Your Soul to Take (Rise of the Fallen)

by Hayden, Sean

  Chapter 28

  I opened the front door and closed it like I had just come home. Mom popped her head out from the kitchen and said, “Hi, honey. How was your day?”

  “Interesting. I’m gonna catch a quick nap before dinner.”

  “Okay, baby. Everything okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m just tired.”

  She nodded and I ran up my newly repaired stairs. They seemed solid enough. The bright side is I seemed to have mastered the use of my magic. Raven’s teachings really helped, and I didn’t burn the house down fixing anything.

  I opened my bedroom door, saw my comfy looking bed, and stopped dead in my tracks as my phone started ringing in my pocket. I pulled it out and swiped the screen without really looking to see who was calling.

  “Connor?”

  It was my sister. “Yeah?”

  “Elizabeth and I are being followed.”

  I actually growled. This shit was getting ridiculous. “Where are you?”

  “Mall, by the food court. We keep moving but don’t want to leave. The place is packed.”

  “Good. Stay there. I’ll find you. See if Clarisse is working.”

  “Shit, I didn’t even think of that.”

  “Call me if she is and hang out with her. I’ll be there in five.”

  The line went dead and she hung up without saying goodbye. I stuffed my phone in my pocket and ran back downstairs.

  Mom popped her head out of the kitchen. “I thought you were taking a nap?”

  “Can’t. Meeting Cae at the mall.”

  “I want you both home for dinner.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll be back shortly,” I said as I ran out the door. I grabbed the scooter and drove to the mall as fast as the little engine would take me.

  I parked and ran to the entrance, pulling it open and letting the warm air and food court smells wash over me. My stomach growled in response and I told it to shut the hell up. My phone rang again and I pulled it out of my pocket. Looking briefly at Cae’s face, I answered.

  “Is she working?”

  “No. I’m getting a very bad feeling.”

  “I’m here. Head toward the food court again. I’ll meet you halfway. Stay on the line.”

  I heard her tell Elizabeth where to go and then listened to the sounds of the mall echoing through the headset on my phone. Finally, I spotted them in front of Northern Candle Company. I nodded and hung up. I could see the relief on my sister’s face when she spotted me.

  “Where are they?”

  “I don’t know. She was behind a column by Angelique’s, but disappeared when I called you.”

  “It was a she?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you know her?”

  “No. But it was definitely a woman.”

  I nodded and decided not to tell her about the vampire hunter who had showed up at our house. “Come on. Let’s go home. Mom’s making spaghetti.”

  “Is it safe to leave?”

  “You’re with me. All’s good.”

  She gave me a brief look of disbelief, but shrugged and turned to Elizabeth. “Dinner?”

  “Your mom’s spaghetti? Hell yeah.”

  “Where did you guys park?”

  “The entrance by Hot Topic,” Liz answered. I nodded and let her lead the way. I figured riding home with them would be better and mentally banished my scooter.

  As we walked, I let the space between us grow and moved off to the side, keeping an eye on them. Caelyn kept shooting me nervous glances but I made a walking gesture with my fingers. I wanted to see if I could spot whoever was following them.

  We made it to the exit without anyone showing themselves. I was actually a little disappointed. I didn’t like the idea of whoever was following my sister, still out there.

  “Cae. I know I’m your icky brother, but don’t go anywhere without me for a while okay?” I looked at Liz to make sure she knew that included her, too.

  “Why?”

  “Just trust me on this one, okay?”

  She stopped dead in her tracks, put her hands on her hips, and stared me right in the eye. “What’s going on?”

  I took a deep breath and decided to spill it. “Someone showed up at the house today and practically destroyed it looking for you.”

  “Who?”

  “One of the Chosen who claimed to be their vampire hunter. He didn’t like the idea of an un-contracted blood sucking teenager running around town sucking the life out of everybody.”

  “What?”

  I sighed. I’d tried to make a joke to make her smile, but she just looked totally confused. “You became a vampire without contracting your soul to get it. They no likey.”

  “Oh. Did you tell them they could make me human again and shut the hell up?”

  The fierceness in her voice broke my heart. “If it were possible, Cae, I would have already done it.”

  She softened her expression. “I know. I just wish you’d let me make the damn contract. It’s worth it to me. I wish you would get that.”

  “What?” Elizabeth joined the conversation, not knowing about our earlier discussion on the merits of soul selling.

  “I told him I’d sell my soul to be human again. He won’t let me. The big jerk.”

  Liz nodded in understanding. “You’re being selfish.”

  My sister and I both turned and stared at her. My sister asked, “Which one?”

  “If you want my honest answer… Both of you.”

  “Huh?”

  “Cae. Your brother is just trying to keep you safe and that means both in this world and the next. It’s why he doesn’t want you to sell your soul. Connor, your sister didn’t ask for this. She doesn’t want to be a vampire. Hell, I don’t want to be a vampire. Wishing for this was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Especially now that Jenny is gone. I feel like part of me died with her. Top that off with a big old side of ‘she’s being hunted because she’s a vampire’ and you’ve got a big mess on your hands. If she were human again, there wouldn’t be a problem.”

