Jar of Souls

by Bradford Bates

  “We had that, last night. Now as long as your wound gets healed, it’s time to go back to work.”

  “All right, you win. After the nurse fixes me up, I’ll make an appearance. How about today, though, we just work out and maybe work on some forms?”

  “Your forms are fine.”

  “Really? In a couple of them I still feel like I am overextending or not quite in the right place.”

  “Fine, back to basics, then, but you owe me at least one round.”

  “Now that I can do.”

  “I’m heading to the shower before I check in with the healer. You coming?”

  Oh man, not this again. That still made me feel weird, and I wasn’t ready to repeat it just yet. I was going to have to talk with Marcus and figure out if that was really a thing or if, well, she might have just suckered me a bit. It didn’t seem like something April would do, but hey, all was fair in love and war.

  “I’m going to lay here for a bit, but I’ll meet you in the locker room.”

  “Suit yourself.” She patted my chest before getting up and leaving.

  It wasn’t the first time in the last day that I thought to myself it’s a good thing she is wearing those super baggy sweats. Thoughts of what I had seen in the shower the night before drifted through my head, and I tried to squash them down mercilessly. It didn’t quite work, but at least if they only stayed in my head, it wasn’t so bad, right? I waited about ten minutes, trying to pull my thoughts together, before heading toward the showers myself.

  When I walked into the locker room, April was just heading out. “Don’t take too long to pull yourself together and get to the gym, ok?”

  “I just have to check in with Britta and I’ll be there.” She winced a little as I said the other girl’s name, and I knew I had screwed up, again. Right now, though, I was with Britta, and I had to think of her first before anyone else.

  “See you then,” she said, walking away with her head down.

  “Hey, April.” She spun back toward me with a hopeful look in her eye. “Thank you for everything. Without your help, I wouldn’t have stood a chance out there yesterday.”

  “Seems to me that training you worked out in my favor.” She continued to walk away, but this time her head was held high.

  After a rather quick and decidedly more boring shower, I headed over to check in with the nurse who saw me yesterday. She ripped off the medical tape with sharp, fast, jerky moves. I was pretty sure she was trying to rip out as much hair as possible. Maybe I should have asked one of the other nurses to look at me. This one seemed to like seeing me in pain a little too much for my own liking.

  She removed the final piece of tape and took off the bandage. “This can’t be right,” she mumbled.

  “What’s not right?” I said, looking down. The wound on my chest was gone, except for some bright pink scar tissue which the nurse immediately poked, making me wince again. She ran her fingers down most of it, making me wonder if I would have been better off trying to just sneak out of this place.

  “If you could heal yourself with magic, why did you stay here?”

  “I’m not good with healing magic.”

  “Then your friend maybe?”

  “She really isn’t either.”

  “Interesting. No one else has been here since you came in, so unless you saw one of the other nurses”—she gave me a glare—“then one of you had to have done it.”

  “I’ll have to ask April, but I’ve never been able to do anything like this before.”

  I’m pretty sure the sound she made next was a hurmph, but I wasn’t completely sure.

  “You are going to want to take it easy for another day or two and then you should be fine.”

  “Is this going to leave a scar?”

  “It probably will. You’ll get used to them, though.”

  I shook my head. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to having claw marks across my chest.

  The nurse just slapped me on the shoulder. “You’re free to go, and remember the saying, chicks dig scars. In your line of work, you will probably end up with a lot of them.”

  I walked out of our little clinic and headed back to my place. A quick change of clothes and I would see if I could track down Britta, and then it was gym time. I wanted to get that training done so I had some time to rest before dinner. I was putting my faith in Marcus that he could make this meal happen, and make it special. Somehow I just knew he wouldn’t let me down.

