A/N: I had trouble with this chapter. I hit a huge writing block in the middle of writing it. Hopefully that won't happen again.

She was trapped inside a car with a bunch of witches.

Warlocks. Wizards. Fairies.

What exactly were they?

To say that the car ride—to God-knows-where-they're-taking-her—was awkward was simply a huge understatement. The word 'awkward' doesn't' even the define the situation she's put herself in. What possessed her to step out of the shadows, to identify herself to them all, and then to idiotically ask what 'using' had meant? Why couldn't she have minded her own business and walked away? She would have been back in her dorm by now, depending on how long her intended confrontation with Reid was going to be. She would have been warmly tucked under her blanket, propped up with pillows, and reading whatever it was she could find.

Instead, she was here, sandwiched between the two eldest Sons, her gold eyes blinking at the interior of Tyler's shiny hummer. As soon as she asked them what was using, she was met with four identically horrified faces. They stared at her as if she was a dead corpse gone to life. She felt extremely odd under their stares of scrutiny. She considered turning her back on them, to forget all that had happened, but two pairs of arms latched onto her elbows, and they were pulling her to the hummer.

Between the Sons, Pogue and Caleb had tried their hardest not to stare openly at Maddie. She in return, feeling their gazes upon her, leaned back against the seat, clasped her hands together, and fiddled with her thumbs. "Can you tell me where we're going?" she stared back at the boys, meeting their gazes.

Pogue looked away in abash, but Caleb answered for her. "The Colony House."

"Where's that?"

"You'll see."

With that said, Caleb abruptly turned away from her, his eyes trained at the window shield, looking out into the blackness of the night. They were all trying hard not to look at her, so they looked out the window instead. All except for Reid, who was driving the car. His blue eyes had been straightforwardly staring at her the entire time. At one point, she met his glance through the rearview mirror, their eyes connecting silently. As quick as that moment had come, it soon left.

An imaginary dread filled the pit of her stomach, the keyword being 'imaginary'. What if they were taking her far away from Ipswich so that they could be rid of her? For all she knew, they could be driving her towards her death. They were going to kill her. These kinds of things happened all the time. The scenario starts as person A finds out a secret of person B, and soon, person A regrets ever finding about that at all. Person A mysteriously ends up dead and person B walks away with a victorious smile that is filled with fulfilled revenge.

A second scenario would be where person A meets person B, and person A has a weird feeling about person B. They form a friendship and person A is grateful for that. Person A then suddenly realizes that something is very odd about person B, and person A starts snooping around. Person A finds out who person B really is, only to also realize that person A has fallen in love with person B. Somehow and somewhere, person A is in trouble and it is up to person B to save person A by using supernatural abilities (depending on what person B is) and saves person A.

The third scenario, and one that Maddie had thought was completely and irrelevantly off but she decided to think about it anyway, is similar to the second scenario. Person A finds out about person B and they unexpectedly fall in love with each other and all that. Person A is in danger and person B tries to come to the rescue, but is too late. Person A dies for the love they have for each other, only to prove the death in vain, because person B follows person A to death.

Maddie highly doubted that any of these scenarios would happen. Although, she was leaning towards her fourth.

Fourth scenario is the shortest. Person A accidentally walks in on something that persons B, C, D, and E are doing. They abduct person A into a car, drive that person far away from where they were as possible, and the four persons kill person A without further delay.

Oh, jeez.

The hummer finally pulled to a stop in front of a large, barb-wired gate—a wire that resembled the one that kept prisoners in jail. Dead trees loomed across the lawn, creating such an odd contrast, since the grass was still green and alive. It was the only thing that looked alive around the area. The large house behind it was colored in a menacing gray, some paint almost peeling off. It looked like it would have been beautiful once, but time has aged the house. All windows and blinds were shut from the house, probably making it dark inside.

