Читать книгу The Life After Trilogy: Soul Taken / Soul Possessed / Soul Betrayed - Katlyn Duncan - Страница 15

My ragged breaths were the only sounds I could focus on. I swallowed furiously. Ally’s ears popped, the sensation unfamiliar and definitely unwanted. Sweat beaded across her skin.

“Maggie,” Cooper said, his voice distorted.

Those black spots appeared again and I closed my eyes to settle the strange feeling rising up from Ally’s stomach.

“Take deep breaths.” Calliope’s voice floated into my head, less distorted.

The roaring breaths lessened yet the popping intensified.

“So you are telling me,” I said, Ally’s voice sounded inverted, “that she is going to have her transformation next Friday?”

“Yeah,” I heard Cooper say.

“What day is today?”

“Sunday,” Calliope answered.

Ally had been in the hospital for almost three days. Three days closer to her birthday.

I pulled a hand through Ally’s knotted hair and opened my eyes. “What happens if you don’t get her back?”

“We will,” he said.

“I’m sorry for being the pessimist here but you weren’t exactly successful in preventing this from happening.” I indicated my soul trapped inside Ally’s body. “So, forgive me if I need to know the worst case scenario.” I clenched and unclenched Ally’s hands waiting for their answer, but neither of them spoke. I looked down at Ally’s palms. They were marked with half-moons from her fingernails. I studied them as they slowly disappeared.

“You can’t keep doing that,” Cooper said finally, anger coming off him in waves.

“Doing what?” I snapped.

“Any other human will see Ally Greene, albeit a bruised one. Not you. You can’t stare at your arm or keep touching yourself.”

Calliope nudged Cooper with her elbow.

He moved away from the bed and stared out the window.

Calliope mouthed a “sorry” at me.

I understood his anger. I wasn’t pleased to be stuck inside a mortal body either. I blew a breath through Ally’s lips. “Let’s get her home then.”

After Marie finished the paperwork, Nurse Lucy and Jamie watched me eat pudding. The gelatin-like substance stuck to the back of Ally’s throat as I attempted to swallow the horrific consistency. Cooper kept egging me on since the humans were intent on ‘Ally’ finishing it before she could leave. Soon after I was done, Nurse Lucy brought me—Ally—a wheelchair; she explained that it was hospital policy to bring me out to the car.

I stood up from the bed but Ally’s legs moved out from under me. Her frame was significantly taller than I was used to, by at least a foot. Never mind her stilt-like legs. I towered over Marie and Jamie, but Cooper and I were almost eye-to-eye. I was thankful for the wheelchair, it gave me a little more time to adjust.

Cooper, Calliope, Aaron and three other Guard flanked us as we walked down the hallway. Marie and Jamie carried the flowers from the windowsill. I didn’t dare speak to the Guard while the other humans were around, I didn’t need to extend Ally’s stay in the hospital for mental problems along with physical.

Although, by the time they wheeled me out of there, Ally’s bruises were almost non-existent and I could move her plastered leg without any pain. But the pin-pricks across her leg didn’t let up much.

Cooper had explained that, since Ally was a Prognatum, she had quick healing abilities along with the long list of other talents that would manifest after her transformation. He and Calliope had switched the X-rays for Ally’s already healed leg with a broken one so as to not raise a lot of questions from the humans.

Nurse Lucy wheeled me through the sliding glass doors at the hospital entrance and toward a black Mercedes sedan idling at the curb. A portly man wriggled out of the front seat as we arrived.

He smiled at me and opened the back door. “Glad to see you are feeling better, Ally,” the man said.

A name bubbled across my lips. “Henry.”

He chuckled. “Glad to see you don’t have amnesia.”

I sat in silence, looking up at Cooper. His eyebrows nearly reached his hairline.

Turning back to Henry, I reached out to him. “Help me up?”

Henry looked to Marie then back at me. “Sure.”

Nurse Lucy handed me a pair of wooden crutches and I winced as they pinched Ally’s skin, but Henry’s arms stayed around me until I could balance properly. “Feel better soon and remember your appointment next week with the doctor to check out your leg,” the nurse said cheerfully before walking back into the hospital.

“Okay.” Too bad for her I wouldn’t be making that appointment.

Hopefully.

Marie and Jamie put the flowers into the trunk. I watched them, remembering Ally’s mistreatment of Jamie. I leaned Ally’s body against the car and Henry took the crutches, putting them with the flowers and closing the trunk.

