Deception - Episode 3 (Lost Souls)

by Laurel O'Donnell

  “Don’t look at me like that. Like I’m some sort of monster. Think of what I can do as a human.”

  Ben was thinking of that. And he was filled with dread. “You lied to me.”

  “Geez, Ben. How else could I have gotten so much power? This is a lifetime of draining in a couple of days. What other Changed has done that before? I’ll be a legend!”

  “I won’t let you do this, Cora.”

  “Are you saying you’re going to fight me?” A smile stretched over her lips. “You are really cute. You might have been able to fight me when you first found me. But now, you’re no match for me.”

  Suddenly, the nurse unplugged the machine at the sick woman’s side.

  “Please, Cora. This is your last chance.” His last hope. “Please.”

  Cora didn’t move. And Ben knew what he had to do. He couldn’t let this monster hurt a human. He had made a terrible mistake, but he would not make it again. He reached behind his back and pulled out his iron dagger.

  The dead woman’s Soul sat up. She looked around and saw Ben swinging the dagger at Cora. She screamed.

  Cora caught Ben’s wrist. “You’re almost as slow as a freshie.” She pulled his wrist, flinging him across the room.

  Ben didn’t have the strength to stop himself and surged through one wall and then another before he stopped in the center of an empty emergency room. He stood and walked back through the walls. By the time he reached the woman’s room, Cora was gone and so was the woman’s Soul.

  He stood looking at the dead woman’s body; it was now nothing more than a shell. He had made a mess of things. Cora had lied and deceived him. What a fool! Damien had been right. He had warned him. But he had been too stubborn to listen. He only wanted to see Cora the way she had been. He shook his head and closed his eyes. His stomach knotted. There was only one thing he could do. Sam. He had lied to her. Just as Cora had lied to him. Would Sam even want to see him again? His shoulders sagged. At least he could help Sam with Rose.

  He attempted to faze to Lucas’s apartment, but as soon as the street began to take shape around him, he knew something was wrong. The lights were dim and a wave of dizziness came over him. He leaned against the building, but his hand slid through it and he almost fell but caught himself.

  He looked around, realizing it wasn’t Lucas’s apartment. He was just outside of the hospital. He straightened, concentrating on putting his hand on the wall. This time he managed to use the bricks as support. He closed his eyes and pictured Lucas’s apartment in his mind. The familiar dissipation began, the fading, the feeling of dropping that accompanied a faze. But the feeling didn’t stop like it should have. He opened his eyes and the world around him had not changed. He hadn’t moved from the hospital. He concentrated again, focusing on Lucas’s apartment, picturing the couch and the computer and the kitchen.

  He felt rather than saw the street whir by, the buildings moving past him. Then he stopped suddenly and everything slammed back into focus as if he had hit a wall. He was out of breath as though he had run the entire way. He looked up and was shocked to see he was not even a block from the hospital. Not even a block. He was too weak to faze.

  He wasn’t going to let Sam down. Not again. He started running.

  ~ ~ ~

  Lucas fazed Sam and Christian to the lobby of the theater. The lights were off and the theater was empty. It was late.

  Sam knew no humans would be around. Where was Rose? She glanced at Lucas.

  Lucas looked away from her quickly.

  Sam got that unsettling feeling that she hated, that prickling along the nape of her neck that only foreshadowed something bad about to happen. She stopped cold, silently reaching out to halt Christian by putting a hand on his arm.

  Movement to her right drew her attention. Brett, a Soul who worked with Daniel, materialized. Suddenly, he was joined by a group of at least twenty Souls, forming a circle around them.

  Sam loved a good fight, but twenty? Even if Ben was here they would be hard pressed to hold them all off and escape. At least Lucas was there to help them.

  “Do you know how hard you are to get a hold of?”

  An elderly gentleman walked into the lobby from one of the entrances to the theater. He was dressed in one of the plaid sweaters he obsessively wore.

