Death Unleashed

by TJ Adams

  I closed my eyes, my smart mouth stymied because it was my fault she nearly died.

  Kiara grabbed my hand. “Sorry, shouldn’t have brought it up. But it’s true. She did nearly die and she can nearly die again if she continues with this charade.”

  “Any mortal can nearly die. They don’t necessarily need to be jinn hunters. Kiara, you have as much power over preventing her fate as you have over ending death.”

  She pouted. “Will you go and see her?”

  “I was planning on it, but I’m not going to talk her out of it. She’s safer than the rest of the mortal world with all her supernatural powers, plus she has an angel that seems to want to stick around and protect her.”

  “That pansy.”

  “Who saved her life.”

  “He wants to drag her off to some secluded place and…” She imitated a spine shiver as she rolled her eyes skyward.

  “I could think of worse men to get secluded with.”

  Kiara frowned at me. “He’s not a man.”

  “I’ve seen him naked, and I beg to differ.”

  “That’s so not fair. Why do you get all the perks?”

  I pointed to the door, not that Kiara would exit that way. “You go reap. I will go see your sister once I’ve tracked down Cynthia.”

  “All right, Miss Bossy.” She pulled a quick smile before she vanished.

  I gave Dot one last look, still sleeping peacefully, then closed my eyes and sought the mental line that would lead me straight to Cynthia.

  I ended up on a street corner. Across the road from me was Cynthia, looking as though she was sitting on a bus seat. A large woman sat next to her wearing a blue dress similar to a hospital gown. I crossed, not bothered by the oncoming cars, which whizzed through me, leaving a waft of air that, instead of running around my body, passed straight through. The feeling was freaky, but kind of nice.

  The lady stared at me with big round sad eyes.

  “I’m sorry, madam, but I need a word with your reaper.”

  “And her reaper doesn’t want a word with you.” Cynthia said.

  I flicked a glance at the lady, who was staring straight ahead looking like she wanted to cry, but no tears came out.

  “Cynthia, this lady needs to move on.”

  “It’s all right, lovey.” She wiped her tearless eyes with the corner of her blue gown. “I know I’m dead, but Cynthia here has granted me a moment longer before I go. I just…wanted to say goodbye.”

  I looked over my shoulder, confused at who she was saying goodbye to. “My little Frank got off at that stop.” She nodded across at the bus that had arrived. “He got off at that stop every day. One day he got off but he never made it home. That was seven years ago. He was eleven. His disappearance is still a mystery. Because I never had a body to bury, I don’t have anywhere to go to say my goodbyes.”

  I slumped in the bus seat next to her, despite not feeling the metal under my thighs. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s all right. I’m going to be with him now. I’ve been sick for a couple of years. In and out of hospital, had one or two serious operations. I told the doctors that they weren’t to revive me if I went. And it looks like they kept to their promise. So you see, it’s not so bad. I was prepared to go. The shine went out of my life when my little Frank disappeared. So anyways, I think I’m ready to go.”

  “You take all the time you want, Matilda.” Cynthia said still staring straight ahead.

  “I’m ready. I think you need to talk to your boss.”

  I hitched an eyebrow at Cynthia. Those two certainly managed to get some gossip in during the reap.

  Cynthia sighed. “I guess there’s no getting around it.” She glanced at me. “You wait here. I’ll be back once my task is done.”

  She stepped out onto the road and was mowed through by a sleek white sports car. Once the car had passed she held a hand out to Matilda and they both walked across the street, fading as they went.

  Sometimes it sucked being a reaper.

  As promised, Cynthia returned a short time later. Without a word, she sat next to me and stared ahead. The silence extended. I read from her posture she was banked behind a wall, protecting her vulnerability.

  “There’s been too many coincidence for my liking.” She finally managed to say.

  “Such as.”

  “Matteo’s mother, the…, then Matilda. Why do I have to revisit this?”

  “Maybe it’s something you need to face.”

