Love Immortal (33 page)

The tape securing the rag to her mouth was
starting to irritate the sides of her face where it stuck to her
cheeks causing them to itch and burn. It also pulled at her hair
when she turned her head. The cuffs around her wrists and ankles
were starting to chafe her skin, and the blood on her arm was
caking where it had collected near her elbow. The cut stung
terribly. As she waited for something to happen, she tried to
remain calm; to try to gather as much information as she could
while she sat imprisoned in this room. Other than that, her only
option was to wait and hope that someone noticed she was gone
before she was supposed to meet Ashley at six. The longer it took
them to start a search, the less likely they were to find her.

As she breathed the dirtied air in the room,
her eyes started to water from the pervasive mildew smell in the
air and her nose began to get congested. Before long, she was
working to suck air through her blocked nose; she realized that if
she did not get the gag off her mouth, she was going to suffocate.
She started sucking breaths through her nose, harder and harder,
but despite her efforts, she began to feel dizzy as her oxygen
levels began to drop. Her lungs burned for lack of air. Finally,
she heard her captor put his magazine down and walk toward her,
casually. She felt his big hands picking at the tape on the side of
her face while he held her head against his chest with his other
hand. When he had a hold of the corner of the tape, he ripped it
from her mouth causing a scream to escape her lips though she tried
to hold it in. It wasn’t much of a scream, she had no air behind
it, but having the duct tape ripped from her face, pulling out
clumps of hair around her ears and at the base of her neck caused
excruciating pain.

She sucked in deep breaths of the dank,
polluted air, trying to fill her lungs and bring her breathing back
to normal. She felt a tickle running down the back of her neck,
something wet, soaking the neckline of her shirt; blood, she
realized, where a clump of hair had been torn from her scalp.
“Thank you” she said when she was finally able to breathe again.
She heard her captor grunt what might have been an acknowledgement
as he sat down and picked up his magazine again. “Why am I here?”
She asked, hoping to gain as much information as she could now that
she could talk. He didn’t answer. “What are you reading?” Her voice
was shaking as she spoke. She tried to stay calm; if an opportunity
for escape presented itself, she may be able to take advantage of
it but only if she could think clearly, though she doubted an
opportunity would present itself. “What’s your name?”

Her captor continued his silent treatment,
refusing to answer any of her questions. She sighed. At least she
didn’t have the gag over her mouth any more. She didn’t try to
scream. The kidnapping seemed to be too well planned. She was
certain that they had chosen a location where no one would be near
enough to hear her scream, and the constant drone of airplane
engines would drown out almost any sound. Besides that, she
strongly doubted that anyone who might hear would be willing to
come to her rescue.

She wasn’t sure how long she sat in that
room. She tried to think about things that would make her feel
better. Thoughts of Ashley, Collin, and her father flitted through
her head. She felt a tear escape her eyes as she thought about the
fact that she may never see any of them again. Suddenly, she caught
her breath. She heard Collin’s voice, his muddled European accent,
filled with worry. “Where are you Honeysuckle? Please hold on,
we’re coming for you.” She wanted so much to believe it was true,
that Collin knew what had happened and was looking for her, but
Collin was gone, her father wasn’t home, and no one expected her to
be anyplace but her bed until sometime around six this afternoon.
Then it would take time before they could organize a search. Since
her car was at home, and everything looked normal, she didn’t even
know where they would begin. She sniffed back a sob; she couldn’t
give up, no matter what, she knew she could survive this, if she
could just remain strong.

Chapter 44

By the time Collin finally regained
consciousness, a search effort was in full effect. The Templars
were doing what they could, but it didn’t hurt that Jewell was
known and loved by most of the public servants in St. Tammany
Parrish. Andy Baraven, a deputy sheriff in St. Tammany Parrish and
Templar Knight had brought in a forensics team to work with the
Covington police force. They were scouring Jewell’s car, yard, and
house for clues. Andy didn’t have any doubts about his team, or the
team with the Covington police department. Their personal
relationship with Jewell and her father would not affect the
quality of their search. In fact, he thought, it would probably
make them even more meticulous than they usually were.

