She unlocked her phone. Five minutes past midnight. Hell. This was happening. Forcing herself out of the car was so much harder than she wanted to admit. Walking into the Soul Charmer’s shop nearly two weeks ago and bartering for use of a soul had been the lowest she thought she’d ever sink. She couldn’t say the same anymore. The steel in her spine had held resilient that day because, in the end, she was there to protect her brother. “Family first” carried her through nearly every shit situation. The guiding forces of guilt and loyalty kept her moving forward even when she’d been petrified. Pretending seeing Tess was the same thing as stepping through the Soul Charmer’s door the first time was such a bitter lie she couldn’t accept it. God knew she wanted to.
The walk across the cracked concrete toward the neon TAROT sign with its burned-out T would have been a hell of a lot easier if it were for the greater good. If the final act would absolve her of past sins. If it were about keeping her brother whole. If it could make her mother give a shit about her. Meeting with Tess again wouldn’t do any of those things. It pleased the Soul Charmer, but he was going to give her that soul tomorrow regardless of whether she helped capture Tess.
The disgusting truth was she was meeting with Tess for herself. It made Derek’s life easier, and she wanted to help him. She hadn’t wanted to help anyone this deeply who wasn’t family. Ever. It could have been the magic, or maybe the joint journey through darkness. She didn’t know and, frankly, didn’t care. Whatever fucked up thing bound her and Derek together, she would respect it. At least he’d never held her biggest mistake over her head like Josh had. That already put Derek ahead in the loyalty ledger.
Her resolve to see this thing through steeled, Callie opened the door and stepped inside North Side Tarot.
Bells jingled as the door closed behind her. Small lamps sat on every flat space around the cozy room’s perimeter. The shades—each a tone of purple or black—were lit with soft twenty-watt bulbs. Their illumination was swallowed by the dark rugs layered atop one another, and the plush chairs stacked with velvet pillows wedged in the remaining space. For otherworldly ambiance, it wasn’t half bad. The floor was clean and dry, which already put it twelve steps ahead of the Soul Charmer’s place.
A woman in a pale purple maxi dress sauntered into the room from the rear entrance. “How may I assist you tonight?” she crooned, the tone all too reminiscent of the voice Callie’s mother used when she spoke to the neighbors.
Fresh irritation helped keep her steady. “I’m here to meet Tess.”
She dropped the pretense with a shrug. “Oh. Sure. I’ll let her know you’re here.”
Did this woman know why she was here? Had Tess told her she’d be in tonight? Psyching herself out was not helping. Customers might come here to see Tess. Callie hadn’t considered the fact she probably looked like any regular person coming in and seeking emotional relief through magic and massage; the truth was she fit the profile as well as anyone else.
A wingback chair upholstered in black leather was wedged in the far corner of the room. It didn’t quite fit with the tarot shop’s velvety vibe. So, naturally, Callie took a seat there. It reminded her that however calculated Tess’s façade might have seemed, nothing was ever perfect. Not even when you could wield magic.
“I expected you’d need more time to think.” The melodic overtone couldn’t disguise Tess’s wariness.
Callie wanted to relish in the thought that she’d put Tess on her heels, but she wasn’t an idiot. If she knew anything, it was that emotions were easy to fake, given the right motivation. “It was a long day of bad shit.”
She swaddled herself in as much honesty as her mind could manage. A good lie was ninety percent truth, after all.
“Talking with your former—” she paused letting the question dangle for a breath “—employer could ruin anyone’s day.”
Callie nodded. The Charmer was a ninja-level day ruiner. He just hadn’t been the primary source of today’s frustrations. And, well, she hadn’t actually talked to him. Tess didn’t need to know that though.
“Did he confirm what I told you?” Tess’s hard-on for the Soul Charmer kicked Callie’s heart rate up a notch.
“Does it matter?” Playing disgusted with the Charmer was easy when Tess’s need to feel superior to the man was so plain.