Jamie started toward the hospital, not looking back.

I opened the car door and slid onto the backseat. Ally’s skin melted against the buttery leather and I found the sensation divine. This whole feeling thing was seriously underrated.

“Enough,” Cooper said gruffly from next to me.

Lifting my hands I looked at him defensively. “Give a girl a break here; I haven’t touched or felt anything in a century.”

Someone tapped on my window. A man with curly blond hair waved at me. “Who’s that?”

Henry shuffled to the other side of the car with Marie hot on his heels, along with the three Guard, including Cooper. I rolled down the window so I could listen.

“Can I help you?” Henry demanded, standing between the car and the man.

“I need to speak with Ms. Greene, sir.” The man indicated my window.

“I’m afraid not,” Marie said. “She needs her rest; she just had an accident.”

“I am well aware of that.” His eyes found mine. “That’s exactly what I need to speak with her about.”

Even though Marie was a small woman, when she puffed up her chest and turned her glare on him, the man wilted. “Were you listening?”

“I just need—”

“No!” Marie said. “Get out of here. We already have a lawyer and don’t need your services.”

“I’m not—”

Henry put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “If you don’t leave now I’ll call the police for harassment.”

The man looked between Marie and Henry, who were not messing around, and nodded. We watched the man walk across the lot until his form disappeared inside a car.

I rolled up the window and snuggled into the seat. “That was weird.”

“Not as weird as you look caressing that seat,” Cooper said.

I crossed Ally’s arms over her chest, restraining myself.

Marie and Henry slid into the front seats. Marie turned around and smiled at me. “I am going to make your favorite for dinner tonight Ms. Ally.”

I gave her a weak smile but at the thought of Joseph Bonds’ last meal Ally’s stomach turned. A vibration reverberated from her stomach and I slapped a hand over it. “What was that?” I said under my breath.

“Humans do need to eat to survive.” Cooper grinned.

Her stomach grumbled again. “Great.”

On the ride home, Cooper and I sat in silence. I was too nervous to speak and say something wrong. But Marie and Henry were content chatting to themselves. He flipped on the radio and I winced, expecting to hear the raucous music Ally had played the other day. But instead, smooth jazz gently wafted through the vehicle.

Now this was music.

I’d Collected a jazz pianist several years ago, and I was grateful to have watched his last performance. His spider-like fingers had danced over the keys in a haunting, yet beautiful melody. I’d have liked to keep him around longer if I had the choice.

Cooper chuckled and I looked at him. His eyes scanned the road, even though I knew Calliope was behind us.

“What?” I murmured.

He looked at me, grinning. “Nothing.” And turned back to the window.

I crossed Ally’s arms, as I’d seen her do the other day. I added that to my million questions I needed to discuss with him when we had some alone time. One of the top ones being how I had called up Henry’s name and the memory of Jamie.

There was only one way to find out.

I glanced at Cooper, his eyes trained outside the window. I shimmied her body closer to the other door, and leaned her head against the cool window. I wasn’t sure of the mechanism behind the memories but I tried to recall the one I had pushed down in the hospital. Without much effort, it floated from the depths of Ally’s mind.

A younger Ally bounded down the stairs to the kitchen. She held a pink shirt in her hand. Heat flamed her cheeks.

“Marie!” she yelled.

Marie turned around and saw the shirt. Her face paled.

“I asked you to wash this separately. This was a two hundred dollar white blouse. Now look at it!”

“I’m so sorry, Ms. Ally. I will bring it to the dry cleaners.”

“They won’t be able to get this out. How hard is it to follow simple instructions? You do speak English, right?”

Ally shoved the shirt in the garbage and stormed from the room.

I gasped, throwing myself out of the memory, shivering and shoved it away. Did Ally have any happy memories, or at least some without her screaming at someone? I was regretting taking on the task of Collecting Ally with each passing second.

I hesitated, wondering if I should be digging deeper into her memories since they were all we had left of her. Maybe one of them could indicate who took her. But those memories didn’t come forward; they were probably attached to her soul. Yet, if that were true, then how much damage did her body and soul suffer when she was taken?

“We’re here,” Cooper said softly beside me and I sat up quickly, clenching Ally’s hands together.

