AN: OMG! It's been so long, and I'm truly sorry for the wait I've put you all through. It was not intentional. It's just been so hard to write fiction lately…personal issues…poems come easier at the moment, but that's another story. Hope this doesn't suck. It's late, and if I've fucked up anywhere, don't point it out. I'll check it out later, when I'm not so dead on my ass. (If only laptops served as a pillow too…) Might even change what completely happens in this chapter…you never know.
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Chapter 14
I lean up against the door, overly breathing by just a bit. Counting my lucky stars at my escape, I glance over at Kate who materializes in front of me.
"Thank you," I say with a smile to her.
"No prob." Kate says with a wicked smile. "That was fun!" Then Slater comes into the room, and looks from Kate to me. Kate continues, unaware that Paul is now in our presence. "So Jesse, how come you never mentioned Paul before? He's really nice. And charming. And gentlemanly. And cute." I try not to laugh or gag at the same time.
My eyes widen and I glance over Kate's shoulder to Paul's face. A smug look crosses over his face, but then some kind of adoration replaces it and I knit my eyebrows.
"Jesse?" Kate questions me the same time Slater clears his throat. A horrified look crosses over Kate's already crimson face. After two seconds, she turns around and looks at Paul. "Oh hi, Paul!" She cheers with a smile on her face. I smile at the back of her head, amazed that she recovered that quickly. "I just saved Jesse from this God-awful wench!" Kate boasts while stepping towards Paul a little.
He smirks his signature smirk and then remarks, "I've found that Jesse always needs some kind of saving." I want to protest, to say something nasty to him, but I figure I should be the bigger person if I want to make this work and get Susannah back.
I raise my eyebrows at him and he gives me a blank stare. I walk past them both and out of the room. Before I am out of earshot, I hear Slater make Kate giggle. Shaking my head at the absurdity of it all, I look around the enormous hotel room for CeeCee or Stephen.
After a minute or two, I find both of them out on the balcony. CeeCee's fingertips are strumming against the keys of her laptop, while Stephen is hovering over her shoulder, telling her where to go.
"Stephen!" CeeCee snaps slightly. "I know how to get around the Internet! I'm not incompetent. Jeez."
Stephen sits back, shocked and confused. "I didn't mean to. I know you're not incompetent," he says as if he's groveling. CeeCee turns around to say something to him, when she sees me.
"Jesse!" She squeals and urges me over to where they are sitting. "Stephen and I were just looking up some info."
"We're trying to find out anything that'll lead to what happened to Suze's soul when you exorcised her," Stephen clarifies.
I shake my head at the recent memory. I still cannot believe that I actually exorcised Susannah's soul. How could I do such a thing to someone I'm supposed to love so immensely?
As if reading my mind, CeeCee puts a hand on my forearm. "It's not your fault you exorcised the wrong soul. You just weren't sure of what you were doing." She pauses and continues to look up at me. "No one thinks that you would ever do something like this to Suze intentionally. And she'll still love you when we get this put right." CeeCee smiles up at me optimistically and I almost believe her.
"Are you certain?" I ask her, furrowing my brow.
"Definitely," CeeCee chimes.
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After watching Stephen and CeeCee playfully fight over which website to search first, I sigh and shove my head into my hands, not able to watch the screen of CeeCee's computer any longer. About ten more minutes pass, and I listen to CeeCee and Stephen swap ideas. It's like I'm not even there. I am to no use of anyone. My skills are limited to only making things worse.
Suddenly, I yearn for Susannah's hot breath against my skin, her lips on mine, the tips of her fingers running themselves through my hair. I sigh again and look up from my hands and out into the world. From the balcony I can see a sliver of the bay and a great big, blue sky. The city is buzzing softly below us and I watch a man and a woman ride along each other on bikes.
"Hello CeeCee," I hear Paul say suddenly from the entranceway onto the small balcony.
CeeCee spins around in her chair in alarm, almost knocking Stephen over in the process and glares at Slater. Then she turns to me, and asks, "What is he doing here?"
I let out a small sigh and reply, "He's here to help."
"How'd you find him?"
"Shadowland," Paul answers for me with a smile in CeeCee's direction.
"Shadowland?" Stephen asks his eyebrows knit and a confused look on his face.
"A plane of existence where shifters can go," Paul says without offering anything else.
"And ghosts," I add.
"So," Stephen says, just to make sure that he has things right, "Shifters and ghosts can 'go' to this Shadowland?"
Paul and I both nod. I glance at Kate, whose standing really close to Paul with a look of complete giddiness on her face. Looking away while trying to hold in a chuckle, I look over at CeeCee who has been oddly quiet.
