Soul Bound (39 page)

The guards carried her to the water tanks, steel contraptions lined with copper. Copper weakened their kind, kept them from escaping until the water level could rise and drown them. But her captors ignored one very important detail—Diane wielded water like a lethal blade.

Before they could seal her in, she summoned her power, caused the tanks to quake. Cassie’s soul strengthened her, only fueling her rage. The water pressure grew so fierce that the containers burst from the ground, propelled by a geyser so violent it rivaled a great flood. Curling the water onto itself, directing the deluge away from her, Diane swept the guards off their feet and willed the wave to crush them.

She waited until she was certain the flood had sucked the life from every last one of them, then retreated from the musty torture chamber to slink through the darkened tunnels, her mind consumed by thoughts of glory and the sweet promise of revenge.

Jace returned to Lia’s townhouse. It was the only place he could think of to go. The only place where he could immerse himself in her presence, her energy and scent. In this small corner of the world, Lia’s essence still lingered, imbuing floors and walls and furniture. As long as he was here, she didn’t feel as lost to him, and he hoped by surrounding himself with her possessions he could reestablish the link he’d lost.

Nothing.

At least until he ventured into the kitchen.

At the center of the table, something gold caught his eye. Lia’s locket sat on a folded piece of paper, glinting in the afternoon sun. He opened the note, and his heart squeezed as her words filled his mind.

Diane’s got Cassie. I have to save her. I’m leaving you my locket just in case something goes wrong. Hopefully, it will guide you to me, because I can’t bear the thought of never seeing you again. I’m sorry I tricked you. Please forgive me.

He crumpled the note and buried it in his pocket. “Damn it, Lia, why? Why didn’t you trust me enough to tell me the truth?” They could’ve rescued Cassie together, found a way to defeat Diane. Instead, everything had gone to hell.

He palmed her locket, reveled at the familiar heat that traveled through him. The connection was there, weak but unmistakable. With renewed purpose, he left the townhouse and followed his gut to downtown Portland, where a series of tunnels linked the basements of many hotels and bars to the waterfront.

Lia’s essence continued to sing to him, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find the entrance to the Kleptopsychs’ hidden world. If such an entrance did indeed exist, it was invisible to him.

Urgency and desperation clawed at him. He had to find her. Soon. There was no telling what the soul-suckers would do to her, what they’d done already. If he lost her, he’d lose the best part of himself, the soul he’d never really known till he’d met her.

“Where are you, Lia? Talk to me. Guide me.”

But her thoughts were as closed off to him as the catacombs themselves.

Frustrated by his failure, he stumbled to the surface to find himself in a bar called the Rabbit’s Foot. The place offered locally brewed beer and a view of the waterfront. In a past life, he would’ve climbed onto one of those stools and drunk himself into a stupor. A part of him longed to do just that, even as another rebelled against it.

That man was dead, killed in a place like this. As he stood there, deafened by the blare of music and the buzz of conversation, assaulted by images of a past he was only now starting to remember, he found the strength to let go. To bury the person he’d once been. To forsake selfish dreams and longings and accept what he’d become. What he’d always been.

He wasn’t human. Clinging to a mortal existence caused nothing but chaos and pain, endangered those around him. Seeing Cassie’s broken body had caused something to shift inside him. It could’ve easily been Lia lying on that stretcher, bloodied and disfigured.

It still could be. Unless he stopped it.

There was only one option available to him. He had to appeal to the Watchers for help. Like it or not, Cal and his meager army of Hybrids were his only hope.

Pain pounded behind Lia’s eyes as she labored to open them. A heavy mist smothered her brain. Nausea roiled in her belly. She didn’t need a medical degree to conclude she suffered from a massive concussion. The more she swam toward awareness, the more the memories poured in, crippling images that made her yearn for unconsciousness again.

A mewling whimper tore from her throat. She could still see the shattered look in her sister’s eyes right before she’d jumped, the hopelessness. She’d never realized how much a heart could hurt, how tears could burn like acid. She felt just as broken as Cassie. Every inch of her ached.

