Catch Me When I Fall

by Vicki Leigh

  “It’s about Giovanni. Can I come in?” he asked. “I don’t wanna talk in the hall.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, hang on a minute.” Closing the door in Seth’s face, I shot Kayla an apologetic look. “Put your clothes on.” I grabbed a clean shirt out of my dresser while she dressed. When she was ready, I opened the door and ushered him inside.

  “Did I interrupt something?” Seth smirked.

  I closed the door, clearing my throat and fighting the heat in my cheeks. “What about Giovanni?”

  Seth looked at Kayla, whose cheeks had also reddened, and chuckled. “I can come back later.”

  “Seth, just talk.”

  He held up his hands. “All right. Look, when we were in the house searchin’ for clues, Giovanni seemed like he was nervous being there. I think he’s hidin’ something.”

  I held out a hand to stop him. “Wait a minute. You thought he was dodgy, too?”

  Seth’s eyes widened. “You mean—”

  “Yeah, I saw it.”

  “No way. And you weren’t there when Bartholomew figured out Kayla was the real target in Paris. It was like he was annoyed. And then, when we found out about the other three, he rushed us out the door because he needed ‘to think,’ but it was like he wanted us to get away before we figured anything else out. You don’t think he’s in league with this warlock dude?”

  I shook my head and ran a hand through my dirty blond hair. “I don’t know. Maybe? But then why would he send us all to war against the warlock?”

  “To cover his tracks,” Kayla replied.

  I turned around to face her. “What?”

  She stood and walked over to us. “Tabbi was talking to me this morning about this warlock—how he’s controlling the Nightmares, how he wants the four of us to help him murder people, how a war between the Magus could be catastrophic. If Seth is right and Giovanni really is in league with this guy, wouldn’t he want to make it look like he was on your side?”

  “Yeah, I guess. But why would Giovanni make a deal with the guy in the first place? Doesn’t that violate what he is, the oath he took?” Seth asked.

  “If he is in league with this warlock, then we’re in deeper shit than we thought,” I replied. “Giovanni’s clever. He could convince thousands of Protectors to follow him under false pretense. Seth, do you have access to his office when he’s not there?”

  He shook his head. “No, Giovanni’s the only one with access. He also turns on an alarm system that freaks out at the slightest movement. As soon as we go corporeal to touch something, the thing will go off.”

  “Then you need to think of a way to distract him so he doesn’t turn it on. Samantha and I can break in and search through his things. Until then, pay close attention to what he’s doing, where he’s going, who he’s speaking to. If he is a traitor, we need to figure out who else in these walls is working with him.”

  The Magus in that house in Kansas said we had no idea who was loyal to this warlock. If he got under the skin of Giovanni, there was no telling who else was involved. Until then, I needed to be on guard. We couldn’t afford to have our walls destroyed from within.

  Seth nodded. “I’ll do what I can.”

  I plucked the USB drive out of my trouser pocket and handed it to him. “Also, see if you can find someone who can decrypt these files. And don’t tell Giovanni you have this.”

  “I’ll let you know as soon as I got somethin’.”

  Four hours later, there was a knock on my door. Kayla slept on the bed next to me, having passed out halfway through Gladiator, and I got off the bed as gently as I could to avoid waking her. Seth and Irene stood on the other side of the door.

  “Man, you need to see this,” Seth said, pushing his way into the room.

  “Keep it down, mate,” I whispered. “What do you need to show me?”

  “What I found on the USB drive Seth asked me to hack.” Irene pulled it out of her pocket and slipped the small piece of plastic into my laptop. Seth and I stood behind her and watched as she decrypted the files. I paid close attention to what keys she pressed.

  “I couldn’t decrypt much, but I was able to get into a couple files,” Irene said. “This is from a week ago.”

  Irene brought up security footage from a small warehouse or storage unit. Someone parked a black B.M.W. in front of the building, and the passenger door opened. Giovanni stepped out of the car. I gripped the back of the desk chair. He was in league with this bastard. Bugger. Seth had been right.

