Catch Me When I Fall (30 page)

I nodded and closed my eyes.

When they opened, I still stood in the church.
What the hell?
I closed my eyes and evaporated to the other side of the room, making sure the blow to my head wasn’t interfering. Then I tried to evaporate to Kayla, but like last time, I opened them to find myself standing in the same spot.

“What the hell?” I yelled. “I can’t evaporate. Not to him, not to Kayla.
What the hell?
”

I paced around the room and ran my hands through my blond hair. This couldn’t be happening. With the power to go anywhere in the entire world, why couldn’t I nip to the
one place
I wanted—needed—to be? There was only one conclusion.

“He must’ve spelled his hiding place,” I said.

“Or maybe you hit your head too hard and your mind’s still trying to recover. Wherever she is, it’s a lot farther than across the room,” Samantha said.

“Then you try.”

Samantha closed her eyes. And went nowhere. “Okay, maybe there’s a spell blocking us.”

“Bugger!” I punched the wall. Pain ran up my arm as my knuckles split, but I didn’t care. My hand hadn’t broken.

Everybody stared at me, their eyes wide, and a couple of them stepped back. Only Ivan enjoyed my turmoil. Finally, Tabbi stepped forward. “Daniel, there’s another option. I can get into Kayla’s head, remember? Maybe if we could see what she’s seeing—”

“We could figure out where she is,” I finished her sentence.

She walked to me and held out her hand. Taking it eagerly, I closed my eyes, waiting for her to pop us into Kayla’s head.

At first I felt like I was floating—much different than last time when I popped right into Kayla’s head. Was it because of the miles between us? A slight ache ran through my bones, then morphed into numbness. Finally, I was seeing through Kayla’s eyes, feeling her emotions.

Kayla’s thoughts entered my mind.

My father is supposed to be dead.

Kayla slid her shaking hands out from under her legs and stared at the wall in front of her, remembering how her father had dragged her to a Catcher who grabbed her arm and evaporated here.

He should’ve tossed me in a dungeon for all I really am,
she thought.
A prisoner.

Kayla gripped the rose pendant that hung around her neck.

Daniel… Did my father kill him? He’d been so limp when he hit the floor.

Kayla took a deep breath as a small whimper escaped her lips.
I never even told him I loved him.
She covered her mouth as tears fell from her eyes.

She jumped when the door to her room unlocked. A tall boy, maybe seventeen, entered the room. His brown hair sat in a spiky mess on top of his head, and his dark eyes pierced through her.

“Your father wants to see you,” he said with an American accent. His voice was deep.

Kayla glared at him. “Tell him I’m not interested.”

“I’m not above carrying you over my shoulder.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

He took a step toward her. Kayla jumped off the bed to stand on the other side. She held her hands out in front of her, trying to remember what Trishna taught her.
Feel the energy inside you. Call it. Grab and throw.

He laughed. “I’d like to see you try.” His dark eyes sparkled as his lips turned up in a mischievous grin.

Kayla ground her teeth and threw a ball of energy out of her hands. But he blocked her attack and threw the energy into the lamp next to him. The light crashed to the floor.

“Nice try, but the day you catch me off guard is the day I turn myself into a pumpkin for Cinderella’s ball.”

God, he’s arrogant.
“Or maybe I’ll turn you into a toad and run over you with my car,” she said.

Again, he laughed. “You have his wit, that’s for sure. But seriously, Kayla, if I don’t return with you, I very well might be turned into a frog. So, either you come with me willingly, or I make you.”

Kayla dropped her hands. “Then you’ll have to make me.”

He shrugged. “Okay.” He crossed the room quicker than Kayla expected. She barely had enough time to leap onto the bed before he was right behind her. She tried running across the mattress to make a break for the open door, but his hands caught her feet, and she crashed to the bed.

Kayla squealed. “Let me go!” She kicked him in the chest, and a grunt escaped him. But then his hands tightened around her ankles, his fingers digging into her flesh. She cried out in pain.

“I told you I would make you,” he said. He fell against her and scooped her into his arms, tossing her over his shoulder.

Kayla beat his back. “Put me down!”

He carried her out of the room with a laugh. Kayla fought against him, elbowing him in the back of the head, but he was too strong. Flashbacks of Matt’s attack flooded her mind, and quickly her resolve weakened. Her heart raced, and her eyes flooded with tears.

“Okay, okay. I’ll go with you. Just put me down,” she pleaded, her voice shaking.

“Well, darn. This was very erotic.” He stopped and set Kayla on the ground.

She scowled at him as blood rushed into her cheeks, and she gripped the bottom of her shirt with shaky hands
.

He grabbed her arm. “Come on, then. Your father’s waiting.”

Kayla winced at his grip and tried to keep up. The gray walls and oak doors of the office-like building passed in a blur until they stopped at a door in the middle of the hall. The guy holding Kayla’s arm knocked twice, then entered. Margaret and Alex sat in steel chairs, their hands tied behind their backs. They both stared at Kayla, their eyes full of fear. Kayla held her stomach as it churned.

Richard stood at the front of the room next to a thin girl with a pixie cut. She eyed Kayla like a lioness ready to attack her prey.
Adelynn
.

