“We know you’re loaded, everyone does. He figures your family would give a few million for her.”
I shivered thinking about it and Caleb’s pulled me into his side.
“So you only came to warn us?” I asked.
“Yes, warn you that if I can find you, so can Sikes, eventually. I suggest you leave soon and go somewhere out of the country.”
Like the Reunification?
I don’t think that’s a good idea anymore, Maggie. The Watson’s would be there so would every other clan, all clans are invited. If they put a reward out for you it wouldn’t be safe to go. Clans have sanction there. We wouldn’t be able to harm them.
“Wow. Look at you two, going at it like old pros,” she muttered, breaking our talk.
“What?” I asked, baffled.
“The mind chatter, I can see it in your faces.” She smiled sadly. “My parents used to be like that. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a head’s up and now I’ve got to get back before someone notices I’m gone.”
I guessed that was our cue to get out.
“Ok. Thanks…I guess,” I muttered.
“Don’t thank me. I’m not your friend, I’m not on your side and I won’t help you again. It’s too dangerous for me. Now we’re even.”
“Fine,” I said.
“Be careful. Sikes is old and slow, but persistent and patient. Don’t let your guard down.”
I climbed out, making sure to cover my neck as I did so and accepted Caleb’s hand to help me.
“Oh,” she called, leaning out her window. “And I’d still not sleep by myself if I were you, not like you’d have a problem with that,” she said, pursing her lips and looking at Caleb in a way that had me barking mad. She licked her lips and I swear I even heard her purr. Purr!
“Hey! I’m right here,” I said hotly.
“Oh, sorry,” she said and she didn’t sound a bit sorry. “Anyway, Marcus isn’t going to leave you alone so I’d still make sure you always slept with hunky here.”
“Fine and bye.”
“Oh,” she laughed. “One little look at your boy toy and I’m dismissed? I told you before, it’s dirty to mess with rival clans. But it’s fine to look,” she explained, her eyes shifting back to him.
“We’re done here. Thanks for the help. Come on, Caleb.”
“Gladly,” he said and I heard him chuckle low in my mind.
You are freaking hot when you’re jealous.
I rolled my eyes and smiled up at him.
You’re crazy.
“Oh, and one more thing, Maggie,” she yelled in a sing song voice. “Though these guys have to bring you back alive,” I turned around to look at her once more, “that doesn’t mean they have to be nice about it. My advice is don’t get caught.”
“Got it,” I answered.
Then the limo drove off with a small squeal of tires that totally reflected my mood. What the heck was going on? The universe was hell bent on not making anything about this easy.
“It’s ok,” Caleb wrapped my arms around his neck and his hands went to my hips. “We know and can prepare now, its fine. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you,” he assured me for the hundredth time but for some reason I still needed it and I sighed long and loud.
“What about you and Jen, Kyle, Bish and Dad? What about everyone else?”
“We’re fine,” he insisted and pressed his forehead to mine. “My family can take care of themselves. If someone so much as tries to touch you I’ll…” He growled and shook his head. “Man, this isn’t getting easier. My body is screaming right now.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t you dare.” He pushed my hair back and looked in my eyes, the glow of yellow streetlamps lighting the blue in his. “I don’t know what her real motive for coming here was but we’ll take the information. We’ll be extra careful from now on. No one will get to you.” I nodded and he looked at me sternly. “I mean it. You feel safe with me don’t you?”
“Of course,” I answered.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he whispered and kissed my forehead.
“I know.” I looked around at the alley and wondered how long we’d been gone. “We better get back.”
“Yeah, we better. You ok? Marla picked a heck of a time to unload something like that, in a dark alley, in a limo, at the back of a club,” he said wryly.
“I’m fine. We just need to go back in there and act normal. Act like we weren’t just dragged into an alley and told that I was gonna be put up for a ransom reward, while sitting in a limo,” I said with a playful tone, trying to lighten the mood even thought I wasn’t really feeling it.
My veins started to burn a little as I saw a few ribbons dance in my peripheral as my emotions got worked up. No matter how hard I tried, I was losing it. Caleb put his hand on the back of my neck and I felt his calm invade me.
