by D. N. Hoxa
But I did know more powerful spells thanks to my aunt, and I had no doubt that this was going to work. When the yellow magic shot from my fingers, still glowing purple, I felt like someone had taken a good chunk of energy from my body all at once. Shit, I was overdoing it.
My magic shot up in the air, following my direction. The higher I pushed it, the more I felt like my body was going to give up on me. I fell to my knees, trying to save some energy, until finally, I felt my magic had reached over the soul’s head. Pulling my fingers into fists, I locked the ward in a circle around it and took in a deep breath. A loud squeak and something sharp was scratching my thigh. Kit was freaking out, and I couldn’t even hold it against him.
There was a fucking ghost-like creature glowing golden, floating in the air over her tomb, laughing, and now that I was close enough, I could see her skeleton complete with grey hair inside the stone. My stomach turned, but I held on and focused on Kit instead. This night was proving to be really interesting.
“I know,” I told Kit. “It’s just a soul.”
Just a soul, something I never thought I’d say.
My hands shook as I held onto the ward, afraid to let go. I didn’t yet know how powerful the soul was and if it could break through my magic because it still hadn’t tried. I turned to the others, letting the clash of swords take up my attention.
Helen moved like she was made of lightning. Half her face was covered by a curtain of shiny black hair, but she didn’t seem to mind as she fought Damian.
Nikola had stopped speaking. He had his hands on his hips and he just looked at them, too, shaking his head every once in a while.
“What are you doing, Helen?” Damian said when she cut him on the back, then jumped in front of him at the same second. It only took me a moment to realize that he wasn’t actually fighting her. He was just defending himself whenever she attacked.
“It’s none of your business, Damian,” Helen said. Her voice was just like the rest of her—dark and shiny somehow.
“It is my business. Your friends are gone. Why don’t you tell us what the hell’s going on?” Damian continued, moving away from the blade of her sword.
“You’ve lost your mind!” Nikola shouted, throwing his hands to his sides, but Helen ignored him.
“I hear you’ve gotten yourself in trouble again, old friend,” she said to Damian, then her eyes found me. My breath caught in my throat. It wasn’t just that they were pitch black or that her fangs were in perfect view—I could already see that. But it was the way she looked at me, like she already knew everything about me. “Is that her?” Helen said. “She’s a sorceress, right?” She laughed. “I’ll be expecting you in a few decades.”
“Whatever it is you’re doing, it’s not going to end well,” Damian said through gritted teeth.
Helen moved back, lowering her sword.
“Of course it will. It’s all for a good cause, I promise.”
She hadn’t even finished speaking when the ground before her feet exploded. It shook with the strength of an earthquake, and it knocked me down on my side so fast I had no chance of stopping it. My hands were pulled in tight fists, my fingers already numb, but I kept all my focus on them. I couldn’t let the soul get away. They’d already used the Moon Chalice. If the Guild found that soul, they would be able to pick up Malin’s signature.
I would not let that happen, no matter how badly the ground shook. Eventually, it would stop.
And it did.
“Stay out of my way, Damian. This is your last warning,” I heard Helen’s voice, echoing in the night, even before I sat back up. The soul was trying to break out of the ward, literally slamming its head on the surface. My control was slipping—I could feel it like a tug in my hands.
Rising to my feet, I gritted my teeth and pushed more of my magic into the ward. Yeah, I was tired, but this still wasn’t over. I’d rest later.
Helen was no longer there, but neither Damian nor Nikola had followed her this time. There was a hole in the ground, right where she’d been standing, but I couldn’t see how deep it went.
Damian came close to me, to the tomb and the soul floating on air, cursing under his breath.
“I can’t hold it for much longer,” I said. “I need to get her in that tomb.” Because the soul wouldn’t be able to get out of it. That’s what Malin had said. I just hoped she was right.
Damian nodded, then turned to the soul again. “Samantha Oldrick,” he called. “Do you want to be free?” The soul stopped laughing but didn’t say anything. Could they even speak? “If you do, you’re going to have to tell us why that witch summoned you.”
