My Soul Laid Bare: Book 4 (The Soul Keeper Series)

by Solis, Melissa

  “Are you kidding me? I thought it was just me. When I touch you, my body craves you inside of me like I just want to meld us into one body forever and ever.” We both laugh while Cat lies over me heating me even further with her body. This is going to be the start of a beautiful summer, and I can’t wait to meld with Cat in every way imaginable. Baylor is sounding more and more like the perfect idea in my book. I can’t fathom ever ending this journey without her.

  “So are you having that craving right now, because I know I am?” I say washing my gaze over her features trying to hard wire my brain to never forget the way she looks the first time we made love.

  “Sam, it's like it never ends.”

  “I know I feel it too.” I reach over to her bedside table and rip open another package. She takes it from me and glides it on. I gently ease on top of her and try my best to give Cat just what she's craving.

  We don't fall asleep until the sun is almost up. I know I need to get home before the girls find out exactly where I spent the night. Cat stretches out, still naked in my arms. I kiss her cheek softly as not to wake her. She mumbles, “I love you Sam,” and I wonder if she means it because I damn sure think I may be falling in love with her too.

  I ease in through the back door like a cat on the prowl. I'm careful not to let the screen door slam behind me. The girls are not likely to be up yet anyway. It's Saturday. My dad enters the kitchen just as I reach the table and pours himself a cup of coffee. I feel like I've been caught scaling the prison walls. My face flushes with heat, so I lean over the sink like I'm suddenly interested in the stable.

  “You have a good birthday son?”

  Relief creeps in as I think maybe he has no idea I got home seconds ago. I'm even more relieved that he doesn't know what monumental event took place in my life last night. Last night… was like a dream. It still is. I'm reveling in the after effects, and I never want this feeling to end.

  “Yeah Dad, I had a great time.”

  I pour myself a cup of coffee knowing I'm going to need it today. Cat Emerson may just need a wakeup call in couple of hours, and I'll gladly be of service.

  “That's good son. Did you use protection,” my dad asks with no more concern in his voice than if he'd asked if I'd gotten the mail today. What the hell? Hot coffee exits my nose and mouth as I get hit with the full brunt of his sixth sense. He's always known exactly what his children are up to at any given time, day or night. I'd been mortified if he'd just hinted at it, but now, I just want to shrink into a hole and die with the knowledge that he knows it was with Cat.

  I come up sputtering as he whacks me on the back, and I'm not sure if it's a congratulatory slap, or a don't choke to death beating. However, I can't even get a word out for a good two minutes.

  Chapter 5 ~ The Phone Call ~

  Brennen

  I lie across Elijah's lap pretending to watch the movie blaring on the television, but my mind is elsewhere. I'd like to have him alone for a change. Lexi and Asher are nestled on the rug in front of us. They seem to be content sharing a date night with us. Maybe I'm the only one greedy for his love.

  I made it through freshman year of college with ease. Lexi is staying the summer with me here in Virginia, so she and I can enjoy some much needed beach time. Asher is paying her a visit on his way home. He's from D.C. We plan on all getting an apartment in Cambridge when sophomore year starts up. I'm not holding my breath though because when it comes down to plans, my life is more like the Anti-Plan which sounds like a bad name for a villain in a Pixar movie. Want to have a luxury apartment in Cambridge? Too bad! Look out. It's Anti-Plan! Here to foil the day once again.

  My phone vibrates on the coffee table, and I notice that it's Emily.

  I whisper to Elijah that I'll take it in my room. I haven't heard from her since last month. She had accepted a job at the American consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland as a file clerk. A foot in the door, she called it.

  “Hello?” I pull one leg up onto my bed and get comfortable for a long conversation.

  “Hello, Brennen.” A man's voice takes me by surprise.

  “Who is this?”

  “Don't gather any more alarm in your voice. Speak to me calmly, so as not to alert Elijah. Move away from him to another room... Are you alone yet?”

  “Yes! Now who is this, and where is Emily?”

  “I'll answer all of your questions in due time.”

  Malphas, I mouth, not wanting to say his name out loud. I recognize the slow cadence of his voice and how it always drips with maleficence.

