XIV. Wild Horses
I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken, tears must be cried
Let's do some living after we die
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day
-Rolling Stones
There were a few moments filled with a silence so thick they could have suffocated. Rowan's face was flushed with indignation; Reid's was unrepentant, angry. Caleb and Hunter shared his feelings but were more subtle about it.
"Give me my phone," Rowan said quietly, holding out her hand.
"No." His blue eyes did not waver, neither did his resolve. "He's screwing with us. He found out his girlfriend talked to you and now he's pissed and wants to hurt you."
Rowan shook her head. "No. Ginger's in danger. I have to help her."
"You don't have to do anything," Reid shot back.
She felt her calm ready to combust. It was panic, an urgency to get the full story from Chase so Ginger could be helped. "Reid…please. If he wanted to get back at me he would have, not with you guys around. Do you know how desperate he must be to have called?" Rowan wanted to turn to Caleb or Hunter for back up, but something in her could not bring herself to pit Reid against one or both of them.
"I don't care why he called." Reid wasn't budging on this. He wouldn't allow himself to feel one iota of compassion for Chase. "If something did happen to Ginger, it's his own damned fault and he can deal with it."
"He didn't ask for something bad to happen to her!" She sighed, feeling lightheaded.
"Row, sit down," Caleb spoke for the first time, gently. Rowan did, plopping back on the couch because her legs could hardly hold her up anymore.
"And you want to help him," the blond stated. "You just got out of the hospital."
"I don't want to help him. I want to help Ginger. Ginger, who is a good person and does not deserve the ugly things that are most likely happening to her right now."
"She could have run away," Hunter postulated calmly.
Her head hung, shaking her head in disagreement. "No, something's happened to her. I can feel it." Her eyes pleaded with Reid. "Just… Just let me talk to him." Reid began shaking his own head; Rowan hurried on, "He said she was taken yesterday. Anything could have happened to her."
"Don't ask me this, Rowan."
"For Ginger!" she cried, a hot tear trailing down her cheek.
"I don't gi-" Reid stopped. He was about to say that he didn't give a damn about what happened to Ginger, he wouldn't be haunted if something happened to her. But Rowan would; and saying he didn't care would be like saying he didn't care that Rowan did. She would be haunted if Ginger was hurt, and that Reid cared about. Rowan, the woman he loved, had enough heartache on her shoulders.
"Reid?" Rowan said his name with a hitch in her voice.
He glanced at Caleb, then Hunter. It was clear that they were with him in what he decided. They weren't trying to band against Rowan, but just trying to do what was best. Reid groaned in protest, sat down, ran his hand down his face.
"We do this my way," he finally said. "All right?"
Rowan nodded.
xxxx
The ride to Chase's apartment was quiet. Reid behind the wheel, Rowan in the passenger seat, Caleb and Hunter in the back. Rowan was grudgingly given her phone back to reconnect with the wayward Son. He gave her his address; Rowan told him that Caleb, Hunter, and Reid had to come with her. Chase voiced no objections. Rowan should have been angry at Reid for his behavior, taking away her choices; but she had to step back and try to see it from his point of view. Yet again, his wife was sticking her neck out for a virtual stranger, a stranger who was connected to a guy who'd try to kill them and had been nothing but a major pain in the ass. To top it off, she had just come out of the hospital with a low-grade fever; the last thing she needed was to be on a rescue mission, a dangerous one, in weather that was slowly decreasing.
"Yeah, all right," Caleb was saying. He hung up his cell phone. "Tyler and Pogue are on their way to the house." They were going to look after the animals. Usually the ferret, cat, and dog were just fine being left alone, but not so soon after their humans departed in a tense environment.
There wasn't much more to say beyond that. Caleb had mixed feelings about this meeting. He didn't care for Chase, but he couldn't imagine just leaving an innocent girl who'd done no one any harm to evil. And it meant so much to his sister.
Because of the weather it took about forty-five minutes to get to Chase's place. Reid parked in the lot, cut the engine. Rowan got out, looking around for Chase.
"Hey," he spoke from the shadows.
She turned. God, he looked miserable. She felt three larger bodies surround her, Reid took her hand.
