Caleb's head rested on my shoulder as his arms gathered me as close as I could get, smashed into his chest in a warm cocoon. He would look out at the buildings that looked so amazing as the sun sat atop the city in the noon haze, but mostly he was completely and utterly consumed with me. His soft lips rubbed the skin of my neck, making his rough chin rub it in turn, the contrast heating me all over.
Pretty soon, I could no longer take it. I leaned my head back and to the side to accept his lips on mine just as we banged to the bottom. He sighed, his tongue licking his lip, and licking mine in the process. "Daggumit," he growled. "Everything is always keeping you from me."
I smiled crookedly and turned to walk backward from the lift, taking his hand. "Come on, Jacobson."
Lynne and Kyle walked in front of us, holding hands and talking in their minds about their son's birthday party. He wanted a miniature pony to go along with the horse that Kyle bought for Lynne. They had a house outside of town - a ranch really. In the summer, we took some of the kids from our tutoring program out there and they did some riding lessons and camping trips.
It was so much fun to watch the kids' faces light up. Some of them had never seen a horse up close before.
"Where are we going?" I asked distractedly as I stared up at the sun coming over the treetops.
Thirty-six percent of ninety is thirty-two point four.
I laughed. "Oh, my gosh, Jacobson. What have you done?"
He smirked his signature smirk and leaned in close. "Stop poking around and just enjoy the ride."
He kissed my temple, and with linked our fingers he put his arm around my shoulder to pull me close.
We passed a fountain on the square as we crossed the street. It was beautiful, and I found myself staring at it as Caleb tugged me along the cobblestone road.
And then a scream blared through my mind.
I knew it wasn't real. I knew it. But I still found myself gasping and seizing Caleb's shirt in my fists. He heard the scream through me and gripped my upper arms as it descended through the air, almost as if it were coming closer.
"Maggie!" he pleaded in a hiss and shook me slightly. "A vision?"
But no vision came. I heard a splash to my right and jerked my gaze to follow the sound, but saw nothing but calm water in the fountain across the street. The scream was gone. Caleb's hands pulled my face up and he still looked like that boy that would move mountains and break jaws for me. "Baby?"
"It wasn't a vision, or at least I don't think so. It's happening again," I finally answered, my eyes on his chin. I let my eyes drift to his. He was worried, yes, but angry that his plan for our day was about to be ruined. It seemed they were ruined a lot lately. There were strange things happening all the time over the past couple of weeks—interrupting my dreams, strange flashes of visions that weren't really visions at all. I shook my head. "No, it wasn't a vision."
He sighed forcefully, his thumb sweeping over my cheekbone and down my neck, his calm slamming into my veins like a shot. "Hell, Maggie," he groaned and it pained me to hear the agony in his voice. "I feel so useless. I don't know what to do for you—"
"This is because I'm the Visionary," I insisted. "It has to be, Caleb. There's no other logical reason. It's my burden—"He leaned back enough to see my face, his own face fierce and the protectiveness all over him. "Your burdens are mine. Don't you ever forget that—Visionary or not."
I heard Kyle and Lynne off to the side. They could see something was going on and were giving us space to work it out. It gave Caleb an idea. He whipped his angry gaze back to scowl at Lynne. "Did you do that to the water? Kyle, are y'all playing around?"
"No," Kyle answered for her easily. "Why?"
"Because you're always playing around," Caleb muttered and looked back at me. "Something's going on. Something bigger than just Visionary duties. All the nightmares you've been having, all the times your visions have come but nothing came with it, just a sound or a flash, and I couldn’t see it with you. It's not normal. We have to figure out what's going on—take this to the council."
I glanced at the fountain and back to him. His worries were practically tied in knots, right there between us, as his palms rubbed warm circles into the skin of my forearms, trying anything and everything to get his calm to seep in.
I took a deep breath and held it for a few long seconds. "No. No council. Look," I smiled as best I could, "let's just have the day you planned for us, okay? I promise I'll look into it and we’ll do some digging before we go home. We will figure this out. There's got to be a reason, there always is, and I'll find it."
Ashlyn…the previous Visionary. Maybe she had something to say about this.
He chewed on his lip and sighed through his nose. "Baby," he complained in a low voice. "I hate this."
"I know."
