Free Spirit: Book Two of The Bound Spirit Series

by H. A. Wills

  For my next question, I need to look into his eyes. I need to see his shadows. He needs to see mine. With both hands, I hold his face, the stubble on his cheeks rough against my skin.

  Attempting to keep my voice as even as possible, I whisper, “The Alpha does to you what the Bastard did to me, doesn’t he?”

  Tension builds through his body, his grip tightening around me, and as the truth burns in the brittle chips of his amber eyes, he slowly nods his head.

  A single tear escapes and drips down my cheek, but I don’t look away. Sorrow crushes me like a wave from a tsunami, and the air freezes in my lungs.

  “Why hasn’t anyone stopped him? Why can’t we stop him?” I cry, the words painful as I force them through my constricted throat.

  His hand from my leg reaches up to gently wipe the tear from my cheek. With a voice that sounds like it’s been years since he last spoke, he answers, “Only three ways to escape the Alpha: Leave and die. Stay and die. Stay and live.”

  “I vote the third choice,” I sniff with a weak smile.

  Connor leans forward, my hands sliding around his neck, and he leads my head to rest against his chest. His heart is a loud steady thump in my ear.

  Curled around me with his lips near the top of my head, he confesses, “Means killing the Alpha and taking his place.”

  My eyes widen, but when I try to pull back to look at him, he stops me, clutching me so close that I’m caged within his grasp. My necklace warms, not against Connor, but with the growing need to protect him. To save him like he’s saved me.

  “What happens if someone else…?”

  He interrupts before I can finish, his tone fierce, “Don’t Reina. Outsiders interfere. The pack kills them… then eats them.”

  I don’t remind him that I can’t die, because that’s not the point. It’s why he suffers the abuse. To protect his friends and hold onto the shreds of the life he wants.

  With words dripping in venomous outrage, I hiss, “I hate him.”

  He doesn’t say anything, instead, he tries to run his hand along my hair. His dislike for the wig is obvious when he starts picking out the bobby pins that are holding it in place and throwing them every which way.

  “Stop, stop,” I order, waving his hands away. “I get it. You don’t like it. Give me a second to take it off.”

  Making him hold the bobby pins, I do my best to pull them free, getting frustrated halfway through and taking off my gauntlets because they’re also in the way. By the time I’m finished, the only Wonder Woman thing about me is the corseted top and skirt.

  Connor is happy though, working my natural hair until it hangs in loose waves down my back, then contentedly breathing in its scent. Well, sneezing when my necklace safely released the excess magic stored inside then contentedly sniffing.

  My life is so weird.

  While I retrieve my water bottle to actually drink some of it, my phone begins to vibrate against the wooden slats of the bench.

  “Wonder what my aunt wants?” I muse, answering the phone.

  “Callie,” she barks into the phone, not waiting for me to say hello. “Are you still at the party?”

  “Yeah?” I reply, trying to figure out if there was a curfew I missed.

  “Good, I need you to stay there. Do not come home. Do you understand me?” Mildred insists, and there’s a loud crash of something wooden exploding.

  “Why? What’s happening?” I cry, clutching the phone tight against my ear.

  Connor straightens into full protector mode at the sound of terror in my voice, eyes narrowed and head tilted to the side to catch every detail.

  “Demons. The creatures that attacked our home are de…” she’s immediately cut off with the sound of something hard cracking against her skull.

  “Aunt Mildred!” I shriek, listening to the phone clatter to the ground.

  No. No. No. Please don’t take her from me. Haven't I suffered enough? Please don’t take away the only person who loves me.

  “Not so powerful when you’re unconscious, are you, bitch?” sneers a female voice from somewhere in the room.

  There’s an exasperated sigh, followed by the sound of someone picking up the phone.

  “Are you the niece?” a man asks, annoyance coloring his cultured voice.

  My necklace goes from cold to burning hot. Wind instantly whips through the trees, knocking over everything not nailed down, decorations and people alike, and a booming sound of thunder rumbles in the distance.

