The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series

by Cole, LaDonna

  We all looked to Trip. His would be the deciding vote.

  “I agree with Tara.” He cut worried eyes to me. “The sooner we can defend ourselves, the better our chances of survival.”

  I looked down at my arms, frustrated that they could only think of physical survival. There was more at stake here, but only Corey and I seemed to understand that, and we were outnumbered.

  “Fine,” I snapped. “Corey and I will climb the hill and see if we can get above the fog bank. We need to know what we are up against.”

  Trip started to shake his head.

  “She’s right, Trip,” Tara agreed, a little too quickly, I thought. “Ash and I will skirt the incline this way.” She pointed over her shoulder. “You go that way and we will meet on the other side of the hill, then we can pick our way back here and climb to meet Kate and Corey.”

  Trip gazed into my eyes for a long moment with a frown on his face. I was too upset with him to give him any reassurances. I turned, took Corey by the hand and started climbing the hill.

  “Kate, wait a minute.”

  “We are gonna get started.” Tara took Ash by the shoulder, and they started off.

  I stopped and looked up at Corey. Trip walked up behind me and turned me around to face him. Then he looked at Corey and shuffled his feet, awkwardly.

  “I’ll wait for you up here,” Corey mumbled, dropped my hand and climbed up the hill until the mist took him from view.

  “Kate.”

  I refused to look up at Trip. I pressed my lips together and stared at his boots.

  He touched my chin and turned my face up to his. I glared at him.

  “Don’t be mad, Kate.” His voice was velvet and pleading. “I have to make decisions that are best for all of us. It wasn’t about choosing Tara over you.”

  My mouth fell open. “Is that what you think I am upset about?”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Of all the arrogant—I don’t give a flippin’ flea circus if you choose Tara!” I pushed at his chest, futilely. “You can choose her all day long. Go ahead. Choose her! I don’t care if you decide Ash is more your type! This is the wrong decision, and you are just too…too…I don’t know…physical to see that!” I punched his bicep with my finger. “You listen to me Trip Carson! This will end badly unless you start thinking about the reason we are all here. It isn’t about surviving. It’s about…about… healing. You heard the stories. We are all broken, messed up kids, and we aren’t here to earn a campfire badge!”

  It was the most I had ever said at one time in my life, I think. I wasn’t a speech maker or preachy type, but this I was sure about.

  Trip started grinning and I wanted to smack him.

  “Physical, huh?” He flexed his bicep. “I have a feeling you like it that I am physical.”

  I stared him down. He dropped his silly grin.

  “Okay, Kate. I hear you. I will consider what you are saying.” He touched my cheek. “Please don’t be mad at me. I can’t stand the thought of you walking away from me angry. I just got you back. I don’t want to spend another minute without you.” His dark eyes bored into mine pleading.

  “Well then, I guess it is too bad you split us all up.” I gave him a half smile.

  “I wasn’t planning on you leaving my side. That was your idea.” He stepped closer and placed his hand on my waist.

  I wasn’t ready to just let him off the hook. I was still pretty mad at him, but I didn’t want him to worry. “Well, go get your physical stuff done and hurry back.”

  “Kiss and make up?” He pulled me close.

  There was so much of him, like he had his own gravity. I tried to resist his pull. “No, but I will give you a hug. That will give you something to look forward to when you get back.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. He lifted me off the ground and smothered me with his bear hug.

  “I won’t be long, Katie girl.” He twirled me around, set me down and jogged off.

  I held out my arms until my head stopped spinning and, then turned to climb the hill. The mist was clearing and I spotted Corey sitting on a rock.

  “Well, did you set him right?” He looked up at me.

  “I think so.”

  “Hey, Kate,” Corey’s face shifted from pain to embarrassment and sincerity. “I am really not interested in becoming your ticket to making Trip jealous.”

  My heart deflated, I didn’t want to do this to my Corey. I didn’t know how to sustain Corey’s bliss and be with Trip, too. I sat down beside him. “I am sorry, Corey. I didn’t really plan to use you to make Trip jealous, but I can see why you would think that.”

