Accordance (35 page)

I gasped as I came back to myself. Caleb was already there behind me holding me up, as was everyone else. Lynne had fallen to the floor and Peter was helping her up. She looked at me with expectations.

“What was that?”

“I saw you…you were imprinted too,” I said in quiet awe.

“Too?” Peter asked. “What’s going on, Maggie?”

Don’t, Maggie.
Caleb begged and Jen did her own begging at the same time.

Please, no, Maggie.

“What’s imprinted mean?” Lynne asked me.

“You imprint with your soul mate. I saw Lynne imprinted with someone but I couldn’t see his face.”

“She’s going to imprint with someone?” Kyle asked almost angrily.

I looked at him and he was seething. Jen beside him was discreetly wiping her eyes.

“That’s what I saw.”

“Great,” he muttered. “Awesome, frigging awesome.”

“Kyle,” Lynne said softly, having no idea what we were talking about but knew he was upset about something.

He just shook his head and left the room.

“What’s going on?” Uncle Max asked. “What’s wrong with Kyle? What has he done?”
“Nothing, Uncle Max, they just met,” Caleb assured him knowing exactly where he was going with it.

Neither of us mentioned Amber though.

Lynne leaned against Peter in her shock. I could see her shaking and went to her.

“I’ll take her. Uncle Max, where can I put Lynne for the night?”

He didn’t say anything so I turned to look at him and he was smiling.

“You called me Uncle Max.”

I felt my grin spread at his enjoyment of it.

“Yeah.”

“Put her in the room you stayed in with Caleb,” he said and came to stand next to us. He rubbed her arm soothingly and kissed my forehead. “It’ll be alright, girls. We’ll figure this out.”

I nodded and took her to lie on the bed. She seemed to be in shock or something. I tried to explain as best as I could what imprinting was and how it all worked. She listened but didn’t say anything for a while.

“You kissed Kyle at the club but you’re in love with the beefy one.”

“Yes, I kissed Kyle for a reason but I don’t love him, we’re just friends. I was trying to control my ability.”

“But he likes you. He watches you.”

“He seems to like you an awful lot too.”

She scoffed.

“Boys like that don’t like girls like me.”

“What does that mean?”
“He knows about me, my family, where I come from. I’m trash. He’s a nice guy. They ride in on their white horse, nurse you back to health and make you fall for them, then move on to the gorgeous girl to spend the rest of their life with. That’s just the way it is.”

“I saw you in the vision. You were imprinted with an Ace,” I argued.

“Yeah, well, maybe we’ll do something to stop that vision from coming true, too,” she said dejected.
I left her there to sleep and went downstairs.

When I came back down and heard them talking, I stopped on the steps to listen.

“So the Imprints are returning,” Uncle Max said and I heard the relief in his voice.

“It looks that way, if Maggie’s vision is correct,” Peter said. “I wonder who it will be.”

“Well, she’s a darling girl,” Rachel explained. “Anyone would be lucky to have her. She’s just had a rough time lately.”

“So, any news on this ransom business?” Max asked.
“No, nothing. The Reunification is in two days. We just have to keep her safe until then,” Peter said. “Surely the Watsons wouldn’t have the gall to show their face there.”

“But they will be under protective sanction. If they do come, you can’t harm them, you know that. Just like you couldn’t harm them when they kidnapped her the first time.”

“Well,” Caleb cut it, “I think that’s bull. None of this would be happening if we’d taken care of them the first time.”

“Son, we have to follow the rules. We aren’t allowed to harm other clans.”

“But they aren’t following the rules!” he yelled. “And they harmed her!”

“I know, but we aren’t like them,” Peter said with conviction. “We are nothing like them and I don’t ever want to be. We’ll do this the proper way. We’ve never had a clan denounced before but once they are, they’re fair game. And they probably know it and will run like scared children.”

“It’s not supposed to be like this,” Caleb muttered and I heard his footsteps. He found me sitting on the stairs and grabbed my hand to tow me. “We’re leaving,” he called. “See you at the house, Dad.”

He took me outside to the garage, to his bike. I smiled looking at it and laughed out loud when he ran a hand down the length and crooned to it.

“Ah, I’ve missed you, Lolita.”

We climbed on after he put on my helmet. When it rumbled to life I felt giddy. I’d missed the bike, for sure. He pulled out of the driveway and we rode all the way to his house in comfortable silence. He drove slowly to savor the feel of the ride.

When we pulled onto his street, I noticed his gate was open. He stopped the bike in the middle of the street and looked around.

The gate is never left open.

Nothing looked out of order. He pulled into his driveway and stopped. He got off the bike and took off his helmet to look around. We heard whining motors coming down the street. I cocked my head to figure it out but Caleb tensed.

He ran to the call box and pressed the button, calling for Randolph but he never answered. Then two riders all in black pulled up in the driveway on motorcycles. Caleb pushed me further back behind him and stood straighter.

I had a sudden feeling that I needed to stop them. I pushed my hands forward to command the gates. They closed in a frightfully fast swing, knocking both the men from their bikes and sending them skidding on the asphalt.

They came to the gate, one of them shook it angrily but the other one just grabbed the mad one by the collar and jumped, clearing the fence and gate in one quick leap. They landed on their feet in a graceful pounce on our side.