She followed the rest of the boys out when they got out of the car. She honestly didn't know how she felt when they began leading her towards the house. Maddie widened her eyes comically when the sound of a shotgun rang out from above her.

They really were going to kill her.

"It's me, Gorman!" Caleb yelled, his hands covered around his mouth. He smiled apologetically at Maddie. "Sorry about him. He's a bit nearsighted."

Maddie sniffed. "Why would you give a nearsighted man a gun?"

Caleb laughed, shrugging. "No idea."

Not as she expected, they didn't go inside the house. They went around the house, towards the back. Maddie glanced curiously at one of the windows, feeling someone's gaze on her. An old-looking man stood behind the glass of the window, eyeing her with wariness. That must be Gorman. She willed herself to turn away, catching up with the boys. When she approached them, she found Caleb pulling on a handle that was attached to the ground. Seconds later, she realized the handle wasn't attached to the ground, but it was a secret door that led underground.

A spiral of stairs that cascaded into darkness met her eyes. The walls underground were made out of thick stone, and the steps of the stairs led further and further down the underground. Maddie was completely blind all over when the stairs ended. A blanket of black was everywhere. Her blended with the darkness, only for it to disappear as candles started lighting by themselves, one by one.

With the light on, Maddie figured that she was in a cave-like room. Ancient bookcases filled with thousands of transcripts, scrolls, and thickly bound books filled the walls of the place. Four wooden chairs were evenly spaced out from the middle of the room. Engraved on the floor of the center of the room was a large, Pagan Wicca star. With a surge of feeling, a fire was lit, suspended in the air on top of the star. She felt clueless when each of the four boys took their own chair respectively.

Tyler, noticing she was left out, softened his features. "You can sit in my chair if you want to," he offered, just about ready to stand up.

"No, it's alright," she immediately protested. Who was she to take someone else's chair? "I'll just…" she paused, looking around thoughtfully. She glanced at a spacious spot on the floor, near one of the points of the star. "I'll just sit on the floor."

As she moved to that spot, a second from plopping herself down and crossing her legs Indian-style, a hand shot out and pulled on her elbow. Where she had been standing, she was now sitting on something. An arm looped around her, creating a barrier for her as she squirmed in this new place. A deep chuckle in her ear was all she needed to know that she was sitting in Reid's lap.

"Relax, will you?" Reid let out when Maddie hadn't stopped moving.

"I can't," she argued, glaring at him. "Why am I here?" she directed this question to all of the boys.

"You've heard the story of the Five Families, haven't you?" Caleb started, eyes boring into hers.

Maddie stopped squirming in her seat, finally calming against Reid's body. "Well, I've heard bits and bits. All I know is that you guys are descendents of witches or something like that."

"We're not only descendents," Caleb shook his head. "We're like them."

"You mean you're witches?"

"Warlocks," Reid grumbled from behind her.

"Can you show me?" she asked them, quietly demanding the proof.

They didn't hesitate, not like she thought they would. The three younger boys turned to their leader, Caleb, and nodded at him. Caleb, in return, let his eyes glow black like she had seen in the alleyway earlier. He focused on one spot of the bookcase, and she watched in fascination as one large book came floating out from the shelf and into the air, on top of the fire below. The pages of parchment began flipping, searching for the right page. So she really wasn't just imagining things. There really was a floating book in the air, pages turning on its own accord.

They really were magical.

Maddie's eyes drifted from the floating book and back towards Caleb's black eyes. "And you guys always had these powers?"

Caleb nodded. "We get a taste of it at thirteen. We ascend, meaning we fully get our power, at the age of eighteen. When we use our power too much, our body starts to age. It's tempting to us. If we get too addicted, we can't ever stop it," at this, he glanced heatedly at Reid, who snorted in return.

"But shouldn't there be a fifth boy?" she tilted her head to the side inquiringly. "There's only four of you."

