by Jane Hinchey
“Earth isn’t yours to harvest, so I suggest you pack up your bat and ball and go along home now.”
“You can’t stop me.” He sneered.
“Wanna bet?” I threw out a bolt of energy, hitting him in the shoulder and sending him tumbling backward. Straightening, he eyeballed me, then threw his own power at me. Swiftly moving my wing in front of me as a shield, I deflected the blow. Glancing over my shoulder at the girls, I mouthed the word run. I could keep him distracted here long enough for them to get away, but even better, if I could contain him and get him back to the cemetery, back to where the veil was still weak, I could get him back to his own realm.
“That all you got?” I taunted. We volleyed energy bolts at each other and I could see he was tiring. This seemed…too easy. Then I remembered. Didn’t he have a secret weapon? He’d given the glowing sword to the zombie ghosts to use against me—and it was very effective. I’d thought he had a stronger, more powerful weapon tucked away for his own use, so why wasn’t he using it?
“Seriously, is that all you’ve got?” I stopped and stood, hands on hips, eyeing the panting soul stealer who had sweat beading on his forehead. “No weapons? Nothing?”
He shook his head, unable to speak. Well. How disappointing. It also brought to mind that if the sword was his, why did he give it away? So maybe the sword wasn’t his at all. It wasn’t him who’d given it to the zombie ghosts. Who did? Dacian? Yet he’d turned up and saved me.
My pondering cost me. Before I could stop him Zuska dematerialized. Fuck it all, I cursed. I should have grabbed him instead of standing here thinking about a goddamn sword. Snapping my attention around, I zeroed in on the scream coming from the direction the girls had fled in. Fuck.
They were on the edge of the woods. Levi had arrived, breathless from his run across the field. All eyes were on Zuska who had Sarah, her back pressed against his chest, his arm pulled tight across her throat.
“Stay back,” he warned, eyeing us all. Brianna was silently crying, tears streaming down her cheeks, and Sarah was clawing at the soul stealer’s arms, trying to ease the crushing grip he had on her neck, gasping for breath.
“Let her go,” I demanded.
“No chance.”
He’d already slipped past me once, I couldn’t let it happen again. I glanced at Levi who was looking from me to Zuska and back again. I needed Zuska to turn to the left, just slightly. That would give me a clear shot. A single bolt of energy to the head. It might not kill him, but I was hoping it would be enough for him to loosen his grip on Sarah and I could snatch her from him, or better yet, capture him. My eyes met Levi’s and I gave the slightest of nods. He nodded in return. Yes, he understood.
With a bellow, Levi launched forward. A split second later I followed, my hand extended, reaching for Sarah’s wrist. As soon as Levi had yelled she’d extended her arm as if reaching for him. For help. I was within reach, my fingers wrapped around her wrist. I tugged and she stumbled toward me. It had worked—Zuska had loosened his hold on her with the sudden attack from Levi.
Levi stormed forward, wrapping his arms around Zuska’s waist and driving them backward. Pushing Sarah toward Brianna, I turned my attention to the fighting pair who were now on the ground. Levi had Zuska on his back, straddling his waist when Zuska smacked him in the head with something in his hand—a rock. Levi groaned and toppled sideways and soon their positions were reversed. This wasn’t good, not good at all. I watched in horror as Zuska opened his mouth wide and began to lower his face to Levi’s. He was going to eat his soul!
“Get away from him, asshole.” Red light shot from my fingers, knocking Zuska off Levi. Reaching down, I tried to drag Levi to his feet. Still groggy from the blow to his head, Levi tried but his feet wouldn’t obey, but he was dragging me down and I couldn’t get a decent grip on him. The distraction with Levi was all the soul stealer needed. Suddenly he was no longer in front of me. He was behind us and he had Sarah in his arms, his mouth open over hers, sucking her soul from her body. I threw an energy bolt at him, but he shifted, using her body as a shield, and in a matter of seconds he was done and she was gone. His body suffused with color, then settled, and I realized he’d taken on more of a human appearance than before. When he smiled, the pointy teeth were gone, replaced by a straight row of pearly whites.
