by G. P. Ching
Turning his head, Dane stared at the cowboy’s ear. “Will one of us die?”
Cheveyo grunted from his place standing on the other side of the cowboy. “Hey, maybe I don’t want to know.”
But it was too late. The clouds were already moving. “It is impossible to know. Every road leads to change, and death is a type of change.”
“So, will every road lead to death?” Cheveyo asked softly.
The cowboy rose to his feet. “Death is change, but not all change means death. Something must end for something else to begin.”
“Could you be more specific?” Dane asked.
“I think ya’ll know what you came for.” He gave a curt nod, adjusted his Stetson and moved toward the horses.
“Wait,” Cheveyo said, holding out his hands to the man. “That’s it? One of us could die, we’re both Soulkeepers, and I can’t trust anyone?”
“You can trust us,” Dane said. “You’re one of us, a Soulkeeper.”
“Excuse me for not jumping on the next train to nowhere. I don’t know you any better than I knew her.”
“Well, buddy, unfortunately, you are along for the ride, whether you like it or not.”
Hands on his hips, Cheveyo groaned and looked toward the clouds.
The old cowboy glanced up at the sky. The pale azure had gone purple, red at the edges, and the clouds passed in fast forward. “I’m sorry to have to leave ya’ll so soon, but it appears Dane is wanted on the other side.”
Red washed over the landscape and the horizon folded to a pinpoint of light. Cheveyo’s body rushed toward Dane’s, and slipped inside his head as shingles of red and black light flipped and turned. The stone spit him out on the comforter just in time.
The smell of sulfur whiffed across Dane’s nose. He palmed the stone and shoved it into his pocket.
“Alone again,” Auriel said from the foot of the bed. “Excellent. We need to talk about the plan.”
Dane swallowed hard. If he were to have any hope of thwarting Lucifer’s scheme, he had to pretend to be Cheveyo. “What do you want me to do?”
“The Soulkeepers have a place where I cannot go, a place they congregate to do their evil. I think they call it Eden. One of them is named Malini, an East Indian girl, very powerful. Bring her to me. Kill the rest.”
“Kill?”
“Do you want your body back or not?” Auriel growled. “Kill all of the Soulkeepers in Eden.” She collected herself, lowering her voice to a sweet coo. “It will be easy for you, Cheveyo. In this body, they will trust you. Spare only Malini. Bring her to me. I want her alive.”
“How do I find you? After I’ve done this thing? How do I bring Malini to you?”
A wicked grin spread across her face like a virus. “The body you are in, Dane, he lives on a farm in Paris, Illinois. At the back of his farm is a group of pine trees. I will meet you there in two weeks time at precisely noon.” She reached forward and grabbed the collar of Dane’s shirt, pulling him closer to her. “Whether you have succeeded or not, you must meet me there in exactly two weeks. Do you understand?”
“I understand. Go to Eden, kill the Soulkeepers, bring Malini. Two weeks. Noon.”
Auriel smiled and shoved him back on the bed, so hard his skull cracked against the headboard. Dane rubbed the forming bump, grateful the hurt wasn’t bleeding.
Unadulterated hate clouded Auriel’s eyes. “Don’t mess this up, Cheveyo, or I will eat your flesh and laugh as you slowly disintegrate inside that borrowed body. And beware of the one called Ethan. He loves this boy. Sickening, pure love. He’ll be hard to put off. Kill him first.”
Dane nodded. It was all he was capable of. Fear paralyzed him within a mess of shivering limbs. Add that to the revelation that Ethan loved him, truly loved him, and the one-two punch to his psyche left him utterly mute.
If she noticed what she’d done to him, awareness didn’t evoke pity from the Watcher. Instead, Auriel released an evil, spine-tingling giggle. With a flourish of her hand, she produced a steaming mug.
“You’re afraid,” she said, all platinum hair and fluttering blue eyes. “Have some tea.”
The smell of cinnamon and cloves wafted over Dane. He accepted the mug, playing along, but of course he wouldn’t drink. He remembered the dangers of this particular concoction all too well. With her eyes watching him, he raised the cup to his lips. All the memories of how that elixir had made him feel came rushing back. One taste. One sip was all he needed to feel that rush of power, to make all of his problems go away and lose control. No one would blame him, and he’d be blissfully absolved of responsibility for his future.
