Soul Catcher (21 page)

“For a while...months. People here think the coal powered generating station on Navajo lands is polluting the water, maybe dumping or leaking or something.”

Icy fingers walked up Malini’s spine and gripped the base of her skull. Her scalp prickled. She reached for her staff.

“A coal powered generating station? Here?”

Raine nodded. “The power goes outside the reservation, of course, but the company pays the Navajo a percentage to use their land. We’re downstream. I’ve joined an environmental coalition at my school to try to stop the pollution and force the NGS to use greener processing methods.”

Swallowing hard, Malini pressed her eyes closed. “Raine, do you know the name of the company that owns NGS?”

“Sure. Harrington Enterprises.”

Malini stared at the tracks on her arm and groaned. This was so much bigger than she’d thought. Harrington was everywhere, and the elixir was everywhere. How in the world could the Soulkeepers defend against something as ubiquitous as this?

Willow reached out and took Malini’s damaged hand in hers. “Thank you for healing Raine and caring for Cheveyo. We are in your debt.”

“You’re welcome. I need to go, Raine, Willow. As soon as we find Cheveyo’s body, I hope to return here with him.”

“Healer,” Willow said, “I am in your debt. If you need anything…”

Malini nodded.

The old woman sandwiched Malini’s healing hand between her own and met her eyes. They shared a moment of connection that transcended the physical world.

“We live in a time of bad spirits. Be vigilant,” Malini said.

Willow released her.

From behind her, Raine stood from the cot. “Thank you, Malini, for healing me.”

Malini gave the girl a firm hug, then exited the pueblo and tapped her staff on the dirt road.

Trojan Horse

D
ane hated lying to his mother, but he had no choice. Five days had passed, spent in shifts by his father’s bedside, eating crappy hospital cafeteria food, and whispering to Walter and Jenny about what they needed to do if his dad didn’t wake up. A field of corn would be ready to harvest in a couple of weeks. Someone needed to service the combines, and manage the temporary workers his father had hired to help with their three hundred acres.

What he couldn’t tell Jenny and Walter was he wouldn’t be around to help them. In a week, Auriel would come for him. Even if he survived her, Cheveyo was dying inside of him. Dane worked harder and harder to wake the guy up each day, and when his consciousness did surface in the back of his brain, his voice was nothing but a whisper. Dane didn’t even try to close the steel door any more. He didn’t have to. Cheveyo was a limp, wisp of a spirit, and Dane only hoped he’d find some way to save him before it was too late.

He’d told his mother he was going to go home to get some fresh clothes and make some calls regarding the farm. He also said he’d need to stop by the school in the morning to pick up his assignments. In fact, he would do all of those things, eventually, but first he had to visit Eden. Malini’s text said a meeting was urgent, and she did not use the term lightly.

He arrived alone and made his way to the conference room on the second floor with haste, pausing for only a moment to greet Archibald as the garden gnome had developed an affinity for him and snubbing a garden gnome was a particularly bad idea. Outside the door, he halted at the sharp bark of argued words.

“It’s insane,” Grace yelled.

“It’s our only hope,” Malini countered.

“I must agree with Grace. How could you even consider it? Have you stopped to think you are giving Lucifer exactly what he wants?”

A pregnant pause peaked his curiosity. Paper rustled. Someone coughed.

“The surest way to ruin someone is to give them exactly what they want.” Malini’s voice was crystal clear, firm, confident. Dane had rarely heard such surety in her before.

Abigail piped up. “Malini, have you seen a future where you are successful?”

“I’ve seen our path but not our success,” Malini responded. “You must remember that I cannot see my own future.”

“So, you can’t guarantee Grace’s fears won’t become our new reality,” Master Lee added.

“In life, there are no guarantees. You know that. We’ve always trusted in the greater good.” A hint of anger or maybe frustration laced her words. “The Soulkeepers had no guarantee Abigail would thwart Lucifer’s plan last summer either, but she did. Every path is riddled with choices and consequences. For most of the last week, I’ve spent every waking hour working this out. I am certain we cannot afford to be reactive any longer. The time has come for us to take up the gauntlet.”

Grace made a noise like a cynical grunt.

Eavesdropping wasn’t Dane’s forte. Time to face this thing head on. He knocked three times.

