Even though he might just kill us all if anything happened to her.
Chapter 4
Lucas
My phone buzzes on my nightstand, and I give it a cursory glance, unsurprised to see my mother’s number flashing on the screen. The witch—pun unintended—has been hounding me for weeks, ever since the tabloids caught wind of my “illicit affair.” My mother had been furious. One of her conditions for sending me a monthly allowance, despite my claims that I didn’t need her and my father’s blasted money, was that I keep my relationship with Peony and the guys on the down low.
She was not happy when a gossip tabloid posted an article about the heir to the Scott fortune having a five-way orgy with three other men and one delectable female. What my mother doesn’t know is that I hung the article up on my bedroom wall. The picture they chose for Peony was gorgeous, with her white-blonde hair cascading around her shoulders and glinting in the sunlight like silk.
My cock hardens the longer I stare at the photograph, my eyes drawn to the way her cherry red lips part ever so slightly. I envision those same lips wrapped around my cock as my hands tangle in her hair.
Soon, I tell myself as my phone starts up again. I’ll be with her soon.
I never considered myself a hopeless romantic before. To be quite frank, I’m honestly shocked with my visceral reaction to Peony, even after all this time. The need to be with her twenty-four-seven is a driving force. And when I’m not with her, I wonder how she’s doing and where she is. Who she’s talking to. I care about her happiness more than my own, which is why I didn’t hesitate to leave my family and start a new one with Peony and my brothers.
My phone begins to ring again, and I growl low in my throat. After the long day I had with the LSAT, the last thing I want to do is get into a verbal sparring match with my mother. She’s not even a true witch, but I swear she fits the prototype of a green-skinned, wart-wearing, pointy hat villain.
I swipe the phone from my nightstand while I brush back a strand of dark red hair that has fallen into my face.
“What?” I demand curtly, the hand currently not holding the phone balling into a fist.
“Lucas?” Karsyn. I take a deep breath instantly, willing my taut muscles to relax.
“Hello, brother,” I say dryly. I move to stand in front of my full-length mirror and eye the unruly strand of red hair in irritation. I’d pushed it back with product this morning before the test, but throughout the day, I’ve run my hands through it one too many times for it to remain immaculate.
“Lucas, we need you,” Karsyn continues, and it’s only then that I note the borderline desperation in his tone. My hand freezes where it’s hovering over my head.
“What happened?” I stalk towards my desk where I left my car keys. The damn thing was buried in an inch of snow when I had to leave earlier this morning. The snowstorm was—is relentless.
Karsyn only says two words. Two fucking words, but it feels as if my entire world has turned on its axis. I can barely breathe over the tightening in my lungs.
“It’s Peony.”
A coldness seeps into my body, freezing my internal organs, and I struggle to think coherent thoughts.
Not Peony. Not her. Anyone but her.
Taking a deep breath, one meant to calm, I demand, “What happened?”
Cassian
Lucas arrives at the school like a man on a warpath. His red hair is slicked back, minus one wayward strand grazing his eyes. In any other circumstance, I’ll make fun of my stringent best friend for looking anything less than immaculate and perfect, but not today. I’m too fucking consumed with worry for Peony.
We called Mariabella as soon as we hung up on Lucas, but she hasn’t heard from our girl since class ended. No one has. But knowing Peony, she ran inside the school and is licking her wounds in private. She’ll come to her senses soon enough, realizing that Elias never meant to hurt her, that he loves her more than life itself. It’s the only thing that’s keeping me sane.
But Lucas? Not so much.
His ice-blue eyes spark in the waning sunlight, and I swear he jumps out of his car before the vehicle is even in park. His movements are jerky in his agitation, though that doesn’t stop the psychotic bastard from stepping directly in front of Karsyn and speaking in a soft, deadly voice.
“Where is she?”
Every hair on my body stands on end. There’s no fucking around when Lucas is like this.
