Soul Betrayed (9 page)

“It’s a lot of maintenance right?” Ally asked while reapplying her lip gloss.

“A lot more than I remembered,” I said. I looked into the mirror at the space behind us.

“He’s not in here,” she said, reading my expression.

My shoulders relaxed. “That’s one thing I don’t think I will get used to.”

Ally’s eyebrow twitched. “It’s not fun being one of the uninformed is it?”

I heard disdain in her voice. “Don’t be like that. It’s one thing to have your destiny sprung on you. It’s another to know about it then have it taken away.”

She shrugged. “Well soon enough you will have it all back.”

I furrowed my brows. What was her problem? I turned, leaning against the wall. “Are you jealous?”

She stiffened and looked at me through the mirror. “Why would I be jealous of
you
?” She was trying too hard, and my theory was proved when red spots started to form on her neck.

I couldn’t believe it. “Ally, you don’t want this.”

She lowered her gaze, her eyes far away. “For the longest time I had everything I ever wanted. People respected me and wanted me. Now everyone is after you. And someone is totally into you, it’s almost nauseating to watch.”

“Everyone is after me to use me! Whatever I have inside of me is what they want. Not me. And as for Jackson—”

“I’m not talking about Jackson,” she snapped in a low voice.

I sighed. “I did some horrible things in my human life. Believe me, you don’t want this.” I opened my hands in front of me.

She rolled her eyes and shoved her makeup case back in her purse. “Anyway, I’m fine. I’m just having a moment. This whole process has been insane and I can’t wait until it’s over so I can just go on living. At least for a little while.” She put out her hand for the comb and I absently gave it back.

“You don’t want to be me,” I offered.

Her eyes moved over me. “You aren’t as bad as you pretend to be. You should try to live up to others’ expectations of you.”

She turned on her heel and left the bathroom.

I stared after her in disbelief.

Seconds later, Cooper’s corporeal form appeared in front of me. “I saw Ally come out without you.”

I swallowed. Had Ally been talking about Cooper? Side stepping him I headed toward the door. “I was just on my way out.”

***

We arrived at the police station later that night. Ally was awake enough to turn her music back on, preventing any more conversation and I was grateful to be left alone to my thoughts. Why had she hinted that Cooper liked me? Our relationship had hovered between professional and friendship but that was about it. Right? I shook the thoughts away, I had to keep my focus on Jamie.

Cooper parked at the back of the lot and went non-corporeal.

I opened the car door. The temperature had dropped over the course of the day and a chill trickled down the back of my neck. Lifting my shoulders I zipped the jacket as high as it would go. Ally started ahead of me and I picked up my pace, rubbing my hands against my arms for warmth. Ally’s long legs kept the pace, but she didn’t even appear to be cold.

The closer we got to the station, the faster my heart raced. “What’s the plan?”

Ally clicked her tongue. “I’ll know when I get in there.”

Perfect
.

We entered through two sets of double doors into the brightly lit station. Two janitors were mopping the already sparkling floor. We reached a desk on the far side of the room where a woman sat, her head down as she swiped her finger across her phone.

“Excuse me,” Ally said.

The woman flipped her phone over and looked up at us with tired eyes. “Can I help you?”

“Yes,” Ally said sharply and pulled me toward her. “My step-sister, Jamie, received a phone call from Detective Branson.”

My jaw dropped, but Ally pinched my side and I nodded at the woman, playing along.

She looked at her computer and her fingers moved across the keyboard. “You made it here fast.”

“I have to get her back for school tomorrow,” Ally lied.

The woman stood from her seat and motioned for me to follow her. Ally stepped forward.

“Unfortunately for you, this is an open investigation. I can only take Jamie to the detective,” the woman commented.

My stomach lurched. Now what? Ally was the one with the plan.

Ally nodded curtly and widened her eyes at me. I guessed this wasn’t part of her plan.

I followed the woman through several sets of doors, going further into the station. Other officers milled around the station through windowless doors. I heard someone yelling from behind one of them. An officer sat in front of the door holding a magazine in his hand. He looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back and quickly averted my eyes.

