Kiss of Souls

by Morgan Kelley

  Tori lunged for her.

  Elizabeth grabbed her.

  “Just let me break her nose. One shot, Elizabeth. That’s all I need.”

  She couldn’t let her do that.

  What could she let her do?

  “Is that your husband?” she asked.

  Sabrina turned.

  “Don’t you dare say anything,” she hissed. “I don’t want Roger to hear anything about this!”

  They waited until he got closer.

  “What’s going on?” Roger asked.

  “We’re questioning your wife on the murder of Shelby Christensen,” Elizabeth offered.

  He laughed. “My wife can’t make her own bed, let alone plot a murder.”

  “Oh, we don’t think she did it,” Tori offered. “It was the blackmail she was paying that had our attention.”

  He looked at his wife.

  “Blackmail?” he asked. “What are they talking about, Sabrina?”

  “Yeah, Sabrina,” Tori reiterated. “Why don’t you tell your husband about the other guy?”

  And there was her revenge.

  Elizabeth saw the woman go red, and she knew it wasn’t going to be good.

  Not for Sabrina.

  “Oh, and Roger, don’t go in bare. Your wife might have something sexually transmitted,” Tori added just because she could.

  Arsen shook his head.

  “Have a good day, folks,” Elizabeth said, tugging Tori toward their ride.

  Once inside, they watched the interplay.

  It was calmer than they expected.

  “He knew or he suspected,” Elizabeth said. “Look at his face. He’s mad, but he’s not erupting.”

  “So, what does that mean?”

  “He either doesn’t care, or he’s about to be added to our suspect list,” Arsen answered.

  “I’m voting the latter,” Tori admitted.

  Yeah, so was she.

  * * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *

  Courthouse

  They filled out all of the paperwork, and they got ready to do the deed. Beau, before they entered the courthouse, had run into the local jeweler and grabbed two simple bands.

  If they were going to do this, they were going to make sure they did it right.

  “I feel bad about not inviting the family,” she said.

  “We’re still going to have a big wedding. I just want to do this to prove I love you. We can have one hell of a party later.”

  She went with it.

  After all, he was back to his normal self, and he seemed to want her like he had. Maybe this wouldn’t be a disaster.

  She could only hope.

  Angry family was something they didn’t need when they were fighting one hell of a battle.

  As the judge called their names, they headed into the chambers.

  “Did you write vows?” he asked.

  “No, but can we wing it?” Beau asked.

  He nodded.

  “Begin, son.”

  “Nyx, I love you. When I was in the Middle East, I never thought there would be a shot at happiness like this. I would dream about it, but I never believed I’d have a wife to be my own.”

  She wiped her eyes.

  “You are my world. Despite everything, we’ll make it because we’re supposed to be together. We were meant to be. That day I dove into the water for you, I knew I had to save you or I’d lose me too.”

  She loved him so much. She was fighting the screaming in her head.

  It wasn’t easy. Evangeline didn’t want her to be happy. She wanted her to pay for everyone’s sins. If she had her way, no one would fall in love.

  Nyx fought to focus.

  “You are my heart, my soul, and all the good in my world. From that sweet smile, to the way you make me happy, I will always come back to center when you’re waiting for me. You’re my happily ever after, Nyxie. I love you.”

  His words touched her heart.

  “Your turn, miss.”

  She didn’t hesitate. Shutting it all off, she focused only on his red-ish auburn hair, the stormy gray blue eyes, and the spattering of freckles.

  If she focused on him, she didn’t have to fight as hard against the monster trying to destroy her.

  “I fell in love with you the second I saw you, Beau. You were serving drinks at the winery, and you looked so safe to me. I wanted to run into your arms, hold on, and never let go.”

  He wiped a tear from her cheek.

  “Having you in my life changed me. I know I can believe in you, and I can’t wait to be your wife.”

  She stumbled a little, and Beau knew why. Evangeline was playing games in her head. He could see the pain lines in the middle of her forehead.

  She was suffering.

  Moving closer, he held her in his arms.

  The screaming abated.

  “I will love you until the end of my life, Beau, and I will cross into the next world knowing that I had the one I was meant to find. You are that one.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder, trying not to cry.

  The pain was so bad.

  “Here are your rings,” the judge said, holding them out to the couple.

  Beau took his.

  “Say the words.”

  “With this ring, Nyx, I thee wed.”

  She held her hand as steady as she could as he slipped the simple band onto her finger.

  That one act steadied her.

  He held out his hand as she took his band. When she looked up into his eyes, he didn’t look away.

  “Say it, Nyx,” he practically begged.

  He knew what she was fighting.

  “With this ring, Beau, I thee wed.”

  The judge signed the paper and his secretary also did, witnessing their marriage.

  “What are you waiting for, son? Kiss the girl. That’s the last part of this.”

  He couldn’t wait.

  He’d finally done it.

  He’d finally gotten her to the altar, and while it wasn’t the ideal way, he was now married.

