My Soul Keeper (34 page)

“Next time, I won’t put you back in your human vessel. I’ll stick your soul into a fucking dung beetle,” I growl. “Stay away from my brother and his woman,” I command.

I reach my arm around Liam’s waist and help him from the coffee shop, which is now empty apart from the stunned staff.

“We will need Gabriel to pay them a visit and erase all they might have seen,” Liam groans.

“We need Gabriel to fix you,” I tell him as I head in the direction of his dorm.

I place Liam down on the bed and order Leah to stay with him. I’m not surprised that Gabriel has used the opportunity to be alone somewhere with Simone. I sense her and go to where she is.

A fucking waterfall. Gabriel really is pulling out all the stops. I didn’t even know this place existed. When Gabriel and Simone come into my view, my heart stops beating in my chest. Acid burns the lining of my stomach. Rolling waves of loss and heartache wash over my body.

Simone’s eyes connect with mine when I find my voice and call out to Gabriel. Pulling her away from his lips, Gabriel looks over to me with concern.

“Did you manage to defuse the situation?” he asks.

I narrow my eyes at him. “We need you now.”

I tear my eyes from them. I know she’s not at fault, but the betrayal still feels real inside me. After never having these feelings before, only to open myself up to them and then have them played with by other people boils my anger to a constant simmer.

“Take Simone home, and then meet me at your dorm room. And Gabriel? Make it fast.”

I come back to the dorms to a profusely sweating Liam. “Did you find him?”

I nod my head and send a calm into the room to try and help while we wait. Leah stands from the bed, where she was stroking Liam’s hair.

“Why are we waiting here? He needs the hospital and I need you to explain what the hell happened back there,” she commands, but her conviction falters with her tone. She inhales a few times and I feel her body relax from my calm.

“Leah, call Jacob. Tell him he needs to come pick up his sister and then go back to your dorm. I don’t want Simone left alone.”

She begins shaking her head back and forth. “No way. I’m not leaving Liam,” she states.

“Leah, I need you to be with Simone. I’ll worry about her otherwise. Please?” Liam pleads.

I feel her jealousy and hurt as she misconstrues his words. “Fine.”

She leaves Jacob’s sister huddled in the bathroom.

Gabriel finally makes his appearance

“He needs healing and there’s a girl in the bathroom who needs her memories erased,” I inform him, none too friendly.

“Thanks, man. That feels good. That hurt like a son of bitch,” Liam says as Gabriel heals him.

I coax the girl to come into the room so Gabriel can take her memories just as Jacob knocks on the door.

“I’ll keep him busy. Make her think she’s been at a party and that she got too drunk. It wouldn’t be the first time,” Liam informs Gabriel.

Hours pass. Gabriel took Jacob’s sister’s memories. I felt a little guilty when Jacob screamed at her for being so irresponsible for coming here to party and getting wasted, but hopefully it will keep her away from coming back here.

Liam went back to Leah and I’ve been doing my job.

I’ve collected so many souls tonight. I need to see Simone to sate my own sanity; I need to be near her warmth to remind myself there’s more than just this.

I appear in her room in my cloaked form. She’s sleeping; her black silky hair pools out like spilled ink onto the white pillow. Her red lips are a contrast to her pale skin. God, she’s beautiful. I watch as her head tilts back and forth. She’s dreaming. It seems peaceful at first until her breathing picks up and then she just disappears, right in front of me.

I rush to her bed and pat the warm space where her body was lying two seconds ago.

“Liam!”

“What?” He sits up groggy from sleep he doesn’t finish when he sees Simone’s bed empty. “Where is she?”

“She was dreaming and then poof, she vanished,” I stutter in disbelief. He jumps from the bed. I notice Leah’s not with him.

“Where’s Leah?”

He shrugs. “She went out when I got here.”

I shake my thoughts away and try to sense Simone.

“I can’t sense her.”

My panic picks up as I pace the floor of her small dorm room. I’m about to go raise Hell, literally, when she reappears in her bed, her breathing fast and choppy. I go back to the corner as Liam rushes over to her and gently shakes her. Her eyes spring open.

“Liam that felt so real.”

“Tell me about it, Simone,” he offers.

“I was in a place with water, standing in a pond type thing. I don’t know; the colour of everything was distorted. I saw ghosts or…” She shudders. “I’m sorry. I’m having freaky dreams. Sorry I woke you.”

I watch as he pulls her into his arms just as the door to the door opens and clicks shut. Leah looks over to Liam and Simone, and shrugs her jacket off. She climbs into her bed without a word. Simone pulls away from Liam with a sad, weak smile. She turns, lying down, facing away from them. Liam gestures towards the hall and I follow him outside.

