Soul Snatcher (34 page)

“
Sorry,” he said trying to look innocent. She gave him
a warning smile then took the key from him. “Goodnight,
Annie.”

“
Goodnight,” she said then he left. She closed the door
and locked it.

After waiting
for a moment to see if Baden would return she gave up and got
dressed into her nightgown. She went to bed feeling disappointed,
she wanted Baden to come back so they could finish where they left
off. She lay there thinking about what he had looked like with his
shirt off and how they had been so close.

When she was
partly asleep Baden snuck back into her room and slipped in the bed
beside her. His presence helped her sleep easily, the whole night
through. Though he wanted so badly to be with Annie he refrained
from starting what they hadn’t finished. He could wait to make sure
she was certain of her choice. He would wait because he loved
her.

CHAPTER
32

Annie woke
with Baden beside her. When she turned drowsily towards him and her
eyes met his, he smiled and she in turn did the same. Pulling her
closer to him he wrapped her up in his arms and she snuggled into
him, resting her head on his chest.

“
Good morning,” he said softly, taking in the smell of
her hair. She let out a contented sound on her breath.

“
Good morning,” she said in return. They laid there
quietly for a time just enjoying being with each other. He sat
there deliberating whether to confess something he had kept hidden
for years. It was something trivial but he wanted her to know
it.

“
My name is Badenoch,” he said abruptly, as if he
needed to say it before he backed out. It took a few seconds for
her to gather what he had said and realise he was telling her his
full name.

“
Badenoch.” She looked up at him as she tested the name
with a smile.

“
I wanted you to know that.” The look on his face was
so sweet she almost cried. He looked like he wanted her to like it
so much.

“
But you prefer Baden?” She guessed and he felt warmed
that she had realised. He nodded slowly with a smile that looked
almost shy. She took her place on his chest with a smile and again
they fell into a comfortable silence. He could feel the pleasure in
her soul that he had told her.

“Can you tell
me?” Annie asked softly after a while. Baden paused trying to think
of what she might want to know.

“
What would you like me to tell you?” He asked playing
with a curl of her hair. She swallowed her nerves before she
spoke.

“
Tell me about your life as a soul snatcher,” she said.
She kept her head on his chest and decided not to look at him, she
thought it might be easier for him that way.

Baden’s body
tensed around her and she half regretted asking but part of her
needed to know. He almost refused her request but he knew he had to
tell her. She had already heard some things and now it was time for
him to tell her the truth. After she knew everything she might turn
him away but there was no use in living a lie.

“
I…” he started to say but then she interrupted
him.

“
You do not need to tell me,” she offered him an out.
It didn’t really matter who he had been, it only mattered who he
was now.

“
I will tell you,” he said but then he remained silent.
Annie wasn’t sure if he was going to say anything but she thought
it best not to push him. They sat in silence for a while whilst he
gathered his thoughts.

“
After I had been turned I left this town. I promised
myself I would never come back. Eli had come to kill me as I knew
he would, though at the time neither of us knew that was
impossible.” His voice sounded thick with emotion but he maintained
his composure. Baden had found out about Stewart’s story after he
was turned. It seemed that the trackers were selective in what
stories they divulged to each other. “So I left and discovered what
I was capable of in my new form. I did not expect it to be much
different from being a tracker but it was. Trackers are fast and
strong but their senses are only slightly heightened compared to
humans. My eyesight was remarkable, I was able to see through the
night as if it were day. All of my senses were intensified. I could
run faster than any other snatcher I knew and my strength far
outweighed every other,” he explained.

She played
with the front of his shirt and he smiled at her delicate way. He
had to push away the selfish desire to edit his story. He wanted to
make it sound better than it really was but that wouldn’t be
fair.

“
Feel free to ask questions,” he encouraged before he
continued. “I found that my abilities were phenomenal. Later I
heard about Stewart and gained more information regarding my own
traits from the story.” He knew that Annie knew the legend. She
couldn’t help but remember the detail that Baden couldn’t be killed
which made her think of the night she thought she had killed
him.

“
Baden,” Annie interjected. He paused and looked down
to her and she looked up at him. “I need you to know that the night
in the rain when I…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it. She
couldn’t believe she had stabbed him. Knowing what she wanted to
say, he pulled her a little closer and comforted her.

“
Annie, you have no need to apologise. You did exactly
as you were meant to do.” He was horrified that she felt bad for
what she did.

“
I did not know it was you. I just felt a hand grab me
and it was frightening and confusing and I had no idea what was
going to happen,” she rambled her words before they could spill
into a teary mess.

Seeing that
she needed to be rescued, he leaned down and kissed her. Her words
were cut off but she didn’t care. After he broke the kiss she
looked up at him a little dazed.

“
Annie, please. Do not apologise for doing the only
thing you could do to protect yourself,” he insisted.

“
Can you just know that I did not intend to hurt you?”
She almost pleaded.

He looked
into her sorry eyes and felt guilty. He was the terror to so many
lives and here he was holding the only thing that ever meant
anything to him, while others would never have their loved ones
again. His conviction to leave flared in his soul and he almost
left, with no intention to return, but then if he left would it
hurt her too much? He was stuck between what he wanted to do and
what he thought he deserved. He deserved to leave and live forever
with the pain of losing Annie but she did not deserve the pain it
would cause her. How she cared for him astounded him but he knew it
would hurt her if he left, even if it was for her own
good.

