My Soul to Take (Soul Keepers (Young Adult paranormal romance)) (16 page)

And not a hair on my mother’s head is out of place. I ease out of my chair and stand at Sam’s feet. Elijah instinctively wraps his arms around me to calm me. Inara heals Sam’s wrist and kisses each wound until only a faint scar remains.

Then a crowd of Keepers come in and begin working on him. There are blood infusions and CPR and oxygen and a whole lot of miracles going on right now. Elijah pulls me out of their way.

Finally after what seemed like hours but I know it was only seconds. Sam takes a gasping breath of air.

I rush to Sam’s side, paying no mind to the barrage of Keepers I knock out of my way. I never thought I would be so grateful to see the slow rise and fall of someone’s chest before, but I’m overcome with relief.

“
Now he just needs some time here. He’ll probably be unconscious for a few days –our time,” Inara says.

“
Brennen, Elijah may I’ve a word with you?” My mother calls us over, and by her tone I know it’s not good, it’s the same tone I get in my voice when I’ve to break bad news to someone. 

We follow her to a nearby empty room that appears to be a meeting room. A large glossy table, cut from a single plank of redwood, is surrounded by exotic looking wooly stools.

“Brennen can’t marry this boy, Elijah. He’s marked. It’s too dangerous and I won’t stand by and watch as a demon murders my only daughter.”

“
I couldn’t agree more Emmagen,” of course Elijah agrees. I shoot him a glare for his split allegiance.

“
They had me captive for two weeks and didn’t kill me. What makes you think they would use Sam to?” My comment sets my mother off. I give an apologetic look to Elijah.

“
Two weeks Elijah? I ought to have you removed from her guard immediately,” she says furiously.

“
Mother no!” My arms quickly wrap around Elijah and latch on for dear life. My mother’s mouth is agape for only a second. She’s quick on the uptake I’ll give her that.

“
So I take it you two are in love.”

“
It’s complicated.”

“
It always is,” she’s quick to reply.

I tactfully change the subject.
“I know the risks with Sam and they scare me too. But Nehemiah says that Sam won’t find the cure for cancer unless he is in love with me. Millions of people will lose their lives unnecessarily if I don’t take that risk.”

“
Elijah may I’ve a moment alone with Brennen please?”

Elijah graciously bows out of the room as if my mother were royalty. She certainly has that air about her, for all I know perhaps she is considered so here.

“I know that you have a servant’s heart Brennen, and you want to help all of those people. However, if you are killed before you reach your own destiny, billions could die. You are going to be responsible for those lives saved.” I ease down into one of the curly furred seats. She has made an excellent point.

“
I’m sorry, but I want to do both. My teacher Mrs. Cohen, her six year old daughter is going to die from leukemia soon. Six years mom that is all that little Eva gets to live. I couldn’t live with myself if I chose my own life over hers. Elijah can keep me safe.”

“
You love him don’t you? Elijah I mean.” I nod. “And do you love this Sam, or are you going through with this relationship for the sole purpose of his destiny to be filled?”

“
That is what the hardest part of all of this is. I could love Sam. He is a wonderful person mom. But I know that I would choose Elijah and only him if Sam’s destiny didn’t save millions of lives, if he could do it without me. I just want to be able to love Elijah but they’ve even taken that away from me. He’s only allowed to be my friend.”

“
Well then that is what we will do dear girl. We will find a way for Sam to fill his destiny without you in it.” I pull my mother in my arms and hug the breath out of her. I feel her wipe a tear away and I hug her even tighter.

“
I love you mom.”

“
I love you more than you could ever fit inside your heart. I also want to help that little girl Eva, get her miracle. Let it be my gift to you for missing out on all of your birthdays and special occasions.”

“
Oh my gosh! Are you serious? You’re going to heal Eva?”

“
Most definitely.” Of course more tears are involved as I squeeze the breath out of my mother.

We make our way back to Sam’s bed. His color has fully returned. They
’ve cleaned him up and dressed him in gauzy white pants. His firm chest is left bare. I thank God he wasn’t burned in the fire.

“
Elijah says there is no way to remove his mark. Is that true?”

“
Brennen, I truly wish it wasn’t. We know that Sam’s heart is full of grace and kindness. His generosity knows no boundary.”

“
How could a mother do this to her child?”

“
I’m sure they made it sound like it was trivial, a mere inconvenience in her son’s life. Sure, they gave her a house full of children, and then they riddled her body with cancer so she wouldn’t even live to see them grow. It’s what they do Brennen. Don’t ever trust one of them. Promise me.”

“
Don’t worry, I already made the same promise to Elijah.” She pulls me in for a hug and kisses my cheek.

“
I love you my dear sweet angel.”

“
Are you leaving?”

“
Not until I find a way to help you, Nehemiah and I will be brainstorming until we find a solution.”

Elijah comes through the door. My heart flips over at the sight of him. Will it ever beat normally around him? He has cleaned up and changed clothes. His hair still damp from the shower.  

“Emmagen, I was just about to take Brennen to get some dinner, would you care to join us?”

“
I see why you’ve fallen for him.” My mother whispers in my ear and a smile slips across my face. Elijah gives me a side glance that says, “Keeping secrets now are we?”

“
Thank you Elijah, another time perhaps. I’ve a pressing matter I’ve to attend to.”

“
I see, well Brennen are you hungry?”

Hungry for you.
I say with my eyes. He pretends not to notice. But I catch him swallow hard. “I could eat.” We say goodbye to my mother and Elijah leads me outside. It’s dark out and the forest has come to life with the sounds of the wild.  Elijah whistles a couple of notes and a glossy bay horse, dark as mahogany, comes trotting up to us.

