by Jeff Hale
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, organizations, clubs, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
THE PURE SOUL Copyright © 2014 Jeff Hale and Lezlee Cheek Hale. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover art design by Lezlee Cheek Hale
This book is dedicated to Miranda. May she always live in our hearts and minds.
Novels in the
Aetheric Elements
Universe
The Demon’s Corruption Chronicles
The Paragon Element
The Wild Within
The Pure Soul
The Shifting Storm*
The Dark Flame*
Stand Alone
Beyond The Reflection
*soon to be released
Table of Contents
Prologue
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
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
About the Authors
PROLOGUE
I was running and could hear the person behind me catching up, slowly but surely. Eventually, she’d reach me, but I knew that I could outlast her, if I could just get my breath to stop burning my throat and lungs.
I had been running long enough that it felt like the air itself was on fire in my chest, and I heard her steps, light, graceful, and sure, steadily gaining. Then she was next to me, smiling at me as we raced across the park to the untamed forest that covered the land just behind it. I deftly hopped to my left as we came upon the merry-go-round. Serena, laughing all the while, just jumped onto it, and ran across it, barely even moving it with her lithe steps.
It was warm, but not hot, and I was sweating profusely, fairly drenched, thanks to the humidity. The clouds in the sky above us hung low and dark, outlining everything in a stark contrast that made everything seem more real, threatening rain and more as thunder boomed ominously above us. We didn’t care, though. Serena laughed in delight as she pulled ahead of me. I shook my head and poured more speed into my legs and tried to keep up with her.
She hit the tree line a few strides ahead of me, and right as she did, the sky opened up on us, pouring buckets of rain down just as I got under the first tree of the forest. She leaned against a large oak and laughed, looking up towards the sky as she did so, holding her hands out to catch the rain water.
She looked absolutely angelic in that moment. She was one with nature, thoroughly enjoying life, and more than that, living it to its fullest. For thirteen years old, she knew how to squeeze more out of every minute of her life than most people walking the planet.
I slowly walked over towards her, taking in the sight of her in, knowing I would remember this moment for the rest of my life. What I felt for her in that second was a stronger surge of what I had been feeling for her all week. I knew what it was, even if I didn’t want to admit it. The moment that I had been waiting for was almost here, a moment I had planning for a while. I was waiting for us to be alone, which we hadn’t been, up until now.
She was wearing a pair of short, cut-off denim shorts, a sleeveless white and blue flannel that she had tied up to just under her ample chest, and a pair of well-worn running shoes. Her flannel, which was actually pretty thin, was now soaked, and I could see that she was wearing a tight sports bra under it.
She looked up at me and smiled sweetly, her emerald green eyes positively sparkling with happiness. “Beat ya!” she gloated happily.
“Only barely, and only cause I went around the merry-go-round,” I protested as I moved closer.
She rested casually against the tree, hands behind her back. I moved towards her, and put my right hand flat against the tree and leaned, bringing me within a couple of inches of her face. I was breathing heavily in that moment, not because of the run, but because of my proximity to this amazing girl.
I stared into her emerald eyes and found that I was losing myself in them. As I allowed those eyes to hypnotize me, I reached up and brushed one of the errant blonde strands from her face and ran my hand through her hair; it was completely soaked from the rain, but still felt like silk to me.
I heard her breath catch as I leaned even closer, and her eyes fluttered closed. I lightly pressed my lips to hers. She pressed back, softly at first, then a bit harder, and I felt her mouth open slightly. I opened mine in response, and gently guided my tongue into her mouth, and felt hers reply. My heart skipped several beats, and my brain shut down entirely for just a second. The kiss was everything I had hoped, and feared, it would be. I knew at that moment, I was completely and totally in love with this girl.
I would never tell her that, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to admit that to myself. I pulled back, still breathless from the experience, and saw her looking up at me. Her face showed that she was trying to decide whether to be confused or happy about what had just happened. Confusion won out.
“Rick, what was that about?” she asked, tilting her head to the side a little.
“Uh… nothing. I just wanted to see what it was like to kiss a girl is all,” I said, completely out of my element, and feeling very uncomfortable as a result.
“Uh-huh. Ya ain’t good at lyin’ ta me and ya know it. Now why did ya really kiss me?” she asked as she crossed her arms under her chest.
I had noticed recently that she like to flaunt her… assets… when she was trying to get something out of me or get me to do something she wanted to do.
“I dunno… it just… seemed… right, I guess,” I said, unsure. I hated when she pulled the truth from me like this. I wasn’t good at dealing with how I felt.
“What if I didn’t wanna kiss ya?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.
“I was worried about that, but I figured you would have pushed me or something like that if you didn’t want too,” I said, shrugging.
“Uh-huh, ya bet I woulda. Anyway, let’s go see what’s out and about now that it’s raining!” she called as she ran off.
