| |
“Oh, my god. I love it.” She was out the door before Matt switched off the engine.
“And she’s off,” Josh joked.
Nate watched as she almost bounced her way towards the inn. She was wearing the hat and scarf set they’d given her. Her dimples were on display, and her eyes shone with happiness. Love for her surged through him, even though she had a questionable taste of interests.
“It’s stronger today, isn’t it?” Nate undid his belt, watching her still.
“The need to rip her clothes off and have at her?” Jake nudged Nate with his elbow.
“I meant our connection, you dirty sod. Not just her, but all of us.”
“You want to rip our clothes off too?” Josh teased.
“I wouldn’t rip your clothes off if you were on fire,” Nate grunted, getting out.
“We’re glad to hear it. Stop, drop, and roll. Never remove clothes.” Jake grinned at him, and Nate pushed him forwards, laughing.
They reached Lily and she bounced around happily, her eyes huge as she tried to look at everything at once.
“I don’t get it.” Nate looked around him.
“What?” Matt shoved his keys into his pocket.
“How excited she can get by a dry, dusty old inn.” He side-eyed Matt knowing the reaction he’d get, it was why he’d said it. Matt also had questionable taste in interests.
Matt snorted. “That’s because you have no imagination, Nate. She doesn’t see a dry dusty inn, she sees a piece of history. She sees the horse drawn coaches pulling in to stay for the night. No other houses, no constant noises of cars on the A30. Only a thick mist rolling across the moors. Rain threatening in the air as the servant boy runs out to take the horses.”
“A howling noise cuts through the mist and the horses snort and stamp in fear. Hark! The Beast of Bodmin Moor is afoot.” Jake launched himself at Lily, attacking her neck as he gripped her hips.
She squealed with laughter and managed to dodge away from him, hiding behind Matt.
“Ignore the Neanderthals.” Matt caught her hand and they headed towards the museum entrance.
It wasn’t Nate’s idea of fun, but he’d follow her to hell and back, so a day spent wandering around a pile of bricks should be easy enough. He trudged in after the twins and grimaced at the smell of old artefacts and moth balls. The twins wandered away, giggling like five-year-old girls at whatever caught their amusement. He had a quick look around, but it was boring, so he did one of his favourite things instead; he watched Lily. Matt had his arm around her shoulders, pointing at something behind the glass.
Matt must have sensed him watching and he caught Nate’s eye. He lifted an eyebrow at him in question and Nate shook his head once, smiling at him. Matt returned the smile and dipped his head to listen to something Lily was saying.
Josh wrapped his arm around Nate’s neck and leant his chin on his shoulder. “So, Natey boy, how about we ditch them and find the bar. It’s our birthday.”
“Yeah. Clever idea. You don’t have to wait till Saturday. God, I hope she doesn’t miss it.”
“She won’t,” Jake said. “She’s getting the Dark Lord to bring her back in time for it.”
“Not happy about that at all,” Nate muttered.
“I’ll let them know what we’re doing.” Josh let go of him and went to them.
“We promised her we’d have her back,” Jake reminded him.
“Yeah, I know. But it’s the not being able to see her back I don’t like.”
“We’ve bonded with her, Nate. On every fucking level there is. We’ll know if she needs us.”
Jake was right. They’d bonded on a level none of them had expected. They’d discussed it in the shower block after leaving Lily fast asleep, but they had yet to talk to her about it.
Regret was one word that’d come up last night. None of them regretted it. But they didn’t know how Lily was going to react. They’d told her it would only be their magic that was strengthened. But they were wrong. She was theirs and they were hers. They were bonded on a level that was deeper than love, deeper than death.
They couldn’t let her go, ever.
—***—
“IT’S A BIT ANTI-CLIMACTIC, isn’t it?”
Nate frowned at Josh. “What is?”
“Well, having your first drink in a bar.”
“Probably because of the Bootlegger.” Nate leant back in his chair. “Still want to get drunk?” He waggled his eyebrows at Jake.
“We’ll pass on that. We don’t want to run around the park making fire-balls and trying to strip.”
“You were always on your own with that one, Jacob,” Josh pointed out, opening his packet of crisps and offering them to Nate.
“No, thanks. Don’t forget we’ve booked a table here later.”
“We won’t,” Jake said, opening his own crisps.
Lily was laughing as she came through the curtained covered doorway with Matt.
“We have to tell her,” Josh said. “She has to know.”
“Yeah. Here, or back at the tent?” asked Jake.
“That was fascinating.” Lily slumped beside Nate, pulling her hat off. “Did you see the stocks outside?”
“Yeah, we’ll get some pictures later.” Josh pushed the glass of orange juice towards her. “Do you want any crisps?
“No, thanks.” She picked up her juice. “This is fine, thanks.”
