Soul Thief (Dark Souls)

by Hope, Anne

  Why would she entertain such a notion, when he was the one who’d saved her?

  And yet she did. She felt it deep down in her bones.

  Angie reached the intersection and halted. Several yellow cabs shuffled along Lexington. All she had to do was raise her arm and one would stop. Within minutes, she could be home, safe in her bed. Still, she hesitated, tossing a furtive glance over her shoulder at the gloomy road unfurling behind her. Biting her lower lip, she dug her hand into her purse and pulled out a Reach brochure.

  True, Adrian wasn’t a troubled youth. He had to be twenty-five at least, maybe older, a full-grown man by anyone’s standards. But he was definitely troubled. Hadn’t she sworn to help those in need, to offer guidance and support? What kind of person would she be if she walked away from the man who’d selflessly come to her aid? She had an obligation to reach out to him, the way she reached out to countless others day after day.

  Dispelling her fears, ignoring the garbled warning her mind issued, Angie spun on her heels and retraced her steps, heading back to the very place her rescuer had urged her to flee.

  Chapter Three

  They were coming for him. They always did. What Adrian didn’t know was which of the two armies that hunted him had found him tonight, the Kleptopsychs or the Watchers. Given a choice, he would’ve opted for the Watchers because they were the more merciful of the two.

  Both wanted him dead, for different reasons. The Kleptopsychs pursued him because they knew the soul he no longer possessed still lived, which meant he ran the risk of being recruited by the Watchers. The Watchers hunted him because they thought his soul had died the day his uncle snapped his neck, barely five hours after he’d released his birth cry.

  For a Hybrid, death was nothing but a rite of passage. Dying had merely freed Adrian’s soul from his body, allowing the dark energy crouching inside him to spread and take him over. In essence he’d been reborn, stronger, invulnerable and blessed with abilities humans only dreamed of.

  Because he chose to live as an outcast among his race, they called him a Rogue, a loose cannon, a threat to mankind. Adrian simply saw himself as free. He followed no one’s rule. Fought no one’s war. All he wanted was for everyone to leave him the goddamn hell alone.

  No such luck.

  A horde of Kleptopsychs spilled into the subway station, led by none other than his murderous uncle, Kyros. By narrowing his vision, Adrian gazed past wood, brick and mortar to carefully monitor their advance.

  It was obvious that Kyros had latched on to his signature and was steadily closing in on him. Every creature left a signature behind, a unique trail of energy certain gifted individuals could sense and track. Kyros wasn’t as talented a tracker as Adrian, but he was able to read energy patterns, which meant he had the ability to follow his trail.

  Adrian wouldn’t be able to outrun his uncle or his army—wherever he went, they’d tail him. He had no choice. He had to fight his way out. Fortunately, the station was deserted, so their battle wouldn’t draw a crowd. Some things were best kept secret, and their existence was one of them.

  Stepping out of the shadows, Adrian faced his pursuers. “Greetings, Uncle. We really have to stop meeting this way.”

  Calculating interest sparked in Kyros’s pale blue eyes. “There is only one way to put our battle to rest. Come back with me, return to the catacombs. To your family. You know that is where you belong.”

  “No, thanks. I’ve seen what you do to family.” If he returned, Kyros would escort him straight to the tanks, which was how the Kleptopsychs disposed of pesky little problems like him.

  “So this is how you choose to live instead? As a common Rogue? A pathetic creature with no loyalties, no purpose?”

  “I have a purpose.”

  “And what is that? To save the humans from themselves?” Kyros released a mocking laugh. “That’s not a purpose. That’s a waste of time. Humans were created to sustain us. They’re food. Nothing more. If you were born soulless as you were meant to be, you’d know that. You were conceived to help destroy the Watchers, not join them.”

  Kyros would never forgive Adrian for being born a Hybrid. From the moment Adrian took his first breath, he’d been a constant disappointment to his uncle, who’d hoped his sister would spawn the perfect tracker—a creature without a conscience that Kyros could add to his impressive army.

