Page 72 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

There is a moment of silence before everyone bursts out laughing, and Griff’s lips twitch into a smirk.

“I take it back. You are worse than River. At least he manages to keep his phone for longer than an afternoon,” Griff teases.

I grin, “Yeah, to be honest, that’s a new record for me. They usually last a lot longer, but then again, kelpies haven’t attempted to drown me before. Which by the way, it would have been nice to know that you had them on the property. There is a chance that I may not have tried to follow the noise if I had known that there was a possibility that it was kelpies.”

“We would have told you if we knew,” Doc says.

My eyebrows raise, “What? How could you not know that there were kelpies in the lake? It’s not like they keepto themselves and don’t get hungry. How are they feeding themselves, by the way? There can’t be a lot of foot traffic out here and lost hikers since this whole place is yours.”

The guys share a look.

“Neith, none of us knew that lake existed. In fact, we all know for a fact that it wasn’t there,” River says.

“We know this property like the back of our hands, and we would have known if there was a lake here, especially one this close to the property. There is one a few miles out,” Ransom explains.

“I didn’t even know this was here, and water is kind of my thing,” Van adds, looking down at me.

I frown, “That’s really weird.”

“Yeah, it is,” Reed agrees.

“I will put some more wards up, and scan the property for any anomalies, it seems that Neith’s arrival has triggered some changes. First, the imps acting up, and now we have an extra lake and kelpies,” Ransom adds.

“Surely they can’t just appear out of nowhere though?” I ask.

Raiden shrugs as he answers my question, “Magic is involved. It doesn’t really play by any of the normal rules.”

“Fair point,” I reply, moving my arm to wrap the jacket tighter around myself. The movement reminds me of the wound on my arm, and I add, “Oh, I’m bleeding too.”

“That was probably something that you should have mentioned sooner,” River mutters. “I thought I smelt something, but it’s all mixed up with the scent of the kelpie and the river water, and then Van’s scent too.”

“Sorry, I had forgotten about it until I moved my arm just then,” I reply.

“As you don’t seem to be in a massive amount of pain, I think the priority should be getting you warm, I don’t like how much that you are shivering,” Doc says.

“I am good with that,” I reply as the house finally comes into view. I had no idea that I walked that far. It certainly didn’t feel like the lake was that far away from the house, but if magic is involved, then that pretty much means that anything I consider normal doesn’t apply.

As soon as we get to the front I rush inside and head up the stairs needing a hot shower and some of my new warm pjs.

“We’ll meet you in the front room,” Ransom yells up the stairs behind me.

“Okay,” I call back.

I’m grateful that although I am tired, and hurt, I’m okay. I’m standing and I’m not dead or nearly dead, that makes a change from the incidents that have happened recently. It’s bad that this is my benchmark for a successful encounter these days.

I speed through the shower as quickly as I can while still making sure that I wash off all the gross lake water and the dried blood from the bite. The second that the water hits the bite, I have to clench my teeth against the pain. In retrospect, it might have been better if I had Doc heal me before the shower.

I’m here now though, so I push through the pain and soon enough I’m in my comfy new Pjs with fluffy socks and everything. I didn’t even get blood on them when I put them on, which is in part due to the fact that the bite wound has already mostly stopped bleeding. Just in case though, I grab a small hand towel from the bathroom and wrap it around my arm. After all the effort that it took not to get blood on my pyjamas, I will be really fucking pissed if I have to change them because I have got blood on them walking down the stairs.

Shivers are still making my body shake, and I reluctantly leave my room and my nice, warm bed behind as I head back down the stairs to the guys. When I get down there, I head for the first person I see and plop myself down on their lap.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Neith

Glancing up at a slightly shocked-looking Ransom, I say, “I’m sorry. I’m really fucking cold still, and I read somewhere that body heat is supposed to help. I can sit on someone else’s lap if you want me to, though. I probably shouldn’t have just sat down on your lap like that without asking first.”

Ransom’s eyes sparkle as he wraps his arms around me and pulls me closer, “You’re good, Neith, don’t worry.”

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