"Please," I said and was already starting to feel the ache in my back from being without him.
I went first, but the stairs were a lot easier on the way down. Once we reached the bottom he led me down another passageway different than the way we came.
"How do you know where everything is in this place?"
"I've been coming here all my life. Me and Caleb and Kyle," he shook his head as his memories ran through in his mind, "we always ran around and tried to find secret passageways and things like that. We played pirates on the roof when we were six, hide and go seek in the halls when we were nine, and ran away from the girls with cooties when we were thirteen." He chuckled to himself. "We spent a lot of time together when we were little. Not so much lately, though." He bumped my shoulder. "I blame you."
I smiled bashfully. "I accept the blame. I've always been a troublemaker."
"Now I don't believe that for one second, missy."
"Oh, you just don't know. Kyle used to get me into all kinds of trouble." I couldn't help but smile as I thought about it. "He always started stuff at school, pranks and stuff, and then would drag us all into with him. He'd start chants in the middle of the Principal's speeches and we'd help, but in the end we all got in trouble. We all went down with the ship," I laughed.
"I could see Kyle doing that." He laughed too. "You know, I know it might be awkward for you, but I remember the first time Kyle told me about you."
"Kyle talked about me to you?" I asked in quite curiosity.
"Yeah," he replied and smiled sadly. He hooked a thumb into his pocket. "He told me there was this girl and she was human and he was going to have her." He laughed, but shook his head. "I told him he was crazy. That his parents would kill him, that you, the girl, would think he was nuts once you met our family, but he wouldn't listen. He had it all planned out. He was going to ask you out Graduation night and if you said no he was going to puppy dog eye you until you caved." My mouth opened in shock, because that was exactly what Kyle had done. He laughed at my expression. "Then he was going to take you out to eat and to a movie, then to the park where he planned to spill his lovesick guts. Tell you that he'd been in love with you forever and he didn't want to be your silly friend anymore."Wow. It really had just been hours away from bad timing. Caleb had stopped me from that when I saved him. Though Kyle and I went on a date, he left the park and the confession out. I wondered what I would have said to him if he'd laid it all out for me and there was no Caleb involved. My heart ached a little in a pulse at the thought of that.
"Wow," was all I could say.
"Yeah," he said wryly. "So it's kind of strange for me to see him so happy with Lynne when he was so content to be miserable waiting for you." I shot him a look and he held up his hands and laughed. "Just sayin'. But that's how imprints work. The ones who haven't imprinted complain a little that it seems to steal your choices, but it doesn't. Kyle eventually would have given up on you and when they went to the summer house in California, he'd have bumped into Lynne at that club anyway. And they would have started something. It's fate, but fate just gives us a nudge in the right direction on the fast lane, I guarantee she doesn't have her hands in your pockets while she's doing it."
I squinted at him. "Is that cowboy logic?"
"Yes, ma'am, it is," he replied in his best southern drawl and grinned.
Thirteen
"And here we are," he said and put his finger to his lips and whispered. "They have guards down here with him, no doubt."
"Guards," I scoffed. "You mean someone who got assigned to be a guard for the night and really just wants to go back to their room?"
He moved his head side to side. "Pretty much."
"I'll handle them," I said confidently, but really didn't know what I was going to do. I stood tall and sauntered into the low stone stairwell he'd led us to. I heard him sputtering behind me, trying to stop me, but not wanting to yell. I kept going.
"Hey, who's down here?" I heard someone ask and metal scrape, like a chair moving.
Maggie, dang it, get your butt out of here!
No, Caleb. I'm already here. May as well see the accommodations.
He sighed raggedly in my mind.
"Hey! I said, who's down here?" the man repeated just as I turned the corner. He blanched and bowed. "Visionary, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you."
"Does it make a difference now that you know it is me?" I asked sarcastically.
He gave me a sad smile. "I'm sorry. I know this doesn't seem right to you, but our laws and traditions are all that we have."
