Souls (Runes series) Read online

  “Tell me exactly what happened.”

  “At first I thought it was you when I felt the cold draft, but it wasn’t. Stay here. I’ll show you something.”

  I dragged the blanket, wrapped it around me, and hurried to my room for my cell phone, but he was right behind me. He picked up his pants from where he’d dropped them and yanked them on.

  “He entered my laptop and wrote this.” I touched the pictures icon and showed him the writings.

  Echo went pale.

  “What is it? What does it mean?”

  “Devyn. The conniving, traitorous bastard,” Echo spat. He gripped my arms, and his eyes bored into mine. “Don’t ever communicate with him or another dark soul, Cora. They suck energy from everything in their path.”

  I frowned. “He was kind of nice.”

  “Nice?” he snapped, his voice rising.

  I glanced toward my bedroom door. “Keep your voice down.”

  “You have no idea what you are dealing with.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “Mortals possessed by dark souls go crazy.” He sighed, took my arm, and led me back to his room. “Sweetheart, I know you love helping lost souls, but this is one breed you don’t want to mess with.”

  “Condescending much.” I yanked my arm from his grip. “I told you before, I decide who to help, not you.”

  His eyebrows flattened, eyes narrowing. “You never decide. You help everyone. Murderers. Psychopaths. Perverts. How many times have I told you to ignore some psycho and you went ahead and helped him anyway, only to have me step in and haul him out of you? You think their effect on you is bad? Dark souls are worse.”

  Wow, he really was worried about this or he wouldn’t remind me of those bad moments. Whenever a possession went on for too long, they’d drain my energy and I’d fall asleep right afterwards.

  I wrapped my arms around Echo’s waist and hugged him tight. “You are my hero. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “Nice try, but kissing up doesn’t suit you.” He carefully peeled me from his body and put some distance between us. The green in his eyes was overtaking the gold. Not a good thing. “You cannot help dark souls, Cora. They’re nothing but trouble. They lull you into a false sense of security then stab you in the back. Fuckin’ slime balls.” He stepped back and went into hyper-speed, and within seconds, he had his shirt back on. He yanked his socks on.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To find the bastard and haul his icy ass to Hel. I should have done it centuries ago.”

  “No, you can’t.” He reached for a boot. “Echo, stop.”

  He didn’t. He laced up, his movements jerky.

  “Please,” I begged.

  The unease in my voice had him slowing down. I gripped his hands and stopped him from starting on the second boot. I stroked his hand and finally got his full attention.

  “Talk to me. Who is Devyn? Why do you call him a traitor?”

  Echo scowled. “I don’t want to talk, Cora. I gotta go. The Valkyries will want to know about this.”

  “It’s two in the morning. Torin and the others are asleep.”

  “I don’t care. Devyn’s sudden appearance has everything to do with Torin’s father and the deluded Immortals we fought last week. They sent him to you.”

  “Who?”

  His eyes glowed. “Recently departed Immortals. This was a deliberate attempt to get your attention. That was their first mistake.”

  I wanted to remind him that lost souls came to me all the time, but I doubted he’d listen. Devyn hadn’t seemed hateful. “You think they learned about me from what I did for Torin’s mother?”

  “Maybe. I’ve escorted every soul you’ve helped straight to Hel’s Hall. They don’t talk to anyone.”

  I’d let Torin’s mother possess me, so she could talk to him. That had been weird. It had taken me twenty-four hours to fully recover. “You think Torin told someone I helped his mother?”

  “No. St. James is never careless or stupid.” He scowled, and then a weird expression crossed his face. I couldn’t explain it, but I’d hate to meet him in a dark alley when he looked like that. “Devyn crossed the line coming here,” he said softly.

  He just switched from red-hot anger to cold and vengeful. Somehow, I had to stop him before he went all Lokhi on some poor Grimnirs and created more vengeful dark souls. “Talk to me first, Echo.”

  His expression said he was conflicted. Echo tended to charge in first and ask questions later. But when it came to me and my safety, all bets were off.

  “What can you possibly do right now?” I pushed. “It’s dark out there.”

