Immortal Souls: The Immortal Souls, Magic & Chaos (Book 1)

by Karen M. Dillon

  Grumbling her annoyance, Sam cleared her throat and tapped Michelle’s shoulder again, this time not as lightly as before. “Michelle,” she called. “Michelle, wake up.”

  Still there was no response.

  Sam looked to Jack questioningly, though he just stared at Michelle in confusion and said, “Heavy sleeper?”

  She placed a hand on Michelle’s shoulder once more, but instead of tapping lightly as she had before, she got a firm grip and shook her roughly, feeling her heart thump a little faster when there was no response from the slumbering woman.

  Before Sam had a chance to speak or do anything else, Jack’s hand shot out and he placed his fingers on Michelle’s throat, feeling around to ensure that she was in fact still breathing.

  He paused for a moment as he waited to feel her pulse, his lips pressed together tightly. After a few seconds he moved his hand away and looked to Sam. “She’s alive,” he said. “But I’m damn sure no one sleeps that soundly . . . Maybe you should have a check, see if there’s something going on with her. I’m gonna have a wander around, see if there’s anything suspicious lurking.”

  Sam nodded in agreement, though she wasn’t sure that there would be anything suspicious to be found.

  At least not anything suspicious in the category that Jack was thinking.

  With instincts to outmatch a psychic, Sam would have been able to sense any kind of supernatural presence the moment she walked through the door. Which is why she was sure, without having to cast her senses outwards and actually check, that there was nothing for Jack to find.

  Again, that niggling voice in the back of her head refuted the claims of her Powers and tried to convince her there was something more.

  Sam pulled the strap of her bag from her shoulder and let it fall to the floor with a thud, moving around to the side of the desk where there was a section that lifted upwards to allow people to pass through.

  Sam moved the desk upward only slightly then immediately froze as her skin began to tingle. She looked down at her hand, which was holding onto the desk, only noticing the carvings beneath her fingers when she forced herself to look closer.

  She pushed the hatch open completely and gazed at them, able to tell just by looking that they were runes of some description. But no matter how hard she concentrated, her brain was unable to decipher what they could possibly mean.

  “Jack!” she called.

  It took less than a second for him to manifest himself beside her.

  “Look at this,” she said without taking her eyes off the markings. “Do you recognise them?”

  “No,” he replied casually, not sounding worried or curious in the slightest. “If they have Power you should be able to read them. If you can’t read them then they’re just doodles.”

  Sam shook her head. “No, they don’t feel right.”

  Jack laughed a little. “Remember when I told you you were too paranoid? Well, you’re doing it again. You know if they were Magic in any way you’d be able to read them.”

  Sam let a sigh. “Maybe you’re right,” she replied, though she still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more going on.

  She threw the hatch open completely and it fell right into the top of the desk, hitting into it with a loud bang.

  Just as Sam was about to step behind the desk, Michelle’s eyes shot open and Sam paused where she was.

  “Huh? . . .” Michelle mumbled as she looked up from her desk and blinked in a daze. She was looking around to gather her surroundings when her eyes settled on Sam. “Oh . . . sorry Sam.”

  Sam watched Michelle for a moment, subtly checking for any outward signs of damage. From what Sam could tell, she seemed to be okay now.

  She allowed her eyes to wander in the direction of the hatch on the desk, wondering what those symbols were.

  What they said.

  They were runes she had never seen before, and they stirred within her a strange feeling of not only déjà vu, but of dread.

  There was something not quite right here, and Sam needed to know what it was. She had thought about asking Michelle, but when she looked at the woman sitting there smiling obliviously, gently dabbing at her eyes with her index fingers, fastidiously fixing her eye make-up to make it appear as though she had never even been unconscious, she couldn’t make herself do it.

  Couldn’t make the words come out, because somewhere in the back of her mind she felt that there was a possibility that whatever was going on, Michelle could be a part of it. Or if not a part of it, then in some very serious danger.

  With a forced smile, Sam moved back towards the front of the desk, took the books out of her bag and placed them on to the table. “I just came to return these.”

  Michelle ran the books past the scanner one at a time.

  “So, where’s Jessie?” Sam asked in an attempt to make casual conversation. “I haven’t seen her in few days.”

  Michelle rolled her eyes and sighed. “Jessie took the summer off, so I have to work her shift as well as mine. I swear, I feel like I haven’t slept in forever,” she said as she frowned at the computer screen. “It says you brought these back two weeks ago.”

  “Really?” Sam asked with a sideways glance at Jack, who was pretending he hadn’t done anything by avoiding eye contact and watching the ceiling as if it was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. “That is weird.”

  “Yeah,” Michelle agreed. “There must be something up with the computers.” She tapped the top of the computer screen. “Stupid machine,” she mumbled. “Must be broken.”

  “Mmhm . . . so, Jessie’s gone for a while then?”

  “Yeah,” Michelle nodded.

  “You wouldn’t happen to want a temporary substitute?”

  CHAPTER 3

  Jamie had been Turned almost two centuries ago, but it wasn’t until that evening that he actually came up with a proper plan to find out more about what he was.

