LAILAH
ELEVEN
The six of us gathered in the middle of the back yard, looking down at three sheets of paper that had symbols drawn on it. "So, all we need to do is mentally draw these around the property?" I asked.
"Do you think you can remember them all? We need to do this in one go," Brayden questioned.
"Thankfully, most of these I've learned, there are just a few new ones but they’re simple enough. Who knew the language of the angels would be so complex?" I sighed. "Alright, let's do this."
I stood in between Hudson and Brayden, since I've been Bonded to them longer and could easily access their powers, then I would draw on the other three.
Things should work easier now that I had a connection to them all, even if it wasn't the full thing.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes centering myself, and sank into the part of me that held my energy.
I couldn't help but smile at the small red orb that had joined the others circling my ball of power.
Drawing on my golden energy, I let it fill my whole body until I felt my skin tingle, like I had an electric current running through me.
Then I brought Bryden's power into the mix followed by Hudson, Micah, Jay, and Parker.
I wondered if this is how a rocket felt right before it was shot off into space, holding that much energy until it was needed.
Letting go of the guys, I brought the first symbol into the front of my mind and drew it out with my Sai.
In my mind, it was swirling with all the colors of our individual powers that I'd collected, when I felt like it was at its peak point in power, I stabbed my Sai into the ground.
The symbol sank into the earth, and I was able to thrust it towards the front of the property, where we'd marked on the map I looked at before we got started.
One down, five more to go to set the foundation.
I repeated the process until they were complete, which meant I was now onto the hard part.
That just set up the perimeter of the barrier.
Now, I had to build the dome to cover the property.
These were the symbols that I wasn't as confident in, but I understood their meaning and Nona always said intent is eighty percent of the work.
I could feel sweat trickling down my back as this task used all the skill that I'd gained in the past six months, which compared to the others, wasn't long at all.
No, I can't think like that. I need to keep the intent pure and focused in my mind. There is no room for doubt or insecurities, I have to keep us safe.
Pushing through the negativity, I started on the chain of symbols that I needed to draw, infusing each of our powers into them one at a time, layering them with the strongest protections we could.
Once I'd done the five elements, it was time for mine to seal the deal and bind them to the ward, creating the dome.
For some reason, I was having trouble with a few of the symbols rejecting my energy with Jay and Parker, which in a way made sense, since we weren't Bonded.
"I need you two to put your hands on either shoulder," I instructed through gritted teeth, knowing they would understand who I was talking about.
Sure enough, as soon as I had physical contact with them the symbols stopped rejecting me.
Now that I had the chain set up, I had to thrust it into the network of the grounding symbols I'd already done.
This is where I would know if I was successful or not, I was hoping so, but we were all prepared for it to fail since it was the first time we'd done this.
The wards back at Ryevick just needed to be recharged, not redone completely, so this was new territory.
Taking a few deep breaths and focusing my mind on the intent of this ward, I slammed my Sai into the ground once more, shoving every ounce of energy I had into making this work.
The ground rumbled and shook under us, as it absorbed the power behind the barrier.
Just when I didn't think I had enough strength to hold it together long enough, it snapped into existence, cutting off my connection to it so abruptly that I slumped to the ground.
"Holy shit," Parker cried.
My eyes snapped open expecting something bad to be happening, but instead, above us was a shimmering rainbow bubble of the barrier.
We'd done it, the wards were activated and functioning just like they should.
I grinned as the shimmering dissipated until it was something that you just caught out of the corner of your eye when you weren't looking at it.
As an Elemental Warrior I could see such things, but to the normal human eye they would have no clue it was even there.
Parker reached down and pulled me to my feet, grabbing me around the waist and swinging me about. "You did it, Trouble! You really fucking did it on the first try."
I laughed at his excitement, wrapping my arms around his neck the best I could with how tired I felt. Giving me a toothy grin, he kissed me deeply before putting me down.
"Sunshine, not only did you do this on the first try, but these are even stronger than the ones back at Ryevick," Hudson pointed out as he ran a hand along the barrier. "Just think what you'll be able to do with a little more time and training."
"Of course our girl is a badass," Micah added with a wink. "Never underestimate the quiet ones, they'll get you every time."
Cami came bursting out into the back yard looking around slightly panicked. "They don't have earthquakes here, right?"
"No silly, why do you ask?" I inquired as I headed over to her.
"What do you mean? Did you not feel the ground doing the jitterbug on a Friday night?" Cami demanded hands on her hips.
I stopped in front of her and frowned. "You felt that?"
"Whoa, are you saying you did that?"
"Maybe, when I finished off the last part of the ward the ground shook, but I didn't think that was something other people could feel. I thought it was more of a power energy thing shifting," I explained.
"Yeah, sorry to break it to you, Lala, but you set off car alarms all over the neighborhood. How much juice did you put into that spell?"
"If I had to guess, this is one of the strongest barriers I've ever seen or heard of," Hudson interjected. "It has to be from combining your power as Synergy right from the foundation."
Cami looked at me wide eyed a moment before she beamed at me. "Get it girl, kicking ass, taking names, and shaking the world up—literally."
"Can I take a nap first? Shaking up the world has kind of taken it out of me."
"Sounds like we need to break in the theater room of the house to me," Cami announced. "What do you think— Magic Mike or Princess Bride?"
Parker marched right up to us hearing her suggestions. "What the hell kind of lesbian are you to want to watch Magic Mike? Doesn't that go against all the rules or something?"
"Just because I don't want to fuck a man doesn't mean I can't appreciate their dance moves," Cami challenged, rolling her eyes. "Besides, seeing you get all worked up about it is just part of the fun."
