Soul Mates Kiss

by Sandra Ross

Chapter Three

  SABLE STARED at her. “How did you—“

  “Mother…” she replied, a little exasperated. “All the secrecy? Making sure people at work and at home think I’m going to be meeting a writer as part of my work? This is cloak-and-dagger Council stuff. Are they still interested in recruiting me?”

  Sable smiled indulgently at her daughter. “Darling, even though you don’t like to acknowledge your powers, you do have them. You have an obligation to your people. Surely, you can’t deny that.”

  “Well, I just wish I could be a normal person far longer,” Lola grumbled. She knew she sounded like a child but she could not help it. She still could not understand why she had to help the Magickals — they already possessed magick. Why couldn’t she use her power in service of helpless humans, even if they didn't know it? “I went to live with Dad because I’d like to have that chance. The Council has always been trying to turn that upside-down for me recently.”

  “I assure you that's not true, darling.” Her mother flashed a dimple at her. “Your life isn’t normal, Lola, even when you pretend that it is."

  "What do you mean, Mother?" she asked.

  "How many times in a day do you flick your finger to change the color of your pen? You do that without thinking so I'm not sure you even notice. You arrange the hair of a nerdy colleague just by thinking about it. How about the times you wanted the rain out of your way? Or to calm down bickering office mates? Or to give a friend enough courage to pursue a romantic liaison—"

  “I didn't push them at each other. They're in love and being stupid—like other people I know. They're married and have kids now and are happy, Mother. Okay?” Lola mumbled, her face hot like when she's infront of a fireplace with the fire blazing. She was always honest to her mother whenever she asked about her magick. She knew that it was something she could only share with her, even if she knew it might sometimes get her in trouble, or a reprimanding—or exasperating—look.

  “But this is something that you must do. There’s no choice.”

  “There’s always a choice!” she protested. "I will ask Dad. Besides—"

  “Not this time, Lola.” Her mother’s voice became the adult voice—not playful or teasing, but cool and serious. It was the kind of voice Lola would use in meetings or with her staff so she would be taken seriously. It was obvious that that was what her mother intended. “This is a responsibility bestowed on Magickal adults, an obligation that you must share. You're half Magickal, after all."

  She looked at her mother helplessly. Now that she was invoking the magical side that happened to come from her, Lola could not say anything because it might hurt her feelings.

  "Besides, you're the best person who can do this job because of your ability," Sable said in a gentler tone. "Now, here’s what you’ve been charged with doing. There’s a man that you need to find and bring before the Council.”

  “Why? What did this man do to them?” Lola asked with a frown on her face.

  “He didn’t do anything, darling,” her mother explained with a roll of her eyes. “Why do you always think that when someone is being brought to the Council, he’s going to be punished?"

  "Oh, I don't know. Magickal historical books?"

  Something passed on her mother's face and was quickly gone. "Those were times when Soulmate Kings and Queens were not reigning, and we have none of that for a long time that the Council was created to control cruelty of reigning non-soulmate royalty."

  She's heard about that myth. It was so like human myths about soul mates that she could not believe it as something true, more like a fairy tale story she had outgrown for a long time already.

  "The thing is, he’s a warlock and he has no idea about it. They want to be able to ease him into it, so to speak.”

  Lola snorted when she heard that. “He didn’t know? Really? How old is he now? He couldn’t possibly not know that something’s different about him. If he’s more than fourteen, his powers would have started manifesting.”

  “Hmm… the Council did not divulge his age. Just that he needed to be found. There was a power surge felt in New Orleans, and that’s how they were able to know. Someone like you can go there and find out. You know how accurate your power is when it comes to tracking down potentials.”

  Lola sighed. She couldn’t deny that. But she did not use her power to track down potential magicals. She used it to sense potential special talents humans manifested, talents that could be developed into remarkable skills. That was how she was able to find writers with great raw talent for the company where she worked.

  But acknowledging how her power worked did not mean accepting the job. “Mom, who do you think you’re talking about? That bunch never eases anyone into anything. What I’m sure of is that your Council wanted something from this man and that's the reason they're interested in him. So, what would that be?”

  Her mother suddenly looked a little distant. Ah, Lola thought, the dutiful secret witch agent. “All I know is that they said they want to help him adjust to his powers. Who am I to question them?” Sable said rather haughtily.

  “Mother…!” she hissed. “I don’t understand why I have to be the one to go find him.”

  “They also didn’t explain that to me, either, but it's understandable. You have a way with strangers. You have a way of sensing their personalities. I was told to deliver the message that if you don’t want to do it, they’ll summon you and direct you in person to do this. You know this, Lola. It’s up to you.”

  The Council irritated her, but her mother was right. Lola could not totally ignore them when she was being summoned. The Council was the government of the Magickals. If she ignored them, it would be similar to ignoring the federal government. And she was using her magick. That made her a magical, albeit a reluctant one. “Mother, I can’t just take off from work like this,” she complained for the last time.

  “Of course you can!” Sable exclaimed as she waved her hand dismissively. “I know that you love your job, but you don’t actually need it.”

