Rise of the Fallen 1 - My Soul to Keep (25 page)

“Bring it, bitch,” Brett said.

“You have serious anger management issues, I hope you know that.”

“That’s what my therapist said. Right before I killed her.”

My body grew taller, my wings longer, and everything became sharper
and clearer. I could see the rhythmic rise and fall of Caelyn’s chest as she struggled
to breathe. I could hear my parent’s heartbeats from upstairs. At least I knew they
were still alive. I could even hear Clarisse breathing behind me. Darius, not so
much. I needed to end this now. I called back my blades.

They came to my hands sporting red and black flames along the blades.
I held them out to my sides, tried not to bang my head on the ceiling, and beckoned
Brett on. He smiled and charged.

I could see his movements now. He closed the distance between us and
clawed my stomach before I could get a blade up to defend myself. I did, however,
manage to slice his back as he retreated. He howled in pain when he reached the
other side of the room.

“You’re a little better, but still not good enough, Connor.”

“We’ll see. Let’s finish
this. I have a date tomorrow.”

“With destiny.”

“No, Jessie. I stopped dating Destiny in the third grade. She was a
nice girl though.”

Brett looked at me confusedly. Apparently being undead screwed with
your sense of humor. Or maybe he was just a douche to begin with. Either way, I
would be kicking his ass. I gave him a feral smile.

He gave me a kick to the jaw I didn’t see coming. I swung down with
the blade in my left hand as a reflex, peeling his jeans and the skin on his shin
back. I saw bone glistening through the hole in his jeans.
Sweet.

He must have felt the pain in his leg because he looked down in disbelief.
He snarled and reached down and pulled the flesh back up on his leg. He held it
there for a moment and when he let go, he had completely healed.
Damn. That sucks.

He must have hit his breaking point, too. “Enough games, this ends
now. Just know that once you are dead, so is everybody else you love,” he said and
full on, arms flailing, mouth snarling, attacked me.

I tried to use my blades, but he was still faster than me and slapped
them away before I could score a hit on him. He slapped one blade completely from
my hand and it disappeared instead of clattering to the floor. He got three more
strikes to my face, neck, and chest before he slapped the other one away, too. He
closed in for the kill and wrapped his arms around me as he prepared to fully bite
my throat out. In one final act of desperation, I called back my blades and drove
them straight down into his back.

He screamed in my face.

I pushed down on the blades and forced him to the ground in front of
me.

He knelt down and tried to grab my hands.

I turned the blades.

“No! You can’t kill me! I am immortal!”

“So am I.”

I released one blade and touched my palm to his forehead just like
Darius had done. I concentrated on his soul. I don’t know how I did it, but it worked.
As my hand pulled away from his face, I felt his soul following. He screamed until
I fully wrenched it from him. I let go of my other blade as his body turned grey.
He fell dead at my feet as I held his soul in my hand.

Clarisse finally woke up.

“What did you do?” She stood and walked over to look at the soul in
my hand.

“I guess I reaped him,” I said hoping I didn’t sound stupid.

“But you’re not a Reaper!”

“Apparently he is,” a raspy voice called from behind us. We turned
and saw Darius raise himself up on one elbow and yank the wooden stake from his
chest.

Right then the police showed up.

I looked at my battered broken house, the dead body at my feet, the
soul in my hand, and my sister unconscious on the floor.

“Oh, shit.”

Chapter 29

Police filled the house in a matter of moments. They took up their
positions and pointed guns at everything but us. One of them went upstairs and yelled,
“Clear!”

I spun around in circles and watched them pull back one by one.

“Huh, must have been a false alarm. Weird. The neighbors said a war
was going on. Let’s go see what they have to say,” one of the officers said to another.

Clarisse had her eyes closed in concentration.

Ah. These are not the droids you’re looking for. That explains it.

We watched the police in silence as they left and lightly closed the
door behind them. I let out the breath I didn’t realize I'd been holding. “Whew.”

Darius started standing. Clarisse rushed to help him. “You going to
be okay?”

“I’ll live,” he said back to her.

“Um, guys? I’d really like to check on my family, but I don’t know
what to do with this.” I pointed to the squirming soul in my hands.

Brett was yelling at me, but I couldn’t hear his words. His spectral
fists beat furiously at my hand, but it felt like feathers. I put my middle finger
against my thumb and plinked him in the nose. I expected it to go through his face,
but it didn’t. He grabbed his nose.

“Can I keep it as a pet?”

“No, brother Reaper. Let it go. His soul knows its place and will join
the others in our realm.”

I let it go and sure enough it turned into a ball of spectral light
and sped off through the ceiling and up into the night sky.
I shoulda stuffed
it in a jar.

I ran to where Caelyn was lying on the floor. She didn’t look so good.
She was very pale and still had a bloody hole in her neck.

“Caelyn,” I said and shook her gently. She didn’t respond. “Clarisse,
could you get her to the hospital? She lost a lot of blood. I’m going to check on
my parents.”

She nodded and picked my sister up gently. She banished her wings before
walking though the front door. I peeked out around her and saw her pink bug in the
driveway as the police cruisers started pulling away from the curb.
Good. Let’s
see what else I have to deal with.

I changed back to my human-seeming self and ran upstairs to find Mom
and Dad asleep in their bed. I checked for wounds but didn’t see anything. Brett
must have done something to them though. I shook Dad over and over until his eyes
opened.

“What, Connor?”

“Are you two, okay?”

“Yeah. We’re fine! Go back to bed.”

