My Soul to Save (Soul Keeper) (24 page)

I see Sam on the ground
, and then I see the blood. Panic floods my heart, no, no no.

“Sam?” I rush over to him, my shoes sliding over the shards of glass. Three large windows worth. The puddle of crimson around his limp body is growing larger and larger by the second.

“Do something, Elijah!”

Sam has several large shards of glass sticking out of him, and cuts on
his beautiful face. Blood trickles down his cheek and into his ear. It looks like he was facing the window when it happened. The wind sails through the house, blowing in rain and rattling the leaves of the palm. It’s as if there’s a hurricane outside. It makes no sense, storms like this don’t hit in December.

Elijah scoops Sam up from the floor and takes him to the dining room table. Elena pulls me back.

“It has to be Elijah alone that saves him.”

This is it, the moment Elijah gets to earn his third redemption. Will has already repaired the windows and the glass is restored without a crack anywhere.
I watch in horror as the seconds tick by. Elijah shakes his head, and a disappointed look comes over his face. Is it too late?

Is Sam gone? My gaze darts to Elena, knowing she may be able to time travel and save his life that way. That is unless Malphas threw the tree through my plate glass.

“What is it?” My voice is laced with panic.

“He’s not dying. These wounds are superficial. If I did nothing he would still live.”

“I’ll patch him up then and take him to Amorous.” Will says. Elijah gives a professional looking nod. I sink to the floor in a heap of angst.

“Don’t fret, he’ll be fine. I’ll have him back in a few minutes and then we can eat. Wouldn’t want all this to go to waste over a little storm now would we?”
Will says chuckling as he and Sam disappear.

I’m left standing in the dining room, looking like a train just slammed me into next week.

“She’s shaken up. Let me talk to her,” I hear Elijah say.

“I saw the hesitation in your eyes Elijah,” Elena follows with.

“Don’t try and make me out to be the bad guy. You and I both know what kind of danger he puts her in. Besides I would never hurt Brennen like that.” He takes me in his arms and my body shudders with relief. I didn’t even realize I had been trembling. I bury my head into his chest.

“Shh, shh love, he’s fine. He’ll be back any minute.”

“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him Elijah. You swear you would have saved him?” I say through sobs. He holds me at arm’s length so he can look me in the eye.

“I swear Brennen. I know how much you love him.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. You know how much I love him.”

“I’m not capable of lying. Okay well at the moment, I am, but still, this is the truth. Seeing you love Sam hurts, I won’t deny it. But I also know that you still love me. If you say the word I’ll quit flirting, I’ll stop the advances altogether. I will let you and Sam live out your days unburdened by my feelings as soon as my redemption is complete, it’s your choice Brennen. He hugs me once more and then leaves me alone in the room. Inara is wiping Sam’s blood from the table. I join her and grab a clean rag. He lost so much blood.

“He’ll be fine, it looks like more blood than it is.” Inara always worked in the infirmary before she was on my guard. She must be calming me with her gift because the tension and stress begin to ebb from my body. I’ll take her drug, let her dump it over me by the bucketful if she wants to.

While we clean, I think about Elijah’s words. I should take his offer after he saves Sam for real, and let him go his own way. It’s not like we could have a future together right?
Can I have a future with Sam? Can I leave him alone with our children knowing he could be possessed at any time? He has Will now, but how long will they keep giving us these angels to watch over us?

Inara wrings Sam’s blood soaked rag into the bucket and I suck in a breath. How long before I’m no longer shocked by this sight? I examine my own fingers and see his blood has dried under my fingernails.

“I’m going to go clean up, I don’t want him to see me like this when he gets back, he’ll know.”

Inara gives me a pitied look. I dash past Jesson and the rest of them on my way upstairs.
It’s pitch black inside, and I fumble around my drawer and find the lighter I keep there for scented candles. I light the two vanilla candles and the small flame only gives off a hint of light. It reminds me of the holding bin Malphas kept me in. My hand shakes as I turn on the faucet. With two fingers I pull open the drawer again and find the nail brush. I scrub my nails vigorously getting every last bit, and then I scrub them again.

My reflection in the mirror is a lie. I look completely unscathed.
My grass-green eyes look freshly minted by the Treasury department. There’s not a hair out of place on my head. On the inside, I’m Sam’s glass-splinter infused body, cut and bleeding– impaled on the very shard that could sever my heart in two.

There’s a knock on my bathroom door. “Yes?”

“It’s Jesson can I come in?” I unlock the door and open it a crack. He comes in and sits on the bathroom floor beside me.

“Soo? How’s the weather up here?”

“You are so not funny right now.”

“I’m always funny, and charming, and sweet.” He bumps my shoulder with his.

“Whatever, shouldn’t you be bedding your wife right now or something?”

“That’s not a hint of jealousy in your voice I hear is it?”

“Jealous? Don’t come crawling to me when she leaves you headless and impaled on the end of her sword one day.”

“That’s the risk you take with love. It’s all or nothing right?”

“You tell me?”

“Ah, so that’s what this is about. You’re still torn. You just wait, don’t make any full fledge commitments just yet. The truth will be blaringly obvious in the near future.”

“You make an excellent cheerleader, maybe you should have married Lexi.”

“Ew but she’s one of those yucky humans, I could like totally never,” he says over exaggerating his words sounding
as valley as Lexi.

He gains a laugh out of me at least. Jesson bumps my shoulder again.

“Hey Sam just got back, and I have heard that your cheesecake is glass free and in the fridge. Shall we?” He rises and offers me his hand. I take it and get pulled to my feet.

“Thanks you’re a really good friend. I hope you still come to see me when you go all Elite CIA and all.”

