by E. J. King
Ethan walked over and put a hand on my shoulder. “They were wrong. I’m sure they didn’t think the three of us could handle them. There were over a dozen Souls in this place. They underestimated us.”
“I don’t think they did.” It started to come back to me. “They brought us to this place for a reason.”
“I think you’re giving them too much credit, Kale.” Ethan looked worried, like he thought I might be suffering from brain damage.
I noticed something that made my stomach turn. “What is that?”
“Old wiring. This place is falling apart-”
“No, it’s not.” Rafe’s eyes followed the wiring to where it connected with a large metal object, like an overgrown battery. “That’s an explosive device.”
“And that’s a countdown,” I said, noticing a large clock for the first time. We had thirty seconds to get the hell out of there.
Rafe grabbed me and pushed me toward the door. Ethan was already headed in that direction with Hope. “Run, Kaylie.”
It seemed like a simple enough request. All I had to do was run fast in one direction. But my head was still spinning and I could barely walk, let alone run. Rafe kept trying to push me forward, but it was only slowing us down.
“Stop.” He grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder.
Ethan and Hope had gotten a head start, but with Rafe’s super speed we nearly caught up to them. They were several yards outside the building when we reached the door. Three steps later, everything exploded around us and we were flying through the air.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Two Years Earlier
It was a muggy day. I woke up with my hair clinging to the sweat on my neck. Our house had air conditioning, but my parents refused to turn it on. They said that the fresh air was better for us. They were always making random decisions like that.
Like every day, I woke before dawn. We trained as a family, all the way down to my little brother, Jack. My parents had been especially strict with our training lately and I suspected they knew something they weren’t sharing with me and my brothers.
“You look like crap,” Lincoln said when I ran into him in the hall outside our bedrooms. In typical Lincoln form, he looked like he just got back from a relaxing vacation. Not a drop of sweat was apparent, and he had a lazy look about him that always made me envious.
“How are you not sweating right now? Why did I get all the crappy genes?”
Lincoln just laughed and ruffled my hair. “Just lucky I guess. It probably helps that you were adopted.”
It was a long running joke between us that Lincoln had hogged all of the Hart family genes, leaving me to look like an adopted member of the family. My dad always objected, saying that I was a spitting image of his mother when she was young. Since I had never met the woman, nor seen a picture, I remained skeptical.
“Are you ready to run ten miles in 100 degree heat?”
We had recently moved to Louisiana, picking the absolute worst time to move South. It was especially brutal since we had come there from Minnesota.
“This is good training weather. Helps prepare us if we should ever have to fight in hell.”
Lincoln was trying to be funny, but there was also some truth in his statement. Hell wasn’t an impossibility in our line of work.
Dad was waiting for us in the kitchen, filling water bottles.
“Good morning, kids,” he said, sounding like his usual annoyingly chipper self.
“Where’s Mom?” I was already hoping that she had decided not to come with us. If Mom didn’t have to train, then I had a good argument for myself not training.
Dad knew exactly what I was thinking. “She’s getting Jack. Start lacing up your sneakers.”
“No one calls them sneakers, Dad.” Lincoln was perpetually embarrassed by our parents. It had something to do with being nineteen and still living at home.
“Jack isn’t feeling well,” Mom said when she entered the room less than a minute later. “He has a fever.”
“We should probably stay here and look after him,” I suggested, a little too eagerly.
Mom shook her head. “I’ll stay here with Jack. You all can still train.”
“You know, Jack probably doesn’t even have a fever. It’s a million degrees in this house.” I yelped as Dad jabbed me in the ribs.
“Shoes, Kay-Kay.”
“Fine.”
Dad was in a particularly stern mood and we ended up running close to twelve miles. When Lincoln asked him why we were training so hard, Dad barked at him to stop asking questions and then made both of us do 50 pushups.
“Link, do you think you’ll ever leave home?” I asked him later when we were eating breakfast in the kitchen. Dad had gone to check on Mom and Jack.
“What kind of a question is that?” Lincoln glared at me over his Cocoa Krispers. “Of course I’ll move out eventually.”
“But soon?”
His eyes narrowed. “Why are you asking me this right now?”
“I want to go to college, Link.”
There. I said it out loud. I had been repeating those words over and over in my head for months, years even, but this was the first time I had said them to anyone else.
Lincoln’s head shook slowly. “That’s not an option, Kale. Hunters don’t go to college. They don’t take exotic trips. They don’t have friends. Hunters hunt, and then they die.”
“I don’t want that life. I don’t want to be a Hunter.”
The timing of my proclamation couldn’t have been worse. Mom and Dad had just walked into the kitchen and they were none-too-pleased with my statement.
A yelling match ensued, one that I was determined to win. It wasn’t the first time I had told them that I wanted a different future, but I had never come right out and said that I wanted to give up hunting completely. Needless to say, they were pissed.
