Soul Betrayed (10 page)

I turned to lock eyes with the Shadowed. His eyes scanned over each of us and paused on mine. “This is quite a surprise,” he mused.

“What did you do to Jamie?” I blurted, looking back at the station. Why hadn’t anyone noticed we were in trouble?

His head tilted toward me and I braced myself for the worst. “The Percipio is fine. Well the young one at least.” He grinned wickedly. “I can bring you to her.”

I shoved forward. “Tell me where she is.”

I had caught the others off guard and the Shadowed reached out with quick reflexes. In seconds he had his arm wrapped around my neck, pressing me against him. I inhaled sharply. How had I been so stupid? He started backing us away from Cooper and Ally, my only protection. Ally lunged forward but Cooper held her back with his arm.

The Shadowed chuckled to himself, the vibration pressed against my back. I cringed. He sucked a breath through his teeth, his cheek pressing against mine. “You have a heartbeat?”

I struggled against him. He leaned his head down to mine as his nose trailed across my cheek as if he were a dog smelling its next meal. I attempted to move out of his grasp but he was strong. Before I could shove down the nausea rising from my stomach, something hard smashed into my head. Stars burst in my vision as I fell to the ground, but I was caught and pulled up before I connected with the concrete. I looked up to see Cooper’s worried expression. “Are you okay?”

“Wha—?” I turned my head to see the janitor on his side, unconscious.

Ally shook her hand opening and closing a fist. “Sorry. I saw my shot and I took it.”

Rubbing the side of my head I moved away from Cooper. “A little warning would have been nice.”

Ally shrugged and knelt down beside the man, lifting his shirt and patting her hands across his body. She plucked a wallet and keys from his pockets and tossed them in her purse. “He’s not going anywhere for some time.”

“What do we do now?” I asked, hoping his injuries were superficial. It wasn’t his fault a Shadowed inhabited his body.

Suddenly black smoke started to seep from his mouth. I knew where that was leading.

“Cooper,” I warned, my eyes focused on the Shadowed form coming from the human.

“We should get out of here,” Cooper suggested and I handed him the keys.

We piled into the car and Cooper started it, peeling out from the spot. Turning in my seat, I watched the smoke twist and morph into a Shadowed soul form. We rounded the corner just at its completion.

The car accelerated. “We have to get back to your house before more arrive.” Cooper looked at me through the rearview mirror, his eyebrows were drawn together.

“We need to make one stop,” I pulled the letter from my pocket. “Ally, can you find an address on your phone for me?”

“What address?” Cooper asked.

“Yera wrote a letter to Jamie,” I said, reading the address to Ally who plugged it into her phone. “Like I said, I saw Yera. In soul form. She was at Gate Seven with Dylan the day—” I choked on the words describing the last day I saw Leha. “That day.”

“Maggie, we have to go back,” Cooper urged, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror.

“Just give us ten minutes,” Ally argued. “The Shadowed said ‘the young one’, that has to be Jamie. We need to at least investigate while we are here.” She showed the screen to Cooper. “It’s like a mile away. We’ll be quick, promise.”

Cooper was silent for a few seconds as Ally’s phone voice spoke the next direction, for us to take a right at the stop light. When the light turned green, Cooper quickly spun the wheel in the direction of Yera’s house.

I grabbed his shoulders and squeezed. “Thank you.”

“Ten minutes,” he said gruffly.

Ally looked back at me and winked.

***

Yera’s house was on a dead end of a street. It was a ranch-style home that looked small against the sprawling green landscape around it. The same one I had seen in the photograph in Detective Branson’s office. Several minutes had passed since we’d seen another house and I couldn’t help but think of how lonely she might have been and how proud she would have been for Jamie to visit her. I made a silent promise to find out who killed her, she deserved that much. Cooper turned the car around, parking with the front of the car toward the road. I wasn’t sure what he expected to happen but I was grateful that he was cautious.

“We stay together,” he ordered.

“I don’t think it will take more than ten minutes to search this place.” Ally squinted her eyes as if she couldn’t imagine a house being that small.

