by Shelly Crane
I felt ready to pass out again. My stomach was full but hurt for other reasons. I had no idea how to reach Caleb or where I was exactly, geographically, but I knew I had to find a way. In the morning, I’d be able to see and could find my way out.
But, when I looked at the bed I was skeptical about being able to sleep in it. It was old and dirty, dust and cobwebs everywhere, but I wasn’t in a position to be picky. I decided to just sleep on the top cover and used a blanket thrown over the end to cover up with.
When I laid down I sighed. Who cared whose bed it was, it was like heaven. I balled myself up, pulling my knees to my chest and felt the shivers slowing just as I drifted to sleep.
Something startled me awake. I opened my eyes and was too terrified and anxious to think about the blinding pain hitting me. Someone was here.
I hobbled to the closet, grabbing my shirt and pants on the way. Once I sat down, I felt the full force of the withdrawal and it was all I could do not to scream. My stomach started to heave and cramp but somehow I managed to keep it together as I heard the front door creak open.
I held my breath and prayed I could keep myself calm as I waited for them to find me or not. My heart was beating against my ribs so hard, it hurt. Wait-
My heartbeat.
The medicine was out of my system. Caleb could find me now! If I could only make it until he could get here. My joy sang in me even as I feared the worst of my intruder. The long cut on my throat and arm were pulsing and pounding painfully with my rapid heart but I was thankful for it. I peeked through the coats that hung in front of my face. I couldn’t see who it was but they were looking around the room, like they were looking for something. I silently cursed myself for running to the closet instead of out the backdoor.
But I heard the voices calling to each other outside and was thankful for the closet. The man inside yelled something back and I held back my gasp. It was the guy who’d brought me orange juice and ogled me in my see through sheet.
Crap. They were here looking for me.
“Not here,” he yelled and walked swiftly through the door.
I focused to see if I could hear Sikes’s thoughts, if he was near and got nothing but when I thought of Marcus, I got a lot more than I wanted.
Stupid human. I’ll kill her. And Sikes thinks he’s just running things now. I have had it with this. When I find her I’m gonna teach her something about what a real Ace is. She’ll wish she’d never met me. Maybe I’ll show Caleb in an echo dream. Ha! That’d be freaking hilarious! Oh, no! Maggie I love you! Ha! Idiots. I’m so glad I’ll never imprint and have to deal with that crap. Just wait til I find you, little Maggie. You’ll wish you’d died in the fall.
Oh, God help me. His mind was pure evil coated with malice. I shook myself and peeked out the closet. I fell out of it really because I was hurting so much. I breathed through it and managed to wiggle my jeans back on but threw the vampire shirt under the bed, just in case. I looked around for shoes but once again, found nothing.
I took a few more big gulps of water from the jug and then tried to reach Caleb. I called out to him in my mind. I didn’t get him but I got flashes and glimpses, like before. That’s when I realized I was doing it wrong. I shouldn’t be trying to tune myself into Caleb like I had before, connecting us. I should try to read his mind, one way, like I had everyone else. That’s what I could do now. So I did and I immediately heard him. He was talking to his father.
“I don’t know, dad. Only about ten minutes ago but it’s real. Let’s go. Now,” Caleb said vehemently.
“I know, son, and we will but we have to get everyone together. We can’t just run half cocked into the Watson complex. We need numbers.”
“I know,” Caleb sighed and banged his fist on the wall, leaving a mark in the plaster. “I can feel her, dad, she’s terrified of something. What if someone is hurting her, right now?”
“You’d feel that. As soon as her heartbeat returned to you, so did your ability to tune into her body. If she’s in pain, you’ll feel it now. We’ll get her back. I promise you that.”
I saw Peter walk towards Caleb, thought it looked like he was walking towards me and hugged him. Caleb sighed harshly and patted his father’s back roughly.
“We’ll find her.”
“Ok. Let’s get things rolling. I’m dying here, dad. I’m not gonna be cool much longer if we don’t go soon.”
