Grounded (Grounded #1) Read online

  Along the way, Jensen peppered us with questions about our way of life, starting with the whole council thing. I explained that Gremalians had a mixed type of government—a monarchy, but also a democracy type thing, which totally confused him. I talked about his blood family and mine. His grandfather had been elected to the head of The Council and, because of that, got to pick his successor. He chose Jensen’s dad, who would then choose his successor, presumably Jensen. However, right before the Sorrels skipped town, Glen drew up papers naming my father successor so he would choose who comes next. If a chosen successor screws up bad enough, The Council can vote him or her out and choose who comes next via election.

  “Does that mean you’re next in line?” Jensen asked.

  I giggled. “No, my dad would never name me. First of all, I don’t think we’ve ever had a female leader, not that I can remember anyway. Secondly, with you coming back, I’m sure it would revert back to you.”

  “What if I don’t want it?”

  “Then you say you don’t want it, but I’d wait to make that decision.”

  We took quite a few breaks, mainly a few rest areas and a restaurant to eat lunch, yet we still made it to Mackinaw City very early. That’s where we decided to take the longest break and have dinner. Aric and I introduced Jensen to pasties, chicken and vegetables baked in a pie-like crust. He loved it. Afterward, we walked around the outdoor mall, drooling over all the homemade fudge in multiple shop windows. Mackinaw City is famous for its fudge. “Fudgies,” also known as tourists, came from all over just to buy some. The fudge shops had just about any flavor combination a girl could dream of. I’m surprised I didn’t fall into a fudge coma just from browsing.

  “So, let’s go get Kale,” Aric broke in.

  “Right. Is he here?” Jensen asked, walking along the path by the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse.

  “Not quite. We have to take the ferry.”

  I started jumping and clapping like a kid. “We get to go to Mackinac Island?”

  Aric gave me a half smile and nodded. I love the island, been there several times with my parents. It was Jensen’s first time to Michigan, meaning he’d never been there. It’s basically my favorite place on Earth; I was happy that I would be the one to introduce him to the island.

  After getting the tickets, I practically skipped down the platform to the boat. The front open area was already full, so we found seats inside, by a window. The ride was always too short for me. At least I got to enjoy it with my favorite people.

  We docked and disembarked. Manure, the first smell to hit, is never pleasant. But, by the time we got to Main Street, it wasn’t even noticeable. Aric headed off in one direction to go after his brother and we went the opposite way. Apparently, Kale wasn’t comfortable working with us and didn’t like us knowing he lived on the island, let alone exactly where. That was fine with me. It would be hours before the last ferry returned to the mainland and I wasn’t about to waste a minute of it.

  As soon as Aric was out of sight, Jensen took my hand in his. Eventually, we’d have to be normal, even with our friend around. It was a hard position to be in.

  The first place I took him to was Fort Mackinac. Instead of going in, we sat on the grass and looked up at the imposing white wall built for protection hundreds of years before. I promised him we’d come back one day and explore the island right. We strolled down Market Street, dodging a few horses along the way, and made it to the beach just as the sunset casted yellow and red ripples across the water.

  Being back in Michigan felt more like home than I remembered. I took off my shoes and stood where the sand just starts to get wet. The water, in small waves, barely touched my toes. Jensen wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning down to put his chin on my shoulder, and held me tightly.

  “This is one of my favorite places,” I said, staring out across the lake. “My dad brings us here once in a while. We’ve even stayed here before. Not at The Grand Hotel, though. Definitely not our style, but being here at night is magical.”

  I kept talking, even after he pushed my long hair aside and ran his lips up and down the side of my neck, doing his best to distract me. I closed my eyes, thoroughly enjoying the sensations rippling all the way to my toes.

  “We’ll have to come back and stay sometime,” he whispered against my skin.

  “Mmm, I’d like that.”

  “Hey, guys,” Aric called before he hit the beach. Jensen dropped his arms and took a step back.

  “You don’t have to do that, you know,” he said once he got closer.

