Soul Thief Read online

  “What do we do now?” I asked him. “Obviously I can’t contact you whenever I’m in danger. I could call, but that’s kind of hard when someone is pulling my soul out. Plus, I’m not the only one in danger now. He threatened everyone — my family and friends. Maybe even you.”

  Leander snorted, his face twisted with anger, and for the first time I saw him as an Angel of vengeance, someone powerful enough to take down anyone who stood in his way. “I can stand my ground against an Angel of his caliber. What I’m wondering is why he’d stoop so low, who could’ve possibly turned him against his own kind.”

  “Forget the why,” I said, grabbing his hand. “We have to focus on how we’re going to…” I was going to say, ‘kill him’, but because of Katie’s sobbing in the background, I said, “get rid of him.”

  “You can’t kill an Angel of Death. I mean, technically you can, but if you do you’ll meet a fate worse than death. We have to trap him in an Angel trap and then call the Warriors, who will take him to the celestial prison.”

  “Yeah, you lost me at Angel trap,” I said.

  “You lost me at Angel of Death,” Michelle said. “I’m still not entirely clear on the concept.”

  “An Angel trap is a magical trap designed especially to trap Angels. Really, the word is self-explanatory. Your grandmother should have most of the ingredients to set one up.”

  “So we trap him, then what? Warriors?”

  “The Warriors of Heaven. They’re the strongest Angels, the ones who do the heaviest fighting. When there’s a battle between Heaven and Hell, they fight in the first ranks.”

  “Why can’t we just call one of those and let them get rid of Myron?” I asked.

  Leander shook his head. “They won’t rise against another Angel without foolproof evidence.”

  “We have evidence,” I said. “I can testify, so can my friends and the Book of Names makes no mention of the girls’ names, so…”

  “That won’t suffice,” Leander said. “I’m sorry, but they won’t accept the testimony of your friends. Even more importantly, it’s best they never find out that your friends know anything about the world of the supernatural whatsoever. They’re rather uptight about that. Your testimony alone won’t be enough and the names not being in the Book of Names will only make them decide a Reaper is at play. No, we’d need more than that. But if we trap him, then they’ll be able to see he was here and question him about his purpose here. If he’s been in league with a demon they’ll be able to smell it.”

  “That sounds gross,” Michelle interrupted.

  “So we trap him,” I ignored her, “get the Warriors and he’s out of our hands. That sounds good. How do we set up this trap, and more importantly, lure him into it?”

  “The trickiest thing is that the trap needs to be set on hallowed ground. We’ll go to your grandmother’s shop tomorrow, get the ingredients, and then work on it. How we’re going to lure him in though, I have no idea.”

  “We should sleep on it,” Michelle said. “You look exhausted, Riles.”

  I yawned. “Sleep sounds good.” My muscles ached and my head throbbed.

  “I’ll bring Katie to bed,” Craig said. He put a hand on her back and escorted Katie upstairs. She looked like a zombie. The tears had dried but red streams still covered her face. Her eyes stared into nothing.

  I waited until she’d vanished into her room to turn to Michelle. “Do you think she’ll be all right?”

  “I hope so.” Michelle sighed. “You sleep on this couch and I’ll take the other one.” She looked at Leander as if wondering what he’d do. “Katie’s parents will be home in a few hours, so you…”

  “I’ll zap out the moment they get here,” he said. “But until then, I want to stay here and keep an eye on all of you.”

  “Okay,” Michelle said. “I’ll go grab a blanket.” She looked at me as if to say she was leaving me alone on purpose and I better talk to him before she got back.

  Leander took my hand into his. I rested my head on his shoulder. We didn’t say anything, probably because neither of us knew what to say, given the circumstances.

  Then eventually he touched my back, my wings, and smiled proudly. “I’m glad to see you’ve got your wings.”

  “They kind of hurt though,” I said. “And I have no idea how to tuck them in and make them disappear. If Katie’s parents come home and see my wings they’re going to freak out. Not to mention, it’s not exactly a look I can wear at school.”

  “It’s easy to make them disappear,” Leander said. “Do you feel them? Feel the muscles connecting them to your shoulders? Feel the bone?”

  I focused on the wings. At first I felt nothing, but after a while I could make out where the wings ended and my regular body started.

  “Now imagine the wings closed, rolled into your back.”

  I did as he told me to and after a few minutes the wings closed and vanished back into the cuts on either side of my back. “Thanks,” I said. “My shirt is probably drenched in blood though. I should get a new one, except I only brought one, which was kind of stupid.”

  “You can have mine,” Leander said. He pulled his shirt over his head and handed it to me.

  I took it and waited for him to turn around. When he didn’t move, I twisted my finger around. He got the message and turned away from me. I took my shirt off and put his shirt on. The shirt smelled like him, a mix of cinnamon rolls and night air.

  “Done,” I said.

  He turned back to me and smiled. “Much better.” He took my shirt out of my hands. “I’ll try to get this cleaned up but I can’t promise any miracles.”

  “You actually do laundry yourself? Impressive.” I yawned again.

