A few minutes later, Philippe presents us with a large cracker-thin crusted pizza, dripping with melted mozzarella, fresh basil, and tender sausage. My eyes roll back in my head as I take my first bite.
“I know, didn’t I tell you?” Elena boast before downing her slice and picking up another.
“This sauce is so fresh.” I let a moan slip out of my mouth. “It’s the perfect pizza.” We don’t talk much after that. A few minutes later, an empty aluminum pan stares back at us. We lean back in our chairs with a fully satiated, lazy smiles on our faces. I wish I could bring Emily here, she’d love it.
***
That night I settle under my covers and wonder what Elijah means by research. Maybe it’s about his experiment with the tea party. I’ve the feeling I’m not as powerful as they had hoped I’d be.
He’s not going to be here tonight when I’ve my nightmare. He knows how terrified I’m when I wake up every night from it. Maybe I should pull an all-nighter. Elena and I should have stayed in Sicily, we could have traveled the world tonight and eluded the terror that comes when I sleep. Though there is no use fighting it, my body is drained and my belly is full, exhaustion takes over pulling me under.
***
“Hey, you’re okay, stop fighting me.” My arms are in Elena’s vice like grip. My face moist with fresh tears. My heart races violently inside my chest and I’m gasping for breath.
“Sorry,” I exhale out in a breath.
“You were screaming like someone was hacking you to pieces up here. Can I try something to take away your nightmares?”
“Please, I’ll do anything.”
“Never be willing to do anything, Brennen,” she says with a tone in her voice not to be taken lightly. “I’m going to hypnotize you.” She disappears for a minute and comes back in with a metronome. She sets it off and the lazy tick, tick, tick sound, rhythmically fills the silence of the night. She instructs me to relax and listen to her voice. She speaks in a soothing tone.
I listen as her words begin to string together, sinking me deeper into the murky depths of my subconscious. The sound of her voice and the tick are only audible if I strain my ears and then they disappear completely. Silence.
Ugh, bright light accosts my eyes and I turn my face into my pillow. Wait! What time is it?
No! I’m late, really late. I bolt out of bed and dress quickly. I nearly trample Elena as I round the corner downstairs.
“Sorry Elena.”
“Do be careful,” she calls out and then mumbles something under her breath about Elijah and broken neck.
“I was supposed to be at the ranch an hour ago. Can’t you teleport us there?” I manage to get out between stuffing a bite of toast in my mouth and pulling on one shoe.
“How would you explain not having your car there?”
“I don’t know can’t you just poof one into existence like Elijah, or is that trick not standard issue?”
“I think I’d better drive. You’re clearly under the influence,” Elena is quick to retort.
By the time we get there I’m an hour and a half late. Liam doesn’t looked too pleased with me.
“I’m so sorry Liam. I’m never late.”
“I’ll let it slide as long as the boss don’t find out.”
“Oh, no Liam I think I’d better have a talk with Ms. Hale here.” I hear Sam’s voice and whip around to find him standing inside the stable doors. The sun light streaming through the door, affords me only his silhouette. That tall shadow is perfect enough all on its own, but as I near him I begin to make out the smile he has on his face just for me.
“I think I’d better have this young lady under my strict supervision today, Liam.”
“Yes sir,” Liam says with a smile. I like him, he reminds me of the grandfather I never had. Sam takes my hand and leads me outside. I love the way my hand feels in his –safe –wanted.
“I missed you.” Sam pulls me in by my waist and presses his soft lips to mine. He tastes minty and smells of his soft woodsy cologne. His back is slightly damp from working. He lingers over my lips for a second longer as if savoring the moment. Sam’s joy is contagious and a slow smile gets caught on my face.
“I missed you too.”
He leads me to the training arena where a group of children are waiting patiently. Two women and older gentleman are among them.
“Hey, everybody! Gang, this is Brennen. Brennen, this is the best bunch of riders this town’s ever laid eyes on.”
