Love and War by Britta Irene (paper ebook reader .txt) 📖

something! God dammit Blade, WAKE UP!” I screeched. He cracked open one of his eyes, but that wasn’t good enough for me. With my thumb and forefingers, I pried his eyes open all the way and got right in his face. It took him a minute to realize that he was looking into my blue eyes.
“What the hell, Kyla? Why are you on me? Why are you waking me up?” he said groggily, and he did not look too happy.
“LOOK!” I screeched, shoving my left hand into his face. He blinked a couple times, and then realized what I meant. He bolted up, throwing me over to the other side of his bed. He not once let go of my hand. He took in my ring.
“Is this what I think it is?” he asked, with a wicked grin appearing on his face.
“YES!” I screeched, jumping up and down and clapping my hands. He took me into his arms.
“I am so happy for you! This is a good excuse for waking me up!” he said in my ear. When I looked over to the doorway, I saw James had his phone out. This means he probably filmed the whole thing.
“Aw man. I was wondering if you were going to beat her up for waking you up like you did Anthony.” He said. “But, I am glad you didn’t. Because, then I would have had to kill you.” He said smiling.
“Congratulations man. You picked a good one.” He said.
“I sure did.” James replied, looking at me with so much love in his eyes.
“Stop. Before you make me cry.” I told them, my voice cracking. “I have to go tell Ella!” I screeched yet again. Blade picked at his ear, faking that I clogged it up with my yelling. Paying him no attention, I bolted off the bed, and took the stairs two at a time. There were some guys in the hallway that I didn’t recall seeing last night. They watched me curiously. I got a sudden tingling sensation. But, I pushed it out of my thoughts for now.
“ELLA!” I screeched as I was nearing the top. Ella suddenly appeared at the top of the staircase, and I bolted into her arms. “I’m getting married!” I screeched. She squealed, and we started jumping up and down like two little school girls.
“AAHH! Let me see!” she squealed, pulling me into the fully lit kitchen. Her breath caught in her throat, and frankly, mine did too. The kitchen had a lot of windows, and with the natural light around it, the diamond glimmered even brilliantly.
“What are you two squealing about in here? You sound like little girls.” Damien said while running his fingers through his shaved head. I ran and jumped into his arms.
“Daddy- in- law!” I squealed and giggled like, yet again, a child.
“What in the blazes are you talking ab-“he stopped when he saw my left hand waving in his face. He snatched my hand to stop it moving. He blinked, much like Blade did. I heard James come up the stairs, and then het let out a huge laugh. I guess he was seeing a funny sight: my legs wrapped around Damien, his dad, while both of his hands were holding onto my left hand with an astonished and proud face, and then Ella, who was still jumping up and down on the phone, probably calling to tell all her friends that her son was getting married.
Damien broke into a huge smile, and looked at me and then James. “Congratulations, son. You have a good one.” I jumped off of him and went to stand beside James.
I suddenly felt a terrible pain in my leg. It was shocking, and I collapsed. Lucky for me, James caught me.
“Kyla? What’s wrong babe?” James asked. He sounded panicked, but I wasn’t paying any attention to that. I could hear his, but in my mind, I was no longer in the Abernathy’s mansion. I was in a car. I looked down and I saw blood all over my leg. But it wasn’t my leg; it was too large to be mine. I looked around me, and I saw that the front of the car was smashed into a tree, and the passenger side had another car smashed into it. Then, as abruptly as it had occurred, I was back in the kitchen, with James holding on tight to me, and barking orders at other people, while also murmuring things in my ear.
“Kyla, Baby. Oh thank goodness. What happened?” he asked, silencing all other voices when he saw my eyes open. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me, with curiosity or actual care in their eyes.
“I-,” I stuttered. How could I possibly put what I just went through into words? There is no way to describe it to somebody, when I couldn’t describe it myself. So, I replayed what I saw into his mind. His brows furrowed, as he was trying to decipher what this meant.
“What do you think it means?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
“I don’t know baby, I don’t know.” He replied. “Blade and or Trai. I need one or both of you to take Kyla down to our room. She needs to rest.” He said. I knew he could feel the sudden exhaustion and dizziness that came over me.
