The Soulkeepers Box Set

by G. P. Ching

  Malini tilted her face up. “What is this, Lucifer? What are you doing?”

  He glanced around the room laughing, his narrowed eyes landing back on Malini. “The Healer wants to know what I’m doing.” He lifted her by the back of her T-shirt. “Don’t mess with me, Malini. You know exactly what’s going on here, and you have just become a part of it.”

  Lucifer jerked Malini into a chair that manifested itself in front of the platform. The black wood splintered, erupting grotesque gray arms that wrapped around her chest and held her in place. Dead arms of the damned that stunk of decay and sulfur. She turned her head to avoid the stench.

  Jacob reached out to the water, but Malini shook her head.

  “Don’t try it, Horseman,” Lucifer said. He grabbed Jacob by the neck and forced him into a chair next to Malini. Struggling to stand, Jacob fought against the corpse arms that forced him painfully into the chair.

  He turned his face toward Malini, noticing the fear that had taken up residence in the corners of her eyes, and he wondered if any of this was part of the plan. She looked away quickly. Was she afraid of what he might see? Did she have doubts about her own plan?

  Lucifer clapped his hands together. “Places, people. These Soulkeepers are like bugs, once you see one, the place will be lousy with them before you know it. Let’s make them fallen heroes.” He jogged up to the platform. “Abigail, it’s time.”

  * * * * *

  Gideon watched from his place on the stair landing. He’d blended into the light as Malini had asked but it was becoming harder and harder not to act. Malini and Jacob, captured and constrained, would be useless if the portal was opened. The Soulkeepers couldn’t afford to lose their Healer now, not with their numbers so low.

  It all came down to trust. If he trusted that a sixteen-year-old Healer could lead, then he should wait for her signal. Her role made her privy to information she couldn’t always share. She must know what he didn’t and he had to support her role.

  But the truth was he didn’t fully trust her abilities. It wasn’t simply because she was young. It was because she treated Abigail as if she were a hopeless case. When you loved someone, it was impossible to believe they were hopeless. He knew if he could talk to her, he could save her.

  As an angel, it should have been easy for him to have faith. Maybe his distance from heaven had changed him. The idea of spending eternity with Abigail, with or without heaven, wasn’t without merit. He’d thought about falling, too. They could live in Paris as she had, walking their own path between Heaven and Hell. It might work.

  The main level suddenly teemed with influenced humans and Watchers. They’d passed around black hooded cloaks that they donned over their clothing. The floor became a sea of black robes, ceremoniously facing Lucifer on the platform. The devil folded his hands like a groom waiting for his bride.

  Gideon’s heart ached. Abigail was the bride.

  Descending the steps, Gideon carefully navigated the crowd. He remained transparent but knew that his scent might give him away. If he passed too close to an astute Watcher, he was doomed. Still he made his way to the front, stepping up beside Malini and placing his hand on hers. She didn’t look down at the pressure, but when her fingers curled, he knew she felt his touch.

  Yes, Gideon? he heard in his head. He hadn't known Malini could communicate telepathically, but he was sure it was her.

  I think it's because you used the stone. This is new for me, too.

  We have to fight. We have to get you out of here, Gideon thought.

  No. It’s not time yet. Plus, you know as well as I do that you won’t leave her. Whatever Abigail does today, you need to see it.

  Then, I should stop her?

  No.

  Abigail entered the room, escorting a young girl who Gideon recognized from Paris. He’d never met her personally but he was sure it was Stephanie Westcott. He’d seen her picture in the paper when she’d gone missing. The girl walked willingly to the platform. Abigail trailed behind, her eyes empty and soulless.

  I’ve got to stop her.

  You can’t. Even if you try, you won’t succeed.

  I can’t watch this.

  You have to. I’ll need you when it's over.

  Gideon’s fingers clutched Malini’s hand.

  I know you’ve thought about falling, Gideon. Don’t. After today, Abigail won’t be the same. You’ll give up your salvation and she will slip through your fingers.

