With All My Soul (12 page)

Avari’s return to active-threat status was inevitable, and it
always would be until we managed to turn the other hellions against him. But my
plan obviously wasn’t working fast enough.

Fear chased away my shock, and hot on its tail was a blinding
fury unlike anything I’d ever felt. Avari and his hellion colleagues had already
taken so much from me and from my friends and family. They weren’t going to get
my father, too.

Well, they weren’t going to get to
keep
him, anyway.

Uncle Brendon was the first person I called. His phone rang in
my ear three times, then Sabine answered. “Hey, Kaylee, what’s up?”

“Why the hell are you answering my uncle’s phone?” I could hear
the anger in my voice. It echoed back at me over the line and from every corner
of my own house. I regretted it—for once, Sabine wasn’t the problem—but I
couldn’t control it.

“Whoa, rein it in. Just ’cause we’re friends now doesn’t mean
you get to raise your voice at me.”

“Sorry. I just... Where’s Uncle Brendon?”

“He’s kinda tied up with Sophie right now.”

“Well, untie him. It’s an emergency.”

“Those must be going around. We’re at the police station.”

“Why? What did you do?”

“Why do you assume
I
did
something?”

“Because you have an arrest record and two convictions? Because
no one knows how or
if
you paid for your car?
Because you tried to sell me and Emma into eternal torture in the
Netherworld?”

“You know, eventually you’re going to have to get over that.
But you make a valid point.”

“I made several valid points.”

“Whatever. Sophie slashed some chick’s tires in the parking
lot, and the school cop caught her walking away from the scene with a pair of
scissors in her hand. Rookie mistake.”

“Why on earth would Sophie slash someone’s tires?”

“Because the girl who owns the car hit on her boyfriend. And
she mighta...kinda...been overwrought with jealousy.”

“Any chance you had something to do with that?”

“I
might
have told the car owner in
question that Luca was looking to...expand his social circle. And there’s a
slight
chance I might have been a bit
overzealous in my amplification of your cousin’s worst fear—which, at the
moment, is losing everyone she loves. Including Luca.”

“Sabine! I swear, every time I think you’re turning into a
decent person, you do something to prove me wrong.”

“I was trying to expedite the process. I had no idea she was
capable of vandalism. But I have to say, I’m a little impressed. Which is why I
let her dad and the cops think I slashed the tires, then made her carry the
weapon. He’s in there right now trying to influence us out of here.”

“You took the blame because you’re impressed that my cousin
committed a crime?”

“Yeah. And I
might
be feeling a
tiny bit of something similar to but definitely not the same as...guilt. Kind
of.”

I groaned into the phone and sank onto the couch again, with my
elbows on my knees, my forehead resting in my free hand.

“Is Luca there, too?”

“Yeah. It’s kind of a public spectacle. Sophie’s totally
humiliated, and Luca can’t convince her that it’ll be all right. And she’s
refusing to tell him why she did it.” Sabine made a wet chomping noise in my
ear, and I realized she was chewing gum. At the police station. Like being there
was no big deal. “So, what’s the emergency? What’d you need?”

“Backup. When you guys get out of there, come straight here.
And bring my uncle.” I hung up before she could ask why, and I had to admit,
hanging up on Sabine felt kinda good.

Next I called Harmony. She didn’t answer her phone either,
which was really weird. Harmony always answered her cell except when she was
working, and her shift at the hospital didn’t start until eleven. It was only
four in the afternoon.

I dialed Tod next. When he didn’t answer, either, I got so
frustrated I nearly threw my phone at the wall. Where the hell
was
everyone? Well, Em was still at school, but she
wouldn’t be able to help me locate my father anyway. Neither would Nash,
but...there was no one left to call.

He answered on the first ring.

“Hey.”

“I am so glad you answered your phone.” I pushed hair away from
my face and leaned back on the couch, suddenly hating the empty house I’d been
thrilled with ten minutes earlier.

“You...are?” I could hear the confusion in his voice and the
road noise in the background. He was in a car.

“Yeah. I can’t get a hold of anyone else. Where are you
going?”

“I’m picking up Emma in Sabine’s car. Bina’s at the police
station with—”

“I know. I just talked to her.”

“Didn’t you just say people aren’t answering their phones?”

“She answered my uncle’s. Hey, have you talked to Tod
today?”

His silence stretched over the wireless line between us, and I
realized I’d said the wrong thing. I was getting really good at that. “Is that
all you want? You called me looking for Tod?”

“No, that’s not all I want. But, yes, I called looking for him.
It’s important, Nash.”

“I haven’t talked to him since lunch. Why?”

“I need help, and I can’t find him. Or your mom.”

