Embrace (12 page)

Chapter 10

The Fifth Floor

I
SAAC
D
ROVE
U
S
T
O
the hospital.

“But I saw you give her the necklace,” Josh said from the back seat.

“Mark gave it to me,” I mumbled. I played with the strap of my purse, concentrating on twisting it around my index finger only to untwist it and start over again so that I didn’t have to look at either of them. I knew the only thing dumber than taking the necklace from Mark was telling the guy I liked that I’d accepted jewelry from someone else, but what choice did I have? Kaylee’s sanity depended on my honesty. I kept telling myself I hadn’t exactly
taken
the necklace, I’d offered to hold it, but that didn’t make me feel better about the whole situation.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Isaac give me a sidelong glance.

“I know,” I moaned. “It was stupid.”

Josh bounced his head off the backseat. “Can’t you drive any faster?”

The tires on the Jeep screeched against the pavement as Isaac took the turn into the hospital parking lot. He pulled into the first available space he saw, and we piled out of the Jeep and ran to the doors. The necklace had to be what was holding the curse to Kaylee, which meant Mark was a witch. His keys probably had a spell on them too, and the man Kaylee had thought she’d seen in the parking lot at The Grill had been a product of his magic. It also meant Mark wasn’t trying to harm Kaylee; he was trying to harm me.

The elevator ticked by each floor at an annoyingly slow rate that was made even more painful by stopping to let people on and off at the different floors. I was ready to scream by the time we reached the seventh floor, and I didn’t know if I should then feel relief or panic when I saw Kaylee’s bed neatly made with clean linens. The color drained from Josh’s face.

Isaac placed a hand on his shoulder. “You would have felt it if she’d gotten worse, like you did at school when this whole thing started. Remember, your feelings for each other make you a part of each other. They connect you to her. You need to remain strong, for her.”

Josh spoke through clenched teeth. “Then where the hell is she?”

“They’ve moved her,” said a young nurse standing behind us. “She’s on the fifth floor.”

“Why?” I asked, stepping aside so that she could get by me and refusing to let myself think the worse.

“They can take better care of her there.” She set a clean bedpan and water pitcher near the bed.

We sprinted back to the elevators and punched the
five
button. Josh drummed his fingers against his leg as the elevator descended two floors.

“This can’t be good,” I mumbled.

Isaac took my hand in his. Josh looked as if he was ready to jump out of his skin as the light in front of us highlighted the number five. The doors opened into a dingy white hallway. There was a small waiting room to our immediate right and double glass doors to our left. A blue and white sign above the door read,
All visitors must check in at the Nurse’s Station
. Isaac held the door open. An air of despair and hopelessness engulfed me as a middle-aged woman in a motorized wheelchair rolled past, muttering something about being late for the party.

“This has to be wrong,” I whispered. “Kaylee shouldn’t be here.”

Isaac coaxed me forward. “Come on. Let’s find out what’s going on.”

We stopped at the nurse’s station. A bored looking woman looked up from her magazine. “May I help you?”

“We’re here to see Kaylee Bishop,” Josh said. “We were told she was moved to the fifth floor?”

I didn’t like it here. In the room across from the station, a man stared intently at his hands, and in the room next to him another man was busy stacking and restacking checkers. First, the red were in one pile and the black in another. Then he’d scatter the piles and restack them one at a time so that they were every other color. I kept hoping we had the wrong floor. Maybe we got out on four by mistake. They couldn’t have put Kaylee with these people. She wasn’t crazy. Didn’t they see that?

“Names,” the nurse said curtly.

Isaac answered for all of us.

She checked our IDs, typed our names into the computer, and said, “She’s in room twenty-three. Down the hall, third door on the left.”

The good news was she wasn’t behind the solid white door with extra locks and a bright red sign that read,
Psychiatric Ward
. Josh jogged down the hall. Isaac and I followed behind him.

Mrs. Bishop was asleep in a chair in the corner of the tiny private room. Her mascara was smudged, making it hard to tell where her makeup ended and the dark circles of someone who hasn’t been sleeping well began. She clutched a rosary tightly in her hand.

My eyes wandered elsewhere. There were bars on the outside of the windows, and the bed frame was padded with thick white cushions. I tried to tell myself it could be worse: it could have resembled a prison cell. Wide black straps held Kaylee to the bed by her wrists, ankles, and waist.

“Don’t move,” she whispered, her voice raspy, her eyes bloodshot, and her face damn near gray.

Josh took a step forward, stopping when Kaylee pleaded.

“Please.” A tear slid down her temple. “You’ll wake them.”

Her eyes moved to the empty corner of the room.

Isaac whispered, “She’s seeing demons.”

I couldn’t take it any longer. How much more could Kaylee bear before she really went over the edge? What if we were already too late?

We moved at the same time. Josh went for the necklace, tearing it from her neck and crushing the stone in his hand with a blast of power. His magic tasted different than Isaac’s. It was more like hot apple cider with a touch of tin, although I’m pretty sure the tin was an emotion he wasn’t supposed to use to fuel his powers. I went for the strap around Kaylee’s waist, fumbling with the buckle. Isaac went for the ones around her ankles, releasing her feet with a wave of his hand.

“Madison, let me get that,” Isaac said.

I moved, and in less than a second he had her waist and wrists freed.

Josh discarded the remains of the necklace onto the floor, scooped Kaylee up in his arms, and sat on the bed, holding her tight. She looked small curled against him, like a child. I watched his magic pour out of him in a delicate golden web that wrapped itself around her like a cocoon before fading and becoming invisible.

I was afraid to touch her, fearing she’d break. But crouching down in front of them, I dared to brush her bangs away from her eyes with my fingertips. “Kaylee, honey, are you okay?”