"The fifth family was named the Putnams. John Putnam had been easily swayed by the power. He made an excuse with our ancestors that obtaining more power would bring the five families superiority to other families, but they all knew that Putnam was only lusting for the power for himself. He was seized one day and was the last person to be hanged in accusation for being a witch in Salem. That's where the Putnam bloodline ends. After John Putnam was hanged, the four families swore an oath to create a Covenant of Silence."

"Oh," she nodded her head in realization. "Who determines who get the power?"

Pogue spoke up this time. "In every generation of our families, the eldest male always gets the power. And usually, the eldest males are always the first-borns in the families."

"No girls?"

"Nope," Reid replied, grinning slyly at her. "Disappointed?"

Maddie rolled her eyes. "So you've never told anyone about these powers before?" When they shook their heads at her, she couldn't help but think: Don't I feel special? She glanced at Pogue, "Not even Kate?"

"I've tried to, believe me," he told her dejectedly. The matter was a touchy subject for him. "I'm worried how she'd react when I do tell her."

In Maddie's opinion, she didn't think it mattered. She's seen the way Kate looks at Pogue. It's not the everyday teenage lust you see in her pools, but deeper than that. Kate stares at Pogue as if she'd be willing to do anything for him. Pogue's lucky to have a girl like her, even though she didn't voice this thought out loud. That kind of love is quite difficult to find nowadays.

"So that's it then?" she asked. "You kidnap me here just to tell me the truth?"

"What did you think we were going to do with you?" Tyler's eyebrows rose slightly.

"Erm, well, I thought you guys were going kill me."

Maddie huffed when the Sons burst out laughing, all at the same time. They didn't plan on stopping either. After a while, she softened before her own laughs started erupting from her mouth. She was too busy laughing, she didn't notice the pair of arms stiffen across her waist, blue eyes hardening discreetly.

One week.

It had been nearly one week when Reid started to avoid her.

She wasn't really that clueless when it came to matters like that. His absence was starting to irritate her. At first, she thought it was just a personal problem of his, but then he started to disappear frequently whenever she happened to be around. Maddie had even felt a sting of hurt whenever she watched his retreating back. Her elementary-centered thought had her thinking that he didn't 'like' her anymore, and maybe that was the reason he stopped hanging out with her. Now she just felt indifferent about the whole thing.

Maddie noticed it on the first day. Usually, he'd be around her lockers, and he'd walk her to her first period class together. One would have thought that he was being chivalrous, walking a girl to her class, but that same person would have thought differently once that person knew what the blonde Son seemed to be conversing about. Most of the time, their conversations were hilarious, in a perverted sort of way, and occasionally, he'd bring in the horniness. Yet, she enjoyed talking with him.

When he wasn't there, she didn't react as though the whole world was going to end. Sure, it piqued her curiosity, but she didn't let it get to her head. Lunchtime was what had hinted her. She could definitely sense a tense feeling a mile away, and she was surprised that feeling was coming from Reid. He barely spoke to her. He also managed to sit as far away from her as possible.

In History, she didn't spot his blonde hair anywhere. He had ditched.

"He's just going through something," Katherine reassured her, stuffing her things in her bag.

"Like what?" Maddie shot back, frown settling in. "What problems could he be going through?"

Katherine smiled softly. "A lot of things. You know the old saying: 'There's more to someone than meets the eye'. He could be dealing with some personal demons."

"I could help him. He's just not letting me."

"Maybe it's something he has to do alone."

"This whole avoiding thing started after I—" Maddie paused, catching herself before making a huge mistake. She clamped her mouth shut, a thin firm line spreading.

"After 'you' what?" Katherine furrowed her eyebrows.

After I accidentally found out that the Sons of Ipswich are really what the stories say they are, and that they're really magical warlocks that can do anything that seemed impossible, but if they used too much of their power, their bodies would start to age, Maddie thought grimly. She really wanted to tell Katherine (she didn't like keeping secrets from her best friend), but she swore to the Sons that she would keep her word, and that was what she would do. She'd carry it to her grave if she had to.

