Levahn held up a hand to forestall Kiah’s counsel. “Save it, SoulChaser. I’m happy where I am.” His voice didn’t sound happy.
“But don’t you want to be reunited with Amberleigh?”
Levahn looked at Kiah. “Did she put you up to this?”
“Did she–? No, of course not!” Kiah said. “I see how you look at her. You’d give anything to hold her in your arms.” It was then that Kiah noticed that the women were watching them in silence.
Looking frustrated, Levahn turned and walked over to the small kitchen. When he was out of sight of the women, he turned and leaned against one of the countertops. “You always told me, you didn’t want to be anything more than a SoulChaser. Now you’re a Guardian. Were you wrong, or have you settled into your new lot in Afterlife?”
“That’s not up to me, and you know it.” Kiah tried to keep the frustration out of his own voice, but he could hear it creeping in.
“I can only imagine how it was, being without Kenah the whole time she was stuck on Earth. That must’ve been Hell,” Levahn speculated.
Kiah pondered the obvious change of topic for a few moments before nodding.
“Then, you show up after she’s lived an entire second life and all of her previous memories suddenly open up.”
“It wasn’t as romantic as you seem to think. We were in a difficult situation. Masaal was running free and your sister wasn’t in any shape to do a retrieval. As far as I could tell, the recaptured memories made it even harder on her.”
Levahn shook his head and stared at the tile floor. “Man, I’d have given about anything to be there when you took that guy down. Especially after he killed Kenah with the spear. That sounds unbelievable.”
“SoulChasing isn’t as exciting as it may sound,” Kiah said.
“But you enjoy it. And so did Sis, until this little one showed up,” Levahn countered.
Kiah glanced over his shoulder at the two women, once again engaged in conversation. “Talethah is the best thing that ever happened to us,” he whispered.
“Brother, if you were still a SoulChaser, I’d do everything I could to take her place. We’d be a killer team.”
Levahn’s enthusiasm caused Kiah to smirk.
“You think?”
Levahn sighed to himself, then sobered a bit. “Just to see where all that happened would’ve been incredible,” he muttered to himself. “What I wouldn’t give....”
Sensing they were moving into dangerous territory, Kiah guided his brother-by-marriage back to the women on the couch. They spent the rest of the afternoon visiting, chatting and laughing about the simple things in life; Kiah even noticed Levahn’s eyes light up when the baby’s met his and his hard nature seemed to melt beneath her innocent gaze.
As the visit wound down, Amberleigh startled the small family by saying her farewells to her husband as well. She joined Kiah and Kenah on the block-long walk back to the granite doors, engaging them both in small talk along the way.
“Levahn sure seemed to enjoy seeing Talethah, once he relaxed a little,” Kenah mentioned.
“Yes, more than I expected, actually,” Amberleigh agreed.
Pushing forward with her thought, Kenah continued, “Do you think it’ll be enough for him to begin working on his eternal progression again?”
Amberleigh shrugged. “You know your brother. He’s proud and stubborn. At this point I don’t know what it’ll take. I tell myself that someday he’ll decide that being with me is worth the work to better himself. That’s why we’re all here, after all. But I haven’t seen any evidence of it, yet.” She sounded sad, more than she usually did when discussing being apart from her love.
The four of them reached the granite doors, still ignored by the passers by on the thoroughfare.
“He’ll come around, someday,” Kiah said as he effortlessly pulled one of the doors open. “Especially since he has you waiting for him.”
Amberleigh gave Kenah, then Kiah, a farewell hug.
“Forever and always,” she said, then disappeared into the shadow beyond the doorway.
Kenah cast a last look out at the city, then in silence she and Kiah passed through the doorway.
Chapter 9
“Forget and Forgive”
Jake Andrews watched as his son picked up a bright red Lego block and without hesitation snapped it into place on top of the wall he was constructing.
Still excited to see him after so long apart, Sunny tried to inject herself between he and the Lego wall, no small feat for a dog her size.
“Sunny! No!” Natey scolded her.
The dog actually looked hurt as she tucked her tail and obediently retreated to a few feet away where she could curl up on the floor and watch him in silence.
Assured that she wasn’t going to try and knock his creation down again, Natey returned his attention to the riot of colored blocks on the wood floor before him.
Shaking his head, Jake marveled at how the new red brick continued the unbroken red diagonal stripe up the wall of the small house.
About fifteen feet behind him, Taya walked into the great room, saw her ex and her son sitting together and stopped. She put her hands on her hips and said, “Jake, did you finish with the landlord?”
“Hmm?” Jake called back, not shifting his attention from his son’s creation.
Stamping her foot in genuine frustration, Taya said, “Jakob Andrews!”
Startled out of his thoughts, Jake sat upright and said, “What? What’d I do?”
“Did you finish with Trent’s landlord?” Taya repeated.
“Yes, Tayadorah, I did,” Jake answered, using her full name to the same effect that she had his. “I made arrangements to meet with him tomorrow.”
“Meet who tomorrow?” Ron asked, walking into the room from the opposite entrance, the room’s closest access to their design studio. He wiped his hands on one of the studio towels long in need of a good wash and dry. It had so many colors on it that they had blended into a rather suspicious looking muddy hue.
