Page 55 of Cursed

Quade storms up to me and grasps my shoulders. “Shayla, this is too dangerous. If they see you…”

“Then I’ll knock them all down, just like I did to Drake. I can handle myself now. I have more control. And the enemy already knows that I have a weird power.”

“Enforcers want to capture you. Drake’s goons will try as well. Maybe your father will be there. Or Landis’ father. No, it’s too risky.” Quade pulls me to his chest before I can argue more.

Our bond aches in my heart. He’s sick with the thought of me getting caught.

“I understand, but I can’t let you go without me.” I hold him tightly around his trim waist, wishing life had just given us another moment to breathe before throwing this situation at us. “It would ruin me if one of you got hurt and I could have helped.”

He pulls back a little and looks pointedly at the other four males. “If we lost you, all of us would be ruined.”

“I want to do something to help,” I assert.

After he places a kiss on my forehead, Quade begins to pace again. “Branden, Rourke, and I will go to the hospital to retrieve Myra. Arden and Landis, you stay behind with Shayla.”

“No. I don’t like splitting up.” I cross over to Quade. “And if someone comes for us here, we won’t have anyone who can create a portal to get us away.”

“She has a point.” Branden agrees and studies Arden, Landis, and me. “And we don’t have time to train them how to make one. Nor do we have the time to create a fixed portal, which I would advise against anyway.”

Quade heaves his chest, pacing and glaring at Branden. I would not be surprised if he lunged and attacked my vamp.

A low growl rumbles out of him. “Fine. But you don’t come near the hospital. Stay in the shadows, across the street in the woods. And then we can all return together.”

The tension I was holding releases, but the guys all seem to have absorbed it instead.

“I don’t like any of this,” Rourke mumbles.

Quade darts his golden gaze at the dragon shifter. “Neither do I.” He stares at the rest of us in turn. “If something goes wrong, promise me, you will get Shayla out of there and keep her safe. Sacrifice Myra…anyone, if you have to.”

“Quade!” I gasp. “You will not put everyone else’s life in danger for me.”

The wolf charges toward me until we are nose to nose. Well, with his height, his nose to my upturned face. “Have you not been paying attention? You need to survive. Something bigger thanallof us is coming. And you are at the center of it. Your power may be all that stands between the survival of supernaturals and annihilation.”

I stagger backward, afraid of the responsibility that he’s placing on my shoulders. “What if I can’t figure out how to do that?”

Arden catches me in his arms and kisses the top of my head. The other four guys circle around, touching me.

Quade softens and promises, “We’ll help, if we can.”

But we don’t know what will happen. Or how I’m supposed to fix the realms. And it seems like the most ridiculous joke that I’m the one who is supposed to make that happen. Me, the one who came from nothing. Me, the one who didn’t have magic a few months ago. Me, the one whose mother beat her down to nothing.

“Hey.”Landis speaks in my head.“She didn’t beat you down to nothing. You survived. And despite all this craziness, you are thriving. You navigated a landmine childhood. You knew almost nothing about the supernatural world. And with only a bit of study, in the midst of all the attacks, you still managed to get the highest marks in your classes. If anyone can figure this out, it’s you.”

“Thank you,” I whisper. Because even if Landis was the only one speaking to me, the rest of the guys were communicating similar feelings about me through our bonds.

The love that pours into me is almost too much. Like I am being flooded with all their emotions, I have to hold my head up high enough to breathe.

Their belief in me is confounding and scary. I don’t want to disappoint them and make them wish they had another more competent mate.

I shuck those negative thoughts aside. It won’t do me any good to worry. We have a mission, and after that, we will plan out our next goal, and then the next.

I can only take one day… Shit, one hour at a time.

* * *

Standing across from the hospital, hidden by a copse of evergreen trees and shrubs, we scan the area for Drake’s people or any Enforcers.

I can’t believe less than an hour ago, I was playing with fire with Rourke. Now, I have a hooded sweatshirt from my dragon mate pulled up over my head to conceal my long golden brown hair and, hopefully, my identity.

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