  A man stepped out of the building and shook hands with Giovanni. He had dark hair and wore black clothing, but from this angle I couldn’t make out his face. Giovanni’s smile, though, told me they’d known each other for a while—a smile you’d reserve not for a business partnership but for a friend. Then, the man turned to lead Giovanni into the building, and I got a good look at his face. I’d seen him before, the first night I’d watched over Kayla in the asylum. With a gasp, I stepped back from the desk.

  The warlock was Richard Bartlett—Kayla’s father.

  “You know who that is?” Seth asked.

  No, this couldn’t be happening. My palms sweat.

  Right then, screams filled the halls. Loud booms rang out and a bell alarm sounded. Seth and I stared at each other, our eyes wide. Irene ran out the door without another glance at either of us.

  “Daniel, what’s going on?” Kayla asked, having been woken by the noise.

  Snapping into action, I shoved the USB drive into my pocket before she could see the screen. “I don’t know.” I grabbed my weapon belt out of my closet and wrapped it around my waist. “Seth, get her to the rendezvous point. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”

  “No!” Kayla yelled. “I’m not leaving without you.”

  I grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “I will be right behind you. I promise.”

  She nodded, though her face paled. I kissed her forehead then ran out the door.

  The halls were already filled with corpses of Catchers and Weavers. My heart stopped. We were being ambushed. With weak legs, I evaporated to the artillery, filled my belt with as many weapons as I could carry and ran up the narrow stairs to the lobby.

  Everywhere, Catchers battled Nightmares—and we were severely outnumbered. Right and left, Catchers fell as claws ripped through their bodies. Soon they began to evaporate, leaving more and more Catchers to fight on their own. I looked around the room until my eye caught the person I was looking for.

  A man dressed in a long, black cape marched up the stairs. Richard.

  Sprinting through the lobby, I dodged the swipes of the Nightmares all around me. Then halfway across the room, a Nightmare blocked my way, swinging at my face. The beast’s scaly, humanoid body was much bigger than the one that had attacked Hendrik in Kayla’s psychiatric room. I ducked just in time and sliced at its gut. Black blood oozed out of the hellion onto the floor, but it didn’t fall. The Nightmare swung at me again, and I dodged its attack as quickly as I could. The monster’s claws found my arm. I swore as my flesh tore and blood soaked through my sleeve.

  Again, it swung. I sliced off the Nightmare’s hand before claws could make contact with my body. Then, as the beast leaned back to roar in pain, I leapt and stabbed my blade clear through its neck. The creature fell to the ground without another sound.

  I sprinted again for the staircase, determined to reach the warlock, and threw a blade between the eyes of the last Nightmare in my way. For only a second, I stopped to pull the knife out of the beast’s head—Catchers’ blades were priceless—and then, finally, I reached the stairs. Up eight flights I ran, glancing right and left for any sign of Richard. When I was on the eighth floor, a scream caught my attention—Kayla.

  No! She wasn’t supposed to be here.

  I turned right and ran down the hall. Across the hall from Kayla’s door was Seth, lying unconscious on the ground.

  No, no, no! When I kicked open Kayla’s door, Richard stood across from me, one of his h
ands wrapped around her wrist. She struggled to get free, but he was too strong.

  “Daniel!” Kayla screamed as an invisible force grabbed me and threw me across the room. My head smacked the corner of her bookshelf, and I crashed to the floor.

  ill he wake soon?” a feminine voice asked, sounding far away. Was I dreaming?

  “I don’t know. He split his head open, Samantha. Given the amount of blood on her floor, we’re lucky he didn’t crack his skull,” a woman responded with a German accent.

  Hearing about hitting my head, the memory of it smacking on Kayla’s bookshelf came back—as did the pain. Nope. Not dreaming. And then I remembered being tossed like a rag doll. Kayla.

  Opening my eyes, I sat up, nearly smacking Lizzie in the face. “Kayla—where is she?” I groaned at the nauseating pain in my head and fell backward.

  Samantha placed her hands on my chest, keeping me from sitting up again. “Daniel, don’t move. You hit your head.”

