Chapter 101 Ch. 71
Zara waited for the man to say something as he stood there, but he didn’t. His expression changed for a brief moment, but then he gave a cold smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He looked at the woman on the floor slowly, but his face stayed blank, and then he turned around and opened the door without looking at Zara again.
The woman lay curled on her side, breathing through her teeth as shaky groans slipped out of her. Zara pressed her back to the wall and tried to breathe properly, because the chest pains she was feeling during her race had returned. The pain in her wrist from being tied up had also worsened.
She shifted her fingers a little, hoping she could loosen the ropes, but they didn’t move.
The woman muttered something under her breath in Russian. Zara didn’t understand the words, but she kept looking at the woman’s arms anyway, feeling guilty about what she had done. It was almost as though she could feel the pain.
“Please,” the woman groaned, tears forming in her gray eyes. “Please.”
She didn’t want to panic or let anyone know that it was something she couldn’t control so she forced herself to look away, but her mind kept circling around the same thought. She had wished for something to happen, and then it did. She didn’t touch the woman. She didn’t even move from where she sat. She only thought it.
But now she was thinking about healing her, but nothing waa happening.
If it was desperation that made her thoughts manifest, then wasn’t she desperate enough for this woman to be alright?
Zara decided to try non chalance instead and focus her mind on other things.
Why did he leave her here? she wondered. If she works for them, why didn’t he care about her arms? He could have taken her out to be healed.
Was the woman being kept here against her will and forced to work for them?
The woman groaned again making Zara to look at her.
Her mind kept dragging her back to the moment the bones snapped. She replayed it again and again, trying to make sense of it. She had never done anything like that in her life. She didn’t know anyone who could. If she had caused it once, then she should be able to change it back. That felt logical to her, even if none of this made sense.
Maybe if I think hard enough, she told herself. Maybe that’s how it works.
But hadnt she been trying hard enough already?
She looked at the woman again and imagined her arms straight. She imagined the bones sliding back into the right place. She held the thought and waited.
Nothing happened.
The woman only let out another groan and shifted her body slightly. The sound she made made Zara flinch even though she tried not to.
Why isn’t it working now? Zara thought. Why did it only happen once?
Her breathing grew faster, and she shut her eyes so she wouldn’t start shaking. She tried to think about what she had felt before, but the only thing she remembered was fear and desperation. She remembered wanting the woman to stop coming closer. She remembered wanting her to stay away.
She had ruled out desperation.
Maybe it only works when I’m scared. Maybe it’s not something I control.
She leaned her head back against the wall and stared upward, even though there was nothing to see. She needed somewhere else to rest her eyes. Her legs were numb from sitting in one position for too long, so she moved her feet slowly just to keep herself grounded.
Time passed strangely. She couldn’t tell if it had been ten minutes or twenty.
When the door finally opened, she jerked her head toward it before she could stop herself.
The same man walked in first, and another man followed behind him. Their eyes went straight to the woman before looking at Zara. She pushed her back straight and forced her face to stay calm. She didn’t want them to see how afraid she was.
“Get her out,” the first man said.
The woman tried to move. She pushed herself up with her legs and shoulders since her arms hung uselessly. When she shifted her left arm by accident, a harsh sound tore out of her throat. Zara winced at the sound, but the guards didn’t react. They grabbed her under her arms, though she couldn’t hold on to them.
The woman said something in Russian, her voice thin and shaky. She leaned toward one of the guards as if her legs were giving out.
Zara looked at her once more and a sharp crack cut through the air.
Her right arm snapped back into place.
The woman gasped loudly, staring at her arm like she couldn’t believe it. The guard who held her stepped back, looking from her to Zara as though he didn’t know which one he should be afraid of.
Zara stared at her own tied hands, then at the woman.
There was hope.
I can escape if I try, she thought excitedly to herself.
+++
“How’d it go?” Ethan asked the second they met up. He was exhausted to the bone, but rest was not something he wanted to do until he had Zara.