  “It’s been almost sixteen years. I’ve faced it long enough.”

  “You lost someone important, didn’t you?”

  “Who hasn’t? Life’s a fragile thing.”

  “What does the creature mean to you?”

  “The creature is known as the soul snatcher.”

  “It came after you, didn’t it?”

  “After losing my son, I fell into a grief so profound I lost my will to live. Sudden infant death syndrome. You ever heard of it? No of course you wouldn’t have having no memory. Your healthy child just suddenly dies and the doctors can’t give you any answers. I blamed myself. You know, all those useless what ifs, but nothing was going to bring him back. That’s when the soul snatcher appeared.”

  “It prays on those that are vulnerable through grief.”

  “It prays on the soul’s desires. But I’m not talking any old desires. Hell, that would mean the whole population is vulnerable. It’s after the really strong desires. The ones that make people go to extremes to achieve. I died inside that day. I willed my end too, stopped eating, caring about the house, or anything. I couldn’t seem to pull myself out of the gutter. I collapsed one day. A friend called nine-one-one. They managed to resuscitate me, but that’s when the soul snatcher came. It siphons the grams bit by bit until it has the twenty-one that makes up your soul. It had me, it did. It took my soul. I will never forget the day I left my body only to find who’s keeping I was now in. That’s when Death came. And well, here I am.”

  “So there is a way to defeat it?”

  “You can’t kill it. Nor banish it. As long as there are humans developing intense desires you have the soul snatcher. But, yes, Death did get my soul back.”

  “That means I can save Matteo’s mother.”

  “Hang on. Let me tell you how Death got me back. He didn’t just take me from the soul snatcher’s grasp. I had to be ready to let go of my wish to die. I had to overcome my pain and see goodness and joy again. Death was able to keep me from being swallowed by the soul snatcher until such time as I was whole again.”

  “Swallowed. That’s sounds grotesque.”

  “Once he’s sucked you dry there’s no going back. I’m sorry about how I acted, but seeing the soul snatcher again freaked me out.”

  “You’re forgiven. And I’m sorry about your son. There’s just too much death in this world.”

  “Don’t knock it sweetheart. Death is what makes life precious.”

  We watched the goings on in the street in companionable silence. No doubt Cynthia was thinking of her son. I, however, couldn’t get the image of the soul snatcher leaning over Dot with the orb of light in its hand.

  “I don’t know how many grams it’s taken from Dot. And you say there is no way I can stop it?”

  “Not unless you want to remain by her side forever more. Once it feels the pull of someone’s desires, it won’t let go. It will do what it can to win what it believes it owns. You may be able to deter it by being around constantly, but you have other things to do, which means there will be times she is alone and exposed. Sorry to say but only Dot can save herself. If she climbs herself out of her dark pit, overcomes her despair and finds the will to live again then she defeats the soul snatcher.”

  Not an easy task when no one but me knew the sort of danger she was in.

  “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know her, so how can I tell her to choose life instead of death. And what can I tell Matteo?”

  “Perhaps you’re not meant to do an
ything. You can’t save everyone, Bounty. Maybe you have to let Dot go.”

  “To be swallowed?”

  “I hate the idea as much as you, but the soul snatcher is part of the process of death for some people. It’s been around for as long as there has been insatiable desires. It’s all part of the natural order.”

  “It will kill Matteo to lose his mother as well as his sister in such a short space of time.”

  “He seems a pretty strong character to me.”

  “It will break my heart to see him in pain.”

  “You’re pretty tough yourself.”

  Without thinking I leaned over and gave Cynthia a hug. It took a couple of seconds for her to respond.

  When we parted she patted my thigh. “We’ve got business to attend too.”

  In a blink she was gone, probably because the situation had slipped into awkward territory for her.

  I remained where I was, staring ahead at nothing. There had to be a way I could alert Matteo to the danger Dot was in without alerting him to who I was.

