Dawn to Dark

by Halston James

  Caleb grows more frustrated, so Callum steps back in to diffuse it. “I guess I should have explained a bit more. When you meet your mate, there are a few signs that are hard to miss. That’s why it’s so insane that Vance thought he was mated with Risa when there were never any signs.”

  Callum pauses, looking unsure, so Lowell picks it up for him. “They call it the fever that doesn’t break. That, coupled with uncontrollable sweating and a painful stomach ache. Once you find your mate, you seal the bond with a bite.”

  Without him saying it, I know exactly where. “The part where the neck meets the shoulder?”

  “Yes,” Lowell says.

  “The fever, the sweating, the aches... it’s your body’s way of pushing you toward your mate, pushing you to seal the bond. That’s why you get sick when Caleb isn’t around. Your bodies crave each other, they have to be near one another. Mates have died from being too far away from each other. It can be torture.”

  My eyes go wide.

  “It wasn’t by chance that you ended up on the East Wing that first night; it was your body bringing you to me. It will always lead you to me. You’ve been dreaming about me since you were a kid, but I’ve been dreaming about you for forever,” Caleb says softly.

  A gasp dies in my throat, and my eyes well up with tears.

  “That night I came home, I felt it. I couldn’t describe it, but I ran straight here. The feeling was overwhelming. I trashed my bedroom because I couldn’t understand the feelings. It was so much all at once. Lowell found me and told me you’d arrived, and in the back of my mind I thought that there was no way, but when I saw you for the first time, I knew I was done. It was you.”

  Suddenly, it all clicks into place. “A mate for a mate?”

  Caleb solemnly nods. “So they’ll take me and they’ll...kill me?”

  A furious growl rips out of Caleb’s throat, but I don’t even flinch.

  “They come from time to time to see if he’s mated, and the night they found you outside... well, I’m sure they could smell the bond from a mile away; it’s pretty strong,” Callum says.

  “Stronger than most,” Lowell says, mostly to himself.

  “What happens now?” I ask, not really wanting to know the answer, still in shock from the overload of so much information all at once. I hadn’t even begun to process that I was Caleb’s mate. Me.

  “Is there anywhere you can go? Somewhere nobody expects? Some place that’s not really tied to you? Just until we can figure this all out.” Callum asks.

  “My sister’s,” I say instantly.

  “I think that’s the first place they’d look.”

  “Nobody knows I have a sister, not even Eddie. Everybody thinks my family is all dead. She’s married, and her husband is in the military, so they travel a lot. She doesn’t have a permanent address.”

  “Sounds perfect,” Lowell says, and together as one they all get up and start buzzing around me, packing my things, bringing me something to eat, helping me change. Caleb doesn’t stay, though, and he doesn’t come back either.

  Within an hour, they have me packed and ready to go. It’s decided that Callum will take me to my sister's, which is about four hours away. I send her a text from a traceless phone Callum gives me, and she’s more than eager to see me, which kills me.

  They quickly load all my things into one of the cars in the garage, and Caleb reappears. He was going to follow us for the first hour to make sure we aren’t being tracked. I hug Lowell and Risa goodbye. Risa kisses my cheek, and Lowell pats me on the head before whispering in my ear, “Sometimes true love requires sacrifice.”

  He pulls away, his eyes full of something I can’t decipher. Before I turn around to face Caleb, I find myself wrapped up in his arms. He’s holding me so tight, the tears break free.

  “I don’t want to go,” I admit into his chest.

  “You can’t stay here. It’s not safe,” he murmurs in my ear. His voice sounds strained.

  “Please let me stay.” I beg because it’s the only place that’s ever felt like home. It’s the only place where I’ve felt like myself, like I didn’t have to hide away. He kisses me on the forehead, then tells Callum to go now before running off and getting a head start.

  I feel my heart shatter as I watch him running away… from me.