I don’t know which one, Trai or Blade, picked me up and took me to our room, but I didn’t much care. Because about halfway there, I was out cold.
Chapter Ninteen.

I woke up to James sliding in beside me in bed. One look at the clock told me that it was 1:27 a.m.
“James? Where have you been?” I asked, still a little groggy.
“Shh,” he said, soothing me,” I have been in a council meeting all day. Since your… incident. We were trying to figure out what it all means.” He said.
“Did you come to any conclusions?” I asked, suddenly one hundred percent awake. I wasn’t sure what had happened earlier, but I was ready to find out.
“No. We have no idea.” He answered. But he said it too quickly, and he looked away from looking me in the eyes. I knew instantly that he was lying. “Go back to sleep. We will figure this out, I promise.” He said before kissing me on the forehead. I snuggled into his side, and he wrapped his arm protectively around me. Eventually, I heard his breathing slow down, and I knew he was asleep. I couldn’t get to sleep though. I kept trying to figure out why James would lie to me. What was so big that he couldn’t tell me?
This is ridicules. I mean, why would he lie to me? It could have just been my imagination running wild. After all, I have been dreaming about what this was all day. The scene would keep entering my brain, followed by a big glittery purple question mark. Then the image would replay. Again and again and again.
He couldn’t be lying to me, right? He would have no purpose to. This includes me as much, if not more, than it does him. It was happening to me, so he probably didn’t lie. I was probably just imagining him lying to me.
By the time I had come to this conclusion, it was 4:12. Sigh, I still had a long way to go until it was appropriate time to be awake. But I couldn’t just lay here. That would drive me insane. I obviously wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep.
I silently and carefully I slipped out from under James’ arm. He muttered in his sleep, but eventually settled back down. I slipped on some tennis shoes and a jacket, and then I headed down stairs to the front door. I needed to get out of the house.
I shut the door as quietly as I could, then I jogged down the front steps. I took a deep breath. Id didn’t realize it, but I had felt confined in the house. Now, I felt free. Like a prisoner that had been in a tiny cell for years to be finally released into the real world. I didn’t just take a deep breath of the fresh air, but also it was a sigh of relief.
I didn’t know where I was going; I just knew that I ran. I kept a steady pace, my breath not once getting uneven. This was unusual for me because, I never run. I hate physical activity. I try to avoid it all costs. So it was quite a shock to me when I suddenly ran, and I didn’t get out of breath once. In fact, I felt energized, like I needed to burn more energy. So I pushed myself harder. And harder still. I felt free. No longer confined. I felt like I could do anything, and no one could stop me. That is until a figure stepped out in front of me in the road.
I slowed down, but I had no intention of stopping. But, they obviously didn’t care about what I wanted.
“Hello, Kyla.” The mysterious person said. Now that I was close enough, I could see that it was a boy. Maybe five or six years older than me. He wasn’t hot, or sexy, but handsome. He was one of those people that when you saw them, you couldn’t help but keep staring because you have never or will never see someone of such beauty again.
“Do I know you?” I asked, slowing down still. I continued to run past him, and he ran beside me, matching my pace perfectly.
“Well, we haven’t officially met yet. My name is Tanner.” He said. Since he was beside me, I could hear how deep his voice was. So deep that it made my chest rumble. But it was scary. It was smooth, almost velvety like. It was warm and welcoming.
“Okay, but that really doesn’t explain how you know my name.” I told him. He let out a deep chuckle. We were passing a park now. A bench came into view.
“Do you mind if we can sit and talk?” he asked. I looked at him, looking for any clues that he would want to hurt me. I couldn’t find anything suspicious, but that didn’t mean that I should completely trust him. Rapists don’t have a tattoo saying ‘I am a rapist’ on their forehead.
“Umm, yeah.” I walked behind him, watching him carefully. He walked with a certain grace. He held himself in a way that demanded respect, but at the same time it said ‘I have had a past that I am not proud of’. He had long, dark emo style hair. He was tall, with a slight tan and muscles. When he turned and flopped on the bench, I saw he had dark and brooding eyes. They spoke of knowledge and dark secrets.
“Sit. I won’t bite.” He said, flashing a smile that showed his perfect teeth.
“So, how do