Seize the Soul: Confessions of a Summoner Book 1
Page 13
That was all Castella could take. She sprang up from the table, grabbed a fistful of Daniel’s hair in her hand and jerked his head up to meet eyes with her. If I didn’t do something, Daniel would have Castella’s flaming hands tear through his chest.
“Castella, wait!” I was out of my seat, reaching for her. “You know how Wraiths are. What he did wasn’t his fault. Marcus must have lied to him. Probably told him that Alex did something he didn’t do. It’s all been about getting to you. You know that.”
“Think about it, Castella.” Lyle came up beside me, grabbing for her. “The only way for Marcus to get to you was through your son.”
“Lyle’s right. Marcus knew that kidnapping Alex would create a panic in you that would allow Daniel to more easily jump into your body at the clothing store when you came rushing out looking for your son.”
“But he killed him!” Castella brought her fist back high, her eyes beginning to glow a deep brown.
Then came a voice – soft, tender, innocent.
I froze, my entire body weightless as if hanging in thin air. Alex didn’t know what had happened to him, and I wasn’t planning to tell him. Discovering their passing on their own made coping with it all the more simple.
But the words hadn’t come from me. They’d come from Castella, and the dread on her face told us all that she wanted every word back.
Castella stepped towards me. I didn’t know whether to protect myself or not. But all she wanted was to be close to the voice – close to her son. The water in her eyes sparkled in the light of my apartment.
Castella nodded. A tear slipped down her cheek.
Another nod. Another tear. She looked away, solemn, afraid to ask me what I could already see in her eyes. She wants her son, and she wants me to give him to her. The obelisk warmed in my pocket as I drew its aura into my body. But I couldn’t give up Alex – not until I confronted Marcus.
Where else would I find another soul in time? Where would I find another soul that was as compliant as Alex? The funeral home brought in new bodies every few days. Most of those souls were worse for the wear, only bending to my will after some intense prodding – something that I couldn’t risk if I was going to actually summon a goddess.
Alex wasn’t like the other worn souls. He trusted me; he knew I’d take care of him. He knew I would…
That last thought brought back to mind what I’d promised him – that he knew I’d take him to his mother. And here she was. I couldn’t keep him now, could I?
Making up my mind was impossible, until I heard Alex whimpering. Since part of his aura had already bled into me, his grief thickened in me like leaven. I felt his longing, his fear, his doubts, his pain. I can’t let him suffer. Not this little boy.
Though he was still sobbing, I felt his spirit lift a little. Even Castella’s countenance brightened, and the tears that she’d let run down her face, she finally wiped away, smearing them on her jeans.
I took a deep breath, but I knew it was what needed to be done.
My body surged with energy as Alex’s soul flowed through me, culminating into a tingling sensation in the tips of my fingers that spilled him out of me in a brilliant orb.
The orb hovered in the living room, painting the walls a rosy pink, though Castella and I were the only ones who could see him. No doubt Lyle and Daniel had seen the flare of color from my obelisk; they just couldn’t see the soul itself.
Alex turned from one person to the next, bobbing up and down. Castella held out her hand, inviting him to drift to her, where he settled evenly in her palm.
With tears, she said her goodbyes to him, both of us knowing – or hoping at least – that the afterlife was better for him than being encased in an obelisk forever. Sullenly, with sad whimpers and reluctant promptings from his mother, Alex rose from her hand, seeped into the ceiling, and disappeared.
Chapter
SEVENTEEN
Where did souls go after they left me? Lyle had asked me that quite a few times, never remembering that’d he asked previously. When I’d inquired of the answer from my trainer, Umara, she’d only shrugged and went back to reading The Pioneers: Extracted, a book she’d told me I’d love because of how the Spiritualists people talked to the dead. But I figured I’d done all the reading I was ever going to do now that I had my college degree.
I didn’t tell Umara that though. I just agreed and gave her an uncommitted, “Yeah, I gotta’ check that out” – to which she didn’t respond, already engulfing herself in the pages again in her beige easy chair.
So my question was never answered, and even watching Alex leave my obelisk, I still wasn’t certain. Maybe he went into another body. But I didn’t suppose that to be true since a freed soul despised being bound to limited earthly bodies.
I would have liked to think that the soul went to the gods, but those deities were so busy arguing that I couldn’t imagine a soul wanting to sit under that. Maybe if one of them cared for the soul, then maybe. But, in the end, I had no idea. And neither did Castella, which was probably why it took her some time to lower her gaze from the ceiling – the place where Alex had just exited.
Pure souls like Alex’s were the exception, in that they typically liked their limited earthly bodies; so if I had to guess where his soul went, I’d say that Alex had probably headed back for his body at the funeral home.
Not sure if Castella would turn on me now that he was gone, I kept my guard up. She didn’t though. Instead, she switched back to Daniel. “You said that you invaded me four days ago?”
Daniel took his face out his hands, nodding. Both he and Lyle were unaware that Castella had just bid her son goodbye. “I remember now. I know it was four,” Daniel confessed. “I counted backwards from today until the last time I saw my watch.”
“Your watch?” Lyle asked. He’d gone back to standing with his back against the wall once Castella had settled down.