“She crossed over.”

Harmony was in the Netherworld? “Why?”

“She’s looking for some kind of herb, or root, or leaf, or
something to help Traci keep her baby. Which is a really dumbass idea, you know.
Why on earth would you want to bring another incubus into the world when the
last one killed you?”

“It’s more complicated than that. And it’s not my decision.” I
exhaled, trying to decide exactly how close we’d gotten to true friendship.
“Nash, I need help. Not that you owe me anything, so it’s totally okay if you
don’t want to help me, but I’m asking. In fact, I’m kind of begging.”

“I’m in.” He didn’t even hesitate. “What’s wrong?”

“Avari took my dad.”

“Seriously?” I heard the squeal of his tires on pavement as he
stomped on the brake. “How? Is he okay?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have any of the answers, but I have to
get him back.”

“It’s a trap. You know this is a trap, right?”

“I know. Which is why I need help.” If I went after him alone,
I was as good as dead. Well, dead
er,
anyway.

“Okay, I’m coming. Let me turn around....”

“No, get Em first, then meet me at my house. Please. I have to
find him before we can go after him, anyway. Maybe by the time I manage that,
we’ll have more people willing to follow us into the breach.”

“Oh.” I could hear the disappointment in his voice. “Okay.
Yeah. I’ll get Em, and we’ll meet at your place in half an hour.”

“Thanks, Nash. Just...thank you.”

“Anytime, Kaylee. That much hasn’t changed.”

Chapter Eleven

I stood alone in my high school cafeteria, feeling like
a fool. The room was empty, but I was incorporeal anyway, just in case. Nash and
Emma were probably pulling out of the parking lot at that very moment, but they
had no idea I was there. I couldn’t tell them, because they’d never let me do
what I was planning. What, under normal circumstances, I would never even have
considered.

You need only bleed and use my
name.

I understood the words but not their meaning. I’d had no idea
hellions could even
be
summoned until Ira had told
me. In fact, I wasn’t sure exactly
what
he’d told
me. But I knew how to bleed.

It took a minute of searching through commercial-grade
stainless steel drawers in the kitchen, but I finally found a drawer full of
knives. I selected the shortest—a paring knife—and slid the drawer closed with
the clang of metal. Then I sat on the floor, my legs crossed in front of me, and
silently hoped I was doing the right thing. And that whatever summoning
involved, it wouldn’t put me in danger of being killed or captured in the next
few minutes.

Then I sliced open my palm.

It was a small cut. In the movies, they always make a huge gash
whenever they need blood to summon the forces of evil, but that had always felt
like overkill to me. Surely evil doesn’t care how dramatic your blood loss is,
right?

In the movies, it never really looks like those gruesome
self-inflicted cuts hurt, but in real life—even for the undead—it hurt. A
lot.

I set the knife down and let blood well up into my palm until
there was a pool the width of a dime. It was slow going, until I realized my
heart wasn’t beating, which meant my blood wasn’t flowing. Not very quickly,
anyway. So I concentrated on making my heart function, and blood collected
faster.

Then I made a fist and let it drip onto the tile floor in front
of me, because I wasn’t sure what else to do with the blood. Or what exactly Ira
meant when he told me to “use” his name.

“Ira.”

My voice didn’t echo, because I was inaudible to human ears and
thus most of the physical plane. So I wasn’t really surprised when nothing
happened.

“Ira.” I tried it again, audible to the whole world, had anyone
been there to hear me. That time there was a slight echo of my voice in the
empty room. But no hellion appeared.

“Come on! You promised you’d...be summonable!” And hellions
couldn’t lie.

My frustration and anger built as I stared at the blood still
dripping slowly from my hand onto the floor. There were a couple of little red
squiggles, because my hand had jiggled. They almost looked like...

Letters.

And suddenly I understood. He hadn’t told me to
say
his name. He’d told me to
use
his name.

I unclenched my fist and dipped my forefinger into the blood.
Then I wrote his name in capital letters, several inches above the small pool of
my own blood.

“Ira.” I wasn’t sure if saying it again would really help, but
I wasn’t taking any chances.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, out of nowhere, the
hellion appeared in front of me, his denim-clad knees level with my eyes.

I looked up. And up. And up. Ira was
tall.
He was also the youngest-looking hellion I’d ever seen, and it
bothered me more than I could even comprehend that I actually had a basis for
that comparison.

“I knew you would call.” The hellion dropped effortlessly into
a squat in front of me, and I lurched backward when he was suddenly staring into
my eyes. “Blue. Nice, but they’d look better in red. If you’re ever mine, your
eyes will be red. It’s a painful procedure, of course—not that it has to be, but
it will be—yet utterly worth the effort. You would look brilliant in red.”

