Living Soul

by S. B. Niccum

  “From the other side, yes.”

  “How do you know they are voices from the other side?”

  “Because they are never wrong. They told me your name just now … ” she closed her eyes and hoped to hear more information. “Tell him that you must work together to destroy Tess DeLeon,” the cast-out suggested and Agatha relayed the message.

  “That’s not very impressive,” he admitted, “you already knew I was looking for Tess.”

  Agatha’s look changed from playful to dead serious, her eyes pierced his with intensity. “What’s impressive,” she said poignantly, “is how you managed to kill her mother and frame her father for the murder. I wonder though … did you mean to kill Irene, or was it an accident?”

  Eros’ mouth went dry. He should have left. Now he couldn’t.

  Chapter 25

  As soon as my plane landed on American soil, my stomach gave a lurch. All kinds of anxiety filled my mind at once. I hadn’t talked to Alex since the night I found him in that dingy cell. I had spoken to Dane and Valerie, and they assured me that he was recovering at a base somewhere and would be sent home as soon as he was able. They said that they would be at the airport to pick me up, but my sweaty hands and my rapid heartbeat were betraying me. I realized now that I was back to reality, and that my life would somehow be changed forever from this moment on.

  After many assurances that he would be fine, I left Dorian behind with my aunts, who were thrilled to have him. I also finalized all the paperwork with Roger, effectively gifting the agave plantation and the Mexico house to my aunts. Two major chunks of my inheritance were now gone, and two more remained: the home in Spain and the home in Argentina. Roger told me not to make any hasty decisions until I saw them both, but Celeste had soured me on the Spanish house, so much so, that I had no interest in seeing it at all.

  I rubbed my sweaty palms together as I walked the airport terminal toward baggage claim. Why was I so nervous? Then I knew.

  As the escalator took me down, I spotted him standing below, in full uniform. He was straining his neck looking around the crowd as if looking for me. Before I knew it, I was knocking people out of the way, and jumping into his arms. As soon as I did this, however, he groaned. He had two broken ribs that were still healing, so I slid hastily to the ground to prevent further damage.

  But he bent down and the world melted away as soon as my lips touched his. I lost track of time and had no consciousness of where I was, until I heard clapping, then whistling and hooting. A circle of curious strangers had formed around us and was clearly enjoying the scene. Alex bowed and thanked the crowd, then taking my hand, we made a dramatic exit.

  We had a lot of catching up to do on the drive home. Neither one of us lacked for topics of conversation, until he pulled into a parking stall at a place I didn’t recognize.

  “Welcome home,” he said dangling a key in front of me.

  “What number?” I asked snatching the keys from his hand.

  “Seventeen.” He beamed and I got out of the Jeep and ran up the stairs to my very own home! When I walked in, I could tell that Valerie had been there. The whole apartment was furnished and somewhat decorated.

  “The decorations were brought here from my parent’s house. My mom wanted it to feel homier until you had time to go out and buy your own decorations.” He smirked. “I hear you are loaded now.” He stepped closer, cornering me against the kitchen’s high breakfast counter. “This one,” he pointed to a beautiful flower arrangement, “is from me.”

  I reached for the card tucked in between two lilies. “I love you,” it said in Alex’s handwriting. My heart was beating so fast, it threatened to jump out of my chest altogether. My breathing was also highly impaired and I could barely look at him without having to gulp in some air. Words failed me. They lacked the intensity and the depth of what I was feeling. His eyes mirrored my same feelings, even the note “I love you”, didn’t quite express the feelings we felt. I could see it in his eyes that he meant so much more than a simple ‘I love you’.

  Alex moved a strand of hair away from my face, then traced my jaw line with the tips of his fingers. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly he tried again.

  “Te amo,” he said with a smile that made me smile too. “Did I say it right?”

  “Yeah, you did.”

  “Your aunt taught me how to say it.”

  “Which one?”

