Intended Series Collection: Books 1-6 by Abigail Grant (best summer books .txt) 📗

consider gentle for a guy his size, but I can’t stop myself from crying out in pain and dropping my roll in the process.

Gavin shoves him away from me, hard enough to cause him to stumble several feet backward. He grabs my upper arms, so I don’t fall over and slowly shuffles me away from everyone else, toward the kitchen.

I hear Jack following behind me around the dining table. “Dang, what did I do? I swear, Gav, I barely tapped her!” his voice is filled with regret.

An elderly woman comes through the swinging kitchen door, carrying a large bowl full of salad. She stops when she sees the looks of distress on our faces, with me tucked delicately under Gavin’s arm. “Goodness gracious, Gavin, is she hurt?” She looks me up and down, searching for any obvious sign of injury.

Gavin speaks next. “Gram, can you please grab some of your herbs? Aella was roughed up by a demon in the woods and her back was scraped pretty bad.”

I blanch at his terminology. “A what?” I shout, but receive no response.

Everyone around us is silent, except for Jack who groans loudly. “Well, I suck.” is all he says.

A voice whispers behind me. “This close to our home? That has never happened before.”

Gavin’s grandma looks at me with sadness in her eyes. “I’ll go get my bag. You go and lay down on your stomach in the downstairs bedroom, sweetie. I’ll be right in to check you out.”

I nod my head at her, still trying to process what Gavin had just called Thrane. His mother, Cami rushes to my side and they both lead me into the bedroom at the end of a well-lit hallway. Cami helps place me on a large bed with floral bedding in the middle of a beautifully decorated guest bedroom. She sits beside me on the bed and takes Gavin’s hands away from me.

“Hun, why don’t you go save Aella a plate of food before those guys eat it all? Gram and I will take care of her in here.” Her voice is gentle and loving as she speaks to her son.

He looks at her like she has gone crazy. “I’m not going anywhere, mom. She’s in pain.” He gestures to the bloodstains on the back of my shirt.

She throws him a dangerous motherly stare. “Gav, we are going to have to remove her shirt to apply the medicine. I’m sure Aella would rather have some privacy for that.”

He glances at me, looking torn. Heat rushes to my cheeks at the mention of me stripping in front of two strangers and Gavin. I nod at him, reassuring him that I will be fine.

He sighs loudly. “Fine, I’ll grab you some dinner and come back as soon as you’re done.” He grabs one of my hands, placing a gentle kiss on the back of it. My cheeks become even hotter at the show of affection in front of his mother.

Gavin’s grandma passes him on his way out, with a much smaller bowl in her hands this time. She shuts the door behind her and sets the mixture of brown mush on the bedside table.

“Alright, dear, take off that dirty shirt and scarf, and lay down on your belly. You can leave your brassiere on.” She gestures with her hands as she talks.

I comply with her demands and notice when I remove my scarf, that neither of them reacts to my bruised neck, which means Gavin probably told them about what happened Friday night. I lie down on the insanely comfortable bed, instantly feeling tired from the long, trying day.

Gavin’s grandma dips her fingers into the gross-looking mixture and takes out a generous amount. She rubs it along my back, causing me to flinch from the cold paste against my raw skin. But the pain leaves me in seconds, as if it never existed.

I sigh and sink further into the bed, my muscles finally able to relax. “What is that stuff, mam?” I ask, wanting to hug her for taking my pain away.

“Everyone I know just calls me Gram, dear. Whether they’re my babies or not.” She smiles down at me and winks. “My children call this mixture ‘Cole Cream’. I’ve always had a way with the earth, so I can create many different concoctions out of the things I find growing from it. This remedy will take the pain away and heal most wounds in half the time of any other medications.”

Her face is proud. She knows how awesome she is. Gram finishes rubbing the Cole Cream on my neck and washes her hands in the attached bathroom, before returning and taking a seat in the chair near me.

Camilla still sits quietly on the bed next to me. I turn a little, so I can see them. “Thank you, both of you. Today has been strange, to say the least, but you both are so kind.”

“El, what happened out in those woods, if you don’t mind me asking?” Camilla asks me with worry in her eyes.

I prop myself on an elbow and run through my memories of the day with a deep breath. I nod and begin telling them the story of Thrane cornering me. I repeat all of the things he told me about Kassy and his interest in ‘ending’ me and my pushing him away. I even relay the part about him kissing me and how it made me feel disgusting.

I purposefully kept the kiss part from Gavin, figuring he was already angry enough. Their faces reflect many different emotions throughout my horrible story, but mostly concern and surprise.

“Anyways, Gavin fought him, so Thrane gave up and ran off. Gavin was amazing. I’ve never seen anyone fight like the two of them did.” I smile at the image of my hero coming to my rescue, which has become a habit of his.

Gram and Camilla share a look that I can’t quite decipher the meaning of. Camilla grabs a folded shirt from the dresser behind Gram. “My