“Thanks Brennen, your still one cool chick. I will always make an effort to pop in on you when I can.”

“What’s the story on Sam? Does he remember anything?” I whisper to Jesson on the stairs.

“No, thankfully your mother is getting the hang of the memory reworking.”

Sam is helping himself to the food, as is everyone else. I bet Elena time traveled just to save every dish. He looks perfect, not a mark anywhere. He turns to me and I caress his soft cheek.

“What, do I already have food on my face?” He gives a soft chuckle.

“Nope, you’re perfect in every way.” I steal a kiss in front of everyone, not giving a lick who’s watching. A smile washes up on his face after I leave his lips. I don’t dare look Elijah’s way. I notice soft candles dot the room giving ever
yone an amber glow.

From the corner of the living room I hear soft tinkling on the piano. A moment later, a full song begins. Elijah is playing
The Christmas song
, his voice starts in on the melody sounding smooth and mellow. He doesn’t sound showy at all. He’s just playing for himself.  As we eat everyone takes turns singing by Elijah’s side to their favorite song.

I’m the only one who hasn’t sang yet, even Sam sang,
Away in a Manger,
after a bit of coaxing from the group.

“Come on Bren,
” Jesson chides, giving me a wink while Elena is nestled in his lap.

“Oh alright. What should I sing?”

“How about this one, do you know the words?” Elijah begins playing,
Oh Holy Night
. I recognize it on the first chord. I nod and he begins again. This was the song my father always requested I sing. He said I sounded like an angel when I sang it. Elijah must have seen me do this song for him so many time over the years. And now, knowing what I know, I the lyrics take on a whole new meaning.

When I get to the line that says,
fall on your knees and hear the angel voices
, my voice cracks. I’m overrun with emotion, flooded with love sent straight from God’s own heart. All of these angels, have grown to love me like family. I finish strong, proud of who I am and what I am destined for, replenished and renewed in hope.

Sam comes over and squeezes my waist and kisses my cheek. “That took my breath away. You sounded like an angel, nothing but pure sweetness to your voice.”

Then Sam leans into Elijah and says, “I told Brennen she has to marry me one day so she can sing to our babies with that sweet voice every night.”

I cringe when I hear his confession, to Elijah no less. Elijah brushes it off but I can see the ill intent hiding behind his eyes. “Yeah well, don’t talk about having babies with my little cousin
here man, or I may have to break your neck.” He tries to sound like he’s joking and I think Sam buys it, but I know his threat was every bit real.

“Cheesecake?” I interrupt with hoping to ease the tension in the room. It’s worked in the past right?

Later that night after the tree is decorated, and the power is finally restored, we sit around the fire as if the lights weren’t working anyway. Will and Inara left the scene, but are still present in the red sky realm. They are on the back porch talking. I bet those two will be the next ones to get married. For the sake of the show, I invite Elena and Jesson to stay the night since the roads are probably flooded. I know this is Jesson’s last night on earth for a while and I want him to enjoy it with his new bride.

Sam yawns and stretches his arms above his head. It’s been a long day for him.
Draining really
, my subconscious teases.
Stop,
I almost lost him today
. He gets up and kisses me goodnight on the cheek. “Sorry to call it a night so early, but I’m exhausted. I don’t know why, all I did was watch football and eat all day.”

“Food coma, Brennen doles them out like candy around the holidays. Jesson chimes in with.”

“No worries, we were just heading to bed ourselves.” Elena says suggestively to her husband. I shoot her a darting look. Sam looks too tired to even get the drift.

A few minutes later and it’s just me and Elijah, alone again. Well alone as I can get in this lifetime. He helps me gather the dishes and put everything away quietly.

I ease on to the barstool and Elijah pushes a cup of tea over to me from across the island.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He dunks a teabag in his own cup, draining it with a spoon the way a proper tea drinker would. 

“Did you still want to talk to me about something?” I ask and watch his eye get drawn to the corner as if he were trying to remember just what I’m referring to.

“I’ve said my piece, and as the cliché says, the ball’s in your court.”

“Jesson says that my body is trying to warn me away from you. He seems to think that once you’ve earned your grace back
, that I will feel differently.”

“And how do you feel, do you feel threatened by me at all right now?”

“As we sip tea? No I don’t feel threatened, but somehow I think he’s right. He always seems to be right.”

“And what if he is?”
Elijah banters with.

“What if he’s not?”

“Then I’ll go if you want me to go.” He walks around to my stool and sits beside me.

“If I
want
you to go? So if I asked you to stay, and I stayed with Sam, and even ended up marrying him, you would have no problem with that?”

“Why would you ask me to stay and then marry Sam?”

“I don’t know. This is all hypothetical.” I say rolling my eyes. Elijah rushes up and crashes over my lips like the angry waves after the storm still churning outside. He dives in with everything he’s got and I’m left floating in a pool of his love.

“How’s that for hypothetical," he says softly while nuzzling my nose with his. I can not deny that I love him, as much as I don't want it to be true. The warning bells going off in my head try and convince me otherwise. I place an unsteady hand on his chest to hold him at bay. My other hand twitches, itching to run my nails through his short soft hair. He reads me like a book, he's memorized every inflection of my brow, mapped every course of my lips from smiles to frowns and each emotion in between.

He takes my hand off of his chest and interlaces our fingers. "Goodnight love, sleep well."

"Goodnight." I pad softly up the stairs a
nd peek in on Sam. He's tangled in his sheets, he looks troubled like he's having a bad dream. Maybe his subconsious knows exactly where his girlfriend's lips were just a moment ago. Perhaps he's reliving the glass acupuncture treatment he received earlier. Will sits in the window seat, keeping a close eye on Sam. He gives me a little smile and I ease the door closed.