Soul Taker (15 page)

Meeeee…

The light on the cell phone screen went black
as if Missy had flat-lined again.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Harrison slid into the booth at
A Taste of
Home
and Isabella strode over to him with the house wine. She
did the honors of pouring him a glass. The small pulse on the side
of her cheek told him she clenched her jaw. She was worried about
Johanna and maybe just a little angry with him for not protecting
her. He didn't blame her. He should have done more.

"How's Johanna doing?" he dared to ask.

"Holding on." Her voice broke and she cleared
her throat.

Harrison covered her hand with his, drawing
her attention. "Do you want to talk?"

She inhaled deeply before letting it out
again. "I'm worried, Harrison.

The chime on the door rang as three young
girls strolled in.

"That guy was
sooooo
dreamy." The tall
brunette gave a sigh and her two companions giggled in agreement.
"I want to go back to the karaoke bar again tonight."

Harrison could feel Isabella tense beneath
his palm. "Is something wrong?"

"What?" She glanced back to him, pulling her
hand away when she realized he still held it. "No," but her tone
said otherwise.

Harrison followed her gaze to the three
girls. Tourists, he would imagine. He didn't recognize them as
Bostonians.

Isabella walked over to the girls to greet
them. Her gaze lingered on the tall brunette with a diamond earring
in her nose. The girl looked to be a picture of health, but
Harrison would bet Isabella didn't think so.

Garran insisted they shouldn't drag Isabella
into all this, but he didn't believe they had a choice now. They
needed her to step up their investigation.

If Garran hadn't stopped him from telling
Isabella the whole truth, they would have known sooner about
Johanna being in immediate danger. She hadn't been a random victim
in Salem. It was obvious now that all the pieces fell into place.
The mysterious boyfriend no one had met was indeed the Soul Taker.
If Isabella had all the facts, she would have known, instead of
only having a hunch something was terribly wrong and, in turn, he
would have known he needed to protect her.

Isabella seated the trio before returning to
Harrison's table. "Were you going to order dinner?" she asked.

She was sweet. She had every right to be
angry with him, but she remained cordial. "Will you sit, and have a
drink with me, Isabella?"

Her hands smoothed down her apron. "Only if
you're going to tell me what's going on. You owe me an
explanation."

Harrison nodded. "Aye, I do."

Isabella pulled out a chair. She placed her
hands on the table and folded them. "I'm listening."

She was being straightforward, and so would
he. "We need your help."

"
We
?" One lovely dark brow rose.

"I have an associate, a good friend who I
work with in such cases as I mentioned to you the other day. I
think you could help us move our investigation forward."

"What are you talking about? How could I
help?"

"Johanna is still in the hospital," he
stated. "We found her before her heart stopped that's all, but it's
only a matter of time…" He let the statement hang there between
them.

Isabella squirmed in her seat, knowing what
he hadn't said. "How do you know she won't recover?"

"Because, what's wrong with her can't be
treated with medication."

"I thought you were a detective, or are you a
doctor now?" Her gaze leveled on him and held. It was obvious she'd
reached her limit with him.

He shook his head. "I'm not a doctor."

"Then how could you possibly know she won't
get better?"

The bitterness in her tone warned him, he was
about to lose her all together if he didn't talk faster. "Last
week, a young girl came in here for dinner. I believe you called
her Tamera. You thought she looked… peaked." He gave her a moment
to recall what she told the young girl. Isabella recognized
something in the girl he couldn't detect. When her eyes widened, he
knew she made the connection with how Johanna looked the other
night.

"What are you trying to tell me, Harrison?
That Johanna caught something from Tamera?"

"Not exactly, but they do have something in
common.

"Then Tamera needs to check herself in at the
hospital."

"Tamera's dead, Isabella."

"Dead?" The air seemed to go out of her as
she leaned back in her seat. She covered her mouth as if to hold
back a sob. Once she regained her composure, her gaze settled on
him again. "How do you know this?" Her voice had risen. "Are you
telling me Johanna will die, too? There's no hope?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Probably." Then he
decided on the truth. "She's going to die, Izzie."

