Soul Ties

by Lisa Swallow

  Ava stroked his face. “I don’t understand everything you tell me about this war.”

  “In time I can tell you,” he said and smiled.

  Ava frowned, sitting up, away from him. “In time? Are you hiding something from me?”

  “No, the people I work with want things kept secret. I have to respect that and…”

  “And I’m a soul-hunter?” she said, shoulders stiffening.

  He caught her hand. “No, you’re Ava. Dahlia doesn’t know about everything either. All she cares about is me slaughtering as many demons as I can.”

  “Apart from Jack.”

  “Yes. She wants to help him. Their soul-tie is what’s keeping them together but he’s fighting against her. In his mind, he doesn’t believe he has any humanity left, but I’ve seen a change in him. He’s responding to her now.”

  Ava picked up a brittle leaf from the floor and crumbled it in her hand. “It’s so sad. I wish I’d been kinder to her.”

  “The animosity was mutual, don’t feel bad. I was the one getting the brunt of her anger when I let you live.” Keir laughed to himself and stroked her cheek, a small crease forming along his brow. “I do wonder…” he started.

  “Wonder, what?”

  Keir shook his head, dislodging a thought. “Nothing.”

  He stood and pulled Ava to her feet. “Look at you,” he grinned, “You look like a woodland Fae, leaves in your hair.”

  His smile stopped time, turned the brightness of Ava’s world up ten notches, knowing she created it. Catching his arm, she drew him close to kiss the smile off his lips so she could hold it forever.

  *

  Ava wandered alone back to her dorm, the earthy smell of the ground mingled with Keir’s spicy scent on her gloved hands. She rubbed her hand against her lips, already feeling the emptiness that existed when he wasn’t around.

  The door to her room was ajar and a light was on.

  Ava held her breath and moved closer, listening. She pushed open the door further with her boot, remaining outside, peering in. Light from the campus shone through her unlit window, casting shadows across her desk. Straining her eyes, she saw nothing. No movement. Cautiously, she took a step inside.

  The door clicked shut behind her.

  “Ava.”

  She spun around, ready to defend herself and found herself facing a man around her own age, tall, mussed brown hair and deep brown eyes narrowed at her.

  “Who are you?” she demanded.

  The man moved in front of the door, blocking her way out. “Darius sent me. He wants to see you.”

  Ava stumbled backwards, mind scrambling. The window. She turned away from him, pushing down on the fastening but he was on her within seconds. He locked an arm around her neck and she let out a choked scream. Gripping her with an inhuman strength, he squeezed the air from her lungs. She collapsed into darkness.

  Chapter 17

  Darkness. How long had she been here now? Curled up in a ball in a corner, Ava opened her eyes. She’d lost track of time - days, weeks? The first time Ava awoke she was sure she’d been sent to Hell. A solitary Hell where there was nothing but blackness and cold. The small cell stretched barely two meters across, enclosed by a high ceiling and windowless walls. Breath constricted by claustrophobia, she’d lain quietly, aching and confused.

  Until the man came, at the same time each day.

  He never spoke, dragged her out, gave her food - pushed her toward the bathroom before seizing her and locking her back in the darkness. How many times now? She wasn’t sure.

  Drifting between the waking world and sleep, she saw Keir’s eyes, heard his voice. She’d awake with a start from dreams where he held her; comforted her; only to find herself lying on the cold, concrete floor.

  The souls. She was being punished for the souls. But she was alive.

  The door opened and she squinted. The light shining behind a tall man in the doorway prevented her seeing his shadowed face. Ava tensed, waiting for him to come over and grab her.

  “He wants to see you now,” said a gruff voice, a different voice - not the same man.

  His broad figure remained silhouetted in front of the door. “I said now. Get up.”

  Ava got on her hands and knees and pushed herself to her feet, legs weak as she stumbled toward him out of the musty cell.

  *

  She sat in the chair, shoulders slumped, looking at her dirty fingernails. She remembered the last time he called her here - the day he told her to go and retrieve a Nephilim soul.

