The Soul Healer (29 page)

Scott saw, and demanded to know what was so funny. “I wouldn’t be laughing, if I were you. Not after that crap you pulled last night.” Scott crossed his arms over his chest as he peered down at
me from where I sat. I was sure Scott thought that particular posture was intimidating, but no one had intimidated me in a long, long time. Not since I learned how to take care of myself, shutting up anyone who tried to mess with me with my fists. Scott, however, seemed to think that just because I was locked in my room with a damn spell on the door I had no chance of breaking, it meant I was suddenly an easy target. “How disappointed Director Adler must be, having someone like you for his son.”

The comment was meant to rile
me, but it had absolutely no effect. I knew I had disappointed my father, but I didn’t give a shit, either way. Dad’s opinion meant nothing to me. “I don’t know about that,” I drawled. “He’s probably relieved he doesn’t have to worry about some girl getting the best of me like certain other people.” I sent a silent apology to Gabi; she definitely wasn’t
some
girl. I would never forget the way she had threatened to toss Scott into traffic if he touched her one more time. Scott had been so afraid at that moment, he had nearly pissed his pants.

“Shut it,” Scott growled.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. “Did I say something wrong?” I slid off the bed and approached him. I only came up to his shoulders, but for what I lacked in height, I made up in bulk. I squeezed my hands into fists, smiling when I saw Scott swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. For all of his talk, Scott was the biggest coward I knew. How much taunting did I need to do before Scott swung first? Suddenly, I was aching for a fight. I needed to do something besides sit on my bed and watch the stupid hunter invade my space. Where was Gabi? What had my dad done to her? After Jonathan had hit me with that spell, I had lost consciousness, waking up in my room midmorning the next day, with Dad staring down at me. He had allowed me the chance to explain myself, but he had showed no reaction when I said Gabi could die from using her powers. That had pissed me off, and I had screamed at my father, calling him every horrible name I could think of. Again, there was no reaction from Dad. Instead, he called Scott in and informed us that he was placing a spell on the door, as if I was a toddler who needed a timeout.

I
hadn’t seen my father since, and the halls had been eerily quiet. Now I was trapped in my room with only Scott for company. I wondered if chucking Scott at the door would break the spell; it was a nice idea, one that grew more and more tempting by the minute.

“At least I wasn’t stupid enough to get caught,” Scott snapped. “You’re acting too proud for someone
who was dragged back to HQ. You think you’re going to be forgiven for that stunt? You tried to break out the Soul Healer! Your dad will never forgive you for that!”

“Like I care.”
I shrugged, meaning it. Let my dad do his worst. As long as Gabi was okay, I could take whatever Dad threw my way. The only reason I
hadn’t
raised hell was because of Gabi. I needed to see her before taking drastic measures. But where
was
Dad? Surely he would have been back by now, to tell me what a huge disappointment I was. The silence was unusual, and it made me uneasy. It meant something was wrong.

“You’re so weird,” Scott continued. “If my dad was the director, I’d do everything in my power to make him proud.”

I grinned. “Really?
Your
dad as the director? Hell would have to freeze over first.”
God, Scott makes it so easy.

Scott’s brown eyes hardened, and he pulled back a fist.
Finally!
I thought, readying myself.

But Scott’s fist never made contact.
My door started making a sizzling sound, and I stared at it, confused. Had the spell shorted itself out?

“What the hell?” Scott muttered to himself, placing his hand on the knob at the exact moment a loud crack, like thunder, rattled the room. Scott went flying backwards, crashing into
my bookshelf. A precariously placed weight teetered over the edge, narrowly avoiding clunking Scott on the head, much to my disappointment. Still, the hunter was out cold, his legs spread open in an awkward angle and his hair standing on end, like he had been electrocuted. It was hilarious, and I fumbled for my phone, determined to take a picture I’d blow up into a poster and hang on my wall. And maybe throw darts at.

“Oh
, bloody hell, that is one great pose,” Kain said from the doorway, startling me so badly I nearly dropped my phone. “Wait, take one with me next to him.” Placing his rapier on the floor, Kain crouched down next to Scott, flashing the peace sign and a toothy grin. I already knew I was going to take that photo, crop Scott out of it, and look at it often.
Shit, why did Kain have to be so good looking? Why?

I
wasn’t sure if Kain was aware of the fact that he wasn’t using his stupid-sounding American accent, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to point that out. I could listen to his British—sorry,
English
accent all day if I could.

Kain shook his head, as if rousing himself
from sleep. “Wait, what are we doing? This is no time to be fooling around, Philip! I just saved Gabiella from a demon!” He jumped to his feet, picking up his rapier again.

“
What!”
In addition to being good looking and having an accent that was sexy as hell, Kain was also a bit of an idiot. Instead of posing for pictures, that should have been the
first
thing he said! “Where was there a demon? Where is Gabi? You just
left
her alone!” Holy shit, I was going to
kill
him—

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on there.” Kain held up his hands, following
me as I rushed out into the hallway. “The demon, which is dead, is downstairs in the lobby. I had only just arrived when Gabiella came tearing through, the demon hot on her heels. And I lied. She ended up saving me from it.”

As
we briskly walked to the elevator, I gave him a sideways glance and saw Kain appeared to be winded and sweaty. It must have been some demon, to nearly get the best of Kain. Unless… “You weren’t showing off for her, were you?” Kain’s black hair, I noted distractedly, had bits of green blood in it, but somehow each strand still managed to be perfectly styled. I scowled; how did he do that? My hair was so annoying I just cut it short so I wouldn’t have to deal with it.

Kain smiled sheepishly. “Perhaps. But it all worked out, because then Rafe appeared and cut the thing’s head off.”

