"I'm still keeping an eye on her, just in case. But I trust your judgement, Doll," Evander said as he came over and kissed me on the forehead. "We have classes to get to, and graduation is in two weeks."
"It all seems so pointless now. Staying for class and dealing with the mundane, when my parents are probably rotting away in a prison. I want to break them out." My voice was calm as I said it, finally voicing out loud what I intended to do. They don't get the choice to imprison people for love. Fuck that.
"Break them out? What if they aren’t even there? You don’t want to get your hopes up, and you can’t say it so casually. You know prisons are guarded... right?" Aeson asked, laughing until he saw my face. "Fuck, she's serious."
"Of course she is. Would you let someone you cared about rot for a few more years, just so you could avoid danger?" Evander questioned, looking far too excited about some bloodshed. "Does that mean we’re done with school?"
"No. She stays, she graduates, and then we find a place to lay low while we pull out her abilities. Then, we need to report back to school," Lachlan said firmly.
"No, the dean knows when her school ends, and he knows by now that we've found something… well, at least that she is a supernatural. I explained it away enough for him not to push, but he's hardly a patient man," Calev warned, letting go of me and starting his nervous pacing.
"Then we need to decide what to do. She still has magic locked away, I can feel it," Aeson mumbled, his eyes closed as his body emitted a white glow. "Something about it is off, though."
"What do you mean?" I squeaked out, his tone making me think something awful was hidden inside of me. My skin crawled as I glanced down at my body, like something was going to rip from my flesh and present itself. I’ve seen Alien. I definitely didn’t want that!
"It feels like us," he said quietly. “I've been with this team and healed them long enough to know their distinct magical signatures. You have a form of that within you, like you carry a piece of us inside. There's something more under those, but it's far too obscured by those other signatures to tell what it is."
"Wait a second. You're telling me that I've stolen some of your life essences?" My voice held a hint of laughter that I couldn’t disguise; the entire thing just sounded ridiculous.
"No, it's been there since I've met you, but now it's building," he said, looking every bit as confused as I was.
"My shadows?" Calev questioned, looking from me to Aeson. "Is that why she could control them? My shadows are unique to our species, as are all of our powers, so I was shocked to see her use a form of it."
"No, it was yours, or a piece of yours, just not part of your reserves," Aeson explained, sitting down on the ground as he processed it all.
"You're not making sense, babe," Tristan said softly, sitting next to him.
"It doesn't make sense to me either, but I know what I felt," he argued adamantly, running his hands through his hair.
"What if it's destiny?" Lachlan said finally. "Shifters have something called fated mates, a mate or mates who are destined to be a part of our lives."
"We aren't shifters, but we have a similar connection with our mates," Evander said with a sigh, sliding down to sit as well.
"Okay, hear me out," Calev said, starting to pace again. "What if the reason she has this connection to us is because she has more than just two mixed species?"
"Like some kind of experiment?" Tristan asked, his voice rising with each word in anger and anxiety.
"No, a relationship like ours, where magic was involved in the mating. What if she has a piece of us because this situation is so fucking unique, something about meeting us triggered her to take on our essences? Touching her feels different than anyone else. She’s clearly magically joined with us." Calev's arms were flailing as he spoke, looking way less composed than I'd ever seen him.
"So you think this is destiny? You all dating me?" I snorted, my eyebrow quirking up.
"This isn't just dating, and you know it," Calev said as he came to a halt in front of me, his stone gray eyes boring into me until I squirmed in my spot. Fuck, why does he have to be right? I've felt how strong this attraction is, the warmth of their touches that seemed to permeate my very soul. I just thought I was screwed up in the head from years of life with Clara and my adoptive parents.
"You held back because you thought you were desperate?" Tristan asked in shock. I nodded numbly, what else would I think?
"This instant attraction shit isn't normal for supes either, but my bear claimed you the first time we came to eat lunch with you," Lachlan added softly.
Van nodded in agreement, "My vampire almost ripped Clara limb from limb for treating you badly. Normally I'd get mad, but this wasn't my typical range of anger."
Calev held his hands out in a 'see, I knew it!' gesture before starting to pace again. "My gargoyle was the same way when I first watched over the school. Something in her called to me, yet her siren abilities don't affect me at all."
"But they affected the others," I pointed out, remembering the incident on the pier. "I almost walked into the ocean in front of everyone nearby."
"True, but maybe it’s not your feelings, it's ours," he countered. "I did night watch the most, since my gargoyle doesn’t mind the cold. But mostly, I just wanted to see you. The mysterious girl who talked to statues and poured her heart out to the sea." He stepped back in front of me and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. My heart clenched at hearing his confession, knowing that someone really did want me... all of me. A rogue tear escaped me, and he swiped it away with a soft smile. "That night at the pool, that's when I knew I wanted you. Not just my gargoyle, but me too."
"The magic came way after that, though. When her panic response was strong," Evander pointed out. "When that power was most relevant. I doubt she'd drink blood, but I wonder if running were an option, could she have borrowed that speed too?"
"This is all too much, and class started like an hour ago," I mumbled, needing a moment to process this. Could something like this be possible? Something within me calling to others? Is it more than that, could someone have orchestrated this? It all seems too perfect. No, there's something more.