Edan was conflicted. If Synthia slept in their room he could keep her away from harming Gaia in her sleep. He could regularly check up on Synthia and see how fast her insanity was being enhanced by the mark. Then again, he couldn’t afford to have such a crazy person in a room full of men.
“No can do.” Floyd took back the room key helping Edan to make his choice.
“What if something happens?” she whined, trying to get the room key.
“Apart from the brief attack on the road, nothing has happened since Huntsville,” Shui said to calm her down.
“What if it does? I want to be protected.” She hugged Edan’s arm.
“Then you’ll be fine.” He slid his hand away from her stalking arms. “The girls can defend you as much as we can.”
“If not more.” Donovan hugged Willow, irritating her. “These women can kick ass.”
“Whatevs…” Synthia scowled storming up to her room.
* * *
Unluckily for the team, the next available bus to San Luis Potosi left at midnight. Using the extra time, Edan sent word to Klog Mor to meet them at San Luis while the group rested at the pool and Synthia snuck into Willow’s room.
Carefully closing the door and locking it, she turned around and scanned the room. “Where is it?” Synthia whined as she searched frenetically around Shui's and Willow’s belongings scattered around the room. Looking up from the mess, she spotted a long closet. “Bingo!” Excited, Synthia strode towards the closet, pulled both doorknobs, and found what she’d been searching for, three-feet-tall of pure reddish brown Australian Buloke wood, aka… Willow’s herb cabinet. “Finally!” she squealed while her hands ran through the engraved ruins that decorated the wood, up to the massive lock that resembled the ones they used in medieval dungeons.
Synthia took out the iron key she stole from Willow’s bag of seeds and used it to open the lock.
Clank! She dropped the lock on the floor and pulled open the door revealing hundreds of boxes with names and thousands of paper bags with seeds. Grinning with victory, Synthia took out a sheet of printer paper from her short’s pocket and unfolded it.
Love Potion
by
Madame Sorcière
Ingredients:
*Datura Ferox (Toloache) *Ginseng
*Montanoa Tomentosa *Maca Root
*Cinnamon *Vanilla
*A strand of hair from the love interest
*A tear from the potion maker
Directions:
Pour 1 cup of fresh water into a saucepan. Add to the water 1 dried
Datura, 2 tablespoons of pulverized Ginseng, 5 Montanoa flowers
(with leaves), 1 ½ tablespoons of grinded Maca root, a vanilla pod
split lengthwise, and 1-2 cinnamon sticks.
While adding the strand of hair and the tear, concentrate on the
loved one’s face and chant the spell over the saucepan.
Let the one who drinks this tea,
Fall in love with me,
Help me turn the stars,
And have this love be forever ours.
Give the mixture a little stir to incorporate everything, and then
simmer for 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and strain immediately.
Use it fresh.
“Let’s do it.” Synthia knelt down and began her search for the ingredients. “Datura something…” She slurred her words as she looked around for them. Finding them, one by one, she placed them in a saucepan she took from the suite’s kitchen. Synthia took a dry fat root and whimpered with absolute disgust. “Ugh! This better freaking work.”
She took the pan, poured the water in, and placed it on the fire. The water boiled and she added the ingredients. “OMG! OMG! I so wanna puke right now.”
Holding back her gag reflex, Synthia took one of the dried Daturas. “Just one?” she re-read the recipe feeling the Datura was way too small to work.
Ignoring the amounts, Synthia took another two spiky green Daturas and threw them in the boiling water. “There it is, now the hair.” She took out the hair she picked from Edan’s helmet and threw it in the potion. “A tear... how am I supposed to get a tear?” she squealed. “Come on Princess, think of something sad that made you cry,” she said to herself. “OK… how about the time I stole a BB dress but my butt was too big to fit in it?” That was enough for her eyes to get filled with tears.
She let the tears fall into the pan. “Now the chant!” She took the paper a few inches away from her eyes. “So cheesy…” she complained and cleared her throat. “Let the one who drinks this tea, fall in love with me. Help me turn the stars, and have this love be forever ours.”