“Lily, there’s something we need to tell you.” Nate picked up the card coaster and tapped the point on the table.
She sipped her juice, her gaze going everywhere, and he knew he didn’t have her attention. There was too much history here for her to look at.
“What time is our reservation?” Josh asked as he balled up his empty packet.
“Seven. I’m sure you’ve got worms,” Matt teased.
“Worms? You want to talk about worms?” Lily looked confused.
“No, not worms, something else—”
“Oh! I’ll be right back.” She shot from her chair and was out of sight before he could blink.
“Now where the fuck is she going?” He picked up the hat she’d left on the table.
“Bet she’s spotted the sign for the original bar. I’ll try and bring her back.” Matt got up and went after her.
Jake was watching Nate and it was making the back of his neck itch.
“What?”
“How are we going to sort the sleeping?” he asked, not breaking eye contact with him.
“She was on her own last night,” Josh said. “She might prefer that.”
“Do we ask her to decide? Or do we play it by ear and see what happens when we get back tonight? There’s enough room for her to squeeze in with us all,” Jake added.
“We have to tell her about the bond. She might tell us all to go to hell.” Nate picked up her glass. “Let’s get these pictures done, we can talk to her outside if the weather holds up.”
They went up the steps and through to the original bar, where Matt was taking pictures of her standing behind the bar. She was smiling widely, and he desperately hoped they weren’t going to destroy it. He sat at the table, the twins went over to her and he watched them flirt with her.
“I didn’t know she was missing from us, did you?” Matt slumped next to him, stretching his legs out.
“No. And I never imagined it would be only her for us. When the twins said they were going to share I thought they’d lost their minds.”
“It makes sense though, doesn’t it? We couldn’t have this if we hadn’t met her.”
“What do you mean?” Nate looked at him.
“It was a pig with Connie. It wasn’t going to work even if I’d loved her, which I didn’t. Without you lot there, I found it hard to be with her.”
Nate lifted an eyebrow at him. “You wanted us there? What were we supposed to do? Hold up score cards on your performance? I’d have given you a one, for effort.”
“Get lost.” Matt sneered at him and then laughed. “I meant when we went on dates. It was boring, she was boring. It sounds like I’m an asshole, but it got to the point where if I wasn’t screwing her, I didn’t want to be around her.”
“Don’t sweat it. She was only out for what she could get from you.”
“Yeah. But Lily’s not like that. I want to be with her no matter what we’re doing. I was an arse at first though with you.”
“You were.” Nate side-eyed him, smirking.
“I can’t imagine you or the twins with anyone but her.”
“I just hope it’s not too much for her to accept. There’s been so much shit lately,” Nate replied.
“Here she comes, let’s get her in the stocks and find out.”
“The visuals I just got were not clean.” Nate pushed his glasses up his nose.
Matt burst into laughter as she sat down.
“My drink, thank you.” She smiled at them and drained the glass.
“Want another?” Josh asked, leaning against the table.
“No, I’m fine thanks.” She bit her lip. “I was going to bring your presents, but then I thought they might get dirty or lost. It’s not much though. If you don’t like it, I—”
Josh cut her off by pressing his finger to her lips. “Hush, you don’t need to get us anything. But a birthday kiss wouldn’t go amiss.” He gave her a sickening puppy dog look, or at least he tried; he just looked deformed to Nate. Lily seemed to fall for it, kissing him and stroking her fingers through his hair. And then, of course, Jake was getting in on the act, slobbering over her. Maybe the puppy dog look was worth considering.
They settled either side of her on the chairs and hugged her between them.
“I’m sorry, Nate, what did you want to talk about?” she asked.
His stomach flipped, nerves taking over. He had no idea how to tell her.
Matt cleared his throat and nudged him. “You’re our illustrious leader,” Matt said. “Lead.”
He shot him a glare, before looking back at her.
“It’s about last night isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yeah, it is.” He wanted to take her hands in his, but she had them wrapped around the empty glass. “Something happened we weren’t expecting.” He took his glasses off and picked up a napkin to clean the lenses. “We told you our magic would bond, that we’d be able to know if you were lost, or in danger.”
She didn’t say anything, just studied the bottom of the glass.
“Something else happened we weren’t expecting,” Nate admitted. Dread made his stomach ache. “We said if you didn’t want to stay with us you’d be able to leave.”
“I remember.”
He chanced a look at her, but the bottom of her glass was as important as his glasses. “Shit, there’s no straightforward way to say this; we connected on a much deeper level.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
He huffed on his lenses and scrubbed harder at the glass. For once he was out of his depth. No, scratch that, he was always out of his depth when it came to Lily. He looked at the others, silently begging for help. He couldn’t stuff this up, and his track record with getting Lily to understand him wasn’t good.
