My Soul to Keep (The Soul Keeper Series - Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (9 page)

     
We arrive back at shore and I drive you
home. You haven't said one word to me and I deserve that. I think it is for the
best for you not to like me right now. Although it has to be one of the hardest
things I have ever had to experience. I wish I could see the whole picture. I
leave you to go inside and hand you your keys. You give me a look of -why does
it have to hurt so much? And I have to turn from you yet again. I don't hug you
and I hope that makes it easier for you. I lope down the stairs pretending to
be apathetic.

 
I can't watch you tonight it hurts too much. I
know you're safe inside and I will know if you leave. ~

 
I take a
break from my journal and go into the kitchen to cook something and that's when
I seem him from the corner of my eye. He appears black as coal and his sickly
yellow eyes glow in the shadows. I'm always ready for a good fight. I move
swiftly upon him and grab him by the neck and squeeze, his yellow eyes strain
under the pressure. His talons rake across my arm like a kitten's claws. He
draws blood, which heals immediately. I slam him into the stone floor and crack
the tile. Now he's irritated me. I reach deep inside his chest and with one
quick swipe I end him.

 
In his last
breath, he seethes. “Elijah we’re coming for her.” He disintegrates into a mist
and his shadow bleeds back into the dark corner. I don't know why they even try
to fight with us; they're like ants under a shoe. I return to the kitchen and
take out some shrimp and toss them with some olive oil and fresh pepper. I
squeeze a little lemon in the bowl and throw the shrimp on the grill. I enjoy
my time in the kitchen. I make a small portion of risotto. I grab a wine glass
and uncork a bottle of Merlot. Brennen is probably eating a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich for dinner. I would love for her to try this. The wine is
pleasing and surprisingly rich with notes of dark chocolate and
blackberries.
 
After dinner I make a
chocolate ganache and a batch of vanilla cupcakes, garnishing each one with a
fresh raspberry. I place one on a plate and take it next door. I just can't
stay away from her for very long. I see her on the sofa reading a book. I tap
on the glass and she rises to greet me. She's wearing a short emerald green satin
robe; it matches the exact color of her eyes. I love how her silky blonde hair
is pulled into a ponytail highlighting her long thin neck, she's simply
exquisite. I would love to kiss that small spot on her neck just below her ear.

“Good evening, sorry to bother you so late but I
wanted to apologize about earlier. I brought you a peace offering. I really am
sorry Brennen.” She eyes the cupcake like it could be laced with strychnine.
Nevertheless, she invites me inside.

“Thank you Elijah, it looks delicious, so you
do
bake?”
 
She asks this like it's something she has
been wondering about.
 
She takes a fork
from the drawer and tastes my frosting. Her eyes roll back in pleasure. She
moans, and it does something to me. I am thankful I am sitting opposite her
with the shelter of a table over my lap right now.

“Oh yes Brennen, I bake,” I say coyly and then kick
myself. Ugh, when will I learn to stop giving her these mixed signals? It is
the most difficult order I have ever had to comply with. I have never been in
love with a girl before, these feelings are utterly overwhelming.
 

     
“Maybe we
could bake together sometime.” The way she says it is evocative and I can't
help but return a wide eyed look of surprise. What am I going to do about this
girl?

It’s late Friday night and I still feel like I can't
sleep. I slip out the back door and walk down to the beach. The water is still
warm from summer and I walk along the shallow tide. The moon is high and casts
out millions of stars on the water.

I look over at Elijah's house and notice a light is
on and it draws me closer, like a moth to a flame. Before I know it I am on his
back porch. I see him inside seated at a small desk, writing in a thick leather
bound journal. I see no video feed coming of my house or anything that would
suggest I am under surveillance. I wonder if he has a secret spy room inside.
He looks up for a moment and I think he may have heard my heart hit the floor.
He goes back to writing. I would give my left arm to know what's in that book,
Elijah's innermost thoughts, his dreams, and his true feelings for me perhaps.
I tip-toe down his steps and make a silent escape to my home. When I reach my
porch Elijah is sitting on the bottom step. How did he get here without me seeing
him? Did he know I was at his house? Maybe I tripped some silent alarm.

“Can’t sleep?” he asks in a dry tone.

“No, you?”
 
A gust of frigid wind whips around me,
blowing my hair wildly in its grip. Chills run over my skin like an electric
current. Elijah goes to pull me into his arms. I take a step back away from
him. I can’t let him keep doing this to me. He remains standing but folds his
arms and leans into the railing, his expression never changing.

“So did you need something?” he says coolly. Great
he saw me at his house. My curiosity will be the death of me.

“Nothing you can give me.” I brush past him to go
inside.
 
If I keep feeding his jealousy,
it will only end up with someone hurt, most likely me.

He grabs my arm and stops me, releasing it, he pins
me without actually touching me. His scent surrounds me. I inhale trying to
place it. My pulse quickens, I can feel it drumming in my head.

“Brennen.”
He caresses my name on his tongue.

“Hmm,” I murmur, unable to speak, I almost feel
drunk. I try to focus on his eyes to regain my composure but that only deepens
the effect.

“I don’t think you should let things escalate any
further with Sam.” Urgency clings to his words, his voice harsher than usual. I
am sure he followed Sam and me when we left for lunch today, on our non-date.

“Why?
You
don’t want me.” I look up at him only able to move my eyes.

He puts a finger on my collarbone, tracing it while
he thinks about his answer. The heat from my face enters my chest causing it to
feel like it could combust at any time. My breath comes in slow shallow pulls
like that of a deep sleep.

“Sam could put you in more danger.”