Synthia strained the gooey drink into one of the hotel’s glasses and ran away leaving the mess behind her.
By the time she was done with her potion, the rest of the group had finished their planning session and were eating in one of the restaurants. Synthia ran into Priyam, Hunter and Floyd.
“Hey!” Synthia yelled at them. “Where’s Edan?”
“Not here,” smirked Priyam. “Obviously.”
“Blah, Blah, Blah!” Synthia mocked her. “Then where?”
“Food!” Veter arrived. He sat next to the wild teen and took the menu. “What did you guys order?”
“This are chilaquiles.” Priyam took a bite of her delicious meal.
“It looks amazing.” Veter checked the menu. “What does it have?”
“Tortilla, cheese, salsa and sour cream.” Priyam filled her glass with juice. “Try them, they’re amazing!”
“That’s incredibly fattening.” Synthia covered her nose with disgust.
“No mate, you should try this.” Floyd pushed his plate towards Veter. “These are quesadillas. They have tortilla and cheese. I poured some salsa and sour cream on it.”
Veter tried the quesadilla. “Delicious.”
“Where is Edan?” Synthia kept her quest.
“I’m still undecided.” Veter turned to Hunter. “What did you get?”
“Enchiladas.” The teen took a huge bite. “Perfect combination of a rolled tortilla filled with cheese, salsa and sour cream.”
Synthia stomped on the floor with her sandal. “You guys are eating the exact same thing!”
“I know, but they all taste different.” Priyam tried Floyd’s quesadilla. “How do they do it?”
Floyd drank from his soda. “It’s like a Mexican superpower.”
“Forget it!” Exasperated, Synthia continued her search until she managed to find him in the spare room they had for the armory. He paced around the place changing weapons and adding plans on the map. Synthia thought how adorable Edan was. He tended to feel more relaxed fighting the beasts than the days they went without seeing them. If only he knew the beasts were following them.
Synthia fixed her fake red hair, pulled her shoulders up, and entered the forbidden room. “There you are,” she said with a bright smile.
“Synthia?” Edan looked around to see if any of the hotel staff saw what was in the room. “What— what are you doing here?” He closed the door behind her. “This room is off limits.”
“Gaia said she’s on her way and asked me to give you this.” She handed him the potion. “As if I’m her maid or something.”
“Oh. Thank you.” He took the potion not understanding why Gaia was sending him something so weird looking. And with Synthia.
“Aren’t you going to drink it?” she pressured Edan. She didn’t want to waste any more time.
“Later.”
“Watevs.” Synthia passed her finger over her puffy lips. “She made it herself so it looks like super gross. No worries, I’ll tell her you didn’t like it.”
“Don’t!” Edan stopped her. He took a second to get the courage and drank it all. Edan coughed. He hit his chest over and over until the burning flavor passed.
“Is it strong?” She got closer to him.
“What is this?” he asked between coughs.
“A little something
to make you see me clearly,” she said in a sultry voice while untying her hair and giving it a little volume with her hands.
Edan’s body began to sweat. He unbuttoned a little of his shirt and used his hand as a fan. “Hot,” he panted.
“Are you getting hot? Here, I’ll help you.” She unbuttoned another one of his buttons as he appeared even more disoriented. This was the first time Synthia had seen his incredibly toned stomach. “You’re really hot.” She was about to pass her hand over his skin when he moved her out of the way. “No it’s OK.” She tried to stop him. “You’re hot, I’m hot. That’s why we are the perfect couple.”
“Move,” he managed to say before storming out of the room.
Dizzy and confused, Edan crashed with Willow. His body felt hot and agitated. She noticed his pupils were the size of the moon, the green in his eyes was barely visible and his shirt was half unbuttoned. “Edan?” she called to him yet he kept running away.
Willow slammed the door open. “What the hell happened here?”
Synthia didn’t understand what happened. Everything was great and then out of nowhere, everything went wrong. “Nothing.”