  “Daniel,” Sam greeted. “I should feel honored you came yourself with an army of your goons.”

  “I really did want to talk to you,” he said, stopping beside Brett.

  “You could have called.”

  “I didn’t think you’d come.”

  Sam shrugged. “Probably not. You tried to lock us up last time.”

  Daniel nodded. His gaze swept the lobby. “Where’s Ben?”

  “He was too busy. But he sends his regards.”

  Daniel shrugged his shoulders. “He’ll come when he hears we have you.”

  “You don’t have us.”

  She tried to faze, but nothing happened. Anger soared through her.

  Daniel held up his hands. “Please, Sam. I really do want to talk.”

  “Can you faze?” Sam asked Christian.

  After a moment, Christian scowled, then shook his head.

  “He’s put some kind of patch on us. We can’t faze.” She turned to Daniel. “Still up to your old tricks, right Daniel?” The last time she had faced some of his men, they had put an iron patch on her so she couldn’t faze. The faze-blocking iron patch was like a sticker made of iron, containing enough of the metal to stop a faze. Sam frowned. But none of them had touched her. None of them had gotten close enough to put a patch on her. They had to touch you to put it on. No one had touched her except…

  Her gaze slowly swung around to Lucas.

  Lucas was backing away toward the circle of Daniel’s men.

  “Lucas,” she gasped. Getting her and Christian to the theater… Putting the patch on them… It had all been a trap.

  Lucas wouldn’t lift his head to look at her. “I’m sorry, Sam. I really am,” he said softly.

  “You can’t really blame him,” Daniel said. “He has a lot to protect.”

  Esme. Sam knew Daniel had threatened Esme to get Lucas to betray them. Knowing why he did it, didn’t make it better. Lucas had been their friend. Blindsided, a wave of fierce remorse crested over her. “She’s still in danger, Lucas. You can’t believe a word Daniel tells you!”

  Two of the Souls stepped aside and Lucas walked out of the circle.

  “I want you to understand that you three are causing quite a ruckus,” Daniel said, drawing Sam’s glare.

  “Ruckus? What are you talking about?”

  “Most of the Souls agree with the way we’ve been doing things for generations. Like Lucas.”

  Sam clenched her jaw. “That doesn’t make it right, Daniel.”

  Daniel shook his head. “The human must be sacrificed so we can destroy the Changed that has taken control of its host body. That is the way it must be done.”

  “Sacrificed?” Christian scoffed. “You mean murdered.”

  Sam glanced at Christian. His teeth were clenched, his eyes glued on Daniel with animosity. Daniel had tried to kill his daughter. If it weren’t for her and Ben, the little girl would be dead.

  “It doesn’t suit all involved, but it is the appropriate ending to such a heinous creature,” Daniel said.

  “Except that we found a better way,” Sam said. “We found a way to save the humans. And you don’t like that.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I have searched for a way for centuries.”

  “Then, what’s the problem? Our way kills the Changed and saves the human.”

  “We don’t know the effect your so-called solution has on the Changed.”

  Sam shook her head and lifted her hands. “It’s blasted out of the human body into nothingness!”

  “You are assuming that the Changed is destroyed. The world is filled with electrical energy. To assume the Changed is destroyed is arrogant. You do not know what the cons
equence of blasting them might be. You cannot know.”

  “You know what I think is arrogant?” Christian demanded. “Is you telling us that what we’re doing is wrong before you’ve even looked into it.”

  Daniel’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

  Sam smiled. “He doesn’t like the fact you wanted to kill his daughter. I can’t blame him.”

  “We saved her!” Christian shouted. “No thanks to you.”

  Daniel nodded, clasping his hands before him with a sigh. “Then we are at an impasse. I thought we might be. And that is why I invited my friends. I can’t very well allow you to continue defying my order. Imagine how it would look to the other Souls.”

  “Your order was…?” Sam wondered.

  “Do not blast the Changed. I told you not to do it.”

  “You wouldn’t even listen to us.”

