I tried to focus my brain. Tried to tell myself to look around and see what was going on. Caleb. Where was Caleb? I popped my eyes open as wide as they’d go and looked up to see two faces over me. One I didn’t recognize but looked slightly familiar, a woman, and the other had my insides screaming.
Marcus.
I tried to move my hands and feet but they wouldn’t budge. My arm hurt. My eyes drifted to see wires and tape around my hand, an I.V. What were they doing to me?
I tried to speak.
“What-” My throat felt like sandpaper. “What are you doing?”
“Maggie, finally, It’s been hours,” Marcus said happily.
“Don’t talk to her, Marcus. This isn’t a game,” the person I could only guess was his uncle barked at him. “Get out of here.”
He smiled cruelly at me and left the room. I looked over to see a very heavy looking door slamming shut behind him as he left. The room I was in was small and metal, a box really.
“Now listen to me,” the man said and I jerked my face to look at him instead. “You have medicine in you to keep your heart rate low so Caleb won’t be able to follow you here. You might hear him, he might get through enough to talk to you a little bit but you’ll just be torturing yourself if you think that he will come and rescue you. He won’t. I’m sorry to have to do this to you but we can’t allow the Jacobson’s to have the power over us anymore. They’ve always had a hand over us and now this? I saw an opportunity and I took it.” He shook his head. “No more.”
He started to leave.
“Wait. How long am I going to be here?”
“Until Caleb stops looking for you and forgets about ascending.”
“That’ll never happen.”
He looked at me poignantly and smiled sadly.
“I know.”
The slamming door was like a nail in my coffin. I understood him exactly. They had no intentions of letting me go, ever, and they fully expected Caleb to spend the rest of his life looking for me in agony. Which from what I’d heard, when two imprinted Aces are not with each other, may not be long. I could already feel the ache in my back and legs for him which made me wonder how long I’d been here already. In just a couple days time we’d be in so much pain we could barely think from what I’d been told. And the medicine they were pumping me with apparently didn’t have pain medication in it because I could feel everything.
How had they pulled me away and Caleb not seen or heard them? What had happened to Caleb, had they hurt him? What happened to Beck at the party? My dad would be freaking if I hadn’t made it home by midnight. I couldn’t think anymore. My eyes started to drift closed and I could no longer command them to remain open.
I woke with a startled gasp as something warm and wet on my face. I looked up to see a girl, about my age, wiping my face and hands with a cloth. She dipped her rag and wrung it out moving to my neck and belly under my...wait a minute. Where was my tank top? I was naked under a sheet.
“What are you doing?” I creaked through the pain in my back.
My head pounded behind my eyes, blood rushing in my ears so loud I could barely hear myself speak, the withdrawals. I needed Caleb.
“Washing you,” she said with a ‘duh’ face. “You don’t want to stink, do you?”
I saw she was being extremely careful with the extra large sponge to not touch my skin with hers.
“Who are you?”
“Marla, Marcus’s sister. You’re Maggie, right? Marcus was a little shifty on the details.”
“What are you talking about,” I muttered and tried to sit up, realizing then I was no longer strapped down. But I may as well have been. My head swam and my arms felt like Jell-O as I tried to use them. “Where am I? What are you doing to me?”
“Well, where you are is the million dollar question isn’t it? If you knew then your knight could come and rescue you couldn’t he?”
I looked at her, hearing the disdain in her voice. She looked an awful lot like Marcus; dark, wavy hair that hung past her shoulder blades and down her front shoulders. Her face was pale and heart shaped with dark brown eyes. Very thin and looking at me with...envy?
“Are you in love with Caleb or something?” I blurted.
She laughed a genuine laugh.
“Uh. No. Granted, that boy is hot. I would never date a rival clan. That’s like not only forbidden but disgusting. Why did you think that?”
I tried to shrug but it came off jerky and very ‘seizurish’.
“I don’t know. Your brother kidnapped me and you’re helping him?”
“I’m helping him because I have to and he kidnapped you because of exactly why they told you. The Jacobson’s have always had better abilities than us, always. So I’m told. I guess back in the day, like sixty years or something, they used to be friends, but then there was this girl. Almost sounds romantic doesn’t it? This girl was beautiful and of course everyone prayed they’d be the one to imprint with her. She apparently wasn’t waiting for that though. She secretly dated two guys from different clans without the other knowing it. They were of imprint age already and knew what they were doing but for whatever reason, kept seeing her. So, one of them finds out about the other. Guess who they were? A Jacobson and a Watson. So, they’re furious, right? They somehow all wind up together out on the cliff with the old well behind our complex. The guys fight and as she’s pushing them apart in between them...she imprints, with the Jacobson. Well, you can imagine how pissed the Watson was and was so enraged at what she had done, using him until she found her significant. Word is they even had sex which is just dirty without it being you’re significant.” She visibly shivered like it was gross to think about. “So, he pushed them both over the cliff while they were too wrapped up in each other to notice.”
I waited. Was there some punch line I had missed? She stayed silent and looked at me expectantly.
“That’s a terrible story.”
My headache was only getting worse by the minute.
“I’m just giving you a history lesson.”
