Kairos (21 page)

Logan’s legs sling left and right as he grips the rack even harder, trying to secure himself. He reaches with his left hand to his hip where he has another blade and pulls it free. He places the handle in his mouth and starts to move up the roof toward the front of the vehicle.

The driver cuts sharply to the right and then the left, trying to shake him free. Logan keeps moving up. The wind causes tears to streak down his cheeks as he’s blasted in the face with its intensity. I can hear them yelling at each other inside the van.

They’re speaking in an ancient form of Finnish that Logan can barely decipher, but he does catch the sentence that makes his level of fear quadruple: “Must not fail. Must take her to our master,” the nervous one says. He tucks his head into his chest and pushes himself farther up the roof, making his way to the windshield as quickly and quietly as he can.

Another hard right nearly tosses him from the car, but he struggles to regain his grip as his legs dangle over the left side of the van. Logan groans as he pulls himself back atop the vehicle and then lunges for the windshield.

His body lands with a heavy thump that dents the roof. He pulls his blade free of his mouth and slams the steel-plated butt into the windshield with everything he has. The driver panics and starts to jerk the van from side to side, trying to force him off. Logan flips his body over and lands face-first on the windshield.

“Pull the fuck over.” Logan’s voice is a guttural growl. His legs strain as he struggles to gain purchase on the hood. His left hand is clenched in a death grip on the lip of the hood that meets the windshield, and he uses it to leverage his weight as he brings his right hand down to smash through the windshield.

The glass shatters beneath the heel of his hand and crumples inward.
Damn tempered glass
. He rams the butt of his blade handle through, and it finally shatters completely and leaves a gaping hole. A pair of shocked obsidian black eyes stares back at Logan. The one in the passenger seat reaches to his side and pulls a handgun free. In reflex Logan flings his blade straight for its chest. It drops the gun and howls as it slumps over, gripping the dagger as blood gushes out around the edges. It’s a fatal wound to the heart. The driver scrambles to reach for the fallen weapon while trying to maintain control of the car.

Logan swings his legs around and through the windshield, kicking it square in the face. Its jaw snaps and falls slack to the side of its face. Logan staggers, but maintains his balance as the car swerves into oncoming traffic, and he reaches for the steering wheel to quickly set us back into our lane. The driver starts to laugh and slams on the gas. Logan reaches behind it with his left hand and slams its face into his knee. Its body falls slack in the seat, his foot falling off the accelerator. We finally decelerate. Logan pulls the vehicle off to the side of the road, jerks the emergency brake, and throws it into park.

He turns and rushes to my side, pulling me up into his arms against his chest. I hear a tiny moan escape my slack jaw, but my body and mind remains unconscious. He lifts my limp body up into his arms and cradles me into him. He can’t help but run his lips across my hairline. I’m overcome with a feeling of relief as he holds me, but he still has to get us out of this van and away from here before more of them come. Logan looks around the vehicle contemplating his next move.
I can’t take the chance of driving the van and a tracking device leading them straight to us,
he thinks.

With my limp body cradled in his arms, he struggles with the door handle and then finally manages to slide it open. He steps into the night and takes in his surroundings. We’ve left the city. I can’t even see a faint glow of city lights. We must have covered more miles than I realized.

The distant hum of a motor approaches from the other side of the road, and Logan scrambles to hide us in the adjacent field. It’s a narrow two-lane road that bends around multiple curves before stretching off into the dark distance. The oncoming headlights approach and pass without hesitation. He releases the breath he had been holding and looks down to my body cradled securely in his strong arms.

His hands run over my body, checking for injuries, feeling for a steady pulse at my neck, reassuring him that I’m safe and whole.
They must have siphoned energy from her. All things considered we got lucky tonight.

As he looks down at me I see myself through his eyes…listen to the way his thoughts roll like the tide through his mind. His thoughts become my own.

Her dark lashes lie against her ivory skin. A few tiny freckles are speckled over the bridge of her nose. I run my finger from the indent next to her pert little nose, over her high cheekbone, and then trace the edge of her hairline down and around her ear. My eyes watch with rapt attention, taking in every detail of her beautiful face. She is the most breathtakingly beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. I smirk as I think of how she doesn’t even realize how truly alluring she is.
God, I love this woman.

I settle her down on the grass and lean down to graze my lips over hers. Her warm breath glides over my cheek as I turn my face into hers and run my nose and lips along her jaw.

“I love you, Sulwen Macgregor,” I whisper softly next to her ear. I kiss the tip of her nose and then gently lay her down.

As I stand I steal one more glance at her and feel the smile that breaks across my face. So peaceful. So much of everything that I need lies there looking like a nymph in the grass.

I’m pulled from his thoughts as he reaches for his cell in his back pocket only to find its cracked screen taunting him. He presses the power button, hoping for some sign of life within the piece of electronics that links us to the rest of the world and safety beyond. Nothing.

“Shit.” He turns back to glance at my unconscious form.
She’s still out and probably won’t wake till the morning.

Tucking the phone back inside his pocket, he decides to check the van for a phone, hoping to alert the team to where we are. Logan reaches the rear of the van and rises to peek inside the rear windows.

If I could breathe, the air would have been sucked from my lungs…my screams fall on deaf ears as the gruesome scene unfolds.

Boom, boom, boom
. Fire zings through his back and chest. His pain courses through my essence.

So hot
. Logan clenches his chest, where the pain increases with every breath. He staggers back and looks down to find his fingers covered with blood. His chest feels like someone is sawing it in half. A gurgling sound escapes his mouth, and he reaches up to feel hot blood seeping from between his lips.
Oh damn.
It finally sinks in.
I’ve been shot
.
Multiple times, from the looks of it.
He turns around on weakening legs and falls to his knees.