When the door opened, Gideon stood on the other side, looking tired as if he was coming down with something. He didn’t say hello, but nodded his head slightly before moving out of the way. His eyes shifted downward. Had Dane done something wrong?

Inside, the others acted just as strange. Grace and Master Lee fidgeted, eyes shifting away, fingers knotting together. Lillian’s shoulders slumped forward. He’d seen people look like this before, but he couldn’t put his finger on when. At the window behind them, Abigail turned to fix him with an almost icy stare, worthy of her days as a fallen angel. Malini, leaning up against the credenza, was the only one to give him a warm, although small, smile. The room was eerily quiet, and he hesitated to say hello, afraid to break whatever spell rendered them silent.

“Hello, Dane,” Malini murmured. “I’m sorry for the tension. What we must talk about isn’t easy and concerns you.”

“This concerns all of us,” Grace snapped, shooting daggers at Malini.

Again, the thick silence rolled through the room like a tide.

“Well, if it concerns me, I’m ready to hear it,” Dane said.

Malini pushed off the credenza and gestured toward one of the chairs at the table. “Please, sit.”

He shook his head. “I prefer to stand. I spent a lifetime in a fetal position on a slab of brimstone. Never again. From now on, I face my challenges head on, standing on my own two feet.”

“Understandable.” Malini rubbed her hands together in the way she did when she had something difficult to say. Her small brown palms pressed together in front of her ribcage, one slightly on top of the other, sliding back and forth in a slow rhythm.

“Out with it,” he insisted, his eyes drilling into her. He didn’t have time for this. Not with a Soulkeeper dying in the back of his head and a Watcher coming for him in a matter of days.

Malini nodded. “Your gift is exceptionally powerful, Dane. One I struggled to understand at first.”

“Yeah.”

“You can borrow Soulkeeper powers for a time, and who knows what else.”

“Yeah.”

“In seven days, Auriel is going to show up at the back of your property, and she’s going to expect you to have me with you. She’ll want to take both of us to Nod, where she will likely imprison me and try to kill you and Cheveyo.”

“The problem at hand,” Dane muttered.

“We’ve spent enough time reacting to Lucifer’s attacks, dodging his advancing trickery. The Soulkeepers need to take the offensive. The time has come for us to attack him where he lives.”

Dane placed his hands on his hips and tilted his head inquisitively.

“I want you to be our Trojan horse.” Malini took a step toward him, not breaking eye contact. “I want to allow Auriel to take us to Nod and attack the Watchers from the inside.”

His mouth dropped open. He closed it. Reaching behind him, he pulled out the chair he’d said he didn’t want or need and allowed his knees to give out. He plunked down hard. Minutes ticked by in silence until laughter rumbled from his chest, breaking the spell.

“You must be joking,” he cried.

She shook her head. “You can borrow the other Soulkeepers’ powers. Every Watcher we kill is one less in Lucifer’s arsenal. He can’t make new followers unless an angel is dumb enough to fall from grace. We hit him where he lives and scare the Watchers underground again. It’s the only way.”

“No…No…you must be joking! Having Lillian’s weapons gift inside of me for an hour was one thing. Sure, my power gave me her instincts but not her experiences. Who knows if I could actually do anything with her gift in a combat situation? But to hold six separate gifts inside of my head, along with Cheveyo, and somehow use them to our advantage seems incredibly optimistic. I get the Trojan horse thing, Malini, but this is farfetched, even for you.”

“Not six. Bonnie and Samantha’s gift is shared between the two and wouldn’t be useful to you. Plus we need them to carry on the Soulkeeper line should we fail.”

“We don’t know if I can hold more than one power at a time.”

“You had Lillian’s and Cheveyo’s.”

“We don’t know how long it will last.”

“You’ve had Cheveyo for a week.”

“We don’t know if I’m strong enough to wield that kind of power in a battle situation.”

“We can practice. We have seven days for you to learn how to fight.”

“If I die in Nod, the Soulkeepers could lose their powers.”

“Yes.”

“And their Healer!”

“Yes.”

Close now, she met his eyes with her warm chocolate ones and seemed to look right into his soul.

“I’m not strong enough, Malini.”

