Old Souls

by P. A. Lupton

  I felt the emergency workers outside the car, felt the trees and bushes, I even felt animals, right down to the insects. Anything and everything that held a spark of life, I was aware of them all. But something wasn’t right.

  It was Colin.

  While everyone else was bright, like a slightly muted version of the sun, Colin’s light was dim…and flickering. I knew with an intuition I couldn’t begin to identify, that he was dying. I literally felt the life force seeping out of him, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I’d never felt so helpless to do anything. And then when that light extinguished completely, overwhelming despair stole my breath.

  I sobbed. The only thought in my head, “I can’t lose my best friend.”

  “Well, there has to be a logical explanation.” The doctor’s voice forced me back to the present and out of the awful memory.

  They walked away, voices trailing off after them until I could no longer hear them. With a pensive look, Mark turned to me. “We need to talk.”

  ***

  Hours passed before the hospital finally released me. Mark waited patiently by my bedside then took me home to his condo to spend the night, promising of course to be a perfect gentleman. I argued I was fine to go home, but he seemed reluctant to leave my side. In all honesty, I wanted to be with him as well so I didn’t fight the idea too hard. Lying in that hospital bed today I had felt all alone, like something was missing. The minute Mark walked into my room I knew what that something was. It went beyond attraction, this was something else. Tonight though, I knew nothing would happen between us. Even though the kiss we shared had left me aching for more, there was just too much that had happened today.

  “Wow!” I said as I took in his place for the first time.

  Gorgeous walnut hardwoods spanned the entire living area. The walls were painted a taupe-grey, and scattered with colorful art. Oversized, black leather couches took up a large area, but it was the entertainment center that dominated the space. Sheesh, it was obvious a man lived here—a man with good taste, but still obviously a man’s domain.

  An open, contemporary kitchen was situated off of the living room. But the most striking feature was the floor to ceiling windows along the outer walls. He lived in a high-rise in the trendy Yorkdale neighborhood and the view was spectacular.

  “Make yourself at home.”

  “Thanks.”

  Automatically, I moved to the windows. As I stared at nothing in particular, I heard him inch closer behind me. Felt him, not only with the buzz beneath my skin, but also the heat radiating from his body. A shiver ran along my spine. Then his arm reached in front of me, holding a glass of wine in his hand. “Here, you’ll probably need this.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Now, I need you to tell me exactly what happened today.” There was an odd note to his voice, so I knew this was important. Taking a deep breath, I launched into what I remembered from the time I left the house this morning.

  “I was distracted when Colin picked me up for work this morning, anxious to talk to you.”

  “With everything else that happened, I forgot about that. What prompted you to call me this morning?” He asked.

  I stared at him silently—afraid to give him details for fear he would think I was crazy.

  “Honestly, you can trust me, Alyssa.” He grinned, lightening my mood. I promise I won’t think you’re nuts.”

  I smirked back. “We’ll see.”

  I took a large gulp of my wine, emptying half the glass. Then I began to describe the strange occurrences with my skin and hair over the last few days. I expected him to laugh or mock me in some way, but what I didn’t expect was his understanding.

  “Now you see why I couldn’t just tell you what to expect?” His mouth curved gently at the corner. “You would have reserved a padded cell for me.”

  My eyes had been trained out the window the whole time I spoke to him, but his words had me turning to face him for the first time. “What? You knew?”

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I will explain everything, I promise.” As if sensing that I needed the liquid courage, he lifted the bottle of wine and topped off my glass. “But first, what happened with the accident?”

  Taking another mouthful of wine, I exhaled roughly. “Colin and I were on the highway and I saw a landscaping truck up about ten cars ahead of us. I don’t know how, but out of the blue some of their equipment flew off the truck and landed in the middle of the highway. All I saw after that were brake lights and cars swerving everywhere. Two cars collided directly in front of us and Colin swerved to avoid them. We spun out, eventually settling in the ditch. Then I saw it…” Closing my eyes against my racing pulse, it was almost like living the sheer terror of that moment again.

  “What, baby? What did you see?” Oh my god, if we hadn’t been having this particular discussion, I might’ve noticed that it was the first time he’d called me baby. And I really liked the endearment. He reached for my hand and held it firmly. My chest tightened at the gesture, and I drew strength from the contact.

  “An airborne car headed right for us. I knew it was going to hit us, but there was nothing we could do, it was happening too fast. I threw up my hands, closed my eyes and braced for the impact.” I glanced into the crystal blue ocean of his eyes, hesitating before I continued. “Nothing happened. I waited and when I heard Colin gasp I looked up.”

  He stiffened beside me. “Colin saw what happened?”

  I nodded.

  “Shit.”

  “Mark, the car was hovering in midair above us. A blue glow shone from my hands and something crackled in the air around me. Colin stared at me like I was a freak.” My voice wavered and a lump lodged in my throat as I remembered that look. “I was so shocked I pulled my hands back without thinking. The next thing I knew the car suddenly crushed us… It was my fault.”

  “What?” His voice pitched. “Of course it wasn’t your fault. Don’t even think it.”