  Stephanie climbed onto the platform. Her face was brave, sad but resolved, as if she had accepted her fate. With an eerie calm, she lay down on the stone slab and turned her head to face Malini and Jacob. Abigail stepped behind the altar, in front of the machine that was now emitting a loud roar.

  Gideon tried to force his thoughts into Abigail's head. Run! Fight! Don’t do this! She’d never been able to read his mind and the blank look on her face was a clear indication that any connection they’d had was completely gone.

  Lucifer raised his hands. Fire swirled from his palms, forming a sphere of red and gold that encompassed Abigail, Stephanie, and the machine behind them. The smell of sulfur filled the room. A chorus of moans joined the mechanical roar. As the sound grew louder, Gideon realized it was the screams of the Damned, their tormented souls calling out from the pits of hell. Lucifer fueled his magic with their suffering.

  The hooded forms behind him began to chant. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched them rock back and forth, a hideous congregation cheering on the ceremony. Gripping Malini’s hand for strength, he looked back up toward Abigail, the ache in his chest threatening to consume him completely.

  The lights blinked into darkness, as if all of the power was drained into Abigail, into what she was about to do. She lifted a knife from the altar, an obsidian blade glinting in the light of Lucifer's circling magic. Of course it was obsidian. They weren’t just sacrificing Stephanie’s body; they were sacrificing her soul. She would pass to neither Heaven nor Hell. It would be the saddest of conclusions, doomed to oblivion.

  Abigail’s hands came together on the hilt of the blade. She raised it over her head.

  No! NO! Gideon reached his free hand toward her, silently begging for her to stop. Malini’s grip kept him rooted to the spot. She was right; there was nothing he could do. Abigail was a shell, completely given over to Lucifer’s will. Her eyes were vacant.

  Stephanie, that poor girl, stared right at him, as if she could see him crouched next to Malini’s chair. Her ice-blue eyes held a deep understanding, soulfulness he never expected to see in one so young.

  Stephanie's lips moved, but it was Abigail’s voice that reached Gideon's ears. “Some things are more important than love. Some things are more important than any of us. I’m sorry, Gideon.”

  The knife plunged into Stephanie’s chest. Black blood sprayed from the wound, showering Abigail, whose body shrunk. Her hair darkened and her mouth opened to a scream. But the scream was a human scream and, as Gideon watched in horror, Abigail became Stephanie and Stephanie became Abigail. The illusion faded away as the black blood ran from the sacrifice’s body.

  Forgetting where he was, Gideon dropped Malini’s hand and let out a battle cry.

  Chapter 31

  Aftermath

  Gideon’s howl went unnoticed in the chaos that ensued. Stephanie, released from Abigail’s influence, eyed the knife in her hand and the body in front of her. Her mouth fell open and her chest pumped out a scream that Gideon could see but couldn’t hear over the shaking walls, the roar of the machine, and the cacophony of voices.

  One voice did rise above the rest. “No!” Lucifer boomed. He tried to run forward but his magic, the revolving flames, kept him from the sacrifice. Pounding his fists against the sphere of tortured souls, he narrowed his eyes at Abigail’s blood dripping to the floor. Black hoods scattered, trying to avoid Lucifer’s wrath.

  Gideon, now! Free Jacob and me, now.

  Manifesting, Gideon's light sent the crowd into a panic. He shatter
ed the chairs, tossing the corpse arms away from them. Jacob leaped into action, a sword of ice forming in his hands as soon as his feet hit the floor.

  “Can I kill something now?” he yelled to Malini.

  She nodded her head. “Anything with black blood. Gideon, come with me. We have to get to Abigail.”

  Gideon’s eyes widened. He clapped his hands together and a sword of blue fire erupted between his palms. With a surge of his powerful wings he jumped to the platform, swinging the blade at Lucifer’s waist. It passed through the devil’s abdomen and harmlessly out the other side, leaving a trail of black smoke.

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Lucifer yelled, turning on his attacker. He backhanded Gideon, sending him flying off the platform. He landed next to Jacob, who was frantically slicing the shoulders of anything in a black robe. He kicked someone who bled red in the gut, sending them flying backward while simultaneously plunging his blade into a Watcher behind him.

