“I do. All too well.”
“It took days for you to heal.”
“I know, Vane. I will prepare. I promise.” Reaching for Vanessa’s hands, she squeezed them. “So, what do you say? Can we start with a tweet?”
“Okay.”
Once again, I expected Natalia’s sarcasm or smug smile to return, but she took a steeling breath, grounding herself.
“Natalia… are you sure we should do this?”Starlight’s hesitation made my chest tighten once more.
“Yes, it’s part of being stronger,”Natalia assured her.“We need to face our fears.”
“It took so much from me last time… I don’t know if I can do it again.”
“You are not the only one here for Natasha anymore. You have me now, Starlight. I will protect you too… I swear.”
“Okay. We do it together?”
“Together.”
Walking several paces back, our mate faced André’s sister while everyone else moved out of the way, standing around me.
Dante whispered a spell into both André’s and Alyce’s ears to shield them. His own shadows swirling over his ears. Given my nature, there was no need to guard me.
“Here it goes,” Vanessa announced, more for her own sake than for anyone else. She was short of freaking out.
Cracking her neck, Natalia, braced for it, seeming laser-focused. A minute later her fire flared to life in her hands.
We all exchanged another glance.
My entire body tensed when Vanessa’s mouth opened, and I wasn’t the only one.
“Eek!”
Natalia glared at her, not amused. “That was the shortest bat shriek in history.”
“You said to start small.”
“You took it too literally… again.”
Sighing, Vanessa rolled her shoulders and nodded. “Eeek!”
Admittedly, that hadn’t been too powerful, but waves expelled through the air, sweeping over our mate.
My hands fisted and the guys shifted on their feet beside me. This was torture for us.
Natalia leaned back a bit when the waves made contact, and she blinked. “That wasn’t bad at all. Give me double the intensity.”
“Eeeeek!” Soundwaves rushed out of Vanessa’s mouth, passing over all of us on their way to their target.
They made contact with Natalia the next second, forcing her to take a step back. She shook her head as though to clear her mind, silently admitting she had felt it this time, but it didn’t seem to have affected her.
She glanced at us. “Isn’t this supposed to hurt?”
“It didn’t?” André asked, knowing that although small, his sister’s shriek should have disturbed her.
“I mean, I felt woozy, but it didn’t hurt.”
