I start in on a spasm of wild panting and pointing.
“What?” Drake leans into the front seat.
A man jumps out of the shadows and snatches Brielle, stuffing her into the backseat of the car.
Without warning the woman jumps into the driver’s seat of Brielle’s car, and a man appears next to Drake.
I don’t think the back door ever opened.
I don’t think either of them are human.
51
Taken
We drive for miles through the backwoods of Paragon. Drake is bound and gagged, and both our cells have been confiscated. The guy in the backseat who happens to be wearing a black ski mask has managed to secure my hands behind my back with plastic ties and placed a blinder over my eyes.
After a long, severely bumpy ride, the car crawls to a stop, and the driver’s door opens. The night air is heavily scented and reminds me of an Italian seasoning my mother uses that I absolutely hate.
The bandana gets ripped off my head and part of my hair with it.
“Ouch.” I see the woman’s car from the side of the road just up ahead, so that must mean Brielle’s here too. I look around for signs of either Bree or Drake, but it’s eerily quiet. They’ve both mysteriously disappeared.
“Come on.” The masked man plucks me from the car. He pulls at me to follow, but I’m stuck. My hands are catching on the seatbelt. When he strapped the makeshift handcuffs on me, he didn’t realize my belt was still on.
“Get her hands out.” The woman hisses.
Her face is an odd shade of grey and her hands are skin over bone with long knobby fingers that look twice the size they need to be.
“I can’t, it’s stuck and these things are a bitch to get off. I need a knife.”
“Then get a knife!” She shrills into the night air eliciting a series of echoes.
He reaches into the ground and opens a small door. I watch in amazement as the hole in the earth lights up, and he descends down a stairwell.
It’s some kind of underground passage. Who’s ever going to find me down there?
The lone baritone chirp from a high up branch adjacent to where I’m standing captures my attention.
It’s the raven! I remember how Logan put his finger to his mouth and pointed toward the east, and the bird took off and sent Gage over—only my hands are bound. I doubt I’ll be able to do the same thing. I swear it’s looking at me—watching.
Go and get Gage. I think right at the bird. It’s Gage’s bird, I surmise. It’s always a precursor to when I see him. If Logan had a cool bird like that, I’m sure he would have told me. Actually I take that back. Apparently he’s not above saving tricks for later.
Go and get Gage! I shout as hard as I can in my mind. Still nothing.
I can almost hear Logan telling me gifts can be learned. Right now I want to learn to talk to birds. I hear Logan whisper the word believe into my subconscious. OK. I shut my eyes tight. I believe you will get Gage for me now. I look up, still nothing.
It’s funny, but I do believe this. I do believe the bird is going to get Gage, and I’m going to get out of this mess, and everything’s going to be just fine.
Just then the bird takes off and a swell of relief fills my chest.
I let go of a huge breath I didn’t even realize I was holding and give a hint of a smile.
A giant man in a ski mask comes right at me.
“No.” I shake my head.
He holds up a machete and grunts as he slices the seat belt right off my shoulder from the back.
All of the relief I felt a moment ago has drained. I let out a scream as he picks me up and carries me below the surface of the earth.
***
Long, winding corridors—spacious corridors at that. It’s well lit, painted stark white with matching glossy floors. It reminds me a little of West Paragon High, and I have a gut feeling Logan and I aren’t going to have any classes together down here either.
“Can you let my friends go?” I don’t dare call Drake my brother. They’d drag him off to the chop shop if I even implied it.
“Shut up. I hate the sound of your voice,” the woman snaps. Her flame-red shaggy hair billows out as her voice continues to echo.
“What’s wrong with my voice?” Actually I didn’t mean to say that out loud, I was more—
“Silence,” her caustic screech ricochets off the walls.
I hate your voice I want to tell her.
“You’re going to love it here.” She motions to a stark white room with a large stainless tray that strikingly resembles the one Logan showed me at the morgue.
Shit! I wiggle like mad to free myself from the strong mans grip.
The woman opens a tiny door in the back and I fall in like a sack of potatoes. I look back to see her waving before shutting the door. A small glass window shows them moving around, sliding a tray on casters with an assortment of sharp tools toward the metal bed. The guy with the mask pours a dark red liquid inside it and starts scrubbing it down.
“They’re sanitizing it,” a male voice whispers from behind.
“Gage!” I cling to him so tight I think I’m going to push through.
“Logan’s on his way.”
“Can’t you just zap me out of here? I’ll believe it and everything,” I sputter the words in a desperate panic.
“It doesn’t work like that.” He reaches over to the plastic ties binding my hands and I feel a release of pressure. He holds up a set of tiny pliers before slipping them back into his pocket.
“So you can never be contained? No one can ever trap a Levatio?” That’s the first gift I’m going to learn.
“Not true. All they have to do is touch me and I can be bound.”
The door behind me rattles. I can see her red fiery hair rising in the window. My arms fall loose to my sides as Gage blinks out of the room.
“We’re ready,” she sings.
