My Soul to Take (Soul Keepers (Young Adult paranormal romance)) (8 page)

Martin Schultz introduces me on stage like I belong there. The crowd looks bewildered. I’d better hurry up and do this before I get yanked off, or shot in the head, by one of these gun-nuts. I find Elijah in the sea of people and it immediately calms my nerves. I hone in on his slow steady heartbeat. I take in a deep breath and begin to speak.

“Hello, I’m honored to speak with you today. For those of you who don’t know me, it’s because I’m still in high school, a nobody yet. But in reality, I’m your future. I’m the one the government is borrowing money from right now, so I thought maybe I could get a snippet of an opinion in today, right?” I get a few laughs from the crowd.

“
I won’t tell you that I’m for
everything
that you are, but I can agree on our right to bear arms. I’m originally from Texas and you know how much we love our guns down there. However, the thing that is not sitting well with me right now, is the fact that mentally ill people can bear arms. Insane people should not have the right to bear arms. Insane people should not have the right to bear anything deadlier than a spork.” The crowd emits a unified chuckle. I recall a story that ran in last night’s news that concerned me a great deal.

“
Yesterday a police officer responded to a woman who posted on a social media website that she wanted to harm her child and herself with deadly force.  When officers responded they really couldn’t do anything because she refused to get help. Now, I understand that she has rights. But do you see the problem we are up against? Hands were tied, someone’s life may still be in danger. Now what if I also told you that the woman also drove a school bus?” The crowd gasped in one cohesive sound sending chills down my arms.

“
I want to propose new legislation to our state officials that will force people who are suffering from mental illness to get help. Or at least be evaluated. If a person kills someone and they’re deemed mentally incompetent, they plead insanity and they don’t go to jail for murder. They get institutionalized. We need to be able to help these people before they get to that point.

Everyone talks about these murderers after the fact, saying, ‘the signs were all there’. But if your next door neighbor has the signs, your brother, your cousin –you know the one with the tendency to wear his cowboy boots with his bicycle shorts. What can you do?

You need to be able to call a hotline and report a crazy person has been spotted in your area. Come quick ---bring the dart gun or the net. Cletus is playing Call of Duty with the neighborhood cats again.” I say the later in a thick southern drawl. “No but seriously, there needs to be a way to get these folks some help, even when they refuse it. Because they don’t know they need it.” My voice lowers to a serious tone. “They won’t know until it’s too late.”  Before I end my speech, the entire crown is highly humored and swayed on my take on the solution. I’m applauded off the stage and after many pats on the shoulder Elijah finds me in the crowd.

“
Can we go home now and veg out all day?” I beg, hoping he’s not dragging me to another controversial protest scene.

“
Good job up there and most definitely.”

“
How long before we know the results?” Nehemiah and his bag O-tricks should be able to roughly gauge something from this soon I hope. What if the effects are residual or only lasts a couple of days, even a month would be bad right?

“
I’ll check with them as soon as I’m able to. There was also a news crew out today so the other test is all done too,” he says casually as if it were nothing.

“
What other test?” Suddenly I feel like I was just given a pop quiz disguised as a coloring page. Elijah shoves his hands into his coat pockets and leads us away from the crowd.  Once we are on our own he faces me and holds a pensive gaze over his features before he finally speaks.

“
We have to see if the effect can be used through the digital world or if you only can influence people that are in your presence.”

“
I’m going to be on television?”

“
You’ll get a sound bite on the ten O’clock news,” he laughs out. I squeak out a shout of glee as I reach up on my tip toes and throw my arms around his neck. This is so awesome.

“
I’ve got to call Emily.” I dig my phone from my bag and tell her to keep an eye out for me tonight. She wonders how the heck someone let me speak at a tea party rally and I explain how I just sweet-talked my way up there.

Elijah doesn’t match my enthusiasm at all, in fact he seems a bit brooding on the drive home. The rain finally lets loose and falls in sheets over his car. The wipers are going as fast as they can muster, though back in 1969, I don’t think the speed limit was seventy miles per hour. I feel like we’re driving blind.

“Why don’t you pull over, let the worst pass?” I mention. The heater blows his sensual clean scent over to me and my nose wants to hone in on its origin. Elijah takes his foot off the gas pedal and lets the car come to a stop on the side of a dirt road. He shifts the gear into park and turns the radio on to a soft volume. Rain hammers the car, threatening to wash us away if it sees fit to. “Are you okay? You’ve been quiet.”  The little exclamation point he gets between his brows is showing, it only does that when he’s worried.

“
The results mean a lot to them and you mean a lot to me.” His words are soft spoken and heartfelt. I wish there was something I could do to put his mind at ease.

“
You know if I’m not the all-powerful creation that they expect me to be, I’m okay with that. I would be more than content to live a normal life.” He smiles just a little. Then a gleam forms in his eye.

“
What would you want to be if you could decide?” he asks finally. My first thought is:
your wife
.

“
I don’t care about being wealthy or famous, I suppose at the end of my life, if I could look back and see that I made a dent in all of this, then I’d be happy.”

“
I don’t have to wonder about that, I know you will carve the path, even if it’s not you who lays the bricks.”

“
Thank you.” I resist the urge to run my hand through his hair. I fiddle with my ring instead. A small silver heart dangles from the band, this is how my heart feels right now, hanging out in the open, waiting for the one who wants it to seize for his very own. The rain is easing up and Elijah puts the car in drive. We both glance sideways at each other when
“Highway to hell
” comes on the radio.

