Saved Elemental (Evelyn Storm Series Book 2) Read online

  He even helped her have a shower while she was having a weak moment and we were working downstairs.

  I think now that Evie’s getting better, he’s started letting his excitement at being a grandfather take over.

  I still have doubts over her grandfather, but I’ll confront him after we deal with our fathers. He shouldn’t be telling Evie to keep things from us.

  Teddy

  “Look, whether you like it or not, Evie’s our bonded and she should tell us these things. You can’t use your sway over her to keep things from us, especially when it’s our fathers she’s tricking. How would you feel if we dealt with your parents without telling you? Yes, we’re mad at our dads, but it still doesn’t give you the right to make all the decisions without us,” Ky says gritting his teeth.

  I’ve never seen him this angry, but he makes a good point. Evie stressed at the beginning of our relationship, before we’d all bonded how important trust was to her, but she’s doing exactly what she asked us not to, and that’s lie to each other. It doesn’t matter how small, it’s still a lie.

  Evie looks crestfallen, and I see her lip wobble before the tears start. I feel terrible. I didn’t want her to cry, I just wanted her to understand how unfair it was for her to ask us not to keep secrets, when she kept things from us.

  Ky sighs before engulfing her in his arms “I’m sorry, princess, it’s just not fair for you to expect us to tell you the truth all the time, but then think it’s ok for you to lie. We all need to be honest. No more lies ok?” he swipes his thumb over her cheek, wiping away the tears that are falling.

  “I’m sorry,” she sniffles, before burying her head into his chest.

  I wait for Ky to pass her over to me and I feel her guilt. Lifting her in my arms, she wraps her arms around my neck while straddling her legs around my waist. She’s softly crying against my chest, and I need to make it better.

  “You don’t need to feel guilty, we just need you to not ask us to be completely honest if you won’t, besides, some things I don’t want to know,” I wink down at her.

  She looks up at me with a small smile and nods. “Ok, I’m sorry. I won’t keep secrets from any of you,” she says with wide, innocent eyes.

  Chapter 16

  Kylan

  I didn’t mean to get so angry at Evie, but I just want to find out if my dad has changed since getting rid of the demon’s influence. I understand Evie’s feeling the pressure of everything, and she’s trying to please her grandfather, but she should have asked us first.

  After she climbs down from Teddy, Dane and Mike pull Evie to them to comfort her after I made her cry.

  Dude, she’s already hormonal from the pregnancy hormones and you had to make her cry? She didn’t mean to lie, and she already felt bad about it, but nooooo, you had to go and make things worse. Teddy chides me mentally while the other guys smirk over Evie’s head. They have to rub it in that I made her cry.

  I didn’t mean to and I apologized. She’s hormonal and that’s probably the only reason she cried in the first place, I retort.

  Evie

  I feel so stupid bursting into tears over the whole thing, but I honestly thought my grandfather was right about needing to keep it from them. I didn’t think of it as lying to them, but I guess I did. I would probably be just as upset if they did something similar to my parents without telling me first.

  I see Christian out of the corner of my eye. He’s standing off to the side, and I wander over to him hoping he won’t ask questions about what’s happened, and just let me stand next to him in silence.

  Thankfully, he seems to understand what I need, and doesn’t question me. We stand next to each other silently, and watch the guys hovering around the doorway, anxious to see if their fathers will come out or not.

  Watching them, I realize I acted foolishly and should have told them, but I guess there’s nothing to do now but wait and see who tries to leave. For their sake, I hope everyone’s able to, but I have a feeling not all of them can.

  I didn’t feel any influence from them, but I felt a lot of anger from Richard and William. I’m not sure what the anger was from. It could have been just anger at being locked away in their own home, but I wanted to be sure they wouldn’t hurt me as soon as they were free.

  Richard’s the first one to approach the door and walks through with no resistance, gripping Teddy in a bone-crushing hug.

  Neil and Victor follow after and hug Ky and Mike, while I watch William. William seems to be hesitating and watching Dane, but he’s not crossing the doorway.

  “Dad, just walk through,” Dane begs.

  William takes a step toward the door, and a gold light flares up between him and the doorway. He pushes against it as if he can push through by sheer force of will, but it won’t work.

  “What are you doing?!” Dane shouts at my grandfather, while I watch horrified.

  I’ve never felt sorrier for someone than I do right now. My grandfather explained this to me last night. If they tried to cross the door, but held thoughts of harming me, the barrier would flare gold the closer they got to it. It wouldn’t harm them, but it would stop them from escaping.

  “Dane, he’s not doing this. This is what the barrier is supposed to do if they mean me harm. I’m sorry, but the demon wasn’t the only thing that wanted to hurt me. He intends to harm me,” I say softly to Dane, but he doesn’t want to hear it. Instead he directs his rage towards my grandfather.

  “You’ve been playing us for days now! You’re using Evie against us, and trying to trick us into believing my father is against us! Your bullshit about someone betraying her? If anyone’s going to betray it would be you! I’ve seen the way you watch her, and it’s not the way a grandfather watches their granddaughter. You watch her as if your waiting for the right moment to take her from us! I want you gone, now!” He’s so angry, he shouts the words at my grandfather.

