Captivate Me (Book One: The Captivated Series) (13 page)

Now
I
shifted nervously, my heart racing
faster. I knew it had to be something big.

“There’s one other important quality
you should know about us half-breeds.”

The way she paused and
pressed her eyelids closed for a moment made my stomach
clench.
What? Just say it!

Her bright purple eyes reopened. “Kat…
you’re immortal.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

___________________

Captivated

Immortal. The word whirled
inside my brain like a tornado, and although I knew well enough
what it meant, I still had a hard time grasping on to it.
Immortal…
I’m
immortal?!

“I know it’s a shock at first,” she
soothed in her southern way, her voice low and soft. “But believe
me… be glad you found out this way instead of finding out on your
own.”

Piper and the girl with the auburn
curls nodded in agreement.

Iris placed a consoling hand on my
arm. “We want you to live with us, Kat. To join us. Being immortal
comes with great sacrifices and responsibilities. Ones that I know
you couldn’t possibly understand until time passes, but that’s why
we’ve formed this little colony and seek out half-breeds like you,
to create a haven and support system for others like
us.”

I released the breath I realized I’d
been holding. Again, I didn’t know what to say. I looked to the
fire; the only sound filling this secret nook in the woods was its
crackling hiss.

“I know you need time to process,” she
said, stroking my hair, “You don’t have to give us an answer
tonight.”

“And this is a great thing too, Kat,”
Kai added. “Although it may not feel that way sometimes, I also see
immortality as a gift.”

A sarcastic snort from one of the
others told me they all didn’t feel that way. Iris threw an annoyed
look, her bird ruffling his feathers, but I didn’t see who it was.
I was too busy staring numbly at the flames as they licked the
night air. My thoughts were caught in a traffic jam; nothing was
getting through. Iris was right; I needed time to
process.

She moved my chin with her finger so I
would meet her eyes. “Why don’t you join us tomorrow night for
supper? You don’t even have to give us an answer then. Just come
join us for a meal after dark to get to know us better and get a
better glimpse of our lifestyle.”

I nodded my answer, my eyes sweeping
through the forest again to take in the tents and horses. They
lived medieval. Disconnected from the rest of the world.

She smiled. “Lovely. We’ll see you
tomorrow, dear. You should probably get back before someone
realizes you’re missing.”

“Okay,” I managed. That was the last
thing my school needed – to think another student had gone
missing.

Iris stood, grasping my hand and
pulling me with her. My knees trembled, but I refused to pass out
again. She put her arm around my shoulder, hugging me gently.
“Before you leave, we’ll do some quick introductions.” She extended
her other hand toward pretty-boy with the blond hair. “This is
Raymond.”

Round lips –
Raymond.
Got it.
I nodded a greeting.

“Hello,” he replied.

I now had the wits about me to take
note of what everyone wore – black. Iris with her black dress; Kai
wore a black long sleeve t-shirt and khakis; this Raymond kid had
on a black turtleneck sweater and jeans.

“And this couple here,” she said,
pointing at Barbie and her boyfriend, “is Aubrey and
Brad.”

Auburn – Aubrey. Beast – Brad. “Nice
to meet you,” I said.

They nodded.

Aubrey’s version of their coven’s
signature color was a black silk blouse with a jean skirt and black
knee-high boots. Brad’s black shirt and jeans straining to cover
his muscles complemented her outfit just right – Barbie and the
Beast. If I wasn’t so dumbfounded by tonight’s revelations, I would
have laughed at myself.

“And this is Gabriel,” she said,
moving her hand to my dream boy, who wore a black button-up shirt
that fit like it was made for him and slate grey slacks that did
the same.

Coyly, I met his eyes and
melted.
Gabriel.
So fitting. Angelic. A commanding presence. At least he
commanded
my
attention. I didn’t need to do a word association to remember
his name. It was now permanently tattooed on my heart. “Hi,” he
said, his voice like velvet, wrapping all around me.

I only smiled. That was the best I
could do. I was lucky to still be standing.

“And this is Piper and Colton,” she
said, moving along.

Tearing my eyes away from Gabriel’s
face, I focused on them. I already had Piper’s name down, and
Colton would be easy enough. Copper hair – Colton.

Piper wore a peasant top with
leggings, both of them black of course, with lace trim around the
sleeves and neckline of the top. Her outfit reminded me of
something a hippie might wear, but it suited her perfectly. Colton
had on a black t-shirt, black leather jacket and worn jeans. The
end of a red handkerchief dangled from his back pocket. I imagined
he’d arrived earlier on a motorcycle and parked it amongst the
horses.

“Nice to finally meet you!” Piper
trilled. Colton said nothing, nodding his greeting in my
direction.

“Same here.”

After the official
introductions, my eyes swept over the other half-breeds again. My
thoughts toyed with the notion – half-breed. Hybrid. Words I would
have to become comfortable with. It hit me that maybe the reason I
didn’t feel as beautiful as all the others was because my mother
was a
former
Angel and one of their parents was probably full-fledged. Not
saying my mother wasn’t beautiful, she was
gorgeous
, but she had been given a
mortal body. According to Kai, though, my threads were strong. And
my blood passed the test; I saw it with my own eyes. I guess
‘former’ and ‘full-fledged’ didn’t matter with us hybrids. Maybe it
was more the origin of the souls of our parents than the bodies. I
had grown inside the body of a mortal with an inherent angelic
soul, so as I had always partly presumed, something must have woven
into my DNA like the silvery threads of my aura while I was in
there – an angelic gene. Enough to be considered a hybrid, anyway.
Go figure.

My thoughts spiraled to my brother
Sam. Could he be a half-breed too? Did mom’s angelic origin fuse to
him as well? He wasn’t gifted, but that didn’t necessarily mean
anything according to Iris. Not all half-breeds were. I could test
his blood next time I was home.

