No use. No one peeked or looked and I couldn't fight him any longer. Just as he placed me in the car door I remembered something. Something triggered, rather, in my mind. A flash of something crossed before my eyes and I found myself doing some strange roundabout kick thing and saw Marcus go down to the gra.s.s on his back.

"What the-" Marcus said as he looked up at me in disgust.

"Quit messing around! Get her in the car!" the guy yelled and came around to help. He grabbed my arm and jumped back, screaming as I felt the jolt ripple through my skin. "Ah! c.r.a.p! You weren't joking, man. That frigging hurts like h.e.l.l."

Marcus jumped up at the same time that I sprung from the car. He came forward and my mind took over. The first flash vision I saw was a punch and then a block. Then another of a back hand punch then a side kick. I had no idea what they were called but I knew exactly what it was.

Karate.

Kyle's father had taught me karate that day and I was skeptical but no more. It was amazing. My brain was literally teaching me karate as I went along. And when Marcus reached for my arm, I used it on him. It was like watching a movie. I didn't control it, I just did it.

I heard screeching tires from behind us and peeked to see a black car and a SUV slam to a stop on the curb across the street but I didn't stop fighting. Couldn't.

When I looked back, Marcus was on the ground and his friend was coming for me again. He wrapped his arms around my middle from behind and yelped at the pain from my touch but held on as he tried to drag me to the open car door. I saw Marcus get up as I heard yelling and slamming doors behind me. I knew this was it.

I drop kicked the guy's shin with my heel and he threw me to the ground as he yelled. I scrambled up and threw my leg up into the air as my top half went lower. I kicked him square across the face and he went down hard with a grunt and curse onto the gra.s.s. Marcus cursed too and took off running, leaving his comrade behind and the Audi's tires squealed as he peeled out. The driver of the black car took off after him in the same flurry.

I turned to see Caleb, his father, Kyle's father and several others running towards me.

"Caleb," I said and saw everything go dark as I fell in sudden exhaustion. Warm arms caught me and hugged me tightly to a warm body, burying my face in his chest. "Caleb."

"I'm here."

"You're alive," I squeaked and m.u.f.fled. I started to cry in relief. "You're ok."

"Of course I am." I felt the push of his mind peeking in mine, the fuzzy tingle. "Ah," he said with sudden realization and his tone changed from relief to anger. "That's how he got you out here. He told you I was killed by his father...and you believed him."

I opened my eyes to peek through my hair to see others standing over us as he held me in his lap on the ground. A couple of them were loading Marcus's friend into the SUV while a couple others searched my yard and the street.

When I turned my face up to look at him, Caleb pushed my hair back and kissed my forehead. When he leaned back he growled and several others made similar noises of anger, groans and grunts.

"He hit you," Caleb growled angrily.

I touched my cheek, forgetting. It burned when my fingers brushed it. I imagined I had several of those marks all over me from the way they both fought to get me into the car. And of course, they were gonna see them sooner than later.

"Here." He took off my jacket and almost exploded with anger at seeing all the black hands, fingers and grab marks all over my arms and hands. His whole body shook and he stared at me with wide eyes and disgust written all over his face. At first I thought it was because they'd touched me. I was tainted or something but he shook his head and held my cheek in his palm, covering the black mark from Marcus's swift hand. "No. I'm disgusted because they hurt you. I wasn't here, couldn't get here fast enough and they hurt you."

Peter put his hand on Caleb's shoulder and he nodded and took a deep breath. His dad helped him remove his jacket and he wrapped it around me.

"We better get out of here before your dad comes. Someone had to have heard something."

He lifted me in his arms easily and I clung to his neck as his touch took the pain. I saw Kyle's father standing among the few around us.

"You saved me," I told him, remembering how he'd 'taught' me karate.

"I saw that," he said and smiled, placing a hand on my arm. "But you saved yourself. I just taught you how. Nice form by the way."

Despite it all I chuckled and winced at a slight pain in my stomach. Caleb's grimace got even tighter, if possible.

"Let's go."

We all piled into the SUV, with me on Caleb's lap still, and made our way to Kyle's house. Even with Caleb holding me, I still felt odd. Drained and foggy, like after the echo dream but, I couldn't get my mind to focus on that because my Caleb was right here.

I stared up at him and wanted to just burst with happiness at the knowledge that he was ok. More than ok, he came to save me, just like he said he would. Granted he came a little late, not his fault, but if he hadn't come, Marcus wouldn't have run off like that and I might still be out there fighting them or worse, in his car.

Caleb's mind was cluttered with anger and guilt and general madness. I wasn't touching his skin because of his heavy jacket so, even though the car was full of uncles, I reached up and touched his cheek. He startled at the contact and sighed loudly at the sudden release of anger. He looked at me and I looked back at him. He leaned over to rest his head against mine.

"You were amazing. Even I can't kick that high."

I wanted to laugh but it hurt so I smiled instead.

"Yeah. That teaching karate into my mind thing was pretty handy."

I saw Kyle's dad smile in his profile beside us.

"Yeah. I'm so sorry, Maggie."

"It wasn't your fault."

"But we knew he was after you, we just didn't know why. I should have stayed or left someone with you."

