Empath: The Flawed Series Book One

by Becca J. Campbell

  In defeat she prayed aloud. “Please help me. I need your strength.” Laying her head back on the ground, she began to weep again softly in the darkness.

  She didn’t know how long she lay there, but after some time there was a muffled noise. Bolting upright, she froze and listened. For a moment, she could sense no emotions or sounds, but then the noise came again. It was faint, and from the back of her cell, almost as if there were something beyond the rock wall.

  She crept to the back of the chamber, moving her hands along the wall’s surface. When investigating her cell, she hadn’t explored all the pock holes within the walls. She’d assumed the only opening was the barred entry.

  As her hands searched the rock surface, she felt something give way beneath her fingers. A chunk of rock about the size of a grapefruit rolled away from the wall and landed with a dull echoing thud on the floor. Her initial excitement quickly abated as she found that the resulting cavity was only slightly larger than a man’s fist, and held no new option of escape. But then she heard it again. The scuffling sound came from the other side of the wall, and it grew louder. Something or someone was approaching. It sounded like footsteps, irregular on the uneven cave floor.

  “H-hello?” Jade’s timid voice came out much softer than she had intended. She prayed that whoever was on the other side was someone with her best interest in mind, but she could feel no emotions to prove either way. She took in a deep breath to speak again, but before she could get the words out, a voice answered her.

  “Is someone there?”

  She knew that voice, and her relief at hearing it was tangible. Hope flooded over every muscle in her body as she nearly melted in gratitude. “Logan?”

  “Jade?” When he spoke her name, she felt a surge of apprehension that intensified as his scuttling footsteps came closer. A weak glow appeared through the hole in the wall, the only light she’d seen since being kidnapped. She squatted down to peer through the opening. Through the small opening she could see him faintly—he was searching for her and hadn’t spotted the hole. He swept a cell phone in an arc throughout the chamber on the other side. Its faint light cast a blue glow on every surface it touched. She stuck her bound hands through the opening as far as she could, and waved her fingers on the other side.

  “I’m over here.” She wasn’t sure how much sound would penetrate with her arms sealing off the thick cavern wall. After a few moments, a strong hand found her fingers. He released her so she could pull back to look at him, and he held up the cell phone. The glow illuminated the void between them.

  “Logan! What are you doing here?”

  “I was taking some photos—”

  “In the caverns?”

  “No, I’m on the outside, nowhere near the cave entrance. There are several small pockets in the rock here I’ve been exploring. Anyway, that’s not important right now. What’s going on? Are you all right?”

  “No, I’m not. Chloe and I were exploring the cave when this guy knocked us out. I think he was stalking us. He has me trapped, and it sounds like he has Chloe down here somewhere, too. But I don’t know where she is.” Or what he’s doing to her. Jade thought of the man’s flippant comment about Chloe, and her fingers clawed into the rock.

  Logan’s face turned a shade paler. His shock and horror flooded her for a moment before he could rein it in.

  “No… My God!” he said in nearly a whisper. He quickly stifled the emotions, but that quick taste of him—so kind, so pure—tempted her, making her ache for more than his physical presence. She needed more of that to wash away the ickiness left from her kidnapper’s vile emotions.

  “Did he hurt you?”

  “I’m not hurt, but Logan, he’s horrible. He’s… like… a psychopath! He gets off on terrifying people.” Her voice quavered and broke on the last word. She swallowed. “I’m trapped in some sort of prison cell.”

  “A prison cell? Inside the caves?”

  Jade nodded. Her temporary relief drained away as she realized that even with Logan aware of her predicament, it would take him time to find her and figure out how to free her, and by then it might be too late. That man was coming back, and she feared it would be sooner rather than later.

  Through the small hole, she could see long strands of Logan’s hair cascading down and falling around his face. He had only the normal amount of stubble, but she was amazed at how much his hair had grown since the last time she’d seen him—what had it been? A week?