Isabella wasn't ready to hear it. She shook
her head. "Johanna's strong. She'll beat this."

"You already know she won't."

Her eyes narrowed. "How could I possibly know
that?"

"I've watched you. You know when a person is
ill. You knew about Tamera. I think you sensed something with the
tourist, the brunette over there." He nodded his head toward the
trio seated at the corner table. "And you've been to the hospital
and have checked up on Johanna yourself."

Her olive skin paled, making her hazel eyes
rimmed with gold stand out even more than they already did.

"What exactly do you see, Isabella?" Harrison
asked, curious to know. She had started to confide in him at
Marcy's wake, but he wanted the details.

Her gaze wavered over his features as if
trying to decide if she could trust him. Finally, she leaned
forward. "Auras, I suppose, or maybe their souls. I see colors
haloing people. I don't know what else to call it." She eyed him,
her gaze sweeping over his features again, but with a more refined
inspection. Your aura is blended earth tones, radiating warmth.
When you said you wanted to know what I saw, you were being
sincere."

He sat back in his seat. "Interesting. You
could tell if I'm lying or not?"

She nodded. "It's pretty reliable. Where are
you going with this? What difference does it make what I can
see?"

"Just hear me out. How's Johanna's aura?"

"Almost non-existent, fragmented. It's like
someone took chunks of it away. Johanna's aura looks damaged."

"This is great."

"What?" Isabella looked horrified.

He held up his hand, hoping to explain before
she threw him out of the restaurant. "I don't mean about Johanna,
but that I believe you can help us. These women aren't sick. I
think you know they aren't dropping dead of heart problems. Their
charkas,
auras, souls, or whatever you want to call them,
are being sucked out of them."

She stared at him, blinked. "That's not
possible."

"Isn't it? You see auras. What would people
think about that?

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, point taken."

"You've seen it for yourself. The color that
makes them who they are is gone. When it's completely gone, it's
over. They don't come back.
Ever.
"

"God." She ran a hand over her face. "How is
it done?" she demanded to know.

Here came the tricky part. He prayed she had
an open mind. "It's a Grim Sith, a vampire. Only, he doesn't just
suck people's blood. He can go straight for the soul."

She sat there staring at him, absorbing what
he told her, but he could tell she couldn't process it all in one
gulp. He overloaded her, but there simply wasn't any time to ease
her into the bizarre world in which he lived, which unbeknown to
her, she was part of as well. She could see the auras and if his
hunch was right, she truly was her mother's daughter.

"A vampire?" she snapped. "This is your big
lead? Next you'll tell me the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus are
real."

The answer would flip her over the edge.
"What if I told you I was a werewolf?"

She actually laughed at him. "Oh, come on,
Harrison. A werewolf?"

"Aye."

"So every full moon you turn into a hairy
wolf and go out and hunt people down and kill them. Give me a
break." She looked him over and doubt shadowed her eyes at her own
conviction.

He shook his head in dismay. "Hollywood. No,
we don't do that. The moon does have a pull on us, but we don't
turn into hairy beasts so we can terrorize the town. At will, I can
change into a wolf, looking like your typical gray, only larger and
scarier. The moon does give us extra strength when at its fullest,
but it doesn't control us."

She didn't jump to her feet and flee. She sat
there staring at him. "You're a werewolf?" she repeated for
clarification.

"Aye, but we prefer moon shifters. I belong
to the Mac Tíre pack."

"The Mac Tíre?"

"Ireland clan and all that."

To her credit, she didn't dismiss his claims
completely and have his arse hauled out of the restaurant.

"Show me." Her eyes all but challenged
him.

Isabella was dead serious and he knew it. "I
can't shift here. Do you want the customers screaming in
terror?"

She looked over her shoulder at the patrons
enjoying their meals. Her gaze returned to him. "Fine. We'll meet
somewhere private and you can show me then."