  “Kayla—”

  “Would you lay still? I’m not done stitching your head,” Lizzie replied. Her blonde hair was splotched with black blood.

  “Somebody answer me! Where the hell is she?”

  “Daniel.” Seth’s voice caught me off guard. Thank god he was okay. “She’s gone. The warlock has her.”

  Someone may as well have dropped a bowling ball on my chest from ten stories up. I swallowed the lump in my throat and ground my teeth until they hurt.

  “Why was she still there, Seth? I told you to get her out!”

  “She was insistent on goin’ back for something and wouldn’t take my hand unless I promised to take her to her room first. I’m sorry, Daniel.”

  My hands gripped the edges of the wooden table until my knuckles whitened. I had to get up, to find her, to bring her home. As soon as the bell rang, I should’ve taken her from the mansion.

  “Are you done yet?” I yelled at Lizzie.

  “Just one more stitch! Be patient.”

  I felt the tugging and stitching of Lizzie’s handiwork, but there was no pain. They must’ve numbed me.

  “There. You can get up now,” Lizzie said.

  I smacked Samantha’s hands off my chest, then teetered sideways when I stood. Someone was hitting me over the head again and again with a sledgehammer, and I blinked a few times until my eyes focused.

  We were in some sort of classroom inside a church. A very old church with stone walls. Bibles filled a small bookcase near an old, wooden door, and above the door was a crucifix. A poster hung on the left side of the chalkboard, and on closer examination I noticed all the words were in Spanish. We were in Las Lajas—our rendezvous point.

  I stormed down a long, stone hallway. Large, gothic windows provided light from the outside, and from where I stood, we were high above the cascada flowing through the deep canyon where Las Lajas sat. A short flight of stone stairs took me to the main floor were Tabbi stood amongst the other remaining members of my team—Lian, Ivan, Vasin, and Hakan.

  This is all?

  “Daniel!” Tabbi yelled. At her voice the others turned to stare. She ran up and hugged me. “I was so worried.”

  I patted her back and stepped out of her grasp to address the others. “Brian and Irene?” When Lian shook her head, I frowned. “Well, I’m glad you all are safe.”

  “Yeah. Though why you picked this hellhole of a place to meet up, I’ll never know,” Ivan said.

  I ignored him, too scared and angry right now to deal with his shit. One of us would end up killing the other.

  “The warlock has all three Magus?” I asked.

  Seth nodded, and his eyes met the floor. “Sorry, man. There were just too many of them.”

  Balling my hands into fists, I sucked in a deep breath. “You all still willing to fight?” There were not enough people for war, but there were enough to scout. I knew who the warlock was now and could track him. He should’ve made sure he killed me when he had the chance.

  They all nodded.

  “Then wait here. I’m going to go find this bloke, see where he’s hiding out.”

  “Do you know who he is?” Samantha asked.

  I grimaced. My stomach ached thinking about how Kayla must be feeling right now. “His name is Richard Bartlett. He’s Kayla’s father.”

  The room was so quiet; I could hear the river flowing three hundred feet below. Only Tabbi managed to speak. “Then go find out where he took her. We’ll wait here.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes.

  When they opened, I still stood in the church. What the hell? I closed my eyes and evaporated to the other side of the room, making sure the blow to my head wasn’t interfering. Then I tried to evaporate to Kayla, but like last time, I opened them to find myself standing in the same spot.

  “What the hell?” I yelled. “I can’t evaporate. Not to him, not to Kayla. What the hell?”

  I paced around the room and ran my hands through my blond hair. This couldn’t be happening. With the power to go anywhere in the entire world, why couldn’t I nip to the one place I wanted—needed—to be? There was only one conclusion.

  “He must’ve spelled his hiding place,” I said.

  “Or maybe you hit your head too hard and your mind’s still trying to recover. Wherever she is, it’s a lot farther than across the room,” Samantha said.

  “Then you try.”

  Samantha closed her eyes. And went nowhere. “Okay, maybe there’s a spell blocking us.”

  “Bugger!” I punched the wall. Pain ran up my arm as my knuckles split, but I didn’t care. My hand hadn’t broken.