  “I have no intention of joining the Watchers,” Adrian reassured him. “In case you haven’t noticed, they want me dead, too.”

  “I don’t want you dead. It’s not you I seek to destroy, it’s your soul.”

  Kyros firmly believed that if he extinguished Adrian’s soul—the task he’d failed to accomplish when he’d murdered Adrian in his crib—he would have the dedicated soldier he’d always envisioned. So, never one to accept defeat, he’d spent the better part of nearly two centuries searching for it.

  “Well, good luck finding it,” Adrian growled, tamping down his growing impatience. Having recently ingested two unstable life-forces, he wasn’t as coolheaded as he would’ve liked. “It’s probably been born several times over by now.” He skewered his uncle with a meaningful glare. “And as long as the damn thing remains in circulation, you can forget about controlling me like you do them.” He gestured to the assembly of mindless foot soldiers surrounding him.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” His uncle took a predatory step forward.

  Kyros’s troops followed suit, dutifully advancing to form a barricade around their leader. Each and every one of these soldiers was ready to die at Kyros’s command.

  Adrian would’ve liked nothing better than to accommodate them, but the jackknife in his pocket wasn’t coated with angel’s blood, and apart from the puddle steadily pooling in the distance, there was no water within which to drown them. Regular blades and bullets were useless against these creatures. Other than angel’s blood, drowning was the only way to kill his kind.

  The fluorescent tubes overhead continued to drone ominously. The drip, drip, drip of water pooling in the corner grew unnaturally loud. Somewhere in the vast night, familiar footsteps echoed, briskly approaching.

  Adrian’s stomach folded as a cloud of familiar energy wafted toward him. The senseless woman had come back, was even now headed his way.

  He had to act. Now.

  With his ear trained on her progress, he raised an invisible wall between him and his attackers. Matter was nothing but energy. With the right amount of focus, atoms could be manipulated and controlled.

  The wall wouldn’t stand for long. Kyros would quickly dismantle it. But it would give Adrian a small head start. Lunging past the Kleptopsychs, he raced toward the footsteps. He had to reach the woman and get her to safety before his uncle sensed her.

  Adrian rounded the corner and plowed right into her. She gasped, stumbled back. “I thought I told you to get out of here.”

  “There’s something—”

  She didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence. He hauled her over his shoulder and sprinted down the corridor.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “We need to hurry,” he mumbled. “It won’t hold them for long.”

  “What won’t hold them? Put me down! I’ve got legs.”

  “You’re not fast enough.” He picked up speed, well aware that he might give his secret away. But he had no choice. He couldn’t let Kyros see her. He didn’t understand the sense of urgency that seized him, the certainty that all would be lost if his uncle discovered her.

  Then it struck him, and his blood ran cold. He knew the precise reason this woman affected him so profoundly, why she reached deep inside him and awakened his long-lost humanity. There was only one thing in the world that could do that. The very thing Kyros hunted and was hell-bent on destroying.

  His long-lost soul.

  Chapter Four

  Adrian ran faster than an Olympic track-and-field champion. He ran so fast Angie’s vision blurred. She held on for dear life, all the while ex
periencing a secret thrill at seeing the world zip by at incredible speed, at feeling so weightless she could fly. It was like riding on a rollercoaster, dangerous enough to get her blood pumping but also safe enough to make the ride enjoyable. And that’s what shocked her most. That she wasn’t afraid. As crazy as it sounded, Adrian’s arms seemed like the safest place in the world to be.

  Even if he was some kind of crazy hypnotist who’d recently willed two men to their deaths. “Where are you taking me?”

  No answer. He lurched toward the stairs, then came to an abrupt stop.

  Satisfaction sped through her as he deposited her on her feet and shoved her behind him. “Finally.” She peeked over his shoulder, and alarm swept in to crowd out relief.

  Ahead of them, blocking their path, stood a group of the strangest individuals Angie had ever seen, and that was saying a lot because she’d encountered more than her fair share of oddballs.

