LAILAH
TWENTY-SIX
Jay followed me up to the bathroom, and joined me in the shower, since we both needed to clean up from our adventure in the woods. He kept his hands to himself for the most part, since he could clearly read that I was more focused on our next steps.
"Do you want to tell me why you really wanted the name of the lawyer?" he asked eventually, as we dried off.
Pausing I took a moment to consider whether I should tell him or not since it wasn't my story to tell, I said, "If we want to go with the plan to get Micah's aunt here to the states, I feel that he will be useful to us with other information I know.
I'm not purposefully trying to be cryptic, I just don't want to say more than I should without his permission. "
"I understand and respect that," Jay said as he headed into the bedroom where his duffle bag now was. "You keep secrets for all of us in one way or another, but I trust you to tell me if it was something I needed to know."
I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned my head against his still bare chest as he held me tightly to him. "Tell me we can really do this, that we can end this, and I won't have to keep losing parts of myself for nothing."
At the feeling of another person walking up behind me, I tensed but then I felt Hudson reach out to me through our connection, setting me at ease.
He kissed the back of my neck as he pressed against me, so I was cocooned between them.
"Sunshine, I know that at the end of all of this we will come out on top.
Everything we have all suffered through will have been for a reason and we will finish this once and for all. "
"How can you be so confident?" I questioned. "I have no idea how we’re going to manage everything I promised to my brother. The more I look at things, the more lost I’m feeling; like my hands are tied behind my back with nowhere to go."
Jay pulled back enough to lift my chin, so I was looking him in the eye.
"Fear is nothing more than a weapon to keep us from doing what we must. It blinds us to things that could be staring us right in the face because we are already accepting the fact we'll fail.
It takes true courage to throw off that fear and take a step forward, even if you can't see the way out. "
"Together, with all our minds and skills, we will find the answer," Hudson agreed.
"Can we do this with one of us missing?" I challenged, knowing that without Parker we were vulnerable.
Hudson rested his head on my shoulder, pressing his lips to my skin in comfort before he spoke.
"Even if we had Parker with us right now, he wouldn't be of any use to us.
This is something he needs to work through and learn about himself, no matter how we wish we could help him.
If he can't trust himself, then how can he expect you to? "
"I know that is super logical and smart Hudson, but it doesn't make it any easier," I huffed as I pulled out of their arms to get dressed.
"Trust me, Sunshine, I know," he sighed. "Because he'll have to prove to us, as well as you, that he won't do something that fucked up again."
That was the part of this that I hadn't really thought through much. Parker broke their trust as much as mine by doing what he did and putting me in danger—the one thing they might not be able to forgive. Pushing aside that problem, I focused on what we needed to do now.
"Jay, do you mind reaching out to the Chicago hub and letting them know we're coming?" I asked. "It might be smart for us to pack a few things to take as well. I won't return back here and look my family in the eye unless we've finished this."
"Of course, Beautiful I can do that," Jay answered.
"Want me to help you pack some things for the other two?" Hudson offered. "It might be just as easy to do it now than wait for when they come back."
"Guys only need a clean pair of boxers and a shirt right?" I teased grinning over at him where he was digging through his own luggage.
"That might work for some, but I prefer to have a whole new set of clean clothes to change into, otherwise I just feel dirty," Hudson shared, setting a few sets of clothes to the side.
Walking over to him I kissed him on the cheek. "Why doesn't that shock me? Did you grab things out of the other two bathrooms?"
Shocking the hell out of me, Hudson smacked me on the ass, making me yelp as I headed to the door. "Not yet, while you're at it you should switch out the towels—wouldn't want to have the in-laws using dirty ones."
"What a considerate husband you are, even if you like to play dangerously at times," I commented, narrowing my gaze at him while rubbing my butt cheek that smarted.
He just smiled and gave me a wink, before turning back to continue what he was doing.
Rolling my eyes, I headed to the bathroom in the hall that Parker and Jay had been using, only to find Parker's things had been cleared out.
Rationally, I knew the others wouldn't let him back in the house and I told him to give me space, but this was irrefutable evidence that he was well and truly removed from this home.
Shaking myself out of the darkness I was spiraling towards, I collected Jay's thing and headed for the other bathroom Micah and Brayden used that was shared between the two rooms they had claimed when we first got here.
Cami had the second master bedroom that had its own bathroom, which worked out perfectly.
Tossing everything I gathered into the bag that Hudson was packing, I paused when I caught them both watching me with cautious expressions. "What?"
"We know you noticed Parker's things are gone," Hudson ventured. "More so, that it upset you… should we not have made him leave?"
Shaking my head and letting my shoulders slump, I sat on the bed.
"Seeing as I told him to give me time and leave me alone, it was the only option.
There is no way that he could have stayed here.
It would have hurt too much to see him every day, just seeing him now was almost too much.