  “Maybe I do need it,” Lola said defensively. “It may be one of the few things in my life that keeps me sane.”

  Her mother laughed. The teasing was back again. “Hah! Like being my daughter makes you sane?”

  She closed her eyes as she groaned. Whoever had said her mother was cool and elegant had never seen her behind a closed door with her only daughter.

  “Pay attention, Lola,” her mother commanded, and she abruptly opened her eyes. “I need to give you a few details about this man so that you’ll know who you’re looking for. His name is Marcus Swan, and he lives in Louisiana.”

  “Nooo,” Lola wailed. “I’m not going to Louisiana! You know how much I hate humidity!”

  “It won’t be so bad this time of year,” Sable soothed, brushing aside Lola’s objections. “Besides, your birthday is October 31st—on Samhain—and what better place to be at that time than in New Orleans? Now, Marcus is an orphan. He has no idea who his parents are or what his bloodline is. You’re going to need to be inventive when you find him so that you can get him to come back with you.”

  She was staring at her mother wide-eyed. Get a man convinced to come with her to New York? Her power was about finding magical abilities and human talents. She could barely tell when a man was hinting for a date unless he asked for it straightforward. She did not understand how men’s brains worked. How could she convince a stranger to come with her thousands of miles away from his home? Was her mother insane? “Mother, I seriously cannot do this,” Lola stressed through gritted teeth.

  “Yes, you can. In fact, here’s your plane ticket." Sable plunked it in front of her. "You will leave in the morning.”

  “Ahh! I have a ticket?” she exclaimed.

  Her mother dimpled. “All expenses will be paid.”

  “I have my own money,” Lola said belligerently.

  “You’re being difficult, darling.”

  “Well, who wouldn’t be?! I’d like to ha
ve my lawyer.” And they both knew she was talking about her father.

  Her mother opened her mouth, then closed it. Her lips thinned. Her eyes became slits. For some reason it made her look prettier. But that did not stop her heart from beating a faster. She was an imposing figure if she wanted to be.

  “How many times have I ever asked you for anything, Lola?”

  And her mother, and knew exactly where to attack her.

  Aww, lowballing. She's on the war path. It meant this really was important.

  And Lola had no choice but to give in.

  Chapter Four

  BUT LOLA KNEW, from the moment her mother first mentioned the mission, that she would go. She could not put that poor man in the clutches of the Council on his own. It did not stop her from protesting too much, though. Her mother, and the Council, has to know that she would always try to defend herself.

  As she took leave of her mother, she realized that she was not really angry. Her bloodline made it necessary for her to do certain things at times. There was no escaping it, even if she tried. Otherwise, she would feel guiltier the next time she used her magick for mundane things. Like making traffic move.

  It was a small epiphany that surprised her. It had never occurred to her that she could give magick this much leeway into the eternal argument she's always had with her mother about her place in the magical world. She must be growing up.

  Or was she beginning to understand that there were Magickals that needed help, too? That needed saving?

  They hugged each other tight. They never knew when they would see each other again. She sometimes suspected that her mother would sometimes go on dangerous missions for the Council. It worried her, but always, it was her mother's choice. Her principles, her prerogative.

  “Thanks for dinner, Mother. Will I be seeing you on my birth day?”

  “We’ll see, darling. If not then, I’ll definitely be seeing you when you return with Marcus.” She kissed her daughter on her forehead. Sable was taller than her daughter by a mere three inches but that did not stop her from looking deeply and worriedly into her eyes. “You know I love you, right?”

  She sighed. “Yes, Mother, I know. And I love you, too, even though you’re one of the most annoying witches on this planet sometimes.”

  They laughed and hugged once more and walked to the entrance of the restaurant. Lola had already sent a message to William and he was waiting for her outside. It was already dark and the drive towards home went by in a flurry of emotions as Lola thought about the man she was to find.

  She was not excited about bringing some unsuspecting person into this kind of life. She knew she would have been much happier had she not known she was a witch. It was hard being different; hard always being scared that people you like would not like you once they found out you were not like them. Now she was going to have to drop this bomb on some other poor guy and she would totally mess up his life.

  But there was nothing she could do to avoid the mission.

  Because the last thing she needed right now was the Council at her ass.

  * * *

  MARCUS SWAN stared out the window of his Mystical Grove mansion the following evening.

  Something is coming, he thought as he looked out at the waning light. The day was almost over, but since it had been raining since this morning, it looked like twilight the whole day. Well, maybe not something big, but definitely something important. Something that is going to bring me... pain?

  But it seemed something more like that. Whatever's coming was going to change something in his life. Or, no...

  Not in his life, really. But in him.

  He wondered if this had anything to do with the woman he kept dreaming of lately.

  A beautiful woman with ash-blonde hair and exotic green eyes kept turning up in his dreams almost every night. She was on his mind a lot during his waking hours, too. In his dreams, she was searching for him, calling out, telling him something. But he could never make out what she was saying.