Climbing to his feet, Jake said, “I’ve made arrangements to make sure that Trent doesn’t get evicted again... at least, not for a while.”
“Right decent of you,” Ron decided, slipping into a thick Southern drawl. “Make sure you get a receipt.”
Jake nodded his agreement, turning his attention to the butler, Anton, as he walked into the room behind Taya. He cleared his throat, startling Taya a touch, who took the opportunity to join her son playing with the Legos.
“Yes, Anton. What is it?” Jake asked.
“There’s a visitor at the door, sir.” Despite the lack of a British accent, Anton’s resonating voice sounded perfectly upper class.
“Coming.”
Jake followed his butler through the house. As he rounded the corner to the entry foyer, his mind was still marveling at Natey’s attention to detail. When he saw the woman waiting for him, he halted mid-step. A beautiful woman, about his own age, flawless porcelain skin, lustrous red hair and ocean blue eyes smiled at him. Her nervousness betrayed her and she hesitated.
“Shannon?!” Jake finally exclaimed, the astonishment he felt evident in his mannerisms.
“Hi, Jakob. How are you?” Shannon asked.
The light Scottish accent in her voice once reminded him of tinkling wind-chimes and the comparison came to him now as strong as it always had.
“Um... I... uhh....”
“I trust you know the young lady?” Anton said around Jake’s stammering.
Jake looked up at his butler and nodded.
“Very well. I’ll leave you alone, then,” Anton said and left the foyer.
Jake watch Shannon as she looked around at the foyer’s vaulted ceiling, polished wood floor and the sheer white curtains that kept prying eyes
from peeking into the house through the tall windows on each side of the front double-doors.
“So, this is the famous Andrews Family Homestead,” Shannon said. “It’s pretty.”
From behind her legs, a pair of bright blue eyes peered out beneath a shock of white-blond hair.
Even when Jake thought he couldn’t get more surprised, seeing the little boy staring up at him with Shannon’s shy expression on his face caught him unprepared.
“I like your dragons,” came the little boy’s soft voice.
Jake shook off his astonishment and managed, “Dragons?” He watched as the boy pointed at a nearby curio cabinet that housed his large collection of ceramic and porcelain dragon sculptures.
“Oh, me too.”
“I like the red ones best,” said the boy.
At this, Jake smiled. He motioned for the boy to follow him and the two of them crossed over to get a better look at the figures. Some were laying on hordes of gold, others were fighting knights or other dragons, many were either launching into the air or touching down for landing.
“This red one is my favorite.”
“He’s one of my favorites, too,” Jake agreed, then looked up at Shannon. He hadn’t seen her in almost five years, but she still looked as stunning and beautiful as she had the day he had fallen in love with her so long ago. Not wanting to distract the child, he mouthed silently, “Damon?”
Shannon’s smile never wavered as she nodded.
“Damon,” Jake said, “my name is Jakob, but my friends call me Jake.”
Damon turned his inquisitive eyes to Jake and said, “I know. You’re one of my mom’s friends from before I was born. Can I call you Jake, too?”
A broad smile stretched Jake’s lips and he replied, “Sure, sport. I think that’d be fine.”
“Thanks, Jake,” Damon said in a sing-song way, then turned his attention back to the dragons.
Feeling dismissed, Jake slowly stood and walked back over to Shannon, careful not to look her directly in the eye. “Wow,” he said. “He’s some kid.”
“Testing way above his age group,” Shannon agreed. “He keeps me hopping.”
“I can only imagine,” said Jake, still on unfamiliar ground. “Well, how’ve you been?” It sounded lame, even to him. But what should he ask the woman he’d surrendered his innocence to, who then summarily accused him of having taken advantage, and got him kicked out of college?
Shannon met his gaze and he couldn’t help it. He fell deep into her eyes... like the old days.
A few minutes later, the two of them were sitting on the main couch in the formal living room. Damon stood nearby, tracing lines in the sand of the feng shui relaxation tray.
“We drove up from Phoenix as straight through as possible,” Shannon explained. “This was Damon’s first road trip, so it took some getting used to for him, but after the first couple of pit stops, he gradually got the hang of it. We made good time in the Volt.”
“He seems like a great kid,” Jake said.
Shannon nodded, but before she could comment further, four paws of energetic Labrador padded in from outside. Sunny took one look at Damon and bounded straight to him.
Damon squealed his delight and knelt down to accept the dog’s enthusiastic kisses.
Mortified, Jake leaned forward to stand, but Shannon put a gentle, but steady, restraining hand on his arm.
Flustered, he managed, “Uh, I’m sorry. She’s not usually so...” He let the comment trail off when he saw the glint of amusement in Shannon’s eyes.
“What’s her name?” Damon managed to ask.
Glancing in concern at Shannon, who didn’t share it, Jake replied, “Her name’s Sunshine. She responds to Sunny and Dog, too.”
“Hi, Sunshine Dog!” Damon exclaimed, then laughed as Sunny slathered more licks on him.
“He’s not allergic, is he?”