  He had a wife.

  Beau Christensen, soldier, had a wife to love, honor, and protect.

  He found her mouth with his, and he kissed her with all he had. As he did, he found her kissing him back.

  The energy in the room changed, and it actually lightened up.

  Their love was fighting back Evangeline.

  Nyx clung to him.

  She couldn’t let go.

  If she did, she knew she’d slip under and be that monster that was calling to her.

  When he slowly pulled away, he was staring down at her with so much love.

  “Let’s get to the office, Mrs. Christensen,” he whispered in her ear. “Let’s go start our life.”

  She wanted to weep.

  Nyx could hear what Evangeline was shouting in her head.

  Now that she’d chosen Beau, and ignore the demon, there was only going to be one outcome.

  Her death.

  Chapter TWENTY-ONE

  Delta Falls

  Morgue

  W hen Christina got there, she was all excited and giddy over the prospect of helping her friend out. While it wasn’t procedure to let a civilian watch, or assist in an autopsy, Chris figured this was all about making shit up as he went.

  Delta Falls was the opposite of by the book.

  As Christina grabbed a camera, she fell back into the routine of being a tech without Chris even having to say a single thing. She pulled trace, she documented it, and she simply had him sign off on it.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come back?” he asked. “We have a head tech now that’s just barely doing enough to get by.”

  “Why?” she asked. “Doesn’t he love the job?”

  Chris laughed. “He wants to be an agent, and this was his foot in the door.”

  “Oh, that’s bad.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m wasting hours a day babysitting him, or I was until I handed in my badge.”

  �
��Are you guys going back?” she asked.

  “I think so. I can’t see Elizabeth not being a Fed. She tends to need to keep her mind sharp.”

  “Yeah, the boss lady needs to be chasing crazies, or she’d go nutty.”

  He agreed.

  “Kane said she already looks better.”

  She did.

  Christina kept talking.

  That was one of the things Chris loved about her. She could carry a room without even trying. When she was there, everyone was filled with her exuberance.

  “I’d come back to the FBI, but Kane would need a job, and I don’t think he’d be happy back East. He’s more a stick close to the rez kind of guy.”

  “I see.”

  “I really do miss you guys. There’s a part of me that wishes I could be there.”

  Oh, not as much as they missed her.

  That was for damn sure.

  “How’s the boss handling things?” she asked.

  “Which boss? Elizabeth or Ethan?” he inquired.

  “Either,” Christina replied as she snapped pictures of the dead man.

  “Well, after the last fight…”

  He stopped.

  She reassured him. “We already know about it,” Christina offered. “When it happened, Julian got the dirt from Ethan, and we found out Lyzee was in Salem. Tori and I headed there.”

  “Oh.”

  “She sent us home. I don’t think she wanted us to see her falling apart.”

  “I’m worried about her,” Chris said, waiting for her to finish the pictures. “She says she’s okay, but I know she’s not. I can see it in her face.”

  “We should go kick Ethan’s ass. What was he thinking?”

  “Elizabeth and I had a relationship in our past,” he admitted. “We were a couple.”

  She laughed.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Well, duh! Most of us suspected that. She dotes on you, and you look at her like you love her. Unless you had your head in the sand, or you just didn’t want to see it, you couldn’t miss it. I think Ethan’s been in denial or he’s pissed he didn’t catch it.”

  Chris thought about it.

  “Besides, there were rumors when I started at the FBI. When I first met you, one of the techs who worked under you, Chris, told me that you’d once shacked up with Elizabeth LaRue, and that’s how you got your sexy street cred.”

  “What?” he asked, staring at her.

  “Yeah, the women in the lab always talk about you and how cute you are. You have a smoking ass.”

  He was in a new realm.

  Christina had the ability to make anyone think they’d fallen down the rabbit hole. “I’m not cute.”

  “And your ass?”

  He glanced up over the protective shield. “Maybe a woman or two have told me that.”

  Okay, it was Elizabeth who had when they were younger. It was still one of his favorite memories.

  “I bet. Maybe you’re not a model, but to the rest of the lab staff, and all the other scientists, you’re pretty hot.”

  “I’m horrified by this.”

  “Well, it’s not like we talked about your ass.”

  Then she paused.

  “Well, okay, we did talk about your ass, but at least we didn’t talk about…okay, we did that too.”

  He started laughing. “I miss you, Christina. God! I wake up each day, or I did, and I wished you’d come back. Elizabeth too.”

  She smiled at him. “Well, I was a gem.”

  “And so modest. It’s one of your greatest attributes.”

  She snorted. “I said your ass was hot. That’s all you got for me?” she teased.

  “Uh, Chrissy, you’re engaged to a brick shithouse, who could smash me with his fist. I’m not discussing any of your attributes. I like life.”

  She giggled. “Kane-y-kins is harmless. He’s a big puddle of Native mush.”

  He stared at her like she was insane. “Yeah, right.”

