Chapter 7
Well, He Did Tell Me
This time, when she woke, Willow felt well-rested and comfortable. The warmth at her back was soothing, so she moved back a little into it. When she felt something firm, she tried to remember why she would have ended up in bed with someone. The soft smell of juniper reached her nose, and she let out a comforting mumble.
“You smell really good.”
“Hmm. Oh.” The bed vibrated a little as the man laughed. “Thank you, Willow. Are you ready?”
“Five more minutes.” She rolled over and pressed her face into a very firm chest. Poking it, she giggled. “That’s not pillow material.” It didn’t take long before she fell asleep to the man laughing again. The last thing she remembered was an arm moving around her back as she snuggled into the chest she had just criticized as not snuggly enough.
“Willow, we probably should think about getting ready to leave now.”
The quiet voice stirred her from her slumber, and Willow said, “Five more minutes.”
There was a low, rumbling chuckle. “You said that a couple of hours ago. As much as I would love to let you sleep, they are starting to stir out there. There’s no telling when they will enter. If nothing else, I’m sure they want to try to torture me to see if they can get me to break and give them money.”
The warmth disappeared, and the bed shifted a little. Willow opened her eyes and tried to clear the haze from them. That’s when she registered the room, and the memories of what happened before she went to sleep hit her at the same time. She shot up in bed and started scrambling to stand up.
“Whoa, whoa. We need to get out of here but don’t need to leave immediately. Let’s come up with a plan.”
“What if they come for you? I can’t let them torture you again.”
“It’s okay. I can heal myself. Besides …”
“No! I have to get you out of here. I have to!”
He placed a hand on her shoulder, and Willow immediately relaxed. “I’ll be fine. I do not intend to leave you again until you are safe and ready to move on with your life. And no, you won’t need to worry about money because I’ll make sure you have what you need.”
“I … don’t know how I feel about that.”
“If it does anything to compensate for how I treated you, I’ll take it.”
She wanted to say that money won’t fix anything, but Willow knew he was honestly trying to make amends. There was no reason to make him feel guiltier than he did. Unlike her parents, time had changed him, making him a better person.
“Okay. So, do you have a plan in mind?” She bit her lip, unsure if she should be asking or if that was her cue to dive into her plan.
“I haven’t come up with anything specific, but I do know the layout of the place. The triggers on the floor are something that my family hadn’t considered necessary. Then again, we weren’t planning on making a place to torture and kill people, so, of course, that wasn’t a part of our design.”
“What were you planning to do with such a large building?”
“It was supposed to be a building for government offices. I would wager that they removed all of the nicer rooms, like the courtyard at the center, which would have allowed for windows in all rooms.”
“Ah. Wow. That does sound like it could be a nice workplace. Kind of like a donut, but as a big square building.”
He smiled. “So not at all like a donut.”
She laughed. “I can’t think of anything else to compare it to. Most shapes don’t cut out the center.”
“Do you like donuts?”
Willow licked her lower lip. “You are making me hungry, so please forget I mentioned them.”
“Ah, right. You probably need food, huh? That should probably be our first consideration.”
“No. It’s easier to phase through without food in my stomach.”
His brows knit together. “Does the food disrupt the process?”
“Not really. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think it has something to do with my body digesting food and trying to fit through other stuff. I don’t know, though. I haven’t exactly had a chance to study it.”
“That’s fair. If you want a safe place to learn more, I can offer that to you wherever you go. It’s best that you understand your powers to keep them under control.”
“So, I don’t accidentally kill myself. I know; I remember what you said.”
“That’s an extreme example. Most of the time, it’s more a matter of not pushing yourself too far. It's kind of like avoiding burnout or physical exhaustion. Not all of you have physical abilities, which has been invaluable in helping find more of you.”
“Do you mean like being able to talk to people through their minds?”
“Not exactly. One of the Sextons is married to a woman who can see different potential futures. That’s how Elliot could track you down – she could see you and figure out where you were.”
“So, she knew who I was?”
“I’m not sure how it works.” He picked up a few items and slipped them into his coat pockets. “I’ve never met Alina since she prefers to stay on the Sexton’s property.”
“Is that like a prison?”
“No. It’s a safe haven for people like you and her. And with her growing family of dragon shifters, I’m not surprised she prefers to keep them in one place. From my understanding of her abilities, she doesn’t know names or many details. What she sees is just enough to determine where someone needs to be to get a specific result. However, Elliot says she must be careful because seeing the future gives her headaches.”