  My search for Britta didn’t prove as fruitful as I hoped it would. I went to her place and knocked on the door to no answer. Some of her friends I bumped into said they hadn’t seen her since yesterday. I was starting to get a little worried and frustrated when my stomach decided to make its presence known. The growl it let out resonated from the stone walls around me; at least that was how I imagined it. I hadn’t checked the cafeteria yet, so I could kill two birds with one stone.

  The cafeteria was almost empty when I came in. A quick scan of the place didn’t reveal Britta, but it did reveal some delicious food. I scanned the offerings, and because I knew I was heading to the gym right afterward, I decided to go light, kind of. There was one thing to be said about the disadvantages of using magic; it burned calories like nothing else. Sometimes that was a plus, but I could see how it could lead to problems.

  So when I say a small amount of food, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Small after a day in which I probably burned ten thousand calories was relative, especially when April was going to burn a few more for me later. I sat down with two huge blueberry pancakes, four breakfast sausages, four pieces of bacon, three eggs, and an English muffin with peanut butter on it. I loaded the steaming pancakes with lots of pecan maple syrup and dug in. I wasn’t ashamed to say I ate all of it, not ashamed at all. I let the food settle for a minute while sipping on a glass of orange juice and then headed in the direction of the gym.

  I took my time walking there, hoping to maybe catch sight of Britta in the halls and to give my belly a few more minutes of rest before I started to work out. Ten minutes and no Britta sighting later, I walked into the gym. For once, it was actually kind of crowded. It had been a while since I had been here during peak hours, but everyone was in full force today. There were at least four sparring matches going, the gun range was seeing some use, and Sarge was putting someone through their paces.

  I hopped onto one of the free ellipticals and started with a slow walk; I wasn’t ready to kick it up into anything resembling a real workout yet. I kept scanning the room, hoping to catch a look at my girl, but I didn’t see her anywhere. Finally I gave up, assuming she wasn’t here, and tried to focus on my own thing. I was still moving slow when I saw April come out of one of the training rooms; she was dressed in her standard skintight leggings and a sports bra. She did toss a half shirt over herself as she walked toward me. It didn’t hide anything, and she didn’t need to. If anything, it just made her look a little bit cuter.

  She jumped onto the machine next to me and glanced over at my stats. “Pushing yourself hard today, I see.”

  “Just waiting for breakfast to settle before I kick it up a notch.”

  “Oh, the excuses you men come up with. Let’s get things going so we can spar. I’d like to get a nap in before tonight.”

  “I thought we were just doing forms today?”

  “Changed my mind. Yoga will do that for you sometimes. I was thinking of a little hand-to-hand combat if you think you can handle it.”

  “I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.”

  “Good.” She smirked and put her earbuds in. Before she turned on the music, she looked over at me. “Does an hour sound good?”

  “That should be just about perfect.” I set my timer and put in my own earbuds. Maybe the music would help drown out all of the thoughts spinning around in my head. I hoped it would help to at least take my mind off of Britta. Just where in the hell was she? Had Adam sent her on another mission? I tossed the idea around for a bit an
d then lost myself in the heavy beats of the music.

  April hadn’t been joking when she said she wanted to get in a little hand-to-hand combat. After my fourth time finding myself on my back, I’d had enough. I waved off her hand when she offered to help me up. Something about being helped up by a hundred-and-twenty-pound girl after she laid you out for the fourth time just didn’t seem right. I flipped back up to my feet and moved to the edge of the ring.

  “What’s up, Jackson? You seem distracted,” she asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.

  I knew she wasn’t the person who I should talk to about Britta, but she had asked and I knew Marcus probably wouldn’t care. “I just haven’t seen Britta since we got back. It’s not normal for her to not stop by and at least say hi. Something is up. I just don’t know what it is.” April seemed to be thinking over what to say. She looked up into my eyes, and I almost melted on the spot. Those green eyes just wanted to suck you right in, they were so comforting.

  “I’m sure everything is ok. Maybe she just needed some alone time. She did almost die, after all.”