  “Grimnirs work twenty-four-seven. Someone sent Devyn, and I plan to find the shithead responsible, too.”

  That temper of his would be his destruction. If he left pissed, he’d only kill someone and alienate more of his fellow Grimnirs, or worse, get himself killed. The thought sent a fresh dose of panic through me.

  “Can’t it wait until morning?”

  “No.” He tried to wiggle his hands free from my grip, but I didn’t let up.

  Anger replaced logic. “Listen here, Mr. Tough-Grimnir. I need you here now, so you’re going to sit down and talk to me, or I swear…”

  He stopped and cocked his eyebrows, a slow smile lifting the corners of his lips. “Or what?”

  “Or I will hurt you in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine. The more I worry about you, the more I’ll make you suffer when you come back. Have you stopped to think that the people you claim are responsible might just be innocent? What if their target is really you? You storm in and they have a reason to hurt you.”

  “Grimnirs, not people.” His grin broadened. “You’re worried about me?”

  “Really? You’re going to ask me that?” I stood, nudged his arms aside, and sat on his lap. Sighing, I stroked his hair and kissed his temple. “Of course I worry about you, you impossible reaper. You are the slayer of my dragons.”

  He scoffed at the idea. “You do a damn good job on your own while I’m gone. I’m just your eye-candy.”

  “Now that we are in total agreement, start talking so we can go back to bed. I like to fall asleep in your arms and wake to find you watching me. Totally creepy, but I forgive you. Know why? Because I’m crazy about you.” He grinned, and I knew I had him. He wasn’t going anywhere. “What are dark souls, and why are they dark? And who is Devyn?”

  Echo’s eyes narrowed as he studied me. Crap, he was going to blow me off. He could be so unpredictable sometimes. Then he grinned, wrapped his arms around me, and flopped back on the bed, taking me with him. For a moment, he stared at the ceiling. I waited. I’d won, so no pushing. His expression said he was rearranging his thoughts. It seemed like forever before he spoke.

  “Dark souls are from evil Immortals, Valkyries, and Grimnirs,” he said. “You know, the ones the Norns decide are bad for humanity.”

  “Evil Norns?”

  “Good Norns. Not that it makes a difference. Good or evil, they’re all manipulative hags. They don’t do the actual killing. No, good Norns are a lot more subtle than that. While their evil sisters direct accidents, plagues, and so called natural disasters, they alter destinies by creating situations that result in the deaths of the Immortals.”

  “Like the battle with Torin’s father and his followers?”

  Echo nodded.

  So Raine was right about the Norns deliberately letting Torin’s father kill Seeresses. They could have taken him out anytime, yet they’d chosen to look the other way. Raine never said how many Immortals died that night. Only that Torin’s father still lived.

  “When Immortals, Valkyries, and Grimnirs go bad, they know what’s waiting for them on Hel’s special island.”

  I shifted so I could look at his face. “Go bad? How?”

  “Valkyries and Grimnirs get tired of reaping and go underground. Immortals can choose not to help Mortals and set themselves up as their ruler. It’s happened too many ti
mes to count. Every civilization has had their share of Immortal dictators and warlords. They die and run like the cowards they are, roaming the world and growing bitter and vengeful. They suck everything that’s good wherever they go. Air. Energy. The essence of anything they touch. When they enter a room, most Mortals can’t cope. They faint. The dark souls reduce their vessels to blubbering idiots after a possession. Being possessed by a dark soul is worse than anything you’ve ever experienced.”

  Okay. That was brutal. I couldn’t imagine anything worse than the psychopaths I’d helped. I waited for Echo to continue. He shifted uneasily, his arms tightening around me. Somehow, I knew his next words were going to be personal.

  Echo might be tough and cocky on the outside, but inside, he carried a lot of pain. That I could never completely know every detail of his past or take away the pain he’d endured made my heart ache.

  “Dev and I were close once,” he said, his voice low, “until the day he betrayed me and I killed him.”

