Chapter 5
A Surprisingly Pleasant Conversation
The trip back seemed to take no time at all. She had to be careful of people walking past in the hallway, but Willow kept a part of her attention on feeling for vibrations. When she could tell that someone was walking down the hall toward her, she would stop and wait near the wall out of sight until they walked past and she could feel them continuing to walk away.
The fact that there was no real excitement as she returned was a welcome change from how things had been since she woke. It was almost a break because she was finally in a position where she had some control. She was acting, not just reacting. At the same time, she had to remain focused on what was happening around her so that she didn’t get caught. It required her to be focused on the world around her instead of the pain in her wrist or the guilt in her gut.
When she reached the hallway near Nolan’s room she stopped. Nolan had been quiet, and it was a bit unsettling. She bit her lip and whispered, “Are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m here and waiting.”
She relaxed, and that’s when Willow realized just how anxious she had gotten since they last spoke. In her mind, she had begun to create so many different scenarios, with the worst being a fear that they had taken him again. Placing her good hand on her chest, she smiled and said, "Okay, I’m close by, but I need to see if there’s anyone in the hall who may see me crossing over.”
“Are you able to do that safely?”
“Yes. Well, mostly. My ability lets me be within an object and in the open air at the same time. I suppose you didn’t see it when I was in your room, but that’s how I hid when they entered. But I really don’t like doing it because it’s unbelievably uncomfortable. I’ve never been able to hold it for long, either, although I don’t know if it’s because of the discomfort or something else. When it comes to checking the halls, I prefer the discomfort to being seen and chased again. Twice is enough for one year, let alone a single day.”
This got a bit of a laugh. “I can understand that. I much prefer to be a cat.”
Willow wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to be a cat, either. I prefer something more normal.”
“Normal, like walking through walls?” There was a hint of a smile in his tone.
She giggled, then stuck out her tongue. “You know what I mean.”
“Yes, I do. But it got you to smile, so it was worth it.” When he said that, Willow smiled a little wider. Nolan quickly turned his attention back to their current situation. “Do you know how the alarm was triggered?”
The smile disappeared, and Willow hung her head. The whole thing had been her fault because she had panicked. “I ran into a metal counter or bin. Something like that. It’s how I made my wrist worse when I tried to catch myself after stumbling into it.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about that. You just had a natural reaction.”
“I should have been more careful.”
“You were hurting and afraid. No one can blame you for that.”
Willow wasn’t sure how to respond to that. The idea that Nolan was actually trying to make her feel better was so bizarre. At the same time, it made her feel a little lighter. “I guess. Anyway, I’ll check, and hopefully, I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”
“Sounds good. Best of luck, and I hope to see you and your pretty gray eyes soon.”
Willow’s mouth dropped open a little, and for a second, she completely forgot about the pain in her wrist and her current situation. It flitted through her mind that he might be trying to flirt with her, but she quickly shut that down because there was no chance someone like Nolan would flirt with someone like her.
He pities you and probably feels guilty about breaking your wrist. Once he finds out that you are the reason he’s here, all of the niceties will stop, and he’ll be just as cruel and hurtful as he was when we were teens. And you’ll deserve it.
Willow let out a sigh.
“Everything okay?”
“What?” She looked up. “Oh, yes. Just … tired.”
“Understandable. Okay. I’ll stop bothering you. Just heard the sigh and worried that it meant you weren’t able to make it yet. Or that they found you and knocked you out again.”
“No, nothing like that. Just trying to prepare.”
“Well, you said it was uncomfortable, so that makes sense.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I’ll let you know when I have an update. Until then, please just sit tight, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Yes ma’am. I’ll be waiting for you with bated breath and a heartfelt apology.”
“Really, Nolan, that’s not necessary. As you said, you didn’t know who was touching you, and since they were probably torturing you before you lost consciousness, there was no way for you to know that it was me.”
“You are quite a generous woman, aren’t you?”
“No. Just a logical one. Now, I need to go and focus. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Right. Sorry. I guess I’m just eager to talk to you. But I’m making it take longer before I see you again. Be careful.”
There was something in her mind that sounded almost like losing a signal. Willow wondered if he would react if she spoke again.
Just get going and get to him. Procrastinating will just make it that much harder to admit what I did. Get moving and get it over with. Deal with the fallout when it happens.