“Okay, Lil, it’s like this,” Josh said, and Nate sent him a grateful look. “When we bonded in the bowling alley and then in the forest, it was incredible. But last night? It was fire, and ice, every nerve was on overload, and it connected us on every level there is. We four blood bonded before and that didn’t happen, thank god.”
Jake picked up from Josh. “We’ve forged a deeper bond than we expected to. We had no idea that it would happen, but we won’t be able to let you go. Ever.”
“But the kicker is you won’t be able to let us go either,” Nate finished for him.
“Do you regret it?” she asked, no indication in her voice to how she felt.
“No.” Jake shook his head. “We’re fucking elated, we’ve already told you; you’re it for us. The bond hasn’t done anything we didn’t want.”
“But if you didn’t want to be tied—”
“We did. We do,” Nate insisted. “Never doubt that, babe. We’re all completely and utterly chained to you and there isn’t anywhere else we want to be.”
“We were worried you wouldn’t want that commitment with us,” Matt said. “And it is a commitment, Lil. We’ve bound ourselves with magic, under a blood moon. Nothing can break it. Not even death.”
“Do you regret it?” Jake asked.
Nate held his breath. She could finish him with one word. She could finish them all.
“No. I don’t regret it. I never will. I love you guys, more than life.”
Her words were so quiet he wasn’t sure he’d heard right. But the rush of relief that sank over him from the others told him all he needed to know.
“Lily, baby, we fucking adore you,” Josh announced.
Matt stood up, kissed her, and sat back down. “You are never getting rid of me, Lily Flower,” he said, grinning at her.
“Or me,” Nate insisted. “Nothing can come between any of us.”
She beamed around at them; the happiness in her eyes made his heart beat double time. Things had happened quickly, his feelings for her had grown without him even realising it. But he was hers now and always would be.
“Nate, you’ve broken your glasses,” she exclaimed.
“What?” He looked down at the snapped arm. “Well, that’s bloody great. How the hell did I do that?”
“Let me see.” Lily took them from him.
“I don’t even have my contacts with me,” he grumbled. How the hell had he done that? He’d only cleaned them, same as he had done a hundred times before, and they’d never snapped.
“Super glue should do till we get back home,” Josh suggested. “They’ll have some in the shop here.”
“Or we could nip into the opticians in Bodmin and see what they say,” Matt offered.
“It’s a complete break. I’ll need new frames. I’ll get super glue for now.”
Lily handed them to him with no sign of a break. He opened and shut the arm, but it was as if it’d never happened.
“You fixed them.” He looked at her in awe. “Fuck me, Lily May, you fixed them.”
She was looking as shocked as he was.
He kissed her gently on the lips. “Thanks, sweetheart. You are incredible.”
“I don’t even know how I did it.” She laughed at herself.
“You’re going to be handy.” Josh sent her a sly wink. “I think we’ll keep you.”
“Lily.” Matt’s serious tone caught all their attention. “Do you know your limit?”
“What do you mean? What limit?”
“The limit of your abilities. Do you know what you can and can’t do?”
“I don’t think I do. Okay, let’s be honest here. I have no idea and it does kind of scare me.”
“Ours is limited, but we aren’t you. We can ask Jonas,” Matt said.
“I’m going to ask Dad as well. I’m of such mixed blood that I want to know what I can do.”
“Mixed blood?” Nate ignored the slither of worry at her choice of name for Drew. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to hearing her say it.
“Yeah, his mum, my grandma is—” She covered her mouth, her eyes went wide.
Damn, he could kick himself at how careless they were being. Talking about things so openly, he’d been an idiot.
“Shit. Yeah. Hold that thought,” Jake muttered.
“We’ve got a few hours to kill,” Josh said. “Shall we go back to the tent?”
“Have you seen enough here?” Matt asked her.
“I want some pictures of the outside, and of you lot in the stocks.”
“You want to restrain us?” Jake nudged her. “Anytime, babe, anytime.”
Nate snorted, they were flirting again, and she loved it judging by the giggle. They were so easy with her. They’d not said much about girls until they’d dropped the bombshell of finding one to share. He knew they fancied Lily, they’d made that clear right from the start. Shit, they’d have to be blind not to. As far as he knew, and he wasn’t going to ask, she hadn’t had sex with any of them. He’d gotten close with her a few times, but the time was never right. Would it be right now? While they were camping? And how would that even work with all of them in the same tent?
“Nate! La la land will have to wait. Lily wants some pictures,” Matt called, and he realised they’d got up and were now waiting for him by the door. The twins were smirking at him, evil gits. He flipped them off, got to his feet, and sent Lily an exaggerated wink, making her laugh.
He had to get his head in the game for a bit and stop wandering off in his mind. Things would happen when they happened. He loved her, and he wanted it to be perfect for them both, but especially her. If he had to wait till they’d left college and had their own place, then he’d wait. He wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was she.
