Hotblood (3 page)

I’d heard of Hybrids like Devlin and had heard something about his abilities, but I’d never imagined he had the power to take a soul. After I’d seen his father firsthand, I shouldn’t have been shocked, but I was. How could a thing like a soulless daughter of the House of Slide be acceptable to anyone? Sure Helen might be disinherited, but her blood was still precious to the House, and the son had been working with the uncles. He’d made a splash in the year he’d been one of Slide’s boys. He’d moved up the ranks until even the brother with the nickname of Satan wasn’t as feared as Devlin. I’d heard about his abilities to manipulate situations and always be in the right place at the right time and had wondered how any Wild could be that powerful, that good at what he did; with a Nether father it made sense. Not only could Nether mess with souls; they also enhanced whatever you were. Wilds were wilder, Cools cooler, and Hotbloods hotter.

Nothing that I’d heard about Devlin had prepared me for the fact that he’d siphoned his sister’s soul. How had it happened, and what was the point? A Nether’s first duty was to protect the innocent. Children, even Wild children, were innocent. What kind of depraved creature could do that to his own flesh and blood? It didn’t make any sense. How could the House of Slide accept a son who had done such a thing? I knew Wilds. Wilds were all about family ties, old blood, and loyalty to the Head of the House. A son of the House who stole a sister’s soul would never be welcomed into the House; he’d be institutionalized.

For the next few days, I woke up determined that it would be the day I saw the last of the town Sanders, but every evening I was still there, waiting. When I saw Old Peter he’d say, “Well?” In that gruff voice of his, and I’d find a reason to get out of the room without admitting that I’d spent all night camped outside the Sanders residence. Of course, he knew, and I could see the intense amusement he got out of the situation. I was not amused. I had better things to do than watch her die. She was dying. Every glimpse of her verified that fact. No one seemed to be doing anything, but what could you do with someone who had no soul? The Nether blood was keeping her alive, but not even that would keep her for much longer.

I sighed as I pushed a branch away so I could get a clearer view into the house. I sat perched forty feet off the ground, spring growth exploding around me, thoroughly camouflaging me but making spying on the Sanders’ mansion difficult. It wasn’t really a mansion, not in Wild terms, but it stuck out from the modest housing of the rest of Sanders. The lights were coming on one by one, and I could see through the glass doors as the uncles gathered in the white modern living room.

Helen stared out the window oblivious of her brothers. It didn’t seem possible that all those men could fit into one room, however large it was, but eventually they took seats leaving the couch empty. Satan, the biggest brother, came in wearing his slouchy hat but not the trench coat. He prodded the slight figure of Dariana Sanders ahead of him dressed in gray sweats and a black hoodie. Her eyes looked enormous in her lifeless face. Even at that distance I wondered how she had lasted so long.

She sat curled around a cup of tea, looking like it was the only warmth she’d ever known. Eventually it cooled, and the cup fell limply from her fingers as she stared at nothing.

Hours passed, and a thick fog clouded my view. I minded more than I should have. Nothing was happening besides the brothers talking and gesturing while Satan sat and watched Dariana. The mother never looked away from the window. Suddenly Dariana jerked twice and stumbled to her feet. She said something and walked from the room. The discussion went on without her.I closed my eyes and felt sick.

I slipped out of the tree and started walking in the direction of Old Peter’s, determined to leave the town for good. I hesitated when I heard raised voices for a moment before the sound cut off. Someone had opened a door or window of the Sanders’ residence.

I was grateful for the fog as I slipped out the backyard and through the gate that led to the front. I couldn’t see anything but heard the sound of something dragging in the road. I nearly ran into her when she stopped to stare at the bare feet that poked out of the bottom of the worn trench coat. After a slight shrug she kept going not noticing me where I stood two short steps away from her. I stopped breathing until she was at a safe distance. For days she’d been in the house surrounded by the Slide Brothers. The idea that if I wanted I could reach forward and lift a strand of hair off her shoulder made me tremble. She was so close. She was not close enough.