  “The nun.” This was the first comment we made about Mexico and what happened there since I landed.

  “Aren’t they great?”

  “Yes and, they love you very much. It was them who came up with the idea of … not revealing who found us. They wanted to protect Dorian and your other aunt, and you too. They didn’t think the military would understand how you found us.”

  I nodded and forced in another gulp of air, to keep myself conscious. “How are the other two soldiers?”

  “They are fine. Suarez is still recovering, but she’ll be okay.”

  “And you?”

  He kissed my forehead then pulled me in tightly toward his chest. “It was an experience I won’t soon forget. I would like to, but—. We were all honorably discharged. The Navy is now trying to gather information on why this even happened and who’s behind it. They have spies on it right now.”

  “What about that guy?”

  “What guy?

  “You know, the one who gave you water and said that help was coming?”

  Alex pulled away and looked intently into my eyes. “Oh yeah, I forgot all about him!” He let go of me and started pacing the room like a caged animal. I wondered if he picked that up during his weeks of imprisonment.

  “I never said anything about him when I was getting debriefed, I forgot all about him. He came while we … ” he moved his hand, signaling our mental connection, “I was so out of it, I think you were more alert because I barely remember him.”

  “I just heard him briefly, he said help was coming. What did he look like?”

  Alex shook his head, “I don’t know.” The subject seemed to tire him instantly, so I decided to change it by redirecting his attention. Within seconds our lips were locked and the worry was replaced by passion. Before I knew it the kiss turned into an all-consuming fire; we tripped over something and landed on the couch. Alex groaned with pain as his broken ribs sent searing pain through his body, then groaned again, but for a different reason.

  “Oh…well…I guess I better leave.” Celeste said, offended.

  “Yes, leave.”

  “What?” Alex asked.

  “Nothing,” I said, and got back to the task at hand.

  “Who were you talking to?”

  “Si no son dos son tres … ”

  “Yes, and the third one is not welcome, so come back when I need you!”

  Alex sat up abruptly and scooted away a bit. “Okay, you are talking to someone and that someone is not me.”

  “It’s Celeste, she’s come to check on me and won’t leave.” Alex looked around the room, hoping to find evidence of ghosts.

  “Ya me voy, ya me voy …”

  I waited a few minutes and tried to see if I sensed her in any way, but she seemed to be gone. “She’s gone,” I told Alex.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Is she going to come unannounced like this all the time?”

  “She usually comes whenever I need protection,” I smiled.

  “She thought you needed protection from me? She doesn’t like me much, does she? This is the second time that she’s pushed me away.”

  “Nonsense, she’s just being … ”

  “ … protective?” he smirked. “She’s right, you know. You do need protection from me.” He smiled and pulled me close to him again, and we snuggled on the couch. “I want to stay like this forever,” he chuckled. “I sound like a cheesy love song, but it’s true; our life together starts now, Tess. Nothing. Nothing will separate us.”

  “Not even de
ath?” I asked grimly. Why was I thinking of death now?

  “Not even death.” He pulled me in tighter and we remained silent for a long time.

  From the living room window we watched as the sun glistened off the water and the clouds swept across the sky. My plane had come in early, so we had the whole day before us. For what must have been a whole hour we laid like this, entangled in each other’s arms. I soaked in his energy and felt his breath on my neck. I relished the touch of his hand against my arm and was content to hear nothing but his heart beat.

  “Will you marry me?” he asked quietly and his words transported me briefly to another time. I couldn’t explain it, but I had the distinct feeling that I had heard those words coming from his lips before. The feeling was strange because I felt like I was floating in the air. I guess that’s where that figure of speech comes from.

  “When?” I asked.

  “Right now, if you want.”

  “Okay, let’s do it!”

  “We could hop on a plane and go to Vegas,” he suggested, with a joking tone to his voice.

  “Okay.”