  This wasn't new to him, so it wasn't shocking him at all. It was just making him curious, and a little pensive, because the flavor of whatever's coming was different than anything he's ever tasted or felt before.

  Marcus could “see”.

  Or taste, or feel, or hear. It wasn't entirely seeing, really. He could sense not the future, but what the future would be bringing. It wasn't even just by observing the present to predict what future would be. There were things, or people, that just happen to arrive with no warning. That was what he could sense.

  He learned long ago to live with this weird ability, but sometimes he got very frustrated when he could not figure out what he was supposed to be seeing.

  This gift helped Marcus along in the business world over the years. He simply invested where he felt he would make money, and in this he was never wrong. The difference Marcus had with other smart businessmen was that he had never done a bad investment, ever, nor had he ever committed even the tiniest mistake since he started doing business.

  So here he was, a billionaire at thirty. Naturally, many women pursued him. He was hounded by a few controversies, too, because aside from his physical attributes that the opposite sex found attractive, apparently he was an “interesting” and "extraordinary" fellow, and that some of the fortunes that kept happening to him and to hose linked to him did not happen very often to other people.

  Only God knew what would happen if anyone ever found out about his weird ability. So he chose to move here to Mystical Grove where he could take a break from it all and think. If they only knew that he was regular enough to feel weirded out by his being different. How could he feel fully comfortable about it, when he could not explain fully why he was like this?

  The village was small and isolated from the big cities. No one knew who he was here. So yes, he has acquired his privacy, but not his peace.

  What was coming?

  And who was the woman in his dreams?

  The rain was falling in earnest now and he watched as lightning flashed in the sky and lit up the night. Everything looked alive for the few moments the forked light illuminated the heavy clouds. Raking his fingers through his deep auburn hair, his blue eyes flashed.

  He was very frustrated at the way he had been feeling lately, and those dreams did not help. She was so beautiful with her sultry, wicked eyes and she had the most seductive smile anyone could ever see on a pair of luscious, sexy lips. She was so gorgeous that some of those dreams had turned decidedly… erotic.

  He had awakened in such a state that he had to get up and take a shower before he could calm down, much less go back to sleep. That pissed him off, too. He hated it when he could not control something in his life. It reminded him too much of the time when he was a child and alone.

  He had already ran away from three foster homes that time. He already knew that there was something different about him. The other kids and grown-ups had started knowing this, too. They couldn’t explain it, and this only made him more of a freak in their eyes. Oh, the adults tried to understand. But they started to fear him, too, so he was treated with a heavy hand.

  Someone would invariably start acting cruel. He would get into fistfights that would get him in even more trouble. It did not matter that he never started a fight; he always ended up getting punished because in their eyes, having "weird" abilities made him more of the threat.

  Yes, he ran, because he knew he was not wanted, and he did not particularly like staying in places where he felt in danger.

  He felt safer on the streets.

  Running away from the first foster home was the first time he understood control, and was the first time he started taking control of his own life. His eyes clouded over as he remembered how hard it was living and growing up alone. Only the fact that he had seen more unfortunate people around him guided him on a path that he did not know where would go at the time, but he knew the purpose of.

  There were thousands of people who needed help in this world, and he
has a gift he could use to help those that them. Thank God he was able to. They may not know how he did it, but it was important to him that almost all those kids he helped take out from the streets have good jobs now in his company, and living in places they called home, with families they were able to support on their own.

  Being homeless did not mean they did not want families. Maybe, they desired it more than anybody else.

  “Mr. Swan, will you need anything else tonight?” asked his housekeeper.

  Turning from the window, he faced Amie. She had been working for him for years while her husband worked as a caretaker for the garden and grounds. They lived in a cottage a little further away on his backyard but they were always accessible if he needed them. Right now, they were his only family.

  “No, Amie, that will be all for tonight. You and Hudson have a lovely evening.”

  Nodding slightly, Amie said “Very good, sir. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  After she left the room, Marcus went back to watching the storm.

  Chapter Five

  MARCUS LOVED WATCHING storms. They were real, beautiful and majestic, and the most uncontrollable phenomena on earth.

  It was maybe because of that. Uncontrollable. Powerful. He could feel the air being charged with that power, such that he could feel goosebumps because his own power was reacting to it, like the greeting of old friends.

  He had power like that in him—not easily manifested like other gifts he's found out earlier. It sometimes made him feel nervous, but so far it had never brought him trouble. He was different. He sometimes wonder if he was human, because he has never met anyone like him. Someone who could control... some forces. Like lightning, sometimes. Or a part of what future brings.

  Noone could control storms. It's a force of nature that people were still trying to understand. They really never could. They could only let it be, and stay in a safe distance. And watch.

  But Marcus, he took control of his life, a difficult undertaking being alone at the age of fourteen. But he was able to do so. He eluded the system until he was of legal age. By that time, he has already acquired a significant amount of money by gambling here and there to get him through school and then through college; while working the stock market via the Internet at nights. He acquired his first million before he graduated, took up serious investing in real estate, bought companies he could rescue from the banks, made partners with lucrative businesses—and stocks, stocks, stocks.