Old Souls

by P. A. Lupton

  Love, completion, and happiness, it all surged at once, followed quickly by desperation, despair and anger. His movements became almost frantic and his breath sawed in short huffs. There were no sounds except for the sounds of his breathing and the slapping of our flesh.

  A second orgasm tore through me, so unexpectedly the pleasure of it almost hurt. “Baby, I can feel you squeezing me. It’s so good.” He joined me seconds later, his body convulsing and then finally he settled his weight on top of me.

  Between the attack, his revelations after, and then two mind numbing orgasms, I was spent. It only took seconds for me to fall asleep.

  The next thing I knew he was carrying me again. “What are you doing?” I asked, groggily.

  “Shhh, it’s okay. I’m just bringing you to bed. You’re tired.”

  “But we still need to talk.”

  “In the morning, we’ll talk.” He laid me down and pulled the blanket up over me.

  “Are you thirsty?” he asked.

  “A bit.”

  “Here,” he handed me a glass that had been sitting on the nightstand. “I made you some iced tea.”

  I sat up, taking the glass. “Thanks,” I smiled shyly and then drank down the contents.

  Mark watched me, almost nervously. When I finished, he took the glass back and placed it on the nightstand. My emotions were still open to him and I was confused when I felt a wave of regret from him. He turned back toward me with a dour expression flattening his mouth.

  “What? What’s wrong?” My heart started to race, I knew something wasn’t right.

  “Nothing. I just…you might be mad later, but I need you to understand.” He suddenly stopped avoiding my eyes and looked right at me with a look of determination. “I did it because I won’t lose you this time.”

  “I don’t under…understand. Did what?” It was difficult to focus. Dizziness crept up on me and I couldn’t concentrate properly. “What…what’s wrong with me?”

  Feeling heavy, my head dropped to my chest, but that wasn’t all. My whole body suddenly felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I wanted to ask more questions, but I felt myself slipping further and further into unconsciousness, until I was swallowed completely by the darkness.

  Chapter 9

  Aedan

  “Alyssa.”

  Groaning, I made a herculean effort to open my eyes, but my lids refused to budge. Why was I so tired?

  “Alyssa, wake up.” Muffled, Mark’s words seemed to come from miles away.

  “I don’t want to get up, I want to sleep.” At least that’s what I tried to say, but the words didn’t actually come out that way. They were more like a long, inaudible moan.

  Alyssa, baby, you okay? Now I heard him perfectly. He was so close, right above my ear—no wait, was that out loud?

  Alyssa?

  No, it wasn’t. He was talking inside my head.

  Leave me alone, I don’t want to get up yet. I thought back.

  Chuckling, his fingers tickled over my back softly. Tracing a pattern down my shoulder, along my arms and across my lower back, he repeated the pattern in a circuit. It felt wonderful. I could wake up to this every day.

  “Mmmm, that feels nice.” It took a while for him to coax me into finally opening my eyes, but eventually awareness began to creep back. “What time is it?”

  “It’s almost five o’clock.”

  “Oh for god’s sake, why are you waking me up so early?”

  “It’s five o’clock at night, baby.”

  “What!?!” Instantly, my body snapped into a sitting position. I’d intended to grab my phone to confirm the time but I never made it. I quickly flopped back to my pillows, head spinning from the sudden movement.

  My hands clutched my head as if that alone could stop the uncontrollable spiraling. “Oh God. Why does my head feel like this? Was I drinking last night?”

  Confusion clouded my thought processes. Why couldn’t I remember going to bed? Did I have a hangover? I didn’t think so. I was out of it, yes, but I didn’t have a headache or feel hung over. Dizziness overcame me and I closed my eyes again, fighting to untangle the jumble of memories from the previous night.

  “No, you weren’t drinking.” Mark answered. I moaned blissfully when a cold wash cloth pressed against my forehead. “Give it a second before you jump up like that again, it takes a few minutes for the spell to wear off.”

