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

by Karen M. Dillon

Sam shook her head and walked back to the trees to continue carving into the bark, leaving Jamie with his shovel to dig four more holes in the earth.  

  About twenty minutes later, Jamie heard a thud indicating that Sam had just jumped out of a tree. He looked behind him to see where she was.  

  “Over here,” she called.  

  Jamie jumped a little, then swiftly faced forward to find Sam standing there. “It’s been a really long while since someone’s been able to sneak up on me.”  

  Sam shrugged as if it was no big deal. “I must be a ninja.” Jamie laughed at her nonchalance. “You almost done?” she asked.  

  “Yeah, just finished.”  

  Sam handed Jamie the knife she had been using to carve symbols into the trees. “You can use this to cut your hand or finger or whatever. You only need one drop in each jar.”  

  Jamie nodded. He stared at the blade nervously, he could tell that it was sharp enough to slice through skin quite easily, which was good . . . the easier it cut the less it would hurt. Not that he had to stab himself to get some blood out. Sam said he just needed to shed a little, he could probably squeeze five drops from a cut as small as one he’d get from paper.  

  He dragged the knife across the palm of his hand just hard enough to break the skin. Cuts didn’t hurt Jamie all that much, the most difficult part of getting a wound like this was concentrating on not letting it heal too fast so that he had enough time to get some blood out.  

  Sam unscrewed the lid from one of the jars and held it under his hand. Jamie squeezed it tightly in a fist and let the blood drip into the jar. She placed it on the ground and ran to get another one. They did this a total of five times, until all of the jars had drops of his blood in them.  

  Sam took the knife from Jamie. He stared at the hand he had cut and watched the skin stitch itself back together until there wasn’t even a scar left.

  “Do you have people over frequently?”  

  Jamie looked at her curiously. Well, that’s a random question to ask. He shook his head. “I don’t really know any people . . . except you.”  

  “Okay,” Sam said. “That saves us a lot of time.”  

  Before Jamie had a chance to question her, Sam slid the blade across her palm and let her blood spill into the jars. He watched the crimson liquid drip from her hand in rapt fascination as it fell into the jar and mixed with his blood. Jamie swallowed hard. “What are you doing?”  

  Sam handed the dagger to Jamie, then showed him her hand. “All gone,” she said with a smile. She had been able to heal the wound almost as quickly as Jamie had been able to heal his.  

  “How come you had to put your blood in there too? And why did you need to know if I had people over?”  

  “Because,” she said as she started twisting the lids back onto the jars. “If you have people over on a regular basis, it would be smart for you to put their blood in here too. With these jars, no one can get into your house without an invitation from you . . . well except me. The reason you need to put other people’s blood in there is so that they don’t need an invitation. That way if they ever send Shape-shifters—”  

  “Shape-shifters?” Jamie asked incredulously.  

  “If they ever send Shape-shifters after you, disguised as people you know, they can’t get in without an invitation, and you’ll know they’re not really the person they’re disguised as.”  

  Jamie stared at her, unable to believe what she’d just said. “ . . . Shape-shifters?”  

  Sam rolled her eyes. “Assume everything is real, that way we won’t have to have these conversations on a regular basis.” Sam picked up two jars and handed them to Jamie. “Now let’s bury these things so we can call it a day . . . I have school tomorrow and tons of homework to do, so I don’t wanna be doing this all year.”

  CHAPTER 38

  An entire month had passed by without a single strange occurrence. Life went on as it would have if Sam had been a completely average eighteen year old high school student.

  Which was why she felt on edge.

  The attacks on her had been happening on and off for her entire life. Over the past couple of years, they had stuck to a bi-weekly schedule. But the attack on Jamie was the last run in she’d had with any form of Hunter.

  She knew that her Magic was strong enough to shield Jamie from Vampire Hunters, which explained why there had been no more attacks against him. But all the bad guys knew where she lived, and even though they couldn’t step foot inside her house, they had in the past—on more than one occasion—caught her outside of it. So she knew they could get to her, and was confused by the fact that they hadn’t tried.

  Jack was keeping a look out for any activity from them during the day, while Jamie slept and Sam was at school. Not that she’d been able to pay all that much attention in her classes, due to the overwhelming dread that knotted at her stomach when she thought of what was surely coming.

  The locker next to hers slammed shut loudly, causing her to jump slightly and shake herself out of her own thoughts. She peered around the locker door, looking towards Elliot who was now on his way to class.

  His silhouette grew darker the further away from her he moved, and as she watched him go, his shadow growing darker than was possible with each step he took, her mind was transported back to her time at the library, where she had encountered those strange shadows. She shook her head, willing those thoughts away as she turned back to her locker.

  Something about Elliot always brought her mind to dark places. It was one of the reasons why she always went out of her way to ignore him whenever he was around.

  With a sigh, she threw her math book into her locker, exchanging it for the ones she needed for English.

  “Sam!”  

  Sam turned sharply to find Scott standing behind her, watching her with that expression again. This can’t be going anywhere good, she thought warily. Scott looked down at his shoes, his hands nervously fidgeting with the end of his hoodie. “Um, I was just wondering if you’re going to the dance with anyone?”  

