14 Mockingbird Lane was a solitary door set against a nondescript brick building. A single lamp illuminated the street and flickered unreliably as I neared the entrance.
A worrying thought crossed my mind. What if my magic was off? What if it had been hijacked and someone was luring me here to kill me or something sinister like that?
Could magic be hijacked?
I’d have to ask someone later, assuming I got to have a later and didn’t end up with a slit throat for my troubles.
I groaned at my own ridiculousness. This was probably just an out-of-the-way celebration, like those barn parties back home.
My hand hovered over the door, ready to knock. But it never actually met the surface. Instead, the door flung open and a pair of hands grabbed at either of my arms.
I shrieked and pulled away, but another pair joined those hands, and the door slammed behind me.
Darkness greeted me as unseen bodies dragged me, as I kicked and screamed, through a long hallway.
“Get off me,” I yelled. Through the haze of my panic, I tried to remember just how to turn on those ice powers of mine.
Unfortunately, I had never been cool under pressure.
“Let me go,” I screamed.
A single light shone in the distance, and the hands tossed me into a huge wooden chair. The seat spun, revealing more of the room—a large, metal area.
People I didn’t recognize stared at me. The light shining in my face made it hard to make out any details. Just as I rocked forward to propel myself out of the seat and run, restraints clasped over my wrists, and I panicked all over again.
“Stop it,” I shrieked, yanking against the bindings. They didn’t budge.
Tears began to well up at the back of my eyes. My throat constricted, and my lungs tightened. I should have listened to Father. He begged me not to come. He told me how dangerous this was.
Don’t trust anything that doesn’t sleep.
“It’s all right,” a familiar voice said in the distance.
A figure, backlit by the bright spotlight, strode toward me. My body tensed as everything that could happen to me in my current state flashed through my mind.
“No one’s going to hurt you.”
The figure settled in front of me. When his head blocked out much of the glare, I could finally see who it was.
Henrick stood before me, hands clasped together in front of his waist. He looked more striking somehow, more put together.
“What are you doing?” I asked, trying hard to keep my voice from shaking.
“Nothing that will do you any harm, Razz. I swear. But if you’re going to be here, if you’re going to know everything I’m about to tell you—that we’re about to tell you—then you have to do this first.” He nodded firmly, bringing the glare back into my eyes before blocking it out again. “We’ve all done it.”
“Done what?” I asked through gritted teeth, pulling forward against the taut restraints. “What did you crazy people do, aside from pulling an innocent woman into some demented dungeon?”
“It’s not a dungeon, Razz,” Henrick said, pacing away from me. “And we’re not the crazy ones.”
Suddenly, I caught sight of something in his hand. A long needle filled with a glowing green liquid. “What the hell is that?” I asked, panic rising to my voice. My heart rate shuddered, and my whole body trembled.
Before I could speak again, Henrick jabbed the needle deep into my neck.
I screamed, but I couldn’t hear myself. The only sound that existed was my own heartbeat, accelerated by whatever drug Henrick dosed me with.
My eyes got heavy, and then the world drifted away.
A flash of heat roared through me, and I could feel every pore in my body repeatedly open and contract.
Suddenly, I wasn’t in the room anymore. I wasn’t tied to a chair or being peered at by dozens of strangers who wanted regent knows what with me.
I was everywhere. I was back at the farm.
I could see myself, a little girl, running around with the pigs and ruining the dress Mother had stayed up all night sewing for me.
I was rushing through the cornfield, playing hide-and-seek with Gemma, staying away just long enough to give her a good scare.
I was back in school, pretending to listen in agriculture class while my mind was really lost in tales of the great witches of old.
And I was here in the circle. I was at the wall, beating back that ravager. Its breath hot on my cheek, its fangs snapping too close to my face.
And then, I was somewhere else, somewhere I had never been before.
It was a large room, warm and illuminated in a soft, welcoming glow.
And Henrick was there, watching me with those intense eyes. He moved toward me, bare-chested and grinning. He scooped me up into his arms, his hands resting on my ass and squeezing it tightly.
My heart jumped as he tossed me onto a nearby bed. His lips searched me, and his hands soon followed. My head tilted back, and a soft moan escaped my lips.
But, suddenly, I wasn’t there anymore.
I felt a sharp pull, and I was back in that chair, staring at those people.
Henrick was in front of me again, and all I could see was his hands all over me.
“Wh-what was that?” I asked, a bead of sweat trickling down my forehead.
“Protocol,” he answered flatly. “Like I said, we all go through this.”
“You,” I said breathlessly, gritting my teeth so hard I thought they might shatter in my mouth. “You’re insane.”
“Come on now.” He grinned, kneeling in front of me. “That’s not truly what you think of me. Is it? I think we all know better now.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
At that moment, I heard it. The sound of myself moaning from somewhere overhead. My eyes shot upward. There I was on a screen, everything I had thought playing on a loop in full view of everyone in this room.
They’d seen it all.
Heat rushed into my face.
With that heat, the sharp cold that signified my powers had kicked back into gear.