Henry pulled the car up to a wrought iron gate about twenty feet high, rolled down his window and pressed several numbers into a keypad. The gates unlatched and opened, revealing a long driveway. Both sides of the cobblestone path were covered with clipped plush green grass that ended against tall, and equally manicured, shrubs that hid the estate from neighbors’ eyes.

I leaned forward, craning her neck to see past the borders of the window and called up a blueprint of the place, making a mental picture of the house Ally grew up in.

“Sit back, Maggie,” Cooper said. “Ally knows what her house looks like.”

Now I do too, I thought.

The driveway extended past the house toward the garage but Henry stopped the car at the front door’s archway, held up by towering stone columns.

My breath fogged the window as I studied the house that I’d be living in. Actually, the word “house” didn’t encompass the monstrosity. Mansion was more like it. The exterior walls were white stucco with a hint of gray. Tall doubled windows broke up the front of the house into sections. I could see through them into a living room and dining room on either side of the front door. On the second floor, two balconies with French doors extended from the Master and Ally’s bedrooms.

My door opened, revealing Henry and the crutches.

Those were going to get old real fast.

I put out Ally’s good foot and used the frame of the door to heave myself up. I could have easily stepped on the cast but I knew that would be a red flag for the humans.

Be human, I thought. More specifically, be Ally.

I slipped the crutches under my armpits and stared up at the house. The setting sun haloed it in a reddish hue, making it appear more menacing than necessary.

Marie walked next to me as I navigated with the stupid sticks. I peeked behind me and only saw Cooper. Where were the rest of the Guard?

“The wards around the house are impenetrable against the Shadowed.”

How did he—?

I opened my mouth to ask but Marie and Henry were in hearing distance.

Cooper shook his head slightly and disappeared.

Marie’s key ring jangled as she unlocked the front door. Henry stayed behind me as I hobbled into the foyer and stopped, admiring the stunning interior.

Black marble covered the floors leading up to double staircases spanning each wall. Sparkling surfaces winked at me in the afternoon sunlight streaming through the skylight. On the left was a formal dining room and on the right a parlor. The air smelled fresh and I inhaled several times, taking it in.

“I’ll make you something to eat, Ms. Ally,” Marie said and shuffled under the archway toward the kitchen.

So far, Ally’s memories were precise.

“Feel better, Ally,” Henry said, taking his leave from the house.

Cooper appeared in front of me. I lifted Ally’s hands up in fists at him and he jumped back.

“This room is gigantic,” I said through gritted teeth. “You couldn’t land anywhere else?”

He laughed.

I groaned and walked into the parlor, inspecting the room, leaning the crutches against the door frame.

“You have to use those,” Cooper pointed out, picking up the crutches.

“Only when Marie is around,” I said, taking in the plush leather couches and mahogany furniture. I could get used to this house.

“Or any other human,” he corrected.

“Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled.

“Yeah,” he said firmly, holding them out.

I took them from him, but he didn’t let go. We stood within inches of each other, the crutches a link between our bodies. I looked into his gray eyes. At that distance, I could see small flecks of color in his irises.

“What?” he asked.

I tore my gaze away from his and tucked the pads of the crutches under Ally’s arms leaning into them.

“You’re doing well,” he encouraged. “Just keeping being human.”

Ally’s heart thumped hard in her chest. “What did you just say?” I tucked a finger in the opening of the pocket door and slid it shut.

Cooper’s gaze suddenly found something very interesting on the floor.

“Be human?” I mimicked his voice, stepping toward him.

He moved back.

“I’d like to know where you got that from,” I said, Ally’s face flushed.

He held his hands up defensively. “Listen, I don’t make the rules—”

“What rules?” I demanded, pointing a crutch at him.

“Okay,” he conceded. “But let me explain. You know how you can feel a human through the True Soul?”

“Yes?”

“The Guard have a similar connection with an assigned Prognatum. It helps me keep in touch with Ally. To always know where to find her and help steer her toward a positive outcome in her life.”

I wiped Ally’s damp hands on her jeans. “But your human isn’t in here.” I splayed her hands across her stomach.

“Yet,” he started, “unlike the True Soul, it’s a connection between the body and the Guard. Not the soul. The link is only broken after the transformation.”

“So, since I am inside of her, you can read my thoughts?” I tried to think back to any incriminating thoughts I’d had as Ally so far.

“I can’t hear your exact thoughts,” he said. “If that helps.”

