until we have dealt with the thr
Chapter 59“Thank you for your time, Miss Banks, I’ll have your new phone and clothes delivered to your room shortly,” Mr Collins nods and walks out of my room. I blink in confusion. Why did we have to be in my room for that chat? I hear Theo shouting in the living area and I rush out to see what's going on. Mason has Theo in a bear hug from behind and he's struggling, Mr Collins whispers something to him and he suddenly goes still in Mason’s arms. “What's going on?” I demand. “Compulsion training again,” Luke explains spinning me to face him, “Are you hungry?”“Yes, I'm starving, but I want to see Theo act like a chicken,” I laugh, trying to look over my shoulder to see the show, but I only catch Mr Collins leaving. “You know I'm starting to think that guy is a bit of a creep. I know he's our headmaster and is supposed to help us but don't you think he helps us a little too much?” Theo asks with a frown. “We are a special case,” Luke shrugs. “Can we finally eat now?” Mason huffs.
Chapter 60“Good answer,” Axel smiles, and inches closer to me. “When all this is over and we have dealt with whatever threat we are here to deal with, I’d love to show you more of this realm, and maybe with a good cover story we can arrange regular visits to the human realm to visit your friends,” “If we survive the threat. I am nowhere near ready to fight alongside you guys, and we still don't even know what it is we are supposed to do,” I sigh.“None of us are ready yet, we didn't develop any new gifts whilst you were in a coma. James thinks we needed your mental connection to power share, whilst you were unconscious we went back to how we were before. Hopefully, now you are awake we will all progress together. Once your heat is done we will focus hard on our training. Whoever it is we are up against are clearly not ready to carry out whatever plans they have though, if they were they'd have done it the moment they found out about us. They'd have tried to do it before we are stron
Chapter 61“What do you mean? Is my mum okay?” I demand, fear trickling down my spine.“Physically she is fine, but her mental health has taken a turn for the worse. Being in this realm is now causing her further distress. The doctors in charge of her care have a solution that they are sure will mean she can go back home and live a normal human life, free of any physiological issues, but this solution would require a great sacrifice from yourself,” Mr Collins explains. I take a minute to process his words. They can fix my mum, she can go back to her old self before she became unwell. “Whatever it is I’ll do it, just tell me what I need to do,” I nod, there's nothing I won't do for her. “Please take some time to think this over before you decide, as I said it's a great sacrifice. In order to relieve your mum of her mental burden, we would need to delete you from her life, completely,” he says and I suck in a breath. “You mean, compel her to forget me?” I ask, my voice thick with em
Chapter 62Axel looks torn. Theo is right, he does know something. He opens his mouth to speak and then frowns.“I can't,” he sighs.“Wow, so you do know something but won't tell us,” Theo huffs.“No, you don't understand. I physically can't,” Axel rubs at his temples either from stress or a headache. “Shit, you've been compelled not to tell us something,” Theo begins pacing, “I knew something wasn't right, I’m going to go and confront him,” Theo moves around me to leave but Axel steps in front of the door.“No, not again,” Axel’s words are strained and he shakes his head. “Fuck, I've been compelled too, haven't I?” Theo curses. “What about, Jose, has she been compelled?” A bead of sweat forms on Axel’s brow and his breathing becomes faster.“Theo stop, I think it’s hurting him to even ask, we need to find another way,” I take Axel’s hands in mine. “It's okay, breathe,” I tell him. “Sorry, Axe, don't say anything else, you'll be okay soon,” Theo says and comes over to pat him on t