While I gaped at him in shock, the hellion sank onto the floor
in front of me, leaving his name and the small pool of my blood between us. He
crossed his legs, and I was almost certain he was mirroring my position on
purpose.

“Ira?”

“Of course. No one else can come when I’m summoned by name.
That’s how it works.” He must have seen the confusion in my face. Or else he was
reading my thoughts—a possibility that terrified me, but that I couldn’t safely
rule out. “This is your first summoning?”

I nodded, nearly mesmerized by the dark red veins in his
solid-black eyes. By his shoulder-length hair, so deeply red it was almost
black. He looked like an evil rock star. In jeans.

I’d never seen a hellion in jeans.

“That’s because none of the other hellions you’ve dealt with
are strong enough to appear when called. They don’t like admitting that—it makes
them look weak—so they simply refrain from mentioning the possibility.”

“Avari is too weak for...summoning?” My fear was back, and it
was rapidly bleeding into true terror. Avari could snap me in half with two
fingers. He could breathe in my general direction and freeze me solid. If he was
too weak for this, then just how powerful was Ira?

The hellion frowned, but no lines appeared on his broad, clear
forehead. “Oh, no, my little fury, don’t be scared. I enjoy your fear, true, but
I’d much rather have your anger.”

“I don’t give a shit what you want.”

“Ah, that’s better.” Somehow, his smile made him look even
scarier. And...oddly satisfied, for a hellion of rage. “And true, no doubt.
Because this is about what
you
want, isn’t it?”

“How does this work?” I wasn’t going to say another word until
I understood just how much danger I’d put myself in. Had I just unleashed a
hellion into the human world, with no restrictions? “What exactly does
‘summoning’ mean?”

“Think of this like a phone call, only we’re talking
face-to-face. Convenient, huh?”

“So, you’re not really here?”

“Of course I’m here. But because you summoned me, and I
accepted your invitation, I can’t touch you without your permission. And I can’t
interact with anyone else while I’m here.”

“How do I send you back?”

“Tired of me already?”

I nodded. “Before you even got here.”

Ira chuckled, and I saw that his tongue was as dark red as his
hair. Nearly black. “All you have to do is swipe my name from the floor.” He
leaned toward me, over the mess between us. Like he’d whisper a secret. “But you
should know that I can end this appointment as well, so you may not want to
truly anger me until you’ve gotten what you want from me.”

I had no intention of truly angering him. Ever. At all. Under
any circumstances.

“So, what can I do for you today, Kaylee Cavanaugh?”

“Take me to my father.”

“Of course. The price is your immortal soul.”

“No.”

Ira didn’t look surprised in the slightest by my refusal. “This
is not a negotiation, little fury. That’s the price for what you’ve asked
for.”

“Well, I can’t pay it.”

“You can. But you won’t.” He frowned, staring down into my
eyes, as if to confirm the statement he’d just made. “Fine. If the price is too
high, ask for something less expensive.”

“I don’t suppose you’d bring my father back to the human world
for me, alive and as unharmed as he is now, for anything less than my soul.
Right?”

“That is correct. You’re taking this negotiation in the wrong
direction.”

“I thought we weren’t negotiating.”

“We’re not negotiating a new price for your original request.
But each task comes with its own price. Think smaller, unless you’re ready to
pay a big bill.”

“Can you tell me where my father is right now? Do you know
where Avari’s keeping him?”

“I do know, and I can tell you.”

“How much.”

“A taste of your anger.”

“A taste? What does that involve?”

“Just a kiss, little fury.”

“A kiss?”
Eww! Seriously?
“Does
that mean the same thing in the Netherworld as it does here?”

What little I knew about kissing on the other side of the world
barrier, I’d learned from Addison and Nash, who’d both kissed hellions as part
of a business arrangement—an exchange of service for payment.

But for me, kissing meant Tod, and private moments, and
delicious tingles deep down in my stomach and sometimes lower. Kissing meant
sharing something vital and intimate with someone I loved with all my soul, and
I had no intention of sharing that with anyone else, much less with a
hellion.

“As far as I know,” he said. “But we’re not in the Nether, are
we? Might that fact broaden our options a little?”

“No.” No way in
hell.
Chill bumps
rose on my arms, and nausea churned in my stomach.

“I have a boyfriend.”

“I fail to see the relevance.”

I frowned. “He’s relevant because I love him. He’s the only one
I kiss. I’m not going to hurt him.”

Ira’s eyes narrowed with impatience. “Human adolescent drama
doesn’t appeal to me until it involves homicidal rage. Does your boyfriend have
that kind of destructive potential?”

