Fated

Chapter 14

As I come to, I hear two men arguing. One man, with a rough, deep voice is accusing the other of cheating at a card game. My head aching and my sight blurry, I squint my eyes trying to focus in the dim light. The smell of mildew fills my nostrils. As my vision begins to sharpen I see two men sitting at a table playing cards. The tall man jumps up from his seat.

"Don't tell me you didn't cheat, you dirty, lying, scumbag." The tall man grabs hold of the other, holding him with both hands wrapped tightly around his neck.

"I won fair," the shorter man croaks out against a restricted windpipe.

I'm standing with my back pressed up against a pole. Rope wrapping me tightly to the pole, my arms bound at my sides. I wiggle trying to break free but it's of no use. I'm tied tight. "Where am I?" I scream at the arguing men. They both turn their heads to look at me. The taller man releases the other man's neck.

"Well, it looks like the little bird has finally woke up," the shorter man says as he stands and walks toward me. The other man begins clearing all the money off of the poker table and stuffing it in his jean's pockets. I stare the shorter man down as he nears me. He runs a dirty palm down the side of my face.

"What do you want with me?" I ask, my voice shaky and low.

"Me, deary? I don't want nothing with you, but my boss. He's going to be really happy to see you. You are a treasure. You made my sigil shine bright when they first brought you in," he holds up his finger with the tattoo. "And to think you just walked right in here to us. We didn't even have to search for you. You've been the easiest one we've caught yet.

How am I going to get out of this? I've really done it this time. I'm in trouble and I told no one where I was going. What was I thinking?

"What does your boss want with me?"

He grabs my face in his strong hand, pressing my cheeks together in a rough, tight grip. he leans in close to my face. His hot breath washes over me smells of smoke and tuna.

"That's enough of your questions. You'll be quiet now if you know what's good for you," he warns and then releases my face. His eyes wander from my eyes down along my neck to my breasts. I look down and see my shirt is torn almost completely off, from the window hinge. Only the first few inches at the collar are still together. The rest of my shirt is hanging free exposing my bra and stomach. Fear, causing my rapid breathing, is forcing my breasts to heave up and down dramatically. The biker seems transfixed upon them.

He looks into my eyes once again, evil written on his face. He grabs the two halves of my shirt and yanks hard in opposite directions. The remaining fibers give way leaving my shirt in ripped into two halves. He pulls the torn shirt down my arms to my elbows and leaves it hang across my back, his eyes never leaving my breasts. I try again to fight my binding, my arms pulling hard against my ropes. He watches my breasts bounce as I struggle. When I finally give up fighting, he reaches towards me.

"Don't touch me!" I scream.

"Hey! Don't mess with her, Charlie. The boss will have your head," the tall man orders as he walks toward us. He grabs Charlie by the arm and pulls him away from me. "I don't want to see you touch her again. You got it?" He pokes Charlie in the chest with a thick finger.

Charlie mumbles something and stomps up the stairs and out the door at the top. The taller man follows. I look around at my surroundings. It's a small room with cement brick walls and a dirty cement floor. The walls are stained with water marks and mildew. The table the men were playing cards at is a small card table with two metal chairs. Cases of beer are stacked in one corner, kegs in another. This must be the basement to the bar.

I hear the door open again and footsteps coming down the stairs. A new man wearing a leather jacket and jeans, similar to the other two men, walks toward me. He stops walking, takes a cigar out of his jacket pocket and places it in his mouth. He removes a small wooden box from his other jacket pocket and pulls out a wooden match with a green head and strikes it against the box's strip. It reminds me, I still have a matchstick in my pocket. Maybe that can help get me out of this mess. His matchstick catches fire and he lights his cigar, inhaling as he continues to walk up to me. I think this is the man I saw in my vision.

He takes his cigar out of his mouth and holds it in his hand. His other hand he holds out in front of him. His tattoo is glowing deep blue. He stares at it for a few seconds until the glow fades and then puts his hand back down again.

"You must have some power. I've never seen it glow this deep before," he says.

"What am I doing here? What do you want with me and what does your glowing tattoo have to do with me?"

He takes his time taking another drag on his cigar, then blows the smoke in my face. "We all have magicked tattoos that tell us when certain humans are near us. The type we are looking for. I already know you have powers because of my tat. Tell me, what powers do you have?"

I shake my head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

His eyes narrow as he leans in close to me. "Don't lie to me. You're at the least psychic, and by the way my tat glowed, I say you have much more power than just being psychic. Now tell me or I will make you tell me." He holds his lit cigar up close to my face. The heat threatening to burn into my cheek.

"I'm psychic. I have visions. That's all," I say.

"When did the visions start."

"Just recently."

He moves the cigar away from my face. "So your powers are just kicking in. That's why you only noticed visions so far."

