The Soul Summoner (The Soul Summoner Saga Book 1) (15 page)

"And at night, at her house was your solution?" Nathan asked.

Warren shrugged. "It was a now or never moment. I've got to head back home."

"To Claymore?" Nathan asked.

Warren nodded.

Nathan stood up and pointed at the front door. "Good. Go!" 

"Whoa ho ho. Wait a minute." I reached out and grabbed Nathan by a belt loop. "You don't order people in and out of my house. This is
my
house and Warren can stay for as long as he likes."

Nathan was grinding his teeth, looking down at me. "Can I talk to you in private for a minute?"

I stood up.

Warren thrust his hand toward us. "By all means, say it to my face, bro," he said.

Nathan's face was burning with anger. "I'm not your 'bro' and I
will
say it to your face! I don't like you. I sure as hell don't trust you." He looked at me. "I can't even begin to explain how bad of an idea this is. You don't know this guy."

I smiled at the thought. "You're right. I don't know him. For the first time in my life I don't know someone!"

Nathan was looking at me like I was growing another nose on my face. 

I put my hands on Nathan's arms which were flexed and not in a good way. "Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to see people everywhere you go and think, 'Hmm. Do I really know that person or do I just think I do because I'm a freak?' or 'I might know that woman, should I talk to her or will she think I'm a lunatic?' or even worse, 'That guy is terrifying! I wonder if he's planning to eat my face off!'" 

I realized I was close to shouting. So I stopped and took a deep breath.

His hand shot out toward Warren. "But this—"

I cut him off. "
This
is not your business!" I forced him to look at me. "I know you think this is crazy. But crazy or not, he's here, and he's not going anywhere until he wants to or I want him to." 

Nathan's gray eyes were frantic. 

Gently, I put my hands against his cheeks. "I've never in my life met anyone that understands as much about me as this guy. Not Adrianne, not my parents, and certainly not you. I sincerely appreciate you being so protective over me—I love it really, I do—but this isn't your call. This is something I can't ignore, even if it might get me killed."

That seemed to disarm Nathan ever so slightly. His jaw was working overtime, but his eyes relaxed a little. "All right," he forced out. 

Nathan sucked in a deep breath and pulled the gun and clip out of his pocket. He handed it to Warren, but Warren shook his head. "Take the clip, man," he insisted. 

After an awkward pause, Nathan placed the gun on the coffee table and then pointed a daring finger at Warren. "I swear to God, if you lay a finger on her, I will choke you to death on your own nutsack." 

Warren pressed his lips together like I do when I'm trying not to laugh. "I promise she's safe."

I tugged on Nathan's sleeve and then wrapped my hand around his. "Come on. I'll walk you out."

We went to the front door and I opened it. He turned toward me, ran his hand up my jaw and pulled my ear to his lips. "Please don't do this," he begged.

I pulled back. "Nathan, trust me."

He shook his head. Then, out of nowhere, his lips crashed down on mine. As suddenly as he kissed me, he released me and walked out of the door. I was so stunned that I froze to the floor. 

When he was halfway to his car, I shouted at him. "Wait! We're kissing now??"

He didn't respond, but he looked back at me for a long second before getting in the SUV and starting the engine.

I groaned and closed the door. 

When I returned to the living room, Warren was relaxed in the corner of the loveseat. "Well, that was very interesting," he said.

I sighed and fell onto the couch. "You have no idea." I sighed, staring at the ceiling. "I'm sorry, are you thirsty? Can I get you something to eat?"

He smiled and sat forward. "Some water would be great."

He followed me into the kitchen. I liked my kitchen, even if I rarely went into it. I had top of the line, shiny, stainless steel appliances, but the only one that ever got used was the coffee pot. I reached into the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of water. I handed one to Warren and opened my own. 

I tipped the bottle up to my lips and took a swig. "I hope Nathan doesn't call my parents." 

He leaned against the white cabinets and motioned with his water bottle toward the door. "He loves you." 

