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“Yeah,” I say, forcing myself to take another deep breath and calm down. She’s probably asleep. Her magic won’t even materialize if she’s sleeping. I pull out my phone and hit Sacha on speed dial.
“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” I mutter impatiently under my breath while listening to the annoying ring. It goes on and on and on. Why isn’t she answering? I feel my panic rising. I take a deep breath and force myself to calm down once more. I haven’t felt this panicked since the last time Ade and I had to pack up in the night and run from our last home, fleeing not only the town, but the entire country. It doesn’t feel as bad as that, but something isn’t right. I’m seriously on edge. Tense. Scared.
Lumi, it’s okay. She’s fine. They’re both fine.
Sacha would never let anything bad happen to Ade.
There’s no answer. The call cuts out without going to voicemail.
I slip the phone back into my pocket. What to do now? I turn and pause.
Whoa. When did they get so close?
“Hey, sorry, I really need to leave. Sacha isn’t answering and that’s not like her and I just know that something’s wrong! Rain check?”
“We’ll come with you,” Yas states calmly. Tears prick at my eyes. There it is again. Silver Springs community spirit.
“Yeah, I’ll give you a ride home on the bike. It’ll be quickest.”
“Let’s all go together in one vehicle,” Whit states. “I have the Navigator outside and I can get us there as fast as any bike.”
I know I could just shift but there’s something tempting about their offer to help me. I don’t want to say no to them. I don’t want to leave, but I know in my bones that I have to check on Ade, even if I can’t fathom how an SUV could be as swift as a high-performance sports bike.
“Thank you. It’s probably nothing but...yeah. A lift would be great thanks.”
“You already said that, Lumi. No need to thank us. We want to help.” He reaches out to cup my hand in both of his, gently rubbing my skin in a soothing manner. I feel the bond connecting us warming me, calming me. It’s amazing.
We leave our unfinished drinks on the table, I grab my jacket and we head outside. Whit guides us over to his car, which is an absolute beast, and helps me climb into the front seat. The other two guys take the back without complaint.
A sudden deep, booming bark scares the life out of me and I almost jump out of my seat. Spinning around, I see ‘wee’ Peewee stretched out on the very back row of seats.
“You brought your dog on our date?”
“He goes pretty much everywhere with me. You’re lucky it was me who knocked you over at the rink and not him. He loves to follow me out onto the ice.”
I smile because that’s kinda sweet and the dog is absolutely gorgeous with his dark brown wild ‘mane’ of fur. I kind of wish I were sitting in the back now so that I could stroke him.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Whit says, shaking his head.
“What?”
“You were wishing you could sit with Peewee, but you really don’t want to do that.”
Holy crap, does the bond allow us to share thoughts?
“Why not? He’s lovely.”
“He is, but he sheds fur like there’s no tomorrow, and it would ruin that lovely outfit.” It’s silly but I get a little mushy knowing that he likes my outfit. “And Peewee thinks he’s a lap cat, so he’d climb on you and likely crush you. Which would be a mighty shame.”
“Okay.” I laugh, a little tension leaving me as I relax back in my seat and belt up. I can’t believe how at ease he’s made me feel when I was in knots before.
I give Whit directions across town to my house, all the while constantly trying to dial Sacha...but she still doesn’t answer, which just makes my anxiety and fear ratchet back up.
While we’re driving the wind gets up, storm clouds roll in, and with a crack that sounds like the sky is splitting in two, the heavens open. Within minutes visibility is almost down to zero as the rain shifts to hail and lightning illuminates the sky between booms of thunder that shake the ground under us. This storm wasn’t forecast, and it’s certainly come out of nowhere.
Amazingly, there’s hardly any traffic, and true to his word, Whit is able to get us there just as fast as the bike could’ve, despite the unexpected change in the weather.
When we pull up outside the apartment it’s in darkness and the storm is raging stronger than ever. Is it a coincidence or does this seem as if it’s right over our apartment block? The wind is so strong that the trees lining our street appear to be bending in half. Straight away I can tell that something isn’t right. I fish my keys out of my bag. I don’t feel like this is just a simple power outage because of the storm.
This feels like magic.
And not the good kind.
