Page 82 of Medium
“And me.” Rory waved a hand from the driver’s seat. “If you need working capital, I’m your guy.”
“But... but I can’t ask you to do that!”
Rory glanced at Ellis, then back at me in the rear-view mirror. “I’m offering. But either way, you absolutelycanask me to do that. From what I’ve gathered, we’re about to be effectively married. What’s mine will be yours.”
Ellis, still twisted through the gap in the front seats, nodded. “And it’s not like we have much else to do with our time these days. Let’s get you set up as a business. Hell, maybe landscape sales is my new calling. Who knows? Either way it’ll be fun to help you out.”
My head spun with how much work it’d be to set up my own company. I didn’t even know where to start. I didn’t know how to do any of it. My heart raced. “I just... I don’t....” I rubbed my chest. The connections took up so much room, I didn’t feel like I could take a good solid breath.
“Shane? Shane!”
Ellis’ voice came from far away.
“...should bond right now. You said we could do it without sex.” Rory’s voice was tense and higher than usual.
“Let’s give him a minute more. His pulse is steady, and Ms. Jackson said he’d wake up soon.” Manny sounded like he was repeating himself. “You know, when I gave you alone time in the car together, I expected you to, like, get to know each other better, maybe flirt a little. Making Shane pass out was not part of the plan.”
I wrinkled my nose. Making me pass out? Had I passed out? “There, see? He’s coming around.” I opened my eyes to see Manny smiling down at me. I was stretched out on the second-row seats of Rory’s SUV and he was crouched in the footwell next to me.
“Shane! Are you okay?”
I looked upward, which meant toward the open passenger-side door, where Rory and Ellis were crammed into the opening. They both gave me bright, fake smiles.
“I’m sorry.”
Their smiles fell.
Manny held up his hand to stop them from saying anything. “You have nothing to be sorry about. It was probably a panic attack, and Ms. Jackson said the extra strain on your magic made it worse.”
I nodded and rubbed my chest. “It was hard to breathe.”
“Understandable. You wanna sit up?”
“Yeah.” With Manny’s help I got upright in the seat.
“Psst! Shane!”
I looked over at Pia, who had crawled into the front passenger seat.
“Uncle Arch said I couldn’t stress you out, but I wanted to make sure you weren’t gonna die.”
Yikes. I smiled as I rubbed my chest again. “I’m fine. I’m sorry I scared everyone. It’s just all this extra magic. As soon as we get bonded it’ll feel a lot better.”
Rory opened his mouth, then looked at Pia and shut it. A wisp of amusement came through our connection. I shot him a glare, and he shrugged with a cheeky grin. At least he wasn’t freaking out anymore.
Manny jerked his head at Pia. “Off with you. I need to talk to Shane for a minute, and then we’ll get back on the road.”
“Okay. Bye, Shane! Glad you’re not dying!” She slid out of the seat and bounced over to Ms. Jackson, who escorted her to Arch’s SUV, parked several yards ahead of us on the shoulder. Her connection to Ellis had been restored, and I was surprised to see she’d also formed one with Manny. Would it fade as Ms. Jackson’s magic faded inside him?
But of course Manny couldn’t see it. He grimaced. “Being overly focused on death is a common trauma response.”
I smiled. “It’s okay. I’m pretty glad I’m not dying too.”
Ellis slapped my arm. “No talk of dying! We’ve all had enough stress this week!” A huge mass of worry and fear rolled through the connection.
I winced. “Sorry, y’all.” I looked between Ellis and Rory. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Manny slid to the other end of the row of seats. “Hombres, you need to get bonded A-S-A-P. Emphasis on the ass.” He pointed at his own to make sure we took his meaning. “I’mgoing to do you a solid and take another one for the team.” He eyed us significantly. “That’syourteam, by the way. Arch, Pia, Ms. Jackson, and I will spend the night at Rory’s apartment. No way is my place big enough for Arch’s ego plus the rest of us. I won’t be able to keep Pia away much later than 10am tomorrow morning, so do what you need to do before then.” He stared each of us in the eye until we nodded and confirmed we’d agreed. Then he opened the door and jumped out of the car.
