LAILAH
EIGHT
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” Micah demanded, his furious voice echoing in my ears, giving me the first sign to tell me that I was back.
Groaning, I shifted onto my back, bringing a hand up to my neck. The moment I touched it, I hissed in pain, making it clear that the Dark Lord had left his mark and proof that everything that just happened was real.
“Parker,” I whispered, barely loud enough to be heard over the yelling.
“Guys, shut the fuck up. She’s trying to say something,” Brayden cut in as the bed dipped beside me. “Angel, what the hell happened to your neck?” He gasped and reached out as if he was going to touch it but stopped himself.
I licked my lips and swallowed but it was so painful.
Rolling my head to the side, I found Parker pinned to the bedroom wall by Jay, with a pissed-off Micah standing in front of him as if he was blocking the sight of him from me.
I locked eyes with Parker, begging him to answer the question so I didn’t have to.
“The Dark Lord tried to kill her in her sleep,” Parker stated, fury blazing in his eyes. “The fucker put up a barrier to keep you guys out, making sure you didn’t have a clue what was happening.”
Jay dropped Parker and turned to me; his gray eyes wild with fear. “Is he telling the truth?”
I nodded my head before croaking out an answer. “Yes, he saved my life.”
“Care to explain how the hell you knew what was happening? I’m going to need that house key from you before you leave as well if you’re going to pull shit like this,” Micah growled.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought saving the life of the woman we all love was a good enough excuse for my actions. Next time, when I can’t get there in time, you’ll be the reason she’s dead in bed next to you. Hope that’s okay with you,” Parker snarled.
The whole situation was devolving, and I needed to put a stop to it.
Sitting up, the sheet fell away from me, exposing my naked body, forgetting that Hudson and I didn’t bother to put anything on before getting in bed.
Although it wasn’t what I had planned, it did the trick as all my guys froze, laser focused on my bare breasts.
Rolling my eyes, I let out a huff, which got Hudson moving, flashing the guys all his goods as he went into the bathroom and appeared wearing a robe and offering me mine.
Then he returned to the bathroom, only to return with a glass of water, which helped ever so slightly with speaking.
“Stop, please,” I managed to say clearly enough. “Fighting is what he wants and we can’t let him win.”
“Cookie Monster, I know you believe we can’t do this without this fucknugget but I know we can,” Micah challenged.
Shaking my head, I continued, “What happened tonight proves that’s not true.
If he hadn’t come for me, I would have died.
I was already on the verge of passing out as it was.
No, we can’t do this without him. I’m certain of it now.
” Exhausted from the encounter, I sagged against Hudson who was sitting beside me.
“The Dark Lord is who’s been sending me the nightmares.
He wanted me tired and off my game and it worked. ”
“Sunshine, we’re all under a massive amount of stress. Don’t let the Dark Lord fill you with fear,” Hudson cautioned.
Anger spiked through me at his cavalier take on this, causing me to shoot to my feet.
“You don’t get it! I almost died next to you in my sleep, with no one around to help me!
” The shock and hurt on Hudson’s face told me I’d gone too far but none of them besides Parker was understanding how screwed we were.
“Parker has to stay at the house from now on. I don’t give a shit what any of you think about this.
It’s my life that hangs in the balance if something goes wrong.
He’s the only one who can get to me if I ever need him again. ”
Brayden was the first of them to approach me, taking my hands in his and lifting them to his lips.
“All we want is for you to be safe, Lailah. If that means Parker stays in the house then that’s what will happen.
You come first, no matter what. Seeing the marks on your neck has left us all a little shaken, knowing you got hurt under our watch.
I’m sorry that we forgot to consider your feelings in our panic. ”
This was the magic of Brayden. He was my rock, the man who kept me grounded in reality.
“I’m sorry too.” I turned back to Hudson who was still sitting on the bed, trying to hide his feelings.
“Hudson, I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.
You didn’t deserve that from me. Just… when I didn’t think this whole thing could get worse, it did, and I lashed out at all of you.
” I pulled away from Brayden and kissed Hudson tenderly, putting all my feelings for him into it.
The one thing Hudson always struggled with was arguing.
Any kind of yelling from me reminded him of his stepmother.
“Thank you for your apology. I shouldn’t have brushed off your feelings either. None of us responded well in the heat of the moment.” Hudson sighed, resting his head against mine. “But as Brayden said, if Parker needs to be back in the house then he can stay in the guestroom on the first floor.”
“Wasn’t there a loft over the garage?” Micah muttered.
“For tonight, let’s just have him on the first floor.
We’ll figure out a more thought-out situation for all of us when we aren’t all on high alert,” Brayden suggested as he climbed into my bed.
“Sorry, Angel, I know Hudson wanted a night with just you, but I won’t be able to sleep if I can’t hear you breathing. ”
I wasn’t going to argue with him, feeling the need to have them all close.
Before getting back into bed, I pulled on sleep shorts and a t-shirt that read Nope.
Not today. I felt it was fitting and the need for any and all comforts was welcome right now.
Parker left the room and I curled up with my four guys joining me in bed.
It made me the center of the puppy pile, giving them a sense of purpose as they protected me from anything else that might show up in the night.
The chances of the Dark Lord pulling the same trick twice seemed unlikely, but it took me a long time to fall back asleep.
The rest of the night was uneventful but as we all gathered around the kitchen, it was a tense atmosphere as the guys watched the coffee maker work.
When the whistle of the kettle blew, it made everyone jump, and I almost dropped the mug I was holding, waiting for the water.
Taking a shaky breath, I set the mug aside and turned off the burner, cutting off the sound and setting us all at ease.