  “Just like that? You don’t want to have a big wedding, and get a dress? You of all people would want a nice dress. Maybe you want—”

  “No. I’m ready now, just like this, in jeans and a t-shirt.” I thought about it and realized that I really didn’t care about all that. I didn’t want a big wedding, I didn’t care about the dress or the flowers or the cake. I just wanted Alex. I wanted to wake up next to him every day, and see his face. I wanted to fall asleep to the sound of his steady breathing, and I wanted his arms to encircle me. That was, in fact, all I had ever wanted since the first time I laid eyes on him.

  “Okay, then.” He shifted his weight and put his hand in his pocket, producing a small ring from it. He held it teasingly between his fingers and watched my face as it lit up. “Your ghost would like this,” he smirked, “because it was hers.”

  “What?”

  He pulled my left hand toward him, and slipped a small but beautiful ring on my finger. “This ring was mailed to my house, from Mexico, just a few days ago. Apparently it used to be Celeste’s wedding ring. Your aunts thought you might want it.”

  The ring was beautiful, simple, yet elegant. Not your average looking wedding ring, but it fit me perfectly and felt right to have it.

  “Now the two of you have something else to talk about,” he jested.

  “Are you sure you know what you’re doing? You are about to marry a person who hears voices from another realm of existence.”

  “And that gift saved my life, and the lives of two others.”

  “I didn’t do it alone, I had help,” I said, remembering parts of that night, Luz … her warning, the strange man … Dorian, my aunts … it all seemed like a lifetime ago, like a dream.

  “Come on!” Alex said getting up from the couch and pulling me up as well. “We are wasting daylight. You said you wanted to marry me?”

  I nodded eagerly.

  “Okay then! Let’s do it! I know just where to go.”

  “What! Now, now?”

  “You said yes, right?”

  “Right,” I nodded. “But how?”

  “I know people,” he said mysteriously. “Come on!” He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. “By the way,” he added as he closed the apartment door behind him, “I love our new place!”

  We were married by an old friend of the Admiral’s. A retired Navy officer, who was now the local District Court Judge. Being in full uniform helped Alex cut through a lot of red tape, so one hour later, we were standing before the judge with two witnesses from the waiting crowd who readily volunteered for the job. One was a teenage boy with severe acne and a mouth full of braces, who was there to dispute a speeding ticket. The other was a biker with a black leather vest and tattoo covered arms, who was there for a DUI.

  “Would you like to say something, before I pronounce you husband and wife?” the judge said casually as he reached for the mallet.

  Alex nodded and turned toward me. “Death will not do us part,” he said with an earnest look, tightening his hold on my hand.

  “Death will not do us part,” I echoed.

  “By the power vested in me by the State of Texas, I pronounce you husband and wife!” The judge slammed the mallet once. “Son, you may now kiss your bride, and you can tell your grandfather that we are now even,” the old judge said with a serious look, that caused the whole courtroom to erupt in laughter. Our witnesses embraced each other in a fraternal hug and patted Alex on the back. The judge started pounding the mallet with pretend contempt, and to no avail, ordering silence. A policewoman came to our side and kindly escorted us out of the courtroom and the judge started another round of mallet knocking, this time in earnest, hoping to get his courtroom back to normal.

  Chapter 26

  “Get over it, will you? It didn’t work out. We have bigger fish to fry.”

  “Bigger fish? Bigger fish?” Eros couldn’t believe his ears. Perhaps she wasn’t as smart as he gave her credit. “Do you know how long it took me to make a connection with that particular faction? Do you understand how much money they were going to pay me for those prisoners?”

  “They were not going to give you one cent. They were going to get their American soldiers and kill you.” At least that’s what the spirits had told her. She had warned Eros of this and told him not to go. He didn’t listen. Luckily he got to Mexico before the terrorists did and got wind of what had happened before he showed his face. He sent his jailer instead, who, of course, paid with his life for his mistake. As expected, the terrorists didn’t take kindly to one empty-handed Mexican with no American prisoners. The whole matter was done quite smoothly and no doubt the man’s body would not be found until it stunk. This didn’t keep Eros from being furious and dwelling on his almost brilliant exchange. Agatha kept telling him that it wouldn’t have worked out anyway, but he refused to believe her.