"Can I see where she was taken?" Rowan asked. "I might pick something up."
Chase wasn't for questioning. He didn't even have any more resentment left to give the three guys a sneer, or a look of resentment. Things had gotten him beyond that. This was about Ginger, and any old woes would not help her. So, he led them to his and Ginger's apartment. The place was still wrecked.
Immediately, Rowan felt the energies collecting into faint images, sounds in her head. Caleb, Hunter and Reid blocked her from Chase as she slowly canvassed the apartment, gathering the story that was Ginger's abduction. When she entered the bedroom, she felt like she was being assaulted.
"The Loons," she whispered.
"Row?" Reid said.
She turned, facing them with wide eyes, everything clear. "Was someone following Ginger, Chase?"
He blinked. "I think so. She never said. But I saw two figures across the apartment building. Didn't think anything of it at the time."
"They took her," Rowan said. "I can see them. They're taking her to…someone."
"Libero?" Chase said.
"What?" Reid spoke.
"Demons who kill anyone who knows about them to keep their existence a secret," she informed. To Chase, "Why would a Libero want Ginger?"
Hesitantly, he gave them a rundown of Ginger's history with the Libero. "She survived."
Rowan nodded. "And five years later, he's back to finish."
"But he wants her to suffer for embarrassing him first," Hunter said. "Those guys don't mess around."
"Now what?" Chase demanded, getting fidgety.
"We follow the trail," she replied. "I'll track." Rowan was focused now, ready to use her tracking to find Ginger.
In the Jeep, Caleb and Hunter squished Chase between them.
"Seat belts," Rowan reminded them. Then she took a breath, let the invisible strand that only she could see unravel. "All right."
From the back seat, Chase just watched. He was entrusting these people with Ginger's life; so far Rowan had gotten more in twenty minutes than he had in one day. So, for his love, for Ginger, he would follow along. Between bouts of silence Rowan gave directions, (right, left, turn here, turn there) tracing the invisible GPS. His heart tugged painfully when Reid reached over and took Rowan's hand in his; so open with his affection, unabashed in his love.
I promise I can do that, Ginger, he swore solemnly to himself. I've wanted to, but I couldn't.
Naturally inquisitive, Hunter asked Chase, volume low, "Why would a Libero wait five years?"
Chase sighed, not wanting to talk. "Maxwell tipped someone off."
A hitch warbled in the vehicle. Rowan was only half-listening.
"Maybe if you hadn't whored around with him we wouldn't be here," Reid mumbled. Rowan squeezed his hand, reprimanding.
A flash of anger cursed through Chase. Whatever his instincts wanted to do was held back by Caleb and Hunter gripping either of his shoulders.
"Cool it," Caleb said sternly.
Chase breathed heavily. "Whatever."
"Maxwell's real name was Nicholas Holden," Hunter explained. "He worked at a mental hospital in Worcester." He easily picked up Chase's body language, it tensed. It made him feel good that his training was making him so efficient at this stuff. "Where was Ginger these past five years?"
Chase turned glacier-cold eyes on Hunter. "A little over a year ago someone set a fire in the…hospital she was staying at. She walked out."
"Nicholas…Maxwell, set that fire, you know," Hunter said, unphased by Chase's glare. "He must have recognized your girl."
Chase put his head in his hands.
Momentarily taking her eyes from the road, she turned in her seat. "Chase." A moment passed before he looked up. She met his stare unflinchingly. "Do you love Ginger?"
Caleb looked at him. Hunter looked at him. Reid did, too, just for a beat, before putting his eyes back on the road.
"Yes," he finally said. "She's my best friend."
Rowan smiled softly at him. "When this is over, after we get Ginger back, you and I are going to have a very long talk. Keeper to Son. Understand?"
Hunter didn't appreciate Chase's subsequent silence. Never mind the fact that it was brought on by Chase's surprise at Rowan's authoritarian tone. Hunter nudged him with his elbow. "Answer her."
Chase shot a dirty look at him before giving Rowan his attention. "Yeah."
"Okay." Rowan turned back around. Then, as an afterthought, "A lot of things you have to say to Ginger, too."