52
Tinder
“Let go of me!” I shriek as the masked man drags me over to the table. “No!” I yell. He places his hand over my mouth and I bite down hard.
“Hey!” He barks plucking his finger from my teeth.
While he inspects his wounds I take the opportunity to lift my knee aggressively into his crotch. He lets out a slow moan, moving to the side like an injured puppy. I don’t see scary lady with the freaky bad hair, so I bolt out of the room and start running down the hallway.
What if I was supposed to go left, and I went right? I come upon a series of shut doors, and I’m too afraid to open them. I can’t help Brielle or Drake. I’m a lousy angel. And who asked me if I wanted this, anyway? Soon as I get out of here I’m going to get a blood transfusion. I want out—out of this crazy hamster maze, away from bat-shit crazy people who want to kill me. I never asked to be a Celestra. I never wanted this. If I didn’t come to Paragon and meet Logan I’d still be living my clueless life back in L.A. where I’d be shopping and hitting the beach and probably getting killed trying to navigate a twisted L.A. freeway…like my father.
I stop running. I’m not sure, but I think I made a revolution around the place— only the door to the slaughter house is now closed. It’s no use. They’re probably watching me on their security cameras, or using their sixth sense, while I wear myself out.
Gage where are you? I shout into my mind with all my might.
God, help me.
A slight buzz erupts just beneath my feet.
Huh?
It happens again. It’s not an earthquake. I’m familiar with those. This is right underneath my shoes. I take a step forward and it happens again, but stronger. I start walking and it picks up, but when I go to make a left down the hall it stops.
Should I follow the buzzing? Are buzzing feet good or bad? Good vibrations. Is that what this is?
Gage? I continue to follow the buzz. If I’m going to get sliced and diced, I may as well get a free foot massage out of it.
The vibrations increase. They file thr
ough my leg and up my torso, rattling my bones. It’s probably some slow form of electrocution, and I’m too hopped up on adrenalin to notice. The vibrations expand into deep sweltering waves. They ride up my body until I start to feel a familiar rhythm in my brain, something…I can’t put my finger on it. I’ve done this before.
I clasp the side of the hall, lean into it and feel the cool of the wall against my cheek. Feels like I’m falling asleep on my feet, like I’m tumbling through the air in a freefall.
***
The radio goes to static, and Brielle leans in and switches it off.
A car stalled on the side of the road garners our attention. The hazards are blinking and there’s a woman scissoring her hands wildly into the air.
“I’m back,” I pant in disbelief.
“Looks like she needs help.” Brielle starts to pull in behind her.
“No! You have to drive. Trust me on this,” I scream, navigating the car back out onto the street. “She could have a gun or be an ax murderer. It’s eleven thirty at night. We don’t need to be helping anybody.” I scramble for my phone to call Logan.
“Relax. She probably just needs to borrow my cell or something. It’s not L.A., sheesh.” Brielle tries to pull over again.
“You can’t do this!” I shout. “She’s going to kidnap you. I saw the whole thing. You were right Drake, something very bad was about to happen.” My chest heaves in and out in a dramatic fashion. I’m sure I’m making no sense to them, but I just got released from the psych ward, and I haven’t spent my insanity allowance yet.
“OK, relax. I know you can’t wait to see Logan. I’ll get you there. Besides, look.” She points into the rearview mirror. “There’s another car already helping. See? It’s not L.A.” She picks up speed and continues down the road.
Not L.A. that’s for damn sure.
***
Logan, smart boy he is, greets me with a luxuriously long mouthwatering kiss. My toes dig into the cool sand below as the heavy smoke-filled scent of the bonfire swirls around us.
He pulls back and relaxes his hands around my neck. His eyes glitter as they focus in on mine with great ferocity.
“You are not going to believe what just happened.” Truthfully I don’t even want to talk about it. The words sort of flew out of my mouth without permission.
“Skyla, I know.” His fingers sink into my shoulders. “What you’re experiencing is called a Treble. It means this reality is temporary, and things will be changed back to the way they were before you left.”
“No!” My body begins in on a series of involuntary quivers. “Drake and Brielle are there, and I don’t know where they are.” A rise of panic starts ripping through me as my teeth start to chatter.
“Tell me something about where you are so I can find it.”
“I’m underground. It’s…we drove along a bumpy road, and there was a forest.” I close my eyes. I’ve just described all of Paragon. “Don’t you have some underground detection kit or something? It’s a facility. It has a steel table like the one from the morgue. Do something!” I’m shaking uncontrollably. “Call the police.” My arms vacillate before me, transparent as velum. “Don’t let me go Logan. I don’t want to die.”
Logan’s eyes ignite with frustration.
Then he does a wonderful thing. He kisses me—a hungry kiss that quells my shivering body. He pushes his tongue into the back of my throat deeper and deeper, increasing his grasp on me until I think he’s going to thrust right through me and my pleasure is mixed with pain. Before I can push him away, I disappear.
53
Back
It takes a few hard blinks for the blinding white walls to come into focus. I let out a moan of defeat when I realize where I am.
“Come on.” Someone grabs my hand from behind and tugs.
