“He can’t rush it,” Sellie spoke up. “It has to be a natural release. He wants to stick by the rules.”
“He might as well. The gods sure as hell won’t,” Jesse muttered.
Soul Selector moved away silently seething. Why couldn’t Sellie go find something else to do instead of hanging around her pool? She’d had her chance and she’d mucked it up. It made her nervous that a loser like Sellie was attaching herself to Jesse. Soul Selector did not want her lurking around like a ghoul waiting for something to go wrong. A horrible thought crawled into her mind. She was already in trouble with Aphrodite. What if Sellie was waiting for her to fall on her face so she could take over her old job again?
A gentle mental nudge broke up her thoughts. The whisper of periwinkle polyester slid through her synapses making her shudder. A “cooee” noise scratched away behind her eyes until they were dry and itchy. Death was such an irritant.
This was his come-hither. She looked across to Jesse. The kid stood alone on the other side of the pool. She looked tense, and rightly so. Soul Selector was aware Jesse was disappointed in her. She had not been a good guardian, but with this last little piece of unpleasantness, she would be able to make it up to her tenfold. She would mollycoddle her and Norrie’s souls through a thousand lifetimes making sure they were happy and pumping out enough manna to feed the heavens for infinity.
Manna. Her thoughts spun back to Aphrodite and whatever the goddess had planned. That made her nervous and she didn’t need it, especially with the task ahead.
“Jesse,” she called and nodded at the slick surface of the pool. The waters were gray and greasy and not at all inviting. It was as if they were warning her, but she hadn’t the time or skill to work out why. She saw Sellie gazing at the surface with troubled eyes. She also had noticed the warning in the water. Soul Selector ignored her and approached the pool with Jesse but from separate sides. They stood facing each other, eyes locked. Soul Selector nodded once more. They jumped.
*
Norrie was lucky. The elevator doors opened just as she approached, letting visitors out onto the ground floor. She stepped into the empty carriage and hit the button for ICU.
Charge nurse Rose Connelly was at the nursing station with two other staff. They were chewing toffees and wading through a tower of paperwork.
“Good evening,” Norrie greeted Rose.
“Happy Valentine’s to you.” Rose looked up, happy for a distraction. “Why aren’t you out on a hot date with some big Hollywood bucko?”
Norrie waved the envelope in her hand. “Because I’m delivering my Valentine cards first. Then I’m having a sexy evening in with champagne, a bubble bath, and me.”
“There’s no hope for the rest of us if you can’t get a date on Valentine’s Day.” Rose tsked. “Is that for JC?” She nodded at the envelope.
Norrie nodded. “The chocolates are for you.” She placed a heart shaped box on the desk.
“Ooh. Posh.” Rose was appreciative. “Look, girls.” She showed the box to her colleagues. “The diet is postponed for another week.”
“And this”—Norrie produced a CD case from her coat pocket—“is for JC. The promised copy of the finished song. Loa said it was okay to bring it in.”
“Have you seen Loa lately?” Rose asked.
“No, not for a while.” She felt guilt ooze out of her. She had not been in contact with Loa since they’d broken up. Loa had wanted it that way, at least for now, though Norrie hoped there’d be something salvageable in time. “Why?”
Rose shrugged. “She seems sort of down.” Norrie’s guilt ratcheted up a notch. She pointed at the side ward.
“Is it okay to leave this by the bed?”
The phone rang and Rose shooed her away with one hand while reaching for the phone with the other. Norrie went over to JC’s room and gently pushed the door open. The overhead lights were off with only the bedhead lamp creating a dim halo around JC. Shadows pressed in from the corners. The beep and burp of machinery was the only sound. The room felt pensive and sad, and Norrie wondered how much of it was a projection of her own emotional state.
“Hi, JC.” Rose had told her it was only proper to behave as normally as possible around a comatose person. Heaven knew what the subconscious could pick up. Norrie waggled the CD case. “I brought the new song as promised, though I’ll leave it for Rose to play for you tomorrow morning.” She set the CD beside the portable player and moved over to the bed. Now she was in the meager circle of light with JC. It felt spooky, as if the rest of the room was filled with ghosts and secrets. I’m maudlin tonight. I don’t want to be alone.
