Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,97

weighed nothing!” Eveline exclaimed, well into the spirit of the retelling.

“He didn’t even lift anything, just willed it, I guess. And suddenly, the rocks were striking back at the attack jets and explosions were happening left and right!”

She tried to gesticulate the scene by wildly flailing her arms and hands, nearly knocking over her chocolate in the process.

The other women oohed and ahhed at appropriate moments, riveted by her descriptions.

“And then he made the volcano erupt? A freaking volcano?!” Ava cried, bouncing excitedly on her sofa seat.

“Pppooooooggghhhhhuuuu,” Eveline added her own sound effects and flung her arms out to mimic the magnitude of the event.

She didn’t know what it was about these three women. She was more herself with them than she ever was with her Pure comrades back at the Shield. Or perhaps it was Eveline who had changed.

“How could you have survived that? How could anyone?” Clara asked, slightly breathless.

“Ramses protected me,” Eveline said with no small amount of pride, her chest inflating involuntarily. “He shielded me with his own body.”

“Which he can turn to stone?” Grace said, more like a statement, less like a question.

“That’s my assumption. I didn’t feel a thing.”

She grimaced slightly with chagrin.

“Well, I rather speedily passed out from the magnitude of the situation, so that helped.”

“You say your touch added to his strength?” this question came from Ava.

Eveline nodded.

“I’m relatively certain this is the case. I could feel tremendous power coursing through him, starting from where I touched him to spread throughout the rest of his body. He was hard before—like a rock. But then his body became steel. And his skin, even beneath his clothes, felt scalding hot.”

“This reminds me of Eli,” Clara said thoughtfully. “I thought I lost him when he was battling Medusa’s assassins and took a barrage of vampire-killers into his body. Then, there was the explosion that decimated everything within its blast. But he came back to me days later. I dreamed of him…”

Her breaths hitched in memory, and Grace awkwardly placed her hand on top of Clara’s for a brief moment in comfort before retracting the touch.

“He came back to me,” Clara whispered, her eyes blazing with passion and love for her husband.

Then she looked to Ava, Eveline and Grace.

“He said I saved him. He said that our joining…” here, she blushed prettily, making freckles pop out like a rash of sparks upon her peaches and cream complexion.

“He said our joining bound us together. As long as I had my fire, he was my air. And together we burned. We drew strength from each other.”

“Utterly fascinating,” Ava said, eyes owl-like. “I would love to get a samp—”

“Ava!” Clara admonished. “Stop trying to dissect us for experiments!”

Ava arched an eyebrow at her.

“I’m not asking to cut off limbs, for heaven’s sake. I’d just like to take a little blood.”

As a super-human geneticist, her own immortality the result of an experiment, Ava was known for going around collecting everyone’s blood samples. Thus far, she’d talked all the inhabitants of the Cove into contributing to her DNA database, except for the Dark King, Maximus and Eli’s family (because the male was extremely suspicious and protective).

“I’m just glad I could help him,” Eveline said, turning back to the topic at hand. “My magic wasn’t obeying me. Maybe I wasn’t concentrating hard enough. Maybe I was too scared. I simply prayed we would survive in one piece. I wish I could have done something more, like make those jets crash into the mountain or…”

“Eveline, you did good,” Clara said staunchly in support of her friend. “I’m sure you gave Ramses strength in the heat of battle. And you can’t argue with the result.”

Eveline nodded. She was very, very grateful for being alive, healthy and whole. Even more so, she was thankful that Ramses was the same.

“So…” Ava began, then stalled her comment with a slurp of bubble tea.

Eveline looked at her in question.

“What’s going on between you and Ramses?”

Eveline’s shoulders noticeably drooped.

“I’m not sure,” she murmured.

“But you’re staying here at the Cove indefinitely, right?” Grace asked.

Eveline sipped her hot chocolate, looking away.

“You’re also sleeping in his bed,” Ava noted. “Everyone knows this.”

Eveline’s cheeks heated uncomfortably.

Clara patted her back sympathetically.

“Do you care for him, Eveline? It’s clear as day that the Dark King is smitten with you.”

“Smitten, you say?” Eveline ventured.

She really couldn’t tell.

On the journey back to the Cove, Ramses had been all business, understandably, since they didn’t know what other enemies lurked around every corner. He always kept her close, within