My Soul Laid Bare: Book 4 (The Soul Keeper Series)

by Solis, Melissa

  “Shh Elena.”

  “You don't look well Brennen. Are you feeling okay?”

  I shake my head very near the edge of being ill. She looks past me, I'm sure to Elijah, and pops into the other realm to have a conversation.

  “Have you touched her?”

  “Well you have to touch her daily, or she's going to get sick.”

  “No! It's not enough just to be near her.”

  Her one sided conversation doesn't even strike me as odd. Elijah must put his hands on me because a few seconds later I feel normal.

  “How is he?”

  “He's miserable, but he's supposed to be right?”

  “Elena!”

  “What? You two have more issues than Time magazine, and you’re dragging poor Sam along for the ride.”

  “Sam has his own issues apparently. I was snooping around in his mind, and I’m positive that Sam just met his soul mate a few weeks ago. Her name is Cat, but then he said she left him two days ago. How weird is that? It was the same day I called him. That can’t be a coincidence.”

  Elena ticks her head back and eyes me suspiciously. “Cat what?”

  I go back in my memories and search for her last name. Surely it must have come up. I just didn't pay close enough attention to that detail. Finally, I see it written on the top of a sheet of paper in Sam's hands, her resume…

  “Catarina Emerson,” I recall.

  Elena smiles and shakes her head.

  “What? Tell me.”

  Elena laughs out loud like I just said the punch line to the funniest joke of the week before brushing her hand down the side of my arm and giving me a pitied look.

  “Catarina Emerson is one of us. Sam's soul mate is a Keeper, and your soul mate is a Keeper. What are the odds? Only you dear girl have this kind of luck. Good luck getting him to forget about her. You know how well that worked out for you and Elijah. This has all culminated into the perfect storm. There's no way out. You just have to ride it out and hope it doesn't kill you first,” Elena states like a fact.

  “If she's a Keeper, then was she ordered to leave him?”

  “How should I know? Why don't you ask her yourself? She's gone. That's just what you needed to happen, so I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.”

  “All of this feels so hopeless. I feel like I've been dropped in a cement mixer, and there's no way out in sight. I've set this in motion, and now it's rolling me up in its avalanche ready to send all of us flying off the cliff into the abyss below. None of us are going to come out of this okay.”

  “You may actually be right for a change,” she says in typical Elena blasé fashion. She's a real ray of sunshine.

  “What are we supposed to do about Lexi and Asher?”

  “You leave blond and blonder to me.”

  “What are you going to do? Mess with their memories?”

  “You have a better idea?”

  “I was thinking... No, I guess not,” I admit.

  Elena greets the happy couple at the door. Then proceeds to knock them unconscious with just a squeeze of their necks like she were part Vulcan. They collapse in the entry way. She lifts Lexi over her shoulder and grabs Asher by the wrist before she disappears with them in tow, looking more like a hot cave woman than a graceful angel. This poor girl is bound to suffer some long term damage from her mind being warped on more than one occasion.

  Later that morning, Sam greets me at the door with a hug and a soft kiss to the cheek. He's transformed in his navy suit and black tie. When Sam's dressed down, he's delicious in the hot boy next door kind of way, but when he's dressed to impress, there's not a female eye in the room that won't graze his expertly hewn body and wonder what it looks like sans the suit. I'm in a simple black lace dress with a short sleeved shrug. My hair is in a sleek bun because I had a small breakdown in the middle of doing my hair for Emily's funeral. The memories of us getting ready for prom slammed into me like a wrecking ball. I remember her dancing like a stripper on the column separating the two rooms downstairs. I remember the heartfelt toast we shared and how beautiful she looked that night. She was a bright light that never dimmed in my life. I miss her so much. Why did He let her get in harm’s way? If He's all great and all-powerful, then why did He let that bastard murder my best friend?