  “What details can you tell me about him?” Logan asked. “What does he look like? Tell me everything you can remember.”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see him.”

  “Not at all?”

  “Not even a glimpse. The entire time I’ve been in here it’s been pitch black.”

  “What about his voice? Does he have any trace of an accent, lisp, or other defining feature?”

  “Nothing that stands out. His voice was kind of… low, but not too low…” Jade faltered, realizing how little help her description was. She could easily recall his dark feelings, but that wouldn’t help anyone else find him. “I know one thing. This isn’t his first time kidnapping someone. It sounds like he’s had some practice.” Her voice changed to a whisper. “Logan, we have no idea what we’re up against.”

  Logan shuddered. Jade felt a brief tremor of his worry before it vanished and his manner changed to businesslike. “He said he was coming back soon?”

  “Not directly, but I have a feeling he probably will.”

  “Then I need to go quickly. I have to find a way to get you out of here. I’m not giving that creep any more opportunity than he’s already had.”

  “But what if he returns before you do?”

  “I don’t know. Stall him somehow. You’re a strong woman. I know you can do it.”

  “When he’s with me, I’m either freaked out or he’s controlling me.” She shuddered. “And Logan, he can see in the dark!”

  “What?”

  “He has some sort of night-vision ability.”

  Logan’s eyes went wide. “Dear God. Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “Maybe you could do something unexpected, throw him off his game somehow.”

  “But how? I have no idea what his ‘game’ is!”

  “I don’t know, but if anyone can, it’s you. You’ve already made amazing strides being around people. You said this was his pattern. If that’s true, figure out what the pattern is… why does he want you?”

  She frowned, full of doubt and confusion, but didn’t answer.

  “You can read him. You can feel his emotions. That’s something no one else can do. Use it to your advantage. You have an insight none of his other victims had. Maybe you can figure him out. You have to at least try.”

  As she imagined the scenario, the man returning, and she taking action of some kind, her fear peaked and she shook with panic.

  “Jade. Sweetheart. I know you can do this.” Logan reached his free hand through and placed his palm against the rock so that she could still see his eyes through the top of the opening. She touched his hand with her fingers.

  “You’ve wondered why you had this special sense. Maybe there really is a purpose. What if this ability you always considered a weakness could turn out to be your biggest asset? Maybe because of your sense, rather than in spite of it, you can outwit him in a way no one else ever could.”

  She was silent, trying to absorb what he was saying. It felt backward, but she wanted to believe it.

  “When you feel his emotions, are you afraid?”

  She hesitated for a moment. “No. Only after, when he’s calm. Not during his bursts of emotion.”

  “There you go. Use that to your advantage.”

  Jade looked into his eyes, searching for more. The idea held a certain logic, but she was still so overcome with her own volatile feelings that she couldn’t fully take hold of it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t draw encouragement from herself or her own abilit
ies.

  “When he was here, I felt like he was inside me. His pleasure at harming others, his need to possess. But he wasn’t just inside me, I was melded with him. A part of him. You have no idea.”

  “Jade, I know I don’t. I’m so sorry.”

  There was only one thing she wanted right now, only one thing that could help her face what she had to do.

  “Please.” The word slipped from her lips as a tear rolled down her cheek. “Please, Logan, you keep your emotions so well hidden from me, and I know you do it for my own sake, but I’m not as strong as you think I am. If you believe what you said—if you really believe in me—I need to feel it. You’re the one person who understands me. Please let me in.”

  She thought he’d brush off her request. Despite what they’d shared, he still held back.

  A myriad of emotions crossed his face: confusion, worry, hesitation. But then he let go. She wasn’t prepared for the flood that unleashed. It wasn’t a muddy pool of mixed feelings, as she’d anticipated. It was simple, straightforward, and strong. There was only one emotion. Love. Logan Henry was in love with her.