Her vision blurred by grief, she blinked and focused on her surroundings. Stone walls reached toward a looming ceiling, supported by intricate columns. Flames flickered from ancient-looking sconces, casting dancing shadows on the floor. She lay on a heavyset, four-poster bed, her hands and legs bound, her clothing stained with blood. Lifting both hands, she felt the deep gash on her forehead, remembered how a furious Diane had struck her the instant she’d recuperated from the effects of the angel’s blood.

That injection should’ve killed her, but it hadn’t. There was only one explanation for the nurse’s miraculous recovery. Diane had ingested a soul, same as that Rogue at the library. Cassie’s soul. Lia groaned as a new wave of pain and fury swamped her. It was bad enough the witch had killed her sister. Now she was slowly choking the life out of her spirit, if she hadn’t already. She had to find the creature and kill her before Cassie’s soul was lost forever. But how? She was trapped, with no weapons and no means of escape.

Lia propped herself to a sitting position, fought the wave of dizziness that threatened to knock her out again. Where was she? Why were there no windows here, no light besides the weak glow emitted by the sconces? The place looked like the inside of a mausoleum.

She tried to stand, lost her balance and fell back onto the bed, which groaned in begrudging welcome. With her ankles bound, she couldn’t walk, let alone run. She curled her spine and attempted to loosen her bindings, then froze upon realizing they weren’t ropes but shackles. Stone shackles.

For a moment she wondered if the blow to her head was causing her to hallucinate. A perfect ring circled her ankles, similar to the one circling her wrists. There was no beginning and no end, no keyhole, as though someone had forged the stone directly upon her.

Impossible.

Then she recalled something Regan had said. “Diane has the ability to control water, I have the ability to control space, and Athanatos, he controls the earth.”

Suddenly Lia knew exactly who her captor was, and the realization chilled her all the way to the twin core of her two souls.

Regan met Jace at the top of a steep bluff. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Dusk had just begun to fall, and the sky was streaked with gold. The fat sun slowly plunged into a sea that shivered gently beneath the caress of the breeze.

Staring down at the bruised ocean, Jace nodded. “I’ve got nowhere left to go.”

Understanding sparkled in her gaze. “All right then. Let’s go see Cal.”

His nerves rubbed raw, fear and worry conspiring to burn vicious holes in his gut, Jace followed his mother down the steep incline to the complex, which had been reinforced with new shields, courtesy of Cal. Without Regan’s help, he wouldn’t have been able to get through them, a fact his mother had quickly apprised him of when he’d called her.

When they entered the conference room, where the Watchers sat gathered around a battered old table, all eyes swiveled his way.

Marcus was the first to address him. “What can we do for you this time, Cutler?”

“Something’s happened,” Regan answered for him. “Lia’s been abducted.”

Cal stood from the head of the table and approached them. “When?”

“This morning,” Jace informed him. “Diane went after her sister. Lia thought she could rescue her. I spent the day scouring downtown Portland, but I can’t seem to get to her. She’s in the catacombs. I can feel it.”

Cal raised weary fingers to his eyes, rubbed his lids as though to relieve an unbearable weight. “This isn’t good. Not good at all. If Athanatos realizes what he has in his possession—”

“You have to help me get her back.” Jace was resolute.

“Assuming she’s still alive,” Marcus interjected.

Jace balled his hands into fists. It took all his self-control not to flatten the jerk. “She’s alive. I wouldn’t feel her if she wasn’t.”

“Lia’s life-force can’t be extinguished,” Marcus countered. “That might explain why you’re still sensing her. It may take a while before the connection is permanently severed.”

“Then how do you explain this?” Jace showed Marcus his wrists, which were rimmed with dark bruises again. “He’s got her bound.”

Cal raised a silencing hand. “If she’s alive, then we still have time to act.”

“How?” one of the others argued. “Our numbers have been seriously compromised. Our supply of angel’s blood is dangerously low. All the odds are stacked against us.”

“You’re forgetting one very important detail.” Cal began to stalk the room. “We’ve got the prophecy on our side.”

“A prophecy that means nothing unless he decides to join us.” The guy pointed an accusing finger at Jace.