  What? Someone’s going to betray me? And more secrets? Not that I can talk, but still. They all get angry at me when they’re keeping secrets too. I think we all need to sit down for a long overdue talk.

  Christian

  Well that escalated quickly.

  Everyone’s staring at Dane in horror, apart from Evie who looks confused, and her father who looks pale.

  So, I guess everyone knew about someone betraying her, but it was some big kept secret that they didn’t want her to know. Sounds kind of hypocritical when they just got angry over her keeping the barrier a secret. Honestly, to me, it seemed like a great idea.

  If Evie or her children ever have any chance of fulfilling this prophecy that everyone’s going on about, then she needs to start establishing some control so the others will listen to her and her children. It’s one of the best ideas I’ve heard to have an elemental that can control all the elements leading the elementals, rather than a council of individual elements. Maybe Evie should be in charge now as being raised human seems to have given her a sense of compassion that not many other elementals have.

  “I hope you’re happy! Whatever happens to Evie and her children now falls on you! I won’t stay where I’m not wanted,” Raphael says, storming off.

  He looked so furious, but I don’t understand why. So Dane told her about being betrayed. Isn’t that a good thing? At least she can be prepared for it.

  Evie looks ready to burst into tears and the others are standing around too shocked to say anything.

  Victor is the first to walk to Evie while she controls her tears. “Sweetie, why don’t you go with this young man and rest while we talk to our sons? It seems we need to sort some things out,” he says, gesturing to me, and I’m glad to get her away from them.

  I’ve told them she needs to be relaxed and calm for the babies. We have no idea what kind of effect the fast growth will have on Evie, but she needs to not overstress or it could cause her to miscarry one or both of the babies.

  I’m so angry that not one of them reacted, and, instead, left her standing next to me without g
oing to her. I don’t want to cross lines which is the only reason I didn’t pull her to me. I could tell Dane’s shouting was getting to her, and I’m surprised he doesn’t realize how that would make her feel.

  Evie

  I don’t know how to react to Dane’s outburst. Hearing Dane shout like that brings me back to the feeling I would get from hearing my father shout at me when I’d displeased him. All I’m waiting for now is the violence. I hear the door slam marking the absence of my grandfather and instead of one of guys talking to me, it’s Victor. He sends me off with Christian, and I’m a little glad for the break, because I don’t know whether to be angry or burst into tears.

  How could they all just freeze? Why didn’t any of them say anything? I hate that no one wants to tell me what the hell is going on, but, no, I’m left out of the loop until they decide to tell me.

  Christian leads me downstairs to the kitchen, and places me on a seat at the island bench while he busies himself making us something to eat.

  After a few minutes, he puts a plate of food in front of me and sits down next to me with his own.

  “Eat,” he says gesturing at my plate.

  He’s managed to scrape together some cucumber, carrot, apple, bananas and orange as well as some cold meat, cheese and crackers.

  “Thank you,” I say before digging in.

  Since starting the drip, I’ve found myself extremely hungry, which apparently is the by-product of advanced growth of the babies. Christian said my appetite will continue to grow until the last day or two of my pregnancy.

  Once we’re finished eating, he puts our plates beside the sink and grabs my hand leading me through the front foyer.

  “I thought you might like to see what we’ve set up for the birth,” Christian says, with a soft smile.

  I’d heard they were organizing a room for me to give birth in, but all that does is make me realize how quick my pregnancy will go. Most women get to spend months enjoying their pregnancy, but for me it’s going to fly by.

  “Ok,” I smile back, not wanting to discourage him. The last thing I want to do is sit down and think about everything that just happened, so I may as well check everything out.

  The room they chose is one of the bigger master suites downstairs. Walking in, I’m not prepared for what they’ve set up, it’s pretty amazing.

  Where the bed would be, is a hospital bed set up with an ultrasound machine beside it. They managed to hang a curtain around the bed to give me an illusion of privacy while I give birth, I assume. Looking around I’m surprised to see six chairs placed against the wall facing the bed area.

  “What are they for?” I ask curious why I would need chairs in here.

  “Those are for everyone to have a place to sit down during the process. It could be a quick or long labour, and the last thing you want is everyone crowding you when you’re trying to birth two babies. We still have stuff to do. We have another machine that should be here next week sometime, I have a friend getting neo natal cribs for the babies in case they need them. I also have some other supplies being sent they we may need. Better to be prepared for all scenarios,” he tells me.

  Oh wow. I didn’t know the guys were doing so much to make everything go smoothly for me.

  “We’ve also started clearing out the adjoining room, and making it into a nursery. We figured after the birth, you may be sore and it will be good to stay here for a while instead of upstairs. Then you can move next door once you’re healed enough. It should be all done by the time the babies are born,” he says, looking around the room proudly.

  “You know, I never thanked you. You didn’t have to come here to look after me and the babies, but you did. You also don’t have to stick around until the babies are born, but you are. I really appreciate it,” I say with gratitude.