  9

  Half an hour after dinner, I throw up the eggs and toast Emma had forced me to eat. As I cower over the toilet, I don’t know what dying feels like, but it must feel something similar to this. My body feels so weak, I don’t even bother moving; instead, I close the toilet and rest my head against it. It’s been two weeks since I’ve left Caleb, and I haven’t been able to keep anything down, haven’t been able to sleep, and of course there’s the constant raging fever and sweating. Even the teas Lowell packed haven’t been working.

  I feel my sister brush the hair out of my face. “I don’t know what to do. I feel helpless. Maybe it’s time to take you to the hospital.”

  I can hear the panic in her voice, but I still won’t tell her the truth. “No,” I say weakly.

  “Maybe I should call someone, then? This isn’t normal, Bells. I’m freaking out here. I don’t know what to do.”

  I don’t even have the energy to respond.

  We hear a brash knock at the door, and I look expectantly at Emma. I shoot her a glare, and she puts up her hands in defense. “I swear I didn’t call anyone.…”

  She disappears to answer the door, and I hear her exchange words with someone with a deep voice, a voice that warms me just at the sound. The voices go silent, and when I look to the doorway, I see a figure leaning on the doorpost. If I would’ve had any strength, I would have jumped at the sight of him, but I was too weak. The organ in my chest didn’t get the memo, though, because it starts beating rapidly.

  “What are you doing here?” I sigh out. “You’re supposed to stay away. Wasn’t that the plan?"

  “Nice to see you, too, Isabella. You’re a sight for sore eyes.” His accent slid over my spine in a gentle caress.

  I hated the way my body instantly reacted to his. “Caleb, please leave.” I don’t want him to leave, but I’m still so angry that he sent me away, and it’s not something I’ve gotten over.

  “No.” He says it firmly, like arguing with him would be futile.

  I look up at him, and his eyes give nothing away. He leans on the door post, arms crossed at his chest. He looks… mouthwatering. His eyes and hair tell a different story; he looks almost as miserable as I do. How he wasn’t hugging a toilet, I had no idea.

  I feel my stomach turn, and I groan, flip the lid of the toilet, and get in position. My body tries to heave everything that was left out of my stomach, but at this point it’s only stomach acid.

  I groan. “Am I dying?’

  He looks at me with frustration written all over his face. Suddenly and without warning, I’m up in the air in a cocoon of arms and warmth. Unwillingly, an appreciative moan escapes my mouth. I wrap my arms around his neck and press my forehead against it. He takes me to the recliner and sits down while still holding me in his arms.

  “Jesus Christ, Isabella, you’ve lost at least 15 pounds,” he curses.

  I can feel the words vibrate in his throat, and it’s a pleasant sensation - but then again, anything he does is pleasant to me.

  I hear footsteps, then a blanket is being wrapped around me. Emma.

  “I’m going to step out to run some errands. Will you be okay?”

  I don’t know which one of us she’s asking, but Caleb answers. “She’ll be fine. You have my word.”

  Emma doesn’t say another word, and a few minutes later I hear a jingle of keys as the front door shuts.

  Minutes go by in utter silence before he speaks again. “How are you feeling?” he asks quietly.

  “It’s insane, but I feel better. And you’re so warm. I just want to wrap around you like vines and siphon all your heat.” I snuggle closer to him, trying to get as much heat from him as I
can.

  “Are you still cold? I can get more blankets...”

  He starts to pull away, but I pull him by the collar of his sweater. “No, please, don’t go.”

  It’s a cry, it’s me begging him not to go, not to move an inch. I curl into him and can feel my heart rate calm and frantic mind start to rest. He’s here, and it’s like my body is finally at peace. I feel so in tune to him that even his heartbeat sounds louder to me, like it’s begging me to listen to it. I listen to it and let it lull me to sleep.

  The sleep is so good, I never want to wake up, but I feel fingers on my chin, my ears, and then I swear I feel lips on my forehead. Finally, I feel a soft breath right against my ear. “I have to go. I just came to check on you.”