“You’re next.” He grinned at Brianna and then dematerialized, letting Sarah’s lifeless body fall to the ground with a thud.
Brianna fell to her knees beside her friend, crying hysterically. Anger rolled through me and I felt it building. Anger that he’d gotten to this realm in the first place, anger that I hadn’t been able to stop him, anger that another soul had been taken. It poured through me like molten lava, burning my nerve endings, increasing my heart rate, heating my skin until I thought I’d burst from it. Instead, I tipped my head back and roared. The sound echoed overhead, booming like thunder, the sound an eerie warning—the Devil was riled and you’d better get out of her way.
12
“Now what?” Levi groaned, still on his knees, holding a hand to his bleeding head.
I fought so many things at once. Pain, agony, helplessness, and anger. The anger was all mine. I clenched my jaw so tight, my teeth hurt. I dragged in a breath, trying to calm myself. Overhead clouds gathered, rolling and tumbling blacker than the night, with flashes of red lightning streaking through them. This was what happened when I lost my temper, when I lost control. Thunder cracked again, loud and vicious, and Brianna flinched, peering up at me with terrified eyes. I felt her pain as if it were a physical thing, mixing with my anger and thundering through my veins until my body vibrated with it.
This had to end. I’d been pussyfooting around too long, trying to keep the balance between right and wrong, good and evil, and it had cost an innocent her life.
“I should have killed him,” I cursed, turning my back on them and looking at the horizon, sucking in calming breaths, pushing away the clouds and storm rolling overhead.
“Why didn’t you?” Levi asked.
“I’m not here to extinguish life.” I shrugged. I’d always had a very definitive idea of what the right thing to do was, the right course of action, and it had held me in good stead. That was why I’d been given Hell. Because I would do the right thing, the fair thing. But since being topside everything had gone pear-shaped. I’d been injured by the sword because I refused to banish the ghosts, wanting to give them the opportunity to cross over via a reaper. Mistake number one. Then I’d been trying to return the soul stealer to his own realm rather than destroy him. Mistake number two. I couldn’t afford any more mistakes.
“Call Jared. Tell him where we are. He needs to deal with Sarah.”
Turning my attention to Brianna, I placed a hand on her shoulder and poured some of my essence into her, calming her, soothing the pain. I wouldn’t take it away completely, that wasn’t fair, neither to Brianna or Sarah, but I could help.
“Take my hand,” I told her. She did and I transported her to her front door, waiting until she’d let herself in before returning to the field. Levi was still on the ground, and it wasn’t until I took a good look at him that I noticed the sheer volume of blood that continued to trickle through his fingers that were pressed to his temple. Mistake number three.
Kneeling by his side, I pulled his hand away, placed my own against his wound and healed him. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” He sounded genuinely puzzled.
“For all of this. This was my fault. I made the wrong decision, tried to spare the soul stealer’s life and you were injured and Sarah killed. It could have been avoided.”
“You did what you thought was right.” Why he was arguing with me I didn’t know, but the more I thought about it, the more my anger increased and the storm that I’d sent on its way began to return, this time the clouds tinged with red.
“What’s going on, Lucy?” Levi grasped my extended hand and pulled himself to his feet.
“I’m pissed
off. The weather is reflecting that. I need to get myself under control.”
Once upright Levi staggered and I caught him. “Whoa. You okay?”
“Dizzy,” he groaned, putting a hand to his head again. Shit. I hoped it was the after-effects of being healed and not something more sinister.
“Lean on me. I’ll fill Jared and Nic in on what happened and then get you home. You just need to sleep it off.” I hoped.
Levi dropped my hand and shook his head. “I’ll sit.”
The stubborn male would rather sit on the ground than lean against me. I pushed down the twinge of hurt at his rejection. He’d just been smacked in the head, hard, with a rock, and while I’d healed him, the process itself often drained the victims of energy, leaving them woozy and disorientated. Rest was the answer, and if he wanted to sit in the dirt, so be it.
Jared and Nic were running across the field toward us and while I waited I crouched by Sarah’s side. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I examined what the soul stealer had done. Just like Emily, her soul was ripped out of her. Only the tattered edges remained. Feeling along the edges, I soaked up every last trace of him. If I could get enough of his essence, I just might be able to track him.