I was sick of rules and traditions. I dove right into his mind, knowing that now that I'd claimed my destiny and embraced it, I embraced my power as well. His past memories were normal. His family was beautiful, and he was such a good father. He was patient and loving, he showed them the way. He explained why certain things couldn't be done, and the way he did it wasn't "Because I told you to."
His eldest son was almost twenty two now and the man was worried that he wasn't going to imprint like the rest of them, that he'd never have a family of his own, that he'd never know what it was like to be joined with someone; body, heart, soul.
"No," I told him and when I opened my eyes I knew he'd seen everything I'd seen in his mind. "No, you're wrong. Rules and traditions aren't all you have. Those things in your mind? Those memories? That’s what you have. Those are the things everyone here should have if they don't. I'm not trying to come in and take over, I'm trying to give you back the one thing that means everything to everyone; your future. If the imprints don't come back, our kind has no future. This generation will be the last. That can't be what everyone wants."
His eyes watered and he fell to his knees shaking his head. "No, I don't want that, but we've been told every since we were born that one way was the only way. We've followed the laws laid down by the first council our whole lives and for you to so openly break them and defy the council is a direct violation of the law. I'm just…I just don't know what to do."
I saw flashes of things in his mind as he rapidly processed everything. Rules for working a job; there were only certain trades you could be in and it had to be one of respect and wealth. Rules for family; no one was allowed to marry/be 'friendly' with a rival clan member where they had ever had any kind of conflict because it could cause a rift in the race. Rules for school; everyone went to college, no matter if you wanted to or not, because college bred people of propriety and society. Rules for council; the assembly rules on every issue and their word is final and they rule by the Virtuoso law only. Rules for health; parents must watch what their children eat closely, because obesity was not permitted among someone young who'd not been imprinted. Granted you'd heal each other once you got imprinted that wasn't an issue, because you healed each other even from that.
It struck me that Gran was the only one that was on the hefty side of all the people I'd seen.
There were rules for everything in their life. Whoever these people were that wrote all these rules didn't have their kind's best interest at heart. They may have thought they did, that by restricting them so tightly that it would mold and shape them, but the rules only addressed things on the surface. As far as character and morals and….and…happiness! That was not a concern.
"Let me pass. I'm getting my significant out of here and I'm addressing the council tomorrow to let them know that things have to change."
"I…" He shook his head. "I wish I could help."
"You can," I said and smiled. "Don’t tell anyone you saw me in my pajamas," I joked and he choked a surprised laugh.
"You're so different. They always said you'd be this beautiful, regal, magnificent woman. And you are," he said quickly, "we didn't think you'd be a human, and we definitely didn't think you'd be imprinted. The last Visionary wasn't. She was just one of our kind and the Visionary mark showed up on her one day as she had the gift. We just assumed you'd be the same.""Sorry to disappoint," I muttered.
"No, no, no, it's not a disappointment at all. It's a miracle. If you're to take the place on the council, then it's better than you are truly one of us, an imprinted significant to be able to relate to us."
"I agree. And this imprinted significant is already in withdrawal," I groaned and pressed my hand to my stomach. "Please. Let me go."
"I'll come with you. I think the council figured you might try this." He smiled sheepishly. "They put eight guards down there with him."
"Eight?" I croaked and looked back at Rodney, who looked very much in awe at the moment. "Well, we have no choice. Let's go."
He picked up a camping lantern and took us down the stone stairs. When we reached the bottom I blew a disgusted breath at the smell. What was down there other than people?
"Who goes there?" a deep voice rumbled and then his eyes went wide. "What are you doing bringing her down here?"
"I came to get Caleb." I looked behind the man to the cells, but he moved to block my view. I glared at him and he stepped back and gulped.
I was confused. They were afraid of me, but they were also just as afraid of the council. I didn't get it. It was like the council and I weren't even on the same side and everyone knew it.