Save My Soul (6 page)

I could feel him walking toward me,
like a predator creeping toward their prey in the woods before it
pounces. I closed my eyes. I knew they would betray me if I kept
them open. I felt his fingers brush my cheek and stop at my chin.
He turned my head back to face him but I stubbornly kept my eyelids
firmly shut.

"Look at me," he whispered.

I couldn't do this. I had just met him
for Christ's sake. I couldn't let him kiss me. I just
couldn't.

"Open your eyes, Kendra," he whispered
again, and I couldn't fight it any longer. I did as he requested. I
opened my eyes.

The look on his face was so serious.
He tilted my head up a little further and bent and placed a gentle
kiss on my cheek. That was all, just a light kiss with those
amazing lips of his.

He moved back from me and smiled.
"Make sure you turn your phone on by nine a.m. Being your nurse, I
feel obligated to call and check on you."

He pulled the shirt over his head,
then turned and left my studio.

I felt strangely alone, even with
Hercules staring up at me. It was time for him to eat, and when
that time of day came, he followed me around until I put food in
his bowl.

I went to the pantry, filled his bowl
and set it down for him. I leaned on the kitchen island and watched
Mason drive away as the last rays of sunlight expired. I didn't
have a clue what to do about Adam. Something would come to me. It
had to; my life depended on it. On the other hand, I didn't have a
clue what to do about Mason either. He was nice, very attractive,
and he clearly affected me in ways that Aven never had.

I remembered the photos I had taken of
Mason and quickly ran to my studio. I picked my camera up off the
table and went into my darkroom. I flipped on the amber and red
light. I couldn't wait to see the outcome of the photos. I knew I
had caught the perfect angle on a couple of the shots. Some
photographers used digital, and sometimes I did too, but it relaxed
me to develop film the old fashioned way.

I filled three different trays with
the chemicals I would need to develop the photos; developer in the
first tray, acidic bath wash to stop the developing process in the
second tray, and the last tray I filled with the fixer chemical,
which would allow me to turn the lights back on and look at the
finished masterpieces after I hung them up to dry. After filling
the trays, I unloaded the film from my Canon and placed it in the
enlarger. There were about fifteen other photos on the film that I
hadn't gotten around to developing yet, but I decided to do them
later. I had an itch to see the ones I'd taken of Mason.

I placed a 3x5 piece of photo paper on
the easel and moved the film toward the end where his shots would
be. I froze. I stared dumbfounded at the blank place where that
amazing body should've been. I took the film out again and held it
up to the red light. All of them were close-up and far-away shots
of landscapes. I lowered the film and shook my head. I knew I had
used that camera. It couldn't be a bad roll of film; there were
other shots on it. I was going to be pissed if there was something
wrong with my camera.

I left the darkroom and grabbed a new
roll of film from my storage cabinet. I quickly loaded it, and then
took a few pictures of the scene where Mason had been sitting. It
didn't have to be perfect; I didn't really have a subject. I just
wanted to know what the hell had happened to those
shots.

I ran back through my darkroom door
and secured myself inside. I unloaded the new film and held it up
to the red light. The shots were there, all five of
them.

What the hell? I shook my head in
disgust. For some reason, I really wanted a picture of him. I
wanted to look at his face. The mental picture I had of him was
fading far too quickly.

Maybe, for the first time in my life,
I was trying to get attached to someone. I wouldn't have the chance
if I didn't make a believer out of Adam. I moaned, and turned the
red and amber light off on the way out of the darkroom.

I got my pj's out that I would wear to
bed and started my bath water. I had left the towel I had used at
the hospital in Mason's truck. He promised he would return it for
me. I hadn't even had a brush to de-tangle my hair, so I was having
a bad hair day on top of everything else that had happened. That
was the least of my worries, but I still didn't feel clean. I lit
the candles around the big tub and turned the lights
out.

I eased into the water to soak my sore
muscles. It looked as though Coen had not cured everything that had
been wrong with me. I would have paid him the same as I did my
massage therapist, more even. I sipped my White Zen and
relaxed.

I heard a loud pop and my eyes shot
open to see a man I didn't know standing in my bathroom staring at
me. I let out a scream that would wake the dead. He laughed and
lowered the lid of the toilet seat to sit down.

"Who are you, and why the hell are you
in my bathroom with me while I'm naked!?" I said as I quickly
grabbed a towel to cover myself.

The man rolled his eyes and shook his
head. He was attractive for an older guy. He wasn't old, but he was
way older than me, mid forties maybe. What the hell was he doing
here sitting on my toilet seat? Pervert maybe?

"Have you made any progress?" As soon
as I heard his voice, I knew he had to be Coen.

"Coen?" he nodded once and I
continued. "Well, no, not exactly. He thinks I'm a fruitcake." He
turned his head to the side and gave me a puzzled look. I rolled my
eyes. "He thinks I'm crazy. I mean, what would you think if I told
you that I'd talked to your guardian angel and he sent me to give
you a message? Wouldn't you think that would be a little
strange?"

He shook his head, with the confused
look still on his handsome face. "No, I wouldn't think that strange
at all, Kendra. I talk to my guardian angel nearly every day. If
she needed you to give me a message, I believe she would ask you
to."

I sighed and then slumped down in the
tub even further, getting my dry towel all wet. "Well, it's not
easy for me to explain to someone I've never met, if he doesn't
start believing in God within the next week, I am going to die. Do
you have any suggestions?" I huffed.

He shrugged. "Maybe if you
concentrated on Adam instead of letting the young Mason woo you,
you might find the answers for yourself."

That pissed me off, but he was right.
It still pissed me off though. Nobody wants their mistakes shoved
back in their face. "Mason was nice to me, Adam wasn't,
Coen."

