Swift (18 page)

Then slowly I began to feel tingling in my toes, and then the feeling spread up to my legs to my torso and then eventually up my arms and neck. He was still staring at me, caressing my cheek like I was some sort of prize that he had just won.

Then just like a switch had been turned back on, I felt like I could speak again. “H-how do you know my name?” I asked, cold sweat spreading across my hairline.

The two corners of his mouth curved downward, like someone had just snatched his prize out of his hands. Then his face turned to pure anger. “Oh, I know a lot more than just your name. We’ve been searching for you for a while now, but you were hidden under one big protection spell,” he said, twirling a piece of my hair between his fingers. “Oh, the plans we have for you, my dear. Now, I’m not sure how you just broke through that binding spell, but it just means I have to do this quicker than expected.” He laughed another sinister laugh that made every hair on my body stand on end.

Then out of nowhere, he stopped laughing and pulled me back toward him, suddenly on guard for something. “Damn! Well this complicates things. But I must say, I was a little disappointed that it was ending so easily. I knew
you
could not go down without a fight.” He spit through his teeth as he stared out into the dark alley.

I wondered who he was talking to. He whipped me around, facing me toward the darkness, gripping me even tighter. I searched the dark alley, but saw nothing. My eyesight was adjusting to the darkness, but I was still only able to make out outlines of large objects. Then my eyes caught something moving. The person was still far away, but I watched as he got closer, growing larger and clearer. I let out a silent gasp, realizing who it was: Blake was standing about ten feet in front of me, staring at the man who had me in his grasp.

“Let her go,” Blake demanded as he stood with his fists clenched, his eyes focused on Isaac.

The evil laugh that had shot goose bumps all over my body was loud in my ear. “Now why would I do that? All this work, and you just expect me to give it all up? I’m so close. Actually I should give
you
a round of applause for finding her and keeping her safe for so long. But as you see, my hands are full.” Isaac squeezed me tighter, and I could feel my breath getting more and more shallow. “That was some protection spell you had on this one. It took me a while to figure out how to break through it. But it would not be much fun if there were no challenge, now, would it?”

I stared at Blake. His eyes darted quickly upward, and I followed their gaze. There on the roof above us stood three statuesque figures. I tried to focus and make out their faces, but it was too dark.

“Does it have to be like this, old friend?” Isaac growled as he gripped me closer to his chest.

“We are nothing to each other, least of all friends,” Blake snapped.

“Oh, I’m sorely disappointed to hear that. Alexander will be, too.”

“Where is Alex these days?” Blake asked.

“Oh, he’s around,
my friend
.”

A small grin spread across Blake’s face. “So it seems that you are doing Alexander’s dirty work now. He was not brave enough to come here himself, so he sent you?”

Blake’s condescending demeanor was making Isaac angrier. I could feel his grip getting tighter with Blake’s every word.

“Let her go, and I may just let you live—for now,” Blake warned, his voice full of rage.

“You will pay for this, you know. I will have her again. I have to.”

He released his grip on me, but I was still too scared to move a muscle.

“Meredith, please walk toward me.” Blake spoke calmly as he held out his hand. He kept his eyes focused upon my captor.

I looked into Blake’s eyes, not knowing what to do. None of it made sense.

He nodded as if he knew what I was feeling, and I began to walk forward to his outreached hand. As I walked away from Isaac, I could still feel his presence at my back. His eyes were boring holes into me. It felt like at any moment Isaac would grab me and pull me back into his tight grasp. Finally, my hand reached Blake’s, and our eyes met for a split second, before he shot his gaze back toward Isaac.

“Meredith, I will explain everything later. I just need you to trust me now,” Blake whispered so softly that I could barely hear him.

Trust him? It seemed like a strange request, since I had no idea what was going on. But I had no reason not to trust him. He had just saved me from the crazy person I had thought existed only in my mind.

I nodded my head, and then Blake was shouting at me. “Hang on tight to me and close your eyes.
Now
!”

With only that warning, before I could question or object to what was happening, I was thrown into what felt like a mix between a washing machine and a wind tunnel. The whirling feeling was overwhelming, and my already-mangled stomach began to feel nauseous. The sensation of spinning and whooshing through the air lasted what seemed like a lifetime, but in reality it was probably just a few minutes. Next thing I knew, I was standing on my own two feet again, but my body still felt like it was spinning. I stumbled backward, and then Blake caught me just before I hit the ground.

“Meredith, Meredith, are you okay?” Blake shook me lightly. “Just a few more seconds, and the dizziness should pass. Just breathe,” he encouraged me.

Easy for you to say, I thought to myself. What about the nausea? I felt like asking but was too afraid to open my mouth in fear that it wouldn’t be words to come out. I kept my eyes closed to try and still my spinning head. A few moments passed, and although I couldn’t be sure, it felt as if Blake had lifted me and was carrying me in his arms. I was too scared to open my eyes to tell.

After a few minutes, I was finally able to open my eyes and focus again. My first sight was Blake’s concerned eyes, staring at me. My previous thought had been correct; he was cradling me in his arms.

“What?” was all I could mumble, but I really wanted to scream out,
What the hell is going on?

“Please, just breathe. I will explain everything once you are feeling better.”

I began to look around the dark room. My eyes adjusted just enough to realize we were in a very large, circular room. Squinting, I tried to focus in order to make out more of my surroundings, but I realized it was an impossible task. Blake knelt down and placed me onto something velvety-feeling. I felt him move away from me, and I begin to pat the space around where I was sitting. Beyond the soft material Blake had laid me on, there was a cold, hard surface.

