My Soul to Take (Soul Keepers (Young Adult paranormal romance)) Page 9

  “Alright, meet me in the barn in five.” I finish up with the last mare and wait inside for him. Sam brings out a stunning black horse with a white blaze running down his face. He saddles up the stallion, then fills a satchel with water bottles and a blanket. .

  “Put your left foot in the stirrup and I’ll help you mount up.” Sounds like a trip to the gynecologist but okay. I remove the apron and rubber boots and slip my shoes back on. I forgot how ridiculous I must have looked.

  I do as he says and he easily hoists me over and in the saddle. Sam’s long legs mount the horse with grace. He settles in snuggly behind me and his closeness sends a slow heat though my body. I pet the long black mane of the horse to show him I’m nice.

  “This is one of my horses. Clancy here is a Friesian so he can handle both of us without much effort. I’ll take the reins, he’s a bit high-strung but that’s how I like em.” He chuckles softly in my ear as he commands the horse to life with a subtle brush of his boot.

  “Wait, don’t you have a date with Peyton?”

  “Is Elijah expecting you home right after your shift?” Touché “Come on before it gets dark.” Sam leads us at a steady pace as the sun sinks lower and lower. The horse pads softly along the soft grass. The air is thick enough to drink, a veil of moist air kisses my skin and chills me even at this slow pace. The sweet scent of clover perfumes the air.

  “Is Peyton your...?” I can’t even finish the sentence. The thought of him promoting their classification to girlfriend-boyfriend status is too much too bear.

  “She understands that I’m not ready to have a girlfriend yet.” I mull over his words contemplating what I should say next. If we’re going to do this I want to ease back into it. I think he’s right, there is no reason to devote ourselves to each other so intensely at our age. Not that I want Peyton’s filthy rich paws anywhere near him but I wonder if it would be good for us to be open to seeing other people. I contemplate if that type of relationship ever works out in the long run. The thought of giving up Elijah for good has me wanting to turn our horse around and forget the whole thing.

  Sam’s toned muscular arms flex as he controls the large black horse beneath us. The heat from his chest on my back has me warmed to almost a sweat. We get to a small pond and stop. Sam dismounts and comes to help me. He slides my body down with ease and we are once again face to face.

  I hear the familiar race of his heart begin. He takes my hand and leads me over by the horse. His gentle touch eases me just a little. He removes a blanket from the satchel and hands it to me. I lay it out under a nearby tree. He comes up behind me and cracks the tops of two water bottles. He sits on the blanket and I sit across from him so that I’ve full view of his eyes. This is going to take careful wording. I’m nervous, afraid to say the wrong thing.

  “You can ask me anything and I’ll tell you the truth. I promise I’ll never lie to you.” Sam drops his head and picks at the top of his bottled water.

  “Elijah said that nothing happened that night of your party. Did it?” Wow, I didn’t think he’d just dive right in there, but okay.

  “Elijah and I’ve only shared the one kiss, which I already told you about.”

  “Why?” His question is a simple one, but the only one I wish I knew the real answer to. Why, if I love him, and he loves me have we only ever shared one kiss? One change-the-fate-of-the-universe kiss. The kiss that unspun the fabric that weaves destiny’s silk web. The very one we are all trying to mend our way back from. Yes, why indeed?

  “He’s protecting me from something dangerous. I can’t say any more than that without putting you at risk as well.” He looks up to the branches and thinks about this.

  “Does it have to do with what you told me before, with the CIA?”

  “Yes.”

  “So it’s not that you don’t want Elijah, but he can’t be with you because of his job?” My heart begins to pound in earnest because I cannot physically bring myself to utter the words that will ease Sam’s mind. I said I’d be nothing but honest with him from this point on, he deserves that much from me.

  “Sam, I’m here, because I want you. I’m here, because I miss you,” blurt from my mouth. It’s almost as if I can’t lie. I do want him, I do miss him. The realization of these two truths hit me like a brick wall.