“So I’ve been thinking about our conversation earlier and I want to get involved in something on the weekend,” I throw out to fill the dead silence between us. Elijah rests his arms on the edge of the hot tub. I sink further down, basking in the heat of the water, especially with the contrast of the cold air outside. The sun has set but there is still a purple hue to the sky as if it were bruised and battered from the torrential rain it lashed out earlier.

“
That’s a great idea. I’ll help you make some time.” Time, that’s the problem this year isn’t it? This weekend was an exception since it was the first week back to school. There wasn’t much going on yet. “How about Habitat for Humanity?”

“
That could be cool.”

“
Okay I’ll take care of the arrangements for you,” he offers.

Elijah rises from the water, steam rolls off of his chest and water drips from his smooth skin.
Begging me touch, glide my fingers along every camber.
Shoot me now
. It’s all too much, I sink under the water and let the bubbles whisk away the image. I let out a frustrated scream while under. By the time I emerge my nose above the water Elijah is holding a towel out for me. His is wrapped casually over his shoulders. The water, combined with Elijah’s well hewn form, has my body set to a simmer. It’s forty degrees outside and it doesn’t even phase me. I walk into the towel and Elijah wraps me up and catches the drips of water from my chin with his own towel.

After we are settled on the sofa
, Elijah clicks on the local news so that we can see the clip from the rally. I hope it’s not the part where I talked about Cletus gunning down cats. I snuggle against his side. He puts his arm around me and we both sip on a cup of hot tea. Our legs are covered by a thick yellow and gray woven blanket. The fire dances slowly in the hearth. And I’m content. I’m happy. I’m in love with this man. Yet the uneasy feeling buried in the back of my mind, knows that something is about to give. Like when you haven’t been pulled over in a while or bruised your shin, you know something bad is overdue to happen. I peek over at Elijah and pray it’s nothing to do with us.

I cringe and bury my face into his chest when I finally see myself on the forty seven inch screen. I look up quickly, too excited to miss anything. They play the part of the speech where I talk about getting legislation passed, thank goodness. It’s probably the only two sentences that were politically correct in the whole speech.

My phone starts ringing. I pick it up off the ottoman. It’s Emily. I guess we will see if I had any effect on her. Of course, she’s my friend, so she’s biased to agree with me anyway. Emily congratulates me and goes on to say how her mom and dad thought that it was a great plan and they’re all writing letters to the governor right now. I glance down at my watch. It’s ten thirty at night and they’re hosting a letter writing campaign in their P.J’s. That can only mean that my gift works through the digital world. How? Who cares, it’s such good news. 

I kiss Elijah’s cheek and tell him goodnight. I lay in bed and stare up at the ceiling alone in my room knowing Elijah is downstairs in the master, but by morning he’ll probably be tangled around me, unable to resist. I’m glad Nehemiah left some loopholes for us. What if he couldn’t
even touch me, what if they made him return to his spiritual state so that I couldn’t even see him? Not even in the red-skied world. No, I won’t be complaining about our limitations.

Elijah says that
I’ve a little more time before the Sam situation has to be addressed more aggressively. I don’t think Elijah wants me to get too wrapped up with our relationship, knowing I will have to turn from him sometime soon. I feel like we are both standing on the edge of the plank that’s getting shorter and shorter with every passing day.  

Monday morning Elijah and I sit in the commons area before school. The day is blissfully crisp and cool. A breeze blows in from the north and whips my hair into my face repeatedly. I pull an alligator clip from my bag and secure it up before I wind up choking on it. He tries to stump me with my own flash cards for our Spanish quiz today.

“Umbliquito”

“
Belly button?”

“
Muy bein.” He lets the words roll off his tongue as if he were saying something altogether scandalous.

A sultry glaze sets his sapphire eyes on fire. I begin to notice he’s only giving me the body parts that appeal to him and shake my head, laughing as I pull the stack of cards from his grip.

From the corner of my eye I spot Sam in the distance. He has his arm around Peyton’s waist. He’s smiling and flirting with her. The smile leaves my face as he pulls her in close and rests his forehead on hers. My heart bangs raucously in my chest at the sight of him being that way with someone else. It’s only been a few weeks since our break-up, which he never verbally finalized, and he’s with
her
!  Elijah follows my line of sight and sees for himself what has me slack jawed and livid. There goes the rest of the plank.

Sam has moved on. The bell rings and he takes her hand and leads her inside. Elijah puts his hand on my shoulder as if to guide me gently toward the doors. I wonder if he ever got over Peyton, maybe that whole story was just a lie. For all I know, Payton could have been the one turning him down all those times.

“What now?” I ask. Elijah stares down Sam with a malice in his eyes that I had never seen before. Sam disappears, blending into the crowd with a strawberry blonde bouncing not far behind.

“
Sam just needs to get it out of his system, don’t worry about it,” he says as he drops me at the door to my Lit. class. Sam’s system is the least of my worries. The pretty little blond is what bothers me the most.

Sam is already in his seat when I go into class. He glances up as I take my old spot and I seize the opportunity to read his thoughts.

~
I’m pretty sure she saw me with Peyton by the go-to-hell look she just burned into the center of my skull. I hope Bren seeing me with Peyton will get her to move on. Ugh, do I really want her to move on?
It’ll
probably mean that I end up pushing her straight into Elijah’s arms. But at least she’ll be safe. I’d never live with myself if I hurt her. Peyton
thinks
she can take my mind off of Brennen. But I’ve been lost in those green eyes since the first day of school. She’s tangled me up in the long saw grass of her love and I’ll probably be trapped there forever whether Brennen acknowledges my existence or not ~

             
Something tells me that I’d better get to getting Sam back. Once Peyton gets her hooks in, she’ll be like a tapeworm to our relationship. Suck out every good memory Sam and I ever shared and bleed it dry with her parasitic pink lips.