Captivate Me (Book One: The Captivated Series) (26 page)

Kai went for Gabriel’s chest with the
dagger. “Please!” I mouthed in the direction of the four heads. “Do
something.”

Almost immediately, an
object shot into the sky. I watched as it soared in the direction
of Kai and Iris. Feathers and a beak came into focus.
Dawson!

He swooped down, unbeknownst to them,
and took hold of the dagger as Kai was breaking the
skin.

Kai gasped.

The dove squawked.

“What the
hell
?” Iris barked,
following Dawson with her eyes. Furious, she reached out with her
hand and knocked him from the sky with a swift blow.

Anna’s squeak echoed through the
woods, and I could hear Levi shoosh-ing her.

When Dawson fell unconscious to the
ground just beyond the other side of the clearing, he morphed back
into human form. Kai and Iris ran to stand next to him, evaluating
what had happened. Kai cut his eyes to where Anna’s squeak came
from. Blood drained from his face. “We aren’t hidden,” he
whispered.

Iris smacked his shoulder. “No
shit!”

“Hands where I can see them!” said a
commanding voice.

Kai and Iris jumped.

“Now!” it barked again.

The officers came into view, their
guns aimed at Iris and Kai. That’s when Levi, Anna and Ronnie stood
from behind the log, eyes blazing, stances wide and ready. I
couldn’t help but smile as Anna’s shaking hands glowed bright with
fire. They were pissed.

Iris’ dove swooped down and landed on
her shoulder; it hunkered down protectively. Iris regarded their
army with a smirk, not intimidated in the least. “Oops! Was he your
friend?” She uttered the spell to hide us. “Good try,
though.”

The officers lowered their weapons.
“What the…” one of them said.

Before heading back to Gabriel, Kai
bent to grab the dagger from Dawson’s hand and gave him a swift
punch to the face. Dawson moaned.

I glanced back at the others who were
talking feverishly, confused about where we had gone, and I
whispered the spell to undo it. Iris and Kai were none the wiser.
“I swear, it shouldn’t be this difficult,” Iris complained on their
walk back. “These damn gifteds are a thorn in my ass.”

While Levi and the rest gathered their
wits again, I decided to give them some time. I zeroed in on the
dagger while I could see it, and ripped it from Kai’s grip. It fell
beside the log the others stood behind. “Grab it!” I
yelled.

Iris turned to me, hand outstretched
and squeezing my throat as hard as she could. Gagging, I squirmed,
tears stinging my eyes. “Get the knife, Kai!” she
ordered.

“I said hands in the air!” the cop
yelled.

“They can still see us,” Kai
gasped.

“No shit! Iris said. “Get the damn
knife!”

The officer took a step toward them.
“Don’t make me-“

With Iris’ other hand, she swept it
through the air like she was swatting away a pesky bug, and the
officers went airborne. Their bodies landed with thuds a few yards
away. No moaning or anything. The force must have knocked them out
like it had Dawson. This time Ivy squealed.

Iris now squeezed my throat with both
hands, her eyes determined. She was pissed and going for the kill.
I fought to keep my eyes from rolling back in my head and cut them
to Levi. He plucked the dagger from the ground and tucked it in his
back pocket. He looked Kai square in the eyes. Anna’s hands glowed
with fire, her eyes terrified but resolute. “Tell that bitch to get
her hands off of Kat, or Anna here will set you on
fire!”

Kai paused and held up his
hands.

Iris squeezed my throat tighter.
“Gabriel gave you the spell, didn’t he?!”

My body was going limp; I could feel
myself slipping into darkness.

“Let go of her!” Levi
ordered.

Through the blackness, I saw a burst
of light. Kai screamed. Her bird screeched, and Iris released my
throat.

“I told you to let go of
her!”

As I gasped, my lungs and throat
burned from the cold air. All I could see now were
spots.

“Kai!” Iris yelped. Groggily, I
blinked through the stars and spots in my vision to see her hunched
over him as he lay on the ground. She was frantically patting out
the flames on half his body.

