“Because I do.” Peaches falls into step beside me, and I scratch her ear as we walk. “When you decide to go all cloak and dagger, it makes me insanely curious. Plus, if there’s some kind of danger, I’d rather know about it first and be prepared.”
His fists clench, and I’m afraid I’ve pushed him too far. He is crankier than usual today.
“Do you think Deleriel is the only Fallen Angel on the Earth, Emma Rose?”
The words are said so softly, I’d have missed them if I hadn’t been right beside him. More Fallen Angels? My hands start to shake. I’d only ever faced one, and defeating him had shattered my soul. I don’t think I can do that again.
“I Angel-proofed the basement.” Silas opens the door at the top of the stairs. “Even if they wanted to spy on us, they couldn’t. In the main house, I have certain sigils up, but not the ones to keep all Angels out.”
“So, are they all after me now or something?” My own voice is as quiet and serious as Silas’s.
“I don’t know.”
I follow him into his studio, the one I’m familiar with. There is no body on his sterile table today. A canvas sits on the easel waiting to be seen to, but his paints aren’t out. I get my own artistic skills from both my mother, Georgina Dubois, and from Silas.
This place has bad memories for me. Silas forced me to learn to use my abilities by experimenting on souls. My blood can pull the soul out of a person and trap it in a canvas, where they’ll feel the pain and torture of Hell for an eternity. My mind shudders away from the pain I’d caused, telling me it was necessary to defeat Deleriel and get my sister back.
“Sit.” Silas waves to the breakfast table I’m fairly certain wasn’t in here a few seconds ago. “You need to eat and regain your strength.”
“I’m fine.” Peaches doesn’t seem to think so, because she pushes me toward the table. “You just want to eat too.” I rub her ear affectionately but sit down as she clearly wants me to.
“No, she can sense what I do. Energy has been siphoned off your soul. It’s not nearly healed enough to withstand much of that. That boy should never have left until you were healed.”
I roll my eyes. Not this again. He’d been furious when Dan went back to North Carolina, but he has a life there. He’s got school, work, and his mom’s upcoming trial. He had to go back.
“I’m fine, Silas. Really. Dan was here until I stopped hurting every time he was away from me.”
When my soul was first put back together, it had been extremely fragile. Dan’s soul held mine together, and when he was too far away from me in the beginning, I’d felt a physical pain so severe, I almost went into shock. It had taken months for me to heal enough so he could go home and get back to his own life.
“It is not fine, Mattie Louise Hathaway.”
Oh, crap. He only ever calls me that when he is good and truly pissed. I don’t even have time to jump up and run before he’s all up in my face.
“You think you’re fine, do you?” he snarls.
“I don’t ache anymore, Silas, not like I did,” I whisper, afraid to move, afraid of what he’ll do.
He shakes his head then plunges his hand right into my chest. It goes through me like my skin and bones are nothing but smoke and mirrors.
The pain hits as soon as my brain registers what is happening. I open my mouth to scream as his fingers dig around, but no sound comes out. He grabs something inside and starts to withdraw his hand, and the pain intensifies until there is nothing but blinding, searing agony.
When he pulls his hand free, the pain stops, but that isn’t all. Something isn’t right. I’m not afraid anymore, or even angry. I feel nothing. And I don’t care that I feel nothing.
“What did you do?” I cock my head sideways then frown when Peaches growls at me.
Silas unfolds his clenched fist, and there in the center of it lays a tiny ball of bluish-white light.
“Look closely, my darling girl. Look at how much your soul hasn’t healed.”
I do as he asks, not because I’m curious or even care, but it’s something to do. The orb has thousands of tiny cracks and fissures, the light bleeding out of them like blood oozing from a wound. He’s correct in that it doesn’t look fit to be called a soul. It’s demolished. How that thing is even still pulsing is beyond me.
“It’s broken.”