  “It was my daughter,” Christian growled. “I’m glad they didn’t listen to you.”

  “And you see how it is,” Daniel said. “The dissension you are causing. It cannot be allowed to continue.”

  “Are you going to use that zapper on me again?” Sam inquired. The last time she had been overcome by Daniel, he had not only used an iron patch so she couldn’t faze, but also some kind of gun that zapped the energy from her.

  Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out the handgun.

  “Where’s Rose” Christian demanded. “What did you do to her?”

  “Rose is with us now. We don’t want Sam or you or Ben to poison her future with your distorted vision of things. She’s a young Soul, very susceptible. She needs to be guided along the right path.”

  “You bastard,” Christian hissed.

  “I’ll make this right. I promise.” He waved a hand.

  His famous last words. It was what Daniel had said the last time he imprisoned Christian, Ben and her.

  The Souls around them moved in. Two grabbed Sam from behind and she managed to grab one and pull him forward. She crunched her armored heel into the foot of the other one. He disintegrated with a growl, his form evaporating in a swirling mass of black particles. Sam knew he would be back.

  Three more approached and she backed away. She had to get the patch off her so she could faze. She ran a hand across her shoulder where Lucas had touched her, but there was nothing there, nothing she could feel.

  Another Soul tried to grab her from behind and she seized his arm, using his impetus to toss him into the approaching Souls. Again, she ran her hand across her shoulder. The damned patch had to be there somewhere. It was where Lucas touched her.

  She heard a sound from behind her and lashed out with her foot, kicking one of the Souls back. Two more took his place and it was all Sam could do to duck their efforts to capture her and dodge away.

  Again, she ran her hand slowly over her shoulder. This time, she noticed something incredibly thin, something she would have mistaken for her own skin if the texture weren’t more solid than hers. It was a square.

  Sam began to peel up the edges. She spotted Christian fighting his own battle. She also saw the iron net they were preparing to throw over him. “Christian!”

  Two things happened simultaneously. Two Souls reached for her and she ripped the patch from her shoulder. She tossed the translucent square aside and fazed.

  The room disappeared around her and she materialized up on the second floor. Below her, the iron net fell over Christian.

  “The patch is off!” Daniel called. “She pulled the patch off!”

  “There she is!” Brett shouted, pointing to her.

  Sam grimaced. She fazed down to the net. She pulled one Soul off of Christian and kicked another back. She reached for the net, but noticed two more Souls coming at her, clutching another net. She fazed to a theater door.

  There were too many of them. They surrounded Christian in the net and a couple of them disappeared to come after her.

  She needed help.

  “Get her! Brett, Michael, stay with Christian!”

  Around her, some of the other Souls began to appear.

  There was nothing she could do. She locked gazes with Christian.

  “Go!” he screamed, struggling beneath the net. “GO!”

  Sam fazed out of the theater to the sidewalk right below the grand sign. She paced, clenching and unclenching her hands. They had Christian! She jerked forward as if to rush in again and help him.

  But she stopped. She was not one to run. Not ever. She hated leaving him. But she couldn’t win this one. Not this way. She would get help and be back for him.

  Where the hell was Ben?! And then a thought paralyzed her. What if they had him already? No. No. Daniel asked where he was. They didn’t have him.

  She had to find him. She fazed to her car. They would be looking for it. They would be looking for her. They would be looking for Ben. She reached for her cell phone.

  Movement alerted her and she whirled.

  A Changed stood five feet in front of her.

  She softly cursed. She didn’t have time for this. She reached behind her and pulled her sword free.

  The Changed just stood there. His black eyes seemed so lifeless.

  “What are you waiting for?” she demanded. She realized a second too late that he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking behind her.

  The jolt was like lightning as another Changed behind her shoved his fist into her back. Her body stiffened as pain ripped through her. Her energy drained out of her body in waves of dizzying agony. She fell to her knees.

