MICAH
TWENTY-EIGHT
Iwatched Lailah head up for the night, and the mood in the kitchen changed. We all silently brooded as we cleaned up from dinner, each lost in our own thoughts.
Growing up without any siblings, I’d adopted the Dolton clan when they took me in.
Knowing what it’s like to lose family that you loved, I could connect with them.
David and Hope were too young to really remember their oldest brother, but Charlotte always told them stories, keeping his memory alive.
Today, I’d come close to losing every person in my life that I gave a shit about, and as much as I had been fighting it, Lailah was one of them.
It also fueled my hatred of the demons that kept taking all that was good in the world from me.
I didn’t know if it was fate or some angelic magic that kept pulling me to Lailah, but I was starting to get tired of fighting it.
Seeing her step up and put her life on the line to protect all of us, and then taking responsibility with Oliver, hit me like a bullet straight to the heart.
When I first met Lailah, I thought of her as weak because she never stood up for herself.
What I didn’t realize was that she might not defend herself, but she would do whatever it took to protect someone she cared about.
The confidence she had in her eyes when she asked me to trust her gave me no other option than to do as she asked.
“How do you think she’s really doing?” Parker asked, leaning against the counter and pulling me out of my thoughts.
“In what sense?” Hudson asked, putting away the plates.
“Seriously, Hudson?” Parker snapped. “I don’t need to be bonded with her to know that this is taking a toll on her. The emotions that woman holds inside her are more intense than any of us could imagine.”
Hudson paused and set down the glass he’d been about to put away and looked at Parker with a storm of anger in his eyes.
“Do not lecture me on emotions. I might not be good at understanding them or expressing them to you all, but you have no idea the relationship that I have with Lailah. It is not lost on me that bringing her into our world has helped as much as it has hindered.” Hudson paused to take a deep, shaky breath.
“The reason I ask is because I wanted to know if you might have seen something I missed.”
I smirked, seeing Parker put in his place by Hudson. It didn’t happen often from the rational man, but when it did, he went for the kill.
“Fuck. Sorry, man, I didn’t mean to jump on you like that. I just don’t know how to help her, and we really have no leads on anything that would explain why this happened,” Parker apologized, combing his fingers through his hair.
Not that I would ever admit it aloud, but I agreed with Parker.
We didn’t have much to go on, other than they were after Lailah.
The attack was clearly planned, but our trip had been last minute.
The only people who knew about it lived in the house, and they were all vetted by the Elementi before ever stepping foot in the house.
“We need to do better,” Brayden said, deciding to come out of his shock at failing to be the white knight for once.
Walking over to a cabinet I’d discovered earlier that held the hard liquor, I pulled out a bottle of whiskey and shot glasses.
Plunking them down on the counter, I poured out five shots, took one for myself, and tossed it back.
Parker and Jay grabbed theirs while Brayden and Hudson just looked like I’d grown a third eye.
“Take the shots, you babies. We aren't going to solve this tonight, and we could all use something to take the edge off,” I said, gesturing to the two shots left.
Brayden rolled his eyes at me and drank the shot. Hudson glared at me, crossing his arms and looking at the small glass for a few moments before he huffed and knocked it back. He gasped and sputtered but managed to get the whole thing down and keep it down.
“Alright, so here are my thoughts,” I said, pouring myself another shot.
“Jay, we need you to work with Lailah on how to defend herself. She has the basics, but she needs more skills that are effective against demons. Parker, you need to catalog any demon movement in the area for the past few months. These demons didn’t just show up overnight, and there were way too fucking many of them to go unnoticed. ”
Jay grunted, taking another shot while Parker just glowered at me. “Who died and let the asshole take charge?”
“You saying you don’t want to keep Lailah safe?” I said, baiting him.
“Fucking dickhead, telling me what to do. I’ll show you just how good I am at keeping Lailah safe. Fuckwit doesn’t even know what's coming for him,” Parker mumbled to himself as he poured his shot.
With a flick of my fingers, I lit his shot on fire just as he was going to take it. Yelping, he started blowing at it furiously, trying to put it out before it burned his lips.
“You fucking prick,” Parker growled, taking a step towards me.
Jay held out an arm, stopping him from doing whatever he thought he might be able to do to me.
“Knock it off, you’ll wake Lailah up. She wouldn’t like us fighting,” Jay said, narrowing his eyes at the both of us. When neither of us instigated further, he relaxed slightly. “Micah is right, Parker. We need to know how the demons got here without us noticing. It’s our job to notice.”
“I’ll work on it,” Parker said, through clenched teeth.
Gulping one last shot, I felt it burn all the way down as I pushed away from the counter. “I’ll work on giving her a crash course on demons since that was one of my strongest subjects in training.”
“Because you are one,” Parker jabbed, lamely.
Rolling my eyes, I headed for the stairs, hoping my slight buzz would knock me out and let me sleep dreamlessly tonight. The last thing I needed to do was wake everyone up with my memories, and I had a feeling that what happened today might bring on my nightmares again.