“They’re already on the way here. Go sit and wait-”
“I can’t!” he growled. “I can’t just sit here and wait! I gotta do something. It hurts so bad...and I can feel her in me. She’s hurting and... It’s too much. It’s-” He gasped and growled and kicked a chair that slammed into the desk across the room. “If they hurt Maggie, I’ll kill them. I swear to-”
“I know.” Peter grabbed Caleb around his shoulders. “I know, but you aren’t going to help Maggie by losing it. We will get her back.”
I pulled away from Caleb’s mind. It was too painful to see him losing it like that. I had no idea how long it would take them to get here to the Watson compound and I knew they were already out looking for me. Should I stay here in the cabin or try to get to a road? I could open my mind, like I did before and then I could hear the thoughts of those near me and hide. It would work.
I peeked out the door slowly and cleared my mind, opened it wide and listened. I didn’t hear anything so I inched my way down the porch, trying to not trip on my aching legs, and winced when my feet hit the gravel. I held the porch rail in one hand and lifted one foot to see a bloody mess on the sole. Great.
I started towards the woods again. The opposite way I had come before. It was so different during the day. I could see how thick and full the woods were which made me feel some better about being able to elude the Watson’s.
I walked for a couple hours, hobbling, holding my stomach as it ached and burned. I had to stop a couple times to breath and try to talk myself into going forward. I just wanted to find the nearest rock and crawl under it. I had no idea how long it had been but I was thirsty, hungry and my vision was starting to blur and bounce again. It wouldn’t be long and I’d pass out from the withdrawals, just like before.
I tried to find a large low tree to hide under so no one would find me when I did pass out. I saw a cave like thing under the cliff and knew that would be too obvious of a hiding place so I went around it. There were cliffs all around so I hoped and prayed this wasn’t the same one I’d fallen from. On the other side of the cave was a large group of Christmas tree evergreens. I sighed in relief and went to go crawl under the low branches to wait out my sleep but as I pushed a large branch away I heard his thoughts just a second before I saw a man.
His eyes went wide as he saw me and in his mind he’d been looking for me. He was holding up his hands as if to say he meant me no harm. I knew better. I took off running. I could hear him behind me, gaining ground. I was a runner for crying out loud but my body couldn’t keep up with my spirit. I held in my scream when I felt his arms go around me. He didn’t tackle me like I thought he would.
“Maggie, wait. Don’t scream.”
I realized then that his arms were still around me and he wasn’t burning me with an offense mark. I slowly turned and looked at him, brown curly hair and kind eyes.
“Caleb’s here?” I squeaked.
He nodded.
“I’m Rodney, Caleb’s cousin. I’m sorry I scared you.”
I didn’t care if he was the pope. He wasn’t a Watson and that was gold to me. I collapsed in relief against him and felt him lift me in his arms. I went in and out of consciousness as he carried me swaying. He swiftly made his way, to where I didn’t know. It wasn’t too long before I heard yelling. I looked up thinking this man had somehow tricked me and taken me back to the Watson’s but it was Peter and...Caleb.
I gasped and wiggled out of Rodney’s grasp. He put me down easily and steadied me. I tried to run but couldn’t. Caleb grabbed me before I hit the ground and the aches and pains lef
t my body with a harsh sigh from us both as we collided and wrapped our arms around each other. Then there was a burst of energy all around us as our skin made contact for the first time in days.
I saw Peter and a few others behind him fall to the ground behind Caleb, like they’d been knocked back by some force or invisible trip wire. A few were pushed back mid air as they ran our way. The energy was visible, in streams of iridescent blues and it seemed to flow through my skin. I lifted my arm to see the ribbons making there way through one side of my hand and out of the other.
I gripped Caleb’s neck tightly in my fingers and felt his grip on my back tighten.
“What’s happening?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” he spoke into my hair “but I don’t care.”
He kissed me softly all over my face, my lips the most. I could barely stand and he held me up as he let me feel everything in him, all his worries and anger and longing. Or maybe I was just able to feel it now because of the ascension.