I waited until she was far enough I could only hear the coat dragging on the pavement before I continued after her.

She followed the road through the town, seeming oblivious to everything around her until she stopped outside of town near the bridge. She stood still then took a step off the road and into the woods. I hurried to catch up with her. She was nearly invisible in the uncle’s coat, and the fog didn’t help. She walked forward without looking to the left or right. I began to get nervous. This girl was going to be missed at some point, and I would have more uncles than I wanted to deal with coming down on me. While nothing like the darkness that inhabited the other side of the river, the woods were probably hiding things that wouldn’t do Dariana any good. Some would argue that you couldn’t do anything to her that wouldn’t be a mercy. Some would say that she needed to be put out of her misery. It bothered me that I would have been that someone a week before.

As I followed her, I knew where her direct route would take her. There was a ledge that hung over the river where the drop was fast and far to the cold waters below. It was a nice grassy ledge where some people liked to picnic. It was also where a few notables had taken that final leap. However lifeless she was, I couldn’t stand the idea of her committing suicide. I winced at the thought that you could call death after soullessness a suicide.

I smelled the scavengers before they came into view—at least the view of their heads lit by the torches they carried. They looked like they were floating along in the fog, but scavengers couldn’t float, not even when their heads were unattached. Scavengers were harmless against anyone who would fight back, they didn’t like losing their loosely attached body parts. Dariana wouldn’t fight, and they would no doubt want bits of her to add to them. I started running glad that the coat camouflaged her. If she could stay hidden for a few minutes…

When the scavengers were disassembled, I turned back to Dari. I searched the woods feeling the panic grow inside of me. Scavengers should not be able to get on this side of the river. They should be bound in the wild woods where all the other nightmares slept. Perhaps the scavengers were a diversion for something worse. I inhaled deeply smelling the wet woods but nothing human. I began to move faster towards the clearing hoping that she hadn’t changed direction. When I reached the end of the woods before the ledge, I let out a breath I hadn’t noticed I’d been holding. She sat still, perched on the ledge to look up at the moon; it had broken through the mist enough to light her pale face. I slowed down. Even if she did fall, I would manage to pull her out of the river in time.

I heard an ear-shattering scream from the other side of the river. A certifiable nightmare wanted some company. I should get Dariana back home. How was I going to get her attention without startling her? I could have grabbed her and carried her home. She couldn’t have weighed a hundred pounds, but she might get the wrong impression if I threw her over my shoulder and hauled her off.

I stared at her, watching through the fog, and wondered if I’d been mistaken the first time. Did she really have no soul? I concentrated, and through the fog could make out the life that flickered from the plants and across the river the red brand of the eager nightmare. Everything else, all the life in the world disappeared when I saw her soul hovering around her. She had a soul, or at least she’d had it at one time, but it was outside of her now, a quivering iridescence of perfect purity and breathtaking beauty. I stepped forward without thinking and snapped a stick. I blinked her back into focus and saw her staring in my direction as if she could see me in the dark. I took a few steps forward until she could see my outline.

“
What are you doing here?” I asked and realized how gruff I sounded. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. “It’s probably not the best idea for you to wander around in the woods at night.” She looked down and hunched deeper into the trench coat. “You look cold. Maybe I can make a fire for you.” A fire was a terrible idea but I couldn’t stand to watch her shiver. A fire would draw her uncles. It would draw all sorts of unwanted attention but in the meantime it would get her warm. It seemed like the least I could do. She nodded, and I started moving. In a few minutes I was crouched over some pine needles blowing on a spark when I looked up, and her hair brushed my cheek she was so close. Why hadn’t I heard her? I looked down and realized I’d dropped my lighter. What was wrong with me? I couldn’t help but look up for a glimpse of the soul hovering above her. I forced myself to focus on the fire and finally got it lit. As I fed twigs to the flames, I noticed how heavy the silence felt between us.

“
Do you come up here often?” I wasn’t sure if she could even answer questions.

