Dark Souls

by J. L. Weil

  Dark Souls

  J.L. Weil

  Dark Magick Publishing, LLC

  Contents

  Also by J. L. Weil

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Read more by J. L. Weil

  About the Author

  Also by J. L. Weil

  DRAGON DESCENDANTS SERIES

  (Upper Teen Reverse Harem Fantasy)

  Stealing Tranquility

  Absorbing Poison

  Taming Fire

  Thawing Frost

  THE DIVISA SERIES

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Losing Emma: A Divisa novella

  Saving Angel

  Hunting Angel

  Breaking Emma: A Divisa novella

  Chasing Angel

  Loving Angel

  Redeeming Angel

  LUMINESCENCE TRILOGY

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Luminescence

  Amethyst Tears

  Moondust

  Darkmist – A Luminescence novella

  RAVEN SERIES

  (Full series completed – Teen Paranormal Romance)

  White Raven

  Black Crow

  Soul Symmetry

  BEAUTY NEVER DIES CHRONICLES

  (Teen Dystopian Romance)

  Slumber

  Entangled

  Forsaken

  NINE TAILS SERIES

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  First Shift

  Storm Shift

  Flame Shift

  Time Shift

  Void Shift

  Spirit Shift

  HAVENWOOD FALLS HIGH

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Falling Deep

  Ascending Darkness

  SINGLE NOVELS

  Starbound

  (Teen Paranormal Romance)

  Casting Dreams

  (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

  Ancient Tides

  (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

  For an updated list of my books, please visit my website: www.jlweil.com

  Join my VIP email list and I’ll personally send you an email reminder as soon as my next book is out! Click here to sign up: www.jlweil.com

  Chapter 1

  A chill entered the room as a gloomy shadow drifted between the students. The dark soul inhabiting the food court was doing what dark souls do best—sucking the energy out of everything. And it gave me the stink eye.

  The lights flickered overhead. I was tempted to engage my runes and to go into stealth mode to send this douchebag to Hell. It was the sole purpose for my existence: to reap souls and escort them to the realm of the dead.

  Most days, I loved my job. Heck, I was damn good at it too, but when it forced me to attend college, things got real. I hadn’t even gotten to finish my pizza. And no one, dark soul or human got in between pizza and me.

  Let’s just say I wasn’t a fan of repeating history again and again. Being ridiculously old meant there was nothing in college I’d learn that I didn’t already know. No class I could take that I hadn’t already taken.

  But it did beat being in the burning dominion of the underworld.

  I shuddered, rubbing my hands over my arms. It took hours for the scorching heat to leave my blood after coming from Hell—one of the reasons I liked being on Earth.

  As a reaper, tracking and escorting souls to Hell was my job, and most days it gave me a mad case of the warm fuzzies, but this time, the dark soul had gone too far.

  Coming to Sterling, Vermont was his first mistake.

  I popped a fry into my mouth, contemplating how to handle the situation. This particular soul happened to have been on my radar for a very long time—two decades to be exact. And the jerk, named Mason, picked the wrong town to haunt. I flexed my fingers, thinking I could use a bit of exercise.

  Like they say, practice makes perfect.

  I hardly needed the practice. I excelled at my job, not to toot my own horn, and the fact that this douchebag had managed to slip through my fingers on numerous occasions only fueled my determination. This time, I vowed, he wouldn’t get away from me.

  My hand reached into my coat, anger rippling through my veins. The soul flashed through Todd Akers, stealing some of the essence from the captain of the soccer team, and my fingers tightened on my magical blade: a dagger. I went to make my move, and Mason sensed it—the edges of his shadowy form blurring.

  “You gonna eat that?” Q asked, plopping down in the seat next to me and stealing a fry. His auburn hair fell over his forehead. Quentin Hastings, or Q as I called him, was a channeling. He allowed souls to possess him. What a guy.

  Scarlett Enright filled the spot beside Q. “Just don’t touch her pizza. She’ll kill you.” She winked at me from across the table, a glimmer in her hazel eyes. Scarlett was bold, and I didn’t just mean the color of her hair.

  I sighed. The room could use a little color. If this dark soul stayed any longer, there would be no sunshine and rainbows ever again in the Sterling University food court. It might not be today. Or tomorrow. But the moment the dark soul had set foot in Sterling his fate had been sealed. I was the soul reaper who would disperse him.

  “What’s with the dark scowl? Someone die?” Scarlett giggled, amused at her joke. She was immortal, a real firecracker, and a friend. I didn’t have many of those. In my line of work, there wasn’t time for friends, let alone something more.

  My lips thinned, and I unclenched my fingers but kept my eye on the interloper.

  “It’s a soul,” Q answered, helping himself to another of my fries. “A dark soul.” His russet gaze roamed over the grimy soul. “Sorry, doll, I’m not letting that ghastly being anywhere near this bod.”

  The dark soul had once looked like a high school boy with a mischievous grin and the devil’s gleam in his pale blue eyes. But now, his features were gone. The only part left of him floated above the school’s cafeteria—a shadowy mass.

