LAILAH
FIVE
"Excuse me!" Dad blurted out. "What did you just say?"
Taking a moment to look at the boys, and the love and encouragement that shone in their eyes, set me at ease.
"I am in a serious and committed relationship with all five of these men.
Brayden, Hudson and I are married, while the other three and I are engaged.
Trust me when I say that I understand how hard it is to wrap your head around this, but believe me when I say this is the easier part to explain. "
"I doubt that," Dad grumbled, crossing his arms glaring at the boys.
"Have any of you heard the term Elementi before?" I asked, hoping and praying that Hudson might be right and they knew something.
Mom froze and gave me a wide eyed look. "What did you just say?"
"Elementi, the warriors fighting against evil since the Knights Templar days," I offered.
"Wait right here and don't say anything important until I come back," Mom instructed as she headed off towards the bedrooms.
Dad also stood and started to pace in front of us. "You mean to tell me that my only daughter is married not once, but twice, and engaged to three other men and NO ONE asked me?"
I felt Brayden flinch beside me as his fear was coming to reality.
"Dad, it's true that I'm bonded for life with these two men and eventually to all of them, but we have not had an actual wedding," I explained, hoping that it might help take the edge off.
Unfortunately, it did not.
"What does that even mean, Lailah? How can you possibly think of being involved with more than one man? It's just not right!" Dad roared.
Micah and Jay stood, blocking me from Dad's view.
"Sir, I understand you are upset, but I'm going to have to ask you not to speak to her in such a way," Jay demanded. "Allow us to explain the whole situation before you cast your judgement on us or your daughter. It is the fair thing to do for your own child."
"What is with all the yelling?" Mom asked as she walked back out.
"Our daughter is sleeping with five different men," Dad stated waving a hand at us. "You telling me you're okay with this?"
Mom gave him a patronizing look, before she walked over to hand me an old tattered book.
"This has been in our family for generations, and I was supposed to give it to you when you turned thirteen, but I didn't see the point.
When I got it, I read the first chapter and never touched the thing again, it's faded and hard to read. "
The worn leather cover had something that was once embossed on it but had since faded.
When I opened it, the pages were weathered and stiff as I flipped through them.
It was a handwritten book and the ink was faded but still legible, although it was written in old English with thees and thous all over the place.
Turning back to the first page, I looked at the name written on the page and almost dropped the book with the shock that I got.
"Mom, why do we have Aiden Ryevick's personal journal and why do we pass it down through the family?" I demanded. "Do you know who he is?!"
"According to your grandmother, he was a very distant relative.
He was the brother of one of our ancestors, but we migrated from Europe in the early nineteen hundreds.
As far as I understand it, there aren't any more by that name living, Aiden never married and his sister took her husband’s name.
Your great aunt was big into family history and did a whole study on our family tree and gave everyone a copy of her findings.
I'm sure I can scrounge it up from wherever I put it," Mom said, frowning deep in thought then shook herself out of it.
"As for why we hand it down through the family, I don't really know, I'm sure I would if I actually read the thing. "
"Sis, you already seem to know who this Ryevick person is," Kyle interjected. "Who is he to you?"
Closing the book, I clutched it to my chest. "For starters he is the founder of my school and a member of the Elementi. As they needed to grow with the times and changes happening in the world, he formed a base of operation for them at the school."
"Hold on, this means that you're related to him—distantly that is," Dylan pointed out. "Doesn't that seem odd to you?"
I shook my head. "No, that actually makes so much more sense when I explain what the Elementi really are."
"Don't tell me there's a cult and you've now gotten sucked into it and that's why you're married to all these men through some hokey mumbo jumbo," Dad grumbled.
"They are not a cult, but it does have something to do with the connection I have with them, yes," I offered.
"Like I mentioned, the Elementi started back during the days of the Knights Templar.
There was a large battle and after that, this group split off from the main faction before the whole thing was dissolved.
These five men were blessed in order to fight a battle that has been waging on right under our noses since the day Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden.
As time went on, the darkness grew and because the angels couldn't fight this darkness, forbidden from interacting, they gifted these brave knights powers to assist them in the battle.
The power they were given was in the form of elements, fire, water, earth, air, spirit or heart if you will.
They traveled where they were needed, fighting off this evil, growing their forces to help them create the Elementi to what it is today.
On that day, the knights were given their blessing and the angels promised that if they stayed true to their mission and pure of heart, a weapon would appear when they needed it most. With this weapon, they would be able to turn the tide of the war and bring it to an end. "
My family looked at me stunned, none of them sure what to make of the story that I'd just told them.
"Horse shit!" Dad spat. "You said that this wasn't a cult, well this sure sounds a hell of a lot like something a cult would say.
Let me guess you are the hidden weapon they've all been waiting for to save the day?
How much money did they want from you? Or was it just enough to sell yourself to five men? "
His words hit right into my heart, making me flinch.
I knew this would be hard for them to understand, it took me months to adjust to it and I had powers and seen demons.
It was true what they say: people fear what they don't understand, and can't believe what they do not see.
I guess I was going to have to give them something to see.
Closing my eyes, I drifted inward to where my powers flowed from.
There was the ball of golden light, reminding me of the sun, with two small orbs of green and blue power circling around it, showing my Bond with Brayden and Hudson.
There were also wisps of silver and purple energy floating around, waiting for me to move past the Oath I'd made with Jay and Parker, sealing it with the Bond.
Even though Micah and I hadn't completed either step, I still could easily reach out to him, pulling on his powers that burned bright just under his skin.
Drawing from each of them, I pulled forth our powers and thrust them out into the air around us.
From the gasps of my family, I knew my plan worked, so I opened my eyes to see all of us glowing and the shadow of our knighted selves shimmering in the air around us like a hologram.
I'd discovered this new level I could unlock on our powers when we battled our first demon conduit Tabitha, the governess for Brayden's siblings.
We'd played around with it some in training but without us all being Bonded it put a strain on me, having to force that much power into them for long periods of time.
"Lailah, are you doing that?" Mom whispered.
I dropped the hold on the boy's powers and let mine swirl around me like shimmering fairy dust. "Yeah Mom, I have the power of synergy. I can give or take from these guys and use it to strengthen them or myself, depending on what's needed in the fight."
Dad looked pale as his eyes flicked over all of us, trying to wrap his head around all this.
"That is wicked cool," Kyle grinned. "Dylan, our sister is a total badass."
"Yeah, I guess you could say she is," he answered, nodding his agreement. "I'm glad I sent Phoebe back to the hotel, not sure how this would have gone over."
Pulling my energy back into my center, I took a deep breath shaking out of my connection to the guy's power.
"Being Synergy, I'm connected to the guys on a level that surpasses anything we can do in a typical relationship.
Our powers are now combined, a piece of them lives in me and vice versa.
It's an Oath given in the presence of an angel and then finished off with a Bonding of our powers, which is why we explain it as being married.
Hudson and Brayden have done both of those things, while Jay and Parker have given their Oath, but I wanted to wait a bit on the forever part. "
"What about him?" Dylan asked, nodding to Micah.
I turned and met Micah's gaze, trying to show him through my eyes how much he meant to me. "We both agreed to take things slow, when you'll end up together forever, there is no rush."
"Do you even like them or did this power you hold pick them out, forcing you into this?" Dad questioned, narrowing his eyes assessing the guys.