  He had spent most of his undead life travelling the world, relentlessly searching for another Vampire to guide him. To teach him all the things he felt he should know. All of the things that the Sire who abandoned him should have stuck around to tell him.

  Over the years he had managed to figure out most of his strengths for himself, but he was too scared to attempt to figure out his weaknesses.

  And not knowing one’s weaknesses was a weakness in itself.

  The fact that he was a Vampire and yet found it impossible to find even a trace of another one had always made Jamie feel perplexed and more than a little useless. What good was being a Vampire if he couldn’t even use his hunting and tracking skills to find something that, for him, should be so blatantly simple?

  What made Jamie feel even more useless was that after almost two centuries of searching, it wasn’t until this evening that he had thought of something that was such a simple idea it made him feel like an imbecile for not thinking of it sooner.

  Research.

  He walked out of his bedroom and down the stairs to the living room, where he proceeded to think of how and where he could find some useful information about Vampires, like for example, where they might be found.

  Given the decade that it was, the internet was the obvious first choice. Jamie turned his head to the corner of the living room where his computer sat. He had never used it for research before, the sole purpose of the device was to provide him with entertainment during sleepless days, and of course, to give him access to eBay, where he made money by selling some of the more useless things he had acquired over the years.

  Before he had even taken a step towards the computer, Jamie dismissed the idea of doing research online.

  Although the internet did give people access to anything and everything they wanted, Jamie knew from previous experience, that in order to find what you were looking for you’d have to spend hours upon hours sifting through all of the junk first.

  Jamie paced the floor, the room filled with nothing but the sound of hi
s shoes hitting off the hard wood. He looked around as he thought, hoping that something in the room would inspire him with a useful idea.

  His eyes shifted past the sofa, the TV, the stacks of DVD’s and games that lay around it, the kitchen door, the computer, the staircase, and then they settled upon something that made him feel as though he should be kicked and beaten to death for his idiocy.

  Books!

  He had always known that the simplest idea was, more often than not, the one that worked best. So why would he think of using the internet before he thought of using books?

  Jamie grabbed his jacket from the coat hanger next to the door.

  For the first time since he had moved to this town, he would pay a visit to the local library.

  CHAPTER 4

  “Really?” Michelle asked as her face broke into the largest smile Sam had ever seen. “Because I’ve been working double shifts for a week now and I think I might die if I have to go on.”

  Sam laughed a little. “Yeah, I mean it. I need a summer job, you need the help. So I guess it works out okay for everyone?”

  Michelle placed a hand on her chest and let a relieved sigh, giving Sam another overly large smile. “Thank you, I one hundred percent accept.”

  “Awesome. When do I start?”

  Michelle’s smile of joy quickly became tinted with guilt and apprehension. “Would I be pushing my luck if I asked you to start right now?”

  Sam smiled internally, glad that she would get her chance to investigate so soon and wouldn’t have to have one or two sleepless nights obsessing over what was going on . . . that would have been especially annoying if it turned out there was nothing to find.

  On the outside Sam shrugged and smiled her most polite smile. “I didn’t have any other plans tonight, so now works fine for me.”

  Michelle practically jumped over the desk when she reached across and pulled Sam in for a hug. The desk between them making it awkward and slightly painful for both.

  “Come on back here,” Michelle said and ushered Sam behind the desk, watching her as though she were the bravest and shiniest of all the white knights.

  With a smile, Sam obeyed.

  “Okay,” Michelle said, then began instructing Sam on all she needed to know. “The computer system is pretty basic. The only program you need opens automatically, but just in case you switch it off by accident I’ll just write the password down here.”

  She held up a pink Post-It, then stuck it to the computer screen. “If anyone is taking books out you scan their card through first, then the books. If they don’t have a card just type their name and details into the computer. And if they’re returning books you just scan them through.”

  Michelle picked one of the books up off the return cart, and held it to the side so Sam could see the labels on its spine. “The books have specific places on the shelves. They’re categorised by genre, and—”

  Sam held up her hands to stop Michelle’s speech before it went on much longer. “Michelle, I’ve read most of the books in this place, I know how they’re organised and where they all go. You don’t need to explain it.”

  Michelle smiled. “Right,” she said. “Sorry.” She opened one of the drawers in the desk and pulled out a set of keys. “These are Jessie’s keys. You lock up at—”

  “Midnight,” Sam finished. “I know.”

  “You have to unplug the computer and switch off all the lights. Then just lock the doors. Any questions before I leave?”

  “Yeah,” Sam said and shrugged her jacket off, folding it over the back of the chair. “Does this mean I’m allowed to use the staff bathroom, because I need to pee and those other ones are kinda gross.”

  “Sure.” Michelle laughed and pointed to the door behind the desk. “Staff bathroom is back there.”

  Sam walked past her, through the door behind the desk. Beyond it was a short narrow hallway with yellow walls. There were two doors, one to the left and one to the right. Sam spent perhaps a second looking at each one before she reached out and placed her hand on the doorknob of the door to the left.