  “What do you want?”

  “Ah, now that’s the right question.” He pauses before continuing, just enough to make me see red. “I want you to break up with Elijah. No, let me re-phrase that. I want you to crush Elijah's heart to dust. Tell him it's over. Do not under any circumstance tell him why. I want him to suffer. Tell Emmagen to make you blind to him in the spirit world, and then marry Sam. If you don't obey my instructions implicitly, everyone you ever care about will die, much like poor Emily here. Lexi will be next.”

  Panic floods my heart. Elijah will be here in seconds once he hears its accelerated rhythm. What if he's already hurt her or worse? We're so far away.

  “What did you do to Emily?”

  My phone buzzes against my cheek. I glance down and see a picture of Emily. My horrified scream comes out like the shriek of a siren, like I am the one lying bloody and lifeless in the picture. Elijah is by my side in the next instant. I toss the phone like it’s a snake onto the other end of the bed. My entire body is trembling.

  “What happened?”

  I raise a quivering arm and point to the phone. “He killed Emily,” I barely choke out.

  Elijah grabs the phone and sees the gruesome image. “Malphas! You will pay for this!” But the line is already dead.

  He wraps his arms around me. Lexi and Asher stand in the doorway wondering what happened. The image of Emily's face dripping with blood plays on a reel in my mind. Her car had hit a telephone pole head on. Her body was lying half inside and half outside the windshield. She always wore her seatbelt and made sure everyone else in the car did too. This has Malphas written all over it.

  I recall my own accident months ago when a demon landed in the road, and I had to swerve onto the median to avoid plowing into it. Elena saved me. Then she had to fight off an entire flock of them. Now Emily is dead, and I am the only reason her beautiful soul will never take another breath. They keep taking the people I care about away from me - first my father, then my grandmother, and now my best friend. He said Lexi is next.

  I gasp a shuddering breath when I stare into Lexi's baby blue eyes. Elijah whispers into my ear that everything is going to be okay, but his words do little to console me. Nothing will ever be okay in my life. Nothing will ever be my choice.

  Malphas wants me to crush Elijah. He's been after us for months, and now he's concluded that this is the only true way he can hurt us both. Pain slices through me, sharp as razor blades, and I heave sobbing breaths into Elijah's shoulders. I have to do what he says. I have to do it now. Now while I'm not in my right state of mind! Otherwise, I won't be able to. Lexi's next breath hinges on my decision, and I won't lose one more person.

  “Take me to Amorous now. Please, I need to get away,” I whisper into Elijah. I don't even know if he understands me through my blubbering words, but he finally nods.

  “She's upset. She just found out her best friend was in a terrible accident and is now with the Lord,” Elijah directs to Lexi and Asher. Lexi pulls me in for a long hug and strokes my hair.

  “I'm so sorry Brennen. I know how much she meant to you. I'll be here to help you get through this. I promise.”

  “Thanks Lexi.” My voice sounds far off as I think about how I am going to carry out Malphas' plan. Over Lexi's shoulder, I glance up at Elijah's worried face. I turn away quickly. I can't even look at him. Asher offers me a hug too, and then takes Lexi downstairs to leave us alone. Elijah begins packing me a sm
all bag while I sit on the edge of the bed, numb from the shock, and horror of it all.

  “I'm just going to let them know you're going to try and get some rest. We'll leave after that.” Elijah's heart is broken right along with mine, and I am so afraid of what comes next. I'm trembling all over. I don't want to do this to him. I run to the bathroom to be sick. My body suddenly feels like it's on fire, and I'm as weak as a kitten. Elijah finds me resting my head on the cool edge of the bathtub and takes me in his arms. He carries me back to the bed. As he kisses my forehead softly, I feel the warm light of his healing powers easing the spasms going on inside my stomach. I revel in the feel of his kiss. It may very well be our last one.

  “You ready?”

  I nod, and he holds me tight as he closes his eyes thinking of where he wants to go.

  “We need to talk,” I say as we touch down on the platform in the transfer room. He nods once as we quickly exit the building paying no attention to everyone there who is trying to say a friendly hello to us.

