Chapter 23
Kayla
I’m just about to stand to my feet when I feel something under his iPad. I turn it over and pull out the folded note shoved into the case. My breath snags in my chest, and my heart starts drumming a faster beat. I unfold it with shaky hands.
Willing to make a trade. You for your brother. Choose wisely, Healer.
I turn the note over, but there’s nothing else. I stand and look around the apartment. “Noah? Renee?” My phone rings, and I snag it from the table with shaky hands. Unkown number. “Hello.”
“Kayla.”
I recognize Renee’s voice instantly, and I grip my phone harder. “Where is he? I swear to—”
“Swearing won’t help your brother now, Kayla.
If you want your brother to live, you need to listen to me very carefully.
” I hardly dare to breathe. “The door at the left end of the hall is unlocked. Go through it, lock it behind you and come down the stairs. Right now before the wolves get here. If you bring them to me, Kayla, Noah dies.” Her mention of the wolves is jarring because she seems to know more than I do. I wonder how long she’s known.
I swallow and try to remember to breathe. “I won’t.”
“See that you don’t.”
I make the decision to leave my phone, knowing it’s probably a stupid decision.
But if I get into the same room as Renee, there’s no way she’ll let me keep my phone.
I hurry over to the door and peek out. When I don’t see anyone, I crack open the door.
After I look out and don’t see anyone, I take off for the door at the end of the hall.
I make sure one last time that no one is following before I open the door and close and lock it softly behind me.
With my heart thundering in my chest, I make my way down the old wooden steps.
When I get to the bottom, there’s another door; but this one is locked.
I tap on it, and it opens after a moment.
Somebody grabs my arm and pulls me forward.
I nearly fall but somebody else yanks both my arms behind me, keeping me on my feet.
I scan the room, desperately looking for Noah.
I take in Renee sitting at a small table; I also take in the two other men in the room, not counting the person behind me.
The person holding my arms pushes me forward, and I don’t resist. Somebody zip ties my wrists together and my legs to the chair once I'm seated and shoves my chair forward. It’s all done in the blink of an eye.
I eye Renee with contempt. “Where is he?”
“I am in control here.” Her voice is sharp, and I barely recognize her. She looks at me with such coldness, it makes my blood chill. She nods, and I don’t understand until something sharp pricks my neck. I try to pull away, but the hold on my head is too strong.
“What did you do?” I ask Renee and try not to panic. “What was that? Where is Noah?” I strain against the ties holding me to the chair. She stands up, looks at something on her phone and then nods at one of the men.
“All right. We’re leaving now. Don’t worry; I’m sure we’ll be seeing you again really soon.”
There’s a knock on the door, and hope floods me.
But when the door opens a moment later, the air is ripped from my lungs.
Dark eyes filled with hatred find mine, and terror lights my entire body as I strain in earnest against the zip ties.
I whip my head to Renee. “How could you?” The words are barely audible, mostly a whisper.
She shrugs. But for just a moment, her eyes meet mine. I see something there. Regret? It’s gone so fast, I wonder if I imagined it. “This will keep the wolves busy, allowing us time to get away. We’ll be back for you.”
Her words mean nothing to me. “Wait,” I call out desperately. “Where is Noah?” Nobody answers me, and I cry out in frustration. Faster than I can track, Renee and the others that were with her leave. And now I’m faced with a new threat.
“Hello, Kayla,” he says as he advances on me.
I lift my head and face him down, refusing to let my terror show. “Uncle.”
He stops a foot from my chair. “Looks like you made some enemies.” He makes a tsking noise, and the sound of it amps up my terror.
He always makes that sound when he’s disappointed.
It was always followed by a beating. I’m prepared for his attack, but it still comes as a surprise when he hits me hard on the side of my face.
My head jerks to the side, and pain explodes in my face.
I keep my head down a moment, refusing to let him see me furiously blink back tears.
Before I’m in control, he yanks my ponytail and jerks my head up so I’m staring into his face.
I may be restrained, but I’m not helpless.
I will never be again. I slam my forehead forward and hear an audible crack that makes me almost feel regret.
He screams in pain and lifts his head, rage filling his dead eyes.
He lifts his heavy black boot and sends it into my stomach.
I hear something crack, and I can’t breathe or catch myself when my chair crashes to the floor.
I close my eyes, trying to get the room to stop spinning and catch my breath.
Hope floors me when I realize the ziptie on my hands came free in the fall.
I pull at the ones on my feet and realize those are free as well.
I pull my hands free and then work the zip ties off my feet.
Then I’m running for the door. I reach out, the handle almost in my hand, when he crashes into me.
We hit the floor hard, and I’m dazed a moment.
I try to push off the floor, but his hands dig into my sides.