The witch. Could that redhead be Diane Devlin, the woman who’d broken out of Judicum Prison?
But the soul didn’t answer. She didn’t laugh, either. Instead, she began to sing.
It was a language I’d never heard before, full of rough R’s and S’s. It was almost like what I imagined a snake would sound like—if snakes could sing. Now, though, I could tell her voice was of a woman, but only barely.
“What did they want from you?” Damian called again, but the soul didn’t give a shit. It didn’t even stop the singing.
With a sigh, Damian lowered his head. “Can you put her in the tomb?”
“Thought you’d never ask.” Gathering the last of my strength, I pulled the ward toward the ground. If the soul broke it, I’d be in a lot of trouble.
“No!” the soul suddenly screamed. “You can’t do that! Stop!”
I didn’t. Closing my eyes, I focused on my magic and pulled it to the ground where the tomb of Samantha Oldrick was waiting, half open.
“Get the lid,” I told Damian through gritted teeth. As soon as the soul was inside, he’d need to close the tomb; otherwise it would get out again.
The soul screamed bloody murder like a fucking banshee, cursing me with words I’d never heard before. My hands shook—my entire body shook, and Kit was desperately trying to get me to stop, but I couldn’t. I held on, just a second longer, just another pull, and when I opened my eyes again, the soul was right in front of me, half of it inside the tomb, its hands raised up, fists slamming against the surface of the ward. Every time she hit it, I felt the tug on my skin.
One more push—that was all it would take. Just one more.
Letting out a shout, I slammed both my fists to the ground to give my magic better direction, and the soul disappeared inside the tomb like somebody had pulled its strings. Damian was by the half open lid, and he closed it with a single push. The screams of the soul were cut off instantly.
Complete silence in the woods.
Opening my fingers, I let go of the magic, and the ward disappeared into thin air.
“Are you okay?” Damian asked, squatting before me.
I nodded, breathing heavily, and raised a finger at him. I just needed a moment to catch my breath, that’s all. Kit was on my shoulder, scratching my earlobe, but I didn’t even have the energy to tell him to stop.
My hands were still shaking when I got up, my fingers completely numb. There was blood on my palms, half moons imprinted on my skin from my nails.
“I’m about ready to call it a night,” I said with a sigh, and Damian nodded.
“I need to get this back in place, in case the Guild comes here.” He grabbed something at the top of the tomb—it must have been a handle I couldn’t see—and he started pulling it toward the stone wall. I walked closer to it on shaky legs, reading the names engraved on the stone. So many people whose bodies hadn’t been claimed by family members. They’d died all alone. How many of them had actually deserved it?
Not ideal to feel sorry for people who’d died over two centuries ago, but I couldn’t help myself.
Damian brought the tomb to the middle of the wall. It had been on the second row of six—the only empty space.
“You need any help?” I asked, even though we both knew I wouldn’t be able to lift all that rock if my life depended on it.
“No,
I’m good,” Damian said. He pulled up the tomb by the handle—it was a handle made out of a thick chain—then put one arm under it. It didn’t look like he was struggling when he raised it up to its place on the second row. It wasn’t that high—not even three feet. Once he got the edge of it inside, he came to the other side, pulled up the tomb and slid it in place, as if it weighed nothing.
On the other side of the huge hole in the ground stood Nikola, looking down, scratching his head.
“Is she usually such a bitch?” I whispered to Damian as we watched him.
“No—not with Nikola,” Damian said in wonder. “Whatever they’re doing, this means a lot to her.”
“You didn’t attack her.” I’d seen him fight before—and if he’d wanted to hurt Helen, or even stop her, he could have.
“She’s my elder and a friend. I didn’t want to hurt her.”
Friends didn’t fight friends—and their mates for that matter—like Helen had, but what did I know about vampire affairs?
