Chapter Seventeen

Consciousness teased the edges of Cory’s mind. Weakness permeated her limbs. A rough material irritated her skin. Her eyelashes fluttered open to reveal a wall of blurry gray in front of her face. An unpleasant mixture of odors assailed her nose. Her mouth was dry as a desert.

“Drink this. It will help.”

Cory flipped over, and the world tilted out of focus. Sebastian stood in front of her holding out a bottle of water. Her frantic gaze took in her surroundings. She was in the open trunk of her car. The bastard had knocked her out and put her in the trunk of her own car!

She smacked the bottle out of his hands. The motion caused her to sway and fall back against the bottom of the trunk.

“Or not.” Sebastian glanced at the water bottle on the ground and then back to her. “You’re dehydrated. You need the water.” He picked up the bottle and casually handed it to her once again.

Her limbs shook as she attempted to support herself. Think Cory! What did he want from her? She needed to stay calm and focus. She needed that water.

Snatching it from his hands she diligently checked the seal. It appeared intact. Could he have injected it somehow?

“For what it’s worth, it’s just water. Not that I expect you to believe me.”

Cory glared at him before wrenching open the bottle with shaky hands and gulping down the entire contents. He handed her another and she polished it off as well after examining the container.

She began to feel half way normal. If sitting in the trunk of her car after being abducted could ever feel normal. “What do you want from me? Why did you do this?”

Cory adjusted her position in the trunk while surreptitiously cataloging her surroundings. They appeared to be at the edge of a small meadow surrounded by trees. His car was parked behind hers on a dirt road. The same dirt road he had her turn into most likely. Which meant she knew where to go if she managed to escape. She wouldn’t have to waste precious moments blindly fleeing through the woods while she figured out where she was.

“To talk.”

“Talk? You knocked me out and abducted me to talk? Not a good way to engage someone in conversation, Sebastian. Did you ever think to ask?”

“I believe I tried on several occasions if you recall. You rebuffed me each time.”

He stood with his hands casually resting in the pockets of his trousers, as if they were just having a pleasant chat. He returned her glance with a bland stare. Was he insane? Should she try to reason with him? Placate him? Play along? Act weak and look for an opening to escape?

“All right, obviously you have my attention, and I’m at your mercy. What do you want to talk about?”

Perhaps she should try to sound more like a scared, simpering female in distress and less hostile captive, but she’d like nothing better than to kick him in the balls. The son of a bitch!

She narrowed her eyes as he gave her a one-sided smirk and a tiny dimple appeared. He thought this was amusing?

“Coralea, I do find you interesting, and that is saying a great deal, as nothing has interested me for some time.”

Well, bully for him. Found her interesting, did he? How interesting would he find her when she knocked him on his ass?

Vines climbed the nearby trees, seeking precious sunlight, circling branches and trunks like giant snakes. Cory delved deep inside for her powers. The answering surge steadied her as she glanced up at him through her lowered lashes. “And what do you find so interesting?” Shifting to her knees she feigned a weakness she no longer felt and grasped the edges of the trunk in readiness.

The vines wrapped around his ankles and yanked him off his feet. She sprang from the trunk and raced to the front of her car, praying the keys were still in the ignition. If not, she had a spare hidden under the wheel well in one of those nifty security boxes, but that would take precious seconds she didn’t have.

Wrenching the door open, her gaze frantically searched the ignition. Yes! The keys were there.

The door slammed shut, knocking her on her ass when she leaped back to avoid being hit.

A soft chuckle announced his presence before he loomed over her. “Nicely done, Coralea, but you’ll have to do better than that.”

She glared up at him. One question had been answered. He had powers. Was that how he had knocked her out without touching her? Nifty trick. She wished she knew how to do that.

The tall grass tickled her bare skin. The blades fluttered against her in a soothing pattern. Could she somehow lure him to the trees and knock him out with a branch, or even skewer him? She began to feel quite murderous.

The energy flowed into her from the plants, burgeoning her powers. Small twigs and branches flew through the air pelting Sebastian. He threw up his arms to protect himself as she scrambled to her feet. Since Sebastian was between her and her car, she twisted to run in the opposite direction toward his vehicle and the road.

The slap of power knocked her to her knees and left her gasping for air. Sweat poured from her as weakness spread. She fought it, but it left her floundering. She braced herself on her hands and knees as his feet appeared in her line of vision.

“Your follow through needs work.”

Cory scowled. Tilting her head, she watched as he gingerly plucked a twig from his hair and smoothed the strands back in place.

“This can go one of two ways. One, we continue to fight and you lose. I deliver you to your own personal hell as I have been ordered to do. Or second, you listen and learn.”

Sebastian raised one imperious eyebrow. “The choice is entirely yours. I don’t care either way.”

She leaned back on her heels, resting her hands on her thighs while she stared at the ground mulling over his words. He was more powerful than Cory. He’d made that abundantly clear. Someone had ordered him to abduct her. The question was who and why? Most importantly, did he mean Hell literally?

“I believe I’ll take option two.”

“Sound choice.”

He held out his hand. She eyed it like a coiled rattlesnake. Was he serious? Although a bit unsteady, she managed to stand without assistance.

She ambled to her car and leaned against it for support. Folding her arms across her middle, she stared at him, waiting.

“I’m going to get you some water from my car. If you attempt another escape, option two is off the table. Understood?”

Her mouth was again dry as parchment, so she nodded slowly. She had no intention of doing anything until she had some answers, and she was in no hurry to be delivered to the hell he mentioned.

Handing her a bottle as he returned, he opened his own and drank. Cory did the same. Drinking deeply at first, and then taking a few smaller sips. “I’m listening.”

Sebastian capped his empty bottle before taking hers and tossing them both in the back of his car. He walked back to her and surveyed her from head to toe. “Is the weakness gone?”

“Yes, pretty much. Are you going to tell me how you did that? Better yet, teach me? You did say listen and learn.”

His single dimple appeared briefly. “You can’t be taught that trick.”

“Try me.”

He sighed. “You really are clueless, aren’t you?”

Cory straightened against the car. “I beg your pardon?”

“Power is derived from the four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. You can only have power from one element. Nature’s way of checks and balances. Yours is from the earth, obviously. Control of plants, more specifically.”

“Where does your power come from?”

“What do you think?”

Well, he can knock her out without a touch. He slammed the car door without touching it. “Air?”

“No.”

“Then how did you slam the door, or knock me out without touching me?”

“The door was simply a shove of power. You can learn that given enough time and practice. What is the human body mostly composed of?”

Cory shrugged. “Skin? I’m not a doctor.” Although her mother was. What would her mother think of all this? A laugh threatened to bubble up her throat. Perhaps she was becoming hysterical, because she couldn’t help but be amused by the thought of her mother’s reaction.

“The human body is more than half water. Each individual is slightly different of course, some have more than others.”

“So water is your element?”

Sebastian nodded once. “What you experienced is rapid dehydration. A little will weaken, a lot can render the person unconscious.”

Didn’t seem particularly fair. How could she fight against someone who could simply knock her out every time? Water appeared to be the more powerful element at the moment.

“I can teach you to resist it, up to a point.”

That was interesting. He would teach her how to fight his magic? “Why? Why would you teach me how to resist your powers?”

“Because you’re strong, not just with power, but strength of will. I believe you can learn to fight. With the right instruction, you could help alter the course of both our lives.”

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Remember option one? It leads to a continued life of servitude for me, and most likely death for you, or at the very least you’d wish for death.”