The children all smile proudly up at Sam and hold their heads a little higher. This must be the special needs class, his dad was telling me about. He is so good with them. I think he is going to make a great dad someday.
“Oh my, what an honor to meet you all.” They all giggle and are excited to get to whatever comes next in their little routine. I feel a tug on my jacket and I turn to find a little girl looking up at me with wonder exuding from her face as if she just saw Santa Clause. I bend down and hold out my hand.
“Well, hello there. What’s your name?” She still stares at me, amazed by something.
“My name is Hannah. Are you a real angel?” she whispers. Her question throws me for a loop.
“What do you think?” Hannah grinds her little boot into the dirt, shy all of a sudden.
“Maybe– I think you are. But she definitely is one.” Hannah points off into the distance where there is no one to point to. I blink and confirm that Elena is standing right where the little girl pointed to, but she is invisible in this world.
“I think angels look after us and keep us safe,” I whisper back. She laughs and runs off. I wonder what Elena and Elijah would make of that little girl.
Sam waves me over. I join his side while he helps a small boy holding a pair of leg braces, mount the horse. I take the aids from his hands as he beams up at me. Now he has four good legs under him. His pale blue eyes dance with anticipation.
“Now, Christopher don’t openly flirt with the lady, she’s taken.” Sam shoots me a wink and he just misses Christopher doing the same. I stifle a laugh. I assist Sam in getting all of the kids mounted on a horse and Sam begins the class. The group trots around the ring at a steady pace. The adults are interspersed around the ring for safety.
From the corner of my eye, I see one of the children’s foot slip out of the stirrup. He’s about to fall off. My stomach bottoms out in fear. I take a step forward when I see Elena is already guiding the child back in the saddle. The little girl doesn’t even notice the invisible help. It dawns on me that this is what most guardian angels do on a regular basis –small interventions.
“They’ve really improved.”
“I think it’s great what you do.”
“I love getting these kids to that point where they feel like they’re naturally good at this. It makes their little chests swell with a pride that they may have never known otherwise.” I nod my head and squeeze a hug into Sam’s waist. I see Liam struggling to get the afternoon chores done in the stable. Sam’s rich voice gives instructions to the students one by one and I know he has the situation under control.
“I’ll be back in a bit, I’m going to go give Liam a hand. He’s swamped.” Sam places a hand on my lower back and gives a gentle rub.
“Okay.” He plants a kiss on my forehead. A round of “eww’s” breaks out from the children and I walk away red faced. I find Liam mucking out a stall. I grab a rake and go to the next stall. There’s something strangely relaxing about this work. We work near one another quietly toiling away. Soft country music plays through the speakers above and Liam hums along as he labors.
“Brennen.” Peyton’s voice spits out my name like a mouth full of vinegar. I whip around and find her behind me in her full riding dress, crop in hand like she’s ready to knock me around with it. Luckily, I’m armed with a pitch fork.
“Can I help you?” I look into her peridot colored eyes and see the conversation roll out between her and Sam last night. It’s like watching a good drama on TV. I
wish I had some popcorn right now.
Sam walks through his front door with a smile spread across his face that she’s never seen before. His lids lower when he sees her in his living room alone. She asks him what took him so long to get to dinner. He takes a deep breath and asks her to sit down. She presses the seams of her denim mini-skirt down before joining him.
She paws at his chest and he visibly tenses. She pretends not to notice. He takes her hand in his, and the gesture fires a spark of jealousy in me. Sam removes her hand and his eyes beg for her to be understanding. Her pink manicured fingers linger in the air where he left them.
“It’s her isn’t it?” she asks him, hoping she’s not right. He glances to the floor confirming her suspicion. “Why do you keep going back to her? You know she’s just going to end up hurting you again?” I cringe knowing she’s probably right.
“And maybe I’ll get hit by a bus and none of this will matter.” He says while his eyes wander off to nowhere in particular. He looks like he’s thinking of me. She knows she’s lost him again.