“So, because your ancestor pushed Caleb’s ancestor over a cliff, I’m supposed to feel sorry for you and Marcus?”
“No. You’re supposed to see why we hate the Jacobson clan.”
“I still don’t get it. That was so long ago. Three stupid people, that has nothing to do with any of us.”
“Oh, but it does. She imprinted with the Jacobson. Though she had used them both, the Jacobson’s always won when we battled for something. He won the girl then, and the Watson never imprinted. He was the first in our clan to never imprint with anyone and therefore never to ascend.”
“It was probably punishment.”
I couldn’t help but spout the first thing that came to my mouth and I wondered if they’d slipped me something to make me speak the truth into my medicine.
“Probably. I’m not saying I condone what he did. I’m saying it wasn’t fair that the Jacobson won twice. Not only did he imprint with the girl they were both in love with but then the Watson didn’t imprint at all, a double whammy. It was bad enough that the Jacobson’s always have better abilities.”
“What are your parent’s abilities?”
“My mom is an empath. She can feel what other people feel, totally useless in a clan of vicious bitter people and my dad is a weather man. He can tell you what weather is coming our way; also, totally useless.”
“That’s harsh.”
“Their words, not mine. They hate it. The Jacobson’s can move metal and do things in each other’s minds. Our gifts are lame and have been for a long time. They think you are gonna solve that somehow.”
“How?”
“Not sure. First, they are going to see how long we can keep you from Caleb. And if you live through that, I’m not sure, but I guess my uncle has some experiments planned.”
“Experiments?” I squeaked.
“Yeah, like blood work and other stuff. My uncle said you have to have come along for a reason. He wa
nts to see if we can find out what that is. You’re a celerity you know. Every clan from here to London is talking about you and Caleb.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the youngest to imprint and no clans have imprinted in a really long time. I’m sure they explained this to you.”
“They did. I just wanted to see if you’d lie.”
She laughed again.
“We could so be friends if you weren’t the enemy. Sorry, I gotta go. Here are some clothes. They aren’t going to tie you up anymore, but you will be pumped with meds often so don’t try anything. Someone will be down to check on you and feed you. I put a couple magazines on the nightstand and the bathroom is in the corner. But soon, you’ll be in so much pain, I’m sure you won’t care about any of that.”
I looked over to see a solitary toilet, with no walls sitting in the corner. No sink, nothing else; great.
She stood to leave and I panicked but once again my body didn’t respond, just my brain. I decided to plead.
“Please help me. I didn’t mean to imprint with Caleb, we can’t control it. I have nothing to do with your fight. I love him. It hurts so bad, please, please help me. I can’t stay here.”
“Sorry,” she said but didn’t look a bit sorry to me.
I slumped against the bed. The room looked like a cell; an old, musty, nasty cell. There was nothing to do but wait and feel the wretched pains and kinks in my muscles from withdrawals. Would it be like drugs? Would I withdrawal and sweat in pain for a few days then be ok and not need him anymore? I knew that wasn’t true but I had to think that the Watson clan had a purpose. Not just to kill Caleb and I with our own bodies turning against us just to see what happens. But that could be exactly what they were doing.
Caleb. Caleb, can you hear me? Please hear me.
I waited. I waited so long. I kept saying his name, trying to send him my feelings of longing, even letting him feel my pain, anything if I thought it would help nothing.
But then something, faint, hazy and broken. Like a CB radio that’s way out in the boonies.
Maggie? Can you...me?
Caleb! Are you ok?
I’m...you better be ok or I’ll...Oh, G...Maggie. Please be ok. Tell me...you are?
I don’t know where I am. A cell or basement maybe? The Watson’s have me.
I know. I’m...sorry. Baby, p...forgive me. I’ll get you...there, I promise. I’ll find you. What happened? Your heartb...
They’re keeping me drugged so you won’t find me. They want to keep us apart so we won’t ascend and then find out why we imprinted. Caleb...
I choked. I didn’t want to tell him how scared I was. He was scared plenty for us both and it would just make him feel worse.
I know. I know. I...I’m coming for you. Just...
My dad? Beck?
He hesitated.
It’s been a day and a half already. I had to...dad. He freaked. Call...cops. They are looking...find you. But they won’t. They are...things worse. I’m keeping...on your dad. He’s fine. Are you ok?
I’m ok. I hurt, so bad.
Me too. Baby...sorry.
It wasn’t your fault.
It was...trick. They followed...to get to you.
I know.
No, no! You’re fading out. Stay with me.
I felt like I was fading out too. My head swam worse and I felt drained and even sleepier and out of control.
I’m sorry. They did something to me. Can’t stay awake.
I will find you...promise. I love...Magg...you’re scared. Don’t be. I love you.
I love you, too. I’m sorry I didn’t say it before.
Me too.
And then he was gone and I was in so much agony I couldn’t even enjoy the fact that he said he loved me. It seemed for the short time we’d talked, I felt a sliver better but as soon as our connection broke, I felt like cold water had been thrown on me. Too cold, freezing, stinging water and it hurt all over to be separated from him. I believed his words. That he’d keep my father safe and would never stop looking for me. But if he never found me and spent his whole life looking in pain and agony, somehow, that sounded worse than even death.