We all know that Lucas is a killer. We saw him murder that Blood over a year ago without even a hint of remorse in his stone-cold eyes. What we don’t admit out loud, but that we’re all keenly aware of, is that he has murdered since. Murdered…
And liked it.
He has taken it upon himself to hunt people who try to hurt his family, who try to hurt Peony. Bloods and witch hunters, to be exact. Peony isn’t exactly aware of his little activities, but the rest of us are. Hell, I’ve even helped him a few times, when a Blood got too close to our girl for comfort.
He has the same face on now that he had back then, when he stuck his blade into the Blood’s heart and watched the life drain from his eyes. It’s something scary and undefinable, something that makes me fear him, even though I’m almost ninety percent sure he’ll never kill me. Well, more like eighty percent. He’s looking pretty stabby at this moment.
“What happened?” Lucas continues, still not moving away from Karsyn. Still not blinking. Still looking utterly enraged and murderous and just plain psychotic. Do girls really dig this shit? Peony told me that psychotic men are all the rage, but I just can’t see the appeal. Having someone willing to kill for me and die for me and—
Okay, I see it now. Even I get a tingly sensation in my balls when Lucas is like this, and I’m not even attracted to him.
Psycho men are better than normal ones. Dammit. I’m gonna have to murder a few people when I get Peony back, aren’t I?
“She’s probably fine,” Karsyn begins, though he doesn’t sound sure. What the hell? He told me just a few minutes ago that she was okay. Was he lying?
“Probably?” Lucas picks up on that same word as me, a dark red eyebrow raising above crystalline blue eyes.
“I don’t know anything for sure,” he snaps, his hand trembling ever so slightly. “And about what happened…” Karsyn nods to a figure who approaches in his Jeep. Elias parks the vehicle directly beside Lucas’s car and hurries towards our huddle. He looks like shit, his brown hair loose of his customary bun and framing his sunken face. I swear he has red bags beneath his eyes, almost as if he’s been crying. Which is fucking ridiculous, because Elias doesn’t cry. Ever. He didn’t even cry when his parents left him when he was just a kid.
All three of us whirl on him, incandescent fury spewing from our eyes.
“What. Did. You. Do?” Each word from Lucas’s mouth is curt, clipped, squeezed through tight lungs. His hands ball into fists before he forces himself to relax.
“Is the bitch gone?” Karsyn demands, and Lucas vollies his gaze between the two of them as Elias responds.
“Yes. I had her friend pick her up from the school.”
“Bitch?” Turning back to Elias, Lucas repeats his previous question. “What did you do?”
“Nothing!” Elias bites out vehemently, his eyes flaring. I swear that his hair begins to move around his face in an unnatural wind. “That girl…Meghan…my secretary…” He stumbles over his words, especially when Lucas’s face gets darker and darker. I’m pretty sure my own expression is pretty damn murderous, and I’m usually the most relaxed guy of the bunch. You kinda have to be when dealing with three alpha males with sticks the size of flagpoles up their asses.
“Did you—”
“No!” Elias cuts Karsyn off with a shake of his head, dark hair flying. “Of course not. I agreed to take Meghan home from work today, and she started stripping out of her clothes. Peony saw.” Anguish makes his violet-tinted eyes appear luminescent. “I would never hurt her. You guys know that.”
“I tried to call on our connection to her,” Karsyn begins, surprising me. When did he do that? “And it seems as if she’s unconscious.”
“Unconscious?” we all demand at once, panic lacing our tones. Karsyn immediately holds his hands up in a placating manner.
“Or asleep!” he rushes to assure us. “She could’ve fallen asleep on one of the couches or even in the study room.”
The campus is so fucking big, that almost every building has a few rooms dedicated to studying. Couches, tables, comfy chairs. While Karsyn and I were waiting for Elias and Lucas to join us, we checked the campus coffee shop and the cafeteria, and though we didn’t find her there, that doesn’t mean she’s no longer on campus. My temper is only moderately soothed at the thought that she’s safe and sound, having fallen asleep on one of the leather couches in a study room. She’s safe. I know she is.
