“Maggie!”
I gasped and turned to see Caleb, the real Caleb, my significant, my imprint, my soul mate, running over the dune and down the beach toward me.
Chapter Twenty Four
“Caleb?” I whispered in awe.
“You don’t belong here,” Caleb\Marcus roared behind me. “How did you get in here?”
Caleb reached us quickly and swallowed me in an embrace of warm arms. I sighed, but not in relief because I got none. His touch didn’t soothe and calm me of the withdrawals because it wasn’t real.
But he was really there, in my dream, right then.
“Caleb,” I cried. “How did you get here?”
He pulled back to cup my face and kissed me forcefully. His mouth opened mine, his lips were filled with all the longing we’d felt in the past two days without each other. It didn’t last long and he whispered his next words against my lips.
“He can’t keep you from me. No one can. I told you I’ll always find you.”
“Answer me,” Marcus growled again. “How did you get in here without an echoling?”
Caleb startled like he just noticed we weren’t alone and pulled me behind him.
“Because you underestimated us, like always.”
“Whatever. I’ll just go wake her up, right now, and I won’t do the echo dream anymore. You’ll never see her again so you better enjoy it while you can.”
“At least she can sleep in peace and not have you crawling through her dreams anymore,” Caleb growled back.
“You better get to it,” Marcus said and disappeared.
Caleb immediately turned and pulled me back to him, speaking into my hair.
“Where are you, Maggie? Tell me what it looks like.”
“Like a jail cell or a basement storage room maybe. It’s all metal walls and concrete floors. It stinks.”
“What does it smell like?”
“Musty mold. And it’s cold. How did you get in here?”
“No idea. I just was thinking about you, trying to get a read or fix on you. I was lying on my bed, must’ve fallen asleep, then landed on the dune. Who have you seen?”
“Marcus, his uncle and his sister, Marla.”
“Did he hurt you? Did any one of them hurt you?”
“Not yet,” I squeaked.
He sighed and squeezed me.
“I’ll find you. I will.”
“Is my dad freaking out?”
“Absolutely. My parents have actually been at your house a couple times with him already. They’ve been working together with the police. He called your mom, brother and your boss, too. My whole family has been going nuts.” He ran a hand through his hair harshly. “Maggie,” he sighed and put his head against mine. “I need you to be here. I miss you.”
“I know. Me, too,” I cried. “I’m so sorry.”
“This is not your fault.”
“Your’s either. I just want to come home. Caleb, I-”
“I know, baby, I know,” he said gruffly.
He kissed me again, but it was so desperate, so painful because I knew he was about to be ripped from me and I’d be back in my hole with the pain of our separation gripping me violently. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted my feet from the sand as he squeezed me to him. His mouth was gentle and slow like he knew there was no point in trying to rush. It didn’t matter. I just wanted to keep him there as long as possible.
But it didn’t last long enough.
Something happened.
I felt a jolt go through me and my blood turned cold in my veins. Caleb’s skin felt too hot to touch but then mine matched it and I was burning and freezing but in a good way. His heart was beating through my chest along with my own, making me startle. I opened my eyes to look at Caleb and saw he was experiencing the same thing as me. His eyes were wide and then he laughed which seemed odd at the time but I knew this wasn’t something awful. It felt like...like imprinting. Wait…he had said we’d be together when it happened and it would feel like imprinting when we ascended. Could it be?
“It’s ok, Maggie. It’s for real. It’s happening.”
“How? This is a dream.”
“I don’t know, but I’m not complaining. This is going to help me save you somehow. I know it.” He pulled me close to him again and held me tight. “Just wait, don’t fight it. Once it’s all done, we’ll figure out a way to get you out of there.”
As we held on, our bodies continued to pulse with warm and cold and seemed to breathe for themselves. It’s like our souls took a back seat and let our bodies transform and configure into something else. My limbs burned and tingled, my head tingled, too, and I closed my eyes against the pressure.
When I finally felt like I’d settled back into myself, I felt different; more lithe and womanly than I had in my previous, awkward body. I felt more right and stronger, like I finally belonged and had purpose.
