MICAH
TWENTY
“What the hell did you do to her, Brayden?” Parker asked as he watched Brayden gather Lailah into his arms.
“She needed to be grounded, or her powers were going to explode right here in the middle of the quad. I might have overdone it a bit, but I’ve never done something like that before,” Brayden said, frowning at Parker.
“Well, if you're concerned about people seeing something weird going on, you might want to go somewhere less obvious,” I said, looking at the students who were whispering to each other and looking at Brayden, who was holding a passed-out woman in his arms.
“Right. Well, if you don’t mind grabbing her backpack, we shouldn’t be lingering here,” Brayden said as he walked toward her dorm.
I shook my head, grabbed the bag she’d dropped, and slung it over my shoulder. We made quite the sight, Brayden holding Lailah, and Parker and I trailing after them.
“I thought you had an obligation tonight, which is why I was babysitting her,” I grouched at Parker.
“It seems that my father didn’t need me at the board meeting after all,” Parker said as anger flashed in his eyes.
I grunted, not really caring to know the cause of that anger.
I was more worried about the fact that Lailah had almost lost her control, and with her powers released, she could have taken the school out.
The demon threat was getting worse, which is why we were all hanging around her all the time, but that was also making it worse.
The more we interacted with her, the more the pull to Bond was building.
“Why are you wet?” Parker asked, giving me the side-eye.
I looked down, forgetting the fact that my shirt was still covered in soda.
“I was protecting Lailah from The Manor boys’ fan club.
They were giving her a hard time about you all, saying you’re going to the Halloween party with Lailah and no one else.
” I looked up at Parker’s stupid, grinning face and glared at him.
“Douche move to make her an even bigger target. You're the one that’s her friend, and I don’t have time to deal with bitch fights.
So, if this is going to be a regular thing, I’m not babysitting anymore. ”
“You say that, but you’re always lurking in the background, watching her. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you in the shadows like a stalker,” Parker said. I tripped over my own feet, surprised that he would even notice.
Whenever the guys were with Lailah, they seemed to only have eyes for her.
I felt the draw to be with her just as much as they did, but I knew that wasn’t real.
The angels made her that way so we would feel the need to Bond with her.
Well, I wasn’t falling for it. I didn’t need anyone to worry about but myself.
With her powers building, having more of us close to her wasn’t helpful.
Today was a perfect example. She would have been fine if Parker hadn’t walked up, adding to the clusterfuck.
Three out of five was way too much energy to have around her at this point.
If we had any hope of bringing her in before she exploded, we needed to move fast.
“Would one of you be so kind as to get the door for me? I seem to have my hands full,” Brayden called out when we reached the door to the dorms.
“Fuck, sorry,” Parker said, grabbing the door.
We headed for the elevator and stopped, looking at each other.
“Anyone know where her room is?” I huffed.
“You don’t know?” Brayden asked Parker.
“Why the hell would I know where her room is?” he asked, offended.
Brayden shrugged. “Just assumed, since you hang out with her and Cami, you might have hung out here.”
“Nope. She’s never offered to have any of us to step foot in the dorm. We always meet out front,” Parker said.” Hold on, I’ll call Cami.”
“Don’t tell her what happened, she’s with Beth and Nona,” Brayden warned.
“Shit, then I shouldn’t call her. Beth has a sixth sense about shit like this,” Parker said, putting his phone away.
I pulled out my phone and dialed the one person I knew would know.
“What, I’m busy.”
“Jay, what’s Lailah’s room number?”
“Why do you need to know?”
“Look, she had a power flair and passed out. Cami is with Beth, and we need to get her to her room,” I snapped, not seeing why I had to go into all the details.
“Tenth floor, room eight.”
“Thanks,” I said and hung up heading for the elevator. I hit the button for the tenth floor once we were in.
“How did you know Jay would know where her room was?” Parker asked.
I gave Parker a look, wondering if he was really this stupid. “It’s Jay. Once he met her on the run and had her phone number, he did a full background check on her. Of course, he knows her room number, he would never let something like that go unknown.”
“Why the fuck would he do that?” Parker asked.
I groaned, rolling my head back to stare at the ceiling of the elevator.