  Killed? Yikes. From his grim voice, he’d hated doing it, which said a lot. Echo had never regretted his past decisions or actions. They were justified and I agreed with him one hundred percent, but something about Devyn was different. He’d even shortened Devyn’s name, a giant red flag.

  “Dev had some nerve showing his face. I don’t care what he wants. I don’t want him near you.”

  He cared. The pain in his voice whenever he said “Dev” screamed it. His jaw was taut with tension, his sensuous lips pinched tight, but what surprised me were his eyes. They’d darkened, and for once, the green had outrun the gold. I’d never seen them like that before.

  “What did Dev do?” I asked softly, stroking his hair.

  Echo’s eyebrows flattened. “Dev?”

  “You called him Dev, so I assumed it was his nickname or something.”

  He frowned. I bet he hadn’t realized that he’d shortened Devyn’s name. He was also not ready to talk. He could be so easy to read sometimes.

  I slipped my hand down his back and stroked his scars, remembering his stories about how he’d gotten them and what he’d done to the Roman soldiers responsible. I’d also seen him yank out hearts of Grimnirs who’d threatened me. Echo could be vengeful and not lose sleep over it. I had no idea what he’d do to Devyn’s soul, but I was sure it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “How do you make a dark soul wish they’d never betrayed someone you love?”

  Echo chuckled. “Why? Are you planning on avenging me?”

  “No one hurts or betrays mine without dealing with me. And you,” I tilted my head, so I could look into his eyes, “are mine. Mine to love and protect. Your enemies are my enemies. Your friends—”

  “I don’t have or need any, except you. You are enough for me. My alpha and omega.” He wrapped his hand around my nape and pressed our foreheads together. “When you say things like that, it reminds me how lucky I am to have your love. How honored I am to have the right to touch and love you.” He kissed me. It was gentle, a mere whisper, yet more powerful than all the passionate kisses we’d shared earlier. “I must have done something right to be rewarded by you.”

  I rested my cheek on his chest and listen to his heart. The heart he insisted was damaged, yet it was capable of giving so much. Despite his claim that I was his only friend, he’d fought alongside Torin, Raine, and Andris when they’d needed him, and they’d previously fought with him when Grimnirs had come after me. That was friendship. Being there for each other. Watching each other’s back. Now there was Dev, his former buddy. I wondered how he fit in the whole friendship spectrum.

  Dev’s soul had approached me for a reason, and I planned to find out why. I hadn’t felt the air get sucked out of the room like Echo had described, just the chill that usually accompanied souls. If he needed help, that was my department, but if he wanted to hurt Echo, he’d have to go through me first. Literally.

  “Tell me about him,” I said.

  “Who?”

  I chuckled and propped my chin so I could see his face again. “You know who. How did Dev betray you?”

  3. DEV

  The silence stretched until I was convinced Echo wasn’t going to answer. His eyebrows were a straight line, his eyes narrowed as though his thoughts bugged him.

  “Dev, Rhys, and I grew up together,” he said slowly.

  “Who’s Rhys?”

  “A Grimnir. We attended lessons, practiced archery and magic together. We had a crush on the same girl. She kissed me first.” His lips curved into a nostalgic smile that made me hate her. “But she gave Rhys a ribbon when we jousted a few days later.”

  Bitch. “How old were you?”

  “Seven.”

  I laughed. I’d been imagining the worst.

  Echo bumped me with his shoulder. “It wasn’t funny. She was the first girl to break our hearts, yet we were still fighting over her ten years later.”

  Echo was in love with some Druidess at seventeen? I hated her again.

  “When the Valkyries came, they chose Rhys and me, not Dev. He ended up with the girl.”

  Could all this be about a girl? If it was, I was going to smack him into next century. He wasn’t supposed to get pissed over anyone except me. “Go on.”

  “When I decided to help my people and make them Immortal, the first person I changed was Dev.”

  “And the girl?” I asked, keeping my voice light when I wanted to ask if she was a Grimnir, a Valkyrie, or an Immortal.

  “Teléia was killed by the Romans.”

  Okay, no more bitchy thoughts about the Druidess. Knowing how the Roman soldiers had hunted down Echo’s people, the poor woman’s death couldn’t have been pretty.