I peeked behind me, not expecting to see Cooper but a quick shimmer of his form let me know that he was with me. My shoulders relaxed. I could do this.

We stopped at a door and the woman swiped a card over a gray box on the wall. She pushed through the door and I followed into a plush office. It didn’t match the hard concrete theme of the rest of the building. The office chair was turned away but a fluff of gray hair poked out over the top.

“Hey, Branson,” she said. “I have Jamie Blackhorn here for you.”

The chair swiveled and I came face to face with a man in his late fifties. His gray hair was mussed at the top but the rest of his appearance was clean shaven. He stood up from the chair and reached a hand to me. “Thanks, Melissa. I’ll take it from here.”

My hand disappeared under his stubby fingers.

The door clicked shut behind me. It could have been a prison cell because that’s where I was headed if I didn’t do this right. It would have been so much easier if Ally said she was Jamie. But if anyone had described her, I looked more like Jamie than Ally did. At least we had the same hair color and were relatively the same height.

“I appreciate you taking the time to come up here.” He indicated for me to sit in the chair across from him. “I know we were interrupted on the phone.”

I shuffled to the edge of my chair. “Did you hear anything?”

“When?”

“The other day when I hung up?”

“No, your father just said that you weren’t feeling well and that you would call me back. I tried a few times on your cell but it went straight to voicemail.”

I pressed my lips together. Why would Robert lie to the detective? I shivered. My mind wandered. It had to be a Shadowed who took her. Who else would go to all this trouble? “My phone dropped into the sink when I was doing dishes, I had to wait to get a new one.”

He nodded, apparently satisfied with my excuse. “Well I’m happy you called me back. Can I assume you haven’t heard from your friend?”

“No, sir.” I had slipped into my Guard training but he didn’t bat an eyelash at the formality.

Instead, his thick eyebrows lifted and he shuffled paperwork across his desk until he plucked a sheet from the pile. “As I said, Yera listed you as her emergency contact. I see here that she has no other family.” His gaze met mine as he straightened the sheets in front of him. “But I have to wonder why she listed you. You aren’t related to her and those who did know her have never heard of you.”

I sat straighter in the chair. “She and my father were old friends. They recently reconnected and I was going to visit her this summer. I’m assuming she listed me ahead of time because I was going to be with her.” I steadied my hands in my lap as the lies flowed easily.

His phone rang. He lifted his finger to me and picked it up. “My apologies. This will take a minute.”

I nodded and took the opportunity to investigate the paperwork on his desk. A picture peeked out from one of the stacks, but Branson caught my eye and his eyes narrowed slightly. I attempted to be as calm as possible but my curiosity bubbled to the surface.

“May I?” I asked, grabbing for the photo.

He nodded.

I plucked the photo from his desk and studied the woman in the photograph. She was very thin and short, her frizzy dirty blonde hair was frozen to one side of her head as if it had been windy that day. She stood in front of a house holding a “sold” sign. Her mouth was open in an ear to ear smile and a fluttering sensation filled my stomach.

The detective put the phone down. “Her neighbor took this photo. It was the only one we found. She apparently wasn’t sentimental.”

If she had been a Percipio, I doubt her interest would be able to be photographed. Maybe that was why Jamie had painted Cooper. That was her way of explaining what she saw. “No, she isn’t,” I added, hoping to sound like I actually knew the woman. The longer I stared at the photo, the more something felt off about it. I brought it closer to my face, inspecting her features. I had never met her but I knew her. I shook my head.

“Do you remember any information that she might have told you? Anyone who might have wanted to hurt her?”

Hurt her? Percipios could see the After so I supposed that the Shadowed could have targeted her. But for what reason?

“No,” I breathed, just as a memory slammed into me. I gasped, the picture falling from my hands and landing on the desk.

A pair of bright blue eyes transfixed me. Dylan. I had seen him at the destroyed Gate Seven only days ago. He was holding the hand of a woman. It couldn’t be. The picture matched the woman dead on. I shoved away from the desk, my hands shaking. Yera was dead. Yera had contacted Jamie. Was Jamie dead too? Someone in the After would have to know if she was. My stomach churned.

