Captivate Me (Book One: The Captivated Series) (10 page)

Levi
, I lamented, thinking of our last kiss, and traced my lips
with my finger. I hated seeing how my wishy-washiness bruised his
spirit. If Hannah and my dream-guy would just stay out of my
thoughts, I could give being with Levi a real shot. I wasn’t ready
to make a definitive decision on whether or not we belonged
together, but we at least deserved a shot. What was I going to do…
break up with him because of a guy I couldn’t see, touch or talk
to? Scientifically speaking, he didn’t exist. Even if he felt real
to
me
. Even
though I had seen him at the edge of the woods and in my possibly
prophetic dreams, all of this could be in my head. And even if
he
were
real, as
I so secretly wished, it might not ever happen. Levi, however, was
tangible, and still as sweet and gorgeous as ever. And probably
growing weary of my running hot and cold with him after only a few
days.

I stood and braced my
hands on either side of the sink to stare at myself in the mirror,
my inner-strength rising inside me like a tide. “Get it together,”
I told myself, slow and resolute.
Before
you lose him forever and never know what could have
been.

With my heart beating at a normal
pace, I settled onto the toilet to breathe in a few more lungsful
of steam.

A rap on the door made me jump.
“Kat?”

Sighing, I turned the shower off and
decided to head back out. Anna needed a shoulder, and mine was fit
to cry on. Well, barely. I steeled myself with one last breath
before opening the door. “Sorry, girl. Needed a minute.”

Her eyes reminded me of when I’d first
met her – glassy and red. I immediately reached out to wrap her in
a blanket of comfort, realizing once I had her locked in the
embrace that I needed it too, even if it wasn’t Levi. “We’re going
to be fine. They wouldn’t let anything happen to us here.” This
time, I had more confidence in my words, and Anna relaxed in my
arms.

Another quick knock on the door made
us both jump. Anna squeaked. Oh, for goodness sake. If we were old
enough to drink, I’d pour us both a glass of something. “Who is
it?” I called to the mystery visitor. I expected Levi’s voice to
answer, but instead it was Sarah.

“Open up, girls! I don’t have
long!”

When I opened the door, the distressed
look on Sarah’s face alarmed me almost as much as her knock.
“W-What is it?” I stuttered out.

She took a step into the room and
lowered her voice to a whisper. “I know what’s going
on.”

“What?” Anna and I asked in
unison.

“Mr. Plunkett is missing.”

It took the better part of
a minute for her words to sink in.
Sweet
old Mr. Plunkett is missing?!
I thought
back to being in the nurse’s station. I didn’t recall seeing him
there, but then again, I’d only seen the nurse who had worked on
me. The other curtains were closed. “As in, like… abducted? How do
you know?”

“Mr. Hughes just ordered all of the
mind-readers to the cafeteria. Apparently to see if any of us
happened to catch any stray thoughts to give them a
lead.”

“He could have just… ya know, left or
something.”

She tilted her head in annoyance. “You
think they’d be freaking out like this if he ‘just left,’
Kat?”

“Good point.”

“Besides, they said they didn’t see
anything on the parking lot cameras. So anyway,” she said, backing
out of the room, “I’ve got to get going. I’ll let you know if I
find out anything.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

I shut the door again and locked it.
Missing. Nurse Plunkett was missing. Did Levi know? He would be
devastated. Even though I had never actually had the pleasure of
meeting the old man myself, I felt as though I’d already met him
from all of Levi’s stories. Near concussions, twisted ankles and
sore wrists had landed him in the nurse’s station many times – the
downside of being so active in sports. “I think of him like a
grandfather,” Levi said the first time he had mused about him to
me. “Such a nice man, but he isn’t afraid to lecture you if he
thinks you need it.”

Anna made her way to the
bathroom, and I retreated to my bed to sit in silence. My former
fears of a shooting or bomb threat had been extinguished, but I
still wasn’t relieved. Not until they’d found him. Where in the
world could he be? He had to be here
somewhere
if the cameras hadn’t
caught him leaving.

A short frantic knock
interrupted my thoughts.
Levi?
I hurried to the door. “Who is it?”

“It’s me,” Levi said, barely above a
whisper.

I let him in, and he stepped inside,
quietly shutting the door behind him. And as I had suspected, he
looked utterly devastated. He knew.

Instinctively, I threw my arms around
his neck. “I’m so sorry. Sarah just came by to tell us.”

He hugged me back with just as much
enthusiasm. “Thanks. I had to see you again. Make sure you made it
back okay.”

Tears prickled my eyes. My sweet Levi.
“I’m fine,” I forced out, pulling away and cradling his face in my
hands, “I’m sure they’ll find him.”

He attempted a smile – a show of
bravery. “Thanks, babe.”

To make up for earlier, I
planted another kiss on his lips, pouring more of myself into it
this time and forcing my mind to stay blank. I also wanted to prove
a point to myself, that I could be with him and not be such a
wishy-washy idiot about it. When I pulled away, his smile widened
as if to say, “wow.” I guess my pep-talk in the bathroom had given
me the strength I needed.
But it still
doesn’t feel right if you have to force it
, my conscience retorted. I swatted the thought
away.

The bathroom door creaked open.
“Levi…” Anna said, half relieved, half confused.

“He came by to check on me,” I
explained.

“Oh.”

“And Ronnie wanted me to give you a
message, Anna,” Levi said.

Her mood perked. “Oh?”

“He wanted to come too, but we didn’t
want to risk both of us getting caught. But he says he promises to
stop by in the morning.”

Her entire expression brightened, and
I imagined she would be doing gleeful pirouettes around the room if
Levi and I weren’t standing here.

My subconscious butted-in
again.
Now THAT’s how it looks when you’re
in love.