Not buying it, Willow wielded one of the room’s plants and used it to trap Synthia.
“Fine!” She wiggled in vain. “I made a love potion.”
“A what?”
“A magic potion to make Edan want me.”
For a moment Willow wasn’t sure how much reality that answer had until she saw the glass on the floor. “Are you stupid? For the tenth time, we are not wizards and they are not potions!”
“Whatevs you are.” Synthia wiggled for a second time failing to escape. “Your stuff doesn’t work.”
Willow lifted the glass and smelled it. “What did you mix?”
“It’s in my back pocket.”
Willow snatched the folded paper and read it. “Where did you find this?”
“Internet, duh!” She rolled her eyes as if the answer was obvious.
“Not the spell, the ingredients.”
“Your box.” She smiled, happy to steal from Willow right under her nose.
Willow crushed the paper and the vines followed her wield pressing more around Synthia. “You went through my stuff?!”
“Take a chill pill.” Synthia took a deep breath. “It didn’t work.”
“How well did you follow this?” Willow asked placing the paper closer to Synthia’s face.
“The chant?”
“Forget the chant.” Willow cracked, she was clearly worried about the ingredients on that piece of paper. “Tell me, how well did you follow the ingredients?”
“What it says there,” she whined. “I also added more of the greeny things. Like two more”
“What greeny things?” Willow released her from the plants and gave her the wrinkled paper. “Concentrate and point where you see the name of the greeny things,” she said, then Synthia pointed where. Willow read it “That? You put three Daturas?”
“Yes, and?”
“We need to stop Edan.” Willow hyperventilated. “Now,” she yelled.
“Wow!” Donovan ran into the room after hearing all the screaming. “What’s the stress?”
Willow took the page away from Synthia’s hands and showed it to Donovan. “This bitch made an intense aphrodisiac and drugged Edan with it.”
“No way! That’s hilarious.” Donovan cried from laughing but stopped cold as soon as he saw Willow’s deadly stare. “I mean… That’s terrible. Where is he?”
“I don’t know.” Willow was really stressed.
“Relax.” Synthia snatched away the page from Donovan’s fingers. “Nothing happened. More like the other way around, he got like super annoyed with me.”
“It did work,” said Willow. “He’s just matched.”
Synthia crossed her arms. “In English?”
“In English…” Donovan translated. “He’s going after Gaia.”
* * *
Edan ran into his room and slammed the door. He tried to cool down but the tonic was too strong; his throat felt like it was covered in flames, just like the rest of his body. He walked to the room’s minibar and drank from the glass of water on top of it. He unbuttoned the rest of his shirt and opened the window. The thick ocean wind hit his bare chest. He took a deep breath and groaned in agony.
“Hot, isn’t it?” Edan froze at Gaia’s voice.
Terrified, Edan clenched his fists. He tried to lock himself away to prevent him from going for Gaia and she had just walked into his room. His damn room. Just the smell of her shampoo was driving him crazy.
“You need to leave,” he said without looking at her. He couldn’t afford to look at her in his current state, especially with that floaty beach robe she was wearing.
“We’re all going down to the beach, want to come?” she asked and slid her hand over his back. Edan flinched at her touch. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he moved away from her, creating some much-needed space. “Just need to be alone, ponder things and other important… things. You know,” he rambled.
Gaia laughed. “My boyfriend, the hermit. Come out whenever you’re ready.” She leaned closer and gave Edan a soft kiss on his shoulder. Not good…
Gaia walked towards the door and opened it, but before she could get out, Edan pushed the door shut pinning Gaia between his body and the door. With his bare chest pressing against her back and both of his hands placed against the door trapping Gaia, Edan leaned closer and nuzzled her neck. She smelled sweet with a hint of sea salt.
He moved one of his hands from the door, and rounded Gaia’s waist. “Edan?” she gasped at his atypical behavior.
Instead of answering her, Edan, with his free hand, clenched his fist around her hair and pulled it to the side. Her head moved sideways and Edan leaned towards the back of her neck and kissed it.