“I know, little guy. I know,” I said to Kit, who wouldn’t stop squeaking in complaint. He wanted to get out of there. I patted his head and he actually let me this time. He only ever let Alora cuddle with him—and Malin sometimes.
“We need to go back and rest,” Damian said, loud enough for Nikola to hear.
“And figure out how to make a soul tell secrets.” Which sounded like it was going to be tricky.
“Tomorrow,” Damian said. “Let’s go.”
“What about the body?” The dead body of the wizard was still on the ground.
“Somebody will take care of it,” he said and walked back to where we came from. It was going to be a long ride home.
Chapter Ten
Damian Reed
I dropped Sinea off at her apartment building at five in the morning, only because I knew she’d say no if I asked her to come with me. She always said no. She was stubborn like that—she hadn’t even asked me about Alpha Primes yet, and I kept expecting her to. At this point, it was safe to assume she wouldn’t until she saw that she had no other choice.
The sun was already rising, and Nikola was dozing off in the backseat when I drove to my apartment. I was tired but more irritated because nothing was making any sense, so I almost didn’t see Moira leaving the building when I stopped the car in the parking lot across from the building. We were far away, but I’d know her silver hair anywhere. I stayed in the car and watched her look around the street, as if to make sure that nobody could see her. Then, pulling her jacket closer, she turned around and walked deeper into the City, away from the Shade.
Huh. It almost looked like she was sneaking out. Moira wasn’t one to sneak out, not even as a teenager.
“Nikola,” I said before opening the door. “We’re here.”
The sun had taken over our part of the world, and with it, half my strength. I’d already been stained by sunlight on my face for spending too much time searching for Helen in daylight, and I had no desire to feel the weakness again. For once, I couldn’t wait to get into the penthouse.
“I think you should stay with me today. What do you say?” I said to Nikola.
I expected him to argue, but he didn’t. He only nodded and followed me.
He was unusually quiet as we made our way into the building and up to the penthouse in the elevator. He needed food, and he needed sleep. He could take my bedroom. I didn’t mind the couches in the living room at all.
John, Zane and Emanuel were all in their rooms when we walked in. I searched for Moira’s heartbeat, too, just in case the sunlight had played tricks on me and she hadn’t walked out of the building like that, but she wasn’t there. Her room was empty.
I showed Nikola to the bathroom and the bedroom. I even suggested he get something to eat first, but he didn’t want to. He just wanted to sleep.
One of the drapes in the living room wasn’t pulled all the way and a sliver of sunlight slipped in the corner of the room. For whatever reason, I didn’t mind. I just untied the sheath of my sword, left it by the couch, and lay down. I was going to have to clean it later.
The words of the song the soul of Samantha Oldrick had sung replayed themselves in my mind. I’d heard them before. I knew that song, but I didn’t know from where. Closing my eyes sometimes made me feel like I was really sleeping and made the many thoughts that crossed my mind seem like dreams, but not that morning.
Still, I didn’t move. My body needed the rest. I lay perfectly still and thought about everything that had happened to make sure I wasn’t missing any details.
Eventually, all my thoughts led me to Sinea, but I was already used to that.
How had Helen known about her? And why did she tell me that I’d go looking for her in a few decades?
I had no idea, but I could make a few good guesses.
Amina Gray. She’d probably told everyone she knew about Sinea—out of pure spite. Not the part about her being a Marauder or an Alpha Prime, but about my interest in her. Had I been too careless? Had I given away too much to her?
Or was it Gina Giselle? The vampire painter wasn’t one to spread rumors, but people changed all the time. I’d changed—more so than I even realized in the past few months. I’d gone from a dead man who had no care for feelings, who only wanted his freedom to roam the worlds, to a man who wanted to remember what it was like to be alive. I no longer had care for the worlds. They didn’t hold my interest, not like Sinea.
And she couldn’t even look me in the eyes for longer than a few seconds.
It bothered me. This whole ordeal bothered me—and Helen’s words more than most.