I choked on my water. "Ha. No, he doesn't. He just likes me because that's what people do—they like me
.
" I shook my head. "And, he was in RoboCop mode just now. We've been working on a really stressful case together and we're both really keyed up about it."

He raised an eyebrow. "A case? I thought I read that you were in public relations for the county."

I shrugged. "I'm pulling double duty these days ever since I slipped up and let the good detective know about my ability. Unpaid double duty," I added.

"Is that how you found that little girl? She was missing and you knew she was alive?" he asked.

I nodded. "You heard about that all the way out in New Hope?" I asked, astonished.

"Yep. Saw the video, on some news station website, of you carrying her out and everything. It went pretty viral," he said. 

I rolled my eyes. "What did we ever do before the Internet? We all just stayed closed off in our neat little bubbles."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Relatively neat." 

My phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket, expecting it to be Nathan. It was my mother, of course. I hit the answer button. "Hi Mom," I said, looking at Warren with I-told-you-so eyes.

He just laughed.

"Hi honey," she said. "Just calling to check in. I haven't heard from you all weekend."

"I'm good, Mom. Did Detective McNamara call you?" I asked.

"Who?" she replied.

"Never mind," I said. "I actually have company over. Can I call you tomorrow?"

"Sure. Are you coming by for dinner tomorrow night?" she asked.

"Yep. I'll be there after work," I answered.

"OK, sweetie. I love you," she said.

"I love you, too," I replied and disconnected the call.

I held the phone out toward Warren. "Can you do that?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Talk to your mother?" 

I walked toward the living room, sat down, and propped my feet up on the coffee table. "Summon people," I clarified.

Warren sat down next to me. "Summon people?" he asked.

I folded my legs under me and put my water bottle on the floor. "I seem to be able to call out for people and make them show up."

"Like, just now with your Mom calling?"

I nodded.

"You think you caused that?" he asked.

I shrugged. "It happens enough around me that I'm pretty convinced of it. Like, I had this long conversation with that detective about you this afternoon and then came home and you were at my house."

"I'm pretty sure I came all on my own," he said.

"You'll see for yourself if you hang around long enough," I told him.

He stretched his arm across the couch toward me and tapped the seat cushion between us with his fingers. "It's not that I don't believe you. Trust me. I believe you." He took a deep breath. "You make people show up; I make people disappear."

I turned my whole body toward him. "You what?"

He shrugged. "I don't know how." 

"Like '
poof'
disappear?" Thoughts of a magician in a top hat with a bunny and a cloud of smoke came to mind.

He shook his head. "No. Like, if I had really wanted your buddy McNamara gone, I could have made it happen without having to say a word."

I didn't doubt him, but I was intrigued by what he meant. I rubbed my forehead. "This is all so crazy." 

He nodded in agreement.

I looked over at him. "Does anyone else know about what you can do?" I asked.

He leaned against the armrest. "Not anymore. Well, not until tonight anyway. I told this girl one time, but she died a long time ago."

"I'm sorry," I said. "You know, I don't think I've ever known anyone who's died."

"Really?" he asked, surprised. 

I thought about it and shook my head. "Not personally."

He was quiet for a while, seemingly lost in a memory that I wasn't privy to. "I think you and I have a lot more differences than we do similarities," he finally said. 

"Do you get a sense if people are good or evil just by looking at them?" I asked.

"Yep," he said. "That was part of the reason I was so interested in you. I couldn't even tell if you were alive or dead. I kept waiting for the news to announce your death, but they never did. So, I checked for myself. I've never seen anyone like you."

"Me too!" I said. "That's exactly what I told the detective about you. Of course, he sort of looked at me like I was crazy, and I'm pretty sure he wondered if you might be a zombie or something, but..."

He leaned toward me and lowered his voice. "Can I tell you something else?" 

"Sure," I replied.

He thought for a moment. "Do you promise you won't get really freaked out about it?"

I smiled. "That's usually my line."

He smiled, but it quickly faded away. "When I say 'I make people disappear', what I mean is… I can kill people."

