The Soul Seekers (15 page)

“I couldn’t have asked for a cooler boss.” I gave her a hug, standing back a little at the prickly mess of her hair. “I know you didn’t really have the money to pay me. Thank you, Ethel.”

She looked embarrassed with our sentimental talk, leading me outside while she locked the front door. As always, we went our separate ways. And that’s when I saw Marcus.

William phased to my side in an instant. “Do me a favor, Emma; don’t try to make a statement. Let’s get out of here.”

It was too late. Marcus sauntered over to where I stood, leaning over the curb with his eyes fixed on me. It wasn’t long before the other four had filed in and taken place at his side. I held my stance, arms crossed, my hands clenched at my side.

“Stop, Emma.” William pulled at my arm.

With chin raised, I met their eyes—those awful, mercury eyes that were beyond inhuman. Then, I felt it—just like he’d told me—a sucking in my chest like a freight train running over me. My body bowed over in agony. All the breath sucked out, and waves of horrible pain pulsed through every muscle, making them cord up, ready to spring from each joint.

“Stop!” William yelled, catching me before I fell to the sidewalk. “So what, you can paralyze a girl! Are you proud? Leave her alone!” His voice was angry, frantic. From within my numb state I heard a sick chorus of laughter, then watched as they came over to stand around us.

“She takes well.”

“God damn you Marcus, stop it!”

Another pulse rocketed through my body, making my bones feel like chalk, ready to snap in pieces. William smoothed my hair back and begged me to breathe. He looked up at Marcus again, speaking through snarled lips.

“If you’re doing this to get me, fine. You can have me. Just say when!”

Marcus made no reply. A long moment passed with him and William glaring at each other. I heard a sharp breath being sucked in. William’s arms tensed around my body.

“Never!”

Marcus’s tongue clicked hard inside the cavern of his mouth. He swept his foot aside of my jelly legs and left, the others following close behind. After a few moments, I tried to stand up, but my legs were utterly unwilling. That’s when the shaking started.

“Oh, God, Emma. It’s no use, don’t you see?” There were tears in his eyes. “Why did you have to challenge them?”

I could only blink, because I was still in shock. I didn’t know what had come over me.

“We have to study some more,” I gasped out, finally. “I want to be prepared next time.”

“No, there will be no next time. You’re not going to the eclipse!”

“What do you mean?” I asked, forcing myself to sit up despite the horrible vertigo that pushed on my brain.

“Plans have changed.” His voice was serious, eyes intense. “You’re leaving town, tonight. No questions asked. Do you understand?”

“Actually, I don’t, because if you’re telling me what I think you are, I’ll never understand.”

“Okay, I’ll make it easy for you,” he said, grabbing me by the shoulders. “They made a new coin, and you’re the primary target, above me. The eclipse is coming soon; hence you are packing your bags and getting out of here tonight. If I have to carry you myself, I will.”

“No,” I said, shoving away from him. “No, I’m not leaving. What happened to everything we said today?”

He let out a sharp breath. “I was humoring you. It was never a real option.”

My heart felt like it was falling into quicksand. “That’s not true. I don’t believe you.”

“It’s the truth, and furthermore, the last thing I need is for you to be hanging around drawing attention to me. I haven’t spent all these years learning to protect myself just so I could have fun with some stupid teenage girl.”

My mouth opened, bottom lip quivering. I bit down hard. “I’m not stupid, and I know what you’re doing. I’m not leaving.”

I stood up, much slower than I would have liked, and began to hobble down the sidewalk.

He was there waiting in front of me. “Where are you going?”

I wasn’t speaking to him. A useless trick when someone can read your mind.

“You’re going home to pack.”

He was like a mental pickpocket. I sped up my pace. “I was about to get a drink from the water fountain. Do you mind?”

He stood, glaring. The next second I was up in his arms.

“No! William. Let me down!” I struggled against his strong grip.

