Soul Dealers

by D. N. Leo

He rolled away to avoid it landing on him.

  There were footsteps and bangs on the door. Then the door swung open, and the two security men stood in the doorway with guns in their hands. The gun he brought from Eudaiz didn’t work before, he wasn’t sure the primitive guns on Earth would work. But he had no other choice.

  From behind, Zach saw Leon approaching. He sprung quickly to his feet and grabbed at the animal’s back. It was heavy. Leon darted forward and grabbed it from the other side. Together, they pushed the animal toward the door where it received several bullets from the security officers.

  To Zach’s surprise, the earthly technology killed the magical creature.

  Zach was sure that was the end of it. He hoped so because that was the end of his energy. His knees buckled, and he heard a thud on the floor before his own body hit it. It must have been Leon.

  Lying on the floor, Zach heard a haunting howl from the bush in the distance. It was hollow and eerie. Was it an animal? He thought it might not be an animal cry but one from some kind of magical creature.

  He had a feeling they had stirred up something evil, and the day of doom was coming their way.

  Then he heard nothing else.

  Chapter 36

  Zach woke to find himself staring at the white ceiling of the small hotel room. Whatever he was lying on was comfortable, so he didn’t think he was on the floor. He remembered what happened and immediately reached for his wrist unit. It was still there. He sat up abruptly and saw Mya and Kirra sleeping on the floor in a corner. He was lying on the only bed in the hotel room, and next to him was Leon, who had also sat up and was panting.

  “Oh great!” Zach muttered, looking at the women sleeping on the floor, their heads resting on folded hotel towels. He got up and went to the corner.

  Leon stood gawking at his chest in the mirror. There wasn’t even a faint scar from his wounds.

  Zach knew well the confused feeling Leon was experiencing. His eudqi had healed Leon. Zach carried a scar on his chest because the wound he suffered in Eudaiz had been fatal, and the blade that had pierced his heart wasn’t an ordinary sword but one belonging to the most notorious monster in the cosmos.

  On that scale, a few scratches on Leon’s chest didn’t compare, even if from a shapeshifter. Zach sat on the floor next to Mya and pulled her up into his arms. He kissed her forehead. “It can’t be comfortable sleeping on the floor,” he whispered into her ear.

  She opened her eyes groggily and smiled at him. “How’re you feeling?” she asked.

  “Good as new. You know how Eudaizian energy heals me. You’ve seen it.”

  She smiled. “Indeed.”

  Kirra awoke and sat up, leaning against the wall. “This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said.

  Zach chuckled. “At least you’re open to possibilities.”

  Leon turned around and pointed to his chest. He mangled out a single English word, “Fixed.” Then he grinned.

  “You’re more than fixed. You’re glowing,” Kirra said.

  “We couldn’t have done it without you, Kirra,” Zach said. “How did you girls convince security to leave us in here after the leopard stunt?”

  “We didn’t convince them of anything. They had to dispose of the animal, and we said we’d take you boys to the hospital. Then Kirra just drove around the block and came back.”

  Zach chuckled. “So you didn’t really go into the bush last night, did you?”

  Kirra shrugged and said nothing.

  “Jesus Christ, Kirra! And I can’t believe you let her—” Zach looked at Mya.

  Mya cut in, “I couldn’t stop her, Zach.”

  “Not her fault. I have legs. I can go wherever I want,” Kirra deadpanned.

  “I know you feel responsible for what happened to Leon. But it wasn’t your fault. We came here for a reason, and that’s what drew the wild animals in,” Zach said.

  “And living your whole life feeling responsible for others’ actions sucks,” Mya said. “Luckily the gun discharge scared the cats away. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be sitting around here now.”

  Zach scowled. “Cats. How many were there?”

  “Only a couple. But as Mya said, the gunshots scared them away. So yes, you saved the day. Happy?” Kirra stood.

  “They weren’t scared of the guns. I don’t think so.” Zach shook his head. “There was something unusual about the cat we killed last night. And I heard a howl, like a mourning cry from the bush.”