  Sam sighed tiredly. I knew this wasn’t going anywhere good. “I’m not going to the dance,” she said firmly, hoping that Scott could just leave the conversation at that.  

  He didn’t.

  “Would you go with me?” he asked.  

  Sam sighed again, this time more impatiently. She hated when he did this. Why couldn’t he just hate her and go be with someone else? “Scott,” she said. He gazed at her hopefully. “We broke up almost two years ago.”  

  “Yeah,” he said. “I know. But I was still kinda hoping that maybe we could un-breakup.”  

  Sam looked at him sadly. Of course she still had all of those feelings for him. Which was exactly why she couldn’t be with him. She shook her head. “You could do so much better than me.”  

  “But there is no one better than you.”  

  Sam instantly looked away, deciding she’d rather stare at the footprint smudges on the linoleum rather than at Scott’s sad expression. Why does he always do this?

  She heard him sigh dejectedly. “Does this have anything to do with that guy?”

  Sam looked at him in confusion. “What guy?”  

  Scott scowled. Which was honestly the angriest expression she’d ever seen him wear. “Sam, I know about the guy.” Sam gave him the same confused expression. He elaborated, “The guy that you’ve been hanging around with . . . He meets you outside of school every day.”  

  “Oh,” Sam said and quirked an amused smile when she realised he was talking about Jamie. Sam didn’t really consider him to be a guy. He was just . . . Jamie.

  “That guy.” Sam shook her head. “ . . . No, it has nothing to do with him.”  

  “So he’s not your boyfriend?”  

  Sam laughed despite the fact that she was vexed by the idea that anyone could think she was with Jamie. “No.”  

  “Well, then
who is he?”  

  “He’s just a guy.” Sam shrugged. “That’s it.”  

  Scott gave Sam a scrupulous look. “That’s it?” he asked, as if he found that hard to believe. “You’re not, like, best-friends? You haven’t been on a date . . . nothing?” Sam shook her head. “Well, then why do you spend so much time together? Madison told me that he’s at your house almost every day.”  

  “You have Madison spying on me?” Sam asked in angry disbelief.  

  Scott looked taken aback. As if he hadn’t realised that he’d said that last part. “No.” He shook his head. “It’s not like that. You know the way Madison is. She feels the need to know everything, and tell everyone about it.”  

  Sam sighed. “We’re not friends. We’ve never been on a date. We’ve never kissed. We’ve never even hugged. I don’t even know why I’m telling you this.” She gave him a sombre look. “We’re not together anymore, Scott. I don’t have to explain myself to you.”  

  Scott turned his face away. “I know,” he said sadly.  

  Sam sighed, thinking that she should say something just to make him feel better. “I’m just helping him with some stuff. That’s it.”  

  Scott looked at Sam curiously. “What kind of stuff?”  

  “You know . . . just . . . stuff.”  

  His eyes were wide with disappointment and sadness. 

  Sam let a sigh of exasperation. She really hated when he did this.  

  “I don’t like him like that, so can we just drop it?”  

  Scott paused thoughtfully for a moment, then sighed as he decided to drop the conversation. “Are you going to Madison’s on Halloween?”  

  Sam shrugged. “I don’t know.”  

  Scott nodded. “Okay, well maybe I’ll see you there?”  

  She forced a smile and nodded slightly. He was still trying to push her, but asking if she was going to a party was better than the countless times he’d asked her out directly. “Maybe,” Sam answered as she closed her locker door. “I’m late for English.”  

  “See ya ‘round,” Scott said with his ever hopeful smile, as Sam walked away.  

  CHAPTER 39

  The lunch bell finally rang.  

  Scott felt like he’d been in that class all day and it was only one o’clock. He made his way out of the room, through the halls to his locker. As always, he took the long route, which led him straight past Sam’s locker. He couldn’t help feeling disappointed when he found she wasn’t there.  

  He walked to his locker, put his math book inside, then took out his lunch and made his way to the cafeteria. As soon as he’d pushed through the doors, Madison waved him over to her table.  

  Scott inconspicuously scanned the cafeteria crowd for Sam’s blonde head.

  Another wave of disappointment ran through his chest when, yet again, she was nowhere to be found.  

  He took a seat next to Madison, which was where he usually sat for lunch. “Hey Scott,” she said as he sat down.  

  “Hi,” he replied, trying not to show how upset he was.

  Scott had known Madison for his whole life, they lived directly across the street from each other and had been best friends up until junior high, when they went their separate ways. She was popular. Scott wasn’t necessarily. People liked him, but it wasn’t like he was captain of the football team or anything.  

  He started hanging out with Madison again when they entered high school. But that was because Madison and Sam were friends, and Sam and Scott were dating. But still, they’d been friends for so long that he felt comfortable enough talking to her about pretty much anything. He looked around the table to make sure that no one was paying attention to him. Elle was flirting with that new kid, Elliot.

  Everyone thought that Elliot was cool, but Scott got this eerie feeling around him.

  The guy was creepy.