“Aye.” Silas cradles it in his hand like it’s something precious, but I’ve seen him do the same with a thousand souls. I’ve done it myself. “This is why you can’t let your soul be fed upon. It will only take minutes for you and Daniel to die.”
I think about that, but again, I feel nothing. What is one more death in the world? People live, and they die. It is the natural order. If I die, then I die. Dan would simply be a casualty of my death.
“I wonder if I shouldn’t hold onto this until it’s healed enough not to fracture.” Silas stares at me, his question clear.
“Do what you want.” I shrug. It means nothing to me.
“Your eyes are glowing black.” This brings a smile to his face. It makes him happy that my demon side is shining through. With no human soul to police those abilities, I’m not surprised they’ve decided to make an appearance.
“Your father will never leave me alone if I don’t put this back.” Silas frowns, his British accent thick as he thinks through his dilemma. It’s true enough. My father would torment him if he thought Silas had done something to me.
Sighing heavily, Silas plunges his hand back into my chest, and this time I do scream. I may not feel emotions, but pain, I definitely do. It’s a physical reaction, not a metaphysical one. His fingers twist until I hear a popping noise, like a lock clicking into place, and all those emotions that had fled come rushing back.
I hunch over when his hand leaves me, trying to breathe through the pain. His words and my thoughts play back in my head like a recording, and I’m appalled and horrified at my reactions. Let Dan die? Never. Just the thought causes a small panic attack, and my lungs close up.
“Breathe, girl.” Silas slaps my back like he would if I were choking. “Just breathe.”
“Don’t ever do that again.” I look up, and he retreats from me. I don’t know what he sees in my expression, but for once, it’s scared him. I’ve only ever seen him afraid of me once before, and that was when Dan almost died because of him. Silas may have engineered my birth to get the perfect trifecta of power, but he also knows I can end him.
Not sure how, but it’s something I know on a cellular level.
Doesn’t mean I’m not terrified of him, or that he can’t hurt me.
Him yanking my soul out of me is a case in point.
It just means he knows I have the ability to hurt him if he ever truly makes me angry enough.
The only thing that could cause me to be that angry?
Dan Richards dying.
Never happen.
Not as long as I am alive.
“It was the only way to make you see how precarious your situation is. Letting that soul eater anywhere near you is reckless. You can’t go back to that house.”
I can see the little girl’s terrified expression in my mind’s eye. She’ll die if I don’t help her.
Not gonna happen either.
“I have to go back, Silas.” I lean back in the chair, suddenly exhausted. “No one else can. Besides, didn’t you just put some kind of tattoo on me to keep that thing from munching on me?”
I rub my chest absently. I don’t feel right. I know he put my soul back, but something’s off, like a puzzle piece that doesn’t fit.
“It’ll take a few days to settle back into place.” Silas comes closer, seeing most of my anger has dissipated. “It’s normal for you to feel odd.”
Peaches pushes her face into my stomach and whines. She seems as upset as I am. “Didn’t like the soulless me, huh, girl?”
“She’s trained to hunt souls and drag them back to Hell.” Silas walks over to one of the long cabinets lining the left
side of the room and retrieves a tray. “A soulless creature still alive upsets the balance. Peaches wanted to rip your throat out, but her loyalty to you stopped her.”
“Good girl.” I lean down and hug her. “You know I love you.”
Silas sets the tray down to reveal a grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup, and an icy cold Coke. My favorite. “Now, eat. You need strength.”
He fusses until I pick up the sandwich and start to eat. “What do you know about that thing that fed off me?”
“Not any more than what it is. It feeds off souls to stay strong. It can harm you in ways you can’t even imagine.”
“Care to elaborate on that?”
“No.”
He’s probably mad I refused to stay away from the danged thing. Oh, well. I eat in silence, slipping Peaches bites of the sandwich when Mr. Grumpy Pants isn’t looking.
“How long have I been here?”
“Most of the day.” He walks over to the door that’s partially hidden behind the wall, and my stomach clenches. His room of lost souls. “Care to help me?”
