“Been working on it all morning.” He kissed my cheek. “Invisible, yes. But not inaudible. Found you right away. Remind me not to have you two do any sort of sneaking up on anyone. You’d be captured like that.” He snapped his fingers.
“Reed, don’t you eat in the grove?” Rob’s voice spun me around. His dark gaze settled on me as he sauntered up. “I don’t like how much weight you’ve lost.”
Leo joined him and gave me a once-over. “I think you look great. I’ve missed you, babe.”
I took turns saying hello to each of my guys, starting with Leo. He preferred slow, lingering kisses. I moved to Clay, who dipped me and playfully nipped at my lips before proceeding to eat my face. Rob grasped my wrist and spun me in a dance move, pulling me close and devouring my sanity in his kiss.
When I recovered from all three kisses, I licked my lips and glanced Bryan’s way. Not one to play favorites, I stood on my tiptoes and brushed my mouth to his. As I pulled away, he held me at the small of my back and really kissed me, licking my lips open and consuming my soul. By the time I came up for air, I felt dizzy.
“Wow,” I breathed. “That’s the kind of greeting a girl could get used to.”
“I’m glad you said that.” Rob regarded Clay and Leo before returning his attention to me. “We came to a decision last night, the three of us. I’m sure you’d both agree. We’re better together. I get that you need us outside the grove recruiting members to join the uprising, but the custodian has been doing our job for us, and we can’t do this anymore. We can’t be apart from you. We can’t be apart, period.”
“I think it’s our matching wards.” Clay held up his hand to show us the slightly shimmering M on his palm. “The only time it does that is when the five of us are together. Otherwise, it’s pretty useless. Well, unless we’re, you know…” He trailed off and waggled his eyebrows.
“That’s actually why we wanted to see you.”
He perked up, his expression brightening. “Really? Would this be a one-on-one thing? Or all at the same time? Or… I mean, I love you guys, but I don’t love love you, you know?”
“Dude, no.” I pushed at his hard chest. He laughed and playfully stumbled back. With Clay, it always came down to sex. “We need to bring you back to the grove with us and ask Renee to remove our wards.”
Clay dropped his smile and stared at his palm. “Aw, I was just getting used to it.”
“We don’t need a ward to stay connected.” Leo pointed out the obvious. “We’re already connected.”
“The ward allows us to tap into each other’s elements.” Rob waited until all eyes were on him. “That’s huge, Reed. Why would you want to get rid of that?”
“Are you serious? This from the guy who insisted he didn’t need a protection ward?”
“I said I didn’t need protection,” he corrected, challenging me by puffing out his chest, like that would work on me. He might be a good six inches taller, but I was way feistier. And a redhead with a wicked snark spark.
“Is that so? From the day we met, you’ve needed protection. In the morgue. In the ruins. In the warehouse. You’re like a child running with scissors. You need protection from yourself. No ward will do that.”
“What I need,” he countered and wrapped his arm around me, jerking our bodies together and immediately igniting the flame of my want for him, “is for you to stop fighting me. Every. Step. Of. The. Way.” He nipped at my lower lip with those last few words.
“Oh, man. Here we go.” Bryan groaned into the air.
“Someone get a hose,” Clay added.
“Do you guys really think now is the best time for you to, uh…” Leo darted his gaze around the dark room, avoiding ours. “Like right here? Right now? Knowing, you know…the volcano scenario?”
“No.” I refused to back down and kept my stare riveted to Rob’s. “We’re not about to have sex. We’re fighting.”
“Fighting is foreplay for you two.”
I shifted my glare to Leo. He shrank back in response.
“We’re not removing the wards.” Rob sliced his hand through the air to make his point. “They give us an advantage. Remember the void? What drew us to Bry? It was our wards.”
“And when Rob got pissed that I used all the hot water and covered me in a layer of ice, it didn’t incapacitate me like before.” Clay brought up his hand and traced the M on his palm.
“You did what?” A flare of anger fired my muscles to tense. No one hurt one of my guys, even another one of my guys. “What happened to Clay not being able to handle another ice attack?”
“He lived.” He shrugged, like his answer somehow justified his action. “My point is, the ward bonds us by more than just our connection. We can’t tap into each other’s elements without it. We can’t sense each other or use it as a beacon if you have it removed. Come on, Reed. Think about what you’re giving up, what you’re forcing us to give up.”
“Rob.” I slipped my hands into my pockets to stop myself from reaching for him. The unease tightening his features pulled at my core. My fire elemental wore his emotions in his expression and his heart on his sleeve. “The cons far outweigh the pros on this one. If one of us gets hurt, we all get hurt. That means we have five times the possibility of a dark elemental beating us. If Spencer steals the air from one of us, he steals it from all of us. That’s five forbidden calls for the price of one.”
“But wait,” Clay cut in. “There’s more. We haven’t had to battle anyone since we got warded. What do you suppose would happen if Montana called light?
