Bad Blood

14

Lexa's POV

I woke with my head pounding. "Shit." I muttered and propped myself up on my elbows.

"Morning, babe." I turned my head to see Luke sitting his swivel chair. There were prominent bags under his eyes as if he hasn't slept.

"Morning, why am I here? Where is Madison?" I questioned quickly as soon as I remembered the situation. I got up and started heading to the door, but he pulled me back.

"She is okay! Lexa, please, I need to tell you something." He says to me. I eyed him carefully and watched his blue eyes turn pleading.

"Whats wrong, Luke?" My eyebrows knitted together. Luke took the time and led me back to his bed. I sat down graciously and awaited what we was going to tell me. Just to my luck, he went to his closet. I swear to God if he pulls out a condom I will kill him.

"Have you seen this before?" Luke turns around and shows me a book. I gave him a confused expression. The book was large and held together by a leather bound. There were pages sticking from it, it looked quite old and worn out. "It was my brother's, Ben, it got passed down to me." I took the book from his hands and held it in my lap.

"I can't read this." I said once I skimmed over the writing in the books. All I could make out were the faded illustrations.

"Its in a different language." Luke explained. I studied his face, he didn't seem as if he were joking. This is serious, I just know. If he were lying he would be biting his lip, the side with the ring.

"What language? What does it say?" I asked him. Luke moved from the swivel chair to the bed. His body was radiating heat.

"Latin. And it explains almost everything there is to know about souls." Luke flipped a page and pointed to a diagram of the human body. "This," he points to the brain, "to other people and to scientists, they believe that the brain is how our entire body works. How the brain sends all these signals to the rest of your body, but thats not the truth." Right then, Ashton walks in. He looks worse than Luke does. I guess its one thing to be worrying about your girlfriend than grieving avout your girlfriend.

"Are you telling her?" Ashton's voice cracked and my heart shattered. I've never seen him so unhappy and out of it.

"Yeah, sit down, mate. You need to relax." Luke kicked the chair close to Ashton.

"Anyways," Luke looks at me, "everyone has a soul. No matter who or what they believe in religiously. Your soul is what keeps you alive. Without it you die."

"So, Madison..she is really dead?" I felt my nose burn, something that happened when I was going to cry.

"Thats the interesting part." Luke gave me a weak smile, "Without your soul, you are merely unconscious. If you are without your soul for more than 24 then you die."

"She has a chance!?" I squealed and almost kneed myself in the face.

"Yes, but there is a problem. Ash has already caught her soul. We have it." I watched Luke intently.

"So what's the problem? Give it back to her!" I yelled.

"Lexa!" Ashton snapped, "Don't you think I would have done that already if I could!" My cheeks turned red and I calmed down.

"Ashton, quit yelling at her! She doesn't understand!" Luke yelled back just as loud as Ashton did. I've never seen them so upset with each other.

"Tell her then!" Ash countered. Luke rolled his eyes and looked back to me.

"There is only two ways a soul can leave a body. If you die and if an Old Soul takes it from a person's body. An Old Soul is what Susie is. Basically a ghost thay has unfinished buisness to take care of. Old Souls can't just take anyone's souls, the person has to either be related to them by blood or involved in their life.

"Once someone's soul has been taken, they have 24 hours for it to return to the body. In order for that to happen, you need both the soul from the body and the Old Soul that took it or the one that now has possesion of it." Luke explained.

"Okay, I am with you so far. I understand all this. What I don't understand is why you know this." I narrowed my eyes at both boys. They gave each other a small glance before Ashton opened his mouth.

"We are Soul Hunters. There are bad souls an good ones. We handle the bad ones. Its in our bloodline. My mom was and Luke's brother. The Hunter gene skips a generation. No one knows about us except people that are Hunters and people that are involved with them." My eyes widened and I stared at my boyfriend. I remember when Luke used to tell me that he couldn't hang out with me some nights. And one week it was three days in a row and I thought he was cheating on me and I got so upset that Cal got so mad and almost beat him. Now I understand. He was hunting.

"So...you kill the souls?" I asked both of the boys innocently.

"We don't kill them. That's merely impossible. We capture them or extinguish their light." Ash tells me. I nod, kinda understanding what they are telling me.

"So how do we help Madison?" I inquire.

"That's where you come in. " Luke gives me a weak smile. I know something was going to happen that I didn't like.

"We need you to switch souls with Madison. You won't die. You will just be in her body." Luke's voice seemed half hearted. Like he didn't want me to go through with this.

"I'll do it. How and when?" I felt confidence. This is my way of repaying Madison. I was given a second chance and I was going to take it.

"Just lay down, baby girl. I will extract your soul. I feel like it should be me." Luke says. I leaned over and kissed him. Our mouths touched and I felt the longing. He wanted more, I wasn't ready. He was kind enough to wait for me. After this is all over I'm going to give him what he wants. He deserves that much.

"Alright," Luke pulled away and kissed my forehead, "lay on your back." I did so.

"Just close your eyes and think of a time you were happy." He tells me. I closed my eyes and I imagined the first time Madison slept over. It was when we were seven. My mom gave us a load of soda before that so Madison and I had a chugging contest with Cal. Turns out, she was a bed wetter that night. I laughed out loud. I missed her. I imagined when Madison and I had a nerf gun fight with our brothers and we pretended we were injured so we could win.

The air was taken from my body. I started gasping. My hands clawed at the blanket underneath me. I felt myself withering. It was rib crushing, like a twenty pound weight was smashed onto my body.

I imagined kissing Luke.

I imagined Calum buying me a puppy.

I imagined Madison and Michael arguing over power rangers.

Pretty soon, the imagining stopped and my world turned black.