I throw my covers off and drag my tired feet to the bathroom in search of a mirror, so I can look behind my ear where I know new runes have etched themselves. I flick the light on and squeal in shock when I find Valen on the floor leaning against the wall, grimacing in pain.
“Holy shit, are you okay? Why are you on the floor?”
Valen puts his hand over his eyes to shield them from the light I just turned on.
“What the fuck!” I shriek, as panic grips me and I scramble away from him in a backward crab walk.
On Valen’s ring finger is a set of black runes. They start with an eight-point star on the skin below his fingernail and mark his whole finger to its base. I run my gaze over his other hand, resting palm down on the floor, and see the same runes on his other ring finger.
I cover my mouth with both hands trying to hold in the shocked gasp attempting to escape.What the hell, how does he have runes? Valen reaches for me, confused by my reaction.Has he not seen them? Fuck, is he going to be mad?
As he stretches his arms to me, I catch the line of runes on his sternum centered between his defined pecs. I scramble back further away from him and clip my shoulder painfully on the door frame.
“I’m so sorry!” I cry out.
“Vinna, no, shit! What are you talking about?”
Valen leans toward me, and I’m on my feet and running away from him before he can get up off the ground. A few steps out of the bathroom doorway, I slam into an unyielding wall of muscle. I bounce off of Sabin, and he grabs my shoulders to keep me from tumbling to the ground.
Sabin takes in my terrified expression and immediately moves me behind him as he assesses our surroundings, looking for the cause of my fear. Valen comes running from the bathroom towards us, and Sabin tenses.
“What the fuck is going on?” he growls at Valen.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out!” Valen snaps back and reaches for me again.
My bedroom door whooshes open, and three more tousled pajama-clad bodies stomp into the room. Did they all move into Lachlan’s house and I didn’t notice? What are they doing here this late at night? Sabin blocks Valen from moving past him to get to me. He turns to say something to Valen, and I see black runes marring the skin behind the back of his ear.
Sabin has matching symbols on his fingers, and they’re the same symbols on me, on Valen. I look to the other guys…they all have them. I run a shaky finger over the skin behind my ear, no doubt where I’ll find my own matching set of ebony runes.
What the fuck is going on?
I stare at them horrified. Ryker moves toward me, but I quickly back away shaking my head at him. What the fuck is happening?I don’t know how, but I know somehow this is my fault.Did I do this to them? Did my magic do this to them? But why? Fucking hell, what is wrong with me?
“Nothing’s wrong with you. This isn’t your fault.”
I open my mouth to argue with Ryker but stop confused.
I didn’t say that out loud.
My eyes widen in shock and their looks mirror mine.
Can you hear me?I ask in my head, and my knees wobble when they all chorus “yes.”
“Can you hear us?” Bastien asks me, and the room grows quiet while I search for their voices inside my head.
“I only hear me."
In shock, I run my finger over the runes on the side of my head again.Maybe it only works from me to you? Can you hear everything I’m thinking? Oh god, this could be really bad for me. Are they going to know everything I think about them?After a couple of seconds of them staring at me blankly, I make the connection.
“Bastien run your finger over the runes behind your ear.”
He does and then looks at me, obviously waiting for an explanation. I don’t say anything else, I just wait.
“Okay... I guess she’s not going to tell me the point of doing that. Look at her face, stay focused on her face. It’s cool that she’s in her underwear, no big deal. Fuck, that body though, I want those incredible legs wrapped around me… Nope, NO, don’t be that guy! Just keep looking at her face until she tells you what the hell is going on. That drop-dead sexy, gorgeous face. Why is Val smiling at me like that?”
A blush creeps up Bastien’s neck when he realizes we can hear what he’s thinking. His smile is sheepish for all of two seconds, until suddenly an image of me straddling his lap while we kiss and I grind against him, pops into my head.
“Bastien, stop!” I frantically shout at him, and he touches his runes turning the mental link off.