  Kirra nodded. “That must have been from the little cat.”

  Mya shook her head and sat on a small chair in a corner of the room. “It wasn’t a little cat. It was a lynx.”

  “A what?” Kirra asked.

  “Lynx? As in the popular grooming products for men?” Zach asked with a straight face.

  Leon sat on the bed. He didn’t look happy as he couldn’t grasp what the conversation was about.

  Mya tied her long hair back, making her face look sharper, her eyes bigger and darker. “The lynx is a kind of wild cat. The magical lynx is extremely dangerous because it has more talent than ordinary cats. I can’t imagine what a shapeshifter lynx could do. I thought magical lynxes were extinct.”

  “How can you be so sure it was magical? It looked like a wild cat to me,” Kirra said.

  “I’ve seen it in the Babylonian court. Leon knows it, too, if he can understand what we’re talking about here. And in terms of talent, one of the most dangerous tricks a lynx can do is psychic. It can see through solid objects.”

  They turned and looked at Leon and saw his eyes had darkened. He had made sense of part of the conversation and had speculated the rest. By the look on his face, his speculation might be quite close to the mark.

  Zach shook his head. “Now we’re talking about a lynx shapeshifter with psychic ability. That explains why, when we killed the cat last night, I heard a shriek from the woods. It seems we didn’t kill just any cat but one of importance to the lynx in the woods. We pissed it off. Great!”

  Mya stood. “So the cat last night simply paid you a visit? Or did it want something? I imagine if it had wanted to eat you alive, it would have just attacked. There was no point luring us away to get into this hotel room and wait for you.”

  Zach frowned and looked at his wrist unit. Then he looked at Mya. “It wanted my wrist unit.”

  “It wanted to wear your watch?” Kirra arched an eyebrow. “I can’t imagine it would have a lot of use for that in the bush.”

  Zach shook his head. “This isn’t an ordinary watch. It has a map and a connection to the multiversal gateway. Our wild cats wanted to travel the multiverse. But why? I wonder if it’ll come back for the wrist unit.”

  Kirra stood and headed for the door. “If they come again, I’ll have more rifles waiting.”

  “Don’t worry about getting more rifles,” Zach said. “I’m afraid they’re too slow. My gun can kill most space creatures in the cosmos, but it didn’t do the cat last night any damage. It does appear that metal from ordinary earthly objects such as bullets and knives hurt it. You should see what Leon did with his little knife last night.”

  Zach approached the table in the corner to get to Leon’s knife. Before he got there, he heard Leon’s objection in English, “Don’t touch yourself. Let me.”

  “Excuse me?” Zach spun around to see Leon had stood up from the bed.

  Mya and Kirra rolled out laughing.

  Leon frowned at the women’s reaction.

  Zach turned on his unit’s translation function and explained to Leon how people would misunderstand what he had just said. Leon’s face looked as if it was on fire, and he sat back down.

  Zach chuckled. “I guess your English is still a lot better than when we met a short while ago. I couldn’t do any better than that with a foreign language, so don’t be too hard on yourself.” Then he put on his jacket and headed for the door.

  “Mya and I will go to the site today. Given the situation, we’ll need more knives,”
Zach said.

  “I know where you can get a lot of combat knives…legally,” Kirra said and followed Zach to the door.

  “I’ll explain to Leon about the Sciphil position and what we did to save him while you’re gone. But I’ll bet he will want to go to the site, too,” Mya said.

  “Yes!” Leon said in English and stood. He pointed to his chest. “It’s fixed.”

  Zach approached and lowered his voice. “The one that scratched your chest was a rookie. The one that bit you last night wasn’t.” He pointed at Leon’s leg. Everyone looked. The wound was bleeding, and the blood was dripping down to the floor.

  Before anyone asked a question, Zach pointed at his shoulder. “My wound healed because I’m a Sciphil. He’s not. He’s using my energy just to stay alive. You have a lot to explain to him now, Mya. We’ll get more medical supplies at the store. But he’s going nowhere with that leg.”