Tess barreled right on through the trapdoor. “He’s quite conniving. I’m glad you were able to look past his lies. We can’t purify anything with his deviation blocking the path.”
Communicating with these soul magic wielders became more difficult the longer she was involved. Tess sounded like she should be screaming on a street corner and clutching an end-of-days sign. Parsing out what was insanity and what was part of this complicated, magical world was way out of Callie’s pay grade.
She did, however, need to move things along. As part of their plan, Derek would be in the back room by now, but he’d still have to sneak past the other woman who worked there. Keeping Tess distracted was Callie’s job. Fuck it. She could indulge the crazy a little longer. “How does the Charm—”
“Don’t say his name in here!” Tess spat. Would she react the same to Ford’s name? Best not to go there.
“Sorry. How does he stop you from purifying the city?” The bitter aftertaste of talking purification clung to her tongue like an accidental swig of week-old milk.
“His slime blocks the path.”
O-kay. Tess might actually be legit crazy. “What do we need to do to clear the path?” Lord, forgive her, she sounded like a member of a cult.
Tess held her forehead and closed her eyes, as though wearied by the mere thought of answering Callie’s basic question. Callie shot a glance toward the door to the store’s back room. Derek needed to speed the hell up, because placating a cult leader wasn’t really a skill in her stockpile.
With a heavy sigh, Tess finally answered. “Additional souls can do wondrous acts in the right body. He has access to a wealth of good, but insists on handing them out to any person who comes in off the street. Those people aren’t using them like they should be, to change the world. They’re using them to break from their celestial contracts. That was never the intention of our magic. He knows better.”
Callie had to admit, Tess had a point about the trivial way society viewed rented souls like get-out-of-hell-free cards, and avoided talking about the bigger picture questions about using them, like where the souls they were borrowing had come from. Kind of like hot dogs. “What’s the real intention of soul magic then?”
“The magic itself doesn’t have intent, child.”
Stalling was harder than people gave it credit, especially when the person you were trying to stall was speaking in riddles and could probably kill you with her mind. “Right, but what’s its purpose?”
“To elevate us.” The incredulity in her tone implied the answer should have been obvious to her.
“That sounds an awful lot like raising our souls to heaven.” Callie couldn’t resist quoting her mother’s favorite line of scripture.
“If you’re suggesting what that man is doing with souls is God’s will, you can leave.”
“No!” She answered too quickly. After a moment she tried again. “Not at all. I recognize you’re doing something more important and valuable.”
She scoffed, but was clearly flattered by the remark. “Saving society is vital. We can’t let him corrupt them all.”
Callie played along. “So you’re saying we need to get his souls?”
“‘We’? So quickly you’ve come aboard.” Tess beamed, but Callie couldn’t tell if it was genuine.
Callie held up her hands as though they were living grenades with the pins pulled. “I don’t want this magic.”
“I can’t make it disappear. I was clear about that.” Why couldn’t she? Because she wanted to use Callie, too?
“Are you willing to help me, though? Control it at least?”
Tess took a step toward her and the first inklings of warmth buzze
d at Callie’s fingertips. When her hands began to glow, she asked, “Can you stay back for now? Trying to avoid flame mode.” Like avoiding carbs, though, it was futile.
“I can’t teach you anything if you don’t accept the magic.” Tess closed in, leaning over the chair where Callie sat.
She held her hands below her face in the space between them. They lit like Roman candles, ready to start firing shots of riotous color through the room. Callie turned her palms away from Tess, hoping it would cool the blaze. The desire to touch Tess welled in Callie’s chest. Where was that coming from? It wasn’t her normal fight-or-flight response. It was darker. The magic inside her—her magic—wanted to be fed. Callie just wanted to protect herself, but would touching Tess burn her, or further ignite the power roiling within Callie’s open hands? This job was officially too damn dangerous.
“How do I accept it?” The question came out as a sob.
Tess’s nails sank into Callie’s right shoulder. The sharp pain was rapidly replaced by a swell of flame, as the fire in her hands began to lick its way up her arm. “You need to feel it.”
