Freak of Nature (The Lost Witch Trilogy #1) (13 page)

Sarah heard the whispered word and ran past Race and the woman and out the door and down the stairs. Race appeared in the doorway and shouted after her to stop.

“The forest is too big Sarah! You’ll never find him this way!” he shouted, sounding fainter and fainter as she left the little yellow house far behind. She ran the half a block to the edge of the forest.

The little town they lived in wrapped around the forests and there were three main access points.
She let her power take over and went faster and faster until she felt like she was flying. She entered the walking path that was the East entrance to the forest and then let herself go like she never had before. She sent her energy out in a net in all directions and called out Zane’s name over and over inside her mind.

She ran past markers and trail signs ignoring everything and jumping and ducking automatically when she needed too.

Zane!
she screamed in her mind and paused, gasping for air as she felt her name echo back to her, resonating in her chest.

S
arah
.

He was near.
She leaned over panting and closed her eyes.
I’m here Zane. I’m in the forest. Help me find you,
she begged.

Dark, wet.
Feel my heart. Feel my heart,
Zane whispered back to her.

Sarah stood up and closed her eyes and lifted her arms as she turned slowly in a circle, sending her power out again.
The energy flowed from her fingers and flew from her hair. Her head twisted to the right as she felt a pulse of warmth answer her. She drank in a deep breath and leapt through the leaves and twigs and rocks and went deeper and deeper into the forest. She broke through five minutes later in to a clearing where someone had built a primitive hut. She knew this time that Zane was inside.

The woman standing in front of the hut, holding a rifle was the last woman from her aunt’s meetings.
She looked half hysterical and more than slightly demented. Her arms were shaking and she was sweating profusely. Sarah knew instinctively that this woman was far more dangerous than the other four. This woman wanted to shoot her.

“Why are
you
here? You’re supposed to be dead now. Where is everyone?” she demanded, walking slowly towards Sarah.

Sarah lifted her hands in surrender and stayed where she was.
If she could get the woman to lower the gun or point it somewhere other than her, she’d send out energy and have her on the ground. But the gun was pointed right at her heart and her trigger finger looked slippery.

Sarah swallowed, feeling her adrenaline weep through her blood. “They’re done.
All four of them are lying on the floor where I left them. The plan is a failure. It’s all over. Just put the gun down and I’ll tell the police that you tried to help me. Just put it down,” she said in a soothing voice that sounded deep and unlike hers.

The woman shook her head quickly back and forth.
“I just wanted out, you know. They told me my life would be better. I wouldn’t have to work cleaning houses anymore. We were going to be rich Drake said.”

Sarah grasped onto that thought.
“I’ve got money. I’ll give you everything I have if you’ll put the rifle down.”

The woman tripped on a rock and almost went down but righted herself quickly and pointed the rifle at Sarah’s head, looking fiercer because of her embarrassment.

“How much you got?” she demanded, looking over her shoulder at the shack.

Sarah lied and said, “I have about twelve thousand dollars left from my mother’s life insurance policy.
I’ll wire it into your bank account today if you’ll put the gun down and promise not to hurt me or that boy in there.”

The woman laughed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “He’s not hurt.
He’s just drugged. Okay, you got a deal. I’ll take the money. I’m getting out of here. Forget this crap. I’m gone,” she said almost in relief and lowered the gun so the muzzle was pointed straight into the dirt.

Sarah lowered her arms and smiled in gratitude at the woman and then sent so much energy careening towards her she was knocked seven feet back, hitting her back and head on a tree.
She collapsed silently in a heap as Sarah rushed past her to the shack, stepping in through the dark entrance and crouching down by Zane’s side.

“Zane!” she whispered, crying as she saw his bound hands and feet.
She touched the zip ties digging into his skin and they burst open, looking melted. She turned him onto his back and pushed his hair away from his eyes.

He wasn’t breathing right. He was breathing very shallow.
She laid her head on his chest and felt his heartbeat. It was there, but it felt very weak.

She lifted her head in panic and looked around, not knowing what to do.
Gretchen had taken her phone and she couldn’t carry him. She paused in her frantic thought patterns and lowered her head to his. If it worked for Agnes, maybe she could heal Zane. She lay down beside Zane and wrapped her arms and legs around him, touching him everywhere she could. She closed her eyes and used all of the power rushing through her body and changed it into a healing flow of power and sent it into Zane’s body, wrapping around him and then moving inside of him.

She could feel the drugs they’d given him everywhere in his system.
She let her power take over and felt the toxins and chemicals start to seep out of Zane’s pores as she urged her power to cleanse his blood. She could feel his heart beat a little stronger a few minutes later. Her clothes started to feel damp as she forced Zane to sweat and purge his body of the poisons.

Sarah felt herself weaken as all of her excess energy was almost gone. Zane made a noise and moved his arm. She opened her eyes and lifted her head up and away from Zane so she could get up and kneel over him.
She pushed her hair behind her ears and leaned down to touch his face.

“Zane, can you hear me?” she asked softly, kissing his brow and his cheeks.

“Sarah?” Zane said, his eyes still closed and his voice weak and broken.

“Yes, it’s me.
We’ve got to get you out of here,” she said, rubbing her hands down his arms, feeling the moisture through his shirt.

Zane moaned and began retching as if he would throw up.
Sarah grabbed his shoulders and tried to turn him as he gagged and shuddered.

“It’s okay Zane.
It’s going to be okay,” she promised over and over again, feeling his sickness inside of her.

