My Soul Keeper (23 page)

She’s caught my head in her lap, her tears drop to my face. I watch the horror on her face as Liam continues to struggle. Leah places my head down and jumps to her feet. She’s holding out a blade and screaming at Jeremiah.

“Don’t you fucking dare move.”

He laughs at her. “Oh I want to stay and watch him die. Then when they come for me, we’ll kill your boyfriend and keep you around for a while.”

My eyes flutter closed but I can still hear the commotion in the room.

“Oh my God, I killed him.” Liam’s strained voice fills the fuzzy mess in my head.

“Liam, call for your mom,” Leah cries.

“Shamar.” My father’s voice booms through the room. I feel his cold hands grip my head. I strain to open my eyes as a flash of light whips the air.

“What’s happening?” Charmeine’s voice carries to my ears.

“Heal our fucking son,” my father hollers. I feel the warmth of Charmeine; her light feels like a caress from the sun. My lungs expand and fill with much needed air. I bolt upright, lifting my shirt. There’s only blood staining my skin; no wound.

I scan the room. Leah is holding herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Liam is pacing and shaking his head. My father grips me under the arms and helps me to my feet. Mr. Steed is lying motionless on the floor, a blade sticking out from his chest.

“We need to go, Liam. Take Leah away from here and keep her safe… Liam,” I shout, shaking him from his breakdown. “This wasn’t your fault. You had no choice. Now take Leah and keep her safe until we return.”

He nods and turns, reaching for Leah’s hand. She takes it and they leave.

“Do you have what we need?” I ask my father.

“Yes. Go to where we need to and I’ll follow you there.”

“Charmeine, follow me okay?”

“Okay,” she whispers.

I grab Jeremiah. “You better take me to the right place or I’ll let my father extract your soul,” I warn him.

He growls his reply. “Take the band off me.”

I look to his wrist at the brass-looking band.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Your asshole father put it on me, it stops my traveling.”

I whip it off and slip it into my pocket. “Good to know, now let’s go.”

I feel the usual pull and then I’m standing overlooking a waterfall. I cock an eyebrow at him and he shrugs.

“This is it.” Charmeine appears next to us. The cold spray from the water hits our skin like hailstones.

“You have to bleed.” I look to Jeremiah; he gives me a disgusted look, like I’m stupid. My father appears with Maliki. He pulls his blade and slices his palm then each of ours

“Drip your blood on Maliki.”

“What is he doing here?” I ask. Maliki looks confused as well. My father grabs my palm and drips my blood on him.

“I went to him to ask him something. While I was there, Michael called for him. I’m sorry, son.” As he finishes his sentence, he brings the blade across Maliki's throat.

“No!” I shout as Maliki’s hands go up to his weeping cut. His eyes bulge, staring straight through me. My father reaches around us to huddle us and throws us forward into the flowing water.

The cold engulfs me, whipping at my skin. I hit the deep depths of the bottom, swallowed by the current. I kick hard and swim for the top. Once I surface, I’m in a completely different place. The water seems shallow, murky, and small like a pond; the colours are offset, murky like the water. Charmeine surfaces next, followed by my father, then Jeremiah.

I reach for my father and grab him by the collar, shaking him as I speak.

“Maliki was my friend! He didn’t deserve this.”

His cold hands clasp around mine, removing them from their grip on his collar.

“Michael called for him. He told me that Muriel is here. This place will eat away at her mind. It was a necessary sacrifice. We need to get Simone and her out of here now.”

A figure appears at the shoreline. I can sense his dark soul; he’s smiling at Charmeine like he wants to have her for dinner.

“Has he brought us a new toy, brother?” He earns himself a dark laugh

“I thought you were quite taken with a different Angel, Darius?” Jeremiah croons

My father’s posture stiffens.

“Yes, she is exquisite and now you have your own,” the dark soul Darius replies, gesturing towards Charmeine.

“He won’t touch her.”

