Bound by Time (2 page)

Isobel jerked awake, a strangled cry caught in her throat. Her heart raced as she frantically clawed at the bed. Gradually, she realized she was safe; it was the same dream that had plagued her the past six years. She rolled over on the narrow bed and worked to free her legs from the twisted sheets.

The rising sun turned the sky outside the window to pearl gray. She stared at the familiar corners of the room while her heart rate came back to normal. A glance at the other bed showed her roommate, Amelia, comfortably asleep. Lucky her. With a sigh, Isobel swung her legs out of bed. Might as well get up; it wasn’t as if she would find any further rest. If she was lucky, she’d beat everyone to the showers and enjoy some hot water for a change. Then she could start packing.

Isobel threw the last of her things into a plastic tote and glanced around the shoebox-sized room. Her twin bed, now stripped bare, lined one wall. Her roommate’s bed, still covered in rumpled blankets, lined the other with their two small desks crammed in-between. The morning light from the window spilled across the desks from its perch in the wall above them.

Her eyes roamed the room. She felt a pang of regret; after she left she wouldn’t get the chance to see Amelia until August. Isobel examined the crammed closet and the dresser one last time for anything she may have left behind.

As she turned back to the assortment of boxes, many of them the plastic kind that would slide under the bed, the sun pouring through the window caught her eye. Isobel stared at the golden light gleaming off the desks and the reaching square it made across the thin carpet. As the hairs on the back of her neck stood up she shivered. It wasn’t the window; it was the
way
the sun shone through it.

Energy hummed in the air and washed through her veins as the golden light separated into different colors. Isobel closed her eyes and worked to build her mental blocks back up, pushing the energy away.

She shook her head and looked away from the window, trying to ignore the foreboding that wormed its way into her heart. She needed to stop this nonsense. Isobel rubbed her arms as she focused on the boxes again. She hadn’t felt anything and that was it. She was
not
her birth mother.

The cell phone lying on the bed rang, making her jump. What was wrong with her? She shook off the lingering unease, grabbed the phone and glanced at the caller ID before she tapped the screen. “Hi Mom.”

“How’s it going? Are you sure you don’t want us to drive up and get you?”

“I’ll be fine. Besides, unless you planned on towing my car, I’d still have to drive.” Isobel smiled at the slight tone of worry in her mother’s voice.

“True. But you wouldn’t be alone on the road. Maybe we should come anyway.”

“Mom—” Isobel tossed a few last things into the tote. “You wouldn’t even have time to get here. I’m just about to leave. I can handle the drive—it’s only eight hours.”

“I suppose,” her mom relented. “I’m just not comfortable with an eighteen year old girl on the road alone for such a long distance. It isn’t like when I went to college; things were safer then.”

“Because nothing bad ever happened in the stone age. Wait—” Isobel laughed. “Did they even have colleges back then? How did you avoid the dinosaurs?”

“Ha, ha. Very funny, young lady.” Isobel heard the warmth in her mom’s voice.

Time to change the subject before her mom suggested storing the car Isobel had bought three months ago and waiting for them to come get her. “How’s the remodeling going? Will I still recognize the place?”

“Oh! You’ll never believe what we found.” Her mom’s voice grew animated. “A few weeks ago your father and I went for a drive, and we came across an auction. We decided to see if we could find anything unique. It’s so beautiful.” Her mother paused to take a breath. “We bid on a gorgeous stained glass window.”

Isobel glanced at the simple paned window above the desk. “A window, huh?”

“It’s perfectly round. A stunning circle of color. It has to be really old, although it’s in perfect condition. They’re installing it on the landing today. Just wait until you see it. You’re going to love it.”

“I’m sure I will.” Isobel tore her eyes away from the window—the uneasy feeling settling in her stomach again. “Hey, Mom. I have to go. I still need to get all of this stuff down to the car and say goodbye to Amelia.”

“All right, honey. We’ll see you when you get home…” A long pause then, “Are you sure you don’t want to stay there and take summer classes to get ahead on things?”

“I’m sure. I think I can handle having the house to myself for the summer.”

“I guess it’s really too late to change plans now, still…”

“I have to go, Mom. I love you.” Isobel rolled her eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Love you too, sweetie. See you tonight then. Call us if you need anything. And don’t text while you drive.”

“I won’t. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Isobel ended the call and tucked the phone into her purse. Elizabeth was overprotective, but Isobel didn’t mind. Although not her biological mother, she was the only mother she had.

Amelia swept into the room, graceful and beautiful as always. She wore an ivory T-shirt, a bright contrast to her rich, dark skin. “Was that your mom calling?”

Isobel smiled at her best friend. “Yeah.” She lifted her long, thick mahogany hair off her neck and fanned her hand at the sheen of sweat. “You know how she is. Convinced I’m going to get carjacked or I’m going to run off the road while texting or something.”

Amelia laughed, rolling her dark eyes. “Yeah, because there are so many carjackings around here or where you’re going. It’s not like you live in New York. You don’t even live
in
Savannah. I doubt there’s ever been any real crime on that little island thing you live on. Still,” her friend stopped to consider, “better than not caring.”