"Can you please tell me what you are going to do with me?" I beg.

He looks at me for a second. "That's not up to me, sweetheart. My gang works for... others. We find people like you for them."

"You mean vampires," I say. He eyes widen in surprise.

"Yes. My gang and I collect special humans for vampires. Unfortunately for you, you happen to be one of those humans."

The door at the top of the stairs opens and a voice booms down. "Boss. We've got a situation here."

The man walks away, up the stairs and closes the door behind him. I begin to struggle fiercely. I press my arms against the rope trying to break free, the rope digging into my flesh. It is too strong. I press my right arm and hand into my body as much as I can to loosen the rope just enough to slide my hand up a few inches and slide my fingers inside my jean's pocket. I pull out the wooden matchstick and press my fingertip against the match head and run it down the rough pole. Nothing happens. I try it again, pressing it more securely against the pole this time and it lights.

I bring the lit matchstick around to the front of my ropes and hold it up against the lowest rope. It catches fire easily. It's not burning me yet because I'm lighting the rope that's between my body and arm and not resting on any part of my body. I light the second rope with the matchstick just before it dies out and I drop the burnt matchstick to the floor. The fire burning on the second rope catches the third piece of rope on fire just as the bottom rope burns away. Once the second and third pieces burn away I'm able to move enough to pull on the other ropes and slowly loosen them. I drop the ropes to the floor. My shirt also falls to the floor but I leave it because it's useless to me now.

I search the basement for windows or other doors. There is nothing there. There is no way out but up the stairs. I slowly and quietly walk up the stairs, taking one at a time to avoid creaks. I press my ear against the door and can hear the men talking. I can't get out this way. I quietly walk back down the stairs and look around.

I'm beginning to panic. I can't believe I put myself in this situation, but I had no way of knowing the bikers would want to catch me. How would I know they had magick tattoos that helped them find their victims. For the first time in my life, I'm really scared and don't know what to do. I kneel down on the floor and hold my hands to my face. I'm going to die here. Why didn't I tell someone where I was going? Why do I not want to listen to people when they are giving me advice. I always have to think I know best. Why did I not listen to Edward? I begin to sob.

Oh, Edward. What have I done? You're going to be so mad at me for dying. I wish I could just tell him that I love him before I die. I take my hands away from my face. A cloud has appeared, similar to the one that appeared when Edward was touching me and while I was getting visions. I look into the cloud, watching shapes form thinking of Edward. Then, I see his face in the cloud. It looks like he is talking to someone. My beautiful, amazing Edward. I will never get to see your beautiful face again. I see him suddenly stop talking and look around.

"Bella?"

Is that my imagination or did I just hear Edward's voice inside my head calling my name? "Edward," I scream out inside my head.

"Bella. Where are you? What's wrong?" My cloud vision shows Edward looking around.

"Edward, you can hear me?"

"Yes, Bella. What's wrong?"

"I'm in trouble. I'm at The Pine Nut bar in Athens. I found the bikers but they have me in the basement." I see only a flash of fire in my vision before it fades. I stand back up and try to get control over myself. Crying and carrying on isn't going to get me out of this. I walk around the basement looking for anything I can use as a weapon and find an old pipe leaning against the crumbling, cement wall. I grab it and stand along the wall near the stairs, waiting quietly.

When I hear the door open, my hands tense against the bar, holding it tight. I hear footsteps coming down the stairs. When I hear shoes hit the cement floor I jump out swinging as hard as I can. I smash the biker directly in the face, knocking him to the floor and crushing his cigar against his face. I jump on top of him and beat him upon his head once more with the pipe. He's dazed and shaking his head. I stand over him, pipe in hand, daring him to try to get up. He passes out. I grab his legs and drag him to the wall under the stairs, hiding him from anyone coming down the stairs. I hear the door at the top of the stairs open.

"You okay down there, Rob?" I ready myself again to strike. There's a loud thumping sound coming from upstairs. I hear feet scuffling, running. It must be vampires. I'm never going to make it out of here now, but I'm determined to go down fighting. I hear quick creaks on the stairs and ready my weapon to strike.

I see a flash of someone coming toward me, fast. I swing my pipe back for full momentum and swing out at the creature as hard as I can and hit Edward directly in the face as he grabs me and sweeps me up into his arms. The pipe falls to the floor and he kisses me deeply as I wrap my arms around his neck. He sets me on my feet and holds me tight. One hand around my back, the other pressing my head against his chest. He's trembling.

"Bella, I was so scared. If anything happened to you..." he tells me in a soft, sincere voice.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I..."

"Shhh. Don't think about it now. I'm just so happy you're okay."

The man on the floor has come to and is mumbling as he attempts to stand up.