  “What you do to her, I will do to you twice over,” I growl with menace.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” he replies flippantly. “I have no interest in you, little witch, or your aunt. Send over that insufferable Morningstar bastard and his special vampire friend, and no more harm will come to your aunt.” His voice drops to slow and cruel as he warns, “No one else. I see someone that isn’t those two, I kill the bitch and turn her insides into a fucking Jackson Pollock painting. Got it?”

  “Fuck you!” I scream, scrambling from Connor’s hold. He rises with me, one arm wrapped around my waist to keep me from running off.

  “And do be timely about it. We get hungry when we’re kept waiting,” he warns before hanging up the phone.

  With his lightning reflexes, Connor is able to stop me before I throw my phone, too furious and scared to think straight.

  “The hell is going on?” Felix yelps, poofing in near the end of the bench and almost in our outstretched hands. “I don’t know if there’s such a thing as the Force, but if there is, I just felt a disturbance in it.”

  His eyes turn to saucers as he witnesses the carnage that the magic my necklace couldn’t contain has already wrought. “Pretty girl? Don’t think Nolan would appreciate you destroying his house on his birthday. Want to talk about it?”

  “Get the others,” Connor orders Felix, an animalistic growl heavy in his voice.

  “What happened?” Felix exclaims, his eyes bouncing back from me and Connor.

  “Demons have my aunt,” I cry, and lightning shoots from the sky into the forest at the back of the property, setting the trees ablaze.

  Chapter 18

  Donovan

  In the distance, smoke billows from the spreading fire and there’s the faint wail of emergency sirens. Most of the party-goers are still huddled inside the Campbell’s home, unknowingly safe, because, for once, the coven is doing something useful. Working against Callie’s magical winds that are trying to spread the fire through the whole damn state, they’re attempting to contain it until the humans can officially put it out.

  Everyone distracted, the six of us slipped away and are footing it to the parking lot at the base of the hill.

  “Remind me again why we’re not taking one of my cars?” Nolan complains, marching beside me.

  “Because my truck has all the weapons,” I answer, gritting my teeth. “And before you say it, it would be idiotic for us to go separately and chance arriving at different times. We have no idea how many of those fuckers are there.”

  Kaleb gives me a hard look. “I don’t care what they said, I’m coming too.”

  “Fucking duh,” I reply, ducking under a low arch of fake spider web. “Like I’m going to leave one of the best swordsmen I know sitting on his ass. Do I look like an idiot?”

  “You don’t want me to answer that,” he replies deadpan, eyebrow raised at me still dressed in nothing but leather pants and boots.

  Like he isn’t dressed as a fucking comic book character.

  Felix, Connor, and Nolan snort. Callie has a strong case of crazy eyes and the wind, thunder, and cracks of lightning in the sky have not died down. We need to do something about that soon.

  “If you want me to go, then why not my parents? They’re the ones that trained us?” Kaleb questions, his eyes drifting to Callie with his typical ‘must save the girl’ expression.

  All he’s missing is the suit of armor and a damn white horse.

  “Because we need Felix to do his d
ream walking shit and try to wake up Mildred. No offense to Keziah and Ray, but they can’t light assholes on fire with a few words,” I grunt, getting real tired of explaining myself.

  “Wait. What now?” Felix pipes up, thankfully dressed in normal clothes instead of as a comic con reject. “Can I do that with someone who’s been knocked unconscious?”

  “Only one way to find out,” I answer.

  When we make it to the parking lot, in a voice so hauntingly detached that the hair on the back of my neck stands up, Callie announces, “I’m going too.”

  She’s barefoot, her wavy blonde hair whipping around her head like Medusa’s snakes, and she’s clutching her phone so tight I’m surprised it’s not cracked in two. She is beautiful and terrifying, and I really hope she doesn’t turn me into a meat mist.

  I trade looks with the other guys to get an idea what they’re thinking. Kaleb and Nolan appear to agree with me that Callie coming is a horrible idea, while Connor looks like he’s ready to shift so she can ride in on him like a giant furry steed. And Felix looks like he’s walked into a movie and is wondering what will happen next.