"Paul," CeeCee addresses him.
"CeeCee."
"Ghosts…" She begins and trails off.
"Yes?" Paul asks her while looking at her intently knowing that she might be on to something.
"Ghosts are the souls of the dead, right?" She asks and Paul looks down at her like she has said something stupid. However he goes along with it by nodding his head. "And when you and Suze go to this Shadowland, your bodies stay here on this plane?" Paul nods again.
CeeCee falls silent for a second, trying to think.
"What's she getting at?" Kate asks Paul and he shrugs his shoulders.
"So if," CeeCee goes on, "Jesse exorcised Suze's soul, then maybe it was sent to Shadowland. Isn't that where Jesse went when your brother exorcised him as a ghost?"
I shiver at the memory and then remember how Susannah had exorcised herself to come and get me, and how Paul had almost let his brother and my Susannah die there.
"CeeCee," Paul says while leaning onto the balcony a little, his eyes narrowed at her, "Are you saying that Suze's soul is meandering around Shadowland?"
CeeCee nods strongly, as if Paul hadn't just said something in his most condisending voice.
Then Stephen speaks up, while placing a hand on CeeCee's shoulder. "You know, she might be right. Since Suze is a 'shifter' her soul might be treated differently than other souls." He turns to me, "The demon told you that her soul was now doing the 'limbo', right?"
I nod and Kate gasps at the realization.
"Suze's soul is in Shadowland," Paul says as if to test it out. "Do you know how large Shadowland is, Cee?" CeeCee shrugs her shoulders, "And how pray tell do you expect me to know that, Paul?"
Paul shakes his head, like he' disgusted with her naivety. "I will be up there searching forever," he states.
"Then you might as well get started," CeeCee says with a edge in her tone. Paul narrows his eyes even more at CeeCee and doesn't do anything for a moment.
"If you won't do it, Slater, then I will," I say while getting up and looking him square in the eyes.
"Calm down, de Silva, I'll do it," Paul says slowly while looking from me to CeeCee to Stephen and then he turns around and looks at Kate. "I'll go now."
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I stare at Paul's body lying on the couch for a second and then look back over to the TV. CeeCee thought that I looked like I needed some down time; so I am sitting here in an uncomfortable chair, watching something ridiculous on the television. It would be something that Susannah would like. CeeCee told me it was called a Soap Opera, although I have yet to find any connection to soap or opera. They are neither cleansing themselves nor singing.
I glance over at Kate, who is sitting down on the couch next to Slater's limp body (even when he is unconscious he remains the king of his domain), enthralled in whatever is going on in the soap opera. CeeCee and Stephen have run out to the library to look up some stuff that they claimed could not find on the World Wide Web. Bored, I get up and walk into the other room and begin to pace about. I want to know if Paul's found her yet, or if he's even trying. Dios knows I do not trust Slater, not with my life, nor Susannah's.
Glancing around the room, I see a small refrigerator and walk over to it. Opening it, I find a bottle of water and grab it. Ripping off the top, I find I'm suddenly overwhelmingly thirsty. Gulping water, I down the whole bottle in less than a minute. When I stop, I glance back down at the bottle and then chuck into the trashcan by my feet. Snatching another one, I hear someone call my name.
"Jesse?" Kate calls from the other room with some urgency in her voice. I re-enter the room quickly and see that Paul is groaning on the couch and clutching his head with his hands.
"Slater!" I say while rushing over to him and handing him the bottle of water. "Did you find her?" I'm so anxious; I'm right in his face, demanding if he found Susannah or not.
Paul continues to groan and my questions are left unanswered. I begin to fume. Kate pulls me away from Slater's face, and says, "Let him be for a minute, Jesus Jesse." She returns to Slater's side and opens the bottle of water for him. "Are you okay?" She asks him after he's drank half the bottle in one swallow. He nods his head lazily and then cringes at the light filtering into the room through the blinds.
"Close them," he says strongly. I go to shut them, but with a 'swoosh' they're closed, and I see Kate looking at Paul attentively. After watching Kate tend to Slater for a minute or two, I return to Slater's side and wait for him to tell me about what happened.
"I didn't find her," he says solemnly, reading my mind. "I'm sorry. I couldn't stand to be up there any longer." He sits up and finishes the last of the water. "When I go there to just think, I just sit or pace, but searching, running, and going through doors takes it out of you." He collapses back into the sofa, and Kate sits gingerly beside him.
I keep my disappointment to myself and walk into the other room, before I yell at him for not trying hard enough. He tried; and he's not done yet. He'll try again, soon…