Souls of the Damned (Kat Redding)

by E. S. Moore

  I cried out and recoiled back, slamming into Jeremy who fell backward onto the steps. The sun wouldn’t kill me right away, but if I stood under it long enough, I’d be crispy fried.

  Sienna groaned as she thumped up against the door. I hoped the pain had taken enough out of her that she would simply collapse there and the chase would be done, but instead, she started scrabbling at the doorknob, as if she was blind and couldn’t see it.

  I couldn’t let her escape. I pushed myself to my feet, and ignoring the growing pain, I went after her.

  “Close the curtain,” I shouted at Jeremy as I took off after Sienna. If she got out that door, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from chasing after her. I’d rather die out under the sun than let her fall into Levi’s clutches again.

  If the door hadn’t been locked, I don’t think I would have caught up to her. The doors at Levi’s place never were, meaning anyone could come and go as they pleased, though no one ever made a move without Levi’s permission. Sienna was so used to that, she didn’t even think to check the lock before trying to rip the door open. I think the pain only added to her confusion.

  She wailed as she tugged at the door, her entire body jerking as she pulled. It took her a good couple of seconds to think to check the lock. By then, I was on top of her.

  “Sienna, stop!” I shouted as I grabbed her by the arm. I spun her around, thinking to grab her around the waist and hug her to me until she calmed down, but she was too wild. Her eyes were wide as she tore from my grip. She snarled something, sounding like a feral animal, and then she used both hands to push me.

  It was like being hit by a pair of pistons. The sun had weakened me to the point I was no match for her. Her hands hit me square on the shoulders and I went down like she’d decked me on the chin. She leapt over me, just barely clearing my reaching hand, and headed for the back door.

  “Jeremy! Stop her!”

  He spun from where he’d just finished closing the curtain over the back door, but didn’t get a chance to grab for her. Ethan had reached the bottom of the stairs and tried to envelop her in his arms. He looked frightened, but determined, and I thought that maybe it would be enough.

  She went through him like he wasn’t even there. He gave a loud “Oomph!” as she thudded against him, knocking him back onto the stairs.

  I’m not sure if it was his startled expression or not, but she hesitated there, her entire body trembling. Jeremy stood in front of the back door, ready to make a move if she came any closer. I was back on my feet, blocking off her road to the front. All she had was the kitchen door, but that would take her past Jeremy and put her in the locked garage.

  “Sienna . . .” I said, wanting to move toward her, but afraid to leave my post. “It’ll be okay.”

  “I have to go,” she said. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I can’t stay here.”

  “We’ll keep you safe.”

  She shook her head. “It hurts,” she whispered. “It hurts so bad, I can’t take it. It feels like my brain is on fire.”

  “I know,” I said. “But it’ll stop. We’ll find a way to make it stop.”

  Sienna stood there, torn between believing me and simply wanting to do whatever it took to get rid of the agony she was experiencing. Her eyes were red, tears dampened her cheeks. She looked far older than she ever had before.

  “We’ll do this,” I said, hoping I was getting through to her. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  She nodded, slowly, as if unsure. She took two hesitant steps my way. Ethan rose from the stairs, hands opening and closing like he was struggling to keep from going to her and hugging her until the pain finally vanished.

  Sienna took another step my way, putting her right beside the couch. She licked her lips and a tremble ran through her body. Her eyes flickered from me to the curtained living room windows.

  And then she made her move.

  I’d truly thought she was coming to me, so I’d relaxed. Her sudden movement caught me by complete surprise. Ethan screamed her name as if he knew that she was all but lost. There was no way he was going to reach her in time.

  I didn’t think. I ran after her, knowing I wouldn’t make it. I had the angle, but she had a head start. Ethan was moving toward us, but there was nothing he could do but repeatedly call her name. I either caught her myself, or she’d throw herself out the window where she’d escape to Delai and Levi.

  Sienna reached the windows just as I did, my fear for her causing me to push myself just that little bit more. She started to leap for them, intent to plow her way through, even if it meant sustaining a hundred cuts. The glass was bulletproof, which meant that if she hit it at the wrong angle, she very well might break her neck instead of making it through.

  I reached blindly for her. My arms encircled her waist at the height of her leap. She screamed and clawed at the curtains and blinds, trying to pull herself from my hold. I yanked her back, intent on falling onto the couch with her and holding her there until the urge to return to Delai had passed.

  If it does, I thought wildly as we crashed backward. I spun around as we fell so that I would land on top of her. I wanted to use my weight to keep her down because I wasn’t so sure I could hold her for long with how weak and tired as I felt. Darkness cascaded over us as something soft and light landed on my back.

  Sienna screamed and thrashed beneath me. She pleaded with all of her heart for me to let her go, but I refused to budge, even when she snarled and pushed me so that I very nearly fell from atop her.

  And then the pain began to seep in. It started as a mild irritation in my bare feet and quickly escalated to a searing agony that ran up my legs. I turned my head enough to see Sienna’s hand still balled within the folds of the curtains and the blinds.

  “Ethan!” I screamed as the pain ripped its way through me. The curtains and blinds were what had settled on my back, but they’d left my legs and feet exposed. The curtains barely covered my head and I could feel a faint tingling in my exposed ears and scalp.