  They were all exceptionally tall, well over six feet, and wore nothing but black leather and deadpan expressions. A similar group closed in on them from behind, and Adrian spun around, drawing her tight to his side.

  “Well, what have we here?” One of the giants approached them, assessing Angie with blue eyes so pale they bordered on icy. A chill skated down her back. So much for feeling safe.

  “Stay back, Kyros,” Adrian commanded. “Your fight is with me. The girl is of no interest to you. Let her walk away and we’ll finish this.”

  Kyros refused to take his glassy eyes off her. “You know I can’t leave a witness behind. That would be careless.”

  “If you spare her, I’ll go with you without a fight.” Adrian’s voice was powerful and steady, but behind his cool façade Angie sensed a growing desperation.

  “Why don’t you just hypnotize them?” she whispered.

  Kyros stood a good twenty feet away, but his mouth curled into a vicious smile. Had he heard her? Impossible. “You know this woman?”

  Adrian’s hold on her grew tight enough to hurt. “Not particularly.”

  “Really?” There was a taunting lilt to the stranger’s voice. “Because your signatures are practically identical.”

  How did this guy know what her signature looked like? This night was getting weirder by the minute.

  “You must be mistaken. She’s just an innocent bystander. Nothing more.”

  “Then you won’t mind if I conduct a little experiment.”

  Kyros raised his hand, twisted it at the wrist. Pain lanced through her. Not physical pain. Her discomfort was entirely emotional. Dark images of death filled her head, endless stretches of nothingness, her consciousness trapped in a world that had forgotten her. She was on the outside looking in, an invisible specter, conscious but powerless, no more substantial than the air she could no longer breathe.

  In that small wedge of time when her breath stilled, Angie had a vision. A vision of the future she was unable to accept. Not as long as hope’s frail wings fluttered in her chest.

  Beside her Adrian tensed. She ventured a glance his way. Pain rearranged his features, but he fought like hell not to let it show.

  “It’s a frightful proposition, isn’t it?” Kyros slunk closer. “Death. An ever-faithful shadow. An enemy that cannot be evaded, no matter how far or how fast you run.” His penetrating gaze drilled into her.

  He knows. Panic swelled in her breast. He sees it inside me.

  “She will not save you,” Kyros told her. “Nothing can.” With another flick of his wrist, he murdered her hope. A violent tremor shook her body.

  Adrian’s hold on her slackened, and he fell to his knees. “Stop it,” he grunted. “Get out of her head.”

  “I believe I’ve finally found your weakness.” Satisfied, Kyros let his arm drop to his side.

  As abruptly as they’d started, the images melted away. The pain receded, but the hopelessness refused to fade. It had taken root inside her, a seed of doubt that threatened to grow and bury her.

  “She will not save you. Nothing can.”

  With a howl of rage, Adrian vaulted to his feet. Then weirdness morphed to something altogether surreal. One by one, he blasted those around them with nothing more than a flick of his hand. A train chose that moment to whiz down the track. Horrified, Angie watched helplessly as the last car detached itself from the rest of the train and became airborne. Flying sideways, it cut a steady path toward Kyros and his friends. The car struck the ground, screeched across the tiles and careened out of control.

  Angie’s fingers went lax. The Reach brochure she’d been clutching fluttered to the ground as Adrian swept her off her feet again. With his arm firmly secured around her waist, he leapt at least fifteen feet in the air, over smoke and debris and writhing bodies onto the roof of the passing train. Then he sent them both tumbling onto their stomachs, his strong arm secured across her back as they bulleted into the tunnel, where darkness rose greedily to swallow them.

  A scream clawed its way up her throat, but she couldn’t seem to find the strength to release it. Somewhere in her muddled brain a thought formed.

  Hypnotist, my ass.

  Chapter Five

  Kyros and his army would not be contained for long. Already, Adrian sensed them crawling over the debris, ripping through metal, stepping over the collapsed car as though it were nothing more than a discarded juice box. The car he’d chosen to send spiraling through the air was empty due to the late hour, so thankfully no human lives had been claimed.

