I skid in the mud as I attempt not to crash into him, but I start to fall. Alex whirls around and wraps his arms around me before I can, and then he scoops me up into his arms.
“Hey, what the hell?” I protest, wiggling a bit.
He ignores me, hugging me closer to his chest. “I think this might be a doom storm brewing.”
Blaise slows to a stop right in front of us while Jaxon backtracks to join us. All three of them are soaked from head to toe, and the rain is coming down so hard we can barely keep our eyes open.
“If that’s the case, we need to fly the fuck out of here,” Jaxon says, raking his fingers through his wet locks. “We’re going to have to be careful of the lightning, though.”
“What’s a doom storm?” To be honest, I’m kind of getting tired of having to ask about everything.
I think I might need to spend some downtime reading up on this new life of mine …
If I am new.
“We’ll explain later,” Alex answers me in a hurry. “Right now, we need to just get the fuck out of here before this thing reaches its full potential.”
Jaxon glances from me to Alex. “You okay carrying her through this?”
Alex nods, hugging me closer to his chest. “I’ll be fine. I’m as good of a flyer as any other reaper.”
Jaxon smashes his lips together for a lightning of a second. “You know I’m the best flyer.”
Rain drops splatter against Alex’s forehead and cheeks, his eyelashes fluttering against the wind. “Yeah, I know.” Reluctantly, he moves to hand me to Jaxon.
Jaxon takes me, his arms stiff at first, but he relaxes once he gets me situated in his arms.
“You know,” I say loudly over the wind. “I think it might be time for my flying lesson, because I’m really tired of feeling like a damsel in distress.”
Jaxon looks down at me, all wet dripping hair and beautiful eyes. “Tomorrow we can start.”
“Promise?” I ask with hope.
He nods then says softly, “Hang on to me, okay?”
Nodding, I slip my arms around the back of his neck and bury my face into his chest. His wet shirt is cool against my skin as I shut my eyes and hold on while he springs up onto his toes.
It’s weird how I don’t really feel it—the point where we go from being on land to sailing in the air. The transition is so smooth, but is that because Jaxon is a great flyer or does that just come with flying? The concept of flying is fucking weird. Birds do it. Planes do it. But humans aren’t supposed to be able to. And yeah, I know I’m not human, but I thought I was for a while.
But for how long?
So many questions burn at the tip of my tongue, but I swallow them back for now and open my eyes to take a peek around.
“Holy shit,” I breathe out at the sight in front of me.
We’re not in the trees anymore, but in the clouds that are illuminating with flashes of bright blue and silver. The reverberation of the thunder is so boisterous that I feel like I’m standing in the middle of a concert, feeling the beat of the drums and bass guitar pulsating through my body. On the positive side, the rain and wind are much quieter up here.
“This is insane,” I whisper in awe.
Jaxon’s lips tip upward into the smallest of smiles but promptly fades. “Hang on tight. We’re about to go through the heart of it.”
Back in the human world, the heart of the storm would’ve been the center point where the most energy was accumulating. But what I learn in that moment is that the heart of the storm in the paranormal world is an actual fucking heart. It doesn’t look like a human heart—all blood, tissue, and muscle. This heart consists of buzzing energy in the shape of a massive ball that’s swelling through the clouds. The more the thunder grumbles, the bigger it gets. And it beats like a heart, rhythmic and steady, sending pulses of electric shock waves in the air.
And we’re flying right for it.
I try not to panic, but holy hell, it looks like it’ll roast us if we go through.
“Jaxon,” I say in horror as I clutch his shirt, but he’s hyper-focused on flying straight ahead.
I squeeze my eyes shut. Trust him. Trust him. Trust him—
He abruptly dives downward, swooping low then zipping forward at a wild speed. This continues for a few minutes, and then the air becomes quieter, the storm's effects dwindling as we get farther away. And then we’re touching down on land again.
I don’t immediately let go of Jaxon as I just stay there, motionless.
“You okay?” he asks.
I bob my head up and down, opening my eyes and peering up at him. “I think I might be a little bit in shock, but I’m fine.” I think …
To be honest, I don’t know what I am anymore. My emotions are such a clusterfuck at this point, hunger and fear mixing with my confusion over everything.
“That was seriously one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen,” I add. “Maybe even more crazy than the first time I saw you guys feed off the fire seeker.”
He smiles down at me. “You’re adorable. You really are.” With that, he sets me down, not letting me completely go until my feet touch the wet dirt. “Let’s get inside, okay? We may have outflew the storm, but it’ll catch up with us eventually.”
He starts forward, and that’s when I noticed the house. If you can even call the massive mansion towering in front of me a house. It looks more like a palace, three stories high with dark pillars that frame the double door entrance, and countless windows that have lavender vines winding around them. It also has what looks like a garage just behind it, which makes no sense since I can’t see any roads around.
“This is you guys’ house?” I gape at the place as Jaxon leads me down a bricked path that winds toward the massive structure.
He casts a curious glance back at me. “Yeah, why?”
I shrug. “I don’t know … I guess I just thought when you guys said you had a house out here, it’d be like a cabin or something.” I gesture at the palace. “This doesn’t really fit the scenery. And it’s … Well, it’s freakin’ huge.”
He almost smiles. “Alex and Blaise like nice things. This was their pick.”
“Wait … Where are Alex and Blaise?” I peer over my shoulder right as they touch down from the sky.
They land gracefully, side by side, onto the dirt. Blaise lets out a couple of curses before glaring at the sky while Alex just strides after us. Blaise quickly snaps out of his attempt at killing the sky with his death glare and rushes after us.
“Fucking hell, that was intense,” Blaise remarks as he nears us. He’s dripping wet to the point where his black T-shirt is clinging so tightly to his body that I can make out the outline of his lean muscles underneath it.
I openly stare as we walk, my body twisted around. I’m being so obvious, but I blame it on the hunger clawing at the back of my throat. And to make things even worse, Blaise starts to wring out the hem of his shirt, and that gives me a good glimpse of his toned abs.
Yummy …
I’m staring at him like a lunatic when my gaze fleetingly slides to Alex. Then I cringe.
He totally noticed me checking Blaise out. He smirks, and I throw a warning look at him, like don’t you dare tell him.