“Today is Valentine’s Day so I got you this. I’m sure it’s not the first; you’re a good-looking gal.” She ripped open the envelope and set her card on the bedside table. “It’s a wee bit twee, but the rest were too risqué, even for Rose’s eyes.” She sighed. “Romance is not what it used to be.”
The card showed a fat cupid perched on a fluffy cloud. He was firing arrows at a red glitter heart, exploding it like a balloon. Norrie examined it again, just as she had at the shop. It was garish and not to her taste, but she’d felt compelled to buy it anyway.
“Aren’t you the truth and a half?” she told the tattered heart. “Love hurts. Give me an aortal blood clot any day.” Was it the light or did the arrows flare and almost shimmer as if in flight? Norrie blinked and the effect was lost. She set the card down and left the darkened room with a soft good night to JC.
Rose was still on the phone so Norrie headed for the elevator. She hadn’t lied to Rose, though she wished she wasn’t telling the truth. A bottle of Champagne waited in her car, and although she was genuinely looking forward to a long, luxurious bath, she would have liked a lover to share it with. But not a Hollywood bucko. The temptation to call Loa tonight was strong. Norrie shook the thought from her head. Loa was not booty call material; that had been apparent on their breaking up, and she—
A riot of activity burst out behind her.
Norrie turned to see Rose and several other staff racing toward JC’s side ward. Unsure what was happening but growing more alarmed by the second, she retraced her steps. In the little side ward, JC’s machinery was screaming. Lights flashed and the nurses were stripping back her bed linen.
“Move!”
Norrie stepped aside as a crash trolley thundered past her.
“You need to go now.” Rose came and took her by the elbow and escorted her away. Over her shoulder, Norrie could see the choreography of emergency resuscitation played out.
“Okay. Okay. Sorry.” She moved away and let Rose get back to work. Norrie stood shaking with shock. And because Loa had been on her mind only minutes ago, and because she knew Loa cared so much for JC, and because she had wanted her there anyway, Norrie scrabbled for her cell phone and dialed Loa’s number.
Chapter Thirty-six
Soul Selector had no idea what to do next. The hospital was a bright, shiny box on the outskirts of Dungloe, and she hated it. Everywhere she looked humans were scuttling about, their psychic and spiritual frequencies completely congested with overwrought emotions. Humans gave her the heebie-jeebies.
Jesse stood quiet and withdrawn beside her. They were being drawn toward the hospital entrance. Death was directing them to JC’s location.
“She’s with me now.” His voice echoed in her head. She could see Jesse was receiving the same communication. “We’re on the top floor.”
They drifted up stairwells unobserved by the few people who used these rather than the elevators. As they passed, people shivered or frowned or simply had a bad thought and carried on oblivious to the presence on the stairs with them. ICU was easy to find. Death called them to a side ward at the end of a long corridor, just past the empty nurses’ station.
They reached the room where Death, dressed in hospital scrubs, hovered in a far corner. A more robust version of JC Waites than that lying on the bed stood beside him. They were watching a medical team try to de
fibrillate her earthly body. Death waved them over with a delighted welcome.
“Hi. This is JC,” he said. She gave a nervous smile. “She’s been a twooper.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Most souls can’t wait to get outta here, but JC was okay to hang on for you guys.”
He became all business, abandoning JC temporarily with an apology to turn his attention to Jesse and part two of the plan. “I have to get your soul into JC’s body before the heart restarts.”
Soul Selector stepped back. She was redundant at this stage. It was strange to think that once Jesse’s soul was ensconced in a human body all would go back to normal and her soul selecting work would go on as before. Zeus would be pleased she had resolved a problem within the allotted timeframe, and with minimum input required from him. There was also the hope that Aphrodite would lay off her because a manna harvest had been saved. Relief buzzed through her like a narcotic. She retreated further until she was lurking in the doorway, dispassionately watching the activity within. All Soul Selector needed was a few hours. Just long enough for Norrie to come to the hospital and reconnect with Jesse. Then they’d be more or less synchronized, and hallelujah to that.
