Enthrall Me (The conclusion to Enchant Me) (8 page)

While I didn’t necessarily like Garron, I had a healthy respect for him, so I tried to answer respectfully. “Your wife was assassinated by a group that are fearful of us and our powers.”

He made a little snort of derision, and stared challengingly into my eyes. “You think I do this for revenge? I eliminated every single person in that group years ago. I do this so that will never happen again. Do you think I lie when I say I don’t want our people to live in fear anymore? Do you think I have the same selfish desires you do?” he asked in a icy tone, one that came with an implied threat if I wasn’t careful.

I broke our intense eye contact; I didn’t think I had the acting ability to pretend I cared about any of his reasons. “No, I don’t think you’re like me,” I replied carefully.

“This cause is important enough to sacrifice anyone and anything for. We Druids will be free.” I didn’t respond, but bowed my head submissively. I could feel his eyes on me as he took a sip of wine then with a decisive click set it back on the table. “You can go to your room now.” A sense of unease got cozy with my mind as I walked away, it wasn’t like Garron to open up.

The next morning Garron split everyone off into mock battle groups, to prepare for the upcoming mission. Black hair swirling around her, and blue eyes lit with presumed victory, Tempest took up the position across from me. I smiled wickedly at her; this would be fun.

As the days passed I was forced to acknowledge a grudging respect for Tempest. Surprisingly, we were evenly matched, I won as many fights as I lost, but the really shocking, no, more like disgusting thing, was I found myself strangely attracted to her. She fought with passion and complete abandon, and I could only admire her for that.

But when Ryker walked up for his turn to face-off with her, that sick attraction snaked through me, and I felt a jealousy I hoped to never experience again. As I watched them one day I became so immersed in my own thoughts I didn’t notice Lisette standing next to me.

“Have you ever wondered why you hate Tempest?”

I didn’t want to admit it, even to myself, but hatred wasn’t the dominant emotion I felt right now, but she would know that. I turned to her and waited. Lisette glanced up at me, and smiled, but it was a cold smile. “It’s not Tempest you hate, but yourself. She reminds you of your own weakness, and acts out, the feelings you hold inside.”

I scowled at her, and the urge to push her away grew strong. Unconcerned, she turned back to the fight. “We often hate those who remind us of our worst or weakest selves,” she said, and walked away. I was nothing like Tempest.

Looking out over the practice grounds, I noticed Sebastian going against the triplets. He only fought half-heartedly and was paying for it, with multiple wounds and bite marks. Our healers were already depleted trying to heal everyone during our mock battles, and any new injuries would mean the hurt would be down for days. I marched over to Sebastian, grabbing a large branch on the way, and clubbed Sebastian hard on the flank. He yowled loudly in pain, and shimmered out of his preferred panther form. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes, his bottom lip quivered in anger and hurt. “If you’re going to be this weak, you don’t deserve to be here,” I informed him, tossing the stick down, and stalking off. I didn’t expect a reward for my good deed, since tomorrow would bring the moment I’d been waiting for, and that was enough.

CHAPTER 9

On a stealth mission, the less people you have the better, yet I still felt uneasy leaving the bulk of our force behind, but at least those we brought were the best of our Grove. I didn’t know most of the new recruits names, and didn’t care, they would undoubtedly be casualties of our war.

Ryker stepped forward putting a hand on my shoulder. “You must be impatient. In the end we’ll all get what we want.”

I glanced back at him, suspicious all the sudden, but I only saw Ryker eager for a fight. I built a shield around us, then glanced over at Tempest, and nodded. On my cue, Tempest called forth a whirlwind that circled around us, and carried us all the way to Ireland.

Tempest set us down in the forest not far from our enemies circle, giving us a couple of seconds to reorient ourselves. We didn’t have much time before the others would sense us, so under a cover of dark fog, provided by Tempest, we attacked…

Screams of surprise followed by groans of pain, rang through the forest. We moved quickly to take advantage of their shock, but they rallied quickly, and soon we were on the defensive. I stepped out of the fog, and immediately looked for Christian, our target. Of course not far from Christian was Alexis, and for a second I stood and stared. All the emotions I locked away came tumbling out, love, hate, pain, and that weakness. I still wanted to be with her.

