Save My Soul (17 page)

He stood from his seat and walked to
me. I stiffened. I didn't know what to expect. He bent close to my
ear and whispered, "I just wanted to see if I affected you, the way
you affect me." He exhaled, and even that got my blood boiling
again. "We can get back to work now. Your client is waiting on
you."

I took in several deep breaths before
I opened my eyes. Adam was all calm and collected. There was no
sign that he had seduced me with his eyes. I thought it was mean
what he'd done to me, but I guess he'd only done it because I
wouldn't tell him why he was so attracted to me. I took in another
breath, then got back to work.

We took three different poses of
Raymond in the black dress shirt, two in the cashmere sweater and
four in the knit polo. It seemed like the polo was his favorite of
the three, so I gave him more shots in it. He changed back into his
nerdy shirt, but this time he left the top two buttons unfastened.
Much better, I thought.

I walked him to the door and he gave
me an awkward hug. He sighed when he stepped back. "Thank you for
taking the time to help me, Ms. Larkin. A lot of photographers
would have just taken the pictures."

His eyes glazed over, and he turned
and walked out the door.

Adam was pouring two glasses of wine
when I got back to the kitchen. I really liked it when a person
made themselves at home in my house. I didn't care for the nervous
type that would say no if you asked them if they needed or wanted
anything, when you knew they really did.

I noticed a skillet and a large pan on
my stove. I thought I might be going plum wacko, but I knew they
hadn't been there a few moments before. If I ignored them, maybe
they'd go away.

I could hear Rhyan's laughter in my
head, and decided to ignore him, too. It wasn't funny at all that I
was turning into a crazy person. Then I heard meat sizzling, and
caught a whiff of beef. My eyebrows drew together; I knew I wasn't
imagining that.

Adam handed me a glass of wine and
smiled. "Usually, when I cook for someone I'm at my place, but
we're at your place, and there isn't enough time to get to my place
before I starve to death."

I looked at him for a minute then
burst out laughing. I sat on the barstool and enjoyed my first sip
of White Zen. "So, Chef Adam, I have a question I would like to ask
you, but first, what are we having for dinner?"

"Spaghetti, and I may or may not
answer your question, but you can ask anything you like." He
grabbed my cutting board, a knife out of my wooden knife block, and
an onion out of the onion basket.

I smiled at him. He'd said that same
thing the first time we ever tried to have a conversation. Of
course the circumstances were totally different now. "Is this a
date?"

He shook his head. "No, I was just
hungry." I looked at him, aghast, and his eyes lit up as he
chuckled. "Yes, Kendra, I am considering this a date, but it's
hardly fair, I think."

My eyebrows drew together again. "Why
isn't it fair?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Well, you were the one
who paid for the food and the wine. Didn't you tell me that if it's
considered a date, that I get to pay?"

I laughed again then wiped at my eyes
from the onion fumes. "But you're doing the cooking. I think that
makes it fair. I would pay a lot of money to have someone else cook
for me. It isn't one of my best talents. I can make good dishes; I
just don't enjoy making them."

He opened the freezer and grabbed a
loaf of cheese bread. I know you're supposed to eat garlic bread
with spaghetti, but I don't like it, so I buy cheese bread instead.
He set the oven temperature, tossed the diced onions into the
skillet and got a jar of spaghetti sauce and salt from my pantry.
He was walking around my kitchen like he knew where everything was.
It was a little puzzling, but maybe he kept everything at his place
in the same place I kept all my things.

"I'm guiding him to where
everything is, Kendra. He can't hear me like you can, but he's
following his instincts, me. He wouldn't have listened to me two
hours ago. You're making progress with him. Keep up the good
work."
Rhyan said through my
mind.

"Is that why his eyes are
getting lighter?"
I said back to
him.

"I'm not sure, but I
believe so."
He said back, and I left it
at that.

The doorbell rang, and Adam turned to
looked at me with a disappointing look on his face. "You expecting
another client?"

I shook my head as I got off the
barstool. "I'm done working for the day. I don't know who it could
be." I walked down the hall toward the door. I knew that Kobhye or
Aven wouldn't be stopping by, but that didn't rule out my parents
or other friends.

"Kendra, get rid of him.
He's only here to cause trouble for you."
Rhyan said, and I froze before opening the door.

"Who wants to cause trouble
for me?"

Then I heard him on the other side of
the door. "Kendra, it's Mason. I need to give Adam
something."

I started to open the
door, but Rhyan spoke again.
"He's lying.
Tell him to go away."

"Why would he be
lying?"

"Okay, ask him what he
needs to give him, or why couldn't he give it to him tomorrow
morning at work."

I wasn't going to argue with him. I
knew Mason didn't like me seeing his best friend, and him too.
"What is it, and why couldn't you just give it to him in the
morning?"

I heard him sigh. "He left his phone
at work. I figured he'd need it before morning in case there's an
emergency at the hospital. I know Richardson is on call for him,
but if they need more hands, they'll need to get a hold of
Adam."

I hadn't heard Adam's phone ring the
whole time he'd been here, but he'd called me from my front porch
when he got to my house. He was lying.

"Thank you. Now tell him
to leave you alone."
Rhyan
said.

I was confused. Why would Mason lie
about something like that? Why would he lie, to get in my
house?

"I found out why I can't
find Mason's guardian angel. He doesn't have one. He is Adam's
guardian demon. I would've told you sooner, but I just found out
right before he showed up at your door. He knows your motives, and
I think he's here to kidnap you so you can't complete your mission
and get any closer to Adam's soul. Lock the damn door!"

