My Soul to Take (Soul Keepers (Young Adult paranormal romance)) (22 page)

“
So who asked you to prom?”

“
Jesson!” she squeals out.

“
Jesson as in my vice president in Government? Wow, he’s really sweet. I mean it. I saw him help an elderly lady to her car last week, and put her bags in the trunk and everything.”

“
Yeah well he’s pretty cool too, we’ve been studying together he’s tutoring me in Chem.” She wraps her long mahogany hair up and secures it with a clip.
“By tutoring, do you mean testing your chemistry via oral exploration?” I chide.

“
You’re such a nerd, no we haven’t kissed yet.”

“
Maybe I’m a nerd but I’m a nerd who’s going to Harvard.”

“
What, you got accepted?” I pull out the letter from my bag, she rips it from my grasp, and reads it aloud. My cheeks fill with heat as she gets a little loud on the accepted to Harvard university part. “What about Sam?”

“
He hasn’t heard anything yet. I’m not telling him until he knows for sure. He’s really worried.”

“
You think that’s a good idea? I mean if he doesn’t get in and you do, he’ll be mad that you hid that from him for weeks.”
I sigh, I know she’s right but I don’t want to rub it in his face either. Mia and Macy come running out of the store eager to show us their finds. I’ve come to love these girls so much over the last few months. They’re the sweetest little girls I’ve ever met. I fawn all over them so much, Sam thinks I’m dating him just for an excuse to dote on his siblings. If his body wasn’t so physically perfect, he just may be right. Of course Sam’s understated brilliance and general good nature doesn’t hurt either.

“
Are you daydreaming about Sam again?” Mia teases. I guess I was. I snap out of my daze.

“
Who wants to go to Everything Pink?” I offer and get three more elated eee’s.

***

Journal of E.M              April 24
th
2013

It’s been two months since Brennen’s memory wipe. She hasn’t given the slightest hint that she remembers anything. She and Sam are still going strong. Everything is as it would have been had I never kissed her. This is how her life was supposed to go, I keep telling myself. This version of her is lighter, she doesn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders yet.

Will and I keep a careful eye on the pair of them now. He got his letter of rejection from Harvard today and Will and I are both worried about how he’s going to take hearing Brennen got accepted and he didn’t. Will’s giant muscles are itching to be engaged in something a little more challenging than pulverizing demon’s on a daily basis. The demons have been hovering over Sam like Greyhound bus stop, trying their damnedest to get in.

They're getting smarter, they know we don’t like to watch too closely when Sam and Brennen are in full make-out mode. I don’t like to even be under the same roof when they kiss. But
I’ve no choice now but to pay close attention. They’re wrapping up their movie and the end of the date is what I’m dreading.

“
That was a really good movie,” Will says obviously teary eyed and not ashamed one bit.

“
You need to grow a pair.”

“
You need to be more in touch with your sensitive side,” says the mammoth sitting next to me. Great, here comes Sam the molester, all over my girl already. She lifts her head up from his chest and he steals a kiss while she's still contemplating over it. That used to be our nightly routine, minus the kissing. I miss her touch so much it hurts. Sam drives the knife in my gut when Brennen playfully straddles his lap and plants soft little kisses under his ear following the line of his neck down to his collarbone.

“
Boss, I really can handle things if you want to check out for a bit.” Will's got a grin on his face like he enjoys seeing my guts on the table.

“
One-eyed Willie, do you recall how you ended up with that nickname?”

“
You sure are in a mood something fierce tonight. How about you turn your back at least,” he says stifling a laugh.

“
I'm going to be in a fierce mood until that demon motel, gets on a plane to Texas and stays there.” Will takes the cue to keep quiet. I hear a distant rustling outside and detect someone’s heartbeat about fifty yards from the house. I let Will know I’m going to check it out.

I follow the sound down to the beach swiftly but stealthily. The tall Saw grass keeps me hidden from sight. Whoever it is, isn’t moving much anymore,
they’re calm, reducing my threat assessment to DEFCON five.

I see a figure sitting on a log, lost in thought. I inch closer and recognize the jet black emo hairstyle as Jesson.

“You’re getting slow in your old age,” he chides. We were all created on the same day, neither aging nor slowing down one bit.

“
Yeah, well why are you creeping around here anyways?” I say, sounding like my mood has followed me outside. I take a seat at the end of the log, grateful for the reprieve. I couldn’t stand another minute watching Sam hold her, paw all over her, kiss her like he’d starve to death without her lips.

“
She visited me in the recovery room the night before she had her memories altered.”

“
Really? She didn’t say anything.”

“
I barely remember seeing her there myself. I was lingering in and out of consciousness that night. But I do remember she asked me who took her. I think she suspected me,” he says, and I hate to admit it but I had my suspicions as well about Jesson. 

“
You know who took her?” The hair on my neck stands up. She almost died down there. Whoever took her will pay dearly even if I’ve to hunt down every demon under Malphas’ command.

“
Nehemiah knew, so I thought he told you,” Jesson admits. My jaw clenches at the realization of one fact – my commanding superior has made a grave error in judgment.

“
Who was it Jesson.” He rises from his seat and paces back and forth, kicking up sand as he walks. He just got his grace back and I’m sure he’s on pins and needles with his standing. I recall the exact day the fallen got tossed out of grace, loosing most of their powers, condemned to rule over evil. Jesson didn’t really want to side with them, but they managed to convince him it was the right thing to do. Power can have a strange effect of people. He finally stops in front of me.

