Micah followed behind them, nearly crashing into me at the doorway. “We’re leaving tomorrow.”
“We meaning…?”
“Meaning me, Cato, and Susan. Alex will be staying here with you.”
I didn’t respond, keeping my lips pressed together tight for fear of saying something we would both regret later.
He continued, “You have a few things to do while we’re gone.”
I remained silent.
“I want you to work on communicating with the baby. If I can do it, then you can. If something ever happens, it may be the only way to save her.”
Finally trusting my voice, I said, “What else?”
“Spend a lot of time with Alex. He can protect you while I’m gone and he’s going to need you to help him work through this recent information-gathering episode Cato put him through. Stay close to him, just not…too close.”
“Okay…” It was unlike Micah to tell me purposely to be close to another man, but it made sense with him leaving me behind when Shawn was still out there. Plus I was smack dab in the middle of a bunch of workers who hated me at the moment. “Anything else, Master?”
“Yes. I feel a little awkward telling you this but…”
I couldn’t take the pause. “What is it? Just spit it out already.”
“We had a bunk bed made and put in Alex’s room – I want you to sleep there for now.” He avoided my gaze.
“So, you don’t want me to get too close to the man but you want me to sleep with him?”
“Don’t be childish, Kaitlyn,” he snapped. “I’m doing the best I can here. Just do what I ask and it will be easier for everybody.”
“You mean easier for you.”
His eyes flared with color; never a good sign. “This has to be done my way. There is no discussion about it. Don’t fight me on this.”
I regarded him carefully. He was right; arguing would do no good, but hell if I would make it that easy. “I promise I will
consider
your requests,” I said in a low, even tone.
He took a step closer so aggressively that I took a step back. I hit the wall and flinched as his fist went flying inches away from my face and through the drywall of the room. I gasped, looking at his arm trembling in anger beside me. I looked back at him with fear. He withdrew his arm from the wall and grabbed my chin. “Damn it, Kaitlyn! Don’t you understand? I would hurt you in order to keep you safe!”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. It was one of the most romantically angering things anyone had ever said to me. I had never seen him so furious, yet there were tears forming in his eyes.
He briskly wiped them away with the back of his hand before the evidence of his emotions went spilling down his face. “God damn you, woman.” With that out of his system he tilted my chin up further and took my mouth with his in a bruising display of force. I tried to wiggle out from in between him and the wall but he just responded by pressing in tighter, holding my body captive until he was done with it.
“Micah,” I pleaded with him in between breaths. “You’re hurting me.”
He breathed in my words, making them a part of him; nourished by them. He gave my lips a short reprieve in order to bite at my neck. His hands clawed themselves around my hips and down my thighs.
He stopped just as suddenly as he had started, and my feet hit the ground with a loud thud. I hadn’t even realized they were off the floor. He kept his forehead pressed against mine, breathing hard, straining to regain control of himself. “Sleep in my bed tonight. I have a lot to do and won’t be there until late, but I’ll check in on you.” He leaned in for what might have been another kiss, if you can call it that, but thought better of it and left the room abruptly.
I went to bed early, hoping to be asleep long before Micah came and long after he left. My dreams were chaotic; never once did I sense Micah beside me in bed but he was always there to pull me away from Shawn’s tainted grasp. I woke up in a sweat, suddenly too aware of what Micah’s absence would do to me. Who would save me from my nightmares? Certainly not Alex. He contained no more magic than a child’s wizard play set.
I quickly dressed and left the room, thankful to be away from Micah’s scent. It was too much to bear. I found Alex perched on a chair just outside the door with a magazine in one hand and a cup of coffee in another.
“Good grief, has it already begun?”
He looked at me, “Good morning to you, too, Sunshine.”
“I’m sorry, Alex, but I don’t agree with whatever Micah told you. I don’t mind spending time with you. It will hurt our friendship, however, if I start to feel trapped.”
He lowered his magazine and crossed his legs. “Ok. How about we just take this one hour at a time and see where it goes?”
I just looked at him.
“Come on, we’ll start with breakfast.” He stood, holding out his elbow for me. I couldn’t help but giggle. At least I didn’t have to worry about morning breath around this one.
Halfway through a bowl of cereal I finally calmed down enough to ask, “Has everyone left already?”
“Micah has. He went early to make sure there was a boat ready. Susan and Cato leave shortly. Cato wanted to see you before he left.”
“What for?”
He shrugged his shoulders, looking down. “Truthfully I’ve been trying to avoid him lately.”
I put my hand over his. “I’m finished. Why don’t you stay here while I hunt him down? He’s probably in the library. I’ll come right back here when I’m done.” I made an invisible cross over my heart. “Promise.”
Walking toward the library, I realized Micah knew it would work out this way. I would follow his rules not because he asked me to, but because Alex needed me as much as I needed him.
It could be worse
, I thought.
I could be handcuffed to the toilet right now
.
