The Soul Healer

by Melissa Giorgio

  “Well, demons can summon other demons,” Philip said.

  I blinked. “Excuse me, what?”

  “You didn’t know that?” Nina asked as we reached our floor and the doors slid open.

  “Uh, no, Rafe neglected to tell me that part,” I said. Nina exited first, and we followed, me and Philip walking side by side. I directed my questions to him. “Is that common? For demons to summon other demons?”

  “Oh, yeah.” He looked grim. “They’re first brought here, and then they decide to call their friends over. It’s a giant demon party—where the humans are appetizers.”

  Oh my god, that was the most awful thing I had ever heard. No wonder Rafe had kept that particular little fact to himself. I’m going to give him hell for keeping that from me! “But shouldn’t the world be overrun with demons by now, if that’s the case?”

  “It’s just as hard for demons to summon as it is for sorcerers,” Nina explained. “If it wasn’t, then yes, you’d be right. There would be more demons than humans.”

  “But because it’s such a hard spell, there’s a little bit of a balance,” Philip said. “But Silver Moon still needs to hunt constantly, to make sure that balance continues to exist. Each time we screw up, miss a demon, that’s a chance for another one to be brought here.” He paused and turned his face away from me. “That’s why the hunters here hated Rafe. He can’t See demons when they’re glamoured, and every missed opportunity is another step back for Silver Moon.”

  Maybe that’s why Rafe hadn’t told me. Because he was embarrassed and ashamed for holding Silver Moon back. I squeezed my hands into fists. “That’s crap and anyone who believes that is going to get a beating from me.”

  Philip held his hands up. “Hey, I was on his side, right from the start. Rafe is a damn good hunter, one of the best. Anyone who said otherwise was just jealous.”

  “And a giant ass,” I said.

  “That too. What did Kain say yesterday? A douche-dick?” Philip couldn’t even say the words without laughing.

  I, on the other hand, remained sober. “Did Kain believe that, too? That Rafe was holding Silver Moon back?”

  He sighed heavily. “I told you, the only reason he teased Rafe was because he wanted to fit in. I don’t think—he’s not really the type to believe bullshit like that, you know?”

  “But you don’t know for sure what he thought.”

  “I…” Philip trailed off helplessly. “I want to believe it’s true.”

  But maybe Philip was so blinded by his feelings for Kain, he couldn’t see the actual truth. If Kain really felt that way about Rafe, then there was no way we could be friends. Even if he had helped me out yesterday. Hearing this new bit of information about Rafe filled me with both sadness and anger. I was also hurt that he had felt he couldn’t share it with me. We told each other everything, or at least, I had thought we did… Why hadn’t he said anything? Did he honestly expect me to start judging him? My stomach clenched painfully. Did he really think that little of me?

  “Are you okay?” Philip asked in a whisper as he touched me lightly on the arm. “Sorry if I said anything wrong. It must be hard, hearing about what Rafe had to go through when he was here.”

  But how was it any different from Philip being teased for being gay? I managed to give him a small smile. “No, it’s fine. I just—I need to see him, Phil. And soon. There’s so much we need to talk about.”

  His face was troubled as we joined Nina in front of a huge steel door, but he didn’t say anything. And what could he say? He was sorry that he wanted me to bring his dead best friend back to life? How could I blame him for that? If something happened to Penny or Rafe, and there was a way to bring them back, wouldn’t I do whatever I could to make that come true?

  Wouldn’t we all?

  “Ready?” Nina asked, oblivious to the tension that hung over us like a storm cloud. Without waiting for an answer, she pushed the heavy door open.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  A blast of cold air greeted us, and I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering. Nina fumbled for a moment before locating the light switch and flipping it on. Rows of fluorescent lights flickered on, filling the room with a humming noise.

  Nina had no problem skipping inside, but I remained where I was, one hand on the doorframe. The room was long and narrow, with operating tables lined up in two neat rows. The ones closest to me were empty, but farther back I saw two with sheets over them, hiding whatever horror lied beneath.