Edward releases my head and pulls back far enough to look at me. They didn't hurt you did they..."

Edward stops talking abruptly when he notices my missing shirt. His jaw tenses, his teeth gritting together. His body begins to burn with the ember fire deep within his skin. I let go of him as the heat gets too much to bear. He looks around the room and spots the biker, now standing. He doesn't say a word as he removes his shirt and holds it up over my head. I raise my arms and allow him to pull it on me, his eyes not moving from the man. The way he's acting scares me. Like a lion about to attack its prey. Smoke rises from his body as he walks toward the biker.

"Edward. My shirt was torn when I climbed through a window. He didn't touch me," I tell him.

He stops walking and turns to look back at me. His facial features relax and he sighs. He rushes back to me so fast I don't see him move. He has his arms wrapped around me.

"You're not hurt? He didn't touch you?" I shake my head no. He sighs with relief and gently places his hand on the back of my head and kisses my forehead lovingly.

"Can you walk? We need to take this guy with us to get some answers about this vampire coven."

"Yes. I can walk."

Edward picks up the biker and throws him over his shoulder. The biker is still too out of it to know what is going on and doesn't fight. Edward starts walking toward the stairs and stops to turn back and look at me.

"You did this to him, Bella?"

I feel my face redden slightly as I nod my head. "Yup."

Edward smiles and leads the way up the stairs. When we get upstairs to the pub, there are two other men lying dead on the floor and one Alice has just killed. She races over to us.

"Are you okay, Bella?"

"Yes, Alice. I'm fine. They didn't hurt me. Thank you for coming so quick." I look at Edward. "Thank both of you."

"I'm glad you are okay." Alice smiles warmly as she hugs me. Her smile can light up a room. Edward sets the biker down on his feet.

"I have a confession I have to make to both of you," Alice says glumly. We both look at her. "I left the matchstick on your kitchen counter on purpose, Bella. I thought maybe you would keep trying to get visions. The practice will help increase your abilities. I knew you were upset because you couldn't come with us so I thought that would make you happy. I never guessed you would come here alone. I should have tried to see visions to make sure nothing bad would happen to you. I'm sorry. This is all my fault."

"No, Alice. It's not your fault at all. It's mine," I say.

"Bella is right, Alice. This is Bella's fault for not using common sense or listening to me." Edward's voice is flat and serious and cuts right through me. I lower my head, refusing to meet his eyes. "But we can discuss this later after we get out of here. Alice, can you take this biker back to your place so I can get Bella home? We need him to tell us where the vampire coven is. Once I drop Bella off at home I will come over," Edward says.

"No problem, Edward. I'll take him to my house and interrogate him," Alice says.

"You may want to find out about his tattoo also. It lit up when he was near me and he said it's magicked to let him know when he is in the presence of psychic humans."

"Really? I will make sure to find out about that also," Alice grabs the man and disappears out the door him.

Edward grabs me up in his arms and walks outside with me. He unfolds his fire-wings and we lift off into the air.

When we get to my place, Edward discreetly lands in my back yard and places me on my feet. He moves so fast no one can see us flying or landing.

"Edward, I have nothing I can say to excuse my behavior. I've been reckless and immature..."

"And untrustworthy," Edward says.

"Yes. And untrustworthy. Can you possibly forgive me?"

"I forgive you, Bella, but I don't think I can trust you. Not for a long time." I'm fighting back tears, but I know I deserve that.

"I wouldn't trust me either right now. I'm sorry I caused all this. If it helps, I have learned my lesson. I thought I was going to die today and the only thing I could think of is how I let you down. I'm going to earn back your trust one day and until then I will just have to keep showing you that you can trust me by making the right decisions from now on."

"That's good, Bella, but I don't think I can rely on your promises. It's just not good enough."

"So then what do you want to do?" Oh my God, I hope he isn't going to break up with me. Please don't let him break up with me.

"There is only one way I can trust you while I'm off hunting down cases..." My heart starts sinking as I await his answer.

"I guess I'm just going to have to bring you with me from now on."

"Oh, Edward!" I lean in closer and kiss him deeply. After a couple minutes Edward pulls his head back and grabs my chin with his forefinger and thumb. He tilts my head up to look into my eyes.

"This doesn't mean I'm not furious with you. I'm fighting the urge right now to take you inside and give you the fastest spanking anyone has ever had!" I see a flame flicker in his eyes for a split second, letting me know he's not bluffing, and I swallow hard. Then his eyes soften.

"Come on. Let's take you inside to change your shirt so you can give me mine back and then let's drive to Alice's. You may as well join me while I interrogate that biker. Maybe you can get some visions of where the vampires are."

A/N: Many thanks again to all of you for leaving me such wonderful reviews.