by Laura Wylde
“Felicia?” I turned to look at her, to ask what she wanted to do, but she had already crashed. I guess the day had stripped her bare of all her energy, so she had nothing left. “Oh.”
“I think she has the best plan,” Joshua chuckled as he climbed in to bed beside her. Honestly, where the hell did that guy get all of his confidence from? “I am desperate to get some shut eye myself because we don’t know what tomorrow will hold. We might have to be up at the crack of dawn if that’s what the professors want us to do.”
“Joshua!” I exclaimed as I stared at him in shock. Sure, he was keeping a respectable distance from Felicia, but it was still a little too much for me. I didn’t know how to take it. “You can’t sleep there!”
“Why not?” He shrugged his shoulders. “Where else are we going to sleep?”
“I…” I didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know, but we can’t, can we?”
“Why not?” Trent seemed to agree with him. “I don’t see what else we can do. We need to sleep.”
He climbed in on the other side of Joshua and rested his head on the sheets with ease. How could he just do that? Without worrying at all? I mean, out of everyone, he knew how I felt about Felicia more than anyone else and he was climbing in to bed with her. He had to think that was normal, which was confusing.
I stared at Andrew, silently daring him to do the same as the other two. He got in the bed as well, which left me standing at the side of the bed like an idiot. I really needed to get the hell over myself. Luckily, there was a space next to Felicia still, which gave me the chance to get close to her.
My heart hammered in my chest, it pounded heavily as I forced myself under the sheets and pulled myself closer to her. I could feel the heat of her body against mine. I was a mess, a bag of anxiety, but it also felt nice. Being this near to Felicia was all that I had ever wanted. I already knew that I wasn’t ever going to fall for anyone else like I had for her but being this close to her all the time simply deepened my feelings. I couldn’t help but believe that this trip was going to have to end with a shift in our feelings, one way or another. I just hoped that it worked in my favor or it might crush me. One thing was for sure, I wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight…
“Evan?” I stirred at the sound of my name. I didn’t fully wake up because I was in the middle of the most magical dream ever, I felt incredible, this was the nicest sleep that I had experienced in a very long time and I didn’t want to drag myself out of it. “Evan, are you awake?”
“Huh? Nurgh?” The voice sounded like it was coming from within my dreams, but there was sense of urgency to it, which dragged me back in to the room. I was also very warm, which was a nice change…
“I need you to move,” Felicia continued. “Because I have to get up and you are kinda pinning me down.”
That was the moment I bolted upright because I realized the warmth was coming from her. I was hugging her, at some point during the dark hours, I had fallen asleep, and my subconscious had made me pull her to me like a freaking magnet. I couldn’t seem to stop myself from clinging to her like a limpet to a rock.
“Oh God, sorry,” I murmured awkwardly. “I didn’t realize. I was sleeping. I didn’t…”
“It’s okay, don’t worry.” She slipped down on the bed and got out, causing my eyes to dart around at the other guys, see them awkwardly looking away. They obviously knew that I had been hugging Felicia, which made me feel awkward. Now the others were going to be suspicious about my feelings. “We need to dress. Trent has been contacted by the academy and they’ve asked us to go to Stonehenge. There might well be something there that we need to see and it’s quite a long journey, so we should get started as soon as possible.”
“Stonehenge?” I rubbed my eyes hard. “You mean those standing stones? They are magical, aren’t they?”
“Exactly.” She grabbed a pile of her clothes and swept in to the bathroom. “So, we need to be there to check it out. We need to get there quickly and figure out if there are hell hounds there as well.”
All of this seemed to be a bit quick. But I suppose that was what had to be done. We weren’t here on a vacation, we were on a mission. A mission that we needed to complete.
“Okay, guys,” I said in my gruffest tone as soon as Felicia had closed the bathroom door behind her and blocked out any sound. I needed to grapple with the others to get my alpha position back and quickly. I couldn’t let the vulnerability of my feelings get to me. “I guess we need to get a move on as soon as possible, doesn’t it?”
“Definitely,” Trent agreed, “And we need to pack up too, because we have another hotel room there. The academy has booked us one in the Stonehenge area, so I guess we might be there for a while.”
Another one like this probably, if it had been booked by the academy. Were they really trying to push this? To see if we could become a harem because that felt utterly wild to me. Not only were we different shifter species, but we were also completely different people with nothing in common. I knew that there was the saying that ‘opposites attract’ but that seemed crazy. We were too different, different on another level. I mean, especially Andrew and I were never going to get along, were we?
But if it meant that I could share a bed with Felicia again then I was all for it. Sleeping with her was incredible. Even better than I imagined it could be. It simple confirmed that she was the one for me. I needed to claim her, I so wanted to have her as my own. My love for her was growing even more by the moment.
“We can’t see anything,” Felicia complained. “It’s impossible. There are too many tourists here. This is so annoying; I can’t stand it. We came here for a reason and I want to get started already.”
I resisted the urge to chuckle at her complaining, I wasn’t ready to be on the receiving end of her fiery temper.
