Binds (17 page)

“Their children … the humans and the Fae … that’s how Mages were created, isn’t it?” I can’t help but comment. Reece has pulled me into the story unwittingly, and even though I still have a hard time believing in the existence of fairies, my inner child can’t help but be fascinated by the prospect of descending from a mythical creature. Especially a cute little blonde pixie with fairy dust and a hot temper … yep, I’m sold, Cass definitely came from one of these creatures.

Reece grins at me and I can tell that he is pleased with himself for drawing my interest. “Yup. All of the irresistibly good-looking Mages running around in this world have a bunch of jealous fairies to thank for it. Kinda cool, don’t you think?”

“Jealous fairies and horny humans,” I tease. “And just what kind of bedtime story is this for children, Reece? Please tell me you didn’t tell this to Cass when she was thirteen. Living in an orphanage, who knows what kind of sex talk she had before you got her out of there? I hope this wasn’t the sex talk that you gave her…”

I shove Reece’s arm playfully and he lunges at me, pinning me down on the carpet and holding my arms over my head with those darned gloves still on his hands. “I edited it a lot. I still haven’t been able to give her the sex talk, scares the living hell out of me. Don’t worry, I’d know exactly what I was talking about if I did.”

He is staring playfully into my eyes as I fake struggle against his hold. The feeling of his chest pressed against mine is creating warmth in my stomach and an ache even lower that I have not felt in forever. It feels nice, to be held by a man and feel his strong thighs pressed against mine. My mind drifts to how it might feel if he used those thighs to push mine apart and sidled between them. His smirk tells me that he might just be wondering the same thing. As nice as it is to know that those desires still exist, it feels a little wrong for Reece to be eliciting them right now. When the last person I allowed to be close to me in that way has betrayed me so severely, I fear that I will never be completely comfortable letting another person in again.

Reece must see the trouble in my eyes because he backs off. He sighs and pulls himself up so that he’s almost straddling me. His hands caress my arms, sliding them all the way down my sides and resting them at my waist. “I know you’ve been hurt,” he begins, “but I just want you to know that you don’t have to hide from me. Whatever you’re feeling, I’ll understand.”

He leaves it at that and I’m grateful because I know if he pressed me to talk, I probably wouldn’t be able to stop myself. I’m finding that, with Reece, I don’t really even want to resist because he makes me feel like I really can trust someone in that way again. Maybe, I can even believe in love again. I can see Reece as someone I’d be willing to let my walls down for, just not today. Only weeks after getting away from Donovan, I know I’m not ready for it yet. I give him a grateful smile and he begins to get up. As he moves off of me, he reaches out, grabbing my hand to help me up. My body screams at me for allowing his departure. Suddenly, there is a clearing of a throat over by the entryway to the den.

Cass stands with her shoulder pressed against the side of the entrance, watching us. I’m not sure how long she has been standing there, but I hope it wasn’t long. Reece and I both give her a guilty look before she says, “Hey guys, just wanted to give you the heads up. The shit has really hit the fan. You both might want to come to the ops room.” She makes to leave, but stops herself, angling back at us, “Oh, by the way, no need for a sex talk, Reece. I’m about to be an adult, if you hadn’t noticed, and anyway, I probably know more about sex than either one of you.”

With that she turns around and stomps away. Reece gives me a shrug, as if trying to dispel the awkwardness from Cass’s declaration. Neither of us have much time to process what she said anyway because loud voices are now coming from down the hallway. Reece takes off in the direction of the ops room with me close behind, but if I had known what I would find when I got there, I probably would have run as fast as I could in the opposite direction.

It appears that the entire population of Spencer’s building is currently packed tightly into the ops room. Reece and I squeeze our way through, but I notice that as soon as other people start to realize that I’m with him, they begin to back away like a bunch of children afraid to catch a case of the cooties. I can hear murmurs of disgust go through the crowd, and I’m starting to wonder if it was a good idea coming in here. It seems as if these people are out for blood and it’s mine that they want.

Reece continues to weave through the crowd, looking back periodically to make sure I’m following, until he manages to edge up next to Jinx’s computer station and give him a tap on the shoulder.

“Hey man, what’s all the chaos about?” Reece asks him, leaning over his shoulder to peek at the monitor.

“The illegal net is going crazy. Oberon has just posted a video, but everyone here was already worked up about some commie newscast on TV. I haven’t seen it yet, but give me a sec and I’ll pull it up.” He types away on his keyboard and I look around, trying to see if I can make Spencer out in the crowd. Cass has made her own way up to the front of the room and is getting a kick out of the excited atmosphere. I think about heading over to her to ask what it’s all about when I hear Spencer shout over the raucous crowd.

“Silence!” he says and everyone immediately heeds his request. I can now hear the clickity-clack of Jinx’s keyboard. Spencer starts walking to the front of the room and the crowd parts for him much the same way they did for me, only this time I can tell that they do it out of reverence instead of disdain.

He gets to Jinx’s workspace and looks at me, as if waiting for an explanation from the class troublemaker. Jerk … I know just as much about this as you, my look tells him. Luckily, my Mage powers don’t include telepathy because he would also be privy to my worry as well as vexation.

“Aha, found it,” Jinx declares as he reaches his hand out to the screen and draws a glowing square directly out of it. You’d think that I wouldn’t be astonished by this trick, seeing as how I just sat through a story about Mages involving fairies, not to mention I just turned Reece into a statue less than an hour ago, but I am still amazed when Jinx tosses the square up at the projector and the newscast begins to play on the screen at the front of the room.