He sucked his lip into his mouth, which let me know he was really thinking about it. He was remembering the first time he saw me at the stoplight. How he knew that I was going to be his that day, and he'd do anything and everything to make sure that I was safe and sound and happy.
"You're not failing at any of it," I assured him and leaned up on my toes. I draped my arms over his shoulders and pressed my nose to his, just like he used to do to me. "Now if you'll feed me, I'll be completely fulfilled."
He managed a small chuckle at my joke, but I knew it was just for my benefit. He pulled me up the rest of the way to meet his lips and the gruff display did nothing to reassure me that he was actually fine.
I let it slide.
Linking our fingers, we joined Kyle and Lynne again who seemed way too worried for my liking. When Kyle's mind floated his thoughts back and forth, worrying about his Visionary, I knew he'd crossed sides and was now a traitor—no longer my friend who worked beside me and called me Maggie, but had reverted back to a Virtuoso member who was in reverent awe of his Visionary. And right now—worried sick.
“I'm fine,” I assured them all. “Don't make me pull rank on y'all. We're going to have a great day with no kids and no council and no gnats, right? Come on.”
Caleb sighed and looked over at them. His grip tightened on my fingers, but they didn’t say anything. He gave me a smile. One of those dimple smiles that I loved so much. I guess they figured they’d rather stay silent than lie.
I knew they worried about the Visionary. I knew I was more than just a person. I was a symbol. The Visionary was important. That was the real reason they were freaked. Who knew when the next one would come again, and I hadn’t gotten half of the things done I wanted—
“Don’t.”
I looked over to see Caleb’s smile long gone. “What?”
“How could you say that?” he asked, the hurt in his eyes was so evident, it stung my own to feel it through him. “After everything, after all these years and everything we’ve been through, you still think I look at you as the Visionary first?”
My breath eased out slowly. I had hurt him.
“Don’t you know?” Lynne asked and flicked her nosy eyes between us. “You’re in each other’s minds all day and night.”
“We leave a few stones unturned,” Caleb answered gruffly. “We like to leave some mystery. We like to talk about things instead of just always knowing everything.”
She glared at Kyle—just a small flick of her eyes. “This big dork won’t stay out of my head.”
Kyle ignored her and squinted at Caleb, shaking his head a little. “You don’t see her as the Visionary first? Really?”
“She’s my significant first,” Caleb said harder.
I was a little surprised by it. No, I hadn’t really thought much about it. I had always assumed the two things were neck and neck but Visionary was probably winning. He had just stolen me from a meeting though, hadn’t he?
“But you weren’t that way in California,” Kyle reminded him. “When we found out who she was in the beginning, you were just as obsessed about it as I—”
“And I paid for acting like an ass, if you remember,” Caleb told him. He sighed as his blue eyes found mine and he remembered how he watched me leave in the Jeep that night, feeling my heart beating so loud in his chest, and not knowing what was going to happen next. Knowing he’d screwed up, but not knowing what to do to fix it.
I shook my head and opened my mouth to tell him no, that I was sorry, but Kyle beat me to it.
“She’ll always be the Visionary, no matter what you want. Or what she wants.” He crossed his arms and scowled at us both. “Maybe that’s what’s going on right now. That you both are taking the Visionary thing too lightly and it’s pissed off, trying to send you a message—”
Caleb moved before I could stop him. He got right in Kyle’s face, nose to nose, and growled, “You don’t live it and breathe it every day. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Kyle scoffed, but had the good sense to back down enough to show he wasn’t about to go head to head with the Champion of his clan. “I’m not trying to fight with you. I’m just stating fact…” Caleb moved forward and Kyle changed his wording, “I’m just talking ideas. There’s a reason this is happening to Maggie.”
I gripped Caleb’s arm—not to hold him back, but to just hold him. “Don’t ever say that Maggie hasn’t done enough or given enough or not taken being the Visionary seriously. She was yanked into this life by me and has done nothing but accept and love us, all of us. So shut your face with talk that she’s not absolutely amazing at what she’s been given and had to deal and work with. Even the ones of us that grew up in it wouldn’t do so well.”Kyle sighed and raised his hands. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.” He glanced at me and back at Caleb. “Both of you work hard. I just mean that maybe you’re spreading yourselves thin. Or…maybe focusing on the wrong things. Maybe you’re not on the right path and this is a little course correction from the universe. It’s obvious that Maggie’s not doing something right or this wouldn’t be happening, right?”