Shannon smiled and shook her head.
“He’s been asking for a dog pretty regularly the last few weeks. We can’t have one where we live, so this is perfect for him.”
Jake cast another concerned glance to where Damon and Sunny were wrestling, the boy’s laughter energizing the rather sizable canine. Still unconvinced, he sat back without calling the dog to heel.
The two adults watched the boy and the dog for a while. Then Shannon looked back into Jake’s face. She seemed to be searching for something there. At last, she said, “I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened between us. I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I feel for what I did.”
Jake waved her concerns away.
“You apologized at the time. Water under the bridge.” He wasn’t about to admit that her accusations as a young college student still irritated, but for some reason he couldn’t explain why he wasn’t mad. As he sat there, watching her struggling for the right words to say, he had an epiphany. “It’s good to see you, Mac,” he said, using his pet name for her from years ago.
This time it was Shannon’s turn to look surprised. “I don’t understand. I thought for sure you’d slam the door on me, or something.”
Jake shrugged. “I would have thought so, too, tell you the truth. But I don’t feel that way. Maybe it’s been long enough, or enough has happened since then, that what we went through doesn’t bother me anymore.” He glanced over at Damon, still wrestling with his new best friend. “Plus, you’ve got a great kid, so why be petty?”
Shannon’s smile melted away her nervousness. “I always knew you were a good guy,” she said. “Thank you.”
Before Jake could comment further, their conversation was interrupted as Taya stepped into the room. “Jake, your son – Oh! Hello.”
The tension in the room jumped to palpable levels in an instant. Even Sunny picked up on it. She immediately lay down and curled into as small a golden blob as she could.
Shannon tried to pierce Taya’s icy smile with one of her warm ones and said, “Hi, I’m Shannon. I’m a friend of Jakob’s from college.”
Flustered at this revelation, Taya shook her head to clear the confusion and said to Jake, “Your son would like you to come and see his house.”
Jake nodded and without waiting for him to reply, Taya left the room. He watched her pass Ron in the adjoining hall. Ron, to his credit, turned and followed Taya rather than interrupting Jake and Shannon.
“Was that your ex?” Shannon asked, failing in her attempt at nonchalance.
“Yep,” Jake replied. “That’s Taya.”
“Was that...?” Taya hesitated as she stepped back into the great room.
“Yep,” Ron replied as he passed her and walked over to where the home theater remote rested on the coffee table. “That is Shannon. Never expected to see her here.”
Turning to face him, Taya demanded, “Why is she here?”
Ron shrugged in response and sat in one of the nearby plush chairs.
“Mommy, where’s Daddy?” Natey asked without looking up.
“Daddy’s right here,” Jake called from the doorway before Taya could respond. “And I have someone new for you to meet.”
At this, Natey looked up and then stood to greet the little boy that Jake brought into the room with him.
Taya bit back her own scathing comments as she watched Jake introduce Damon and Natey to each other.
“I’m building with blocks,” Natey told his instant best friend. “Wanna help?”
“Sure,” the older boy replied and from that moment on, the adults ceased to exist for the two children.
Chapter 10
“Glimpses of Terror-Copia”
“So, Jake had both women in the same room at the same time?” Nick asked Ron several hours later.
From where he sat at his workbench, Ron replied, “Yep, and I swear the temperature in the room dr
opped twenty degrees instantly.”
Nick shook his head and sat forward in his chair.
“I don’t understand. Why is she here?”
Ron put down the two different squeezable tubes of red paste and shook his head.
“From what I got from Jake, she was doing great on her own down in Phoenix. Working as a science teacher at a junior high, got her kid in school, you know, regular stuff. Then all the sudden, she starts thinking about Jake. Eventually, she decides to come up here and find him.”
“Sounds thin, if you ask me. She must have an agenda,” Nick said.
“I don’t know... maybe. But one thing is sure: Jake didn’t react to her showing up the way I would have expected. As much as he’d hate to admit it, he’s still hurt over what she did.”
Ron grabbed both tubes of red paste, stood and walked over to one of his freestanding tool cabinets. He opened one of the sliding drawers and placed the tubes with several similar items, then closed the drawer.
From where he sat on the couch, appearing to read the business section of the local newspaper, Alexander muttered, “And with good reason.”
Ron nodded his agreement. “But, it looks like he’s surprised us all. Rather than kicking her to the curb, he introduced the two boys and expects the adults to act like... adults.”
“Boy, there’s a change,” Nick muttered this time and Alexander chuckled. “Well, enough of this. Why don’t you tell me about this new project you and he are working on.”
With a nod, Ron replied, “Are you familiar with a shock rocker named Chaz Black?”
“Sure, sings for Vein Drain.”
“More than that, actually. He’s the creative force behind their brand of progressive thrash metal,” Ron said and retrieved some photos out of a file cabinet, which he then spread on the cleared workspace.
Nick stood and crossed over to look at the pictures. They all featured Chaz in “bigger than life” on-stage scenes: slaying a giant inflatable demon; being surrounded by thirteen clowns in black cloaks; standing at the center mic while two towers of flame spouted from the stage on both sides of him, and on and on.
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