My Soul to Take (Soul Keepers (Young Adult paranormal romance)) (21 page)

“
Sir are you a resident?”

“
Yes, this is my family’s ranch.”  Elijah, Will, and I all follow Sam and the Chief as they talk just to make sure Sam doesn’t have a meltdown with the all of his new found knowledge, or, in case the Chief is in need of a little lingual coercion by yours truly.

He does surprisingly well, maybe I will get to live after all is said and done. I know I will be punished for this,
I’m just not sure I care at the moment. I don’t regret doing it, right now at least. When the last truck leaves, Sam calls his dad and explains everything to him over the phone. He sounds like he isn’t angry just concerned for his son’s safety. I bet Sam’s dad knew nothing about his wife’s maleficence.

Sam and I get to rounding up the horses. Well mostly
, I just ride around and look silly. Sam is the real cowboy, roping the unbridled horses in a two acre paddock and walking each one to the covered round pen. I finally give up and decide to feed and water the horses that Sam has caught. The vet shows up to give them all a checkup. They’re spooked but otherwise sustained no injuries.

As the night wears on
, and all of the horses are safely bedded down for the night, Sam and I sit atop the fence and he breaks down into tears. Seeing this side of him ties my stomach up with guilt. I wish there was some way to help him.

He runs his fingers through his hair and shakes his head. I pull him into a hug, knowing that he needs one. Please don’t get possessed right now and snap my neck. Elijah and Will both look like
they’re ready to pounce anyway.
If the demons wanted me dead, they would have killed me when they had me
. I repeat to calm myself.

“
Everything will be alright Sam.” 

“
Do you know how much I wish that were true?” And I know that out of everything I told him tonight, the mark, the angels, his mother, the thing that hurt him the most is that we can’t be together. That is the thought that he keeps going back to.

“
You just have to get through one minute, one hour, one day at a time sometimes. Our life sometimes feels like one of those factory signs that reads, 10 days, since our last accident. Then something else terrible happens and they have to hang a big zero up on that sign. Today we start at zero Sam. But the best part is, in two more hours, we will be at one.  Think we can make it two more hours?” I say hopping off the fence and offering him my hand.

“
God I hope so Bren.”

Journal of E.M              February 25
th
2013

Brennen is finally fast asleep for the night, tucked in her bed like a butterfly in a chrysalis. The crickets serenade her in song. The mellifluous wind chimes toll through the air, carrying her dreams far away, above this world and into ours. I hope she is dreaming of our personal mountain top Jacuzzi and every last detail of our time together. Feeding it into her subconscious, hiding it away for some later date when she needs a soft reminder of how strong our bond is.

  Nehemiah has ordered me to bring her over once she’s reached her REM state. It can only mean one thing. I don’t want to take her. Every fiber of my being pleads with me not to follow this order. She was only doing what she thought was best for all of us.

For a moment I thought she had succeeded. Sam was aware of the truth, but he was handling it rather well, I thought. Brennen and I, finally free to be together here in this world. Even Elena thought she did the right thing and Elena is a stickler for protocol. But none of it matters now. In a few minutes it will have all been for nothing.

I pull her into my arms and kiss her cheek, basking in the softness of her skin on my lips for the last time, at least for a very long while. I fight with the urge to disobey with all of my strength. I want to cry out, scream to the top of my lungs,
and fill the night with my plea.

A tear rolls down my cheek as we cross over to the In-Between. I’ve failed. I couldn’t disobey. I couldn’t fight the order. She is oblivious that we’ve left her bedroom. Her soft shallow breaths fall
upon my cheek. Her honeyed breath fills my nose as I drink her in. 

I lay her down on a bed so gently you would think she was made of gossamer and glass. Sam is already undergoing his memory transplant just a few feet away. Nehemiah pulls visions from the oracle and places them in Sam’s head like he was playing a game of dominoes. Pulling out pieces, and replacing them with new truths until it all lines up to the destiny he wants for Sam. His hands fly here and there and back to the oracle like he were conducting a complicated symphony.

He moves over to Brennen and I want to throw my body over hers, shield her mind from his nimble fingers. My eyes plead with Nehemiah not to do it. He mouths the words, “I’m sorry.” I rake my hands over my scalp and pace the room as he begins. They’ve gone too far with this. It’s wrong in every sense of the word. He explains as he works. He tells me everything I need to know to flow into this new reality with her.

No, no, no, I want to scream!
“Why?” I ask my God.  Why, when everything was finally in place, would he allow it all to be wiped from their minds like the chalkboard on the last day of school?

It’s done.

I shrink down to the floor in a dark corner of the room, feeling lower than the green scum that festers on the edge of a swamp. I let them do this to her. I brought her here, carried her in with my own two hands. I should have taken her, ran as far as I could get us away from here. I should have tried everything in my power to prevent the malicious act that just occurred in her mind.

But it’s too late for any of that. I scoop her up off the bed and Will follows suit with Sam’s limp body. My tears wet her cheek but she doesn’t even stir. Nehemiah has fled the scene, not even he could bear the pain he just inflicted upon us.

The hall is lined with other Keepers. Their heads hung low out of respect. They move aside and pay homage to our love, now dead and buried. Never to have existed in her mind, never even knowing I existed in that way.

We arrive in her world, even the clock has been turned back in time for this catastrophe.

Brennen is behind the wheel of her car. The lights on the dash illuminate her flawless skin. She eases the wheel around, maneuvering the curves of this pitch black road as if she knew it by heart. I suppose now she does. Now in her mind, she has traveled this road to Sam’s house daily for months. She’s never even met me. Now I’m once again the stranger on the plane.