I was more than a little embarrassed, more than a little exposed, and entirely mad as hell. These people thought they were better than I was. They were laughing at me—some doofus country girl who didn’t know anything, who could be harassed and treated as if she didn’t matter.
Well, if that was what they thought, they were wrong. I was extraordinary. And, if these bastards didn’t know it yet, they were definitely about to find out.
The restraints holding me back froze, and then shattered.
Henrick pulled back, but I rose and pushed him back—hard. He stumbled, but caught himself and stepped toward me once more.
“Don’t you ever talk to me again,” I said, power swirling around me in wintery winds. “Do you understand? You are never to look in my direction ever!”
I spun away and rushed back toward the exit. Once I crossed the threshold out of the room, I didn’t know which way to go. I pressed my back against the wall and held my breath, scanning every direction for any hint as to which way I’d come from.
“Should we go after her?” some guy’s voice echoed from in the room.
“No.” Henrick’s voice that time. “If she doesn’t want to be here, then she shouldn’t be.” He cleared his throat. “Let her go.”
Let me go? I growled. As if I needed his permission. With that, I bolted down the nearest hall, not caring anymore which way was out—all I wanted was to get as far away from Henrick as possible. Because I couldn’t stand the sound of his voice for another second. Couldn’t stand the way my stomach flipped every time he spoke. Couldn’t stand that I was attracted to a monster.
Chapter 5
I got back to my housing quarters, wishing to the regent I had never left. How stupid was I? What did I think was going to happen over there anyway, following some stranger to a hidden room at the end of a deserted alley?
It was as if everything Father had warned me a
bout had come to life before my very eyes. And what did I do? I ran toward it like some schoolgirl after sweet cubes.
No matter. That would be the last time Henrick, or anyone else in this awful place, would ever get the drop on me.
Perhaps this was what it took for me to finally open up my fool eyes. Perhaps this indignity, this embarrassment, would save me from further cruelties in the circle.
This place—the one that held so many of my dreams when I was a child—was turning out to be nothing more than a nightmarish land filled with frightening people. But as much as I wanted to right about now, I wasn’t ready to force myself awake just yet.
After closing the door of my quarters and scanning my thumb to lock it, I rushed back toward the refrigerator.
Trash food was better than no food. The way I was feeling right now, I could polish off an entire acre of crops if it might make me feel better.
I plopped onto my bed and began shoving disgustingly sticky cheese-flavored rings into my mouth. They mushed together in a wholly unnatural way as I chewed, and they tasted only a touch better than I imagined the cellophane wrapper they came in might, but I wasn’t eating for the taste right now.
I was a farm girl easing her bruised ego with food. It was as tragically cliché as it was effective. I finished the entire bag before sleep finally called to me.
As I closed my eyes, flashes of the things I saw while under the influence of that horrible drug Henrick injected me with came rolling back once more.
The farm and Gemma. The schoolyard where I grew up, wishing I were anywhere else. And Henrick himself, firm hands and skilled lips.
I hated how, even now, I wanted it to be real. Somewhere deep inside of me, I wanted that man to do all the things I was imagining him doing. I wanted to feel the way I felt in the dream, to feel complete, to feel satisfied.
What was wrong with me?
A rapid knock at the door jerked me back to consciousness.
“There is a visitor. There is a visitor.” The alert system my particular quarters had in place sounded the phrase over and over.
I never understood that about center people. Why did they need an electronic voice to tell them someone was at the door? Wasn’t the knocking enough?
“There is a—”
“I know,” I answered, shutting the voice up.
After slinging the covers off, I grabbed a robe and flung it over my shoulders. So sleepy that I forgot to tie it in the center, I walked the three steps from my bed to the door with my farm-ready flannel nightgown on full display.
I opened the door to Henrick standing there and gasped. What the hell was he doing here? Especially now—especially after what he did? A swirl of confusing emotions—anger and attraction all at once—spun through my stomach.
I pulled my robe closed, holding it together with one hand while the other shot back to the door, ready to slam it in his beautiful face. But I didn’t. For reasons I didn’t want to admit, my hand just braced the door as I stupidly stared at him, his hair wet and his face damp.
“Caught in the rain?” I forced myself to ask, my voice breathier than I would have liked. My heart thudded so quickly in my chest that I went lightheaded for a moment. I cleared my throat. “I didn’t realize it was you.”
“Of course you didn’t. You didn’t even ask who I was,” Henrick said, scowling. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
“I’m starting to,” I answered, finally getting the message from my brain to my hand to shut the door.
But as the door swung closed, Henrick stopped it with his hand and leaned forward, stopping just shy of stepping inside. “I just want to talk,” he said, and those intense blue eyes of his seemed to soften.
“I-I don’t think so.” I blinked away fleeting flashes of his dream doppelganger and the way it felt to have his fingers inside of me, then pushed hard at the door. “Goodnight.”
But his weight pressing the other way was too much for me to budge.
“I understand why you wouldn’t want me to come inside, but it doesn’t mean I can just walk away from this.”