  “Callie,” I say, approaching her slowly. “I need you to look at me.”

  She does as I ask, her grey eyes the color of raging storms and her face a pale mask of the deranged. Dirt cakes up her legs from walking down the makeshift path, and her free hand clutches the stone hanging around her neck. Shit!

  Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Nolan cross his arms over his chest, his head tilted down while his eyes flick from Callie to the rest of us. He’s trying to hold his shit together, but it’s obvious seeing her this way, witnessing only the cusp of her destructive power, is making him more than nervous.

  Expelling a deep breath, I tell Callie, “It’s too dangerous for you to go.” Her eyes narrow, mouth open to argue, and I add, “For us. Your magic isn’t stable.”

  Her face drops into a frown, wheels turning over what I’ve said, and I’m ecstatic that I’m not a bloody nephilim spray raining over the entire parking lot.

  Connor stands behind her like a sentinel, his hand placed protectively over her shoulder. Kaleb walks the few steps to be near her, his hand open in invitation. She looks at it, her mouth wobbling, and more of the girl we know comes back to the surface. There are visible burn marks from her necklace on her palm as she takes his hand.

  “Columba mea, everything is going to be okay,” Kaleb assures in his ‘spooked animals’ voice, his thumb sliding along her knuckles. “We’ll save Mildred, while you make sure the rest of the town is okay… by gaining control of your power.”

  Did he just call her a pigeon? I’m so going to razz the shit out of him later.

  “Kaleb’s right, pretty girl,” Felix agrees, moving beside her. “It won’t matter what we do if the whole town is destroyed.”

  She nods, and thank fuck, the wind starts to die down. My shoulders slump, relieved that’s one huge crisis averted, only to have her turn and look at what’s happened. The fire!

  “No no no no,” she breathes, her eyes so wide I can see the whites all the way around her irises. I’m waiting for full meltdown, but instead, she turns to Connor, ordering, “Get me out of here. Get me as far away from everyone as you can.”

  Connor doesn’t ask any questions. Just picks her up, her legs wrapping around his waist, and starts booking it toward his car.

  “Please don’t die,” Callie yells over his shoulder, her face twisted in fear.

  A chill runs down my spine, because it feels like she’s talking about more than surviving the demons.

  “That was weird, right?” Felix comments, a finger pointing at their retreating backs. “I know that’s what we wanted her to do, but uh…”

  Kaleb frowns. “Maybe it’s healthy caution considering we just said her magic was unstable.”

  “Or she knows something we don’t,” Nolan murmurs, chaffing at his bare arms. Neither of us changed when Felix summoned us.

  “Whatever it is, she’s dealing with it,” I assert, jogging toward my truck “Now, let’s deal with our shit. Felix, go do your ghost shit.”

  “Awww, ghost shit,” Felix repeats, twisting his joined hands underneath his chin. “I feel so special.” Then poofs away before I can yell at him to get moving.

  When we reach the truck, I hop up into the bed and start digging through the box. I take out my katana, Kaleb’s long sword, and a dagger for Nolan.

  “I want you to fly ahead of us, and get numbers and locations of what we’re dealing with,” I direct, handing Kaleb his sword with scabbard. “And it goes without saying, but I’m going to anyway; don’t let them see you.”

  “You’re the one that has to keep reminding us you’re not an idiot, not me,” Kaleb counters with pursed lips, and Nolan snorts.

  “Damn, if I had feelings, you might have hurt one of them,” I fire back with a smirk.

  Kaleb rolls his eyes and puts the scabbard on, the sword resting at his hip. He then unzips the top half of his jumpsuit, tying it around his waist without encumbering his access to the sword. His wings materialize behind him and he rolls his shoulders, adjusting for the new weight on his back. We can always feel them, like a weird phantom limb-- only becoming real once reaching the material plane.

