Descending Darkness (The Prophesized #3) (9 page)

He’s in love with me. It still takes me by surprise when he says that, even though he’s said it once before. I look over at him and get lost in those green eyes. Those green eyes have always held some hypnotic powers over me. I lean forward and kiss him lightly on the jaw. He sighs and wraps his arms around me, pulling me against him. When I’m firmly pressed into his side, I rest my head on his chest and tell him that I love him too.

I’m glad that I finally asked him. I was worried that he’d grow to resent this attraction between us, but he still wants to be with me despite everything going on.

“You know that day in the bookstore after I almost got hit by the car?” I arch my head back and wait for him to nod. “Well, I was
very
attracted to you. I remember thinking that I really wanted to touch your hair and how enticing your eyes were. When you were dusting the bookshelves, I saw a small patch of skin on your stomach…I couldn’t even think straight. Then you caught me staring which caused me to act like even more of a bumbling moron.”

“That’s why you were blushing?” he asks me with a slight smile in his tone. He starts tracing small circles into the sensitive skin on the underside of my arm.

“Yeah, I get really nervous around attractive people. I’m really awkward and then I get embarrassed by how awkward I am.”

“That’s cute,” he says while placing a small kiss on the top of my head.

“You’re lucky I’ve gotten used to all of you guys; otherwise it’d be very awkward around here.”

His chest rumbles as he speaks, “I hope you’re just talking about me.”

Oh, Colton. “Of course. You are the
only
attractive guy in this house.”

“Ha, I’m telling David.”

At that moment, a loud pang of thunder shakes the house, ruining the carefree moment between us. I jump and sit up slightly. Colton looks at me, silently asking if I'm the cause for the sudden weather change.

“It’s not me,” I tell him. The room brightens as lightning lights the night sky.

There’s a knock at the door. Colton gets out of bed and answers it. I sit up when Tom comes into the room, his eyes landing on me. “Is this you?”

“No, I’m not causing the storm.” I don’t think I can create anything this big. When I first came into my powers, I could manifest weather patterns, but now that I have more control on it, I only create elements of certain weather patterns. I haven’t caused a full-blown storm yet.

“Ok, well I want everyone to go downstairs. This storm could be dangerous,” he says. I crawl out of bed and walk over to Colton. He grabs onto my hand and pulls me out of the room after Tom. When Tom knocks on the door across the hall, a very sleepy Emma opens it and glares at Tom for disrupting her sleep. Olive darts out of the room and straight for my legs.

Scared.

Letting go of Colton, I reach down and pick Olive up. “It’s okay. I’ll keep you safe,” I tell her as I cradle her against my chest. Colton puts a hand on the small of my back and guides me downstairs. Liam, Logan, Bragden, David, Larkin, and Conner are already downstairs when we get there. In sync, they all turn to look at me. Goodness gracious, why does everyone think I am causing this? Before I came into my powers, natural disasters did occur. Storms do exist. “I’m not causing this storm, so don’t look at me like that.”

“Just checking,” David mumbles. I sit down on the couch next to Liam, and Colton sits down next to me. Harry Dillion from Channel 12 News is giving a live report of this evening’s weather.

“A large storm system is making its way through the state tonight, bringing heavy rain and wind gusting above sixty miles per hour. Expect severe pop-up thunderstorms and golf ball size hail with these storms. Some parts in the northernmost section of the state have experienced power outages. We’ll be back on with any new information regarding these storms. Onto other news, two more people have been reported missing in Huntington’s county…”

The lights flicker as loud thunder rolls outside. I’m not really afraid of storms, but I am very jumpy. I lean into Colton’s side, taking comfort in him. Olive moves onto my lap and curls up into a ball. Colton wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me closer. Emma, Natalie, and Tom descend the staircase. Emma and Natalie make their way into the living room while Tom remains at the bottom of the stairs. Emma walks over and sits with David in the chair, and Natalie goes to sit on the floor, but Liam and Logan both scoot over, creating space between the two of them. The couch is plenty big enough for all of us.

“What time is it?” Emma asks.

Tom sits down on the floor and checks his watch. “It’s 2:10 a.m. I think it’s just safer for everyone to be downstairs in case of an emergency.” The room lights up when lightning strikes outside. Olive starts shaking in my lap.

Scared. So scared.

I reach down and pet her lightly on her back. “It’s going to be okay.” When I finish my sentence, the power goes out and the room plunges into darkness. All the electronics stop running. The house is eerily silent. I snuggle closer to Colton and tighten my grip on Olive.

“Okay, night time,” Emma says. I laugh, but that actually seems like a good idea.

However, the loud thunder thinks otherwise. I can feel Colton laugh as I jump again. Besides the lightning striking outside, the room remains dark. Loud creaks let us know the damage the storm is having on the forest surrounding us. The house moans against the impact from the strong winds. I wish I could do something to protect the forest, or stop the storm, but the cell is too big for my magic.

We all just sit in silence, waiting for the storm to pass. When the thunder lessens, I am finally able to relax a little. I snuggle into Colton’s side and let myself get comfortable. I drift to sleep, knowing that if anything happens, he’ll wake me up.

“You might want to fix her clothes,” Liam whispers beside me. “You know that Larkin will have something to say if he wakes up and sees her like that.” I feel a hand brush against my thigh, pulling the edge of my shorts down a little, then against my stomach, fixing my shirt. I move a little, but don’t open my eyes. Colton’s chest rumbles beneath me. “He only does it because it gets a reaction out of you and makes her blush.”