“I don’t know why the hell he took you back.” She’s not going to give him up so easily. I see her plans to seduce her way between us, unfolding in her mind.
“Peyton I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully. Sam is mine, he’s always been mine, and if you think there was ever anything real between you two you’re a fool. I’m sorry that you are hurt but you shouldn’t have swept in at the first sign of trouble when Sam was venerable.” Peyton lowers her head and I see a tear leave her eye before she turns and walks away. Liam picks up his head from the stall next door and quickly ducks down again as if he was about to medal, then thought better of it.
Okay so I may have been a bit harsh, if I hadn’t been she would keep pecking her way into our lives. After Liam and are all caught up, I find Sam in the arena just finishing up with the children’s class. Each one gives him a hug except for one little freckle-faced girl. Her deep red curls whip around her face in the breeze. I watch her large brown eyes follow Sam’s every move, though she has distanced herself from the crowd. Her mother takes her hand and begins to lead her out.
“I think you missed one.” I whisper to Sam. He smiles down at me.
“Sarah, where’s my high five?” The little girl’s eyes brighten up. She makes her way to Sam and slaps his palm. “That’s my girl!” Sarah cracks a smile. She returns to her mother side with a little more spring in her step.
“Stay for dinner.” Stay forever, I want to say, but I agreed to ease back into things with her. My dad took my sister’s to Texas for the weekend and won’t be back until tomorrow. I hope she says yes. I want to continue where we left off under the live oak last night. Those lips of hers look so soft right now. They’re just aching to be kissed. I’m hungry alright, hungry for her touch, the feel of her skin heating mine.
“Okay.” My cheeks flush red as his mind runs an explicit reel in his head that could only be found in the back room of a video store, staring the two of us. I can hear his heart galloping in his chest with anticipation. I touch my palm to his sternum and his lids lower as he pulls me in covering my lips with his. We kiss for an eternity, as if savoring a four course meal. His kisses are perfectly intense, tightening the piano strings inside of me as he composes a brand new symphony with his lips. I break away when my knees begin to buckle from how lightheaded he’s making me feel. He has the same feeling and we share a matched starry-eyed daze.
“I’m going to get cleaned up.” He nods into me and watches me exit the arena.
I grab my bag out of my car and use the twin’s shower to get cleaned up in. I dress, pulling on a soft T-shirt and some fleece pants. I wish spring would come already. Elijah appears in the bathroom out of nowhere, scaring the daylights out of me.
“Gaw, Elijah!” I say, nearly falling into the bathtub behind me. His exotic blue eyes are all I see as if reminding me of how much I love him and how much things have changed in just a day.
“Sorry I frightened you. There is something I found out and we need to talk.” His face is shadowed with a light growth of stubble and he looks damn sexy in his gauzy linen shirt and tan chinos. My stomach knots up with longing. I try and shake the thought.
“Elijah shh, I’m in Sam’s house. We’re about to have dinner. What is it? Can it wait?” Elijah contemplates for a moment before he nods and disappears into the other realm just as I was about to reach out to him. Why did I say that? I’m sure what he wanted to say was important.
I spray a mist of perfume in the air above me and Elijah pops back in, catching the perfume bottle I drop mid-air as he scares it from my grip. He sets the glass bottle on the counter and his expression darkens.
“No I think I’d better tell you now.”
“Okay, what is it?” My voice is soft and I try to sound apologetic. Elijah paces back and forth in the small space, filling the room with the scent of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. It must be bad news in order for him to have it smelling like a Cinnabon up in here.
He pauses in front of me, taking my hands up in his. “Sam’s been marked.”
What could that possibly mean? “Explain what that is.” Elijah pins me between himself and the counter, so close I can see the pulse on his neck. His scent encapsulates me. God almighty, Sam who? He places his hands on my shoulders and a look of sorrow spreads across his features. His azure eyes search my features for the right words to tell me. I shift my weight so that his pelvis is touching mine and watch his Adam’s apple rise and fall as he swallows hard. I glance down at his white knuckles on the counter, looking as if they may break off a chunk of granite any second now. A hint of a smile plays just beyond his lips, he knows he still has me.