I walked up the driveway. “Come on.”

The front door was locked but after a few tries at searching the area around the stoop, Ally found a key. She unlocked and opened the door, entering the house. She flipped a switch, illuminating a small dining room doubling as a living room. A leather love seat faced a small flatscreen television near the front window, newspapers were neatly stacked on one side of the square table at the far side of the room and there were only two chairs set at the table. I assumed Yera lived alone. I headed to the table first, leafing through the newspapers while Ally went into the kitchen and Cooper disappeared down another hallway. I heard the creak of a door, as he entered one of the rooms.

The newspapers were from all over the country. Inside, passages were circled in red pen. The most recent one was David’s obituary. Just as I was about to call in the others, I heard a snap then a shriek from the kitchen. I ran in there to see Ally pressed against the counter.

Cooper came in the room close behind me, sword raised. “What is it?”

Ally’s cheeks flushed bright red as we followed her gaze to a mousetrap.

Cooper suppressed a grin and lowered his weapon. “You okay?”

“Yes,” she snapped and brushed past us.

“Did you find anything?”

“I think so.” I showed him the newspaper. “There are a lot of newspapers in there. If she could see the After beings, maybe she was keeping track of the Prognatum too?”

“Maybe,” Cooper said, a bit distracted. “But I really think we should get out of here.”

“Cooper—”

He turned his full gray gaze to me turning my legs to lead. “We will come back. I just want to get you to safety. That Shadowed said that Jamie is alive—”

“But we are here now. They couldn’t have taken her far—”

The opening of the front door cut off my words. Cooper’s eyes widened and he grabbed my arm, pulling me down the short hallway into another room.

“Hey—” Ally said, but stopped when she saw our expressions.

Cooper closed the door behind us. “Someone is here,” he whispered. “Go outside and I will stay with Maggie.”

Not for the first time did I curse my humanity. Ally transported out of there, a pained expression on her face and Cooper shoved me into the closet. He arranged the hanging clothes in front of me until I could barely see anything. Then his soul disappeared.

I heard the door to the room open and my pulse raced. Hard footfalls slowly moved across the floor. I squeezed my eyes shut against the darkness keeping my ears on high alert. A crackling noise filled the space before someone spoke on the other end of a walkie talkie.

“The silent alarm reset is in the stairwell.”

The person in the room spoke. “I got that already. I was just making a sweep.”

The voice was familiar, even though I hadn’t known it too well. My shoulders relaxed hearing Detective Branson’s voice. That was until the door to the closet was flung open.

I pressed my body as close to the wall as I could. Both of us were silent. I moved my head to the side, not allowing the slit of light between several pieces of clothing to signal my position. His feet moved forward and I sensed his nearness.

Crap!

Cringing, I waited for the inevitable, but a loud bang against the window startled both of us. Branson’s boots shuffled across the floor and the closet door shut behind him.

A breath whooshed out of me.

Cooper’s soul reappeared in the small space.

“That was close,” I whispered.

His hand found mine and squeezed. “Too close.”

We waited silently for several minutes while Branson clomped around the house and after what felt like hours, the front door finally closed.

Cooper pushed open the closet door, my eyes squinted at the intrusion of light. “Let’s find Ally and get out of here.”

Ally was in the living room, her arms crossed as if we had been holding
her
up. I grabbed a stack of newspapers from the pile. Something there had to lead us to where Jamie was and I wasn’t going to leave empty handed.

Pressing several buttons on a small white box at the base of the stairs Ally said, “We have fifteen seconds to leave here before this goes off again.”

Cooper ushered me out of the house. Ally’s eyes darted back and forth, scanning the area before we proceeded to the car. Cooper tossed Ally the keys. “You drive.”

Her eyes widened.

“I need to keep an eye out for threats,” he explained.

Ally slipped into the driver’s seat before Cooper could change his mind, a smile tugging at her lips.

The sun had disappeared behind thick dark clouds and a strong wind swirled around us. The top sheets of newspaper lifted, blocking my view of the car, before Cooper took the stack from me and placed them neatly on the backseat. He moved out of the way and stood at attention, his hand resting on the door handle.