  Meanwhile, Agatha tried to stay focused on her task at hand. She had been offered a T.V. show of her own where she could communicate with her spirits in front of an audience. This was big time for her, but she was unsure of how she felt about it. What she did was not an exact science, but her gift, as a medium could not be denied, either. This opportunity could give her the platform she had been waiting for, a springboard to her ultimate goal of being the puppet master of a nation.

  “Eros, you listen to me. If I take this job, you’ll have to quit. And I mean quit. You’ll have to cut all ties to California and your underground ways. We’ll start a new life here and we’ll dive into something much bigger than anything you’ve ever attempted before.”

  Eros rolled his eyes and walked away. He didn’t like being told what to do.

  “If you can’t do it, then it’s the end of us.”

  This caught his attention. For some reason, he hated the thought of letting her go. “You talk of bigger things, but I never know what you mean.”

  “I mean getting people from all walks of life doing what we want them to do. I mean getting movie stars, business owners, law enforcement officers and government officials safely eating out of our hands. Through the spirits, I can get them. I know their dirty secrets, I can tell them when to invest and in what. I can get them elected, promoted, and I can even predict their health. I can do all this because I’m a priestess of Monad and the chosen spokesperson for The Source.”

  “You really believe that those terrorist were going to kill me?”

  “I was told that that was their plan all along.” Agatha said vehemently, amazed at the fact that she could predict even the secret plans of total strangers.

  “Then you shouldn’t take that job. You need to be a well-kept secret, someone who people of influence feel they can go to discretely. If you go on national television and tell the world what you can do, you’ll become a joke.” Eros paced the room and gathered his thoughts. “You need to operate behind the scenes, you need to discreetly infiltra
te the top and you need to be a mysterious shadow. Your clout will be felt rather than seen and you should be as unapproachable as the Pope.”

  Agatha narrowed her eyes and pursed up her lips. “Ooh, I like that! You see…we are good together.”

  “You did what?” Valerie yelled as soon as we explained what we had been up to all day. From the back of the room the Admiral started laughing so loudly that it gave him a spasm and he ended up coughing.

  Dane and Katie smiled and winked at us from a safe distance, while Valerie burst into an all out tirade. “How dare you do this without us there? How could you? Tess? Alex?” She looked from one to another looking for explanations.

  “How did you even manage to get a marriage license so quickly?” Valerie demanded.

  “I called Judge Lambert,” Alex shrugged, causing a fresh wave of laughter from the Admiral, who found the whole thing as amusing as ever. “I’ve heard Grandpa say that he saved Lambert’s a— um, life a few times and owes him big time.”

  Valerie shot her father a venomous look, but the Admiral ignored it completely as the lack of oxygen from laughing caused him another bout of coughing. He dug into his jacket’s pocket and pulled out a key and a handkerchief. He covered his mouth with the handkerchief and tried to control his coughing. Once he had succeeded, he grabbed his walking stick and made his way toward us.

  He held the key out in front of us, “I was going to give you this today, not knowing it would end up being a wedding present,” he shook his head, “but I’m glad it is, maybe you two can use it to go on a honeymoon.”

  “Honeymoon! Honeymoon? No. You two are staying here, until we at least have a wedding celebration of sorts. Katie!” Valerie cackled and Katie snapped to attention like a soldier, “go to my planner, we’re starting a to-do list.” Katie nodded once, rolled her eyes while her mother wasn’t looking and headed to the desk in the kitchen where her mother’s planner was kept.

  “Tess, you’re not off the hook, missy. You are helping me put this party together as well!” she ordered, then paused, closed her eyes and then came straight toward me, arms outstretched. “Welcome to the family, dear,” she whispered in my ear as she held me tight.