  “Do what?” Jensen asked.

  “Pretend like you’re not together whenever I’m around.” He came to a stop right beside us. “I’m a big boy.”

  “We just—” I had no idea what I was going to say to explain it. It didn’t matter because he cut me off anyway.

  “I appreciate the gesture, but this friendship thing is only going to work if we’re all normal. I mean, as normal as goblins and gremlins can be.” He smiled big and the two of us laughed. Only Jensen called us that. “Besides, Alyssum, you know how hard it would be for me to break a friendship.”

  “Why is that?” Jensen asked, taking my hand in his as we headed back to the boat.

  “I have no idea. Some inbred, innate, intolerable trait from however long ago we came to exist.” Aric smiled big again.

  “It’s a Gobel thing,” I offered as an easier explanation.

  “It’s a pain in the freaking ass, is what it is.”

  His brother, Kale, followed soon after. While introductions were being made, I took personal inventory of his appearance. He looked similar to Aric: tall, lots of strong muscles--not bulging or overdone. His body was longer, more sleek and he had slightly lighter hair and eyes. Aric was definitely the cute brother.

  Though Kale had promised to help, I could see, by the way he tensed up, that he wasn’t all together comfortable being with us. I told myself we would just have to win him over.

  I love nighttime ferry rides even more than the daytime ones. Beautiful colors reflected off the waves while the boat rode smoothly over them with only the smallest rise and fall. Aric and his brother went to the very top to enjoy the wind in their hair, he said. Jensen and I sat near the spot we sat in on the way over.

  It was like we were the only ones on the boat. His arm was draped across the back of my seat as we enjoyed the view of dark water and waves slapping the sides, the bright lights from the bridge casting shadows over our faces. He touched my hair, whispered in my ear and kissed my temple. Definitely the most romantic ride of my life. It felt like he wanted me; he had a way of making me feel grown-up, whereas a lot of people tended to make me feel like a child. Sixteen was the age of maturity in our world. As an eighteen year old, an adult in most cultures, it always upset me how often people treated me like a child.

  ***

  Just as planned, we got into Delaware late enough that no one else was around. A few nightlights peeked out of the windows. Otherwise, our house and the town was completely quiet. Jensen’s eyebrows went up when he saw my house. I tried to look at it as if I’d never seen it before, to see what he was seeing. Since I lived there, it was easy to forget how impressive it could be.

  It’s large, huge for a house, yet only one section was actually ours. The main area was like our capital building, in that it housed all of our government functions, everything from meetings to dinners to training rooms. It’s where The Council met and where our people came with their concerns. My father’s office was also in the main area. Jensen couldn’t see it from where we were standing, but out back, there was a smaller building, the guest house, where our very few ‘official’ visitors slept.

  “You’re sure we should stay here?” Aric asked as we walked to the back of the house.

  Kale seemed to be much more comfortable after five hours cooped up in the car with us. Maybe it was my off key singing—on purpose, of course—or Jensen’s completely human demeanor. I don’t know, but we wo
n him over.

  “Yes, you need to be here,” I said once we were standing under my bedroom window. I grabbed my backpack from the car and hung it from my shoulders, mentally preparing myself for the climb that was ahead of me.

  “Yeah, but what happens when they find us?” Aric whispered loudly.

  “I got your back. Don’t worry. So, you guys just do what I do and don’t fall. Oh, and try to be quiet. I’d rather deal with everyone in the morning.”

  We went up the same way I got down weeks before. We climbed up the chimney to get on to the sunroom roof then walked carefully over to the window, hoping no one had locked it. Luckily no one had and my window slid open smoothly. It was only two feet from the sunroom, an easy climb. Aric sent Jensen up first, then Kale, and brought up the rear, which I was thankful for. I knew Jensen was pretty athletic, but climbing was the kind of thing the rest of us had grown up doing. Living in a remote area didn’t leave a whole lot of options for entertainment and I wasn’t sure how comfortable Jensen was with climbing.

