“Uhhh,” I moaned and tried to roll over, but the cement block chained to my head kept me in place. I took a deep breath, shuddering as pain flared through my already incapacitated body.
“Easy,” a voice said softly. “Don’t move. You’ve taken a pretty hard blow.” I felt hands on me, probing lightly through my hair.
I moaned again, my eyelids fluttering as I tried to fight the hands. It was a losing battle. My eyelids were too heavy and the hands stayed where they were.
“Relax, Max. He’s only trying to help,” a female voice told me from somewhere close by.
“Van?” I asked blindly, thrilled I wasn’t alone.
“Yes,” she answered, her voice strained. “Now stop moving and let him help you.”
I laid still and let the hands move through my hair. I didn’t know why I couldn’t open my eyes, but if the hands could do anything about it, I’d let them.
A faint murmuring joined the gentle probing. It didn’t sound English, but in this state, I was lucky I didn’t think I was speaking Dutch. The soft words went on a moment longer and then died, my pain going with it. I felt the fingers leave my scalp and I opened my eyes slowly, afraid the pain might come back any moment. It didn’t and I let my eyes focus on the familiar form leaning over me.
“Hey,” Jensen said, smiling down at me. “Welcome back.”
“Hi,” I said, feeling terribly confused. What was I doing here? I sat up on the couch I had been laying on. Jensen moved back, sitting on the coffee table next to me. I was in a living room, but not one I was familiar with.
“You’re in Jensen’s apartment,” Van said from behind me. “He brought you here after he found you.”
I turned around and looked at my roommate. She looked like she had been crying. Danny was standing with her and offered me a smile.
Why did they all seem so concerned? You’d think someone had died or something. “What happened?” I asked.
“You were attacked,” Van told me. “You were left in the elevator, bleeding.”
So that would explain the pain in my head. I ran a hand through my hair near the scalp. It came away with sticky red, but I couldn’t find the cut. What was it that they said about wounds that didn’t hurt?
“You’re okay now,” Jensen said. “I took care of it.”
I barely even registered his words, I was too busy remembering the nightmare that occurred in the elevator. The guy in the suit wanting to have his way with me. I looked around at the others. “Did you stop him?” I asked in a rush. “What happened to the man in the suit?”
They exchanged looks, none of them sure what they wanted to tell me. But I had to know. I needed to know if that pervert had touched me.
“We don’t know what happened,” Danny told me finally. “When Jensen found you, you were alone.”
I turned around and looked at Jensen, who only shrugged. “I stepped out into the hallway and heard a scream. You were lying in the elevator when I got there. I brought you here,” he told me, glancing away.
I was alone? What happened to Jersey…and the red-eyed shadow? “There was a guy in there with me. He attacked me. I don’t know what I would have done, but this black shadow thing came in and stopped him.”
The others stayed quiet around me, no doubt worrying that my head injury had caused permanent damage. I knew it sounded crazy, but that thing had been real. It had saved me.
I looked at them, tears brimming in my eyes. “I know it sounds impossible, but I swear, that’s what happened.” I watched them exchange more glances, silently communicating with each other. They were probably wondering how fast the loony bin could get out here. “You don’t believe me,” I said softly.
“No,” Van said quickly. “That’s not it at all. We believe you.”
I glanced over at her. Was this some kind of trick to pacify me? Were they just humoring me to get me to go quietly?
“It must have been something you manifested subconsciously,” Jensen told me.
I looked at him in shock. Was he making fun of me? It was real. “I saw it. It pulled that psycho off me.”
He nodded, a serious look on his face. “I believe you. You needed help and your powers found a way.”
Maybe I wasn’t the one the loony bin should come for. “My powers? Are you kidding me?”
“Stop and think about it, Maxie,” Danny spoke from behind me. “Things happen to you all the time that you can’t explain, don’t they?”
I sat there in silence, trying to push down the dread rising up in me. So what? Weird things liked to happen to me? Big deal. Just because I got hunches about things didn’t mean anything. Neither did flinging drinks or floating off the ground. Did it?
I looked up at Jensen, who was watching me carefully. “So…what? You think I’m some sort of magician?”
He smiled slightly. “You’re a witch, Maxie Duncan. It’s who you are.”
I couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. This had to be a dream. I was still knocked unconscious on the floor of the elevator and this was all in my head. It had to be. Stuff like this didn’t happen in the real world.
“Why would you even think that?” I asked Jensen, trying to understand where this was coming from.
He shrugged. “Because it’s true,” he said mater-of-factly. “I know you’re a witch, Maxie, because I’m one, too.”
And just like that, my world changed forever.
Twenty Two
Bell, Book, and Sandals Page 27