They had been driving for over a half hour. Rowan had a sneaking suspicion where this was leading. Freshman year at Spenser she'd done a report on derelict asylums in Massachusetts. "Foxboro State Hospital. That's it. We're close. It's an abandoned mental hospital," she said before they could ask. "Reid, I never thought I'd say this but…speed up a little."
xxxx
It was derelict, that was true. Spooky. A building virtually forgotten. They stopped several yards from the building, cloaked in obscurity.
"She's in there," Chase stated.
"We don't know that," Caleb said.
When Chase started walking anyway, Rowan hurried after him. "Wait! You don't know what might be in there."
"Is there any special way you have to kill a Loon or Libero?" Chase questioned.
"No…"
He spun on his heel, "Then I'm going."
"What are you going to do, search the entire building?" Hunter asked.
This stopped Chase. His eyes washed over the entire area, the crumbling, graffiti walls, broken windows. No, he didn't have time to search the entire place.
"I'll track her," Rowan said.
"Hold up!" Reid protested. "Rowan."
"I remember our deal," she said.
Their deal had been that she was not to invoke her Power because it took so much out of her. She was to avoid any physical or magical confrontation of any kind. "Okay." He took her hand again, walked to the building. They were careful going up the steps, stepping into the building.
It was cold, the halls stygian trails that led to abandoned rooms. Broken furniture, crumbled plaster, trash littered the floors. Rowan followed the invisible trail again. Their shoes made soft taps on the old tiles.
"They took her to see the lightning," a little girl's voice said.
Rowan gasped sharply, spun around. A ghost, no taller than four and a half feet stood close by. She wore a hospital gown, the right side of her face was severely burned, as was her right arm. Rowan knew that she did not sustain those burns in the hospital, but were part of the reason why she had been admitted.
"The lightning?"
"Ghost," Reid mouthed to Caleb and Hunter, as if they didn't know.
"You know," the little girl went on. "Bzzt!" Her body jerked in a parody of electrocution, then she giggled. "She's still screaming. But she ran out of tears a long time ago."
"Show us. Please?" Rowan asked.
The girl shrugged affably, as if to say she didn't have anything better to do. The ghost was quick, not subject to any laws of gravity. By the time they got to the flight of steps that led downstairs, Rowan was light headed and dizzy. It was a bit of overexertion on her part so soon after getting out of the hospital…and coming to this one.
"Down there," the ghost said.
"How many are there?"
The little girl held up three fingers.
"How many?" Caleb said his sister.
"Three."
"We'll go down with you," Caleb told Chase.
"You don't expect me to be merciful, do you?" Chase retorted.
"Nah," Hunter replied. "We'll kill 'em."
Downstairs, someone screamed.
"Ginger!" Chase yelled.
"Stay here," Reid told Rowan.
The guys descended, on Chase's heels. Rowan was left alone with the ghost. Tired, she slid down and sat against the wall. "What's your name?" Rowan questioned.
xxxx
"You caused me great embarrassment by getting away," the Libero said to Ginger.
She was still strapped to the gurney, eyes unfocused. Her mind had been tortured beyond coherency. The Loons made her relive her worst nightmares, over and over. They taunted her with hope before cruelly yanking it away. How many times she'd imagined Chase next to her, his voice, before his image disappeared.
A flash of red appeared and a vicious scythe appeared in his hands. He stood above her, ready to decapitate her right there. But he did not get the chance. A blast rendered him unbalanced as he crashed into the wall.
The Loons began to call. This was beyond their ken.
The three warlocks and telekinetic slapped their hands over their ears.
"Shut them up!" Reid said.
Hunter catapulted them up and across into the wall so fast that their skulls cracked on impact.
The Libero was recovering, he rose with his scythe, ready to strike, but Chase was on him. The scythe clattered to the ground. His fists connected with the Libero's face repeatedly, drawing blood. Rage so deep it was black oozed out of Chase's pores. Finally, his victim's eyes rolled up in the back of his head.
Caleb undid the straps that held Ginger. This was the first time seeing her up close. He wasn't even sure she was in there. The desolation on her face reminded him of what Rowan looked like when she had a panic attack, or just waking from a nightmare.