“You can’t travel here. It is forbidden. Unless you offer the same as Lucas, I will tell Drakeen of your presence and he will judge your punishment.”

“And what will
your
punishment be when we tell him you’re harbouring Lucas and you’re holding an Angel as a hostage?”

His eyes burn into mine. Translucent souls flutter through the trees behind him like ghosts.

“Jeremiah, you were cutting your time close. I have a trip to make. I will be back.” He doesn’t look at me again. He walks toward us and then disappears into the water.

“Who are you?” I ask Jeremiah.

“Some people call us keepers because we keep the lost souls here but that is an insult. My brothers and I are transporters. After the soul has been judged or processed.” He grins. “We transport it.”

“But you’re a dark soul.”

He screws up his face. “Yes, I transport to the below as does Darius. Our other brothers are of light. There’s a balance.”

“So you can travel here freely?”

“We can only leave here for a certain amount of time within a day. Now, enough chat, I have work to do.”

He wanders off in the direction of the trees and we hurry after him.

“You will take us to Lucas,” I insist.

“You’re in my domain now, soul keeper,” he growls, and vanishes.

“Shit.” My voice echoes all around us.

“Shamar, you will be able to sense her now.”

I look to Charmeine and close my eyes. “She’s right. I can feel her.”

I’m sitting in a mirror image of my house. Everything is the same except the colours have the same weird negative look as the woods. My real mom has been playing with my hair since we got here. She’s humming a lullaby I don’t know but her voice is angelic. It’s quite fitting considering she is one. Lucas insisted I eat and, as much as I wanted to protest, my stomach welcomed the invasion of food. He has kept his distance so far but I feel the heat of his gaze on me constantly.

“Why am I here, Lucas?” I ask brazenly.

“You’re here so I have you to myself.” He eyes my mother and continues. “Within reason. Soon your mind will falter and your loneliness will find comfort in me. When you stop being stubborn, we will consummate and you will bear my child.”

I feel my body tremble. “No,” I stutter.

“You act like it’s such a bad thing, Simone, but your body betrays you. You want me just as badly as I want to take you.”

Time passes slowly and already I feel the hole begin to form in my heart. I miss Shamar. My heart aches for him; it’s painful. I miss Leah and Liam. God, Liam. I hope he’s okay.

I’m sad about my father’s betrayal but I still miss and love him. I wonder where he took my mom and brother. I hope they’re safe. I need the sky. I need it to wash away my fear, my loneliness.

My mother seems confused, like she’s lost some of her mind from being here for so long. I ask her questions that she doesn’t answer. I know she fears Lucas, and rightly so.

I stand and pace. “I don’t like it here, Lucas. I want to go.”

“The sooner you give yourself to me, the sooner we can leave.”

“But you said you want me to rule here. I can’t. I don’t like it here. I need the sky. God, I hate it. Please.”

His fingers grip my chin spitefully.

“Don’t use His name in my presence, Simone. Tell me I can have you. Submit to me.”

He’s so close; his breath hits my face leaving a light, warm misty feeling.

“I can’t do that!” I cry.

He grabs my wrist and points to my mother. “Stay!” He barks an order at her like she’s a stray dog.

Her head is shaking back and forth as she continuously chants no, over and over.

“Don’t push me, Muriel!”

He marches me out of the room and up the stairs. Panic sets in my body, like someone’s poured concrete into my bones. I freeze as we enter a replica of my bedroom.

“I’ll warm you up, and then you can beg me to take you.”

“I never will,” I whisper as his mouth closes on my neck, melting the frozen statue that had become my body. His hands span across my stomach; the heat from them stirs longing in my core.

“No, no, no,” I berate myself as my body betrays my mind. I know he’s doing this, making me feel this way.

“You need my free will,” I stammer and he freezes his movements.

“And I will get it soon enough.” He speaks into my neck, and then bites down painfully as a warning.

“You’re manipulating my mood. That’s tampering with my free will, Lucas.”