  “Gideon, what are you doing? Get up there and help Malini!” Jacob yelled. He twirled and sliced across the chest of another black robe. Red. “Damn!” he said, kicking toward the man's gut.

  Still seeing stars, Gideon shook his head and pulled himself up. Of course he couldn’t fight fire with fire. Taking to the air, he rolled energy in his palms. Not the fire of destruction all angels could rain down, but the power that came from deep within, a combination of faith, hope, and love. To humans, it was a healing power, but Gideon hoped it would have the opposite effect on Lucifer. He hurled it at the center of Lucifer’s back. Jackpot! The devil writhed in pain and turned away from Abigail and Stephanie.

  “That’s right,” Gideon said. “Let’s play.” He dodged a fireball flung from Lucifer’s hand. The devil's eyes turned yellow, his illusion faltering with his anger. Gideon let forth a barrage of blue energy, rolling through the air above the crowded pit.

  The other Soulkeepers swooped in from their stations to help. Below him, Lillian diced up Watchers with Jesse, who popped in and out of existence, pulling off hoods and incapacitating the humans in the group. The twins arrived on the other side of the crowd, melded together in the form of a giant. Swinging their club, they launched a Watcher into the air. Gideon dodged the flying body, just as Lucifer regrouped and opened fire.

  A ball of flame singed Gideon’s wing, sending him tumbling to the platform. He landed in a heap of feathers and muscle behind Malini. She was halfway into the sphere Lucifer had created around the altar, her skeletal hand holding open a window that she carefully stepped through.

  Gideon flipped to his feet, pounding Lucifer with another purple sphere. The devil broke from his illusion entirely, becoming a towering mass of horns, claws, and cloven hooves. He returned fire, sending Gideon somersaulting off the platform. The fire tore through the bones of his left wing, sending searing pain through him. Broken, the wing dangled uselessly.

  Lucifer's lips peeled back from a grotesque fang-filled grin. He jumped down from the platform and straddled Gideon's body. “I'll enjoy crushing you.” He licked his lips with his forked tongue.

  There was no escape. Gideon crab-walked backward, his white blood leaving a glittering trail across the floor. Faced with oblivion, Gideon had only one thought: Abigail. On the platform, Malini’s healing hand lowered toward her chest. He prayed with everything he had left that somehow it would work. Even if he should die, he prayed Abigail would live. Her surviving would make it all worth it. He collapsed to the floor and looked up into the face of the devil, his heart peaceful and ready for what may come.

  Everything went white. Lucifer turned his face toward the small sun that glowed from above, shielding his eyes with his hand. All around him, the fighting stopped. Soulkeepers and fallen alike stood dumbstruck at the power, light, and warmth that shone down. Gideon stared into the light, equally awestruck, although he knew exactly who it was above him.

  A soft voice cut through the sound of the machine, barely a whisper yet louder than anything in the room. “Your debt has been repaid.”

  A beam of light hit Gideon’s body, a lightning bolt of energy that came with a clap of thunder. The room washed away. Blinded, he let himself go. The warmth and heat washed through him, stripping away the pain of his broken wing, the sight of the death around him, and the hum from the platform. Everything dissolved but peace and light.

  Then it all came back to him.

  * * * * *

  Within the sphere, Malini lowered her healing hand toward Abigail’s chest. She couldn’t heal Watcher flesh, but her gut told her it was the right thing to do. Before her palm touched, a white light blinded her, causing her to pull her hand up short. She forgot herself in the awesome power that filled the pit. God hovered above them all. Her commanding presence burned like the sun. A bolt of lightning flowed from her into Gideon and Abigail. The power cut right through the rotating red sphere, and blew Lucifer off of Gideon like a flake of dust.

  Thrown back from the force of it, Malini watched in wonder as Abigail’s body seized with the power flowing through her. Abigail’s black scaly skin smoothed to a peachy flesh tone. Her leathery wings dissolved under her back. Straight, platinum hair darkened into honey curls. The hard features of her face softened, and her body changed. Shorter, rounder, softer. The lightning changed Abigail into something almost…

  “Human,” Malini whispered.

