Chapter 8

"What do we do?" asked Brianna worried.

She sat across from Caelan looking at him.

Ever since Jaden brought him home he was out of it. He sat in his chair and stared straight ahead. He barely blinked.

It was a week since the day that Jaden brought everyone home.

Jaden dropped Gail off first. Her parents were frantic. He told them the abridged version of what happened. He did tell them he killed all the men trying to rape her, and that they drugged her, but she was making it hard for them to get what they wanted from her.

Her parent's were happy that the men didn't actually get to rape her, but they knew that once she came out of it, she would be traumatized.

And they were right.

Once she regained consciousness she started screaming and crying, and wouldn't stop until they had Jaden to come back.

Once she saw Jaden she latched on to him and with impossible strength and wouldn't let him go. She just sobbed quietly in his arms.

Jaden, who was concerned for his brother, just couldn't overlook Gail. And once seeing her like this just broke his heart and stayed with her in her home for a few days.

She would only sleep if she could do it in his lap, in any well lit room of her parent's house. They also found out early that if the lights went out for any reason she would start shaking and screaming until they came back on.

After a few days a pharmacist gave her something to help her sleep so that Jaden could get away for awhile and check on the others.

Darla wasn't doing much better.

She was in bed, but her eyes were still barely open in slits, she was still calling out to Caelan softly sometimes, but she didn't really appear to be awake. She had not moved from the bed at all since Jaden brought her home. Everyone was shocked that the drugs Quinn gave her would do this to her.

But Caelan was the one that was the most baffling.

It was like he wasn't even there. He didn't talk, he didn't engage anyone in a conversation, and he didn't do anything but sit and stare.

Aric and Brianna called Galen after they were lost as to what to do. They didn't believe the trauma of what happened should have affected Caelan this way. He had seen death before, and this should have affected him like this. Galen had already been to see Darla earlier in the day, and they now sat around while Galen looked Caelan over.

Galen then asked Jaden to recount what happened.

Jaden started his story from right when they got to the warehouse and how strange Caelan started acting once he saw Darla and how she had her arms out to him.

When he got to the part where Caelan said how beautiful she sounded, but he hadn't heard anything, Galen jumped and looked at him.

"Think hard boy, this is important, did he say anything before that? Before you started off maybe?" asked Galen in all seriousness.

"Yes, while we were in the weapons shop he said that he heard Darla call out to him. That she said to him she was in trouble and she needed him. Then we ran off to the warehouse to get her and Gail," said Jaden.

Galen looked shocked.

"Are you sure? Are you sure that is what he said?!" said Galen grabbing Jaden by the shoulders, squeezing them hard.

"Yes, that is what he said, ' said Jaden.

Now he was scared by the look in Galen eyes.

"Damnation it's too late!" said Galen.

"What's too late?" asked Brianna concerned.

"They are bonded and Darla is tapping into Caelan's mind. She was desperate and scared, and she forced the bond open at full power and used it to call Caelan to save her. Caelan and Darla are bonded and now both of their minds are struggling to figure out how to deal with it because it's still incomplete. I'm not sure how to handle it. It shouldn't work this way. It should be used for empathy not communication," said Galen

"So we don't know what to do?" asked Aric with alarm

"Not yet, but I'll need to check with some colleagues to see what they think. Just keep him comfortable and I'll get back to you," said Galen

And at that, he headed back to his house.

"My baby, my poor baby," said Brianna with tears in her eyes.

Watching her son like that was devastating to her.

"Gail, honey, it's been a month since this happened. You know that I will always be here for you. I was there for you that day, and I will continue to be here for you at anytime you need me. But I need for you to help me check on Darla. She hasn't moved at all since that day. But she might respond to you," said Jaden with concern.

He hoped that Gail would be willing come out of her house to check on Darla. Gail had not left the house since he brought her home and other than her parent's no one could see her except Jaden. When he came she just held him like she was scared to let him go.

It hurt Jaden so much that she lost her freedom thanks to those two bastards. He had not seen Quinn anywhere since this happened. And god knows where he might be, since he went looking for him. It was like he fell off the face of the planet. But it felt good to tell her that Steven was dead. That at least let her sleep a little better at nights.

Jaden missed her sense of humor and outspoken personality. He hated Quinn for robbing her of that, and if he ever caught him his death would be slow and not pretty. And in the current mood he was in, he was capable of cruelty he had never known before, because he found himself often wishing he hadn't killed Steven so quickly the first time.

And this was from the man who hated to kill anyone.

"If I go will you hold onto me? Will you keep me safe? Will you keep everyone away from me?" asked Gail wildly looking around and then back to Jaden.

She looked like she hadn't combed her hair in days or changed her clothes.

It broke his heart to see her like this.

"Honey they will have to kill me before I let anything happen to you, and Steven and his friends found out the hard way that I meant my promise that I said that night. And I'm harder to kill than they are," said Jaden with out any mirth.