  “Are you sure you want to see this?” Philip asked. He hadn’t gone in either—in fact, from the expression on his face, he looked like he’d rather be anywhere but here. “There are other things you can see, you know. We have a rec room with games and TVs… We could watch a movie?”

  I laughed quietly to myself. As if my life was that normal that I could just sit around and watch movies all day. No, if I wasn’t here, finding out what Silver Moon did to dead demons, then I would be in the library, searching for obscure references to Soul Healers.

  Hmm, yeah, my choices sucked. And what about the fact that I was choosing to see dissected demons? What did that say about me?

  I was seriously messed up. Like, big time.

  Well, at least I wasn’t dancing around the room like Nina currently was, her thigh-high boots clomping against the floor. I guess I wasn’t as messed up as I could be, right?

  Wondering if I was making the worst mistake of my life (would I ever be able to fall asleep again after seeing a chopped up demon?), I stepped into the room. The temperature dropped about a hundred degrees, and I pulled my sleeves over my hands before stuffing them under my armpits. “Argh, I need a jacket,” I complained, my nose already going numb.

  “I’d give you my hoodie except I already did,” Philip replied. “Where is it, by the way? You didn’t lose it, did you?”

  I waved a hand. “It’s back in my room, somewhere. I think…”

  “You think?”

  “Guys, hurry up!” Nina called impatiently. She was jumping up and down next to one of the covered demon bodies. “This is so cool. I can’t wait to see it.”

  I exchanged a look with Philip. “Um, her enthusiasm over seeing a dead demon is seriously disturbing, right?”

  “Absolutely. Normal people throw up, not act like they’re about to see their favorite celebrity,” he said.

  “Okay, just making sure.”

  We approached Nina, who said, “Finally!” Grabbing the edge of the gray sheet, she pulled it back with a flourish, like a magician about to reveal a magic trick. But there was no adorable white bunny sitting under the sheet. Oh no, hell no. I would have killed for a bunny under that sheet, instead of—

  Argh. I was not the squeamish sort, not by a long shot, but the mangled, headless demon body resting on the table made even my iron stomach churn. It was a thousand times worse than the demon anatomy book I had mistakenly picked up yesterday in the library. For a moment, I thought my nice breakfast was about to come back up, but once I started taking deep breaths through my mouth (the smell! The smell was so bad, ahhh!), it got slightly better.

  Slightly.

  “Uaragarsdf,” Philip said, covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve and turning away. “So disgusting. So, so disgusting. I’m so glad I didn’t eat breakfast. If you need me, I will be on the other side of the room, away from the horrible, nasty, foul demon.” He stomped off, pulling out his phone and checking it again.

  With Philip gone, I was forced to turn my attention back to Nina and…the headless demon. Why did I say I wanted to see this again?

  “Cool, right?” Nina asked.

  Cool? I… I wouldn’t use that word to describe the thing in front of me, ever. The thing was—oh god, it was so gross. It was probably eight feet tall, with its feet—shaped like bird talons—hanging off the sides of the table. Instead of feathers (to match the talons), it had gray skin, a disgusting, sickly color that I assumed came from being dead, but who knew? Horn Boy’s skin had been red,
so why couldn’t this thing be naturally gray?

  Unless it had once had feathers, but the hunters had plucked them all off during the experiments. For some reason, comparing this thing to a plucked chicken did not make the experience any more pleasant. Worse, in fact. Now I never wanted to see a chicken again—dead or alive.

  The demon’s entire midsection was cut open, revealing lots of fun icky things inside. I peered in, then instantly wished I hadn’t. It looked like some of the organs had been cut out, but I sucked at science, so I had no idea what any of the lumpy things were.

  “So they bring the demon carcass back here and cut it open and do all sorts of experiments,” Nina explained. “Weighing organs and fun things like that.”

  Fun?