  But he wasn’t paying attention to anyone other than Elle right now. Aaron had his back to Scott and was in the middle of a heated discussion on something to do with sports with Mike and Chelsea. And Chelsea was flittering in and out of the sports talk, and talking to Madison.  

  When Chelsea tuned back into the discussion, Madison turned to Scott. She took one look at him, rolled her eyes and asked, “What’s up?”  

  Scott took a breath. Is it wrong to still be obsessing over Sam after all this time? Everyone else seemed to think it was. But Scott couldn’t help how he felt about her. It was like a sickness that lived inside him and only grew stronger with each passing moment.  

  Filling up his brain with constant thoughts of her.  

  And no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible for him to let her go. It had been two years, it should have gotten easier to not have her around, but it had only gotten more difficult.  

  “You know that guy Sam’s been hangin’ out with?”  

  Madison sighed. “I only talked to him for like ten minutes that one time, so all I can tell you is his name is Jamie and that he’s, like, foreign or something. And that he has a major crush on Sam.”  

  Scott bit into his sandwich. He knew there was something going on between them. With all the time they’ve been spending together how could there not be? “Do you think she likes him like that?”  

  “In my female opinion?” Scott nodded. “Sam is very hard to read, so I’d say if she does like him she doesn’t realise it. Do you want another opinion?” she asked. Again, Scott nodded. “Get over her,” Madison said bluntly.  

  “I tried,” he replied quickly. “But I can’t.” He shook his head and looked away. “You just don’t get it.”  

  Madison sighed. “I do get it,” she insisted. “You have feelings for somebody who doesn’t feel the same about you. Lots of people go through that same situation. They deal with it by finding someone they can have so then eventually those other feelings go away.”  

  “But I love her,” Scott said lamely.  

  “Well she doesn’t love you!” Madison said loudly. The sting of her words bit into his heart like a needle made of ice. A few people turned to look out of curiosity. Scott quietly gathered his things and made his way out of the cafeteria.  

  Out in the halls he started to walk faster, wanting to get as far away from Madison’s words as possible.

  “Scott, wait!” Madison called after him. Scott kept on walking, barely resisting the urge to break into a run.  

  Madison grabbed onto his arm. He turned to look at her, not bothering to mask his pain. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be so harsh. It just came out.”  

  Scott looked at her. A lump formed in his throat. “You’re right,” he said, shaking his head. “She doesn’t love me. I just—” Scott covered his face with his hands. He would not cry in the middle of the hallways. “I don’t know how to not love her.”  

  Madison wrapped her arms around him. “You know I’m here if you need me,” she whispered. Scott nodded, Madison was a good friend. He knew she hadn’t intentionally tried to hurt him.  

  He let a breath and took his hands away from his face when he was sure no tears would come. Then he wrapped his arms around Madison and returned her hug. “Thanks,” he mumbled, as he let her go.  

  “Do you want to skip out early?” she asked. “We could go hang out somewhere.”  

  Scott shook his head. “No, I’m fine.” He smiled as convincingly as he could. “Thanks anyway.”  

  “You sure?” Scott nodded. Madison thought for a moment, chewing her lip. “Are you going to the dance?” she asked. Scott was grateful for the subject change; he knew she was trying to take his mind away from Sam.  

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, I don’t really have anyone to go with.”  

  “You could go with me,” she suggested.  

  “Aren’t you going with Aaron?”  

  Madison waved her hand dismissively. “We broke up, like, two whole days ago.”  


  “Oh,” Scott said, wondering why she hadn’t mentioned it before now. “Sorry?”  

  Madison shrugged. “We only went out, like, four times. It’s not like I planned to marry him.”  

  Scott smiled, a little happier. “Sure, we can make a night of it.” He figured having a day out with a friend would keep his mind busy enough to forget about Sam.  

  “Cool,” Madison smiled. “You better be coming to my party.”  

  Scott grinned and rolled his eyes. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”  

  “Good,” she said.  

  They both started walking back to the cafeteria, but before they made it to the doors the bell rang. Scott sighed. “So much for lunch time,” he muttered, voicing the thoughts of his stomach.  

  He and Madison said their goodbyes, then Scott went to his locker and took out his chemistry book. When he was ready, he made his way to the chem labs.  

  One by one, the seats in the lab filled up with students.  

  And once again, Sam wasn’t there.

  CHAPTER 40

  After talking with Scott, Sam decided to leave school early. As she always did whenever he tried to talk to her about how they should get back together. She hated dealing with that conversation again and again.  

  And again, and again, and again.  

   . . . and again.  

  Scott would make it worse by always walking past her and looking at her dejectedly. It just made her feel guilty, even though all she was doing was keeping him safe.  

  Sam walked out the school doors as soon as the lunch bell rang, only to walk right into Jamie.  

  Actually, no, scratch that, she didn’t walk into him . . . he ran into her. Sam felt a huge jolt as his body crashed into hers, but he caught hold of her so she wouldn’t fall. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “I should have slowed down sooner.”  

  Sam gave him a little push so he would let her go. “It’s fine,” she grumbled, straightening out her jacket as she fixed the strap of her bag onto her shoulder.  

  Jamie looked around. “Is school over?” he asked, obviously confused by the lack of other people.