Gail agreed to go, but the whole time she kept looking around wide eyed and scared, like someone was going to jump out and grab her at any minute.

Jaden true to his word walked with his arms around her the whole way there. Thankfully she lived close to Aaron and Gemma.

Once they were there, Gail was shocked at how Darla looked.

Darla had lost some of her weight. She ate only when her parents fed her, but she was obviously not getting enough. She still seemed to be staring at something that only she could see though the slits in her eyes, while she smiled. It was hard to tell if she was awake or dreaming.

Soon as Gail saw Darla she cried out and ran to hug her friend, but Darla didn't seem to respond. Gail leaned back and called out to her several times, but she still didn't respond.

"Why didn't anyone tell me this is what happened to Darla that day," cried out Gail with tears running down her face.

"Honey, you had your own problems to deal with. I've been checking in on all three of you since it happened," said Jaden.

"All THREE of us? Who else was a victim?" asked Gail in shock.

"Caelan is in the same state as Darla here," said Jaden.

"What! When? What happened? I know I said before that I didn't want to know, but please tell me everything," said Gail openly crying.

Jaden told her everything from the moment that Caelan first heard Darla until he took everyone home. He left out the carnage of the room she was in. Steven had just ripped her panties off as he came in the door. In a rage Jaden had no problem stabbing him through the back as he turned to flee, but he didn't want to tell Gail that.

"Jaden, I'm so sorry. We've all been putting you under so much stress. I know I'm still really scared and I still really need you, but I'm still better off than Darla and Caelan are. What do we do?" asked Gail.

"I'm not sure. But Galen is looking into it and will let us know," said Jaden solemnly.

"I think I have the answer, and I believe that it's the only option open to us since they are still in this state almost a month and a half later," said Galen one night.

Galen called both families together to talk to Brianna, Aric, Aaron, and Gemma.

Jaden and Gail were there too. They were concerned as well. As long as Jaden went everywhere with Gail, she was starting to come out of her shell a little.

She didn't remember much, but the thought of a near rape and her helplessness to stop it was enough to cause her trauma, but if Jaden was with her she felt safe.

"From what I gathered, by what young Jaden told me and what I can see, is that Darla mentally initiated a different bond between her and Caelan in her desperation, and used it to communicate with Caelan," said Galen.

"But when Jaden interrupted them before they could complete it, it left them both in a state of limbo. Now the only way to fix this is to let them complete it. Otherwise they will be incompletely linked to each other for the rest of their lives, but remain in a vegetative state," said Galen as he looked around.

"Is it ok for us to do this without talking to them first?" asked Aaron.

"Will it save them?" asked Gemma with tears running freely down her face.

"Will it cause them any more harm?" asked Brianna equally crying openly.

"No they should be ok, and I think they would be ok with it, or they wouldn't have this powerful link between them," said Galen

"But how could this happen?" asked Aric grimly. "Caelan is pretty strong mentally. He should have been able to resist any outside influences."

"It was because Caelan is so powerful that he was so receptive to Darla. And since he was deeply in love with her, when she was in trouble, that power also allowed her to open and create the link to run both ways so she could call him to save her," said Galen.

"What do we do now?" asked Brianna.

"We put them both naked back in the same position that Jaden found them and let nature take its course," said Galen with a grim smile.

"Long as neither parent's object we might as well get started," said Galen.

No one said anything against it so they agreed to start that night.

They decided to do it at Brianna and Aric's house in case something went wrong. That way they wouldn't do any magical damage to any homes near by.

Aaron carried Darla in the room and put her on Caelan's bed. Aaron left as Gemma took off her robe so that she was naked with the blanket and sheets pulled back.

Even though Darla had lost some weight, it wasn't much and was she was still stunning. And she still carried her look of pure seduction on her face.

After her parents left, Jaden and Galen walked a naked Caelan into the room and stood him about where Jaden thought he was when they rescued the girls.

As they did, they noticed that Caelan slowly looked down, and Darla's arms once again slowly raised up like they did that day they rescued her, and then Caelan started slowly forward.

"That's a good sign that they are responding to each other," said Galen. "Let's give them some privacy," and turned to leave closing the door behind him and Jaden.

As they closed the door, Galen looked at the faces of all those facing him in the hallway.

"It is a good sign that both of them started reacting to the other soon as they were in range. Let's give them some privacy and see what happens," said Galen as he shuffled down the hallway.

Caelan didn't know where he was.

The last thing he could remember was looking down at Darla in that crazy room and hearing her say in a husky voice that she had been waiting forever for him and held out her arms.

But she hadn't moved her mouth!

Caelan felt at that moment he wanted nothing more in his life than to be her husband and mate forever. But no matter how hard he searched he couldn't find her. She had disappeared from his view.

But here she was again reaching for him. And he wouldn't let anything stop him from being with her this time.

As he reached for her, he slowly stroked her face, and noticed that she was looking up at him with suddenly impossibly big blue eyes.