Curtis howled.
“Where is she?”
~ ~ ~
When Damien emerged from the room an hour later, he was snapping blue electricity. “Your machine is useless. I didn’t need it.”
Ben looked up from staring over Eugene’s shoulder at the images on his laptop screen.
“Curtis is gone,” Damien announced.
“Did you find out where Sam is?” Christian asked, straightening from beside Ben and crossing his arms.
Damien’s fists clenched. “Yes.” He continued to the door.
Ben fazed in front of him, blocking it. “You can’t go like that. Just take a moment. You are ready to make the Jump.”
“I’m going to save Sam. You can either come with me or get out of my way.”
“I’ve found something,” Eugene called. “Before you go running in half cocked, I think you should take a look at it.”
Ben watched the anger crest over Damien, but he managed to regain control. He fazed to Eugene’s side.
“I’ve been reviewing some of the tapes from Sam’s car.”
Damien scowled. “You have her car bugged?”
“Well, I… It’s a precaution! And it certainly is coming in handy.” Eugene pointed to the screen on the wall. “Watch.” He typed at his laptop.
Damien, Christian and Ben turned to look at the screen. It was the alley where Sam had last parked her Audi Spyder. The picture was stagnant, showing an empty alley.
Damien put his hands on his hips impatiently. “What are we looking at?”
“Watch.” A moment passed and Eugene exclaimed, “There! Did you see it?”
Damien shook his head.
“See what?” Christian asked.
“The black smoke.”
Christian blinked. “I didn’t see anything.”
“I’ll rewind it.”
“What does it mean?” Ben asked.
“It means we’re wasting time!” Damien shouted.
“It means there’s something out there. I found this, too. Listen.” Eugene turned the volume up. While the picture on the screen was stationary of the alley, whisperings seeming to float in and out came over the speaker.
When they stopped, Christian commented, “It sounds like someone was standing outside the car, whispering.”
“It is whispering. I’ve been hearing it ever since you started blasting the Changed,” Damien said impatiently. “Have you figured out what they’re saying?”
Eugene shook his head. “Not yet. But I will.”
“So this was a waste of my time and Sam’s,” Damien growled.
“No, it wasn’t. Eugene, keep working,” Ben said. “Damien, I want to talk to you.” He stepped over into a corner and Damien followed. “Look, we’re all concerned about Sam. But snapping at those Souls who are trying to help you isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
“I don’t need you to help me. You’re the one that did this to her. I should be shoving my fist into you and draining you.”
Ben straightened, guilt settling around him like a blanket. “You’re right. But I want to see her safe as much as you do. We don’t want to go into a situation like this blind. It could spell trouble for all of us.”
“Sam could be hurt. Or worse. She needs me now and I’m not waiting. Not like before.”
“Before?”
Damien snarled. “Never mind. I’m going.”
“At least let me stab you before we go.” When Damien looked at him in surprise, Ben explained in disbelief, “To help you power down.”
“I can’t,” Damien murmured.
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“I can’t. I’ve tried.”
Ben’s gaze swept him. The glow around him wasn’t like little electrical charges. It was more. It was like he was glowing blue. “You’re close to making the Jump.”
Damien looked down. “If we don’t find Sam, I will make the Jump. And there will be nothing you can do to stop me.”
~ ~ ~
“How do you know he was telling the truth?” Christian asked as they fazed in before the church that Curtis told Damien about. It towered above them like an old medieval monument.
“Because I told him I would let him go if he told me,” Damien said, gazing up at the magnificent church.
“You lied to him,” Christian accused.
“I would have said anything to find out where Sam was.” Spasms of apprehension tingled along his shoulders and neck. The church was familiar. Huge slabs of stones were stacked on top of each other to form the thick walls, the blocks of rock rising up to a towering steeple high above. This church looked like the one Sam, Ben and Cora had burned in so long ago. Damien cast Ben a look to affirm his suspicions.
A dark look of trepidation shadowed Ben’s face as his gaze swept the church.
“Looks familiar, doesn’t it?”
“You don’t think Cora’s behind this, do you?” Ben asked.
Damien shook his head. “She’s not here.”
Christian started forward. Ben and Damien followed. They paused in front of the large wood double doors. Christian looked up, searching the area for traps. When they had last dealt with a Changed, it had devised an elaborate set-up in a broken down barn. Iron blades and hidden rooms were some of the traps they had encountered.
“It’s a working church,” Ben said. “I don’t think there’ll be traps.”
“This whole thing feels like a trap,” Christian murmured.
“We know Daniel isn’t behind it, so it must be a Changed.”
“There’s three Changed inside,” Damien said. “I can feel them.” He stepped through the wooden doors, moving right through the wood. Ben and Christian followed. The cathedral ceiling stretched far above their heads. A long aisle stretched before them, leading to the front altar. Wooden pews lined each side of the aisle. Two people were kneeling in prayer in the front pew. Statues of saints gazed at them from their pedestals near the front altar. A large wooden cross hung on the back wall.
Damien’s heart twisted when he saw her. Sam lay unmoving on the altar just below the cross. She was so translucent he almost could not see her. Her long, black hair hung over the side of the stone altar. Her hands were bound above her head, her ankles also bound.
