They passed through the front door, simply moving through the wooden door, and into the entrance of the home. It was clean and neat. Coats hung on pegs on the wall; shoes were lined up on a shoetree. Right past the foyer, stairs rose to the upper floor and a hallway stretched to the back of the house. It was a lovely home. Warm and inviting.
Ben paused to scan the area.
Sam moved into the house, looking for Ryan. He wouldn’t be hiding. He’d be out in the open. This was a place of safety for him, his home. She walked down the hallway to find a kitchen and family room. Both were empty. She turned to Ben and Christian and shook her head.
Ben glanced toward the stairs and started up them. Christian moved down the hallway toward her.
A door stood open to Sam’s right, with stairs leading down. Most likely toward the basement. Daylight shone from the bottom of the stairs, probably through a window. She slowly walked down the stairs. The basement stairs as well as the floor was carpeted. She lifted a hand to run it against the wall and descended the stairs. She rounded the corner and froze.
Ryan was on his knees, his body a mere ghostly wisp, transparent and fading. He was almost completely invisible, just a mere outline of what he should be. Standing before him, with his fist in the kid’s chest, was a Changed.
Sam jerked forward, reaching for her sword.
The Changed pulled away from the kid and turned to her, a crooked, dark smile on its pale lips. Its form wavered, shimmering. Electricity snapped around it.
Sam’s teeth grit.
The Changed’s lips twisted into a wicked smile; tiny bolts of electricity ran across his teeth. “Hello, Samantha.”
Sam hesitated for a fraction of a second as she recognized the bastard. She knew his dark eyes. She remembered his short blonde hair, hair so blonde it was almost white. But it was the shape of his lips, the familiar cocky taunt in their line, that made Sam’s lip snarl in a grimace of hatred. She lifted the blade and rush toward the monster in a burst of speed.
The Changed vanished before she reached it. She spun, looking for it. Her gaze blasting right and left, up and down, until she spotted the kid where he had fallen on the floor.
He was so light that his form was almost invisible.
“No, no, no,” Sam whispered. She dropped her sword and bent down to the kid’s side. He was so light, his body so translucent. His eyes were completely white, as if he had cataracts. Her heart twisted. Too late. She was too late.
“What’s happening?” Christian asked as he hurried to her side. “Who the hell was that?”
Sam looked up at Christian. “Get Ben. Hurry.”
Christian disappeared instantly.
Sam touched the kid’s forehead, wiping dark hair from his eyes. “Come on, kid. Concentrate.”
The outline of his being, his very essence, was fading and disintegrating beneath her hands. “Ryan!” Sam called.
The boy’s eyes opened wider under her command.
She winced at seeing how completely white his eyes were. She stroked his forehead, but her fingers moved through him. Her chest tightened. She was losing him.
“Mom?” he called.
“Concentrate, Ryan,” Sam whispered, half begging. “Give me a few seconds.” But she knew there was nothing she could do for him. She couldn’t faze him to Eugene’s regen bed; he’d be lost in the process of being transported, fragmenting over the distance.
“Sam,” Ben called from behind her.
“Get Eugene. He’s got to have something –” Before she finished the sentence, Ryan grew fainter, his body dying, his energy evaporating, until he completely disappeared, leaving Sam leaning over the shag carpeting.
Sam stared for a long moment at the beige carpet where Ryan had just been. She would never get used to that, never get used to having a Soul disintegrate right before her. She clenched her jaw on the sharp stab of pain and guilt rising inside of her.
“There was nothing you could have done,” Ben said kindly from behind her.
Sam shook her head stubbornly. “If I had been a little faster. If –”
“No,” Ben said firmly.
She shot to her feet and whirled on him. “He was just a kid, Ben! How could he have known about the Changed? How could he even hope to defend himself?”
“I know, Sam.”
“You don’t know! It was Scala.”
Ben’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Then he slowly furrowed his brow and shook his head in disbelief.