  When the light stopped and chaos erupted on the floor once again, Malini lowered her healing hand onto Abigail’s chest. The new body trembled under her touch. A charge of electricity flowed from her hand into Abigail’s new human heart. Once and again her body flailed on the altar, until her mouth opened and Abigail took her first breath of air as a mortal.

  Beneath Malini’s hand, Abigail’s lungs expanded and contracted. Her heart beat strong and true against her palm. And although the wound from the obsidian blade was difficult to heal, Malini focused until the hole closed. The black blood turned red between her burnt fingers.

  Abigail’s eyes flipped open, soft blue eyes that were beautiful but ordinary. They locked on Malini as the red blood seeped from under her hand and dripped to the platform below.

  “No!” Abigail screamed, clutching the blood to her chest. She sat up, her face terrified by the trail of crimson that trickled from the altar toward the machine. Malini realized what was happening and reached for the rolling drop of blood, trying to stop its progress with her palm. Abigail did, too, but she dropped from the altar awkwardly, her new human body learning to move all over again. Both hands fell short of their goal.

  Only a dribble got through. It worked its way under Malini’s palm and channeled into the machine, still pulsating with the magic of the sphere. For a moment, nothing changed. Then the sphere opened, melting into the platform. A hurricane-force wind blew out from behind the altar. Malini tripped backward, grabbing Stephanie and Abigail by the arms and tumbling into the pit.

  The room shook. The earth split, cracking the altar and the platform down the middle. The machine peeled back, a black hole tearing through the center to reveal an army of Watchers in formation. Nod. The wall unraveled behind the platform and Lucifer’s battle cry rose from the place where he recovered against the wall of the pit.

  Then all Hell broke loose.

  Chapter 32

  Invasion

  Gideon tried to react to the army of Watchers marching into the pit, but his body and mind fumbled on the floor. Jacob’s hand appeared in front of his face.

  “Let me help you,” Jacob said.

  Pulled to his feet, Gideon couldn’t keep his balance and fell forward, barely catching himself with his hands in a kind of weak push-up before his face slapped the floor.

  “You don’t have wings anymore,” Jacob yelled, yanking him back up to his feet. He thrust a bow and quiver into his hands. “No time to celebrate. Take these. A human tried to kill me with them earlier. Lucky for us, he didn’t succeed.”

  Slinging the quiver over his shoulder, he allowed Jacob to drag him
back against the staircase. Jacob propped him up in the corner and helped him string an arrow.

  A Watcher came too close and Jacob spun around and sliced it in half. “Give it a try, Gideon. That one there.” Jacob pointed at a Watcher who’d slipped past Lillian and was advancing toward them.

  The string pulled to his cheek, Gideon did his best to aim at the Watcher and released. The arrow fell short of its target, skimming harmlessly across the floor. The Watcher stepped over it.

  “Whoa! You really are human.” Jacob dodged the Watcher’s talons and thrust his blade through its chest. He kicked the body away and returned to Gideon to help him string another arrow. “I’ll tell you what. Shoot if you have to, but if anything gets too close, reach behind you and poke it in the eye with an arrow.”

  Gideon nodded. His throat was too tight and dry to respond.

  Jacob winked then launched himself into the advancing army, wielding his blade. Black limbs flew from the trail Jacob forged and a head rolled toward Gideon's feet. He flattened against the wall when it melted into a pool of black ooze near his toes.

  His bow rattled in his shaking hands. His arm ached from pulling back the string. And for the first time in his existence, Gideon was afraid the way a human might be afraid, knowing that he had only one fragile and mortal life. His new heart pounded against his ribcage, and his skin felt strange. A drip of sweat hit his fingers drawn to his cheek. He wiped under his eye and focused in on the brutal battle.

  The Soulkeepers didn’t lack for skill. Jacob plowed through a dozen Watchers with superhuman precision. But the Watchers poured from the portal tear and overran the pit like ants. Malini picked up the obsidian blade and was trying her best to protect Stephanie and another human woman Gideon didn’t recognize. They’d escaped the onslaught by hiding under the platform.