Willow looked at him strangely. “Her ability gives her headaches? How long does that take to happen?”
“According to Elliot, just a few seconds is enough. If she goes for an hour or two, she’ll have a migraine for a day or two.”
“That sounds horrible!”
“That's why we listen when she gives us information. It’s always important, and we know what it costs her to get the details she has.”
“I think I prefer my ability.”
Nolan smiled. “Me, too, especially in this situation.” He looked toward the door, drawing her attention to it. Suddenly, she could feel the vibrations on the floor and knew that people were coming.
“We have to leave.”
Her companion looked at her. “How do you know they are coming here?”
“It’s just a feeling, but I don’t want to wait around to see if it is …”
The movement stopped just outside the door. Reacting instinctually, Willow raised her hand and forced the door shut just as someone began to push it open. Then she threw her arms around Nolan and thought about sinking through the floor.
She didn’t hear anything as the world seemed to fall away. Holding on tightly to Nolan, she saw the floor approaching them quickly. To her surprise, Nolan knocked her arms away, then grabbed her and twisted her body so that she was on top of him a second later when they hit the ground. He grunted and let go of her.
“I was not expecting that.” He was a bit breathy.
Willow scrambled off of him and looked at the floor. “The trigger’s going off. We have to get out of here.”
She held up her hand, trying to blast the door off its hinges. Nothing happened.
“You can pull me through the floor with you. What about running through the walls?”
Shaking her head, Willow’s eyes were darting around the room. “I think it’s only within a certain … space around me. I didn’t even know that I could bring you through with me. It was all just instinct.”
“That’s handy. If you want to experiment with me, I’m—”
The look of disbelief on her face shut him up. “You don’t seem to understand Nolan; we have to …”
She heard the people just outside the door to this new room, and Nolan heard them, too, because he turned to look. Again, she threw her arms around him and dropped them through the floor. And he, again, held her and made sure she was cushioned when they hit.
“It's really not my favorite way of getting out of here, especially since this is an underground facility.”
This was not what Willow wanted to hear. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We didn’t have any time to plan. And now I don’t suppose we will. Come on.” He grabbed her hand and then ran toward the door. They crashed through it almost as if it were made of cardboard. Stunned, Willow looked back at the door as Nolan dragged her around a corner and down another seemingly endless corridor.
“Why are there so many freaking corridors?”
His voice rushed past her as they seemed to be picking up speed. “It’s meant to be a large building that can house dozens of offices. Of course, it’s also supposed to be above ground, not some kind of illegal underground testing place.”
“How do you know we’re underground?”
“The pressure.”
Willow didn’t know what he meant, but they were moving so fast that she found it too hard to talk and run. Even with regular exercise, her body could not run at this speed for long. Given the hallway's size, it would take a while to get to the other end.
“Hold on.” Nolan released her hand, and she ran past him. Without warning, her feet lifted off the floor, and it felt like she was running at an impossible speed.
“I can’t feel if people are coming!” She shouted over the sound of air moving around them, not sure if he would even hear her.
As if they heard her, a group of staff members showed up at the other end of the corridor. When she realized they had guns, Willow didn’t stop to think what she was doing. As they stopped and started aiming, she wrapped her arms around Nolan’s neck and focused on extending her powers around him. The first shot rang out as they disappeared through the floor.
Expecting things to happen like they had the last couple of times, Willow was not expecting the change in how Nolan felt. The soft skin around his neck began to feel leathery and coarse. Her body seemed to move from a position in his arms to more like a sitting side saddle. She looked down to see shiny black scales. Following that, her gaze trailed over to the sides where two impressive wings were folded against the rounded body.
“Holy …” she nearly toppled off of him. Her hand grabbed hold of the base of the wing. This got a loud grunt, and Willow realized that she had just grabbed a joint and placed a lot of pressure on it. Releasing it, she tried to shift the position of her body so that she was in a more appropriate riding position. Laying her body against the smooth scales, she closed her eyes.
Any doubt about what he had told her was gone, replaced by the realization that Nolan could function as a dragon. It was impossible and strange, but at the same time, it made perfect sense.
Of course, he can be a powerful mythical creature. No wonder he acted so superior to everyone. Knowing what he is, it’s impossible to argue with that assessment. Shockingly, he didn’t absolutely level the high school, given how unhappy he was there.
The hallways had seemed so unnecessarily large before—now they felt too small because Nolan took up nearly the whole thing, and his wings were flush against his body. They quickly cleared the rest of the corridor, although she couldn’t really watch the progress. He was moving too quickly for her to breathe if she were facing forward. When one of his shoulders lowered, Willow had to grip him tightly, as the action nearly threw her off his back.