  She turned the handle, and tried to push it open but a hand wrapped around her wrist, stopping her from moving forward.

  Sam looked at Michelle curiously. Her expression seemed frightened. “Not that one,” she said quickly, her voice panicked. “Never that one.”

  Sam raised an eyebrow in confusion. Slowly, she let her hand fall away from the doorknob; the moment her hand fell Michelle released her grasp on Sam’s wrist.

  Michelle let a breath as she relaxed a little. “Sorry,” she said. “That’s the basement. We’ve been having some . . . problems down there, so for safety we keep the door locked at all times.”

  Strange, Sam thought while she nodded her understanding.

  “I’ll wait until you’re finished.” Michelle stood in front of the basement door, almost if she were guarding it.

  The thought that stuck with Sam as she walked into the bathroom was, why did Michelle feel the need to guard the door?

  And more importantly, was she doing it to keep Sam out or was she trying to keep something in?

  CHAPTER 5

  When Jamie reached the library, he could only sense one person.

  The librarian.

  She was a woman who looked as though she were in her forties, with light mousy brown hair cut just a little shorter than her shoulders. Jamie made sure to keep tabs on her mind while he was there.

  Not that he was threatened by her, he just had a habit of keeping tabs on the humans around him. Knowing his surrounding always made him feel more comfortable.

  The librarian greeted him with a smile and a nod. He politely returned her gesture before heading into the labyrinth of shelves.

  The library was an extremely large building. It had a huge desk and behind it was a doorway where the librarian was standing.

  There were five computers by the back wall, all lined up with dividers separating each one. Several tables and chairs were laid out for the library users, and there were five steps with a railing which divided the lower half from the part where all the books lay.

  Up the steps there were about twenty rows of shelves that stretched from ceiling to floor, covered on either side with books. Each shelf had a ladder that could be moved from either end to retrieve books from the higher shelves.

  It was, all together, quite impressive.

  Jamie had considered asking the librarian for some assistance in finding what he needed, but he thought he’d try himself first. He went hunting around the shelves for a while, wandering through the labyrinth, glancing from one side to the other, his eyes skimming over all of the book titles. But he found nothing.

  None of them seemed like they would be any help. Jamie sighed, regretting his decision to come here in the first place.

  At the time books had seemed like the best way to find out things quickly, but he hadn’t accounted for the fact that he had no idea where to start, or even what books would hold the information he was looking for. Not to mention the fact that he wasn’t even sure if there even were any books in existence which would contain any truthful information on Vampires. And the best place to find any information that could answer his questions would be online.

  Jamie’s head shot up and he looked in the direction of the librarian’s desk; though he couldn’t see it from where he was within the shelves.

  Suddenly aware that there was silence.

  The librarian was gone.

  The library was empty.

  He looked up at the ceiling, the lights were still on, and he hadn’t heard the doors lock, although he hadn’t really been paying close enough attention to hear it if they had.

  She had seen him walk into the library and she hadn’t seen him walk back out. Surely she wouldn’t have left him here alone.

  Jamie swiftly made his way through the labyrinth, moving past all of the shelves and back out to the railings by the staircase.

  As soon as the
desk came into view he froze, suddenly finding himself unable to move.

  In the place of the librarian sat a young girl, who was holding a book in her hand studying its cover. She must have been sixteen, maybe seventeen, but she didn’t look much older. The girl was beautiful in a dreamlike way, by that he meant that she was so beautiful she hardly seemed real.

  She was tall for a female and beautifully proportioned with lightly tanned skin and pale blonde hair which had shimmers of gold sweeping through it.

  However, the girl’s looks—stunning as they were—weren’t what had Jamie frozen in place, but the fact that he felt he knew her. Though from where, he hadn’t quite figured out.

  Jamie couldn’t help but stare; he found it impossible to look away. Why couldn’t I sense her presence earlier? he asked himself as he watched her curiously.

  He concentrated all of his Power and his thoughts on her. Allowing the energy to build inside him before he slowly let it spread, encasing her in a wave of psychic energy. He let his mind reach out and search for hers; it took him close to five minutes to find anything. When he eventually did catch something, it wasn’t her thoughts, but Jamie’s psychic mind was now consciously aware of her presence.

  It was strange that he hadn’t sensed her earlier. Usually he could sense anyone or anything within a mile’s radius, and usually he could do that with little to no effort whatsoever.

  He tried harder in an attempt to gain some insight as to who she was, and how she had been able to shield her presence from him. He pushed his mind out further, reaching out to hers and calling her thoughts to him.

  Breaking into someone’s mind was ordinarily a simple task, but for some reason tonight it was proving to be quite difficult.

  He stared at her, hoping that this would make his Powers more effective, his eyes squinted in concentration.

  She sat there reading while Jamie tried with all his will to break his way into her mind. Something seemed to be blocking his way through, so he pushed harder. The girl dropped her book, suddenly moving her hand to her head. After a moment she moved both her hands to her temples, closed her eyes and massaged them with her fingertips.