The Collector of Dying Breaths Read Online Free Page A

Jac, Robbie and her mentor, the reincarnationist Dr. Malachai Samuels, had amassed evidence of her ability. She’d made discoveries she couldn’t have guessed at. And not just memories that came from what appeared to be her own past. Sometimes she’d be able to remember other people’s memories too. A rare and unusual talent, Malachai had told her.
    Robbie’s question was the right one. Why couldn’t she believe it? Didn’t karma teach us that we repeat the past over and over until we get it right? If her memories of her own previous incarnations were accurate, then time after time her lives had been heartbreaking and ended tragically. She’d never moved on. Each repeated the same horror. She was stuck in a karmic nightmare. If she could accept that, then maybe she could move on and—
    “What we don’t know is so much greater than what we do know.” Robbie was looking at her. “Isn’t it exciting?” For a moment her brother’s ravaged face lit up with a glimmer of curiosity. Then the cough returned. His beautiful eyes filled with tears. His emaciated chest heaved.
    Jac waited. Robbie’s hacking subsided. He took a shallow breath. And then another. Finally he pleaded: “I need you to understand.”
    “I do.” She was determined to give him what he asked for.
    “There’s no end. No beginning. Only the infinite passion of life. The past . . . present . . . the future coexist. My body—this envelope—will die, but not the essence of me—not my soul.” He smiled. “You won’t have to miss me. I’ll be all around you.” He paused. “This is so much harder for me because you are in pain. Don’t you see? You don’t need to be.”
    She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
    He coughed again and again. Drained of all energy, he closed his eyes. After a moment, one tear escaped and slid down his cheek.
    Jac dug her knuckles into her mouth to stop her sobs from erupting.
    Robbie fell asleep again, this time deeply. For the next few hours Jac came and went, checking on him. At five in the afternoon, she found him awake again and gave him the new bottle of scent she’d mixed.
    “Thank you.” He smiled. “Will you put some on me? And then I have to finish telling you what I was doing. What I want you to finish for me.”
    She opened the small vial, wet her fingers and touched her brother’s neck on the right side and then the left and ran her fingers through his thick auburn hair that was the same color as hers. He had always been so lovely. With finer features and heart-shaped lips, Robbie had always been the more beautiful of the two of them. She was handsome, resembling the women in Pre-Raphaelite paintings with strong bones and wide shoulders.
    Robbie breathed in the scent so deeply she thought he was going to set off a fresh coughing fit. But he didn’t. He just smiled at her and said: “Us forever, right, Jac?”
    And as it turned out, that was the last thing her brother ever said to her.

Chapter 4
    Jac was in her brother’s bedroom when their cousin arrived on Sunday morning. Luc L’Etoile had driven up from Grasse on Friday night when Robbie had slipped into a coma.
    “Jac, you have to get up now,” Luc said.
    She had not moved from the chair beside Robbie’s bed since the nurse had woken her up to tell her Robbie was dead. Had not looked away from his still, quiet face at all.
    “Doesn’t he look like he is sleeping?” she asked Luc.
    “Yes, darling, but he isn’t.” Luc pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. “Days ago Robbie called and told me how he wanted everything handled,” he said, “so let me see to it while you take a nap. Nurse said you barely slept last night. The next few days are going to be trying, so you need to rest.”
    After even more effort on Luc’s part, Jac finally agreed to leave Robbie’s bedside. She was sure she’d never be able to sleep, but for the rest of that afternoon and for most of the next few days that was all she really did. Meanwhile