  With the last ounce of her strength, she stabbed her foot back into the Changed behind her. It disintegrated, the iron in her boots acting as a weapon against the Changed. The pain stopped, leaving spears of agony shooting out from her chest. She fell to her hands. She still gripped her sword. Through the polished silver, she saw the first Changed step up to her.

  Two working together. They usually worked alone. What the hell was going on? He stopped just out of reach of her weapon. Smart.

  Sam’s fingers flexed around the hilt.

  Reflected in the polished part of her blade, another Changed joined the first two. Sam lifted her head to stare at them. Three? Grins spread across their faces. And then, she saw a movement behind her. Four?!

  “Damn it,” Sam whispered and lifted her blade to slice it at them, knowing it wouldn’t reach them, knowing she would be too late.

  The Changed behind her shoved his fist into her back.

  Sam screamed, her voice echoing through the alley.

  Epilogue

  Damien materialized in the garden. He spotted Cora sitting on the bench and approached her. “Did you think he would return? What are you waiting for?”

  “You.” She looked at him, a slow grin curling her lip. “I told you I could do it.”

  “Your brother isn’t as smart as I’d given him credit for.”

  “You underestimate the powers of a woman’s manipulation.”

  Damien thought back to Sam’s kiss. Yes, perhaps he did. But he believed in Sam’s case it was desire. He didn’t think she manipulated him as much as he desired to feel her again, to taste her. He remembered how she felt pressed up against him, her warm mouth on his. “Even so… Tell me. Have you heard them?”

  Cora froze. She cocked her head to the side. “The whisperings?”

  “So soft you can’t make out the words.”

  Her eyebrows rose in astonishment. “Yes.”

  He wasn’t going mad! “Have you seen them?”

  Confusion filled her gaze and she shook her head.

  “You’re not powerful enough.”

  “What are they?”

  “Some kind of energy the Changed manifest into after being blasted. The two times Sam and Ben blasted a Changed, this has happened. I’m not totally sure what it is. Yet.” He gazed at the sky. The whispering voices were silent now and he couldn’t see their dark misty shapes. “But one thing is certain. That power you took from Ben will come in handy.”

  Cora frown
ed. “What do you mean?”

  Damien fazed behind her and shoved a fist into her back. “I’m sorry, Cora. Truly I am. But I need this power and you are too unstable.”

  Cora stiffened as Damien pulled the energy from her body, sucking it into his own. A surge of strength and power flowed through him with each pulsating draw.

  “Damien,” Cora gasped. “Stop!”

  The tingles of power radiated up his arm and throughout his entire body like pulsing blood.

  “I can help you,” she said through clenched teeth.

  Damien leaned in close to her. “Is this the manipulation you were talking about?”

  “Please…” she gasped. “I’m Sam’s sister.”

  A jolt flashed through him. Sam. What would she think of him if he destroyed her sister for all eternity? He yanked his hand from Cora’s back.

  Cora fell forward to her hands and knees, gasping.

  “Consider yourself lucky we are family.” Damien turned away from her. It took all of his will power not to drain her completely. She was a lying schemer. She couldn’t be trusted. Every instinct told him to finish her, that leaving her alive was a danger beyond measure.

  “You bastard,” she gasped.

  He turned, but she fazed and was gone. He knew it was a mistake to let her go. One he might have to remedy some day. Power snapped through him like a blue electrical storm. He lifted his hand and saw the forks of blue light moving between his fingers. He was more powerful now. He heard more, saw more, felt more.

  He heard whisperings, like a fly buzzing about his head, and lifted his gaze to the sky. There, swirling above him, he saw the two separate beings. And he recognized them. They were talking about her.

  Complete dread filled him.

  Sam!

  ~ ~ ~

  Ben stared at the old woman sitting in the theater. She sat quietly in a seat, staring blankly up at the empty stage. Ben couldn’t find Sam or Christian anywhere. He called out Rose’s name, but no one replied.

  He had already checked Lucas’s apartment, but it was empty. Even Lucas and Esme were gone.