  “That feels fantastic, thank—” My eyes popped to find Mark sitting, nervously I noticed, above me. “What do you mean spell?” Promptly, the word triggered memories from the previous night. All at once, they came flooding back.

  “What did you do to me?” My tone was accusatory. Although, from the guilty expression he wore, not that far off base.

  “It was the iced tea. Don’t worry. You won’t have any long term effects. It was a potion I used to put you under so I could get you out of my house.”

  “You drugged me?” Anger sizzled through my blood, heating my veins. “Why…Why would you do that?”

  “No, I didn’t drug you. It was a potion—all natural— and it is perfectly safe.”

  Mark held me by the elbow and helped me to sit up against the back of the headboard. That’s when I noticed my surroundings and his words penetrated. We weren’t in his condo? Where were we, then? The bedroom I rested in was a far cry from the contemporary palace he had back home. This room was warm and inviting, the bed smaller than his, but billowy and soft, like floating on a cloud. A plaid comforter and pine colored wood furniture made the room cozy. And it was fairly dark for five o’clock. The reason for the dusky, shadowed room became clear when I looked out one of the three windows. There were trees everywhere.

  Trees? Not something I was used to seeing from downtown Toronto in Mark’s high rise.

  “Where am I?” I asked, marginally calmer than I was a second ago. “And how did you get me here? I took a blood oath. I couldn’t leave the apartment.”

  “You couldn’t leave, but I was able to remove you as long as you didn’t have a choice in the matter. If you’d have known what I planned it wouldn’t have worked. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.” He seemed sincere, but also proud for thinking of the loophole in the blood oath I had taken.

  “Oh, no.” My anger suddenly disappeared, replaced by panic. “No, no, no, Mark…They’ll know it was you. What are they going to do to you for taking me away like this?”

  “I don’t care, Alyssa!” He yelled. Never had I seen him so angry. “Don’t you get that? I refuse to live without you.”

  “Please, don’t say that.”

  “Why not? It’s true.” He stomped over to the dresser along the far wall and picked up a glass of water, thrusting it at me. “Here.”

  “You expect me to drink that?” Petulantly, I raised one eyebrow. “How do I know you didn’t put something in it?”

  He shot me a don’t-be-ridiculous expression that quickly turned to one of concern. “I thought you might be thirsty.”

  How was I supposed to stay mad at him when he looked at me like that, but how could I not be angry for the danger he’d just put himself in. I was terrified. Mark had just gone behind my back with this plan he’d hatched up, and by doing so probably condemned us both. Heaping a pile of trouble onto the huge pile of trouble we were already in seemed pointless. Now instead of just me, he was in deep shit too. I didn’t like the thought of that, at all.

  With all seriousness, I ignored the glass he held and looked him in the eye. “What are we going to do?”

  Sighing, his shoulders slumped as he sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to place the glass on the nightstand. “I don’t know for sure. I’ll think of something. At least this way, I’ll have time to think of something.”

  “Won’t they find us? You said they can sense new witches.”

  “I’ve put a protection spell on the cabin. It will keep us hidden for a while, but unfortunately we can’t go outside.”

  Dropping my head back on the mound o
f pillows, I glanced up to the ceiling in frustration. “So basically your answer is to keep us secluded in a cabin in the woods until they find us and kill us, or until we think of something?”

  I cast a sideways glance at him and he shrugged, unrepentant.

  “You know, there are non-magical ways to track someone, too. They’ll be able to trace this cabin back to you.”

  He flashed a smug grin at me. “No, they won’t.”

  ***

  I was going stir crazy. It had been two days since I woke up in Mark’s cabin and I hadn’t been outside at all. Mark hadn’t come up with any brilliant ideas, and I was a blank. Neither of us had a clue how we were going to get ourselves out of this mess, but at least we were together.

  The past two days, spending all our time together, I finally understood why he risked himself the way he did. If I had to let him go, if I knew he would be killed, no way would I sit back and allow that happen. Thinking back, I realized we shared a connection from the first time I laid eyes on Mark—before that even. That link between us was unlike anything I’d ever felt before, he was a vital part of me now.