His lips leave my skin. He pushes me down onto the bed and roars at me; it sounds like a demonic lion. Goosebumps break out across my skin. I hurry to the other end of the bed, curling as tight as I can against the headboard.

“I tried to do this the nice way, Simone, but you are unreasonable. I’m going to torture your mother and, if you still don’t offer yourself to me freely, I will go back for that cute little friend of yours. I will pass her around, each person stripping away a new layer. Then if you’re still being stubborn, I will rip that fucking soul keeper limb from limb!”

My bottom lip is quivering, as I listen to his hurtful words.

“Muriel!” he calls. I shake my head no.

“Muriel come here!” he calls again. He then points to me. “Are you ready to watch her suffer?”

I cry. I know it’s weak but I feel weak, helpless. I can’t watch any more people suffer.

I lick my parched lips to speak the word he’s been waiting to hear when a flash fills the room. Charmeine, Shamar, and his father appear. Relief floods through me like water to a flame. I rush to him and wrap my arms as tight as possible around his neck. I feel his arms embrace me, squeezing me just as tight. His calm washes over me, relieving me of the anxiety I was feeling. His beautiful scent surrounds me.

“I love you. God, I found you. I love you,” he murmurs into my ear.

“How did you get here?”

Lucas is stunned. My mother comes up behind him, her head hanging low. He turns and holds her in front of him, his arm around her neck.

“No!” Shamar’s father shouts. My mother’s eyes shoot up. She looks at him in awe.

“Is that really you, Uno?”

“Yes, Muriel. I’ve come for you.”

A smile lifts her mouth.

“Simone, come,” Lucas commands, holding his hand out to me.

“She’s never leaving with you again,” Shamar informs him in a tone that’s deadly.

Lucas raises his hand and blows across his palm. The room fills with flames. They eat away at everything in their path.

“Simone!” Lucas calls to me again. I feel the heat of the fire all around us.

“We’ll come back for her,” Shamar tells his father, but his dad won’t move.

“No, I won’t leave her!”

The flames close in around us. My skin has taken on a pink glow; I whisper into Shamar’s ear to meet me at the pond. He’s reluctant to let me go, but I manage to pull free. I walk toward Lucas and he grins at Shamar, like he’s won me from him. When I’m close enough, I place my hand on my mother, expand my wings, and pull her to me, out of Lucas’s grasp. I think of the pond and I feel the pull, and then we appear there. Shamar and the others appear seconds later.

He pulls me back into his embrace.

“Shamar, go get the box!” his father shouts to him.

“Protect her!” He pushes me in the direction of his father and disappears.

When he returns minutes later, he’s holding a golden box. It has symbols all over it.

“What’s that?” I ask. Shamar’s father takes it from him and opens it; there’s an orb glowing with a dim light inside. He reaches in, absorbing it into himself.

“A soul?” I ask. A man rising from the water distracts me. He’s all in black and staring at my mother.

“Darius,” she murmurs. As he holds his hand out to her, she goes to him without question.

“Why are you still here?” he asks us angrily. Before anyone can answer, Lucas appears. He swipes his hand in Shamar’s direction and Shamar flies through the air, crashing with a painful thud against a tree. Charmeine rushes over to him, but she’s stopped in her tracks by another man in black. He wraps his arms around her and disappears.

Shamar’s father pulls a weapon from his coat and goes after Lucas. He doesn’t strike him, though he grabs his throat. Lucas’s eyes bulge in fear. He grips the hand that’s tightly wrapped around his throat and I see smoke lifting from Shamar’s father’s arm. I watch as he pulls Lucas’s soul from him. His body vibrates, a deadly growl emanating from him. It’s a pitch-black essence and, as it seeps into Shamar’s father, he drops Lucas’s body to the ground and fumbles with the lock on the golden box Shamar brought to him.

I race over to Shamar and heal him.

“It is forbidden for you to be here,” comes a voice from the woods. A man wearing white appears. “You must leave at once.”

I help Shamar to his feet and we gather together with his father by the murky water.