Chapter Six

A flash of anger and I could swear jealousy darkens Storm's eyes before he snuffs it out along with the fire ball between his black as night horns as he becomes emotionless again.

His face drops into a snarl as he opens his mouth, and I interrupt, “Oh no, whatever you have to say can wait until Kill’s taken a fucking shower and had a hot meal.”

I try to turn to move Killian back towards my room so he can shower, but he doesn’t let me go, his arms tightening around me.

“Kill you’ve got let go, come on, you fucking stink. Get your ass in the fucking shower!” I order.

Storm's eyes cloud with worry at my words, and I have no fucking idea why.

“Yes, ma’am,” he chuckles, unwinding himself from me.

“I’ll order food; it’ll be here when you’re done. The shower is straight through there,” I say, pointing towards my door.

As he turns to leave, my eyes move over his muscular form, and I admit I watch his tight ass as he walks away. Reluctantly pulling my gaze away, I focus back on the others; Reaper’s mouth is literally hanging open, which would be comical if I knew what the big deal was.

No one says anything, and I decide to leave them to it and wait it out. I’m sure there’s a whole heap of fucking questions coming; I can almost feel it. I walk over to the screen that Reaper used to order food before, and after a few moments of tapping the screen with no idea of what I’m doing, I finally find the menu and order all of Killian’s favourites. I order extras for the guys as well, just in case they’re hungry.

“Erm, Farren?” Loki starts, and I look up at him.

“Yeah?”

“How do you know Killian?” He asks, shooting a worried look at Storm, who is sitting in a chair facing my bedroom door, his emotions completely shut down.

“That’s a long story, and I think it might be better explained when Kill gets back out,” I reply, stalling. I’m not sure how much Kill will want me to share. Especially since they seem to have a shared history that I know nothing about.

Before any of them can protest, Poca appears in the middle of the room, making them all jump, and I smirk. It’s strangely satisfying to watch these dangerous big men jump at the sight of my hellhound.

“Fucking hell has he been here the whole time?” Rival asks.

“Nope, he just materialised in.”

“I have so many fucking questions, and I don’t understand anything that is going on right now.” Mayhem adds in.

I know I owe them an explanation after everything that they’ve seen or heard over the last couple of hours, but I barely know these guys. I know we’re a team, and that should usually come with some level of trust; however, normally, teams are excited to be together, and Storm fucking hates me, Mayhem doesn’t trust me, and I’m not sure of the others yet. I can’t share the darkest parts of my life with them, not until I trust them and they trust me. If Storm gets his way, he will have broken the bond long before that can happen.

I will give them the bare minimum I can get away with, and that’s it. If they don’t like it, then it's fucking tough. I’m not putting myself at risk and exposing my secrets to them without complete trust on both ends.

I’m pulled out of my thoughts as my bedroom door opens, and out walks a shirtless Killian. I sigh; I will never fucking get tired of seeing all of his taut muscles on display. Seeing them reminds me of the last time I got up close and personal with them. My eyes collide with his sparkling ones, and I grin, looks like his mind went to the same place mine did. My eyes dip and land on the scar over his heart, the one that I gave him and he’s stupidly fucking proud of. I know it shouldn’t, but it always makes me smile knowing that he carries around something that will always remind him of me. I carry the same one over my heart, thanks to him. I can feel the other's looks burning into the side of my face as they try to work out what the fuck is going on between us.

Killian strides towards the door, pulling it open before the server on the other side can knock and scaring the shit out of him in the process. He looks over the laden cart and sighs before glancing back over his shoulder at me.

“Little help, Darlin’?” He asks.

I grin and materialise all the plates on the coffee table in the middle of the lounge, my grin widening as Kill slams the door in the shocked server's face. He strides over to me, his tail whipping behind him and then sits as close to me as possible, swinging his arm over my shoulders and trying to pull me in close, much to the obvious shock of the guys who are once again just staring at Killian.

“Oh no you don’t,” I warn him, “eat first, and then you get cuddles. I’m still fucking pissed at you.”

“Erm Farren, I don’t think you should talk to him like that,” Loki points out, looking uneasy and worried.

Killian’s gaze snaps to Loki, a decidedly chilly edge to it now, “She can speak to me however she wants.”

The guy's eyebrows hit their hairlines.

“Alright, clearly there is stuff going on here that I know fuck all about, and we’ll get to that, but right now I need to see you eat something, Kill, I’m fucking mad at you.”

His eyes connect with mine again, “I thought you’d left.”

“Never,” I vow.

I know it hit him hard when I didn’t come back, not that I had a fucking choice, I tried, but I was blocked from using the Void to get to him. I thought he’d blocked me out. I also know that I’m going to have to reassure him of that for a long time before he believes that I’ll never voluntarily leave him. “I don’t know why I couldn’t get to you the last few years, but we will figure it out. After you eat.”

“Okay, Darlin’, I hear you,” he picks up his plate and then smirks, “when we find the person responsible, what’s the plan?”