  “Don’t worry. I don’t want to talk to him,” I told Q.

  “You rarely do, doll.” Q allowed souls to possess him voluntarily. I didn’t know how he did it. The idea freaked me out. I’d much rather disperse them.

  “I want his soul,” I seethed.

  Dark souls were like black holes, slurping the energy from everything they came into contact with, and I was drawn to the dead.

  Except in Jensen Westfall’s case—my mortal mate.

  I had vowed not to screw up his life. Dating a reaper wasn’t a walk in the park. Besides, it was against the rules. I wasn’t allowed to get romantically involved with mortals. My true identity must be kept a secret.

  I sighed.

  For two years, there was Jensen. Only Jensen. He had consumed my thoughts, but it was my burden to bear. We’d been involved before, back when he had been in high school and I had been on an assignment. Things ended abruptly when I realized how much danger my presence poised. I doubted he would be overly pleased to see me back in Sterling.

  Most days I didn’t regret the choice I made that led me to being a reaper. Only when I let myself think of Jensen did I long for a different life—one where I didn’t serve Hell.

  The mortal chose that moment to walk in, and girls all around sighed. Including me.

  Damn. Why did he have to be ten times hotter than I remembered?

  I forgot about everything, including the dark soul. It had been twenty-six months since I’d last laid eyes on Jensen Westfall, and the first glance sto
le my breath. I wanted to look away, but found I couldn’t.

  He walked across the food court, a lock of dark hair falling across his forehead. My hand itched to brush it aside, to touch him. I wanted my hands on him—all over him.

  He smiled at someone as he passed by, and the curve of his sensual lips turned my insides into warm goo. I loved the feeling, but at the same time, it frightened me. Damn. His dimples were downright illegal. Jensen had an easy candor that made everyone love him, but there was a protective streak inside him that made my heart do a little flutter in my chest.

  Even knowing what Jensen was to me, the strong emotions he conjured inside me made me reckless. I was already serving an eternity in Hell. How much more trouble could I get into?

  Plenty. My brain reminded me. I feared just how far I would go to protect Jensen. Risking Hell’s wrath did not make my to-do list for the next millennium.

  Jensen’s gunmetal blue eyes passed over mine, as if pulled by the same force I was—just a fleeting glance before he took a seat with a group of guys on the lacrosse team. It hadn’t been nearly long enough. Jensen had eyes I could gaze into for hours, mesmerizing like a million stars on a cloudless night.

  It had been too long since the last time I stared doe-eyed into his eyes. Two freaking years, and now he strolled into the school like he owned the place, barely sparing me a glance. I shouldn’t have been irritated or disappointed, but I was both. I shouldn’t have been surprised by the flicker of hardness in his glance, but I was.

  I blew out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

  Ugh. The laws of Hell could be a cruel, unrelenting bitch. Suddenly, I felt way too warm and I tugged on the edge of my sweater.

  Scarlett made a face. “Why do you keep staring at Jensen? I think you’re drooling. Don’t tell me you’ve got a thing for the lacrosse captain. So unexpected, Miss Popular.”

  Ha. Scarlett had a twisted sense of humor. Popular my left butt cheek. Everyone at Sterling avoided me like I wore skunk perfume. “Shut up. I do not have a thing.” I just didn’t like that he’d sat down in the same room as the dark soul. Hell, I didn’t want him on the same planet as this particular dark soul. And what I felt for Jensen Westfall was way more intense than a thing.

  And for his protection, I’d kept my distance from Sterling, as difficult as it had been, but this time I hadn’t had a choice. I’d had to return. When the underworld gave you an order, you damn well better follow it and I’d been ordered to bring in the dark soul once and for all.

  I shifted in my seat uncomfortably.

  “You’re going to engage your runes and go get him, aren’t you?” Q asked, polishing off the last fry on my plate.

  If Mason laid a finger on Jensen, I’d make the dark soul beg for a second death. I fiddled with the straw of my sweet tea, contemplating my next move. “That’s why I’m here.” Grim determination lined my face. I shoved my plate aside, my appetite gone.

  Scarlett pulled a hair tie off her wrist and tugged her deep red hair up. “Oh goodie. It’s been so dull around here lately.”

  My cell phone buzzed in my back pocket, and I pulled it out, seeing the reminder on the screen. I was supposed to head to English 101, but I would be showing up late. What in the world had possessed me to enroll in college, even in a temporary situation?

  Scarlett’s eyes narrowed as she pushed to her feet. “You’re totally going to bail on us like you always do.”

  They knew me so well. I liked to work alone. Less people to worry about when it was just me. “I’ll catch up with you guys after class.”

  “Told you,” Scarlett mumbled to Q.

  Q shook his head, wrapping an arm around Scarlett’s shoulders. “Come on. We’ll stop at the Sweetcakes Café after Mrs. Thompson’s lecture and get you one of those chocolate croissants you’re always slobbering over.” Q steered Scarlett down the hall.

  My gaze bounced between Mason and Jensen, who was gathering his books to go to his next class: English 101. Convenient? Not at all. I had more or less placed myself into most of Jensen’s classes. Kind of stalkerish, but really it was for his own good.

