Old Souls (6 page)

“How is that possible?”

“You sensed the spiritual energy around you. That’s what you were feeling before he died—life. All living organisms are linked together through a life force, some people are able to feel it, and some are not. Some can even draw from it and use it, but only if it’s within minutes of a death.”

“That’s exactly what I felt, like taking it from one place and directing it somewhere else.”

“It’s like jumping a car. You’re borrowing a charge from one source and guiding it into another.”

“So what? I’m like a jumper cable.”

He snorted an amused laugh. “I’ve never heard it put quite that way, but it’s actually a good analogy. You were a conduit, pulling a little bit from every living thing around you and then funneling it into Colin. That life force then healed him.”

“How do you know about this?”

He hesitated for just a second. “Because I’ve done it.”

That didn’t really surprise me, he knew way too much about this. “How? Why do
we
have this ability?”

He took a step back, lacing his fingers through mine and led me over to the couch. He arranged us so I sat facing him. Then, placing my empty wine glass on the coffee table, he turned to me and held my gaze. “Alyssa, there’s no time now to beat around the bush so I’m going to be blunt.”

I nodded. “Go ahead.”

“You’re a witch.” He paused, letting that bombshell soak in. “You have powers, and what you did with Colin is only the beginning of what you can do with those powers.”

“A witch?” I repeated, dazedly. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him he was ridiculous and I didn’t believe him. But, how could I deny it after everything that had happened? “How do you know for sure?”

“Because, I’m a witch, too. That’s how I recognized it in you.”

We both sat in silence, until finally I asked. “I feel a buzzing—it vibrates under my skin whenever I’m near you. It
pulls
me. Is that what you feel? Is that how you
recognized
me?”

His eyes flared and he nodded.

“I don’t understand. My parents are normal.”

“It’s not hereditary.”

“But nothing like this has ever happened before.”

“That’s because your powers hadn’t been activated yet.”

“Activated? How were my… powers activated?”

“Right now, there’s something more important I need to explain. I promise I’ll tell you the rest later. Okay?”

I nodded.

He pulled my hands into his, gripping them tightly. “Our powers are tied directly to nature. Life and energy is a finely laced network,
woven together and existing cohesively, feeding off of each other. We are all individuals, but all still connected and reliant on each other at an intermolecular level.”

“You sound like a scientist.”

“Well, I suppose there is a bit of science behind what we can do. As witches, we are able to see and influence the energy around us. But nature can only exist in harmony. Good and evil, light and dark, life and death: It all has to balance. We have the ability to restore life—on a limited basis—but when we do we leave an imbalance in nature.”

“What happens if there is an imbalance?”

“We have to fix it or there are consequences.”

“I don’t understand. How do we fix it?”

I could tell by the foreboding expression that crossed his face that I wasn’t going to like his answer. “If we give a life, we have to take a life.”

I literally felt the blood drain from my face. “No!”

Best Friends

Waking up, I felt warm and contented. And it wasn’t just that I was ensconced in the biggest, most comfortable bed I’d ever slept in. It was also because I was in Mark’s bedroom with his body pressed tightly against my back. His right arm was tucked under my head and his left arm splayed across my hip. My only regret at the moment was that we had our clothes on.

Despite the intimacy of our position, nothing had happened between us last night. I wasn’t exactly in a romantic mood after he told me I was expected to murder another human being. Just the thought of having to commit such a vile act had my stomach churning with revulsion. He tried to explain the consequences if I refused, but I wouldn’t listen to him. And though I plugged my ears, repeating “I’m not listening, la la la la la,” (yes, embarrassingly, I did this), I still heard some of the particulars. It was bad.

Apparently, if I refused to restore the imbalance I created by saving Colin, someone else would die. It could be a person I loved or somebody I barely knew, but it
would
be someone connected to me in some way. And I’d have to live with the guilt of being responsible for the death of an innocent.

I had adamantly, and rather childishly, refused to discuss the situation at all. Mark was at a loss, unaccustomed to dealing with my stubborn streak. I felt bad for taking my frustrations out on him last night, but yesterday had been a tumultuous day. Did he really expect me to graciously play
God? Choosing who would live and who would die. It was so unfair. As if I had any clue I could bring a person back from the dead. I mean, who would have thought such a thing was even possible? How could I be held accountable?

“There is no
‘accountable,’” Mark had explained, patiently. “There is only balance.”

“You know, the least you could do when I’m freaking out is stop being so calm and rational!”  I stormed into his bathroom after that, slamming the door. Immature I know, but I was scared. For some reason I tended to lose years of intellectual development in situations of extreme emotional stress. Frustrated and tense didn’t cover how I felt, I was also angry and confused. I just didn’t know what to do to repair what I’d done.

I finished quickly in the bathroom, but waited until I felt Mark move away before opening the door. He was still in the building but he’d left the condo, probably to give me some space to think about what he’d said. Avoiding him was cowardly, but I’d had too much to deal with already. I still had questions, but for now I just needed to sleep. I grabbed one of the throw pillows on the couch and lay down, exhausted.

It took a while for me to fall asleep, and just as I dozed I was awakened by a pair of strong arms lifting me. Instantly, I was alert. “What are you doing?”

“Putting you to bed,” he answered nonchalantly, like he carried me to bed every night.

“I was fine on the couch.”

He ignored me.

“I can walk you know.”

