Kiss of Souls

by Morgan Kelley

  Okay, but it wasn’t enough.

  “What did you leave me in the will?”

  “My damn war bonnet, and I know you’ve tried it on when the men weren’t home.”

  Okay, she had.

  Sue her.

  It was gorgeous.

  “I know that my son is having a boy, and he’s naming him after me. Timothy Jackson James will be important. Promise me you’ll love him like your own. Promise me that he will be yours until your dying day.”

  Elizabeth began believing.

  No one outside their home knew the new baby’s name. That was something Nyx couldn’t pull out of thin air.

  “I miss you, Granddad.”

  Callen wiped his eyes. “I miss you too,” he whispered.

  Nyx turned to stare at him.

  “Callen James, you are turning into a fine man. You’ve stepped up and done the job. I’m proud of you. I like your smutty books.”

  His mouth opened.

  “Um…”

  “I read over your shoulder as you’re writing them,” Timothy said through Nyx.

  Oh boy.

  “I don’t have long,” Timothy admitted. “I want to tell you what I need to say, and then I’ll go back to quietly observing my family.”

  “Okay, Granddad.”

  “Ethan is suffering, Elizabeth. When I made you head of our tribe, there was a reason. I knew that when he hurt you, and that he would, you’d forgive him.”

  She listened.

  “He needs his family to forgive him. What’s coming is going to be hard.”

  “What’s coming?” Callen asked.

  “Bonnie,” Nyx whispered.

  It sent chills through all of their bodies.

  Yeah, this was going to be a problem.

  “When?” she asked.

  “You don’t have much time. She’s watching and waiting. If you don’t heal this rift, you will not survive her attack on the family. You need to look beyond his temper to find what lies beneath. Ethan loves you.”

  “Did he cheat on me?” she asked.

  “Never. He didn’t even consider it. The man has become a monk.”

  “Will he do this again?” she asked.

  “Oh, he will make you plenty mad, Lyzee, but not on purpose. He’s only human. Forgive. Forget. Heal.”

  She wanted to.

  “Callen, you wonder if the three of you will grow old together, well the answer is yes. You will fight hard, and you will make it, but only as a united team.”

  They already knew that.

  They were waiting on Ethan to get his shit together.

  “Love him,” Timothy said. “Love him more because he’s weak. When Callen struggled, you didn’t love him less when he upset you. It’s the same thing. Ethan is entitled to a moment of weakness when he holds everything together for everyone.”

  Timothy had a point.

  She got it.

  “I have to go. I’m being pushed out,” Timothy stated. “I love you all. I’m with you every day.”

  “We love you,” Elizabeth stated.

  “Callen?”

  “Yes, Granddad?”

  “Put on some britches. I raised you better than that to run around with your man parts flapping in the goddamn breeze.”

  Elizabeth started laughing.

  “Yeah, that’s definitely Timothy.”

  Then they heard it.

  There were windchimes.

  “He’s gone,” Tori said.

  Elizabeth felt like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders. She could breathe again, and it was thanks to Timothy. She loved him and missed him.

  She got up to go.

  “Wait,” Nyx said, holding her head. “There’s one more,” she warned. “One more spirit needs to speak to you before you leave. She is the one who pushed the male out.”

  Elizabeth waited while Nyx did her thing. She had to admit she was curious as hell.

  Who could be there?

  And a woman?

  Nyx got the look all over again.

  “Elizabeth?”

  “Yes,” she asked, waiting to figure out who it was.

  “I’ve missed you.”

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  There was a pause.

  “It’s Catherine. Your mother.”

  That was all she had to say.

  The floodgates opened.

  Again.

  * * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *

  Sports Bar

  Nine P.M.

  As he sat in there, he was pissed. Arsen was angry that he’d been lied to by his own partner. Yes, he’d done pretty much the same thing, but he was trying to save an innocent man.

  Jamie was playing a dangerous game, and he was going to tell him exactly that.

  His partner was not helping the situation.

  When he saw him enter from across the bar, Arsen waved and put on a fake smile.

  He wanted to catch him off guard, and he was going to do just that.

  “Hey! How’s your vacation going?” Jamie asked, raising his finger to order two beers.

  “Great, and yours?”

  “Perfect,” Jamie admitted.

  “Yeah, well, you always did like working cases alone,” he stated. Arsen got what he wanted. He caught the man off guard.

  “Pardon?”

  “I saw you today going into work.”

  “Oh.”

  Arsen knew he was working on a lie. He could see it in his face.

  “Don’t. I called you right after, remember? You said you were fishing. Unless strapping on a vest and your gun is the new apparel needed to catch bass, you have some explaining to do to me.”

  “Are you spying on me?”

  Here’s where it got tricky.

  “Maybe.”

  “Well, that sucks since we’re supposed to be partners.”

  He took a wild shot, going with what Elizabeth Blackhawk had said.

  “So, the commissioner pulled you aside and asked you to stay on the case because you were willing to put an innocent man in jail.”

  “He’s not innocent.”