  We reached for each other’s hands; it was just natural to be touching. We had embraced for a thousand years. “I was just frustrated that they couldn’t see our point, and if we were going to have to be separated, I didn’t want to be with any of them.” I gathered my legs into my arm and rested my ear on my knees and studied his profile. “Making Trip jealous was just a pleasant side effect.” I bit my lip in chagrin.

  He threw his head back and laughed. “I love it that you are so honest.” His eyes sobered and fastened onto mine. “So, are you two—a couple?”

  I sighed. Were we a couple? It felt like it was trying to happen, and I couldn’t deny there was intense physical attraction between us, but something was holding me back, and I had a feeling it had everything to do with the unbelievably sweet and warm boy sitting beside me. I wanted to answer Corey honestly. He deserved the truth.

  “Corey, I don’t know the answer to that question. If I did, I promise I would tell you.” I put my forehead in the dip between my boney kneecaps. “I think he would like to believe that we are a couple. From his perspective, he has waited to be reunited with me for three years. From my perspective, I have only known him for a few hours. I mean, it isn’t like I spent an eternity with him. You on the other hand…”

  “I know, Kate. I have loved you for a thousand years and yet only had a few moments with you.”

  “Exactly.” I turned to him and saw a tear trickling down his face. I reached up and wiped the tear with my thumb and cupped his cheek. He kissed my palm and tenderness flooded me. I found myself leaning toward him, needing him, wanting to wrap myself around him and resume our endless kissing.

  He put his forehead to mine and closed his eyes. I could feel his breath on my face and I breathed it into myself needing any part of him. Just when I thought his lips would find mine, he spoke in a ragged whispered.

  “Not until you know for sure, Kate. I won’t tear you apart, like this.” He took my face in his hands, kissed my forehead, then stood and pulled me up beside him. “We go find cave or big stick weapon! Ug!” He pounded his chest.

  I snorted. “You big caveman. Drag me by my hair to cook you dino ribs.”

  “If only I could be so lucky.” Corey gathered my hair and twisted it over his hands, gently, smiling into my eyes.

  “Corey,” I crimped my brows. “What exactly did we learn in the Scriptorium?”

  He raised his eyebrows, took my hand and we started up the hill. “Well, I’m not sure.”

  “Trip and Tara learned some mad fighting skills. What exactly did we take out of our experience…I mean except for this…” I waved my hand back and forth between our chests. “…this connection.” My face flushed at the understatement.

  “It’s just that I know someone is going to ask sooner or later. We were chosen first, as team leaders, so it is going to occur to them at some point that our experience should have been extremely enlightening.”

  He stopped walking and turned to face me. “It was definitely enlightening.” He touched my cheek.

  I smiled. “Yeah, but I don’t think I want to share those parts with everyone. I want to keep those enlightening moments between the two of us.”

  “Right.” Corey pierced me with a confused expression. I realized that he might have taken that to mean that I didn’t want to tell Trip about our connection, but I really just meant I wanted to
keep the precious moments with Corey private, our own sweet secret. I didn’t know how to say that without it sounding like I was making excuses. We resumed our climb.

  “There was the Voice.”

  “Yeah, the Voice. Was that God?” I asked hesitantly.

  “I think so. It felt divine.” He touched his heart.

  “But also extremely personal, almost like…”

  He looked steadily at me. “Like?”

  “This is going to sound weird, but it was like our love for each other was…”

  “..created by him.”

  “…encouraged.”

  “Like it was him.” Corey nodded.

  “It is weird, huh?”

  “Radically weird.”

  The hill jutted up steeply and we had to press our full attention on scrambling up the incline. We reached a ledge and stopped to rest. At this height we could see over the pockets of mist and noted the sky wasn’t blue, but a bright pink. I assumed it was the sun rising through the mist, but something about the sky made me feel nostalgic, then I remembered the pink fluffy clouds that Corey and I had lived in for an eternity. I reached for his hand and it was there reaching for mine.