Before either of them could start an even bigger argument, I grabbed her arm and dragged her into the house. "Why do you always have to pick on them?"
"Lala, we were raised together like siblings. I'm only doing my duty as their adopted little sister."
"Sure you are," I drawled heading to the kitchen. "If we’re doing movies then we need snacks."
Cami and I raided the kitchen, making copious amounts of popcorn and grabbing some drinks, before we made it up to the loft where the movie room was set up. After some trial and error, we figured out how everything worked and discovered a giant wall of movies, hidden behind a curtain, to pick from.
"Holy shit! You're never going to run out of things to watch," Cami laughed. "Alright, I say you pick two and I'll pick two then we close our eyes and pick one."
"Works for me."
It took far longer than I expected to pick out two movies with the options that were available.
I wasn't in the mood for romance, and scary movies were definitely off the table, so that left action and comedy.
Then I spotted one that was a mix of both with awesome actors, Day and Knight.
Then I saw a movie that I hadn't watched in years, that was one of my favorites growing up—Hook.
"Alright I got my two, what did you end up with?" I asked, turning back to Cami.
"Well, it doesn't matter because we are sure as hell watching Hook. Who doesn't love Robin Williams?!" she asked, snatching the movie out of my hand. "Go tell your crew and see if they want to join us."
Wandering over to the railing that looked out over the living room, I yelled, "We're watching Hook if anyone wants to join us."
"Oh, fuck yeah!" Parker cheered.
"Wait, that's the one with Robin Williams, right?" Brayden asked, walking into the living room and looking up at me.
Grinning, I nodded. "Sure is—cult classic if you ask me."
"Yeah, I'm totally down for that, I love that movie. Need us to bring anything up?" he inquired.
"We have popcorn to spare so whatever else you need or want is up to you."
Brayden gave me a thumbs up and hustled off to the kitchen.
"I brought you beef jerky to snack on," Jay stated from where he'd snuck up on me.
Whirling around, I clutched my chest. "Seriously, do you think I'll ever be able to keep track of you?"
"I know a way we can find out," Jay said with a wicked glint in his eye, as he drew me closer to him with a hand on my waist.
"You're not mad that I Bonded with Micah before you, are you?" I murmured, as I held his gaze.
He shook his head, leaning forward so our foreheads touched. "No Beautiful, our time will come when it's supposed to. I'm not worried. He needs you more than the rest of us do in some ways, that's why he fought it so long."
Tilting my head back, I kissed him, letting my lips linger against his. "I love you Jaylen Ming, never doubt that for a second."
A look of amazement flickered in Jay's expression before he gave me one of the first full blown real smiles I've seen from him. "I love you too, Lailah Mackenzie."
"Let's go watch a movie hmm," I suggested, grabbing his hand off my waist and interlacing our fingers. "Oh, and hand over the jerky that sounds amazing."
We all ended up watching the movie together chanting, Rufio, along with the lost boys and yelling curses at Hook before Peter learned to fly so he could save his kids.
When that one was done, the guys all picked out a movie and we voted, ending up with Brayden's choice of Bourne Identity, which evolved into us wanting to watch the whole series, taking up most of the day.
Just as we were talking about whether to count Bourne Legacy as part of the series, my phone rang.
Looking down I saw it was Dylan, I'd texted him about dinner earlier in the day and didn't hear back from him, so I assumed he wasn't interested.
"Hey sis, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, Phoebe and I have been running around helping mom out by taking Kyle to all his things," Dylan explained. "If you still want to do dinner at Percy's we’re starving."
I glanced at the time on my phone real quick, having lost track of time. "Yeah, we can totally meet up, why don't we say six-thirty, that way we have time to get there."
"Awesome, we'll see you there," Dylan said before hanging up.
The guys and Cami watched me questioningly. "Anybody up for dinner at my parents’ place?"
"Ah food is involved, of course your boys are interested," Cami laughed when everyone gave their agreement.
"I can't believe it's already six and we didn't even notice," I mused, grabbing my empty popcorn bowl and tossing in other snack wrappers. "We have a car that can fit all of us, right?"
"Trouble, we got two for a reason just to make sure we could all travel together, but I think we can all fit in the SUV just fine," Parker answered, following me down to the kitchen.
Setting my things on the counter, I turned to face him with a smirk on my face. "Dare I ask what kind of vehicles you guys picked?"
"A little faith in us would be nice," Parker scoffed. "We did pick out this house without your help, but we weren't sure if it should be two cars or three. Guess if it turns out we need a third you get to pick it out, sound fair?"
"I highly doubt we will need three cars for a vacation home," I answered, scrunching up my face in dismay.
Jay walked into the kitchen with a set of keys in his hand twirling them around his finger. "Ready?"
"Just need to get my shoes, Cami's going to be the wild card here," I commented.
"Lala, I know you did not just say that I'm high maintenance!" Cami gasped, clutching her chest. "Clearly you need to spend more time with Maggs, I love that woman to death, but damn."
Laughing, I pulled Cami into a hug. "I didn't mean anything by it, and you know I enjoy Maggs. I hope it works out for the two of you to come back and visit us while we’re here."
"Yeah, she would love that," Cami sighed, then shoved me away. "Go get your shoes, you're holding everyone up."
I flew up the stairs, slipped on my shoes and headed back down, just as everyone was walking out to the garage.
When the door lifted there were two brand new cars: a pearl colored Mercedes SUV and a sleek black Audi sedan.
My jaw dropped, yet again blown away by the fact that they could spend this much money like it was nothing, hell just one of them could do it alone and not feel bothered by it.
"We're taking the Mercedes," Jay informed me, as he took two fingers to lift my jaw, closing my mouth. "Don't want you catching any bugs now, would we."