I started to run after her, but caught my foot on a rock. My ankle twisted oddly as I fell to the ground. I cried out in pain and surprise as I hit the earth. Things went dim, and I felt Serena there holding me all of a sudden.
As I awoke from the dream, I heard her voice whisper, “It’s okay, sweetie, I’m here.”
I could swear that the voice sounded like it happened after I woke up.
ONE
It had been one long year since the Barrier holding back the Aetheric world from ours was shattered by yours truly. Well, actually, Merlin destroyed it, but I was the key to his plans. Without my cooperation, he wouldn’t have been able to complete the spell that brought the Barrier crashing down to irrevocably change the world.
It was once believed that bringing down the Barrie
r would have very, very bad consequences. As in genuine end-of-days-apocalyptic-extinction-level-event sort of consequences. Ended up just being an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it kind of deal. Why would I help destroy this Barrier if I thought it would wipe everything out? Merlin reeducated me, showing me that MAGE’s propaganda was all lies. Sure, the Barrier was created to try and control the Aether, and it did so, somewhat successfully. But its biggest flaw, the glaring weakness that even MAGE was ignorant about, was that it did not contain the energies coming from the realms of the demons. Demons were kicking back gaining power while all the other creatures that relied on Aetheric energy were becoming weaker, including those like myself that would help in the fight against them. Now the playing field was even again. Needless to say, the world was having a hell of a time adjusting as supernatural creatures began crawling from the realms of dreams and imagination into the real world.
I stumbled just a bit as I appeared in front of the Velvet Flame, still not quite used to teleporting on my own. Teleportation usually put me in the nearest unoccupied spot to my pictured destination, but I was still greeted by the gasps and stares of the people I’d materialized into the middle of. The world was different now. A year ago, what I’d just done would have resulted in panic and confusion amongst the people in front of the club, and probably some serious ass kicking directed at me from MAGE. Now, after the initial surprise wore off, most of them just watched me suspiciously and whispered amongst themselves.
I was meeting Dave and some of our other friends here because I had the need to socialize for once. I know, I know, big shock that I wanted to be around people. But I had been holed up in a cave with an old man and a smart ass spirit animal for almost a year. Tell me that after that even the most anti-social person wouldn’t need to be around his friends. That, and it was kind of a special day: the anniversary of the Barrier falling.
The line out in front of the Velvet Flame was long and I was pretty sure that Dave and the others were already inside. I not only knew both the bouncers that I could see outside, but I was close friends with the owner as well, so I began to push my way carefully through the line towards the front. There were a few irritated stares thrown my way, but it was the brilliant flash of light directly in my face, almost blinding me, that stopped me.
“Oh my Gawd! That was so cool!” a female voice exclaimed.
I blinked my sight back to normal and when I could see again, I blinked a couple more times, for purely different reasons. Standing in front me was an incredibly pretty young woman with light-brown eyes and waist length honey-gold hair held back from her face by a couple of butterfly shaped clips. She had a camera in one hand and was tugging at the hem of the skirt of her very short minidress as though she found it uncomfortable. She was smiling at me, and when she saw me looking at her, she blushed.
Tourists and cameras. Some things never change, I thought to myself. But she was pretty, and I had a good view of ample cleavage from the low cut of her dress, so I gave her a smile in return. “You’re not from around here.”
She shook her head, her blush deepening. “No, I’m from Berlin.”
Berlin? But she doesn’t sound German.
She must have seen my confused look because she laughed nervously. “Oh, sorry. Wisconsin. Berlin, Wisconsin. Lord, now you must think I’m just a stupid tourist.”
I stepped back out of the line as the crowd moved forward a bit. “Tourist, sure. Stupid, no.” Pretty, yes. But I didn’t say that. It might give her the wrong idea. Or give him the wrong idea, I amended to myself as a guy close to my own height of six foot two hurried towards us, his eyes narrowed at me in suspicion. His dark blue tank showed off the kind of musculature you get from hard labor and his black hair was short and no-nonsense.
“This guy bothering you, honey?” he asked the woman. He put an arm across her shoulders and gave me a proprietary look.
She went up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Nope. I was just apologizing for damned near blinding him with the camera. But you missed it! He just popped right in outta nowhere!”
“Really?” The guy gave me a wide-eyed stare. “You’re one of them, what do they call them? Aetheric Entities?”
Aetheric Entities, or AEs for short. That’s what they were calling us now. I didn’t bother to try to lie to them; after all, the world knew about us now. “Yes, I am.”
He immediately became guarded again. “You weren’t trying to use your… superpowers, or whatever they are, on my girlfriend, were you? ‘Cuz there are laws about that.”