At nine thirty, Andy received a call from
Alex. Even though Alex was not chief of police, because of the
Templar relationship, they remained in constant contact.
Apparently, Tommy, Jewell’s father, had determined that everything
in the house was intact. There was no sign of a forced entry, and
no sign of a struggle within; nothing was missing except of course,
Jewell. Outside the house, the car also lacked any sign of a
struggle. However, the grass around the walkway leading from the
car to the house was muddied and damaged. Because of the mud, it
was difficult to determine how many people had been in the
area.

There were at least two shoe prints that they
were able to decipher, one being Jewell’s, the other was larger, a
man’s. It was unlikely they had taken her anywhere on foot, but
there were no distinctive tire marks anywhere on the road to
indicate what type car she may have been taken in. The neighbors,
those that had been home, had neither seen nor heard anything.

Sheriff Payne had chosen a different lead to
follow; the man, Edgar Durand, who had been watching her so closely
in past months. The Sheriff called Andy and told him that Edgar had
an apartment in Chinchuba, in St. Tammany Parrish and would
therefore be in Sheriff Baraven’s jurisdiction. The sheriff had
already sent three officers to the apartment. When it was
ascertained that Edgar was not at home, he sent one of his officers
to get a judge to sign a search warrant. Depending on which judge
was making the decision that could take a while. The truth was they
did not have a lot of evidence to show that a search warrant was
necessary. All they had was the circumstantial evidence showing
Edgar following Jewell and asking about her over a month ago, and
the fact that Jewell was now missing. Because she was over 18, that
would pose additional problems as she had only been missing for a
couple of hours. Sheriff Baraven hoped that the testimony of
several civil servants regarding the likelihood of Jewell’s
disappearance as involuntary, and the evidence at the scene would
help convince the judge that a search warrant for Edgar Durand’s
apartment was justified.

After nearly an hour, Sheriff Baraven left
the judge’s chambers with his two officers…without a search
warrant. While the judge was sympathetic, she told the sheriff that
without just cause, she couldn’t allow them in to search. She
needed some solid evidence, some proof to indicate not only that
Edgar had something to do with Jewell’s kidnapping, but she also
needed to know what they were looking for.

Sheriff Payne seemed to think that Jewell
wasn’t in any mortal danger as long as Collin didn’t do anything
stupid, so Sheriff Braven posted plain clothed officers outside of
Edgar’s apartment, and at either end of the hallway. He hoped that
eventually Edgar would have to come home. Until then, there was
little he could do. The area outside Jewell’s house had been
thoroughly searched. A receipt for an Egg McMuffin bought at
McDonald’s just after seven that morning, but other than that, they
had found nothing. The shoe print had been from a pair of Nike
Dunks, size ten. Not only one of the most popular brands of shoes,
but also one of the most popular sizes. Jewell’s fingerprints were
the only prints on the car and there were no tire prints or eye
witnesses. They had nothing.

Chapter 45

Collin finally woke up about two hours after
he had his vision of Jewell. Kendryck told his uncle that it was
important that they not wake him if at all possible, because the
unconsciousness was his body’s way of protecting what he could not
control. He awoke violently, lashing out at those around him. Percy
and Kendryck were able to grab his arms and hold him against the
couch until they could calm him down. When Collin was finally fully
awake and aware of his surroundings, Percy let go of him, and
Kendryck pulled a chair up to face him. If Kendryck could help
Collin understand what he was seeing, strengthen the telepathic
link, they might be able to get some information that could help in
the search.

Kendryck gently laid his hands on Collin’s
shoulder. “Collin,” he said gently, “I need you to look at me.”
Collin moved his face so that it was more or less facing
Kendryck’s, but his eyes still held a haunted look. “Collin.”
Kendryck said his name again with a little more force. Collin’s
eyes moved slightly. “I need you to look at me. Look at my eyes.”
Collin slowly moved his eyes, trying to focus on Kendryck’s face.
It was difficult, as if he was trying to see someone through a
window coated with years of dust and filth. Finally, Collin’s eyes
found Kendryck’s. “Something has happened to Jewell.” Collin’s eyes
went wide with shock and he struggled to stand, but Kendryck’s
hands on his shoulders kept him seated.

