Hyacinth (15 page)

The first sound
came out almost like a hiccup. Just a tiny squeak which swiftly turned into a
keening wail. And then her body was wracked in heart-wrenching, full-body sobs.
They came so hard and fast that she couldn’t catch her breath.

As her body
squeezed tighter and she started to worry that she was getting hysterical,
Selene felt the bed dip. And then a strong arm banded around her waist and her
body was pulled up against a solid wall of male muscle.

Selene knew it
was Griffin without looking. And despite how angry she was with him, the
comfort she received in his arms overrode her need to stay angry right now. His
warm scent surrounded her. He said nothing, just held her tightly as emotions
washed through her in waves. Gradually, his heat seeped into her, spreading
through her and over her. Her sobs slowed until her body could relax just the
tiniest amount, and then further still, until the only sounds she made were
stuttering indrawn breaths.

“I … I’m all right.
You can go now,” she eventually sputtered between sniffles.

“Are you sure?”

“Uh-huh. Yeah.”

His arms tightened
around her briefly and then slipped from her body, leaving her chilled where
his skin had been warming hers. Hearing the bedroom door open, she looked over
her shoulder at him.

“Why?” she
asked. She couldn’t read his expression in the half-light of the hallway, but
saw him hunch one shoulder.

“I…care for you,”
he replied softly. And then he closed the door behind him.

Selene didn’t
know how long she lay there, no longer crying, not moving, not seeing… just
being
.
She heard no sound, felt no familiar pulse of power, felt no stirring in the
room to warn her.

By the time she
felt a large hand clamped mercilessly over her mouth, and another squeezing her
throat, it was already too late.

“Scream and I’ll
snap your neck,” a male voice growled warningly in her ear.

Maddox… oh hell!

Selene
desperately reached for her power to disable his, but it wasn’t there. She
couldn’t feel her powers, and her entire body tensed in terror. And then,
suddenly and silently, they were instantly transported somewhere else. Selene
had just enough time to feel panic wash through her before a sickly sweet-smelling
rag was placed over her mouth and nose and oblivion claimed her.

“Something’s
wrong!” Lucy rushed into the kitchen, Hugh following close behind. “I feel it!”

Griffin quickly searched
the minds of everyone in the house. All were present and healthy. Except he
couldn’t hear Selene, but that was nothing unusual. She was a black hole as far
as he was concerned.

“You’re
positive?” he asked Lucy.

“Absolutely.”

Using his
telepathy, Griffin roused the still-sleeping household and summoned them to him,
while simultaneously contacting Charlotte and Dexter and the rest of the family.
People started to gather in the kitchen within minutes, all in various forms of
dress.

“What’s going on?”
Ellie asked, alarmed. Charlotte had interrupted their morning run in order to
teleport her and Alex home immediately.

“Something is
happening or has already happened. Something bad. I can feel it.” Lucy spoke up
from her seat at the dining room table. She was shredding a napkin into tiny
pieces in her anxiety. Hugh stood behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder as
sign of support.

“It practically
woke her from a dead sleep,” Hugh confirmed.

“Where’s
Selene?” Adelaide asked, glancing around the room to make sure she hadn’t missed
her somehow.

Ellie glanced at
Griffin. “I can’t hear her, but that’s pretty typical.”

Charlotte teleported
out of the room, only to reappear a few moments later. “She’s not anywhere in
the house,” she said with a worried frown.

Suddenly, a form
appeared in their midst. It started almost like a mirage… a wavy, misty figure.
Gradually it took on the appearance of a man but was somehow transparent. Then
it became apparent that the image was that of Oren, one of the High Council
members of the Vyusher. Griffin recognized him from their disastrous experience
yesterday. Oren had been the only Council member to try to speak on Selene’s
behalf. And now that he thought about it, this was the same apparition with
whom Selene was talking in her apartment that night a few months ago.

“I will not
waste time on formalities,” Oren’s shimmering form spoke. “Our tracker, who has
been watching over Selene since she left to attend college, can’t see her any
more. Please tell me she is there with you.”

Griffin felt his
chest constrict. Only Ellie’s hand on his arm kept him from tearing upstairs.

“Oren, do you
have any idea where she might’ve gone?” Alex asked.

“None,” Oren let
out a deep sigh. “But she’s never cut off contact completely like this before.”

“She’s never
been disowned by her people before, either,” Griffin countered, slamming a hand
on the counter. “She was distraught.”

Lucy shook her
head. “She had no intention of leaving us.”

“She was sad,
but I don’t think she was going to leave. Especially without saying anything.
That’s not like her,” Lila added.

“You’re getting
better at healing emotions, Lily,” Ramsey said. “But you’re still working on
recognizing them. And she was blocking your healing. Are you sure she wasn’t
just blocking you in general?”

Lila’s pressed her
lips in a tight line. “I could see her emotions.”

“Okay. If she
didn’t leave, then she was taken,” Ellie concluded. She glanced around the room
at the worried faces.

“…Now the
question is, what are we going to do about it?”

*****

Selene woke
slowly, the drug-induced haze lifting a little at a time. At first she couldn’t
remember where she was or even what day it was. Pictures started popping into
her mind like watching a still-motion movie. Slowly at first and then faster.

With a gasp she
shot straight up and immediately lay back down, putting a weary hand to her
aching head, the room spinning woozily around her. She waited for the sickening
feeling to pass and then, very slowly, eased herself to a sitting position,
doing her best to ignore the rolling in her stomach.