“Ah, Nolan. Thanks for bringing her, mate. I hope she wasn’t too much trouble,” Richard said to the boy holding Kayla’s arm.

Kayla pulled in a deep breath. Since when had her father developed a British accent?

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Nolan replied.

Kayla snatched her arm out of his grasp.
Jerk
.

“Good. Kayla, come stand with me,” Richard said.

She gripped the hem of her shirt, her legs shaking, and stared at her father. He still had the same comb-over she remembered, his cowlick forcing him to part his hair off center. However, his dark strands were now streaked through with gray, and he had a goatee, something she’d never before seen him wear. She wanted to run to him, to fall into his arms and cry and welcome him home and hear him call her Kayla-Bear. But the way he stared at her, like an obstacle he needed to overcome or destroy, terrified her. Not to mention he was responsible for the deaths of all those Protectors who’d been nothing but kind to her—maybe even Daniel.

And, from what she’d been told, he wanted her to help him kill even more.

“Kayla, I will not ask you again. Come here.”

She glared at him, daring him to make her.

And he did. Richard nodded to Nolan who pushed her, hard, right between her shoulder blades. She stumbled forward and bent over, winded.

Richard grabbed her arm and jerked her closer to him. “That’s better. Now, tell me. How did you sleep?”

“What does it matter to you?”

“I love you. I want to know if you’re comfortable. If you’re not, I’m sure Nolan can find you a better room.”

No way.
I’d end up in the one next to him so he could cut a hole in the wall and peek in on me while I slept. Or changed.

“I’m fine.” She snatched her arm out of Richard’s grasp
.

“Good. And the food? Did someone bring you breakfast?”

“I don’t care about breakfast or whether or not my mattress is comfortable,” Kayla shouted. “You let me cry over you for
years
, you forced me to leave Mom and my home, and now you have my friends tied up. Tell me right now what I’m doing here, or I’m walking out that door.”

The kindness in Richard’s eyes died. A chill ran down Kayla’s spine. She tried to appear tough, though her heart raced, and any minute, she was going to throw up all over his shoes. Her dad stood in front of her, but she didn’t even recognize him.

“Very well,” he said. He shook his head, forcing his features to soften. “You’re here because I want to make the world a better place for you. Kayla Bear, I’ve missed you for so long, and I’m sorry I didn’t call. But I’m here now. Join me, love.” Richard held out a hand to her, like he was escorting her to a ball.

Kayla rubbed her chest and closed her eyes. She pictured the way he’d been—a kind and gentle man, born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Eyes that brightened when she entered a room, not squinted in hatred. This was wrong. This wasn’t her father.

Kayla shook her head as she opened her eyes, glowering through teary eyes at the monster before her. “If you think I’m going to fight alongside you and kill people, you’re crazier than I thought, old man.”

Nolan chuckled behind her. Kayla’s father shot a look at him that nearly brought
her
to her knees. Nolan quieted in seconds.

“Watch it, Kayla. I will not put up with disrespect.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. Her legs felt like jelly, but the last thing she wanted was to show a moment of weakness. After everything he’d done—and was planning to do—he didn’t deserve the satisfaction of seeing her fear.

Richard’s fists clenched at his sides, then he spoke. “I will ask you one more time, Kayla. Will you join me?”

Kayla stared right into his eyes, as gold as her own. “No.”

Margaret’s sudden scream made her jump. It took Kayla a second to realize what was going on. Then she saw the grin on Adelynn’s face.

Adelynn was torturing Margaret.

“Stop! You’re hurting her!” Kayla yelled as she stepped past her father to grab Adelynn’s hands. But Richard held her back.

“Touch her, you die.”

Kayla wobbled as Margaret continued to scream. She placed her hands over her ears. “Stop it, please!”

“Then say ‘yes,’ Kayla.”

“Please. I know you loved me once. Please, for me, stop this!”

Richard stared into his daughter’s eyes, and for a moment he looked like he wouldn’t give in. But then he nodded at Adelynn. She dropped her hands, and Margaret’s screams ceased.

He turned to Kayla. “Call this an act of mercy. Tomorrow, if you refuse me again, both of them will scream until you say yes.”

I tore my hand out of Tabbi’s grasp and paced back and forth across the room, trying to calm my racing heart. Crouching down, I stifled the gag that wanted to escape. Everything Kayla had felt, seen, or heard, I experienced… and this was all my fault. I left her alone.
I fucking left her alone.

“Daniel—” Tabbi started to say.

Not ready to listen to anyone yet and needing to sort out everything that I’d just experienced, I held a hand up. That guy who touched her… God, if I ever got a chance to meet him, I would punch his jaw so hard it’d shatter. And her father, for what he was doing to Alex and Margaret—for what he was doing to
her
—I would make him suffer.

And Kayla, for the first time, said she loved me.

I cleared my throat before speaking. “They have Kayla in an office building. I’m not sure where. I didn’t get to see much.” My quivering hands ran down my face. “But, we need a new tactic. If we can’t use our abilities to find them, then we do it the old-fashioned way. Everybody grab your things. We’re checking into a hotel.”

e arrived at a hotel in Alaska minutes later, having chosen the remote location to stay out of the peering eyes of Giovanni’s spies. They could be anywhere. The fewer people who saw us, the better.