Unnatural Souls (9 page)

Jab, jab, jab.
I bit the insides of my cheeks, glad she knew
nothing about the deal for Ash. If she did, she’d no doubt be
talking about how I was letting him down, too. But I hadn’t trusted
her with that. It wasn’t her business, anyway, and at times like
this, I was extraordinarily grateful I’d kept my mouth shut. She
was already hitting every other insecurity and fear I had. Trust
me, no one was more disappointed or angry with me than I was with
myself.

Still, it wasn’t like I
hadn’t accomplished
anything
. I had made progress in the
three months we’d worked together. I had learned to move objects
and teleport perfectly. There were no more unwanted craznados. I
hadn’t had an outburst of unwanted powers in over two weeks. Minus
the spirits. I couldn’t do anything about actually getting rid of
those, but Kali had showed me how to tell the difference between
them and the living. So at least I wasn’t in danger of talking to
one, thinking it was alive, in front of people. She’d showed me the
faint blue and red glow around them on almost the first day. Auras,
she’d called them. Blue represented Heaven, and red for Hell. The
auras of the spirits I saw were a mixture of the two colors because
they didn’t belong to either. They were stuck in limbo, too pure
for Hell but tainted enough that they couldn’t be allowed into
Heaven. It was nearly impossible to have your spirit stuck directly
in middle ground—but it did happen. And when it did, I got to see
them every freaking day.

Being able to see the pesky spirits
for what they were was the first thing I figured out. And then I’d
started getting control of some of my powers.

But as much as I’d accomplished, it
didn’t mean anything if I couldn’t call my angelic weapon. We’d
gone out hunting every single night for three months. I could hold
my own to a point, keeping the demons at bay with my power to move
objects and teleport out of their way before they landed a kill
shot. Still, Kali had to step in every time to actually dispatch
them. Without the ability to call my angelic weapon, I was useless
to Heaven.

And to Ash.

Because I didn’t think Michael would
give me an extension. He’d been clear about mastering all of my
powers in a given amount of time, and he wasn’t very forgiving. In
fact, I thought he was more of a wrathful angel. And if he wasn’t
willing to take pity on me, there’d be nothing I could do for Ash.
Because my contract with Michael was about to expire. Without me
knowing how to kill a demon. Which mean Michael wouldn’t have to
fulfill his promise about saving Ash.

One day. I had one freaking day to
come through on my deal with the angel. And I had no idea how to do
it.

“
I’m not sure I should
even be teaching you anything,” Kali suddenly said. “I don’t see
why Michael thinks you’re worth it. He doesn’t care about anything
but the higher cause, anyhow. What purpose could you possibly serve
to
that
?”

Instead of answering her question, I
went right for the kill.

“
Let’s go again,” I said,
unable to stay here for a second longer. I needed to figure out how
to do this, and I was itching to get back out there, to try again.
I knew I needed to calm down first, but that was impossible when
the clock was running down so quickly.

“
Why?” she asked, raising
an eyebrow.

“
Because I can’t—”
Let Ash die,
I didn’t
add. “—Just sit here and be a failure. I need to figure this out.
Come on, you aren’t tired, are you? Losing your edge?”

Kali smiled. It was a creepy smile,
but I knew it meant she was in.

“
Okay, but I have a new
plan,” she said. She crossed her arms and looked at me like she was
planning to torture me.

I almost thought that would be
okay.

“
What plan is that?” I
asked.

But she didn’t answer. Instead, she
grabbed my arm, and I felt her power pulse through me. The next
second, we were gone.

WE APPEARED AGAIN
on a street corner in a dingy, abandoned city. I
could see hills in the distance, and a forest in the other
direction. It was a very tiny town, I realized—more like a village
than an actual city. There weren’t any signs on the stores, and
there were no lights on. In fact, it didn’t look like anyone had
lived there for decades. Wood was rotting away, bricks crumbling.
In another decade, it all might just collapse in on itself—and I
was pretty sure there was nothing alive or dead hanging out there
in the meantime.

And though it was just after five in
the morning where I lived, it was still dark here. Pitch black, in
fact.

I looked at Kali, trying to figure out
what was going on, and saw that she was smiling wickedly. “Time for
some intensity training,” she said.

I didn’t like the sound of that, and
opened my mouth to question her, but she cut me off.

“
Maybe some pressure will
help you work. Come on, it’s a classic training
technique.”

She took off down the street, and
though this sounded like a truly horrible idea, I had a little over
twelve hours left before my deadline. I was up for just about
anything at this point.

So I ran after her.
I can do it this time,
I
told myself.
I have to.

Kali was quick, though, and had
already made it around the next corner, disappearing from sight.
Suddenly I was very aware that it was the dead of night in an
abandoned village in who-knew-where, and pushed myself to sprint as
fast as I could.

Kali was there, I reminded myself as
the fear began to run through me. Nothing bad was going to happen
as long as she was around. She might be a pain, but she could also
kick some serious butt. I might not like her, but I was safe with
her. Nothing bad was going to happen to me. Well—nothing worse than
what already had.