“
Horses like me here.” He laughs as he grabs hold of the bridle. “We mostly ride at night, to be safe.” He mounts the beast without a saddle and reaches down for me. He pulls me up and sets me in front of him.  His arms reach around and grab hold of the horse’s mane.

We ride along the moss covered path with only the moon lighting our way. A break in the trees allows me to see that it’s not the earth’s moon. Where in the universe are we? This place is magical. The moon casts out its silver light turning this world into pewter and lilac. Elijah is settled against my
back in a way that has my stomach lurching inside of my body. Occasionally his cheek grazes my ear, setting my entire neck on fire.

“
I brought you a bag from home if you’d like to dress for dinner.”

“
Yes, I’d like to change. I’m filthy.” We make a short stop at his house. My suitcase is laid out on a small table in Elijah’s bedroom. I shut the door to the room and undress. Just being here in this room again, brings back a flood of memories from that night. It was just a dream. I repeat in my head.
A dream I wish reoccurred nightly.

I take a quick shower to wash away the smoke odor I’ve been wearing half the night. After, I pull a navy lace dress over my body and
choose striped espadrilles, surprised at how coordinated Elijah’s fashion sense is. I take a few minutes to blow dry my hair figuring it can dry the rest of the way on the trip. Elijah gaze carries up and down by body when I emerge. “You look beautiful. Shall we?” I slip my arm into his proffered elbow and we are off again.

We come to what looks like a small town. There are neighborhoods and a few shops. The buildings are vastly different from the ones in our world. An architect’s dream is what this place is.  Each building looks as if it were intricately carved out of one very large tree. The detail is remarkable. Elijah helps me down from his horse after we reach a small café. I run my hand along the intricately carved wood framing the window, it looks like a tightly woven braid. Two horses reared up and poised are carved into the wall around each side of the window. The name of the café, Pastoral, is carved into the door Elijah holds open for me. 

Inside, the scene changes vastly from the fairy garden motif, to ultra-modern and exotic. We sit at a table that looks like the top of a giant emerald cut ruby. The chairs are sleek chrome wire and black leather.  The room is alive with other Keepers enjoying the company of others and drinking wine at the bar. A pianist plays a soft melody in the corner and a beautiful woman accompanies him with her voice.

A man comes over to our table. He has long blond hair held back in a ponytail and light blue eyes.
“Elijah welcome! I’ven’t seen you in fifty years give or take a decade.”  

“
Mud, thank you. I’d like you to meet Brennen.”

“
So this is the girl everyone is talking about. Well pleasure to meet you deary. It’s quite the honor, we don’t get too many celebrities in here.”

“
Mud?” I confirm with Elijah. He nods and laughs. “It’s my pleasure to meet you. This place is a work of art.”

“
Thanks dearie, I’ll have your meal right out.” Mud is a cheerful, lively sort of guy. I wonder how he got stuck with that name. Elijah glances around the room, taking in the faces and surveying the crowd.

  I’m confused on our food, since we didn’t even order yet. I glance around and no one is eating. Maybe they Keepers don’t really need to eat since
they’re spirits. Several more people come over and greet us. The more people find out who I’m, the more attention I find is being paid to me. This is not something I particularly like.

This room holds nothing but stunningly beautiful angels. Elijah brings a bottle of wine to our table and pours me a glass. I motion for him to keep going when the glass in only half fill
ed. He shoots me a glance that’s either a –
don’t embarrass me in front of my friends
, or –
I guess I’ll be carrying you home tonight
. I couldn’t differentiate which. Not that I care too much either way. It’s been a long hard day and the fact is, I could use a nice warm buzz to relax my tension away.

He hands me the glass and our fingers happen to cross paths, sending those warm vibrations all the way to my toes. I greedily sip my wine until
I’m down to half the glass. Mud comes out with a two bowls of what looks like stew. I notice several servers have emerged with trays of food. The entire restaurant is served at once. Elijah takes my hand and bows his head. I follow suit. Mud begins a blessing over the meal. I notice he has an Irish accent that comes out when he speaks in a louder than normal range.

“
Friends, guest, and occasional free loaders, welcome and please share this blessing with us. Father we thank you for this meal. We give thanks for your abounding love and grace. Your will be done. We thank you for allowing such a gift, this young beauty, to be created so that we may try to grant a bit of peace to those good folks back home, Lord. Amen. Let’s dig in.”

A resounding amen from the room and then forks and knives are the only sound in the room for a little while. Elijah breaks me off a piece of bread and I dip a piece in the stew. I hope they have cows here. I would hate to find out I’m eating Zebra or baby deer. Oh wow, this is really good. Okay so maybe I wouldn’t care if this wasn’t cow, it’s delicious.

“So how was meeting your mother for the first time?” Here we are in a whole other world and we resume our nightly routine like we haven’t missed a beat.

“
She’s amazing. Oh my word, I can’t believe how nice she is. She’s brilliant too.”

“
Yes she is. I could tell she felt the same about you. She is so proud of what an exceptional young lady you’ve become, Bren.”

We both finish
our meal rather quickly. After meeting yet another round of people, I slip out while Elijah is in full reunion mode and attempt to find the ladies room. I don’t know how many humans this place sees on a regular basis but apparently ethereal beings do not need to use the restroom. Mud hands me some tissue and directs me to the trees out behind the place. That is not happening. He shrugs out an apology as I mutter under my breath.

On my way back to our table
, I spot Will at the bar. I sneak up behind him and cover his mouth with my hand.

“
Hey girl you trying to give me a heart attack?” He booms out a laugh in a low baritone. He pulls me in for a hug, nearly crushing me with the sheer girth of his biceps.