  “Oh crap, oh crap,” Ethan was saying over and over. He tried to rip the blinds from Sienna’s hand, but she refused to let them go. She held them like a lifeline, as if she thought she still might escape as long as she kept them clutched in her fist.

  The pain was beginning to become unbearable. This wasn’t the fading light from a falling sun, but rather the full force of a noonday blast on a clear, cloudless day. If I didn’t let her go, and find cover for myself, I’d be dead in minutes, perhaps less.

  A rough hand grabbed me around the waist just as Ethan managed to rip the blinds from Sienna’s hand. She went limp beneath me, but I tried hard to keep hold of her as I was hauled backward.

  “No!” I shouted, terrified she’d make a run for it. “She can’t get out!”

  “Stop fighting me,” Jeremy growled in my ear. His arm tensed around my waist as he dragged me through the dining room and into the kitchen where the sun wouldn’t reach. He’d closed the curtains there at some point.

  “I have to stop her,” I said. I tried to push away from him and stand on my own, but the pain in my feet was too horrible. I staggered backward, just barely catching myself on the sink before I cracked my skull on the floor. I felt sick to my stomach, but there was nothing I could do. “Don’t let her get out,” I sobbed.

  “She’s fine,” Jeremy said. “Ethan has her. Stay right here.” He gave me a firm look before running off.

  I could just hear Sienna whimpering in the other room. Ethan spoke soothingly to help quell her pain. She didn’t sound like she hurt anymore. She sounded sick and exhausted.

  I sagged back and closed my eyes. She was safe. Even if it was only for a few hours, at least she hadn’t escaped.

  Jeremy returned a moment later and threw a blanket over me. “The blinds are torn,” he said. “I’m going to try to carry you upstairs where it’s dark.”

  “How are you—” I cut off with a grunt as Jeremy hoisted me up with one arm and threw me over his s
houlder. My ass was pointed in the air, which would have been undignified if situations were different.

  “Cover your head,” he said as he started to run.

  Somehow he managed to get me up into my room without dropping me. He fell into bed with me, turning so I landed on top of him, much like I’d done with Sienna downstairs.

  Despite my pain and worry, I managed a smile. “If you really wanted to get me into bed, all you had to do was ask.”

  Jeremy was up and across the room so fast, he very nearly threw me onto the floor. His eyes were wide and his face so red, it looked as if he’d been the one scorched by the sun.

  “Uh, I’ll be right back with something for your feet,” he said before hurrying out of the room.

  I sagged back and closed my eyes. A tremble worked through me as the pain worked from my feet, up my legs, and into my gut. I’d very nearly been fried. If Jeremy and Ethan hadn’t been there, the sun might have killed me.

  But Sienna was safe. As long as I kept telling myself that, the pain, no matter how crippling, would be worth it.

  12

  Burn cream took away most of the pain, but not all of it. I hissed in a breath as I ran my finger over the tender flesh. My vampire blood was already healing the wound now that I was out from under the sun. I might even be able to walk by the end of the night without screaming in agony with every step.

  “Don’t touch it, stupid,” Ethan said, smacking my hand away.

  “Kat, I’m so sorry.” Sienna sat on the floor across my bedroom. She was wrapped in the blanket Jeremy had thrown over me to keep my burns from getting worse. “I couldn’t help myself.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, forcing a smile. Even that hurt. My face felt chapped. I’d burnt it more than I’d realized.

  “Do you think a cold bath would help?” Jeremy asked. “And I really think you should let us check the rest of you over. Sunlight can get through fabric, you know?”

  I considered saying something smart about him trying to get me out of my pants, but kept a lid on it. The time for joking had passed.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I just need a little time to heal and I’ll be as good as new.”

  “You sort of smelled like fried chicken back there,” Ethan said with a nervous laugh. “Anyone else hungry?”

  “Ha, ha.” I smacked him on the arm and winced. My hands hurt too, though they only appeared faintly reddened.

  “I couldn’t help myself,” Sienna said again. “It was like I had to leave or I would die.”

  Ethan approached her slowly and then sank down beside her. He put a tentative arm around her shoulder. He looked stiff and awkward, like he was afraid she’d reject him. He only eased when she leaned in against him, putting her head on his shoulder.

  “What could have caused that?” Jeremy asked. “I mean, she fought so hard, I wasn’t sure you’d be able to stop her.”

  “I very nearly couldn’t.” I shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “And it had nothing to do with the sun. It was like she was possessed.” I winced when Sienna cringed. “Sorry.”

  Jeremy ran his fingers through his mussed hair. He looked exhausted, as we all did, but I had a feeling there’d be no more sleep for anyone. I was just thankful my body didn’t need sleep. I just needed to rest long enough to let my body heal and I would be able to do something to keep this from ever happening again.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t think I’d be able to wait. The burns could take a full day or two to heal completely and I was positive Sienna would have another attack before then. Something needed to be done now.

  “Okay,” I said. “So what can we do to keep this from happening again?”

  “Lock her up?” Jeremy suggested.