"After I almost kissed him."

Why did she say that?

Katherine had gasped, and Maddie would have laughed if she hadn't been too busy in her thoughts. "You what? You almost kissed who?"

"Who else?"

"Reid Garwin?"

"Yeah," Maddie replied. "We almost kissed. Almost. Don't forget that word."

"Who cares?" Katherine squealed excitedly, causing Mr. Kantor, their History professor, to look in the girls' direction. "Tell me, tell me! When did this happen?"

And so, in two minutes, Maddie retold the whole story. Unlike most people, Maddie told her everything, not leaving one single detail out—well, the important ones anyway. She talked about the bet, they way he stopped himself from kissing her, and the way she had intended on running after him. She had stopped there, not getting any further.

"He didn't kiss you?" Katherine seemed genuinely shocked. "That's a first."

Maddie rolled her eyes, lips turning. "There's always a first for everything when it involves me and Reid. You point it out every time."

"Very true. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe he's changing for you."

"Wrong." When Katherine sent her a heated look, Maddie merely shrugged, giving her an award-winning smile. "You did say to correct you if you're wrong."

"Maddie, are you blind? Reid's a totally different person now than he was before he met you."

She shook her head. "I think he's still the same. He never ceases in making a perverted comment whenever we talked." Had talked was more like it.

"Well, that's because this is Reid we're talking about. That's something you can never take away from him," both girls shared a laugh at that. "But he never looks at another girl in a lusty way anymore. He stopped flirting with anything that has a big chest and a busty behind," Katherine faltered as Maddie listened intently. The hazel-eyed girl widened her eyes, mouth forming an 'O'. She stared at Maddie in alarm.

"What?" Maddie questioned when those hazel eyes didn't waver from her face.

A Cheshire smile spread across her face. "He's in love with you."

The sound of a pin dropping could be heard through the silence.

Maddie reached over to pat Katherine's shoulder fondly. "It's okay. I know you can be a little delusional sometimes—"

"He's in love with you."

"Obviously, stress is starting to build up in you, since it is senior year after all. We have to worry about college applications, focusing on our future car—"

"He's in love with you."

"And then we worry about getting into the college we want to go—"

"He's in love with you."

"Would you stop saying that?"

Katherine placed her hands on Maddie's shoulders, gripping it before she shook the small girl in front of her. That smile had never left Katherine's face. "He. Is. In. Love. With. You," she told Maddie slowly, as if she was speaking to a toddler.

"Can't a boy and girl be friends without having people assuming that they're going to be in a relationship later on?"

Her friend's smile turned to smirk. "Not in this century."

Maddie sighed. "He's not in love with me."

"Yes, he is."

"No, he's not."

"Yes, he is."

"Not."

"Is."

"Miss Bennett? Miss Fitzgerald?" Mr. Kantor called from across the room. The two girls were the only students left in the room, and their little argument could be heard from where he was sitting at his desk. "Could you girls come over here for a second?"

"Sure, Mr. Kantor," Maddie sent a smile of victory towards Katherine, glad that their argument had been stopped from getting too far. Both girls trudged down the stairs and onwards to his desk. "What do you need, sir?" she asked politely.

Mr. Kantor folded his fingers under his chin, elbows on desk. "You girls hang out with Mr. Garwin, right?"

When Maddie didn't answer, Katherine nodded. "Occasionally. Why, sir?"

"Can one of you girls would do me a favor and give Mr. Garwin his test results? I'd give it to him myself, but obviously, he wasn't in class today."

"I'll do it," Maddie offered, accepting the piece of paper in her hand. This would give her a good enough excuse to go right up to his face and demand what everything was about. Her eyes widened when she saw the score on his test. It was a ninety-eight percent. "He got an A?"

"It's not nice looking at other people's grades," Katherine reprimanded, although she peeked over Maddie's shoulder to take a look herself. "Oh, my god," she let out, seeing the red 'A' on top of Reid's paper.