Then he slammed into the corner of the hallway, shaking the entire structure. The wall crumbled under the force, and she was aware of debris moving around her as Nolan turned the corner. Gripping his back tightly, she could see his tail swinging behind them, its spike leaving huge gouges in the walls and ceiling.
As they tore down the next corridor, she heard a dinging sound, and she knew an elevator was nearby. Narrowing her eyes, she looked ahead of her as much as possible. The lights were clear, and she knew exactly where the people were going to appear. Nolan was moving too quickly, and they passed the elevator before it opened. Holding out a hand, she blasted the doors, denting them and making it all but impossible to get them to open again.
Still, he didn’t slow.
Shouting, she asked, “Where are we going?”
There was no immediate response, but less than a minute later, she felt the sleek body begin to shift. The gorgeous black scales started to change colors, and her body began to move unpredictably.
Suddenly, she was holding Nolan’s neck as tightly as she could.
“Air,” he wheezed.
“Oh! I’m so sorry!” She let go, nearly toppling out of his arms as she tried to make sure she wasn’t cutting off his oxygen.
He grunted but managed to keep a hold of her. Lifting her body a little, Nolan moved a shoulder low again, barreling through a door at the end of the corridor.
Impossibly quickly, he ran up a set of stairs. Willow didn’t initially realize that he was on stairs because his movements were so smooth, more like gliding. Floor after floor flew passed as he raced up the stairs. The constant turning sensation made her feel ill, so she buried her head in his neck to try to keep from being affected by the feeling of going in an upward spiral.
To her surprise, Nolan slowed down and stopped. They were still a few floors from the top, but he carefully placed her on the floor.
“Here’s where I need to get you somewhere safe.”
“Where are we?”
“We have to get a few things before we can leave.”
“Oh!” Willow had all but forgotten about the fact that there could be other people hiding in the facility. “Right, we need to do a full-on jailbreak. How can I help?”
“They don’t have any other prisoners. Most of this place is wasted space. The people who run this company always get too far ahead of themselves, and this facility is mostly empty. And soon it won’t exist anymore.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone! Not even the doctor.”
He had a pained look, and it was apparent she had offended him. “I’m not going to kill them. Once we are out, I’m sending an anonymous tip to the Feds. They will shut this place down; then, my family will destroy it once it is cleared out.”
“Why?”
“For many reasons, but there is no good reason to leave a place like this standing. It’s nearly twenty floors underground and can only lead to disaster.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“Alina said. And she has never been wrong in the years I’ve worked with the Sextons.”
“Oh.” Willow bit her lip. “You talk about her a lot. Are you …” She wasn’t sure she should finish that sentence.
“Am I … what?”
“Never mind.” Willow shook her head.
Nolan wasn’t about to let it go that easily. “Were you about to ask if I’m in love with her?”
Willow flushed. She had no idea why that question popped into her mind, but she knew she had no good reason to ask it. “It’s not important. We have something important we need to do, and standing here talking about your love life will hardly help us.”
He smiled and shook his head. “At this point, I’m going to find a safe room for you to stay because I don’t know how long this will take. I’ll bring you some food so you don’t go hungry.”
“Can’t I just eat when we get out of here?”
“I don’t know how long that will take. It could be days.”
“What? You never said anything about staying here!”
Before he could respond, the door swung open, nearly knocking her over the railing. Nolan grabbed her as several people grabbed him. He pulled her to him as the goons began to beat him.
Willow tried slipping through the stairs, but her abilities didn’t work. Looking down, she realized that the material was probably the same as what her parents used to keep her trapped.
How could they possibly have known?
Nolan whispered in her ear, “Run. Get somewhere safe. I swear I’ll find you again.”
She could feel how brutally they were hitting him as his body shook and jolted against her. “I can’t leave you.”
“I’ll be fine. You won’t. Please, trust me.”
She looked up into his eyes. The impossibly blue color shook slightly, and she realized this was as close to pleading as he could manage. “I won’t leave you.”
Willow had no idea why, but she kissed his cheek as he let go of her. As she turned and ran through the wall, she felt horrible.
She was doing exactly what she had promised she wouldn’t do – she was leaving him behind to suffer. Tears stung her eyes as she thought of the way he looked at her, and she imagined him turning back into the dragon.
I will find a safe room and wait for him to contact me. Then, we will continue to take down these horrible people.