  “Dev helped find our people and escort them to safety, but then he decided to become an informant for the Romans.” Echo sounded like he’d swallowed a rotten egg. “We lost so many of our people because of that bastard.”

  I winced at the fury burning in his eyes. Thousands of years later and he was still pissed. “How did you find out?”

  “Some of our people saw him visit a soldier at a nearby prison. I didn’t believe them. I just assumed they were jealous. Dev was a handsome bastard and a ferocious fighter, and women adored him. He became even cockier as an Immortal. Made so many daring rescues our people considered him a hero, the piece of shit. But when our people were ambushed by the same garrison several times, I knew we had a traitor.”

  Knowing Echo, he’d beat the crap out of Dev first and ask questions later. “Did he tell you why he did it?”

  “He didn’t give me a chance to ask. He bragged about how he’d do it again and there was nothing I could do to stop him because he was Immortal. He forgot Immortals had hearts and heads like everyone else. He lost both.”

  Okay, so he’d stopped him in the only way he knew how. Yanking his heart out and snapping his head. Probably not in that order. “It sounds like he wanted you to kill him.”

  Echo shrugged. “He was a disgrace to the Druids and got what he deserved. No one betrays our kind. No one. You do, you die. End of story.”

  Why, then, did I feel like there was more to the story? “Do dark souls talk?”

  “No. They possess, take, and use. Then they move on. I’m surprised he didn’t take you over.”

  Yeah, there was that and the chuckles, and the fact that he’d left when I’d told him to. Hardly the behavior of someone evil.

  “Maybe he liked me.”

  “He would, the conniving ingrate. Dead or alive, no woman is safe from him.” He sounded jealous, which was silly.

  I kissed his chin. “I know that new souls can’t talk, but they understand gestures, which is weird. If they can communicate by simple gestures like Neanderthals, dark souls should be up on the soul evolution chain. Maybe use sounds or words.”

  “Never met or heard of one that could.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and frowned. “If you’d seen Torin’s mother’s soul before Raine brought her to the mansion, you’d have seen she�
�d faded to nothing. Souls that don’t feed on energies fade. They become invisible and stay that way unless they’re taught by a dark soul how to possess Mortals. The ones I met tonight graduated at the top of the class. They’re busy living vicariously through their victims. They don’t feel the need to learn to be self-reliant.”

  Maybe Dev was learning to be self-reliant. “Dev made sounds. You know, to show he was amused or frustrated.”

  Echo growled.

  “Yeah, just like that,” I teased and received a glare. “Do dark souls start out dark?”

  “No.” He shook his head, his expression serious. “They start out looking like any regular soul, but when they begin to fade, they start possessing things around them, stealing their essence. Instead of going back to their human form, they slowly become shapeless forms of stolen energies. Dark energy.” He cupped my cheek and dropped a light kiss on my forehead. “Aren’t you sleepy?”

  “A little.” I sighed. “Are we done talking about Dev?”

  “No, we’re done with dark energies. Stay away from Dev.”

  No point arguing with him. “We should go to bed.”

  His grip tightened. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

  “I have runic lessons with Lavania in the morning and my volunteer thing at nursing home in the afternoon.”

  He frowned. “Want to have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

  “Really?”

  He chuckled. “Am I such a sucky boyfriend?”

  “No, you’re the best.” When he was around, which wasn’t often. What was the point of having eye-candy without showing him off? We hadn’t had a date except once with Torin and Raine. We needed more time alone. Prom was next Friday, and I wanted him by my side.

  “I’ll make it up to you,” he vowed. “I can pick you up from the hospital or home.”

  “Home. Are you going to court me?”

  “Court you? Isn’t that doing things backwards? I’ve already tasted every inch—”

  I covered his mouth, my face burning. “I’m talking about romance. Flowers and candlelight dinners. Staring into my eyes while the waitresses watch me with envy.”

  He pulled down my hand, eyes twinkling. “Our entire life will be an endless courtship, doll-face. I plan to give you the world, but if you want me to start now, I will.”