  Sam lies all the way back on the blanket. I stare off at the gigantic horse grazing by the pond and I absent-mindedly go into the red skied world. Elijah is nowhere around that I can see. But Elena is petting Clancy.

  “What are you doing here? Where’s Elijah?”

  “What you think he’d want to stick around while you admonish him to rank beneath a German shepherd?”

  “Elena, I don’t know how to do this.” She returns to stroking the soft velvet of the stallion’s nose.

  “It is still your choice to make Brennen.”

  “How is it my choice? Choose to let millions die of cancer or go ahead with an arranged marriage to a guy who is loveable, sweet, and attractive. I’ve made the choice but I don’t know how to give up Elijah.”

  “So don’t. He asked me to guard you while he went to research something. He’ll be back in a couple of days. So just try to stay out of trouble for forty-eight hours will you?” As if I go looking for it or something.

  I can’t believe that an angel just gave me the advice to cheat. Choose to love them both. I roll the idea around in my head and shake it out. I do love them both, as much as I don’t want to admit it. Okay I’ve to get my head in this. I’ve to get Sam back. I’m actually glad Elijah is not here to witness the crap I’m about to pull.

  “How can I love them both without someone getting hurt?” I say with panic in my voice knowing I’ve to get back to my world.

  “You can’t hurt Elijah, his love is unconditional.” She says it matter-of-factly. It’s the point he’s been trying to drive home this whole time. He’s told me this himself. It’s hard for a human like me to wrap my head around the concept of unconditional love. She points back to the blanket and Sam is sitting up asking me something, crap.

  I blink myself back to Sam and catch the just of his words.

  “Elijah told me what I almost did and I’m so sorry. You know I would lay down my life for you. Brennen, to tell you the truth– I’m afraid. I don’t know why that happened to me, or if it will ever happen again. I so scared to hurt you.”

  “Yet you hurt me the day you wrapped your arms around Peyton.”

  “Your right and I kept on hurting you because I thought that it would somehow protect you from me. You should stay away from me Bren, I’m dangerous.”

  I look up at him from my lashes as if to say, “Please, you couldn’t harm a fly.”

  “I’m serious, you think I was possessed, but you don’t know that for sure. I could be psychotic.”

  Alright he may need a little nudge with my gift. He doesn’t need to think of himself that way. He shouldn’t walk around in fear of something that happened once and will probably never happen again. “Sam, you’re not psychotic. You’re the kindest, most gentle guy I’ve ever met.” Yet, another truth I hadn’t realized until just now. I watch Sam visibly relax, no longer burdened by the weight of his past. He looks younger all of a sudden. He rolls to his side and props his head up on one elbow, looking completely adorable.

  “You know a good mutual friend of ours gave me some sound advice once. She said tomorrow we could be run down by a charter bus. We can’t live our lives by what-if’s. So I took her advice and asked this really hot guy to a concert. Yeah, he was all like, “What, like I date?” and I was all like, “Yes, a date.” Anyways the night ended with a steamy make out session, but I won’t bore you with the details.”

  A smile emerges on his face. “He was hot hmm?” I nod and coyly smile his way. “Oh please, bore me. Did it go something like this?” He is up and over me in an instant. He tickles me and I writhe under him. He pins my arms above my head and straddles my waist. I can’t help but giggle and nod.


  “Then something like this.” I use my self-defense technique to flip him over and take the same spot over his waist. I raise his shirt and my lips make contact with his sternum. He sucks in a breath. A gust of wind blows through the bare tree and kicks up leaves from the ground whipping them around us like our own personal ticker tape parade.

  “Do you know how much I’ve missed you?” Sam asks as I lie next to him on the blanket. I shake my head because I really don’t. An hour ago, Peyton had me believing she’d helped Sam maneuver his stick, mid-flight. “God, Bren what have you done to me? I’ve never felt this way about anyone.” Granted he’s eighteen and has only a couple of girls to compare me to. I feel Sam’s phone vibrate in his pocket. He takes it out and looks at the number and ignores it.

  “Is she going to be a problem?” Sam and I’ve enough baggage to deal with, we certainly don’t need a petite little strawberry-blond in the mix. He sighs.