  I could tell that was hard for April to say. The last thing she probably wanted to do was offer Britta any support. It showed me a lot of her character to know that she would put my feelings before her own. “You’re right; it’s probably nothing,” I said with a shrug, not really believing what I was telling her. “Hey, I meant to ask you something. Last night you didn’t use any kind of healing magic on me, did you?”

  She looked slightly confused. “Why?”

  “Well, when I went back to the healer today, my chest had healed itself, unless someone healed me.”

  “You know me, Jackson. I only know enough about healing to do the bare minimum to myself. I try not to use that kind of magic on anyone else.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I moved away from the edge of the ring, getting ready for another round of sparring, or what I liked to refer to as Jackson getting his ass kicked by a girl time.

  “Let me take a look at it.”

  “What, my chest?”

  “Yeah.”

  She stepped forward, and before I could say anything, she had run her hands under my shirt. I lifted it up and looked down; there wasn’t even a mark there. The pink scar tissue that was there this morning was completely gone. I stumbled back a bit, dropping my shirt into place.

  April looked at me with a little twinkle in her eye. “Are you sure you were even hurt? Maybe you were just trying to get a look at me in the shower.”

  My mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish out of water. I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t, I mean, I didn’t even know about the coed showers. How could she think that I would? Then I watched as a slow smile spread on her face. She had just been joking with me; man, wasn’t it enough to beat me up physically? Now she was putting me through the mental ringer as well?

  “Take it easy, champ. I was just kidding. I saw the blood on your bandages and on your chest before the healer saw to you.” She leveled a soft punch at my chest. “Did that hurt?”

  “Nope.”

  “Well, let’s get back to work, then.”

  I breathed a huge sigh of relief when she finished pounding me into the ground for the eighth time. To be fair, I had won a round, so I gave myself a mental pat on the back. One out of eight was better than one out of ten, right? The sweat poured off of me, and my body felt good, really good. The exertion of the workout had finally done its job. Britta had fallen to the back of my mind, and I was looking forward to a nap before my mom showed up.

  “So what time is dinner tonight?”

  “Marcus said he would be there at six, so maybe six thirty.”

  “Cool, I can’t wait to meet your mom. I’m so happy that she is alive, Jackson. It’s good that you have some family left.”

  “Yeah,” I said lamely. It was really good to have some family left. I slipped out of the ring, holding open the ropes so April could follow me.

  “Care to join me for a shower?” she said with a flirtatious wink.

  “I think I’m just going to head back to my room.” I could already feel the blush move up my cheeks.

  “One of these days someone is going to have to drag you in there with the rest of us.”

  “It’s still just really weird for me. I mean, outside gym, I’ve never showered with anyone else, and that was all guys.”

  “It’s not so bad. I mean, look at what we all wear to work out. It pretty much leaves nothing to the imagination anyway.”

  “That’s true. See you at six, ok?”

  A small look of sadness creased her features, but only for a second. “See you then,” she said, turning and heading for the showers.

  I tried to stop myself, but I just couldn’t. I watched her walk away. Just what in the hell was I doing torturing myself? I was with Britta, and she was great. Why would I even look at another girl, let alone my best friend? A cold shower might do the trick, really cold, like glacier cold. Something would snap me out of this soon. I already had the girl. I was good to go, wasn’t I?

  Marcus’s knock at the door signaled the start to the evening. I still hadn’t heard from Britta, but my bro Marcus was right on time. When he came in, I had to move out of the way. He was pushing a dolly loaded with food. It looked as if he had pulled out all of the stops; I was impressed to say the least.

  “What are you doing, trying to feed a small army?”

  “Well, I heard Lycans like to eat. I mean, they really like to chow down. So I brought extra, and just in case your mom prefers meat, I secured a couple of super juicy steaks.”

  “Awesome, man. What else do you have under there?”

  “One of the ladies in the kitchen made us a cake for the occasion, and you won’t believe it but Randall made us a container of his famous sweet tea.”

