Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
❝this overwhelming feeling❞
Brad held her close in his arms as he lays away the next morning. His hands ran through her hair as she slept soundly against his chest and he couldn't help the trace of a smile on his face.
He could hear one of the boys coming up the stairs and soon after Tristan walks through the door. He notices the pair embracing each other and a small smile fits on his face.
"We need to start planning today," Tristan informs the brunette. "Connor wants us to leave tonight, attack tomorrow."
Brad nods, glancing down at the girl before looking back at the blonde, "I'll come down when she's awake. I don't wanna wake her up now, she needs to rest."
"You two are so cute," Tristan coos. "Don't tell Connor I said this, but I'm routing for you guys."
"You can leave now," Brad chuckles, rolling his eyes as he looks down at the girl. She had woken up as Tristan walked in and wore a grin on her face as she heard the door close. "Good morning, sleeping beauty."
She turns over so she's laying on her back, rubbing her eyes with a yawn, "mornin'."
"Did you sleep okay?" He asks as she turns back on her side and closes her eyes, just wanting to go back to sleep. They hadn't gotten back inside until early this morning.
"I slept fine, you?"
"Perfectly."
She smiles and opens one eye to see him grinning down at her. He rolls over before standing up off of the bed and puts on a shirt.
"We need to meet the other two downstairs to plan," Brad tells her and she nods. "Let's go."
She groans, not wanting to get up yet and as he reaches for the door handle, he notices that she's not following him. He turns on us heels and walks over to her side of the bed before getting her up.
"I just wanna sleep," she complains as he drags her behind him with a chuckle. "Let me go back to bed—!"
"Downstairs. Now. Lets go," he cheers her on and she sighs, walking down the stairs slowly, dragging her back against the wall to keep herself upright.
He rolls her eyes as she continues to be dramatic, slouching her back and complaining as she walks into the kitchen. He holds back a chuckle as he walks through the doorframe and Connor is sat there staring them both down.
Brad tenses as Connor shoots a glare his way and Cassandra hesitantly sits by him. Brad purses his lips, sitting down opposite her, next to Tristan.
"We need a plan," Tristan begins. "Because we don't know what we are up against and we need to be prepared for the worst—"
"Giant, flying, zombie dwarfs."
"No, Cassandra," Tristan rolls his eyes but all three boys chuckle at her ridiculousness. "Not quite. But we have got to presume that whatever is there, is defending James and whoever took it. We've got to be prepared to fight."
"That's why we've been training you for the past month and a half," Connor tells her, a small smile on his face.
"I say we leave now and book a hotel," Brad says. "We can go around the area and see what we're against and plan while we're there."
"And that, Brad, is why you're the smart one," Tristan says to his friend and Brad rolls his eyes with a small smile on his face.
"So, we pack now," Connor announces, standing up. His eyes flickered over to the girl but she was already looking at Brad, her lips pursed. "And we leave as soon as we can."
Shortly afterwards, Tristan disappears to fix Cassandra's car so that they had two whole the other three disappear upstairs. While Cassandra starts packing the little amount of clothes she has, a soft knock erupts from her door and she walks over.
Brad stands them, a nervous smile on his face, "can I borrow you for a minute?"
"Why?" She frowns, watching as he holds out his hand and she takes it hesitantly. "Where are we going?"
"We're going up to Joe," he says and she closes the door as he takes her up to the attic where Joe spent all of his time, running tests or looking through results. She wondered why they were going to see Joe.
Once they're both in the attic, she sees Joe bustling around with some equipment and he smiles at them both.
"Wondered how long you two were going to take," Joe chuckles, putting a beaker down. "I'll be two minutes, I've got to put some stuff away."
"Alright," Brad smiles, subconsciously holding the girl close to him.
"What are we doing?" She asks, watching his hands take both of hers in his and he smiles softly down at her.
"We're going to, more than likely, get into trouble over these next few days," Brad begins. "And you know how I feel about you and I just. . . I have this overwhelming feeling to make sure that you're fine. I feel as though I have to be protective over you."
She nods slowly, her stomach fluttering.
"So I'm going to link us by blood," Brad says. "Just like Connor and Tristan and I are linked, you're gonna be linked to me so that I know if you're in trouble or if you're hurt when we've gone different ways or if you're lost. This way, I can come and find you straight away."
She smiles softly up at him, "Okay, but I won't get hurt. I'm better than you at fighting."
"Whatever floats your boat," he rolls his eyes with a small smile of his own before Joe calls them over.
"I'm going to need you to take this," Joe says. "And I need you to cut your palm so that some blood comes out."
Joe hands Brad the knife first, and Brad lets out a small wince as he digs it into his skin. Blood slowly runs out of the wound and he passes it to Cassandra with a small smile.
She takes it and glances up at his eyes before resting the knife to her skin. It didn't hurt her but Brad had to turn away. He wasn't squeamish around blood, he just didn't like the thought of her being in pain, especially inflicting it on herself.
"Hold your hands," Joe instructs and Brad holds his palm out for her to take and she takes it with a shaky breath. "Close your eyes."
Cassandra closes her eyes as instructing, but instead of seeing black, she saw waves of orange and blue swirling together, side by side.
"Is it working?" She asks quietly.
"Yeah," Brad replies back softly, squeezing her hand slightly and she repeats the action back at him, causing him to chuckle slightly.
"It's fine," Joe says after a few moments and Cassandra opens her eyes, removing her hand from Brad's, noticing that her wound had healed up entirely. She traces her fingers over it.
"Hey," Brad grabs her attention and she looks up at him. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I feel fine," she nods and he reaches over to grab her hand. He turns it over so that her palm was facing up and moves her shirt off of her wrist, revealing a sun tattoo printed onto her skin. "Wait, What—?"
"It shows that it works," Brad smiles, letting go of his hands and showing her his wrists, one of them had a moon and one had a sun, the sun being the one he shares with the girl.