  I sighed and closed my eyes. She had sort of hit the nail on the head. I nodded and looked at my sister. Really looked at her. “Is that what you want?”

  “Yes!”

  “You realize once you die, your soul will belong to the Fallen. I don’t even know what that really means, but it could be bad.”

  “Could it be worse if I ended up with the Chosen? Could it be worse if I ended up just wandering around the universe?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re a Fallen. I trust you to look out for me when I die.”

  That made me smile. “You know I will, brat.”

  “Then yes. That’s what I want.”

  “Okay. I’ll talk to Clarisse.”

  That put a gleam in my sister’s eye. “Thank you!”

  “You’re welcome. Let’s go home. I’ll call her on the way.”

  I turned and headed toward Liz’s SUV. “Tell her that her boss is pissed off.”

  Without turning, I asked, “Why?”

  “Because she didn’t show up for work even though she was supposed to close.”

  I stopped moving. The world stopped turning. My heart stopped beating. “Cae…”

  Cae stopped walking and looked at me. Realization hit her hard. “No. This is Claire we’re talking about. She’s like uber-badass. She’s fine. I’m sure of it. Right?”

  The more she spoke the more unsure she became. I closed my eyes and thought of Clarisse. Usually when I did that it sort of opened a link between us. All the Fallen could communicate that way. I wasn’t good enough to do it yet, but I could usually see where she was and what she was doing. This time I could tell she was there, but that was it. Nothing but blackness. She was either asleep or in trouble. I sincerely doubted she would miss work to take a nap. “She’s in trouble. She’s alive but in trouble.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know. Come on. Let’s go home. I’ll keep trying and try to get ahol
d of Darius.”

  We piled into the Explorer and Liz gunned it toward my house. I kept trying to picture Darius in my head, but without any luck. He was in the realms of the Fallen. I had no idea how to contact him there. I even went so far as to try Raven. I had the same amount of luck.

  By the time we were inside and seated with plates of spaghetti in front of us, I was in a near state of panic. I didn’t even remember filling my plate. But then again, maybe I hadn’t. Cae was looking at me worriedly. Maybe she filled it for me.

  My parents were talking animatedly and Liz seemed to be doing her best to keep them occupied. I tried picturing Clarisse for the thousandth time. She seemed to be getting weaker. So did my heart.

  I growled and pushed my food away from me. Standing, I left the dinner table ignoring the shouted questions from my parents. I only had one option left and I had no idea if he would even help me. I walked out the front door, ran down the street a bit, and launched myself into the air.

  It took only a few minutes to fly to Jessie’s. I landed in her front lawn and pounded on the door without even banishing my wings. Mr. James opened the door, took one look at me, and opened it even wider. “Come in.”

  “Thanks.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t even know where to start. Something’s killed one of my sister’s friends when it was attacking my sister, one of the Chosen’s vampire hunters showed up at the house looking for my sister, my house got nearly destroyed in the process, and now Clarisse is missing. She’s alive but in trouble.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this would you, Cabriel?”

  I turned and saw the snobby bastard sitting in the big leather chair in Mr. James’ living room. Jessie came skidding down the stairs. She saw me and my wings and knew something was wrong. “What is it?”

  “Claire is missing.”

  She turned and stared at Chuck, too. All three of us stood there and watched the smug expression on his face. “No. I did not have anything to do with the missing Fallen. Nor did any of the Chosen. That would be a breach of the accords.”

  “Tell that to the one whose ass I kicked after he nearly destroyed my house.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. He was there after my sister.”

  “Your sister is the rogue vampire?”

  “Ha! I would hardly call my sister a rogue anything. She doesn’t even want to be a vampire.”

  “That is of little consequence. She is an un-contracted immortal. She cannot be allowed to continue.”

  “She’s my sister and if you touch her, I’ll beat your ass back to Valhalla. Prick.”

  He stood and called his blade. Mr. James moved so fast I didn’t even see it. He had Chuck in a one-handed grip against the wall. “Not in my house. Get out.”

  He physically set Charles down on the ground and dragged him to the front door by his throat. I resisted the urge to cheer. Jess wrapped her arms around me.

  “Do you think she’s okay?”

  “She’s alive, but not able to answer me. All I see is blackness.”

  “You can see her?”

  “Only what she’s doing. I haven’t gotten the whole telepathy thing down yet.”

  Mr. James tossed the Chosen out on his front lawn and slammed the door shut. “If you can’t see her, she must be unconscious.”

  “I figured that much. Caelyn was being stalked at the mall. She called me and I told her to find Clarisse at work. Her boss told her she never showed up. I had a bad feeling…and well you know the rest.”

  “Indeed,” Mr. James spoke softly.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. It’s why I came here. I was hoping your dad would have a suggestion.”

  “Have you contacted Darius?”

  “I…” I took a moment to blush. “I don’t know how. He’s in the Realms.”

  “Simply close your eyes and picture him in your mind’s eye–”

  I opened my mouth to interrupt, but he stopped me.