“
With my brother Devlin.” Her voice surprised me. It was a little like hearing a corpse talk, only corpses probably didn’t have such nice voices. It was husky but sweet. When I looked up at her she looked confused like her voice had surprised her as well.

“
Good. It’s good to have family. At least that’s what they say. So do you go to high school here? It’s a beautiful building. It’s always nice to see old architecture so well preserved.” I paused for a moment then kept talking, mostly to distract myself from her soul. “I love woods. I love to walk around in the darkness never knowing what kind of dangerous thing I’m going to run into. I like fast cars too. Do you… never mind. I saw you at the funeral; that was quite a storm.” Even as I said those last words I realized what I should have already noticed. The wind had picked up, and the fog was thinning out. I heard lightning from the direction of Dariana’s house. Her mother had found out that she was gone. We probably had some time; she would not be easy to track as I knew from experience. Of course, I had a bright fire that would draw them right to me.

I hesitated to douse the fire, caught in her gaze. Flickers of firelight reflected in her eyes as she stared at me, her hands outstretched over the flames. I realized with a start that she was going to burn herself and reached forward without thinking. When I caught her hands in mine to pull them away from the fire she gasped, and I had trouble breathing myself. Her soul slid between the skin of our hands, and I could taste it through that touch. She leaned over the fire never dropping her eyes from my face. I pulled my hand away and felt a bitter taste in my mouth when the sweetness of her soul disappeared. I moved quickly to put out the fire while she watched me with a desperate hunger that matched how I felt. Her soul was the most beautiful, sweet thing I’d ever seen and now tasted. It would take all the willpower I had to leave without it. I had built up a remarkable reservoir of willpower but it was vanishing the longer she looked at me, strands of her hair standing out dark against her pale skin, her lifeless eyes begging me.

“
You’re warm.” It was half whisper, half croak, but she made a gesture towards me with her hand. I sat for a moment trying to think what could possibly make a situation like this right.

“
I’m sorry about the fire but it looks like rain. I think I’d better take you home now.”

“
Oh.” She sat there staring at me looking even more dejected until I reached a hand to help her up. She took it quickly, grasping it with both hands as I pulled her to her feet. I stood for a moment trying to ignore the taste of her soul while she clung to me, then turned and started through the woods. I tried to block out the taste, the sight of the dispossessed soul hovering between us, but with every step her hands crept higher up my arm, until at some point she put her freezing cold hand on my back. I think I kept my manly calm, but I may have yelped. She had one arm wrapped around me, and the other hand clung to mine. Her head rested on my upper arm while we walked. She moved her legs, but mostly, I pulled her along. I felt a rush of anger at the stupidity of it all. Here I was dragging her home so she could be cold and die there slowly instead of out here quickly. I slowed then stopped and turned to her so I could look down at her face. She had more color to her cheeks. She almost smiled as she leaned towards me rising on her tiptoes.

What was she waiting for? I was no prince charming, and she was no princess. Her soul hovered between us, and I could hear it making a sound of indefinable sweetness. A soul had never sung to me before. In a few days it would fade, her life would snap, and her soul would disappear. Her eyelids drifted shut, and her cold breath touched the skin of my neck. I realized my hands were tightening on her arms, I felt the heat in me soak into her. I felt her soul, sweet and tantalizing around the edges, but the real brightness and beauty was deeper. I didn’t make a decision to kiss her. One moment I was a breath away, and then her mouth was on mine, her breath became mine, and her soul was even sweeter than I’d imagined. I felt it wrap around me along with her arms, tangling fingers in my hair, and then something changed. The sweetness became too sweet, an ache that grew, along with the coldness as I tasted her. I realized that it wasn’t me who was doing the tasting. She was taking my warmth. I began to pull away but she held on and ripped all the heat, rage, and life out of me. I lost the feeling in my legs and slid down her, feeling the buttons of her coat scrape my cheek. I tried to hold onto something, but everything disintegrated as I slid into darkness.