  The dark soul circled overhead before disappearing. This bastard was a real gem. I would thoroughly enjoy escorting his black soul to Hell Hall. It would be my freaking pleasure.

  Grabbing my bag, I pushed my thick dishwater blonde bangs out of my face and turned the corner before engaging my runes, going invisible. I followed the dark soul, anticipation tingling through me like a Slurpee brain freeze.

  He shuffled down the hall and glanced over his shoulder, glassy eyes drifting over me. The dark soul was up to something. I pulled out my dagger, preparing for a fight. The reaper inside of me wanted to hurry and get this over with. I’d had enough of this particular soul (the chase no longer fun), but Mason loved to taunt me, the sick soul.

  Upstairs, I passed a group of students lingering in the halls. A few shivered, but they were otherwise oblivious to the presence of darkness.

  My legs kept moving forward, even as my brain screamed at me to be cautious. The soul whisked in and out of the walls in a condescending and smug game of hide-and-seek.

  My heart galloped. My skin tingled and chilled each time he disappeared. Those few seconds of his absence seemed to drag on and made me anxious. Mason’s soul called to me like a siren’s luring song. The runes covering my skin began to glow as I engaged my dagger. “It’s time to say sayonara, scumbag.”

  A gray mass appeared out of thin air, like smoke or a dark cloud. It tumbled in circles, churning faster and faster. Through it, I would take Mason where he belonged and finish the job I started twenty years ago.

  The dark soul’s form shook, flickering unsteadily. He knew what came next: a trip to Hell.

  I twirled the blade in my hand. “Sorry, your time is up.” My wrist bent, preparing to throw a beam that would capture the dark soul, and then I saw Jensen.

  And I wasn’t the only one.

  Crap on a cracker.

  Chapter 2

  Panicking, I rushed forward, intent on putting myself between Jensen and the dark soul. The bastard lurched toward me, and I darted to the side, my fear spiking so fast, cold sweat dotted my skin. I tripped, losing control of my runes and pitched forward straight into Jensen.

  No one would call me a graceful reaper, but I usually got the job done, even if it wasn’t always with flair or finesse like some reapers.

  Jensen moved quickly for a mortal, catching me before I squeegeed the floor with my face. His hands felt warm on either side of my arms, keeping me steady.

  My head snapped up in time to see the shadow slither through the wall, and I ground my teeth, wrestling with the decision to give hot pursuit or stay with Jensen.

  The sexy guy won.

  Crisis averted for the moment, I exhaled, my eyes returning to the guy still holding me, and my heart melted. Jensen was lip-smacking hott (with a double t). His hair was as dark as obsidian and disheveled like he had just rolled out of bed. A slight curl at the ends of his lazy locks made me want to run my fingers through them. His dark brows arched over the most stunning shade of blue-gray eyes, and those eyes watched me coolly now. Although I thought I caught a fleck of humor in them.

  It was no wonder girls flocked to him.

  But none of those girls would ever come close to feeling what I felt for Jensen.

  Or what he would feel for me … if I let him.

  My neck craned back as I looked up. At over six feet tall, Jensen stood a good foot taller than me. I might be small, but I was a fierce package.

  The dark blue material of his T-shirt stretched over his chest and firm stomach. My palms flattened on the hard planes, trailing slowly down.

  Total crush material.

  Too bad he would never be mine. To mark him with the binding runes was against the rules.

  Hell was no fun.

  My mind told me to step back—put some distance between us—but my heart rejoiced. It had been too long since I’d b
een this close to Jensen, touching him, and now that I had my fingers on his chest, I didn’t want to let go.

  “Jensen,” I breathed.

  “Emery Leclair? Where did you come from?” His smile reached his eyes, causing my heart to do a series of cartwheels.

  I’d completely forgotten that I’d been invisible before. When I’d stumbled not so gracefully, the invisibility runes had disengaged, tossing me back into the world. My body quivered at the sound of his voice. It flowed smoothly, like aged whiskey. “Sorry. I dropped my pencil. I’m such a klutz.”

  “You’re back.” His grin should have been outlawed. Talk about lethal. And I thought I was the dangerous one, but those dimples got me every single time.

  Warmth flooded my veins, and I sucked in air, staggered by the affect his smile had on my body. “You remember me?” I had assumed the Fates would have erased his memories, as they were so fond of doing. The Fates were three meddling goddesses I tried to avoid at all cost.

  His eyes lowered, thick lashes fanning along his cheeks, and he shrugged. “You’re hard to forget. It’s been awhile. What? Three years?”

  My heart threw itself against my rib cage. “Two years,” I corrected, knowing by the smirk on his lips he knew damn well how long it had been.

  He took my hand and turned my arm over, looking for something. “Did you get a tat? I swear I saw one on your arm.”

  “Not unless doodling out of boredom counts.” I needed to be a whole lot more careful. He shouldn’t have been able to catch a glimpse of my runes, even if only for a split second.

  “I haven’t seen you around campus before. Is this your first day?”