Becoming Calder (A Sign of Love Novel)(112)

That's when I saw Hector, coming out of the house, Hailey next to him, running to keep up.
Hector's hair was long, the way he used to wear it when I was a little girl. But it wasn’t pulled back now. It was wild and stringy, and it made it more obvious how much hair he'd lost on the top of his head. He had lost a lot of weight and his cheeks were gaunt, hollow. And the look in his eyes . . . the look in his eyes as he got closer. It was just like the night I'd run . . . only . . . worse. Had that only been a couple days ago? Hector looked like he'd aged years since then.
Hailey looked like she'd been crying and when they both came to a standstill in front of us, she looked down and clasped her hands in front of her. The loud, recorded sermon filled the silence.
I saw Clive Richter and the other officer get in their police cruiser out of my peripheral vision, but didn't turn my head. The car started and drove off.
Hector took a deep breath and smiled. "I'm so pleased to have you back, my love," he said to me.
Hailey's eyes darted up to him, to me, and then back down. Three worker men I didn't know came out of the main lodge and stood behind Hector, looking at us with narrowed eyes.
"Hector, please," I said. "Let me go. Let us go. If you ever loved me please, just, let me go."
The pleasant look on Hector's face didn't change. "Let you go? Let you go?" He put his finger to his lips and stood there looking up at the sky for a full minute. Then his eyes filled with frigid anger. "SO THAT SATAN'S SPAWN HERE CAN POSSESS YOU?" He jerked his head over to Calder. "SO THAT THE REST OF US CAN ROT IN HELL FOR ETERNITY?"
I startled back as he screamed the words at me, and Calder made a move to come toward me, but the three worker men suddenly leaped forward and grabbed his arms. He looked back at them, shocked, and said, "What the hell are you guys doing? You know me. You know me!"
"We thought we did," the tallest man said. Oh gods in Elysium, I was in a nightmare. Please make this stop, I wanted to sob out.
"Take him to the cellar," Hector said, smoothing his hair back and standing up straighter.
Calder reared back and punched one of the men in his face, and the man reeled as the other two scuffled with Calder to get a good hold on his arms. I started crying, bringing my hands up to my mouth.
Suddenly Hector moved behind me and I was pulled roughly against his chest, confused, trying to understand what was happening.
"I'll slit her open," Hector said.
Everything stopped. I froze. Calder froze. The men holding him gripped him tightly and stopped moving, too. Hailey let out a sharp cry.
Hector held a knife to my throat, the blade already piercing my skin.
"There's power in her blood," Hector said. I cringed and cried out as he brought his face forward and licked the drop rolling down my throat. "If she refuses the foretelling, there are other ways to bring her with us to Elysium . . . even just a small, living part of her." Again, he licked a droplet of blood on my skin and I clenched my eyes shut.
"You're out of your damn mind," Calder said, his voice cracking.
Hector raised his head to stare at Calder. I felt his hot breath at my ear and smelled the stale stench of it. He pressed the knife to my skin again and I cried out.
"Okay, okay," Calder said, bringing his arms up to show his surrender. "I'll do whatever you want me to do. Just please, please don't hurt her." Calder's eyes were deep pools of fear as he watched Hector. I sucked back a sob.
The knife came away from my skin and I heard Hector suck in a deep breath of what seemed like satisfaction. "Take him to the cellar. Lock him up," he said.
Calder's eyes bored into mine as he nodded his head once. I nodded my head once back, too. It would be okay, he was telling me.
He went willingly with the three men, one of them now bleeding profusely from his face.
Hector let out a breath and smiled pleasantly. "Shall we go inside? Will you play for me, Eden?"
I opened my eyes wide when I caught Hailey's eye, but she looked away, walking behind Hector and me.
Later, after I'd played the piano for hours and was bent over the keys in exhaustion, Hector finally excused me, and I went quickly up to my room. As I started to climb the stairs, Hector grabbed my arm. I gasped and turned to him.
"The foretelling will come to pass, my love. Don't have delusions that it won't. And if you do anything to try and stop it, I'll kill him. Do you understand?"
I felt my eyes widen and fear swirled in my belly, and then he let go of me and I ran up the stairs.
I closed my door behind me and heard it lock on the other side. I looked across the room at the window. Heavy, metal bars had been installed. I was a prisoner in every sense of the word. I lay down on my bed and sobbed. Where there had been light and hope only hours before, now there was only darkness and despair.