“That’s it. Drink,” she demanded.
Dane pressed his mouth around the rim and tipped the cup. The hot liquid reached his lips but couldn’t break through their seal on the glass. He wouldn’t drink. He was a Soulkeeper. He couldn’t take the easy way out anymore. Lowering the mug, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, hoping he’d made a good show of it.
Her lips peeled back from her teeth. “Two weeks, Cheveyo.” In a column of smoke, she dissolved, leaving behind the mug, the memory, and the smell of rotten eggs.
Now do you understand what she did to me? She’s horrifying. Why couldn’t I see it before?
“Oh, I understand more than you know. Auriel and I go way back. I think, maybe, our trip to the In Between and you being inside an uninfluenced body probably has something to do with your sudden clarity. That’s why she tried to get us to drink this.” Dane rushed to the bathroom and poured the elixir down the sink, running the water longer and harder than he probably needed to in order to wash away every drop. “Auriel befriended me last year, addicted me to this shit, and almost made me kill my friend, Jacob. When I refused, she beat me, almost to death, in the parking lot of my high school.”
So, she is the devil.
“Oh no, Auriel is not the devil. I’ve met the devil too, and he is much, much worse.”
Tell me.
And so Dane did, about being captured, taken to Hell, and barbecued inside a ring of fire on a slab of brimstone until he begged for death. He told Cheveyo every detail he could remember and cried from reliving it all.
Stop. I can’t hear anymore. I’m in, okay. I’ll do whatever it takes to help take Auriel down and Lucifer too if we get the chance.
“Good. Our future isn’t set. What the cowboy told us in the In Between...he said there are many roads. If we are going to change our fate and both survive this, we’ve got to work together.”
I agree. Which is why I’ve got a favor to ask of you.
What he asked for shouldn’t have surprised Dane, but it did, almost as much as his sudden compulsion to help him.
Chapter 17
Rescue
At the knock, Dane leapt to his feet and trudged across the beige shag. He released the sliding chain lock, pulling the door open tentatively. Sunlight filtered in, warming his face. Grace and Ethan stood on the other side, more than a little concerned.
“Why was the chain lock engaged?” Grace asked.
Ethan stepped forward, reaching for him. “You don’t look so good.”
Reflexively, Dane jerked away, like Ethan had a disease or something. He didn’t mean to, but his brain couldn’t process everything he’d learned today. He needed space.
“What’s wrong?” Grace said.
“Uh, nothing,” Dane answered, retreating into the room again. “Auriel just poofed out of here. A little shaky is all.” And a little confused about Ethan being in love with me.
Even now, with the distraction of learning he was a Soulkeeper, being possessed, and knowing he might have to sacrifice himself, standing close to Ethan sent a warm current through him. That made him nervous that his body might betray his physical reaction. With his back to them, he pressed his eyes closed and tried to pull himself together. He couldn’t be gay; he refused to be gay. He vowed to turn whatever this was off and redirect the energy toward something else.
“What
did Auriel say?” Grace asked, closing and locking the door behind her.
Dane plunked down on the edge of the bed. “She wants me, well Cheveyo, to go to Eden. Once inside, he’s supposed to kill everyone, all of the Soulkeepers, except Malini. Auriel wants us to be her goddamned Trojan horse.”
Grace lowered herself to the chair in the corner of the room and folded her hands as if she were praying.
“I used the stone Malini gave me,” Dane admitted.
“What did she tell you?” Grace asked softly.
“It’s complicated and personal.”
She pursed her lips. “Dane...”
“Honestly, the rock wasn’t all that helpful. We need to go back to Eden and talk with her in person. Our only blessing in all of this is that Auriel isn’t aware I’m pulling the strings in this body, or that Cheveyo is on our side. We’ve got to make a plan. She’s given us two weeks. I’m guessing if I don’t deliver, she’s not going to let me go away peacefully.”
“You’re right, of course. She’ll hunt you down and kill both of you,” Grace said.