  As soon as I got inside, I dropped the backpack, ran to my dark, four-poster bed and belly flopped onto the deep blue comforter.

  “Oh, I’ve missed you,” I said into the mattress, my voice muffled as I made imaginary blanket angels. I heard snickers from the guys.

  “Wow, nice room,” Aric said. “Mine’s not nearly as big and I had to share.”

  Kale shoved his shoulder playfully.

  “Had? Past tense?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I moved out the minute I could. We do have apartment buildings and houses.”

  “Not to mention,” Kale said, “more than three guys to a room will chase you away pretty quick.”

  “Well, there’s only three of you. I should be good.”

  “How many brothers and sisters do you have?” Jensen asked.

  “Five brothers, five sisters,” Kale answered.

  Jensen’s eyes widened with disbelief, so I replied, “Oh, you have a small Gobel family.”

  Both Kale and Aric laughed at that one, but it was true. There were some families that had fifteen kids. To an only child, like me and Jensen, it was hard to imagine.

  I retrieved some blankets and extra pillows from the closet, the ones I kept on hand when deep winter set in and it could get pretty cold, so that they could make a bed on my floor. Even though Aric was comfortable with us all sleeping in a room together, I wasn’t comfortable having Jensen in my bed with the possibility of someone coming in before we woke up.

  “Hey,” Aric said, throwing his brother a pillow. “You have to sleep between us.”

  “Why?” Kale asked, looking to his brother, then Jensen.

  “Because he may or may not have unholy feelings for me and I don’t want him ‘accidentally’ spooning me in the middle of the night or something.” Kale and I were already tearing up from laughing so hard while trying to stay quiet. My room was pretty far from the others. I’d chosen it for that reason alone. But still, there was no reason to chance someone hearing us. “I’m not down with the dude cuddle.”

  “Funny,” Jensen said dryly.

  “Aww, poor baby,” I teased. I gave him a quick kiss good-night after promising they’d get beds of their own the next day, although I did threaten that the brothers would have to share.

  We were all exhausted. Yes, the next day could be bad. I knew my dad would freak out when he discovered I brought Kale and Aric into our house. Just the fact that I let three guys sleep in my room with me would be reason enough for him to get pissed. I had my work cut out for me. Not only did I have to keep everyone in the house calm the next day, but I also had to get Dad to listen to me. He doesn’t have the greatest track record of giving me the benefit of the doubt, but I was going to have to rely on Mom to help me out there. We’d have to make introductions carefully, too, but all of that would have to wait. For now, I was just too tired.

  “Hey, Jensen,” Kale said in the dark, once all the rumbling settled down.

  “Yeah,” he mumbled.

  “Just so we’re clear. If you want any of this, you have to buy me dinner first.”

  I heard what must have been Jensen’s pillow hit Kale in the face hard enough to make Kale groan. Another round of muted thunder rolled through the room before we all nodded off to sleep.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Alyssum’s home!”

  I heard the voice in the distance, behind the fog, and couldn’t make out the words at first. I was still in deep conversation with my old friend, sleep, who didn’t visit that often.

  “You’re back,” the voice said again.

  Then something heavy fell on me and I couldn’t ignore her any longer. The fourteen-year-old chatterbox that just landed on my stomach effectively knocked the wind out of me. What a rude awakening. Blossom, my best friend’s cousin and the daughter of my mom’s friend, sometimes spent the night when her parents were out of town. She only weighed about eighty pounds, but the sharp bones she called elbows pretty much punctured my diaphragm.

  “Get off me,” I pled. She hopped off and that’s when she saw them.

  “You have boys in your room?”

  She squealed, her expression so innocently bright that I could have smacked if off her. It was far too early for that kind of exuberance.

  “Blossom, no.”

  I threw my blankets off to chase her. It was too late. She was already talking at warp speed to anyone who would listen. Aric, Kale and Jensen jumped up when the door hit the wall as I ran out of the room.