“You’re next, blondie!” Levi
barked.

“You evil little bastards!” she yelled
as she patted the last flame. Kai rolled on the ground in agony.
The flames had singed half of his dreadlocks and burned through his
clothes. Welts and blisters were already forming on his face,
shoulder and upper arm. Third degree burns.

She raised her hand to swipe at
Anna.

No!

Ronnie held up his hands, the leaves
on the ground in front of her blowing in her face as a warning. Her
bird flapped its wings against the wind. “I wouldn’t do that if I
were you!” Ronnie cautioned.

The others darted behind
him.

She paused, sizing him up.
This was the first time I’d ever seen her broken, uncertain. The
others hurting Kai must have gotten to her, and she probably
realized she was losing. Even with the cops and Dawson unconscious,
she was outnumbered… and out-gifted. I couldn’t help but smugly
look at her and think in my best mock southern voice,
how’s
this
for destiny?

But whatever hesitation she’d had, her
pride and ego got the best of her. Her mouth set into a hard line,
and her eyes narrowed with determination. I could practically hear
her thoughts – “I’m not losing to a bunch of idiot teenagers!”
Calling his bluff, she raised her hand higher for the first
blow.

Something wild flickered across
Ronnie’s face, and with a strong gust of wind, Iris and her bird
were thrown against a tree next to Piper. Sickening cracks sounded
as their bodies flopped to the ground in a heap of feathers, blonde
hair and black clothes. Within seconds, her should-have-been dead
body attempted to piece itself back together on the inside, evident
by her unnatural twitches and moans.

“Her head,” I coughed out. “Cut it
off.”

Blade drawn, Levi hurried to finish
the job, a steely grit behind his eyes. This bitch would never have
the chance to hurt us again.

It was over.

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

___________________

Gruesome Truth

While Ronnie stood over a wailing and
still-writhing Kai to make sure he didn’t try to get away, Ivy and
Anna ran back to the school to get more help. “And get Nurse
Plunkett!” Levi yelled after them as he worked on my ropes with the
knife. “It’ll take the ambulances at least thirty minutes to get
here.”

“Oh, shit… sorry,” he said and blotted
my arm with his shirt. I guess he’d nicked me, but my skin was numb
from a combination of the cold and the ropes slowing my
circulation. I didn’t feel it.

“It’s okay,” I said hoarsely and
winced. My throat was on fire, and I tasted the metallic tang of
blood on the back of my tongue. Damn Iris – she’d ruptured
vessels.

“Don’t try to talk,” he soothed. “That
bitch did a number on you.”

I looked ahead to Gabriel. His arm
still dribbled blood. Someone needed to put pressure on it to stop
the bleeding.

“There…” Levi said as he cut the last
rope. I locked my knees to prepare to stand on my own, but my legs
felt like jelly. I grabbed Levi’s arm.

“Steady,” he said, slipping his arm
around me as an anchor, “let’s sit you down against this tree until
Nurse Plunkett gets here.”

Once rested on the ground, I nodded in
Gabriel’s direction. “His arm,” I coughed out.

“I know. He’ll be fine.” He took off
his jacket and draped it over me.

“No,” I argued. “Needs
pressure.”

“Okay, okay,” he conceded. “Just quit
talking.”

He cut a strip of fabric from the
bottom of his shirt with the knife, and on his way to Gabriel, he
regarded Kai with a sour look. “Hope you like prison, ya sicko,” he
mumbled. Ronnie snickered. “Don’t drop the soap, bro.”

Huddled under the thick jacket that
smelled of him, I watched as Levi tied the fabric around Gabriel’s
upper arm to slow the bleeding, and if I could have managed anymore
tears, I would have cried. Because of him, we were going to be
okay. We would live to see another day. And believe me, the irony
wasn’t lost on me – unknowingly, he’d helped save the boy I had
left him for. Gabriel and I owed him so much; we owed him and the
others everything.