“Not really!”

“But,” he continued, “they can bleed through the connection if they are strong enough. And—”

“And what?” I asked

Cooper smiled sheepishly. “You have a lot of strong thoughts,” he mumbled.

“Unbelievable.” I stepped away from Cooper, needing space, yet he would always know what I was thinking.

“Can’t you tune me out or something? This is an invasion of privacy.”

He shrugged. “It’s not something I can turn off.”

“Fantastic,” I said.

“Ms. Ally?” Marie called from the foyer.

“The stronger the emotion, the more I can hear,” he reminded me before disappearing again.

“The stronger the emotion,” I mocked.

Marie opened the door. “Who are you talking to?”

I shrugged. “No one.”

Her eyes scanned the room, as if she didn’t believe me. “Your food is ready.”

Since souls didn’t need to eat, I didn’t realize how much I’d been missing until I tasted Marie’s cooking.

“I think you’ve had enough,” Cooper said.

“No way,” I said between bites of the most delectable meal ever. I used the fork and Ally’s fingers to scoop up as much of the salad and grilled chicken as I could. I’d also convinced Marie to slice up the homemade sourdough bread that rested on the massive marble kitchen island. I slathered butter on the slices and nearly died over and over again with each bite.

Joseph had been on the right track with the food situation. How did humans get through the day without having food at their side?

“You’re loud again,” Cooper said.

“Don’t care,” I was using the bread to soak up the remaining dressing from the plate until it was dry. “More,” I said, licking Ally’s fingers.

Cooper stood up from the chair. “No way. Ally’s going to be pissed enough when she finds out you ate two pieces of bread. She’s been on this no carb diet lately.”

I remembered how Marie looked when I’d asked to have some of the bread. Almost as if I was baiting her.

I looked down at Ally’s tight abs. She could definitely use one more piece of bread.

I grabbed for another piece, yet before I could bring it to my mouth, Cooper appeared next to me, snatching it out of my hand.

“Hey!”

He leaned down, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Done.”

Marie shuffled into the dining room and looked at the plate. She closed one eye and stared at me. “How hard did you hit your head, Ms. Ally?”

“Huh?” I asked.

“I haven’t seen you clear a plate since you were twelve.”

“Well,” I started, attempting to channel Ally, “I’ve been in the hospital for two days. I can’t live off pudding.”

“Hmm,” Marie mumbled. “Okay, well let’s get you washed up and into bed to rest.”

Marie led me up the stairs and down a long hallway to Ally’s bedroom. She went in first, walking to the right. I glanced around the neatly arranged room. A king-size bed took up the majority of the floor space; across from it stood a dark leather love seat. A mahogany desk was tucked into an alcove at the far end of the room; atop it, scattered schoolbooks and a white laptop. A corkboard overflowing with pictures rested on the wall above it. Sheer curtains billowed out across the open floor-to-ceiling glass doors in front of one of the balconies I’d seen from the driveway. A door to my left was opened slightly, revealing a walk-in closet bursting with Ally’s clothes and shoes. I’d have to explore that later. I kicked off the shoe from her good foot and sunk Ally’s toes into the plush beige carpet.

“You have fresh towels and a robe if you’d like to take a bath,” Marie said. She placed a prescription bottle and glass of water on the dresser. “You can take these after. Is there anything else you need?”

I yawned. Marie walked over to me and squeezed my hand.

“I’m so happy you are okay.”

“Thank you,” I said. “For everything.” Especially the food.

She cocked her head to the side. What did I say wrong this time?

“Sweet dreams, Ms. Ally. Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Okay. Goodnight.”

When Marie left, I let the crutches fall to the ground and I walked into the bathroom.

Or should I say spa.

A claw-foot tub sat in the middle of the room, just waiting for someone to jump in. Next to that was a small table loaded with scented bath soaps and bubble mixtures. I turned on the faucet and warmed my fingers under the water, creating a new wave of goose bumps across Ally’s arms. I drizzled liquid from one of the bottles into the flowing stream of water. A relaxing lavender scent billowed up from the tub and bubbles started to form. I walked to the vanity where Ally had arranged a neat display of cosmetics. At the corner of the room stood a shower stall big enough to fit another tub inside and then some.

I stood in front of the vanity mirror, staring at the face of my new body. Ally’s green eyes were squinty and her hair stuck out at all angles. I pulled the elastic out of her hair and her tresses tumbled over her shoulders.