"If I prove to you I'm a werewolf, will you
consider joining our team?"

"Sure," she promised, obviously believing he
wouldn't be able to prove his claim.

"Is my place all right?" he asked.

He could see the wheels turning in her pretty
little head, warning her it might not be wise to go to a man's home
alone, especially one who claimed he was a werewolf?

"You can trust me, Isabella. Please." He'd
get down on his knees and grovel if he had to. "If it makes you
feel safer, let your brother know where you'll be." That seemed to
do it.

"Ten tonight, okay by you?" She asked and he
lifted a brow in surprise at the time. "I have to make sure the
restaurant is locked up," she added.

"Ten, it is then."

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Garran wanted to wring Harrison's neck. He
still might consider it. "Tell me again, why ye are bringin' yer
human into all this after I specifically told ye no' to?" He was
more worried about how he would react with the woman so close to
him on a daily basis. Heaven help him, he wanted to see the lassie
again. He couldn't seem to get her out of his head.

Harrison claimed she could detect auras. What
did she see when she gazed at him? "I saw her at the hospital," he
told Harrison as he paced the cramped apartment, wishing he had
more room to move. Heck, Harrison was a werewolf, why wasn't his
place bigger?

"You saw Isabella?"

He decided not to tell him he spied on her at
Johanna Threshold's flat, too. "She's a petite thing, nothing much
to her. Really, Harrison, what is yer infatuation with her?" He
made protests, yet her face remained vivid in his mind. The way her
dark hair cascaded down her back in waves of ebony made him want to
slide his fingers through her locks. Her curvy figure appealed to
him and,
dammit
, her scent curled around his senses, teasing
him like a
come hither
command.

Harrison's lips twitched as if he read his
mind. "She's beautiful, isn't she?"

Garran turned his gaze on Harrison with a
growl. "She's a frail human."

Harrison's brows rose high on his forehead.
"Really? Frail?" His chuckle set Garran on edge. "You have no idea
what positions that woman can put her body into."

"Is sex all ye can think about?"

"Tsk, tsk. Get your mind out of the gutter. I
was talking about how limber she is. The woman is in good shape.
She takes palates classes three times a week. Frail is not an
adjective I would use to describe Isabella."

"And why is it ye know of her whereabouts? I
never thought of ye as a stalker."

Harrison waved him off. "I only know because
Steph… or was it Cathy? Anyway," he shrugged, "my ex took the
classes with Isabella."

Garran remained quiet, contemplating why
Harrison found this woman with the gold-rimmed hazel eyes worth
their trouble. He seemed to know her every move, and yet, he didn't
remember the name of his last girlfriend. "But ye're no' involved
with her?" The thought of him being interested in Isabella, in a
more romantic nature, actually rankled him.

Harrison chuckled. "You keep asking me and
the answer is still no. We're friends."

Garran decided to change the subject. "What
makes ye believe she'll show? For God's sake, ye told her ye were a
werewolf."

"She doesn't want anyone else to be hurt. She
cares about people. Just because you don't trust humans, there's no
reason why I should follow suit. I find them quite charming,
actually."

He gave him a harrumph. "Irritating nuisance,
the lot of them."

"Grumble all you want, but you used to be one
of them." He chuckled when Garran cursed him in Gaelic.

"That was centuries ago."

"Try to have a little trust."

"Trust? As I recall, it was a human who sent
me to my death, one of my own kin. There's trust for ye."

Footsteps coming up the walk ended their
discussion. Harrison had left his door open and Isabella poked her
head in.

Harrison smiled and moved toward her,
welcoming her. "Come in."

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The last month proved to be a pinnacle of
weird happenings and odd discoveries, her mother's journal, and now
Harrison's claims being among the bizarre to add to the list.

Isabella strode in, half expecting to see
Harrison's place decorated in fantasy posters. Sure, she knew
Harrison from the restaurant, or at least she thought she had,
until this afternoon. The man claimed he was a werewolf. If that
didn't cry
I'm a little off kilter
, she didn't know what
did.