Soul Catcher (16 page)

“She’s hurt!” Samantha yelled from ahead. “There’s a huge overhang up here. She lost her footing and dropped her rope. I can’t see her over the lip!”

“Ghost,” Dane called. “Blink down there, dude, and check if she’s okay!”

“I won’t be able to stop. I can dissipate and come together at the bottom, but I can’t stop halfway. I won’t be able to take the rope with me.”

“Get on with it,” Samantha yelled. “At least we’ll know what we’re dealing with.”

And if she’s still alive
, Dane thought. One of the lights disappeared up ahead.

“I see her!” Ghost’s voice echoed up to them. “She’s caught on a ledge. Looks like she fell maybe ten feet, but she’s positioned weird. She’s unconscious. Crap, there’s blood. One of you needs to help her.”

“Maybe I should go down and meld with her,” Samantha said.

“Have you tried that when she’s out?” Ethan asked.

“No,” Samantha admitted. “I’m not sure what will happen.”

“It’s too risky,” Ghost called. “What if you pass out too or incorporate her injuries? It won’t do any good to have an injured giant on our hands.”

“I don’t think I can rappel with her added weight without melding,” Samantha said. “I’ve never done this before.”

“I’ll go,” Dane called to Samantha. “I’ve got the most experience, and I can carry her weight.”

“Yeah. Okay. Good idea,” Samantha agreed, shakily. She was holding it together, but barely.

Dane nudged Ethan. “I’ve got to go down and get her. You going to be okay?”

“I think so. You’d better hustle. She’s hurt.”

Rappelling to the drop-off next to Samantha, Dane took a deep breath. She was right, zero visibility. The lip of the drop masked the wall below. Dane hooked his instep on the edge and leaned back, letting enough rope out so that his body was perpendicular to the wall. He bent his knees and jumped into the abyss. The rope skimmed through his hands for a second before he clamped down again. Like a pendulum, he swung back finding the wall he couldn’t see from above. Immediately, he planted both feet and pushed off again.

“You’re almost there,” Ghost called from below. “One more like that, Dane.”

With one more leap, Dane found her. Luck was on their side. The three-foot projection had barely been enough to catch her body, and one leg and arm dangled precariously over the edge. He clamped down and swung in to the ledge, then walked over to her, tying off his rope so he could use both hands.

“She hit her head,” Dane called. He lifted her into his arms. The bleeding came from a gash on her head. So much blood. Too much. Her rope dangled next to her body.

“Ghost, I’ve never done this with two people before. How far are we from the bottom?”

“Only about fifty feet.”

“Okay. I’m going to wing it.” He unhooked her from her rope and instead locked her on to his harness. He wasn’t sure how this would work since his hands and feet had to be free to work the rope. With some effort, he tossed her arms around his neck and wrapped both legs around her abdomen. He braced himself on the ledge with one foot and leaned back until he was perpendicular to the ledge and her dead weight was leaning on top of him.

“Here goes nothing,” he said to himself. Dane pushed off. Bonnie’s weight was more than he was used to, and he dropped quickly. He swung back into the wall but couldn’t keep himself straight. Gripping Bonnie with both legs, he braked hard and took the impact, slamming into the rocky wall, first with his shoulder and then with his lower leg.

He grunted from the pain.

“You’re really close. One more like that and I can reach you,” Ghost said.

“Okay. I can do this.” Only, he was dangling precariously by a damaged arm locked behind his back. Awkwardly, he dropped his legs from gripping Bonnie, steadying her with the arm that wasn’t behind his back holding them in place. Then, he wrapped the free end of the rope around his lower leg and used the bottom of his other foot to sandwich the end between the soles of his shoes. Instead of pushing off the wall, he straightened his arm and allowed his feet to do the braking, straight down. The rope burned where it tightened around his calf, and his shoulder bumped painfully down the jagged stone. Somehow Ghost’s lamp appeared before him, and strong arms gripped his harness when his feet hit the ground.

“We’re all okay,” Ghost called to Samantha and Ethan. “Come on down!”

Dane found his footing, and helped Ghost gather Bonnie into his arms, unhooking her from his harness.

“Are you okay?” Ghost whispered.

“Yeah, I think so,” Dane said.

Above them, whispering and then the clattering of equipment marked Samantha and Ethan’s descent. “One, two, three,” Samantha called.