Continuing to ignore me, he kept walking until we came to a bedroom—obviously by the looks of it, the master bedroom. I don’t know why it surprised me that it was as well decorated as the rest of his place. The walls were painted steel grey, which I normally found cold, but with splashes of red all over the room it felt warm and inviting. An enormous bed with a massive black leather headboard took up most of the space. But my favorite thing about his room was the smell. It smelled like Mark—a subtle mix of his cologne and the natural masculine scent that was just Mark. And I managed to take all of this in while he carried me to the aforementioned bed and laid me down.

“Where are we?” As if I didn’t know.

“My room.”

“Where are you sleeping?”

Instead of answering, the corner of his mouth twitched and he crawled in next to me. Before I could protest he flipped me onto my side and pulled me into his chest, cradling me tightly. Butterflies flitted in my belly as he fit himself so close he didn’t have to move an inch to whisper in my ear.

“I almost lost you today,” his breath skated over my neck, causing goose bumps to rise along my flesh. “I
need
to hold you in my arms tonight.”

My chest tightened at the emotion I heard in his voice. Just like I said, he was soft sweetness—he just covered it with a layer of bossy.

“You’re pushy when you want to get your way.” I told him, but even I recognized it for the compliment it was.

“Don’t pretend you don’t love it.” He chuckled. “Go to sleep Alyssa, we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I paused. “Mark?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry I yelled at you.”

He wound his arm in front of me and laced our hands together. “It’s okay, baby. You had a lot to process. We’ll figure it out tomorrow. I promise.”

I fell asleep after that. And despite the chaotic day, for the first time in a month I didn’t dream.

Awake now, I was enjoying the sensation of being held in his arms, wondering if he was still asleep. His breathing was deep and even, but I wasn’t sure. I wanted to snuggle up and cuddle like this all day, but sadly my insistent bladder was opposed to the idea. Slowly, I lifted his hand and slipped out from under him. Glancing down to make certain I hadn't disturbed him, I noticed two things. One, he was still sleeping. And two, he was even more gorgeous when he slept.

He looked more relaxed, and yet he still managed to appear rugged. His messy hair stuck up in every direction, which only added to his innate sex appeal. And he had some serious five o’clock shadow. Since I usually saw him at work where he was always clean shaven, this was different. It felt private, something that was mine alone.

Finally, I pulled myself from gawking and padded my way to the bathroom. After closing the door, I noticed a bag on the counter and peeked inside. That’s when I realized where Mark had gone when he left the condo last night. Inside the bag was an assortment of toiletries; toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, hair brush, shampoo, conditioner, and I couldn’t help but smile when I noticed he’d even bought me moisturizer for my face. God, the man was thoughtful.

I emptied my bladder, brushed my hair and teeth and washed my face. Then I went back to the bedroom, unsure of what I should do next. I wanted to climb back into the bed with him, but I didn’t want to wake him.

“Morning.” He surprised me, but what made my heart skip a beat was the raspy, morning tone that had my body reacting like a teenager.

“Morning.”

“You talking to me today?” Glad to see he was amused by my immaturity.

“Sorry. Are you mad at me?” I asked, tentatively. “I know I behaved a little childish last night.”

“A little?” He said dryly. Then his lip inched up into a slow, tantalizing grin. “You’re adorable, even when you throw a tantrum.”

Oh boy, there went that crazy heartbeat again.

“Um…Thanks, I think.” Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair. “I guess we have some important things to discuss.”

“Yeah.” He sat up, threw off the blankets and stood. I could barely tear my eyes away from the plain white t-shirt clinging to his muscular upper body. And despite the fact he was wearing blue pinstripe pajama bottoms, the man radiated sex. As if he could hear my lascivious thoughts, he flashed a knowing grin my way. “But let me go to the washroom first. I’ll just be a minute.”

After he closed the door I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I saw my purse on the nightstand; he must have brought it in last night. I reached in and pulled out my cell. My stomach clenched when I noticed I had ten missed calls, all from Colin.

Shit.

“What’s wrong?” asked Mark, startling me. I hadn’t noticed him return so fast.

“I think we’re going to have to postpone our talk and deal with Colin first. He’s been calling.”

***

Mark and I were both uncertain how to handle Colin. He suggested we play it by ear and see how he coped with the situation before deciding how much information to give him.  Sounded good to me, I’d let him take the lead here.

Colin lived in
Oakville, not quite an hour outside Toronto. Since we had time to kill on the drive, Mark enlightened me about witches. I discovered I had a lot to learn about this new world I’d been unwittingly thrust into.

According to Mark there was nothing more important to a witch than keeping their secret. No one wanted to risk exposure, the danger was too great.  There was even an organization whose sole purpose was the concealment and safeguarding of that secret, the ISM (Information Security Militia).

“So this ISM, what do they do exactly?”

Mark’s fists tightened on the steering wheel. “Anything they have to do to keep our existence a secret.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“We need them, Alyssa. Do you have any idea what would happen if the general population knew what we could do?”

“I’m new to this world so I haven’t had time to consider it.”

He glanced at me quickly before turning back to the road. “They’d want to study us, for starters. Who knows what else,” he shrugged. “And I don’t want to think about what the government would do if they ever discovered our power to heal.”

“Yeah, I meant to ask you about that, but I’ve had so much on my mind since yesterday I forgot.”  I lifted the leg I’d injured in the accident and rotated my foot still surprised that it had healed so perfectly. “I broke my leg in that accident.”

His head whipped to me. “It was broken?”

“Can you watch the road please?” A hint of panic infused my tone.  “I was in a bad car accident yesterday. Remember?”