Old Souls (9 page)

“There are three witches—brothers—the oldest in our history. No one knows exactly where they came from or how it all began—only that they were the first and they have always ruled over us. They maintain order and balance in nature. As one, their powers are the same as any witch, but the three have the ability to combine their power making them stronger than any witch ever born.”

“What if another three witches worked together?” I asked, curiously.

“Some have tried but it’s never been successful. Something about when the three of them come together is a power in itself.”

My body trembled at the thought of that much power lying solely in the hands of three men. “It’s a frightening thought. They could literally do whatever they wanted and no one could stop them.”

“Alyssa, they’ve been alive longer than anyone can imagine and have only ever acted to protect us. But ultimately, they’re not truly immortal either. I’m sure if they lost control we’d find a way to stop them. The one thing I’ve learned, nature never allows for imbalance. Everything has to have a weakness.”

Running his hand slowly up and down my back, his touch soothed me as much as his words. He was right, no sense in worrying about problems before they arose. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. So, tell me what the three brothers have to do with how my powers were activated.”

“Once people began to abuse their gifts, they stepped in to do something about the misuse of power before it was too late. Unwilling to destroy something so precious, they decided instead to neutralize our abilities, rendering humans powerless.”

“Neutralize how?”

His brow pulled as he considered the question carefully before answering. “You know how we can sense a life force?”

“Yes.”

“Some people call it a soul, but no matter what you call it, it’s where our power is derived. The three brothers created a spell to split that life force and divided the one soul among two bodies. Once the soul was separated, the other half was reborn and both halves became powerless.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Our souls are incomplete without both halves, which makes our abilities nonfunctional and useless.  It was the only way to remove the power without destroying it.”

“Okay, I must be missing something, how does any of what you’re explaining make either of us a witch?”

“A witch is simply a term we use to for those of us who have their power returned.”

“Okay, but—”

“Our powers,” he interrupted my question, “are activated
only
when we find our other half.” Intently, he stared at me, trying to convey…something.

“Wait,” I hesitated, my voice wavering a bit at the end. “Are you saying we only get our powers when we find our…soul mate?”

“Yes.”

“But that means…
I
have a soul mate?”

“
Yes
.”

He didn’t elaborate. He simply waited for me to come around to my own conclusions. Silence hung between us as I thought about everything he’d said. Then, I just knew…it was the draw that pulled me to him. “You?”

He nodded.

Holy.

Crap.

Soul mate
?

“Oh my
God.” I sat up and pulled the sheet across my chest to cover myself.

“Are you okay?” he asked, sitting up next to me.

Not trusting my voice, I nodded.

“How…why…I don’t—” I didn’t know what to say, but finally asked the one question that had bothered me from the moment we met. “So then, why were you angry with me when we met?”

“I wasn’t angry with you, Alyssa.” His words were so tender. He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear and continued to explain. “I was ecstatic, excited, overwhelmed, scared, and a million other things. I wanted to lift you up and kiss you senseless, but I knew that would scare you so I held back. I
was
angry, but not at you. I was angry that I couldn’t do everything I wanted to.”

I ran my hand through my hair. “I— I don’t really know what to say.”

“So don’t say anything, just lay here with me.”

And we did. We lay there, arms and legs entwined, constantly touching each other like we’d never been touched before. It was the most content I’d felt in my life. We fell asleep like that… and that’s when the tranquility evaporated.

Nightmares

Along with the good dreams about Mark that began when I started my new job, I’d also been plagued by nightmares that had become increasingly more frightening. Well, it was only one nightmare really, a recurring nightmare. And it was back, different though…worse somehow. It almost felt like my subconscious was trying to tell me something.

Lucid dreaming, I think that’s what they call it, when you’re sleeping but you know you’re dreaming. The moment I saw that terrifyingly familiar face staring down at me, I knew I was dreaming again. Still, knowing it wasn’t real didn’t stop the physical reaction that followed. My heart thundered in my ears, my breathing became labored, and adrenaline suddenly poured through my body, leaving a nauseous feeling deep in the pit of my stomach.

Why was it
always
him?

His eyes shone black and utterly flat, unfettered by emotion. Cold and ruthless, his cruel gaze held mine and conveyed one simple, unarguable message:
You are going to die
.

Screaming would’ve been a great idea, but no sound ever escaped my mouth when I tried. Hard to make noise with a hand crushing your larynx. Uselessly, I clawed and scratched, trying to free myself from the vice-like grip. I was still breathing, barely, but that wasn’t what had me so terrified. No, the chill settling deep into my bones was something else entirely. It was fear. Fear from the knowledge of what his hand around my neck was doing to me. I had never recognized it the previous times when I’d had the nightmare, but I had never experienced that feeling before. Now I had, once with Colin and the second time with the woman in the hospice. It was only twice but still, I knew what was happening. He was killing me, draining the life from me.

Blood dripped from where I’d broken his skin with my nails, but his focus remained fixed.  The pressure he exerted never relented. And though his strength remained constant, I sensed mine waning.

“Alyssa!”

Mark? I couldn’t see him, but just hearing him call my name offered a small measure of comfort—even if his voice was as panicked as I felt. Closing my eyes, I reached out to him with that part of me that could always sense when he was near. Relief filled me when I felt his unmistakable vibration. Knowing he was close helped hold the fear at bay. I wanted to call out to him for help but couldn’t gather enough energy. Then, all of a sudden, I heard his voice again. This time echoing loudly, screaming inside my head.