  I leapt to my feet when the idea entered my head. It had worked before.

  13

  Despite mom looking pale and lethargic the doctor cleared her for discharge. I couldn’t decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing. At home we could surround her with love, and she was perhaps a step away from the soul snatcher. Although a gut instinct told me it didn’t matter where she went, the soul snatcher would find her.

  Dad and I had propped her in bed with fluffed pillows and a hot chocolate on her bedside table, remote control in her hand. We’d also placed a bell close at hand in case she needed something. Mom hated the fuss, but we ignored her protests.

  Sitting here, looking at her, a heaviness rolled through me. How can her complexion look so pale. We were almost three days into the bargain and already she appeared to be fading. Even her voice sounded feeble. The anxiousness in dad’s manner, made me fear he would also suffer a heart attack. There was no explanation for him as to why his wife was diminishing before his eyes, despite the doctors saying there was nothing to worry about and she’d make a full recovery.

  Her life rested on my shoulders. I was the one who could save her, and I would, but what would happen to her once I died? Two children lost in less than six months. And how would dad cope?

  I left her bedside and paced to the window, resting fisted hands on the window sill. I was no closer to resolving my issues. I felt the division of my nature like it was an ill-fitting shoe. And now another worry I had to face; Dominic was hanging around, and he was not in a good mood.

  The only person I could think to help me was Bethany, but I feared what she’d see in my eyes once I faced her.

  “You staying for lunch?”

  I turned to dad. “I’ve got a few things I need to take care of. I’ll come back for dinner.”

  “With your father cooking, you sure about that?”

  I kissed mom on the cheek, a sudden flare of relief to hear her overused joke.

  I eyeballed her from close range because I’d yet to straighten from the kiss. “I’m not coming to dinner for the food. You know that. I want to come back for you.”

  Please, mom, belief me to the very marrow of your being.

  She ran a hand down my cheek. I closed my eyes to shut out all sensory perception but that one touch, making it last as long as possible.

  “Not sure if I’ve said this to you, but I love you.”

  Her eyes watered, and I wiped them at the corners. “If I’ve ever let you down-”

  She shook her head as she placed a palm over my mouth. “No, my darling. Don’t ever think that. You could never let me down.”

  “Ditto.”

  She frowned, then the corners of her mouth twitched up in a confused smile. “Why do you say that?”

  “What makes you think you’ve let us down.”

  “I…I never said that.” Mom said.

  “No, but it’s what you’re telling yourself. You’ve said it too many times to yourself these last few months that you believe it. I have only thanks for you. There is no need for forgiveness.”

  I leaned over and kissed her forehead, then straightened and left.

  Dad patted my arm as I passed him in the doorway.

  “See you at seven, son.”

  Once in the car I gripped the steering wheel and collapsed my head on my hands. With the thickening of my throat and the sting in my eyes, I straightened with a jerk and shook off the malaise of dread.

  I needed to rescue my mother without losing myself. To do that I needed to face Dominic. Don’t ask me why that was so, call it gut instinct. But how can a mortal face a ghost? Good question and one I hoped Bethany could help me with.

  The frown on Bethany’s face said she wasn’t happy with my proposal. Apparently a ghost able to cross the bounds of the ethereal plain into our reality is not a ghost we should be messing with. When I told her my plan was to summon Dominic so we could talk, she poured me a double scotch and told me to seek counseling instead; it was safer. I had only days, counseling would take too long. She relented when the truth came out, but not before she offered to consult her tomes of text to see if there was a spell or some other witchy way to save mom’s and my soul. Not expecting her to find anything, I wasn’t disappointed when she closed the last of her stack, grim faced.

  When Dominic gave me the friendly nudge I knew facing him was the only way. There was a lot I had to deal with, but Dominic also had energy he needed to expel. Confronting him was not just about me. It was also meant to ease his rage at the unfairness of his life. Maybe then he could let go and cease to haunt his parent’s home; to be truthful, I wasn’t sure if that’s how things went, but it sounded reasonable.