  That was all Arsen needed to hear. It told him everything he needed to know about his boss, and the man he’d called partner.

  In that moment, it changed everything.

  “Well, I guess that’s a sad testament to our relationship. You didn’t deny it, but you did admit to being biased and on a witch hunt. For the record, that’s the opposite of being a cop. We protect and serve the public, not ourselves.”

  “I’m going to find the connection.”

  Arsen chugged his beer and threw a twenty on the table. “Well, you can tell the commissioner that I’m going to solve it too,” he stated. “I guess it’s going to come down to breaking the law or preserving it.”

  “Arsen, back off. You don’t want to stir this pot. Commissioner Anders wants this done, and he’s not giving anyone a chance to get in his way. Save your career. It’s not worth it.”

  Clearly, the man didn’t get it. If they caved under this pressure, what was next? Would they shoot someone and lie? Would they begin searching houses without warrants? It was a slippery slope, and his partner was on the way down the hill.

  Well, he was doing it alone.

  Arsen wasn’t tarnishing his reputation for a man on a witch hunt.

  It wasn’t happening.

  He stood.

  “I don’t care, Jamie. I’m not his hired hit squad to pick off people he doesn’t like with bogus charges. I’m done.”

  “And that means?”

  “It means I’m going to prove you wrong. See you at the finish line. I hope your badge is still intact.”

  With that, Arsen Woods became public enemy number one.

  And he didn’t give a shit.

  He was rooting for Beau Christensen and team Littlemoon.

  * * * L i t t l e m o o n * * *

  Littlemoon Investigations

  Waiting Area

  She couldn’t
breathe. There was no way this was happening. Not here, and not now. Could fate throw her this loop and expect her not to buckle beneath the weight of it?

  Her mother?

  Her freaking dead mother was coming through to talk to her after thirty plus years?

  Now her father, Charlie, she’d expect, but her mother had been dead for so long. Was she still wandering aimlessly? Was she lost? Elizabeth was sick to her stomach.

  How could she not be?

  This was…shocking.

  “Mom?” she asked hesitantly. “Is that really you?” she asked.

  “Yes, Elizabeth, it’s me. Is that man your husband?” she asked.

  “One of them, yes. I have two.”

  Nyx laughed.

  And Laughed.

  And laughed, but it wasn’t her voice.

  It was changing.

  It was becoming Catherine LaRue’s.

  “What’s so funny?” Elizabeth asked.

  Nyx focused on her with the dead gaze. Then she continued, “As a little girl, your father used to say the boys were going to chase you to the chapel. I guess he was right.”

  “Are you with Daddy?”

  There was a pause.

  “Yes, we’re together. When you die, your soulmate and you get to be one.”

  Well, there was that.

  “No offense, but how do I know you’re real? How do I know you’re not some random spirit fucking with me?”

  “Watch your mouth, missy. You’re getting too sassy for your britches.”

  Elizabeth gasped and squeezed Callen’s hand. That was exactly what her mother would say to her.

  EXACTLY.

  “I’m not shocked that I have to do this horse and pony show for you, Elizabeth. You were always one to question everything.”

  Yeah, she was aware.

  It made her the investigator she was today. She didn’t take anything for face value.

  “So, let me prove it.”

  She waited.

  “On the day that I died, we had to go back to the house for your uniform. You wouldn’t wear it for soccer. It was pink, and you told me you’d rather drop dead than be seen in that frou-frou piece of polyester crap.”

  Tears filled her eyes as she moved into Callen’s lap.

  “You purposely left it at home, so you could wear your blue t-shirt. Only, I figured it out, and I turned around to go back for it. We were having a battle of wills. Me against you. It was common in our home.”

  Yeah, it was, and to that day, Elizabeth regretted it.

  “I was going to win,” Nyx channeled. “I was going to prove a point if it was the last thing I did, and that was wrong. In hindsight, Elizabeth, it didn’t matter. My stubbornness cost me my life, and it cost you a mother.”

  It broke her heart.

  “I wish I wasn’t so stubborn that day.”

  She’d been just as bad.

  “Mom, you died because I was stubborn, too, and I refused to wear my uniform,” she whispered. “It’s more my fault than yours. I should have just listened to you.”

  Callen held his wife as she began shaking. There was no way they could have seen this coming.

  Elizabeth was getting more than she’d bargained for, and that was going to be brutal.

  “I’m sorry,” Elizabeth whispered.

  And this was the weight that Elizabeth had carried from childhood until now.

  She felt responsible.

  It was why she likely chased justice.

  She was paying for a sin.

  “No, Lyzee. I died because it was my time. I wasn’t meant to be here. I was meant to have you, get you started, and hand you off to Charlie. He did the rest, and he did a damn good job.”

  Elizabeth began crying.

  “I need you to hear one story.”

  She stared at Nyx. Elizabeth didn’t know how, but this woman had found her mother. NO ONE knew about the uniform. She never told anyone—not Callen, not Ethan, and never Timothy. That was her secret shame.