  “It’s ok, I don’t mind. Would you like to go out into the garden for some fresh air and talk? I’m not sure if Zach’s told you my story, but I’d like the chance to tell you myself,” Christian says with a sad smile.

  “Yeah, that sound’s great. The guys barely let me out of the house now that they know about the babies.”

  “Well, you’re safe with me, I promise,” Christian says with a cocky grin.

  Damn that grin. I’m trying hard not to get involved with Christian or Zach, but it’s getting harder and harder to follow through. Zach’s barely been around, but Christian’s been there every now and then, popping in unexpectedly, asking me if I’m ok, or if I need anything.

  “Oh and no one’s told me anything about you. None of the guys know much about you, and Zach hasn’t been around to ask,” I tell him, walking beside him.

  “Well my story isn’t the happiest and if you want me to stop I will. I met Josie when we were in high school. I didn’t find out I was an elemental until my 18th birthday, so that was a big shock. Even more shocking was that my father knew my whole life. Josie and I had been together for two years and I wanted to ask her to marry me, but then I found out what I was. I had no idea what to do. Prom was coming up and that’s the night I’d planned to propose, so I brought her to a beautiful little spot overlooking the city and told her what I was.

  At first, she thought I was nuts, until I showed her my Fire elements. I thought she would freak out and run, but she said I’m the same person I was before, just a little bit more special. I proposed and she said yes, and we were married a year later.

  For the first year and a bit everything was fantastic. I worked in the local hospital maternity unit, while Josie went to college for her teaching degree. We bought a house and moved in. Then one night after I’d had a bad day at the hospital, we had a massive argument. She wanted children and I thought it was too soon. I’d only just finished my degree in obstetrics and thought it was too soon while we were still paying off the debt from the house. She told me if I didn’t have a baby she’d look into a sperm donor by herself. I was so angry, and I walked outside to release my pent-up anger before I lost control. Nothing was working, not even the breathing exercises dad had taught me, so I aimed all my power at a burnt up, old caravan that Josie got for me to use my elements on.

  I woke up on the ground, and the house was on fire. My element had lit up a gas main underground and blown up the whole property. I searched for Josie in the fire, glad that it wouldn’t hurt me, but I couldn’t find her. The human fire department put the fire out, and it was assumed the explosion was so hot that Josie perished instantly.

  I’ve never felt more horrible about her death, and that we were arguing over something so insignificant but it happened, and I’ve tried to find closure and focus on my job. I’ve only just opened myself up to dating again, and so far, no one has even compared to Josie until I met you. Everything you went through, and still have to go through, made me want to get to know you more and knowing you’re my bonded had nothing to do with it. You’re an incredibly brave woman and I admire that you’ve been through so much and still come out fighting.”

  Chapter 17

  Mike

  I’m torn between punching Dane in the face, and throwing him down the stairs. Either way, I’ll be satisfied. How the hell could he blurt that out to Evie? Especially when he was the one that told us of the consequences. And how could Raphael just walk out? Max followed after Evie left, but no one has come back and so we are all still out in the hall.

  Victor shocked the hell out of all of us by comforting Evie and telling her to leave with Christian, but seeing as he’s Zach’s brother none of us really minded.

  Victor turns on Dane “You need to pull your head out of your ass. We all left the room pretty much one after the other, but your father stalled. I suspected something was wrong for him to choose to go last, but I figured he was nervous to see you after everything. He just needs time. None of us wish to harm your bonded. I hope he doesn’t, but the time locked away will give him time to think and you can still go in and talk to him. You, however, may have hurt your bonded more than any of us did. You just sent away th
e only person who could really help her,” he states staring down at him.

  “He’s right. Your father has made his choice and until something changes, he’ll be stuck in there. Now, we have so much to talk about, but if you’d prefer to wallow in self-pity that daddy wants to hurt your bonded than go ahead, but we’d rather work on telling everyone about the demons and preparing for a war,” Richard states, turning his back and walking away with the others following.

  “What war?” I ask.

  Teddy

  I try not to cheer my dad on as he rips Dane a new one. What the hell was he thinking? What kind of fallout are we looking at now that Evie knows?

  And now a war?

  Seriously, why can’t our life just be rainbows and lollipops? No demons, no war, no fight for ultimate power.

  We follow our parents into the study, with Dane moping behind us. We all take seats around the room with Victor, Neil, and my dad standing in front of the desk, facing us.

  “Firstly, I just want to say I’m sorry about what happened while I was under control of the demon. I didn’t want to hurt your bonded, but no matter how hard I fought, it controlled my every move. The up side to that is that our minds were connected, which means I know all of their plans.

  They plan to rip the barrier open soon. All the Shaded and all the possessed humans that are under demon control will be there. We are on an even field of power since they control a lot more of us than we realize. We will need to gather everyone we can and Evie will have to search for demons. Once the barrier is open, we won’t stand a chance at defeating them as there are millions of demons waiting on the other side of the barrier to wreak havoc on the earth. However, If we can defeat them before they open the barrier we might have a chance,” Richard says, his voice full of command.

  We all speculated maybe 100 demons would be what Evie had to face but millions? How on earth is that possible? I don’t think even the creator could handle that many demons.