  Using all the energy he had left, he willed the train conductor to keep forging ahead, oblivious to the wreck behind him. By tunneling his vision, Adrian could see the man clearly, cleave his way into his mind and subtly persuade him to ignore all but the task at hand.

  Footsteps pounded the tracks in the distance as Kyros and his army resumed their pursuit, only mildly inconvenienced by the obstacle he’d whipped their way. His uncle wouldn’t give up, not after what he’d uncovered. If there had been any doubt in Adrian’s mind that his old soul now lived within this girl, it had been put to rest the second Kyros had conducted his experiment.

  One thing was certain—this waif of a woman would never be safe again, and neither would he. Their fates were inextricably linked from this day forward.

  But he couldn’t dwell on that right now. What mattered was throwing Kyros and his troops off their trail. There was only one way to do that—he needed a crowd, a really big crowd. One imbued with hundreds of human signatures to mask his and the girl’s, and he knew just where to find it.

  Times Square.

  Up ahead the track branched out. Adrian knew these tunnels as well as he knew the streets above them. The track on their left was abandoned, used only for emergencies and reroutes. Tightening his hold on the woman, he lunged off the speeding train, ignoring the scream she let loose.

  He landed on his feet with her safely wrapped in his arms. Energy hummed wherever they touched, a subtle current that seeped into his bloodstream, warming it. Her heart tapped a frantic beat against her chest. He could feel it pounding through her body, loud and erratic, and he regretted the ordeal he’d put her through tonight. He’d have to erase her memory later. Seeing as she’d resisted his influence twice already, his only option would be to make physical contact. No human soul was immune to the kiss. By touching his mouth to hers, he could alter her thoughts, cleanse her mind, and convince her this night had never happened.

  But first he had to keep Kyros from killing her.

  Angie was seriously freaking out. The things she’d witnessed tonight, the feats she’d watched Adrian perform…

  She shook her head to clear it, burrowed her face deep in his shoulder as he carried her across the subway tracks at impossible speed. Her gut was clenched so tight her belly ached. She’d seen a metal car go scuttling across the platform, had literally flown onto the roof of a speeding train and was now tearing through a subway tunnel faster than a racehorse on steroids.

  But nothing had shaken her more than the icy blue eyes of
the man Adrian had referred to as Kyros. Somehow Kyros had gotten into her thoughts, had crawled into the darkest corner of her mind where her deepest fears dwelled and voiced them. His words had been cold and sharp, almost prophetic.

  “She will not save you. Nothing can.”

  Gripping Adrian’s jacket with both fists, she tossed a glance over his shoulder, expecting a train to come rocketing down the track and flatten them. Instead, Kyros came barreling toward them, surrounded by an army of drones. That was the only way she could describe these creatures. Their faces were so expressionless, they appeared robotic. Not that she could see their features right now—the tunnel was way too dark to make out such detail—but their images were forever etched in her mind. As long as she lived, she would remember those faces. Her skin crawled at the memory of those cold, merciless gazes raking over her body as though they could see past clothing, bone and skin to the very essence of her.

  Adrian quickened his pace, if that were even possible. Holding her tight enough to bruise, he vaulted up a narrow, ancient-looking staircase. Her eyes had adjusted a bit to the darkness, and she made out gray shapes and misty shadows. They came to a door, beyond which people bustled and the night sky was set aflame by a thousand lights instead of stars.

  Adrian placed her on her feet, took her hand in his, and weaved his way through the crowd in Times Square.

  “Try to blend in,” he whispered in her ear. “The more people surrounding us, the better.” His breath brushed her skin, a warm, reassuring caress in a world that had gone completely insane.

  It wasn’t hard to find a crowd, even at this ungodly hour. The Square never slept. A sea of yellow cabs gushed through the streets, swarms of people waited on sidewalk corners for a chance to cross busy intersections, and gigantic screens blinked relentlessly from tall buildings, each boasting another product they wanted you to buy. A medley of sounds filled the night—the buzz of conversation, the screech of tires, the occasional shrill of a car horn.