Soul Snatcher (32 page)

“
Then I shall see you when I am done,” she said to
reassure herself.

“
Until next time,” Baden whispered and with one last
kiss on Annie’s cheek he left. He had to before he was too tempted
to kiss her lips.

Annie stood
there a moment by the fire and let a little hope wash over her that
he might actually love her. This brought a joy to her heart that
lit up her soul.

“
Until next time,” she mimicked his words to the empty
room.

Though Baden
was already in the trees, where he would be until Annie finished
the book, he heard her words and they made him smile. He heard her
run to the bed, grab the book and settle into the mattress to start
reading. She turned to the first page of the book where he had
placed the bookmark. Now it was only a matter of time.

CHAPTER
30

When Annie
had made it partway through the book, she was starting to wonder
why Baden had wanted her to read it. So far all it did was explain
the reasons why they stole souls and how they did it. She sat and
read until she fell asleep in the early hours of the morning. She
had been hoping to finish but her will power gave way when her body
protested.

Annie woke
the next morning to a knock at her door. She sat up startled from
the noise and the book fell from its place against her chest, into
her lap. She looked around the room expecting to be someplace else
and it took a moment to take in her surroundings. To her
disappointment she wasn’t with Baden.

The person at
the door knocked again.

“
Come in,” she called out. She placed her hands on the
bed behind her and leaned back, waiting for the person to enter.
She was still in her dress from the night before and her hair was
tangled in a curly mess. She was surprised to see Micah come
through the door.

“
Micah, what are you doing here?” She asked, not
realising her desire for him to leave was obvious in her voice. He
closed the door and masked the disappointment that he felt from her
objection to him. He looked to her with a ready smile.

“
Eli has been called away to a trackers council and I
thought I would entertain you in his absence,” Micah declared.
Annie couldn’t help but feel put out. She wondered why Eli had not
told her himself.

“
Well,” she said as she looked down to her book then
around the room.

“
Why have you not changed from last night?” Micah
interrupted her thoughts. She looked back to him then down at her
dress. She didn’t know why but he seemed annoyed.

“
I started reading then fell asleep without realising,”
she explained. Not that it was any of his business. Micah looked
across to the open window then back to her as if it was an
accusation in itself.

“
I thought it may have been the result of a late night
rendezvous.” As he spoke one of his eyebrows lifted in an
accusatory manner.

“
Just what are you inferring, Micah?” She spoke more
harshly than she expected to.

“
Nothing, it just seems coincidental that Baden’s
miraculous appearance corresponds with the break in your usual
habit of changing before bed.” Annie was annoyed by Micah’s
intrusion on her personal life. They were not an item and they
never would be, so why did he think he had the right to say
anything?

“
I think that it is really none of your business. I am
sorry but I am busy today and will not be able to give you my
company,” she informed curtly, not giving him an opportunity to
speak.

“
Please, Annie,” he said pleadingly as he stepped
forward. He gave her a look that she had never been able to say no
to in the past.

“
Micah.” Her tone sounded as if she was about to refuse
him but he didn’t give her the chance.

“
Annie, I miss how it was before any of this happened.
When it was just you and me and there was nothing and no one else
in the way.” He sounded sad and he looked almost as if he were in
pain. She felt awful about how she had neglected their friendship,
when he used to be someone she relied on and cared for deeply for
so many years.

“
I will change,” she said, rolling her eyes and giving
in. “Meet me downstairs in ten minutes.”

With a
triumphant smile Micah
turned
and left, closing the door behind him. He was down stairs before
Annie had even stepped off the bed. He waited anxiously for her at
the bottom of the staircase.

“
If you leave with her from this house you will die,”
Baden threatened from behind him. His entry had been quieter than
silence and he actually managed to surprise Micah. He turned to
Baden with a challenging look. “Stay in this house with her and you
will die also,” Baden furthered his warning.

“
What happened to the reformed Baden?” Micah asked
condescendingly as he leaned against the balustrade.

“
He does not care too kindly for the fiend that lurks
only when Annie is alone,” Baden answered barely containing his
malice.

Something
else that
set Baden apart from other snatchers was that he could not only
read human souls but he could also read snatcher’s souls. He could
sense that Micah had feelings for Annie but there was something
that he was struggling to identify, something that was hidden deep
inside that Micah didn’t want exposed.

“
Are Eli and Garrick away?” Micah asked innocently,
knowing that Baden knew his act. “She is not yours Baden. She has
decided to grant me the pleasure of her company so you have no
right in the matter. I think it best if you leave,” he advised.
“Besides, I think you may want to focus your attention on what Eli
is up to with the other trackers,” he hinted. Baden didn’t care
about anything else except for Annie.

“
Leave or die,” Baden threatened, he wasn’t backing
down.

Micah’s lips
tightened and he was about to do something he would regret but he
managed to restrain in his anger. Before he had time to answer,
Annie opened her door and Baden left. She came down to find Micah
in a more noticeably foul mood.

“
I am sorry, Annie.” He paused to try and calm himself
some more. “But we will have to postpone our outing today.” Her
brow furrowed as she looked at him, waiting for further
explanation. When he said nothing, frustration covered her face as
she looked around the room in confusion before looking back to
him.