  Zach turned and exited the room.

  Chapter 37

  Elanora roared. She had shifted and had no intention of returning to her human form. She whirled around the confined space of her room, knocking everything to the floor as she moved. The two guard creatures standing at the door shook uncontrollably.

  How pathetic! she thought. What a disgrace for generations of leopard shapeshifters! But she wasn’t one of these ordinary were-leopards. She was special. That was why she was destined to be the leader.

  She was a lynx. One of the last remaining on Earth.

  But whether it was worth it or not, she had no clue. Especially now. She walked around the room. She had kept the furniture at a bare minimum as she didn’t see herself being here for long. There was nothing here she felt attached to. She belonged elsewhere. She looked out the tiny window and howled out her frustration and anger.

  She was sure the guard leopards were paralyzed with fear. She might as well help them out. She darted to the door as fast as lightning. Before they could react, she had ripped their throats out.

  She licked her lips, savoring the taste of fresh blood. She had forgotten how delicious were-leopard blood was.

  Suddenly she was knocked sideways, and her head smashed against the wall. She was dazed. She knew only Dex could overpower her—but she had thought he didn’t know his strength. She scrambled to all fours and was tackled again by Dex in his human form.

  “Shift back,” he growled.

  She wriggled but couldn’t get out of his grip, so she stayed still. “Shift back, or I’ll knock you out of your cat form.”

  She wriggled again then gave in and shifted back to her human form, totally naked. He let go of her. She strode into the room then turned to look at him.

  He grabbed some clothes from a cabinet and thrust them at her.

  She threw them to the floor.

  His eyes darkened. “So you would rather wear this?” He pulled the stained floral tablecloth off the shelf and threw it at her.

  She bared her teeth, but before she charged at him, he wagged his finger. “If I wanted to expose your secrets, I would have done so, Elanora.”

  She let out a low growl but didn’t advance on him—mainly because she knew he was a lot stronger than she. Her mind was clogged with rage at the moment, but she knew it would be a stupid move to go head-on with Dex.

  “I know you’re not a purebred lynx.” He paused and gazed into her eyes. “Is it worth living your whole life keeping this stupid secret?”

  “Yes!” she snarled and then felt like laughing. It was such a joke fate had played on her. Dex knew her deepest secret. The secret that the only person she cared for had just died to protect. And Dex said it as if he were relaying any piece of mundane information he handled day in and day out in his line of work.

  He was a mercenary. She already knew that. And now it turned out he was a spy as well. He had been sent here to watch her every movement.

  “I don’t believe you,” he said patiently.

  “I was born to do this, and this is just what I will do. Now get out of my sight.”

  He shook his head. “I come and go as I please. I’m not in your employment. And on that note, your superior, the one who actually employs me, won’t be impressed when he finds out you killed his guards simply because you were mad that some old leopard in your clan was killed for trespassing on human territory.”

  She flew at him, reaching her hands out to claw at his face. He caught them in the air. She growled, “She wasn’t just some leopard!”

  He spun her around and pushed her against the wall. “You’re talented. You want to become a leader. That’s fair enough. But you have grabbed the very pointy end of the deal, Elanora. It sucks, don’t you think? What kind of life is it when you can’t even mourn your mother’s death?”

  She shoved him away. “You know nothing, Dex. And don’t think you’re invincible.”

  “No, in fact, I’m quite vulnerable when it comes to you.”

  He approached her again, but she shoved him away and bolted for the door, kicking a chair over on her way out. Just outside the door, she remembered the tablecloth, the only thing she had left of her mother. She stormed back in and grabbed it. Dex threw the set of clothes at her again. “Put some clothes on for pity’s sake.”

  “My life. My choice. If you want to expose my secrets to your employer, do so. But don’t interfere with what I do. Or you’ll die before you have a chance to regret it.” Then she turned and left the room.

