by Bria Berg
“What are you doing here?” she asked hiding her face.
“I came to make sure you are safe.”
“The car door was locked.”
“Magic,” he said a bit guiltily.
“I’m fine, so you can go now,” she whispered not looking at him.
“I can see that,” he replied softly.
Trying to reign in her tears she said, “It doesn’t matter, I’ll be fine.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked hesitantly staring out at the tree line. This was something new for him. He didn’t know how to help a crying girl, even if he did wish that he could take away her pain. He didn’t want to leave her like this, but if she wanted him gone, he would go.
“No!” she cried. “Please just leave me alone.”
With a heavy sigh, Milo moved to open the door, but suddenly he felt a prickle of power being aimed at Tessa. It wasn’t anything as strong as the storm, or the fire that blew up her car, but it was something sinister. “Tessa, you need to get out of the car right now.”
Tessa looked up at him startled by the seriousness of his tone. “Why?”
“Just get out!”
Right as she grabbed the door handle, all the locks clicked. She pressed the unlock button, but nothing happened. Frantically, she slammed her shoulder against the door trying to get free. “It’s stuck, I can’t open it!”
“Whoever it is is strong,” Milo said, searching for a way out.
“Someone else is here?” Tessa cried. “What are we going to do?”
“I’m thinking!”
“Can’t you like zap us out or something?”
“I’m not a genie Tessa,” Milo informed with a pointed look. “It’s harder when using magic against someone who is using it on us. We just need to stay calm, and I’ll get us out of here. Breathe Tessa.”
She took in several gulps trying to calm herself, while Milo searched for the person responsible. He was panicking inside, but he couldn’t let her see it—he needed to stay strong. For whatever reason the person was locking them inside the car, he wasn’t about to wait to find out why that was. Shrugging out of his coat, he wrapped it around his arm, and without warning, slammed his elbow into passenger window. It shattered, spraying tiny shards of glass everywhere causing Tessa to scream.
“You first,” Milo ordered.
Tessa didn’t need to be told twice. Her seatbelt was off and she was immediately crawling over Milo’s lap and out the window. Even in the terror of the moment a blush crept up her neck to her cheeks as she passed over him and his hands gripped around her waist to help her out. Her sheer skirt snagged on the broken glass, and her hands and bare legs were cut as she moved outside.
As soon as her feet touched the icy ground, she breathed out in relief, but no air would come when she breathed in. It felt as if the air around her was being sucked away, leaving no oxygen behind. Her knees buckled beneath her, but before she fell, Milo caught her.
He could feel and see what was going on and immediately called the air to fill her lungs. “Breathe Tessa.” It was difficult, fighting against the commanding magic taking the air from her, but he forced his magic to be more dominant. “BREATHE!” With Tessa in his arms amplifying his magic, it didn’t take long. Finally able to breathe, she gulped in heavy breaths, just as a woman stepped out from behind the nearest tree. Milo held tight to Tessa as the woman neared. She was small with her black hair tucked under a beanie, and her body was covered in warm, stylish, winter clothes. She looked like any other woman on a cold day, but her eyes were black with darkness.
“If you leave now, you may keep your life,” she said in a slight Chinese accent.
“You know that’s not going to happen, Mai,” Milo answered back.
A small smile touched the woman’s lips. “Then you will die with her.”
Milo felt Mai attempting to attack Tessa again, but he blocked all of her attempts. “Don’t do this Mai.”
She ignored him, and focused her attention on taking him out first instead. Milo was caught off-guard, since he was devoting all his power into shielding Tessa, and he gasped as Tessa fell from his arms, luckily landing on her feet.
“Stop it!” she pled to their attacker as Milo crumpled to the ground.
The small woman didn’t even flinch as she continued to suffocate Milo from the inside out. Instinct took over Tessa, and she knelt down and placed her hands over Milo’s chest. “Breathe Milo,” she commanded just as he had done to her moments ago. The tingle of magic burst from her fingertips with the life sustaining element, and miraculously, he breathed. Mai stumbled back slightly, shocked at what Tessa had done. Milo, rejuvenating instantly, stretched his hand out to the sky and lightning struck, but he directed the force to where Mai stood. The bright flash created a spider web of light before connecting with her. The impact sent her flying back several feet.
Tessa gasped wide eyed as Milo got to his feet, pulling her up with him. “Can you run?” he asked.
“How did you—“
“Later, we need to run now!”
He grabbed her hand, and hauled her to her feet without missing a beat, and together they ran. The highway wasn’t busy at that time of day, so they ran across both lanes to the other side of the road where there was a large field. In the spring and summer the field was usually a massive sea of green crops, but at the moment it looked like an endless, icy prairie. Tessa was still in her thin dance shoes, so it didn’t take long for her feet to become numb from the icy slosh, and soon each step felt as if millions of tiny icicles were stabbing her feet. She stumbled, but Milo’s firm grip held her up. He looked down at her shoes and with a curse swung her up onto his back.
“We are almost to a small diner up here, we’ll make it,” he mumbled and Tessa thought it was more for his encouragement than hers.
