Captivate Me (Book One: The Captivated Series) (22 page)

“There’s still time for you,
Kat.”

That’s when I felt it – a sharp,
throbbing pain in my left side. I looked in horror. Red flowed from
my rib cage like a river, flooding down my leg and gathering in a
pool around my feet.

“Kat, go!”

I gaped at the life seeping out of me,
blanching, and looked back to Sarah. “Go…” she said weakly, her
eyes glazing over. I was losing her.

“No!” I cried, and went back to the
ropes despite the pain radiating through my body, every movement
stabbing into my wound like a hot poker.

Her head lolled to the
side with one last wheeze
. No!
I fell to my knees, too in shock to
wail.

“She’s at peace now,” a voice said
behind me.

I jumped.
Gabriel?

I leapt to my feet to run to him, but
stopped in my tracks. He too had stab wounds all over, his face
pallid and sunken. “Not you too…” I whimpered.

He reached for me with a weak cough.
“We’ll all be at peace soon, beautiful.”

I stepped back. “No. It’s not over.
We’re immortal, remember? Let’s go find the nurse.” A gathering of
figures outside the door stole my attention. Raymond, Piper,
Colton, Brad and Aubrey, they all looked like they had been victims
in a horror movie- slashed to pieces, more blood than clothing. A
devastating sadness crushed me, weakening my knees. Why was this
happening?

“Beautiful,” he said again, wrapping
me into an embrace. But it felt hollow this time. Cold. “I’m sorry
I didn’t see it coming.”

“See
what
coming? What happened to us? We
aren’t dying, are we? We wouldn’t die from this?”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, his tears
dripping onto my shoulder, “so sorry, Kat.” He then pulled away,
revealing a gaping hole in his chest where his heart used to
be.

“How…”

He pointed to mine, and I followed
with my eyes. My own chest had a hole carved the size of a fist. Is
that why I was so cold? So rigid? Someone had taken my heart, and I
was dying? Dead?

Blackness covered my
vision, my knees weakening. I’d lost too much blood. Gabe caught me
before I collapsed to the floor. “I love you,” I said, thinking
this would be my last chance to ever say it. I then thought of my
family, my brother. Tears flowed freely.
I
love you guys.

And that’s when I heard it – a ringing
off in the distance.

“I love you too,” Gabe whispered into
my ear. “I’m sorry we didn’t have more time together.”

The ringing got louder. Almost
deafening. Gabe was trying to say something else, but I couldn’t
hear. I didn’t bother talking over the noise; I just let him hold
me, yielding to the darkness, the pain and numbing cold.

Ringing. Ringing. Ringing. So much
ringing.

A voice registered through the clamor.
“You gonna get that, Kat?”

Anna?

My eyes snapped open and I gasped,
sitting up in bed. Morning had passed, everything inside our room
awash with the joyful glow of midday. And it was warm… no more
cold.

“Well?” Anna said, sticking her head
out of the bathroom with her fiery hair twisted around the rod of
her curling iron.

I blinked into awareness. The ringing
was the phone.

I summoned it with my hand and put it
to my ear. My dad’s frantic voice was on the other end. “Kat! I
have that feelin’ again. What’s wrong, baby?”

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

___________________

Bound

“I’m fine. Hold on a sec.”
I put the phone to my chest, dragged in a lungful of air and
released it.
Everything’s okay. Just a
dream…
or was it? What if it was
prophetic? I remembered what my dad had said the last time we spoke
– he knew his dreams were prophetic when they seemed real. When he
couldn’t tell the difference between a dream and reality. This
dream was so real I actually thought I was dying. The cold still
lingered in my bones.
Oh, God.

My dad’s muffled voice rolled up from
my chest. “Kat?”

I drew in another calming breath and
placed the phone to my ear. “Here, dad. Sorry.”

“What’s goin’ on?”

“I’m fine.”

“You already said that. Now what’s
goin’ on?”

I blinked away the tears,
my body quivering.
So much,
dad.

“Kat, if you don’t answer me, I’m
takin’ the next plane-”

“My dreams,” I blurted out. “I think
I’m having your dreams.”

It took him a second. “You think your
dreams are prophetic?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that why you asked me about mine
the other day?”

“Yes.”

Silence. “Kat. What did you dream,
baby?”

“I-” I paused. Should I tell him? It
would only make him worry. I would see him soon anyway when we show
up for our unexpected visit and could tell him then. “I just
dreamed that my friends and I got in a fight.”

He let out a long, slow breath.
“Seriously, Kat? That’s what you dreamed?”

“Yeah.” Regretful, I
pressed my hand against my forehead. I hated lying to my dad.
I
never
lied to
my dad.

“That’s what had me so worried? I
dropped my paintbrush and splattered paint all over the floor
because the feelin’ was so intense. And then when you didn’t answer
the phone right away…”

“I’m fine, dad. Promise.”

“Okay…”

More silence. “Well, I hope everything
is okay. Call me later.”

I cringed inwardly.
Everything was definitely
not
okay. Maybe when I snuck out tonight it could be
for good; I would just have to plan my departure without Iris’
help. I wanted out of this school with the disappearing people,
especially now that I’d dreamed I’d been stabbed inside it. Leaving
as soon as possible never sounded better. Besides, I couldn’t deny
a specific horrifying detail of my dream – my heart had been cut
out. Considering I was a hybrid, that meant the obvious – witches.
Iris and Kai would need to know about this, as well as my gift for
prophecy. I found my voice, albeit a little shaky. “I
will.”

“Love you, princess. Here’s your
mom.”

Of course,
I thought. She’d probably been hovering over him
the entire call. “Okay, love you too, dad.”