Then I rounded the corner, and
instantly regretted thinking anything nice about her.

She was gone.

I kept my eyes moving but saw nothing,
the only sound my own heavy breathing and my heartbeat in my ears.
There was no one here—and I wasn’t going to wait around all night
for whatever plan Kali claimed she had. Honestly, I was starting to
think she’d just ditched me here as a joke. Which I didn’t have
time for. Maybe she’d just wanted to go hunting without me as dead
weight.

I knew immediately that I wasn’t going
to stick around. I could teleport home, but I wasn’t going
to.

And my heart was racing at
the idea of what I
was
about to do.

Kali claimed she wanted to try
intensity training, and I was scared as hell of it … but on board
with the idea. I didn’t have much time left, and that meant only
one thing: I was either going to call my angelic weapon, and save
Ash, or die trying. It was time to push myself.

And Kali wouldn’t be there to save me
if I screwed up—because I was going to be on my own.

Instead of staying in no man’s land, I
mentally focused on a spot where we’d gone hunting before. I pulled
the picture of the haunt in New York to my mind, and then
concentrated on it with every ounce of my being. That was how I
teleported—I had to imagine where I wanted to go, and pull at my
power to take me there.

As for the location I had in mind, it
was a place I knew would have plenty of demon activity. If I was
going to be left alone to hunt, I might as well find a location
where I had a real shot at running into a demon. I had no clue if
there were any in this abandoned town, and that wasn’t good enough.
I needed guaranteed demon presence, to push myself. To see if I
could do it. To call my weapon. Hunting on my own was going to be
terrifying, but if I got in over my head I could just teleport my
butt out of there, right?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to
initiate what I’d come to think of as the jump. Because a voice
interrupted me almost immediately.

“
Going somewhere,
sweetheart?”

THE LOW, GROWLING
voice came from my right, breaking my
concentration and causing the image in my mind to slip away before
I could call upon my power to teleport me. I flung myself in the
opposite direction, up against the wall, and stared wild-eyed at
the demon in front of me. For a moment, the glowing red eyes were
all I could see, causing me to freeze in place. Well, crap. I’d
thought I was alone.

Turned out I wasn’t that
lucky.

The monster was pale and wore a black
cloak. He was silent now, just staring at me with a blank
expression, but then he moved and his robe pulled back, revealing a
thin, almost skeletal body. There didn’t seem to be an ounce of
muscle or fat on him. I could see his bony fingers flexing, his
almost translucent skin looking like it would tear off with every
movement.

I heard footsteps as he stepped
forward, but his movement was so graceful that it looked like he
was floating.

What on earth
was
this
thing?

He drifted closer and I quickly moved
sideways, adrenaline coursing through me. I was cornered, and
definitely, really alone with a demon. Kali wasn’t here, and
Michael wasn’t likely to pop up to save me like he’d done that
first time. Unless Kali showed up at the last moment, I was up a
creek without the proverbial paddle.

I could protect myself with my other
powers for a small amount of time, but I couldn’t kill him. I
needed a real defense.

Call your weapon, call
your freaking weapon!
I shouted at
myself.
Idiot!
I
reached down inside myself, the way I had to when I called my other
powers, and tried to summon it. But I felt empty, like nothing was
there. For whatever reason, now—when I really needed them—my powers
had decided to vacate the premises. I wanted to scream in
rage.

So I turned around and took off
running. I needed to calm down and focus—and that would take a
second. I had to get to a place where I could stand still and
breathe, and get my emotions in check. If I couldn’t do that then I
wouldn’t be able to defend myself at all, or escape if I needed to,
and I would have no chance at calling my weapon to me. I leapt over
a trashcan near the end of the block, and rounded the corner to
find myself in a dead end. Shoot. Turning, I prepared to run the
other way, hoping to see a door, an opening—anything I could slip
through.

Instead, I ended up face to face with
another demon. This one looked almost identical to the first, and
for a second I thought the monster had just caught up to me. But
then I saw that this one had a scar over its right eye. And just as
I realized that, the first demon drifted around the corner,
smiling.

Suddenly the closest demon
was moving in on me. I was surrounded by demons, and backed up in
the dead end of an alley. Which meant the only way out was
through
them. Here went
nothing. I tensed, took a deep breath, and leapt forward, dashing
across over the two feet that separated me from the first demon.
When I reached it, I rammed at it with every ounce of strength I
had, hoping to shove past the thing, but it barely budged. It
pushed me back like I weighed nothing, and I went flying backwards
five feet, landing on my butt.

Shit. I had to get away from them. I
had to get home.

Then things got even worse.

“
Come on, angel,” a third
voice said from behind me.

I leapt to my feet,
sparing a quick glance backwards, and gulped. Three of them? Demons
normally worked alone, from what I’d gathered on my missions with
Kali. It was rare seeing two demons hunting together, but three? It
was unheard of, as far as I knew. And of course
I
had the poor luck of running into
the ones who—for some reason—were doing just that. I was dead. I
couldn’t take on one demon by myself, and now I was surrounded by
them. Alone. I wanted intensity training, right? Well, I certainly
got what I asked for.