“Logan!” I throw myself on him despite the fact he’s already moving, and we start dashing down the hall. “We can’t just leave. Drake and Brielle are here, too.”
“I’m sensing.” He pats his hands up and down a series of doors.
“Over here,” Gage hisses from around the corner.
“Gage,” I yell, as Logan and I move toward him.
A white metal door pulsates from the inside.
“Bree? Drake?” I shout through the crack. “We’ll get you out.”
“Back up.” Logan holds his hand out. His fingers twist the knob with such sheer force he creates an impression of his hand in the metal. The door slides open then bounces wide as Brielle and Drake burst through.
“I know the way.” Drake leads us down the twisted corridor and points to a shaft in the ceiling. “That’s it.” He pants, staring at the square ten feet above us.
Gage starts wobbling on his feet. He starts in on a slow gravity-defeating rise to the top of the ceiling.
“What the?” Drake’s voice is less than a whisper. His face loses all color and he drops to his feet in a disheveled lump on the floor.
Logan lifts him up and hands him to Gage, then Bree.
“Thank you,” a voice echoes around us.
“It’s her.” I can feel her nearby.
“Get them out of here.” Logan directs Gage.
A swarm of bodies dressed in black crowd in on Logan and me. One of the men pinches the back of Logan’s neck and he falls, limp as a rag doll.
“Logan!” I’m tossed over the shoulders of an exceptionally tall man and dragged right back to the chop shop.
***
I’m bound and strapped with metal chains thick as my thumb, lying on the glorified stainless bathtub of death.
“This really sucks,” I say rather calm as the redheaded woman works in a frenzy, separating long glass tubes into rows and rows. “So what’s your name?” I ask trembling.
“Whatever you’d like to call me.” Her voice echoes without reason. She doesn’t bother turning around from her busy work.
“I’ll call you, Hateful. You can’t have any good in you to do something like this.”
“I prefer Ezrina. And what is it you think I’m doing?” She sorts through a box before plucking out more enormous vials.
“Getting ready to take my blood.”
“One point for you,” she says it dry as though she were wasting her time speaking.
“I can’t stand the sight of blood.” My chest heaves in huge waves of panic.
“Then I’ll gouge out your eyes first.” She clicks a few vials together clearing out her workspace.
“No. No thanks.” I struggle to pull my hands free from the chains.
“Relax, will you?” She sits on a stool and glides over like I’m about to have a physical. “You Celestras are always so edgy.”
I stare wide-eyed behind her at Gage, holding a metal like spear in his hand.
The sharp end of the blade ejects itself out of her chest. She looks down at it in disbelief as a pool of crimson blooms across her white shirt like a flower.
She falls over and begins to twitch and writhe. A series of gagging noises sputter from her as I watch in horror from above. She points at me, her eyes narrow in with intense hatred, then blood trickles out of her nose and she stops moving.
My feet loosen. Gage is twisting metal, plucking my legs free. He makes his way over to my arms and starts doing the same.
“You killed her!” I never thought I’d be so elated over witnessing something so gruesome. “You were fantastic.”
“Yeah well, she doesn’t stay dead, so let’s hurry.”
“What do you mean she doesn’t stay dead?” I ask, rubbing at my wrist.
“We have two hours.” He helps me up. “I’ll go get Logan.” He disappears.
A short stubby man dressed in black, slides sideways through the door. He races over and I back into a tray of medieval looking tools of the trade.
I grab the first thing available—a long twisted piece of metal with a spear like tip. My thumb glides over a bump near the bottom, and the thing starts spinning.
“OK, ha
nd it over and no one gets hurt.” He laughs without meaning to.
With everything in me, I thrust it hard into the soft fleshy area just below his stomach. He tumbles backward thrashing and screaming. I grab the metal tray and run behind him, knocking him over the head with it.
“Nice work,” Logan marvels, as he and Gage come upon me.
We three stand over his body as the blood spills out in a small pool around his midsection.
“How long does he stay dead?” I ask.
“Forever,” Gage comments.
I look from Gage to Logan.
“I thought you said it was a two hour thing?”
“Not this one.” Gage pats his jeans. “Let’s go.”
We race down the hall at top speed. Logan helps me out through the overhead panel and back onto the forest floor.
We follow Gage through the thicket in the woods and find Drake and Brielle huddled down below the windows in the backseat of her Jeep.
“I let them in on your little secret.” Gage climbs into the backseat with them.
Logan helps me get in on the passenger’s side then hops around and starts the car.
It’s going to be a long ride home.
54
Safe
Logan helps me up to the butterfly room. Without him I probably would have never been able to crest that second roofline.
I take off my jacket and toss it down the open panel onto my closet floor.
“So how does it feel being an angel?” He asks sitting across from me clasping my hands.
“Exhausting. It won’t always be like this will it?”
“It might be if you don’t put on that pendant.”
Color rises to my cheeks, as I stare down at our interlocked hands.
I’m sorry. I don’t have it anymore. I accidentally gave it back to Chloe.