My Soul Keeper (29 page)

“You shouldn’t be out here in PJs, Simone. There’s a storm coming in.”

I tip my head to the sky and watch the clouds; I feel myself relax as the sky draws me in.

“Simone!” Liam shouts to me, making me jump.

“What?”

“Come inside and get ready.”

Jacob rolls his eyes. “When did he become your dad?” His remorse reads immediately on his face. “Oh shit, I’m sorry, baby. That was insensitive. I didn’t think.”

I wave my hand at him. “It’s okay.”

I go back inside and climb the stairs to the shower. I let the heated water beat down against my body. I feel a calming presence all around me and my heartbeat taps harder against my chest. My mind spins, churning my emotions. The smell from Liam’s t-shirts fills my senses. Hot breath tickles my neck. I spin around, but there’s nothing there. The ache in my heart cracks again and tears fall freely.

I drag myself from the shower and dry my skin. After pulling on a sweater and jeans, I come down into the kitchen to find Leah has arrived. The bickering stops me from greeting her

“Back off trying to stir shit, Jacob,” Liam shouts.

“What’s going on?” I ask as I take a few cautious steps toward them.

“Nothing, honey. Just Jacob being an ass. Come hug me, we’re officially grown. Today we are moving out on our own,” Leah shrieks. “Oh, I rhymed.” She laughs, barrelling toward me and throwing herself at me. I open my arms to embrace her.

“Have you packed?” she asks, cocking her eyebrow.

“Yes, I’m set.”

She claps her hands and gestures to Liam and Jacob.

“Go get her stuff. I want to make a move before the storm arrives.”

The rain begins to pelt against the windows. Leah scrunches up her face and pouts. “Boo,” she complains to the rain. Liam laughs at her.

“You had to mention the storm, Leah. You jinxed us.”

“My leg aches,” Jacob moans, limping into the living room and lying down on the couch. I can see his discomfort. I grab some water and pain killers and follow him.

“Hey, sit up a little.” I tilt his head and hand him the pills and glass. I lift his bad leg and sit down, propping it on my lap. I stroke up and down the length lightly.

“That feels amazing. Thank you.”

He closes his eyes. I can see the strain on his face, how difficult this is for him. I close my eyes and continue to stroke his leg. I wish I could fix him, help him, and take away his pain, so he can have his scholarship.

“Simone!” Liam startles me.

I look up at him. “What?”

He watches my hand. I follow his gaze and see my hand lightly glowing. I push Jacob’s leg away and jump from my seat.

“What was that?”

“Simone, what are you doing? You can’t shove my leg around like that.”

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I was just…” I look to Liam who looks conflicted.

“It was the sun through the window,” he mumbles. I look out the window and see only rain showering against the pane.

“Wow, Simone. You have magic powers or something. My leg feels much better.”

“We need to get a move on, guys,” Leah says, breaking the tension in the room. My eyes dart to Liam. He’s hiding something from me, I can tell by the way he’s chewing on the inside of his mouth. His hands are shoved deep in his pockets and he’s rolling back and forth onto his toes.

“Your leg seems fine, Jake. If you didn’t want to help, you didn’t have to feed us bull,” Leah moans. I look to Jacob, who’s smiling and flexing his leg back and forth.

“I can’t believe it. I couldn’t flex my leg this much before. Maybe it’s just taking time to heal and will get better.” He beams enthusiastically; I match his smile. I really pray that’s the case. Liam sighs deep and rubs his palms over his face.

“Come on, guys. I want to get going,” Leah moans stomping her foot for effect.

I watch as they load Jacob’s truck with Simone’s bags and take off for the dorms. I watched when Simone healed part of Jacob’s injury; thank God Liam got to her in time before she could complete the healing.

This is a mess. I’ve spoken to Liam about maybe trying to explain things to Simone but with her fragile state at the moment, we can’t risk fracturing her mind. I sense her body’s need for mine when I’m close to her; she aches but doesn’t know why. She talks about it to the sky when she thinks no one’s around. God, I want to hold her.

A flurry of names appears and travels up my arm, flickering through my mind. I travel and appear on a motorway; there’s chaos. Screams and crying bleed out into the air. A flood of emotions pulses through me as I’m assaulted by the fear, pain, and sorrow of everyone around me. There’s crumpled metal and shattered glass covering the concrete; red pools form under bodies in the mangled wreckage.

There are at least thirty vehicles. I collect twenty souls from the carnage; this job takes a toll on me. It’s different from my charges. I’m used to the light of my young souls and seeing over their life’s journeys. All the different types of souls I have to take now leave sorrow’s darkness to creep into my bones.

I have no control. I feel the lives they lived; I feel the light or darkness from their souls. Some are taken too soon, some have lived many lives, some are new souls. The Angel of Light appears to collect the souls, she still doesn’t speak.

I appear at the dorms where Simone and Leah are unloading Jacob’s truck. The rain lightly drums the ground and taps across the roofs of the cars. Simone’s hair is wet and strands cling to parts of her face; her blue eyes sparkle in contrast to the drops on her skin. She keeps swiping her tongue across her rose coloured lips, tasting the rain. I watch as she looks up to the sky, holding her arms out at her sides. The rain pebbles on her smooth skin.