  Everybody stared at me, their eyes wide, and a couple of them stepped back. Only Ivan enjoyed my turmoil. Finally, Tabbi stepped forward. “Daniel, there’s another option. I can get into Kayla’s head, remember? Maybe if we could see what she’s seeing—”

  “We could figure out where she is,” I finished her sentence.

  She walked to me and held out her hand. Taking it eagerly, I closed my eyes, waiting for her to pop us into Kayla’s head.

  At first I felt like I was floating—much different than last time when I popped right into Kayla’s head. Was it because of the miles between us? A slight ache ran through my bones, then morphed into numbness. Finally, I was seeing through Kayla’s eyes, feeling her emotions.

  Kayla’s thoughts entered my mind.

  My father is supposed to be dead.

  Kayla slid her shaking hands out from under her legs and stared at the wall in front of her, remembering how her father had dragged her to a Catcher who grabbed her arm and evaporated here.

  He should’ve tossed me in a dungeon for all I really am, she thought. A prisoner.

  Kayla gripped the rose pendant that hung around her neck.

  Daniel… Did my father kill him? He’d been so limp when he hit the floor.

  Kayla took a deep breath as a small whimper escaped her lips. I never even told him I loved him. She covered her mouth as tears fell from her eyes.

  She jumped when the door to her room unlocked. A tall boy, maybe seventeen, entered the room. His brown hair sat in a spiky mess on top of his head, and his dark eyes pierced through her.

  “Your father wants to see you,” he said with an American accent. His voice was deep.

  Kayla glared at him. “Tell him I’m not interested.”

  “I’m not above carrying you over my shoulder.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  He took a step toward her. Kayla jumped off the bed to stand on the other side. She held her hands out in front of her, trying to remember what Trishna taught her. Feel the energy inside you. Call it. Grab and throw.

  He laughed. “I’d like to see you try.” His dark eyes sparkled as his lips turned up in a mischievous grin.

  Kayla ground her teeth and threw a ball of energy out of her hands. But he blocked her attack and threw the energy into the lamp next to him. The light crashed to the floor.

  “Nice try, but the day you catch me off guard is the
day I turn myself into a pumpkin for Cinderella’s ball.”

  God, he’s arrogant. “Or maybe I’ll turn you into a toad and run over you with my car,” she said.

  Again, he laughed. “You have his wit, that’s for sure. But seriously, Kayla, if I don’t return with you, I very well might be turned into a frog. So, either you come with me willingly, or I make you.”

  Kayla dropped her hands. “Then you’ll have to make me.”

  He shrugged. “Okay.” He crossed the room quicker than Kayla expected. She barely had enough time to leap onto the bed before he was right behind her. She tried running across the mattress to make a break for the open door, but his hands caught her feet, and she crashed to the bed.

  Kayla squealed. “Let me go!” She kicked him in the chest, and a grunt escaped him. But then his hands tightened around her ankles, his fingers digging into her flesh. She cried out in pain.

  “I told you I would make you,” he said. He fell against her and scooped her into his arms, tossing her over his shoulder.

  Kayla beat his back. “Put me down!”

  He carried her out of the room with a laugh. Kayla fought against him, elbowing him in the back of the head, but he was too strong. Flashbacks of Matt’s attack flooded her mind, and quickly her resolve weakened. Her heart raced, and her eyes flooded with tears.

  “Okay, okay. I’ll go with you. Just put me down,” she pleaded, her voice shaking.

  “Well, darn. This was very erotic.” He stopped and set Kayla on the ground.

  She scowled at him as blood rushed into her cheeks, and she gripped the bottom of her shirt with shaky hands.

  He grabbed her arm. “Come on, then. Your father’s waiting.”

  Kayla winced at his grip and tried to keep up. The gray walls and oak doors of the office-like building passed in a blur until they stopped at a door in the middle of the hall. The guy holding Kayla’s arm knocked twice, then entered. Margaret and Alex sat in steel chairs, their hands tied behind their backs. They both stared at Kayla, their eyes full of fear. Kayla held her stomach as it churned.