  This wasn’t going to end well.

  The door closed behind her, and Darius crossed the room, lowering himself into the chair opposite. He rested his elbows on the table, and leaned forward, frowning.

  “Ava.” His voice was even, no sign of his mood.

  She didn’t look up, focusing on stopping her hands trembling.

  “I’ve heard some things about you that have upset me,” he continued, “and here you are without the Nephilim’s soul.”

  Ava stared mutely at the floor.

  “We have discussed the course of action to take, what to do with you next.”

  Ava peered at him from beneath her tangled hair. He looked the same as before; harsh features and hair scraped from his face into a ponytail. The glittering fury in his grey eyes fueled her racing heart.

  “We considered killing you. Then we thought about returning you to the Fated,” he said in a matter of fact voice, “but luckily for you, your value supersedes that decision.”

  “Value?” She didn’t recognize her tiny, hoarse voice. She’d not spoken to anyone since her capture.

  “You have failed in your task but have achieved something much more beneficial. You’re close to the Nephilim boy. You know his secrets, your information invaluable.”

  Ava’s head spun, breath coming out in short bursts. “You want to know his secrets? I don’t think I know any.”

  “You do. You know how he does things, who he works for and what their plans are.”

  “I don’t know all those things.” Ava knew she did and she held information that could save her life.

  Darius stood and moved to the large window, looking out at the bright world she wanted to be part of. “I don’t know why you released those souls, perhaps you were drawn in by his fervor. Those poor souls are lost forever, they’ll never belong anywhere. Did you not consider this?”

  Ava wanted to tell him what Keir told her, how trapping souls and returning them to the Caelestia was wrong. As wrong as the Demon Lords stealing the souls too.

  Challenging Darius wouldn’t be wise.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Releasing those souls was a major crime. A crime which ordinarily could not be atoned for. But I told the Caelestia this was part of your plan, your actions were necessary to get close to him. You were the one strong enough to entangle yourself with his life and find the secrets behind his actions. And that you realized this was more important than merely stealing his soul. So I left you in his world. But you took too long.”

  Darius paused, walking softly across the room and standing above her. “The explanation I gave the Caelestia is correct, isn’t it, Ava?”

  Tears built in Ava’s eyes and she rubbed them away with her dirty sleeve.

  “Consider your answer carefully, Ava, it’s the answer I will take to them. Before they make the final decision on your fate.”

  The Caelestia didn’t bother with people like her, why consider sparing the life of a treacherous soul-hunters? Darius wanted her alive, bargaining for her life. Why? Why not send a different girl? Surely she was expendable?

  “Time is of the essence, Ava.”

  Tired, confused, trapped. She had one option.

  “Yes, that’s correct,” she said, the word barely audible.

  “I knew you would give me the right answer.” Darius’s frighteningly wide grin disconcerted Ava, she’d never seen him smile before and the look in his eyes added malice to his words.


  “So what happens now?”

  “I will tell the Caelestia and they will send you back.”

  Ava’s stomach flipped. “Back?” Back to Keir.

  “To finish the job. Find the information we need. Then bring back his soul.”

  Ava slumped further in her chair, the room spinning around her. Hungry and tired, her brain couldn’t process his words. “I can’t go back.”

  She jumped as Darius slammed his hand on the wooden desk, jerking her to reality. “You don’t get a choice.”

  He sat on the edge of the desk and she stared at his polished black shoes, concentrating on staying conscious.

  “Tell me, Ava, have you heard of the Hell realms.”

  “Yes.”

  “So you know what your existence would be if you were sent to the lowest? The torture you would suffer?”

  Ava dug her nails into her palms, bile rising from her stomach. No one came back from there.

  He stood again. “Actually you probably don’t. Nobody knows such suffering unless they experience it. That’s what they wanted to do to you. Want to do. A deterrent for other soul-hunters who might follow your path when they are in the human world. They wanted to send you there for eternity.”

