Saved Elemental (Evelyn Storm Series Book 2)

by Tamara White

  Nodding I place her on the bed next to Christian and take a step back. I watch her reach out and grab hold of Christian’s hand, and almost curse out loud. I don’t know if anyone else noticed or not, but he stiffened the moment she touched him. I’m guessing he is another bond, but who knows? Maybe he’s just surprised she touched him, but I doubt it.

  “Ok. I don’t want to be here for hours, so I’m going to give you the cliff notes version, but you have to promise not to repeat it to anyone outside of this room. For now, we’re keeping it to ourselves until we know what to do. Don’t ask questions until I’m finished,” Evie says, waiting for him to agree.

  There’s nothing better than seeing Evie get bossy and demanding. It suits her, and it’s a great trait to pass on to our children.

  “I won’t interrupt. You don’t have to tell me everything, just anything related to the babies if that makes it easier for you? I don’t want you to stress yourself out,” Christian responds compassionately.

  I really don’t like the way he’s looking at her. We’re only just learning to accept Zach and now we’re going to have to accept Christian too?

  “I’ll tell you what I think relates to the babies. So just over three weeks ago, I was kidnapped. I’ve been held hostage downstairs. I was being drugged and beaten for information up until a couple days ago, when my guys and Zach were able to rescue me. I had to use the energy from my babies to help get rid of a demon that was possessing Ky’s father and influencing the others. A lot more has happened but none that would really affect the babies apart from that, so we’ll talk about the rest after. Now, can you please make sure my babies are ok?” she asks, sniffling and clinging tightly to Christian’s hand.

  I sit beside Evie and wipe the tears off her face. The others are on the other side of the bed too, and Zach is next to Christian, whispering in his ear, where he’s frozen to the spot staring at Evie. Finally, he nods and shakes himself out of his shock. I’d imagine our situation would be confronting to even the most unusual people.

  “We’ll do a scan first just to see what’s going on,” he says softly to Evie.

  Evie

  After everything I’ve been through I feel like the Creator is mocking me. The doctor, who is also one of my potential bondeds’ brother, is also my potential bonded. Yeah, try sorting that one out in your head.

  I felt the bond when I heard him speak just outside the room and again when I grabbed his hand but I don’t know if he’s realised it yet.

  Dane looks like he may suspect something, as he keeps watching him warily, or that could be just because he’s worried about the babies. I’ve felt the worry from all the guys, and it’s starting to freak me out more. I know they’re putting on a brave face for me, but it doesn’t help when I feel their emotions.

  I watch Zach and his brother move things around on what I’m assuming is the ultrasound machine.

  Zach’s brother grabs a tube of something and squirts it on my exposed stomach. When I feel the cool jelly on my skin, I jump from the contact, and Teddy almost shoots over the bed.

  “Sorry it was cold,” I say, watching Teddy to make sure he won’t attack.

  “No, I’m sorry, I usually warm it up but being in a rush I forgot,” he says with a grimace.

  “What’s your name?” I ask while he moves the wand over my stomach and looks at the screen attached to his machine.

  ‘Christian,” he says smiling down at me.

  While he does his thing, I take turns looking between him and Zach. I’m a little stunned to find they look nothing alike.

  Zach has light brown hair with brown eyes and the same height as Dane, while Christian is about five inches taller, has blonde hair and grey eyes. And I mean grey. Most people that see grey eyes are actually looking at pale blue eyes like my own, but his eyes are definitely grey.

  He presses a few buttons and I’m going to ask him what he’s doing when a fast whooshing noise come from the machine followed by what sounds like multiple thumps in rhythm.

  Christian smiles down at me, “Well it looks like your babies are absolutely fine. That’s their hearts beating in synchronisation. And if you give me a second, I’ll show you what they look like.

  Moving the wand around a little more he gasps before stopping “Wow, I thought you were newly pregnant but you’re further along than expected. As a human, I would say you were three to four months pregnant already. Do you know when the time of conception was or the last day of your cycle?” he asks me.

  While he’s being completely professional, and there’s no real reason for me to freak out, I find it hard to breathe. It feels like the walls are closing in around me, and I can’t get enough air.

  Christian puts the wand down beside me, and lifts me up so my head is between my knees. He mimics breathing in and out until my breathing slows down enough that I can breathe normally.

  “Are you ok? Do you want some water?” Zach asks from next to him, while my guys are standing beside the bed looking scared. They must have freaked out while I had my little panic attack.

  “No, it’s ok, I’m fine now. I just got overwhelmed with how far along you think I am. I had sex for the first time, the day before I was kidnapped. That was just over 3 weeks ago,” I say completely shocked at what he’s saying.

  Christian pales “What? That’s not possible!” He is looking shocked and freaked out at the same time.

  “So, what does that mean?” Ky and the guys are watching between Christian, Zach, and I looking extremely confused.

  “She shouldn’t be reading as that far along yet. At the most, especially with it being twins, she should only be reading at six weeks along,” Zach says slowly, looking at each of my guys.

