Forgotten Souls (The Saving Angels 2)

"What happened?" I asked in a hoarse voice as pain that felt like liquid fire poured down my tender throat.

"You almost died," Mark said, voice laced with torment. "What were you thinking Krista?"

"I wasn't," I said miserably, not cringing away from the razor sharp pain that ran down my throat. I felt it was justified for how close I had come to ending not just my own life, but Mark's as well.

"I'm sorry," I said, swiping a stray tear away.

"Krista, I was just afraid I had lost you," he said, gathering me close in his arms.

"I'm sorry," I apologized again, against his chest.

"Don't apologize. Just be more careful from now on. You got me? I almost died inside when your thoughts flashed to me. I was so caught up in the adrenaline of the fight, I wasn’t even aware you were back in the tent."

"I thought you had been shot. I couldn’t handle not knowing," I mumbled, as tears flowed freely down my cheeks, remembering how scared I had been that he was the recipient of the gunshot.

The rest of the car ride was silent. My head pounded painfully and only keeping my eyes closed offered any kind of relief. After a few miles I drifted off to sleep.

The vehicle being shut off woke me up and I looked up into Mark's troubled eyes. I tried to get a gauge of what he was thinking, but his thoughts were firmly blocked away.

"We're home. Can you walk?" he asked, helping me climb down from the SUV.

I nodded my head weakly and leaned on him for support as he guided me toward the front door of his house.

Everyone was already sitting on the couches in front of Haniel when Mark and I finally shuffled into the room.

We sat on the same couch as Shawn and Sam. "You okay?" Sam asked, giving me a quick hug.

"My throat hurts like crazy and I think my head is planning mutiny, but other than that, yeah, I think I'm okay," I said, trying to lighten the somber mood.

At my words, Mark placed his arm around me so I could lean into his embrace while we waited for the verdict on how much trouble I was in. We had been warned to leave the revival before it could start, and we had also been warned that if we were to be caught, the Guides were to get as far away as we could. I had blatantly disregarded both rules.

"Yes, you disregarded every rule I set, and yet here you sit," Haniel finally said, picking the thoughts from my head. "Your unwillingness to leave others behind seems to be your greatest virtue." >"No, but the way they are spread out over several counties almost makes it look random. Besides, all you hear about on the news anymore is violence, so it's not like these incidents stick out. The only reason I started finding them is because I was really looking. After Alan did his speech on the whole 'are you sick of blah blah' rant, I started thinking he could definitely be using forgotten souls for something like that."

"Wow, Sam, that's impressive," I said, admiring her ingenuity.

"It was nothing," she said, looking a little embarrassed by the praise. "A couple things I did find interesting, though. Each one of the attacks occurred the day after a revival, and tonight must be the last revival at this location."

"How do you know that?" Robert asked intrigued.

"The attacks or it being the revival's last show?" She asked for clarification.

"The last show."

"Oh, I pulled the permits online and this site is booked to host a fair next weekend."

"Damn, girl, you really did your research," Shawn said affectionately.

"I just wanted to give us a rough idea about what we could be facing. Besides, it's not like I did much, the Internet did most of the work for me," she said, with now flushed red cheeks.

"Whatever, you still connected the dots," he said, giving her a loud smacking kiss on the cheek. "You did good babe."

I sat studying the big tent in front of us as we waited in a small line of traffic filtering into the dirt parking lot. Sam's findings went a long way in confirming that my instincts had been right, that we were indeed needed in this situation. Innocent people had died or been hurt, and all signs seemed to point to the occupants of the tent in front of me.

"I guess we should get in there," Mark said, opening his car door.

Sam and Shawn climbed out my side of the vehicle which faced the tent. Lynn and Robert discreetly climbed out on the other side which opened near the woods. We had decided that we would look suspicious walking in together, so Lynn and Robert would follow us into the tent after a few minutes. We knew that time was crucial, and Lynn would be of better use if she was with us the instant we entered the tent, but Haniel had advised us to avoid drawing too much attention to ourselves.

"And do not separate from your Protectors under any circumstance. You cannot do your job effectively if your Protector is not there with you," he stated, leaving no room for argument.