Stonehenge was an incredible tourist attraction which drew crowds from the magical and non magical communities alike. It was impossible to be near it without feeling the spiritual air around it. Since it had been around for millions of years, no one was exactly sure how long, there were many rumors of how it had arrived, but there was one thing that everyone could agree on… that it had been created with good intentions. There wasn’t any bad magic here. It was a place of harmony and happiness, a place where people could come together and be who they wanted to be.
But that didn’t mean the demons couldn’t use the structure for whatever their plan was. I couldn’t help but wonder if the academy knew more than they were letting on, because they seemed to continually send us in the right direction, but they hadn’t given us anything else to do other than scout out locations. If they knew then, there I’m sure there’s a reason why they hadn’t told us yet. I just hoped it was a good one, not just because the teachers wanted to test our limits, to see how far we could go. I liked to believe that I was capable of absolutely anything in the world but now that the time had come and I was facing a challenge, with other people relying on me, I wasn’t sure sop sure if I could. I didn’t want Felicia to see any sign of weakness from me, because I was positive she wouldn’t want me then!
“We will have to come back at night,” Andrew declared in his tone that I used to find superior and condescending, but now was starting to see that that was just his way of being decisive. “When it’s empty we can take a proper look. It won’t be easy in the night, but we have already found that’s much easier for us, haven’t we?”
“Should we go to the hotel?” Trent asked. “Drop off our stuff and come back later? It will be much easier for us to track things if we don’t have a heavy load with us. We will be nimbler without our bags.”
Everyone nodded and agreed with Andrew, so I felt the need to do the same. I wasn’t particularly comfortable with the idea of us all being cramped in a room together, with all of that tension flying around again, but I didn’t see what choice we had. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad after all…
Oh, but it was. It was bad, really bad. I couldn’t stand it. A
gain, the bed was huge, but the room was smaller which cramped us in to a much tighter space, bringing us all much closer together. We were practically tripping over one another which was something of a nightmare. Especially for me. I was feeling constricted in my own feelings anyway, so this added pressure was too much for me. I felt like I was going out of my mind.
“I’m going to take a run,” I finally announced, so quickly it was like letting out a breath of air. “Scout the area. I don’t like just hanging around here, not doing much. I need to take action.” Shit, I wasn’t sure if I should have said that. It made it sound like the others weren’t doing anything, which wasn’t how I meant it at all. “I just need to shift, to switch in to my wolf form and stretch out a bit as well. You know how it calms me down.”
Felicia was the one who nodded first because she did understand it more than anyone else. “Are you going to be okay alone or would you like someone to go with you? We don’t know what’s out there…”
“I’ll be fine by myself, thank you.” I smiled thinly. “I won’t be long; I just need a break.”
It felt like I was breaking free as I burst out of the hotel room, then my lungs freed up even more as I got outside. Luckily, we were near some woodlands which gave me plenty of space to shift in to my animal form, and I raced through the trees and bushes, allowing my mind to drift and my animal instincts to take over. It was easier to think about survival and burning off energy than worrying about Felicia and the others, and then the mission. I didn’t usually allow things to get on top of me, but this was too much.
What was that? The only problem with animal instincts was the heightened sensations that came with it, and right now I was consumed with exactly the same sensation that I had felt the the Tower of London. That something or someone was following me, or us, trying to stop us from finding out what we were looking for. Although whatever it was hadn’t yet taken any action, so perhaps they weren’t trying to stop us, at least for now, but maybe trying to figure out what we were up to.
It wasn’t a nice sensation though; it didn’t feel like it was someone with our best interests at heart. I really didn’t think that it was someone from the academy who wanted to take care of us. But just like the last time, I couldn’t see anyone. There wasn’t anyone around for me to attack, for me to capture and find out what’s going on, which was really hard for me. I hated the sensation of being out of control, I found it utterly unbearable. Especially when the life of the woman that I loved hung in the balance.
I crept around, tip toeing through the woodlands, trying my hardest not to make even the slightest sound, but it didn’t matter how far I crept around, I wasn’t able to find anyone or anything. Either I was paranoid as hell and creating all of this in my mind, or whoever it was, was able to out witt me. Perhaps, it was possible for a demon.
Hold your nerve, I told myself desperately. Don’t let this demon control you.
I kept on this mission for a long time, much too long, probably because it was an incredible distraction from everything else, which caused me to lose track of time. It wasn’t until darkness clouded around me that I realized it was time to go back and face the others. Time to face the mission at hand as well. I just hoped that whatever it was didn’t follow us there because Felicia was already on edge about wanting to get this done.
Chapter 9
Felicia
“Thank God!” I gasped at Evan as he finally decided to show his face once more. “You have been gone for hours. Where the hell have you been? I was so worried. I thought that something had happened.”