“Fuck.” Nic cursed, kneeling and checking Sarah’s pulse.
“This isn’t good.” Jared shook his head, pulled out his phone and dialed.
“What happened? Is he okay?” Nic stood, hands on hips, glanced at Levi then back at me.
“He was hurt, but he’ll be okay. I’ll take him home in a moment. The soul stealer got her.”
“So the almighty Lucifer wasn’t good enough to stop him?” Her lip curled up in a sneer and I wanted to wipe it off her face with my fist. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that she was right. I’d been so convinced I could easily take care of this, get the creature back to his own realm, yet here we were, another dead girl at my feet. I’d failed. It didn’t sit well with me. Not at all.
I didn’t respond. What could I say? Nothing. I had nothing in defense of what had occurred here tonight. Jared finished on the phone and looked at me.
“You okay?”
“I’m pissed.” I kept my voice even, but I could hear the steely undertone, the distant rumble of thunder I was barely keeping under control.
“You’re the cause of the storm clouds? The thunder?”
“I lost my temper.” I shrugged. Why were we talking about such inane things? “I’ve got to get Levi home. The soul stealer hit him in the head, and while I’ve healed him, he’s going to need to rest. How are you going to spin this?” I indicated Sarah’s body.
“Possibly drug related.” Jared shrugged. “Two young girls, dead of unknown causes, we can most likely attribute to some new party drug on the scene that is so far undetectable in the blood.”
I nodded, hating that we were tarnishing the girl's reputation. This had all gone horribly wrong and it was my fault. Another boom of thunder and Jared winced.
“Go. I’ve called the ME’s office. We’ll take it from here.”
While Levi slept, I used the Google. All night long I searched, jotted down notes, perused the never-ending feed of posts on the bookface and twits. I didn’t understand why humans preferred to communicate this way, but shrugged. If it would give me clues on where Zuska was holed up, I’d use it. Someone, somewhere, would have seen something, noticed something—and probably posted it on the internet.
The Google was pretty darn good I had to admit. I’d managed to get my hands on tons of blueprints of old city buildings, photographs of how Shadow Falls looked a hundred years ago, not only the official history of the city but anecdotes as well. Not all of it was useful, but I kept at it. Digging my hand into the bowl of candy by my side, I shoved a handful into my mouth, chewing. The sugar rush kept me sustained.
“Morning.” Levi appeared in the bedroom doorway, his hair mussed, his lids hooded with the thick remnants of sleep, wearing nothing but a pair of track pants. I drank in the sight of his bare flesh, the clearly defined abs, the dusting of hair over his chest that led into a thicker trail running down and disappearing beneath the waistband of his track pants. With a curse, I scooped more candy into my mouth and turned my attention to the laptop. That was another thing I’d decided while he’d slept. No more touching, kissing or fantasizing about Levi. From now on, he was off limits.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the screen, but watching him from my peripheral vision anyway. So weak, I chided myself.
“Good. Better. What are you doing?” He sauntered over, running his fingers through his hair and I quickly put my hand up to my chin to make sure I wasn’t drooling.
“Research.” I blew out a breath of relief when after a quick glance over my shoulder he continued on to the kitchen.
“On?”
“Shadow Falls. The soul stealer is hiding out here somewhere. I’m going to find him.”
“Right.” I could hear him moving about in the kitchen but resolutely kept my eyes on the laptop screen. Up until he said those three little words that every girl longs to hear. When they slipped from his mouth with effortless ease I practically sprained my neck I swiveled it so fast to look at him.
With one corner of his mouth tipping sensually, he asked, “Want some coffee?”
And I fell. I fell hard. My determination to keep him at arm’s length evaporated like mist on a hot summers day.
“I think you’re out,” I finally admitted.
“What? How much did you drink?” He finally noticed the scattered coffee mugs around me.
“What?” I asked in all innocence. So I’d had a few cups of coffee, so what?
“Lucy…” He studied my face intently. “How long is it since you’ve slept?”
“I don’t need sleep!”