The reinforcement helped, because they made it safely to the diner, and ignoring the curious looks and glances from a few of the patrons and waitresses, seated themselves in a booth by a window with a clear view of the way they had come. Neither spoke for a few minutes as they caught their breath, each staring anxiously out the window for any sign they had been followed.
“They won’t openly attack in a public place with so many witnesses,” Milo eventually said relaxing back into his seat.
“Weren’t we in public the last two times?” Tessa asked skeptically while keeping her tense posture.
“The first time, it was a storm, and as far as normal people are concerned those are acts of nature. Just now Mai prevented air from entering our lungs, and nobody else was around. Even if there was some bystander he would have thought I was choking or coughing or something, not anything supernatural.”
“So it is like a rule or something that you can’t reveal your magic to mere mortals?” Tessa asked sarcastically.
“Actually it is. There is a body of the Gifted who try to monitor the rest of us, and if needed they will step in and even discipline if necessary.” The word discipline was generous; it was more like a death sentence if you were caught. The secret of magic needed to be kept.
Tessa relaxed slightly back in her chair. A twenty something year old waitress with the name tag saying “Ginger” came to take their order, all the while chomping her gum and batting her eyelashes towards Milo. It was as if Tessa didn’t even exist as Ginger fawned over Milo. For reasons that Tessa didn’t want to think about at the moment, she felt incredibly annoyed by this. Ginger was being so obvious in her flirtations. How did she know the two of them weren’t on a date or a couple for that matter? It was all too familiar, and in Ginger she could see her mother.
Chapter 16
Tessa wasn’t particularly hungry, but Milo ordered them each a cookies and cream shake and two large appetizers of mini sliders, which was basically a meatball on a tiny roll. The waitress smiled one last time before going to put their order in, and Tessa was glad to see her go. She glanced out the window just as a white, expensive looking SUV pulled int
o the parking lot, and Sam and Ethan jumped out.
“Your brothers are here,” she muttered, not really surprised.
“I sent them a text when we got here,” Milo explained.
The two brothers came into the diner with purpose and immediately made their way to the booth where Tessa and Milo sat across from each other. Sam sat next to Milo while Ethan took the seat by Tessa.
“What happened to you?” Ethan gasped as he glimpsed Tessa’s bloody arms and legs.
She hadn’t even thought of what she looked like until that moment as she gazed down at her own body in horror. Her arms weren’t too bad. In fact if she placed them down on the table you couldn’t even tell she was scrapped up. Ethan only noticed because he was sitting right next to her, but her legs needed to be cleaned, so she stood immediately, pushing past Ethan, and went straight for the ladies room to wash up.
While they waited, Milo filled his brothers in on everything that had happened. By the time he was finished, Tessa had returned. “What?” she asked taking in their stares.
“You overpowered Mai using her own element,” Sam stated. “How’d you do it?”
Tessa suddenly felt as if she was being interrogated, and her guard went up. “I don’t know. I just did what Milo did to me, and luckily it worked,” she said defensively. When she had done it however, it felt empowering and terrifying all at once.
“Milo has been practicing magic his entire life, and you made him strong enough to overcome Mai’s power. What I don’t understand is how you used power in the first place,” Sam explained. “When you don’t have an element.”
“Is that not normal?” Tessa asked feeling as if she had done something wrong.
“We don’t really know what’s normal with you,” Ethan admitted. “We’ve never met anybody like you before.”
The waitress came around then with the tray of sliders and shakes. She looked flustered that two more gorgeous men had joined the group, and her cheeks turned bright pink as she smiled at them. “Can I get you guys anything to drink?” she asked a little breathy.
“Just waters, thanks,” Ethan smiled, and Ginger looked like she might swoon at any second.
Tessa sipped on her shake while the brothers scarfed down the sliders. “These are pretty good,” Ethan said through bites and they all agreed.
They didn’t look very appetizing to Tessa as she eyed one warily before taking a bite. Yep, stale bread and a meatball without much flavoring other than grease. She set the rest of the mini sandwich down and resumed sipping her shake. The brothers continued to talk about the incident and about Tessa as if she wasn’t even there. It was a bit ironic that she had spent so much time striving to be invisible, and now that she was, she wanted them to acknowledge her.
Finally, she asked, “Who is Mai? It’s obvious you know her.”
The brothers all looked at one another with silent communication before Sam said, “We’ve known Mai since we were children. Every summer, she would stay with her Aunt Lian, who lived not far from us, before returning home to China for the rest of the year. Lian and our mother were friends. Mai’s element is air, and since none of us are air, we thought we could learn a lot from her, and we did. She became very gifted using her element, and word of her power reached the bad guys who call themselves the Elite. One summer she came back from China, and she was different. She used to be happy and all bubbly, but she was angry and had way too much angst. We found out later that she joined the Elite when she killed her aunt as a type of orientation,” he finished sadly.
“That’s horrible,” Tessa whispered. “Why would they make her do something like that?”
“Because they want the strongest,” Milo ground out. “If you can’t kill, you’re considered weak. They knew she cared about Lian, and they wanted her to prove her allegiance to the Elite, and that means they come before blood.”
