He presses his hard body against my shaking one, causing even more pain to spread across my back. My eyes begin to water but I try to hold back the sob at the surface. “I am so sorry, I forgot to introduce myself before. My name is Thrane, and I am the one who is going to end you, Ganis.”
He presses his cold, dry lips too hard against mine causing my teeth to scrape the inside of my mouth. I shove against his chest with everything I have in me, feeling a hot surge of
energy as if my boiling blood is reaching the surface of my skin. With another hard shove, he flies away from me and slams with a loud crack against another tree twenty feet away from the one I am still leaning against. I look at my hands in shock as the heat I was feeling fades away fast.
Thrane falls in a heap to the ground but recovers faster than I would ever expect of a normal person. He stands to his full height and a sinister hiss comes from somewhere deep inside of him. He crouches and starts stalking slowly toward me.
I try to pull out that hot energy that saved me before, but my hands just feel cold and weak. I cringe and just watch as the evil creature advances on me. I close my eyes and open my mouth, “Gavin, please.” I speak, just above a whisper, knowing he won’t be able to save me this time.
A loud bang sounds just in front of me as if two large boulders collided with one another.
I flinch, and my eyes fly open to a miraculous sight. Gavin is standing with his back to me, facing a murderous-looking Thrane who picks himself up off the ground and brushes off his now dirty slacks.
Thrane charges toward Gavin and a small cry escapes me out of fear for my hero.
Gavin’s arms reach out and grip Thrane’s shoulders as they collide. Gavin’s feet dig into the dirt and he slides back several feet, leaving two deep grooves in the ground along his path.
Still gripping Thrane’s shoulders, he thrusts himself into the air and flips clear over Thrane’s head, causing him to be thrown onto his back by the force. Gavin jumps back up to his feet and turns around but Thrane is already up as well.
He is now turned away from me and I can see Gavin’s burning golden eyes assessing his enemy. He is so strikingly handsome and intimidating, his muscles look as if they are about to rip through his dirt-stained white t-shirt.
Thrane stands facing Gavin for a moment but he doesn’t attack. Instead, he just hisses again and blurs off farther into the woods faster than I ever thought imaginable. I blink, wanting to be sure I saw it right.
“Damn it!” Gavin growls and punches the tree closest to him so hard, I am sure he had to have broken something in his hand. He looks over at me and I feel like I can breathe again.
I lock eyes with him and feel mine begin to sting from the tears that are building up. I start to fall toward the ground, too weak to stand any longer but I’m caught in Gavin’s arms before I hit the forest floor. I know I should wonder how he got to me so fast, but nothing is surprising to me at this point.
I wrap my arms around Gavin’s neck and let the tears fall, not even embarrassed that he is watching me cry all over him a second time.
“Shhh. He’s gone, you’re okay, I’m here.” He holds me for a few minutes as I cry. His hand comes up and gently rubs my back, trying to soothe my wracking sobs but I just jolt at the pressure on my fresh wounds.
He freezes and quickly pulls his hand away from me. On his palm is a small amount of my blood. “Aella, are you hurt?”
I nod but keep my face in his warm neck. “My back was a little scraped up from the tree trunk, I think,” I whisper, not being able to find my full voice, yet.
Gavin stands up with me still in his arms and lets me slide gently back to my feet. He pulls away from me, tentative, probably making sure I’m not going to collapse again. I reassure him with a nod, and he walks around to my back. He fists my destroyed shirt in his hands, lifting it up carefully, so as not to cause me any more pain.
A slow, very deep growl rises from somewhere inside of him as he scans my bare back. I feel one of his warm fingers, not at all like Thrane’s ice-cold ones, press lightly to a couple of sore spots on my skin, making me flinch with pain and the electricity from the contact. He lets my shirt fall and walks back so that we are facing one another again.
His eyes are sad and burning again like flames as they watch me. Even through his brown contacts, I can see the golden flames flickering bright. “I’m so sorry, Aella. I thought I would give you some space, so I didn’t follow you right away. I was only about a hundred yards away when I heard you call for me, and the way your voice sounded saying my name like that… it
broke my heart.” He closes his eyes as if he is hurting from the memory. “You keep getting hurt when I should be…”
I take a step toward him and wrap my arms around his neck in a tight hug, cutting him off from whatever he was going to say. “You saved me, Gavin. Again. You are always saving me.” I stand up on my toes so I can reach all the way around him. “Thank you,” I whisper into his neck.
His hands rest on my hips, thankfully staying clear of the wounds on my back. He rubs his thumbs along my sides, which would normally tickle like crazy, but somehow just comforted me in this moment.
We stand like that for a while before Gavin clears his throat and steps back. He gives me a small smile. “Can you come back home with me now? My grandmother really wants to meet you.” He holds his hand out for me to take. “She can also help you with your back.”
I place my hand in his. “Okay, but I have a lot of questions, Gavin.” I try not to be shy about what I want because I need to know what is going on. “Will you answer them for me without everyone else and without all of the hesitation?”