“Yeah. You do. You told me yourself that the atmosphere here on Earth affects you differently. That you need to eat and sleep more frequently than what you would in Hell.” Leaving the kitchen and the coffee he’d started to prepare, he came to stand in front of me.
“Pft. I can push through. This is more important than sleep.” I waved my hand at the laptop, almost sending it toppling off my lap. I quickly righted it.
“And the candy? You’re using it to keep yourself awake.” His voice was accusing and I frowned. What was so wrong with wanting to stay awake? I was ready to argue with him when what he did next had my words frozen in my throat.
“Sweetheart”—cupping my face in his hands, he crouched so we were eye to eye— “you need to rest. You’ll be better equipped to fight the soul stealer if you’re fully rested.” Damn him, he had a point, and if he called me sweetheart again I’d do anything he wanted. Anything. Pesky human.
I blinked, a long, slow blink, for once at a loss for words. He smiled, dropped a kiss on my nose, then whispered, his lips inches from mine, “How about a quick nap? For me?”
Was he playing me? Oh, the cheeky bastard. Two could play at this game. Rather than answer, I closed the gap between our mouths, my lips settling against his, and the simmering heat that was always there went up in flames.
“Lucy.” He pulled away, his deep, sexy voice all deep and, well, sexy. “You’re playing with fire.”
My gaze lifted from his chest to his face. “My favorite thing.”
He chuckled and I was lost. I leaped into his arms, literally, and pressed my mouth to his. He returned my kiss enthusiastically, pulling me close. One hand sought out the weight of my breast, coaxing my nipple to attention with his thumb. His mouth, so hot against mine, trailed a blazing path across my chest to suck my nipple into his mouth, to roll his tongue over the tip. My shirt was pushed up under my arms and I released him long enough to tug it up and over my head. As soon as I was free from the fabric, his mouth was back, doing wicked things to my flesh, the jolt of ecstasy overwhelming. He switched from one breast to the other, giving them both equal amounts of attention. Each time he drew the peak into his mouth, I felt a cutting bite
of arousal spear through me. I looked down at him, his exquisite mouth beautiful against my pale skin. But it was his teeth grazing across their hardened peaks that had me writhing against him. Eventually, I tugged his hair, pulling his head up. His mouth met mine in a hot, desperate kiss and I wrapped my arms around his neck as he lowered me to the sofa. I reached between us and fondled the erection straining against his pants. He sucked in a sharp breath and my body tightened in response, causing another wave of raw desire to ripple through me.
Before I knew it he was naked and my pants were gone. How he managed to do it without me noticing was beyond me, but I lay on the sofa, gasping and panting. When he lowered himself over me, wedging himself between my legs and with his face inches from mine, his hooded eyes watching my every reaction, he entered me in one long stroke.
I groaned and clutched him to me, the sharp spike of need spiraling ever higher. He stayed there, buried inside me, allowing my body to adjust to the fullness of him until I grabbed handfuls of hair, bit his shoulder, and shoved my hips against his, forcing him even deeper.
He growled against my ear, wrapped one arm under a knee, and drove into me again and again with quick, short bursts, coaxing the heat in my abdomen to swell, to swirl and churn, building with each thrust like the pressure from a volcano of molten lava about to erupt. My nipples, still sensitive, rubbed against his chest with each thrust, doing their part to drive me to the edge.
The muscles in Levi’s shoulders flexed under the strain. His breaths grew ragged, more and more labored as he held himself over me, resisting my efforts to pull him closer. I dug my nails into his flesh, urging him faster, begging him not to stop. To never stop. His expression was one of dark desire as he held back his own need to incite me into an explosive climax. I buried my face in the crook of his neck as the fever inside me rose and I succumbed to the irrevocable bliss. Levi growled again as his own climax shuddered through him. He trembled against me, his passion just as powerful as mine, just as intoxicating. He held on to me so tight, riding out the waves as my own orgasm crested ever higher. I rode it, reveling in the exhilaration that flooded my body and soul until ever so gently it ebbed, leaving me sated and weak as the waves crashed me to the shore, before they gentled, leaving me floating in undeniable euphoria.