I leaned closer to the mirror.

“Where are you, Ally?” I said softly.

My gaze traveled across her face until I clearly saw the outline of my soul almost transposed over hers. I shivered, leaning away from the mirror. I could still see myself but I wasn’t as defined from that distance. I’d have to avoid mirrors as much as I could.

I stood under the warm lights, staring at the girl who was meant to do something great with her life… until I remembered the tub.

I carefully lowered Ally’s body into the bath, the hot water sending sparks throughout her body. The scent of lavender enveloped me and I leaned up against the back of the tub. I kept the cast leg out of the water as the doctor had suggested, which was the only part of me that wasn’t immersed in utter bliss.

The bathtub moved up to the top of my Best Things About Being Human list. I’d be one again for a short time and experience everything I could until they found Ally.

A sharp pang of guilt pressed against my chest.

In the short time since leaving the hospital, I’d been so wrapped up in her life that I hadn’t thought of the possibility of the Guard not finding her. And who were those Shadowed that Cooper had spoke about?

A memory edged into my vision and I leaned Ally’s head back against the porcelain and let it take over.

Ally sat at the dining room table with her father, David Greene, beaming at her. His golden hair matched her shade and his green eyes sparkled.

“Seventeen years old… My, how time flies,” he said.

Ally blew out the candles on her cake and sat back in her chair. “Can I go now?”

Marie came into the room with plates, forks, and a knife. “It’s chocolate, your favorite.”

“Yeah, when I was like nine,” Ally said, looking at the cake as if it was covered in maggots.

David cleared his throat and indicated for Marie to leave the room. When she did, he took a leather book from the chair next to him and held it up to her.

“Nice gift, Dad,” she said. “You didn’t even have time to wrap it? What else is new?”

“I know I’ve been gone a lot lately but what I have to tell you will help explain.”

“I don’t really care why, I just want to go to Heather’s. She at least knows how to throw a party.”

Ally stood up, but David was quicker. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back down in her seat. His eyes darkened.

A sharp pain in Ally’s arm immobilized her.

“You will listen to me. Soon enough your friends won’t even matter, you were meant for so much more.”

I jolted, splashing water over the side of the tub. The water had become lukewarm. I examined Ally’s wrinkled fingers.

I shivered at the temperature of the water and the residual memory of David. Pulling out the plug I slid out of the bath and carefully navigated across the slick floor to the small mat in front of the shower. As I wiped her feet, I realized I hadn’t washed her hair. I peeked at the stand-up shower stall and stepped inside, closing the glass doors behind me. A small screen lit up, indicating a few options for the shower. I chose a temperature setting, and lifted the cast up onto the bench large enough for a person to sit comfortably.

Water streamed down from the shower head, patting against Ally’s head. Each drop of water shattered the tension in Ally’s muscles. I held Ally’s face up against the stream.

Move down the list, bathtub, shower is number one.

I played with the settings on the screen until a series of playlists came up. This time I didn’t mind the bumping bass pouring from the speakers and I started to move with the rhythm. I hummed along to the song while shampooing then conditioning Ally’s hair.

The shower turned off on its own, some energy warning popping up on the screen. I jutted out my lip. “If I’m here tomorrow,” I said to the shower stall, “I’ll definitely be back.”

Ally’s hair felt smooth against her back, and I shivered as the cool air from outside the stall enveloped her body. I picked up a plush towel from a nearby bench and wrapped it around Ally’s body. I picked up several bottles of lotions, smelling each divine scent. I rubbed the French Lavender one over her smooth skin. I looked around before lifting her arm to her nose and inhaling.

Amazing.

I brushed her teeth, giggling as the bubbles from the toothpaste popped in her mouth and wiped the steam from the mirror and backed up, keeping my distance so as not to see myself again. I raked a comb through her hair several times then smoothed her fingers over it.

Time to check out that closet.

I opened the door to the bedroom, a cooler breeze dancing across her bare shoulders and legs and padded across the room, until I saw something move at the corner of my eye.

A figure stood at the window.

I grabbed the closest thing to me, which happened to be a perfume bottle, and chucked it at the figure.

“Cooper!” I yelled, raising my arms up in defense.

The figure caught the bottle and moved closer, revealing his identity.

“You might want to pick that up,” Cooper said, pointing to the towel.