He, Dylan ans Jace had divided themselves the next night abd gone ro different clan environment. It had been a long drive with Jace endless chatter and Ethan had been all too glad to be dropped off.
Fear has gripped his heart hard as he lurked in corners a little way off from their main building. He waited patiently to see any unsuspecting vampire roaming and at some point he wanted to give up because they were high ranked vampires.
But luck came in fourth of a scrawny boy with blond hair. From the looks of it, Ethan knew the boy was newly turned— someone who found out but they didn’t want to kill. It may he was useful. So he had to be useful enough to know anything if Zara was there.
.
“Got one of them,” responded Dylan, unlocking his car. “You?”
“Got one too, compelled him. I’ll meet with him if there’s anything odd. He knows how to contact me. We’ve got one clans left, till tomorrow right?”
“Yeah. Where’s your car?”
“With Jace. He has a father distance remember?”
“I’ll drop you off.”
“I want to walk,” Ethan replied quietly. “Clear my head. And I don't think you want any of my father's men to know that we have been hanging out,” he added with a slight smirk.
“That's true. Stay safe out there,” Dylan told him.
“I will be,” he said. The night there was chilly. Almost freezing him as he walked, but he paid no attention so that his mind was eroding by chaos. And all he could really do... was hold on to hope. Hope however...
Ethan pulled his jacket closer as the wind brushed over him. He walked for a long time, letting the cold bite into his arms while his head spun with thoughts he didn’t want to face. By the time he reached the main road that led to the estate, he was relieved.
The house was quiet except for the low murmur of voices coming from his father’s study. The door was partly open and he could see shadows moving across the floor. His father was pacing with two men beside him, pointing at papers spread across the desk and asking some questions. Ethan paused at the end of the hall and listened. His father sounded tired and annoyed. It was clear he was doing the same thing Ethan had been doing all night, trying to put pieces together, trying to guess who was responsible so he could attack and retrieve Zara.
If only it wasn’t for his own selfish agenda.
Ethan didn’t want to be noticed, so he walked past quietly and climbed the stairs. His room was dark when he entered, the curtains blowing a little as air slipped through the small gap in the window. He threw himself on the bed and pulled the blanket halfway over himself, but his eyes wouldn’t close. His chest hurt and his fingers kept shaking a little when he tried to steady them on the sheets.
Minutes passed. Maybe hours. He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that his mind kept circling the same fear over and over until he felt something sharp twist inside him. He sat up suddenly because the feeling was too much, then he lay back down again because he felt weak. He turned on his side, pressed his hand against his forehead, then dragged the blanket closer.
Nothing worked.
He turned again and curled his hand into the blanket, but the pressure behind his eyes kept building until tears began to form even though he tried to blink them away. His throat ached. He hated that he was this close to crying, but he couldn’t stop it.
He shut his eyes again only to calm himself, but the moment they closed, something hit him so hard he gasped. It felt like a tight burst of air pushing against his chest so he pressed his hand there because it hurt so suddenly. Ethan tried to sit up but the room swayed, and right then the first face flashed in front of him.
I
A man’s face—gone in less than a second.
He opened his eyes right away and stared at the ceiling. His fingers dug into the blanket. He pulled in air slowly, and shut them again because he thought it was a trick of exhaustion.
Another face appeared. Then another. Then a hand reaching across a dark room.
He opened his eyes again and pushed himself up on shaking elbows. The room tilted sideways before settling. He shut his eyes one more time because he needed to know if it would happen again, and as soon as he did, something slammed into his senses so hard that his breath caught.
He choked on it.
It wasn’t just a flash this time. It felt like someone pulling him toward a place he couldn’t see clearly. He felt cold metal on skin and the tightness of something around wrists. He felt the floor under knees even though he wasn’t there. His chest squeezed in a way that made him grab the sheets like it would stop the feeling from spreading through him.
He snapped his eyes open so quickly they burned, but the flashes didn’t stop right away. They flickered at the edges of his sight even while they aren’t closed.
Something inside him knew this wasn’t random.
It wasn’t imagination.
It wasn’t madness.
It felt like someone calling out.
Zara.