Suddenly, Blake struck a match, and my eyes were drawn to the light. The glow of it shined on Blake’s face as he slowly guided the match down to a candle. The flame filled the room with just a faint beam of light, but it was enough for me to see my surroundings a little better. Windows encircled us, and I looked up to see that the ceiling was endless as it rose and faded into the darkness above. Blake crawled toward me and came to a stop a few inches in front of me.

“Are you feeling better?” he asked, his face full of apprehension.

“A little,” I lied. But of course I wasn’t better! I had just almost been kidnapped, hurt, or even worse by a man who had been stalking me
in my mind
—and who I had previously thought was just a figment of my crazy imagination. Then out of nowhere, Blake, the guy who I was starting to fall for, comes out of the darkness to save me. The words that came to mind to describe how I was were
scared
,
freaked out
,
terrified
, and
confused
. Not
better
.

“What happened? How did we get here? Who was that …?” I rattled off questions as they popped into my head, and it soon proved to be too much. I could feel my chest beginning to constrict and my breathing becoming erratic.

“It’s all going to be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you,” Blake murmured, quickly wrapping his arms around me to comfort me. “I let him get too close. That was never supposed to happen. I’m sorry.”

And as confused as I was about all of this, and as much as I wanted to fight Blake off and demand answers, I couldn’t find the strength. It was difficult to accept that being in his arms made me feel safe, but just then it did, and that was all that mattered.

I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes, there was light trickling in from the windows. It took me a minute to realize where I was and remember what had happened the previous night. Soon enough the memories came back to me. Trying to be discreet, I tilted my head down, seeing Blake’s arm wrapped around my waist. Swallowing hard, I lifted my left arm and placed it on his arm around my waist, preparing to gently lift it off. But just as my hand made contact, Blake unwound his arm, and I immediately felt the lack of warmth from where it once had been.

“Sorry, I was trying not to wake you.” My voice was just above a whisper.

“I’ve been awake,” he answered back in the same soft tone.

“Oh.”

“You slept soundly all night.” His voice sounded pleased.

“You were up … all night?”

“You must want a hot shower and change of clothes,” he offered, totally ignoring my question.

There were so many things I wanted. The main one was answers to the millions of questions that were floating in my head. Like, who the hell was Isaac? And how did he know where I had been? And where were we? And many, many more. But before I asked all those questions, a shower and change of clothes did sound nice. A toothbrush wouldn’t hurt, either.

“Yes, that would be nice.”

He nodded as he began to gather the candle and matches, pushing them into a brown leather backpack. I stood, picking up what I then could see was a beautiful quilted blanket made of purple velvet fabric.

“Here, let me get that. Why don’t you just put your shoes on,” he said as he motioned toward the corner behind me.

Shoes? I didn’t even remember taking them off. I watched him for a minute as he carefully folded the blanket and placed it in the backpack before fastening it up. When I turned around to put my shoes on, I got a glimpse out the window and nearly fell over. I grabbed onto the bar that was directly below it and pulled myself up on my tiptoes to peer out. Wherever we were, we were really, really high up. I stood there gazing out the window, looking to my right and left and seeing nothing but deep blue water as far as I could see. I wondered where we could be. But then I saw the beach where Aunt Rose and Jack had just married, and it hit me: we were in the lighthouse near the beach.

“How did we get up here? I don’t remember climbing up,” I said, still peering out the window. Blake chuckled shallowly behind me, and I turned around to see him wiping a grin off his face.

“I carried you,” he responded.

“Oh,” I whispered. And then I faintly remembered being carried. I remembered leaving Isaac’s grasp, walking to Blake, and feeling the wind on my face and a whirling motion. How did we get all the way back here so quickly? It had been no longer than a few minutes. That is what it seemed like, anyway. I had so many unanswered questions.

“Are you ready?” he asked, glancing toward me.

I nodded and began to walk toward the white door on the other side of the room.

The climb down the stairs of the lighthouse was terrifying but bearable, much easier than the silent walk home. Neither of us spoke a word. I mean, what were supposed to say to one another? The only thing I wanted was answers, and the more I thought about answers, the faster I walked. We arrived back at my house, and he offered to wait in the living room while I showered and dressed.

I had never thought I would be so happy that Aunt Rose and Jack were gone, on their honeymoon. But there was no way I would have been able to explain to them what had happened to me.

Chapter Fifteen

After taking an extra-long shower, I dressed quickly, eager to begin the question-and-answer session I was planning to start with Blake downstairs. I believed that he held the key to all the strange things that had been happening to me over the last few weeks. Come to think of it, all the strange things had begun right after the Harpers arrived in town.

After one last look in my full-length mirror, I turned toward the stairs. Just as my right foot hit the first step, I began to feel that familiar, awful pain in the back of my head. The headache that had not shown its ugly head for days had returned with a vengeance. Before I knew it, the pain was more than I could bear, and I found myself screaming in agony. Blake’s footsteps were urgent as he flew up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

His arms enveloped me and then the whirling motion came again. This time I appreciated the cool air on my face; it helped to dull the pain. I kept my eyes shut, trying to drown out the pain that pounded in the back of my head. After what seemed like just a few seconds, we came to a sudden halt, and it felt as though we were running—up one, two, three, four steps.

“Hang on, Meredith. Please hang on. The pain will stop soon, I promise,” he whispered in my ear. “We are here, just a few more seconds.”

The pain was crushing, and I was too afraid to open my eyes, fearing that the pain would escalate to a new level. I heard a door swing open with such force that it hit the wall behind it. Then I was set down on something soft, and I realized that I was no longer being held in Blake’s arms. The loss of him sent me into a panic.