“
Then I shall see you some other time,” she said
exasperatedly as she lifted her hands away from her sides slightly
then let them drop against her. She hadn’t wanted to go with him in
the first place and now, after disturbing her and practically
demanding she came with him, he told her it was cancelled. She
turned and went back up the stairs and closed her door a little
more forcefully than she usually would.

Micah stood
at the bottom of the stairs for a moment before he left. He was
sick of Baden and his possessiveness of Annie. Something had to be
done. He left the manor in a fury of dust and speed. Baden watched
as Micah left then went back to the trees outside Annie’s room,
waiting for the moment when she finished the book.

Annie
had changed into a light yellow, day
dress so she would be comfortable whilst she read. And she read all
day and into the night. She was approaching the last chapter and so
far nothing had come up that she felt would be merit enough to
change her mind, that’s if she hadn’t already decided. She turned
to the next page and came to a chapter titled: The Soul Snatcher
and Love. Her heart beat faster and she knew that this was the
chapter that could change everything.

As she read
it revealed a story about one soul snatcher that had left a journal
that was found many years after his demise. It was a personal
journal that had never been intended to be read but the trackers
had come across it. It recounted his life as a snatcher and the
countless times he had stolen a soul with ease. Then one day the
journal entries had taken a different tone, one of love.

However, the
snatcher would not mend his ways and he tried to steal the soul of
the woman he had fallen in love with. He had stopped writing after
an entry revealing his tortured confession of what he was going to
do, for he could not tame his need. After that day another hand
took the page, it was that of the woman he had loved. She recounted
the night he had tried to steal her soul. It said when he had tried
to steal it, to his surprise he could not do so. Instead his
efforts robbed him of his own soul and he died because he had tried
to steal the soul of the one he had loved.

After the
recount of the journal entries the chapter went on to explain that
a soul snatcher that had truly fallen in love, did not have the
capability to steal the soul of the one they loved.

Annie stopped
reading and sat on her bed in shock. She closed the book before she
was finished and placed it in her lap to give herself a moment. In
a few pages she would be done reading the book and Baden would be
there. She had no idea where the encounter would take them and she
wanted to give herself time to prepare for it.

As she sat
there she wondered who had written the book. She picked it up and
flicked around the first few pages to try and find out. As she did
she came across a note that was written in the front. She had
missed it at first because there had already been a book mark
placed at the first page of writing which skipped the note. It
read:

Dear
Eli,

Enjoy your
read.

Baden.

Annie’s heart
froze before it
jumped into a
sprint. Baden had written the note in the most elegant script she
had ever seen and she had seen it somewhere before. Just as she
realised the truth, she heard Eli and Garrick come in the door. She
closed the book in anger and tried to control herself. She left the
book in her room and went down to confront Eli. Luckily Garrick had
already lit lamps throughout the house or she would have stumbled
in her haste. When she found the front foyer empty she went to the
library.

Without
knocking she burst in to find him sitting behind his desk, Garrick
nowhere to be seen. She slammed the door behind her which caused
him to look up from whatever he had been looking at on his
desk.

“
Where have you been?” Annie asked in a blaze of fury,
storming towards him. Even though she was not angry because of his
absence she let her anger coat all of her words.

“
I had a meeting I needed to attend. I left you a note,
did you not find it?” Eli asked, standing and coming around the
desk in response to her urgency. They both stopped walking when
they were close to each other.

“
No I did not. Is there anything else you would like to
tell me that you have kept to yourself?” She asked as she stood in
front of him, her arms folded and her head leaning to one side,
waiting for his response. Her expression was barely controlled
ire.

Eli looked at
her in complete confusion, he had no idea why she was upset. He
reached out to touch her arm and try to calm her but she pulled
away. She was livid, how could he have not told her something this
huge? His face looked pained that she had pulled away from
him.

“
Annie, what is the matter?” He asked, his voice
covered in concern.

“
Tell me, were you ever going to reveal that Baden is
your brother?” Annie sneered. Eli took a step back from her, his
face a mask of horror that she had found out the disgrace he had
tried so hard to keep hidden.

Now he had no
choice, he had to confess that Baden was his brother. The worst
soul snatcher ever known to exist.

CHAPTER
31

“He
was
my brother,” Eli said the words as if they tasted bad in
his mouth. He turned away from her and went back to his desk,
standing in front of his chair instead of sitting. He gripped the
chair with both hands, trying to hold back the anger he felt. Annie
stormed up to the other side of the desk, arms marching beside her.
She was ready to confront him about what he was so obviously trying
to avoid.

“
He is still your brother whether you like it or not!”
Her voice was louder than usual.

“
No he is not! How did you find out anyway?” Eli’s
voice was cold and stern but he maintained his composure more than
Annie managed to.

“
I found the note from him at the front of the soul
snatcher book and the script matched the writing on correspondence
from your bother,” she explained folding her arms again. “How can
you disown him?”

“
He has done things that make me wish he was never
born.” He sounded repulsed.

“
I would wager everything I own that you and your group
of trackers never gave him a chance,” she yelled. She didn’t care
who heard. “I have been told many stories since knowing you that
demonstrate to me that trackers do not give many chances in the way
of soul snatchers,” she raged. “And I know they do horrible things
but have you ever thought if you gave them a chance they may not be
the way they are? What of humans who murder? You are not killing
them!”