Captivate Me (Book One: The Captivated Series)

CAPTIVATE ME

Book One:

The Captivated Series

By: S.J. Pierce

Cover Art by Brittany Bowman

Edited by Lana Baker

Published by S.J. Pierce at
Smashwords

© SJ
Pierce, 2014. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the
publisher or author.

Dedicated to Brayden and Lilly – two amazing
kids who are gifted in love and brilliance. You inspire me
everyday.

~

“Go confidently in the direction of your
dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

-Henry David Thoreau

PROLOGUE

___________________

A Breath

One breath. One simple, precious
breath. It’s something you don’t think about until there’s a
possibility that there might not be another. I have to admit, it
was something I never fully appreciated either – the whooshing of
air into my lungs, saturating my body with life. I suppose it takes
a brush with death to do that, to make someone fully understand
just how precious it really is.

I shuddered as I awoke, drawing in
that lungful of coveted air, my body immobile. I had been tied to a
tree.

Clutching a dagger close to his side,
my killer stared at me with wild, determined eyes. Never would I
have suspected this; he’d always seemed so caring. Now, he wanted
something from me, and by the way a hopeful smirk played with his
lips, I knew it was more than my last breath he was
after.

CHAPTER ONE

___________________

New Beginnings

As I sat in the back of the classroom,
pushing a wooden pencil across my desk with my mind – or, with
telekinesis, as some call it – I thought about what Principal
Hughes had said to me when I’d arrived two weeks ago; “You will be
accepted here. There will no longer be a need for you to hide who
you are. Feel free to be yourself.”

The words were a colossal relief; my
parents had never discouraged the use of my gift, but were adamant
that it stay hidden from the ‘regular’ humans. And I never
completely understood why, until one day toward the end of my
junior year I absentmindedly used my gift to close my locker from
the threshold of Mr. Thomas’ Science room as the bell rang. It was
a knee-jerk reaction; if I had been late one more time to his
class, I would have been sent away to detention. Again. But
unfortunately, Jenny Rochester saw the whole thing, and before I
knew it the entire school was writing “witch,” “Satan’s mistress,”
and other clever nicknames all over my locker, desks, and
eventually, car.

But their accusations couldn’t have
been further from the truth. As a matter of fact, I was the
offspring of a fallen Angel and a prophet, both of them blessed in
their own rights. My older half-brother, Micah had a gift as well;
he could see spirits in other dimensions. I guess you could say
‘remarkable’ ran rampant in our family. We were all gifted, except
for my younger, full-blooded brother Sam. His DNA was never infused
with whatever caused us to be this way, and he never seemed to
mind; probably because he had witnessed our struggles with
pretending to be normal in a world where the supernatural wasn’t
well accepted. He’d sat up with me the entire night after my car
had been spray-painted with the words “witch bitch” and hugged me
as I cried. It should have been my closest friend, Liz, but even
she had turned her back on me. I sometimes wondered if she’d even
bothered to ask anyone what had happened to me. Unfortunately, I’d
finished the rest of the school year and a better part of the
summer with no friends before I took a plane and taxi ride to this
boarding school in the middle of the Colorado
wilderness.

“And what about you, Ms. Walsh?” the
teacher asked from the front of the room.

My hands flew to my lap, and my pencil
halted. Sarah threw a friendly, amused glance over her shoulder
from her seat in front of me. Her pale grey eyes would appear
spooky if you didn’t know why -- or couldn’t accept why. She had
the enviable gift of reading one’s thoughts by staring at the
center of a person’s forehead. She was always careful, however, not
to intrude on one’s private ponderings, and her eyes would remain
fixated to yours, never wandering above them unless you gave her
permission. She was a favorite amongst the students, and a favorite
of mine. I considered her one of my best friends, if one could even
label someone that after only two weeks. But I felt comfortable
enough with that term, because at Midland Pines, everyone accepted
you with open arms and without judgment – such a contrast to the
environment at my old school.

“Umm… Sorry, Ms. Newton. I didn’t hear
the question.”

“That’s okay, Kat. I only wanted to
know if everyone had a suitable pencil for the test.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, smiling.
Normally, teachers would become impatient with students whose minds
didn’t stay on task, but the teachers here were more than
understanding; they gave every student a wide berth, within reason.
Gifted human’s minds tended to stray more often than not, hence my
issues with getting to class on time.

“Good. As soon as everyone receives
test papers, you’ll have precisely thirty minutes,” she said as she
peered over her wire-rimmed glasses.

“Yes, Ms. Newton,” everyone
replied.

Sarah passed the last paper back to
me, and I pressed the tip of my pencil to the line on the top right
to scribble my name and date. Mom’s voice echoed through my mind;
“Remember, you don’t have to be the smartest, but I want you to try
your best.”

I closed my eyes tight and sighed; I
wouldn’t be giving it my best. Levi had kept me up past midnight.
We’d snuck out to the courtyard, and he had entertained me with one
of his ‘illusions.’ That was his gift – to make people see what he
wanted by touching them. Last night was particularly entertaining
as he went through a variety of jungle animals - one a cougar, and
one a python. I had to admit, the python had made me squeal, which
I think he found amusing. He’d made it slither between my feet
below our bench.

“You jerk!” I’d cried at the time,
shoving him gently with both hands.

Chuckling, he’d wrapped his arms
around me. “Sorry, babe.”