“It’s sure going to look funny, a girl floating around by herself.” He made a beeline to the Pontiac and yanked open the driver’s side door after putting me down on my feet. “Get in.”

“No.”

“Get in.”

“No!”

It was a standoff, and I was not going to let him dictate any part of my future, especially if it had to do with leaving him. My throat was swollen with grief, cheeks red with anger. “I am not leaving you.”

“You have to. I’ll rip your room apart looking for that coin and turn myself in.”

My legs turned to jelly.

I knew what he was doing. The horrible fate he had accepted.

Quickly, I created a picture in my mind of myself digging up the garden and placing the coin inside a hole and filling it up again. I tried to make my face looked strained so he would assume I was protecting the thought.

For a second, I became scared thinking he’d figured me out, but then watched in amazement as he faded through the car and rushed off in a blur down the street. He’d bought it.

“Sorry Gran,” I muttered, fingers gripping onto the July heated car frame.

Now what? I asked myself, scanning the length of the square. Let’s face it; I was SOL as Dad used to say. So out of luck. I had to find a way to get rid of the coin before William got his hands on it, because if he did, all choices were extinguished. I’d heard it cross through his mind before he left.
Get her out of town, turn myself in—I was always their target.

I turned and saw Jesse’s black Camaro sitting in front of Phil’s Records and straightened my shoulders. Time to kiss ass, again.

It was like déjà vu, with him pulling records out of boxes and all. Only I wasn’t soaking wet and crying. No, I was something else this time—full of fire, determined, ready to sell my soul.

“Hey,” I said, walking up to him inside the store with my hands in my back pockets. He didn’t say anything, but I saw the grin spread across his face like a slow sunrise.

“Need anything?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Oh, yeah, you could say that.”

“Go for it.”

“I need you to—” God, Emma, pucker up already. “I need you to sell that coin.” My only hope was that he had a real person lined up.

“That train may have already left the station, sugar.”

Grabbing a Perry Como record, I moved to the appropriate bin to shelve. Jesse followed. “Anyway,
Emma
, I thought you said you didn’t have it.”

“I guess I lied.”

“Do that often?” His hands pushed aside the spot I was searching for.

“Not really.”

“Only to me then.”

“Only to you.”

“And you want my help?”

Curse, curse, curse. Swallow. “Yes.”

He grabbed a box and broke it down with one upward kick of his knee. “Okay. I’d be happy to do it. But under one condition.”

“What’s that?” My heart beat like a lead pendulum.

Jesse turned to meet my eyes, reaching across to touch my cheek with a warm thumb. “You go to New York with me.”

Checkmate. Crack. Shatter. “New York, right. Okay. But I have to see the transaction or no deal.”

“Great.” He was all smiles now, beaming. “This is great!” He lifted me up by the waist and swung me around in a circle. “I gotta get some stuff together, and we can get out of here in just few days.

“That soon?”

“Sure, why not?”

I lowered my head and felt the wave of loss spread through me like a slow landslide. It was what I had to do—there was no other choice. I would do the same thing a million times if asked; my love was the kind that begged sacrifice or it wasn’t love.

“No reason. I guess it doesn’t matter when we go.”

“Sweet. Hand me that KISS record over there.” I did and watched as he shoved it in front of Doris Day. “I live for that.”

He grabbed my hand and led me to the back storeroom. One flip of a switch and a shop light flickered on, showing towers of boxes around a small office area. His jacket hung on a hook by a half-sized refrigerator. He grabbed it and stretched out his arms to slip it on, giving me a couple of lurid eyebrow raises during the process. Then he grabbed my hand again.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“What, now?”

“Yeah. Phil’s out for the day, and I’m officially giving my final notice. Or getting fired. Whichever you choose.”

We walked back to the front, and I waited for him to shut off the lights. “Wait,” he said, hesitating by the front door. “I gotta do it. It’ll be my goodbye note, you know?”

