~ ~ ~
“Damien!” Ben called, watching him over the shoulder of the bald Changed as he disappeared through the door.
“He’s taking Sam!” Christian called, but he had to duck beneath the swing of the Changed with the baseball hat.
Eugene hid behind a stone pillar in the back of the church. He stepped out and then moved back.
Ben punched the bald Changed, and he fell backward. Ben was going to faze when another Changed appeared before him. Short and old, this Changed had a cynical twist to his lips.
Ben lunged at him with his dagger.
The cynical Changed stepped back. “Is that all you’ve got, boy?”
Ben glanced at the door. He had to get to Sam. He had to know she was all right. He stepped in and then fazed behind the cynical Changed, thrusting the dagger into his back. The Changed disintegrated.
Ben whirled to find the bald Changed before him. The Changed shoved his fist into Ben’s chest. White bolts of pain shot through his body. Ben had learned to fight the pain. He forced his body not to stiffen and slowly lifted his dagger.
The Changed pulled his energy from his body. Ben knew that with each second he couldn’t disrupt the Changed, the weaker he got. He couldn’t afford to be weak. Not with this many Changed around. With all his will power, he forced his hand up toward the Changed.
The bald Changed smiled and caught his wrist in his other hand. He pushed him back against the stone wall of the Church.
Ben grimaced. He looked around. A candle holder stood to his left. Every muscle convulsed with the energy being drained. Ben mentally forced his arm up and reached toward the candle holder. One finger grasped it. It teetered. He stretched his fingers out further. The candle holder swayed back and forth. Ben tried to grab it.
The bald Changed kicked it away and it toppled to the ground. The fire from the candle caught on the rug and raced along the carpet.
Suddenly, the bald Changed disintegrated. Christian stood before Ben, holding a dagger.
Ben sagged and grasped his chest. It burned as though someone had yanked out his lungs. He scanned the church. For the moment, the Changed were gone. But they would be back. “Free the human,” he told Christian.
Christian nodded. He turned. Both he and Ben saw it at the same time. The Changed with the tattoo from his hairline to his jaw straightened from his bent position near the first pew. Blue electricity snapped and danced over his body.
Ben glanced around, searching for the new Soul, but he did not see him anywhere. The woman in white was gone, too. Had the new Soul gone with her? But Ben knew there was only one answer. The Changed had drained him and was now ready for the Jump.
Christian fazed to the human.
Ben was going to follow Damien when the short, old Changed suddenly re-appeared before him. “My turn.” He knocked the blade from Ben’s hand and pushed him back.
Ben was about to faze away when he noticed something about the Changed. His eyes.
The short, old Changed shoved his fist into Ben’s chest.
His eyes. They were white.
~ ~ ~
The stairway reminded Damien of one from a medieval castle. Made of cold stones, it was dark and damp. He set Sam down on the first step, sitting her in an upright position. “Sam,” he called.
Her head lolled forward.
He caught her chin with his finger and tilted it up toward him. His heart constricted. He was losing her. “Sammie,” he whispered, begging her to open her eyes.
Still, she didn’t open her eyes to look at him.
“Please,” he said softly, agony in his thick voice.
A soft rumble of laughter escaped her throat. “I thought you never begged,” she answered in a soft, far away voice. Then her eyes opened to slits. “I must be dreaming.”
Tears of anguish rushed to his eyes, blurring his vision of her. “I can’t do this without you.”
“You might have to try.” She lifted her hand, reaching for him.
“I’m not done with you. I won’t let you go. Not now. Not ever.” He took her hand in his, pressing his forehead to hers. “I’m so sorry.” He eased his fist into her chest.
When her mouth opened in a silent gasp, he kissed her lips, covering them with his own.
~ ~ ~
Christian fazed to the human’s side. He was not going to let the Changed make the Jump. He had no sooner appeared to protect the human when the Changed wearing the baseball hat re-materialized. The Changed shoved a hunting knife into Christian and the iron knife disrupted his form, sending him into the weird place of shapeless emptiness the Souls were sent when they were disrupted with iron. He hated that place. It was a place of horrible barrenness, a void filled with nothing. All he could do in that place was think of his old earthly body, think of reforming his shape. He was getting better and faster at coming out of that terrible place, but it still took him some time to do it.
When he reappeared, the flames had engulfed the church.
“Christian!”
He looked over to see Ben. He had his hand pressed against the human’s chest. Eugene stood behind Ben, his hand on his shoulder.
It was obvious the Changed had made the Jump. It was even more obvious what Ben and Eugene were doing. Blasting the Changed. Saving the human.
Christian fazed behind Eugene. He shoved his energy forward, pushing it into Eugene and through Ben into the Changed that had made the Jump into the human. It was the only way to save the man. They had to push the Changed out by flooding the human body with their energy. Overload it. It would keep the human alive and blast the Changed into nothingness.
~ ~ ~
Damien pushed his energy into Sam, forcing it through his body, through his arm and into his fist, into her body. The blue glow surrounding his body pulsed and danced down his arm, disappearing into her chest. And still, he gave her more. He would give it all to her if she needed it.