My frown deepened. “Are you asking if he’d kill you for kissing
me?”

The hellion laughed out loud, a deep, creepy sound of
malevolent amusement. “Killing me isn’t an option, though I suspect I would find
the attempt highly entertaining. I’m asking if he would kill
you.
”

Over a kiss? “Skimming right over the fact that I’m already
dead...no.” Nothing in the world—in either world—could make Tod want to kill me.
He’d already proved that. But losing him because I’d kissed a demon might make
my afterlife not worth living....

“Then this conversation is already starting to bore me. Make a
choice. Your father’s location or your boyfriend’s ‘feelings.’”

“I’m not going to kiss you. There must be some other way.”

His dark brows rose. “It has to be a physical exchange, little
fury. Perhaps you’d like to suggest an alternative method of connection?”

That nausea swelled into an all-out roil of disgust twisting
inside me. “About this kiss...” Definitely the lesser of two evils—I hoped with
all my heart that Tod would understand that, even as I hated myself for thinking
it. “I need specifics. What kind of kiss?”

“My mouth and your mouth. And my tongue, of course. For that
taste of your anger.” He leaned forward again and winked at me with one of his
creepy red-veined black eyes. “I promise you’ll enjoy it.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“What’s your answer, little fury?”

“One kiss? Mouth-to-mouth? No biting or taking of any liberties
whatsoever?”

“You’re a smart little thing, aren’t you?”

Only smart enough to know that everything has a price. A
horrible, unthinkable, irreversible price. “I’ve learned to take nothing for
granted.”

That time his frown looked truly irritated. “Remind me to thank
Avari for that.”

“Take your taste. Then back the hell off.”

“As you like, little fury.”

My pulse raced in fear. My skin crawled at the thought of him
touching me, and my heart ached at the sudden brutal understanding of what I’d
agreed to. It took every drop of courage left in my veins to keep me from
swiping my hand over the blood on the floor and running faster and farther than
I’d ever gone in my life.

I concentrated on my dad. On the thought of bringing him home.
Of keeping him safe. And I kept my eyes wide open, even though Ira seemed to be
enjoying whatever he saw in them.

Instead of leaning toward me, he dipped one finger into the
pool of blood between us, careful not to smudge his name. Then he reached for
me, and before I realized what he intended, he ran his finger over my lower lip,
coating it in my blood.

The moment he touched me, anger swelled inside me, hot and
bright. Raging almost out of control. I was drowning in it. Choking on it. He
traced my upper lip with what remained of the blood on his finger, and that
anger inside me tried to burst through my chest.

When he could clearly see the rage churning in my irises, he
leaned forward and slid one hand behind my neck. He pulled me closer, and we met
in the middle over the blood on the floor.

His mouth touched mine, and every grievance I’d ever harbored
was suddenly there in the front of my mind. All of them at once. Everything from
the boy who’d pushed me off the swings on my first day of kindergarten to the
hatred I’d felt for Sabine the day I met her.

His lips opened, and his tongue slid into my mouth. I tasted my
own blood, but beneath that, I tasted him. I expected him to taste like anger.
Like rage. But Ira tasted like calm. Like peace, perfect and still. And as we
kissed, he pulled the anger from me. He sucked it
out
of me. Yet the fury burning within me never abated.

My cup ran over, and though he drank and drank, kissing me
deeper and deeper, the fount of rage inside me only seemed to swell, and I
couldn’t pull away because I needed him to take it. All of it. I couldn’t exist
with that much bitter fury storming inside me, so I gave it to him, and I kept
giving.

And Ira kept taking.

I didn’t come back to myself until he made a noise. A deep moan
of satisfaction against my lips. Somehow inside my mouth. That’s when I realized
what was happening. What I’d done. And what it damn well better buy me.

I shoved him away and his hand trailed around my neck and over
my chin as he let me go. “Enough!” I swiped the back of my uncut hand across my
lips, and it came away bloody.

“Oh, that will
never
be enough for
me, little fury. But it’s enough to make your hellion of avarice
green
with envy. Which will then produce hate, maybe
for you, certainly for me. And the only thing more powerful than righteous anger
is the rage of a hellion.”

“You got what you wanted. Now pay up.”

“I’d say there’s no need to get angry, but we both know I like
it.” He chuckled again, then licked my blood from his dark, dark lips. “Your
father is being held in the basement of the local insane asylum. Are they still
called that? But you won’t be able to retrieve him. And when you return for my
help again, the price will be higher....” Ira winked one black eye at me and
swiped his palm across the floor between us, smudging his name into a smear of
my blood.