Chapter 35

Helene walked into the small bar with a smile on her face. As she stood right inside the entrance she nervously looked around the room. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do with herself. They weren’t her type of people to hang out usually. Heck who was she kidding? She’d never hung out with rock stars and gorgeous people. Taking a deep breath she started towards the bar only to be stopped by Richie. “Well hello there gorgeous,” he grinned as he looked her way. “I’m glad you decided to join us.”

“Thank you Mr. Sambora, but Amelia wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Helene looked up at him and was caught in his chocolate gaze.

“First off Leney, don’t mind if I call you that do you? Helene is just too formal for such a lovely lady. My name is Richie or Rich, Mr. Sambora is my dad.” Richie took her arm in his and escorted her to the bar, a goofy grin on his face. He’d been hoping for a chance to get to know her better and it seems like Amelia had planned a way for that to happen. “What’ll be your pleasure Leney? The bartender is a friend of mine.”

Helene laughed, and the sound was like music to Richie’s ears. She quietly wondered how she could have gotten so lucky for a man like Richie to be interested in her, but she wasn’t going to question fate; the question he asked was like a loaded gun though, because if she answered honestly her reply would have been ‘you’. Thinking better than that she simply replied, “I think I’ll have a martini if that’s ok?”

Within moments Jon had settled a martini in front of her then moved off to the other end of the room to talk with Tico and David. He had caught the looks Richie was giving the pretty girl so wanted to give him time to get more acquainted. As he chatted with his friends he would glance at the door every so often, wondering what was keeping his own woman from returning.

~~~~~

“What was that smell,” she wondered to herself as the mental darkness receded; “and where the hell am I?” She struggled to a half prone half sitting position and tried to see where she was only to find that she was still in the dark. She tried to lift her hand to her face only to realize she was hogtied rather tightly and couldn’t. She tried to yell for help only to hear the sound come out muffled. “Bound and gagged, so not the way I wanted to spend this evening,” she thought with a sigh.

“You won’t be able to get free or yell for help, I made sure of that.” Amelia turned her head towards the soft voice, trying valiantly to see who was speaking too her. “Won’t be able to see me either, made sure of that too. I’m really sorry about this, but I just couldn’t allow you to continue to be with him. Enough is enough; you know he’s had enough on his plate. I had to free him from another whore.”

Amelia bristled at the comment and wished she could get free. Who was this person and what did they have to do with Jon, and why was she, at least Amelia thought it was a she, wanting to keep her from him. She gave the soft voice a tilt of the head and tried to shrug or indicate confusion somehow.

“You see I’ve been following his career a very long time and ever since his marriage broke up I knew there was a chance to finally be with him. He deserves someone who will worship the ground he walks on, not like you or that other bitch he married.” The soft voice droned on, “I’m sorry I have to do you like this, but maybe once he sees that you weren’t the right type. I’m sorry it is the only way.”

Amelia felt a pin prick in her arm and began to feel drowsy. “Oh hell drugs, this is so not going to be good.”

“See I’ll let you go sooner or later, really I will.” It was the last sound Amelia heard as the colors in her mind started to warp and sing Disney songs to her.

~~~~

Jon looked up for what seemed like the fiftieth time and wondered where the hell Amelia had gotten off too. He hated to interrupt Richie and Helene, but he had to know what his lady was doing.

“Excuse me you two, but I need to ask Helene something.” Richie and Helene looked up, their smiles fading as they saw the worried look in Jon’s eyes. “Amelia hasn’t returned yet, did she tell you what she was doing?”

Helene frowned slightly. “She was right behind me on the path, said she was going to take a deep breath or two and look at stars then come on in. You mean she’s still not here?”

Jon shook his head, “No she’s not, I guess I have to go hunt that wicked woman down. You two go back to your talk.”

Richie looked at Helene as she returned the gaze. “I don’t think we can enjoy chatting while he’s so worried. Let’s help.”

As Jon walked towards the door Adam and Duncan moved over to him. They didn’t like the look on the young immortal’s face; it was too worried for this night. “What’s up Rock Star?” Adam questioned his new student quickly.

Jon quickly explained about Amelia not returning and both immortal’s eyebrows arched at the same time. “That’s not like her, so it worries me a bit.”

Adam nodded. “Well then let’s go look for the wench shall we? She better have a bloody good reason for worrying you Rock Star.”

The five people then walked outside to look for their friend. As Helene got close to the spot she had last seen Amelia she nudged Richie. “We were standing right here Rich, this is where I last saw her.”

Richie looked all around the spot, for anything that might give a clue as to where Amelia headed off too. Kneeling he studied the grass for foot prints. What he saw had him standing up and yelling for Jon and the rest. As they came up, Richie put a steadying arm on Jon’s shoulder. “Now I’m not sure here, but Leney said this is where she left Amelia, and there seems to be a bit of blood near the grass. Not saying it’s Red’s, but it’s odd.”

Adam knelt and touched the half dried sticky substance. Sniffing it slightly he grimaced. “It’s definitely blood.” Standing he looked towards Duncan an unasked question in his eyes. Seeing the barest negative shake of the Highlander’s head he turned to Jon and said the words that struck fear deep into the man’s heart.

“It appears she’s been bloody well taken. Mac go alert Joe, get him to call a few friends if you catch my drift. Helene, we might need to get coffee going and round up the snack food. We’re going to be searching for her.”

Helene looked at Adam oddly. “Shouldn’t we like call the police or something?”

The three immortals looked at each other then back at the woman. How did you explain that the problem might not be within the realm of mortal police? You couldn’t, so you did the only thing that came next, you lied. “Well Helene,” Adam started, “we certainly will do that if we need to, but for now she may have just bumped her head and wandered off. We don’t want to scare her to death do we?”