He was right, there were laws now. Most forms of supernatural creatures had their own governing systems, but they were integrating them into the existing world governments. It wasn’t easy, and I wasn’t entirely certain how it all worked here in the United States, but I knew that AEs had all the same rights as any other normal person, with the exception of some special considerations for our… abilities.
Considerations my ass. More like concessions and conditions so the regular humans would include us instead of trying to eradicate us.
Normally, I might have gotten pissed about the guy’s assumption, but I was a special kind of AE, a Paragon Sentinel, and members of the opposite sex seemed drawn to me, so I couldn’t really blame him.
“Believe me, I am not trying to pick up your girlfriend,” I assured the guy. “I’m not that kind of guy. Besides, I’m still trying to get over a girl as it is.”
Kat. We’d gotten together for a short while after the Barrier fell and I saved her ass from a group of Baba Yaga’s vampires that had targeted Katelyn because of me. I had gone into the relationship with the idea that it would be long term, but Merlin had other plans for me and called me back to Colorado so he could oversee my Sentinel training personally. Kat and I had broken up amicably before I left, mainly because I just didn’t think it would be fair to her to wait around for me for however long Merlin needed me to stay. She was a cat shifter, and from what I understood, they had a hard time repressing sexual urges. The last thing I wanted was her to have to deal with guilt for possibly cheating on me, or me to have to get over her doing it. But she’d told me she would wait anyway, and I’d been looking forward to seeing her when I’d gotten back a week ago. When I’d asked Dave if he could tell me where the apartment was that she and her friend Kris had moved into, Dave had just given me a sad look and said that Nina had told him that Kat had moved to Europe with her possessive, asshole werewolf friend, Darien. I didn’t need a diagram to figure out the rest, so the idea of me and Kat taking up from where we’d left off was a non-issue.
The guy’s entire demeanor changed at my words and he gave me a friendly, sympathetic nod. “I’ve been there, I hear ya. If it weren’t for Rachel here, I’m not sure what I would have done.” He hugged the blonde to him
“Aww, Joey, I love you too,” Rachel said, blushing. She blushed a lot.
Joey held a hand out to me. “And you are?”
I shook the offered hand. “Aerick.”
“Nice to meet you.” His gaze turned speculative. “We don’t have any of you guys back in Berlin, so what kind of AE are you? Vampire, shifter, wizard?”
I turned to look back at the crowd. My friends were waiting for me, but this couple seemed too nice, and so out of their element. They were also non-hostile, even knowing that I wasn’t entirely human, and I wanted to encourage it. There were too many out there who were quick to think ‘monster’ the minute they found out someone was an AE.
“Uh, it’s sorcerer, not wizard,” I corrected gently. “And I’m not really any of those, but the closest would be a sorcerer. See?” I held up a hand and wreathed it in flames.
They both gave me a look of respect, then Rachel made a noise of surprise and the camera came up to snap a picture, while her boyfriend just nodded like I’d shown him the most spectacular thing ever. There was muttering from the people in the line as well, and I could see people whispering and pointing, but I ignored them.
“So, you seem like a nic
e enough guy and all, but what’s ta keep you from just, I dunno, turning around and setting everyone here on fire?” Joey asked me, truly curious.
His words elicited gasps and more furtive whispering from the people in the line, and they all moved in closer together, and farther away from me. I just gave them an arrogant look and nod before turning back to Rachel and Joey.
“We have to register with MAGE. You’ve heard of them?” I asked.
“Like the FBI, except it’s for magic and stuff?” Rachel offered up.
“Yeah,” I said. “So we register, and they put a special passport chip in us, to track us, have access to all our information, that kind of thing. Plus, we all have to take an Oath of no harm, and that Oath makes it so that if we remove the chip, they are immediately notified.” MAGE had been attached to the human agencies for centuries, so it made sense that it was the organization to deal with all the AEs. MAGE already had ways of tracking Aetheric signatures for magic users, but the chip made it that much easier. Where it really made the difference was in the case of shifters and vampires, who normally couldn’t be tracked since they didn’t have the Aetheric signatures.
Not only did AEs have to do the things I’d told the couple, but a further concession had been an annual report to the local MAGE office. If you moved, you had to check in with the facility in your new region. These concessions were not easy to come by, and there were still a lot of AEs out there unwilling to submit to them, myself included. Granted, I understood why these measures were needed. It made the normal people feel safe and secure from the things that could rip them apart with just a dirty look. Didn’t mean I had to like it, or acquiesce to it.
Besides, I used to work for MAGE, and I knew the higher ups of my local branch. They let me off on this one, at least as long as I kept on the level with them. Not that they wouldn’t know immediately if and when I used my powers, but I was kind of a unique individual as far as AEs went. MAGE couldn’t force my hand and they knew it. No one could, and though I didn’t relish the thought of constantly fighting against the government and being on the run, I would do it if they even began to think that they were going to push this bullshit on me.