“No, Silas. I won’t do that ever again.”
The smile he gives me says how wrong I am. I swore never to do anyone harm, and yet I did to save my sister. Who knows what might make me do that again. He’s right. Someday I might be forced to hurt those souls again, but not today.
“If you’re going to torture them, I think I’m ready to go.” I stand and give my Hellhound one last hug. “I wanted to show you some new sketches I did. Can I bring them by in a few days?”
“You are welcome here anytime, my darling girl.” Silas flashes me a smile and turns back to his room of horrors. “You know the way out.”
Yes, I do.
I focus on drawing a doorway and then on the last thing I remember, being in that room, that ghost feeding on me, but I focus on the sound of Mary’s and Eric’s shouts, their fear for me. Then I walk through the door, right into the moment Silas snatched me away from that reality.
Chapter Seven
Going from one plane of existence to another isn’t exactly painful, but it’s very disconcerting. It’s like in Star Trek, where they beam you up, and it forces all your molecules and atoms to disperse then reassemble at your destination. When I’m out there floating, all the pieces of me reaching out, desperate and terrified, I think of it as pain, even though it’s not. And when all my bits finally snap back into place, it doesn’t stop those first few minutes of panic. My body knows what happened to it, and it needs time to digest that it’s whole again.
I can usually handle this because I’m expecting it, but after Silas’s stunt of yanking my soul out of my body, my psyche knows it’s not all right.
That’s probably why the voices around me are so muddled, and I’m a little dizzy. My vision is blurry, and my head…let’s not talk about the massive migraine forming.
I’m not sure how long I lie there, but soon the mumbling becomes clearer.
“…hospital!”
“Just give her a minute.”
That voice, I recognize. It’s Mary.
“Dan says last time this happened, it almost killed her. He says he’s going to fly down here himself if we don’t get her to the ER!”
And there’s Eric, the worrywart.
There is no way I’m going to a hospital, though. When I open my eyes again, the room is less blurry than before, and the walls have also decided to stay put. I’m good.
Mostly.
“Will you two stop arguing?” I groan and throw an arm over my eyes. My head is soon going to explode.
“Dan? She’s awake and as grouchy as a bear.”
I am not grouchy. I just don’t appreciate all the yelling. I hold my free hand out for the phone, knowing Dan really will hop a plane if he thinks I need him.
When the cool metal meets my fingertips, I grasp it and pull it to my ear. “I’m fine. Really.”
“Liar.” The sound of his voice helps to soothe me more than anything else. “You forget what happens to you happens to me.”
“You okay?”
“Aside from feeling like something rammed a fist through my chest, I’m fine.” He doesn’t even try to hide the sarcasm.
“I’m sorry. I’ll see if I can’t find something that minimizes your exposure.”
“No, you won’t.” He pauses to answer someone in the background.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at work.” He lets out a sigh. “Listen, Squirt, if you do that, then I won’t know when you’re in trouble.”
“The whole point of me coming to New Orleans was to learn to handle things on my own, Officer Dan.”
“I know that, Mattie, but I need to know you’re okay too.”
Dan tried calling me Emma Rose in the beginning, but he gave up after a few days. I’ll always be Mattie Hathaway to him.
“Okay, I won’t do that if you stop trying to harass Eric into rushing me to the hospital.”
“That headache…”
“Will be fine. I’ll take the migraine meds they gave me. It’s all good. I promise.”
“I got to get back to work, but call me later, okay? We’ll Skype.”
“Sure thing, Officer Dan. Love you.”
“Love you too, Squirt.”
I listen for him to hang up for a minute and realize he’s still on the line. He’s waiting for me.
“You gonna hang up or what?”
“When you do.”
Shaking my head, I lift my arm enough to be able to see the phone so I can disconnect the call. He’ll hold all day if he has to, and I don’t want to get him into trouble.