  “How are you holding up,” Sam asks not releasing me for a good long while. He seems a bit shaken up since he arrived, and I search his deep ochre eyes for the reason why. The culprit surfaces right away. He misses her. He misses the way she feels when his fingers graze over her body. Her accent intrigues him– he could listen to her recite the encyclopedia Britannica and be completely immersed. She hasn't so much as called him in two days, and he's worried about her. She left so quickly. They never even said a proper good-bye. It reminds me of the time they ripped Elijah right out of my life after I discovered he was an angel. They replaced him with Will, and I thought my life was over.

  Cat is a Keeper. She must know the story between us. I seem to be some sort of celebrity in Amorous, so I'm sure she knew full well what she was getting into. Maybe I can talk to her and get some answers. I wonder who she was guarding. They wouldn't have let her be there on his ranch unless she was on a mission. Sam shouldn't need a Keeper because he's protected by the deal we made with Malphas. In fact, his whole family is off limits to the fallen. So what was she doing there in the first place?

  We sit through the funeral stunned by the fact that our beloved Emily is gone. Tears flow freely from my eyes as her father speaks of her in a eulogy. Sam and I cling to each other like we're in a sinking ship getting swallowed by a tumultuous sea. Suddenly my dream about the drowning moon makes perfect sense. Asher and Lexi sit hand in hand behind us. The new truth in their head shows Elijah exiting the picture months ago and that I've been single and pining for Sam ever since. It's scary to think how easily they accept this new version of reality. But what's even scarier is the way that the Keepers can manipulate our memories and make us believe whatever will further their gain.

  At least I feel safe knowing that the one time they did try to make me forget Elijah, it didn't fully take. The moments of passion we shared and little secrets kept surfacing. I think over time, I would have remembered everything on my own. Elijah says it's because it doesn't work on angelic bloodlines. I like to believe it was just because I loved him so damn much. I miss him with a ferocity that has me ready to beg mercy at the feet of our tormenter – promise him anything in return to release me from this nightmare.

  I have a small comfort knowing Elijah is probably holding me tightly in his arms right now. I glance to my right side and picture him there. I can almost catch a hint of the way he smells, and I let the memory linger, drawing comfort from it.

  After the funeral, I take Sam to the airport and wait with him until they call for boarding. Neither of us say anything while we wait. I think we’re both still in shock from losing the ones we loved all in one fell swoop. Now we’re all each other has left, and we somehow have to find a way to make it work. Malphas won’t stop until I say, I do.

  Sam gets up when they call the flight and heads toward the gate. “I’ll call you when I land. Are you sure you’re going to be okay without me for a couple of weeks? You could come with me.”

  “I’ll be okay. Lexi’s here, and I know you have to keep things going until you find a new ranch manager.”

  “Alright then, we’ll talk everyday like you said. I’m going to miss you.” He wraps his arms around me tightly, clinging for anything that will make him snap out of this feeling of emptiness, like something is missing from his life now – a feeling I know all too well.

  He kisses my lips softly. Then he boards the plane without looking back. I wait by the wall of glass and watch as it finally taxies down the runway and then out of sight.

  Elena pops into the passenger’s seat of my car, jarring me for a moment. “You’re going to be the reason ten years are shaved off of my life,” I scold.

  “I’ll make it
up to you then. I know where Catarina Emerson is, and I’m going to take you to her.”

  “Really? I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”

  “It’s now or never.”

  “Well then, how can things get any worse? Wait! Scratch that thought. Let’s just go before I change my mind,” I say hoping I didn’t just seal the fate of Sam’s flight. Like Elena said, that’s just the kind of luck I have.

  Elena takes my hand and gives it a tight squeeze. A moment later we’re on a boat, no a ferry. Night has fallen. In the distance, the Sydney Opera house lights up the horizon like some massive origami sail boat. The city lights are dazzling, and I wonder what it would be like to live here. The air is mild, and the gentle breeze sends my hair blowing behind me.

  I come back to the present, searching for the girl of Sam’s dreams through the many faces on board. I touch a young woman on the shoulder. When she turns around, I see that it’s not her. “Sorry.”

  I see a similar woman standing at the bow, and I approach her. She turns to me and looks at Elena as well, then I assume to Elijah. She studies him for a moment as if in careful consideration.