  His face changed from surprise to compassion instantly. Reaching his hand toward me, he cupped the back of my neck while his thumb swept away an errant tear. “I need you tell me what happened with Colin. This is important.”

  I nodded, took a steadying breath and continued. “I must have blacked out because all I remember next is waking up trapped in the car. The only thing I could move was my arm, and everything hurt.”

  “You were injured?”

  “Yes.” Mark grimaced at my answer, a pained look crossing his face. “Mark, my injuries should have taken weeks to heal. I don’t understand how I healed in minutes.”

  “Alyssa, I promise you there is an explanation and I will tell you everything I know about it, but this is really important. I need to know what you did to Colin first.”

  “When I came to, one of the emergency workers was beside the car trying to keep me calm. He let me know what they were doing to get us out and he monitored my condition. There wasn’t much he could do though since he couldn’t reach me. I heard someone with Colin, too. I was relieved to hear his voice so I knew he was alive, but he sounded really bad.”

  Wearily, I rubbed at my forehead as if that could wipe away the memories. Retelling the events of this morning was like reliving them all over again.

  “Then someone shouted his pulse was weakening. I was so scared. I tried to reach for Colin, but could only get hold of his hand. I kept talking to him but he wouldn’t answer. He was so quiet, even his breathing was slow until it just …stopped. People were yelling everywhere but the only thing I heard was someone shouting they’d lost his pulse. A few minutes passed, it felt like an eternity, and I knew he was dead.”

  Mark squeezed my hand. “I know it was scary, sweetheart, but he’s okay now. Focus on that.” He was taking this story entirely too well, like he wasn’t all that surprised that I just told him Colin had died even though he’s fine now.

  I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my head in his chest. He reached his hand up and stroked my hair for a f
ew minutes. “Mark, there’s something else. Something weird happened before he died. I don’t know how to explain it, but I knew he was going to die—like deep in my gut knew.”

  He nodded. “I know.”

  Tilting my head back, my eyes moved to his. “No, I don’t think you understand what I mean. I felt it. It was like there was a light inside him and I could see it, but it was fading.”

  “Alyssa, I know.” His eyes fixed intently on mine, trying to impart some message. It took a few seconds, but finally, I understood what he was trying to convey. He knew exactly what I was talking about, because he was able to sense life the way I had in the car. Somehow that made me feel better, made me feel not so alone.

  “Tell me what happened after he died.” He continued.

  I nodded, and tears pooled in my eyes again. “I felt like I couldn’t let him go.” Whispering, I laid my head on his chest, tears spilling down my cheeks. His shirt was wet, but he didn’t seem to care so I stayed where I was, wrapped in his arms. “I remember wishing I could fix him, and the next thing I knew heat built in my hand. I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening, but suddenly I saw his light again. Actually, I didn’t just see it, it almost felt like I was pushing the light into him.”

  “You were.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “You sensed the spiritual energy around you. That’s what you were feeling before he died—life. All living organisms are linked together through a life force, some people are able to feel it, and some are not. Some can even draw from it and use it, but only if it’s within minutes of a death.”

  “That’s exactly what I felt, like taking it from one place and directing it somewhere else.”

  “It’s like jumping a car. You’re borrowing a charge from one source and guiding it into another.”

  “So what? I’m like a jumper cable.”

  He snorted an amused laugh. “I’ve never heard it put quite that way, but it’s actually a good analogy. You were a conduit, pulling a little bit from every living thing around you and then funneling it into Colin. That life force then healed him.”

  “How do you know about this?”

  He hesitated for just a second. “Because I’ve done it.”

  That didn’t really surprise me, he knew way too much about this. “How? Why do we have this ability?”

  He took a step back, lacing his fingers through mine and led me over to the couch. He arranged us so I sat facing him. Then, placing my empty wine glass on the coffee table, he turned to me and held my gaze. “Alyssa, there’s no time now to beat around the bush so I’m going to be blunt.”

  I nodded. “Go ahead.”

  “You’re a witch.” He paused, letting that bombshell soak in. “You have powers, and what you did with Colin is only the beginning of what you can do with those powers.”

  “A witch?” I repeated, dazedly. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him he was ridiculous and I didn’t believe him. But, how could I deny it after everything that had happened? “How do you know for sure?”

  “Because, I’m a witch, too. That’s how I recognized it in you.”

  We both sat in silence, until finally I asked. “I feel a buzzing—it vibrates under my skin whenever I’m near you. It pulls me. Is that what you feel? Is that how you recognized me?”

  His eyes flared and he nodded.

  “I don’t understand. My parents are normal.”

  “It’s not hereditary.”

  “But nothing like this has ever happened before.”

  “That’s because your powers hadn’t been activated yet.”

  “Activated? How were my… powers activated?”

  “Right now, there’s something more important I need to explain. I promise I’ll tell you the rest later. Okay?”

  I nodded.

  He pulled my hands into his, gripping them tightly. “Our powers are tied directly to nature. Life and energy is a finely laced network, woven together and existing cohesively, feeding off of each other. We are all individuals, but all still connected and reliant on each other at an intermolecular level.”

  “You sound like a scientist.”

