Unnatural Souls (11 page)

Within moments, the bricks were flying
toward us, deadly missiles with only one goal: the demon’s face.
Each one smashed into him, exploding with the impact, but the demon
continued to hold me down, unshaken.

And that had been the one ace up my
sleeve. An ace that hadn’t worked. Dammit.

I needed to get to that blade, but how
was I going to do it?

My eyes roamed the alley in
desperation. How was I going to get this demon off of me? There had
to be something in this dilapidated avenue that I could use to
knock him away long enough for me to retrieve my weapons… But I saw
nothing else that could be of use to me. The streets were bare—even
the fallen bricks just dust now. There were no more trashcans or
other objects to hurl at him. Nothing.

I’d already used
everything.

The demon pulled out a
blade of his own and stared down at me, then reared back slowly,
seeming to enjoy my growing terror.
No,
no, no.

Suddenly a miracle occurred. “Play
time’s over,” a familiar voice called tauntingly.

The demon and I froze, for two very
different reasons, and I almost laughed when the menacing
expression on his face turned to disbelief. I couldn’t have been
more angry—or relieved—to hear her. She had abandoned me, but now
that she was here I was safe. She could kill this demon
easily.

And, as if on cue, a slender pair of
hands shot out to grab the demon by the shoulders. The monster
yelled out as he was yanked off of me, but Kali tossed him down the
alley like he was nothing more than a doll.

I leapt up, frantically looking around
for the demon, and saw that he was slumped over against a wall
across the street. Already dead? I thought not, as he still had a
body. But not for long. Kali was standing next to me, her forearms
black like charcoal, and enveloped in red flames.

The fire grew, moving down her arms
until it formed balls in her open palms. Her expression was deadly,
her eyes glowing like rubies, and I felt relief coursing through
me. She’d come back for me after all. Later than she could have,
but she’d no doubt been watching the entire thing.

She had put me in this situation, and
I should have been furious, but instead I was grateful to see her.
I was safe. I was going to make it home, and I was going to save my
brother.

And then I saw something else. As I
watched her, I began to see her aura. I had never paid much
attention to her aura when she fought, and hadn’t even consciously
called the power to myself just then—so there was no reason for me
to be seeing her aura at all. Perhaps I was just ramped up with my
own power, I thought, and seeing the world through a different
lens. Whatever it was, the red I had seen around her in the past
was intensifying … but the slightest hint of blue was seeping
through it now.

Was Michael right? I suddenly
wondered. Was she actually good, deep down? She had to be, to have
even the faintest shade of blue showing through the powerful red
that surrounded her.

Then I saw where it was coming from.
The blue was bleeding from the talisman hanging around her neck,
mixing with her red aura. I had never thought about the necklace
much. Once, because I had thought it was pretty, I’d asked where
she got it. Her answer had been one word: Michael. I’d assumed it
was a gift, and left it alone. But the color made me think it was
more than that. It had power—and it must be angelic power, because
that was the only thing that made sense for a demon in her
position.

Why would he give her such a thing?
Why was it blue? If that blue aura wasn’t Kali’s … whose was
it?

“
Your angel friend and
that stupid charmed talisman can’t protect you from the king of
Hell forever,” the demon hissed at her.

This took me back. The
necklace was
charmed
? Like by angels? Was that why it was blue? And it was
protecting her? How? I squinted, trying to get a better look at
it.

“
Adrian will stop you, and
make your death slow and torturous,” the demon continued, his face
contorted in pain.

Kali sneered at the demon, her power
building. The fire that lapped around her arms, almost reaching her
shoulders now, slithering down, collecting around her hands. The
swirling spheres of flame grew larger as the blaze intensified, and
a moment later she lifted her arms, holding them in front of
herself. Then, with a flick of her wrist, she sent the balls of
heat bursting forth. The two fireballs flew straight in the demon’s
chest, and the thing was engulfed in flames. When the fire died
down, all that was left was a pile of ashes.

I turned my attention back to Kali,
amazed as always by her power … but also curious, now. For a
moment, the red in her aura overshadowed her body, but the blue
light from the talisman shone strongly through it, and a moment
later, the red faded. Then the blue receded as well, settling back
into the middle of the talisman. It seemed to have a mind of its
own, and looked like it was acting as a shield. Trying to protect
Kali from the red taint.

A living thing,
my mind repeated over and over again. Hang on.
Kali had been an angel, and when she fell, she’d lost her soul. All
of the demons did. That was why they were tainted red—it marked
them as dark, soulless monsters.

So was the blue inside the
necklace … was it her
soul
?

It made sense. Michael had
made a deal with them to get back into Heaven, and he’d also given
her the talisman. It had weird writing on it, unlike anything I had
seen on Earth. And though it was a leap, it wasn’t a big leap. That
thing could have been created by the angels. It
could
be holding her
soul.

“
Now that’s power,” Kali
said with a little laugh. She pulled one of my blades from her belt
and held it out to me. I accepted it, drew my other blade from my
belt, and took a deep breath.