Eventually, Dad forbade me to fill out college applications and I told them both that I hated them. Then, I grabbed my bag and fled the house.
The problem with being homeschooled in a new town was that I didn’t have a single friend, and I didn’t know my way around. Without a destination in mind, I ended up walking around aimlessly for hours. Eventually, I found a quiet coffee shop. After ordering a large latte, I perused an antique bookshelf while I waited for my drink.
The top shelf was full of travel books- all of the places I hoped to see one day. That would never happen if I stayed in the Hunter world.
“Grande latte!”
I took my drink to a table by the window and stared blankly outside until long after the sun had gone down. Still furious at my parents, I headed home only when Lincoln sent me a text saying that Mom was making my favorite meal for dinner.
A couple of blocks from my house, I sensed that something was wrong. Souls had been in the area very recently. Without thinking twice, I sprinted home.
The front door was open a crack and the minute I nudged it open further, I could smell death. I reached into my bag and pulled out the knife that I’d carried since I was six-years-old. The house was eerily silent.
My family was in the living room. Their bodies were scattered around the floor and none of them were moving. There was so much blood everywhere. My eyes rested briefly on each motionless body- Dad, Mom, Lincoln, and little Jack. It didn’t seem possible that so much blood could have come from just four bodies.
Suddenly, everything felt so heavy. The air was thick and hard to breath, my arms were too heavy to lift, my eyelids too heavy to keep open. I sank to the floor, landing in a pool of Hart blood.
When I finally opened my eyes again, I was in Rafe’s arms, staring into his kind, beautiful blue eyes.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
This time, I was in Rafe’s arms again. His body pressed down on mine, shielding me from the blast. I opened my eyes, expecting to see that same face, but Rafe didn’t look the same as he did in that memory. His eyes were a haunting gold, the kindness buried much deeper. But I could st
ill see it there, hovering below the surface.
“Kaylie, are you okay?”
My ears were ringing slightly and my head still hurt from the earlier trauma, but I was alive and all of my limbs worked. I couldn’t ask for much more than that.
“I’m fine. How are the others?”
He looked around anxiously and then his body relaxed against mine. “They’re fine.”
His head lowered until his forehead rested against mine, his breath coming out in short bursts and warming my skin. I could feel his heart pounding a steady rhythm in his chest. Neither of us moved for a long time.
Ethan called out to make sure we were okay, and only then did we break eye contact.
“You ready to stand?” Rafe asked, lifting his weight off me.
I nodded.
Slowly, I got to my feet. My body wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought it would be, considering the damage to the building. Rafe had done a good job of protecting me from falling debris.
“There’s nothing more we can do here,” he said, careful watching me as I stared at the burning building.
“You’re right.” I turned away from the wreckage and faced my friends. “Let’s go home.”
Ethan took Hope back to her dorm room at her insistence. She wasn’t ready to talk to me about what had happened yet. For days after, I tried calling her multiple times per day, but she refused to answer or return my calls. I didn’t blame her.
I had suffered a pretty bad concussion and it took a while for me to feel normal. A week after everything happened, I ran into Hope at a memorial the school held for Breanna and Meggie. While the explosion had destroyed a lot of the evidence about what happened in that building, some of Meggie’s belongings and DNA had been found in the wreckage. The police were still investigating both murders.
Hope spotted me across the room and I expected her to look away. Instead, she excused herself from her friends and came over to me.
“How are you?” I asked, truly concerned about her well-being.
Ethan had stopped by to check in on her a couple of times and said she was having trouble dealing with what had happened that night. I couldn’t imagine how confused she must feel about everything. Not only had she been through an ordeal with her abduction, but then also learning that vampires were real must’ve been quite a shock.
“I’m doing okay, I guess.” Hope looked at me with tired, red eyes. “I haven’t been able to sleep since everything happened.”
“That’s understandable.” I struggled to think of something to say that would make things better. “I’m sorry all this happened to you. I would’ve done anything to keep you out of my crazy world.”
“It’s definitely crazy,” she said with a weak laugh. “How long have you known about… them?”
We had too many eavesdroppers to talk openly about the Souls. “My entire life. My parents were Hunters.”
Hope gestured to the door. “Should we go for a walk?”
“That’s probably a good idea.”
We found a quiet area to sit outside where we could talk openly. It was midday, but Hope still looked around nervously, as if she expected something to jump out of the bushes and grab her.
“So… you hunt vampires?” She shuddered and laughed at the same time. “That’s something I never thought I would seriously say to someone.”
“What can I say? I’m a weirdo.”
“What should I know about them?” she asked. I could see fear in her eyes. “Sunlight, garlic, and wooden stakes- what’s true and what’s a lie?”
“They don’t like sunlight, but they won’t burst into flames or anything. It just makes them weaker. Any kind of stake will work if you get it directly in their heart. As far as I know, garlic does nothing to them. Same with crucifixes and holy water.” I figured we could go into the myth about my blood later. Now didn’t seem like a good time to bring that up.