“Kat, sweetie?” My mom sounded as
frantic as my dad.

“I’m fine, mom. Just a bad dream about
my friends.”

“Well your dad was ready to take the
next plane out there. Had me worried sick!”

“I’m sorry. Everything’s okay.”
Mostly. I’m still breathing. I wondered if the school had ever
called them about the missing girl. Did they know what was going on
here? Surely not, or they would already be here. I decided not to
say anything. That too would worry them, and I was leaving as soon
as I could anyway. I would be safer with Iris and her family than I
ever would be here. Or anywhere, for that matter.

“Not your fault, dear.” She heaved a
sigh, and I imagined the look she got when she was relieved – eyes
pressed tight, shoulders slumped, hand over her heart. God, I
missed her.

“So, Kat,” she said, changing the
subject, “the dance is in a few days. You excited?”

Shit.
The dance. I’d completely forgotten. Not that it mattered…
with Jillian missing I doubt there would even be one. Even if there
was, I definitely wouldn’t be going.

“Yep,” I replied, maintaining the
illusion that everything was fine here.

Anna emerged from the
bathroom with her hair falling in perfect spirals around her
shoulders and a towel wrapped around her body. She fingered through
her clothes in the closet. Being midday, and seeing that we were
still holed up in our room, I guessed the school had delivered
another message for us to stay put until further notice, which also
meant they
hadn’t
found Jillian. Anna must have been the one to answer this
time as I was dead to the world – poor choice of words, I admit –
and decided to let me sleep in.

I noticed an untouched
tray on my dresser – my breakfast. I checked the clock beside
me.
Eleven-thirty.

“So are you and Levi still going
together?”

Ugh.
Stab to the ribcage – another poor choice of words. I debated
my reply.

“Uh oh. What happened?”

I sighed. My mom could take the award
for being the most intuitive away from my dad sometimes. Anna
strolled back into the bathroom with her clothes of choice. I
lowered my voice. “It didn’t work out.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, sweetie. You’re
going by yourself, then? You’ll still have fun. Just hang out with
your friends.”

Friends.
I glanced at the bathroom door with an aching
heart. If I could take my friends with me when I left, I would. But
that wasn’t an option. Iris wouldn’t have it. Hopefully the school
would do the wise thing and send everyone home soon. The cops could
keep everyone safe until then. I made a mental note to check on
Sarah as soon as I hung up with mom. It could have been from the
dream, but I still had a bad feeling.

“Yeah, going by myself,” I finally
answered.

I heard her feet padding across the
floor – more than likely to be out of ear-shot of my dad – and I
knew what she was about to ask. “So no other boys are catching your
eye?”

Yep – boy talk. Gabriel’s gorgeous
smile flashed into memory. “Well…”

“Well?”

“Yes.” She might as well know. She’d
be meeting him soon.

“And?”

“He’s…” I held on to the
word for a breath. “Wonderful.”
To say the
very least.

“He must really be something, sweetie.
I can hear it in your voice.”

“Really?” My lips spread into a smile,
almost forgetting all the seriousness around me. Gabriel had a
knack for doing that to me, and I suppose that was a good
thing.

“Really,” she replied, her voice
bright. She was smiling too. “So you must be really drawn to him,
then, to be so smitten in such a short amount of time.”

If it had been anyone else
but my mom, I would have taken that as sugar-coated criticism. But
she was a hopeless romantic, always has been. At least since I was
old enough to know what being a ‘hopeless romantic’ was.
There’s someone you’re fated
to
, she always said.
You just have to find them.
“That’s
a good way to put it,” I replied.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Did you ever feel…
a literal
pull
to
someone? Like a physical pull? Not just drawn to them because, ya
know, they’re cute?”

I think I heard her gasp.

“Mom?”

“I, uh…”

I waited a good few seconds.
“Mom!”

“Your dad,” she finally answered.
“But…”

“Mom, will you just spill it
already?”

“Okay, sweetie. Okay.”

Uh oh, she was putting on her ‘serious
voice.’ I braced myself.

“Wait a minute. Shouldn’t you be in
class? You have time for this?”

Crap.
“It’s lunchtime,” I lied. Well, halfway lied. They’d be
bringing the next tray any minute. “We can make phone calls if we
want to.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I had a
‘literal pull’ to your father back when I was an angel. I know I
haven’t talked much about my past life, but I suppose now is as
good a time as any.” I heard a chair creak as she sighed. She was
sitting down –
definitely
a sign she was getting ready for a heavy talk. “I
was called a Protector Angel, and was assigned by my Elders to
watch over your father.”

“Watch over him?”

“Yes. Protect him from
someone who wanted to hurt him. He wanted to hurt
a lot
of people,
actually. But I won’t get into that today. I know you have classes
in a few. But yes, honey, I was assigned solely to him because of
his gift of prophecy, to make sure he stayed alive. But one of my
gifts as an angel was a sort of ‘draw’ I was given to him to know
where he was at all times. Like my soul was drawn to his. Bound, I
guess you could say.”

“Oh.” Sounded familiar.

“I’m guessing that rings a
bell?”

I hesitated. “Yeah. What do you think
it means? For me, I mean.”

She sighed again. “Beats me. And you
care for him, don’t you?”

“From the first time I laid eyes on
him.”

“Oh, sweetie,” she breathed, and I
didn’t know if she meant it in a sad way or not.

“Is this bad, mom?”

“I don’t know, baby. I
mean… you caring for him is a great thing.
Beyond
great. But the pull… I’m not
sure what that means. My pull to your father got stronger when he
was in danger. I’m wondering if somehow you’ve inherited some of my
angelic traits.”