Love Immortal (32 page)

If it hadn’t been for the twig snapping, she
would have never seen the man sneaking up behind her. As Jewell
turned towards the sound, a second man grabbed her from behind,
pushing a rag against her mouth to stifle any sound she could have
made. As she struggled against the second man’s hold, the first man
stepped up to her and wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug,
pinning her arms to her side. Though she struggled and kicked, the
second man was able to deftly wrap a piece of duct tape around her
mouth, holding the rag in place. He grabbed her upper arms roughly,
pulling them behind her back until they hurt. Her hands were
secured with E-Z Cuffs before the man moved around to her feet. She
was able kick him squarely in the nose before he grabbed her legs
and secured her ankles with another set of E-Z Cuffs. He tightened
them until they felt like they were biting into her flesh. Kicking
the man in the nose wasn’t much, but it gave her some satisfaction
as she watched the blood dripping off his chin and the awkward
angle of his nose indicating that it was probably broken. He
quickly retaliated with a hard slap across Jewell’s mouth before he
reached down and pulled her legs from under her. Her eyes started
to water with pain, but she choked back the sob trying to escape.
She refused to give either of them the satisfaction of knowing how
much they had hurt her.

The two men quickly carried her to the
waiting Tahoe and pushed her into the back seat. The car smelled
like leather and a mixture of different colognes that didn’t blend
well. Slowly, as if nothing was wrong, the Tahoe pulled away from
the side of the street and toward the main road. Lying across the
seat as she was, Jewell was unable to gain enough purchase to
either sit up, or cause any damage to the man sitting next to
her.

When they finally stopped, the man at her
head opened the door and dragged her unceremoniously from the car
dropping her on the damp ground. She heard other doors opening and
closing, and several voices. She heard the zipper on her tote open,
and someone rifling through it. Then she heard the distinctive tone
of her cell phone being turned off.

Great, she thought. For the next twelve
hours, anyone who tried to reach her would assume she had turned
her phone off while she was sleeping. It would be at least six
o’clock before anyone knew she was even missing. Ashley would get
worried, at least Jewell had that hope to hold on to. Jewell was
patted down, but other than her bag with her clothes and cell
phone, her keys, and her breakfast, she didn’t have anything with
her.

Eventually, she was shoved brusquely into the
back seat of another car. The car reeked of cigarette smoke and old
fast food. The smell made her gag. After what seemed like an
eternity, she heard planes; they were low and loud indicating that
they were probably near the airport. Her first thought was that
they were going to take her somewhere by plane, but then she
realized that they couldn’t get her through the airport unnoticed
without her cooperation.

Finally the car came to a stop. She heard the
driver get out and she heard what sounded like an industrial garage
door opening. The driver returned, climbed back in the car and
drove forward, finally stopping. She heard the garage close with a
very final sound, shutting out any idea she had of escape or
discovery.

Chapter 42

“Jewell!” Collin sat up in bed, looking
around as if trying to find her. He dropped his head into his hands
and tried to concentrate, the way Kendryck had taught him to. There
were so many emotions washing over him, that he felt as if he would
suffocate. His head was pounding and his eyes were blurred. He
stood up, and the power of the feelings caused him to fall against
the bed. He forced himself to stand and start moving toward the
door. He was wearing only his boxers, but he didn’t stop to pull on
pants or a shirt. As he ran to the main house, he screamed his
uncle’s name, “Uncle Percy, help! Oh God, please, help me! Uncle
Percy!” He stumbled as he ran, dizzy, his head pounding, he
couldn’t see anything in front of him. He was running blind. As he
tripped over the first step his uncle caught him.

“What is it? Collin?”

“Jewell,” Collin whispered as he passed out
in his uncle’s arms.

Percy gathered Collin up into his arms. It
was almost comical, this frail old man carrying his strapping young
nephew into the house. By the time Percy got into the house, the
others had come downstairs and were waiting. Gladys ran over to
Collin, touching him gently on the face. “What happened?” she
asked?

