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Chapter Fourteen
James
Seeing everything through Calai’s eyes kind of makes me appreciate where we live even more. Everything is new to her, and when her eyes light up at something she sees out the window as we drive to town, I have to do a second take to see what it is that made her react that way.
We’re about two thirds of the way to town when we start seeing some older neighborhoods and run-down shops, but her whole demeanor changes. We’re at this stop light right in the middle of what almost feels like a ghost town, which is seriously strange to me since I can’t see there ever being enough traffic to warrant a stop light here, but her hands go white as she clutches onto the handle on the door.
Calai’s eyes start darting around frantically and her mouth opens silently, and before the light turns green, she’s unbuckled herself and is running out the door, down the sidewalk.
“FUCK! Go after her! Do not let her get away! What the fuck is she thinking?” I run, after I realize I have to undo my seatbelt first, but she hasn’t gotten very far. She isn’t running away from us so much as she was running towards something.
Kit parks the jeep at the nearest spot and is running towards us, and I can tell he’s ready to start yelling at her again, which would undo all our progress, so I hold up a hand, and just watch her. I motion for him to do the same, and then all three of us are just standing a little bit back from her while Calai spins in slow circles, looking at all the shops.
She peeks inside a bakery that looks like it’s been closed for some time, wiping the dust off of an antique store that is only open a few days a week, but she keeps spinning, then moves forward.
Quietly, we all follow her into a building marked as the town library- there’s not much to it, since this town is tiny, but it looks clean and well-loved. There’s a foyer with water fountains and restrooms and a community bulletin board before the doors that enter into the library proper, and she inhales like she’s trying to place a memory.
“I think I know this place,” she whispers. She walks up to the child-sized water fountain and frowns, running her hands along the stainless-steel lip. Her eyes tip up to the community board, reading through all the fliers posted there.
They’re a mix of information, a teenager offering yard work with tearaway strips, someone with puppies they’re trying to home, class schedules for the community college that’s nearby, and upcoming community events.
Calai wraps her arms around herself, completely lost in her own world. She can’t seem to stop staring at the board, eyes getting caught on a flier that has a picture of an old, past-its-prime park with a dull yellow slide and a rough wooden climbing structure. The slide is covered in marks from kids that wanted to leave something behind and the woodchips that fill the play area look like they are almost completely gone, but she likes this flier for some reason.
“Is this nearby?” She asks with a haunted voice, pointing at the address. It’s a flier to ask for funds to replace the old park that is apparently out of commission, and she takes it down. Her hands shake as she stares at the slide.
“Yeah, it should be. It’s listed as being on main street so it’s likely right next door,” I say softly, unwilling to break her out of whatever trance she’s in.
As if she didn’t hear me, she walks inside the library, past the security detectors that are standard issue in any library, and her eyes go straight to the desk where the librarian checks out books. She walks up to it on tiptoes, her fingertips caressing the service bell so gently it doesn’t ring at all.
I approach her slowly, touching her shoulder so I don’t startle her. “What’s going on? You think you’ve been here before?” Kit and James are still out in the foyer, terse about something, so I take on full mate status right now.
“It’s like a dream. This picture…I’ve dreamt of this place.”
I get a sick sort of feeling in my gut. When we started looking into the compound where Calai lived, we dug up investigations that began and were shut down due to lack of evidence. There were rumors that the cult leader had a history of kidnapping children in order to keep her followers replenished.
“Can I help y-”
A guy in his early to mid-twenties steps from behind the office door where we’re standing so that he’s just across the clerk’s desk from us, and when he looks at Calai, his face goes white. She’s still staring at the grainy picture of the park in her hand that looks as if it was printed at somebody’s home, so she doesn’t see him, too lost in whatever’s going on in her head.
I instinctively place Calai behind me, unsure if this guy is a risk or not.
“Darcy?” his voice shakes and is so quiet it’s hard to know if he meant to say that out loud or not, but Calai finally looks up at him with confusion. The same exact look this guy is giving her.
They’re almost identical.
No, theyareidentical.
“I…need to get out of here,” she says, running blindly outside.
I see James and Kit go after her, so I stay inside, watching as this guy collapses into a chair and starts crying. Not a graceful, slightly tired cry either. He’s absolutelyballing.Tears roam freely down his face as he claws at his chest, his eyes locked on my mate who is sitting on a bench outside trying to breathe while Kit holds her.
“Did you say her name was Darcy?” I ask him.
He looks at me. “Where was she?” In the next moment he’s up and ready to fight, swinging for me. He’s an omega too, but I can see claiming marks on his neck. “You! You BASTARD! YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!”
I have his arms locked by the time he gets a lucky shot at me, and I know my lip is bleeding, but if this guy is who I think he is, I can’t harm him.
“Easy there, omega. I’m not a threat to you or your sister.”