“Looks like my PTSD is rubbing off on all of you,” I muttered.
No one responded to my comment as the coffee maker beeped and they passed it around as if it had some magical power to cure all evil.
“I was thinking,” Hudson said, breaking the silence first. “We should reach out to Nona and see if she has any thoughts on a way to protect you while you’re sleeping. We can make barriers for places. Why can’t we create one for the mind?”
“Man, that’s a smart idea,” Brayden agreed, perking up a bit then just as quickly it faded. “Wouldn’t she have said something before about it?”
“No, we thought the dreams were part of her trauma. But now that we know they’re being sent to her, it changes things,” Hudson countered.
“Yes, the Dark Lord has slipped into her mind before. We’ve all seen it, but that was before she was bound to most of us.
That has to offer more protection, right? ”
I hopped up on the counter, bobbing my tea bag as I thought over the idea. “It’s worth asking. No one has had to deal with this, so it could be as simple as not having thought to look for a solution. I’ll call her later today. Right now, I’m just not up for dealing with her analytical inquisition.”
Jay walked up to me, settling his hands on my thighs and pinning me to the counter. “Tell me the truth. How are you feeling right now?”
Giving Jay a sad smile, I set my mug down and wrapped my arms around his neck, just wanting to be held for a moment.
He responded immediately, caging me in with his body as if he could stop the whole world from getting to me.
“I’m alive, pissed off, and ready for all this to be over.
It needs to stop, Jay. I can’t keep gluing myself back together each time the Dark Lord decides to come and rip me apart.
One of these times, I won’t be able to do it and I’ll be left a husk of what I once was. ”
“I will never let that happen, Beautiful. Even if I have to put you back together myself. It kills me to see you like this, knowing I can’t find them and bring you their heads on a platter like you deserve.
This is the first time I’ve failed everyone I love.
It doesn’t sit well with me,” Jay shared, baring his heart to me.
“If I can’t fix you at the end of this, then we’ll be broken together. ”
Fisting a hand in my hair, he pulled my head up and seared his lips to mine, trapping me in a kiss that was harsh.
His emotions bled through to me as we kissed, showing me what he hid from everyone else—he was terrified of losing everything.
While I was the one the Dark Lord was targeting, the others were dealing with pain of their own in all this.
None of us would leave this battle unscathed by the demons we fought against. We would need each other to pick up the pieces along the way.
Breaking the kiss, I gasped for air as we both just clung to each other, sharing the burden we both carried.
“Something needs to change. We’ve been on the defensive, reacting to whatever they throw at us,” I whispered. “I think it’s about time we take the battle to them, don’t you?”
“Couldn’t have said it better, Beautiful,” Jay answered, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“I think it’s time my father and I had another chat as well.
He is a member of the Elementi even if he runs his own military.
We’re going to need all the help we can get and he owes it to my mother to show up, no matter what we find. ”
“Lailah,” Parker called out from somewhere in the house.
Pulling back from Jay, I saw him enter the kitchen with papers in his hands. When he looked up and saw the situation he froze and started to leave. “I’ll come back—”
“What did you need?” I asked as Jay shifted to lean on the counter next to me.
Parker hesitated then decided to take me at my word. “These bank statements you went through last night for Aplite, why did you highlight these five? I can’t see the connection to them or anything else we’ve been looking into.”
“That’s why I highlighted them,” I answered with a shrug.
“Everything else made sense, but why in the world would you need to order that much copy paper, or napkins for a business that we aren’t even sure has a building?
I ran the program you set up for me to input the account numbers too and they were all supply companies.
When I looked up the websites, it was all office goods.
When I matched the invoices to the vendor, they came up with, a company in South Africa.
Clearly, paper goods weren't what they ordered, but I didn’t know how to dig any deeper than that. ”
Parker’s eyes went wide as he rushed forward to hug me, making Jay grunt as he got shoved into the counter. “You did it, Trouble! Holy shit, you found the breadcrumb we needed to bust this wide open!”
I patted him on the back, loving the fact I was getting a hug from him since he gave the best hugs ever, but flinching at the use of his nickname for me. I’d told him he couldn’t use that anymore. It hurt too much to hear, knowing we didn’t have that relationship at the moment.
“Care to share with the rest of the class what’s happening?” Brayden asked, as Parker released me and took a few steps back.
He waved the sheets at them, barely able to keep still. “When I couldn’t figure out the connection I looked up the vendor myself. This company is in South Africa and I would bet my left nut that it supplies their base of operations.”
“I don’t follow,” Jay commented, frowning.
“This company doesn’t ship anything outside the country or outside the southern half of the continent.
It gives us a location to start with! Now we can fly to South Africa and get a meeting with someone in the company.
We can get them to tell us what they really sent them and where.
This is the break we needed, and we almost missed it because we were looking for something more obscure.
Since no one has really looked into this company before, they wouldn’t know they don’t have a brick-and-mortar place of business, so even on taxes and things, they would assume to have office supplies accounted for.
Lailah is a fucking genius and put it all together even if she didn’t realize it! ”
“So we’re going to South Africa?” Micah asked as if he didn’t really believe what Parker was saying.
“Cape Town to be exact,” Parker answered with a grin.
Micah nodded and hobbled his way out of the kitchen. “I’ll get the plane ready for us to leave tomorrow.”
I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Finally, we had enough to make a move.
Once we had whatever information we could get from this company, it was time to bring the fight right to the Dark Lord’s doorstep.
The Elementi have been waiting for this day for centuries and it was time to see what they were made of.