  “Well, I suppose there is a bit of science behind what we can do. As witches, we are able to see and influence the energy around us. But nature can only exist in harmony. Good and evil, light and dark, life and death: It all has to balance. We have the ability to restore life—on a limited basis—but when we do we leave an imbalance in nature.”

  “What happens if there is an imbalance?”

  “We have to fix it or there are consequences.”

  “I don’t understand. How do we fix it?”

  I could tell by the foreboding expression that crossed his face that I wasn’t going to like his answer. “If we give a life, we have to take a life.”

  I literally felt the blood drain from my face. “No!”

  Chapter 5

  Best Friends

  Waking up, I felt warm and contented. And it wasn’t just that I was ensconced in the biggest, most comfortable bed I’d ever slept in. It was also because I was in Mark’s bedroom with his body pressed tightly against my back. His right arm was tucked under my head and his left arm splayed across my hip. My only regret at the moment was that we had our clothes on.

  Despite the intimacy of our position, nothing had happened between us last night. I wasn’t exactly in a romantic mood after he told me I was expected to murder another human being. Just the thought of having to commit such a vile act had my stomach churning with revulsion. He tried to explain the consequences if I refused, but I wouldn’t listen to him. And though I plugged my ears, repeating “I’m not listening, la la la la la,” (yes, embarrassingly, I did this), I still heard some of the particulars. It was bad.

  Apparently, if I refused to restore the imbalance I created by saving Colin, someone else would die. It could be a person I loved or somebody I barely knew, but it would be someone connected to me in some way. And I’d have to live with the guilt of being responsible for the death of an innocent.

  I had adamantly, and rather childishly, refused to discuss the situation at all. Mark was at a loss, unaccustomed to dealing with my stubborn streak. I felt bad for taking my frustrations out on him last night, but yesterday had been a tumultuous day. Did he really expect me to graciously play God? Choosing who would live and who would die. It was so unfair. As if I had any clue I could bring a person back from the dead. I mean, who would have thought such a thing was even possible? How could I be held accountable?

  “There is no ‘accountable,’” Mark had explained, patiently. “There is only balance.”

  “You know, the least you could do when I’m freaking out is stop being so calm and rational!” I stormed into his bathroom after that, slamming the door. Immature I know, but I was scared. For some reason I tended to lose years of intellectual development in situations of extreme emotional stress. Frustrated and tense didn’t cover how I felt, I was also angry and confused. I just didn’t know what to do to repair what I’d done.

  I finished quickly in the bathroom, but waited until I felt Mark move away before opening the door. He was still in the building but he’d left the condo, probably to give me some space to think about what he’d said. Avoiding him was cowardly, but I’d had too much to deal with already. I still had questions, but for now I just needed to sleep. I grabbed one of the throw pillows on the couch and lay down, exhausted.

  It took a while for me to fall asleep, and just as I dozed I was awakened by a pair of strong arms lifting me. Instantly, I was alert. “What are you doing?”

  “Putting you to bed,” he answered nonchalantly, like he carried me to bed every night.

  “I was fine on the couch.”

  He ignored me.

  “I can walk you know.”

  Continuing to ignore me, he kept walking until we came to a bedroom—obviously by the looks of it, the master bedroom. I don’t know why it surprised me that it was as well decorated as the rest
of his place. The walls were painted steel grey, which I normally found cold, but with splashes of red all over the room it felt warm and inviting. An enormous bed with a massive black leather headboard took up most of the space. But my favorite thing about his room was the smell. It smelled like Mark—a subtle mix of his cologne and the natural masculine scent that was just Mark. And I managed to take all of this in while he carried me to the aforementioned bed and laid me down.

  “Where are we?” As if I didn’t know.

  “My room.”

  “Where are you sleeping?”

  Instead of answering, the corner of his mouth twitched and he crawled in next to me. Before I could protest he flipped me onto my side and pulled me into his chest, cradling me tightly. Butterflies flitted in my belly as he fit himself so close he didn’t have to move an inch to whisper in my ear.

  “I almost lost you today,” his breath skated over my neck, causing goose bumps to rise along my flesh. “I need to hold you in my arms tonight.”

  My chest tightened at the emotion I heard in his voice. Just like I said, he was soft sweetness—he just covered it with a layer of bossy.

  “You’re pushy when you want to get your way.” I told him, but even I recognized it for the compliment it was.

  “Don’t pretend you don’t love it.” He chuckled. “Go to sleep Alyssa, we’ll talk tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” I paused. “Mark?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sorry I yelled at you.”

  He wound his arm in front of me and laced our hands together. “It’s okay, baby. You had a lot to process. We’ll figure it out tomorrow. I promise.”

  I fell asleep after that. And despite the chaotic day, for the first time in a month I didn’t dream.

  Awake now, I was enjoying the sensation of being held in his arms, wondering if he was still asleep. His breathing was deep and even, but I wasn’t sure. I wanted to snuggle up and cuddle like this all day, but sadly my insistent bladder was opposed to the idea. Slowly, I lifted his hand and slipped out from under him. Glancing down to make certain I hadn't disturbed him, I noticed two things. One, he was still sleeping. And two, he was even more gorgeous when he slept.