The short ride to Kyle's house was over and Caleb lifted me into his arms as we exited the backseat and pa.s.sed through the squeaky gate. I noticed they had the same filigree lined fence with half moons set in intervals as Caleb's house did.

Kyle ran outside and his eyes bulged when he saw me. Great, one more person to feel guilty.

"Gah! Maggie! What happened?"

"Marcus," Caleb answered and kept walking me inside.

"Oh, man. I was just with you not a couple hours ago. He must have been watching and waited for me to leave you."

"You were with her?" Caleb asked and looked at me.

"Yeah. He met me at the diner when I got off."

"We went for a walk in the park since you were detained," Kyle answered and grinned slightly. If I had the strength the glare at him I would've. "It started to rain so we had to cut it short and I got her home."

"Is that why she's running a fever and her throat's sore? Because you took her for a walk in the freezing rain?" Caleb asked hotly as we crossed the threshold.

He must feel that in me because I hadn't said anything.

"What? You sick, Maggie?"

I did feel sick and sore and in the general vicinity of hurting all over. Not only was I sick from being soaked in the freezing rain but I had just gotten thrown around on top of it. But I didn't answer him.

We pa.s.sed through the kitchen and I saw a few ladies in there around the table with coffee cups. Someone must have called them because they looked worried and when they saw me it wasn't surprise on their face, it was anger.

Rachel came up to me, forcing Caleb to stop.

"Oh no, Maggie." She brushed her fingers across one of the offense marks on my hand. "I'm so sorry. This isn't how things usually are."

"I'm taking her upstairs, mom."

She nodded and everyone stood and watched as Caleb made his way up the stairs with me in his arms.

Sixteen.

"You're burning up, Maggie."

Caleb had tucked me into his bed in the guestroom after changing my clothes from my soaking wet ones to a House of Heroes t-shirt and boxers of his. I didn't complain and he didn't ask permission. He was my significant and he was going to take care of me. When my shirt went over my head and he saw the offense marks around my middle too, he was thinking about anything but seeing me naked. His mind raced with curses and things he wanted to do to Marcus. Bad things.

"I'm fine," I croaked.

"You are not fine," he said as he pulled the covers up to my chin. "Are you still cold?"

I nodded. I was freezing.

He took off his shirt and jeans, leaving him only in boxers, and climbed in beside me. We laid on our sides facing each other as he twined our legs and arms, pressing our bodies close as they could get to warm me. He rubbed my arm with his palm and blew a frustrated breath.

"Caleb. I'm ok," I a.s.sured him.

"Only because you handled yourself. I wasn't there to keep you safe."

I wanted him to kiss me even though I didn't feel good, to take away his anger. I pressed my lips to his, hoping to ease some his tension away, and I felt his arm relax a little but his lips weren't into it. I pulled back disappointed and looked at him in the lamplight.

"But I'm ok," I protested.

"Yeah, no thanks to me. Or Kyle. What were you doing with him anyway?" he asked softly.

"He came to the diner when I got off. I'd just gotten your text and he said he knew you were gone and figured he'd come keep me company."

Caleb nodded and pursed his lips angrily.

"Good old Kyle."

"I told him no funny stuff and he was completely normal with me, like he used to be. Then it started raining and we ran home but we were soaked and it was so cold. My dad took him home and I took a shower. Then a little bit later, Marcus climbed through my window telling me his father shot you in the ambush of their house."

I shivered as I thought of it. He squeezed me tighter.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving you here without me," he a.s.sured.

"At first I thought I was dreaming because I dozed off for a couple minutes but he was so convincing and..." I sniffed and could feel the tears burning as my body started to relive the pain of hearing those words. "And he said..."

"Shh. Don't, Maggie. I told you, I'm not leaving you. Me and you, always together. From now on I'm probably gonna be some form or version of a tyrant. This is your only warning."

I laughed and sniffed again.

"That's ok. I don't care, I just want to be with you."

"And you will be. First things first. We gotta figure out something to tell your father so he doesn't freak and you can keep him in your life but out of the loop. I don't want to ruin it with him."

"Me neither but what are we gonna say? I sure can't think of anything."

"Well, I was thinking you could tell him- and my father can go and talk to him about it- that my family is going on vacation for a couple weeks somewhere and want to take you with us. My dad can be pretty persuasive."

"That might work. Are we going to stay at your house?"

"No. We're going away, just you and me. But your father won't know that. The farther away you are the harder it is for the echoling to reach you. My dad is going to stay here and try to work on figuring this out while I work on keeping you safe."

Though I found the idea of going off alone with Caleb extremely appealing, I was worried too.

"Where are we going?"

"Let me worry about that."

"You don't know or you won't tell me?"

"It's best if you don't know, just in case something happens until we can leave."

"Ah," I said understanding. He didn't want Marcus or his uncle to get our location out of my dreams and follow us there. "Well, I need to figure out my work stuff before we go."

I snuggled closer and he grunted.

"You're still really hot, Maggie."

"Thanks."

He laughed and I smiled because that's what I had wanted.

"Yeah, you're hot but you're also hot. Maybe I should get Gran or someone to get you something for it."

I grabbed him around his stomach.

"Please, don't go."