Soul(s) (16 page)

They couldn’t even get a full howl out
before they were dead. More tried to sneak up behind me, but I felt
them coming. I swiftly picked up my dropped deku from my fall and
jutted it backwards under my arm. It slinked into my attacker. I
whipped around ready to jam my blade in deeper if they were still
alive.

My eyes locked on a man; a
single tear dripping down his face before the light faded from his
eyes. I froze. It wasn’t the body of an animal that slipped
backwards off my deku, it was
a
person.
What had I done? Was it too late?
Could I transfer some of my energy to this man and save his soul
from ascending?

MOVE!
Ajani ordered and I snapped back to life.

This Banguri wasn’t worth more than Keegan,
I desperately rationalized as I watched his soul float away. I
could think about this later. I could feel guilty later.

My deku painted the tips of grass red as I
began to run again.

Ajani was still making good progress, to my
left. We had our chance everyone was scattered and the portal was
wide open. We were about a few yards out still when a couple of the
low-Banguri beats launched back through these were larger than the
dog like ones we’d fought. I bent back losing my balancing as it
flew over me and my body tripped into a roll. I painted trying to
get my bearings when Ajani ran up to me dragging me up by the
arm.

“
Keep going and jump right
in to the portal,” he shouted to me, “I’ll be right behind
you.”

He was at first, I could sense him. Then an
even larger animal slammed his crushing weight into Ajani making
his energy flicker behind me. I cranked around trying to see what
was happened and began stumbling backwards into the portal. Ajani
wasn’t going to make it I was going to fall in without him.

I screamed and threw my hands forward
reaching for him. My powers hit the animal in the side like a
cannon and Ajani crashed on the ground. I let my instincts take
over. I knew what I wanted any my body just did it. I grabbed Ajani
and flung him to me like a sling shot. He moved so fast that he
crashed into me before I’d even fallen through the portal. The
whole event felt slow, but logically it couldn’t have been. I
didn’t know I could move anything with my mind that fast. I was
impressed with myself until we slammed into a wall.

The wind knocked completely out of me and I
gasped trying to catch my breath. In front of us, the portal
blinked shut like an eye.

Ajani grunted as he stood up. “I don’t sense
any Banguri. I think they all came back in the portal trying to
defend their camp,” he said.

I gasped as his weight lifted off my chest
and air surged into my lungs.

“
For fuck sake!” Ajani
cursed, realizing how hard he’d smacked into me. “Are you
alright?”

“
I think so,” I said
attempting to stand. I didn’t make it an inch of the ground before
I fell back down. I turned my head, gritting my teeth as white hot
pain seared through my calf. I was afraid to look.

“
I’m going to lift you and
lay your leg out straight. Hold on to me,” Ajani
instructed.

His arms encircled me, too quickly for me to
brace myself for the throbbing spasm in my leg. I felt dizzy. I
held my breath as he situated my leg and tears squeezed out of my
eyes.

“
I don’t know how you
managed not to break it but the skin got scrapped almost clean to
the bone. Tendons are probably shot. Water might make the pain
lessen but it won’t be enough to heal you.”

“
Kiss me,” I wheezed. I
was in so much agony that I didn’t even care at this
point.

“
It must be unbearable if
you’re asking me to—

I grabbed his collar with my free hand and
brought him heavily down onto my mouth. My theory was: Ajani wanted
me, so his own arousal should produce enough energy to help my leg
heal. What I hadn’t calculated was the way it would feel to
actually kiss him. To let go of what I knew was right and taste a
little bit of what was wrong. Ajani pulled back. I opened my eyes
and looked into his. They were steel grey with blazing golden
flecks around the iris.

“
You
are
attracted to me, aren’t you?” he
murmured.

I nodded, unwilling to say it. I felt my
cheeks flush with the truth. Ajani had finally been able to get it
out of me.

“
How long have you fought
against your feelings for me?” He said softly his eyes still glued
to mine as he held me.

I shrugged, I honestly didn’t know. I still
wanted Keegan more. “Will kissing you now change anything between
us?”

“
It won’t,” I told
him.

“
But you can feel it?” He
said leaning his head against mine in a soft caress. “You can feel
what we could have?”

“
Yes,” I said
weakly.

“
Yet, you still choose him
over me?” He asked as his lips embellished the side of my face with
light kisses.

“
I’ll always choose him,”
I promised.

Ajani pulled back from me. I thought his
eyes would be sad, defeated, earnest, but they were still
blazing.

“
You’re so stubborn,” he
growled and then he kissed me with a zeal that took my breath away
and in that brief moment I forgot everything but us. He pulled me
into him, holding me in the nook of his arm as he took full
advantage of this happenstance. Each kiss was filled with all the
things he’d wanted to say. Things that would have been stretched
out over a courtship if we’d met on earth and not on Second-Plane.
I couldn’t deny it. I liked him, my body liked him. I leaned into
his kisses, never stopping or pulling back and I gave myself over
to the way he could make me feel.

If I hadn’t been awakened with Keegan, then
maybe this would have been something. Yes, if Keegan hadn’t existed
then I’d want Ajani. But that wasn’t how our stars had been laid
out. Keegan owned my soul, no one else would ever be able to have
all of me.

My body began to warm and I felt an intense
stinging in my leg. I broke our kiss, arching my back against his
thighs. I was extremely overcome by the weird mix of pain in my leg
and pleasure everywhere else.

Ajani tipped my head back, leaning down as
he began unzipping my suit.

“
If you orgasm, you’ll
heal even faster,” his voice vibrated in my ear.

“
Ajani!” I cried weakly,
disoriented by everything I was feeling.