“How about I throw you away from it?” I suggested, eyebrows arched, still pushing fruitlessly against the door. I leaned my shoulder into it and pushed harder. “You saw what I did to that ravager. And you’re not half as strong.”
Henrick chuckled, staring down at my wiry arms and failed efforts, and I froze, lifting my gaze from his chest up to his eyes. I hadn’t heard him laugh before. It sounded…nice…even if he was laughing at me.
Goosebumps prickled along my arms as his gaze fell to mine. Something in the air between us shifted.
“You’re not going to use magic on me,” he said, his voice lower, quieter, huskier.
“And how do you know that?” I whispered.
But he was right. My oomph against the door had already dulled. Because deep down, I didn’t want him to go. I wanted to hear what he had to say, and I wanted it to give me a reason not to be angry with him.
“Because it’s against the law to perform magic on another member of your sector unless you feel as though your well-being is in immediate and clear danger,” he said evenly, his eyes still intensely focused on me. “And you’re not one to break the rules. At least, not yet…”
“You don’t know me,” I said quickly. He was absolutely right, of course, but there was no way I was going to tell him that.
“I think after tonight, I know enough,” he said, his gaze dipping to my lips. “Now come on. Stop playing games. Let’s talk.”
“You kidnapped me. You drugged me. Mocked me in a room full of strangers. How do I not know that my well-being isn’t in immediate and clear danger? There are laws against that, too, you know.”
“Everything but the mocking,” he admitted. “Suck it up, buttercup. And I think that, should you ever get over it, I might be able to enlighten you about a few things that would change your mind about what I did to you.”
He took a deep breath and stepped back from the door. With my weight still pressed against it, it shot closed right in his face. I turned, leaning my back against the panel, the butterflies in my stomach going wild. Some carnal part of me wanted to the throw the door open again, jump into his arms, and kiss him.
It made no sense.
“Just five minutes,” he said, the closed door still between us. “Just give me five minutes to tell you what’s going on. If after that you still don’t want anything to do with me, I’ll leave your quarters and never come back. I’ll even request a shift transfer. You’ll never have to see me again.”
I should be thrilled at the idea, but I wasn’t. Never see him again? Might be for the best…but the innate ache that sprouted in my chest when he spoke the words ‘never see me again’ didn’t align with logic.
I gritted my teeth together and pulled the door open to allow Henrick to come in.
He didn’t step very far inside, as if trying to help me feel safe. The door was still open behind him.
“Nice place you have here,” he said.
“I’m first year. Quarters aren’t much to look at before—”
“Year three. I know how it is, remember?” His eyes moved to the crumpled mess that was my bed. To my horror, his gaze settled on the empty bag of cheese rings nestled against my pillow.
“Those things are horrible,” he said with a smile on his face. “I eat them all the time.”
I refused to let the smile reach my lips. “Your time started the second you crossed the threshold. You’d better get going.”
“Right,” he said. He circled me, looking me up and down. “What I injected you with—” His finger traced the puncture point on my neck, and I did my best not to shudder at the feel of fingertips against my skin. “—is called the Lighthouse.”
“Interesting name for a drug,” I muttered, turning to him. “Get to the part where I’m suddenly going to be okay with you injecting it into me against my will.”
“Back when men traveled across the
great waters, there were buildings that housed lights strong enough to cut through the fog, mist, and darkness. People called them lighthouses, and those structures showed brave men the right path. Showed them the truth.” He swallowed hard. “And that’s what that serum did to you. It cut through the fog, the mist, and the darkness in your mind. It showed us the truth.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That was not the truth.”
“It was,” Henrick said, stepping closer. His fingers twirled one of the ties at the front of my robe. “The Lighthouse always shows the truth, regardless of whether or not we’re willing to accept it.”
“How would you know?” I asked. I went to sweep his hand away, but when my hand touched his, I froze instead. “Maybe you’re wrong.”
“No, Razz. I’m not. What was done to you was done to me once, too.” He let go of the tassel and dropped his hand away from mine, then moved over to my mess of a bed and sat down.
The sight of him resting against my mattress sent unwanted shivers down my spine as a flash of him tearing at my clothes and kissing my neck bolted through my mind.
“Sit with me,” he said.
“I don’t think so,” I answered, trying to keep my voice steady.
He locked eyes with mine as he shrugged. “The Lighthouse gets to the truth, and then that truth is shown on screens for the rest of us to see. That’s how we know if you belong, if you actually have what it takes to be one of us, and to find out if you can be trusted.”
Shit, that’s right. They had everything on screen there. Which meant…it meant that everyone here had seen what I had.
A panic started in my chest, but I swallowed around the lump forming in my throat. Maybe it hadn’t shown everything. I needed to chill out and get the facts first. “How much did you see?”
“Everything,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
My stomach dropped, and my face got as hot as a coal fire. I turned away and tried to make myself look busy with stuff on my kitchen counter, but there wasn’t much there to occupy my hands.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said, and I could hear him standing to meet me.
“That’s easy for you to say,” I muttered.
Under: an Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 5 (The Othala Witch Collection) Page 4