  “No freaking way.” Ethan hugged her close to him. “I can stay with her.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t want to be a bother anymore.”

  “You’re not a bother.” Jeremy and Ethan said it at the same time.

  “So what can we do?” I asked. “I’m not going to tie her down or lock her up in a cage like an animal. There has to be a way we can stop this from happening.”

  We all fell silent. I could feel my pulse in my feet. The ache thumped right along with the blood. I was just thankful I hadn’t been burned enough for my flesh to turn black. It was scorched and blistered, but the blisters were slowly fading. It was a miracle I wasn’t crippled. My feet could easily have burned right off, leaving me with stumps that would never grow back.

  “It’s like a mark.” Ethan’s hand ran up and down Sienna’s arm. “Just like a demon mark.”

  Sienna sucked in a breath. Her eyes were wide as she looked from face to face. I’d almost forgotten she knew nothing about angels and demons. She might have lived with Levi, but that didn’t mean she knew what he really was.

  “It can’t be,” Jeremy said. “He’s not a demon.” He looked to me for verification. I nodded.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Ethan said. “They’re from the same place, aren’t they?”

  “But . . .” Jeremy trailed off, his face looking troubled.

  “He’s right,” I said. “Levi gets his hold onto people and won’t let go. I know what it feels like. I’ve been sick from the urge to go back to Delai and I’d barely spent much time with him compared to Sienna.”

  Sienna slipped out of Ethan’s arms and stood, pressing her back against the wall as if she wanted to push her way right through it. “This doesn’t make any sense.” She took a step to the side, moving as if she was trying to put distance between herself and the rest of us.

  There was nothing I could do but tell her.

  Those few minutes were some of the hardest of my life. The look on Sienna’s face as I told her what Levi really was just about broke my heart. She didn’t trust her stepfather, knew he was doing horrible things, but she never really suspected what he really was.

  “If he’s an angel, doesn’t it mean that he’s good?” she asked about halfway through.

  “You can’t think of him that way,” I said, knowing how I’d thought pretty much the same damn thing when I’d found out. “He’s just another type of demon.”

  She didn’t speak again until I was done talking.

  “How do you know all of this?” she asked at a whisper. Her eyes fell on Ethan as if searching for something to grab hold to in the only normal person in the room. “This can’t be true.”

  He looked at his hands, which were folded in his lap. I didn’t think he would tell her, but his love—it had to be love—for her shone through and made him unable to lie.

  “A demon told us.”

  Sienna stared at him in horror.

  “I have been marked,” he said. “I was stupid when I was younger and ended up getting myself trapped. I have a compulsion to summon him and work with him, though I do my best to do good with what we do.” He looked up, eyes pleading with Sienna to understand. “I don’t kill people. I don’t hurt anyone.”

  “But a demon?” she said with a disbelieving shake of her head. “How could you?”

  “He’s helped us,” I said, not sure it would help. “He’s the reason you managed to escape from Delai. He might be a demon, but he’s on our side.”

  Jeremy stood silently by the door. He knew about Beligral, knew Ethan dealt with him, but I could tell by the way he stood that he didn’t approve. He frowned at the floor between us, fist clenched.

  “I was picked on a lot,” Ethan said in the silence that had fallen.

  “Like I said, I was dumb. Someone gave me a book and told me what to do. They told me that it would make my life better, would keep people from hurting me.” He sighed. “I didn’t think it would actually work. I sort of just did it, figuring I could pretend or something, like it was a game. When the demon appeared, I just about crapped myself. I would have turned away then, but it was already too late.”

  He glanced at me. I’d never heard the story before now of how he’d become what he was. I’d never asked, figur
ing it would be too hard to talk about.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I said. “We all understand.”

  He quirked a smile and looked over at Sienna. “Not all of us.”

  He was right, of course. She looked terrified, as if her escape from Levi had put her in the grasp of something far worse.

  “Little Ethan Brown,” Ethan said with a bitter laugh. “Who would have ever thought he could do something like this? I was stupid. Still am.”

  “No, you’re not,” Sienna said, her fear subsiding as she looked at him. She knelt at his side and rested a hand on his arm. “We all make mistakes.” She tried to smile, but it didn’t come close to reaching her eyes.

  “How old were you?” Jeremy asked.

  Ethan’s eyes welled as he looked to the ceiling as if for help. Finding none, he shrugged and answered.

  “I was eight.”

  Jesus Christ, eight? I’d known he was young when he’d first started summoning Beligral, but to think he was only eight years old? How bad had his life been to cause him to resort to summoning demons at such a young age?

  While he’d said he didn’t do it on purpose, I also remembered him telling me that someone had to want to summon the demon in order for the ritual to work. That meant that while a part of him didn’t believe in it, there was a big part of him that had. What in the world could have happened that forced him down that path? I couldn’t even imagine.

  Jeremy broke the silence as he stepped forward. “We should let her go,” he said.

  “What?” Ethan and I cried in unison.

  “When the next attack happens, we should let her leave.”

  “No.” I would have stood and slapped him if I could. “I’m not going to give her back to Levi.”

  “It might be best,” Sienna said, her eyes going to my feet. “Look what damage I’ve caused already.”