Eventually she
opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was in a small room with only
one door, no windows, and no furniture beyond the sink and toilet in the corner
and the simple bed she was lying on. She couldn’t see any surveillance cameras,
but that didn’t mean she wasn’t being watched. Panic flooded through her, though
she refused to let it rule her. Her years with Gideon had provided her with many
tools for coping with situations like this.

Focusing on taking
deep, calming breaths, Selene mentally ran through what she knew for sure.

She’d been
kidnapped by Maddox…but how?

Another memory
kicked in, and Selene groaned. Maddox had a teleporter. That meant she could be
anywhere in the world right now.

Okay, Selene. Think
!
What options
do I have? I have my wolf morph...

She quickly
discarded that option. Her captors could also turn into wolves and ones who
were much larger and stronger than she was. So attacking them was out.

Maybe she could
use her wolf’s sense to try to figure out the answers she needed. Or the link
to the pack.

Selene reached
for her wolf and attempted to shift.

Oh my God
…
I can’t
morph!

She tried again,
but she still remained in human form. Her hands curled into the sheets on the
bed on either side of her. Closing her eyes, she forced her emotions back under
her control. Panic never served any good purpose.

Okay. Her wolf
morph was apparently not working. What about her other powers? Those would be
more difficult to determine. Still, it was worth a try.

Keeping her eyes
closed, she reached out with her mind and searched for a glowing light indicating
a power was being used nearby. She saw nothing but pitch black.
But that
didn’t necessarily mean anything.
The Vyusher who took her just might
not be close by at the moment.

Selene abandoned
that idea, although she devoted a small part of her concentration to keeping
watch in case a light flared up. Next she thought about trying her dream
control. This was the most difficult of her powers to access when she wasn’t completely
calm. It was also one of two abilities she possessed that Gideon hadn’t known
about. Maddox already knew about that ability of hers. But if he had someone
like her, someone who was flipping the off-switch on her powers, they didn’t
know yet. She didn’t want to reveal to them her secret ability. Keeping it off
the radar might just save her life.

Okay. My powers
are out of the equation for now. What else? What else?

Selene opened
her eyes and looked around again. There was literally nothing in the room that
was in any way useful for an escape. The bed she sat on, which was very basic
metal frame with a single mattress, sheet and blanket. Not even a pillow. The
toilet and sink weren’t any help either. Selene unconsciously drummed her
fingers.
What else?

Oren!
Her friend and
second-father had the ability to astral-project. He’d been contacting her daily
in this way since she’d left for college. She just needed to be patient and he
would find her.

She’d have to
wait on that one. But just in case…

“Griffin!”
she mentally
called out. If he was close enough, maybe he’d pick up her cries with his
telepathy. She also continued to reach out for powers. If she could find one, she
could control it. Maybe she’d get lucky.

Because if she
couldn’t, Selene didn’t want to think of the alternatives.

*****

“Your tracker
can’t feel her anywhere?” Hugh addressed the misty image of Selene’s kinsman.

Oren spread his
hands before him. “She’s searching, but no… she can’t find her anywhere. Of
course, the entire planet is a lot to search,” he added wryly.

“I think we all
know who took her,” Ellie murmured, tapping her fingernail on her teeth. “It
was Maddox. Oren, is Sheila able to track him?”

Oren’s figure shifted
around and appeared to be addressing someone out of sight. Turning back to the
room, he shook his head. “She says she hasn’t been able to find Maddox or the other
Vyusher who left with him since they quit the pack.”

“Is someone with
them able to block her powers?” Ramsey asked, popping the knuckles in his hands
distractedly.

“Not that we are
aware of, but that particular group made up Gideon’s key lieutenants and
advisors. What they kept secret from the rest of us is still unknown.”

“Hang on…” Ellie
shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Wouldn’t Selene be able to turn
their powers off?”

“Possibly,” Oren
mused.

Griffin clenched
his hands at his sides. “Possibly? What exactly does that mean?”

“A couple of
scenarios might be in play here. Maybe she’s knocked unconscious, or she turned
off their powers but is trapped somewhere, or they’re blocking her powers.”

“Jeez.” Griffin
leaned his elbows on the table and covered his eyes with his hands. “Please
tell me someone has an idea on how to deal with this.” He looked around the
room desperately. “We have to find her…. We have to!”

Selene heard the
lock turn and quickly sat down on the bed. She assumed her most regal posture —
her back straight, ankles crossed daintily to the side, hands folded in her lap,
and her face arranged into a cold, blank mask. She took a deep breath and
braced herself for whatever was about to come in.

A man entered
and closed the door behind him with a soft click.

“Maddox,” Selene
said coolly.

He stared at her
silently for several long moments. Selene didn’t betray her unease by even a
single bat of an eyelash. The many years of hiding her true thoughts and
feelings from Gideon were certainly coming in handy now.

Maddox tipped
his head. “Ever the ice princess, huh, Selene?”

Selene ignored
his comment. “Why have you brought me here?”

“To marry you.”

Selene struggled
to keep a straight face. “Why? You have Zara.”

“Zara is willing
to step aside for our cause.” Maddox crossed his arms over his chest.

“And what does
marrying me have to do with your cause?”

“If we are to
continue with Gideon’s reign …” Maddox left the thought open.

“… You must
marry into the ruling family or the Vyusher will never accept you,” Selene
finished for him. She looked down at her hands folded neatly in her lap but didn’t
really see them. “That makes no sense. You made a strategic mistake by getting me
kicked out of the pack. And by trying to discredit me with those murders.”