Following a deep breath, Willow placed one hand on the wall, then leaned into it with her face. Once she felt the air on the other side, she turned and looked to the left. There were people a long way off, and she thought they were probably standing guard over the room where she had been. Looking right, she didn’t see anyone. She wanted to put a little more distance between her and the goons to the left, so Willow headed over to the other wall along the other hall, the one where she had been dragged after she initially woke. Carefully phasing through, she looked to the right and saw no one. Without waiting, she walked quickly across the hallway and into the room directly across from Nolan. She had learned to enter new rooms much more carefully, and she was glad that she had been more cautious.
The doctor stood at a countertop, his back to her.
Slowly, she backed up and out of the room. As soon as she was in the open air of the hallway, Willow turned and ran into Nolan’s room. As soon as she was safely in the soft lights, she crouched down, her wrist cradled against her chest.
“What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?”
Willow looked up at him, and despite being alone, she whispered to him, “The doctor is in the room right across the hallway.”
“The … doctor?”
She shivered as she explained her encounter with the creepy man.
Nolan’s expression shifted from concerned to unreadable. “I know who you are talking about.”
“Did he torture you, too?”
Nolan shook his head, but then he held out a hand. “Your wrist looks really bad. Please let me fix it.”
She shook her head, “I … need to talk to you first.”
His hand lowered a little. “Okay.”
Willow stood up and moved away from him, not wanting to be close in case he reacted with anger. “It’s my fault you are here.”
He put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up to his full height, a small smile on his face. “No, it’s not your fault I’m here. That’s why I need to explain.”
She held up a hand. “Please, don’t interrupt. I know that you like to be in control and, as a natural leader, you are used to being the one who does the talking, but what I have to tell you is difficult enough without interruptions.”
“I don’t know how you would know that, but I can assure you this isn’t …”
She frowned, “Please, Nolan, just listen.”
He tipped his head to the side. “You dropping this,” he held up his hand with the little bug in it, “in my pocket isn’t the reason why I’m here.”
Willow’s eyes widened. “You knew?”
“You aren’t exactly skilled when it comes to pickpocketing.”
Her eyes widened. “I wasn’t trying to steal!”
“No, you weren’t. But pickpocketing is the skill you need to drop something discreetly into someone’s pocket. It’s every bit as important as removing something from someone’s pocket.”
“Then … how long have you known?”
“I received some intel about a person who needed help and that I needed to go to the café.”
“You … knew even before I bugged you?”
He smiled. “I didn’t know who needed help, but I knew that the woman needed a shifter’s help to get out of danger.”
“But I wasn’t the … target …” What Willow thought she knew was suddenly far less certain. “You were the target, right?”
Nolan pursed his lips. “I was, but only because they knew we were looking for you. I was specifically in the city for you.”
Willow stared at him. “I don’t understand.”
He walked over and gently took the elbow of her uninjured arm. The subtle smell of juniper and earth helped to set her at ease. After moving his hand over the window, Nolan led her back to the comfortable chair and had her sit. Willow was too stunned to fight him as he made sure she was settled. Then he got down on his knees and gingerly took her forearm and hand in his own. A warmth began to spread through her as he moved a hand along her arm.
Finally, he began to talk. “You aren’t a shifter, but you have shifter blood. Probably dragon shifter’s blood since you have such a unique gift.” His gorgeous eyes looked up at her. For the first time in her life, she saw concern and sorrow in them. “You aren’t human, but you aren’t shifter. To most humans, you would probably appear to be a witch.”
Willow gave him a look. “I’m not a witch.”
He smiled back at her. “No, you are a woman from a shifter line. Most shifters are men.”
“So, there aren’t any women?”
“There are. It is just a small percentage of types with female shifters, mostly mammals.”
“What?”
“Like wolves and bears. There are women shifters, as well as men. Anyway, for most other shifter types, the women are born without the ability to shift but with a much stronger set of abilities. And they are often abandoned, especially the farther removed from the shifter male they are.” He watched her carefully as he said this last part. “If your parents discouraged your abilities, it’s almost certain they weren’t your real family.”
Willow stared at him. She had never been sure if her parents were saying she was adopted just to hurt her or if it was true. “So, you think that my parents were being honest? I’m adopted?”