“He talked to her, gave her Hudson’s phone number, even had her program her number into his phone.
Jay doesn’t do things like that. So, you bet your ass he would do everything he could to find out who she is and why he did those things. ”
“Jay doesn’t do friends,” Brayden said, backing me up.
“Hmm, guess I’ve never seen him hang out with anyone but us and the guys he works with on jobs for his dad. Never thought about the fact he didn’t have any other friends.”
“God, you’re as smart as a box of rocks. How are you one of the top ten smartest people with technology?” I said, stepping out of the elevator looking for room eight.
I started going through her backpack to find out where she would keep her keycard, but I couldn’t find it. Then I looked at her in Brayden’s arms, blonde hair cascading down like a golden waterfall. She nuzzled closer to Brayden’s throat and sighed. She looked so fragile, and I hated it.
“I’m going to need to slip her key card out of her back pocket since it’s not in her backpack,” I said. Brayden adjusted his hold on her so it would be easier for me to get her key card without groping her.
“Oh, like hell you’re reaching into her pants,” Parker said, blocking me from reaching out to her.
“Because she would like the idea of you touching her ass better? I don’t think she would appreciate any of us doing this,” I pointed out.
“If anyone is going to do it, Brayden should. She doesn’t seem to have a problem with him touching her,” Parker said, making a good point. “Give her to me, Brayden.”
“Okay.” Brayden handed her over without jostling her too much.
She fidgeted in his arms but settled once she was cuddled against his chest, her hand clutching his shirt.
Brayden made quick work grabbing her keycard and let us in.
Her room was simple but homey. Family photos and letters were pinned on a corkboard by her desk.
A soft-looking blanket covered in elephants was tossed over the back of her couch.
I then noticed her bed had bright tie-dyed sheets on it with a well-loved stuffed elephant sitting by the pillow.
God, this chick is strange. Who picks elephants as a favorite animal?
I pulled back the sheet and noticed a book peeking out from under her pillow.
I pulled it out and set it on the nightstand, so she didn’t sleep on it.
Parker set her down gently and pulled the covers over.
“Should we stay?” Brayden asked.
I shook my head. “Fuck no, she’d freak out if she woke up to us being in her room. If she hasn’t invited any of you up before, I’m thinking this would not be a welcome way for that to happen.”
“Well, what do you know,” Parker said with his damn grin on display. “You do have a heart, though not enough for me to control it.”
“Can it, dickweed,” I said, heading out of the room and looked back when they didn’t follow. “Let’s go assholes, we don’t need to set her off again. We are on the tenth fucking floor. I’m not getting blamed for the shit storm if she takes the building down.”
We made our way back to the house in silence, unsure of what to do about Lailah.
Brayden already texted Beth to tell her we, including Cami, needed to talk.
Each of us needed to be on the same page, and Cami was one of the few people who wouldn’t set off Lailah’s powers by being around her.
When we walked into the library, we found everyone waiting for us.
“What happened?” Beth said, walking over to us with worry showing in her eyes.
I first met Beth a week after my powers manifested.
We all came together as kids during the summer—their master plan to get us to become a unit.
Beth was our den mother, she broke up fights, bandaged us up, and made sure we ate our meals.
She’d always been looking out for us, and it seemed that even though Lailah hadn’t met her, Beth already considered her one of her cubs.
“Lailah’s powers are at the breaking point. I’m not sure how much longer it will be before something triggers her coming into her element,” Brayden said.
Beth turned to Jay. “I thought you said the running was helping to bleed off the extra energy?”
“She’s growing stronger every day. I didn’t account for the fact that she would advance so fast. None of us adapted as fast as she is.
I’ve had to make the runs longer, harder, faster to get her to the point of being maxed out,” Jay said.
His face was neutral, but I could hear the irritation in his voice.
He didn’t like to be surprised and unsure of how to handle a problem.
“Like I’ve been saying, we need to leave her the hell alone. Yet these assholes are creating more problems by being attached to her all the time,” I said, cocking a hip to lean on the back of one of the couches.
“What other problems?” Hudson asked.
He had been working with Nona to research all we knew about Synergy’s powers, and from what I heard, it was very little.