Jealously, I watched as Christian ran to join her, and I stepped into his path. If I suffocated him into unconsciousness we could carry him off without a fight. As we stared at each other I saw disbelief and shock, fade to fury. Last time we had faced off, I had dropped my shield for Alexis’s sake, but I wouldn’t do that this time. I formed a shield around him, then pulled it tight, closing off all the air I could, and waited. Any moment now he would start gasping for air then pass out. But he didn’t.

Fear penetrated my confidence, as I felt him in my mind. My powers evaporated, and my shield fell from him. I couldn’t sense them! Had he destroyed them so easily, so quickly? With no other choice I sprinted back to the others, but they were gone; the dark fog, Tempest, Ryker, and Garron, had disappeared. Panic crashed over me. They left me? And Christian our target, behind?

A woman jumped in front of me, with a ball of crackling fire in each hand. “Where did they take Alexis?” she demanded.

“What?” Christian and I roared in unison. I looked around us, Alexis wasn’t among the standing, injured, or dead. In shock I stood there numbly, as they demanded answers. I couldn’t believe it. Not only had Garron changed the plan, but he’d sacrificed me to do it. Anger ripped through me at his betrayal, but it couldn’t compare to the burn of pain in my mind. White hot flames ripped at my mind, stripping me of all sense, and dignity. And then there was nothing…

A deep throb of pain woke me up from a fitful sleep. The migraine to end all migraines. When I tried to sit up, I almost ripped my arms out of their sockets. I glanced up at the chains encircling my wrists, and then around the room. A dungeon, how fitting. I wasn’t alone though, five other people filled the room, an old man and woman, a young couple in their twenties or thirty’s, and Christian.

“Good, you’re awake,” the older woman said stepping forward. “Unless you want to go through the same pain you went through last night, you better tell me everything I want to know.”

Hazy memories of last night came back to haunt me. Alexis. My Grove had taken Alexis, instead of Christian.

“Worry, regret, that’s good. Tell us what you know, so we can get her back.”

Great an Empath. I tried to shield myself, then realized I couldn’t. I glanced over at Christian, who smirked, and tapped his head. Not again! I forced myself to remain calm. “What have you done to my powers?”

“Thanks to Ciara, their just blocked…for the moment. If you don’t help us, I’ll put you back in a coma. And this time, I’ll burn out your powers to the point where they can never be resurrected.”

Inside I shook. I would be of no use to my Grove without my powers, but then again, they had deserted me. “They weren’t supposed to take Alexis. They were supposed to take you,” I volunteered.

Christian glanced at the older woman, Ciara I assumed. She nodded at him. “He’s sincere, so most likely he’s telling the truth.”

“Why did the plan change?” he asked.

I rocked my head back and forth against the wood platform in frustration. “I don’t know,” I shot back, just as confused and angry as him.

“And just what were you going to do with Christian if they had taken him?” queried the Firestarter.

“What do you think?” I said, turning to give an evil look to Christian. “I was going to kill him.”

A fireball appeared in her hand, and with the glint in her eye, I knew it wasn’t a bluff. The guy at her side held her back. The older man stepped forward then and spoke. “Your whole Grove attacked us for one man’s revenge,” he glanced at Christian then back to me, “because of a broken heart? I don’t think so.”

“That’s what I believed,” I lied, doing my best to keep my emotions even, I had learned some tricks living with an Empath. Uncertainty passed over her features, but she didn’t seem confident either way.

They asked me question after question, some I could answer, and others I wouldn’t. Off and on they would let Christian play with my mind, in hopes of getting the answer they needed, but most of the time I passed out, or Ciara would stop him.

More days passed, and they realized I had no more, or would give no more information, and they left me alone. And in this time, I figured out my Grove’s plan. I also understood why they took Alexis and left me behind. If we had just taken Christian and ordered him to help our Grove, he would’ve just refused, no matter what they did to him, but with Alexis they had leverage. Now it was up to me to deliver him. I tried to ignore the worry that crept into my mind, but couldn’t. What would they do to Alexis to bring Christian to his knees.