“More than likely. Not that gifted women are treated well by their actual family. The blood is usually so diluted, and the appearance of gifted women is increasingly rare, so humans tend to be scared of their children once they start presenting signs of their bloodlines. I mean, you know how humans are. They don’t tend to like people who are different.”
Willow blinked a few times, the irony not lost on her. The very person who had treated her poorly for being different was now apparently using it as a way of shaming others who did the same thing. But she stayed silent, as much because he was currently holding her arm so that she couldn’t leave as because she was learning a lot. More importantly, what he was saying made a lot of sense as she looked back at everything that had happened to her.
“I apologize. Humans have always been a bit of a sore spot for me, which I'm sure you can understand,” he smiled up at her, causing her heart to skip a beat. “Anyway, I was in the city looking for you because I received word from Elliot about someone being tracked.”
She frowned, “Who’s Elliot?”
“He’s a Sexton. An old shifter family who has been instrumental in getting rid of facilities like this one. They destroyed a few places over the years. The last one that Elliot destroyed was in … Southeast Asia, I think. Anyway, he’s been collecting data about people like you who are being tracked.”
Her mouth felt dry. “Someone’s been tracking me?”
“Yes. I don’t know that much about what information they had on you, just that you were in this city and they were trying to make contact with you. So, I made sure to let it be known that I was also trying to find you. Clearly, the plan worked up until you ran away. I had not anticipated that.”
“Why didn’t you just talk to me in the café?”
“Would you have listened if I had? I mean, you were so on edge, I was afraid you would leave without even approaching me.”
“I couldn’t even tell you noticed me.”
“I was monitoring you from my phone. Elliot got me into their system so that I could see when you made your move. I hoped to get you out of there and to a safe place. Being charming usually works to get women to listen to me, so I was not prepared for you to just turn and run. Got to say, that got my attention.”
She slumped, “I have never wanted your attention.”
He looked up from his work but didn’t say anything. When she didn’t say anything else, Nolan seemed to have lost his train of thought. After a bit, he asked, “Do you have any questions for me?”
“I don’t even know where to start.”
He looked up at her and flashed a smile. “I get that. We can get you situated somewhere safe, then you can ask as many questions as you want.”
She gave a quick nod. The warmth was beginning to cool when she said, “I know you said it wasn’t my fault, but I’m still sorry. They were willing to give me a lot of money, and I hoped to use that to get out of here and start over. I should have known it wasn’t going to work the way I hoped.”
“It feels like nothing ever works out like it should. I understand.”
Willow frowned. “I have a hard time believing you’ve had any real difficulty. I mean, your family is rich and powerful. You have everything a person could want.”
“I know that I must seem ungrateful, like some spoiled rich kid, but the experience isn’t quite the same as the appearance.”
“I can understand that, too. Keeping up appearances is the only thing that matters to some families.”
“Indeed. Although, I can say that was not my family. They care deeply and want to do the right thing. They just aren’t necessarily good at assessing things and going about it the right way.” He stood up. “How does it feel?”
Willow looked down at her wrist, afraid of how it might look. Her wrist looked perfectly normal and as if nothing had happened. She moved it around, and there was no pain.
“How …?”
Nolan smiled at her. “How do you walk through walls?”
Her eyes dropped back to her wrist as she kept moving it back and forth and in rotation. “Thank you. I don’t … it’s like it was never broken.”
“It was my fault it happened, so it was my responsibility to fix it.”
She looked up at him. Nolan had grown several inches since she last saw him. This close, she knew that he was over six feet tall, and he looked –
Shaking her head, Willow said with feeling, “Seriously, thank you so much. No one has ever done anything so kind.”
His smile dropped a little. “That is sad. Surely you’ve had lovers who took care of you.”
With a scoff, she replied, “They always wanted my parents’ money. I was a meal ticket or a mark. They never actually cared.”
He nodded, stepped back, and offered her his hand. Willow took it, and he pulled her into a standing position in front of him. His eyes bore into hers, and she was aware that her heart was racing. She looked back at her wrist and moved it around to distract herself from her nervousness at being so close to Nolan.
“Now the real question,” his voice was clear as if everything up to that point was just conversation – now he was serious. Willow looked up into his impossibly blue eyes. The smile was gone. Her heart rate sped up as he asked, “How do you know who I am?”