“Okay, pop. G’night,” I said and kissed him on the forehead. I’d tell
him about Caelyn in the morning. As I passed my room, my phone started ringing.
Great. What now?

I opened my door and ran to the phone. “Hello?”

“Conrad?”

“Mr. James?”

“Yes, it’s me. Jessica asked me to call you. We’re at the hospital.”
His voice cracked. “I think you should come down here…It doesn’t…it doesn’t look
good. I think it’s time.”

I didn’t say anything. I dropped the phone and ran. I ran downstairs,
I ran past Darius, and I ran out the front door. I probably would have run all the
way to the hospital if I hadn’t remembered I could fly. I took off and flew straight
to Jessie.

I landed some ways away and turned human. I ran straight up to the
emergency room doors and almost crashed into a man in a wheelchair trying to get
out.

“Sorry,” I mumbled and moved around him. The waiting room was full
of people, including Clarisse. She stood as soon as she saw me. “They took her inside.
I think they’re giving her a transfusion. I told her she cut her neck on some barbed
wire.”

“Thank you, Clarisse. I’m here for Jessie.”

“Oh. Is she…okay?”

“Not according to her father. I need to get inside.”

“Okay. I’ll be here. Waiting.”

I nodded and otherwise ignored her. I saw a door leading into the interior
of the emergency room and headed for it. A rather unpleasant, large, elderly woman
sat at the desk next to it.

“You can’t go in there, young man,” she said without looking up.

“Please, my girlfriend is in there.”

“Immediate family only.”

“My sister is in there, too.”

That caused her to look up from her rather archaic looking computer.
“What’s her name?”

“Caelyn Sullivan.”

She punched in a few keys. “They have her in ICU. You’re not allowed
in there right now. Are your parents coming?”

“Um, I don’t think they know yet. Please, I have to see them…her.”

“Young man, if you don’t take a seat I can promise you one thing–

Enough.
“Let me in,” I said.

“Go right ahead, young man. Your sister is all the way at the end of
the hall in room 113. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“Thank you,” I said and opened the door. Rows of little rooms with
curtains half closed offered a little bit of privacy for the sick and injured people
waiting to see the doctors, but not much. I glanced in each one as I passed. I didn’t
see my sister or Jess in any of them.

“Who are you looking for?” I looked up at a nurse behind a large desk
in the center of the enormous ER. “Jessica James,” I said.

Her face darkened in sadness. “She’s in room 112 in ICU. Follow me.
I’ll take you to her.”

“Thank you,”

She took me back to the rear exit of the ER and into another corridor.
Larger rooms with doors lined either side. She took me to the one with a plaque
that read 112.

Mr. James sat in a rather uncomfortable looking chair next to a curtained
off bed. I could see feet under the blanket, but that was it. He nodded at the nurse
and she left me standing there in the doorway.

I swallowed and walked in. The closer I got to the curtain, the more
of Jessie I could see. I peeked around the corner and prayed she would be awake.

My heart sank. She was almost the same color as Brett after I had ripped
his soul from his body. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks. My heart started beating
again slowly. I inched my way closer to the bed and with each inch, my despair grew.
My mouth opened and a low moan escaped.

“No, no, no…” It was the only word I was capable of saying.

“I’m sorry, Connor,” Mr. James said and put his face in his hands.

“What happened?”

“She was fine when we got home. I sent her to bed. A few minutes later
she called me upstairs. She said she didn’t feel good. When I went to put my hand
on her head, she collapsed.”

“Why?”

“The doctors have no idea. They said all of her major organs are shutting
down one by one. She’s breathing on her own, but they have a respirator ready in
case her lungs fail, too. They said the only thing strong is her heart.”

As soon as he said it, the monitor attached to Jessie started blaring.
Mr. James closed his eyes. I sank to the floor.

A team of nurses and doctors scrambled into the room wheeling carts
of medical equipment.

“Code blue, ICU. Code blue, ICU,” rang out over the speakers in the
hall.

Mr. James and I were pushed out into the hallway by angry looking nurses.
They left the door open, but completely blocked our view of Jess with the curtain
hanging from the ceiling. The hot tears burning their way down my face flowed faster.

“There’s nothing we can do?”

“Nothing I haven’t already tried. There’s
nothing
left to do.
How could I have been so selfish? I utterly loved her mother. She wanted a child.
I knew what would happen, and I did it anyway. This is all my fault…”

“Don’t. You have a wonderful daughter, Mr. James. We both know this
isn’t the end. You’ll see her again.”

“I know. But it won’t be the same. She’ll either be as we are now,
or a perfect soul. Have you ever seen a soul, Connor? They’re not the same. They’re…they’re…they
care almost nothing for what they were. When the body dies, part of them dies, too.
It’s just not the same. I just hope she’s strong enough to become one of the Chosen.
At least then she’ll have a chance. Either way, I’ve lost my little girl.”

I put my hand on his arm, at a loss as to what else to say.

The blaring machines in the room silenced. Mr. James and I stood in
the hallway and waited. Medical technicians started wheeling equipment out of the
room. With each passing person I cried a little harder. The nurses came next shaking
their heads. Finally the doctor on duty came out and ushered us farther down the
hallway. Mr. James was having trouble standing upright.

“Is she?” I looked up at Jess’ father and my heart went out to him.
I had no desire to live whatsoever. I could only imagine the pain he felt.

“I don’t know how to say this…”

Mr. James collapsed in the middle of the hospital hallway floor. “No…”

“No!” I looked at the doctor. “Oh, my God, I am so sorry. You misunderstood
me. She’s fine!”