“You are stronger than you think. The world needs a hero, Dane, and everything in me tells me you’re him. Do you think I’d risk my life if I didn’t believe we had a chance?”

“A small chance,” Grace said. “A tiny, chance. You will be surrounded by thousands of Watchers. No matter how many of them you take out, the chances of getting out of Nod alive are next to nothing.”

Lillian cocked her head to the side. “Why do you have to do that, Grace?”

“What?”

“Ride Malini like that. Do you think if she saw any other way she’d be putting Dane or herself at risk? You have the least to lose but are making the most noise.”

Grace huffed. “Least to lose? If she fails, we lose our Healer! It will be up to the girls and me to continue the fight on our own. What kind of position does that put us in?”

“The only position we have a choice to be in,” Abigail stated, turning from the window. “We are Soulkeepers. Malini is right. We have to be proactive. We can’t hide safely in Eden while Lucifer has his way with human souls.”

“Says the woman who hides safely in Eden,” Grace snarked.

Gideon took a step toward her. “Don’t you think if we had any power we’d be on the frontlines? Administering this school is the best way for us to help right now. Out there, at war, we’d be a liability. Lucifer has spent more than a millennium trying to get his hooks into Abigail, and you know it.”

Master Lee leaned back in his chair and threaded his fingers across his stomach. “I think what Grace is trying to say is that all of us are in this together. It is her prerogative to worry for Malini and Dane as much as for her own life and the Soulkeepers in general. We all know this is a long shot, practically a suicide mission. Something this serious is worthy of discussion by the council.”

Dane slapped his hand down on the table. Six pairs of eyes swung in his direction. “I’ll go first. I can’t do this. My father is ill and in the hospital. I have three hundred acres of corn that need to be harvested in a matter of weeks. I’ve already missed too much school. And there is no way...” He swallowed hard. “There is no way I’m going back to Hell. I’m sorry, Malini. I just can’t.”

He might have been mistaken, but he could have sworn Malini paled slightly before an emotionless mask snapped into place. She glanced from one council member to the next, but no one, not even Abigail, would meet her eyes.

“Well then, I respectfully request the council come up with a plan to deal with Auriel. While you are at it, you should know that Harrington Enterprises has contaminated water with elixir all over the country. As far as I can tell, Lucifer is just waiting for the right moment to make his move, and he’s primed for invasion.”

Dane’s head snapped up, and six pairs of eyes locked on Malini.

“How will Dane’s likely death and your capture possibly stop that?” Grace asked cynically.

“The Watchers are a self-serving breed. We take out enough of them, and Lucifer will be afraid to put any more of his limited followers at risk. He’ll pull the ones who are topside back to regroup.”

“You hope,” Master Lee chimed in.

Malini nodded slowly. “Oh, and Dane,” Malini said, “I worry you won’t make it to harvest with Cheveyo rotting inside your head.” She didn’t say it in a mean way, just matter of fact. And she was right. Dane had forgotten all about the wisp of a soul at the back of his skull. Maybe his mistake was thinking he could go backward in time, to before he was a Soulkeeper. Things weren’t so simple anymore.

Breathing deeply in the awkward silence that ensued, Dane spread his fingers on the table. He realized now where he had seen the expressions around him before, the slumped shoulders and shifting eyes. People at funerals acted this way. This was a preemptive funeral…his.

“It seems my life isn’t my own anymore,” he said. “Malini is right; I need to get Cheveyo’s body back. He’s dying inside my head. I can barely wake him up anymore. There’s some poetic justice to using Lucifer’s scheme against him. We need to send a message that if he messes with us, we’ll mess with him. And you’re right, Malini, this is our one advantage. Lucifer doesn’t know about me or Cheveyo.”

“What are you saying?” Grace asked.

Dane sighed. “I’m saying, in the grand scheme of things, three hundred acres of corn is less important than who knows how many souls.” He ran a thumb over his eyebrow. “She’s right, I’m probably dead anyway if I don’t get Cheveyo out of me.”

A tear escaped Malini’s eye, and she wiped it away. This wasn’t easy for her, and it was her life on the line too.

He looked Grace directly in the eye. “I’m saying, I’m in.”

Lillian placed a hand over her heart. “Let’s put it to a vote. If we are going to do this, I need to start training with Dane as soon as possible. All those in favor?”