  The intensity of the feeling didn’t compare with anything she’d ever known, as if every previous emotion had been watered down. In that moment she realized that any time she’d sensed feelings from him, it had been only a fraction of what truly lay beneath the surface. It was like the little wisp of steam that escaped when a lid was placed on a boiling pot. And that bubbling concoction made her lightheaded.

  Jade reveled in his love and was empowered. In that moment she knew she could do anything. Every word he’d spoken was a treasured gem to her. She wanted to prove him right for believing in her.

  “I will get you out of here,” Logan said.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, beaming at him through the hole. For letting me in.

  ~

  The blonde was quickly becoming more trouble than she was worth. Initially when Ethan had dragged her into the cell, she woke, violent and obnoxious. She fought so hard he was barely able to get the zip ties around her hands and feet before she did him serious damage. A lot stronger than she first appeared, she was also a loudmouth.

  Screams of terror would have been pleasurable, but yelling for help at the top of her lungs had been obnoxious. That wasn’t fear. She was determined to break free. It didn’t matter that no one could hear, this far from the public areas of the cave—it was grating on his nerves. And as if that hadn’t been enough, when he’d bound her arms, she’d spit in his face. At that, his anger flared. After the yelling came her insults, and that had been the last straw.

  When he’d taped her mouth, the sounds hadn’t stopped altogether, but they were muffled, which helped. He could have shoved something down her throat first, but he didn’t want her completely mute, because if she provided moans of pain and agony later on, he wanted to enjoy them.

  None of this was ideal. He was breaking from his typical routine for capturing a victim. Surprise wasn’t his modus operandi, and knocking a woman unconscious was usually unnecessary brutality. It was more fun when he won their trust first.

  But this time was different. He couldn’t take chances with the brunette. Not after what had happened last time. He couldn’t risk giving this new Kelsey a chance to run. He wanted her too badly for that.

  The blonde wasn’t crucial to his plan, yet he wondered what it might be like to have every one of the long-forgotten cells occupied with his own ever-ready collection of live subjects. How long might he be able to extend his enjoyment with each? The thought gave him tingles of exhilaration.

  Time would break his new Kelsey down the way that the quick capture hadn’t been able to. She was worth the wait. In the meantime, he’d enjoy the other one.

  Returning, he found the Chloe girl finally silent. He peered through the metal bars and studied her, but wasn’t stirred by her appearance. If anything, it turned him off. Hands and legs bound, she stood precariously, as if refusing to humble herself to a seated position. Through his monochromatic vision, her hair and skin appeared the same hue. It was bland, no contrast. He rarely selected blondes, and looking at her now reminded him why.

  Ethan opened the cell door and entered, locking it behind him with the key he’d found rusted into one of the locks. When he’d first explored every nook and cranny of the cave’s depths beyond where the public traveled, he’d found a tunnel hidden beneath a ledge—little more than a section of rock that had given way. But that opening had led him to a series of passages. The passages had probably been blasted with TNT or whatever explosive people used a long time ago. At the end were four cells that might have been there a century or two for all he knew—but he cared little about the history behind it. What was important was that he’d also discovered an alternate exit, which was likely the prison’s original entrance. It had taken half a day to move enough of the rubble out of the collapsed tunnel exit, but that was enough to grant him passage in and out without using the cave’s public entrance.

  Upon his entry, Chloe resumed her muffled protests. Ethan chuckled quietly to himself, his earlier frustration relinquished now that he was back in control. He waited for a moment, silently letting the suspense build.

  “Chloe.” Either the unexpected calm in his voice or the fact that he knew her name quieted her murmurs. She stood still, waiting for whatever came next.

  What would come next? Fear. Step one was in place: blackness. In the case of this feisty, aggressive female, he decided to bypass step two and move directly to step three. Besides, he knew her type and had little faith that a few snakes or spiders would do the trick. Step three was typically the most rewarding, and the one he liked to draw out the most: pain.