Helene shook her head. “Ok maybe your right, but if you don’t find her soon?

Jon spoke up, “If we don’t find her soon, then I personally call the police.”

Everyone knew better than to argue with Bongiovi when he eyes took on a silvery icy gleam, and in this moment his eyes were silver.

Two days later they were still searching the surrounding forests near the house with no luck. Each immortal would head out with the non immortals in hopes of one of them feeling Amelia’s immortal buzz. Each time a searching party came in there was no report of a woman matching Amelia’s physical description. Jon was beginning to get frantic. He had visions and horrors of them finally finding Amelia’s body minus a head somewhere in the woods. No manner of reassurances from Adam or Joe that had that happened someone’s watcher would have reported it. It didn’t serve to make Jon feel any better though, not by a long shot.

~~~~~~~

She awoke to the feeling of a furry tongue and aching muscles. Attempting a stretch she found, surprisingly, that she was not tied and that her eyes worked. Well they almost worked as somewhere around the fringes she was still seeing dripping colors and could darned near hear cartoon birds singing. Rolling over she tried to push herself to her feet but found she didn’t have the energy. “Oh that’s right; the maniac drugged me last night. Wonder how much she gave me? My immortal healing should kick in and clean my system and its not. Wonder how long I’ve been here?”

After a few more attempts to stand she finally managed it, wavering the entire time. She was hurting and needed something to make it better, stupid immortal healing wasn’t working right. She slowly made her way around the room, feeling each crack and crevice praying for a door, a window, or anything she could use to escape. She needed to get out, get something for the pain, and find a way back to Jon.

“Well looks like sleeping beauty decided to wake up again. How’s it going today?”

Amelia’s eyes darted to the shadowy figure that had slipped inside without her even noticing. She took a breath and tried to wrap her tongue around the words “Who the hell are you and why are you doing this to me?”

“I told you honey, I’m doing it for him. He doesn’t need you in his life. You will hurt him. When he sees that you’re not good for him he’ll leave you.”

“What do you have against Jon? He loves me, I love him; how can you say we aren’t good for each other?”

The shadowy figure began to laugh. “That’s so precious, using his best friend that way. I bet he’d appreciate that one. YOU know darned well I’m talking bout your lover, Richie. He doesn’t need you in his life and I’m gonna fix that.”

Amelia felt the beginnings of cramps as hunger for food, for something, she wasn’t sure what began to wrack her nerves. “Lady I’m not with Richie, never was, he’s a friend. I’m in love with Jon, always have been.”

The shadow figure straightened and began to scream angrily, “Liar!! I saw you two together, laughing hugging joking. YOU were all over him. You don’t deserve him and I’m going to prove that.”

Amelia would have laughed had she had the energy to laugh. She was prisoner and for all the wrong reasons and for the wrong man. Could life get no more ridiculous?

The shadowy figure stalked a bit closer to Amelia. “It’s time for you to take another tiny trip. Another day or two and you’ll be firmly hooked and I can let you go home, so Richie can see what a sleaze you really are.”

Amelia tried to draw back, tried to get away from the needle approaching her; even immortals had their limits, but she was unable too. She could only hope and pray that this prison wasn’t too far from home, and that one of the immortals would soon feel her buzz and come to rescue her. She needed, more than ever to feel Jon’s arms around her once again, so that she felt safe. As the needle pricked her skin she slumped, unable to fight what was coursing like poison through her veins. The shadowy figure stopped and looked back quizzically as she heard Amelia utter, “Disney, I fucking hate Disney,” and she wondered exactly what kind of mind she must have if the drug being used had her seeing Disney.

With a shake of her head and a tired smile the shadowy figure stepped out and locked the door. It was time to get a few supplies and sleeping beauty would be out long enough for her to accomplish it. Walking to the door she took the shawl she had commandeered from the whore and wrapped it around her shoulders. The hoodie was getting threadbare and she didn’t want to catch chill. She took perverse pleasure in imagining it had been a gift from Richie so enjoyed wearing it.

Jon and Richie exited the police station, both drained from making the reports about Amelia’s disappearance. As they stood on the side of the street discussing the red tape involved in dealing with police Richie glanced down the street and noticed a woman moving quickly towards the store located there. Nudging Jon he whispered, “Kidd, look at that woman down there. She’s got on the exact same shawl as the one Amelia had. Now normally I don’t recognize that kind of thing that much, but Amelia made a lot of that shawl because it was an original right?”

Jon’s eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses. It was the shawl, or looked damn close. Flipping his cell phone open he swiftly dialed the house to tell Adam where to meet them. Finishing his call he looked at Richie, “don’t want to get too close to her just in case she’s immortal. We’ll keep a watch from a distance though, and if that bitch has Amelia or has hurt her, I’ll take her head immortal or not.”

Richie shook his head. “Bro, you wouldn’t do that and you know it. If she’s mortal then she’s one of those unhinged fans we all get sometimes. If she’s mortal the police will handle her. Between the four of us, we can take care of her I’m sure.”

Jon prayed quietly that Amelia was ok. He’d just keep his eyes glued to that store’s door. If that shawl came out that door he was following. He could only hope and pray that he and Richie were right. If they were wrong and it didn’t lead him to Amelia he didn’t know what he’d do.

Richie gave his friend a worried look. Jon was looking way too tense. More tense than he’d ever seen him. That didn’t bode well for anyone who might have Amelia. He just hoped and prayed he didn’t have to hold his friend back from doing something he’d regret forever. After all isn't that what friends were for?