  Inside his cottage, my knees grow weak. I'm losing the nerve. I ease onto the sofa, and he follows, and holds my hands in my lap.

  “Tell me everything,” he says.

  “He can't hear us here.” I blink back a tear as I gaze into his soft expression. Malphas warned me not to tell him why I was ending things with him.

  “I know he's done this to get to you. So please love, tell me what he said. Whatever it is, we'll get through it.”

  I shake my head. We can never get through this. This is permanent. This is life altering. Emily is gone, murdered because of me, no other reason. I have to go through with the plan that devil has set in motion. Since I've grown to love Lexi like a sister, I won't risk her life for anything.

  “I can't keep losing the people I love, Elijah.” I rub my head wondering how on earth I can ever bear to lose Elijah all over again. We've grown so close over the last five months. Life with him has become the dream I knew it would be. We complement each other in a way that’s indescribable.

  He pulls me to his chest and holds me in his solid arms. Elijah emanates the scents of home and tries to relax me. Nothing can truly relieve this pain. It's like I've been cut in two and hollowed out inside, then taped back together in pieces. This will be it for me. After this, I'll be a shattered ruin of my once former self. Malphas will get just what he wants, I think as I stare off at the ceiling.

  “I can't bear for you to lose anyone either. They can put a guard on your closest friends, Brennen. We won't stop until he's captured.”

  “They've been searching for him for five months, Elijah. He's as elusive as a comet on New Year's Eve. I have to do what he wants, or he'll never stop. “

  “What does he want you to do?”

  “I can't tell you. He can read your mind. He will know and will kill people. He'll find a way to get to Lexi or Asher or whoever I become close to over the years. You are the best there is, Elijah, and even you can't protect everyone all the time.”

  “I have to let the dream of us being together die, along with it, my heart.”

  “What are you saying, love?”

  “You know the only way he can destroy us. You know what the only mortal-dagger to your heart is.” My voice is deadpan.

  Elijah sinks down, and I see the moment the full realization of my words hit him like a freight train carrying lead downhill. His eyes widen perceptibly, and his lips part. The ache that fills me in the next instant is his heartbreaking right along with mine. It blooms into a blinding pain that rips through me, and I cry out.

  “I'm so sorry. I shouldn’t have let you feel that.” He quickly tries to bottle his feelings so that I'm free of the agony. “I need you to tell me exactly what he said, Brennen. I can conceal my thoughts from him if I need to. The best mind readers in Amorous had no idea I was falling in love with you the day I met you in high school. You have to trust me.”

  “Elijah, I trust you with my life.” My voice is rife with desperation mixed with hatred for the evil bastard doing this to us. He better pray I never lay my hands on him. My fist clench into balls as my anger builds inside of me.

  “I know you’re angry at him. Believe me. I'm furious, but the only way I can help you is if you tell me what's going on.”

  I run my hand along his jaw, praying he will forgive me one day.

  “I have to let you go Elijah. That's all I can say.” My chest heaves with a huge sob.

  I swallow hard and fight the urge inside that's telling me to spill the entire plan to the man I adore. I shake my head and bolt out the door. I can't risk it. I can't be the reason Lexi gets murdered. Tears fly off of my face in rivers as I run. My heart pumps out in a deafening roar, protesting every inch I put between myself and Elijah.

  I start my way back to find my mother at the headquarters. Elijah catches up to me and lands just ahead with his wings still spread open wide. He creates a wall. “Don't do this to us, Brennen. Please I beg you,” His words tug at my heart strings, but deep down I know that being with Elijah was always an impossible dream. If it's not Lexi's life, it will be the next person I get to know. If not them, my children one day. Malphas will only stop if he knows we are both suffering.

  I shake my head and drop my eyes to the ground. I can't do this to him. His wings disappear when he senses my defeat. He goes to pull me into his arms, the place I always crave to be. I dodge his touch and run past him. He follows behind me on foot pleading with me to stop the entire way.

  “Get away from me now Elijah. It's already too hard.” I cry out as I burst through my mother's office.