  She didn’t reply.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Chris, there’s nothing odd here,” she said, examining the bottles and jars filled with trace. “No foreign hairs, no fingerprints on his wallet—but his.”

  He sighed.

  “Yeah, same here as I’m staring into his body. He’s pristine. This guy would have lived another forty years easy. Other than the toxicology results, I can say he wasn’t beat up, knocked around, or hurt before he strung himself up.”

  “So, it’s a suicide?”

  He took a deep breath.

  “You know she’s not going to have time to wait on tox. She’s going to want it ASAP.”

  He pulled out his phone.

  “Yeah, I’m aware. I hate when I have to do this.”

  She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Bullshit, Doc. You love it. You may not be having sex with Elizabeth anymore, but this is how you do the dance. It’s just as intimate.”

  He never thought of it that way.

  “If you loved me, you’d come back,” he said again. “If you come back, I’ll pay to have you relocated, I’ll even buy you a damn house.”

  “Chris.”

  He was serious.

  Family mattered.

  “We need you. Elizabeth and I relied on you, and since you’ve been gone, we are compromised.”

  “I can’t make that decision alone. Kane…”

  He got it.

  “Just think about it. Get back to me, okay?” he offered. “If we go back, we need you.”

  She gave his gloved hand a squeeze. “Call the boss. She needs to know.”

  He did just that.

  Chris dialed her phone and waited. When she picked up, he didn’t give her a chance to talk.

  “I need to see you at the morgue.”

  “Bad news or good news, Doc?” she asked.

  “Well, that’s going to depend on perspective. Head in, and bring the detective. It’s clear down here.”

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Let’s just say I got the job of doing the autopsies alone, and the whole team bailed.”

  She started laughing.

  “Well, that should make a control freak like you very happy.”

  It did, and it didn’t.

  “Elizabeth, just get here,” he stated. “I need to see you.”

  She knew he was in work mode.

  “Okay, Newton. Will there be any surprises?” she asked.

  He stared at Christina.

  “Oh, I may have one or two for you.”

  “Well, I do love a twist to the plot,” she stated.

  “Don’t we all, honey?” he asked, and then hung up.

  “So, you got naked with Elizabeth,” Christina asked. “What was that like? Most of us figured it was like two praying mantises mating. She’d do the deed and then leave no remains of the weaker mate behind.”

  He stared at her.

  “Seriously?”

  “Well, we are talking about Elizabeth, right? It’s not that farfetched. We just don’t know how Ethan and Callen survive. It must be witchcraft or a deal with the devil.”

  Then he began laughing.

  “I really miss you, Christina. I really miss you a lot.”

  And he did.

  They had to get her back.

  * * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *

  Washington DC

  He was in his office working on a journal that Doctor Gaines had left him. She wanted him to work on his feelings, writing everything down.

  He had been religiously working on it.

  Before he pulled it out, he’d been watching the news. It was re-looping Callen and Elizabeth as they walked into the Littlemoon office a couple days ago.

  He’d watched it about a million times. Each time, she took his breath away.

  Now he was writing his wife a love note. He felt the need to put it down, so one day, she’d have it in her hands. For a month, he’d been writing little letters to her, making notes, and right before he hea
ded to Salem, he was going to mail it to her.

  Ethan wanted her to read it first.

  Hopefully, it would show how hard he was trying.

  At the knock on his door, he glanced up. It was the Secretary of Defense.

  “Hey, Marlee, come on in. What can I do for you?” he asked, closing up his journal. “Our meeting with the President isn’t until three. We have some time.”

  She closed the door.

  “I thought we could go together,” she offered. “Want to grab some lunch first?”

  He stood from his chair and turned to grab his suit jacket from the hook on the wall behind him. When he turned around, she was standing in his office in nothing but panties and a bra.

  “I can be on the menu.”

  Okay, this was bad.

  “Marlee!”

  “When are you going to face it, Ethan. We’re good together. We could be the ultimate power couple. Why don’t we have lunch here, and then go to the meeting?”

  “I’m married,” he said, backing around the desk. There was no way he was going to do this.

  “You know you want me, Ethan.”

  “Marlee, you’re a beautiful woman, but I’m married. I have kids, a wife, and a husband. I won’t do this to them. Ever.”

  She didn’t give up.

  “You’re separated. Say the words. Once you realize that Elizabeth, that beat down hag, isn’t coming back, you’ll be able to move on. I’ll make you feel better, Director.”

  When she called Elizabeth names, it pissed him off, but he controlled his temper. This was like a test.

  As the woman slid up to him, grabbed him by the tie, and tried to feel him up through his dress pants, he knew what would get her off him, and fast.

  He was the top profiler at one time.

  He knew how to read a room.

  “I’m not separated, Marlee. In fact, I’m leaving DC in three weeks. When Gabe is back, I’m gone. I’m going to be with my wife and husband.”

  She stared at him.

  “What?”