From the corner of her eye she could see a woman sitting in a corner of the waiting area. A dark cloud of sorrow hovered over her head. It swirled around her like a black, relentless mass of insects, rising and falling on her with maddening inconsistency. Her body was hunched over and turned toward the elevators. She had to be waiting for someone. Soul Selector kept darting little glances her way, torn between the woman and the soul transfer going on in the side ward. Jesse had faded away to absolute nothingness in this realm. She was practically vapor. Death was drawing her spiritual essence toward the empty vessel lying on the bed. He had seconds left to make the swap complete.
Soul Selector locked in on the woman in the waiting room, trying to read her on a metaphysical level. She had to filter out a ton of the emotional garbage floating around in this world. There was a flood of it pouring in from every angle, and she was stuck in the middle of it without the filters of the pool to help. Her senses were unfocused and sluggish. And then she saw it, the faint glimmer of the woman’s soul. There was something that set her apart from all the other souls in the building and let Soul Selector know beyond all doubt that this soul was one of hers; she was a soul mate.
Norrie! The woman was Norrie. How had she managed to appear at the hospital so soon? Soul Selector had not attempted to summon her yet. This was too strange. She strode down the corridor to the waiting area. She had no idea why Norrie was here, but the timing was excellent. Eerily excellent. She would commandeer Norrie’s soul and make it move bodily toward JC’s room. Jesse would be in her body in a matter of minutes. They would meet over the sickbed and her work would finally be done. The taste of success was honey on her tongue. They had done it. The plan had worked.
The elevator doors opened and Loa Ebele hurried onto the floor. Soul Selector froze. The impact of this woman’s presence on her in the physical world was staggering. Peeking at her from the scrying pool was no comparison to being in the same physical dimension. Soul Selector reeled at the intensity of it.
Norrie and Loa embraced. Talking rapidly, Norrie led them down the corridor to the nurses’ station, and straight toward Soul Selector.
“Soulie! Come away.” The urgent call came from behind her. Sellie had materialized by JC’s doorway and was calling to her. “Don’t look at her. Get away!” But Soul Selector was rooted to the spot. The women advanced. They were charging down upon her like Custer’s cavalry, and still she could not move. Norrie brushed past her but Loa, Loa walked right into her, right through her. Then Sellie was by her side tugging at her sleeve and Loa was staggering, sagging at her knees and Norrie was reaching out to catch her and the human world was spinning and Soul Selector felt…wrong. She felt so wrong, as if she had swallowed a cocktail of plutonium. She felt bitter and poisoned and doomed all in the same instant.
Sellie dragged her away. “No!” she was shouting. “No.” She looked horrified and clung on to Soul Selector as hard as Soul Selector was clinging to her. They were both buckling under some unfathomable dread. Sellie gave her arm one more tug. A hard one, as if she had dredged up the last remnants of her strength and pulled Soul Selector along with her. They broke the surface of the pool and landed on its banks like thrashing fish. They were safely back in the Elysian Fields. Soul Selector was still in a state of collapse. She flailed about until Sellie’s firm hand on her shoulder stilled her.
“What the hell was that?” she panted. She blinked away her tears, but more came. She had never cried in all her existence; she hadn’t known she could cry, and now her tears were uncontrollable. “What happened? Where did you come from?”
“I was here.” Sellie sounded exhausted. “Watching in the pool. And I saw him. I saw Eros. He was spying from a Valentine’s card, and I realized Aphrodite knew about your plan and that she would spoil it.”
Soul Selector rubbed at her damp eyes while she thought it through. She had already informed Aphrodite, in the loosest terms, about their plan for Jesse. “I told her before,” she said.
“Oh.” Sellie was surprised. “You trust her that much?”
“She’s my goddess. Why shouldn’t I? Anyway, Jesse is gone now. It’s over.”