  Finding Jade caged up alone in the dark at the hands of an evil man wrought havoc on Logan’s mental state. It was nothing like what he’d feared when he’d found out she was coming here with her boyfriend. It was so much worse.

  Logan racked his brain, trying to think of the best way to find her. Once he’d seen Jade and her friend enter the cave safely, he had gone outside the park to kill time. After watching a bird dive into a hole in the rock, he’d followed it into one of the many small, uncharted caves in the area, a pocket created when the cave was formed. After finding Jade trapped on the other side, he’d searched the area looking for connections to the main cave, but finding nothing, gave up quickly. He had to reach her, and he couldn’t waste time.

  He drove to the park’s main entrance, and called the police. After taking five minutes to relay information of Jade and Chloe’s capture and answer a list of standard questions (which was five minutes too long), he ended the call and hastily entered the building. He couldn’t waste time waiting around for the police to show up.

  To looks of shock and dismay from the woman working the ticket counter, Logan grabbed a map and vaulted the turnstile. The elevator doors were already closing behind him before the woman could catch up to him. Once inside, he paused only a moment to compare the cave map to the one he had of the Carlsbad area. He headed to the Lower Cave to look for Jade, although most of that area wasn’t open to the public.

  He rounded a tight bend around a large stalagmite and collided into two other people.

  “Whoa!”

  “Cam,” Logan said, recognizing the first.

  A second guy, thinner with dark hair, halted behind the first.

  “Professor Henry?” Cam said. “Wow, weird meeting you here.” He cleared his throat. “This is my brother Josh. Did Jade tell you we were coming here?”

  Logan ignored the question. “Jade and Chloe are in trouble.”

  “What are you talking about? How do you know?”

  “I was exploring on the outside when I heard Jade calling for help through a hole in the wall. She’s been kidnapped by some creep and locked inside the cavern. She thinks he’s got Chloe too, but doesn’t know where.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Dead serious.”

  Josh went pale an
d Cam’s expression morphed into a state of alarm.

  “The guy’s got her in a prison cell,” Logan added.

  “What?” Cam said.

  “And he has some sort of night-vision ability. He can see in the dark.”

  “You’ve gotta be trippin’.”

  “There’s no time to explain. We have to find them. I called the police. They’re on their way.”

  “Should we wait for them out front?” Josh asked.

  “No. Let’s get a head start.” Concern was etched in Cam’s expression. “Let’s go now.”

  “He can’t be keeping them anyplace easily accessible, or anywhere close enough to the main cave that a simple scream would give them away,” Logan said. “I have a general idea of where to begin looking for Jade, but I have no idea where Chloe is. We could split up, but we’d be no match for that freak alone, especially if he really can see in the dark.”

  “I think we should stick together,” Cam said.

  Josh nodded.

  “My gut tells me that if we find Jade, we won’t be far off from finding Chloe.”

  “Okay, so where do we start?” Cam asked.

  Logan adjusted the camera that was still slung over his shoulder and held out the map. “I’m not sure. Maybe this area?”

  “We just came from there,” Cam said. “With the ranger-guided tour. The girls wouldn’t have had any reason to venture into this part of the cave. They were just doing the self-guided tour.”

  Logan consulted the map again. “What about over here?”

  “There’s no way the police are going to know where we’re at,” Josh said. He was right, but they couldn’t just wait around. They’d have to find the women on their own.

  “That’s the overlook area above here,” Cam said. “But you have to take a different route to get to it.”

  “Let’s start there.”

  ~

  The three men took thirty minutes to traverse the main cave and arrive at the overlook. They searched for a hidden passage of some sort for another twenty. Cam’s fiercely growling stomach made him wish he’d eaten more than a granola bar and a soda for breakfast. The snack had worn off hours ago as he was crawling through the dark crevices with Josh. His hunger was like a nagging voice, trying to distract him from his quest. He pushed it aside angrily. They had to find the girls.