“I don’t know. He was screaming and just
before he passed out, he said ‘Jewell’.”

Kendryck’s face went white. “Who is Jewell?
Is this someone he’s close to?”

“He loves her,” Gladys answered, tenderly
brushing her hand along Collin’s cheek. She was sitting on the
couch next to where Percy had laid him.

“Something’s happened to her. When someone
emotionally close to a telepath has a strong emotional response to
something, it can cause a sort of…overload. If the telepath isn’t
trained to block the inrush of information, to protect the
telepath’s mind, it shuts down. It’s a defense mechanism.”

“What kind of emotional response? What do you
think happened?” Percy was worried, his brow was creased, and he
was holding Collin’s hand.

“Well, it’s hard to say,” Kendryck responded.
“It could be something as simple as losing a pet to being involved
in a car accident. There’s really no way to tell. Can we call her,
find out what might be going on?”

Percy stood up, placing Collin’s hand gently
on Collin’s chest. “I can make a few phone calls.”

Percy called Sheriff Payne first. “It
happened just after 7:30 a.m. Kendryck isn’t sure what could have
triggered it, but I thought it would be a good idea to check.”
Percy listened then thanked the Sheriff before hanging up.

“What did he say?” Kendryck asked, glancing
at Collin’s still unconscious body.

“He’s going to call Alex. He’s one of the
Templars on the police force in Covington. He’ll have Alex drive by
the house and check on her. He’s going to call me back when he
finds something out.”

“So what do we do now?” Gladys asked wringing
her hands.

Percy glanced at Collin. “We wait.”

As Alex drove slowly by the McKean house,
everything seemed to be in order. Jewell’s car was parked in the
front driveway, the house was closed. He parked the squad car in
the driveway behind Jewell’s car and walked to the door. He knew
that Jewell worked nights at the hospital in New Orleans and he
hated to wake her, but Sheriff Payne had said that it was very
important that he ensure that Jewell is safe. Alex walked up to the
door and rang the bell. He waited for a few minutes then knocked
when there was no answer. When no one responded to his knock, he
radioed the station. Nothing seemed amiss, but something didn’t
feel right. He walked around the house while he waited for the
station to call Tommy to come home.

Tommy’s car had barely come to a stop before
he had jumped out of the car and was running for the door to his
house. Mike Forester, another fireman, and Templar was in the
passenger seat. He got out of the car and looked at Alex. Alex
shrugged as they both followed Tommy into the house. Mike heard
doors opening and closing as Tommy yelled Jewell’s name.

“Tommy, is there anyone else that she might
be with? A friend maybe?”

“Of course! Ashley!” Tommy jumped off the
couch and ran to the phone in the kitchen. “Ashley! Do you know
where Jewell is?” Tommy was silent for a time before he hung up the
phone without saying anything else. He walked dejectedly into the
room. “She dropped Ashley off at six forty five this morning and
then came home. Ashley hasn’t heard from her.”

“Well, does she have a cell phone?” Alex
asked Tommy.

Tommy slapped his forehead with the palm of
his hand. “Of course she does.” He walked back to the kitchen and
quickly dialed the phone. He listened for a second before hanging
up without saying anything. “It went straight to her voicemail. Her
phone is turned off.”

“I’ll call Luke at the firehouse and let him
know what’s going on and we’ll open a missing person report.” Tommy
sat on the couch shaking. Alex felt for him. Tommy had lost his
wife, and now his only daughter was missing as well.

When Alex left the house, he called Hugh
Payne. Jewell was under the protection of the Templar Knights. The
police would do their part, but the Templars would do their part as
well.

Chapter 43

Edgar watched as they unloaded the woman from
the car. Her wrists and ankles were bound. She had a gag across her
mouth and a cloth was tied around her eyes. Matt easily pulled the
woman from the car by her shoulders, then balanced her as he picked
her up and cradled her against his body to carry her across the
warehouse. She looked so small and fragile held against Matt’s
large, muscular frame. For a moment, Edgar thought that she was
unconscious, but when she shifted in Matt’s arms, trying to get
more comfortable, Edgar realized that she was more resigned.