By the time a door in the hallway opened and John came into the living room, my own thoughts were torturing me. I was thankful for the distraction.
“You okay?” John asked, looking me over—then at the sword against the couch.
“I’m fine. You?”
“Good,” he said with a nod and sat on the couch opposite me.
“Did you find the heirloom?”
“We did. We returned it—and delivered the witch to the family who hired us.” A hint of pride laced his voice.
“We should drink to that.” I stood up to go get some wine, just to have something to do.
“What happened with you? I smelled Nikola in your bedroom,” John said.
I offered him his glass of wine and sat down again before I told him about our night.
“Fucking hell. An actual soul? I’ve never seen one before,” John said in wonder.
“I have but not one as powerful as this. She’s in her tomb right now, but we need to bind her and make her tell us what Helen wanted from her.”
“You’ll need a necromancer for that,” John said, just as another door opened in the hallway. And another. Zane and Emanuel joined us.
“Did you really say soul?” Zane asked, rubbing his eyes, as if he’d just woken up from a long sleep. When he rested in the day, it really did look like he was sleeping. He could stand perfectly still for hours—much longer than I ever could.
“Yes. A real soul,” I told him.
“You’ll need a necromancer to bind it,” Emanuel said, sitting next to me on the couch. His voice was hoarse and his eyes swollen, but he at least had really slept, possibly until John and I started talking. We must have woken him up.
I’d thought about Malin Arnon, Sinea’s friend. Sinea had managed to take the Nulling off her, which surprised me more than I thought it would. I’d never seen a Nulling being undone, but it must have required a lot of power to both take Malin’s magic and perform the ritual. And the way she’d trapped the soul in her ward—it made me wonder where Sinea’s limits were, if they even existed.
But Malin would be too weak to do a necromantic spell. I’d seen her—she’d been half dead the morning before. She needed time to be able to master her Talent.
“Hey, remember that guy from the Guild?” said Zane. “Robert Perry, was it? Wasn’t he a necromancer?”
The face of a young m
an, possibly in his early thirties, with brown hair and eyes came to my mind. I remembered Robert Perry. We hadn’t worked together directly, but he was one of the Prime necromancers the Guild had decided not to Null as a kid. Instead, they’d taken him into their care, educated and trained him until he was old enough to work for them. Just what the Guild did with darkling they needed.
“We can find out where he lives,” John said, already on his phone.
“I can go talk to him, see if I can convince him to help,” said Emanuel.
I didn’t like the idea, but we didn’t really have a choice. We needed to find out what Helen was after fast, before she got caught by the Guild. If they locked her up, there wouldn’t be much I could do about it now. Not anymore.
I nodded. “Nikola will probably want to come with you when he wakes up.” I thought he’d need a distraction. The way he’d begged Helen earlier and how she’d managed to ignore him, looking at him only when he was looking away—it had crushed him.
“Where is Moira, by the way?” I asked.
“Out. Said she had some girl stuff she needed to do at dawn,” Zane said.
“I hope she’s not gone shopping again. If she buys me one more red shirt, I’m going to throw up,” John said.
“If you wear one more black shirt, I’m going to throw up,” Zane said with a grin. “I know you’re afraid, Jonathan, but colors can’t hurt you.”
“You’re just jealous ‘cause I’m faster than you, that’s all,” said John.
Zane laughed. “Only in your dreams, pretty boy.”
They continued to bicker like they always did, and when they stopped, Emanuel would say something to get them going again. I leaned back on the couch, drank my wine and listened to them, too. It was the perfect distraction, but even so, it didn’t take my mind off Sinea completely.
By seven in the morning, Emanuel and Nikola left to go talk to Robert Perry. Apparently, he lived out of the Shade, in Long Island, and his house was registered only to him. They were going to offer him money and try to get him to agree without telling him what the job was. I wasn’t counting on it. Robert Perry, just like every other darkling who worked for the Guild, wasn’t a fool. He’d never jeopardize his position in the Guild—and his life.