“Who’s Scala?” Christian asked.
Sam paced back and forth across the carpet. The rage wouldn’t fade. It churned inside her, a tangible thing, trying to consume her, trying to take over. She clenched and unclenched her hands, fighting the fierce rage seething within her. “We nail him. You hear me, Ben? I want Scala dead. We find him and blast the crap out of him.” She shook her head. “He was just a kid!”
“We’ll get him, Sam. You know we will.”
Sam stopped. “I have to get out of here.”
Ben grabbed her arm. “No. Not alone. Just calm down.”
Her arm shook with the effort of holding her anger in check. For a long moment, she thought it would sweep over her in a tidal flood, feared it would take her to the place from where there would be no returning. She would be a Changed, like Scala. Feeding on the innocent Souls of the freshly dead. Like Ryan.
“Calm down, Sam. Just take it easy.”
She closed her eyes and dropped her chin to her chest, willing the fury to abate. It took all of her willpower. She pushed mentally at the anger, but it was like a tangible thing. It was like trying to shut a door when someone was holding it open. She clenched her teeth, willing that door closed, willing the anger away. “Just walk,” she suggested.
Ben nodded and began to guide her up the stairs, keeping a firm grip on her arm.
Sam moved behind Ben, and with each lifting of her leg, with each physical movement, her rage began to lessen. When they reached the top of the stairs, she said, “Outside.”
Ben led the way through the house and opened the door, guiding the group from the house.
The stirrings of her rage swirled weakly inside of her now, a mere ghost of what it had been. She could control it. Physical activity always enabled her to resist the call of anger, to resist the change. Now was no different. She was in control again. She looked down at Ben’s hand encircling her wrist. “You gonna hold my hand forever?”
Ben almost visibly sighed, but released her arm.
Christian was wise enough to shut his mouth for once.
“You okay?” Ben wondered.
Sam nodded.
“Here,” Christian said and handed her back her sword.
Sam took it from him, staring down at the silver blade for a long moment. The handle was heavy in her hand, the feeling familiar. It helped calm her even further. “Thanks,” she said grudgingly and slid it into its sheath behind her back.
“It was Scala?” Ben asked.
Sam nodded. The last time they had seen Scala was during the Spanish Inquisition. They had tricked him into an iron vault and sealed it, throwing the key away.
“How did he get out?” Ben demanded.
Sam shook her head and shrugged.
“What happened to Ryan?” Christian asked with carefully measured words.
Sam’s jaw clenched and she looked at the horizon. “He’s gone.”
“That Scala Changed guy drained him?” Christian wondered.
Sam nodded. “Completely. Even Souls can die.”
“Do you remember when the Changed was draining you?” Ben asked, referring to the first time Christian had met Sam and Ben. “It was sucking out your energy. Gaining power. If it takes all of a Soul’s energy, that Soul dies.”
“We’re already dead,” Christian corrected.
“We’re creatures of energy. If we lose that energy, we disappear. We die… for good.”
Sam scowled. “Enough Lost Souls 101.” Sam couldn’t stand the feeling of gui
lt threatening to suffocate her. She should have saved that kid. She shook her head slightly. There were more important things to consider. “Scala was snapping and crackling. He was ready to make the Jump.”
“How many family members did the kid have?” Ben asked.
“Three. Mom, Dad and Sis.”
“How do you know it was ready to make the Jump?” Christian demanded.
Christian’s newly-turned-to-Lost-Soul status grated on Sam’s nerves. That was one of the reasons she hadn’t wanted the freshie with them.
Luckily for Christian, Ben was infinitely more patient than she was. “When a Changed has accumulated enough energy to make the Jump, it glows and snaps with electricity.”
“Like little electrical storms,” Christian said, nodding. “Like that Scala Changed thing. It was sparking like it was angry.”
Ben nodded. “It’s also starting to lose its firmness. It’s not solid.”
“We’re not solid.”
