Lost Souls: Imperfection – Episode 2 (8 page)

The soft, familiar chuckle rumbled from his throat.  “We are dead.”

She stepped forward.  “I would never have left you.  I didn’t know.”  The sting of tears rose in her eyes.  “I wouldn’t have left you alone.”

“Six hundred years and you heard no word of me?”

There was bitterness and a touch of anger in his voice.  Sam lifted her chin.  “The same could be said about you.”

“When I found out you were a Soul, it was too late.  I had already Changed.”

Changed.  The word sliced into her heart.  He wasn’t like her anymore.  It was too late.  “I won’t hunt you.  I won’t hurt you.  I owe you that much,” she told him.

“You owe me nothing.”  Damien looked at her then with his black eyes.  Evil eyes.

Sam wanted to touch him, to run her hand through his hair.  She would never be able to now.  It was too late for them.  She felt the tingle of tears on her cheeks.  Too late.

He stood and came to her, lifting his fingers to touch her cheek, tracing a trail of one of her tears.  His closeness was intoxicating.  She could… smell him.  A thick heady scent she remembered from a long time ago.  His scent.  Forest and man.  She couldn’t tell if she really could smell him, or if it was merely a remembered scent.  Whatever was happening, the scent filled the area around her.

He pulled his fingers back and looked at the tiny charges on his finger.  Snapping tendrils of blue power sparkled and jumped wildly about his fingertips.  He rubbed his fingers together and the blue energy vanished.  When he looked at her again, his dark gaze moved slowly over her face.  Longing furrowed his brow.

Sam could have sworn she saw tenderness in his eyes.  But in the next moment, they were hard and cold.  “I want you to leave Scala alone.”

It was as if he had just splashed ice cold water over her.  She blinked.  “Scala?”

“You are not to blast him or whatever it is you did before.”

Sam pulled away and the distance seemed to clear her head.  She brushed angrily at the tears on her cheeks.  “Are you kidding me?  He’s a killer.  He hurts young girls.  Did you see what he did to that human?”

“He’s not your problem.  Stay away from him.”

Sam grimaced.  “You’ve forgotten I don’t take orders well.  I never have.”

A grin slid over his lips.  “I haven’t forgotten.”

“I can’t just let him walk away!  Or worse yet, kill again!”

“You can and you will.”

Sam stared at him for a long moment.  “Why do you care?  A Changed doesn’t care about another Changed.”

Damien turned his back on her and returned to the desk.  “Some Changed do.”

Sam narrowed her eyes.  “Scala was locked away in an iron crypt for centuries.  Someone had to let him out.  Was it you?”

“I didn’t know he was locked away.  It was cruel of you to do that to him.”

“Cruel?”  Sam took a step toward him, her fists clenched.  “You don’t know what he does.  What he did to the Souls.  What he did to me.  The torture he inflicts is… inhuman.”

Damien froze.  His back straightened but he didn’t turn.

“You can’t ask this of me.  I won’t do it.  I want him gone from this world.  From my world.”

Damien turned to her, putting the full force of his piercing black gaze on her.  “It’s not a request, Sammie.  I’m telling you to stay away from him.  You are not to blast him.”

This time, the agony was different.  She mourned the past, knowing it was truly gone and could never be reborn between them.  “I don’t think so.”

Damien fazed and in an instant was directly in front of her.  “I won’t let you do it.”  He lifted his hand.

Sam stared at him without flinching.  Part of her wanted him to drain her.  Part of her wanted to be a Changed so they could be together.  “I’m not running away from you.”

Again, his look softened his dark eyes.  His hand lowered just slightly.  “You think I’m not evil enough to drain you?”

“I think you are.”  Sam’s jaw clenched.  “I’m not letting Scala go.  Nothing you can do to me would ever be as bad as what he did.”

He lowered his hand.  “I can drain you completely.”

It would be too merciful, Sam thought.  Because she didn’t think she wanted to exist knowing Damien was evil.  She lifted a hand to rest against his cheek.  “It’s the only way to stop me.”

His lip quirked up in his familiar grin.  “Always so stubborn.”  Still grinning, he lowered his lips toward hers.

Sam waited to feel the touch of his skin, the pressure of his lips, his tongue.  She had imagined it for so long.  But she never felt his touch on her lips.  Instead, agony flared from her chest as he slowly put his fist into her and began draining her energy.

