*
‘Don’t you love the pattern?’
I opened my eyes. My head protested as light flooded into my pupils.
‘This dance between the three of us has been going on for many lifetimes.’
Nick’s face came into focus. His creepy grey eyes were trained on me. There had been two lifetimes in my dream. He had managed to separate me from my soulmate in both of them.
‘Why are you being less subtle now?’
I sat and leant against the wall. Daniel was curled up in the corner of the room, his back to us as he snored.
‘You remember what you’re here for this time so I have to stop you in other ways.’
He sat on a folding stool with the door open behind him. Stone steps led up from the cellar.
‘Will you kill him?’ I asked, gesturing towards Daniel.
I wanted Daniel to wake up and look at me. A weird feeling made my stomach roll. I needed to see his eyes again.
My captor put his head to the side as he watched me. I moved my hair out of my face as my foggy head started to clear.
‘I may do.’
He got up.
‘Don’t go. I was just about to ask you an important question.’
He paused and sat down. ‘Go ahead.’
‘Why?’
His back straightened as he rubbed his grisly chin. He hadn’t shaved for a couple of days. The greying stubble made me feel itchy.
‘Keeping you from your soulmate is my mission as much as uniting with him is yours. We don’t need more love or contented people on the planet.’
He stood and folded the chair. I lunged at him and managed to wrap myself around his legs.
‘Daniel, run!’ I cried.
The man on the ground grunted awake at the same time Nick fell to the floor. I expected him to run straight for the door and up the stairs. If he was my twin flame, he would leave and raise the alarm. Nick wrestled with me. Flipping me over, he pinned me to the floor. Daniel hovered over us. What was he doing? Why hadn’t he taken the opportunity to run?
‘I’m sorry,’ he murmured.
My whole world deflated as Nick clambered up. He grinned and I knew I was in trouble. Daniel wasn’t my soulmate. Why hadn’t I listened to my gut instinct?
‘We tricked you. It was so easy. You’re so sensitive. You closed up emotionally when you were young. You believed that love could be with anyone. You never once used your own intuition, which I’m actually quite jealous of, by the way.’ Nick started to back away from me. I didn’t want to give up but there was no point fighting them both.
‘You fell for Daniel’s charm, instead of feeling his energy. Your innocence worked well for my plans and now you’ll never be with your soulmate.’ Nick’s laugh resounded around me as I covered my ears.
‘You stay here,’ he ordered Daniel.
‘But, why…?’
Nick didn’t reply but my intuition knew what he was doing. He told me I should listen to it so I was going to start. He wanted me to fall in love with Daniel. It was an idiotic plan but Daniel grinned suddenly. I knew I had to get out of there. If I stayed, my mission would never end. I was sick of the merry-go-round.
‘Okay, you win.’
The simple words made Nick stop in his tracks. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t want this stupid mission. I just want to experience love. I don’t care who it’s with.’ I looked at Daniel from under my eyelashes. Nick laughed as he left, locking the door behind him. Daniel sat next to me and grabbed my hand. He pulled me to him and crushed me in his arms. I fought the urge to fight him. I wanted to kick, scream and yank his hair.
‘Do you like me?’
He nodded, his whiskers grazing my cheek. When he tilted my head back by pulling my hair, a tiny part of me wanted him to do what he planned. It would be so much easier to give in and just have a normal love. Something that wasn’t intense and all consuming.
‘You’re hot,’ he whispered before kissing me.
It was the same hard kiss as before and I almost pushed him away. I needed him on my side. I needed to convince him that I liked him. My brain screamed at me to get away from him. He was violating my mouth but he would help me escape eventually.
‘You don’t need to be quite so…’ Nick’s voice came over the speakers.
‘What’s the matter, Nick? Jealous…?’ I shouted, grabbing the back of Daniel’s head and deepening the kiss.
‘That’s enough!’ he snapped.
Daniel reared back. What had Nick done to persuade him to work alongside him? It seemed he was scared of the grey-eyed man. Reliving my past lives had made me less afraid. I wasn’t scared of dying. I wasn’t afraid of anything. If I didn’t complete my mission this time, I would just come back and try again.