Ethan screamed.

“Are you guys okay?” Dane called.

A laugh echoed through the cavern. “Yeah, we’re okay,” Samantha said. “But Ethan screams like a girl.”

A few seconds later she landed on the cave floor, followed by Ethan. He scowled at her. “Hey, it’s only funny until the portal is something you’re afraid of, half-pint.”

Samantha unhooked herself and raced to her sister’s side. “I thought you said she was okay?” She stared accusingly at Ghost.

“She will be. Let’s get out of here.” He continued down the path.

Now that Dane had the chance to look, he could see a faint light beyond the next turn in the cave. He unhooked himself from the rope and followed Ghost. They all shed their equipment and emerged in the same farmhouse they’d come from, next to a seriously concerned Jacob.

“Holy shit, what happened?” Jacob pulled his phone from his back pocket, thumbs flying across the screen.

“Long story,” Dane said.

“Malini’s on her way. She’ll heal you,” Jacob promised.

“Heal
me
? No, it’s Bonnie who’s hurt,” Dane said. That’s when he glanced down at himself and saw the blood. His head swam, and he sank to the floor near the wall. Ethan was by his side in a heartbeat.

Ghost unloaded Bonnie on the bed, Samantha swooping in to press a folded t-shirt she’d retrieved from her pack to her sister’s head wound.

Hastily, Jacob returned the geode to the velvet bag. “Long story or not, somebody better start talking.”

Revelation

P
ain. Throbbing, heated pain. Dane clutched his lower leg.

“What’s going on?” Ethan asked.

“My leg.”

Blood had soaked through his jeans and was gradually invading new territory. Ethan crouched down and slowly folded Dane’s pant leg up off the wound. The cloth clung to his skin, and he hissed through his teeth from the pain of the friction burn.

“Crap, Dane. That rope did a number on your shin. I’m surprised you could help Bonnie like this. What were you thinking?”

A heady presence filled the room, causing Dane to look up to where Malini hovered in the doorway, the afternoon light filling the space around her body so she appeared to glow. “Not to worry, Soulkeeper.” She stressed the last word. “I’ll fix you right up as soon as I finish with Bonnie. Her injuries are more serious.” She moved to Bonnie’s side.

The explosive crack of an enchanted staff signaled Grace’s arrival, her shoulders laden with everyone’s bags. She moved into action, dumping her cargo and fishing out a clean towel from the duffel bag full of weapons. She handed it to Ethan to press on Dane’s wound, before joining Ghost and Samantha at Bonnie’s side. The twin was deathly pale, and Dane said a quick prayer that she would be okay.

“Soulkeeper?” Jacob muttered when the room quieted. “Will someone tell me what’s going on?”

With Malini busy healing Bonnie, Grace did the honors. She started by explaining what happened, Dane’s newfound abilities and Cheveyo’s presence among them. She tried her best to relay the incredible story in a somewhat believable way. By the time she got to Auriel’s demands of Cheveyo, Jacob was nodding his head with parted lips.

Malini frowned as the details came out and not just because her arm was covered in painful blisters and blackened to the shoulder.

“Auriel wanted to use Cheveyo to kill all of us and capture me? What does Lucifer want with me?” Malini’s voice came across high pitched and innocuous, a much younger version of herself than Dane had grown accustomed to these last months .

“You’re the Healer,” Grace stated as if the answer was obvious.

“But why wouldn’t he want to kill me too, Grace? It’s true I can’t die naturally until a new Healer is born, but I could be decapitated or dismembered. Why doesn’t he want to destroy me?”

Jacob left the room briefly and returned with a jelly jar full of water from the kitchen. Taking her burnt hand in his, he willed the liquid over her damaged skin and then back into the jar. “You know the answer to that. You just don’t want to admit it,” he whispered to her as her skin pinked beneath his care.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Just say it, Jacob. I can’t accept it unless I hear it out loud.”

Jacob nodded. “If he keeps you a prisoner in Hell, you can’t teach or lead the Soulkeepers, including any Healer that might eventually be called to replace you. He’d never let you die, so he’d have the added pleasure of torturing you for eternity.”

“Right.”

Bonnie groaned and fluttered her eyes. Together, Jesse and Samantha helped her sit up. “What’s going on?” she whispered. Grace leaned in to explain what had happened.