  “What are you thinking about so intently?” He asked, lying on the oversized sofa.

  Relaxing, I reclined on his lap, buried in a sea of pillows. Glass covered the entire wall of the cabin’s living area and we’d been staring out at the tranquil surroundings. Mark’s cabin, located on Six Mile Lake near Georgian Bay, was surrounded by crystal clear lake water and trees as far as the eye could see. With his arms wrapped around me, he pulled me closer. My head cradled comfortably on his shoulder. The roar of boat engines on the water broke up chirping and scurrying noises of the birds and other animals, but we could still hear the peaceful lap of water against the rocks below. We enjoyed the fleeting serenity, knowing as we lay there that this was merely the calm before the storm.

  “I was just thinking how peaceful it is here, and so unbelievably gorgeous. I could almost forget…” my voice trailed off. Mark and I avoided talking about our situation as much as possible. As if saying it out loud made it more real. I knew we needed to stop avoiding the subject, though.

  He stroked my hair and his breath skated over my ear. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”

  “We can’t though, you know that right?”

  He rolled onto his back and I turned to face him, my heart breaking when I saw the look on his face. He looked so lost and defeated. “I know.”

  “What are we going to do, Mark?” I pulled myself up and sat on the edge of the sofa, looking down at him. “Maybe if we turn ourselves in, they’ll listen to us.”

  “And if they don’t?” His eyes caught mine and refused to budge. “Would you risk losing me like that? Would you be able to go back, knowing there’s a good chance they’d kill me?”

  I dropped my head into my hands and sighed. “No.”

  “Then don’t ask me to do it.” Silence spanned for a few minutes before he whispered. “Hey,” he nudged my shoulder and I turned to face him. “Try not to worry right now. Let’s just enjoy each other’s company. The answer will come to us, I have faith. There is no way fate could be so cruel as to let me find you, only to lose you.”

  I grinned. How he could be optimistic at this time was beyond me, but I admired him for it. “Okay… for now.”

  Tugging me down so I was splayed over him, he locked his eyes on mine in a hypnotizing stare. He drew me closer, slowly, until my lips brushed against his. I think we both meant for the kiss to be tender and slow. It certainly began that way, but the tension that had been building these past few days had peaked. The kiss became aggressive and desperate as his tongue invaded my mouth, his hands gripping my hair tightly.

  Losing all track of time, I almost lost myself in him completely. And then the Earth shook. Literally.

  Without warning, the entire cabin rocked with a force that nearly crumbled it. The walls creaked and groaned under the pressure. “You fools!” A loud voice boomed inside the room, rattling the glass in every window. We both jumped to our feet, ready to flee.

  “What is that?” I screeched.

  “I’m not sure, but it sounds like… Aedan.”

  “You have no idea what you’ve done.” The bodiless voice boomed even louder, angrier.

  “Aedan? Is that you?” Mark asked, nervously.

  “Who is Aedan?” I whispered to Mark.

  “He’s one of the brothers.”

  “You mean one of the brothers…as in the three brothers?” Mark nodded, tucking me behind him protectively while his head swiveled searching for the source of the voice.

  “Yes, it’s me.” Aedan answered. “Mark, you should have come to me. Running is not the answer. It took me no time to find you. How long do you think it will take my brothers?”

  “I came to you once before.” He replied, snidely. “As I recall, that didn’t work out so well for me.”

  “We need to get out of here.” I said, pulling frantically on Mark’s arm. But the next words from the bodiless voice froze me.

  “Please, Lissy, don’t run.” The voice suddenly sounded desperate, not angry.

  Lissy? What the hell? Only my family called me Lissy.

  “I am not losing her again. I came to you two hundred years ago and begged you to help me. You said you loved Evangeline like a daughter and would do everything in your power to protect her. Well, thanks for nothing. We need to go, Alyssa.”

  “Wait, if you leave it’s a death sentence for both of you. Stay. Trust me. I can help you.”

  “Why should we trust you?” Mark snorted.