“No, he’s sweet.” His aroma was incapacitating me.
“What cologne are you wearing?” I ask in a hushed tone. He takes his arm down
and slowly backs up, thus allowing the fresh air to sweep it away. I feel the
fog drain from my head. He takes my hand and leads me inside
 

“Elijah wait,” I pull my hand free and he turns to
me and frowns but keeps walking. I tug on his arm and he winds his fingers
through mine, still leading me.

“Is it because you are jealous?”

“Si,” he says in Spanish.

“But we only kissed once, and you said yourself you
can’t be with me.” Elijah leans forward pausing mere inches from my lips. I
ready myself for the feel of his lips on mine.

“Besos desnudan el
corazon
y el amor adornan,” he quotes in perfect Spanish. I translate what he said.

“Kisses lay bare the heart and adorn love.”
 
Did he just tell me he loved me?

“You don’t want me, you just don’t want anyone else
to have me either Elijah. You don’t know what love is. Love is sacrifice and
selflessness, two things of which you will never know.” By the look on his
face, I know I have wounded him deeply.

 
I pull my
fingers from his tightened grip and go inside and slam the door in his face
before he can follow. I settle back under my duvet and for the first time in a
long while, I am proud of myself. It seems morality is the ultimate sedative. I
am asleep in minutes.

***

I wake up feeling fully rested and decide to go and
visit my grandmother this morning. Should I call Elijah to let him know I am
going out? I decide against it, if I was starting to wonder about his secret
agent cover, last night confirmed his surreptitious ninja skills. I pick out
jeans and a tee then change my mind, remembering how dressed up Grandma was
last time I saw her. I choose a teal shift dress and leopard beaded sling
backs.

     
I take
Grandma's Lexus crossover because it hasn't been driven in a while and I think
that is a bad thing. It still purrs silently so that's good. I go to apply a
red lipstick because I notice in the mirror this deep jewel tone dress has
washed me out to a deathly pale hue. As I flip the mirror up, my steering wheel
jerks left hard and I almost hit the wall of the freeway doing seventy miles
per hour. My heart tries to jump out of my chest as adrenaline courses through
my veins like venom. I think my tire is flat. My steering wheel keeps pulling
me left and remarkably, I am able to pull over safely to the median. My hands
are shaking uncontrollably.
 
I exit the
passenger door which is no easy feat in this dress. I am wishing for the
t-shirt and jeans now as my heels sink into the mud. I try walking on the balls
of my feet to the other side of the car and confirm the flat tire. The tire is
not just flat, but shredded into ribbons of dangling rubber. I shake my head at
my luck.

Vehicles zoom past me, sending a rush of air that
sways me with each pass. Inside the car I hit the on-star button and nothing
happens. I try a few more times with a little more gusto, and still nothing. I
snap and tell the system off with many expletives before I take my cell out and
walk further into the median to call triple A. My dad taught me how to change a
tire but I can't even pick up change in this dress.

As I am explaining my location to the obnoxiously
perky operator I notice a semi-truck drifting into the median. The median I am
standing in! My eyes widen as I drop my phone. I see the driver startle inside,
I think he just woke up. He tries to swerve back into his lane but there is not
enough time. My hair is blown back as the truck displaces the air between us. I
scream out as he smashes into my car, the sound of his tires screeching and
cargo twisting is horrific. The load he was carrying kinks downhill towards me.
I hit the ground as debris whizzes by my head. My eyes are squeezed shut but I
hear the chaotic crumple of metal and the strain of steel buckling under
enormous pressure. As I peek open my eyes, a tire is jettisoned from the truck
and starts rolling toward me like a heat seeking missile. I jump out of the way
and it rolls into the service road causing another accident.
 
The truck driver gets out of the rig bleeding
from a cut on his head and staggers over to me.

     
“Was
there anyone in the car?” I shake my head slowly, still in shock. I stare at
the carnage, now billowing smoke, as the truck driver pulls me further away.
The Lexus is gone, the front end is wrapped around a concrete piling and the
rear is inside the semi's front end. I am in true shock now, and I only see the
world around me in snapshots. I see the trucker trying to talk to me. I see his
lips moving but I can't hear him. I just look at him like he is from another
planet. I turn left and see two cars damaged on the service road. I blink and
see that the passengers seem unhurt.
 
I
turn back and stare at the spot where I was when the truck hit and I stare for
a very long time. My brain hasn't figured out what the puzzle is yet but I know
there is one. It takes a minute to process, but then I see it. A single purple
flower lay crushed where I had once been, I pan out and see a field of debris
in a perfect half-moon shape around the flower, no more than three or four feet
in diameter. I go there to understand if what I'm seeing is real. Sirens cry
out in the distance as I begin to creep back into the present. I am still standing
on the spot when the medic begins asking me questions. It's the plane crash all
over again.

     
“Do you see
that?” I ask him just to be sure.

     
“That's
where I was when it happened. Does that seem normal?” I point to the ground.
The medic looks at the ground and agrees only that I am one lucky girl and that
it was a miracle I wasn’t killed...
again.
If the on-star button would have worked, I would have been jamming out inside
the car while waiting on help and I would have been crushed to death. I call
Elijah to come pick me up and he says he's only a couple minutes away at a
shopping center. I am giving my statement to the police when he pulls up.

     
“Brennen
are you okay?” I nod. “Come here, you're shaking like a leaf.” He envelops me
in his arms and I don't know if it’s the adrenalin coursing through my veins
but when I close my eyes, I feel like I am in the steel cage arms of the
stranger. I grip his t-shirt and wind it around my fingers and my world fades
away.

     
I panic
when I open my eyes because the thought crosses my mind that I must have passed
out and if I'm in a hospital bed, then I am in royal trouble because I have no
next of kin. But I figure out in a hurry that I'm in Elijah's car and safe.