“But we have form. When the Changed are about to Jump, they shift and waver. They’re translucent and ethereal looking.”
“Are we done?” Sam demanded. “Because while we’re standing around talking about what the Changed look like when they’re ready to Jump, it’s probably already making the Jump.”
“There’s three of them, three of us,” Ben suggested.
“Christian is not ready to take on a fully charged Changed alone. Especially Scala. I think Eugene has to help.”
“Eugene and Christian?”
“Or you and Christian.”
Ben shrugged. “I’ll get Eugene.”
“What’s going on?” Christian demanded.
Sam shook her head and pointed a finger at Ben. “You stay and bring Christian up to speed. I’ll get Eugene.”
“Sam,” Ben called.
But she fazed and was gone.
~ ~ ~
Christian still wasn’t used to fazing. He simply tolerated it. One moment Sam was there, the next she had vanished. It was disconcerting. He looked at Ben. “What’s going on?”
Ben led the way into the house. “There are three family members. Scala will go after one of them.”
“How do you know? Why won’t he go for a friend? Why not an uncle or aunt?”
Ben walked through the door and stopped at the entryway, staring at two pictures on the wall.
Christian joined him, looking at the photos. For a moment, as he stared at the girl, panic gripped him. The image of his daughter came to mind. Aurora. His only child. He remembered how the Changed had possessed her and turned her into evil.
“It has to be someone directly connected, someone close to the Soul,” Ben explained. “A husband, wife, mom, dad.”
“Child.”
Ben nodded. “These people are linked by lifelines. The Changed are limited to who they can Jump into.”
“So this kid, Ryan, has these lifelines to Mom, Dad and his sister?”
“Right. The Changed has to make the Jump into one of these connections. Those lifelines contain a form of energy the Changed need to complete the Jump. And it has to do it soon because these lines fade over time. Without the energy from a lifeline, there can be no Jump.”
“How long?”
Ben shrugged. “It’s different for everyone, depending on how strong the connection was to that person when he was alive.”
“So these lifelines fade faster for the people the Soul wasn’t close to?”
“Exactly. Plus family lifelines are more vibrant, stronger.”
“So, this Changed is going to make the Jump into one of the kid’s close relatives. What about friends?”
“Sometimes that happens, but that’s usually if there are no blood relatives around. The connections to blood relatives and spouses are the strongest. That’s why we’re concentrating on Mom, Dad and Sis.”
“What do we do? Go find these people?”
“Hopefully, Eugene will know where they are or where they work.” Ben shrugged. “Otherwise, we’ll just have to wait until they come home.”
“It’s like babysitting.”
“What do you think we did for you and your daughter?”
At the mention of his daughter, Christian looked away. He missed her. But he knew he had to stay away from her to keep her safe, to keep the Changed from being attracted to her. “You weren’t there when the Changed made the Jump into Aurora.”
“We were watching you. Remember, Daniel wanted the Changed to make the Jump into your daughter.”
Christian grit his teeth at the memory. Daniel, the leader of the Lost Souls, had told him the only way to kill the Changed was to kill the human they possessed. Daniel had actually planned to let the Changed make the Jump into his child and then kill her. It was the only way to kill the Changed, Daniel had insisted. He had wanted to use his daughter as a sacrificial lamb. Thank God Ben and Sam had been there to blast the Changed from her tiny body. They had proven Daniel was wrong. A human possessed by a Changed could still be saved. Christian would be forever grateful to Sam and Ben for saving his child. He nodded. “I remember.”
Ben placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “It’s our turn to save this family.”
“So tell me who this Scala is, anyway. How do you guys know him?”
“We fought him back in the 1500’s.” Ben looked at Christian. “He was a killer then, and he is a killer now.”