Damien fazed immediately to her side. “Sam?” he called, but she didn’t respond. He began to unstrap her wrists.
Whispered words came to him. “Damien.”
Ben appeared beside him, his gaze on Sam. “Is –” He suddenly disappeared as a Changed with a bushy white mustache shoved a dagger into his back.
Damien whirled and caught the Changed’s fist as he struck at him with the dagger, then plunged his fist into the Changed’s chest. The Changed stiffened, dropping the dagger as the energy was pulled from his body.
“Damien!”
He whirled, releasing the Changed, but no one was there. He looked around. The Changed crumpled to the ground in agony.
When Damien turned, pinning him with a deadly glare, he crawled away down the two steps to the front pews.
Damien glanced around for the source of the voices he was hearing. Christian was in the middle of the aisle dealing with another Changed with a baseball hat on. Ben had still not reappeared.
He turned back to Sam in time to see another Changed appeared across the altar from her. He wore his dark hair chopped close to his head, and a dragon tattoo ran from his hairline to his jaw. Damien growled an angry warning, his lip snarling in hatred. Then, he froze. There was something strange about this Changed. His eyes. They weren’t black. They were white.
“You can hear me, can’t you?”
The words were in Damien’s head. “Get away from her,” he spat.
The Changed smiled. “I knew from the time I saw you kiss her in the alley that she was your weakness.” He lifted a hand to stroke her cheek. “I can’t blame you really.”
Damien fazed to the other side of the altar.
The Changed fazed to the s
pot he had just been in.
Chills ran down Damien’s spine. He knew who this was. He was a Changed, but different. He recognized the voice in his mind. Scala.
“She means a lot to you. Much more than you realize.”
Damien couldn’t look at Sam. He would lose focus and he couldn’t afford to take his gaze from Scala. He could feel the fury racing through his body, boiling his energy. If she died he wouldn’t be able to control himself.
“Join me. Join me and I will release her. Refuse and she dies.”
“You’re not in a position to be offering deals,” Damien said.
“Not in a position…?” Scala gazed down at Sam. “Look at her.”
Damien couldn’t stop himself from looking down at her. Her bright eyes were closed, her skin so very pale. His chest tightened in agony. She was so close to permanent oblivion. So very close. If she left this world, he would lose control. He felt the stirrings of turmoil deep inside him, eating away at what little control he had left.
“Does she look like she’s going to get up and walk away?” Scala continued. He was speaking the words out loud now. “For every moment you stand here debating with me, she grows farther away from your reach.”
“You did this to her,” Damien growled, his fists clenching on the side of the altar. “You hurt her.”
Scala sighed softly. “I had no choice. It was the only way to get your attention. Sam has always been one of my favorites. I never wanted her to…disappear.”
~ ~ ~
Eugene scratched his head, staring at the laptop screen. He played the whispered voices over again. No matter what he did, he couldn’t clear up the audio enough to listen to their words. What could he possibly be doing wrong? He adjusted different controls with a wave of his finger over the screen. Then he played it again.
The whisperings were still garbled.
He sat back, staring at the screen. Then, an idea struck him. What if the whispers were not because of the clearness of the sound, what if it was the speed. He slowed the speed down to half, then hit play.
Eugene bent close to listen. He could make out words, but it was too slow. Again, he adjusted the speed of the sound.
“Take Sam,” the one voice said.
“Damien will come for her. He will make the Jump then. We will have him.”
Eugene froze. It was not a trap for Sam. It was a trap for Damien! He raced to the door, and put his hand over the keypad. When the door slid open, he fazed instantly.
~ ~ ~
“You have my attention. Now let her go,” Damien said.
“But I don’t have your cooperation.”
Prickles of anxiety knotted his stomach. He glanced down the aisle of the church, over Sam’s body. Ben had re-appeared and was slashing at a bald Changed with his dagger in the center aisle. Christian had grabbed the arm of the Changed with the baseball hat and was fighting to keep a dagger away from him in the pews to the right. Four Changed? Scala must have been recruiting them.
The two human men in the front pew hadn’t moved. Their hands were clasped. It was strange. While Damien knew the humans couldn’t see what was going on, they seemed unnaturally stiff. Damien scowled.
“Ahhh. You’ve seen my gift. They are a token of my sincerity,” Scala whispered.
The Changed with the bushy white mustache who had crawled away from Damien, materialized behind one of the two humans. He lifted his dagger, and shoved it into the back of one of the men.
The man slumped forward and fell to the ground.
“No!” Ben hollered. He attempted to rush forward, but the bald Changed stepped in front of him, slashing with his dagger, a demented grin on his face. Ben backed away. He fazed as the Changed lunged. The Changed fazed, following him.
A Soul emerged from the dead human man. It glanced at the altar, and around at all the Souls and Changed. Confusion marred his brow, fear glimmered in his large eyes.
The Changed with the bushy white mustache grabbed the new Soul and pulled him up the two steps to the altar, guiding him toward Damien.
Suddenly, Eugene appeared in the back of the church. “It’s a trap!” he shouted. “Damien! For you!”
Damien looked at Scala.