“Yes, I think I can do that.” He nods and we begin walking side by side. “I’m really sorry, Aella, if it felt like we were ambushing you. I don’t want to force you to confide in me, or my family, because I understand that you have things you’d probably like to remain secret.”
I stare down at the dead leaves along the ground, avoiding his questioning eyes. “I do.”
“But we have secrets too. This community of people that I was telling you about, we all have a lot in common. We trust and love each other. You lost your family when you were very young, so you weren’t raised to embrace your heritage or abilities the way we were.”
I look back up at him. “What abilities, Gavin?” I want to hear it from him straight so that I know if we really are the same.
He stops walking and turns toward me, still holding my hand and sending me his tingling energy. “What we told you about our ancestors is true. They could see into the future, but not
just that. They could do other things too. They were faster, stronger and could hear things better and farther away than your average human being can.”
He looks me in the eyes. “All of those traits were passed down to their children for generations. Each person in my family has those same abilities.”
I stand up tall, trying to act as if this information isn’t scaring the crap out of me. “Is that how you heard me whisper your name from over a hundred yards away?”
“It is.”
“And how you were able to get to me in seconds from that distance?”
“Yes.”
“And why you were able to fight that guy without breaking a sweat?”
“Yes.” He nods his head and puffs up his chest slightly, making me want to roll my eyes at his male ego.
“Why are your eyes gold?” I ask.
“It was another thing given to our ancestors by the Gods, to distinguish which of us had the gift of prophecy. When we reach maturity, our eyes change to gold. A way to find us in a crowd and keep tabs on us, I guess.”
I ponder what he is telling me. “Exactly what age is considered maturity?”
He shrugs. “Mine started to change after I turned eighteen. The more I practiced my abilities, the more the natural brown in my eyes faded and the gold took over.”
My heart races at the thought of my eyes becomi
ng like his. How will I hide anything after that?
I continue with my questioning. “Did you know Thrane would be at the Freshman party and that he would send Max after Kassy at the club? Did you know he would be out here?”
“I knew about each time he would go after Kassy, but I never saw you in the visions.
Your presence must’ve obscured things which I’m guessing was why I was late the last time. As for today, that was just luck that I made it to you in time.” he states with an apologetic shrug.
My breathing is short and shaky because I know he is telling me the truth and it is kind of freaking me out. “Why couldn’t you see me with Kass?” I ask, a little worried about what the answer could be.
He looks as if he doesn’t want to answer my question. “Seers can’t see each other in their visions.” He speaks slowly. “It’s why I’m sure you never saw me help you in your visions either.”
I take a step back from him, releasing his hand. “My visions? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I avoid eye contact because I am a horrible liar.
I continue walking through the trees, toward his parent’s home. He follows after me.
“Aella, you don’t have to lie to me. In case you didn’t know, you are really bad at it and I already know who you are. I’ve known from the moment I met you.”
I spin around fast, nearly causing him to slam right into me. “I’m not like you guys, Gavin! I don’t have golden eyes like you. I don’t run fast, and I throw like a freaking girl!”
Except for when I pushed Thrane into that tree. I keep that tidbit to myself.
“My hearing is less than exceptional, and I don’t have a herd of “super” family members by my side.” I am starting to sound like a complainer.
Gavin smiles at me, somehow actually enjoying this messed up situation, and continues walking down the hill with me.
“Why in the world are you smiling right now?!” I throw my hands up in the air, completely flustered.
“I just find what you said interesting.”
I’m sure he can see the blatant annoyance across my confused face, so he elaborates. “In your little rant back there about all of the things you can’t do, you never said that you can’t see the future, so basically you admitted that you can.” His cocky smile broadens. “I think you are beginning to trust me.”
“Gavin, not saying something isn’t true does not mean I’m admitting that it is,” I throw back at him, nearly tongue-tied.
“But it is,” he says, confident.
I growl in a very girly way. “Fine, okay! I…I have visions sometimes.” I say just above a whisper, stopped in the middle of the trail. “I can see things before they happen, usually bad things, and I can change the outcome.”
I tuck my hair behind my ear. “My parents told me, before they died, that I could never tell my secret. They said it was dangerous, that nobody would understand. I always thought I was just alone, the only one like me.”
Gavin drops his teasing smile, and his eyes soften. “You are absolutely not alone, Aella.
We are good people, and we were created to help others, to protect humanity.” He nudges my arm with his elbow. “We’re also basically one big family so if you stick around, you’ll never have to feel alone in this world again.”
I lower my head and smile at the idea of having a family of people like me. “So, there is an actual purpose for this thing I can do?”
“Absolutely! Seers can see bad things happen to people in order to prevent them. And we do, a lot of the time.”
“Seers? You’ve said that before. Is that what you’re called?”
“It’s what we are.” he states, emphasizing the “we”.