“Oh, I think I might bring out my favourite weapon for this one.”

“Want to play who makes the most slices in ten minutes, again?” He grins.

I chuckle, “Hell fucking yeah, I’m ready to defend my title.”

“I can’t take it anymore, Kill where the fuck have you been? You were supposed to come here with us, and then you disappeared with no warning. We had a fucking search party.” Storm growls, anger ever-present, but there’s a hint of something almost desperate in his tone.

“We were your best friends. You could have told us anything,” Loki mutters, and I study them closely.

Some of their reactions make more sense now. They were once as close with Kill as they are with each other, not to mention that Storm is his brother.

“I had something more important to do,” he replies between bites. His blunt tone makes the guys all frown. “Besides, there was no guarantee that we’d end up on the same team anyway.”

My intuition starts to gnaw at me, “Wait, when was this?”

Kill stops eating, and his eyes meet mine, “Four years ago, thirteenth month, twenty-sixth day.”

That was only a few months after we first met. The more I look into his eyes, the more certain I am that I was the reason or at least a part of it, but why? Why did he give up coming here with his brother and, from what I can tell, friends?

His mind brushes against mine, and I open a channel so we can speak without the others hearing.

“I will tell you, Darlin’, but I can’t yet. It’s not the right time.”

I study him closely; he has never lied to me, never betrayed me, and I trust him more than I trust anyone else; I nod.

“I trust you. I do have a request, though. I think you should enroll here now, I don’t want you out of my sight,” I practically plead, aware that it makes me sound needy as fuck but really not caring.

I don’t know why but I know that he needs to be here. It’s such an intense feeling that it's almost making me panic.

“Are you two done making love eyes at each other?” Storms snaps.

Uh oh, Kill’s eyes move to the side to watch his brother before he leans closer to me and seals his lips to mine in a familiar and searingly hot kiss.

“Now I’m done,” he says with a wide smile, as he pulls back and eyes Storm, who’s so mad his horns are sparking, and his shadows are starting to gather.

I roll my eyes.

“Storm, calm down,” Rival warns.

“Are you staying?” Reaper asks, a thread of hope in his voice that lets me know that although they’re pissed at him and there are still things going on that I don’t know about, they all really missed him.

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. I’m not the same person I used to be.” He replies.

“Because of her,” Storm sneers, his eyes on me, and no, I have no idea where he got that idea.

“No,” Killian snaps, the blue spark between his horns hissing slightly with anger, and Storm recoils, “for her.”

“What?” I ask.

“Darlin’,” he mutters, and I sigh.

“Fine, never mind.”

“I don’t understand?” Storm growls.

“And I can’t explain it to you yet.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Storm retorts, clearly getting frustrated with the short answers he’s actually getting.

“Oh, come on Storm, you know it means that he’s had a vision, and he can’t share it yet,” Reaper admonishes.

Storm sighs heavily, moving forward in his chair and placing his head in his hands.

“I know that. I’m sorry, man,” he says, his voice softer as he looks up at Kill, “I really fucking missed you,” he looks at me as if deciding whether he wants to say the next thing in front of me.

I decide I’ll make it easier on him and start to get up to give them all some privacy to catch up. Maybe that’s the reason that I’m here, it’s not to be on a team or even to escape my father, which is a nice perk, but it’s to bring them back together.

My stomach churns. There has to be a reason why Killian couldn’t be with them and me, so if it is my destiny to bring them together, does that mean I forfeit Killian?

Now I want to escape the room to run from my own wandering thoughts. Before I can get far though, Killian’s big palm lands on my thigh, and I look at him.

“You know almost everything about me. There’s nothing he could say that I wouldn’t tell you anyway.” Killian says softly, and again I receive perplexed looks from all of the guys.

“You’re different,” Reaper starts, “still as deadly as ever, or even more so actually, and you're still a surly bastard but not with her. She brings out a side in you I don’t think I’ve ever seen, and I’ve known you since we were two.”

Killian just shrugs; clearly that’s not something he wants to explain right now.

“You were saying?” He prompts Storm.

“Our father,” he starts, and I interrupt.

“Oh shit yeah, if you’re brothers, that makes your father, King Lucien.”

“You really did tell her?”

“Of course I did. I told her everything, which is why, despite the spoiled barbs you have been throwing at her since she got here, she hasn’t done the same to you,” Killian replies, his voice hard.

I smack him on the chest, “How many fucking times have I told you not to dig around in my head like that? Do you want me to block you completely again? How long did you last?”

His eyes widen, “An hour; I only lasted an hour when you blocked me completely. No, I’m sorry I just wanted to see if they’d treated you well and if I need to do any damage.”

“What do you mean block you completely?” Loki asks curiously, he moves to sit on the other side of me, and I expect Killian to have a problem with it, but he doesn’t even bat an eyelid, even sharing a knowing grin with Loki.

I feel like Loki’s figured something out before the rest of us even realised that there was something to figure out.