Before Kaylee could answer, Mrs. Bishop was on her feet. “What are you doing?”

“Taking Kaylee out of this place,” Josh growled. “She doesn’t belong here.”

Mrs. Bishop’s voice shook as she spoke. “She needs help.”

“You call this helping her?” Josh stood with Kaylee cradled in his arms. Kaylee clung to him.

Mrs. Bishop stepped toward them. “Josh Corey, you put my daughter back on that bed.”

I stood up and blocked her path so she couldn’t get any closer to Kaylee. “Mrs. Bishop, this is not helping her.” I waved my hand at the room for emphasis. “She is not insane.”

Mrs. Bishop went for the door next, but Isaac beat her there. He rested a hand on her arm, his mouth moving fast and forming unspoken words. I could feel his powers. Then, loud and clear, he said, “We’re supposed to take Kaylee with us.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Bishop said as she twisted her hands together. “You should take her with you.”

Isaac guided her back to the chair. “You don’t want to tell anyone we were here.”

“No.” Mrs. Bishop agreed. “Certainly not.”

“And you were sleeping,” Isaac added. “Remember?”

Mrs. Bishop sat down and closed her eyes.

Josh headed for the door, but Isaac grabbed his shoulder, stopping him before he could open it. “We can’t carry her out of here. The nurses will call security.”

I didn’t see why not. “Can’t you do whatever it is you just did to Mrs. Bishop to the nurses?”

“I can’t cast a confusion spell on the entire floor. Josh, put Kaylee down and create a glamour.”

“A what?” I asked.

“A glamour,” Isaac said as he bent down to pick up the necklace. “It’s like an illusion, only a glamour is done on a person to change their appearance.”

“Babe,” Josh whispered in Kaylee’s ear. “I need you to walk. Can you do that?”

“I shouldn’t leave.” Kaylee’s eyes met his. “They’ll kill me. They said they could find me wherever I go.”

Oh my God, she still thought demons were after her; we were too late. My vision blurred, and I had to wipe my eyes. Josh kissed the top of her head, looking like he was on the brink of tears himself.

“You’re safe now,” he said, “and I will do everything in my power to keep you that way.”

He put her down so that she was standing next to him. He kept an arm around her waist and closed his eyes. Kaylee’s pajamas were replaced with blue jeans and a white sweater. Sneakers covered her once bare feet. Her hair was combed back, her eyelids were brushed blue, and her cheeks had a healthy glow to them.

My mouth fell open in awe.

Isaac nodded in approval. “We need to be quick. Madison, count to thirty before following us; this way the nurse only sees three of us walking out of here.”

I met them in the lobby. We walked casually out of the hospital to Isaac’s Jeep. Kaylee kept looking nervously over her shoulder mumbling, “They’ll find me.”

As soon as we were in the Jeep, I asked, “With the necklace destroyed, shouldn’t she be better?”

Isaac started the engine, then looked over his shoulder at Kaylee. The glamour was gone. Her hair hung limp around her pale face, and she was wearing the pajamas her parents had brought to the hospital. “We need to get her something to eat and somewhere she can rest.”

Something to eat ended up being a burger to go from the first fast food restaurant we passed, and a place to rest turned out to be Isaac’s house, in his basement. He gave me a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt before the guys went upstairs to grab drinks. I helped Kaylee to the bathroom and started a warm shower.

She grabbed my wrist. “Don’t leave me.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I found a clean towel and washcloth under the sink. I handed the washcloth to Kaylee in the shower and took a seat on the toilet, lid down.

I had to know if this was over, if Kaylee was back to herself. I filled my lungs with air and prayed destroying the necklace had worked. “Do you feel better?”

“You know, it’s weird, but I do,” she said, and I released the breath I was holding. “As soon as I was in Josh’s arms I felt safe. Crazy, I know, but the demons don’t like him. They tend to leave me alone when he’s around.”

It wasn’t crazy. Josh had destroyed the onyx charm and enveloped her in his powers. I knew how it felt to have someone else’s power wrapped around me.

“The demons didn’t come until I was strapped to the bed, you know,” she said. “The doctors made me an easy target. I couldn’t run. Couldn’t move. I begged the nurses to untie me. They wouldn’t, and my parents wouldn’t. Do you think the demons got to them too? Maybe that’s why they left me tied up. Maybe the demons threatened them. I’m lucky they didn’t get to you or Josh.”

Kaylee reached out of the shower curtain. I handed her the towel.

“I knew they had to be demons by the dreadful things they did,” she continued. “Once I was tied down, they sent more than just spiders and snakes after me. They’d run their hands and tongues over my arms and face. Their saliva burned too.” She looked at her arms as if expecting to see welts or scorched skin. “They were getting ready to do worse.”

My God, what did Mark do to her? My eyes were wide and my mouth open in silent horror as Kaylee described what she’d been through. Tears ran down the length of my cheeks and onto the floor. How do you tell someone the past few days didn’t really happen? How do you tell them that they were under a curse that caused hallucinations?

“Kaylee, what do you know about magic?” I asked.

She pulled the sweatshirt over her head and asked innocently, “You mean like abracadabra and I-put-a-spell-on-you type stuff?”

“Sort of, yeah,” I replied, realizing she didn’t get that I was implying magic was the cause of all her problems. I tried to think of a delicate way to explain everything to her.

“I know it makes good movies,” she said.

Screw being subtle
. “Kaylee, you were under a curse. No one is after you. There was nothing at school or in the hospital. It was all an illusion created by magic.”

Kaylee giggled nervously. “And they said
I
was crazy.” But she looked as if she was giving it serious consideration.

Josh knocked on the bathroom door. “How are you doing in there?”