"My child, I never said that it would
be easy, only that it would be worth it." He looked thoughtful for
a moment. "I think God said that at one time or another. Anyway,
your life is at risk, my dear. Do you solve your problem now, and
spend time with young Mason later, or be with him now for only six
more days?"

Damn, I just realized I didn't even
have an entire week; I only had six days left. It didn't matter
anyway. Either I was going to figure it out, or I wasn't. End of
story.

"I'm thinking that maybe Mason can
help me with Adam. I mean, he believes me, and I think he and Adam
are pretty close friends."

"The fewer people involved, the better
off you will be, Kendra."

I frowned. "What the hell does that
mean?"

He didn't smile; he actually looked
concerned. "You have your guardian demon that you struggle with
everyday. Now you will have Adam's to deal with, and he's very
strong. The more control you let them have over you, the stronger
they will get, and the weaker you will become. Murry has almost
total control over young Adam, and if you want young Mason in the
game, his guardian demon will be added too. You want my advice?
Worry about young Mason when you are sure that you will
live."

He was right again, but I didn't like
how he kept putting young before their names. They were older than
me and I didn't consider myself young. That being said, if he had
been my guardian angel, I would have listened to him.

He smiled, there was a loud pop again,
and he was gone. Had he heard me thinking?

"Well…I don't guess angels think it
rude to leave without saying goodbye," I said. Hercules only turned
his head to the side as if he didn't have a clue what I'd said. He
hadn't even barked at Coen. Had he even seen him, or was I really
going crazy?

I really did need to stop talking to
myself though. I talk to myself, sometimes I answer myself, and I
see and talk to angels. Yep, I don't need a psychiatrist to tell me
I'm crazy, I already know.

Somehow, the bath just wasn't doing it
for me anymore. I rung the water out of the towel I was supposed to
dry off with then laid it on the edge of the bathtub. I had to
tiptoe, soaking wet, to the shelf that held the dry ones. Oh well.
Why did I expect my luck to change?

I swiftly dried off and put on my
pj's. I still had uber tangles in my hair, but I was too tired to
care about it tonight. I had unplugged my house phone when I was
showing Mason around, but had only put my cell phone on silent. I
plugged it in to charge and saw that I had missed seventeen calls.
I wasn't surprised, but had no urge to talk to anyone. I crawled
beneath the covers of my queen size bed and took only a few breaths
before sleep pulled me under.

My dreams were hardly ever clear or
defined. I dream in color. Most people don't, but the majority of
the time I can't see the faces of the people in my dreams, only a
slideshow of different scenes. Those dreams have given me some
great ideas for my career. My dream that night was different, but
somehow the same. I could tell it was a dream, but it rode that
fine line where it almost seemed real.

The reason I knew it was a dream was
because I was watching myself. Not like watching myself in a
mirror, but rather like I was looking at a home movie. The Kendra
in the dream was angry and crying. The other reason I knew it was a
dream was because I couldn't see the guy's face she was screaming
at. His body was a little fuzzy, and I couldn't distinguish his
physique from any other well-built man.

The me in my dream was lying on a cot
or a small bed, and he was towering over her while I watched from a
corner of the small dark room. I could see and hear myself shouting
and crying at the man, but he seemed just as angry and scared as
she was. He was making jerky movements and shouting back at her,
but I couldn't make out what either of them were fighting about.
There were a few times when I thought he was going to hit her, but
he refrained. He finally ended up sitting in a chair facing away
from me with his head in his hands and his elbows propped on his
knees. He looked upset, not angry, but sad or scared. I realized
then that she was tied to the bed, and had blood all over her. I
concentrated on the man in the chair. His head lifted like he'd
just noticed I was there.

He stood, ignoring the Kendra on the
bed, and held out his hand to me. I didn't want to, but the urge to
touch him was almost too much to ignore. I was afraid. I was afraid
he would hurt us. She screamed for me to "Run, get out!" He began
walking toward me, and I to him. His face came into focus a bit the
closer we got to each other, but I still couldn't tell if I knew
him or not. I wanted to know him. I wanted to know everything about
him. I didn't know what had changed my mind about him, or chased
away my fear, but I didn't care. I had to touch him.

"No, Kendra! It's a trick. Wake up!
Wake up now, Kendra!" the Kendra on the cot screamed at me. I
stopped, and so did the man. We both turned to look at her. She
pleaded with her eyes, and I got a little more control of myself. I
remembered that I'd been scared of the man. I was afraid he would
hurt us.

My face filled with doubt as I looked
back at the unknown man, and I took a step back.

The man held out his hand to me. "No,
Kendra. Don't listen to her lies. You want me, I know you
do."

The voice was distorted so I still
couldn't tell who it belonged to.

He took another step forward, and I
took one backwards step equal to his.

"Kendra, wake up. Just wake up and he
can't hurt us." she pleaded from the cot. My gaze shot back to her.
"Just wake up." she cried.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught
sight of the man running toward me.

"Wake up!" she shouted, and this time
I listened to her.

I shot straight up in my bed and
looked around me. I was shaking and scared. That was a first for
me. I enjoyed living alone and didn't mind sleeping by myself. I
had the urge to sit upright in the center of my bed with my teddy
bear. It was like childhood all over again. I knew there was a
boogieman under my bed, and I knew if I put a foot on the floor
that he would grab a hold of my ankle and pull me under like the
creepy clown in Poltergeist.

I grabbed my cell off my bed side
table. It was 7:28 a.m. I wanted to talk to Mason, but I didn't
know his last name to look him up in the book. I didn't even know
if he had a landline, but he was probably already at work anyway. I
didn't want to tell anyone else what was going on with me. It was
too much to explain and I didn't have time.