Spiral (Spiral Series) (38 page)

“Has it happened?” she asked. I couldn’t tell what her voice held, but it was something like pity.

“Yes,” I yelled.

“Look,” said Gretchen. “I don’t know who’s done what, but everything here has been very quiet. Too quiet.”

“Do you know where your brother is?” I asked, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

Gretchen was silent for so long I thought she had hung up. “No,” she said. “I don’t.” Her voice was filled with worry. I knew she loved Jar more than anything. “But Pierce, if one hair on his head is harmed I will kill you. Don’t ever doubt it.”

“He’s fine,” I said, but I wasn’t sure if I said it to reassure her or myself.

“Pierce. . . .” Gretchen’s voice had gone softer.

“What?”

“If they went after Natalie, they know there’s only one person who’s going to try and save her.”

I pursed my lips. “I was always expecting that, Gretchen,” I said, using her full name, just the way she liked it.

“Be careful,” she said. After we hung up I looked around. Eric’s absence was troubling, and I spared a thought to wonder if he had been injured.

Knowing that it was out of my hands, I got to my feet and hurried outside. Maxie and Jill had gone to school. Jill couldn’t afford to miss any more school days before graduation, and Maxie didn’t know what else to do. I had talked her out of telling Natalie’s dad, knowing he wouldn’t be able to do anything. But I needed to find her. There wasn’t much time before the situation got a lot worse - if, in fact, it wasn’t already there.

I stepped out my front door. Having just gotten up, I wasn’t as ready as I might have been for the Visioner attack. As it was, when the burst of current shot towards my chest I fell clumsily on my side, tucking and rolling.

My shoulder hit the ground hard and I grunted. But the pain was gone instantly, so I sprang to my feet again, and keeping as low as I could I raced for cover behind a tree in the front yard. There was no sign of a Visioner anywhere.

“Is this your style?” I yelled. “To hide in the woods and attack from afar?”

Haley stepped out into the open. I knew she couldn’t avoid a show.

“You should have stayed inside,” she called out to me. I had long since realized that I went to school with a lunatic, but Haley wasn’t any ordinary high school student. She was at least my age and maybe a little older. But she didn’t usually do dirty work herself. I glanced over my shoulder, and sure enough there were six more Visioners coming towards me.

“Not good odds,” she called to me.

“Yeah,” I said. “For you.” Knowing that it was now or never, and not liking my odds either, I raised my hand. Instantly a shield sprang up around me and the thick air that was the Visioners’ signature was pushed back. My lungs felt clearer immediately.

“You should just leave her to us,” said Haley. “You realize that if she was out of the picture your life would be a lot simpler?”

“My life would be NOTHING with her out of the picture,” I yelled back. “There would be no point.” Every word I had said at that ridiculous romance slam had been true.

“Alright,” said Haley. “Have it your way.” She waved the other Visioners forward while she stood back.

“You’re wasting my time,” I called back. “There’s only one outcome here.”

Even from a distance I could see Haley raise her eyebrows. “Forever the cocky unicorn,” she sneered.

I put my back against the tree, braced my legs, and waited for them to attack.

My hands were chained and so were my legs. The second I tried to move, I heard them clink. I pulled against the chains, but they were secured to the wall. Glaring into the darkness I tried to think. I couldn’t rely on Pierce or Jackson to come and save me; how would they even find me? I had to save myself.

I tugged against the bonds, but nothing worked. I could see light seeping through the cracks where the walls of the house hit the ground and I wondered if anyone was looking for me. My friends had probably noticed that I wasn’t at school, but would Pierce? If he did, when? What could he do to help?

Now that there was a little light, I could see that the basement I was in was empty except for a rickety-looking wooden staircase. I couldn’t see the door at the top, but I wondered if it was locked.

Rolling onto my back, I examined the chains. Who kept chains in their basement anyway? How was that a good idea? Frowning, I saw no weaknesses in the links.

I would just have to use my hele. If I could fill something with
power for good, why not fill it with power to destroy it?

Concentrating, I wrapped both my hands around the cold metal and waited. I had never tried to put my power into something that wasn’t alive and injured before, but since I had never been kidnapped before either, I was going to give it a shot.

I closed my eyes and saw the white lights inside me. Calling to them felt as natural as breathing, and I sent them into the chain, asking them to fill it up until it burst. I felt the hele draw through my hands as they clenched and became numb.

I don’t know how long I sat there with my eyes closed, but I felt the chain when it snapped. The burst of metal bits dug into my exposed skin. When I opened my eyes and glanced down, I saw no marks anywhere on my body. There was also no chain left to examine. My power had filled it until it shattered.

If this had been a movie, I would have rubbed my wrists where the cuffs had chafed my skin. But the cuffs hadn’t hurt me, because I was a unicorn. There was no pain, and there were no marks to rub away.

Sighing, I glanced at the staircase. I hadn’t seen any of the Visioners since I had awakened, and I wondered if they planned to leave me down there forever.