“
Don’t looked so pissed,”
she muttered, taking in my face and the blades in my hands. “I was
here the whole time, ready to step in when you needed me. Honestly,
I was positive I was going to have to take them all out. I never
dreamed this would work, but damn. You took two demons on by
yourself. That’s not bad.”

It was disturbing, but
I
had
taken on
three demons. Well, two. I took no joy in what I did, killing other
creatures, but I couldn’t deny the relief it brought me that I’d
finally been able to defend myself. I glanced down at the two
weapons, really looking at them for the first time, and saw that
they were two half-moon shaped blades that encircled my hands, the
points ending at my wrists. They had the same brilliant blue light
that Michael’s sword had.

And with that, any thoughts of Kali
and her talisman drifted away. I had called my weapon. I had done
it! I’d finished my training! I looked down at my watch, though,
and realized we had less than eleven hours left. Time to
leave.

“
I have to go,” I
muttered.

Kali, in true Kali fashion, just put
her hands on her hips and looked pissed as all Hell. Obviously she
was expecting more excitement on my part, no doubt thinking that
she should get credit for having taught me how to use my final
power. I almost laughed at the look on her face.

Unfortunately for her, I didn’t have
time to sit here and celebrate. Or make her feel better about
having taught me.

I had only ten and a half hours left
to find Michael. I would have to call him using my angelic
power—sort of like magical text message. And hope he came quickly.
I needed to show him I could summon my weapon, and that I’d
completed my training. That I’d come through on my end of the
bargain.

And then he would save my brother, as
promised. I didn’t know exactly how that was going to be done, but
I assumed that I’d also have to find Ash. So the faster I got to
Michael, the better.

There was plenty of time. Really. But
I couldn’t shake the feeling that the minutes were ticking away, or
the sense of impending doom. I was so close, but I wasn’t done. And
I could only rest once Ash was truly safe.

With that in mind, I focused on the
forest—on the specific spot I had decided on, where I would call
Michael to me. It was the forest where my brother had met the
demon. Where I had watched in horror as he traded his soul to save
my life. I wanted to finish this where it had started. He’d gain
his soul back in the exact place where he’d lost his soul it in the
first place.

I felt a wave of warmth as my power
coursed through me, readying me for the jump. Time to go save Ash.
I’d done it—I had what I needed, and I had plenty of time. This was
going to happen. And with that exhilarating thought, and hope in my
heart, I disappeared.

OF COURSE, IT
didn’t matter how much
I
had rushed; Michael chose to take
all freaking afternoon before he answered my call.

I’d sent out the message … and then
spent hours pacing in the sun, panicked, cussing, and hitting
anything that got in my way. And as the sun slowly inched toward
the horizon, my heart sank with it. Each second that passed was
another second closer to the moment when the demon would come to
collect my brother’s soul. Michael needed to … do whatever it was
he had to do to save Ash’s soul before then, or it would be too
late. He could be lost to me, and all of my work would be for
nothing.

So where was that damned angel? I’d
told him I would call to him the moment I was finished with my
tasks, and he’d agreed to meet me and fulfill his promise. And I’d
told him when we made the deal how long Ash had left. He knew I was
in a rush, that today was the last day. Yet he still wasn’t
here.

What could possibly be taking him so
long? I wondered, furious. Surely whatever he was doing could wait.
I was positive there was important angel war planning going on, but
he knew what was at stake for me—and how little time I had left.
Suddenly the relief and joy I’d been feeling earlier with Kali
vanished. What if he didn’t show up in time?

No, he would make it, I told myself.
He’d made a promise to me, and I’d fulfilled my end of the bargain.
I had mastered my powers, dedicated my life to hunting and training
with Kali. Done exactly what he’d asked. He would hold up his end
of the deal, too; he had to.

So what was the delay?

Was he was taking so long
because something had happened to him? And what would I do if he
never showed? What
could
I do? I couldn’t even let that thought sink in
because there was no back-up plan if Michael bailed on me. I had to
believe he would come, at any minute. He simply had to.

Finally I just started staring at my
watch, groaning as the time ticked down. Now I only had one hour
and sixteen minutes left before the demon came for my brother. It
was my time of death a year ago—and the very moment when Ash had
agreed to sell his soul. I assumed that the time would be
exact.

This demon hadn’t seemed like the kind
to show up late for this sort of appointment.

I’d never thought that knowing my time
of death would come in handy, but it helped me pinpoint, to the
minute, what time Ash would lose his soul. And it was growing
closer by the second.

If Michael didn’t arrive
soon, I would be too late to save my brother. Which was about the
worst thing I could imagine. I’d trained
so hard for three months. I’d
worked
my ass off with a demon that
couldn’t stand me. I’d fought other demons, put my life on the
line, and then figured out how to push blades out of my hands, for
God’s sake.

And now I was going to
lose my brother just because Michael couldn’t bother to show up in
time.

Suddenly, though, his
voice boomed out from behind me. “Grace.”

I whipped around to face
him, clenching my fists at my sides. “What took you so long?” I
demanded, my heart hammering in my chest. “One hour and fifteen
minutes. That’s how long I have to save him now. You know his time
is almost up.”