  “Chris sort of gave me the advice to hit on anything that breathed to help me get over you. You have to understand I was a wreck Bren.”

  “Did she?”

  “Did she what?”

  “Help you get over me?”

  “Hell no!” He practically yells. “Look, Peyton will understand. I’ll talk to her tonight. We’d better get back, it’ll be dark soon.” Why do I get the feeling that I’m the one who is going to have to give little Ms. Peyton a much needed shove out the door?

  “Sam, if you want to keep seeing her…” His brows furrow and in his mind I see his commitment to me is back with a vengeance. But he is worried that Elijah and I are still an issue. He has every reason to worry. The vision he saw of me and Elijah that night at the theater, keeps playing in his mind. Elijah looks so in love with me, it’s obvious to the entire world.

  “Look, what I mean is, I don’t think we should dive right into this again. It always gets too intense. We’re still in high school, there’s no reason we have to put a label on what we are. We’re about to go to college and I hope we both get into Harvard but there are no guarantees. I guess what I’m trying to say is maybe we should keep things light.”

  He immediately reads my words as I want to be open to still see Elijah. His mind goes red and I can’t see any more of his thoughts. This is new and I don’t know what to make of it. His eyes darken and for a second I wonder if he has been possessed again. I look for Elena with concern spread on my face. I find her lounging on a large limb above, arms folded behind her head like she’s napping. Great.

  Sam rises to his feet and pulls me up with him, passionately embracing me in his arms. His body is rock hard, even his jaw is tense. “To hell with Elijah. And I want nothing to do with Peyton, she was only a distraction. I could never share you with anyone else. I love you. I’ve always loved you. I will fight for you and I will live everyday trying to make up for how I treated you.” He pours his lips over mine to drive home his intentions. This kiss is not soft, gentle or kind. It’s needy, rife with passion and nothing like anything I’ve ever felt from him before.

  In return, my body ignites in flames. My fingers tug at his hair as I urgently hold him tighter. He lets out a deep moan. His lips express what words cannot. For a moment he’s all I want and all that I need.

  I’m stunned into silence by his words and by his show of affection. My speech had no effect on him? Has it ever? I try and think back to a time when I convinced him to do something he was dead set against. What if he did everything I asked just because he loved me? What if he’s immune to my power of persuasion? Elena has heard what just happened and she stands nearby, wearing a concerned look on her face as well.

  On our ride back the pace is a bit faster as we race the setting sun. Clancy loves the speed Sam is letting him have. The hills are flattening out and I know we are nearing the stables. The horse suddenly lets out a frightful squeal and rears up.

  I blink and see a monstrous yellow eyed demon the size of my VW, has opened up his wings and let out its hellish racket of a caw, scaring the shit out of Clancy somehow. Shit! How a horse in this world can see a demon in the red-skied world, I don’t know. But this horse is flipping huge and I’m pretty sure I would die if it knocked us off and stepped on me.

  Sam holds fast to the reins and grabs the horn on the saddle, bearing much of his weight on top of me to keeps us on board. He’s calm as a cucumber as he tries to quiet his horse. Clancy rears up a few more times and Sam backs him up slowly.

  “Whoa, easy boy, easy,” he says in a soothing voice, repeating it until the horse finally calms. Freaking demons have to ruin everything. I’m surprised were not both lying dead on the ground right now. Elena takes care of the creature. Sam dismounts and helps me down.

  “Let’s walk him home, Clancy gets a wild hair up his ass once in a while.” Sam takes my hand in his and we enjoy a stroll in the dark. The quarter moon allows us enough light to see our way back. We stop once we see the light of Sam’s home glowing in the distance. Clancy takes advantage of the loose reigns and nibbles on some clovers.

  “Do you think we’re going to be okay?” Sam asks. The red is gone from his mind, his thought are as clear as neatly typed pages.

  “That depends.”

  “On what?”

  “If the next time you are feeling hurt, or betrayed, or anything like you felt that night, you will come and talk to me first.”