I blinked. "Kill people?" I tried to mute the panic in my voice as best I could.

He nodded.

I pulled my head back. "How?"

He turned his palms up and dropped them onto his lap. "Just by looking at them." 

Suddenly, I realized that maybe Nathan had been right.  Maybe this was a very bad idea. My eyes floated aimlessly around the room and settled on the unused, but beautifully decorated fireplace in the corner. My parents wedding picture was resting on the mantle. I briefly wondered if I would ever see them again. My mind was racing with a thousand different fears. 

"I'm sorry. I've frightened you." Warren reached over and put his hand on my leg. 

All at once, a calming warmth spread through me. My eyes closed, my pounding heart began to settle, and without thinking, I wrapped my fingers around his. I was quiet while my breathing returned to normal.

"You did," I admitted. "But I'm OK now." I squeezed his hand. 

I wasn't sure what was happening whenever we touched, but it was magnetic. The man had just admitted he could end my life if he wanted to, and still, the sensation surging through me was so deliciously addicting that I never wanted to release him. 

He looked down at our hands and then back into my eyes. "I could stay here forever," he whispered.

"I don't know what this feeling is, but I don't want you to ever leave," I confessed. "A lot of really strange stuff has always happened around me, but this is by far the strangest."

For a long time we just sat there, some unseen bond holding us together. I couldn't explain it, but I also didn't care. I felt like a lightning rod in the middle of a thunderstorm, completely content to soak up all the energy in the atmosphere. 

He took in a slow deep breath and locked his eyes with mine. His eyes were so dark that I could hardly distinguish his pupils from the irises, save for a faint light halo of gold around the pupils. "I'm going to have to leave or I'm going to get really inappropriately close to you," he admitted. "This is like heroin."

He broke the connection of our hands and pushed himself up off the couch. It was like the room suddenly dropped ten degrees in temperature. I wanted to cry, but I didn't know why.

"I have a seven hour drive home." He sighed and stretched his arms over his head. "And, I have to work tomorrow."

I stood up as he gathered his gun and keys from the table. I wanted to physically block his path to the door, but I didn't. 

At the front door, he stopped and looked down at me for a several seconds before laughing. "I'm actually afraid to hug you goodbye. I might not leave."

I smiled and felt my face flush red. "Will I see you again?" I was almost afraid to hear his answer.

He sighed and twisted a strand of my hair around his finger. "Sooner than you think." 

I pulled out my phone and brought up a new message. "What's your number? I'll text you mine."

He told me his phone number and I sent him a message. 

"Let me know that you've made it home safely," I said as his phone beeped in his pocket.

He nodded. "I will." He drew in a deep breath. "Thanks for letting me in, Sloan."

Unable to stand our proximity without touching any longer, I stretched my arms up around his neck. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Thanks for finding me."

Enveloped in his dizzying embrace, I was sure that touching Warren was like connecting with destiny. In his arms was exactly where I was supposed to be.

9.

I LOCKED THE door behind Warren and watched from the window till he got in his sports car and drove away. When he was gone, I turned around and leaned back against the door. I closed my eyes and desperately tried to hold on to the feeling of his presence for as long as possible. The buzz faded with every second.

When I opened my eyes again, the room seemed brighter than usual. Even stranger, my dining room was missing. I blinked a few times and then looked straight at the dining room table. It was there, but just to the right of it, the kitchen had disappeared. I pressed my palms to my eyes and walked forward, tripping over a fake flower arrangement that sat in the foyer. I turned toward the kitchen and saw it, but the wall to my right was gone. My heart was pounding so hard that I could feel my pulse throbbing in the side of my neck.

My phone was still in my hand, so I sent Nathan a message.
Warren is gone. I'm not feeling well, so I'm going to bed. I'll call you tomorrow.

I turned back toward the steps that led upstairs, but I was so dizzy I had to grasp the handrail for support. Each step of the staircase seemed to be broken. I couldn't see the right side of any of the steps before me.