“She’s awake?” Doc asks, and I sit up carefully. I don’t want the walls to go dark side on me again and start spinning out of control. Despite what I said, I really don’t feel so well. Instead of focusing on that, I take stock of the situation.
I’m on the floor, sitting on a white rug with little pink hearts all over it. The room is toasty warm, and there’s no sign of the soul eater, as Silas called it. That’s a super huge plus right there.
“How do you feel?” Doc kneels in front of me, his hand at his side, but twitchy. He and I are just getting back to being friends. I can see the need to touch me to make sure I’m okay in his expression, but he controls himself. Brownie points to the doc.
“Not so hot. That thing fed on me.” Food, then sleep. That’s what I need more than anything else.
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Doc says. “Given everything the family described, it sounds like a type of succubus.”
“No, Doc.” I accept his offer of help to stand up. “It’s something different. It’s focused on the kid, not the adults. Succubi tend to feed off sexual energy.”
“You’ve been studying up on your lore.” Doc grins, sounding as proud as a papa.
“Well, after everything that happened, I want to be prepared. No one is getting the jump on me ever again. Be it your random run-of-the-mill ghost or some freaking Fallen Angel.”
“Fallen Angel?” Mary’s voice drops an octave, and I hear the tremor in it. Just the mention of that particular breed of creature sends her spiraling down the rabbit hole. We’re just getting her back to her old self. I’m not going to be responsible for her falling into the dark place she goes whenever she thinks of Deleriel.
“Sorry, Mary. It was just a reference, that’s all.” I make a mental note to ask Silas if he can add the same tattoo to her that he did to me. She deserves to be protected as much as I do.
She lets out a slow breath, and I’m glad I didn’t blurt out anything Silas told me. Once we get her inked, I’ll tell her everything.
“Do we need to get you checked out at the ER?” Doc asks, concerned. He’s probably worried because I’m still holding onto him. I let his hand go and take a few cautious steps toward Mary. When the walls stay put, I know I’m okay.
“No, I’m fine. Really.”
Doc quirks a brow at me but doesn’t push the subject. “Well, do you thi
nk you’re still up for playing intern for the next few days?”
“I want that thing away from the baby. It’s going to kill her.” The reaper in me rebels at the thought of letting that thing loose upon others. It needs to move on, be it to a better place or to somewhere less friendly like The Between, the nothingness between this plane and the next, where there are some very bad things ready to snack on you.
“Then we need to do some research. Find out the history of the home, if there were any deaths here or associated with the property.” Doc frowns, thinking. “Those boys will be back tonight, and I’m not sure it’s safe for them alone in the house. Perhaps we should come back as well.”
“I don’t think Mattie’s up to facing that thing again,” Eric worries.
“I can stay outside in the Scooby van.” Mary gives me a disapproving look, which I promptly ignore.
“You can stay in my investigative van. It’s equipped with the proper ghost hunting paraphernalia and computers to monitor the feed inside the house.”
“Do you have it warded?” I ask, not sure he’s up on his demonic and angelic sigils.
“After the…” Doc slides a quick glance at Mary and clears his throat. “After last year, I did my research. That van is impenetrable against most anything, including ghosts. It’s our safe zone.”
Doc has his stuff straight. I’m impressed. Maybe the wannabes will actually learn something from him.
“I’m not up to hitting the books or looking at a computer screen right now.” My head vibrates with anger at the thought. “So, maybe…”
Doc interrupts me. “I’ll have Seth do all that. He’s my new assistant. Wants to learn the ins and outs of the ghost hunting business.”
“When did you get an assistant?” I blink when a sharp stab of pain straight through my temple blindsides me. Dang, but that smarts. I haven’t had a headache this bad since I was in the hospital last year.
“About a month ago. Seth has proven quite valuable when it comes to research, and the boy knows how to do what I tell him without asking all kinds of questions. He knows I’ll explain everything at some point.”
“Cool.” One less thing for me to worry about. “Let’s get home so I can have a nap. What time should we be back here, Doc?”
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