“We can talk to each other in our minds and feel each other's emotions and wellbeing if that makes sense.” Killian starts to explain.

“And we can block one or both of those, so if I chose, I could block him from feeling my emotions, but he could still hear my thoughts. It’s not pleasant, though. I’m so used to Kill being there that it feels like I’m missing a vital part of myself when I can’t feel him.”

“Wow, that’s pretty intense.” Reaper frowns.

“Yeah, it can be,” Killian admits and an amused look takes over his face. “Although in other situations, it's fucking spectacular.”

“And that’s enough of that, dickhead.” I interrupt with a chuckle. “I really do think that you should enrol here.”

“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. The waitlist is a mile fucking long.” His face falls serious again, “besides, Farren, you know better than anyone that it would be incredibly dangerous for everyone else if I attended here. They’d not only have your enemies to contend with but mine as well.”

“What does that even mean? How does she have enemies? She’s the spoiled daughter of Magistrate Godfry.” Strom spits.

“Who is a close personal friend of our fathers. What does that tell you about the kind of man he really is?” Killian growls back.

Storm just shakes his head in denial, gets up and storms back out of the room.

“Moving on,” Rival mutters, “you actually could enrol here if you wanted to, Storm made them keep your place open, and since your test scores were so fucking high, they easily agreed.”

I feel a flicker of indecision come through the channels, and instead of pushing, I let him work through it. It doesn’t do anyone any good to push Kill; he just becomes even more stubborn.

“How long have you been here?” He asks me.

“This is my second day,” I reply.

“And someone has already come for you.” He mutters, not needing a reply.

“Killian, you can’t tell me that this doesn’t feel like where you’re supposed to be,” Reaper adds in, and the others nod.

It’s clear that they want him here as much as I do.

Before Killian can reply, his eyes swirl the red and gold flames spinning into an inferno.

“Whoa, what’s happening?” Loki asks.

“He’s having a vision,” I reply, confused as to why they don’t know that.

“They never used to look like that,” Rival explains, seeing my confused frown.

It only takes a couple of minutes for Kill to come out of, and he smirks, which is never a good sign, “Alright, I’ll stay. I might have to leave occasionally, the Crypt still needs me to run things occasionally, but Rhett has been taking over more duties the last few years since I was wallowing.”

“Crypt?” Storm mutters as he makes an appearance.

“Yeah.”

“They’re the deadliest and most feared sector of assassins. How are you even working for them before you’re twenty-five?” Rival asks.

“I’m not. I run them.”

Silence greets his statement, none of them knowing how to reply to that.

“We talk more later,” Loki grins, hopping up and then moving to stand in front of Killian. “Right now, I want you to enrol officially. I’m not risking you changing your mind again.”

“You’re staying?” Storm asks, his face back to being the stoic mask, and Killian just nods in response before focusing back on Loki. He stands with a smile and pulls Loki in for a hug, which seems to shock him.

“It’s good to see you again.” He mutters before stepping back.

“That’s quite a scar,” Mayhem points out.

“You can thank Farren for that,” he grins, and the guys turn to me.

“What he got me too,” I defend, pulling down my top slightly and showing them all the scar just above my left boob.

“Supernaturals don’t scar,” Storm growls.

“And yet I’m covered in them,” I retort. “Go put a shirt on, Kill. Let’s get you enrolled.”

“I think that’s the first time you have ever asked me to put a shirt on,” he says, as he strides into my room.

“Don’t get used to it!” I yell after him.

“You guys have an interesting relationship,” Reaper mutters, not so subtly fishing for information.

“Yeah, we do,” I reply. I don’t really know how to answer what he’s asking me. I don’t know what Killian and I are in relationship terms. I don’t even know if there’s a definition for what we are to each other. We’re more than friends, closer than lovers but not even lovers in the true sense of the word. I can tell you this though, he is mine, and I am his.

I stopped trying to figure it out a long time ago. Like many things, it is what it is.

“I see,” Reaper replies, even though I didn’t really say anything, and a sheen of sadness covers his eyes before he gets rid of it.

“We still need to know what happened in the gym,” Storm demands.

I sigh, he’s not going to let this go, and I guess that’s fair. I can answer this one thing I think, “My strongest gift is with the Void.”

“I guessed that. Why didn’t you tell the Headmaster, though, something to hide?” He replies snarkily.

“Yes, actually, I can use it in ways that no one before ever has. From what I can tell from my research, Void users do just that they use it like any gift. But for me it’s more than that, it’s a part of who I am. She shares more with me every time I use the Void to heal me, but it always comes at a price.” I explain, feeling nervous. This is the sort of information that they could use against me.

“What’s the price?” Reaper asks curiously.

“Two things,” Killian answers, coming out with an old t-shirt on and answering for me, “the first is pain; when it heals her, she feels everything, and from what she’s described, it feels like liquid fire running through her veins every single time.”

The others look at me in horror, and I shrug; I actually don’t mind that. Pain I am more than used to. I can’t tell them that now though. That would open a whole new can of worms.