“Ahh, so it’s the girls again. Always the last to wake up,” I hear Bragden say.

“And you might want to be quiet; we don’t need three tired, cranky girls wreaking havoc on us,” Logan says.

“Especially that Ryanne,” I mumble against Colton but still don’t move. “I hear she can be a hassle sometimes.”

“Especially her,” Bragden says. I slowly open my eyes and find everyone still in the positions they were last night…sort of. I scoot off of Colton and let him stretch. I’m sure it’s not very comfortable to be stuck in the same position all night. All the guys are awake. Emma is still asleep in David’s lap with her head resting against the armrest. Natalie is curled up into Liam’s side, also still sleeping.

I run a hand through my hair and stretch myself. Looking over my shoulder, I see Tom in the kitchen making coffee. The power must have come back on sometime during the night. My eyes move over to the far window, and I see that it’s still cloudy but doesn’t appear to be raining anymore. Olive isn’t sitting in my lap like she was when I fell asleep last night. My eyes scan the room looking for her, but I don’t have to look far. Apparently, I move too much in my sleep because Olive moved over to Colton’s lap.

I push myself off the couch and walk over to the back door. The storm knocked down trees and scattered them haphazardly across the yard. We’re lucky that none of the larger ones fell because they would have hit the house. I open the backdoor and step onto the porch. A cool breeze hits me, and goosebumps instantly spread across my skin. Taking a couple more steps out, I look toward the beach. The beautiful beach is covered with debris. Tree branches and random pieces of trash line the shore.

“Come back inside. It’s chilly out here.”

“I could clean this,” I inform Colton. It will take a lot of magic, but I’m sure that I can do it. This land is so pretty. It’s sad that something Mother Nature creates could bring so much damage to such a beautiful area.

“That would take too much magic,” Colton says as he starts to pull me back inside.

“So…? I pass out for a couple minutes; at least the yard would be clean.” When I am back inside, I shiver. I didn’t realize how cold it was outside. Colton wraps his arms around me, surrounding me with his body heat. “Wow, it’s really c-c-cold out.”

“Why would you pass out?” Liam asks me.

“She wants to clean up all the debris in the backyard and on the beach with magic,” Colton answers while still trying to warm me up. I’m not as cold anymore, but I’m still shivering. It went from sweltering heat to chilly over night.

“I could do it,” I mumble. Colton steps away from me and walks upstairs. What is he doing? I walk over to the couch and sit back down beside Liam. Emma and Natalie are both awake now, but they both look incredibly tired. They are sitting up, but neither seems to be looking at anything in particular. Conner laughs at his sister while David tells Emma to go back to sleep. She leans back and rests against his chest but doesn’t go back to sleep. Colton comes back downstairs and hands me a sweatshirt of his. Gratefully, I thank him and put it on. Because he is so much taller than me, the sweatshirt hangs down to my mid-thighs, completely covering up my shorts, and the sleeves swallow up my arms, but it is incredible comfy and warm.

Tom calls Colton into the kitchen. When he walks over, I lean against Liam’s shoulder and close my eyes. I didn’t think I was that tired until I feel myself falling again. Sleep has pulled me under again, and I don’t have the energy to fight it.

“Hey, it just shows they trust me. I don’t see any of the girls crawling to you, Larkin,” I hear Liam say.

“That’s because they’re intimidated by my masculinity.”

“Umm, I’m sorry, but I’m more masculine than you, and they still talk to me,” Bragden says.

“No, Ryanne pranks you. There’s a difference,” Larkin replies.

“Not really,” Bragden mumbles.

“Shut up guys, you’re too loud,” Emma grumbles. Emma is definitely not a morning person. Hearing that she is awake helps wake me up as well. I move a little and push myself into a seated position before opening my eyes. Rubbing my eyes with the sweatshirt sleeves, I look back at Liam and apologize. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says while giving Larkin a look. “You weren’t the only one to fall asleep on me.” Larkin rolls his eyes. Natalie is still asleep with her head on Liam’s lap and her feet in Logan’s. No one has really moved from where they were earlier.

“What time is it?” I ask.

“It’s ten,” Tom calls out from the kitchen. Thanking him, I push myself off the couch and go upstairs. I need a shower. Entering the bedroom, I see Colton pulling a shirt over his head. I can’t draw my eyes from his bare chest as he slowly pulls the shirt down. I knew he was fit, but actually seeing him is different. Wow. If my mouth were open, there would be a puddle of drool on the floor. He laughs as I continue to stare. Hearing his laugh, I pull my eyes from his now clothed chest and look down at the carpet, blushing.

Seriously? It’s like he’s photoshopped. I giggle at my own movie reference: Crazy, Stupid, Love. “Sorry, I should have knocked.”

He walks across the room and stops in front of me. I tear my eyes away from the ground and look up at him. Placing his hands lightly on my hips, he leans down, and I think he is going to kiss me, but he leans slightly to the right instead. “I like it when you wear my clothes,” he whispers in my ear. He lightly kisses the sensitive spot behind my ear and steps away from me, leaving the room. My knees feel weak as I exhale loudly and stare at the door for a couple seconds. Yep, definitely going to drive me crazy.

After getting dressed in my jean shorts and green Kermit the frog shirt, I throw Colton’s sweatshirt back on. It covers my shorts again, but I don’t care. It is warm, smells like him, and is super comfortable. Everyone knows I’m not one for fashion anyway. I exit the room and head downstairs. I can hear Emma and Natalie in their room, probably getting ready, so I knock on their door. Emma answers and pulls me inside.