  It was her burden to carry.

  “What?”

  “How about ‘what, ma’am’?” she asked.

  “What, ma’am?” Elizabeth corrected.

  “When you were two, your father and I had a terrible fight. He put a hole in the wall, and I put a whole in his heart. I told him to leave, and never come back. He was so obsessed with his job, and I felt like I didn’t matter.”

  Crap.

  Well, now she got it.

  This was about her life running parallel to her parents’ lives.

  “I told him to go, and never step foot into our home again as long as he lived.”

  “And?”

  “He left for two weeks. In those two weeks, I learned a few things.”

  “Like?”

  “Being a single parent sucks.”

  She imagined it did. Elizabeth watched Chris struggle. The only thing that saved her ass was Callen.

  Again, he was her hero.

  “Being angry is useless. In a snap of your fingers, Fate can change anything. When you and I went to that soccer game, I never thought I would die.”

  She was aware.

  “What if Ethan dies tomorrow?” she asked.

  That brought more tears.

  “Would you be able to live with yourself?” she asked. “Would you be okay with your choices?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  Callen watched his wife.

  She was a totally different person when her ‘mother’ was around.

  “You get one shot at this. Don’t screw it up. Look at the mistakes we’ve made and learn from them. Daddy married that harpy, and she killed him.”

  “You saw that, huh?”

  “Oh, I was waiting for Charlie LaRue, and I gave him a piece of my mind when he got here. He took the easy way out, and he paid.”

  “I hated her the second he brought her home,” Elizabeth stated. “She wasn’t you.”

  Nyx’s face softened. “You only get one mother. Like her or not, you can’t replace her.”

  Elizabeth wiped her eyes.

  “After your father crossed, I forgave. He was my soulmate. If Ethan is yours, and the one your draped all over right now, then you love, you fight, and then you forgive. Do I make myself clear, Elizabeth Renee?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Catherine continued, “Hold the ones you love close, and believe that time stops for no one.”

  She was aware.

  “Mom?”

  “Yes, baby girl?”

  Her heart skipped.

  “Are you proud of me?” she asked. “Are you proud of all my decisions?”

  There was laughter. “I’m especially intrigued by the two men thing. Your father, he’s not. He told me you should have been a nun and if he was alive, he would have spanked you even at thirty-six.”

  Callen laughed. “She likes to be spanked.”

  Nyx looked at him. “Men without britches on shouldn’t be talking shit about anyone’s choices, son.”

  He closed his mouth.

  Fast.

  Now he knew where Elizabeth got it from. Callen would have loved Catherine. He could tell. Elizabeth sounded like her, and was just as feisty.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he muttered.

  Nyx wasn’t done with Callen. “You take care of my baby. You make sure you love her like you love your own children. She’s precious to me. She was my only, and she was my all.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I will. Thank you for her. She’s changed my life.”

  Nyx’s face relaxed. “Elizabeth?”

  “Yes?”

  “This case…”

  “Yes?”

  “Everything is connected. The dead woman did everything with a purpose. She was a planner and a plotter. Don’t overlook anyone. She was a shrew. What do you look at when you buy a house?” she asked.

  “Uh, to see if it’s haunted?” Elizabeth replied.

  “Sass, girl. It’s not needed.”

  Tori laughed.r />
  It drew Catherine’s attention. “You forgive her and let her free. When you hold a grudge, you make a monster. Forgive her or you will be her. Is that what you want, Victoria? Do you want to be Shelby?”

  That horrified Tori. “Hell no!”

  “Then it is time for you to forgive her, as Elizabeth forgives herself and Ethan.”

  “You heard the lady,” Elizabeth stated.

  Catherine continued, “Forgiveness is key. When the time comes, let the woman die. It’s the only way to save what is to come. Fate has a plan. You can’t stop it.”

  “What woman?” Elizabeth asked.

  She didn’t elaborate.

  “I love you, Elizabeth. I’ll always be near. Your father and I are behind you. Go back to the FBI. The dead need you. You’re their beacon. Shine bright.”

  “I love you, Momma.”

  Nyx looked down.

  She was beat.

  “Did it all come out?” she asked. “Was I able to channel them both?”

  Tori patted her leg.

  “You did good.”

  Well, that’s all that mattered.

  Elizabeth crawled past the candles and hugged her. “Thank you for that. I needed this. I needed my mother, and you gave me that. I owe you one.”

  “You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help.”

  And for the first time in a while, she realized something. Her gift never really left.

  She was the gift.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Hotel

  Thursday Night

  W hen they got out of there, Elizabeth was quiet. She had a lot on her mind. Talking to her mother one last time, it had set something free in her. That oppressive weight was now lifted, and she could let it go.

  For years, she’d suffered in silence.

  Now she could breathe.

  “Well, that was something,” Callen said. “I’m glad we got to talk to Granddad, but I wish Ethan was here. He could have used the intervention.”

  She agreed.

  “My mom…”

  “She seems like a great woman. I’m glad we named our daughter after her.”