Chapter 26

I wasn't going to wait for what Saul had to say, I got up and ran to the door. Whatever had been shielding it was gone now and I made it to the road before two hands grabbed my waist, pulling me back.
"Stay here!" Victor growled in my ear.
"Let go of me!"
"I can't."
"You won't!" I screamed at him. "Let go of me now! I have to look for Will."
"Linda!" He tried to get through to me and I felt him pounding at my shield again, I could vaguely make out that he was trying to persuade me with his gift.
I had never been so mad at anyone in my life – ever.
"LET! GO!" I screeched, I was frantic.
To my surprise he did. He let go of me. But within seconds, before I could even move, his hands were replaced by Uriel's.
I could feel the eyes of every single Benedict and their soulfinders on me as he held me close to him, no intention of letting go. My fighting power left my body as I slumped into his arms, now holding onto him.
"I have to find Will." I whispered to him.
"I know, we will." I wasn't convinced and he knew it. "We will!" He told me again, with more fire this time. "But we need a plan first."
My body did not agree with him. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to go anywhere with all of them around me I gave up though. For now. Uriel brought me back to the church. As we walked past him, Zed whispered something in my ear.
"You can't fool me, change your plans." I winced at his words.

Crystal was sitting with her head between her legs, Xavier bending over her.
"It's nothing, Xav," She tried to wave him off, "I'm just nauseous from all the telepathy."
He ignored her and checked her body all over, from her legs to her belly, to her chest and finally her head. She sighed and leaned into him as he took away her nausea with his healing gift.
It was no surprise to me that Victor took the lead.
"What do we know?"
Just like when they all had tried to read me, everyone took turns talking. Zed was the one who started it off.
"I saw Linda being taken so I warned Will to keep her away from the door."
"That decision caused me to see Will being taken." Karla added.
"They had a massive shield up. I couldn't get any telepathy through to Will."
"No one of us could get anything past the door, dad." Trace said.
"But who took him? And why?"

Before I could explain anything about Amanda, Robyn spoke up.
"The girl taking him was Linda's cousin."
Half of the people looked at me, the other half looked at her, all questioning looks on their faces.
"What?" I managed to croak out.
"I solved the puzzle. When everyone read you the first time, Uriel saw a woman in your past, right?"
I nodded. "My aunt."
"Yes. Well, that girl we saw is your aunts daughter."
"How do you know?"
She shrugged, "It's a part of the puzzle, it was the missing piece."
"So can you tell us what they want?" Saul asked her.
"Apart from the fact that they want Linda I don't know. Since I don't know anything about their motives, that's not a puzzle I can solve."

These were all things I wasn't interested in right now, I just wanted Will back. Now that he was gone I felt a hole inside of me, something I never knew was there, but his presence had filled it up.
"Is he still in danger?"
"No," Saul answered me, "He isn't in immediate danger. I mean, it's not like he's safe. But I don't think we should worry right now."
"Okay, so let's go."
"Go? You don't even know where he is!" Uriel exclaimed.
"I don't care, I can't just sit here, I need to do something."
"Will would be the first to tell you this:" Zed started, "You need a plan before you just run off. We will find him, we always do."
"Believe me," Xav said, as he put a hand on my back.
He didn't finish what he was going to say but lowered his hand, his breath a hiss.
"You should have told me." he scolded.
Only now that he said it I felt the pain searing through my lower back. The pain quickly subsided by his healing touch and Xav went over to the others, checking all of them over as well.

Karla and Saul managed to talk me into going back to their house. Karla took me in her car as Saul stayed behind to make sure all the guests were seen off.
The others got there sooner than we did though, Yves was already in the kitchen fixing something to eat for everyone. Phoenix was standing next to him, her face showing that she was not about to leave her soulfinder's side anytime soon.
Xav and Crystal standing next to me arguing took my mind away from Will for a second. "Take a rest upstairs, Cupcake."
"Stop it, Xav, I'm fine."
"Crystal..." He started pleading.
"Xavier!" I had never seen her look this mad at him. "Stop treating me as if I'm made of sugar, I might be needed here later on, I'm staying."
Karla's eyes became blank for a minute and then a smile formed on her lips. How could she be smiling right now?
"You won't be able to keep that to yourselves for very much longer Xavier Benedict." She said it softly as she breezed past us.
Xav gave me a small grin as Crystal cursed so softly that I almost didn't hear it.
"Living room everyone!" Victor called out. I was the first one moving.

I anxiously waited for everyone to take a seat, not even bothering to sit down myself. Uriel looked at me, as did Phee, but neither of them approached me. I felt horrible for feeling the way I did, but seeing all these couples together made me jealous, I wanted my soulfinder back. Finally I had truly and totally embraced my being a savant.
"I already made some phone calls, I can have a team here tomorrow." Victor said.
That was taking too long!
"We've dealt with situations like this before, Linda," He said after a good look at my face. "I'm sorry, getting a team here just takes time." He turned his attention to everyone else again. "Let's get as much information as possible before then." He almost said it cheerily, as if he was expecting to have a good time at getting Will back.
Were we going to do a circle again?
Robyn summed up the facts.
"Will was taken by Amanda, who is Linda's niece. We don't know where he is or what they want from him. But they still want Linda."
Well, that made me feel better, we had nothing to go on.
"I can find him." Crystal said. "I can follow Linda's connection to him."
It was the first bit of good news I had heard since leaving the church.
Victor nodded and explained in general.
"When the girls were kidnapped in Venice, Crystal used her soulseeker gift to follow the soulfinder bond between Diamond and Trace and she found the girls much faster than we could have."
So this was only news to Sanura and Robyn.
"We don't need a full circle for that," he continued, "Let's just decide what to do when we find him and Crystal can look for him after that."
What? No! I wanted Crystal to look for him now! I knew I wouldn't get my way with the fully in mode FBI agent Victor though.

"Okay. I think we should wait for the team and then we go in tomorrow to get Will back. The girls will stay here.."
"What?!" I exclaimed.
"No way!" Crystal backed me up.
"We can help!" Phoenix added.
"Oh no, no, no, no, Cupcake. You're not going anywhere."
Crystal shook his hand from her shoulder.
"He's my family too, Xav."
"Yeah, well, I've got my own little family to protect." He simply stated, outing the secret of her pregnancy.
Crystal growled as congratulations came from different sides of the room.
I was watching Yves and Phee though,flashes going back and forth between them. They were clearly having a telepathic conversation, looking mad at each other. Yves was controlling a fire ball with his hand, twirling it round and round. Phoenix left the room and smashed the door behind her, leaving everyone looking startled.
"Go, Yves." Saul told him.
Since no one was talking now he took the lead.
"Let's worry and talk about who comes later. First we'll have to see if Crystal can find him and then maybe we'll have some more insight to who we need to get him out."
My phone buzzed and I took it from my purse, foolishly hoping that Will had reached me. It was a message from my father.

-Don't come ho-