"Shocking, isn't it?" Mr. Kantor chuckled. "In contrast to how he behaves in class?"

That was why Reid was able to get away with so many things. The teachers gave Reid a fair warning whenever the boy made a comment, or managed to make the class crackle with laughter, but they never threatened him to the provost's office. They let him act like a rebel in class, let him refuse to do classwork, let him even sleep in class, all because they knew that no matter how the boy had tried to entertain himself, he'd still learn at the same time. They let him do all that, because Reid would score extremely high on his tests

"He's actually intelligent," Katherine murmured in awe.

"Don't sound too surprised," Maddie chided.

"Hey, you sounded pretty surprised too."

"I guess I did, but I always knew there was more to him. I didn't think it would be school-wise."

A crown of blonde hair was spotted among the crowd. It was so easy to find Reid in a pact hallway, with his signature hair. The moment they saw it, Katherine cupped her mouth and yelled out his name. The blonde boy turned; however, once his blue eyes landed on Maddie, he stiffened on the spot. A moment passed between them, the minutes full of staring at one another. He then spun around quickly, brushing them off.

"You're right. He really is in love with me," Maddie retorted sarcastically.

"He is," Katherine pressed on eagerly. "He just doesn't know it yet."

That evening, Maddie lied on her bed, staring at Reid's test paper.

She contemplated on when she should give it to him. She'd have to do it sooner or later. Her body was sprawled out lazily, head lolling to the side of the bed, as she watched Katherine get ready for her date tonight. She glanced at the test paper before flinging it to the side of her bed, hands folded across her flat stomach.

"Who is this guy anyway? How come I've never met him?"

Katherine snorted loudly. "Yeah. Like I'd let him meet you."

"That sent a prick to my heart, Kat. It really did," Maddie replied, a hand flying to her chest.

Her friend observed herself in the mirror. Katherine wore dark, skin-hugging jeans, a long-sleeved white and black checkered shirt with the top buttons opened to show a white tank top inside. A black belt was looped around her midriff, on top of her shirt. She wore black gladiator sandals, and her brown hair was curled to perfection.

"Does this belt make me look fat?" Katherine asked, eyeing her form from the side.

Maddie rolled her golden eyes. "For the seventy-fifth time, that belt does not make you look fat."

"Says the girl who doesn't even have a single ounce of fat on her body," Katherine's eyes narrowed at Maddie's stick-skinny structure.

"Oh, shush."

Comfortable silence washed over them, as Katherine continued to look at herself in the mirror, while Maddie let her eyelids flutter close. She let out a deep breath, relaxing against the comforter. If life was always this relaxing, her life would have been so much easier. Much to her own annoyance, her eyes peeled open, just to glance once more at Reid's test paper. Even in her time of peace she couldn't stop thinking about him.

So annoying.

Well, here goes nothing.

"I'm going," Maddie stated, reaching down to put on her shoes.

Katherine whirled around. "Where are you going?"

"To give Reid his test back. I'm sick of looking at the stupid piece of paper."

"Ah," Katherine drawled lightly, grinning. "Someone was thinking about him, wasn't she?"

"Have fun on your date," Maddie smiled in mock sweetness, closing the door behind her right after she heard Katherine's laugh through the door.

She waltzed around the hall, going through a number of corridors and unfamiliar stairways before she reached where Reid and Tyler's supposed dorm room was supposed to be. Her hand clutched the test paper, and as she came to the door, she couldn't move from her spot. She must have looked like an idiot, staring at the door. Shaking her head, she didn't know why she came here in the first place. Maddie made up her mind to turn back, hoping that Katherine had already left so that she wouldn't have someone pester her when she came back.

"Looking for something?"