I threw my arms around him and hugged him with relief. The guys didn’t worry about Evan at all, they knew that he could take care of himself and even wanted to go down to Stonehenge without him, but I refused and wouldn’t let them. We started on this mission as a team and I wasn’t going to allow us to separate here. We were doing this all together, even if it meant waiting around until Evan decided to show his face, which thankfully he did.
“I was just running, scouting the area, that’s all.” There was something suspicious about his answer. I didn’t totally get what Evan meant, I had a feeling that he was doing more out there, but he clearly didn’t want to be pushed about it, so I didn’t have any choice but to let him keep it to himself. For now. “Are we going?”
“Yes,” Joshua declared with excitement. He had been chomping at the bit to go outside for ages now. “Let’s do it, let’s get out there. I am desperate to fly around and have a look myself.”
“Me too.” Trent was ready to become a fox; I just knew it. “Once I’ve scouted the area, I will get the three of you inside.”
“I think I will stay on the out skirts,” Evan jumped in right away. “Keep a look out.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering what the hell was going through his mind. There was something going on for sure. My hands flung on to my hips and I stared him down, almost willing him to explain himself right now.
“I still think that we might be being followed.” Evan shrugged and tried to play it down, but I that he wouldn’t have been doing this if he wasn’t worried. “I can’t shake it off and I want to make sure that I protect you.”
It didn’t seem right to push him when he was so set on his decision, so I had no choice but to nod. “Okay, well if that’s what you want to do then Andrew, Trent and I will have a look inside. Joshua can keep a look out from the skies, and you can take the ground. Let us know if we need to be worried about anything.”
We left the hotel room and made our way down to the stones. My heart pulsed violently in my ears, there was a tremor shooting right through my body, but I kept my head high as we moved. We were only looking for the hell hound symbols, we weren’t about to fight them, so there wasn’t anything to worry about. We had faced this before and been totally okay so I was sure that we would be fine again. If anything, these nerves were coming much more from Evan’s weirdness than anything else. This wasn’t like him at all. I had never seen him like this. Even now as we walked, he didn’t seem like himself at all.
Everyone shifted as soon we reached the vicinity of the stones, leaving Andrew and myself, standing alone to wait until Trent told us that it was time to go inside. But I wasn’t watching Trent leave, I was watching Evan as he stalked off towards the outside area to keep a look out for whatever it was that had him freaked out.
“What do you think about Evan?” I asked Andrew, needing his less emotional more practical opinion. I just hoped that he could see all of this without the fog of hatred and anger clouding his vision.
“About him thinking that someone is following us? I’m not convinced,” he admitted. “I think that he might be creating problems for himself to worry about because he’s freaked out about this. He can’t control what’s happening when it comes to the mission, but this is something that he can handle. Does that make sense?”
“Well, he is a control freak,” I had to agree. “So, that makes a lot of sense. But it makes me worried about him. I don’t want him to get distracted because we need him right now. We need him to be in top form.”
“I don’t think it will get in his way, but I will keep an eye on him. You don’t need to worry about that. What we should be worried about is what we’re going to find, because I think that this is a demon portal.”
“You do?” I narrowed my eyes curiously at him.
“Maybe.” He nodded slowly. “They are supposed to have every demon portal mapped, aren’t they? I remember learning about that in the academy in the first year, but there is a chance that we don’t know everything. Plus, with everything going on at the moment, there could be new portals that are being opened. These demons that have already escaped could be trying to make way for more to get out. To join them.”
I gulped nervously at the thought of that. “That sounds a bit apocalyptic for my liking. I don’t know if I like the sound of that at all. Especially if hell hounds are a part of it. Do you really think that could be on the way?”
/> “You know me.” Andrew smiled thinly. “I just come out with ideas and see what comes from it.”
I shuddered, hoping that this was just a thought and not something that was going to come true. I couldn’t stand the idea of a demon apocalypse. It would be too much for any of us. We had no idea how much power they could have if all of them burst out here in to the world, much less how to contain them.
“Oh, look.” Andrew pointed over to the stones. “Trent is trying to get our attention. Let’s go.”
We headed inside the roped area and walked over to the stones where Trent was already waiting for us. Sure enough, despite all of the good feeling magic surrounding us, there was another symbol. It left me wondering if maybe the warm glow of Stonehenge was a mask for what was underneath. Whatever that could be…
“So, the demons have been here,” I whispered, reaching out to grab Andrew’s hand, just because he was the nearest person to me. “And left that symbol again. Which means we are following the right path.”
Andrew’s fingers laced through mine and made me feel better, much better than I had been only seconds ago. Just knowing that I wasn’t alone was everything… but a small part of my brain wondered if that was just more of the magic trickery surrounding us. Something to lull us in to a false sense of security before something pounced.
“Take a picture,” I said in a firm tone of voice, trying to hide the shaking tone. Evan’s fears of someone following us was getting more pertinent by the moment. “We need a picture of this, then we should go. You didn’t find anything else here, did you?” I demanded from Trent who gave me a negative look which I could pick up even in his fox form. “Okay, so I don’t think there’s anything else for us to keep looking at. We should go. Get out of here quickly.”