“Ah!” Gaia nibbled on her lower lip. Losing balance, she placed both of her hands against the door. “Edan?!” she asked but instead of stopping he only clung to her back even more.
He gave her soft kisses on her neck. He then let go of her hair, took her by the shoulder and turned her around, facing her directly for the first time. “Edan…What’s goin—” Edan’s mouth was on hers. The kiss was strong and intense; he pushed her against the door until her back hit the wood. He moved closer to her. Those kisses were far from Edan’s ‘Proper relationship rule book’ and were making Gaia feel dizzy.
She didn’t know what Edan was on but she felt like she was beginning to drown in it too. The more Edan kissed her the more she didn’t want to stop. Wow…!
He leaned down and hugged her strongly enough to lift her feet from the floor. In two strides, Edan moved Gaia away from the door to a nearby desk. Edan held Gaia by her lower back and pulled her as close as humanly possible to him. He took her by the cheek and kissed her. “Red…” he whispered.
Gaia clung to him. She clung to him so hard that all the water pipes inside the walls exploded. The water drenched them as if they were caught in a rainstorm. Ignoring the water, Edan kissed her neck and throat.
Reacting to the shivers caused by the cold water, Gaia’s subconscious turned the falling water into snow. Gaia’s shaking hands reached Edan’s neck. She gripped him tight, but the water under her hand turned into ice burning Edan’s neck.
Edan’s eyes opened as he grunted in pain. He used that small window of consciousness to gain back self-control and step away from Gaia. “Edan?”
He took her by the shoulders and pushed away. “Have to go,” he managed to say and ran away.
Not long after Edan bolted out of the room, Priyam opened the door and saw Gaia in the middle of a room full of snow. Her face was blank. “Yes, he was definitely here!” Priyam screamed towards the hallway before returning her attention to Gaia. “Where did Edan run to?” she asked and Gaia pointed at the other side of the hallway. “Check the swimming area!”
Confused over what just happened, Gaia flicked away t
he snow that rested on her knee. “What’s happening, Priy?”
“What happened here?” Priyam did her best to walk over the snow. She took out a towel from her bag and handed it to a drenched Gaia.
Gaia took the towel and used it to dry her hair. “I broke the pipes and turned the water into snow.”
“Classy.” Priyam couldn’t hide her smile. “Synthia drugged Edan.”
“What?!” Gaia smashed her hand on top of the desk. “Is she freaking insane?”
“Yeah: psycho bimbo tried to give him a love potion and it turned out to be… clearly an incredibly strong aphrodisiac.”
“Unbelievable,” muttered Gaia. At least Edan’s over-the-top behavior was starting to make sense.
“So…” Priyam sat down next to Gaia. “How was it?”
“Unexpected... Wild.”
“Mmm… I always imagined him very polite.” She lifted her pinky finger as if she was holding a cup of tea in an elegant manner. “Excuse me, Lady Gaia,” she said in a British accent. “May I grab that booty?”
Gaia glared at her best friend. “Stop picturing my boyfriend like that.”
“Noted.”
“Priy.” Gaia crushed a ball of snow. “I hurt Edan,” she said and her hand dropped the crumbles of snow. “I lost control and without knowing my body began to wield.”
“It’s not your fault,” said Priyam. “Your powers are still young, you don’t have full control of them yet.” Priyam tried to calm her friend. Gaia smiled a little, she secretly loved how Priyam called her element wielding ‘powers’. “It’s like the day you burnt down the school, you lost your concentration and your power reacted on its own.”
Priyam was right. Every time Gaia lost her cool or concentration in any way, her elements reacted by themselves. Edan was fireproof but she had other elements that could hurt him badly or even kill him.
She hated to admit it. She hated realizing that the ‘Proper kissing’ rule was in fact correct. She once thought that rule was lame but not now that was the only way to make sure she wouldn’t hurt him.
Seasons Within Box Set Page 55