  Ava pulled at her hair, covering her ears, wishing she was still cowering in the little room, wishing she’d never made the choice to leave the Fated. Soul-hunters never succeeded in killing Nephilim. She recalled Keir’s words - she’d signed her death warrant the day she decided to become a soul-hunter.

  And here was her choice: death at Keir’s hands or eternal torture. A choice of Hells.

  “What if he kills me first?” she asked, looking to Darius.

  “Then we’ve tried. You’re still dispensable, we may as well get the last drop of usefulness from you. But don’t think that’s the easy way out, because the chances of this particular Nephilim killing you appear low.”

  He ran his finger along his pile of manila files in front of him, pulled the folder out and flicked it open.

  “This is the main problem for you.” He slid the open file across the table to Ava. A picture of Dahlia was attached to the papers inside. “I suggest you begin by eradicating her.”

  Dazed, Ava stared at the photo in front of her. “Why did you release her from her bonds?”

  Darius sneered. “If she was stupid enough to want a human existence, she wouldn’t be much use to us. So we released her, we’d almost finished with her anyway.”

  Ava swallowed.

  Darius’s grey eyes narrowed to slits on his face. “That won’t be an option for you. We will not release you. I have told you your choices.”

  A choice between death and an eternity in Hell. She would never be free now.

  Chapter 18

  Ava couldn’t hide anymore. She painted her face with the kohl eyed persona, picked up her bag and left the dorm room, stomping down the hall in her motorcycle boots. Back to Ava the soul-hunter, needing a Nephilim soul to trade for her life.

  She saw Keir within minutes. He leaned against the breeze-block wall, by their seminar room, a sadness etched into his features. Ava hesitated, catching glimpses of him between the groups walking toward class. The familiar chatter and shoes squeaking, as students moved along, hurt her ears after so long in the quiet of the cell. Someone behind jostled her and she stepped back against the opposite wall, deliberating what to do. Her adrenaline-fueled body froze, memories of his touch heating her face. Other girls glanced at him as they passed, appraising his long legs and killer body, trying to catch his breathtakingly beautiful eyes. Ava gritted her teeth. Girls who thought Keir was available. Her look settled on his full mouth, remembering their kisses and the smiles he only gave to her.

  She couldn’t let him see her, wasn’t ready yet.

  Ava took a couple of steps back, readying herself to turn and run, bumping into the person behind her.

  “Get out of the fucking way!” she hissed, pushing them to one side

  She ran out of the nearest door and bent over, trying to calm her hammering heart, fighting back the tears. Nobody else sat on the bench in the quiet courtyard, the crisp air a welcome relief after the noisy, claustrophobic corridor.

  “Ava.”

  Keir rushed toward Ava and pulled her to him, she smelt the familiar spicy, comforting Keir scent as he squashed her face against his jacket. Home. Unwanted tears spilt into the fabric. He gently moved her away and held her by the shoulders, searching her face.

  “Where have you been?”

  The violet flecked, sapphire eyes she’d searched out the first time she arrived on campus gazed at her in concern and she trembled. Ava cast her eyes down and held her breath.

  “You’ve been gone almost two weeks - what happened?” Stepping backwards he looked her up and down. “You’ve lost weight - you look ill.” Keir dipped his head to meet her downcast gaze. “Tell me what happened?”

  Story time. Ava took a deep breath.

  “Darius.”

  Keir’s hand dropped. “What?”

  “Yeah.” She glanced at him, gauging his reaction.

  “And you’re alive?” Already the suspicion crossed his face, hidden behind another smile.

  “They banished me, I’m stuck here now.”

  “Like Dahlia?”

  “Kind of.”

  “Kind of?”

  Ava sucked in the cool air, perspiration growing on the back of her neck. “She wanted to stay here.”

  A shadow crossed Keir’s face. “You don’t want to stay here?” She knew what he meant - stay with him.