Zane’s retching finally subsided and he fell back onto the rough blanket, exhausted.
“I knew you would come Sarah. I could hear you calling for me,” he whispered, trying to focus on her face.

Sarah’s face crumpled and she began to cry helplessly.
“How am I going to get you out of here?” she sobbed knowing how weak he was.

“Just lay here beside me for a moment.
I need your warmth,” he said.

Sarah nodded her head and wiped her eyes.
She lifted Zane’s head and slipped her arm underneath him, lying chest to chest with him. She closed her eyes and held him close, sending the rest of her waning power into his body, filling him with as much strength as she could give him. They lay like that for at least fifteen minutes, not saying anything, just breathing and listening to each other’s heart beats.

“Your system is still overloaded with drugs.
I can’t seem to get it all out,” Sarah whispered against his hair.

Zane moved his arm as if to comfort her.
“You saved my life. I thought I was going to die Sarah. If you hadn’t gotten here in time, my heart would have given out.”

Sarah felt her body shake at the thought but didn’t say anything.
“Did they take your cell phone?” she asked, already knowing they had
Zane nodded.
“But you’re welcome to check for yourself,” he said in a faintly teasing voice that had her smiling.

She eased carefully away from Zane, sitting up and grinning.
“Why am I being so slow? That woman has to have one. She has to.”

Sarah jumped up and rushed out of the shack and towards the woman still lying prone on the forest floor.
Sarah pushed her over with her foot and then patted her down looking for a phone. She found it in a side pocket of her cargo pants. She ran back to the shack and kneeled down by Zane who was now able to open his eyes even though he still looked white as sheet.

“What’s your mom’s number?”

Zane told her and she dialed the number, pounding her fist on her knee as she waited. On the third ring Gretchen answered, yelling Zane’s name. “
Zane
!”

“No Gretchen, it’s me.
But I’ve found him. He’s too weak to move though. We need help getting him out of here. We’re in the forest about two miles towards the center. Start off of Coleman Road and go about a mile and a half and then take a sharp right until you come to a clearing. You’ll need a four wheeler or something. The terrain is kind of rough and it’s no place for a car. And Gretchen, he’s going to need to go straight to the hospital. They drugged him.”

She talked to Gretchen for a few more minutes and then held the phone up to Zane’s ear so he could say hi to his mom.
But pulled it away seconds later. “Hurry! You can talk later. He needs help now,” she ordered and then disconnected.

Zane smiled faintly back up at her.
“You’re kind of feisty, aren’t you?”

Sarah threw the phone away and lay down by Zane again, wrapping him in her power and heat.

“You have no idea,” she said darkly.

Zane’s hand came up to touch her hair and she sighed in relief, as her body finally started to let down.
Zane would be safe now. Zane would be okay.

“I was supposed to save you.
What are you doing saving me?” he said in a disappointed voice.

Sarah smiled and looked up into his eyes.
“That’s so sexist. Really, the only reason I bothered was because it’s Flirt All You Want Friday. I didn’t want you thinking you could skip out on such an important day,” she said trying to smile and then ruined it by crying on him.

Zane’s eyes turned soft and he reached a shaky finger up to touch one of her tears.
“Out of all the days to be kidnapped I had to pick a Friday. I hope you’ll forgive me and let me make it up to you next week.”

Sarah sniffed and hugged him hard, knowing she was lucky to even have another week with him.

“So how did they get to you?” she asked curiously.

Zane frowned and closed his eyes.
“I was planning on going back to Race’s house but I had a feeling Drake was more of a danger to you. So I broke in and found his journal Sarah. I was so caught up in reading his plans for you that I didn’t hear him come in. He came up behind me and stuck a syringe in my back. From what I was reading, I’m positive that syringe was meant for you. Before I passed out, your aunt came in and when Drake told her who I was, she kicked me in the side. That’s when I passed out. I’m so sorry Sarah. I let you down.”

Sarah
reached up and yanked on his hair. “Don’t be an idiot. You could be the most powerful witch in the world, but if someone gets the drop on you and drugs you, you’re going to go down for the count.”

Zane sighed unhappily.
“Still, not the way I had planned things going,” he muttered.

Sarah smiled and held him closer.
“You feel stronger already,” she said in surprise.

Zane nodded his head, drawing shapes on her throat.
“You do that to me. You make me stronger. Give me another half hour and I might actually be able to stand up. Heck, give me a couple hours and Flirting Friday is back on schedule.”

Sarah laughed, knowing he was definitely feeling better if he could think about flirting with her.
She was so tired, but she wrapped her arms around him again, willing more toxins out of his blood. Fifteen minutes later, the sound of high powered motors roaring through the forest had her pulling away from him and standing up.

“The cavalry has arrived,” she said in relief and walked out to greet Gretchen and three police officers on four wheelers.

Gretchen screamed and then fainted as she stared at Sarah’s hands. Sarah looked down in confusion and then realized all of the blood from the glass was still on her hands. Her pants made it look like she was an extra from a haunted house.

The officer with Gretchen ran to her side and started checking her out as he barked questions at her in a rapid fire succession. As Sarah tried the best she could to tell him what happened, the other officers focused on Zane and the fallen woman.

Sarah kneeled down as if to pat Gretchen’s shoulder, but sent a zap of energy through her system instead. She whispered the word,
awake
, and watched in relief as Gretchen’s eyes fluttered open. “You’re missing the grand reunion Gretchen. Zane’s in there,” she said pointed at the shack.

Gretchen reached up and felt her head as if it were sore but then rolled to her side and stood up, weaving back and forth a little before hurrying to the shack.