Her Captured Heart

Chapter Two

“Please don’t be afraid.” Called out a mysterious deep voice.

“Who’s there!” Yelped Jane, as she grabbed the picnic basket and raised it up like a weapon.

“Calm down.” He chuckled as he walked out of the tall grass in nothing but a pair of jeans.

Jane looked the stranger over, the shadows of the evening made his muscles stand out, and he was at least as tall as Garret. He had a mysterious sideways grin, sparkly dark pits for eyes, and he was barefoot too; which she found strange.

“Who are you?” She asked, mostly because she wasn’t sure what else to do or say.

“My name is Cadmus and this is my land. Really I should be asking you, who you are?” He said with confidence and an even bigger smile than before.

“Oh.” Jane felt kind of embarrassed, she didn’t even think about the fact that they were trespassing.

“We’ll?” Cadmus said crossing his arms.

“I’m sorry, we was just gonna have a picnic and-“

“We?”

“Oh, yeah well-“

“I saw everything- you don’t need to explain. Come on and I’ll give you a ride back to town.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Jane was really embarrassed now, had he seriously seen everything- like everything? She followed him in silence as he walked through the grass and then through some trees. It wasn’t until she saw a the huge dark log cabin that she suddenly thought maybe following a stranger home hadn’t been her best idea.

“Are the wolves your pets?” She asked nervously, noticing there were a lot of large gray wolves running around freely. Some looked her way and some ignored her presence, but none of them were acting aggressive.

“No, not really, but they all live here. Don’t go petting them, they ain’t dogs.” He said turning and walking backwards as he watched her.

Jane followed him up to the front of the large cabin and noticed a other buildings along the road. Why so many small buildings? It looked like some old ghost town.

Inside, the cabin had a very vintage look to it. There wasn’t a lot of furniture, a large dining table that looked handmade, it had rough edges but was beautiful in a unique way. There was a huge fireplace with an old fashioned pot hanging from a hook and fur rugs here and there around the room. Wooden rocking chairs near the front windows had quilts hanging over their backs, everything seemed very primitive. There were no electronics anywhere, no light on the ceilings, and no lamps. The only light was from the fireplace.

“Do you not have electricity?” She asked out loud, purely out of curiosity.

“We keep it simple here.” Cadmus answered as he was putting shoes on near a staircase. “I’m just gonna go grab a shirt.”

“Okay.” She silently wondering who “we” was. She was embarrassed to admit it, but she’d watched the shadows of his back muscles all the way there. She wasn’t usually too swayed by muscles, but he was especially good looking, maybe it was because she kind of felt saved. Garret was a jerk! But being rescued by an incredibly handsome farmer was pretty awesome. He looked like he was maybe twenty-five, he could be a little older, maybe. She didn’t mind, he definitely wasn’t old.

She snickered to herself, coming back to reality, he’d drop her off in town and they’d never see each other again. That’s about as exciting as her life could get.

Cadmus had walked upstairs somewhere, while Jane continued to look about the cabin. She thought it was pretty cute, there were a few old black and white pictures on the walls. Some were of families, some children, and a few were of wolves. Seemed like they really liked the wolves. There were some framed drawings of the wolves on one wall, they were really detailed. She wondered if Cadmus had drawn them.

She knew it was a little dumb, following him into the house but he seemed really nice. Besides what was her other choice, walk blindly through the night, hoping she didn’t get lost. He’d stayed about ten feet ahead of her the whole time except when he’d held the door open for her. He wasn’t trying to get close to her and he wasn’t acting strange. She wondered if he lived here alone. It was really quiet.

Jane noticed something on the end of the fireplace mantle. It was some kind of choking to give her it up, then looked over her shoulder to see if Cadmus was coming back yet. She wasn’t sure if she should be touching it, but it was beautiful and interesting. It was shaped like a rose, and the glow inside was red, there were specks of color in the petals. It had lit up a little brighter as she turned it over in her hands.

“Let’s head out.” Called Cadmus suddenly.

“Ahhh!” She gasped in surprise.

Jane was startled and dropped the crystal rose, she watched as it fell to the floor and shattered into what must have been a thousand tiny shards.

“What did you do!” He growled.

Jane was so frightened she quickly took a step back and then tripped over something on the floor. She fell backwards onto something sharp, an intense pain shot through her leg causing her to scream.

Cadmus rushed over and leaned over her, he ran his hand over her leg, then picked her up gently.

“I’m sorry.” She sniffled, hoping he wasn’t too mad.

“Just calm down.” He muttered not sounding any less angry than when he’d growled at her.

Suddenly the tiny shards of glass began to shine bright, it was so bright the entire room was illuminated like several lights had suddenly been turned on at once.

“Wha-what is th-that?” She stuttered while shielding her eyes.

The tiny shards had lit up and we’re pulling towards a small pool of blood near the fireplace. They just pieced themselves back together perfectly, a red glowing crystal rose was now sitting where her blood had been.

Cadmus walked over to the rose and picked it up, he looked it over, amazed by what he’d seen. He’d been waiting for something, anything to happen someday. He looked at Jane curious and walked over to her where she was still sitting on the table. He pressed the crystal rose to her injury, she yelped, and tried to pull away.

“Don’t move.” He demanded holding onto her thigh.

The rose glowed brighter once again and the pain in her leg completely disappeared. She looked at the spot that had been cut and there was nothing, not even a drop of blood, her jeans had a small tear though, so she knew where it had been.

“How did it do that?” She questioned with almost a whisper.

“You must have witch blood in you.”

He said it in such a bizarre way, she could help herself.

“What?” She giggled.

She didn’t mean to, but the giggle had just burst out.

A dark look washed over him, it was like he’d become a different person in and instant. She was mortified and looked away from Cadmus and just looked down at the crystal rose in his hand.

“I think you should stay the night.” He said in a tone that made her feel like he wasn’t going to give her a choice.