I stumbled to a halt. Someone needed to teach Kain how to correctly relay important bits of information. I couldn’t take much more of these casual bombshells without suffering from heart failure. “
Rafe
is here!”

“Yes, which is why you were wrong in assuming I left Gabiella alone.” Kain looked affronted. “Like I would ever do such a thing. The two of them are waiting for us to join them, and then we’ll hightail it out of here. You can come back to my flat if you’d like, plan your next move, catch up on life…” He waved a hand. “Whatever you like. But you’re more than welcome to come over.”

I often dreamt about being invited to Kain’s apartment, but it had never involved other people. No, just the two of us and little to no clothing…

I
snapped myself out of that particularly dangerous daydream as we turned a corner. “I’m sorry, then, for accusing you of leaving her. You’re a shitty storyteller. You should have told me she was with Rafe first, not make me panic like that.”

“I was telling it in the order it occurred; how is that bad storytelling?”

A crumpled form on the floor distracted me from answering. It was Jonathan, his eyes closed and his breathing steady with his limbs all askew, like he had been in the middle of fighting something when he was knocked out cold. Or
someone
. I looked at Kain pointedly.

“He was in my way,” Kain said. He walked past Jonathan’s prone body without glancing at him, his right foot coming dangerously close to squashing Jonathan’s fingers. “Besides, I was only returning the favor.” He smiled darkly. “Maybe now he won’t go throwing people i
nto buildings with magic.”

I
cleared my throat and turned my face away, knowing a blush was spreading across my cheeks. I wanted to believe Kain had set out to avenge me because he liked me the same way I liked him, but that was a stupid fantasy that would never, ever come true. But all the same, it was nice, and I regretted missing Kain hurl Jonathan against the wall.
That
was something I would have recorded and posted on YouTube.

We
reached the elevator and I hit the down arrow. I glanced at the glowing red digital number above the door, like I always did, and frowned. “You took the elevator here, right?”

“Yes. I left them in the lobby and came to fetch you, figuring your father had magicked the door to keep you locked inside.”

I pointed to the number that was currently counting
down
. “Then who rode the elevator up to the eighth floor?”

Kain paused.

“The elevator should have been waiting here.” I pulled a knife from my belt, and Kain lifted his rapier as the elevator arrived with a ding. The doors opened, but it was empty inside. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding and stepped forward, hitting the button for the lobby. Kain joined me after a moment’s hesitation. “What is it?” I asked.

“Just…”
Kain’s blue-green eyes darkened as he stared straight ahead at the closed elevator doors. He was uncharacteristically serious, which scared me more than I liked to admit. “Be ready. For anything.”

Swallowing hard,
I squeezed the hilt of my knife and hoped Kain was wrong.

Chapter Forty-five

Philip

I
didn’t know what to expect when we reached the lobby, but Rafe on the floor, obviously wounded, was not it.

“Bloody
hell
,” Kain hissed, holding out a hand to prevent me from racing straight to Rafe’s side. Together, we exited the elevator, weapons held high as we scanned the room. Parts of the floor had been destroyed, with giant craters carved out of the marble in more than one spot. Lying past Rafe was the beheaded demon, surrounded by a dark pool of its own green blood. Farther past that was a girl kneeling; my heart jumped, thinking for a moment that it was Gabi, but then I saw the pink hair and realized who it was.

“Nina?”
I asked, thoroughly confused. Hadn’t she been captured as well? Had she managed to get past Dad’s spells, or had he let her go? My father had always had a soft spot for the pink-haired girl, due to both the circumstances that had brought her to the New York HQ and her undying loyalty to him. Her betrayal must have been crushing to Dad, I thought, wondering what she had said to make him let her go. I took a few steps toward her, while Kain continued to Rafe’s side. “Are you okay? What happened?”

There was a soft moan, coming from behind Nina. A male voice. A
familiar
male voice. I stopped in my tracks, holding up my knife. Kain saw the change in my posture and shifted closer to me, sucking in a quiet breath as he began calling magic to him. The air around him rippled, and I swallowed against the tickle of nausea in the back of my throat, faint enough that I could ignore it.

“Nina,”
I said slowly, “what’s going on? Who’s behind you?” I already knew, but I asked anyway.

She stood on shaky legs, her left arm hanging limp at her side like it was broken, to reveal Evan lying on his stomach, his blonde hair matted with blood. Red
human
blood. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Something was very wrong, but what, exactly, I didn’t know. It was like doing a jigsaw puzzle only to realize three-quarters of the way in you didn’t have all of the pieces. Nina and Evan and Rafe were all on the same side, and yet two were down for the count and I had no idea why or what had happened in the short amount of time Kain had left them to free me.

And Gabi. She was nowhere to be seen. The realization hit
me hard and I desperately hoped she was okay. Things couldn’t end like this, with my friends on the floor, broken and discarded like trash. I would find out who was responsible for this, and I would make them pay.

“Oh
, Phil, Kain, it was so horrible,” Nina said, limping toward us with tears in her eyes. “She went crazy,
she
did this—”

“
She
who?” There was only one “she” Nina could mean, but it didn’t make sense.
None
of it made sense!

“Gabi!” Nina sobbed. “There’s something wrong with her. She stabbed Rafe and attacked Evan and me and—”

“Lying,” Evan suddenly said, struggling to pick himself up off the floor. “She’s lying. She did this, not Gabi. She hurt Rafe; it’s a bad spell, I can’t figure it out.” His eyes were bright and focused on me with a sort of raw desperation, as if he were begging me to believe him. And I did. At that moment, when Evan said Nina was lying, I suddenly had the last few puzzle pieces in my hand, and I knew what was going on.