Especially after talking with Lilith, it caught me off guard. "
"What the fuck!" Jay roared, marching over to me. "You’re just telling us this now?"
Flopping back onto the bed I groaned, rubbing my face with my hands.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to hide it, I promise.
Everything just happened all at once. She showed up to basically threaten me directly about the same thing the Dark Lord wants, then Parker showed up, and we went for our walk in the woods which led to Bonding. Where was I supposed to fit that in?"
Clearly not happy with my answer, Jay decided to straddle me so we were face to face.
"Lailah, that is the first thing that should have come out of your mouth when I picked you up," Jay growled.
"I took us to a secluded place and made us both vulnerable.
What if she had attacked us and stolen you away from me? "
"Obviously, I wasn't thinking," I snapped back at him, pissed that I knew he had every right to be mad. "I just wanted to forget everything that happened and enjoy a moment with you—is that so wrong?"
"Yes, when it puts you in danger," Jay stated.
I could feel his panic at the thought of me being taken from him and the turmoil that was churning through his emotions.
"Lailah, you can't keep doing this to me.
I know you're hurting and avoidance seems the perfect answer, but not at the cost of your own life.
It would ruin us, all of us, if we lost you. Don't you get it?"
Hudson walked up behind Jay and placed a hand on his back, causing him to sit up and roll off me, allowing Hudson to sit on the other side of me. "What else happened?"
"That's the odd part, she left when Parker showed up, not willing to be seen by him or anyone else," I answered, sitting up and crossing my legs.
"She did say that she thought Phoebe would last less than a week, even if she was perfect in every other way.
I took a chance and threatened Mozog, but she just laughed it off telling me that it wasn't wise to threaten something I too could lose. "
"It would seem she wasn't supposed to be approaching you on her own, makes me wonder how weak she really is in a normal human," Hudson mused. "Her threat seems to be more of an eye for an eye situation so I can understand why you want them here when both Lilith and the Dark Lord are after them."
The sound of people returning clued us into the fact that everyone was back.
"Can we talk about this more in the car? We do have a two hour drive to get to Chicago," I requested.
They both nodded in agreement and they left the room. Jay grabbed the bag with all our stuff in it, caught my hand, and quickly followed the others. Gathering once more in the living room, I gave each of my family members a hug and held them as tightly as I could.
"This house is yours to use as you like. Food is stocked, there’s a movie room upstairs, bathrooms have been cleared out, oh and all the rooms but mine and Cami's are open to use," I explained.
"I don't know how long we’ll be gone but I'll make sure that Cami is kept in the loop if we can't update you ourselves.
I love you guys and I'm doing everything I can to end this as quickly as I can. "
"We love you too, Ladybug, be safe and come back to us as quickly as you can," Mom said, giving me one more hug and a kiss on the forehead.
Then Dad grabbed my shoulders and looked me right in the eye. "You give 'em hell, you hear me?"
"Oh I will," I assured him. "Be safe Dad, promise me you won't leave here until I tell you it's safe to do so."
"All right baby girl, we'll stay here in your cushy mansion safe and sound," Dad promised.
Brayden came up and took my hand, leading me out of the house, knowing it would be too hard for me to do it on my own.
Out of all the men in my life, he understood my connection to my family the best but I was learning that each of them had a special connection to me, in one way or another, that the others didn't. We all piled into the car and headed out for Chicago, where the Elementi hub was waiting for us with all the various reports and things that Jay rattled off to them.
"Do you want to stop for food?" Brayden asked me.
"Am I allowed to say no?" I asked in a teasing tone.
"No," Jay and Micah both said at the same time.
That got a chuckle out of me. "Yeah, I didn't think so, if you guys want to stop along the way I'm fine, otherwise we can eat in Evanston."
"I think it would be better for us to get closer to the hub than to risk stopping out here in the open," Jay reasoned.
"Are we worried about getting caught in the open?" Micah asked, turning to look at me from the front seat.
The bastard set me up with that comment so I would have to tell them about Lilith. "I might have had a visit from the Mother of All."
"What the actual fuck," Micah exclaimed, almost leaping out of his seat to shake me. "How are we just hearing about this now?"
Letting out a heavy sigh, I leaned back in my seat staring up at the roof of the car preparing to repeat myself.
"All she wanted was to talk and taunt me in Phoebe's body.
She took great delight in telling me that Phoebe was evil and even then, wouldn't last her a week with how weak she was, being a human.
She wanted to follow the Dark Lord's plan and use me as her human suit. "
"And what, she just let you walk away?" Micah sneered.
Sitting up, I opened my mouth to yell at him, but instead I just screamed at a massive truck that came around a blind corner slamming into the front of the SUV sending us rolling into a corn field.
The world was a blur of yelling, crunching metal, glass shattering, and getting slammed into the side of the car so hard I was knocked out cold.