I woke up again some time later with the worse headache of my life. I felt nauseas as my back was locked in spasms. My legs cramped, curling my toes painfully. I heaved over the side of the bed but they hadn’t given me anything to eat or drink so nothing came up. My stomach cramped violently as I leaned back on the pillows and tried to catch my breath.
I now had an even bigger respect for Gran.
And this was only day two. As my body jerked on it’s own accord, I heard the creak of the door opening. I looked over as much as I could and saw Marcus there. Smirking.
“Dead yet?”
“Get out, Marcus.”
Someone else was already in my room. I looked further over to the corner to see his uncle sitting in a chair, watching me.
Marcus slammed the door, leaving me alone with his uncle.
“The next time you’re alone I’d put those clothes on Marla gave you if I were you.”
I looked down and saw my bare legs tangled up in the sheets. I quickly pulled them under with me and tried to glare at him but I felt terrible and I’m sure I didn’t pull it off. He was handsome, which irked me. His hair and eyes were dark and he couldn’t be more than forty five. If this was Harry Potter, he’d definitely be in Slytherin.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Watching you sleep. Watching you withdraw. Studying you.”
I continued to feel like death was kicking in the door but I kept my eyes on him. I did not feel safe with him in my room, especially with a lack of clothing.
“So, you’re the one who hacked my dreams.”
“Yes. You are very special, Maggie.”
“I wish everyone would stop saying that,” I muttered. “I definitely don’t feel special.”
He laughed and leaned back to cross one leg over his knee.
“Well, we could argue about it all day but, you are. And Caleb too,” he grumbled, “though I hate to admit that. This has happened to you for a reason. I can only imagine the abilities you would have possessed. I bet they’d have been exquisite. But that’s behind us.” He sighed and leaned forward on his knees. “I am not happy to do this to you, by any stretch but, I feel, as the champion of my clan, that I have to stop this. For my clan.”
“Even though I have nothing to do with your stupid feud? Even though Caleb wasn’t even born yet? We met at a stoplight. It wasn’t something we could control. We didn’t choose it, it chose us.”
He stood abruptly startling me.
“Yes! Exactly. That’s why! Why you? Why him? Of all the clans to pick from, why the Jacobson’s again? They are always favored with whatever it is in the universe that controls us and our imprints, our lives. Why them again when the rest of us have plenty of willing and waiting people to claim their mates and abilities.”
I just shook my head and closed my eyes. There’d be no reasoning with him. He was a mad man.
“Just go. I want to get dressed and I don’t really want you to watch me while I sit and cry. In pain that you caused me.”
“I told you, I don’t want to do this to you.”
“But you are! You have no intentions of stopping even though I haven’t done anything to you. You actually have to wonder why God would pick other clans for special treatment when this is how you treat people! Just get out!”
“I know what you’re going through-”
“No you don’t! Have you ever been away from your significant before?”
He paused and had the good graces to look a little guilty.
“No.”
“Then you have no idea what this feels like. Get. Out!”
I started to cry; big fat, hurtful tears. It wasn’t just physical pain, though there was plenty of that. It was anger and frustration and feeling useless and hurting for Caleb, knowing he was feeling every pain I was and mor
e.
I heard him shuffle out and shut the door gently so I tried to get up, wrapping the sheet around myself just in case but my legs cramped and hurt so bad that I collapsed to the floor.
I laid there in a heap and I screamed. I cried. I yelled. I cursed. I did anything and everything that came to mind. I called Caleb’s name over and over, screamed it. I could feel it when I yelled his name in my bones. Like it wasn’t just my mouth but my entire being was calling to him.
It hurt so bad, I didn’t know how it could be worse. No one came in again and I didn’t get dressed; just continued to lay there. Eventually someone slid a tray of something into the door slot and left it there but I didn’t look.
The day dragged on or so I thought. I had no concept of time except that every excruciating minute seemed to pile on top of each other. I tried to call Caleb again and again but couldn’t reach him. I imagined him, laying there on his bed, his dad and mom standing over him as he groaned and rolled in pain, just like I was doing. Maybe he wasn’t lying on his bed. Maybe he was stronger than me. Maybe he was up, pacing with his family and trying to come up with a plan.
It hurt so much to think about him but I had to. I needed to. It could be that last thing I did.
I fell asleep again. I dreamed I was on the beach with Caleb, the same small beach between the rocks he brought me to. My clothes were the same as that day, the wind felt the same, smelled the same. I saw him standing on the sand in front of me a few feet away. I knew instantly it was a dream but I still wanted it so badly that I ran to him. He smiled and held his arms out for me. But when I touched his arm with my hand it burned and jolted me. Like an offense mark does. I leaped back to see him and saw that it was still Caleb’s face but his eyes were dark and brooding. His t-shirt had changed from green to black. Like Marcus’s.
“What are you doing? I’m already your prisoner, why do you have to torture me in my dreams too?”
“Because it’s fun,” CalebMarcus said snidely. “Uncle Sikes says you’re having a real hard time. That it’s real painful to be without this face.” He rubbed a hand down his cheek and then smacked it hard with his palm.