I found Cato in his library, where he usually was. He regarded me with cool, calculating eyes. There was no sign of his usual warm gestures. I had no idea what brought on the change, but perhaps it was a good thing he was leaving for however long.
“You wanted to see me?”
“Yes. Follow me.” He didn’t wait to see if I followed, leading me to one of the deepest corners of the library. “This section contains a lot of my personal notes on each of the Gaias we have had. There may be something larger than anything we have ever faced about to happen. We’ll need you as knowledgeable, as strong, as possible. While we’re gone, you should take some time and study these notes.”
I peered closer at the scribbles on the spines of the ledgers and notepads. They appeared to be in chronological order, dating from, “1853?”
He fixed me with the same cold look. “Some of them were passed down from my predecessors.”
I looked back, arms crossed. “Ok, I’ll take a look. Thank you for showing them to me.”
“Yes, well – they belong to all of us, really.” He moved to another part of the room. “Over here are my notes on discovered ‘hot-spots’ around the world. It includes energy depleting areas as well as areas that intensify the energy. I though you could expand on my research there, look for patterns.” He silently regarded his stacks of books and notes. I couldn’t tell if he was avoiding looking at me or just lost in thought.
“What is the matter, Cato?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
He let out a sigh and rubbed his temples. “Kaitlyn, you have to understand – up until a year ago everything was just as it should be. Then you came, and well, everything has turned upside down. I’ve lost Shawn, Micah is distracted, and no one is focused.”
“You don’t think Shawn would have done this even if I hadn’t come along?”
“There is no telling what he would have done. He’s no longer the son I thought I knew.”
“And you aren’t the Cato I thought I knew.” I fixed him with my own cold stare. “What did you and Alex do yesterday to that worker?”
He crossed his arms. “We did what we had to in order to get the information we needed. It was no less than what we’ve done in the past.”
I nodded my head, not in understanding but in recognition of what kind of leader we truly operated under. “Maybe, Cato. Just maybe, your world has been upside down all along and it is just now righting itself.” I left him there, nothing more to say to him. Besides, I needed to get back to Alex.
Thankfully, Alex was still waiting in the kitchen, taking advantage of my absence to finish off the last of our only package of toffee-nut cookies.
I offered a small smile. “I know you are going to save me one.”
Before he could answer, Susan stood up from behind a counter where I hadn’t seen her, “He won’t, but I will.” She snatched the last cookie out of his hand, stuck her tongue out at him, and surrendered the cookie to me.
“Aw, that’s just not right,” he complained. “I’ve got the worst sweet tooth today.”
“And I’m eating for two over here,” I said.
Susan held up my hand in triumph. “After one round, the winner by decision is Kaitlyn ‘The Pregnant Gaia’ Alder.” She turned to look at me. “I’d put a victory belt around you but I don’t think it would fit.”
“Maybe she should lay off the cookies, then.” Alex pouted.
We both stuck our tongues out at him. Susan put her arm around me and directed me a little way from Alex. “I have something for you.” She handed me a notebook from the counter. “I have a friend who is sort of an expert in the dreaming world – she sends me advice and notes every now and then; all of which I keep in here. Micah thought you could use this while he was gone.” She flipped through the pages and stopped halfway through the book. “This may be of particular use to you.”
I read the title,
Spell to Give Someone a Dream
.
“If you have a dream foretelling what Shawn might do or where he is, you can send it to Micah. Also, Alex knows how to get in touch with us using secure communications.”
I closed the notebook and tucked it under my arm. “Thanks – I’ll add it to the list of homework everyone else has given me to do while you are gone. How long will you be gone, anyway?”
“We don’t know – we hope to make it back before the baby is born.”
I looked at her, and my jaw dropped thinking it might take that long. “You have to be back by then. I don’t think I could do something like that by myself.” Susan’s presence truly would be missed during labor, even more so than Micah’s.
She placed a reassuring hand on my arm. “We will do our best, Kaitlyn. In the meantime, stay safe. I mean it. I don’t want to be left picking up the pieces of my brother.”
“Okay.” I looked down, suddenly finding myself fight back tears. I laughed nervously while I wiped them away. “I don’t know why I’m crying.”
She wrapped her arms around me, hugging tightly. “You’ve been through a lot lately. We all have. You are strong, Kaitlyn, and we can beat this. We can beat him.”
I hugged her back, afraid, both for her and me. “Come back – all of you. Except maybe Cato. I could take him or leave him at this point.”
It was her turn for a nervous laugh. We stood a few more moments comforting each other until she released me to say goodbye to Alex. Even across the kitchen I could see the awkward tension in their hug. I made a mental note to tease him about it later.
Susan’s departure seemed to leave us at a loss. We looked at each other helplessly.
“What now?” I asked.
He pulled something from behind an oversized package of dates no one ever seemed to touch. “Now, we dive into that stash of toffee-nut cookies I hid—”