I ignored it.

Levi brushed a kiss on my forehead and
made his way back to the door. “See you girls tomorrow.”

I injected my words with as much
enthusiasm as I could muster. “Okay! See you then!” Realizing how
fake it sounded, I rolled my eyes inwardly. Apparently I was still
trying to prove something.

He winked as he shut the door. “See
ya, babe.”

“See ya.”

In the hours that followed, Anna and I
mainly kept to ourselves – she read while listening to music on her
iPod, and I painted my nails, and then organized and re-organized
my closet, anything to keep my thoughts away from the woods,
painting them and thinking about who was in them. And oddly enough,
I now mildly resented ever going into the woods or dreaming the
dreams. Levi and I had a good thing going, and still could if I
continued having the strength to let go of my thoughts of my
admirer. And even more oddly, I wasn’t sure if I could. What if he
haunted my dreams every night? What if I continued to get flowers
every morning? I felt awful, but powerless at the same time,
because no matter how much I pep-talked myself or stayed out of the
woods, I also couldn’t deny that he was gaining a slow steady hold
on my heart without my full consent.

Weary, both physically and
emotionally, I decided to surrender to my sleepiness. It was now
eleven o’clock and Anna had already fallen asleep with her book on
her chest and her headphones in. I plucked them from her ears,
covered her with a blanket, and made my way to bed as Anna babbled
incoherently about Ronnie’s butt and something about potato salad.
I chuckled and glanced at the woods as I passed the window. Yep. I
wanted to go. The itch to venture into them remained.

* * *

Understandably, the mood
around the school had taken a nose-dive into melancholy the next
day. Mr. Plunkett was nowhere to be found. A person, a tall
hard-to-miss personality of a person, just
gone
. Even free-spirited Ronnie was
somber.

He and I had our first class of the
day together, Gift Development, and we sat in back of the class –
me with my head resting in my hands, trying desperately not to
doze-off, and him trying not-so-hard with his head resting against
the wall and a light snore escaping his lips. Usually I’d nudge him
to wake him up but decided to let him sleep today. Ms. Douglas
wasn’t in class yet anyway. An oddity, for sure. She was never
late. A brief thought flickered through my mind about her being
missing now too, and before it could spiral into full-blown worry,
she breezed through the door with her hair in a messy bun and no
make-up. Yikes. She must have had a rough night like the rest of
us.

“Sorry, class,” she huffed out as she
dumped her bag on the floor by her desk.

Ronnie jerked awake. I offered a
reassuring smile. “She just got here,” I mouthed.

Shuffling papers around her desk, Ms.
Douglas continued. “We’ll get right into it today since I was late.
Everyone get your paper and pens ready, because I’ll be covering a
lot this morning.”

I stifled a groan. I hated taking
notes. Even in this class – my favorite. Apparently with the right
guidance, our gifts had the ability to develop and mature. Ms.
Douglas had a knack to “embolden” them, as she had explained our
first day. “Your gifts can reach heights you never fathomed.” She’d
definitely had my attention ever since.

“First,” Ms. Douglas continued. “Those
of you who use your hands to channel your gifts, please
stand.”

Along with about three-fourths of the
class, Ronnie and I stood. I had only seen him use his gift once,
and I had to admit, his was one of the coolest I’d ever seen –
wind. He had demonstrated his gift to me by uprooting a sapling at
the edge of the woods like it was nothing. To command the air the
way he did… nothing short of amazing. He could create a tornado if
he chose to. But the thought always unsettled me a little – Ronnie…
crazy, care-free Ronnie having the ability to destroy the sturdiest
of buildings literally at the palm of his hands. Scary, but cool. I
guess that went for most of our gifts, though – scary, but
cool.

Ms. Douglas scribbled words on the dry
erase board – Separation of Body. “Separation of Body,” she echoed.
“All of our gifts originate from the same place all of our other
functions do – the brain. But to bolster your gifts, you have to
tap into another source – your heart. Not as in the organ, though,”
she clarified. “The very fabric of your soul. The essence of your
being.”

Everyone stared blankly.

She sighed as if to say
“good grief, kids” and set her marker on the lip of the board. Her
mossy green eyes searched the standing classmates and landed on me.
I swallowed.
Please, no.
“Kat!” she trilled. “Come join me up
here.”

Wonderful.

Ronnie laughed as I
trudged to the front, and I cut my eyes at him with a smirk.
Jerk.
If I didn’t like
him so much, I’d smack him.

When I made it there, she whirled me
around and placed her hands on my shoulders. “The best way to teach
you all to tap into this part of yourselves is to have you
visualize something. Kat, close your eyes.”

I did as I was told, but felt
completely idiotic.

“Now, picture someone you love getting
hurt.”

Someone I love.
My thoughts reeled, and I conjured a picture of
Levi’s face. Maybe this little exercise could help prove
something.

Now think of him getting
hurt.
My thoughts took a turn for the
horrifying. I pictured someone taking him against his will,
knocking him out and dragging him somewhere. Just like someone had
possibly done to Mr. Plunkett. My shoulders tensed, and I clenched
my fists.

“Good,” Ms. Douglas cajoled. “A
desperate churning in the pit of your stomach, is it
there?”

“Yes.”

“That ache you feel in your
chest?”

“Yes.”

“Draw from that. Your being wants to
free your loved one from the grip of harm.”

Instinctively, I held out my hand,
allowing that oh-so-familiar web to trickle down my arm and through
my fingertips. What I was trying to move with my gift, I didn’t
know.

She grasped my hand, pulling it
against my body. “No,” she said firmly. “Not from your
hands.”

I realized what this
exercise was about – moving things simply with my mind.
Separation of Body.
No
fingers, no portal to channel it through, throwing my gift beyond
myself.