A young woman with short, feathered helmet hair and too much makeup is standing in front of my former residence, microphone in hand, while the words underneath her say Breaking News. As the crowd of Mages quiets around the room, the woman brings the microphone to her lips and begins her report.

“This is Cora Lundstrom with the KT7 news team reporting live from Secretary of State Donovan Brand’s residence where today, nearly two weeks after Donovan Brand’s wife was reported missing, the Chancellor announced the unveiling of their new technology, which he claims will be able to identify criminals before they commit their crimes, using newly invented mind scanning equipment. Chancellor Brand said today in a press conference that the mind scans would be implemented directly by NWO officers on patrols. Any citizen out after the twelve a.m. curfew should be prepared to submit to the scans, as well as any person perceived to be suspicious by the NWO without prejudice. Future offenders, as foreseen by the scans, will be taken into custody immediately.

“Donovan Brand told the media today that had they implemented this equipment earlier, he thinks they could have prevented the kidnapping of his wife at the hands of their chauffeur, James Martin. Martin, age 58 and an employee of the Brand family for over a decade, was a trusted and well-liked member of the staff until the disappearance occurred.

“Authorities have had no leads as to the whereabouts of Ophelia Brand, but they do have one person of interest that they would like to come in for questioning.”

At this point in the broadcast, they put up a grainy picture of Reece from that day in Target. It has been cropped so that only he appears in the shot, but it’s definitely the same day, I can tell from the clothes he was wearing, his backpack, and one of the bras I bought that day is peeking out of the Target bag in his hand.

“Police describe him as a Caucasian male with short black hair and green eyes. The man was seen at a local department store and departed on what was described as a gunmetal silver Ducati motorcycle like the one pictured here…”

The scene cuts away to a picture of Reece’s exact bike taken at a motorcycle dealership. I hardly pay it any attention though, my mind still wrapped around what the reporter just said. Why do Donovan and his father think that James took me when James had already retired by the time I went missing? What happened to James after this? I hope he hasn’t been arrested for something he had no part in. Why haven’t they implicated Reece as my abductor, yet are searching for him as if he is a mystery to them? Are they just trying to save face by denying that they could have possibly hired someone who infiltrated their defenses so easily? It would make sense; I know how important it is to them to project the image of power and control. I bet Donovan has been going bat shit crazy over this. I inwardly laugh at the thought of him freaking out when he found out I was gone, and even more so when he saw the pictures of Reece and I at a Target right under his nose. Take that, you SOB…

My momentary happy musing is interrupted by the broadcast’s ending and Cass loudly asking, “So, they’re going to start roughing up some commons. What’s that gotta do with us?”

The other Mages in the room all start talking at once, their voices exasperated and angry at Cass’s question. Jinx quiets everyone by bringing his pointer fingers up to his mouth and letting out an earache-inducing whistle.

“Hey queen bonehead, watch this,” he says as he pulls another glowing square out of the monitor, once again tossing it up to the projector.

An image of my father-in-law is displayed on the screen. It rests there for only a moment, but it’s long enough to see the amused glint in his eye before the video starts to play. I can tell it was filmed by the desk in Donovan’s office. I spot the framed picture of the two of us that sits there and recognize the painting in the background.

Oberon smiles into the camera for another moment before speaking. The smile is arrogant; one that tells me that he believes his audience is beneath him. I recognize the expression from the few times he deigned to have a conversation with me. Most of the time he just ignored me because it was obvious he thought I wasn’t good enough for his son. I remember his stunned annoyance when Donovan asked me to marry him. I knew he thought that Donovan could have had a more advantageous marriage with someone else; I wish he would have.

Oberon begins to speak and it’s not the official trying-to-sound trustworthy voice that he uses for his televised speeches, but rather that of an overbearing boss talking down to his disposable employees.

“Hello, fellow Mages. It has come to my attention that some of you may be hiding my daughter-in-law amongst you. This is a matter that I neither cared about nor overtly desired to be rectified; however, my son, the romantic he is, seems to be quite desperate for his wife’s return. Now just yesterday, I was shown a surveillance video that stirred my interest towards his plight. It seems as if my daughter-in-law has been seen about the town with this man.” The same grainy picture used in the news story is shown on the screen, only this time, I am in the shot laughing at something Reece has just said. I look over to Reece right then and the tension around his eyes is evident. As I am staring, he turns to me with an expression of worry that melts into a plea when he sees that I am looking at him. I furrow my brows at him in question, but Oberon continues to talk. Reece breaks away from my eyes with a shake of the head.

“This man, I believe he is calling himself Reece, is someone I am extremely interested in. Now, I realize that there is animosity between the Mage community and myself, and after the measures I have taken to protect your children from the commons, I am a bit offended at the lack of gratitude you have shown me. So, until further notice, NWO officers have been given free rein where Mages are concerned. They’re on a shoot-to-kill authority from myself until the time that Ophelia Brand and this man are brought to me. As of this order, any Mage on the street that displays an ability has just signed their death warrant, and any Mage stupid enough to be identified by contact will be killed as well.

“If, and that is a small if, as I am sure you will want to cooperate immediately, Ophelia and Reece are not brought to me within 48 hours of this notice, I will be forced to enact further consequences on our community and will be sending out the NWO to areas known for frequent Mage activity. We will start to hunt you down and either imprison or kill any Mages found until our demands are met.