“Yes,” Caleb answered me. “I told you you’d be able to feel everything from me after the ascension without even trying.” He pushed my hair back from my face and made a pained face from seeing offense marks around my mouth. I grimaced wondering what the rest of me looked like and smelled like. He chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t care. I have you back and that’s all that matters. I’m sorry I didn’t get to you first. A few of the family who were closer got here before us. I told them where you were.”
“That doesn’t matter. I’m just glad you’re here.”
“I’m here,” he agreed and pulled me closer by my shirt front. He saw the angry red slash across my neck and shoulder and at first he blared hot fury as he ran his fingers across it scowling and growling low in his throat. Then he perked up and the sides of his mouth turned up, making me wonder what in the world had just happened. Then he looked back to me and smiled happily. “And now. I can do this.”
He closed his eyes and concentrated. One by one I felt the offense marks on my body and face, the slice down my arm from the well wall and the bruises and cuts on my feet tingle and burn away. The long cut across my shoulder burned for a second before searing away to nothing. Then the cold left my body as well. I was filled with warmth and a glow of rightness. This was exactly where I was supposed to be.
“Caleb,” I said and he sighed and pulled my face to his, our noses touching.
“I have missed hearing you say my name.”
“Me too.”
“Ok, I’m sorry. What were you saying?”
“What about the Watson’s? They were out here looking for me this morning.”
He pulled back and looked at my face seriously.
“You saw them?”
I nodded.
“I hid in a cabin in the woods last night.”
“Wait- What? We thought they let you go because they knew we were coming for you?”
I bit my lip and tried to block that part instantly from my mind so he wouldn’t see. Should I show him everything they did to me?
He growled at my thoughts.
“What they did to you? What do you mean? Show me, right now, Maggie,” he ordered gruffly.
“Please, don’t leave me again. Even to go and hunt then down. Please?”
He shook his head and looked in as much agony as I felt.
“I’m not leaving you for anything. You are staying right here.” His arms tighten around me. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t angry at you.”
“I know that, but I just didn’t want you to run off in a rush to crack someone’s head.”
“What did they do to you, Maggie?” asked softly. “I need to see it.”
I bit my lip again and closed my eyes, leaning my forehead against his. I showed him from the first second I awoke with his jacket, then woke naked and being washed by Marla, then Sikes, Marcus. Once the vision got started, I couldn’t turn off certain parts so he had to live through my withdrawals as well. Even living it again was almost unbearable.
He gritted his teeth so hard I could hear it. Then I showed them taking my blood and when he saw me able to read Sikes’s wife’s mind he gasped and pulled back to look at me, awestruck. I smiled and leaned my head back to his. Then I showed him going down the hall and up to the well, waiting all day and night and another day down there, freezing and trying to climb out. Then the Watson’s attacking me and my being pushed, accidentally, off the cliff. He growled and cursed and huffed through it. Then we saw the water, the cabin, them looking for me and my hiding, my opening my mind to hear all thoughts and reaching out to read his mind, hearing him and his father speaking to each other about my heartbeat returning to him, then his cousin Rodney finding me, then here, now.
I pulled back to look at him and he was red and shaking.
“They’re still human. How could they do this to someone?” he muttered more to himself than me.
“Caleb,” Peter said behind us. “I’m sorry but they’ll know we’re here by now. They’ll run and we’ll miss them if we don’t go.”
“I’m gonna kill-”
“I saw. We all saw,” Peter said shakily and Caleb and I both looked sharply at him.
“What?”
He pointed above us and our thoughts mingled and bounced into view on the ribbons and streams of energy around and above us still. Right then, I could see a fuzzy blue broken picture of Caleb and I looking up at the ribbons, because that’s what I was thinking about and him too apparently. It was a strange revelation. That reminded me of when I’d first heard Sikes’s wife’s mind and the picture shimmered and changed to that vision of her taking my blood on the bed. I could even hear our voices.