Dane nodded.
“The others are waiting in the diner. Let’s round everyone up and open the portal,” Grace said.
“Good plan.” Ethan held the door open for them.
“Wait, Cheveyo needs our help with something.”
“And that is?” Grace asked.
“He asked me to find his friend, Raine. I guess he possessed her for a few days, and he’s afraid he damaged her like he did Jaden. He wants to know she’s okay.”
“Absolutely out of the question,” Grace said. “We need to get you home. The council needs to know what’s going on. And judging by what Cheveyo’s possession did to Jaden, I have other concerns.”
After what the cowboy said, Dane was painfully aware his relationship with Cheveyo was a deadly one, but he couldn’t put the idea of finding Raine aside. He could see her. When Cheveyo thought about Raine, the other boy’s memories played out in his head as if they were his own. Beautiful, sweet, innocent, Raine. Dane wanted to make sure she was okay as much as Cheveyo did.
“I’m sorry.” Dane bolted for the door, much quicker than he’d ever run in his life. He’d heard the Soulkeeper gene made you fast. Boy was that true. He reached the end of the walkway before Ethan’s power wrapped around him and squeezed, pulling him up short near the stairs.
“Sorry, buddy. Too risky. If you want, one of us can come back and check on Raine later.” Ethan’s hands replaced his telekinesis, gripping Dane’s shoulders. “Come on.”
Ethan’s touch brought Dane back into his own head, filling him with a warm electric tingle. “Weird.”
“What’s weird?” Ethan asked.
“I think that was Cheveyo. It’s like I can sense what he’s feeling. I have control, but this experience gives new meaning to walking in someone else’s shoes. I can feel his memories.”
Still gripping Dane around the shoulders from behind, Ethan brought his lips to his ear. “Tell Cheveyo he needs to hold off on those walking shoes until we figure out how to help him get his own body back.”
Will you let this guy know I can hear him? Plus, do you mind cooling the internal fireworks?
“Fireworks?” Dane repeated.
“What about fireworks?” Ethan asked.
Dane shook his head. “Er, nothing. Cheveyo says he can hear you.”
Ethan sighed, guiding Dane back toward the room by the shoulders. “Come on. Here come the others. Time to go.”
On the stair landing, Bonnie appeared with Grace at her side. “I knew it!” she called, catching up to Dane with a face-splitting grin. “I could tell there was something more about you.” She hugged him hard, edging Ethan’s arm back off his shoulders. She held the hug for an extra beat and then smacked her lips against his cheek. When she finally pulled back, she met Dane’s gaze. “I’m so happy for you.”
Whoa! Who’s the hottie?
“Bonnie,” Dane said to Cheveyo, then realized how weird it sounded to everyone else and tacked on, “thank you. It means a lot to me.”
Just then, Samantha and Ghost caught up to them. She pecked Dane on the opposite cheek. “Congratulations, Dane.”
“Thanks.”
Oh my God, twins! Gorgeous twins. I cannot believe this isn’t doing anything for you. Are you dead?
Dane ignored the comment. He’d had about enough of Cheveyo. Reminders of who did or did not “do it” for him were unnecessary. He pulled the steel door shut at the back of his brain, locking Cheveyo out of his thoughts.
As he followed Grace and the others back into the motel room, the desire to find Raine faded along with Cheveyo’s presence. Maybe because the desire was actually Cheveyo’s. With him locked away, taking action didn’t seem as urgent. Still, Ethan stayed close to his side. So did Bonnie. In fact, she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
Once behind closed doors, Grace extracted the large geode from the velvet bag and positioned the stone in the empty closet. Then, she punched Jacob’s number into her phone. “Yeah. We’re ready.”
A few minutes later the small space was filled with purple light. “Will we have to ski back up the hill?” Dane asked Ethan. When the light faded, the closet was transformed into the irregular opening of a deep, dark cave. The ski equipment had been replaced with helmets, headlamps, harnesses, gloves, and carabiners: caving equipment.
“Oh, hell no,” Ethan said, backing away.
Dane raised an eyebrow. “Caving not your thing?”