I contemplated various schemes to trick Christian into coming to France, and then it clicked. I didn’t need to. They would know anything at this point would be a trap, so why hide it. Christian would do anything for Alexis, even risk his own life. No schemes were necessary, he would come on his own.

With perfect timing, Ciara and Christian came down the stairs, primed I could tell, for another useless interrogation. They both whirled around at the sound of someone running down the stairs. A short Asian girl appeared, shaking with shock. She glanced back and forth between Ciara and Christian. “She’s at the veil, Alexis is at the veil!”

“What?” I burst out. The other two had been shocked into silence.

Finally Ciara spoke. “Mika, how can you sense someone so far away?” The girl named Mika became nervous, and looked away.

“I increased her powers,” Christian announced.

“You what?” Ciara asked in a warning tone. Christian scowled at her, and didn’t respond. “How dare you do that. She’s just a child,” she screeched at him.

“I needed to know she’s still alive,” he roared back. Then his attention shifted to me, he hated me more than ever now. I couldn’t help but flinch in anticipation of one of his mind torture sessions.

“Christian, no!” Ciara ordered.

“I’ll get their location from him this time,” he ground out.

No, he wouldn’t.

“He’s never going to tell us. I can feel his resolve on that.”

Frustrated and in pain from being chained down in the same position for days, with very little breaks, I yelled at both of them. “We don’t have time for this. Didn’t you hear that kid? Alexis is on the verge of death,” I studied Christian. “You already know what you need to do.”

“It’s a trap,” Ciara said, stating the obvious.

“Yes, but you’re going to go anyways,” I replied, looking meaningfully at Christian.

“Mika, can you tell us anything else? Can you talk to her?” Ciara pleaded.

Mika shook her head. “Not until she crosses over.”

Christian and I stared each other down. “You need me Christian. I won’t help you destroy my Grove, but I will try to help you save Alexis.”

Ciara considered me for a second. “I can sense his sincerity, at least regarding Alexis.” Christian nodded acknowledgement, he had no delusions about my feelings towards his own safety. “Come upstairs,” she commanded.

“There’s nothing to talk about Ciara. I’m going. I don’t need your permission to leave. I will bring Alexis back,”

“I agree, but we will still discuss the situation upstairs,” she replied through gritted teeth, and grabbing his arm, she tugged him upstairs.

After that they left me alone in the dungeon, with nothing but my pain, and a plan.

The next morning I was roughly woken and unchained by the red haired guy I‘d seen with the Firestarter. He slapped down a bowl of oatmeal at my feet, and then stood guard at the foot of the staircase. Everyone of my muscles seemed to be in knots from being immobile for days, and I felt like an old man when my whole body creaked as I stretched out. It felt good to be able to feed myself even if it was under the hateful eyes of my current warden.

I had barely finished when Ciara came down and tossed my coat at me. “It’s time to go.”

Once upstairs, they ushered me out, and into the backseat of a car with Christian. Upfront, my warden drove while the Firestarter sat next to him, but twisted to face me in the backseat. I winked at her just to piss her off. She grasped the seat like she was about to vault over, but the redhead guy grasped her shoulder, and shoved her back into her seat. I laughed under my breath.

Without looking, Christian shoved a plane ticket at me, reminding me that the guy I hated most in the world, sat within a foot of me, and resisting the urge to not beat the hell out of him was making me irritable. I looked down at the plane ticket for France.

“There’s no point in trying to hide right?” he asked.

“No,” I replied, my mood improving. “They can pick us up at the airport.”

The Firestarter sniffed in disgust, but let it go at that.

As I watched the Irish landscape whip by, I felt my resolve waver. If I had to make a choice, what would I sacrifice to save Alexis? Or would I sacrifice anything at all? Should I just leave them both to their fate?

CHAPTER 10

Even for me, this situation felt surreal. If this were a movie, the idiot hero wouldn’t know that he headed into a trap, and by the time he did know, it would be too late, and he would be thrown kicking and screaming into a cell. Instead, Ryker met us at the airport and introduced himself to Christian like he was an honored guest, even carrying his bag and stowing it in the trunk for him. Reluctantly he agreed to be blindfolded while Ryker drove us home.