  “No way! Randall never makes that for anyone.”

  “He thought the occasion was special enough.”

  “Ok, now I know you’re lying. That man doesn’t have a sentimental bone in his body.”

  “So he may have been moved by the hundred bucks I slipped him instead.”

  “Bro, you’re crazy. You paid a hundred bucks for sweet tea?”

  “It’s worth it, man. Tonight is special.”

  “Tell me what I can do to help.”

  “Just set the table and get out of the kitchen.” He shoved me away from the cart. “We all know you can’t cook to save your life. All you will do is get in the way.”

  “At least let me take a glass of that tea with me.”

  “Now that is something I can let you do.” He poured me a cup from the huge dispenser and handed it to me. “Now get working on that table before you get hurt.”

  The table was set in a matter of minutes, leaving me alone on the couch to drink in the comforting sweat tea. I had only had a glass of it before when we first arrived here. It was the stuff of legends around this place. People raved about it, and with good reason. It was the best tea I had ever had. He only made three or four batches a year, and they were always gone within hours. The rumor was he had a distant cousin who was one of the fey, and they sent him some kind of special fairy honey a couple times a year. Thinking about it now, Marcus had probably slipped him more than a hundred bucks, but sipping the tea made me forget all about what it cost.

  April let herself in, and I jumped to my feet. Marcus gave her a wave from the kitchen, and she gave me a huge hug. “Thanks for coming.”

  “I wouldn’t miss the chance to meet your mom. Not for the world.”

  Smiling I motioned toward the kitchen. “Guess what Marcus got?”

  “What?”

  “He scored us some of Randall’s tea.”

  “No way.”

  “Way.”

  The next thing I saw was red hair bounding away from me in search of that sweat nectar. The next knock brought my mom to the door. She came in controlling the room with her presence. It was like she was in full combat mode all the tim
e. April came out of the kitchen with two glasses. She set them down and wrapped my mom in a big hug. My mom looked at me, probably caught off guard by her casual intimacy. I took it from her look that that wasn’t how the packs did things.

  “It’s so good to finally meet you,” April said.

  My mom disengaged herself slightly. “And you are?”

  “April.” She shot me a look as if I hadn’t done my part by explaining who was going to be there tonight.

  “It’s nice to meet you, April.”

  “Thank you, Sarah. Would you care for a glass of tea?”

  “That would be wonderful, dear.”

  April passed off the glass of tea and headed back into the kitchen with Marcus. It gave me the chance to step forward and give Mom a hug. It felt weird saying that even in my head. I had such a different picture in my mind when I said Mom. It always made me flash back to my adoptive parents and not to the lady standing in front of me.

  “Glad you could make it. Marcus brought enough food to feed an army.”

  “Good, because I could eat one.” She gave me a wink.

  “Wait, have you ever done that?”

  She just laughed and patted me on the back. “It’s a figure of speech.”

  “Not where I come from,” I said, laughing too.

  There was another small knock on the door, and I went to go and get it. Britta was there waiting for me. She looked fantastic. Her hair was down framing her face, and she had some kind of cute sweater on and some black jeans. In truth, it was a pretty conservative look for her. She smiled at me, and I pulled her into a hug.

  “Glad you could make it.” I left out the fact that I wasn’t sure she would be coming.

  “I told you I wouldn’t miss it.” She gave me a quick kiss.

  “It was just that I couldn’t find you all day and I wasn’t sure.”

  She held a finger over my lips. “We can talk about it after dinner.” She kissed me again and then turned to enter the room.

  I closed the door and followed her in. She was already giving my mom a hug. This time Mom handled it better, and I set up a reminder in my head to thank April for being so good at breaking the ice. April joined my mom and Britta, and they fell deep into conversation. I was content to just sit back and watch and drink my tea. It felt good to have my family and friends here with me. Watching them talk and get along was the best gift anyone could ask for.