I roll my eyes at him and shrug my shoulders. “How do you know I’m not just some freak who can see things, huh? I don’t have any of the other traits or abilities like you and your family.”
“Ethan is a Seer and can’t do any of those things either. I’m sure you also noticed that his eyes are blue, not gold like the rest of us.” He points to his own eyes. “A seer starts seeing the future when it is necessary to do so in order to help someone close to them. I had my first vision when I was eleven years old. The other stuff, though, doesn’t come until after your eighteenth birthday.”
“But I turned eighteen almost six months ago.”
“It happens slowly, especially when you’re not doing anything to speed it up. When a person in my family turns eighteen, we start physical and mental training to draw out our abilities. And like I said before, that’s when our eyes start to change.” He watches my reaction to his words with worry. Most likely expecting me to freak out, which doesn’t feel too far off.
I focus on the sound of my feet hitting the ground with each step I take. “So, you think I will begin to develop these abilities then,” I say the word sarcastically like it isn’t something real.
“I do.” He states. “It will probably take you a while to see any abilities emerge. It took me almost a year, with constant practice I might add, to…fully evolve, I guess.” He laughs at himself. “Man, I sound crazy, don’t I?”
“Completely insane.” I laugh along with him. I think about whether or not I want to say what has been on my mind since we started this conversation. I speak slowly. “So, when it happens, does your skin feel really hot like your veins are on fire? When you use your…special talents, I mean?” I ask, clear hesitation present in my voice, still avoiding his gaze.
At my words, Gavin stops walking, which causes me to stop. He looks into my eyes with extreme intent and possibly excitement as well. “Actually, that is exactly what it feels like at first. It gets less uncomfortable the more you use it and practice. Did you use an ability, Aella?”
I look down at my hands, which are cold as if the heat had never been there. “I think so.
That man, thing, Thrane. He was making me so mad with the horrid way he was talking about Kassy. I have never, ever felt that kind of anger before. I could feel all that hot energy rising to the surface and so I just used it to push him away from me, but he literally flew backward. It was as if I had thrown him, and he hit a tree… twenty feet away.”
“Wow.” is all he says.
I nod and give him a side glance, feeling ashamed of what I did.
Gavin steps in front of me, into my personal space, and untucks the hair from behind my ear, something he does that I have grown to love. “You are so strong. After what you’ve been through in the last two days, any other girl would be a mess, but you still stood up to him.” He looks at me like I am a beautiful painting. “You amaze me, Aella Lundon.” His face is so close to mine, now.
I swallow hard. “Why don’t you ever call me El, like everyone else?”
His lips turn up into a smile. “Well, I don’t know if you’re aware, but you have a special name. Aella actually means “whirlwind”. It’s the name given to a beautiful amazon warrior. It suits you, perfectly. You blew right into my life out of nowhere and are tearing down my walls so easily, it feels almost dangerous and powerful.” His slow hands slide down my sleeved arms until he grasps my hands in his. “The name was meant for you.”
I can’t help but smile at his sweet words. “Well, Gavin Cole. What does your name mean, then?”
His smile broadens at my use of his full name. “My name means ‘White hawk’. Pretty cool, huh?” He wiggles his eyebrows at me, playfully.
I laugh softly at him and squeeze his hands. “Very cool, Mr. Hawk.”
“You guys are so adorable,” a loud female voice breaks into our happy moment.
Gavin steps back from me, only releasing one of my hands, and groans a little.
“Seriously, Lex? Don’t you have anything better to do than follow us around?”
Alexa is standing a few yards away at the edge of the trees with her large home towering behind her. I wasn’t even aware that we had made it back to the house yet, but I had been decently distracted. She glares up at Gavin and sticks her tongue o
ut like a little girl. “I wasn’t following you, cranky-pants. Gram sent me to find you, dinner is almost ready.”
My eyes widen in surprise. I reach into my back pocket, but my phone isn’t there.
Alexa comes closer to us and hands me my cell phone. “Here, I found this on the couch in the front room. It must’ve fallen out of your pocket before you took off.”
“Thank you, Alexa. I didn’t even know it was already dinner time. I need to text my friend real fast.” I separate from the now bickering twins and head toward the house. I send Kassy a quick text telling her sorry for getting sidetracked, but things are good here. Not a complete lie.
I immediately get a winking smiley face back. I smile. And, even though she can’t see it, I roll my eyes at my friend.
Chapter 10
Gavin, Alexa and I enter the dining room together where the entire Cole family is already finding their seats and passing dishes around. Everyone in the room just smiles at me and then continues going about their family dinner, as if everything is breezy and normal. I’m grateful that they aren’t bringing any attention to my little freak out/runaway from earlier . I think I like this family.
Uncle Jack brings over a homemade bread roll and places it into my hand. “Wait until you try Grandma Penelope’s cooking, kid! Regular food will never measure up after today.” He grins and winks at me before he slaps a hand on my back, which normally I would 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.
Captivated: Part 1 of the Intended Series Page 8