  “And most of the time, they aren’t similar to humans at all, which leads to all sorts of crazy theories.” Nina paused. “You’ve seen more than one demon before, right?”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen a few.” Unfortunately.

  “And you’ve noticed how they’re all different?”

  I nodded. “Actually, I wondered about that. Like, how do you train against something that’s different each and every time? I mean, one could have spikes on its skin, one could shoot poison at you…” Okay, I was totally making this crap up as I went, but I bet there were poison-shooting spikey demons out there. I just hoped I never had to meet one.

  “Exactly!” Nina said. She pointed to a whiteboard at the end of the room. It was covered in scribbles, and I was too far away to make out what they said. “The hunters make notes on there, and then later transcribe them to a computer. They’ve filled books and books and books on everything they’ve discovered. No two demons are ever exactly the same.”

  “Are there similar types, though? Rafe and I fought one that didn’t have any bones in its body. Have there been others like that?”

  Nina scrunched up her face, thinking. “Yeah, but it could have had, I don’t know, a lion’s head. Did yours have a lion head?”

  “No, it had four creepy eyes, and later on it split itself into two.”

  “See what I mean?” Nina said. “They’re all different. I’m sure there are other demons that could split themselves into two, but they wouldn’t be boneless. They might walk on all fours or turn invisible—”

  “Ohmygod, what?” I asked, my voice rising. “There are invisible demons?” As if the regular kind wasn’t bad enough.

  “In the past, there have been. Not too often, thank goodness.” Nina’s face darkened; it was weird seeing her so serious for once. “I read about it in a book once. It was so bad, it nearly wiped out every hunter it faced. I think, like, only two hunters survived? This was hundreds of years ago, though, not anything recent.”

  “Still, that’s awful.” I shuddered. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thank god for Silver Moon.”

  She shot me an amused look. “We’re not bad, Gabi. Everything we do, we do to save people. Just remember that.”

  Yes, but at what cost? I wanted to ask her, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. Nina was brainwashed, but I couldn’t blame her. She’d been part of Silver Moon her whole life, while I had only just learned about them a few months ago. I could see things from both sides, while she was biased. I understood wanting to save lives, but you had to draw a line at some point.

  Kidnapping teenage girls, for example. That’s bad. Hunting demons who prey on humans? That’s good. See the difference, Mister Director?

  “So, what happens after they finish dissecting it?” I asked, tired of talking (and thinking) about Silver Moon. It only made me angry and upset, and I was tired of being angry and upset.

  “They burn it.” Nina hooked a thumb behind her, toward another door. “There are incinerators in there. It’s the only way Silver Moon does it. They don’t bury them.”

  “Why, are they afraid the body will rise up and go looking for its head?” I joked.

  But Nina didn’t laugh. “No. If the body is still intact, a sorcerer can reanimate it, give it a new soul, a new head, and bam, instant demon, without all the messy summoning.”

  My mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”

  “Gross, right?” she asked, gesturing to the doorway again. “If you burn the body, there’s no way they can be reanimated. They’re gone, body and soul, and they don’t go back to whatever dimension they originally came from. Because of that, the sorcerer will never be able to summon that demon again.”

  “Do people actually summon the same demons over and over again?” I asked. “If they’re not killed by Silver Moon?”

  “Yeah, if a sorcerer has a particular favorite, they will summon them, have them do their dirty work, and then send them back to their dimension to wait until they’re called again. It’s slightly easier to recall a favorite, then summon a new one.”

  My mind was officially blown. I thought they were summoned, killed by Silver Moon, and that was the end of that. The sorcerer tried again with a different demon or just gave up. But to think of them evading the hunters and using a particular demon like a soldier or mercenary? The war between hunters and sorcerers was more involved than I had ever imagined. I had stupidly assumed all sorcerers were crazy like Matthew Davenport, and all demons were drooling, stupid creatures. If Davenport had been a serious sorcerer, instead of a hunter-turned-demon, what sort of monsters would he have summoned?