  His breath in my ear tickles me and turns me on at the same time, and when I finally let his words sink in, they make me want to cry. How was I going to survive without him? I couldn’t. I wouldn’t be able to.

  I open my eyes and am staring directly into his. I’m still in his lap, but he moved me to where he has me cradled in his arms. I sit up, and before I even realize I’m thirsty, he hands me a glass of water. I drink almost all of it, and he takes the glass from me. I stretch my arms up and over my head, and it’s then I realize I feel so much better. Caleb and sleep worked wonders. The only thing I needed now was food.

  “Your sister was up. She already went to get some food. She’ll be back soon.”

  I yawn, wrap my arms around him, and curl into the crook of his neck. I place my ear close to his neck and hear the steady beat and rhythm of his blood. Like holding a seashell up to my ear, it sings to me. His arms wrap around me, and he holds me tight. I pull away just enough to pull his sweater down and look at the spot where his neck and shoulder connect. To anyone else it would be a perfectly normal piece of skin on a perfectly normal man, but to me it’s a piece of skin that beckons for me to claim it.

  I stare at it, and my mouth waters…

  for it,

  for him,

  for us.

  So, I kiss it. A perfectly chaste kiss. His hold on me tightens. Reflexively, I straddle his lap and kiss the spot again. I can feel and hear his heart begin to race, a loud whooshing sound in my ears, like I’ve just dived into the ocean. His hands move to my hips when I kiss him there again. He pushes me down on his erection when my tongue peeks out to lick the spot. I’m pushed down on the bed the second he feels my teeth scrape the surface of his skin. It happens blindingly fast. When I open my eyes, he’s pacing in front of the bed.

  “I should go,” he says, and when I see him walk toward the door, I can feel my heart thud against its walls hard, like there was a string from mine to his and he pulled on it too fast and too hard as he walked away, surprising us both.

  “No, don’t go. I’m sorry! I don’t know what came over me...” I beg through the knot in my throat. Tears threaten my eyes, but I blink them away.

  He stops where he is and lets out this deep, guttural sigh, like he’s in pain. “That can’t happen again. Once we seal it, there’s no going back, and people could use it against me, against you. They could use it to torture us and kill us slowly. It can’t happen now.”

  My stomach somersaults, and it sends me flying into the bathroom, where I make it to the toilet just in time to dry heave some more stomach acid. I feel his hand on my forehead, and like he has some sort of calming effect on my body, I feel myself sag with relief.

  “If our bond isn’t sealed, then how come I feel so shitty?”

  “I don’t know. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen or heard of. I shouldn’t be able to feel you from so far away.”

  “You can feel me?”

  “Yes. You don’t realize how in tune I am with your body and mind. Even with distance, I’ve still been able to feel you. The fever, the nausea... I’ve gotten bits and pieces. When we’re closer, like we are now, it’s crystal clear, but when you first left, I thought it would be silent.”

  “It wasn’t?”

  “No, it was like a radio. Like if you move to a certain spot, you could get better reception. I caught glimpses of you, felt you, heard your thoughts.”

  He looks so worried, and I feel a pang of humiliation at what I just did. “Your hormones, uh, they can get a little heightened when I’m around. It’s just the bond wanting us to mate. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “No luck with the Lyalls?”

  “No. I’m trying to find a solution that requires a minimal amount of bloodshed. I just need time.”

  “Can’t you bite someone else’s shoulder and mate with them?”

  The question sounds stupid as I say it, and I instantly regret it. Just imagining him mated with someone else twists my insides with jealousy. The thought of him touching someone else…

  “I could, but it could end up killing us both.”

  A tear falls, and I can’t stop it. I feel hopeless. He rises up and rubs the wetness from my cheeks with his thumb, then gently places something over my head. When it falls down onto my neck, I see that a vial with liquid hangs at the center of it. I hold it in the palm of my hand and admire the clear emerald liquid inside of it.

  “What’s this?”

  “It's a tonic.”

  “For what?”

  “I got it from a medicine woman. If anything happens to me or they ever get to you, drink it.”