  “What Zach is trying to explain is that a normal elemental pregnancy lasts six to seven months, a twin elemental pregnancy lasts from five to seven months, but Evie is reading at about 12 weeks. An elemental pregnancy progresses six human weeks in only four weeks. Evie’s pregnancy has progressed 12 weeks in the month. If it keeps progressing this way, her babies will be born in two months.

  This also means Evie will begin to experience a lot of changes, and painful growth while her body grows to accommodate the babies. I’m going to need to stay here until the delivery to monitor her and make sure she gets everything she needs. I’ll run some bloods and see what she needs, but for now my suggestion would be to get you on an IV drip to replace fluids and rehydrate you. Then we need to start feeding you. You’ll need to eat plenty of food to account for the fast growth and the babies’ development. As you can see, they’re both perfectly happy in there, but each night when you go to sleep your body will change and grow. We’ll also get you some vitamins to help boost your nutrition level.

  We can talk more later on. Right now, I can see you’re overwhelmed, so I’ll freeze the screen so you can see your babies. I can’t tell the gender yet, but it won’t be long. Zach and I will leave you to look at your new family,” Christian says to us, before dragging Zach out with him and closing the door behind him.

  I don’t look at any of the guys because I now they have to be shocked by what he said. Four weeks ago, I had sex for the first time, and, now, in less than three months, I’ll be giving birth to two babies.

  So many feelings are going through me, fear, relief, anger, awe and love. Seeing them, I can’t help but love them immediately. My old life is completely over. Not in a bad way but now I won’t be able to go back to school. I’ll have to do the final tests to pass early so I won’t attend the school. It would be too hard to explain how four weeks ago I wasn’t heavily pregnant and now I am.

  Christian may have underplayed it for the guys benefit, but I know what he meant. If a human is pregnant for nine months, they would slowly accelerate through the pregnancy and their hormones are released in small doses. If I’m only pregnant for three months, the hormones are going to come and go in large doses plus I’m going to grow rapidly.

  Maybe I should get some pregnancy books an
d find out exactly what to expect. It’s one thing to know how pregnancy works in theory and another thing to experience the real deal.

  Staring at the screen that Christian has frozen, I see an amazing picture of my babies. They’re both there on the screen and look so happy. Ok it’s probably impossible to tell if they are happy, but I feel as if they are. I just hope the guys are as happy as I am.

  Chapter 15

  Evie

  Climbing out of bed as quietly as I can, so as not to wake Teddy up, I go to the bathroom and get dressed. It’s been two days since I was put on my drip and Christian finally took it out last night, saying my dehydration is no longer an issue. I just have to keep remembering to drink fluids, which is hard when you need to pee constantly, and all you want to do is lower your intake in the hopes it will decrease the need to pee. Apparently, it doesn’t work that way, though.

  It has helped so much, and since then I have been put on six small meals a day, and four different vitamins to try and increase my nutrients, so the babies get all they need to help them in early development.

  My bump has increased in the past two days of resting. Instead of the slight bump I thought I would have for a few weeks, it has grown to the size of a human that’s five months pregnant. Basically, you can tell I’m pregnant.

  All the guys have been hovering since I told them about Christian’s bond, but surprisingly Christian and Zach have been scarce, only appearing when we meet downstairs for meals.

  Christian has been understanding of my terms of getting to know them, but not rushing into any more bonds until I’m sure it’s what I want. I keep wondering when they’ll lose patience.

  I know Ky, Dane, Teddy, and Mike are all freaked about it, so I’m trying to make it as easy as I can for them. I think it makes it harder for them, that both Zach and Christian are being extremely nice, and doing nothing wrong. If they were being jerks, my guys would have more reason to hate them.

  Today they’re going to have to suck it up and push it to the back burner, though, as today is the day I confront my adoptive parents.

  My father and grandfather have told me they’ll be there if I need them, which Is great, because I could use all the support I can get. Christian has also told me he will be hovering in case I need medical help from the stress. He was against me doing this, but we can’t just keep them here forever.

  Our first stop is to the guys’ father’s room. I was told last night that they’re all still in here contained by a barrier, which is just awful.

  No one wanted to let them out until I had made sure they were ok, and no demon influence was left behind.

  My grandfather and I talked about how to deal with them last night. I asked him to put a barrier around the room stopping anyone who wished me harm from leaving it. The guys don’t know yet, but I think it’s better if they’re surprised. I don’t want their parents turning on them. Besides, my grandfather said they need to learn to accept my decisions, because it’s my right to lead until the babies are old enough.

  As much as I hate to keep secrets, it’s the only way I could think of that the guys would approve of without telling them.

  “You sure you want to do this, princess? We can do it another day when you feel better?” Ky asks me, hoping I back out. He looks so worried.

  I understand their worry, but I feel bad leaving their fathers in a room to share. They told me their fathers deserved worse for what they did to me, but if my understanding is correct, they may not remember what they did.

  “I can’t leave them here any longer, besides, if they’re free, they can start warning the others about the demons and maybe we can figure a way to fight back. I have no idea what will happen to Charles and Marcia now. Do you have a prison system or what? How do you punish rogue elementals?” I ask, looking at Ky and the others.