“Hold it together, baby, a little longer,” he said soothingly and I saw the ribbons begin to fizzle and crack away.
Wait, she said they dispose of them, the humans. He kills them, kills the humans once he tosses them aside for not producing his results. All that because of me. Caleb’s touch no longer cured my rage and it burst forth in an audible buzz and heat, the light bulb to the backdoor of the club in the alley burst and shattered to the pavement. I barely heard it.“Maggie, it’s ok,” he soothed though he was looking around in frightened awe. “We’ll get him, we’ll fix this.”
It didn’t matter, nothing worked. I felt Caleb’s hands all over me, my arms, my neck, my face, nothing.
People died. I caused someone’s death.
“No, you didn’t!” He jerked my face to look at him, framing my face with his big warm take charge hands. “Maggie, listen to me, it’s ok, calm down and let me help you.”
My skin was buzzing with energy. We didn’t need the light bulb anyway because all the blue energy glowed around us, lighting the alley and street in an eerie way. Caleb pushed into my mind, breaking through my barrier that I saw through him was pure devotion and adoration for him. I felt him tug my chin up and his lips took mine with delicious force that was totally different from any way he’d ever kissed me before. He was almost rough, frantic and hard and deep in his kisses and in the way his hands gripped me tightly. Soon, the limo and its wicked guest were long gone from my mind and I felt all the energy die off around me. It was like they cancelled each other out. One huge emotion took over the other.
I pushed him back a little to breath and his mind was wide open. It was the only thing he could think of, kissing me, to bring me down from the tidal wave of emotions. It worked, but now I was on fire for other reasons as I licked my lips. He was too and we were practically feeding off each other’s reactions and thoughts, fueling an already blazing fire.
I was still confused as to why this was happening. I wasn’t like this before so it had to be a Visionary thing.
He ran a thumb over my bottom lip.
“Better?”
“Kind of,” I said breathlessly.
He laughed softly.
“Yeah, me too but, we better go inside.”
“Let’s.” I grabbed his hand in between mine. “Thank you. I’m sorry, Caleb. I can’t control what goes on in my own head anymore. I didn’t mean to get so upset. I don’t know what’s happening.”
“I know that, it’s ok,” he said sweetly and repeated his thumb over my lip. “We’ll work it out and I’ll always be here to take those lips when you get too far gone,” he said jokingly and winked.
“Caleb,” I groaned, wishing we were home right now, on our couch bed.
“Maggie,” he groaned too. “Don’t say my name like that if you want to make it back inside,” he warned.
I laughed brokenly and pulled him to follow me.
“Come on, bodyguard, maybe we can get another dance in before it’s time to go.”
“Oh, I’ll guard your body all right,” he said playfully and I laughed loudly, it echoing through the brick tunnel of an alley and freeing my mood a little.
“Do girls usually fall for that?”
“Only one,” he said, dripping with sugar.
I smiled, knowing that even though we were playing, he was completely being honest too.
“I love you.”
“I love you,” he said and pushed my hair behind my ear. Then he reached behind me and opened the back door, ushering me in. Now, find everybody so we know if they missed us or not.
K.
I searched in my mind and found Bish right off. He was still trying not to watch Jen and had been approached several times by girls of all colors and sizes and variety but he remained firm in his resolve for relationship celibacy. He was so ready to go home and wondering where I was and was just about to look for me. Jen was at the bar, the bartender chatting her up. Beck and Ralph hadn’t left their necking spot.
We better go see Bish first.
Caleb nodded in agreement and we made our way over. I accidentally nudged a girl’s arm and was blinded by a vision of her coming home to a burglary. She was beaten and shot, barely made it to the hospital. She gasped and I reached my arm out to steady her.
“Don’t go home tonight,” I rasped.
She nodded, having no idea what happened, but she couldn’t deny what she had seen through me. She stumbled away and Caleb held me tightly from behind to keep me from falling over. The onset of the visions was swift, unpredictable and I felt everything they felt in them. It wasn’t fun.