Hope nodded slowly as she absorbed the information. “Are other monsters real?”
“Some of them, yes. Shifters are real, for example. Lots of other supernatural creatures are real, too. That’s why being a Hunter is a full-time job.”
“Ethan and Rafe are Hunters, too?” So far, Hope was handling the information pretty well.
“They are.”
I waited for Hope to ask more questions, or to yell at me for almost getting her killed. But she didn’t do either of those things. Instead, she asked something that surprised me.
“Any tips that can help me sleep at night?” She smiled sheepishly. “I can’t even turn my lights off at bedtime.”
“To be honest, I could use some tips on that myself.” An idea came to me so suddenly that I didn’t have time to think before it came out of my mouth. “Do you think a change of scenery could help?”
Hope’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“I guess I am,” I said, just as surprised as her. “What do you think?”
A sly smile spread across her face. “I think the boys upstairs better watch out, Roomie.”
The problem with my generous offer was that it meant I had a lot of work to do. We had been using the spare bedroom as our library and research room. With Hope moving in, I needed a new home for the Hunter Chronicles. Fortunately, Ethan was generous enough to help me move the books and their shelves into my dining room. Since we never actually used the room for dining, it made sense.
One problem was solved, but as I helped Hope move her possession inside, I realized we had another problem.
“You have a lot of shoes, Hope. I mean, a lot of shoes.” I stared in awe at the boxes of footwear. “I did mention that the guest room only has a regular size closet, right?”
“I’ll make it work.” She handed me one of the boxes, and even though I had been training more than ever, the weight of it surprised me.
“Glad you packed your bowling balls,” I joked.
A door slammed and I heard heavy steps on the porch. “Ladies, looks like you could use a big, strong man.”
“That would be great. Do you know one?” I smiled sweetly at Rafe.
“You’ll regret that, Red.” He flicked my ponytail.
Hope watched us with a faint smile. “You two are adorable.”
“Grab a box, Shades. We don’t have all day.” I turned away before either of them could see me blush.
It took an unnatural amount of time to get Hope settled. Considering we were only moving clothes and other personal items, I had expected it to take about fifteen minutes. Instead, we didn’t finish until two hours later. Too exhausted to make dinner, we ordered a pizza and vegged out in front of the television.
“I can’t believe you actually enjoy watching a show about vampires,” Hope said when I made her stop changing channels when Blood Suckers came on.
“It’s Ethan’s favorite,” I said with a shrug. “Plus, it’s mildly amusing.”
“Ethan.” She smiled. “You’re fooling yourself with that one.”
I pretended not to know what she meant. “Ethan is a good guy.”
“Yes, he is. But he’s not the one you’re meant to be with.” Her face went serious, something rare from Hope. “Rafe is the one. You just won’t admit it to yourself.”
I choked on a sip of soda. “Rafe? No way.”
“Why not?”
“He’s arrogant. He’s sleazy. He’s constantly making fun of me and driving me insane. He…” I stopped, thinking about the fact that Rafe was also dying. I wasn’t ready to go down that road with Hope yet. “It’s not going to happen, Hope.”
“You’re wrong.” Her smile was back. “We can let it go for now, but I’ll be saying I told you so soon enough.”
I ignored her and reached for the journal I had been reading on-and-off for the last hour. When I picked it up, something floated into my lap.
“Is that your family?” Hope snatched it up excitedly.
That darn picture was back. “That’s them.”
&n
bsp; “Brothers?” She pointed at the picture.
“The little one is Jack and the tall, annoyed one in the back is Lincoln.”
She looked at me in surprise. “Lincoln?”
“Yeah. My dad was a history buff.”
“Was?”
Now I had to tell Hope about their fate and be subject to the pitying looks that I hated. “My family is dead, Hope. They were attacked by Souls.”
The pity appeared, flashing in her eyes briefly, but it was quickly replaced by confusion. “So Lincoln is dead?”
I nodded uncertainly. “Why are you looking at me like you don’t believe me?”
“The Souls that took me, I heard them talking about someone named Lincoln. They said that after they took care of you, they were going to get him.” She frowned. “Another Soul said something about ‘finding Kaylie’s brother.’ In Canton.”
It couldn’t be a coincidence or a mistake. Rafe swore that my brother was alive and that he saw him in a nearby town. Now, Hope had heard a group of Souls talking about him being in Canton, a town only an hour away. As much as I hadn’t been willing to believe it, the universe was yelling at me, telling me that my brother was still alive.
I had only one choice- I had to find out for myself.
LOST SOULS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
PROLOGUE
The year I turned seven, my family was hunting in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Jack was just a baby, still in diapers. I wasn’t old enough to stay home with him by myself, so my parents made Lincoln stay with us while they went off on a hunt. It wasn’t unusual for us to stay home alone for a few days at a time, waiting for our parents to return.