Exasperated, I started to mumble his name
again, but then covered my face with my hands. I knew my face was
getting redder by the minute and I was still trying to get a hold
of myself.

“
Exactly what you’d be
saying, but in a higher pitch,” he promised.

I didn’t want him to stop and I didn’t have
the will power to make him. I the air on my skin as the zipper
parted. His hand rubbed across my chest and down over my stomach. I
bit my lip, successfully stifling the moan that was threatening to
escape my mouth.

“
Relax,” Ajani said as he
continued to caress my stomach a tantalizingly slow pace inching
lower and lower. “trust me with your body and let me heal
you.”

Keegan.
I just couldn’t be intimate like this with anyone
else. My hand shot to his stopping him right at the shore. The
sexual haze began to dissipate and the world came back into focus.
The pain in my leg was gone with just a thin line of a faded scare
left. Ajani sat me up and I caught a glimpse his disheveled hair. I
blushed self-consciously.

“
Mrs. Keegan,” he said
bitterly, “your leg is all healed. We’d better get
moving.”

He helped me up and I for the first time, I
took in our surroundings. We were in a back alleyway of a city. It
was dark, which was good. I hadn’t thought of what might happen if
we came during the day. A car buzzed by and the glow from its
headlights illuminated the brick stone of the alley way reveling a
mural that had been painted. I had a quick flash of
recognition.

We’re in
First-Plane!
I thought to
Ajani,

Are you sure?

Yes.

“
Then no wonder why the
banguri have been trying to keep this hidden. Those murders and
attack were probably just a distraction. We’ll have to figure that
out later. Try to reach out to Keegan, maybe you’ll be able to
guide us right to him,” Ajani suggested.

“
What if I
can’t?”

“
We’ll go have sex
somewhere until your powers are strong enough,” Ajani told me, not
even bothering to hold back his smile.

I blushed again, worried it would come down
to that. What would Keegan think when I told him? I’d have to tell
him. You can’t keep that type of secret from someone.

“
I’m joking,” Ajani said
putting a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll find him. Take your time and
then just reach out to him.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It
was almost laughable having to try to be calm in order to be able
to focus hard enough to use my powers. Honestly, how the hell was I
supposed to be calm with everything that kept happening to me?

Keegan, Keegan, Keegan, where are you?

22: KEEGAN

DAY
ONE

I hadn’t been able to sleep. I had a feeling
I didn’t need much sleep. My shower had felt heavenly. I’d stayed
in for a while, letting the hot water soak into my skin. All the
aches dissipated. My strength returned and that hungry I felt when
I saw Eliza, lessened. It was like the water repaired me or even
fed me.

I wrapped the towel around
my waist firmly and stepped out with careful footing onto the tile.
I hadn’t wanted to slip, but once my feet hit the cold floor, I
realized they were dry. I ran a hand over my arm and through my
hair; dry, completely dry. I couldn’t explain that but at the same
time it didn’t alarm me, but I would be careful to keep that from
Eliza. Even though I somehow knew that was normal for me, I knew it
wasn’t
normal
in
general.

I realized I’d forgotten to bring the
clothes into the bathroom with me and returned to the living room
to find them. I didn’t want to put the suit back on. It felt out of
place here. It wasn’t like what the few people I’d seen had been
wearing.

Eliza had all sorts of things in her
apartment that gave me a hint to her personality. I recognized them
all. A smooth black matte gaming console, an impressionist
paintings of crooked flowers in earth a toned vase, but it was the
hodgepodge of books that caught my eye.

Drawn to them, I squatted in front of the
book case. My hands trailed over the spines of the books before
stopping on one. It was a book of poems. I tried to see who it was
by, but the pages were worn and the name on the leather cover had
long since faded away. I flipped it open letting my hand stop on a
page at random.

“
What will the fates have
me read today?” I said to myself.

From the Grave

Wrong place, right time

and now I’m dead.

“
How sad,” they’ll
sigh.

“
If only they’d try
harder,” they’ll say.

But what words can you hear,

deep in your grave?

I can’t hear anything in my tomb

and am glad for once, for silence;

life was hard as soon as I left the womb

and I’m glad to finally find something
un-bias.

Depressing
, I thought, utterly
depressing. Was this whole book like this? I tried again, flipping
to another page away from the melancholy one I’d found.

Me and the Moon

At night,

the moon haunts me

if it’s full.

At night,

the moon abandons me

when it’s hungry.

My days are always

better ending than they began,

My days are flavorless

and I can rest only

when I draw

the blinds to hide

the moon, because

when I make myself

—
alone—

I sleep best.

“
Do you always browse
through peoples things?” Eliza’s asked. Her voice jarred me and I
looked over my shoulder to see her standing in the
doorway.

“
I was reading one of your
books,” I told her as I stood up. I waved the book as
proof.

“
Do you always walk around
in just a towel?” she continued teasingly.

“
Yes,” I answered
evenly.

“
Charming,” she said,
smiling.

“
Am I?” I said crossing
the room to her. She had posted herself up against that same spot
on the wall from earlier.

“
Very,” she whispered as I
neared her.

“
Do you always lean
against walls?” I questioned. I reached out catching a tuft of her
brown hair. I toyed with it between my fingers, watching her
face.

“
Are you hungry?” she
asked her lashes fluttering down over her eyes. She sucked on her
bottom lip nervously. It was invigorating that I had this kind of
effect on her. Her energy was a recipe of excitement, arousal and
curiosity. Had I always been this way with women? I wish I could
remember.

I let her hair drop from my fingertips,
trading it for her hands. I pulled our linked hands behind my back
and her body lurched off the wall and into my orbit. I caught her
lips delicately teased them with my own.