These Elite people clearly had a skewed perception of life, not to mention right and wrong. “You said air is Mai’s element. How does that work?” Tessa asked after a few moments.
Each of the brothers took turns explaining as much as they could. A Gifted person is drawn to one particular element, although they can call on the other elements, they can only master the one. Milo’s element is Water, while both Sam and Ethan have Earth. The element needs to be present in order for power to be drawn from it. Milo was able to create the lightning shock that struck Mai using a combination of all the elements, something he’s never done before, but since Tessa was there magnifying his power, he was able to do it.
The four of them talked long past their shakes and sliders were gone, well into the evening. Finally, they left the diner to Ginger’s dismay, although the waitress did leave her number on the receipt, for no one in particular. Since Tessa’s car was on the side of the road with a shattered window, and she didn’t want to go anywhere near it in case they were watching, she called a tow company to pick it up and take it to the dealership to get repaired. Sam drove them all to the Ricks’ house while Tessa waited to get a quote on when the car would be finished.
Chapter 17
The Ricks house was a charming two story farmhouse surrounded by land, and shielded by dozens of trees. It was white with blue shutters, a brick pathway leading up the wrap around porch, and if it had a white picket fence it could have belonged in any fairytale. Vines grew up the two posts by the front door and spread out beautifully underneath the window ledges of the second floor. There was even a large willow tree in the front, complete with a swing dangling from one of its strong branches. A pond sat behind the tree with a few lily pads floating in the center. Rose bushes lined the porch, while the richest green grass stretched out around the entire house—strange since they were still in winter. This did not look like a house that belonged to three bachelor brothers.
Tessa laughed out when she stepped inside. This was more like it, this is what she was expecting to see as she gazed around inside. The furniture was mostly all leather and very masculine, no throw pillows or blankets to be found, while the walls were sparsely decorated. The kitchen could have been nice, if not for the paper plates and empty take out boxes covering the counter. The table was littered with papers and old drink cups, along with anything else you might find in a junk drawer.
“Um sorry about the mess,” Sam said attempting to tidy by throwing some trash into the already overflowing trash can.
“Don’t worry about it,” Tessa chuckled. “I would have been a little self-conscious if inside looked as great as outside.”
“We like to use our gifts,” Ethan grinned.
“Clearly,” she laughed looking down, suddenly feeling self-conscious. Once her eyes landed again on her bare, scraped legs, she asked, “Would any of you guys have some sweats or something that I can put on? I left my bag in my car with my clothes, and everything else I had in it.”
All three bothers jumped to the opportunity, “Yeah,” they said in unison. Milo glared at his brothers and stepped forward. He was the one who found her in the first place, he’d be the one to clothe her. “I’ll find you something,” and then hurried up the stairs to his room.
A thought occurred to Tessa while she waited which made her panic. “My wallet was in my backpack. What if those Elite people got to it and now, they know where I live?”
“Milo placed protections around your house so you’ll be safe,” Ethan informed. “We’ll all go later and put more up, but as long as you’re with us, you’re safe.”
“But what about my family?” she squeaked.
“We’ve talked to both your mother and your sister, and neither of them are like you, so I doubt they’d go after them,” Sam said trying to calm Tessa down, and it seemed to work a little, or at least distract her.
“Why do you think I am the way I am?” she asked. If her family wasn’t magical, why was she?
“We don’t know,” Sam shrugged, although he hated not knowing the answer. “Our gifts are passed down from a parent, but who knows where it all
started from? I think it is just a random anomaly that happens.”
“Are you sure they are okay?” Tessa asked referring to her sister and mother. If something were to happen to them because of her, she couldn’t even bear the thought.
Sam nodded and sat down on one of the stools at the counter. “I’m sure. One of my gifts is that I can communicate with animals, since they all come from the earth. I have a hawk named Hero, and he’s been keeping an eye on your place for us.”
“Wow,” Tessa gaped. She could take that as somewhat creepy and stocker-ish in a way, but she didn’t. They really were looking out for her, and she couldn’t get angry at them for that, especially after what she’d already been through. “That’s actually really cool. I think I’ve seen Hero a couple of times.”
Milo appeared then, holding out a pair of gray sweats that he hadn’t stepped foot in since high school, and a sweatshirt. “The bathroom is over there,” he said pointing down a hallway.
Tessa thanked him, and hurried to the bathroom. The sheer skirt she had been wearing was destroyed, so she threw it in the trashcan, and her torn and bloodied sleeves were in the same condition, so she tore them off as well. The clothes Milo gave her were so soft and baggy, and extremely comfortable. The arms were far too long, and the legs went several inches passed her feet, but that’s nothing a little rolling wouldn’t fix. They smelled like him as well, and she almost felt giddy wearing his clothes.
When she came back into the kitchen, the brothers stared at her, Milo a bit longer than the others before he snapped out of it and said, “We were just talking about dinner, do you want Chinese or Italian?”
“Chinese sounds good right now,” she said. “I’m actually really thirsty; do you have anything to drink?”
“In the fridge,” Milo said stepping forward to get it for her, but she stopped him.