“What? What’s happened? Is she all right?”
Collin was frantic, looking to his family for answers.

“We don’t know. She’s missing. We think she’s
been kidnapped. Sheriff Payne is heading the search effort. The
Templars are involved as are pretty much every police officer and
Sheriff in both Orleans and Covington Parishes. They are doing all
that they can do.”

“I have to go. I have to help find her!” He
tried to stand again. Kendryck placed his hands on Collin’s
thighs.

“You will help. But right now, the best help
you can give her is to help us to understand what happened this
morning. It seems your vision happened at the same time that she
disappeared. We,” he gestured to the people gathered in the parlor,
“believe that this was no coincidence. We need to find out what you
know, to see if there‘s any information that can be useful. Can you
do that?”

Collin nodded his head numbly. “I’ll do
whatever I need to. If this is what will help the most, then let’s
get started.” He focused his attention back on Kendryck.

“Now…I need you to tell me what you
felt.”

Collin took a deep breath, trying to settle
his nerves. He was trembling violently; so much so that he needed
to grip his thighs to keep his hands from flopping like a fish on
the bottom of a boat. “It was Jewell,” he started. “I smelled
honeysuckle.” He struggled to put his thoughts into words.

“Good,” said Kendryck. “I want you to
remember the details like that. It’s important that you try to
express every feeling you had.”

“Well, okay I guess. Let’s see…” Collin’s
eyes drifted to the ceiling as he tried to remember everything that
had occurred. “I was lying in bed. I had just woken up and had
looked at the clock. It was a little past seven. I was thinking
that Jewell would probably be getting home from work and…” he
blushed a little as he voiced his next thought, “I was imagining
her coming through the door of the house, you know, like she was
coming home…to me.”

“That may be why you were able to feel what
happened so strongly. In a sense, you had already created a
connection without knowing it. If you hadn’t been thinking about
her when it happened….” Kendryck’s thought trailed off.

“I might not have felt anything.” Collin
finished, resentfully. Had he been trained, he might be able to
provide more than daydreams and fantasies. “It was really weird,
because I suddenly felt like there were people around me and my
heart started beating faster. I was scared, not for Jewell, but for
me. It felt like it was happening to me. It only took me a second
to realize that there was no one in the room with me and that’s
when it occurred to me that it was something Jewell was
experiencing.” He paused, looking at Kendryck. “I tried to focus,
like you’ve been teaching me. I put all my energy into feeling what
she felt.” A tear trickled down his face. “He grabbed her. I don’t
know how I knew that, but I knew she was restrained somehow. She
was really scared. That’s the last thing I remember.” After Collin
finished explaining everything, everyone was silent; it was as if
someone had hit the mute button. Collin sat and looked at everyone
in the room. “What?” His concern was growing as the silence
stretched on.

Finally, Kendryck broke the silence. “Okay,
we need to see if we can establish a connection now. We need to see
if we can figure out anything that might give us a clue to where
she is, or who she’s with.”

“Well, it doesn’t take a genius to realize
that that weirdo from the hospital took her. What did you say he
was; a Black Knight or something?” Collin asked.

“Obsidian Knight.” Percy mumbled.

Gladys came over to sit next to Collin. She
put her arm around him and gave him a hug. “It’s okay honey, we’ll
find her.” Collin just nodded his head against Gladys’s
shoulder.

“Okay.” Kendryck pulled Collin’s attention
back to him. “Now, just like we practiced. Try to focus your
thoughts on Jewell. Try to feel her thoughts.” His voice was low,
hypnotic. Collin could feel himself drifting and his thoughts start
to focus on what Jewell was feeling. As he started understanding
what she was feeling, he tried to tell those sitting with him what
he…what she, felt.