“I’m going to kill you,” he says. He rolls me over and uses his weight to hold me down.
He hits me again, and darkness dances at the corners of my vision.
He reaches his hands out and squeezes my throat.
I push against him, but I’m weak. Black dots line my vision, and I try with all my might to fight against him.
Fear for Noah floods my mind. Surprisingly, my mind goes to Jackson; and I will him to find Noah and keep him safe.
Something about that thought gives me the smallest amount of peace.
The room around me starts to fade, and I feel my body getting sluggish.
Suddenly, the door to the room crashes open.
I hear the sound of a wild animal; it’s so loud and harsh, I want to cover my ears.
My uncle is pulled off me, and the hands around my neck disappear.
I close my eyes and focus on sucking in oxygen.
I hear a low, harsh voice and then a thud.
“Kayla.” There’s a command in that voice, and I force my eyes open.
Bright blue eyes, so bright they almost hurt to look at, meet mine.
“I’m going to get you help.” His words are hard to understand; I close my eyes again.
“No. Keep your eyes open,” he says in a gruff voice.
“Kayla.” That command is back, and I force my eyes open.
This time when he talks, he talks to someone else.
“I need the healer now. Downstairs.” I hear footsteps, and my entire body tenses up.
Adrenaline shoots through me. “Easy; it’s just Ransom. ”
I hear more footsteps. “What the—” Ransom’s voice stops suddenly as he sucks in a breath. “Kayla.”
A growl shakes the room, and I force my eyes to stay open. Jackson's painfully bright eyes are locked on me, but he speaks to Ransom. “Stay back.”
“Noah,” I whisper with what little strength I have. But the word seems to get stuck, and I cough. Pain explodes in my ribs, and I cry out in agony. But I can’t stop coughing, and I can’t catch my breath. My panic grows, and I can’t catch my breath. Pain courses through my body.
“Kayla,” I hear someone say. “Jackson, let me help! She can’t breathe.”
I hear another growl, but I can’t focus on it. “We need the healer!”
The world around me seems to shrink as the pain inside me grows.
It feels like fire is consuming my very bones.
The pain grows, and I scream. I feel like I’m being skinned alive.
Somebody touches me, but that makes it so much worse.
I hear shouts, but I don’t know what’s being said.
My body goes stiff, and I scream as the pain intensifies.
There’s a roar, but it sounds so far away.
Somebody touches me again, and I cry out in agony.
I hear voices, but they mean nothing to me.
Everything around me loses its focus as the pain inside me consumes my every thought and steals the air from my lungs.
“Kayla,” I hear the voice from far away.
“Kayla, I'm going to try to help you; but you’ve got to stop fighting against me.” I feel hands on me and scream and push them away; each touch feels like torture.
“You have to hold her!” a voice shouts. There are more shouts, a growl that rocks the very ground I’m lying on.
Somebody touches me again, and I scream in pain.
“Hold her!” The pain intensifies, and I arch my back.
I try to scream but can’t. It’s like I’m trapped in this world where the only thing that’s real is the pain I’m in.
Memories start to assail me. The memory of the day Noah was born.
I was eleven, almost twelve and old enough to not be sure I wanted a baby brother.
But the day I went to the hospital to meet him for the first time changed my life forever.
“Kayla,” my mom says softly. “Come meet your little brother.” I walk over to where she’s sitting on the bed, looking healthy and whole. She hadn’t been feeling well in so long, it’s a relief to see her okay now.
My dad’s hands drop to my shoulders. “Go,” he says softly.
I walk over to the side of my mom’s bed and take the precious bundle in my arms. “Be careful; support his head.” I do as she says, and she smiles softly at me.
“Good job.” Her eyes meet mine. “Take good care of him.” She puts her head back and closes her eyes to rest. I sit in the chair next to her bed, holding my little brother.
I didn’t know that was the last time my mom would speak to me; it was the last time she would open her eyes.
Minutes later, the monitor she’s still hooked up to starts beeping.
A nurse comes in to check, and soon another nurse comes as well.
Then a louder alarm sounds. Noah starts to cry at the loud noises.
I stand up and back into the corner trying to get out of the way of the doctors and nurses and the chaotic scene.
Above the wails of my newborn brother, I hear the sound of my dad’s cry.
“No!” His cry reverberates through my bones as I sink to the floor against the wall.
Nobody notices; nobody comes to check on me.
They’re all too busy. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would lose two parents that day.
My dad will never recover from losing my mom and will turn to pills.
One day, the pills he’s taking will take him.
That’s when we’ll be given to my uncle, the source of my greatest nightmares.
But I don’t know any of that yet. All I know is that my baby brother is in my arms right now. “I’ll keep you safe,” I whisper to him. "I won’t let anything happen to you ever.”