Page 20 of Liberating Water

Lailah

After sneakinginto the bathroom and sharing the shower since neither one of us wanted to be far from the other, we finally had to separate so we could get dressed and find the others, knowing that we all needed to talk after this happened. I only hoped that the power surge didn’t affect the rest of the house and we didn’t need to make something up for Hudson’s siblings.

As I was headed out of the room, I caught what I was wearing in the mirror. It just so happened I grabbed my I just want to cuddle, eat cookies, and drink chai tea shirt. I thought about changing it but decided against it. Eventually I would be cuddling with all of these boys, and we all needed to get comfortable with it. Taking a deep breath, I made my way to the upstairs sitting room, where I guessed they would be waiting. This was not a conversation that anyone else should be overhearing.

“Did you two have fun?” Parker asked as he sat up from where he was sprawled out on the couch, patting the seat next to him. “Have a seat, I would love to hear all about it.”

Ignoring Parker, I went over to Brayden in one of the armchairs and sat on his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled his face against my neck. The other two were already here as well but were wise and didn’t say anything. Moments later, Hudson came up the stairs, taking a seat on the furthest end of the couch from Parker. I could feel his embarrassment even though his face was carefully blank.

Oh, this was going to come in handy.

“If you guys are trying to find a way to not make this awkward, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Parker pointed out.

For once, Parker was right, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud. Instead, I shifted so I could see Brayden better. “Did you notice anything changed after we Bonded?”

“Yeah, nothing too exciting, but I can feel where Hudson is now. Like, if he left here and didn’t tell us where he was going, I would know right where to find him. I can’t feel his emotions like I can yours, but I know that he is fine and not in danger,” Brayden explained.

“I have to say, that makes me feel better,” Hudson interjected. “Having one person who can know everything about how I’m feeling is going to take some getting used to, but having all of you would have been overwhelming.”

Brayden gave me a squeeze as he rested his head on my shoulder. “How are you feeling? Notice any difference now that you are Bonded to two of us?”

I paused for a moment and took stock of myself. The one thing I did notice was that in the space that my power resided, I could see a small ball of blue energy had joined the orbit around my power with the green one. Then again, I hadn’t seen any change after I bonded with Brayden until I had to use my powers, so it might be the case this time as well.

“Nothing is sticking out to me, but as we have learned, that can always change,” I answered, looking at all the others with a smile. “Is there anything else we need to talk about, or can we move on to other things?”

Parker raised his hand, making me smile as I nodded for him to ask his question.

“Can we revisit you sleeping alone? I mean, we all know Jay found his way into your bed at some point—not that I care,” Parker said, holding up his hands to ward off the others, who were glaring at him. “I’m just curious is all.”

“If you five can come up with some agreed-upon system, then I’m open to the idea,” I answered with a smirk, knowing if I didn’t they would all be trying to sneak into my bed.

Hudson cleared his voice, drawing everyone’s attention. “How is everyone doing with the employee files?”

Jay grabbed his tablet from the side table and started to tap away at it. “I have ten possibilities with another fifty to go through. Since the Elementi have a base of operations here, we should send our findings to them and confirm the information.”

“Wait, you want the Elementi to go door to door and check to see if they are really gone or that they are really the people they say they are?” Brayden asked.

“Both,” Jay said, pausing to look up. “You can put anything down in your employee file; there is no way to tell if any of this information is correct or not. Feet on the ground is the best move, but it will be done more efficiently if a trained team does it.”

“So what happens after we are done with this part?” I questioned.

Jay held my gaze as he answered. “We go back to Ryevick.”

“What? Why?” I blurted. “That doesn’t make any sense. Any clues we have are here.”

“True, but we are not the right people to take this further. We will be needed elsewhere,” Jay countered. “The serum is out there, and it’s going to be used. When that happens, it’ll be up to us to deal with it.”

I wanted to argue with him, fight for us to stay here and see this through to the end, but I knew he was right. None of us had the training to take this further than we already had. We had discovered many things that other Elementi wouldn’t see the same way we did, but now it was crossing over into the normal world, and none of us were prepared to deal with the legality of it all.

“Then I propose that we push and try and finish tonight so we can enjoy Christmas Eve without this lingering,” I said, pushing myself off of Brayden’s lap to find the tablet I’d been working on.

We all managed to finish the task and send off all the suspicious files to the Elementi here in France. It took us late into the night, but we wouldn’t have to worry about it and could enjoy the last few days here in Nice. Heading off to my room, I changed into my pajamas and settled into bed. Grabbing my phone, I double checked the time back home and saw that it was six-thirty in the morning, so my mom would be up.

Lailah: Merry Christmas Eve! Hope you guys haven’t been snowed in. We had a small change of plans and I’m in France, of all places. Hudson’s parents live here in Nice.

Mom: Merry Christmas Eve to you too, Ladybug! Oh, how exciting is that, you little world traveler you. Have fun with your friends and send me some pictures. I’ve always wanted to go to France.

Lailah: I will! Love you guys, miss you tons!!