“Claustrophobic.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you. This I can actually do.” In fact, Dane enjoyed caving and found the thought of being underground a huge rush. Forgetting his previous apprehension about Ethan’s feelings, he led the way to the equipment wall.
The others rushed past them and geared up, mounting their headlamps on their helmets and strapping into their harnesses. Once everyone turned their lights on, the cavern gave up its secrets. Under a ceiling of sharp-looking stalactites, smooth, sloping rock gave way to a dramatic drop.
“This isn’t about caving at all. No tight spaces. All we have to do is rappel down, same as if we were rock climbing.” Dane stepped into his harness and handed one to Ethan.
“Oh, is that all?” Ethan slathered his words in sarcasm.
“We’ll take it nice and slow.”
“Hey, look,” Ghost yelled from the end of the closet floor, “the anchors are already bolted to the rock up here,” “The ropes are even threaded. Five ropes, five of us. All we have to do is hook on.”
Ethan nodded but swallowed hard, eyes widening in the darkness. Dane reached forward and turned his friend’s headlamp on, then turned on his own. He slipped on a pair of gloves as they moved to the anchor point.
“This rope loops through the metal eight.” He demonstrated for Ethan while the other Soulkeepers locked on and started down the smooth stone. “You let the rope slide through your hands as you go. If you want to slow yourself, you simply clamp down on the rope and move it behind your back like this.”
Dane clipped the carabiner on his harness to the small end of the metal eight and watched Ethan do the same, double-checking the clasp. Ghost and the twins had already started down the hill, but Dane didn’t care. He’d go as slow as Ethan needed to.
“Ready?” he asked.
Ethan nodded.
Leaning back, Dane allowed the rope to slide through his hands as he backed down the stone ramp. About halfway down, loose pebbles littered the way. He lost his footing and had to catch himself with his hand brake. Like everything Soulkeeper, this was going to be harder than it looked.
“Careful, Ethan,” Dane called. “It get’s slippery near the—”
His words were cut off by the echo of Bonnie’s scream. Quickly, Dane looked over his shoulder and counted the lights up ahead. One was missing.
Smack. The sound of flesh hitting stone echoed through the cavern. Bonnie stopped screaming.
Ethan froze at his side
.
“She’s hurt!” Samantha yelled from ahead. “There’s a huge overhang up here. She lost her footing and dropped her rope. I can’t see her over the lip!”
“Ghost,” Dane called. “Blink down there, dude, and check if she’s okay!”
“I won’t be able to stop. I can dissipate and come together at the bottom, but I can’t stop halfway. I won’t be able to take the rope with me.”
“Get on with it,” Samantha yelled. “At least we’ll know what we’re dealing with.”
And if she’s still alive, Dane thought. One of the lights disappeared up ahead.
“I see her!” Ghost’s voice echoed up to them. “She’s caught on a ledge. Looks like she fell maybe ten feet, but she’s positioned weird. She’s unconscious. Crap, there’s blood. One of you needs to help her.”
“Maybe I should go down and meld with her,” Samantha said.
“Have you tried that when she’s out?” Ethan asked.
“No,” Samantha admitted. “I’m not sure what will happen.”
“It’s too risky,” Ghost called. “What if you pass out too or incorporate her injuries? It won’t do any good to have an injured giant on our hands.”
“I don’t think I can rappel with her added weight without melding,” Samantha said. “I’ve never done this before.”
“I’ll go,” Dane called to Samantha. “I’ve got the most experience, and I can carry her weight.”
“Yeah. Okay. Good idea,” Samantha agreed, shakily. She was holding it together, but barely.
Dane nudged Ethan. “I’ve got to go down and get her. You going to be okay?”
“I think so. You’d better hustle. She’s hurt.”
Rappelling to the drop-off next to Samantha, Dane took a deep breath. She was right, zero visibility. The lip of the drop masked the wall below. Dane hooked his instep on the edge and leaned back, letting enough rope out so that his body was perpendicular to the wall. He bent his knees and jumped into the abyss. The rope skimmed through his hands for a second before he clamped down again. Like a pendulum, he swung back finding the wall he couldn’t see from above. Immediately, he planted both feet and pushed off again.