Maybe in time
she would ask him to leave, maybe he should make her want him to
leave? But after so many lives hurt he did not think he could hold
the weight of another hurting soul on his shoulders, especially the
heavy burden of pain from the one he loved. The selfishness of not
wanting to carry more guilt was overridden with the unfailing
desire to ensure Annie never had to live through any more hurt than
she already had.

“
I know,” he acknowledged her apology, keeping his
internal war easily masked by his love for her. She rested her head
back on his chest and looked away again to allow him to continue
his story.

“
So knowing what I knew and feeling what I felt, I went
out and used my abilities against everyone. I was unstoppable and I
knew I could do anything I wanted. For a time I simply tormented
humans, slowly making them feel as if they were going insane. But
the more I let my hatred fester, and the more I focused on the
despicableness of man, I soon started taking the lives of others.
When I looked at each soul I ignored any goodness there was and
focused on their downfalls. Soon all I could see was the corrupt
parts of them and it reminded me of Eli.” He paused for a time as
he thought about what really drove his loathing. “I think what I
truly hated was myself.” It was the first time he had ever
confessed the thought to anyone and it made him feel exposed. “Eli
had come to kill a monster before he knew I was one and I hated him
for it…but I turned into what he expected. I found myself to be the
most despicable of all but I could not die…when I saw another soul
with any faults I killed them because I could not rid the world of
me. Even when those faults were merely human nature, with nothing
sinister behind them.” Annie remained quiet through his confession,
she had wanted to know but it was surreal listening to his story.
“My self-loathing was soon covered by focusing on the depraved
qualities of others and I found it easy to judge them for things I
was guilty of. But I did not kill to try and rid the world of evil,
I killed because I hated…everyone and everything.”

Annie
flinched from his words and he felt it but he knew he had to be
honest, however much his instinct urged him to deceive.

“
How many?” She asked trying to hide the fear in her
voice. She didn’t think Baden would hurt her but then again she
hadn’t really known him for long. He swallowed back the fear of
telling her and forced himself to speak.

“
I stopped counting at eighty,” he said and the room
was filled with a silence so deathly it felt as if the toll would
increase right then. With heavy arms Annie pushed herself up on his
chest and leaned on him. She looked right into his face and
searched it for any sign of the creature he once was.

“
What time frame was this attained in?” She asked
seemingly emotionlessly, she was shocked numb. If there was ever a
time that Baden wanted to force someone to see his side it was
right now but something inside of him would not allow him
to.

“
Three years,” he said, his voice coming out as a
whisper. He lay there under Annie’s glare feeling as if it would
crush him into nothing.

“
How many more do you think there were?” She asked
breathlessly, not realising that the horror was obvious in her
voice. Her face had become pale and there was not a hint of
expression there.

“
Maybe another fifty...possibly more.” The words came
out hoarse.

Somehow her
face dropped even more and it looked as if she was about to pass
out. For a moment she felt utterly gutted. Over a hundred people,
he had killed more than a hundred people. She had been warned about
what he was but it didn’t stop the shock. Try as he might, his eyes
filled with tears as the fear of losing her, along with the disgust
he saw on her face, covered him. He tried to blink them away but
failed so he turned his head to hide his face.

This was the
moment she had to either choose Baden or walk away. She had to
decide whether she could be with someone who had done the things he
had done. Could she look at him every day knowing what he
was?

But she could
see he wasn’t that anymore, he was different. Even if no one else
could see the goodness in him, she could. He had made catastrophic
mistakes and hurt many people, and she wasn’t excusing him for
that, but who can tell the heart how to feel? Should she look at
him for who he had been in the past or who he was now?

And as crazy
as it might seem, she knew that she wanted him. If she was going to
be with him then there was no going back. She would support him and
trust him and most of all, believe the best in him. She wanted to
bring out who he truly was because she knew he was good. Why she
had lost her heart so easily to him was beyond her but now that she
had, she was willing to give everything she was to him.

She touched
his cheek gently and tried to softly turn his face back to her but
he resisted. Instead she leaned against him and nestled her face
into his. When he felt her skin against his he turned from the
surprise of it and looked at her. She kept her hand against his
cheek and watched him, their faces close enough to kiss. And to his
surprise he saw love there.

“
Annie, please. Do not forgive me so easily,” he said
trying to convince her that he was no good for her. He saw the
unconditional love she had in her soul and it hurt him to see it.
He had never seen a soul that could love beyond reason, as hers
did, and when he had seen her for the first time it caused his hate
to stumble and fall away. It exposed what he was to his own
eyes.

“
Baden, you do not tell me what to do,” she said
sternly. “You are not the same.”

“
I have gone too far to be forgiven,” he
argued.

“
That is only your opinion,” she said fiercely. He
stopped any rebuttal he had planned and just stared at her. “You
are different and though the mistakes of the past cannot be
changed, your choices now can change your future,” she said with
obvious faith in him.

Lifting his
hand very slowly Baden placed it against hers on his cheek and took
it in his grasp. He looked at it closely as if for inspection
instead of looking at her. He couldn’t face her, he knew he didn’t
deserve her love or forgiveness and he was avoiding having to
accept it.