"Gin?" Chase's voice was so gentle, riddled with worry, love, that it took the other three by surprise. He looked down at her. Dried tears cracked her face, her eyes stared straight up. "Ginger, it's Chase."
Her lips moved. It took several moments for her eyes to focus on him. And when they did, she screamed. Screamed so loud and hard that Chase startled. Ginger jerked, fell off the gurney. She was still yelling, crazed, traumatized. The blood on the walls and floor didn't help, especially when she slipped in it. Ginger's shaky hands appeared in front of her face before a piercing wail emitted from her throat.
Chase hurried to her, holding her by her wrists. She fought him violently.
"No! No!" she pleaded. "No more!"
"Shh, Ginger, it's me. It's Chase. You're okay now."
"It's…never okay," she cried. "It's never…okay."
"I'm here. And the Libero is dead," he assured her.
"No." Her face crumpled in agony. "I lost my best friend. I betrayed him."
"She thinks you're an illusion," Rowan said. "You have to convince her you're not, or she'll be lost in her head."
"I told you to stay upstairs," Reid frowned.
"I had to tell him that," she replied quietly. Her face was pallid, troubled, breathing raspy. She let Reid take her up.
"Ginger," Chase crooned. "Please, look at me."
"Oh, kill me," she sobbed. "He hates me."
"I don't hate you. Look at me. Please!"
Ginger did. She didn't want to believe another illusion. Was this Chase? He was holding her, she could feel his warm hands cupping her face. His blue eyes were so close to hers. She could feel his breath against her skin. Ginger reached out, tentatively. Her fingers, very lightly, touched his cheek.
"I'm sorry…"
"No, you didn't do anything wrong."
"You shouldn't have come. I don't deserve it."
"Stop it!" Chase commanded. "Stop! Listen to me." He brushed her hair back, hands on either side of her face. "I am sorry. Are you listening?"
Pause. Then Ginger nodded.
"I know you did what you did because you care about me. And I was too stupid, and stubborn to see it. You're so good, Gin." He had to fight to keep his voice from breaking. "So good…and you've been nothing but true to me."
"I'm not a good…friend."
"You are." His forehead fell against hers, eyes locked. "You are a good friend. You're my best friend. Hear me? You are my best friend, Ginger." A hot tear coursed down his cheek. "I've done you so much wrong. So much. And… I don't know if I can make it right, but I swear I'll spend the rest of my life trying." Chase's eyes squeezed shut, opened. "I love you. I love you more than anything."
Her lip quivered. "You… You do?"
"Yeah. And all those things we said we'd do? I can't do them without you." He swallowed a lump in his throat. "I'm not much of anything without you. I never was."
Ginger fell against him, sobbing. Chase held her tight, his tears were silent. He didn't know how long he sat there holding her when Caleb gently said that they should go. Chase put his coat on Ginger and carried her.
"It's snowing," she said with wonder when they got outside. Her voice was hoarse from screaming.
"Yeah," Chase smiled at her.
In the Jeep, Chase settled her on his lap. Hunter got the spare blanket from Rowan's emergency supplies and handed it to Chase. From the passenger seat, Rowan turned to look at Ginger and Chase. He was speaking to her softly, her head tucked in the crook of his neck.
"Ready?" Reid queried.
They were. He started the car and headed back the way they'd come. It was silent, not much to say. Caleb texted Pogue and told him they were good, Ginger was safe. Then he texted Judy to tell her that he loved her. When things like this happened it was only natural for love of another to stir wildly, your body crying out for theirs, wanting to reaffirm your love for them.
Sitting next to Chase, Hunter asked quietly so Ginger wouldn't hear, "Hospital?"
He paused. "Gin?" he whispered. "Tell me, are you hurt anywhere? Injured?"
"He hurt me in my head," she replied, tired.
Chase shook his head at Hunter, grateful that the guy had been discreet. He had a feeling the word 'hospital' would set Ginger off.
"Where're we going, Chase?"
"We're going home, Ginger." He stroked her hair, almost disbelieving that he'd gotten a second chance and she was in his arms. "We're going home."
I really shouldn't have updated so soon, but since I had the chapter finished...
Just for that no update for two weeks. :oP... jk
Thanks for reading, as always. :)