Now that I was free I wasn’t sure what to do next. I had to get out of there, but the only way was up the stairs. What if there was a Visioner waiting for me at the top? I didn’t want to admit it, but I wished Jackson was there. The way he had come sprinting out of the woods to save me when I was with Pierce had been breathtaking.

“No,” I muttered. “He isn’t here. I have to do this on my own.”

It would have been nice if one of the powers of unicorns was mind to mind communication, I thought wryly.

I scrambled to my feet. My legs still felt stiff, even if I was a unicorn, and I knew that might not be good if I had to make a run for it. I didn’t know where I was, so I didn’t know how far I had to go to get to safety.

The stairs looked rickety and barely used. A layer of dust covered most of the steps, but I could see the indents of footprints on some of them, probably from whoever had brought me down there when I was unconscious.

There was no way I was getting up those stairs quietly, but I had to try. Carefully putting one foot in front of the other, I started the climb. Each step creaked and groaned under my weight, but I kept going. My heart rate quickened with each step I took. I was simultaneously getting closer to danger and closer to freedom.

By the time I reached the top of the stairs my hands were clenched so tightly they were starting to throb. The door was made of the same rickety wood as the stairs. It didn’t even look locked; it looked as if all I would have to do was push it. But before I did, I put my ear near it, hoping to hear voices, movement, someone clattering around a kitchen.

There was nothing but silence. Without any more hesitation I put both hands against the rough wood, took a deep breath, desperately willed my taut muscles to relax, and gave the door a push.

The creak was so loud that if there were people on the property, I was sure they would come running. I paused and waited, breathing hard.

When no one showed up to confront me, I cautiously moved into the large room. It turned out that I was in a barn, and the smell of hay was almost overwhelming. The floor was made of dirt and covered with bits of grass. The walls were lined with empty stalls, and I could see old tools hanging from the walls. The tall ceiling stretched above me, and somewhere along the barn’s length a fan was whirling.

The door at the far end was open and I moved towards it, walking along the wall. In case I had to take cover, that seemed better than walking right out in the open.

I was feet away from freedom when a shadow stepped in front of the doorway I was making for. It wasn’t someone I recognized. A man with red hair and freckles, he wore overalls and a tight smile. His eyes flashed when he caught sight of me.

“So, you got away did you? Well, not for long.” His voice was light, not really the voice of a kidnapper. His stance was threatening.

“Are you a Visioner?” I asked, watching him and shifting so that my back was to the wall. He looked fit, like he could kick the teeth out of someone who offended him.

He laughed, but as if he was perfectly ready for a fight. “What’s it to you?”

I shrugged, sure that he could hear my heart beating wildly in my chest. “I haven’t been doing this very long, but I don’t like Visioners.”

The man grinned at me, spreading his hands wide. It was then that I saw his belt, filled with vials and knives. Definitely threatening. “You’re feisty.”

“You’re evil,” I countered, not knowing what else to say. I hadn’t expected to have a conversation with my kidnapper or to see anyone but Haley - who I now knew was a powerful Visioner.

“Look,” I said, trying to act tougher than I felt. “I’m leaving. This is ridiculous. You aren’t going to kill me or use my Spiral or anything else you think you’re going to do. It’s not going to happen.”

The red-haired man raked me with his eyes as if to say I was nothing. “Bold words for someone who just found out she was Spiral and needs guys around to protect her.”

I scowled at him. “I don’t need anyone to protect me.”

“Oh, no?” the man asked. His smile had turned cold and nasty. His hand moved so fast I didn’t even realize he had thrown one of the vials until I saw a red liquid seeping towards me. Forgetting about my hele, I ducked. I felt my muscles protest the fast movement as I dodged away from the man’s attack and raced for one of the stalls.

The red-haired man’s eyes hardened to points as he threw two more vials at me. I knew I couldn’t let the liquid touch me, but I wasn’t going to be able to move out of the way of two vials coming from different directions. Remembering how I had filled the chain with my hele, I surprised the man by turning towards the vials.

Putting both hands up, I filled the air in front of me with pure power. The vials slammed into the wall I had created and disappeared. I felt a tremor through my body as they hit and relief wash over me as the shield held.

My smugness was short-lived. The man, obviously sick of wasting his vials, charged. He hit me so hard I went flying backwards. The air left my lungs and my stomach heaved as I slammed into a stall door.

Stars burst behind my eyes, and if it hadn’t been for the man’s shoulder driving into my chest I would have collapsed to the floor. I tried to push him away, but my body temporarily wasn’t working. I let out a muffled cry of pain as fear overtook me. I was no match for this man in a fight. Maybe if I had been experienced at wielding my hele I would have had a chance, but that was in some alternate universe, not the one I was caught in.

Luckily I didn’t have to fight him, because I had a very good Watchful and he had found me after all. One split second I was trying to push the red-haired man off me, the next he was ripped from my grip and I was falling to the floor.

I saw Jackson’s thick head of brown hair, and then I saw nothing but a tangle of bodies. They crashed to the floor, rolling around in the dirt and hay. I couldn’t tell where one person started and the other stopped as they rolled and grappled with each other. A light dust cloud poofed out from the ground.