“Before I…” Daniel hesitated. “Before I move into another body, I learned that it’s best for me to study my watch, remembering the color, the texture, how it feels on my arm.” He massaged his wrist. “It helps me to lock the last day that I was out of my body into my mind before losing it all, ya’ know? It works, for the most part. There’s a discrepancy here and there, especially with some of the stronger willed individuals.”
“How can you be sure that it was exactly four days ago then?” I asked. “Castella seems to be pretty strong-willed.”
Daniel gave me sheepish look. “Not particularly.”
That made Castella cut a glance at him. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you did to my son. Coerced or not, it was still you who did it.”
“Look,” he said, palms open, “if I hurt your kid, I’m sorry. I really am. You just gotta’ know what it’s like, not knowing who you are, where you’re going, or where you’ve been.”
I felt the need to warn Daniel about the person he’d crossed, but I couldn’t get the whole “four day invasion” out of my head. What had prompted Marcus to send a Wraith after Castella? If Marcus needed me because of my affinity with æther, he could have sent Daniel after me, instead of her. But Marcus needs me alive, or he needs my soul. One or the other.
“Castella,” I interrupted her
irritation with Daniel. “Did Marcus say why he sent you after me, other than the æther?”
She frowned at the mention of æther. “He didn’t say. Only that if I found you, he’d find my son’s kidnapper.” She cut her eyes hard at Daniel.
“But why æther?” I asked. “Why does that matter? Lyle and I think he wants to summon Vár, but why? What has he done? Or what is he planning to do?”
She shrugged, folded her arms.
Then it came to me. I had to sit again.
“You thinking something, Rebekah?” Lyle asked.
“Daniel, try to remember.” I pushed my hair out of my eyes, slid to the edge of the sofa. “The night that you found Alex, was Marcus with you?” Alex had told Castella and me that Marcus was there, but I wanted to see what Daniel recalled.
“By Alex, you mean the kid?” He winced, thinking hard. “It’s hard to say. All I see is flashes of light, stuttered memories – none of them my own, from what I can tell.” He scratched his head. “I wanna help you guys. I really do, but my mind is fried.”
That got me out of my seat. I hurried to him and knelt in front of him, gently taking his face in my hands. “You have to remember.” It was a command, a gentle one, but a command nonetheless. “You said you check your watch before you go into someone.” I was careful not to say invade. “Can you remember what you were feeling at the time? Afraid? Anxious? Ambitious maybe?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know.” Daniel pulled his head away from me, shutting his eyes.
I interrogated him even harder. “C’mon, Daniel, you have to remember something. Anything. Think. Were you alone that night, or was there someone else with you?”
“I don’t know. Stop it,” he insisted, swatting me away. “Stop it, just stop it okay? Just stop…” His eyes flung open. He halted, shaking his finger at me. “That’s it,” he said. “What you just did. That’s it. Pressured. That’s how I felt that night. Like someone was forcing me to do something I couldn’t do.” He sat back in his seat. “Let me try something.” He stared at this watch. When I asked him what he was doing, he held his hand up to me.
The living room was silent, each of us fixed on him as he examined his watch, one finger in the air, ticking with the second hand. “I didn’t kill him.” His voice was low, a mutter, mostly to himself. “I didn’t kill him.” Louder this time. “I didn’t kill him.” Louder. “The boy. I didn’t kill him. I didn’t kill the boy. It wasn’t me! I didn’t kill him.” He was shaking his fist, practically cheering for himself. “It was Marcus. The Leprechaun. He was the one. He was in the back seat. He was the one who did it. It wasn’t me. I didn’t kill him.” Daniel was almost laughing, which bothered me since Alex had been murdered. But I didn’t say anything, only squinted my left eye in disgust.
Besides, that was all I needed to hear. “We’ve got two days to find Marcus.” I stood up from my crouching position, resolved.
“Two days?” Lyle said. “Why two days?”
“It takes about six days for a dead body to swell,” I said. “This is known as the bloat stage. ‘The Black.’ It’s when the body’s internal gases are released and the bacteria inside the intestines begin to eat the body from the inside out.”
“Why does that only give us two days to find Marcus?” Castella asked.
“I’ve seen a lot of souls, working at the funeral home. Hundreds of bodies I’ve counted. None of the souls stayed longer The Black. Without fail, once The Black starts, the soul seems to know it’s time for it to leave. Some souls leave their hosts right at death, not wanting to be a part of their body any longer. Those souls are usually more brown and dingy, not pink and pure like Alex’s. Other souls will stay longer with their hosts, or as long as they can, some of them never knowing their host has passed.”
Lyle kicked off the wall, hands in his pockets. “You think Marcus knows about that? And if so, how’s it linked?”
“Not only does he know, but it’s why he picked a child. It’s why he came to you, Castella, looking for you a few years ago when you offered him a drink in your living room.”
“How did you know about that?” she muttered. “Did Alejandro tell you?”
I nodded. “Marcus was looking for a pure soul, one that would be pure enough to conjure a goddess. He took a chance, betting that Alex’s soul was pure. Unfortunately, he was right.”