~ ~ ~

Ben and Christian fazed into Eugene’s temporary headquarters to find him sitting on a small couch.  All of his devices were off, the room strangely silent.

“Eugene?” Ben called.

Eugene didn’t move.

Ben approached, slowly, cautiously, scanning the room.  Nothing looked out of place, nor were there any signs of struggle.  “Where’s Sam, Eugene?”

Eugene shrugged.

“Was she here?”

He nodded solemnly.

Ben sat beside him.  “What happened?”

“I tried to protect her.  I really did.”  He lifted sorrowful eyes to Ben.  “Damien has been trying to reach her.  She found out.”

Ben stood, alarm striking through him.  “Where is she?”

He shook his head.  “She said we were through.  She never wants to work with me again.”

Ben grabbed his shoulders.  “Where is she?”

“She went to meet him.”

Dread sliced through Ben.  “Where?” he demanded firmly.

“A warehouse on Washington Street.”

Ben cast a glance at Christian before sitting beside Eugene again.  “Eugene.  She’s in danger.  You know it.  You have to help us.  We have to find her.  She doesn’t see Damien as a threat.  She still loves him.  And he’ll drain her.”

Eugene’s lower lips pouted further.

“Did you hear me?” Ben demanded.  “Damien will drain her.  We have to get to her.  You have to take us.”

Eugene scowled.

“Eugene!”

Slowly, Eugene’s brow furrowed and he nodded.  “Yes.  Yes.  I will.”  Eugene stood up and placed his hand on Ben and Christian’s shoulders.

Eugene’s lab faded around them and a dank, dark building appeared around them.  The moon shone through the broken windows.

Ben spun, his gaze flashing from corner to corner, searching for Sam amongst the shadows.

“There!” Christian called.

Laid out on a metal desk with her hands folded on her stomach was Sam.  She looked like she was sleeping.  But Ben knew she was not.  He fazed to her side.  She was light, but not transparent.  The bastard had drained her, but not all the way.

Ben swept her up and they all immediately fazed back to Eugene’s.

~ ~ ~

Damien waited until they had all disappeared.  He watched, crouched on a beam in the ceiling.  It was lucky they hadn’t looked up.  He glanced at his hand.  Small bolts of electricity sizzled across it in tiny bands of blue light.  Sam’s energy had boosted his power much more than any of the others.  He slowly turned his hand over, marveling at the tiny surges of lightning rippling across his limb, dancing between his fingers.

Yes, her energy and his matched somehow.  She had powered him up two-fold.  He could feel the charge through his entire body.  He could make the Jump now, he knew it.

But it was not what Damien wanted.  Not now.  Not yet.

He fazed to the desk and opened one of the drawers.  He pulled out a large, wickedly sharp blade.  It was an arm’s length long and the edge of the blade was honed to a razor sharpness.  Iron.  Pure iron.  He took the handle in both hands and stared down at his reflection in the blade.  Those black eyes were dead giveaways to what he was, what he had become.  He hated them.

Sam had not looked at him any differently.  He still saw the compassion in her gaze.  Damn, but he had missed her.  He hadn’t expected her to have such an impact on him.

Blue electricity snapped around his face in the reflection.

He grit his jaw and drove the iron blade into his stomach.  Pain exploded throughout his body and the room around him disintegrated and disappeared as he vanished into nothingness.

When he materialized again, the pain was less.  The iron sword lay on the floor where he had dropped it when he disappeared.  When he reached to pick it up, he paused.  The electricity was gone.  No blue light shone across his fingers.  He lifted his hand and clenched and unclenched his fingers.  He was back to normal.  Well, not quite normal.

~ ~ ~

Sam opened her eyes, groggily.  Her body ached with weariness.

Ben sat in a chair beside her.  He was drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair, staring at the open door.

“Go back.  There.  Can you enhance that?”  Christian’s voice came from outside of the room.

“I know what I’m doing,” Eugene snapped.

Sam groaned and pushed herself into a sitting position.  The metal table she was lying on, the straps hooked to her wrists and ankles were a dead giveaway to where she was.  Eugene’s lab.  The regeneration bed.  Damien had drained her!  The thought sent anger flooding through her body.

Ben stood quickly, and eased her back down with a gentle hand on her shoulder.  “You have a few more minutes in bed.  Take it easy and let your body recharge.”