He broke the kiss and opened his eyes. She tilted her head back with a gasp of wonder. His blue energy surrounded her in a warm cocoon of intensity. Like a halo, the blue light framed her in its brilliance. Her eyelids raised and blue filled her eyes. With Ben and his regeneration sickness, Damien had given him a portion of his energy to get him back on his feet. With Sam, he gave everything he had. Tingles danced across his wrist and he finally removed his fist, sitting back, weak and spent.
Sam sat up with her back straight, staring at him in rapture until the glow faded from her eyes. Her lips moved, but no words came out. Finally, a slow lethargic and seductive grin stretched her lips. “Your energy is amazing.”
Damien cocked a lopsided grin at her. “You’re just figuring that out now?”
Her eyes twinkled.
Before she could say another word, Damien lunged forward, grabbing her up tight against him. A longing and anguish he had never felt before consumed him. “Don’t do that to me again, Sammie.”
After a startled moment, she embraced him in warmth and tenderness.
“I thought I lost you,” he whispered. He pulled back enough to brush his lips against hers. “It was a very dangerous place for me.”
Sam opened her mouth and then closed her lips.
Damien smiled. “Finally speechless?” Then he stiffened, his body going completely still. He cocked his head, listening. “No,” he whispered. “No!”
He held Sam’s arm and fazed. With her energy restored, fazing would not be a danger.
They appeared at the altar. Damien’s gaze swept the church to find the Changed gone and Ben with his hand on the human man’s chest, Eugene’s hand on his back and Christian with his hand on Eugene’s shoulder. “No!” Damien hollered, but it was too late.
The man tilted his head to the ceiling and a stream of white shot out of his open mouth. His open eyes glowed white and beams came from his eyes and ears. A wave of power crashed from the man’s body, knocking the Souls back.
The fire wavered beneath the wave of energy, but was not extinguished.
Ben scowled.
The human sat up, rubbing his head. He glanced at the flames racing up the aisle and stood quickly. He dashed for the back of the church wobbling on unsteady legs.
Ben nodded with satisfaction and opened his mouth to respond, but when his eyes found Sam, he fazed to her. He grabbed her in a fierce hug. “Sam,” he whispered. “Are you okay?”
Sam groaned in his arms. “I’m being crushed.”
Christian was the next one to embrace her, mumbling, “It’s good to see you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely, pulling back to look him in the eyes. “I didn’t want to leave you alone with Daniel.”
“Are you kidding? You had to. They would have captured you, too.” He grinned. “I’m glad you got away.”
“This is all a nice little reunion,” Damien said, interposing himself between Sam and Christian. He took her hand in his and lifted his gaze to the ceiling where the misty dark shape swirled. “But we have to get out of here, right now.”
Sam followed his stare and gasped. “I can see it!”
“You have my power. You’ll be able to hear them, too.” Damien looked back at the group of Souls and ordered, “Eugene’s.” He fazed.
Chapter Five
Sam was so happy to be back, to be free. She sat on the back of Eugene’s blue couch, staring at her friends. Ben leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his brow. Christian sat on the couch behind her, facing the screen. Eugene was at his laptop, typing like crazy.
But it was Damien she gazed at. He paced back and forth, back and forth. A Changed. A monster. Yet, he had saved her. He had worked with Ben and Eugene and had freed Christian. Then the four of them had worked together to find her. Fondness filled her. He was still her husband. And she knew he cared for her.
“You don’t know what you’ve done,” Damien murmured.
“It can’t be Scala,” Ben said. “We blasted him! He’s gone.”
“Blasting doesn’t kill Changed,” Damien said.
“What do you mean it doesn’t kill them?” Christian asked. “I saw the Changed blasted out of my daughter’s body and disintegrate.”
“No. You saw it blasted into a different form. What you’ve been doing is making them more powerful. They are no longer hindered by their bodies, they’ve been moving through the air in the form of some sort of black smoke.”
Christian shook his head. “What we did was a good thing. My daughter was saved because of it.”
“Good thing?” Damien echoed in disbelief. “Do you understand what you’re saying? Yes. You saved a human. But at what cost? There are three of them now!”
“We don’t know what they are planning.”
Damien stepped toward Christian, his body tense, his mood threatening. “Only one of those things got all those Changed to work with him to take Sam. And she is one of the strongest Souls there are. What can three of them do together?”
The situation was becoming volatile. Sam knew how angry Damien was. She knew he believed she was still in danger. She pushed herself from the couch and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Damien’s right. These things are more powerful than a Changed.”
“What the hell are they?” Ben asked. “Not Souls, not Changed.”
“These beings are created when a Changed is blasted out of human form,” Damien explained. “By doing so, you’ve given them more power. They retain the memories and loyalties they had in their Changed form. But they are altered.”
“Altered?” Ben echoed. “Altered in form, not in mind.”
Damien nodded.
“They’re stronger,” Sam added. “It inhabited Curtis’s body for a while.”
All three of them turned to her in shock.
“What do you mean inhabited?” Christian asked.
“It made the Jump into a Changed?” Ben demanded.