Alyssa, wake up!

My eyes snapped open and my body jerked awake, only to be plunged into a living nightmare. It took a few seconds for my vision to focus and the confusion to pass. When it did, I found myself staring into the same ruthless black gaze I’d been looking at only seconds before, but this time it wasn’t a dream. This time, it was real. Fingers dug painfully into my skin, accompanied by a tingling where he was stealing the life from me.

Shit.

“Let her go!” The sound of Mark’s voice, so insistent and furious startled me. I stopped my frantic struggling as I tried to make sense of what I felt. It was emotion, but not my own. Mark’s anger and fear rolled over me like a tidal wave. I couldn’t see him, but I felt his rage as if it were my own. How could I feel what he was feeling? It didn’t really matter, the anger helped push back my fear.

“She has to die. She upsets the balance.” The man answered. His tone, so matter of fact and utterly devoid of feeling, sent a shiver up my spine—and not a good shiver.

“No.” Mark grunted. “
She
…doesn’t”

Something built in the air, a pressure or tension that continued to grow and grow until it felt like something was going to snap. It felt like a balloon. The rubber tightens and stretches to full, but the air continues filling it and you know
at any second it will burst. It wasn’t long until the pressure in the air shattered, and when it did the building shook violently. Suddenly, the glass along the outer walls imploded, spraying the entire room with debris. The noise was deafening.

Screaming, I instinctively covered my face, realizing quickly, however, it was unnecessary. The glass flew into the room like thousands of deadly projectiles, embedding into every piece of flesh they came into contact with—every bit of flesh but my own. It was as if something, or
someone,
protected me.

Mark.

The man draining me stopped what he was doing and grunted. His hold on my throat loosened when a large fragment of glass pierced his neck, deep and vicious like a knife. Bile rose in my throat when I saw the tip of the intrusion jutting from the other side of his neck. Any deeper and it would have taken his head off. 

It may not have killed him, but at least it diverted his attention long enough for me to get a second to breathe. I gulped down huge lungfuls of air. Pulling the invasion from his body distracted him enough to give me precious seconds to recoup. As he did, new energy suddenly poured into me. It was Mark, helping me, flooding me with…life. I would’ve thought he’d have to touch me to do it, but I felt the energy funneling into me through an invisible thread that stretched between us, connecting us.  I heard his voice again in my head.
Hold on, Alyssa.

Trying to catch a glimpse of him, I turned my head as far as I could under the circumstances. With the asshole pinning me to the bed, movement was severely limited. Mark’s reflection off the mirror on his dresser was the only thing I saw. Two men surrounded him, pressing him to the wall next to the bed. He thrashed, desperately trying to free himself. Strangely, neither man actually had their hands on him, but
something
held him down. Impervious to the explosion of glass, both men focused their attention intently on Mark. Fragments jutted from their skin, blood from the wounds soaked their shirts, and still their concentration never wavered.  

A prickly tingle drew my attention back to the living nightmare happening above me. The hand around my throat tightened once again, and with it I felt my life being ripped from me.

“No!” Mark yelled.
“
She’s innocent
. Please
!”

His voice, so bleak, so filled with the defeat as he begged for my life, caused a sharp pain in my chest. “I can’t lose her, again.
Please
.”

That did it. The sound of this powerful man, normally so controlled, now raw with emotion and pleading for my life, it was
that
heartbreaking sound that finally brought me to my senses. What was I waiting for? I didn’t need him to save me. I wasn’t about to lie down quietly while this evil leech sucked the life from me.
I
was capable of defending myself.

Although it felt like cement weighed down my limbs, I had just enough energy to kick up my legs behind him and hook them around his neck. The move surprised him enough to loosen his grip once again. This time, I took the opportunity to yank him back with my legs and scrabble out from under him. When he reached for my ankle, I turned and landed a hard kick to his jaw that had him grunting and falling off the bed. I ran for the living room without a backward glance, terrified they’d hurt Mark but knowing I had to find a way to get us both out of here.

Don’t worry about me, run!
Again Mark was speaking in my head. How was he doing that? If we made it through the night alive he had some explaining to do.

Sprinting for the front door, I gasped when it was suddenly blocked by a bookshelf that had abruptly tipped over. I heard him laughing behind me.

I turned quickly and thrust my hands out, not really sure what I was going to do. All I wanted was to keep him from getting closer to me. As I thought it, I felt something explode out of me. I couldn’t see anything but I felt it. Suddenly, the man flew as if he’d been thrown into the wall behind him. I didn’t stop to wonder where that had come from, I ran into the kitchen.

Heavy footsteps pounded behind me. Opening drawers, I searched frantically until I found a weapon. I spun around holding the large butcher knife in front of me, impressed that I managed to keep my hand from shaking. “Stay back.”

He stopped only a few feet before me, a menacing grin curling his mouth. “That was interesting. It’s been awhile since someone put up a good fight.”

“Why are you doing this to me? What did I do to you?”

“Nothing.”

Before I could respond, the knife was ripped from my hand and flying across the room. With a thud, it wedged into the wall across the kitchen. It was as if someone had pulled it from me, though no one actually touched it. So startled by what had happened I almost didn’t move in time when the man lunged at me.

Luckily, I had quick reflexes. Stepping to the side, I managed to evade him and land a solid kick to his sternum. Buckling over with a groan, he looked up at me again, but oddly, he was smiling, almost appreciatively.