  “Here, lie down,” Leander said. He waited until my head was resting on the pillow to put a blanket on top of me. “I’ll watch over you.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “Anytime.” He planted a kiss on my forehead and then sat down in the chair next to me.

  Sleep rolled over me and I didn’t dream at all.

  Chapter 28

  SUNLIGHT PIERCED THROUGH the large living room windows. A blanket covered me and I pushed it away to sit up straight. This was definitely not my house.

  I blinked a few times and the memories of last night rushed over me again — the attack, me nearly dying, the Reaper turning out to be an Angel, who also turned out to be Katie’s boyfriend.

  The smell of waffles filled my nostrils. I turned around and noticed all three of my friends sitting at the breakfast bar in various states of depression. Katie’s mom stood in the kitchen, making waffles. She was smiling a somewhat forced-looking smile and was obviously trying to lighten up the mood.

  Katie looked ready to throw up on the waffle lying on her plate. She stabbed it a few times but didn’t eat at all. Michelle at least swallowed a bite, but the circles under her eyes gave away how little she’d slept. Craig seemed the least affected. He downed bite after bite and kept the conversation with Katie’s mom going.

  I pushed myself up from the couch and staggered toward them. My knees felt like Jell-O and I sighed contently when I could finally sit down.

  “Had a rough night?” Katie’s mom asked. Her long, brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail much like Katie always wore hers.

  “Sort of,” I replied. “The waffles smell great though.”

  “You snored like an elephant,” Michelle told me. “And you should see this.” She passed me the newspaper.

  On the front page were pictures of Tara, Emily, and Marissa. ‘Illness or murder?’ screamed the headline. The article included a commentary by the chief of police, who wasn’t convinced three teenage girls could die from a heart attack in a matter of weeks.

  I groaned and handed her the paper back. That was just what we needed, a police investigation to top things off.

 
We finished breakfast, got dressed, grabbed our bags, and headed out. Crisp autumn air surrounded me and played with my hair while I stood on the porch and waited for Katie to come outside. Michelle took my hand and squeezed it. “It will be all right,” she said.

  We got into the car. Katie started driving without another word. I would’ve given half a leg to have her talking again, but I guess she was too worn out for that.

  “Could you drop me off at Gran’s shop?” I asked her. “I need to pick up some supplies.”

  “You’re not going to school?” Craig asked. He bit his lip. “We should help too. We can go with you.”

  “No. I need someone to take notes for me,” I lied.

  Michelle arched her eyebrows, telling me she didn’t buy it at all.

  “Fine,” I said. “I don’t want you coming. It could be dangerous.”

  “News flash, we’re already in danger,” Craig said.

  “But he won’t attack you at school. That would totally blow his cover and have him prosecuted by every Angel out there. As long as you stick together, you’ll be safe. I’ll drop by later on with some protective charms.”

  Craig grunted his approval. Katie didn’t comment on my request, but she did drop me off at my Gran’s shop. She drove off without another word, although Craig and Michelle waved to me.

  I walked toward Herbie’s Herbs and rang the doorbell. At this hour, the shop hadn’t opened yet, so I had to ring it a few times before Gran showed up. She had her greying hair in a bun and wore a nightgown that had been fashionable at the turn of the twentieth century.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, pulling the door open.

  I rushed past her to get inside. “It’s not a Reaper and he attacked me last night. Now he’s threatened to harm everyone I love if I don’t give him my soul.”

  Gran closed the door behind me. “Well, if he’s not a Reaper, than what the heck is he?”

  “He’s an Angel of Death.”

  That got her attention. She looked at me as if I’d dragged a smelly rat into her shop. “Come to the kitchen,” she said. “Did you have breakfast yet?”

  “Yeah, but I’d drink some orange juice if you have some. And maybe eat something too. I already had three waffles, but I’m starving.”

  She escorted me to the kitchen and put a glass of orange juice in front of me. “Now tell me the entire story.”

  I did, in between eating and drinking. Her expression grew more pensive and wary with each passing minute.

  “Leander left me a list,” I said eventually, handing her the paper. “These are the ingredients we need for an Angel trap.”

  She glanced at the list and nodded. “I have most of that. Maybe even all of it.”

  “Thanks, Gran.”

  “I’m not done yet. You should do a binding ritual with your friends. It’ll allow them to read each other’s thoughts so they can contact each other whenever one of them is in danger.”

  “Let me guess, it won’t work on me because my thoughts are now located on an entirely different plane?”

  She nodded and I rolled my eyes. “It makes sense, I suppose. How exactly does this binding ritual work?”

  “It’s simple. If you can get them to the shop after school, I’ll perform it. I might as well include myself in the circle too. At least I have some minimal firepower if that sissy comes after me.”

  I laughed despite the gravity of the situation. “I’ve never heard you use that kind of language before.”

  “Well, he makes my blood boil. Nobody touches my granddaughter and gets away with it.”

  “The hardest part will be luring him into the trap though,” I said. “Do you have any ideas to help with that?”

  “I might,” she replied. “Let me talk to my coven about it, maybe we can cook something up. I’ll go get your ingredients first so you can set up the trap. You do realize you’ll need to set it up on hallowed ground? The magic will only hold for about a week, so if he doesn’t show up by the end of that week, you’ll have to completely redo the ritual.”