We waited for something to happen. They never spoke but then all of a sudden, without warning, they ran towards us.

Caleb turned and pushed me.

“Get in the garage!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Go, Maggie,” he demanded harder.

I obeyed…halfway. I didn’t go to the garage but I ran further away from them and watched as the horrific scene unfolded. One of the men took his hands palms up and made the ground beneath Caleb lift and shake making a little hill that eventually opened up into hole under Caleb. He jumped and reached for the edge just in time and clung for his life as the mound raised higher and higher and the hole got bigger and bigger. Then the other one huffed and pushed the one working in aggravation. His mind said he was mad because he should have taken care of Caleb already and he was ready to take me for his reward money. I saw it in his mind what he was doing before he did it but him pulling the gun out of his jacket pocket shocked me into shivers.

He climbed the mound and pointed it at Caleb. I couldn’t see Caleb’s face but I heard him.

I love you, Maggie.

That was it for me.

The man got one shot off before I pushed my hands forward and the guy’s gun went flying back behind him. I used my other hand and imagined lifting Caleb up and over the mound to land in the grass and that’s exactly what happened. The men cursed and one ran for me. I pushed through the thought to move his bike, to send it skidding and crashing into him and when it carried out my commands, I closed my eyes to to the sickening crunch of bones and tearing of flesh on the concrete driveway.

When I opened them, the other man was making a swift advance to me. Caleb was hot on his tail but wouldn’t reach him before the man reached me. I tried to think of something to do, anything but I froze and the guy reached his hands around my neck.

“That’s was my bike you wrecked you little twit,” he growled in my face not worried about his comrade at all. Then his eyes drifted to my neck and his grip loosened a little in his shock. “The Visionary.”

Caleb pulled him off and slung him backwards. He skidded in the grass on his back, leaving a trail and indention as he went with the force. Caleb was shocked at his strength but didn’t dwell on it. The man got up and went to grab the gun that was near him as he roared with aggravation and cursed.

Then something happened that I never expected. Caleb held his hand out for the gun and it flew threw the air just as the man reached for it, straight into Caleb’s hand. The man ran at us full speed with his clear intentions blaring though his mind to mine and then to Caleb. He was going to kill Caleb and take me to Sikes. Without further hesitation, Caleb lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.

The man stopped mid run and fell back from the force of the shot. He lay still on the ground and Caleb turned, throwing the gun to the ground. He pressed my face into his neck.

“Don’t look.”

Caleb had killed the monster for me.
It was then that I felt him, his pain. I had no idea why I hadn’t felt it before but my body recognized the injury and began to heal him. I pulled back, though he tried to stop me, to see a huge red spot on his t-shirt on his stomach. I pulled his shirt up to see a gunshot would on his right side.

I screamed as my heart rate beat painfully for him.

“It’s alright, baby,” he soothed and grabbed his chest a little like he could feel my heart and it was as painful for him. “You’re healing me already. It’s ok.”

I held his arm under mine to steady him and we watched together as the wound sizzled and burned closing up and becoming tan again instead of red and angry. Caleb groaned as the bullet pushed itself out and fell with a dull thud to the ground.

I knelt on my knees to inspect closer and ran my fingers over it in awe. I hugged him around his middle and pressed my cheek to his stomach and burst into tears.

“Why didn’t I see that coming? Why didn’t I get a vision for this?”

“I don’t know.”

“You could have died,” I croaked as he rubbed my hair then he bent down with me and pulled me to him. “What if I hadn’t been here, you would’ve-”

“Shh. Don’t. Shh.” He lifted my chin and kissed my lips softly once. “We’ll always be together.”

“What was that?” I asked and felt the cool wind on my wet cheeks. “How did you do that, Caleb? Did you get your ability?”

“I don’t know what happened. I just felt like it told me what to do and I did it.”

It was then that we realized someone was watching us. I looked and saw Marcus standing in front of the garage.

He clapped and smiled cruelly as Caleb and I stood up.

“Bravo. Bravo, really, a spectacular show. I think you’ve gained some new abilities that we never-” His eyes moved to my neck as well and his arrogant steps faltered. “No. No, that can’t be. You’re human trash!” he roared. “You are not our Visionary!” He shook his head furiously and balled his fist. “It’s a trick. They painted that on you to trick us.” He made wide angry strides to us. “I’ll see for myself.”

Caleb once again shoved me behind him and I waited in fright but also fascination as him and Marcus sparred. There were no abilities for him either so it was a fair fight. I wanted to help but was afraid that I’d just distract Caleb or hurt him somehow. As it turned out, he didn’t need my help.

I saw in Caleb’s mind as he fought the moves he learned from Uncle Max as he went along. Some he knew already but some he learned as he went, his mind teaching him. If I wasn’t so scared, I would have been fascinated to see it as it happened in his mind.

Caleb didn’t have to fight long. He had the advantage of knowing how to fight that Marcus didn’t. Marcus would make for a punch and Caleb would rear back to evade and then land a blow to his jaw or chest. Then Caleb kicked a booted foot to Marcus’s chest sending him flying several feet away from him.