  “I don’t like people making my decisions for me, Keir. That’s what I meant.”

  Keir bit his lip, studying her. Shit. Now he was suspicious.

  “I can help you still, like Dahlia.” She pulled her bag of books up her shoulder. “But I’m probably not much use to you, now I’m a fucking human.”

  He stretched out a hand, brushing her lips with his fingers. Ava shivered.

  “I see your experience hasn’t changed your foul mouth.” Amusement curled one corner of his mouth

  She pushed him, involuntarily smiling.

  His fingers continued exploring her face, “I thought you were dead, and I’d never see you again. I missed you so much.”

  She closed her eyes against his touch, fighting the power of the heat igniting and spreading through her veins.

  “I’m tired,” she said, voice flat.

  “What did they do to you?” He cupped her chin with his long fingers.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Oh, Ava…” He encompassed her in his arms, holding her so tightly she thought she would suffocate.

  Wriggling out of his grasp, she put a hand on his hard chest. “I want to be on my own for a while.” She had to avoid the intense blue eyes gazing at her.

  Keir hand tipped her chin toward his. “Oh, Ava, I’m so sorry.”

  As he moved his face to kiss her, she pulled away, ducked her head and left.

  *

  She hadn’t really wanted to be alone in her small room, the memory of the cramped cell she’d left too immediate. So Ava had sat on the bench, besides the fountain she thought of as her’s and Keir’s. She plugged into her headphones as she listened to music, which reminded her of him. Torturing herself. The water shot skyward and bubbled down the stone fountain, circling in infinity. Here she could breathe the fresh air, smell the distant bonfires of the winter. She hated the cold, but her icy cheeks reminded her of freedom.

  Until the darkness of dusk came. The light and warmth of her room beckoned her away.

  She kicked open the door to the dorm block and the heavy door slammed against the wall. Ava paused. Keir waited outside her room. Her stomach turned over, a mirror image of him waiting for her outside her room once before leapt into her mind. The day he came back, and she thought he didn’t want her. The evening they became lost in each other, and their worlds were pushed to one side.

  Sh
e wished she could look at him just once and her body not overwhelm her with desire. The heat in her face spread downwards, as she swept her eyes across the length of his body. He was even dressed the same as that night, in his brown leather jacket and jeans hugging his lean, muscled legs. Keir, so casually, unknowingly sexy. And he was focusing his intense blue eyes on her, as if she were the only person he wanted to see in this world.

  “Ava.” He hurried toward her.

  She had no choice. She folded her arms across her chest so he couldn’t take hold of her. “I said I wanted to be on my own.”

  Keir stopped short of touching her. “Ava, I’ve been so worried about you and after you told me about Darius… I felt guilty. This is my fault.”

  “Your fault?”

  “I made you release the souls. I shouldn’t have got you involved.”

  The corridor was empty, their voices echoed in the silence. Ava picked at a notice hanging on the wall. “It was my choice.”

  “Is that why you don’t want to be near me? Because you blame me?” he asked.

  “No.” Ava ignored the part of her mind willing her to say yes, it’s your fault; you did this. To use the guilt as the easy way to get to him, and fulfill her orders before Keir drew her in again.

  “Are you sure?” Keir fidgeted, rubbing his hands on his jeans - fighting with himself not to touch her. Ava held her folded arms tighter, before her resolve weakened.

  She was his weakness. And her advantage.

  Ava sucked in a breath. “I need time, Keir. I’m tired”

  Keir moved closer. “I missed you,” he whispered.

  Ava gritted her teeth, fighting against the urge to throw herself into his arms, feel comforted by him. Those beautiful, soul-searching eyes focused on her as if he’d found the most precious thing in his life, the Ava he’d lost, now back.

  That Ava had gone. She’d come back to steal his soul. She couldn’t touch him, enjoy the softness of his lips and the flames which ignited when their skin touched. The electricity crackled between them, recognizable. Ava dug her nails into her arms. Don’t touch him.