Malini walked over to Dane and squatted near his feet, wrapping her hands around his bloody shin. The bleeding stopped, the deep welts filled themselves in, and the purple bruising around the edges of his wound gradually faded. When his leg had healed, she moved to his shoulder. In exchange, Malini’s skin blistered and blackened, her grimace telling him all he needed to know. She could heal, but it was painful. Healing came at a steep price. Thank goodness for Jacob, who used his power to flush her wounds with the water she needed to heal.

“Thank you,” Dane said.

She nodded and gave him a small smile.

“I think there’s another reason Lucifer wants you,” Dane sputtered. He wasn’t sure if it was his place to say anything, but a thought had been fighting for the surface since Jacob’s revelation.

Everyone turned to stare at him. He cleared his throat. “When I was in Hell, in Lucifer’s prison, it was obvious that what Lucifer wanted more than anything was control. I think he wants you as a bargaining chip.”

“Bargaining chip for what?” Ethan asked.

“Easy access to Earth. An end to his exile below ground.” Dane glanced between Malini and Grace.

“Did Cheveyo tell you that?” Grace asked softly.

“No. Auriel posed as a Hopi spirit and told him we were evil. He never knew the truth.”

Malini pulled her hair back into a ponytail and tied it with an elastic from around her wrist. Her face hardened, and her amber eyes grew dark with anger. In that moment, Malini returned to the person he knew she was, a warrior, a leader and, as her shoulders pulled back and she stood taller, a force to be reckoned with. Dane enjoyed watching her fire ignite. The Healer was pissed off.

“It makes sense.” She began pacing the room. “Lucifer thought he’d send Cheveyo to slaughter all of the existing Soulkeepers and imprison me. I can’t die until a new Healer releases me. With me in his grasp, I won’t be able to train or lead any new Soulkeepers, including any Healer that might replace me. With no one to thwart him, he’ll send a contingent of Watchers to influence the most powerful government and corporate leaders. He’ll gain control faster than I or any new Soulkeepers can respond.”

Dane was confused until Jacob chimed in an explanation. “It’s in the water. We found a bottling company in Chicago that’s been supplying corporate and government buildings with water tainted with elixir. The most powerful people in the world are already influenced. He just needs to take us out of the equation to move in for the kill. Watchers are cowards. As long as we’re around, none of them want to risk staying topside too long.”

Malini rubbed her hands together and continued. “Obviously, Senator Bakewell’s bill would allow Lucifer to use the corporations to employ slave labor. Food for the next wave of Watchers. The world will keep spinning, but it will be Lucifer turning the crank.”

“God will never allow it,” Grace said. “The fallen haven’t been allowed topside since the flood.”

A deep sigh passed over Malini’s lips. “Exactly, if the terms remained the same. But as Dane pointed out, Lucifer will use me as a bargaining chip, offering me in exchange for new terms. If God agrees, everything could change. God follows the rules but Lucifer doesn’t. The Lord of Lies wanted his Trojan horse to reset the scales in his favor. He’s no longer satisfied with Hell. He’s making his move.”

Stunned, Dane pushed himself to his feet. “Well, seems like Fate wasn’t on Lucifer’s side. Cheveyo’s not in control. I am.”

Grace wrung her hands and moved closer to her daughters. “You can’t put Auriel off. In two weeks, she’s going to come for you. She’ll want proof you’ve killed the others, and she’ll expect you to have Malini.”

“We need a plan.” Jacob rested his hands on his hips. “We can try to take Auriel out, but that doesn’t solve the problem, just delays it. Lucifer will know about Dane.”

“If what you say is true, and the most powerful people in the world are vulnerable, we are one Watcher away from disaster,” Grace added.

“We have three things going for us,” Malini said. “Lucifer doesn’t know that Dane is in control of Cheveyo, we know exactly when and where Auriel will be next, and we have two weeks to come up with a way to use the first two to our advantage.”

“There’s one more thing you should know.” All eyes fell on Dane. He hesitated for a second, wondering if he should share what Cheveyo told him.

“What?” Malini asked.

“It’s very possible that Cheveyo is killing me. The last boy he possessed, Jaden, died from this. A human body isn’t supposed to hold two souls.”

Ethan, who had been lurking in the corner of the room listening, suddenly became interested in the conversation again. “How long had Cheveyo possessed the kid before he died?

“Just about two weeks.”

* * * * *