His white eyes glowed. “Go ahead. Drain him. Lifelines connect the humans. They’re brothers. It’s a perfect combination to make the Jump. You’re ready. Do it.”
Damien’s body shook and he took a step toward the freshie.
The Soul stood unsurely, looking around as if seeing for the first time.
The desire to drain him and make the Jump was almost uncontrollable for Damien. He wanted the energy. He wanted the power. He bowed his head, searching for a way to resist the temptation to make the Jump. The urge to Jump had always been strong and hard to resist. But Sam had been there for him, keeping him anchored.
He glanced back at her on the altar. Her hand rested over the edge, palm up. Her body was so light, so transparent. They had hurt her. Drained her until she was almost gone. His fists clenched. Electricity hummed through him. He looked at the human male in the first pew.
Tears ran down the man’s face.
The allure of being human again washed over Damien. To feel. To touch. To smell.
Sam! He looked back at her and noticed the strings at the front of her leather bodice were open, revealing the tops of her rounded breasts. Curtis had done that. He was sure. He had unlaced her bodice and stuck his fist into her. Rage exploded through Damien.
He turned back to the newly made Soul.
The Soul shrank away from him, recoiling.
Damien was more than ready. His gaze again shifted to the human man in the pew. The brother. By taking the energy from the dead brother’s soul, the lifeline would form. He could then make the Jump into the living brother. He could go back to the human world. He took another step toward the new Soul.
The new Soul wasn’t looking at Damien, but staring past him. Damien knew what the Soul was looking at. It was the woman in white. She would be there, waiting for him, beckoning him to come with her. The same woman in white he had turned his back on all those long centuries ago. He knew he didn’t have much time to act. He shoved his hand into the chest of the freshie. The Soul screamed, instinctively convulsing.
“Damien!” Ben called. “Don’t!”
Damien pulled his hand from the Soul’s chest. He hadn’t drained him completely. The small power he had taken was enough. The living brother in the front pew glowed a soft white, shining like a beacon for him. A lifeline.
He fazed to the living brother.
The man was tied at the wrists and ankles in a kneeling position. His mouth was covered by silver duct tape. His eyes were large and fearful. He couldn’t see what was happening and that scared the crap out of him. What did he believe? Demons? Monsters?
What could this human man do for me? Damien wondered. Yet, the urge to take possession of his body was an irresistible force inside of him. He knew he could claim the shell and overtake the Soul inside. He was going to do it.
His body shook with need. With desire.
Desire. Sam. He looked back at her. He had failed her once. And now he was going to fail her again. He couldn’t resist the allure of making the Jump. He wasn’t strong enough. Not without her. Like the angelic white woman who beckoned newly turned Souls to join her, the Jump tempted the Changed in the same manner. It was like a delicious pull. The promise of wonderful things. To be alive again. Feel. Smell. Taste.
Damien could almost remember what it was like to be human. And he wanted it. More than anything.
Scala frowned with impatience. His jaw clenched and he plunged his fist into Sam’s chest. “Do it now or I will drain her completely!”
Chapter Four
“NOOO!” Damien’s scream was echoed by Ben. Damien stepped forward, but the Changed with the white bushy mustache pushed the new Soul aside and fazed to block Damien’s path, holding a dagger before him.
“I don’t want this, Damien,” Sca
la said softly. “Make the Jump and this can all stop.”
“Don’t do it, Damien,” Ben hollered. “Sam wouldn’t want you to.”
Damien looked at Sam. Scala’s fist was in her chest. She was becoming more and more transparent. Damien moved with amazing speed. He grabbed the bushy white mustache Changed’s neck and shoved his other fist inside of him. He drained him instantaneously, working so fast the Changed vanished before his eyes.
Damien looked at Scala. His white eyes were large in disbelief. It would be too late for Sam if he didn’t get Scala away from her. He didn’t even think; he acted on instinct to save her. He flicked his wrist around, catching the blue energy in his palm, and threw the ball of energy at Scala.
It struck him hard in the chest, knocking the body of the Changed he was in back a step until his hand was out of Sam. The blue energy ball landed with such impetus it also pushed Scala out of the body of the Changed. A puff of black smoke held his image for a second behind the Changed like a shadow, suspended for a moment before it completely vanished.
Damien had no illusions about what had just happened; he was sure Scala was not dead. He wasted no time fazing to Sam’s side.
The Changed with the dragon tattoo looked dazed. He stepped back, cowering away from Damien.
Damien turned his back on him, moving to Sam. She was so light, almost gone. “No,” he gasped, afraid to touch her. Afraid it would be too late. Afraid that if he touched her, his hand would pass through her. “Sammie,” he groaned. His hand trembled as he reached out and ran his fingers along her hair. He stroked her long locks and Damien knew she was fighting to stay with him. He ripped open the straps holding her wrists and then the ones at her ankles. He scooped her up in his arms and spun. He couldn’t faze; she was too weak and he was afraid she would not survive.
He marched to a door, passing the Changed who Scala had inhabited, and walked through the doorway with Sam held tightly in his arms, not bothering to look back.
Altercation - Episode 4 (Lost Souls) Page 6