It didn’t really make sense, but I went with it.
“Maggie.”
I opened my eyes and looked at Caleb as he, too, looked a little different. His muscles under my hands on his upper arms were slightly more defined and harder. His facial features looked more rugged and grown up, as if he had aged, but not in a bad way.“Caleb. You look...” I had no way to describe it to him.
“I know. You’re gorgeous. I didn’t think it was possible for you to be more gorgeous than you were before, but man, was I wrong.” He looked as if in awe as he cupped my cheek and caressed it gently like I was something precious. “You are so insanely beautiful.”
He smiled and I felt it all the way to my toes. I reached up and traced my finger over his brow, down his nose, over his lips as he closed his eyes, his lips parted. Everything about him seemed to be different. He felt different. I pressed my ear to his chest, hearing and feeling our heartbeats under his skin, beating in sync. Reminding me that nothing could literally ever separate me from Caleb, or him from me. We were one.
Oh, my… He was mine and he was perfect. Not just his looks, his everything. I could see and feel his soul and goodness all around me like it was a tangible thing. He glowed with love for me. And he was mine.
“Yes. And you’re mine,” he murmured into my hair, reading my thoughts. “Forever.”
But then something yanked at me, something that felt like a tether or leash I was connected to. I could feel myself being pulled towards consciousness and gasped as I pulled back from him a little.
“Caleb, he’s taking me. He’s waking me up.”
“No, not yet,” he begged and ran his fingers through my hair, pressing his nose to mine.
“Caleb, please stay with me,” I said my voice breaking as the tears rolled down my face. “I love you.”
“Not goodbye, Maggie.” He wiped my tears away with a thumb and kissed my forehead. “I love you so much. I’ll find you. We’re ascended now. I promi-”
I was awake, gasping and aching like never before by Marcus throwing a bucket of water on me and my bed and the sheets.
“Finally. The pillow didn’t work. Fighting it weren’t you?” He chuckled and turned to leave. “Stupid human.”
I lay there cold, shivering and writhing on the bed in utter devastation but utter revelation as well. I was not a human anymore. Even though that was abundantly clear and the pain was wretched and volatile, the loss of Caleb was incomparable.
Once again I had no sense of days or time. The pain just took me over and I screamed and cried, yelling for Caleb and feeling my body jerk and jar with a slow steady heartbeat. During it all, no one came to see me. No one opened the slot to see if I was ok. No one gave me water or tried to calm me. They just let me scream myself back to sleep.
I woke fuzzy, like I was drugged. But I had refused to eat their food or drink so I didn’t understand how they were still getting their drugs in me to keep my heart rate low. I wiped my face of drool but stopped. It smelled funny. I smelled my hand and tasted it, spitting it out once I realized it was the medicine. Someone had been coming in, knowing I’d pass out from exhaustion from withdrawals, and slipping me the medicine then. Their cleverness was beginning to make my hope fail. I tried to not scream from the pain this time. My throat was raw and scratchy from it and the lack of water. I guessed there was no point in holding out any longer because they were already giving me the medicine.
I rolled out of bed, the sheet still damp around me but I crumpled to the floor with a whimper and dry heaved over and over. How? How could it still be getting worse? There was no way I’d survive. If I didn’t get out to Caleb, I’d die. No other way about it. And Caleb...He would die, too. I had to get to him.
I crawled and pulled myself to the door where today’s food tray was and found a big bottle of Gatorade and a turkey and cheese sandwich. I woofed it down and was amazed to still feel my stomach growl after it was all gone.
“I’ll have Marla bring you another one shortly.”
I turned to see Marcus’s uncle sitting in the same corner that he had before.
I wondered if he would be able to tell I was different, that I had ascended and was no longer human, but I guessed not since I was so disheveled. I looked down at my see through white wet sheet and then glared at him.
“I told you to put those clothes on, didn’t I?” he said clearly amused.
“Great. I can add pervert to your list.”
“I’d cooperate if I were you. You see, the bad part is about to begin. My wife is coming in to take your blood. You put one scratch on her and I’ll kill you myself. Got it?”