  “You must be Brennen. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Catarina.”

  She’s even more beautiful in person, and I don’t think I could hold a candle to her looks. All of the Keepers have an otherworldly beauty that makes jaws drop and drool flow freely. It’s not just her attractiveness that drew Sam in though. It is her personality. She’s already giving off the vibe that she likes me. I don’t understand it one bit, but I’ll take this over getting slapped or shamed like I had expected. I can’t read her thoughts either, and that makes everything harder.

  “It’s nice to meet you too. Is there somewhere we can talk?”

  She nods and snaps her fingers. The lot of us disappear from the crowd and into the living room of a cozy apartment. A bright red sofa sits between two denim chairs and a small wicker table.

  “Thank you for agreeing to talk to me. I was honestly nervous to meet you. I could see how much Sam cares for you.” I’m careful to throw the word love around because he hasn’t used it with her yet. That is his gift to give not mine. I will not take that from him.

  “I’ve heard the legends about soul mates, but until I met Sam, I had no idea the rumors were true. I have heard about you and Elijah, but your kind have always been so easily attracted to us. It’s never been the other way around though. But the first time I saw Sam…” she goes to the memory in her head and a smile warms her face. Her skin is so tan it looks like it’s lit from within by soft candlelight.

  “Yeah about that, why did you leave?”

  “Your mother ordered it. She explained everything to me in Amorous. Don’t worry. I know he could be spying on us right now. Your mother promises that one day Sam and I can live in Amorous, if he wants to, you know in the afterlife. I don’t know how any of this is going to play out, but she said it will. And I trust her implicitly.”

  “Isn’t hard for you to give him up? It’s killing me to not be with Elijah right now.”

  “But you are with Elijah right now. Just because you can’t see him, doesn’t mean his love has gone anywhere. He just kissed your cheek.”

  My fingers touch a heated spot on my cheek, and a silent tear makes an escape. Cat retracts her feet under her looking comfortable in her own skin and in her own home. “I admit. It is hard though. I wish I could invisibly watch him the way Elijah gets to stay with you. You’re lucky.”

  “Wouldn’t you feel awkward watching me and him together, as a couple?” I ask.

  She gives Elena a knowing glance like: Get a load of this human! She still doesn’t get it! It frustrates me when they think of me as beneath them. I suppose I am inferior, but that is what makes me human. We’re fragile. We’re mortal. When we fall, we bleed. I am hurting right now, and I’m only trying to make heads or tails of this nightmare of a life they stuck me in.

  “I love him unconditionally, Brennen, just as Elijah loves you. Would I rather it be me in his arms? Yes, but I know it will happen soon enough. Your time here on earth is just a blink to us. It’s as ephemeral as the storm over the ocean. It comes; it goes, and it’s over. Then your eternal life begins. That is where you can find rest in the ones you love forever. That is what Elijah and I are clinging to. Malphas can never take that away.”

  “Never say never around me Catarina.”

  Chapter 7 ~ Betrothed ~

  8 years later

  “This is kidnapping you know?” I'm blindfolded and sitting between Sam's thighs atop his old horse, Clancy. His chest shakes behind me as he laughs.

  “You're my only ransom. You know that,” he says casually.

  “How much further? I'm pretty sure smuggling me across the border is illegal in Texas.”

  “You are so impatient. We’re almost there,” he whispers.

  I giggle out and press my back further into his chest. He plants a kiss just under my right ear, which experiencing blindfolded, heightens my skin’s awareness of his soft hot lips. I don't care if we ever get there as long as he keeps doing that. We meander along for a long while. The sounds of hoof steps and nature are lulling me into a trance. Harmonious little birds serenade our trail, and the dull buzz of the cicada bounces from tree to tree. It’s spring in Texas, and I’m loving it

  Sam is just finishing up his residency, and I have just been hired at the D.A's office in Houston. Sadly, Sam's dad passed away two years ago. He and his sisters have been trying to keep the ranch running smoothly, but with the girls living it up at Kappa Kappa Gamma, over at A&M, they don’t get home much. Sam’s been having to pull eighty hour work weeks. I'm figuring he's taking me to celebrate my newfound job somewhere on his expansive property. Suddenly Clancy gets pulled to a stop, and Sam helps me down. He unties the blindfold, and I have to blink a few times to make sure I'm seeing this correctly

  I'm standing in front of something called, The Redneck Country Club, and here I thought he was trying to be romantic. I glance around wondering where in the world we are. We left Sam's house no more than half an hour ago.