Castella folded her arms, glancing from me to Lyle. “Why Vár? Why the goddess of contracts?”
“Because he wants a deal,” I replied. “What that deal is exactly, I’m not sure. But I’m certain that part of it has to do with lengthening his life. Leprechauns aren’t like Druids or vampires – living for centuries by the nature of their genes. Every breath they breathe is at the expense of someone else.” I shook my head, thinking of Alex.
Castella clenched her jaw. “That prick…”
“Buying some time?” Lyle said. “How can killing some kid get him any more time?”
“Some kid?” Castella rolled her eyes. But then she let it pass, dismal. “Alex was a sacrifice.”
“Sadly, he was,” I said. “And since it takes about six days for the body to go into The Black, it’s been widely accepted that six is the number of days a person must wait after a sacrifice has been made before a god or goddess can be summoned to accept it when asking for longer life. What scares me is that if Vár accepts the sacrifice, then Marcus gets to live for another six hundred years, one day for every day he waited to summon the goddess once the ritual started with the sacrifice.”
“That’s why you say we have two more days,” Lyle said.
I nodded.
“Here’s the thing,” I said. “Umara told me that once a person – in this case Marcus – makes this kind of offer, if the contract is broken and Vár doesn’t get what she wants, the Leprechaun loses.”
“So then we get the three wishes?” Lyle asked.
“Not necessarily.” I tapped the side of my face, thinking. “She only said that the Leprechaun loses, so I suppose Vár would kill him for breaking the agreement. Maybe not though.”
“Two days,” Lyle sighed. “In two days, Marcus could be gone for good. I think the entire city of Raleigh would slow-clap to that,” he chuckled. “So all we have to do is keep you and Castella away from him for two days. If he can’t summon Vár, he can’t complete the sacrifice. Breech of contract.”
Chapter
EIGHTEEN
Two days. That was my first thought when I woke up the next morning. My apartment hadn’t emptied out. At least I didn’t think it had, except for Daniel. No one could find him, and he didn’t say goodbye to any of us.
I got a bit nervous, thinking that he might have invaded one of us, but Wraiths could only invade in moments of weakness, and I don’t think that any of us were in that state of mind, besides Castella, maybe. But I was sure that he’d learned his lesson about messing with her.
Castella had even elected to stay at my place, choosing to sleep on the couch. And Lyle? I wasn’t sure what had happened to him either. I fell asleep while he was rambling about traveling down to Haiti a few years back to decant some witch doctor. I wasn’t sure if he ever found the guy, between my “Uh-huhs” and “Mmhmms” as I dosed off.
Two days. Nothing more than forty-eight hours – probably less now that the night had passed. And all we had to do was keep Marcus from finding us. Simple enough. Except it wasn’t. 1) I didn’t have a soul. 2) Since Castella had obviously not taken my soul to Marcus, he was probably out hunting for us right now. 3) My obelisk was empty, because I’d given Alex to his mother – the right thing to do, but still, the stone was empty. 4) Boyd was probably worried sick. And 5). Oh yes, number 5. I still owed Carter a date.
That was enough to make me hinge up in my bed like that creepy skeleton from Tales from the Crypt. And judging by how exhausted I was from the night before, it wouldn’t have surprised me if my hair was equally as crazy as his.
I was quickly reminded that Lyle, in his ramblings, had
told me how he’d decanted Castella when she’d choked him in the woods. I guess that means he can summon now…maybe? It wasn’t like he’d be much good at it. Summoning took practice, but I had to hand it to him, he’d lured Castella right into that decant by running his mouth. He had a knack for getting on people’s nerves.
A soft grumble came from beside me. Then I noticed that my right leg was warm. Lyle…He’d found his way into bed with me, without my approval, might I add. I shoved him a few times with both hands. “Get up, idiot!”
His mouth was wide open, and his hand was tucked between his cheek and the pillow, his back flush against the wall.
“Get up.” That followed another hard shove that sent him into a grunting, flailing fit.
If you’ve never had the chance to wake a Decanter, you’ve gotta’ try it. Put it on your bucket list if you have to. You can thank me later.
In his frantic flails, claws burst from his hand then retracted. Fur sprouted from his skin. Dog whimpers guttered from his throat, which somehow escalated to a crying baby – not sure how that snuck in there. A turtle shell half-formed on his back, before lizard spikes protruded out instead, until finally he settled back to himself with a dented brow and cat whiskers. “Screw you, Rebekah.”
Can a person truly be sorry mid-laugh? I don’t think so, but I was giving it the good old college try as I rolled out of bed, untangling my hair with my fingers. Lyle had never been with anyone physically before, so I figured I’d add some fuel to the fire. “How does it feel now that you’ve slept with your first woman, you perv?”
He kicked his feet off the edge of the bed, whiskers still poking outwards. “Kinda’ like sleeping beside a Harley Davidson.” He wiped his face with his hand, noticed the whiskers, and retracted them. “You snore like a wildebeest.”
“I do not!” I threw a pillow at him, embarrassed. How’d he turn this around on me? “I was tired. I don’t always snore like that. We stayed up way too late, and I couldn’t really find the right sleeping position,” I lied.