“Can you hear that too?” I asked and Peter nodded. “Am I doing that?”
He nodded and smiled proudly, coming to lay a warm hand on my cheek.
“Maggie. Your ability is a most rare and precious one. We haven’t had a Seer in our family in over a hundred years.”
“A Seer?”
He took the hand from my cheek and placed it on Caleb’s shoulder with the same look of proud respect for his son as for me.
“Someone who can read minds, see into minds and read their feelings and desires, see the past thoughts and actions of someone. You can read anyone’s thoughts or plans, anyone. There have been no known ways to block a Seer, either. Just like you did Caleb, they don’t even have to be near you, you just have to focus on them and you can read them like an open book in front of your face. You also can receive visions, usually of the past but I’ve heard of Seers getting glimpses of the future as well.”
“And that’s good?” I asked, remembering when I’d thought reading minds was a lame gift.
“Yes,” he laughed. “That’s very good.”
“What’s your ability, Caleb?” I asked, turning to face him.
“Don’t know yet. Don’t care yet.” He smiled widely. “I’ve said it a lot but...you’re amazing.” He kissed me with a hand cupping my cheek, right in front of his dad. “Come on. Let’s get you taken care of and then we’re going to go find the Watson’s and kick some a-”
“Caleb,” his dad barked, both amused and parental.
Caleb just grinned at me, lifted me in his arms and carried me to the SUV.
Twenty Six
“Where’s my dad?” I asked as I sat in the backseat with Caleb and woofed down a to-go bowl of corn chowder his mom had made for me.
“He’s at his house. We didn’t tell him we’d found you yet. He’d want to come with us and we couldn’t let him...ya know.”
“Yeah, I know.”
I felt so much better it was like night and day. I was still tired but felt like I could at least function properly. Caleb hadn’t left me at all. He sat right next to me and had a hand on my thigh the entire time I ate.
When he’d walked with me to the car, the energy ribbons and streams followed us, but as soon as he’d placed me in the backseat, losing skin contact, all the energy, all the ribbons fell away and sizzled
into the sky as his family looked on in awe. When he climbed in on his side and touched me again, I almost thought the energy burst would return. I worried that every time we touched each other now we’d light up like a Christmas tree, but they didn’t come.
“What about Beck? What happened to her and Ralph after the party?”
“I found them and told him that you’d been kidnapped. I didn’t know what else to say so I just told the truth. Beck was freaking out. I called my dad, dropped them off and then had to go tell your dad.” He shook his head and swallowed. I saw pieces and glimpses of their conversation in his mind, my dad red faced and yelling. “Man that not was not fun.”
“I bet,” I muttered. “Was he mad at you?”
“Oh yeah.” He chucked humorlessly. “I haven’t been called names that bad since...ever.”
“I’m so sorry. He-”
He wrapped an arm around me, pressing my face into his neck.
“He’s your dad. I’d think something was off if he hadn’t freaked. I had just told him when we left for our date that I’d keep you safe and then had to come and explain that someone had taken you right out from under me.”
I looked up to see his face and decided to see for myself what had gone on while I was away.
I didn’t have to try hard because we were already in each other’s mind, the ascension like Caleb had said, but his memories of his losing me and the withdrawals zoomed to me in a hazy rush. Some parts were normal and others were like they were on fast forward.
I saw him out of his mind with worry and grief on the beach looking for me. He called my name over and over. He knelt in the sand and beat his fist over his heart to make it work, anything to pick up my heart beat again to find me. He knew what had happened. The Watson’s had taken me somehow. He knew it and he was puzzled as to how they had kept my heart steady to hide me from him.
He ran back to the bonfire, snagged Beck and Ralph and sped the entire way back to Beck’s as he talked frantically with his father on the phone. Then he went in to talk to my father without waiting for his, like his dad had told him to. He knew I’d want my father to know as soon as possible and he felt responsible; wanted to meet his punishment head on.