Sprinting, he jumped over the counter, grabbed a record and pulled it out of its sleeve. A few seconds later a loud crackle sounded on the overhead speakers, followed by the crunchiest guitar I’d ever heard—Black Sabbath. “Oh yeah!”

We could still hear it outside, it was so loud. Springvale was a quiet town with life hushed in mute submission, not prepared for the Jesse Limons of the world. He was still laughing when we stepped over the curb.

“Gettin’ in?” he asked, pulling out his car keys.

“Actually, I have the Pontiac down the street. You follow me home, okay?”

“Okay.” He hopped in and gave a salute.

Rain started to fall again. Turning around, I lumbered down the sidewalk, my mind swirling with crazy and incurable thoughts: how much it was going to hurt when I had to leave. It was different from death—it was emotional purgatory, with never-ending ache. I’d never get over William, not in a whole lifetime of events and endless minutes. But just knowing he existed would keep me. If he died now, I’d be lost forever and as good as dead myself. Getting rid of the coin was the only way.

I opened the driver’s side door with a thoughtful yank of the handle, and slid inside with a slump.

William spoke to me. “It’s a good plan, Emma. I couldn’t have come up with a better one myself.”

My hands shook as I started the engine. I couldn’t bear to look at him.

William continued, “You leave town, he’ll give the coin to the right people. It’s perfect. Only, I’ll leave it up to you to decide if Limon is someone you want to spend the rest of your life with.”

I let out a sharp laugh. “Don’t show concern for my future now. You’ve forced me into this.”

“Perhaps I have. Only I’m sorry I allowed you to—”

“What, fall in love? Oh, you had no choice in that, so don’t break a sweat worrying about it. I was in love the moment I saw you in the library.”

Jesse honked behind me, and I pulled out too fast.

“What makes you think that I don’t love you as well?” asked William.

My fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “Don’t say it now, William, please.”

“I’ve roamed this town for two decades, never being touched by anyone until now. I wouldn’t care, wouldn’t demand these things if I didn’t love you the way I do.”

“Stop it!”

“I’m truly sorry, Emma. Forgive me for putting you through this.”

I held in a sob. “If you loved me, you’d at least let me stay and help out.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can. Let’s rethink this. You show me what to study and I’ll do it. We’ll make this work.”

“I’m sorry, but no.”

“That’s it then? Just give up?” I was driving too fast, forgetting to look at each intersection.

“Slow down, Emma.”

“No! What do I care if I live or die? Perhaps it’d be best if I ended it. It would solve our problems, right? I’d be a ghost like you.”

“Ridiculous. Get a hold of yourself.”

I was mad now, pressing the pedal down like it was meant to grind the pavement. Jesse was right behind, keeping up with me, no problem.

William spoke in a deliberate, low voice. “Pull over and we’ll talk.”

I was beyond that. I turned onto Oak with a loud squeal of tires that both slid and gripped at the rain-drenched road. “It’s either that or go with Jesse. True, he isn’t a gentleman, but at least he believes in me. He needs me like I need you. Isn’t that funny? Life is messed up.”

“Emma, I’m going to yank you out of that seat if you don’t slow down.” His voice was a controlled calm, frantic in the undercurrent.

I let out a slow breath, fingers still gripped around the wheel in a crazy need to go faster, harder, so that something would happen, like Superman turning the world round to save Lois Lane. Trees blurred past the open window, fresh raindrops spat in to soak my face and hair.

“It’s useless,” I whispered, slamming my foot down on the brakes, eyes closed in resignation.

That’s when I felt the car spin out of control and heard William’s intake of breath. I opened my eyes and saw it—a blur of black coming at us—full speed. My hands jerked at the steering wheel, but it was too late.

Everything in my vision slowed down. Rain flew up in little droplets from Jesse’s squealing tires, two S’s flashing in like silver blurs. I heard the driver’s side window shatter, and felt shards of glass prick the side of my cheek and neck like little knives. Next came the sickening thud of my skull slamming into the metal door frame as the car swung back around. Blackness surrounded me and everything fell away.