  Chapter 38

  As much as she was eager to get to the site to retrieve the potion, Mya walked a little slower than usual. The bushland path wasn’t exactly designed for sprinting. And she didn’t want Leon to feel he was slowing everyone down. He was still limping a bit from the wound on his leg, but she couldn’t talk him out of this trip. He hadn’t come all the way from the court to stay in a hotel room.

  The woods became thicker as they walked. It was strange that the air was filled with birds singing rather than the eerie hum and low growl she had heard the other day when chasing the leopards with Kirra. But this was a different section of the woods. That might explain the difference.

  She shifted and felt the weight of the combat knife Zach had equipped her with. She hoped she didn’t need to use it. But what had happened in the last few days might prove otherwise.

  Zach walked beside her. He had been quiet on the way here. Since he had returned from Eudaiz, she had totally lost the ability to peek into his mind. Not like she ever could do that completely, but she had gotten some fragmented information here and there. Now his mind was like a black well, dead silent and bottomless to her.

  “Are you sure this is the only way to the cave?” Zach asked Kirra, who was walking beside Leon.

  She arched an eyebrow. “Your technology couldn’t provide you with an alternate route after Mother Nature destroyed your one and only path. I don’t think you’re in a position to question me, Zach. You’ll just have to rely on me.”

  Zach shrugged. “I guess you’re right. Thanks for taking the time. As soon as we get there, you might want to head back to camp.”

  “Sure.” She rolled her eyes.

  Mya chuckled and said nothing. It dawned on her now that Zach hadn’t been in touch with his people in Eudaiz for a few days. He deliberately avoided using his wrist unit, even when he needed it. When he told Kirra the location function on his device had died, Mya knew he was lying. She knew he was trying to prevent the adversaries from getting a connection to the gateway to Eudaiz. She was amazed by the loyalty and attachment Zach had developed with that universe given his short time there.

  It must be a wonderful universe to live in. And she was glad she was getting close to going there with him.

  Too much distraction, she thought. She had to concentrate and gather up all the possible deity power she had. She wasn’t exactly sure how she would summon an object that had never belonged to her, but she always managed to figure things out. The prospect of being free from her debts excited her. She would be able to be with Zach. That was ev
en more exciting. For more than a thousand years, she had never had such a feeling. Was this what humans referred to as happiness? She didn’t know what it was, but she knew she wanted it.

  Leon had his headphones on, listening to English lessons. He couldn’t hear the conversation, but when he saw everyone start to talk, he turned off the iPod Mya had bought him. She was amazed by his ability to adapt to this world. Who would have thought that only a short while ago, he had been the head of the temple guard in the Babylonian court, a civilization that had slipped out of this human dimension.

  “What’s up?” Leon asked.

  “We are nearly there,” Kirra said. “Zach was asking if there was an alternate route.”

  Leon smiled. “He’s scared.”

  “Excuse me!” Zach turned and looked at Leon.

  He chuckled. “I’m sorry. I meant you care.”

  Zach glared at Leon and turned to look ahead. Leon winked at Kirra.

  “I know what you’re up to, Leon,” Zach muttered without looking back. “You’re my successor. It’s like being an apprentice. Keep that up, and you’ll see if I can do you some damage.”

  “Are you going to whip him?” Kirra asked and laughed.

  Before Zach said anything further, the path opened to a wider and clearer area in the middle of the deep woods. There, he recognized the site. His wrist unit beeped softly.

  “We’re here,” Mya said. It was more to confirm it to herself than in question. A tingling sensation ran through her body. She could feel it—an urge to discharge her energy through her fingertips. She had never had that feeling before. Even when she was in her deity mode, this ability rarely came to her.

  In front of them, the ground rumbled. A crack ran in a circle, and the ground started to split. It felt like a mild earthquake. As Zach pulled Mya back, Leon pushed Kirra behind him protectively despite her protests.

  The encircled area crumbled away, opening up a hole in the ground. When the ground settled, Mya approached the edge of the hole. Zach pulled her back.