“
It was the kid, Sam. I don’t know who possessed him. There was chatter among the ranks that Malphas rewarded Orneus only to cruelly punish him later for some misdeed. He tortured me when he figured out that I had led Nehemiah to her.  So it may have been him.”

Nehemiah’s blatant disregard for Brennen’s safety is shameful. I storm off, leaving Jesson on the beach. I find Sam and Brennen engaged in a full lip lock and I pace back out to the hall. Unbelievable! I grab the nearest object and send it hurling across the room
. ~

Sam and I’ve worked ourselves up before, but tonight he’s throwing out all the moves.

“
I got my Harvard letter in the mail today.” His voice is a dead giveaway for bad news and I get a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach before he even tells me what it said. “Looks like I'm going to Baylor.”

“
You can't move two thousand miles away. We'll never see each other.”

“
Med school and law school, Bren we'd never see each other much anyways. Did you get your letter yet?”

“
I found out weeks ago, since I did the early admission application. I'm sorry, I wanted to wait to tell you when we both had good news.”

“
I know babe. It's all right. Baylor is a good school and there's a good shot I can get an internship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.”
Yeah, let's throw a party Sam and I won't see each other again until we're thirty.
He pulls me in for a much needed hug. Sam warms me in his arms while resting his cheek on my head.   

“
We've been through a lot this year, I think we'll make it through college
,”
is what I say, but
“What are the odds?”
is what I really I think to myself
.
We've been inseparable since the first day of school this year. But this is high school, and from what I've heard, this is nothing compared to college. Girls still swoon at Sam's feet with all out blatant disregard that we’re a couple. Now he'll have the bombardment of horny sorority girls with a two thousand mile buffer between us.

“
Why not John Hopkins’s or Yale?”

“
My dad went to Baylor and my grandfather. It means a lot to him. He’s selling the ranch this summer Bren, he’s going to move us to Houston. He wants to cut his losses.” The fire caused his dad to take a financial hit. People didn't want to risk their ten thousand dollar horse in a possibly faulty stable. Most of their wealthiest clients pulled their horses. They never did find the cause of the fire.  Our sleepy little beach town has an arsonist at large.

He takes my face between his hands and looking as if he’s about to dive right into my eyes, he moves closer. I close my eyes as his lips softly brush over mine. His warm tongue parts my lips and then he nips at my lower lip with his teeth before consuming me with his lips again. He repeats this until I’m drunk off of his kisses. 

We hear a glass vase crash out in the hall and I about jump out of my skin. My heart is lying somewhere in the next town over.

“
Stay here I’ll go check it out, “Sam says, already at the door. I nod hugging the sofa pillow to my chest. Sam disappears down the hall. All alone, suddenly I’m too afraid to be in here by myself. I tiptoe to the door.

I
find Sam looking bewildered at the sight of broken glass all over the wood floor, a good twenty feet from where the vase had come from. I see a small dent in the wall where it hit and shattered. Someone had to have thrown it. Sam’s already hit the panic button on the alarm panel. An ear piercing alarm goes off and the phone starts ringing.

I explain to the security company what happened and they instruct us to wait behind a locked door until police arrive. Sam leads me into my room and locks the door as instructed, looking more than pleased at our place of refuge.
He smiles and waggles his brows. I shake my head at him as I plop on my bed. The blaring siren, does nothing to stir my libido.

“
You locked the door when we came in right?”
“Yes, always. I get on to the girls about locking doors all the time, so I’m sure I did.”

“
You went out there right after we heard the sound, you would have heard someone running down the stairs.”

“
They would have had time to hide in a bedroom, or even escape out the catwalk.” The local police arrive in minutes and Sam makes me lock the bedroom door behind him while he lets them in. While they’re searching the house, Sam knocks on the door and we go down to the kitchen to wait. Sam holds me in his arms making me feel like no one could get by him.

Police with guns drawn flashlights in their other hand, creep around every corner of my house inside and out.
They don’t find anyone, and every door and window is still secure, even the catwalk is locked from the inside. There’s no sign of forced entry either.

“
Guess I’ll call Father Michael, so he can bless the house, cause I must have a damn ghost.”

“
I'm calling my dad, I don't want you spending the night alone. I'll sleep on your chair thing.”

“
I'll be fine and it's called a chaise.” He suppresses a wry grin.

“
You're still shaking. I'm staying.” I didn't even realize I was. Sam hugs me, the full warmth of his chest heats my face, and I bask in it. Why am I trying to get him to leave?

One word pops in my head -- Baylor, and I change my mind completely. I want him to stay, and hopefully not in the chaise. Sam gets a reluctant approval from his father attached with a firm warning that Sam better be the perfect gentleman.
Here's hoping he’s not the obedient son
.

Sam takes a seat on my bed while I go into my bathroom to change. I choose a soft mint camisole and silky shorts to go to bed in. I emerge from the bathroom with my hair cascading down my back, freshly scrubbed face, and a light dusting of shimmery body powder. His eyes take me all in and I can't help but notice how he hasn't taken a breath in a few seconds.

I sit cross legged on my bed against my pillows. My ivory duvet shimmers under the dimmed light. Sam finally snaps out of his fantasy and judging from the pillow over his lap, he looks like he's afraid to change positions. 

“
There's a blanket in the trunk at the end of my bed. I see you already have a pillow.” I pump some lotion into my hands and work it into my legs. He suppresses a grin and glides from his seat to my bed in one swift motion, plopping casually down next to me.

“
Lie down,” he commands. He grabs the lotion from my nightstand and I see where he's going with this. I open my side drawer and hand him a bottle of massage oil instead. “Even better.”