“Purgatory,” I say before he has a chance to speak.

“What?”

“She was born there. She, like the dark and light transporters, can travel there. I should have thought of this before.”

Liam shakes his head. “How is she doing that, though?”

“She must be dreaming of Purgatory, her mind trying to make sense of what’s been covered over with false memories. Her brain’s triggering the memories while she’s sleeping because everyone she has seen today she’s seen before, but she doesn’t realise it. Her brain’s trying to make sense of things.”

I sigh. “Crap, I don’t know. I’m flying blind here. I’m guessing as I go.”

Liam punches the wall. “This is fucked. We can’t have her traveling in her sleep; she could end up anywhere, or get stuck there not knowing what she is or how she got there. We need to speak to Gabriel, to find out if people get memories back, or see if there’s a way to stop her traveling or some shit.”

“I don’t want him playing with her memories anymore, Liam,” I state.

“I agree, but we need to protect her, even from herself. She has no idea what she is or how to protect herself. What if she thinks of Lucas and, bam, she appears to him?”

A growl vibrates from my chest. “Damn, this is bullshit. This should never have happened in the first place.”

“What if we try to tell her everything? If she can travel to Purgatory, she could help bring mom back.”

“Let me speak to Gabriel. I’ll stay away from her for a few days so I don’t help trigger her memories.”

“But the fact she can travel to Purgatory could be a huge asset to what we need to do for getting Charmeine home for the shit with Lucas.”

“Her safety comes before anything, let me talk to Gabriel.” I glare at Liam before I de-materialize.

Simone continues to dream and travel in her sleep state over the next few days. Gabriel agrees it may be seeing so many people from the memories that has triggered something in her brain. I agreed to stay away, but only when she’s awake.

Gabriel says he will speak to Grayer, transporter of light, about getting Charmeine back, but we still have no plan for Lucas. I hate that he’s inside my father’s body, completely corrupting anything left of my father. Still, to put him back in his own body was too risky. He isn’t at full strength right now because he isn’t in his own vessel. It’s safer to keep him where he is for now, because I don’t have the safe box to place his soul into. Michael took it.

“Leah didn’t come home last night. She’s been distant this last week and not just emotionally. She’s not been around at all,” Liam mumbles.

“We need to get Gabriel to try and help Simone get her memories back. He agrees it’s becoming too dangerous for her to be unaware of who she is. Maybe he can do the same with Leah,” I offer.

Liam sighs, relieved.

“Okay, well, I have class with Simone, and then we’re meeting up with Jacob.”

Just hearing Jacob’s name pisses me off; he’s been acting like a doting lover with Simone. I feel my body begin its usual shake as I become jealous and angry, so I stop thinking about them and go to work.

I’m retrieving souls when I receive a phone call to come to the campus where Simone and Liam are. The hairs on the back of my neck raise, I know something isn’t right. Leah’s name appears in my mind, my stomach drops. A cold chill runs through me. I know it could be a trap but I need to go to them.

The halls are eerie; the place seems to be empty until my eyes find Lucas, standing with a devilish grin. I freeze.

I’m happy to have the distraction of classes starting. When I left the dorm this morning, it had been five days since Gabriel took me to the waterfall and kissed me. His kiss was sweet, but felt wrong on my lips. When Shamar called Gabriel’s name, Gabriel broke his kiss and I felt my stomach plummet as I saw the broken look on Shamar’s face. It hurt me more than it should have to see his pain; I felt like I’d betrayed him in some way. All I could think about when he dropped me off was Shamar and the pain I saw on his beautiful face when he found Gabriel kissing me. I managed to avoid any more of his advances. But things are running through my mind, not making sense.

How did he even know where we were? And why do I feel so drawn to him? I’ve missed him yet I hardly know him.

He’s kept away these last few days, but I feel like I can sense him at night in my room; his scent is all around me, bathing me. I don’t understand what’s happening to me. Everything seems surreal, like I’m living with a cloak over me, like it’s a role I’m supposed to be playing out while reality is happening outside of me.

I exhale and rub my tired eyes. I hate that I can’t escape my own my mind. It’s working overtime and even what I’m thinking confuses me. I feel lost. I wish I could find myself again.

Jacob keeps trying to fix me with his kindness, but I’m not broken in a way he can fix. I’m more lost than broken. I feel like I’m drifting farther and farther away from everything. I feel like I’m being dragged into my subconscious, into a deep realm that almost makes it feel real.

“Simone!”

I startle at the sound of Liam sat beside me.