“Wonderful,” Iris said, rubbing her
dove’s head. “Now who would like to walk her back to the edge of
the woods?”

Piper’s hand shot into the
air.

Damn
. I was hoping for Gabriel.

“Gabriel,” Iris said, pretending she
didn’t see Piper, “walk her back, please?”

Piper crossed her arms with a pout,
and the others snickered. She must have been the most spirited of
the group. A brief thought of us becoming friends flickered through
my mind. I couldn’t see that happening with Aubrey, who hadn’t even
smiled at me yet. At least not immediate friends.

I waved bye as Gabriel started toward
me. When turning on my heels and thinking about sneaking back into
the school, a thought slammed into me – maybe Kai had seen Nurse
Plunkett yesterday. “Oh, Kai?” I asked turning back to him. Gabriel
paused beside me.

“Yes?”

“Did you see Nurse Plunkett
yesterday?”

He cocked his head, his eyebrow
arching. “Yes…”

“He’s missing.”

“Missing?” He blanched.

Iris’ eyes flared. “Jesus, Kai, how
much did you give him?”

Give him?
“Give him what?!” My voice echoed off the trees.
What did these people do to him?

“Shhh…” Iris scolded. “It’s okay.
We’ll figure this out.”

“Is that why all the police showed up
today?” Piper asked.

I lowered my voice, although I was
still annoyed. “Part of the reason. Now what happened to Nurse
Plunkett?”

He wrung his hands anxiously. “I… gave
him something. I put something in his drink. Just to knock him out
for a while.”

“How much?” Iris asked, irritation
lacing her words.

“Half the vial.”

She rolled her eyes. “I
said a
fourth
,
Kai.”

“Well what was it?” I asked, growing
impatient.

“A potion Iris makes,” he
said.

“I experiment in holistic medicine,”
she clarified. “We don’t rely on modern medicine here and try to be
self-sufficient. The plan was for Kai to slip the nurse this
medicine, which acts sort of like a mild sedative, borrow his
clothes while he slept so he could get your sample, re-dress him
and then be out of there by the time he awoke.”

“
He was only supposed to
be asleep for a few hours,” Kai mumbled.

“If he’d had a fourth of it, yes,”
Iris added. “But you gave him half a vial. Where’d you leave
him?”

“In a closet.”

She spoke through gritted
teeth. “In a
closet
, Kai?” Her bird squawked.

“He’d passed out in the hallway! And I
couldn’t drag him far… he’s a big man. Besides, I didn’t want to
risk someone seeing me dragging him back into his office at the
nurse’s station.”

I interrupted their brewing
altercation, which actually sounded more like a lover’s quarrel.
“So let me get this straight… he’s alive and still at the school?”
I knew I should have been just as peeved as Iris, but Kai hadn’t
actually meant the old man any real harm. And what a relief that he
hadn’t been abducted. “What closet?”

“It’s down the hall and around the
corner from the Nurse’s Station.” He gave Iris an apologetic look.
“I’m so sorry, I-”

“Save it,” she said, holding up her
hand, and turned to me. “I trust you’ll go find him once you
return?”

“As soon as I get back.”

“Let me go get you something to help
wake him if he’s still asleep.” As she stormed off, she spared one
last disparaging look at Kai, and I swore I saw him cower. She
definitely wore the pants in that relationship. She had every right
to be mad, though; that was a pretty big screw-up for anyone, but
especially a nurse. He should stick to his other day job of reading
auras.

In a matter of a few silent, awkward
minutes, she returned holding another vial. “Place two drops of
this on his tongue if he’s still asleep. He should wake shortly
after.”

I clung to it for dear
life. “Got it.” Another thought slammed into me.
Jillian.
“You wouldn’t
happen to know about a girl named Jillian, would you? She’s missing
too.” Hope swelled inside. How great would it be if both of them
were recovered tonight?

“Jillian?” Iris repeated with a scowl
and looked to Kai.

He shook his head with a
shrug.

My hope deflated.
Shit.

Iris looked genuinely mortified. “No,
dear, we don’t. A child is missing?”

“Yes. As of this morning.”

“What did she look like?”

“I.. . I’m not sure. I didn’t know
her. She was a freshman, so all I know is she was about
fourteen.”

Her hand met her cheek. “Oh my. How
awful!” She searched the eyes of the others. “Anyone see a girl
wander off or anything out of the ordinary?

Everyone shook their heads.

“We’ll keep our eyes peeled. If she’d
wandered this way, we would have seen her. But we’ll keep an eye
out.”

“Okay,” I replied, disappointed. Nurse
Plunkett’s disappearance could be explained, but we still had a
missing student.

“
See you tomorrow,” she
said as she whirled back for the tents, Kai following after her
like a lost puppy and her bird eyeing me. I decided the thing made
me uneasy; it seemed too knowing. Too… human.

“See you tomorrow,” I replied, and
with the vial clutched tight in my hand, I made my way back toward
the school, Gabriel beside me.

* * *

The walk back was quiet, achingly
quiet. I’d finally had a chance alone with my dream boy, and I
couldn’t seem to conjure a single word. There were too many
thoughts, too many questions swirling around in my brain – I was
immortal, and I had just been invited to live with a coven of other
immortals. How would I even begin to make that decision? And the
case of Nurse Plunkett was solved, but what about poor Jillian? And
Gabriel… he was real. All too real and here beside me, his strong,
imposing presence swallowing me whole. In a good way. The air
between us felt thick with an intoxicating electric charge. The
pull to him was stronger when we were closer.

“So is Kat short for something?” he
asked, breaking the silence.