While the commando team did their part, the
remaining six members decided how to contain her. There was an
office area in the warehouse. Within that area there was a large
conference room, eight offices, a reception area, a lunch room, and
a supply closet. Four of the offices were interior offices, two
with windows looking toward the inside of the warehouse. It was
determined that she would be held in an interior office. Behind the
chosen office was the conference room, there was a hallway to one
side, and another office on the other. In front of it, there was a
hallway with two additional offices. The consensus among the group
was that this office would be the easiest to secure to prevent
either rescue or escape.

There were two goals; first, to find Collin.
To do this, they had chosen to use the woman as bait. The second,
several felt that because she was involved with Collin, it was
likely she was an infidel as well. As soon as Collin was located,
some wanted the woman killed as well. Others wanted to know that
she was an infidel before she was executed.

Matt, following Elliot’s lead, carried the
woman into the chosen office. Two chairs were inside the room. One
of them was one of the solid wood chairs that had decorated the
reception area of the warehouse. The second chair had been pulled
from the conference room. It was padded, and therefore more
comfortable than the folding chairs that most of the Obsidian
Knights had to sit on.

Matt carried the woman into the room, placing
her on the wooden chair. Her hands were released first from the E Z
Cuffs then placed, one on either arm of the chair, and secured
again using new sets of the disposable E Z Cuffs. Likewise, her
legs were released, and then secured on to each of the front legs
on the chair. The position was uncomfortable.

As Jewell sat, she heard arguing outside the
door but couldn’t make sense of the argument. It had to do with
some sort of test. After several minutes, the door opened and she
heard someone enter the room. “Are you one of them?” A gruff voice
asked, close to her ear. She could smell a combination of cigarette
smoke and coffee on his breath. She shook her head and shrugged,
not being able to answer because of the gag, and not knowing how to
answer even if she was able to speak.

He slapped her, hard. “An infidel!”

She paused, not knowing what he meant or how
she was supposed to answer. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain as a
knife sliced from her shoulder to her elbow; a deep cut, one she
was certain would require stitches. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
She heard him slam the door as he left. She could feel the blood
dripping off the end of her hand when she heard the door open. The
door immediately slammed and she heard a voice beyond the door
swearing at, she assumed, the man that had cut her.

“Just what the hell do you think you were
doing?” The voice seethed with anger. “This was not part of the
plan!”

“She could be one of them! You know that as
much as I do. We have a duty to find out at least!” This was from
the man that had cut her.

“Those decisions are made by me!” He
emphasized the last word indicating that he was the one in charge.
Those were the last words Jewell heard until someone came quietly
into the room, closing the door. She heard the squeak of a chair as
he sat down.

Jewell sat in silence. The chair was hard
against her back, and her legs were too far apart to be
comfortable. She had an itch where the rag over her mouth was
tickling the end of her nose. She couldn’t smell very much beyond
the rag, which smelled faintly of fabric softener, but what smells
she was able to identify were musty and moldy. The air inside the
room wasn’t damp, but it smelled like it should be. The acrid smell
irritated her nose. She could hear the person in the room with her
leafing through a magazine or newspaper. She waited for him to say
something; he didn’t. The only sounds she heard were the muted
conversations of those outside the office, and the periodic turning
of a page in the magazine.

Her stomach rumbled; she hadn’t eaten
anything since midnight. It had been near seven when she was taken,
and it had to have been at least an hour since then, probably
closer to two. She strained to hear the conversations going on
outside of the room. She could catch a word here and there, but not
enough information that she could piece together the reason for her
kidnapping. The organization of the kidnapping, the planning,
seemed to indicate that she was not a random victim. They wanted
something, and they wanted it from her. The man who had sliced her
arm seemed to think that it would give them some information about
her as well; something to do with infidels. She didn’t attend
church regularly, but her job made that prohibitive for the most
part. She believed in God. What did the man think slicing her arm
would prove?