  “I will. I’ve learned from my mistakes. Just remember when you’re begging me to shut up, that it was all your fault.”

  “You can shut up now,” I tease, gaining a wry grin from his lips. He pulls me in for a kiss that sears my lips and melts away any doubt that this man could ever be anything but my husband. Is that all it takes to seduce me, really great kisses? I’ve let him back into my heart. I didn’t know I still had room enough to love Sam. But there he is, with his own brand of magic, he’s pulled me back in.

  Chapter 12 ~ Marked

  Sam walks me to my car and kisses me one last time. All of the lights are on inside his home and I know that Payton is still in there. I hope she’ll take Sam’s news well and just walk away. What girl in her right mind wouldn’t fight for him though? Guess I’ll find out soon enough, I’m to report back here in the morning because two workers are out with the flu. Elena appears in the seat next to me.

  “Well, it looks like that went well.” Being watched while you are having a moment of passion with your boyfriend is not something I think I’ll ever get used to.

  “Except for a demon going bat-shit on Sam’s prized steed. Yeah, it went fairly well.”

  “Pesky little things aren’t they.” Little my ass.

  “Did you notice that Sam wasn’t swayed in the least when I mentioned us not fully committing?”

  “I did and I’m going to look into that when Elijah gets back.” She stares off down the road as if she’s lost in contemplation. “Perhaps that is why he is your soul mate, he’s the only human that doesn’t have to do what you say.” I consider the possibility and give a small shrug.

  “This town is so boring, how about we scoot on over to Paris and have a latte overlooking the Seine.” This is supposed to be Elena’s vacation. She gets to chill on earth for a few years, yet somehow she got saddled with the side task of training me to be the next leader of the free world.

  “I’m pretty tired, I ‘m not used to working. Rain check?”

  “Now that you have Sam back, you should quit that job. You have to maintain your GPA.”

  “Look at you, sounding all motherly.” She gaks at my comment as we pull in my garage. “Oh and FYI I don’t like the crust on my PB& J when you pack my lunch for school.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, that’s the best part, without it you just have a soppy mess,” she’s quick to retort.

  We go into the house and I go straight to my shower. Muscles I didn’t know I had, ache for relief. This week has taken its toll on my body. I take my time and allow the jets to work their pulsating magic on my shoulders. Hunger pulls me out of the shower sooner
than I would have liked. For the first time in weeks I don’t get to eat one of Elijah’s gourmet meals. Elena joins me in the kitchen as we hunt for sustenance.

  “Come on, we are going to Sicily. There is this little cafe out of the way for most tourist and it has the best pizza on the planet.” The way she says it makes me wonder if there is an even better one on her planet.

  “It’s like three in the morning there,” I say, donning half closes eyes. She perks up and garbs my hand with a firm grip. I feel the wave of nausea move through me and I know we’re not in Kansas anymore.

  “Not when you can time travel.” It’s a sunny early afternoon where ever she landed us. The scent of fresh baked bread pours out onto the cobblestone streets. Crystal blue skies and a balmy breeze greets us with warm kisses on our skin. Aged stucco buildings rise out of the grey stone and flank us on either side.

  “You can time travel?”

  “Yes, yes I can.” She says with a sly grin. “Though, not more than a few hours forward or behind.”

  “Oh okay, because anything more than that would just be showing off?” I think to myself.

  We follow the scent around the corner and there, nestled between a tailor and a clockmaker, is heaven. The chime on the door sounds our arrival and we are greeted by an older gentleman, lean, but strong looking. His white moustache is neatly trimmed above his lip.

  “Bonjourno Elena!” he calls out as we take a seat at a small table.

  “Bonjourno, Philippe!”

  “Come here much?”

  “At least once a week. He makes fresh mozzarella from his own cows. The sausage is all homemade, you won’t find a single canned product back there.” A young couple walk in speaking Italian. They look very much in love. He wraps his arms around her waist and rests his head on her shoulder as they decide their order at the counter. She kisses his cheek and settles into his body. It makes me miss both of my guys.