  I was glad he was dead. Really freaking glad. And I didn’t care if that made me a monster. Davenport being dead equaled a lot of lives saved. Including my sister’s.

  And me. And Rafe. And Evan. So yeah, we were definitely better off without Davenport around.

  But I couldn’t help but wonder who else was out there, ready to face off against Silver Moon with intelligent demons.

  Chapter Thirty

  “So now you know all sorts of cool things,” Nina said, tugging the sheet over the dead demon once more. I heaved a sigh of relief once its nasty corpse was out of sight. Now if only she could get rid of the smell just as easily.

  “Oh, wait.” I raised my hand like we were in class. “What about the demons Rafe kills? I’ve been to his apartment; he doesn’t have an incinerator in there.”

  She laughed. “No, there are drop-off points for hunters that live away from HQ. Bodies are shipped there, usually by the hunters themselves, and then they’re properly disposed of. If the demon is highly unique, they’ll send them to HQ, but most of the time they’re just cremated. We have enough demons to deal with as it is.”

  I thought of Manhattan, filled with millions of people. It was like a buffet for demons! If any sorcerer wanted to create chaos, all they had to do was come to the city, summon a demon, and sit back and watch the fun. The hunters must work overtime, trying to keep the demon numbers down. “It must have killed Charles and the others, to lose hunters like Rafe and Evan.”

  “Most people expected it,” she said quietly. “With everything that happened, first with Rafe’s parents, and then Alex? No one was surprised when they left, in all honesty.”

  “Did you know Rafe’s parents?” I bit my lip, wondering if I was overstepping. Was it weird, discussing my boyfriend’s life with other people? It wasn’t like he hadn’t been honest with me when I asked. But unless Rafe brought them up first, I had refrained from asking about them again. I had seen how much it hurt him to talk about them. They may have died a few years ago, but the wounds were still raw. Honestly, I doubted they would ever fully heal.

  “Of course,” Nina answered. She started walking toward the door, her steps slow and deliberate, and I followed. Philip was all the way on the other side of the room, leaning against one of the empty operating tables as he stared at his phone. “Everyone knew his parents, especially his father, Liam. He was famous for being ruthless and untouchable in his fights. He loved the hunt and Silver Moon.” Nina pointed to Philip with chin. “Didn’t you know? Liam and Charles were very close, like brothers, almost.”

  “No, I didn’t.” Rafe had kept quiet about
Silver Moon; now that I was here, I knew he had done it to protect me.

  “They hunted together and everything,” Nina said. “I can remember them coming back after fights, covered in green blood, laughing and joking like they had been out drinking.”

  That I couldn’t picture. Liam had been very stoic, from what Rafe had told me, and Charles? He was too evil to joke. Unless… “He must have taken Liam’s death pretty hard then, huh?” For him to turn into an evil, heartless bastard, I actually meant, but since Nina was all Team Charles, I didn’t think she’d appreciate that.

  “Mmm.” She played with one of the pink and white striped bracelets on her arm. “Actually, they had a falling out before that.”

  “What happened?”

  “They were both up for the director position,” Nina said. “It was bad; they went from being friends to being bitter rivals as they competed against one another. And then Rafe messed up and that demon killed his parents—”

  “Rafe did not mess up,” I snapped.

  She blinked, surprised at my sudden anger. “He didn’t See the demon—”

  “He was twelve and not having the Sight is not his fault.” I pointed a finger at her. “He already blames himself for it, which is bad enough. Don’t you dare say he’s the reason his parents are dead.” My words hung in the air between us as I stared her down. I was coiled, tense and furious, ready to defend my boyfriend’s honor, or die trying.

  But Nina smiled softly. “Of course. I don’t blame Rafe. Like you said, he was only twelve. And he’s one of the best hunters around, even without the Sight. What happened that day was a tragic accident, nothing more.”

  I let out a slow, long breath, feeling my anger drain away as I mumbled an apology for lashing out at her.

  “It’s fine,” she said with a wave of her hand.

  “What happened, then, after they were killed?”