“I guess. How much do you want to bet you’re going to get a call just like that from your mom when you get ready to leave tomorrow?” Isobel teased.

“I’m not laying money on that one.” Amelia shook her head and held up her palms. “I know better than that. I have no doubt I will get an hour long lecture from both of my parents. I don’t think they’ve really accepted the fact that I’m an adult yet.”

Isobel picked up the first box. “Want to help me carry all of this junk down?”

Amelia grabbed a box. “Lead the way oh possible carjacking victim,” she said dramatically and laughed.

It didn’t take long for them to pack everything into Isobel’s small, four-door car. After wedging the final box into the backseat, Amelia turned to her, a hint of worry in her dark eyes. “You’ll be okay, won’t you?”

Isobel shook her head as she pulled the car keys out of her purse. “Not you too.”

“I’m not talking about carjackings or flat tires or wrecks.” Amelia paused as if considering her next words carefully. “I know you don’t like to talk about it—”

“Then don’t bring it up.” She held up her palm toward her friend. “I can’t do this.”

“Isobel, your gift is getting stronger. I
see
these things. I was raised around it. If my grandmother could see the aura around you right now…” Amelia narrowed her eyes. “There’s danger in it.”

“I don’t want to hear about it. After what happened to Rihanna, I just can’t embrace that kind of thing.”

“And yet you do embrace it occasionally.” Amelia shook her head.

Isobel gazed past her friend at the thick trees beyond the parking lot. Her fingers trailed across the silver pendant hanging around her neck. “It just happens sometimes. I don’t have any control over it; the energy is just there. It’s not like I ask for it.” She turned her eyes back to Amelia. “If I allow whatever this is inside me to go further… I—I can’t die for it like Rihanna did.”

Amelia hugged her. “I’m not saying you have to. What happened to your birth mother was tragic, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to you. Whatever it is, I can see it struggling to come to the forefront. I don’t think you’ll be able to deny it much longer.” She stepped back and smiled. “Please promise you’ll call if you need me.”

A warm rush of love for her friend filled her. She’d never had a friend like Amelia. Isobel was really going to miss her over the summer. Isobel laughed and wiped away a tear. “Sure, you’ll just drive like a bat out of hell to get from Louisiana to Georgia.”

Amelia’s face grew serious. “If you needed me, I would. You shouldn’t be alone through this.”

Isobel gave Amelia another quick hug before sliding into the driver’s seat and shutting the door. She fastened the seat belt and turned the key. The small car purred to life, the air conditioning vents blasting hot air into the car. The condenser kicked on and the air immediately began to cool. Isobel plugged her phone into the stereo and tapped her playlist. As music flooded the car, she waved one last time and turned the car toward the road.

Damien stood and watched Isobel through the thick trees. At one point, she seemed to look directly at him. Her green eyes were easily visible to his enhanced senses. He tore his gaze away to watch the area around her. He didn’t think she was in any danger yet. But he couldn’t take the chance. He stayed until the car drove away and then followed it.

Isobel turned the volume up once she was on the highway hoping to drown out the thoughts in her mind. Power had killed Rihanna. Not the kind of power witches practiced. Rihanna had innate power; energy that had flowed into her, through her. And, according to her father, it had allowed her to do things most people believed belonged in the realm of fantasy books and movies. And she had passed the gift to her daughter.

Except it wasn’t a gift. It was a curse. Gifts didn’t make mothers forget there were more important things than power. Gifts didn’t keep mothers away from their daughters so much that they barely knew each other or steal mothers away from twelve year old girls. Gifts didn’t make a father refuse to speak of it or acknowledge it was happening to his daughter.

Gifts were people like Elizabeth who took a lonely, angry and somewhat lost thirteen year old into their heart and treated them like a real daughter. Elizabeth, who made sure there were pictures of Rihanna on the upstairs landing even if Isobel never wanted to look at them. Elizabeth, who always reassured her that her birth mother had loved her dearly because it would have been impossible not to.

Wiping away the tears that pooled in her eyes, she turned up the volume and focused on the road, determined to put all of that behind her. Why should she care about a woman who had carelessly thrown her life away without a thought for the daughter she left behind? One who couldn’t be bothered when she
was
alive to spend any time at home.

Isobel lost herself in the music as the hours passed and the highway unfolded.

T
he sun sank low in the western sky when she finally turned down her street. Situated on an island in the web of rivers and creeks between Savannah, Georgia and the coast, the street boasted large two-story houses set back from the road on oversized lots. Trees lined both sides of the road with only occasional breaks, their moss-draped limbs hanging over it. Many of the houses were barely visible through the screens of greenery.

Isobel’s father had moved them to the island from the Midwest at the start of her freshman year of high school. Isobel hadn’t minded. Until meeting her college roommate, she’d never had close friends that knew everything about her and the mother she’d lost. Not that she didn’t have friends on the island, but they had all drifted away.