  My grandfather and father look just as interested as I am, so they mustn’t know either.

  “We have an underground prison that’s in the middle of the city. It used to be a human prison which we converted and convinced a few angels to put barriers around. The whole thing is protected from elements being used inside, so we use a mixture of human and elemental guards,” Richard says from the doorway in the room.

  He's just standing there, while the others are all sitting in the room behind him. He looks just the same, but less evil. When he was possessed, I could feel something wrong with him, but now he’s just a regular elemental.

  “Ok, cool,” I say, trying not to let myself be overwhelmed with the memories.

  Since I started getting better, I began to have dreams. Well, more like nightmares, and I think they were what happened to me in the beginning while I was being drugged. I haven’t told the guys yet, because some things you don’t need to know. It will take me a long time to move on from something so horrible.

  “Hi, Richard, can we come in? We want to talk about letting you out, but I need to make sure the demons influence has gone,” I say, watching them all exchange looks.

  “Sure,” Richard says, moving away from the doorway.

  Looking back, I see all the guys look irritated with how trusting I am, but I have hope that the influence was the demon and not their fathers. I don’t think the guys would be able to cope with it if their fathers were involved in my kidnapping without the influence of demons.

  Once we’re all inside the room, the guys seem to strategically place themselves around me, even my Father and Grandfather are trying to protect me as best they can. Trying not to sigh in exasperation, I pull a chair from the desk in the room and drag it into the middle of the room facing their fathers, despite their objections about me moving heavy objects. Jesus, it just a chair.

  “So, I’m sorry you’ve been in here the past two days. I’ve been recovering, and I didn’t know they decided to lock you away until I could make sure there was no more influence in any of you. You don’t deserve to be locked away in your own house, but I’m afraid I have to ask how much you remember?” I ask, directing my questions at Richard since he’s obviously the one in charge of the others.

  Everyone’s anxiety is suffocating me, but I need to know what they remember. What if they think the demon was right? I need to be sure.

  “Yes, we remember,” Neil says looking down in shame.

  Mike

  The relief I feel at seeing how ashamed my father is gives me hope that he doesn’t believe the same things the demon does. Raphael told us it’s possible the only reason the demon was able to influence them so easily was that they believed the same things that the demons did, and that would mean they would want to control the girl in the prophecy.

  “We all remember, but if you’re asking if we want you dead too, then we don’t,” Richard says to Evie.

  He’s always been the hardest to read, but Evie seems to trust her instincts and believe that he’s telling the truth.

  “Ok, then if that’s true, I have asked my grandfather to place a specific barrier around the room. Those of you who don’t wish to harm me will be able to leave through the barrier, but if you wish me harm, you’ll be unable to leave.”

  Evie rises from her chair and walks right out the door with her grandfather smiling after her, full of admiration. When did he put a barrier up? And why didn’t we know?

  We follow her out into the hall and wait outside the door to the room, seeing if our parents can cross safely. They seem to be talking amongst themselves, which makes me doubt they’ll be able to leave.

  With Evie found, our children will be the next rulers of our kind, and there’s nothing they can do unless they get rid of her. Despite not telling us, the idea was pretty genius.

  “Why didn’t one of you tell us about the barrier?” Teddy demands.

  Guess I’m not the only one irritated they didn’t tell us.

  Evie sighs “I told you so,” she says to her grandfather, while he grimaces and looks at us.

  “Evie approached me last night to see if I could do it without getting in trouble
from the Creator. I told her I could do it but we should hide it from everyone for now. It wasn’t to keep secrets from you, it was so your fathers would see the surprise on your faces and realize they aren’t in charge anymore. They need to see Evie in control, or they’d undermine her when they get out. This way they’ll see Evie as a strong, independent leader, and we’ll find out who really wanted to hurt her,” he says to us, his voice void of emotion.

  I doubt he would have told us either way, really. He seems to enjoy keeping things from us and sticking to the Creator’s rules rather than helping Evie.

  Dane

  This man is really starting to infuriate me! What we couldn’t have pretended to act surprised rather than him keep more secrets from us?

  Evie seems reluctant to keep secrets from us, but despite her honesty speech she gave us, it seems a bit hypocritical to keep stuff from us.

  Her grandfather’s manipulating us. I’ve been wondering lately if there’s an alternate agenda I’m unaware of, because he seems to sneak glances at Evie when none of us are looking, and I catch him just before he looks away. Each time he looks deep in thought, but why would he be thinking about Evie so much when he’s not allowed to interfere?

  I figured he was just trying to think of who would betray her, and maybe he might interfere to save her, but he just watches her. It’s a little creepy.

  Her father, however, has really stepped up the last two days and been there for Evie. There have been moments where we’ve been working on a surprise for Evie, and Max has kept an eye on her for us. We’ve started cleaning out the master suite on the ground floor and preparing it as a birthing room. Christian has also ordered supplies for the birth of the babies as well. He’s hoping for a natural birth, which will be less traumatic for Evie, but he need surgical tools sent in case a caesarean will need to be done.

  Max has been helping Christian and Zach organize getting some more equipment to be sent to the mansion for Evie. All of it to prepare for an early birth.