Chapter 5
“Are you sure you feel up for this?” Dash asked as I pulled a sweatshirt over my head.
“I feel fine, promise.”
It was true. At least physically. I’d been tired today, but that was it. No pain. No signs of injury.
How I felt emotionally was another ball game altogether. After Saoirse’s warning about hiding my Phoenix mark, she’d muttered something about having work to do and disappeared. The guys had clammed up, saying I’d had enough for one day.
Dash had already put on a movie, pulling me back to bed, while the rest of the guys had vanished. Any time I’d tried to ask a question, he’d dodged. Finally, I’d given up. But I’d had enough of laying around for one day.
Dash grabbed the hem of my sweatshirt and tugged me toward him. “We could just go back to bed.”
I pinned him with a stare. “I’d take you up on that if I thought any fun would happen there.”
He gave me a gentle smile as he brushed my red locks away from my face. “You’re still healing. You need time.”
“Dash, I’m completely healed. Whatever crazy magic happened, it obviously completely healed me from the inside out. It just left behind marks you refuse to talk about.”
He sighed and wrapped an arm around me, leading me out of the closet. “Fine, let’s go to dinner.”
I grumbled something under my breath about overbearing secret keepers.
Dash just dropped a kiss to the top of my head as he guided me toward the stairs.
As we made our way down, I could hear muted voices coming from the dining room. The moment we reached the space, all talking ceased and four pairs of eyes snapped to me.
“You should still be in bed,” Colt chided.
A flicker of anger lit somewhere deep. “I’m not an invalid.”
Ronan’s brows lifted. “Apparently, our firecracker has had enough R&R time.”
I glared at him. “I’ve had enough of zero information. I thought we were past that.”
“She’s right,” Trace said, his voice emotionless. “She deserves to know what’s going on. It’s her life.”
There was one thing I could always count on Trace for and that was telling me the truth, even if that truth was terrifying.
“Sit,” Colt said.
I lowered myself to my typical chair between him and Dash. There was a Mediterranean feast laid out on the table. Homemade hummus and pita. Falafel. Some sort of chicken dish. A cucumber salad.
My stomach rumbled, but the last thing I wanted was food. Answers were my only priority.
Dash took my plate and began loading it up, but I stared at Colt.
He swallowed. “None of us have ever met a phoenix marked. We saw the wings when we got you out of your wet clothes but didn’t know what they meant.”
“What is a phoenix marked? What does it mean?” I pressed.
“Like Saoirse said, it’s someone who has come back from the brink of death,” Declan said. “That can unlock a new level of power in them.”
I worried the corner of my lip. “That doesn’t sound bad.”
The guys shared a look.
“What?” I snapped, hating that they knew so much more than I did.
“Many times, that power can be unstable, hard to control,” Ronan explained.
I searched his face. “Unstable how?”
He paused for a moment, as if choosing his words carefully. “With immense power comes challenges. It’s going to take a lot to learn to wield it.”
Anxiety pricked at my belly. “I could hurt someone?”
“It’s a possibility,” Ronan admitted.
Dash squeezed my thigh as he set my plate in front of me. “It’ll just take time. We’ll help you learn.”
Colt studied me for a moment. “Now that we’ve mate bonded, you’ll begin to gain some of our powers. You’ll get more when we anchor bond. The phoenix mark will only strengthen those. You’ll need to work with each of us to harness whatever manifests.”
I swallowed, trying to clear the tightness in my throat. “I can do that. I’ll work hard. I promise. I’ll do whatever I can to learn. To make sure I keep everyone safe.”
Colt reached out, his hand covering mine. “We know. It’s going to be okay. We just need to be careful right now. Avoid heightened emotions or threats that could activate your magic.”
A laugh bubbled out of me. Then another and another. Before I knew it, I was in hysterics.
“Is she having a breakdown?” Trace muttered.
Ronan smacked him. “Shut up.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, wiping away the tears from laughing so hard.
“Avoid heightened emotions? We literally are under the threat of death. There is a crazy-ass vampire stalking me, vicious mean girls at school, and a psycho dragon and a vampire king who hate us. How exactly am I supposed to avoid heightened emotions?”
Declan’s lips twitched. “Get really good at meditation?”
The entire table dissolved into laughter at that. And God, did we need it. It was like that magical valve that allowed us to release a bit of that tension.
Ronan met my gaze from across the table. “We’ll figure it out. We just need to take it one day at a time.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Right now, you need to eat,” Dash said, shoving my plate closer.
I grinned at him. “Scared if I get hangry I might blow us all up?”
He snorted. “It’s a fair concern.”
I picked up a piece of pita and bit into it, moaning. “This is amazing.”
My eyes lifted to find five hooded gazes locking with mine. A phantom energy swirled in the air. Want. Need. A feral lust.
My core tightened as my breaths came quicker.
“We need to rein it in,” Colt gritted out.
But I didn’t want to. The need I had for all of them was too great, nearly swallowing me whole.
“I can’t,” I croaked.
I pushed from my chair, not knowing what I was even moving to do, but as I did, purple fire burst from my hands, heading straight across the table at Trace and Ronan.
“No!” I shouted. But it was too late.