  “Hallowed ground?” I grunted. “Where the heck am I supposed to find hallowed ground? He’s not about to go barging into a church, he’ll know what we’re up to.”

  “What about a graveyard?” Gran mused. “There’s that small, derelict cemetery in the forest at the edge of town.”

  “The one with five headstones? That place is hallowed?”

  “It used to be much larger. More than hallowed though, the place is fueled with magic. Those graves belonged to witches and it’s their bones buried there. They’ll give the ritual more strength and make the trap more powerful.”

  “All right, sounds good. He won’t expect that place to be hallowed. But how do we get him there?”

  “I’m working on that,” she said. “One thing at a time.”

  Gran gathered all the ingredients from her shop and shoved them into my hands. “You call your Guardian and get cranking on that trap. I’ll prepare the ritual spell for tonight.” She paused suddenly and looked at me from top to bottom. “Don’t you have school?”

  “I think defeating this maniac may be more important than school,” I told her.

  Gran pursed her lips. “All right, we won’t tell your parents.”

  * * *

  Half an hour later, Leander and I made our way through the forest. It brought back memories of how he lured me here and tried to get me to sense his presence. Even though I’d been frustrated like hell then, I was a lot more frustrated now.

  “I had no idea there even was a graveyard here. We can use that to our advantage,” Leander said. “If I’m clueless about it, chances are high he’ll be too.”

  “I was thinking about how we’re going to lure him into the trap,” I said. “What if I contact him and tell him I’m willing to give him my soul if he spares the lives of the others?”

  “Go on.”

  “I could tell him we should meet here because it’s remote and abandoned, and then we can push him into the trap.”

  “Sounds good. Simple, but effective. I like it. Not sure he’ll fall for it though.”

  “It would be the noble thing to do. Maybe he thinks I’m quite noble, since I was willing to sacrifice my life for Katie’s last night.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Leander said as he kicked a rock. “When will you arrange the meeting? And how do we contact him?”

  “I’m sure Katie has his number. And as to when, I was thinking after sunset so he has a harder time spotting the graves.”

  “Good thinking. How about Saturday night? It’ll give us some time to prepare, and I’ll help you practice some defense techniques.”

  “Okay.” I pushed away a few more branches and walked through them into a clearing. The clearing was the graveyard site. Michelle and I had gone here countless times when we were kids, pretending to be archeologists. We were convinced this makeshift, rundown graveyard had high historical value. There was a derelict, crumbling mansion further into the woods, and we hung around there often as well, searching for all kinds of treasure. The one thing we’d ever found was an old, broken vase, but we’d been so proud of it we’d carried it around everywhere.

  The memory brought a smile to my lips. How easy things were back then when we were kids. How hard they were now.

  “You okay?” Leander asked.

  “Yeah,” I said, staring at the mismatched graves, like lonely teeth rising from a rotten mouth of dirt and soil. “Let’s just get started.”

  We drew a pentagram on the ground with salt. We planted a branch of palm inside and covered it up with a layer of dirt. Then Leander chanted some Latin words and I repeated them, even though I had no clue what they meant. We threw a mix of coriander, honeydew, and cinnamon into the pentagram.

  Then we sat down on each side of the pentagram. Leander took my arm and traced
the artery with his finger. “Ready?”

  I nodded. He sliced my arm, right through the artery, which definitely ranked in the ‘don’t try this at home’ category. Blood splashed out of the wound like a fountain. I gasped and gritted my teeth in pain. The wound closed up a few seconds later. Leander held out his arm and handed me the knife.

  It seemed such a waste to cut such immaculate flesh, but I had to. I’d never cut anyone deliberately before, and because of my sloppiness, I probably hurt him more than he hurt me. It wasn’t even a straight line. But he didn’t complain, just held his arm above the center of the pentagram and waited until the wound closed.

  “Done,” he said then, getting up.

  “Isn’t there supposed to be an awesome magical reaction, or any indication the trap is set?”

  “That will only happen once it’s activated. Think of it as a high-tech prison. The bars to the prison cell are hidden underground. Once you speak the words, they’ll rise up and surround whoever is inside, provided they’re an Angel, of course.”

  He handed me a slip of paper. “Here are the magic words. Don’t read them aloud this close. Study them tonight until you know them by heart.”

  “Aye, aye, professor,” I said. “Thanks for helping me out.”

  “Once he’s in the trap, I’ll call for the Warriors of Heaven. There will be no way he’ll be able to talk himself out of that one. Angels don’t just end up in Angel traps. They’ll at least investigate it and then he hangs. Figuratively.”

  “I feel bad about Tara and the others. Like what happened to them is all my fault,” I told him. “Putting the bastard that did this to them in jail is one thing, but is there no way I can get their souls back?”

  “He probably already sold them to a demon. If he did, then there’s no way to reclaim them, I’m afraid, unless you’re willing to travel to Hell and challenge the demon.”

  I didn’t respond. Leander started walking next to me, away from the clearing. “What if I am willing to?” I replied after a while.