But I’m still gonna spank her ass red for scaring the shit out of me.
“I can feel her.”
I jerk my head in Lucas’s direction, surprised to see his eyes shut, seemingly oblivious to the snow pelting him from all directions. His nose and cheeks are both turning red, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Or if he does notice, he doesn’t care, his entire attention fixated on the connection we all feel with Peony.
I don’t want to say that his is stronger than ours, because that just isn’t fucking true. We’re all her bonded, her soulmates, or whatever the hell you want to call it. But unlike the rest of us, Lucas has been working daily with both Peony and her nana to perfect his powers. I think he’s terrified that one of the witch hunters or even a Blood will try to take her away from him…away from us. He’s determined to be able to track her and protect her no matter the circumstance. Unbeknownst to Peony, he’ll check in on her from time to time, ensuring himself and us that she’s safe and content.
Suddenly, his face freezes and his lashes flutter open, his eyebrows slashing low over cruel, cold eyes—colder than even the storm currently waging an environmental war around us.
“I know where she is,” he says darkly, breaking into a run. I exchange a wide-eyed glance with Karsyn before hurrying to follow him.
The snow is so thick, I can barely see a few feet in front of me, so I almost miss the sheet of white-blonde hair, practically buried beneath a fine layer of snow.
“Peony!” I scream as panic grips my heart and lungs in iron vises. I fall to my knees beside her, terror inflating me like a fucking balloon when I see her blue face. Tiny icicles have formed on her eyelashes, brushing against her cheekbones as she sleeps. Blood rushes from a wound on her head, staining her hair pink.
Oh, god. Please be okay. Please be okay. I can’t lose her.
“We need to get her to a hospital,” Karsyn begins, stirring into motion. But before he can grab her, Lucas places a hand on his shoulder.
Unlike the rest of us, consumed with a frantic, manic energy, Lucas appears calm. Well, as calm as that sociopath can be.
His eyes shut as he places his palm on Peony’s forehead. I watch in rapt fascination and horror as a blue mist emits from his hand and engulfs her frozen face.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Elias demands, pulling at his hair. Tears slide down his cheeks as he stares at her, before he quickly casts his gaze away. I can understand his reaction. The sight of her like this, still and blue and frozen, is almost too painful to look at.
If I lose her…
No, I can’t think like that.
“Shut up,” Lucas retorts in a monotone voice, the blue mist traveling across her body and cocooning her in a wispy sheen. To my utter shock, the gray pallor of her skin begins to turn rosy, before slowly transitioning into her normal golden skin tone. The icicles in her hair and eyelashes melt away, rivulets of water that immediately freeze on her face again.
“What the hell?” Elias breathes, his voice both reverent and horrified. I feel the same fucking way. Even after a year, the thought that magic actually exists, and that we can perform it, sends my head into a tailspin. It’s for that reason alone that I chose not to pursue training any further than merely controlling my gifts.
“Her head is healing,” Karsyn whispers, and I divert my attention to the head wound, where lo and behold, the skin is stitching itself back together again, her white hair becoming thicker and fuller over the wound.
Lucas pulls his hands away, a self-satisfied grin on his face, even as he sways precariously to the side. Both Karsyn and I grab his shoulders to keep him from face-planting into the snow.
“It’s done,” he states, his gaze softening when it lands on Peony. He runs his fingers through her hair, still caked red with blood, before bringing his hand to her cheek. “She’s safe.”
The relief I feel is instantaneous, a physical reaction. My body droops, and I’m suddenly keenly aware of the cold cutting at my skin like thousands of tiny knives.
“Fuck, we need to get her home.” Before anyone can stop me, I scoop Peony into my arms and nuzzle my face against her now warm cheek.
She’s going to be okay.
Because of magic, my girl is going to be okay.