Maddie halted at the tone. Ever so slowly, she turned to the right, freezing when she spotted him only a couple feet away. He had just gotten out of the showers—a white towel wrapped loosely around his waist, water dripping from his blonde hair, dripping down the smooth plane of his skin, and down the hardened muscles of his abdomen. Her eyes were captivated on this one drop that was making its way down his arm. His tattooed arm.

"Like what you see?" Reid asked, smirking at her.

"I didn't know you had a tattoo," was her only response. There wasn't only one, but three. Two on his left: one on his bicep and the other along arm; and the last tattoo was one his right forearm. She didn't know why, but something ignited inside her when she saw those tattoos. It was odd, considering she was never one to favor tattoos.

She noticed him staring at her, waiting for her to speak. "Oh, here's your test," she snapped out of her daze, handing the piece of paper to him.

He took it. "Thanks," he nodded curtly at her, maneuvering himself around her to disappear on the other side of the door that was to his room.

"Wait," her hand reached out to his wrist. She felt him hardened, and she quickly let go. "Sorry."

"What do you want?"

His tone caused her to get irritated. "Why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you."

"Really?" Maddie couldn't help but laugh sardonically. "You call 'ignoring me and disappearing whenever I'm around' not avoiding me?"

Reid's jaw clenched visibly, his hands fisting tightly behind his back. "I don't have to explain myself to you," he told her coldly.

"What did I do?"

That question caught him off guard. "What?"

"What did I do?" she repeated, a forlorn expression crossing her face. Maddie missed it when Reid flinched in distress at the sight of her sad face. She was too busy figuring out what he was doing. "I promise you, Tyler, Caleb, and Pogue that I wouldn't tell."

"That's not what this is about," Reid stifled a sigh.

"Then what—"

"We shouldn't be friends," he cut in, eyes narrowed at her.

Maddie pursed her lips in frustration. "Why not?"

The next part happened so fast.

She was suddenly slammed against the wall, arms pinned on either side of her head as his hands gripped her wrists hardly. A knee was wedged between her small thighs, and his body was pressed so closely to hers, the friction of heat rising between them. He was close enough that some water from his hair trickled down and touched her cheek softly, the drop sliding down smoothly. His head was tilted towards her in a dangerously close manner, his pupils dilated and his cerulean eyes darker than ever.

He pressed his lips roughly to hers, teeth nipping at her lips before he slipped his tongue inside her mouth. Her hands stopped fidgeting in his grip, her own tongue dueling with his for dominance as their mouths fused together. Teeth scraped against the other once or twice, but they found that they didn't care. Reid growled into the kiss, making it deeper as he held her more firmly to the wall.

Maddie made a soft sound when his hand slipped under her shirt, his fingers dancing along the skin of her stomach. In that moment, she truly felt trapped, as though she couldn't breathe, as though this wasn't really happening. But it was. If he had bothered to let her hands go, they'd be running all over his hair. This kiss—him and her, it felt right. It felt like they were built to do this.

Reid slowly pulled back, his hazy eyes coming to rest on her mouth. Her pink, utterly tasteful lips were looking thoroughly bruised. He pressed a short kiss to her mouth for a couple of seconds, before pulling away. He gave her a second kiss, then a third. On the fourth, his tongue ran over her bottom lip, massaging it softly. On the fifth, his lips collided with hers hardly once more, bruising her lips all over again. He had waited to kiss her all this time, waited to taste her on how delicious she simply looked.

He wretched himself away from him quickly, stepping away from her. He was met with a pair of golden, confused eyes, her face matching as well. Reid said nothing more as he opened his dorm room and closed it firmly behind him, leaving the girl outside. He slid to the floor, not really wanting to move anywhere else. He was angry with himself. He almost took Maddie out there against the wall like a common whore.

The blonde Son had told himself many times that she was different, and Maddie proved to him that she was. Cliché as it was, she wasn't like most girls. At least, she wasn't like most girls he'd been acquainted with anyway. She was better than all of them. Reid smiled when he thought of Maddie. He always seem to do that now.

He was in love with her.