  “Since when do you have a bar in your backyard?”

  “The highway is right over there. You haven't been on this side of the property in years. They opened this place up about five years ago. It's where everybody goes to water up.”

  “So, what's with the blindfold?”

  “Turn around.” I do what he says wondering if Sam's been inhaling too much ammonia at work. As I do, my eyes about fly out of their sockets, and my mouth hangs open in utter shock. Standing in a row and casually waiting, I see Jesson, Elena, Inara and Will. My arms fly open as I run to welcome each of them with bear hugs. I haven't seen them in so long, not since Emily's funeral.

  “Oh my word, how did you get them all here?” I say hugging Sam's neck lastly to thank him.

  “You should have seen the way he ever so politely asked,” Elena is quick to chide. She hasn't changed a bit. So, we are going to party with a bunch of angels tonight. This should be interesting. We make our way into the countrified club. The building is made of reclaimed barn wood. Old sofas are scattered around the large bar. A dance floor takes up a chunk of real estate in the middle of the bar. The other side has a small lounge with saloon doors separating the spaces.

  I'm violating Elena's dress code six ways to Sunday in a red sundress and black western boots with a red accents cut out of the leather. They were a gift from Sam for Christmas last year. My long hair is gone now, replaced last year with a medium length that brushes just past my shoulders.

  Sam has only gotten more attractive over the years. We’re twenty seven now. Every time I visit him at work, I notice how the nurses swoon over him. Sometimes I wonder if I'm still the girl of his dreams. He tells me this at least once a day, but I suppose I feel like I don't deserve to be. I still think about Elijah, and as far as I know, he still protects me. My nerves are beginning to show up with the old gang all back together.

 
Surely they can see him right now. Each one reveals a sadness in their eyes, hidden behind the joy of our reunion. They're trying hard not to show it, but they're incapable of lying. They wear their emotions plain as day, especially Inara. She's feeding me her condolences without meaning to through her gift. It sucks the happiness right out of me, and Sam picks up on my sudden sadness.

  “You okay?” He runs his fingers in slow circles over my back, guiding me to where he wants us to sit. I nod and try to shake off Inara's depressing vibes. I focus on the ladies styles instead. Inara’s caramel skin looks polished next to the black sleeveless dress she’s working like no angel should be allowed. Her tightly curled hair is held back with two blue sapphire crusted hair clips. She is radiant tonight. Elena is the picture of elegance in a vibrant blue top that clings to her slim body, and sits off the shoulders. Simple wide legged trousers, paired with shoes to die for, finish her look. Her hair is in a loose up-do with her coffee colored locks cascading down around her neck, showing off its graceful arch.

  The only place able to seat our large group, is in the lounge area. I gather this room is used for karaoke. A small stage with a microphone holds promises of drunken humiliation at some point tonight. We converge on a group of chairs and sofas. A coffee table made of an old wooden reel sits in the middle of the arrangement. An M.C. announces that they are about to start karaoke in a few minutes, and if we want to sing, we should sign up. A youthful brunette stands by my side wearing cutoffs and a barely there tank top, asking for our order.

  “I'll have a Grey Goose martini, please,” I reply. Sam orders his usual single bottle of beer. Even after we turned twenty one, he still would not allow himself to get drunk. I think he's still afraid of having a blackout. The angels all order wine. Wine reminds me of Elijah, and I never drink it anymore because of that. I don't bake cheesecake or eat French food, and I don't listen to Coldplay or ride the Ferris wheel either. No matter how hard I try to avoid them, the memories still flash through my mind day and night about the times we shared.