“No,” she answered Ben. “I don’t think it was a Jump. I think Curtis was willing and that was how Scala got into his body. I don’t think it could stay in him for long. When he was talking to me, his eyes flickered from white to black. That’s how I knew it wasn’t Curtis. Not really.”
“We have to stop him. If he can get into any Changed he wants –” Ben looked at Damien.
Sam smiled grimly. “I don’t think Scala would dare try to get inside Damien. He’ll look for a weaker Changed.” Her grin faded and she hugged her arms as if she were cold. “Or Soul.”
Damien immediately came to her side, offering his support by his closeness.
“When he had me… When he was in Curtis… He put his fist into me like he was trying to drain me.” She looked up at Damien. “Only it wasn’t draining. It felt like… Like he was trying to get inside me.”
Damien clenched his jaw.
She turned her head to meet each of their gazes. Even Eugene was watching her now. “I think if I had been weaker, maybe, or he had been stronger, he might have succeeded. As it was, I was able to resist him.” The room was silent with her revelation. She could feel the tension, the impact of what she had just revealed.
“We have to warn Daniel,” Ben said.
Christian shook his head, holding up his hands. “I’m not going back there.”
“More importantly, we have to tell the other Souls to stop blasting the Changed,” Eugene said.
Sam’s mouth dropped slightly in shock. Other Souls were blasting Changed? Guilt surrounded her. She had been wrong. Daniel was right. This was all her fault. She glanced at Ben. She could see her thoughts mirrored in his eyes.
Damien nodded. “Eugene’s right. He said there were a few other Souls blasting the Changed. It can’t be allowed to continue.”
Sam glanced at Damien. He had stabbed coach Fredericks in an effort to stop them from blasting Scala. Had he known? She dropped her gaze and paced to the couch. “If he gets into a Soul, if he takes them over, and the other two…Altered do the same…” She looked up at Damien. “Do you think…?”
Damien stiffened.
“What?” Christian asked.
“He won’t need to have Souls blast Changed. He could do it himself,” Damien finished.
Ben held up his hands. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll take this as it comes.”
Sam nodded her agreement. “I don’t think Scala knows. I think he was testing his boundaries, seeing how far he could go.”
Silence engulfed the room.
Sam turned to the group, lifting her chin. “I’ll face Daniel and tell him.”
“No,” Damien objected.
“That’s not necessary, Sam,” Ben agreed. “Eugene can get a message to him.”
“I want to. I want to take responsibility for this.”
Ben stepped toward her, pushing himself from the wall. “It’s not your fault.”
“Of course it is. It was my idea and now I’ve endangered all the Souls and the humans. The implications of this are…” She put up her hands helplessly. “Huge.”
“You were trying to save the humans.”
“I didn’t listen to Daniel. I was as blind and stubborn as he was.”
“Sam,” Christian called. “You saved my daughter and I will be forever in your debt. I don’t give a damned about these…Altered things. All I know is that you saved her. That can’t be bad.”
Sam nodded and looked down. She was not convinced. Scala was still alive. What did it take to kill him?
Ben looked at Eugene, moving over to his side. “Have you found them yet?”
Christian joined them. “What are you looking for?”
“Their sound, the whisperings Damien heard is the only way to track them,” Eugene clarified. “With cameras all over the place nowadays, I’m trying…”
Damien took Sam’s hand
and pulled her toward a door. Sam knew it was Eugene’s regeneration facilities. The door closed behind her, sealing them in darkness. It didn’t matter. She could see Damien as clear as if it were day. His strong, square jaw, his proud aquiline nose. He was so handsome. Like some ancient Greek god. Maybe that was what he was now.
“Are you alright?” he wondered.
She smiled gently, touched by his concern. When he was so close, she was fine. “I find it amusing you are working with Eugene.”
Damien’s soft chuckle rolled over her. “He is a pain in the ass, but he cares for you. Maybe a little too much.”
“Are you jealous?”
“Of Eugene?” Damien laughed. “No. He’s not your type.” He pulled her tight against him. “He’d better not be. Ever.” He narrowed his eyes slightly. “You’re avoiding the question. Are you alright?”
Sam rested her head against Damien’s chest. The silence allowed her to think back on what had happened. “Sure,” she whispered, but her voice was unconvincing.
Damien squeezed her tight. “I won’t let him take you again.”
“I think I’m top on Scala’s list. Taking me might be the least of my worries.” She felt his body stiffen as a bolt of anger coursed through him. “There was nothing you could have done.”
“I knew he was out there, Sam,” Damien said. “I tried to warn you.”
“You knew something was going on. How could you have known what Scala was?”
“You had a taste of my power. You heard them. You saw them. I knew.”
“But you didn’t know he would come after me.”
“I should have known.”
Sam snuggled deeper into the comfort of Damien’s strength. “You were worried about me.”
“Of course.”
Sam smiled. “I like that.”
Damien pulled back to look her in her eyes. “Don’t ever go missing again. I came close. Too close to making the Jump. When you were gone, I couldn’t control myself. There was this emptiness like when you had died in your human form.”
Altercation - Episode 4 (Lost Souls) Page 7