My body was just in the car when I heard someone shout behind me. I whirled around to find the source.

“Maggie!” Cooper’s voice sounded far away as I homed in on the corporeal soul that appeared in front of Yera’s house.

My soul and body battled against each other as I glimpsed the dark-haired boy in the distance. Jackson stood in front of the house, his hands stiff at his sides. He looked as unnerved as he had at the cemetery all those months ago, as if he couldn’t believe what he saw. The memory of the night Leha died rushed forward but was met by stronger memories which soon shoved that night aside. My legs gave out under the influx of memories and my body leaned heavily on Cooper. His arms wrapped around me and gently placed me in the car.

Ally accelerated as a barrage of memories rendered me unconscious.

Not again.

CHAPTER TEN

I blinked against the harsh sunlight of the afternoon as I moved closer to the booth. My fingers lingered on the wooden owl trinket at Mr. Black’s station. Mr. Black offered a quick smile and assisted a couple on the far side of the table. I turned my head, feeling a strange sensation that someone was watching me. The Sunday crowd bustled through the aisles of vendors as I turned my attention back to the owl. I stroked the intricate details of the figure with my fingertip. “This is beautiful.” I was reminded of the summers spent at our country home. The sound of the owls and other night creatures soothed me. We would be back there soon, but this time Tristan would be there with me. A warmth pooled in my stomach, as I thought of my fiancé and how close we were to our wedding day.

“Dear sister.” Gemma’s voice shattered my thoughts. Her bonnet shadowed her pale freckled face. Actually it had been mine when I was several years younger, yet it fit her as if it had been tailored for her head. “Your fiancé is looking for you; it seems I am not a good distraction for him.”

I placed the owl back on the table. Father wouldn’t have been pleased with another trinket to add to my already overflowing collection.

Gemma turned and swiftly caught up to her friends at Mrs. Burgeon’s food cart. I lingered at the table briefly. I didn’t have the energy to deal with her friends. I started in the direction I’d seen Father and Mother go.

“You dropped this,” a voice called. Something brushed against my shoulder, stopping me mid-step.

I turned to see a stranger holding something in his hands. My hand reached up, covering my mouth. He had the owl. The one I was just looking at. I reached up to touch the figure, lightly brushing his hand in the process. “This isn’t—”

“Mr. Black said it was a gift.” His voice struck something deep inside of me. He was persistent.

I smiled. He pushed his hand forward, and the tiny owl tumbled out of his hand into mine.

“I—” My mouth failed to form words. His blue eyes searched mine. I studied the sharp lines of his face. Who was this man? He had to be only a few years older than me. He had a commanding intensity that made me want to move closer to him. “Thank you.”

His mouth lifted slightly, but his eyes narrowed as they peered over my head. I turned around. His family was probably expecting him. But instead I caught the eye of my father who glared at the man behind me.

I turned back. “That’s just my fath—” My words trailed off as the man was nowhere to be found. I looked down both sides of the street but I didn’t see him. Had I imagined it? But looking down at the figure in my hand made it perfectly clear he had existed. And I secretly promised myself I would see him again.

Darkness swirled around me as another memory came to the forefront of my mind.

I stood in my bedroom in front of the mirror, tucking a stray strand of hair under my bonnet.

“Are you ready, Margaret?” I turned to see Gemma in the doorway, her thin eyebrows raised. We hadn’t spoken much in the past few weeks, not since I met him. I couldn’t explain my distracted state, but I had to see him again, even if it were just for a few seconds. I looked at my side table, knowing the owl was in there, safety tucked away. It was our secret. A small thrill moved through me at the thought of meeting him again. I’d searched for him every Sunday at the market, but there had been no sign of those lively blue eyes since. But today was different. I could feel it in every fiber of my soul. I would see him again.

I nodded to Gemma and she hesitated in the doorway.

“What is it?” I asked, knowing that she was going to tell me whether I wanted to hear it or not. Her insistence to be by my side had grown annoying, but even she couldn’t spoil my mood. I waited. She was so dramatic sometimes. “Well?”