I was in shock, and instead of moving
forward, I took a step back away from the door and stared at the
handle. I watched in horror as it began to turn. I rushed to lock
it, but I wasn't fast enough. He opened the door and grabbed me by
the throat, raised me up off the floor a couple inches and slammed
my back into the wall. I couldn't breathe. He was trying to
collapse my windpipe.

"You may have gotten to him a little,
but you won't get the chance to get to anymore of his
soul."

I heard the loud pop through the
pounding in my ears. I fell to the floor as Rhyan knocked Mason
away from me. There were swirls of neon blue color, and the wind
was blowing heavily around them as they fought in my foyer. Rhyan
forced an arm around his neck, and placed his other hand on Mason's
chest. The pop that followed was deafening, and then they were both
gone.

I was still shaking as I stumbled back
into the kitchen.

"You have to get Adam and
leave. I can't hold him much longer, and he'll kill you if he finds
you. His real name is Murry. You have to get Adam to leave with you
until all of this is over!"

I could tell he was still struggling
with Mason/Murry; his voice was strained.

Then I heard Mason
shouting at me.
"There's no where you can
hide that I won't find you, Kendra!"

I stopped in the hallway and tried to
catch my breath. I could hear Hercules barking and growling from
his pet carrier. I kept him in it when I had a lot of people coming
in and out of the house, and had forgotten to let him out so he
could meet Adam when Raymond left. What could I do? Where could I
take Adam so we would be safe until Friday? He wouldn't go with me
and leave work that long. I hadn't gotten close enough to him for
that. He still wasn't so sure if I was crazy or not.

"Kendra, are you all right?" Adam said
to me, as if he hadn't heard any noise at all. I was looking at the
floor, and I could feel him coming toward me, I looked up. He was
looking at the open door with a puzzled look on his face. "Who was
at the door?"

I made eye contact with him. I really
didn't have a choice but to do this now. If he didn't believe me,
then I was screwed. "It was Mason, Adam."

"Mason? Well, where is he? And why is
your door still open?" He took my shoulders in his hands and looked
me in the eyes. "And tell me why you look like the world is about
to end."

I dropped my head. "Because mine is,"
I whispered around the large sore lump in my throat.

Adam looked back to the door, then
back to me. He huffed. "Look, you're going to have to do a little
more explaining than that. I don't have a clue what you are talking
about."

When I looked back up at him, my tears
brimmed over and slid down my cheeks. "You won't believe
me."

His eyes grew wide at the sight of my
distressed state, and he hugged me tight to his body. I knew he was
scared and confused and maybe thinking about admitting me into an
insane asylum, but he stood there and held on to me. "Does this
have anything to do with me?"

I nodded.

He sighed. "Okay, does this have
anything to do with me being so attracted to you?"

I nodded again.

"And does this have anything to do
with me not being able to stop looking at you?"

I nodded, yet again.

"So what does Mason have to do with
any of this?" he asked.

I ignored his question. "If you
believed in God, this would all just go away."

He let go of me and held out his arms.
"I don't know what "THIS" is, Kendra. Try telling me, and I will
listen, and try to understand."

I took a deep breath in, and then
exhaled slowly. "Mason isn't good, Adam. He wants to kill
me."

His eyes grew wide and he backed up a
step. He shook his head slowly. "Mason wouldn't try to kill you,
Kendra. He isn't a murderer. He may be upset because he took you
out on a date, and I moved in on his game, but he wouldn't hurt you
because of it. I swear, Kendra," he said as he took my hands in
his. "You have to believe me. Mason wouldn't hurt you."

I clucked my tongue twice on the roof
of my mouth. "Well, he just tried to." I tilted my head back so he
could see my neck where Mason had tried to choke me to death. He
hesitantly ran his finger lightly over the red finger markings on
my neck. "And he isn't mad because you are trying to steal me. He's
pissed because I'm trying to steal your soul away from him. He's
your guardian demon. He always has been, and he has more control
over you than your guardian angel does. He is pissed at me because
I was making progress in winning your soul back."

He saw the red marks. He couldn't deny
that someone had tried to hurt me, but he still looked
skeptical.

"And where is Mason now?" he said as
he looked to the open door, like he wanted to run outside and kick
Mason's ass for hurting me.

"He's gone for now. My guardian angel
knocked him off me and took him somewhere. He can't hold him for
long, and there will be nothing to stop him when he gets loose from
Rhyan. Rhyan thinks I should take you and go hide somewhere until
Saturday. But I don't know where to go that he won't be able to
find us. He's really strong, and he is tapped into you like a GPS
tracker. He hears your every thought.

Adam let out a long breath and ran his
fingers through his hair. He shook his head again. "So, what
happens if he doesn't find us, but I still don't believe in God by
Friday?"

"I will die, and both of our souls
will belong to him."

He walked away from me and went back
into the kitchen. When he came back a few moments later, he looked
like he was still thinking. "I've been around Mason for six years.
He was working at that hospital when I started there. He can't be
my guardian demon, or whatever you say he is. He's always had my
back. He's a good person, Kendra."

I shook my head. "He influenced you to
take that job. He has the power to make people think things that
don't really happen. I bet he started there the same time you did,
and only made the people at the hospital think that they knew him
and that he had been there a long time. This is some really unusual
shit, and I know it's a lot to comprehend, but I wouldn't lie to
you. My life and soul, as well as yours, is at stake."

"I don't really know you, Kendra. I
know Mason, and he isn't some demon. What exactly is he trying to
stop from happening? How are you gaining better control over my
soul? I don't believe in God anymore than I did three days
ago."