  Everything turned to chaos. I couldn’t get a word in even when my parents joined the party and six guys dragged Jensen, Kale and Aric from my room. Even though they’d be able to tell the brothers were Gobel and Jensen was one of us, they didn’t seem to care. Worse, they were being spurred on by Sage, who was calling out orders above all the other noise and was the absolute last person on Earth I wanted to see upon returning home or exist. He and I had history, one I wish I could forget. I had no idea he’d be on duty when I got back to Delaware.

  “Hold on. Wait!” My pleas fell on deaf ears.

  They tied Aric’s hands together tightly. He couldn’t use them even if he wanted to. It was an odd sight, seeing him cuffed with white zip ties while wearing nothing but pajama pants, his hair a mess. Kale tried to fight them off. Wrong move. He ended up face down on the ceramic tile with a foot on the back of his neck and each wrist. I could almost hear his bones creaking, ready to break.

  They stood guard next to Jensen, but he didn’t get the same treatment. I wished I would have paid attention to the day. Otherwise, I would have remembered that, on Tuesday morning’s, my father had very early security meetings and the house would be full of people. With my habit of forgetting that piece of information, there had been more than one embarrassing trek to the kitchen for breakfast during my teenage years.

  When no one would listen, I ran over and threw a low wattage energy ball at Sage. It hit his arm just hard enough to grab his attention and make him take a step back.

  “What the hell, Alyssum?” He spat the words out. He looked like he was about to retaliate but thought better of it after glancing at Dad.

  “Let them go,” I demanded, grabbing Aric’s arm to pull him behind me. Sage grabbed his other side, putting us in a tug of war. Sage wasn’t that big, especially when standing next to Aric, though that’s not to say he didn’t have some strength. I threw another energy ball. It hit his side. Then another at the gooney whose name I could never remember. I wasn’t trying to hurt them, just get them to release the guys so I could explain.

  “Enough,” my father’s voice boomed. Everyone got very still. No one, except me, ever disobeyed my father. “My office, Alyssum.”

  “Not without them.” I folded my arms under my breasts and put all my weight on one hip, the stance I took whenever I wasn’t going to budge. I would never admit it, but in that moment, I was thankful for my father. He was many things and methodical was one of them. He would put a stop to the mo
b mentality taking over the security team because of Aric and Kale being inside the house. Since I’m his daughter, he often shut me down without listening to my side of the story, but he wasn’t likely to do that when others were involved. Fortunately, there were many others involved this time around.

  “Now,” he boomed again, his eyes on fire.

  “No way. The minute I leave, these jackasses are going to drag them out of here and do god knows what.” The vein in my father’s neck started to bulge. I dropped the stubborn act and tried reason. “I can explain. I just don’t want anything to happen while I do.”

  He gave in, instructing everyone to back off. They cut Aric and Kale free, albeit not happily. I grabbed Aric’s hand to pull him away, then followed my father and mother down the hall toward his office, waving for Jensen and Kale to come too. I didn’t drop Aric’s hand until we were safely ensconced inside.

  Our bare feet slapped against the marble floor of his very dark room. It occurred to me that my plight may have been better received if any of the guys wore a shirt to bed. Finding your daughter with three half-naked guys in her bedroom was less than ideal whether two were Gobel or not. Maybe I could have gotten away with it with the golden boy, Sage, but not with anyone else.

  Cherry wood covered everything that leather didn’t and his imposing desk stood in the middle of the room. It’s what anyone would call a man cave, but with better lighting, you hardly noticed.

  My dad sighed heavily. Before he could say anything, my mom wrapped her arms around me tightly. “It’s nice to have you home. Even if you brought…guests.”

  “Thanks, Mom, it’s good to be back.” Then I glanced back at my dad. “I think.”

  She let go, eying Jensen and Aric as she walked back near my dad. She barely gave Kale a glance.

  “What kind of homecoming did you expect?” he railed. I sighed. “You leave in the middle of the night. No one knew where you’d gone, only that you were okay.” I glanced at my mother, who kept her eyes on him. “You come back with three men, two of whom are Gobel. Do you care to explain any of this?”