They’ve stripped her of all of her powers for now. She won’t get them back until after college. Probably the only good thing that’s come from this. At least now she won’t worry so much. She has no clue about her destiny, her future in politics, she also has no clue Sam’s an open vessel for demon take overs. If he so much as harms a single hair on her head
, he’s dead. Will eyes me like he knows exactly what I’m thinking. I know I’ll have to go through the Mac-truck first if I do resort to taking Sam out.

Sam looks lovingly over at her from the passenger’s seat. He takes her hand from the gear shift and kisses the tips of her fingers. I can hear her heartbeat pick up, she likes his touch.

“That dinner was delicious. The waitress however, could not keep her greedy eyes off of you all night though.”

“
Babe, you’re the only one I couldn’t keep my eyes off of tonight. You are so beautiful. I don’t know how I got so lucky,” Sam confesses to her. Will notices my defeated slump and offers an apology with a glance of his eyes.

She can’t even see me anymore when
I’m in this state. Right now Amorous is implanting memories into her peers. It’s an all-out reset, on a scale that hasn’t been done since the debacle of the last presidential assassination.

We pull into Sam’s drive and they both gasp at the sight of the fire trucks. Brennen pulls
up next to one of the trucks and pauses at the door.

“
Weird – I just got the biggest feeling of dé·jà vu. Does that ever happen to you?” Brennen says.

My heart practically skips a beat. It thuds in my chest at the possibility that the implant didn’t fully take. It doesn’t work on angels so I keep my fingers, legs and toes crossed that just maybe it won’t have a full effect on her.

Sam talks to the fireman and Brennen checks on the horses. After all of the trucks leave, Sam rounds up the steeds and the pair settle on the fence rail with Sam’s arm securely around her waist as if it belonged there. A sliver of a moon high above them offers a scant amount of light. A gust of wind swirls around their bodies like the tail of a cat, blessing their union as if the stars themselves preordained this moment.

I want to rip his arm off of her and off of him completely, shove it down the mouth of a hungry hell hound and watch as he swallows down the limb as if it were a tasty morsel. As far as
I’m concerned Brennen is mine, Nehemiah, the archangel, the whole lot of the ones responsible for this have become my enemy. And if they know me, they better watch out, because I’m on a mission to take back what is rightfully ours. I will stop at nothing. I’ve nothing to lose and even of it cost me my grace, I will get her back.

Somehow.

“
You’ve
gotten
really good at riding Bren.” Mia tells me as the jumps off her own horse.
      “Well your brother is an excellent teacher.”

“
Yep, he’s the
best
.” Macy is quick to agree. I take the saddle off of Margie, a gorgeous bay mare Sam gifted me because it was Tuesday. Sam emerges from the office of the stable and helps Macy and Mia carry their saddles to the tack room.

His arms flex with the effort and
I’ve to lick my suddenly dry lips. The boy can wear a T-shirt, damn.

“
Have a good ride?”

“
Would have been better with your company.”

“
Yeah, but I had to get the mare bred, today’s the day. I hope anyways.” Ugh I cringe in disgust, knowing where Sam’s arm has been recently. “You are such a city girl,” he teases.

“
Whatever, let’s just hope I don’t have a jealous mare out to prove you’re her one true love.”

“
Na-sty,” he sings out and makes me laugh.

“
Maybe one day
we’ll
have two little green eyed beauties running around, you know twins run in my family.”  He smiles his gentle pure-hearted smile that always manages to turn me to jello. My pelvis does an involuntary tick towards his body as if it’s ready and willing for that idea.  Gak! No way.

“
Come on Bren, we’re still going to the mall right?” Mia chimes in.

“
Yeah let me call Emily and let her know we’re on our way.” Sam pulls me in for a hug and once his sisters disappear out the door, a searing hot kiss that leaves me breathless. I reign him in by his hair and help myself to more of his lips. He pins me against the stall door and his hands glide down my back and back up again. He moves in with a deep explorative kiss that undoes my senses, then pulls back to examine the effect he’s had over me. He smiles in satisfaction.

“
That should hold you until tonight.”

“
You’re still coming over for a movie right?” He wraps his arms around my hips.

“
Wouldn’t miss pajama night for anything.”

“
Love you.”

“
Love you too,” he says still smiling. I sling my bag over my shoulder and spot the girls over by my car waiting not so patiently. Sam pinches my butt as I walk away. Ow. I need to stop wearing sundresses around him.

Spring is finally here. Fuchsia Azaleas are in full bloom in ever
y yard and the trees are alive and packed full of new leaves, bright as neon. Mia and Macy are singing to
One Direction
in the backseat at the top of their lungs by the time Emily gets into the car. She greets the twins and hugs me.

“
You’ll never guess who asked me to prom?”

“
Who?” The twins shout out in unison. We both laugh, so much for carrying on a private conversation.

“
It doesn’t matter, boys are gross. They smell bad all the time and are always leaving their shoes laying around for you to trip over.” I say knowing I’m not detouring their boy craziness one bit.

“
Boys are gross, but guys are hot,” Mia says first.

“
Especially Mark Malone,” Macy chimes in. Oh my gosh, who?

“
No way, I think Casey is way cuter.” I let them battle out the list of boys they find “totally adorbs” while Emily and I take note of who’s older siblings we need to verbally threaten. Sam would expect nothing less.

Emily and I sip on our lattes while watching the twins
“in heaven” at a tween jewelry store, from a bench just outside.