The Narkarri emerges from the field with my slack body in his arms. Logan tries to stand and fight him off, but his legs collapse beneath him, and the concrete greets his face with brutal force. Wheezing breaths saw in and out of his mouth with an occasional gurgle of blood.

I’m going to die here, and no one will know where to find Sulwen
. The Narkarri steps around him and places my body back inside the van. He slams the door shut and looks down into Logan’s eyes.

“What the master wants, the master gets. She belongs to him.” His words come out slurred from his lopsided mouth, his jaw hanging at an odd angle.

Logan coughs, and blood bubbles over his bottom lip. It shakes its head at him and proceeds to get in the driver’s seat. When the door slams, I visibly flinch. I watch with desperate eyes as the taillights fade off into the distance.

Logan’s heart is weakening with each beat, and his breaths are coming in choppy and strained rasps, he reaches into his pocket and tries to power up his phone again, punching the power button again and again until a flicker of light flashes across the screen. He presses and holds the function button. “C-c-c-call home,” he manages to sputter out.

“Calling home,” the phone replies.

A pain severs the tie holding my consciousness to him as he passes out. My vision gets blurrier by the second. I fight to remain with him but I can feel him slipping…slipping…slipping away, and the more his essence fades, the more mine is drawn back to my body. “Logan! Logan, please hear me. Please fight. Pleasss…” With a sharp tug I’m yanked down into a pool of darkness.

I awake to the sound of a door clicking shut and footsteps shuffling across the floor. I can feel a mattress beneath my back and covers draped over my body. I start to move my numb limbs but feel tugging sensations. My lids flutter open to a dark room. I turn my head and notice a woman filling a glass with water from a jug. She sets the jug down on the side table.

I start to sit up but find that the tugging sensations I felt are actually restraints around my ankles and wrists. A moment of panic hits when the events of the night flood my brain, “Logan! Oh god, where’s Logan?” I pull and tug at my restraints trying to free myself.

“Ouch, it’s a bit late for struggling, don’t you think?” she grumbles as she places the glass to my lips. I take a small sip and swallow the cold liquid. She nods and places the cup back on the table beside the jug. My eyes scan the room and take in the barren state of its existence. The walls are white. The floor is a dark hardwood that is a stark contrast to the blandness of everything else in here. White table, white bed, white door, no windows. It’s a cell.

“Do you know if they brought a man here with me?”

She shakes her head. “No, no others were brought in with you that I could see.”

My heart sinks, but then my mind tries to rationalize that maybe it was all just some sort of dream. I’ve never had an out of body experience so I have nothing to compare it against…but it sure as fuck felt real. The pain in my heart feels real, and the sense of connection that I have always felt with Logan is no longer there. I feel—hollow.

I pull myself together as best I can and try to put any thoughts of Logan lying in the road bleeding to death out of my mind…it’s an impossible feat, but I have to try damn it. I have to get out of this alive so I can get back to him. I have to!

I clear my throat. “Who are you?” My voice comes out tired and raspy. My body feels so drained that it’s hard to keep my focus. I blink a few times and shake my head a little, trying to clear the fog from my brain.

The woman walks over to the side of the bed, and it’s then that I take notice of her appearance. She’s wearing dark jeans with a brown peasant blouse that has a string woven throughout the seams at the waist and tied in a bow below her navel. Her auburn hair reaches just below her shoulders and falls in lush, loose curls. Her hair falls over her shoulder, baring her neck to me, and exposing the leather collar strapped around it. It looks restrictive and uncomfortable. My eyes move back up to hers in question.

Amber colored eyes take me in from the top of my head to the tip of my bare feet. She reaches up and touches the collar, then shakes her head as if she’s too exhausted to discuss it.

I find myself drawn to her, which causes my eyebrows to furrow as I mull over everything that has happened and why I’m here now.

My expression seems to amuse her. Her full cherry-red lips part in a warm smile, showcasing perfect teeth. I tilt my head and take a snapshot for my photographic memory. Tall, five-foot-sevenish, long legs, small waist, medium bust, and a sad but beautiful face. When she smiles the tiny mole to the left of her mouth becomes noticeable.

She takes a seat on the bed beside me. Her elegant hands smooth out over the top of her thighs in a nervous gesture. “My name is Ailis.” Her voice is soft and melodic.

“That’s a beautiful name. I’m Sulwen.” She flinches at the mention of my name, but recovers quickly…not before I notice though. “Why are you here?”

“Much the same as you…against my will.” I nod in understanding. She’s looking down at her hands as she picks at the seam of her jeans. I look away from her and glance down at my body. My clothes have been removed and a white lace gown put on in their place. The thought of someone undressing me is disturbing in more ways than I care to think about right now.

“Did you change my clothes?” She nods, and even though I should still be concerned as to why she’s here, I am instantly relieved and feel a tad less violated. “Do you know who took me?” My curiosity is getting the best of me, and I can’t help but sling questions to the only person that might have some answers.

She nods. “I know that he wants the knowledge he thinks you wield. But I also know you have yet to come into that knowledge or the power within yourself.” She looks up, and our eyes meet. Her eyes hold a pained expression. She has the type of eyes that you can look into and know they have seen horrible things, and suffered tremendous loss.

“What are you talking about? I don’t have any special powers.”

“Like I said. None that you have come into yet…but they’re there.” She reaches over and taps my forehead to show me where it is she speaks of. “And they’re here.” She taps the skin over my heart. “You must not fight it any longer.”