Kate Evangelista - Til Death

“Hello, Selena,” the man said.

All the points added up in my head. The unease I felt at the store. The attack in the storeroom. If Kyle hadn’t picked me up for Greenwood or if Dillan hadn’t been waiting for me, he would have taken me already. I should have listened to the voice in my head when it told me I’d regret working at the bookstore. Quickly, I realized every time I didn’t listen to the voice, I got into a shitload of trouble. Like right now.

“Selena, you remember Ormand.” Penny’s voice didn’t sound like her own.

I glanced at her blank face, and then at Ormand’s weirdly cheerful expression. “It’s you. You’re controlling her,” I said. “Why couldn’t you just grab me at the bookstore earlier? Why use Penny to do your dirty work?” With each question, I got angrier and angrier.

Ormand’s thin frame, practically skeletal in the lamplight, bowed. “And what fun would that be?” he hissed. His flat, beady eyes stared at me from inside hollow sockets.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it was you all along,” I challenged, holding on to Penny like an anchor, masking my fear with fake courage as best I could.

His tsk sounded like ball-bearings colliding. “It pissed me off at first. Being sent here, to this god-awful place, to watch over you. Me, a Maestro, puppeteer of the living and the dead, sent to babysit. So imagine my surprise when this pretty puppet—” he pointed at Penny, “—told me you were a Seer. Everything started to make sense. So I decided to have some fun. Did you like what I did to that boyfriend of yours?”

My blood boiled at the mention of Bowen. “You sick son of a bitch! Who sent you?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he boomed like a thunderclap. The ground vibrated beneath our feet. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m keeping you all for myself. So come, let’s leave this boring place. I’ve had my fun.” He hooked his boney fingers at me.

I felt the power behind his last phrase. The double timbre of his voice drew me in. A haze slowly overrode my ability to think. My brain stopped working properly. Every step brought me closer to the edge of something I knew I needed to fight against.

Ormand reached out for me. A winner’s smile contorted his face into a perverted imitation of the kindness he once showed me. His illusion of being alive vanished. He resembled a corpse then, pale and cold, calm and flat. His flesh smelled like sour tomatoes. I wanted to gag, but my mouth wouldn’t move. My feet kept bringing me closer and closer.

When I stood just beyond his greedy grasp, something yanked me back by the scruff of my jacket. With a quick flick, I tumbled onto a rug of soft fur. Sebastian bounded away, taking me with him. Ormand hissed like a thousand disturbed rattlesnakes. I looked over my shoulder. He pulled Penny to him using an unseen force and put a hand with sharp nails against her neck. Thin trails of blood flowed to her jacket’s collar.

“If you want her back alive, give yourself to me!” he yelled after me.

Dillan

No Longer the One

The next time Dillan opened his eyes, he sat in that dark room again.

“Oh, shit,” he said and it echoed. When had he fallen asleep?

He struggled to get out of the chair, but like the last time, an invisible force kept him pinned down. The last thing he needed was to stab himself just to wake up. He was too far from Rainer for healing. Gritting his teeth, he pulled up as hard as he could. The band of panic squeezing his lungs didn’t help. He tried again. A slight budge happened on his third attempt, but the force still pulled him back down. The chair didn’t even wobble.

You’ll only hurt yourself more if you keep struggling .

He flicked his gaze to every corner of the darkness, searching for the source of the singsong voice. He didn’t care that he breathed hard and sweat soaked his shirt from the effort to get away. Now wasn’t the time to be stuck in a dream. So he braced himself again for another pull up. A pulse in his temple ticked and the muscles on his neck strained. He felt the same budge, but when he slumped back, it was harder this time. Apparently, the more force he put into gaining freedom the more whatever was holding him down rebelled.

Oh, Dillan. She stepped out of the darkness directly in front of him. Always so stubborn. I like that about you.

“What do you want from me, Katarina? Cut through the bullshit and get on with it.”

She clucked her tongue at him, playing coy. He growled, blessed annoyance replacing his panic. Her hair rippled like she was underwater when she shook her head. Then she smiled that sinister smile of hers. He had only ever seen it in this dream state. She looked like Katarina, but was it really her?

Oh, I’m the real thing, Dillan.

“Get out of my head!”

Her blue lips formed a perfect O. Oh, but we are in your head. So you see my little dilemma. How can I leave when all you do is think about me?

Calling on his training, he exhaled all the tension in his body and closed his eyes. “That’s not true,” he said softly. “Not anymore.” The truth in his words lent him strength. He’d make it out of this in one piece.

Then why are we still here?

He honestly didn’t know. A voice he didn’t expect pinged behind his closed eyelids.

Sloan , Sebastian said. I can cut the bonds holding you back. But that is the most I can do. The rest is up to you.

Katarina said this was all in his head. Did he really want her to disappear? She haunted him because he’d failed her. Maybe if he accepted it she would set him free. Fresh out of options, he thought it was worth a try. Sucking up his pride, he prepared himself for what he needed to do. The one face he’d been picturing more times than he really should appeared in his mind’s eye. Her springy curls he wanted to run his fingers through. Those unique aquamarine eyes he could stare into all day. They reflected her heart and soul. And her blushes that stopped his heart every time. If there was someone who needed his help now, it wasn’t Katarina.

“Okay, do it,” he said to Sebastian.

Do what? Katarina asked.

He relaxed his muscles then pulled up. No resistance. With a smirk, he sprang out of the chair. Katarina’s eyes widened as she stumbled backwards. She screamed when he reached her. Not allowing her to resist, he pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her cold body. She stiffened. Seconds later, like she always did, she relaxed. Her sigh touched his collarbone.

The rightness of his actions surprised him. He bent down and whispered into her ear, “I’m sorry, Katarina. I should have done everything I could. I was weak and I let you down.”

He felt her fingers hook onto his shoulders from behind, like she hung off a cliff. Dillan.

“You have the right to kill me,” he continued. “It was my fault you were taken. But you have to understand…I can’t let you. Not when someone else’s life is in danger. I have to help her, Katarina. I have to save her.”

The way you wouldn’t save me , she said in a sob.

The reality of her words threated to buckle his knees. “I know. Please forgive me. I was a coward. The one thing I had to do and I couldn’t. I’m sorry.”

She started to dissolve in his arms, but he held on, crushing her to his chest. This is not over.

He jerked awake. Those were the same words she’d said the night he’d stabbed himself. It took him a second to figure out he was still sitting in the GT. Quickly, he checked himself for stab wounds. When he wasn’t bleeding from anywhere, he breathed in relief. He ran shaking hands through ruffled hair and stared up at the ceiling. The sun had gone down while he napped. Not good.