Chapter thirty

Once I parked my car at the edge of the woods, I turned to Mel. "Stay here, Mel," I ordered as I opened the glove box and pulled out the flashlight I had in there.

Mel turned her head to me. "No way. I'm here to not only protect you but make sure you also don't get into trouble."

"I know, but I don't want you hurt. Besides, you can keep an eye out. If anything happens, you can go get help."

Mel sighed. "Fine, but you better be safe and you owe me some food."

I laughed and petted her gently. "Duly noted," I said before I got out of my Jeep. When I pushed the button on my flashlight, it didn't turn on. Stupid thing. I hit it a couple of times with my palm before it came on. Using the light, I cautiously made my way to the only place that I could think Hayden was. The meadow. As soon as I crawled through the small space, I was shocked. The once beautifully luscious meadow that was circled with a wide variety of flowers was now nothing more than just dirt and sticks.

Through, Hayden was here. He was sitting on the ground with his hands tied.

I tried to keep my heart from leaping out of my chest at the sight of him. He was just as beautiful as always. Minus the fact that his ginger hair was dirty and that his eyes had dark smudges under them.

"Hayden?" I asked as I dashed over to him, falling to my knees beside him, and started undoing the rope.

Startled, Hayden's beautiful turquoise eyes landed on me. "Weston, what are you doing here?"

I looked at him. "Saving you."

He rubbed his palm. "I wasn't sure you'd come, though."

I cupped his face. "Hayden, no matter what, I will always come."

Without a second thought, as soon as Hayden's hands were freed, he grabbed my face tenderly and kissed me. This kiss felt different. Not like our first. This one felt desperate, but also like he was apologizing. But for what I didn't know. I didn't care. I just grasped his shoulders and kissed him back. I missed him so much. He constantly consumed my thoughts day in and day out no matter how hard I tried to push the thoughts away.

Light raindrops were starting to fall and thunder rumbled in the distance, but luckily, we pulled away before Hayden's emotions could invade me.

"What is happening, Hayden?"

His eyes filled with tears and deep saturated guilt poured from him in waves. "I'm so sorry, Weston. Please understand. I didn't have a choice."

I held his shoulders. "Hayden, I don't understand. What could you have done that was so terrible?"

Before he answered, horrible pain erupted in the back of my head and I collapsed. Even though my vision was blurred, I could see Angela smirking.

And then blackness overcame me.

_______________________________________

When I was aroused to consciousness, I first found that my head was pounding crazily. The second was that my vision was blurred. Third, as I went to rub them, I found my hands were constricted behind my back. After blinking some of the blurriness, I turned my head. I was still in the middle of the woods.

"What...?" I tried to ask but a soreness in my throat prevented me from talking.

"About time you woke up," a woman's voice said.

Glancing up, I saw it was Kayla. She was smiling sinisterly as she leaned down to my level. For a second, I thought she was going to kiss me which made my stomach churn with bile. But instead, I caught a glint of something in her hand. A vial? What was she going to do to me?

"H-H-Hayden?" I asked, stammering from the soreness and coughed.

"He's fine," said Angela, standing next to Kayla. Now that they were side beside they looked identical. Mother and daughter?

"Why...?" I swallowed. God, what did they do to me?

Kayla smiled. "Why are we doing this? It's the only way for my daughter to survive."

"Huh?"

Kayla smirked and touched my cheek. Strangely, no sounds were penetrating my hearing. However, dark emotions started swallowing me whole making me recoil from her touch. "Don't be afraid."

I glared. "I'm...not," I managed to cough out.

Kayla's sinister smirk never left her face as she leaned down. I tried to move back, but only ended up falling on my back.

"Don't," I said through the hoarseness.

Angela smiled and whistled.

And then Hayden walked into the room. "What do you need?"

"Hold him," Angela said, pointing to me.

Hayden nodded and moved as he grabbed my shoulders forcefully and sat me up not too gently.

"H-Hayden," I whispered.

Hayden didn't say anything.

"You can't save him. He's under my influence," said Angela.

Kayla looked at Angela. "It would seem that your friend is attracted to my daughter. Influencing him was easy."

Angela grinned. "Too easy. All it took was a simple kiss. And he fell for my spell."

"Are you a succubus?" I asked after a small coughing fit.

Angela and Kayla laughed before Kayla shook her head. "My daughter is a siren," she said.

"A siren?"

"Yes, the ones who lure men to them with a song. Except, my daughter needs no song. She just needs to kiss them."

I closed my eyes as anger swelled. I concentrated hard to connect with my magic so I could undo the ropes on my wrist, but I couldn't detect the usual warmth. It was as if my magic was weakened. Was that what they did?

"What have you done to me?" I finally managed to ask.

Kayla smiled. "I stole some of your magic. It's quite powerful. I can suck out people's magic and then give it to my daughter to ensure she can survive."

"How?"

"Simply like this."

Kayla took out what looked like a purple metal pen. But I knew better. It was almost the same one that Hayden had shown and used. Only her crystal was glowing amethyst.

She placed the tip of the crystal on my chest. Sudden pain erupted, spreading throughout my whole body. I could feel tears pricking at the edge of my eyes as I fought not to scream.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

"NO!" shouted Hayden.

The pain vanished and my eyes opened to see Kayla on the ground. She pointed her crystal at Hayden and I watched horrified as a ray of purple bolted and hit him directly in the chest.

I nearly screamed from this pain that was forcing its way into my brain and body.

The second Hayden collapsed, I scrambled over to him. I wanted to place my hands on his shoulders, but they were still tied. "Hayden," I said as tears welled in my eyes.

Hayden's pain-filled eyes gazed at me.

"How did you break through my influence?" yelled Angela.

Hayden's eyes never wavered from mine as he answered, "I may like you, Angela, but I'm not in love with you."

I angrily glared at Angela. She had no right to hurt him.

With all the magic and rage inside me, my telekinetic magic knocked her back. With my hands still tightly secured behind my back, I managed to clench them into fists, my nails digging into my palms as the ire inside me flooded my mind.

The wind started to whoosh like a freight train and tree limbs began to creak and crack. I didn't want to just scare her. I wanted her no longer to exist which was very unlike me.

Feeling Hayden grip my bicep, the ire inside me faded quickly as I looked down at him.

"Don't do it," he begged.

"But..."

"It's not worth it. Doing it would haunt you forever. You are too kind to ever hurt another human in cold blood."

Tears slid down my cheeks as rain drizzled around us. I laid my head on his chest as my energy was drained. "I'm sorry."

Just as Angela started getting to her feet, Kayla pulled out her pen--wand--whatever--that had fallen to the ground and pointed it directly at me. "Time to end this."

Before I could do anything to stop her with my magic, sudden vines shooting up from the ground wrapped around her wrists, making her drop the pen.

"What... How did you do that?" she asked, glaring at me.

I shook my head. This wasn't my doing. I could tell because I wasn't feeling the warmth when I used my magic.

"Got you," said a familiar voice.

Shocked, I turned my head to see Norman. He was kneeling with his hands on the ground.

Norman smirked. "I can't believe you allowed me to miss this party, Wes," he joked.

I rolled my eyes but felt relief. "Yeah, some party," I said. "How did you know?"

Norman smiled. "Mel told me you were in trouble."

"I had it under control."

Norman's smirk grew. "Liar."