  “Keep your phone handy. I’ll call you when I have information,” he instructs, his face hard as he prepares for what we’re about to do, then jumps into the air, flying toward Callie’s home.

  I toss Nolan the dagger, his vampire reflexes allowing him to easily pluck it from the air. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  “I recommend sticking the pointy end in the demon,” I reply, hopping out of the truck bed. “Won’t kill them, but they don’t really like it either.”

  “Funny,” he mutters, climbing into the passenger side of the truck. “But seriously. I don’t know how to fight with this.”

  “How have you picked up nothing watching Kaleb and me spar all these years,” I grunt, hoisting myself up onto the driver’s side, adding, “Hold this,” when I hand him my sheathed katana.

  “I get distracted easily,” he admits without shame, fumbling with the two weapons, and I catch myself before I can ‘pray for patience’ at the roof of my truck.

  “Don’t get cornered by a demon then,” I sigh, while putting the keys into the ignition.

  Settling my katana between his knees and the dagger in his lap, he replies, “Not really high on my list.”

  Wasn’t for my family either.

  ∞∞∞

  “What I don’t get is why me?” Nolan announces without preamble into the silent cab, snapping and unsnapping the button holding the dagger in its sheath. “I mean, you need me there, I’m there, but why do they want me?”

  I sigh, because there’s only one thing I can think of that makes him stand out from the others… and it isn’t because he’s a different kind of supe.

  “Probably because of how you’re connected to me. If these are the same demons that took out my family, I know they like to fuck with their prey before killing them,” I answer, glancing at him with a raised brow, while pushing down the growing tightness in my chest.

  It might not be the same demons, I try to kid myself, knowing my luck isn’t that fucking good. I always planned to go after them but on my terms. I thought I had more time.

  “So are the other guys, and why not Callie? Not that I want them in danger, but why single me out?” he questions, now tapping the tip of the sheathed dagger against his knee.

  He can’t be this dense.

  “Think about it. Think real hard,” I reply, gripping the steering wheel so tight it creeks to keep from smacking him in the back of the head.

  He takes way too fucking long, but it finally clicks and he groans, “Oh come on. Seriously? We haven’t even had sex!”

  “But we have fooled around,” I remind him, snorting over his outrage.

  “Mutual blow jobs a relationship does not make,” he insists, flopping ag
ainst the passenger door. “If that was the case, you’d be dating half of the school’s female population… and I’d be dating nearly all of it. And that doesn’t even include our school’s closeted gays, bis, and everything in between.”

  “Yeah, yeah. You’ve fucked your way through most of the school, congrats,” I mutter, stopping at a red light.

  “All I’m saying is we aren’t a thing. I feed. You get off. I get off. Everyone’s happy,” he replies with a shrug, turning to look out the side window, the streetlight highlighting the sharp features of his face.

  Recalling us dancing with Callie earlier tonight, I shift in my seat, regretting the tight leather pants. “Speaking about feeding. Thought Callie was off limits.”

  Nolan sighs, running a hand through his hair. “She volunteered with a very compelling argument. We haven’t done anything else, nor will we.”

  “Uh huh,” I snort, still dealing with the hard-on from her ass grinding up on me. First time fighting demons, and I’m going to have to do it with a damn erection. “Self-control isn’t really your specialty.”

  “Fuck you,” he replies, flipping me off. “I have plenty of self-control. There’s been a few times I recall you being annoyed with how in control I can be.”

  “You being a fucking tease wasn’t what I meant,” I grunt.

  He flashes me a wicked grin. “You know you like it. Don’t pretend you don’t.”

  “Doesn’t make you any less a tease,” I retort, not giving him the satisfaction of agreeing with him. This conversation is really not helping with the hard-on.

  The light turns green, and the engine growls as I accelerate through the intersection.

  Nolan frowns, head turning as we pass by the light. “When have you started obeying traffic laws in times of crisis? I knew I should’ve driven.”

  “Because we’re waiting to hear back from Kaleb on the numbers before we barge in,” I remind him. “And you’ll never drive this truck. You’d flip it in an hour.”