Burn victims often passed out from the pain of the heat, but the fire didn’t actually injure Callie. Her head swam, regardless. “It’s too much—”
“It’s because you fight it. Accept the purity of the magic. Pull it in. Embrace it, and the pressure will subside.”
Pressure. Shit. That was the word. Flames licked at her skin, but beneath the surface her muscles throbbed, as though the magic was treating her like a dollar-store water balloon. She was going to pop. “I can’t keep it.” It was too much. Too scary. Too wrong.
“Not a choice. Accept it and ascend—”
“You Tess?” Derek’s growl raked over sandpaper.
Tess jerked her head in his direction, but he’d already shot. She grabbed weakly at the dart protruding from her shoulder. “You … ”
Her body fell on the floor in a heap. Derek shot her again, this time in the chest.
“Was the second one really necessary?” Callie asked.
“Too many surprises today.” Blood smeared his neck and the back of his right hand.
“Agreed.” Callie slumped in the chair as the fire within her quieted to a simmer. She ignored the niggling thoughts of embracing magic. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” he said. Liar.
“The other lady?” Callie swiped a hand across her shoulder. Blood marred her fingers, but the flames had cauterized her wound. There was probably a bright side buried in all this, but she couldn’t spare the energy to searching for it.
“Snoozing. We need to book.” Derek hefted Tess’s limp form over his shoulder. If they hadn’t just tranquilized the woman, Callie might have fantasized she was dating a firefighter instead of a debt collector for one of the bad guys.
Their paper-thin plan was working, but that didn’t mean they were solid. “Are you going to walk across the shopping complex with her like that?”
“It’s dark. Didn’t you say that was beneficial to my kind of work?” He waggled his eyebrows at her, but she still saw the strain in his neck. Something more than the deadweight on his shoulder was hurting him.
“Let’s not screw this up. I’ll bring the car over.” They should have done that in the first place. Shitty plan.
Derek attempted a shrug. “She’s not dead. So technically everything’s going according to plan.”
Tess sure looked corpse-like. Was it getting to her? Probably. “You sure?” She was going to quit agreeing to poorly constructed plans … starting next week.
“Stay behind me, and get the car’s back door open when we get there. I’ll handle the rest.”
The two of them and their unconscious prize held to the shadows. Callie’s hands were just visible as they worked their way through the alleys to the darkened lot they’d parked in. Tess didn’t need to be awake for her surplus of souls to have an impact, even if it was a small one. Callie decided the dim glow and the edge of heat were worth it to stay within arm’s reach of Derek.
The moonlight highlighted the drops of blood he left as they moved. The mounting pressure of the magic threatened to fell her, but now wasn’t the time to wuss out. If she had any real control over the magic, she’d offer to cauterize his wounds, too, but burning the guy you were screwing seemed like a recipe for failure.
The proof of their presence was scattered in a DNA trail behind them. The good part of working with criminals, though, is they weren’t likely to call the cops. Unfortunately, she still needed to get Tess to the Soul Charmer without further incident, and the man with the plan was bleeding too much.
—— CHAPTER EIGHTEEN ——
Callie should have known toting an unconscious woman through Gem City wasn’t going to be easy. It shouldn’t be easy. Kidnapping was probably some sort of criminal art form. Derek’s natural ability there was unsettling, but fortunate, given the circumstances.
Or at least it was until she noticed his chin dipping.
“Derek.” Panic lanced her through the chest.
His grunt of acknowledgement lacked energy. A second later his hand slipped from the steering wheel. Callie yelped and grabbed it just in time to correct their path before the car veered into oncoming traffic. He hadn’t reacted to her scream. Just great. She nudged his foot off the gas and edged the vehicle to the shoulder. Callie wedged a foot onto Derek’s side and hit the brakes. The car slowed, but thanks to their circuitous route there weren’t any streetlights to expose them. Once the car was safely in park, she spread the lapels of Derek’s jacket.