“Simone, hurry,” Leah screeches, but Simone doesn’t move. She blinks as the pellets of water form into tears and cascade over her skin. I can feel her heartbeat; I need to be closer.

She inhales and her head snaps forward. She’s looking straight through me. I’m about fifteen feet from her and I’m cloaked from view. Her mouth parts slightly. Her chest rises and falls and she slowly begins to walk toward me. I look behind me to see if she’s walking toward something or someone else, but there’s a concrete pillar behind me. My breathing has increased; her scent invades me as she stalks closer.

She stops three feet from me. Her eyes gloss over and she bites down on her beautiful bottom lip. Her hand goes to her heart. My own heart begins to drum loud; I feel it beat from my chest. She’s in touching distance, I can feel her hot breath stroke my skin like a caress.

“Simone, for fuck’s sake, you’ll catch your death,” Liam berates her, holding a jacket over her head and guiding her away by her elbow. She looks back at me, even though she can’t see me. I watch her disappear through the heavy doors into the building.

“Mmmm, sweet Simone.”

I spin around to see my father; the smirk sitting on his face is very much Lucas, however.

“Missed me?” he asks.

“What do you want?” My heart’s beating erratically. I fear for Simone.

“I need your help.”

I laugh a full belly laugh. “Is that a joke?” I ask.

He screws up his face in disgust. “I see you still underestimate me, Keeper,” he growls and vanishes.

I turn to follow Simone and see Lucas reappear across the street, he’s smiling. I watch like it’s happening in slow motion as he looks to a truck barrelling down the wet road. When it’s close to him, he shoves a girl from the sidewalk into the road. The squeal of the wheels fighting the brakes rings out; a loud crack followed by screams curse the air. I already know she’s dead, her name has appeared on me. I feel empty and responsible.

I go to her. She’s Simone’s age. I look up from my crouched position next to her body. Lucas is staring at me.

“I need your help. Are you ready to talk? I can do this all day.” His eyes leave mine and look to someone across the street. He smiles darkly.

I follow his eyes to Liam.

“We can talk,” I snap.

I retrieve the soul from the lifeless body, but I can’t consume her to pass her on. She wasn’t supposed to die, her soul floats away. She’s going to Purgatory. I stand and follow Lucas. He leads me to a car.

I raise my eyebrows as we approach the Mustang. There’s a dark angel in the driver’s seat, I recognise him as Azrael. I slip into the back and Lucas goes around, sliding in next to me.

“That didn’t have to happen.” He points to the wreck in front of us. I ignore him. “I want my body back.”

“What?”

“No offence to your father, but I prefer my body and I want it back.”

“Go get it then.”

His eyes roam my face. “I thought we could help each other out. Do you not want your father back? Or your mother?”

I look at Azrael’s eyes in the rear-view mirror; his eyes are dark pools of emptiness.

“The consequences for our last breach into Purgatory were immense, Lucas.”

“I’m in that fucking consequence of your trip to Purgatory, Keeper. Don’t think because I haven’t made my move that I have forgotten what you tried to do to me.” I feel his aggression steaming from him. “You will help me… or maybe you need more incentive?” He grins.

“No.” I shake my head. “Don’t kill more innocent people.”

He laughs. “There’s no such thing, Keeper.” He nods towards the dorms. “I’ll be in touch.”

He vanishes and I’m left with Azrael. I keep my eyes on him as I open the door and exit the car. I inhale some fresh air into my lungs and go to Liam, who’s hanging drapes in Simone and Leah’s dorm room.

“This is bullshit, Leah. Why couldn’t you leave the drapes that were already here?” he complains as he stretches, fiddling with the fixings.

“Because they were bland. These are cute.” She pouts and he sighs.

“Simone, do you want some of my Ian Somerhalder posters on your side?” Leah looks around the room. “Shit, where did Simone go?”

“If you stopped being bossy with this shit you would have noticed Jake took her to check out the rest of the facilities.”

He jumps down from the window and holds his arms out at the new drapes. “Better?”

“Perfect.” She beams and throws herself at him.

I wish I could be as happy as Leah, as in love and carefree. I swear something deep inside me drew me toward the scent that clouds my existence lately. I could smell it outside; I could feel my heart beating, but not for my body. It was beating for someone else’s. Someone I can’t quite grasp or even know yet. Why do I feel this way?

“Simone, we’re up.”

I snap from my haze and divert my eyes to the young guy staring at me expectantly. His lips lift into a smile. “What can I get you?” he asks.

“One hot chocolate with all the extras, two lattes, and…”

I look to Jacob, who’s glaring at the guy taking my order and running his eyes up and down the length of my body. His eyes stop on mine.

“You have beautiful eyes. Are you living in the dorms?”

“Are you kidding? Just get our order. I’ll have an espresso, coffee boy,” Jacob snarls at him.

The guy smirks at him and proceeds to ring up our order. Jacob pays and we move to the end of the counter to wait.

“How forward was that jerk?” he mumbles.

“He was just being friendly.”