“You shouldn’t trust her.” Sellie was blunt. “She wanted Jesse’s soul and she always gets what she wants,” she said. “She had Eros spy on you. She had Norrie show up unexpectedly and Loa, too. She pulled out all the stops. She wants to destroy you, Soulie.”
“Why? I’m her Soul Selector. Why would she do that?” Soul Selector felt sick. All the worries she had tried to bury resurfaced. The doubts she carried about Aphrodite being through with her flooded back. Had the goddess double-crossed her?
“What does she want with Jesse?” she said. Sellie’s face closed over. “Why is she so determined to destroy her?” She persisted, certain that Sellie knew more than she was letting on.
“I don’t know,” Sellie said.
“She’s gone to a lot of trouble sending Eros to spy on us. I don’t understand why.”
Sellie shrugged and rose from the bank to walk away.
“What happened with Loa?” Soul Selector asked. She was embarrassed that she had to ask, but she truly didn’t know. She didn’t know why she was so fascinated with the woman, or what had happened to her when Loa had walked onto the ICU floor, never mind right through her. It had been like living and dying all in the same instant. A sliver of intimacy and the laceration of grief and separation had almost ripped her apart.
“I have no idea.” Sellie said, and walked on.
Chapter Thirty-seven
“What are you trying to do to me?” Death’s screech materialized before he did. Soul Selector and Sellie turned to meet him as he solidified by the scrying pool. “You left me down there with thwee of them! Thwee! Is this some kind of joke?”
“What are you talking about?” Soul Selector said. She was still shaken from her own experience and did not need his histrionics.
“Soul mates,” he said. “You left me swamped with soul mates and no clue what to do with them. Soul mates are your department, and you just up and disappeared and left me with them.”
“What?” She could see that he was angry to the point of tears, but she still had no idea what was wrong. “What are you going on about? Norrie was there to meet Jesse like we’d agreed.” She didn’t have to let him know that was probably Aphrodite’s meddling rather than her own. “You did get Jesse into JC’s body, didn’t you?” A chill came into her stomach; that was the only thing she could think of that could have gone majorly wrong. Why would Aphrodite help her when she was more inclined to thwart? The heady scent of the goddess was everywhere in this.
“Yes! No!” He flung his arms in the air. “Loa distracted me. She distracted everyone! And I hesitated for just one second, and JC’s heart kicked in and she survived. Against orders, I might a
dd. Jesse is still with us.” His eyes brimmed over. “My wecords are a mess because of you.”
“Where’s Jesse now?” Sellie asked. She exchanged a worried look with Soul Selector.
“Isn’t she here?” He looked around. “I thought she would be. She left before me.”
“Who’s the third one?” Soul Selector asked.
“The third what?”
“Soul mate.” Her patience was wearing thin. “You said there were three.”
“Loa,” he answered. “Loa’s a soul mate. Didn’t you know that?” He was genuinely perplexed and looked across to Sellie for verification. Soul Selector followed his gaze and exploded into a white-hot fury.
“You knew!” She advanced on Sellie. “How could you know? How can he know and I didn’t see it? What is going on here? Tell me, or I swear I’ll bury you up to your neck in that friggin’ hole you like so much.”
Sellie stared at her, her dark eyes huge with worry and guilt. “She’s yours,” she said.
“My what? I’d never seen her before last week.”
“She’s yours,” Sellie repeated. “She’s your soul mate.”
“I’ve just said I’ve never—”
“She’s yours, Soulie. Loa is, was, your soul mate.” Sellie was staring at her, speaking calmly. “When you came here you forgot about her.”
Soul Selector went quiet. She stared into the earnest depths of Sellie’s eyes trying to assimilate what she had just said. Death watched them, agog, his mouth hanging open.
“How did that happen?” she said. She knew. She was sure she knew…but she wanted Sellie to say it, to confirm it.
“You died.” It was hard for her to talk about it. Soul Selector could see that. “I was your Selector and you were one of my souls and I lost you.” Her explanation was quiet and simple.
“Loa?” Soul Selector’s voice was thick. It stuck in her throat. “She was yours too?”
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