  “I’m taking extra precautions this time.” Bethany glared at me.

  “I’ll do anything you say.”

  She eyed me like she was trying to determine if I was being cheeky.

  “I want to get this done, but I also want to keep my head.”

  She nodded as if satisfied I would behave myself.

  “If I feel the circle is unstable or that we are in danger in anyway, I will stop the summoning.”

  “Understood.”

  “All right. Let’s begin.”

  We sat around a small table since this time there was only the two of us. Bethany placed both arms on the table palms facing up, a signal for me to place my hands in hers. The instant our hands touched a flare of something hot jolted through my body, stemming from our connection. Bethany yelped and pulled her hands away.

  She eyed me through narrow eyes. “Something has changed within you.”

  “True, but I don’t know what. Since we last met I’ve experienced all sorts of supernatural phenomena, some of which directly involves me.”

  “This is not wise.” She made to rise. I placed a hand over her arm as a gentle encouragement for her to stay.

  “Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on with me, something unnatural, but I have to do this summoning. It’s the only way to save both my mom and myself.”

  Her eyes softened. “My instincts tell me this is a terrible mistake. But I understand your need. And I would not like to see you…disappear.”

  Perhaps she couldn’t bring herself to say the word die.

  Bethany sat again and slid her hands toward me, although somewhat gingerly.

  I tried to hold back whatever deep within me reacted to her flow of witchy energy, but it was hard to do when I had no idea what floated around inside of me.

  When we touched the hot jolt no longer shocked either of us. After a worried frown Bethany closed her eyes and began a low murmur. The low level energy sparked to life with her chant. From our touch points the energy funneled into me, the flow an ever increasing cascade, which flared a hidden pocket within me to life. As if channels opened up within my brain, I felt barriers shifting, pathways clearing, connections being made.

  Perhaps it was a better idea to pull out. Too late now, I
was deeply invested, too desperate, and this was the only way I could think to reach Dominic. Plus a deeper, darker part of me craved the release.

  Soon it became apparent my own energy had taken over from Bethany’s. No longer did I need to take in hers. In a flash my yearning for this untapped power sucked me down a tunnel of greed, and I sped along chasing the spiral of release as it moved up and out of me.

  For a brief moment, through my delirium of yearning, I felt Bethany tugging on my hands, trying to withdraw hers. As with touching a live line, I couldn’t let her go; neither did I want her to let go. Whether she liked it or not, we were joined and I would drag her all the way to the end.

  Which came quicker than I anticipated. So sudden was the blow, I jerked backward and toppled off my chair. After a sound slap like that, I came too, reeling from my experience, but thankfully feeling saner. Bethany lay on the ground, having also been thrown from her chair. Problem being I couldn’t touch her. And not because I feared falling into the deep pit of my greedy desire again, my hand simply passed through her.

  I backed up and turned around to discover the room no longer looked the same. On all sides, stone replaced Bethany’s cream walls. Overhead, the same, as was the floor beneath my feet. Dim and dank, it reminded me of an underground cavern. Was I standing within the void once more, which would make sense. Not that I understood this place called the void, but it seemed a likely place for ghosts to be. Difference being, from when I was last in the void to now, I no longer faced gray; instead it appeared I was in a dungeon.

  14

  Hmm…I knew that deep, male voice.

  Mora opened on the second knock.

  At the sight of me her smiling expression turned to a scowl. “You’re not here to talk me out of going, are you?”

  “No. Although your sister’s hoping I will succeed in keeping you here. Or at least away from jinns.”

  Mora rolled her eyes and stepped aside.

  Ezekial reclined in his usual manner, one leg slung over the chair.

  “You’re here a lot.” I tried to keep any accusations out of my voice, but by the mischievous smile Mora gave I would say I didn’t succeed. “Don’t angels have important things to do?”