  “You don’t know just how much I did help you back then. I loved Evangeline, but she refused to listen to reason and continued to break our laws. It didn’t matter what I said to reach her, she was set on her course and believed she was doing what was right. You know that. She could have exposed us all. What would have happened to the rest of us?”

  “Well, I lost her. Is that your idea of helping?”

  “Did you?” The voice asked, quietly. “Lose her, I mean.”

  “Of course I lost her, she died.” Mark’s pain shoved itself into me, but it didn’t seem like he was aware I could feel it.

  “She died, yes. But does that mean you lost her?” Aedan’s voice had become soft, thoughtful.

  Mark’s eyes widened as he turned his head and locked his gaze on mine.

  “That’s right, Mark, all is not lost. Things are not always as they seem.”

  “You couldn’t have known. It was luck that I found Alyssa, and I can’t believe I’m destined to give her up again. Things are different this time. Alyssa didn’t intend to do what she did, it was an accident.”

  “Someone once said that luck is the residue of design. Luck has nothing to do with you finding her again. And, I believe you. I know it was an accident.” Goose bumps rose along the flesh of my arm as I listened to their conversation, and not just because Mark was talking to a voice that didn’t seem to be attached to a body. I had that feeling again. The feeling I’d had right before I met Mark, like something important was about to happen.

  I jumped as a man suddenly took form in front of us. “Jesus,” I squealed. “Don’t do that, you scared the crap out of me.”

  With a hand on my chest I panted, trying to catch my breath and still my racing heart. Just as I began to calm, I took a closer look at the familiar face that had materialized in front of us. He looked twenty years younger, but there was no mistaking the cat like green eyes that were so much like my own. His hair was no longer grey and his skin, once etched with lines, was as smooth and flawless as marble. Despite the changes, I would recognize this man anywhere. After all, I’d seen it frequently over the past twenty nine years. “Dad?”

  “Dad?” Mark echoed, shocked. “Alyssa, this is Aedan, one of the three brothers.”

  “Mark, this is my father, Dan. Well, at least it looks like him—albeit a younger version of my dad.” I stepped forward nervously, examining the familiar—yet chan
ged—features of the man before me. “Is this some kind of a trick? Why do you look like my father?”

  A huge beaming smile stretched from cheek to cheek across his handsome face. “Because I am your father, Lissy.”

  “Don’t call me that, you’re not my dad. This is a trick of some kind.” I turned to Mark, brow knit in confusion. “How long have you known him? What does he really look like?”

  Mark’s head toggled between us, unsure of what was happening. That made two of us. “Alyssa, I’ve known Aedan for over two hundred years and he’s always looked like this. He’s the one who contacted us when our powers were triggered back then. He trained us, and for a time we were…close. I considered him a friend.” His gaze settled on Aedan with a pleading expression. “What’s happening here?”

  “Will you both take a seat? We don’t have much time and I have a lot to explain.” With an arm stretched in invitation toward the sofa, we both complied without thought.

  I sat next to Mark and he reached for my hand, twining our fingers and resting them on his lap. It was strange seeing my father under these circumstances…and he was so young. In fact, he looked like he was around my age. God, this was strange.

  “We’re listening.” I said, trying to put aside my confusion.

  In the large chair across from us, he took a seat. “Mark, a long time ago you asked for my help saving Evangeline. No matter what I or my brothers said, she absolutely would not listen to reason. She knew what would happen to her if she continued making the same choices, and yet she continued to knowingly break our laws. Despite that, I knew Evangeline was a good soul, just lost. So filled with anger over her past suffering, she just couldn’t find her way through it.”

  He took a shuddering breath, his voice filled with compassion. “I battled my brothers, desperately tried to convince them she would’ve been different with a different upbringing, that none of it was her fault. They agreed with me, but said it didn’t make a difference. Our only choice was to imprison her forever or death. If they had imprisoned her you would have never seen her again. Instead, I convinced them to agree to… an unconventional solution. It was the only chance I had to save her.”