Tattered Souls (Broken Souls Book 1)

by Richard Hein

  “Your first recruit has already signed up,” Kate said. Her hand gave my shoulder a squeeze. “If you call me Intern Kate, I’ll break your nose, though.”

  My smile was genuine. “Fair enough. You do everything I say, and you won’t get a nickname.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Everything?”

  “How exactly is it you’re going to be in charge?” Daniel asked. “You’re not even technically active.”

  The mood evaporated. “We’ll talk about that soon,” I said. Kate’s hand fell away. “Turns out there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in this place we didn’t know about. As much as I’d love to gab about it, not here, and not now. There’s a lot to think about. Like you wanting to punch the ever-loving crap out of me.”

  “Only a lot,” Kate said with a thin smile.

  “Most of the time,” Daniel agreed.

  I threw up my hands. “Fine. I’ll institute an open door policy and be open about things going forward, okay? Let’s go home and everyone can take a round punching out their aggressions on me. Why not. After angels, the soft and ineffectual punches of you two should be refreshing.”

  “Home,” Kate echoed. “It sounds good right about now.”

  Chairs squeaked in the eternal silence as we rose. Daniel slung his weapon over his shoulder and deliberately followed behind me, with Kate at my left. She was close enough that our arms brushed as we walked on occasion, and I didn’t mind.

  Dawn licked at the sky as we stepped out of the warehouse and back to Seattle. The three of us paused in silence, watching side by side. I reached out and put an arm around Kate. She sighed and pulled close.

  “I’m going to drive that car, you know,” she whispered. “That asshole owes me.”

  I grinned. “I think I left the keys in the ignition. It’s only fair.”

  She pushed away from me and dashed across the parking lot. Kate threw herself into the Archangel’s classic car with enthusiasm. The roar of the engine split the pre-dawn air.

  “How about you, Daniel?” I asked. “You with me?”

  His answer was a long time coming. “What you did was wrong,” he said at last. “Magic, Samuel. Twice, even, and you lied about it for three years. I… I don’t know how to get past that, but the OFC needs rebuilding. I’m not sure how to go forward from here.”

  I winced and opened my mouth, but he held up a hand.

  “I understand your reasoning,” he said. “I know. In the end, you pushed Michael out and saved what is left of the organization, and that means something. You compromised, though, and I don’t think I can get a grip on that, Samuel. We’re the good guys. We don’t do that. I need to think about what I want to do.”

  Daniel walked away from me. His usual uh and um were absent as he’d stared me down. He’d grown in his trial by fire, challenging and assertive. I stood alone once more, separate and detached and looking in. Heat roiled in me, my fists clenching. Hadn’t I saved him? Hadn’t I…

  I turned away and sucked in a lungful of morning air. The need to go over to him and shout was maddening, the words clawing at my throat until I thought they’d tear through the flesh and get free. I pressed my fists against my eyes until a whirlwind of colors swirled across my vision, trembling with the raw need to let my anger loose.

  “Pity. You’re so much more fun that way. You like the anger.”

  I twisted, spinning in a frantic circle. I was alone beside the sundered door of the warehouse in the pre-dawn light. A cool breeze flickered across my skin and fell dead. Kate revved the engine a few times, but silence descended once more. I ran a hand through my hair.

  “Come on Samuel. You were always quick on your feet. This is disappointing.”

  The low basso voice rumbled in my ear. I swept out a hand and felt nothing.

  “Sanctuary?” I whispered. “Man, we’re going to have a talk about boundaries.”

  “That mindless whelp is confined to his little box,” the voice said. It caressed at my mind, an insistent pressure at the base of my skull, echoing through me. It felt familiar, but with a twist on it I couldn’t quite place. “It can not help you out here. It’s time we talked, Sammy my boy. It’s long overdue. I’ve missed our time together.”

  Cold bands of dread snapped around my chest and constricted. I staggered against the building.

  “Now you’re getting it. It’s about time we had a little chat.”