Hasty footfalls vibrated the ground
beneath me, and I looked in the direction of the school. Nurse
Plunkett and the Principal were on their way along with a swarm of
officers.

Yes, we were going to be
okay.

* * *

Holding Levi’s jacket tightly around
me, I shuffled beside the officers carrying Gabriel to his tent to
rest until the paramedics got here. According to Nurse Plunkett,
who’d cleaned and put gauze over Gabriel’s wound, it for sure
needed stitches, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he needed a blood
transfusion, as well. He’d lost a lot. At least I had peace in
knowing he wouldn’t die from his wounds; Kai hadn’t gotten the
chance to cut out his heart.

As we walked, I glanced over my
shoulder at Levi and Ronnie talking to an officer to give their
statements. The sun was now almost completely hidden beneath the
horizon, but there was still enough light left to pick up the
confusion that morphed to painful clarify on Levi’s face as he saw
me walking away beside the boy with the hurt arm. I’m sure the
pieces were falling together – the boy was Gabe. I looked ahead
again, reminding myself to find him, Ronnie, and the others later
to thank them for saving us, although no words in existence would
ever suffice. There weren’t enough words in the English language,
in any language, to sufficiently thank another for risking their
own life to save yours. But I had to try.

When we came to Gabriel’s tent, I
pointed into it with a nod. They laid him on the bed and hurried
back outside to get someone else situated.

Gently, I slid the covers over him,
and then rummaged through the folded clothes in the trunk beside
his bed. His twitching eyelids and fingers told me he would wake
soon, and I didn’t want him to be freezing on top of being in pain.
I found a pair of pants and a shirt and dressed him like a sleeping
child, taking care not to wake him any earlier than necessary.
After dressing myself in a pair of Gabriel’s sweatpants I’d had to
roll three times, and a t-shirt, I settled next to him, resisting
the urge to pick up his hand and stroke it. I wasn’t sure how I
felt about him anymore, about us, but I didn’t have the capacity to
think about that right now. I guess the fact that I was here beside
him until help arrived was evidence I still cared pretty
deeply.

Restless, I raked my eyes
over his room – his books, his stacks of sheet music, his guitar.
Earlier he’d been in here playing peacefully before I’d interrupted
him. Was he thinking of me then? What did he really feel for me?
Memories of our first kiss breezed through my mind. Was all of that
a lie? My teeth clenched, fighting the emotions.
Stop
, I told
myself.
Not now.

Gabriel stirred. “Kat? W-what
happened?”

I met his heavy eyes, now resisting
the urge to swoop down and cradle his face in my hands while
dusting kisses all over him. I stared at him blankly. Where would I
even begin to explain everything that had happened? Would he even
believe me? Despite fighting my emotions, they bubbled over anyway,
tears filling my eyes. Whether he’d been lying to me or not,
whether I cared for him or not, I was about to crush him with the
truth about who Kai and Iris were, what had happened to his brother
Raymond, and what had almost happened to all of us. I contemplated
waiting, but decided it was better that he know now. If the medics
took him away, he’d see the evidence of everything outside. I’d
rather him hear it from me.

Outside, an officer carried Piper’s
limp, naked body to another tent. When Gabriel saw her, he tried
clambering from the bed but lost his balance. I caught his arm and
helped him sit.

“What’s wrong with-” His words broke,
his eyes going distant and snapping back to the present – the drugs
were still wearing off. He regarded his bloody bandage in horror.
“Jesus, what happened?” He woozily rocked to the side, and I caught
his arm again.

“It’s okay,” I soothed and winced from
the pain of talking, but I had to put on my big girl panties and
deal with it. “Lay back down. The drugs are still wearing
off.”

“Drugs?” he asked, ignoring my request
to lie back down.

I offered a sympathetic smile.
“Yes.”

His eyes went distant as he grasped at
his last conscious memory. “Oh, God,” he sighed with a chuckle.
“Kai really did accidentally drug us, didn’t he? And I fell and cut
my arm.” He grimaced. “Iris is pissed, isn’t she?”