All eyes settled on him again, filled with curiosity and mistrust.

“Are you ready?” Cal asked him. “Are you ready to become one of us?”

“Will it help me find Lia?”

“There are no guarantees. But it will strengthen your link to your lost soul. It will also boost your power, as well as ours. Right now it’s the best chance we’ve got.”

Jace swallowed the bitter lump clogging his windpipe. “Fine.” There was no use delaying the inevitable. His decision was already made. “I’ll do it.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in our war,” Marcus challenged.

He hadn’t, until he’d seen firsthand what the Kleptopsychs were capable of, until he’d witnessed that Rogue attempt to suck the life from Lia, until he’d seen Cassie’s ruined body lying on that stretcher. Now the need to cut each and every one of those hellish creatures down burned through him like a wildfire. “Things change. I’ve had just about all I can take of those soul-thieving half-breeds.”

Regan’s lips twitched at the corners. “Don’t let them hear you call them that. They like to think of themselves as purebloods.”

“They can call themselves whatever they want, but that doesn’t change what they are—conscienceless freaks who mess with other people’s lives in order to fulfill some twisted agenda. Now they’ve got Lia, and I want her back.” Jace met and held Cal’s ardent stare. “If that means I’ve got to sign my nonexistent soul over to you, then so be it. I’m through running.”

There was something hypnotic, if not altogether sinister, about the swaying shadows. Lia sat curled in a ball watching them, her arms looped around her bent knees, her cheeks tight with the tears she’d shed. She never should’ve faced Diane alone. Now Cassie was dead and she was trapped in the monster’s den, scared, pathetic and helpless.

Lia didn’t do helpless. She was a doer, always had been. She couldn’t wait here to be rescued, or worse, stripped of her soul. But what choice did she have? She was locked in an airtight room, her wrists and ankles imprisoned in stone.

Maybe if she tapped into to the well of energy inside her, the same energy that had blasted both Marcus and Kyros, she could break free. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to have any control over the strange power that had taken root within her.

The golden door at the far end of the room creaked, then swung open, jolting her. A giant, cloaked figure entered. His graceful approach was as hypnotic as the shadows embracing him.

Surprise slid through her when she saw him. She’d been expecting a monster. Instead, she was greeted by a man with the face of an angel. A man not much different from Cal, save for his dark features. But unlike Cal, this creature’s eyes were flat and empty, void of feeling or compassion. Staring into their black depths was like staring into a shallow grave.

“I’m glad to see you have awakened.”

Lia’s throat felt scratched, tender and sore. “Why?” she rasped. “So you can suck me dry? Couldn’t you have saved us both the trouble and drained me while I was unconscious?”

“What do you take me for? A common Rogue?” He looked offended. “I can see your essence is different. It can’t be taken by force.”

“Then why not just kill me and be done with it?”

“And risk your soul escaping to find its way to Cutler’s breast? I wish to thwart the prophecy, not see it to fruition.”

She had no idea what he was talking about.

Athanatos watched her with a razor-edged stare. Understanding sparked in the vacant pits that were his eyes. “You don’t know.”

“Know what?”

“That in order to defeat me, Jace Cutler must first take back what he lost. His soul.”

Her stomach pitched, then soured. “I think I’m going to throw up.” True to her promise, she bent over and vomited all over his expensive Persian rug.

Disgust contorted Athanatos’s features. “You humans are such repulsive creatures. Pity we need you to survive.”

Lia battled a new wave of dizziness. “What are you going to do with me?”

If he couldn’t take her soul, and if by releasing it he risked expediting his own demise, what other options did he have?

“I’m going to shatter you, break your spirit into tiny bits, then swallow it, piece by piece. And when I do, Cal’s precious chosen one will be nothing more than another Rogue awaiting the slaughter.”

Dread purled in her veins. “You won’t succeed,” she said, but the words lacked conviction. After watching Cassie plunge to her death, she was irreparably damaged inside, and Athanatos knew it.

“I think I already have.”

Keeping her gaze steady, Lia struggled not to give anything away, but her emotions betrayed her. Guilt tightened around her heart, lumped in her throat.