“Ms. Blackhorn?” The detective’s voice sounded muffled.

The room appeared to close in on me.

“Are you alright?” the detective asked, circling around his desk to my side.

I looked up at him, attempting to stop my trembling body. “Yes,” I said quickly. I took a few deep breaths.

Get it together!

I swallowed. “Sorry. I just haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.”

He squinted his eyes but helped me back to my chair.

“And I am just overwhelmed. I hope you will be able to find her soon,” I added.

Branson opened a drawer and pulled out a business card. “I know you had a long drive up here. I’m going to ask that you take this all in and try to get some rest. I will call ahead to our local motel for you to stay in for a little while. If you remember anything, please don’t hesitate to call me. Even the smallest bit of information could be helpful.”

I took the card.

“Oh there is one more thing,” he said, shuffling through his paperwork. He picked up a stamped envelope. Jamie’s address was on the front of it. “This was in her mailbox. I didn’t open it, but since you were coming here I thought I would hand it to you personally.”

I took the note but he didn’t let go. “If there is anything in there that is pertinent to the investigation you will share?”

“Absolutely,” I said, staring at his fingers.

He let go and ushered me from the office. I tucked the envelope into my back pocket.

Branson and I walked in silence down the hall back to the lobby. My mind was blank other than the vision of Yera’s soul at Gate Seven. He opened the last door for me and shook my hand. “I would like to meet with you tomorrow, please come by when you can.”

“We have to head home today,” Ally interrupted, holding a cup of steaming coffee.

“He’s putting us up for the night in a motel,” I explained.

Ally cringed. “Are you holding her on any charges?”

Branson narrowed his eyes. “No.”

Ally nodded curtly. “Then we will be on our way.”

Branson shifted his gaze to me. “I wish you would reconsider.”

“I’ll call you if I remember anything,” I said, trying not to appear as suspicious as Ally made me out to be.

He nodded. I could tell he was good at his job. He cared for those that were affected by his cases and I wished I could have helped him more but I had my own case to solve.

Ally took my arm and whirled me around. “What happened?” she asked in a low voice.

“I’ll tell you when—” Something slammed on the ground and I jumped. Branson and Melissa weren’t in sight, the only one left was one of the janitors. He stood stiffly on the other side of the room, his mop on the ground making a puddle.

I leaned into Ally, backing slightly away. “What’s wrong with him?”

Ally’s hand squeezed around mine. “Black eyes.”

CHAPTER NINE

Ally pushed me in front of her as we ran past the sliding front doors and into the parking lot. I knew better than to argue. I wasn’t a soul anymore and I actually could die. She could too but it would be much more difficult and if I knew a Shadowed like I thought I did, he would go for the easier target. Had he been there waiting for us? Why did they always seem to be one step ahead? All doubt flew from my mind that they had something to do with Yera’s death.

The memory of Yera and Dylan at Gate Seven nearly stopped me in my tracks, but Cooper appeared next to me fully corporeal, grabbed my arm and pulled me alongside him.

“Yera is dead,” I said, my breath catching in my throat. “I saw her at Gate Seven.”

Ally cursed and transported to the car.

“I need you to get into the car,” Cooper said.

“But—”

“No buts. You can’t transport and I’m not going anywhere without you. For once in your life just listen to me.”

On any other occasion I might have resisted but I knew he was right.

I pumped my legs as fast as I could. If the Shadowed had been inside of a human, he couldn’t be too harmful to us unless his real soul came out. Then we’d be in some serious trouble.

I reached the car and Ally appeared in front of me, her sword drawn. I scanned the parking lot for unsuspecting humans but I was surprised to find none. I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. I pulled the door handle but it resisted.

“Keys!” I called, looking behind me. My heart raced and I could barely catch my breath.

Ally fumbled through her purse for the keys, but the Shadowed reached us before she could get them. Dropping her purse and I picked it up, still searching. I found the key fob and unlocked the car. As I reached for the handle, Ally and Cooper knocked into me in a protective stance, the door closing once again.