  I stared into the beautiful sky for a few moments squeezing Corey’s hand tightly, and then turned to look at him. He was watching me intently, his blue eyes sincere and comforting. I had lived in those eyes, once upon a time.

  “Was it real?” I whispered, lost in the fathomless depths of his gaze.

  “It was.”

  “How do you know?”

  He leaned over to me and stroked the skin on my face, down my jawline, he touched my lips and sketched a line down my neck to my collar bone. I closed my eyes lost in the memory of his skin on mine. He put his lips to my ear and whispered.

  “Because I know every line and lash on your face, every curl of hair on your head, every curve and pulse of your neck. I know nothing more intimately than I know you.”

  “Corey.” I breathed his name and realized I knew him in specific detail too. It had been real. I didn’t quite understand how that was possible, but it was the truth.

  A thrill of delight shuddered through me to have his lips so close and I leaned into him. He jerked away and I fell into the vacant space a few inches before catching myself. I snapped my eyes open.

  “Kate, do you feel that?” Corey stretched out on the ledge and hung his head over.

  “What are you doing?” I grabbed onto his shirt, my bruised pride pushed away by my fear of him toppling over the edge. “Don’t fall.”

  “Hey! Come on!” He jumped up and scurried down the side opposite of the one we had ascended. I stood and brushed my pants off as I followed him to the landing below.

  “A cave!” He swept his arm up.

  I turned around and saw the ledge we had dangled our feet over was actually the top of the opening to a hole in the side of the hill.

  “Shelter? Check!” I grinned marking the air with my finger.

  “Let’s explore, shall we?” He held out his elbow to escort me into the opening.

  I snorted. “You don’t quiet have the whole ‘barbaric caveman’ thing down, do you?”

  “Oh, yeah?” He grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder.

  “Corey Chastain! Put me down!”

  He adjusted my weight with a bounce and stalked into the wide opening of the cave. “Me caveman! You Jane!”

  I laughed and squealed and playfully beat at his back. The noise echoed around a large chamber. He flipped me over like a rag doll and set me down on my feet. Then he beat his chest like King Kong, bent his knees, and waddled around making monkey grunts. I doubled over and laughed so hard that tears sprinkled from my eyes.

  He turned a figure eight, then leapt at me tackling me to the sandy cave floor. “Jane like big strong caveman?” He grunted at me and rolled over onto his back pulling me onto his chest.

  “Yeah, Jane like.” I smiled down at him, my hair hung like a curtain around his face.

  “Good, oogh...oogh!” He lifted his chin with each grunt and ran his hands along my back in a very familiar pattern.

  Oh my! Memories of forever assaulted me. How many thousands of years had we been in this very position? Then, there were no restraints. No Trip. No jump to worry about. Just Corey and Kate and a thousand years of loving kisses.

  My heart throttled in my throat as I gazed into his loving eyes. Corey.

  He tensed and cocked his head. He placed a finger over his lips and shifted my weight so he could sit up. He turned his head to listen.

  “Wha…” he locked a finger over my lips, furrowed his brow and shook his head.

  He slowly stood and lifted me to stand beside him, then with his attention on the dark cave beyond, he pressed me against the cave wall with his arm in front of me protectively.

  Then I heard it.

  Ssssssstt….ssssssttt….sssstttt. I strained my eyes to see into the darkness of the cave. Corey quietly took off his backpack, rested it in my arms, then dug into a side pocket and pulled out a long dagger.

  My eyes popped and my mouth fell open. He pressed against me and pointed to a crevice in the cave wall. He motioned for me to back into it and stay put. I nodded, besides all I had was a large iron key. What was I going to do with that? Unlock it to death?

  Sssssstt…a scratching noise accompanied the hissing. Corey squatted down behind a large boulder. The scratching became clicking and scraping. I wanted to crane my head out of the hiding place to see what was making the noises, but I wasn’t brave enough to keep breathing, much less face down a monster. So I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing quietly.