  A trickle of sweat meandered down my back as I stared, unfocused, at the pavement. The world twisted around me, threatening to heave me off without a hand-hold. I’d gambled and lost. My eyes closed. I’d known the risk of throwing everything I had against Michael, known what I was fighting for, but the reality of the cost was…

  “Oh, knock it off,” the voice rumbled. “This has nothing to do with the Right Hand of God. You and I have had a much longer relationship.” I could feel something grin in the back of my mind, wide and vicious. My stomach heaved at the sensation.

  “Since Lauren died,” I said numbly. “Since the first time I used magic. I…” My voice trailed off. I thought I’d gotten away clean that time, and it had all been a lie. I’d seared that thing out of Lauren, and something had taken up shop in my mind.

  “Died? Oh not at all, Samuel. Not at all. I’m still here.”

  My head snapped up, eyes wide. “No.”

  “This is so delicious. Do you know how you look right now?”

  Lauren? My Lauren? You could only be possessed by Entities from another reality. It had to be a lie.

  As if sensing my thoughts, a dozen memories flooded through my mind. Lauren and I curled on the couch and watching late night television, me throwing a handful of popcorn at her after a sarcastic comment. I remembered that night, not long before it all went to Hell. Only… it was from Lauren’s perspective, framing my own body in the center of the vision as if she had been looking at me.

  “No,” I growled. “You could have just made that up. You can’t prove you are her. It’s just not fucking possible!”

  “I know every whispered word in the heat of intimacy,” the voice purred. “Every fear ever shared with you, every happy moment.”

  It made no sense. You couldn’t be possessed by a human, and whatever this thing was, it acted very little like Lauren. I’d killed her. Except that Entities and their hosts swap and share personalities. They mingle. They combine. Lauren had been too far gone for exorcism to work, but if they’d merged together…

  “Bingo,” the voice said, and I shivered. It could read my thoughts. “Not as dumb as you look. We’ve been working together for a while, Sammy. That anger you’ve been blessed with? All that strength you force fed Mikey? I saved Kate and your precious timeshare home away from home. You were starting to get a decidedly inflated opinion of yourself, and that just won’t do. Kicking people when they’re down is a hobby of mine, you know.”

  Everything crumbled around me. I pressed a hand to my forehead. Could I save her somehow? Separate her from whatever it was that had taken up residence in my head? An amalgam of Lauren and a foul creature?

  Was there anything left of Lauren to save?

  “I’ll get you out of there,” I snarled. “Kate and Daniel can—”

  “Please,” it said, drawing out the word. “Daniel couldn’t exorcise noodles from a cup. Kate’s close brush with Michael in her mind has her paranoid about what might have happened to you. It’s plain to see in the way she keeps touching you, as if to reassure herself you’re still you. Daniel’s just looking for an excuse to pin all those deaths on you. Once he realizes that you’ve been a host for three wonderful years…”

  My heart splashed into my stomach. He’d think I’d planned everything with the OFC. Staged a coup.

  “Indeed,” Lauren said, reading my mind. “I wanted you to know I’m here, Samuel. Now that the OFC is a smoking crater, we’re going to be getting better acquainted. Now, get into the car and smile at your friends. I’ll even help you.”

  My legs shuddered fo
rward. A chill flashed across my skin like morning dew. “You’ve played your hand by letting me know you’re there,” I said, striding across the parking lot with a stilted gait. “Now that I know you’re in here, I can do something about it.”

  Except I couldn’t even stop my legs from the inexorable march toward the car.

  “Perhaps. But I tell you what. We’re going to have fun until then, Sammy.”

  I yanked open the passenger door and threw myself into it. Daniel sat in the back, silent, staring at the remains of the warehouse. Kate turned and gave me a little frown.

  The need to tell them everything bubbled up within me, a crushing pressure begging for release. I stared into Kate’s azure eyes, full of concern and ache and sadness. The words burned as I swallowed them down. It wasn’t the time to weigh her soul down with further problems. We’d all already seen enough crap for the day. Right now it was time for anything but more worry and problems. My eyes flicked to Daniel and the little black storm clouds swirling above his head and the way he deliberately looked everywhere but at me.

  Yeah, the time to hold hands and sing around the campfire was later.

  I heard an amused chuckle float on the winds of my thoughts, and my skin flashed cold.

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  Flames of Truth - Book 2 of the Divine Order Saga

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