“Did you get Damien?”  She lay back down, mostly because she was too weak to fight Ben.

“Damien was long gone by the time we got there.”

“He didn’t kill me,” Sam muttered to herself.

“Close to it.  Maybe we got there before he finished.”

Sam looked away.  Maybe.

“You were foolish to confront him alone.”  Ben’s voice was stern and anger filtered through in his reprimand.

“He’s my husband.”

“He
was
your husband.  He’s a Changed now.  A monster.  It will only be time before he makes the Jump.  Sam, you can’t take chances with this.  You can’t have feelings for him.  I need you sharp and focused.”

“I know,” Sam whispered.  But it had been so hard to see Damien as a monster.  Right up until the end when he shoved his fist into her chest and nearly sucked the very essence of her into permanent nothingness.

Ben sat down again.  “There’s more.  And you’re not going to like it.”

Sam scowled and looked at him, but Ben was gazing out the open door.

“Claire’s missing.”

Sam sat up again, her jaw tight.

“She left Missy’s house and never made it home.”

Sam grabbed at the strap on her wrist to rip it off.  Ben covered her hand, stopping her.

“We missed something, Sam.  Scala’s made the Jump.”

“The father.  He had an argument with Claire just before she snuck out.”

“We’ve been watching him from the beginning.  It can’t be Doug.  We would have seen Scala make the Jump.”

“We can’t just sit here!”

“I need you at full strength.  There’s a battle coming and we can’t blast Scala if you’re at half strength.  Just relax.  Christian and Eugene are watching street camera footage and store footage to see what happened to Claire after she left Missy’s house.”

Sam sat back with a heavy sigh.  There was no way she was going to let Scala hurt Claire.

“You hurt Eugene pretty badly,” Ben murmured softly.

Startled, Sam turned to Ben.  Then, she shook her head.  “I can’t believe he didn’t tell me Damien was trying to reach me.”

“He was trying to protect you.”

“I don’t think so, Ben.  He was trying to keep me away from Damien.  I think in his twisted mind he believed if Damien was not in the picture, he and I would have a better chance of getting together.”

Ben thought about her statement for a moment.  “Even if that were the case, he was still looking out for you.  He’s had our backs for a long time.  I don’t think Eugene knows how to do anything but watch out for us.”

“I can make those decisions by myself.”

“Can you?  Going to meet Damien alone was impulsive and dangerous.”

Sam shrugged.  She had to do it.  And she knew she would do it again.  “I survived.”

“What did he want?”

Sam looked at Ben.  “He doesn’t want us to blast Scala.”

Ben’s eyes widened in shock, then narrowed.  “You think he’s working with Scala?”

Sam shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Maybe.”  She waved her hand.  “It doesn’t matter.  We’re going to stop Scala.  I’m not going to let him hurt Claire.”

“How are you feeling, Sam?” Christian asked from the doorway.

“Better every minute,” Sam answered.

“What did you find?” Ben asked Christian.

“Eugene is a genius.  He managed to isolate the license plate on the van Claire got into.”  He looked from Ben to Sam and then back.  “It’s coach Frederick’s van.”

“The coach?” Ben asked.

Christian nodded.  “Apparently, Ryan was pretty close to him.  Like a second Dad.  He spent all his extra time at the gym for basketball practice.”  Christian shook his head and did a little shudder.  “I was sitting right next to the guy and didn’t even notice he was… possessed.”  He looked at the others.  “Is it that easy for a Change to hide after they made the Jump into a human?”

Ben nodded.  “They can still see us, but after they make the Jump they are indistinguishable from every other human being.  Just like what happened to your daughter.”

Christian nodded at the memory of Aurora.  “So, I guess the coach was a pretty thick lifeline, huh?” Christian commented.

Ben shrugged.  “It’s an imperfect science.”

“It’s not a science at all.  We’re guessing.”

“Where did he take her?” Sam asked.

“Eugene is tracking the van through the use of the stoplight cameras.  We’ll have a destination shortly,” Christian said.  He stepped into the room.  “So… when we find him, what are we going to do?”

Sam and Ben exchanged a glance.  “You know what we’re going to do,” Ben said.  “Same thing we did with your little girl.”

“Save the coach,” Sam clarified.

Christian looked down at the ground for a long moment.  “You know, I’ve been thinking…”  He shoved his hands into his pockets.  “It might be more humane just to kill the coach.”