  “Brennen, what's going on?” She puts a hand up halting Elijah in his tracks. He has to obey her. She is his superior. I plunge into her waiting arms, and she hugs me tightly. Warmth and love instantly fill my soul as only a mother's love can. “Elijah would you give us a moment alone please?”

  Elijah's head dips down low, but he honors her request. My gaze follows him out knowing it could be the last time I see him. My body seizes as the door shuts behind him with finality. I sink into my mother's shoulder as silent tears rip through my eyes. She doesn't press me for answers right away. She allows my grief to subside naturally. Finally when I'm all cried out, she hands me a handkerchief.

  “Malphas had Emily killed.”

  “No! Oh darling, I am so sorry. That monster is being hunted as we speak. I've made it my top priority since the last incident.”

  Maybe that's why he's getting desperate. He knows they're close.

  “Can Elijah hear us from out there?”

  “No, there is a barrier. Why?”

  I tell my mother everything Malphas told me to do, and as I finish, she eases into her chair just as stunned as I am.

  “Do you want my advice?”

  “Desperately,” I say.

  She mulls her words around for a moment, choosing just what to say carefully. Deep down I know there is no easy way out of this.

  “Do what he says. Appease him for now, and once we capture him, you can go back to Elijah.”

  “Don't you see, I can’t? I've broken Sam's heart too many times. If I do this, it has to be for good. I won't hurt Sam again. If he gives me another chance, I have to be done with Elijah for good. I'll be married to Sam. I have to see it through. That's why I'm so torn. But I know I have to do this. I can't let Malphas hurt anyone else, Mom.”

  “Alright then darling. I'll help you however I can. I'll ease the pain by not allowing Elijah to be visible to you unless the situation warrants it… say in a life or death matter.” I recall Nehemiah, the former Oracle reader, had restricted Elijah appearing to me and didn't allow for this emergency provision, and it almost cost me my life so I nod.

  “Elena will be returning with you as well, at least until we capture Malphas. I can't risk you getting hurt. She's on a short mission now, but she'll be with you in a couple of days.” She kisses the top of my head as she squeezes the breath from my lungs.

  Seeing Elena again will be good. I
was actually starting to miss having her around, go figure. My hands are trembling with fear.

  “I can't tell him goodbye. I'll never be able to let him go. You have to order it now.”

  She pulls me in once more holding my ear against her chest. Her heartbeat floods my ears and drowns out her words. The words that strip Elijah out of my life once and for all. I hear him cry out from the hall way as if his heart has been ripped from his chest. It's the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard, and it causes me to wrench inside. My legs give out from under me, and my mother supports my full weight with little effort.

  “Shh, shh,” she whispers trying to console me as she strokes my hair. “You'll still be able to see him here in Amorous, but once you’re back, the order will take effect.” The pain is unbearable. I think I'm going to be sick. She rubs her hand on my lower back, and a low heat begins to warm my skin and muscles, ebbing away the queasiness somehow.

  “Come. I'll take you back to your home in Virginia myself.” We exit her office, and Elijah is there, pain etched on his face like a tattoo. I know he will never recover from what I just did. How could I do that to him? Lord forgive me. You give him to me to love, his heart to care for, and I decimate it. As soon as we get home, I will no longer be able to see him or talk to him.

  “Why are you doing this, Brennen? Please just tell me that much,” he pleads with me as we walk down the hall.

  I pause and turn to him for a moment. My hand brushes across his soft cheek, and I cup his face in my hands. “I'm sorry Elijah, but I have to do this. There's no other way. I wish I could tell you the words that would make this all easier somehow. Please know that I will always love you.” He goes to kiss me, and I pull away. He knows I would cave at his touch. He knows me all too well.

  My mother takes my hand up and leads me down the hall. Elijah follows in silence. We step onto the platform, and when our feet sink into the sand, I know I'm home. Elijah is hidden from my view, and even when I blink into the red sky world, he isn't there. I can't breathe. The thought of never seeing him again consumes me like a wild fire. He's still here, I chant in my head. I picture him now holding me as we walk. I can almost feel the warmth of his hand on my shoulder, but the salty breeze touching over my bare skin lets me know that it’s just my imagination.