Babe
, I thought, still smiling as I shook my head and pretended
to focus on the test. That was his pet name for me, but I wasn’t
sure how I felt about it. As much as he wanted me to be, I wasn’t
his ‘babe’… yet. We hadn’t even kissed. Did I enjoy spending time
with him? Yes. Was I certain that I wanted to be his girlfriend?
No. Not yet. That was another thing my mom had always told me –
when you meet “the one,” you’ll know. They’ll captivate your heart
the moment you lay eyes on them. He certainly didn’t do that to me,
but I
was
finding
him endearing in many ways.

I had always wondered, though, if my
mom’s words of wisdom were finite – if they applied to everyone.
Maybe those who found their one great love were the lucky few, and
maybe the rest of us would have to settle for less than
earth-shattering, but still mildly satisfying, loves. Levi could
fulfill that standard, and perhaps that would have to do. I didn’t
want to wait my entire life for the all-consuming captivation my
mother spoke of, never to find it, and then miss out on love
altogether. That notion was the only thing that had opened me up to
Levi – besides his good looks and charming personality – and
allowed him to sweep me away into the darkest hours of the night to
spend time together when we should have been asleep.

A cough from across the room
interrupted my brooding, and my attention snapped back to the test.
I yawned, pulling my long raven locks into a ponytail to keep them
out of my face. My quest for the truth on love and relationships
could wait; I didn’t want to have to explain a failed test to my
parents.

* * *

I finished the test sooner than I had
anticipated, but I hoped it wasn’t because I was just really fast
at giving wrong answers. I’d know for sure Monday
morning.

After triple-checking my work, I
stared at the clock, pleading with it to move faster. Lunch was
next and I wanted to have enough time to rush back to my living
quarters to get a textbook for my next class and back to the slop
hall, as we so fondly called it, and eat. In addition being easily
distracted, I was also absentminded. That must have been a ‘gifted’
thing too… or a ‘Kat’ thing.

Five minutes to eleven
thirty, I had my book bag slung over my shoulder, ready to go. I’d
have to avoid being sucked into a conversation with Sarah if I had
any hope of getting to the slop hall in time to not have to shovel
my food down. I
hated
being late to lunch; it was usually the comic relief of the
day to sit with Levi and his soccer buddies. Besides, I was
starving.
Maybe Ivy –
another mind reader – would be eager to finish her and Sarah’s
earlier conversation about Ivy’s jerk-of-an-ex-boyfriend back in
India and snag her up as I left.

“All right, class,” Ms. Newton said.
“Pass your papers forward.”

Everyone complied, and Ms. Newton gave
one last instruction before consulting the mirror on her desk and
reapplying her bright red lipstick; “And enjoy the scrimmage game
tonight! Hopefully the weather will cooperate.”

“Thank you, Ms. Newton,” most replied,
although some had already broken into clusters of conversation. And
thankfully, so did Sarah and Ivy.

One minute left and I ran out of
patience. Ever so discreetly, I lifted my finger and gave the
minute hand a nudge from the back of the room – one of the secret
privileges of moving things with your mind. I leapt from my seat.
“See you at lunch!” I trilled to Sarah and darted for the hallway,
but I wasn’t sure she’d heard me over Ivy’s enthusiastic
name-calling. Today, her ex-boyfriend was an
“ass-muncher.”

* * *

I tried not to look like too big of a
dork as I zigzagged over the checkerboard floor and through the
maze we called a school. The first day I’d gotten lost going to
three of my six classes; I then made a mental note to suggest they
give newbies a map of the place, which looked like a smaller
version of a college campus – an old, but picturesque college
campus like Princeton or Yale. And by ‘smaller version,’ I mean two
large buildings – one for the freshmen and sophomores, and one for
the juniors and seniors – with a recreation area and a courtyard
between. And honestly, I’d never been to either Princeton or Yale,
and hadn’t even planned to in the future – my grades weren’t bad,
but they were less than stellar. I’d actually seen both campuses in
movies and thought of them my first day here because of the aging
bricks, gothic-inspired windows and spires on the roof, almost like
an old cathedral or castle – borderline spooky with a touch of
enchantment.

By the time I arrived at my room in
the senior dorm wing, panting and hungrier than ever, I’d wasted
five of the forty-five minutes I had for lunch. Still, not a bad
time considering I’d had to elbow my way through a swarm of
students. I rushed to my wooden desk in front of the only window
and squirreled my calculus book away in my bag. As I whirled for
the door, there stood Principal Hughes in his grey wool suit and a
red-headed girl I’d never seen before. Puffiness rimmed her glassy
brown eyes, and her freckled cheeks had flushed a bright pink. Had
she been crying? She gripped a bulky plaid suitcase in one hand and
a black tote in the other.

At first, Principal Hughes looked
surprised that I was in my room when I should have been at lunch,
but then he offered a thankful smile. “Kathrin,” he said, placing a
hand on the small of the girl’s back and guiding her into the room,
“this is Anna-Grace.”

I let go of the breath I’d realized I
was holding; I needed to remember that while being in the wrong
place on purpose at my old school was a punishable offense, they
didn’t seem to care as much about that here. I extended my hand for
a shake and studied her features, looking for something to
associate with the first letter of her name – my way of remembering
so many names so fast in a new school. I zeroed in on the pink
apples of her cheeks. Apples. Anna. “Anna-Grace… nice to meet you.
I’m Kat.”