  “I know you cannot see him. Picture him and simply call his name. He will hear your call.”

  “Oh,” I said bashfully. I did as he said and pictured Darius in all his scary glory. I must have also been more worried about Clarisse than I thought. My worry conveyed my need to speak with Darius. I whispered his name and it came out like a clap of thunder. The walls of the James Mansion shook with the power of his name.

  There was a flash of light and Darius stood in the middle of the room, looking around bewilderedly. Mr. James cleared his throat and said, “Not what I was expecting, but welcome, Darius.”

  Darius turned to the Chosen and bowed low. “I thought the boy called me, but thank you for inviting me into your home.”

  “He did call you. Or at least I told him how to call you. By the look on your face you had little choice in the calling.”

  “His power is…unusual. What is it, young one?”

  “Clarisse has been taken.”

  “I’m sure you are mistaken. No one of the Chosen would take–”

  “I’m afraid he is correct. Look into his mind. You will see all that has transpired as of late,” Mr. James said. I was grateful for his help. They guy was kind of growing on me.

  Darius strode forward and looked me in the eye. I could feel him rummaging around my head. I had the sudden urge to kick him out and throw up a mental wall. I don’t know how I knew, but I did. If I didn’t want him in there, he had little chance of entering uninvited. However, I wanted to save my friend. I opened up wider and let him see everything that had happened over the past few days.

  I felt a certain memory of his daughter and I in my bedroom and blushed furiously. He raised an eyebrow and continued his mental interrogation.

  “I see,” he said simply.

  “Do you know how to find her?”

  “No. You did all that could be done. She is still alive so she still has purpose.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Whomever took her, took her for a reason. She is in no immediate danger.”

  “Why would they take her?”

  He looked at me with a sad face. “I assume to get to you.”

  My heart broke. What exactly was it about me that caused people to hate me so damn much? Why was it always those around me that had to pay the price? “This blows ass.”

  I looked up and saw the confused look on Darius’ and Mr. James’ faces. “It sucks,” I repeated in a more familiar phrase.

  My cell phone started ringing in my pocket. Hoping for the best, I dug in and pulled it out. My sister’s face was on the screen. I swiped my thumb across it and said, “Hello?”

  “Do you love me?”

  It wasn’t my sister’s voice. “Who is this?”

  “Don’t you recognize my voice?”

  I put the phone on speaker and held it out so everybody could hear. “No. I don’t recognize your voice. Who is this?”

  “I’m disappointed. I thought what we shared was special…”

  The flash of a kiss in the mall ricocheted across my brain. It couldn’t be… “Shannon?”

  “I knew you would get it!”

  “Why do you have my sister’s phone?”

  “The more important question is why do I have your sister. Why do I have your Fallen friend? Why do I have the little vampire? Why am I going to take your girlfriend? Those are the questions you should be asking…”

  “Why?” I asked the question, really wanting to know the answer. I didn’t have the slightest clue. “Wait a minute. You killed Jenny? Why in the hell would you do that?”

  “Because she saw me. She saw me when I tried to take your sister.”

  “Again, why are you doing this?”

  “Because I love you. I know you love me, too. I could feel it in our kiss. If you didn’t have all these damn women around you, I could have proved it to you. But I couldn’t even get close enough to talk to you let alone prove our love.”


  I felt like throwing up. A lot.

  I looked over at Jess and her face was as red as fire. I could tell she was about twelve nanoseconds from breaking. Her father held a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  “Where are you?” I didn’t think it would be that easy, but I had to ask.

  “Why?”

  “So I can come save my friends?”

  “Wrong answer.”

  “So I can be with you,” I held up my hand to Jess as soon as the words left my mouth and made gagging motions. And then I made crazy motions. Hopefully Jess was good at charades.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Oh, believe me. You felt our kiss. You were right. From the moment your lips touched mine, you’re all I could think about,” I said and rolled my eyes.

  “If you come, you’ll come alone?”

  “Of course.”

  “You will stay and I will let the others go.”

  “Sounds like a good deal to me.”

  “Do you swear by this?”

  “I do,” I said without thinking. Mr. James and Darius made halting signs, but it was too late.

  “Fine. I will meet you at the mall.”

  “But it’s closed,” I said.

  “I will be in the center by the Winter Wonderland display.”

  The phone went dead.

  I looked up and saw the looks of dismay. “What?”

  Mr. James spoke first. “You just made a verbal contract.”

  “Yeah? So. I didn’t really mean it.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Connor,” Darius spoke. “You promised to trade yourself for the lives of your sister and friends. You cannot back out…”

  “Surely there is something he can do?” Jess looked frantic and disbelieving.

  “Only through death may the contract be broken. He rushed and accepted without knowing the consequences.”

  “So I have to kill her or marry her?” I couldn’t believe my luck. I was getting tired as shit of all the rules I didn’t have a clue about.

  Mr. James held up his hand. “Even though she killed. Even though she called the Council and told them of Jessie’s change. Even though she set the vampire hunter upon your sister which damaged your home. Even though she has kidnapped your friends and your sister, you cannot kill her. You don’t know the repercussions.”