  The noises became louder until the creature was right in the same room with us. I was in a near panic, my heart ramped against my breast. The only thing that scared me more was the fact that Corey was out there with the strange monster. I opened my eyes to search for Corey. He was watching the beast with a curious expression on his face. The tension seemed to leave him and he quietly stood up, held out a hand for me to stay and then moved into the center of the cave.

  Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! I prayed. What is he doing! My fear for Corey’s safety won out over my fear for myself and I leaned to peek around the edge of the cave wall. I dropped the backpack with a thud, all feeling left my arms and legs.

  Corey turned at the sound and smiled. He was stroking the head of what I could only describe as a dark green, spotted baby pterodactyl.

  I moved forward cautiously. “What is it?”

  “I think we would call it a dragon.”

  “Dragon? As in Puff-the-Magic?”

  “Heheh, yeah, something like that.” His face was alight. I had seen an expression of adoration like that once from my brother when he found a stray pup.

  “I think…” He cocked his head curiously. “I think he is talking to me.”

  “Corey, he hasn’t made a sound.”

  “No, I mean with thoughts. It’s like I can feel what he feels. He is hungry and new…very new…maybe just hatched.” He turned and looked into the dark cave. “There are more eggs, inside. He is showing them to me.” He tapped a finger on his temple.

  “Can I pet him?” I inched toward them.

  “Yeah, come on. He really likes this.” He scratched gently against the eye ridge.

  I took another cautious step toward them and stretched out my hand. The baby dragon turned his head to look at me.

  “I agree!” Corey laughed.

  I frowned at him.

  “He feels very soothed by your physical appearance.”

  “What?” I wrinkled my nose.

  “He thinks you’re pretty.”

  I rolled my eyes and huffed out a breath. “You are making that up,” I chided and kneeled down to close the distance between my fingers and the dragonet.

  When I touched him a strong current blasted up my arm and I convulsed. My vision fractured into a thousand angles with prismatic color blinding me. My teeth clamped down hard, and I tasted
blood in my mouth. Screeching sounds assaulted my ears, and I heard Corey yelling my name. Then the world went black.

  “I can’t believe he let her touch that thing!”

  “I think we should kill it!”

  “If he touches her again I think I will kill him!”

  “Water?”

  “Thanks.”

  “I am so sick of the Trip, Corey, Kate triangle. I think I might puke!”

  “What do they see in her, she is just a skinny little girl?”

  “She is beautiful. She is Mine.”

  “Katie girl, please be okay.”

  “The big one smells bad.”

  “My soul, please come back to me.”

  “The soup is almost ready.”

  “37, 38, 39”

  “You are almost here!”

  The voices were splitting my skull and they were talking nonsense! I recognized all but one voice…a child’s voice. A moan escaped my lips and a weight pressed down on my chest. At my sound the voices mingled into a loud jumble.

  “Oh god, she is alive…hello there, beauty…thank God…oh great, the princess is waking…couldn’t she sleep for ten more minutes, the soup smells so good…sssshhheee is mine sssst…back off kitty cat!”

  I pressed a hand to my temple, and my eyes fluttered.

  “Kate?” Trip’s voice.

  “Is she awake?” Tara’s voice.

  “Sweet love, my perfect Kate.” Corey’s voice was really loud. I opened my eyes to find him hovering near and saw an ocean of concern in his sea blue eyes.

  “Corey?”

  “Oh, thank God. Yes, my love. Yes, I am here.”

  I frowned. His lips weren’t moving, but I could hear everything he said.

  “Hey, Jane.” Oh. Well. There, his lips were working just fine. Silly me. I smiled.

  “Hey.”

  “I am so sorry I told you to touch the dragonet. If you had died, I would have died with you!”

  “No, Corey. I wanted to pet the little dragon, it wasn’t your fault.”

  “What?” His eyes were startled, but his mouth was definitely not moving.

  “I wish he would just leave us alone!” Trip shouted. I turned my head to see his brow furrowed.