Chapter 5
Peony
Warmth suffuses me like I’m swaddled in dozens of intricately stitched quilts. A blinding white light permeates the skin of my closed eyelids as I struggle to remember what just happened.
I had been in class with Mariabella. And then…
And then Elias came to pick me up from school, and I saw him with his secretary. Well, I didn’t see him with her, per se, but I’d panicked anyway and ran. And then…
Snippets of memory bombard me as I release a low, pained groan.
Pain.
I remember pain. The crack of my skull as it careened off the side of the school. Stars dancing in my vision. And then, nothing.
“Easy, baby,” a familiar voice says, sounding raspy with disuse. Or maybe stress. It’s hard to tell at the moment, what with the pounding in my head, threatening to explode my skull and paint the wall with my brain matter.
I peel open my crusted eyelid to see Elias frowning down at me, his brown hair framing his scruffy, bedraggled face.
“El?” I rub a tired hand down my cheek as erratic shivers rake my body. “What…?”
Am I in a hospital?
I glance around the familiar peach walls of my bedroom, each decorated with pictures of me and my guys. And then the large, Alaskan-sized king bed in the center of the room that I’m currently lying on. We all have our own rooms to store our belongings and get away, but my men prefer to sleep in mine with me. We quickly realized that a normal-sized king bed wouldn’t suffice, so Lucas surprised us with this monstrosity.
At the moment, only Elias remains with me, his features etched into that of grave concern.
“They’re giving us a chance to talk,” he explains, no doubt noticing my perusal of the empty room. Elias has always been so perceptive of me. He’s usually silent, preferring to remain on the outskirts of a room and observe. He once told me that he only speaks if he has something to say, but I didn’t understand the extent of that before I began dating him. Before I became engaged to him. But his silence belies a caring, gentle man, one who loves me with his entire being.
And one who I know will never hurt me, never cheat on me, never leave me.
“I’m sorry,” we both exclaim at the same time. His eyes widen in shock at my words, and we both chuckle softly.
“I should be the one apologizing to you,” he says, and his expression turns forlorn. He scrubs a hand through his disheveled hair, pushing a few strands behind his ears in the process.
“No, you shouldn’t.” I shake my head slowly, wondering why I don’t feel any pain. I remember before I blacked out that my head had hit the side of the school, but the skin doesn�
�t even feel tender. But I’ll focus on that after I fix things with Elias. “I overreacted.” Pulling my lower lip between my teeth, I reach forward to take Elias’s hand in mine. He allows me to, his brows scrunched together in confusion. “A part of me knew nothing was going on with that girl, but that didn’t stop me from getting jealous. I mean… Fuck, Elias!” I shift my gaze towards the ceiling, as if that could somehow keep my wayward tears at bay. “You’re…you. All of you are amazing, incredible, handsome men. You could have any girl you want, but somehow, you guys chose to share me. I don’t know…” I struggle to articulate the words running rampant through my brain, but trying to grab them is like catching wild pigs. They constantly slip through my fingers. “What if one of these days, you decide you want to be with a girl like Meghan? What if one of these days, you decide I’m not enough?”
My heart pounds in my chest at my candid confession, and I brace myself for either his rebuttal or agreement. Instead, he remains silent.
The silence drags until I have to look down at him. I have to understand what he’s thinking.
With great reluctance, I drag my gaze away from the ceiling and meet his stunning, violet-brown eyes. Stunning, violet-brown eyes…currently glimmering with tears. He smiles, but it’s sad, laced with hurt that I can’t even begin to understand.
“Do you really think any of us would want someone else when we have you? Do you really think so little of us that you think we’ll cheat on you?”
“No!” My grip on his hand turns bruising, but he doesn’t pull away. I call that a small victory, considering what I just unwittingly implied. “Not at all. It’s not you guys. I promise. It’s me.”
“You think we’re not good enough for you?” Hurt flashes in his eyes, and this time, he does pull away. And I swear my heart shatters into thousands of pieces. Pieces that no amount of tape or glue could ever hope to reassemble.
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