Two
Ben leaned against a wall, shoving his hands into his pockets. They continued to wait for Sam and Eugene. “Scala was convicted and hung for the murders of fourteen women. He refused to pass because he thought his job was not finished. He enjoyed killing women too much. I can only guess he must have become a Changed shortly after he became a Soul. Not much restraint there.” Ben looked down, remembering the grisly killings. “When Scala, as a Changed, found it too easy to hunt and kill human women, he turned to Souls. That was when Sam and I were called in. He had managed to keep the Souls alive by using some machine that recharged their energy, a lot like the Regen Chair that we use to replenish our energy, but much more primitive.”
Ben recalled the Souls they had found trapped by Scala’s. They had been so abused. Filled with energy, then drained, filled then drained. Over and over again. All of them tortured in Scala’s insane hunger for more power. “Back in those days, we didn’t think we could kill the Changed. It was a different time then. But Scala was much too dangerous to let roam free. Sam and I tricked him and locked him in an iron vault. We thought he would be there forever.”
“Obviously, he’s not.”
“And obviously, he’s planning on switching back to human women.”
“Does that mean he’ll make the Jump to a man?”
Ben shook his head. “Not necessarily. We can’t predict who he’ll chose.”
“And we don’t give up,” Sam said. She had reappeared behind Christian, with Eugene fazing in behind her. “These humans have every right to live their own lives and not have their lives taken over or disrupted. They’ve already been through enough.”
“We can’t stop him from making the Jump,” Ben advised. “But we can make his stay as short as possible.”
Eugene stared down at a gadget he held in his hand. “Madeline should be home any moment. She stays at home a lot and usually only runs quick errands when she goes out.”
“I’ll cover her,” Sam said. “Boring as a typical housewife might be.”
“Douglas is at work. He is a CEO at Bingham Trust.”
“We’ll take Doug,” Ben said.
Eugene nodded. “I’m stuck with the school girl. She should be home in about an hour. I’ll pop you two over to Dad and shoot over to the school.”
“That Changed doesn’t get this family, understood?” Sam declared, her face grim.
Ben glanced at Christian. The last thing anyone wanted to do was fail.
“Listen,” Eugene said. “Sam wants me to set up a temporary HQ for us just outside my house’s security perimeter. We ca
n use that as a meeting ground so the three of you don’t have to go through my security every time we want to meet. Just faze right there when you need to find me.”
Ben and Christian nodded.
Eugene mumbled something under his breath.
Sam rolled her eyes. “It will be fine, Eugene. Just do basics. Don’t take all your gizmos.”
“The Changed –”
“We’ll be done with this before the Changed know about it.”
“It will be alright,” Ben assured Eugene. “We’d never let them get to you.”
Eugene nodded reluctantly and laid a hand on Christian and Ben’s shoulders. “I’ll take you guys to the HQ first so you know where it is, then we can start the stakeouts.”
They fazed.
~ ~ ~
Ben was glad he had Christian to talk to. Many times in the past when he had watched over the humans, Ben had been alone, bored out of his mind. He had tried to busy himself with looking at family pictures, watching television, or playing sudoku on his cell phone. There was nothing like someone else to talk to.
He leaned against the wall, watching Doug review mountains of paperwork. When Doug was confused, his lower lip would jut over his top lip. Ben had counted this happening four times.
Christian lounged against the wall opposite Ben.
Doug had been on the phone occasionally, but most of his time was spent on the paperwork. A constant stream of coworkers moved in and out of the office.
Nothing appeared unusual. No sign of the Changed.
“How long have you been doing this?” Christian asked.
“Doing this?” Ben echoed.
“You know…” Christian waved his hand in the air. “Babysitting the living.”
Ben smiled. “A long time. It’s been… almost six hundred years since we died. We’ve been hunting the Changed for… almost as long.”
“Hundreds. Geez.” Christian shook his head. “How do you do it? All that time.”
Ben looked down at his booted feet. “It’s a long time,” he agreed. “I don’t think I could have made it without Sam and Cora.”
Lost Souls: Imperfection – Episode 2 Page 3