  “What does it do?”

  “It’ll erase the bond. Your symptoms will cease, and you’ll forget this ever happened.”

  Hearing him say the words makes my chest ache. “What about you?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Will you forget me?”

  “It doesn’t work that way. I can never forget. I have to go now.” My heart sinks like it has a ball and chain attached to it. “I want you to know something,” he says, and I look up into his eyes. “I’m not going to force a bite on someone else, not when the fates have set you aside for me. I have that faith. In you. In us. I couldn’t imagine my heart beating this wildly for anyone else. It never has, and it never will.”

  His words have me taking a deep breath and my heart skipping beats, and in the space of a breath, in the blink of an eye, he’s gone.

  I curl up on the ground, bawling, clutching at my stomach, the pain greater than before and that’s how Emma finds me. She quickly gets on the ground and props my head on her thigh and just holds me as I cry. If there are things she wants to say, she doesn’t. She just holds me as I break down. She runs her fingers through my dirty hair. When I finally calm down, the phone rings and Emma moves to answer it.

  “It’s your cell, Bells….”

  She brings it into the bathroom and hands it to me, and I instantly recognize the number.

  “Hello?” I try to get my voice under control.

  “Evidence you found finally got a hit. One of the hikers’ fingerprints was on the lighter. They’re on their way now to the Randolph residence with a warrant. They’re going to arrest Caleb Randolph.”

  The second he says the words, I drop the phone, get up and just go. If I’m lucky, maybe Caleb hasn’t gotten very far. I’d die before letting him go to jail. And just like that, I feel an anger flare inside me I've never felt before.

  I was going to protect him at all costs.

  10

  I call Callum, Lowell, and Risa as I leave, but nobody picks up any of the house phones or their cell phones. I mumble a curse as I get into my sister’s car and take off. Caleb’s words echo in my mind…

  It will always lead you to me. Even with the distance, I’ve still been able to feel you.

  So I tap into it, whatever it is. I relax my body as I drive and just try to convey my thoughts over and over again so whenever he picks up on them, he’ll know.

  They’re coming to arrest you. Where are you?

  I say it in my mind over and over and over again. I even recite it out loud. I do it the whole drive to the manor. A four-hour drive that took me only three because I hauled ass. My hear
t is pumping, and my body is sweating, but I don’t care. Adrenaline is all I feel. When I’m almost at the gate, I see the place is crawling with cop cars and their flashing lights. I’m too late. I park the car off onto the side street and walk through the trees instead so no one sees me. I see the place swarming with officers, but I don’t see any signs of Callum, Caleb, Risa, or Lowell.

  A twig snaps behind me, and my body immediately seizes up. I hear a deep sigh from a voice I don’t recognize. “You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for you.” His voice is smooth but menacing. I know instantly who he is and what he wants. “Grab her.” Pain shoots through my neck as I fall to the ground and everything goes black.

  When I wake up, I’m disoriented and dizzy. My eyelids feel heavy. I feel the rope burn at my wrists and ankles. I shiver from the cold temperature as I hear people, feet shuffling around me. They’re are speaking in hushed whispers. I muster all the strength I can to open my eyes and when I do, the tears start to pour immediately at the sight in front of me.

  Callum, Risa, and Lowell are all on their knees on the opposite wall, all bound and gagged. Caleb is behind them, tied up just like me. His eyes go wide as I look at him, and he struggles against the shackles they’ve latched him to. Both Caleb and Callum have been beaten badly and are swollen and bloody. I try to inch forward to get closer, but the ropes are tight, and I don’t move an inch. Tears stream down my face, and when I look to the head of the room, I see the man responsible for it all.

  “Hello, lovely,” he says as he approaches me. He touches my cheek, but I flinch against his touch. I hear Caleb jerk against his chains. “Don’t touch her!” He screams, but Vance just laughs. His laughter is musical, and it makes my blood boil.

  “I’m sure our dear Caleb has told you he is in our debt.”