His dark lashes meet his cheeks and he takes in a mind-clearing breath. He opens his eyes and I’m swept right into the cool ocean of his eyes, they’re impossibly blue right now. Hey self –breathe. “Has Sam ever spoke to you about his mother?”
“Yes, why?” I ask, wondering where he could possibly be going with this.
His brows knit together. “She had wanted to be a mother her whole life and when she found out she couldn’t have children, she tried everything. They tried invetro-fertilization and all of the routine things. Then she found someone who promised her that they knew of a way to help, but it would cost her dearly.”
“Elijah, what did she do?”
“She made a deal with Lucifer himself. She let him have the soul of her first born. In exchange, he promised her she could have a house full of children, as many as she wanted.” My heart races as I begin to pull the pieces together. Just the mention of the devil’s name has made the hair on my neck stand up.
No, no! What kind of mother would make such a deal? Was she on drugs?
“What does that mean for Sam?” Elijah averts his eyes. I softly take his face in my hands and from the look on his face I know it’s bad.
“His soul is marked. It’s like a big flashing green light for demons, saying open twenty-four hours. The fallen can use his body anytime they want to. They can take possession of him whenever they feel like it. Which puts you in harm’s way every time you are with him. That is what I went to research. I knew something was off about him.”
“Is there a way to undo the mark?”
Elijah runs his fingers over his short black hair, his eyes look up at me loaded with regret and I know the answer is no.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“When he dies, he won’t go to judgment, he won’t even go to purgatory. He’ll go straight into the belly of hell.”
“No, he is such a good person. For God’s sake Elijah, the boy teaches handicapped children, he’s going to cure cancer and save millions. He can’t go to hell.”
“Well, there may be a way out of that part of it, but it’s a longshot.”
“What is it?”
“If Sam knowingly dies so that someone else may live, a selfless sacrifice, then his soul will be wa
shed clean and he may enter heaven.”
I break away from Elijah’s hold and sit on the edge of the tub.
“There has to be away to free him of his mark. He could hurt his little sisters, we are supposed to get married. What if he hurts our children? I can never be really alone with him. I’ll always have to have you or someone guarding me. Always Elijah,” I stress the last words. God Sam could snap my neck in a second.
“Yes, I’m fully aware, trust me. I will never leave your side.” He takes a long pause. “Bren, maybe you shouldn’t risk it.”
“Look, we’ll talk about this later, Sam’s cooking dinner. I’ve got to go.” I brush by Elijah and head downstairs. I don’t smell any food cooking yet. The kitchen is empty. Maybe he is grilling something. Guys do love to play with fire. I open the screen door and see the stable engulfed in flames.
“Sam!” I take off running toward the stable. “Sam!” I can hear the pop and crack of wood being incinerated. The horses are running loose. He must have went in to release them. Clancy rushes past me.
“Elijah, find him.” He’s winged and already soaring past me into the burning building. The whole place looks like it could collapse at any moment. I stop when I get close, there is no way to get in. Flames rage along the doorway. Smoke fills the night sky so thickly, it covers the stars. I hear a loud crash and a screeching ear shattering sound that does not sound remotely human. Please be alive, please be okay.
Elijah has been in there a while. I try the back door, it’s wider. Maybe I can get in through there. I jog around the corner and see Elijah struggling with something near the ceiling. It’s Sam. Elijah looks like he’s pulling him trying to get him down but an unseen force is holding him in midair– up where all of the smoke is. He is face up and oddly contorted. Sam’s body is limp, his arms and legs dangle beneath him unnaturally. Oh my God, the demon possessing him is trying to kill him.
Elijah’s veins bulge in his neck and he pulls Sam with all of his strength. He’s been without oxygen for far too long. Sam won’t budge.
My Soul to Take (Soul Keepers (Young Adult paranormal romance)) Page 10