Blood was like any other bodily fluid: gross in all but the correct context. The right side of his shirt was soaked, in the darkness it turned black. She skimmed her fingers across the damp fabric, the tacky substance on top clinging to her fingers. There was a tear in the tee, hidden by the saturation, above his nipple. Contemplating how someone got a knife under his leather jacket to slash him there wouldn’t help anyone. Thinking would lead to panic, and she needed to be in nurse mode. He needed stitches, but she didn’t have the necessary tools here. She slapped his cheek and called his name until he roused enough to look at her.
“Can you hear me?”
He gave her more than his standard grunt, but the words were unintelligible.
She swore internally. “We need to get you patched up.”
“Charmer’s,” he muttered. It made perfect, twisted sense that the Soul Charmer would have the tools to fix Derek’s wound.
Callie scanned the car for a spare bit of fabric to staunch the bleeding. Nothing but a—wait, had Tess moved? Maybe not. Great, now she was psyching herself out. She shrugged out of her coat and yanked her own cotton tee overhead, wadded it up, and then placed it just so against his wound. Managing to get Derek to keep his hand on top of it was a whole separate task.
As she finished the last button on her coat, she heard a groan from the backseat. She didn’t have the energy to fight Tess. Snagging Derek’s tranq gun and plugging the woman with another dart was far simpler. With their hostage back in Dreamsville, Callie hopped out of the car and came around to the driver’s side, nudging Derek across to the passenger seat. A big man like that shouldn’t be so pliant.
She drove as fast as the aging engine would allow, and hoped it was fast enough.
“Most people would mention getting stabbed,” Callie muttered. The two unconscious people in the car weren’t listening, but she wasn’t talking to them; she was trying to distract herself from the fact that with Derek out, she was now on the hook for the safe delivery of both of them.
“I was wrong. We should have waited a day and made a real plan.”
She spared a quick glance at Derek. He sagged against the seat, and his hand had begun to drop from his chest. Callie grabbed it and pressed it firmly against his wound. “Keep it there.”
He sucked in a harsh breath, but at least he wasn’t dead.
“Just because my car is a piece of shit, doesn’t mean bleeding all over it i
s acceptable. You’re cleaning it when this is all over.” Maintaining control now meant he’d be okay. She could crumble once she made it to the Soul Charmer’s shop.
She glanced in the rearview mirror. No red and blue lights were flashing at her, but damn if she didn’t expect cherries to pop behind her any second. How would she explain Derek’s knife wound, or the green darts sticking out of the woman slumped across the back seat? Were licenses required for tranquilizer guns?
Balancing the need to get to the Soul Charmer’s fast against the extreme desire to avoid the Gem City Police, Callie pushed the car to five miles above the posted speed limit, but no further.
Ten minutes later, she parked her car outside the Soul Charmer’s storefront. She didn’t bother with safe distances or worry about being inconspicuous. Tess’s face was planted in a pool of drool. It didn’t get much more conspicuous than that.
Callie rushed around the car and opened the passenger door. Jostling Derek was enough to make him open his eyes. Steady feet weren’t going to be found, but his legs weren’t total Jell-O. Callie managed to get him standing. The bastard was heavy, but she wedged her shoulder in under his armpit and steered him the few steps to the door.
Once inside she yelled, “Charmer, you better have some medical skills!”
“I don’t remember offering you such services. Are you looking for another barter?” The Soul Charmer sauntered out from the back room. He deserved to be punched in the throat for his ambivalence.
She was about to tell him what he could do with his propositions when the Charmer caught sight of Derek. “What happened to him?” he asked in a rush, concern snapping to his face in a flash.
“Knife wound. You any good at stitches?”
The Charmer lifted a stool from behind the counter and brought it toward them. He sat it next to a wall, and Derek dropped onto the wooden seat immediately. The Charmer investigated the injury, holding up Callie’s wadded shirt in question. She shrugged and he gave Derek’s wound a closer look. “I can heal him,” he said finally.
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