Soul Thief (16 page)

Diane rolled her eyes. “Angels don't have super-hearing so don't worry about that. I'm glad I could vent to someone about this.”

“You're welcome.” What Diane just told me made me even more uncomfortable about the situation. It sounded like Leander was still hung up on Seraphyn, but if he was, then why did he kiss me? Was it all a game to him? I didn't want to believe that. He was always so open and honest about everything, he didn't seem like the type to play games.

“Actually,” I said. “I didn't come here for Leander. I came to look at the Book of Names.”

Diane frowned. She dangled the empty glass in her hands and stared into the distance as if her mind was elsewhere. “Why?”

“I need to see it, that's all. Do you know where it is?” I didn't want to make a fool of myself by telling her my thoughts and then finding out I was wrong.

“It's in the library,” Diane said. “I can show you, but only if you tell me why you're really looking for it.”

“I'll tell you as soon as I can see if my suspicions are correct or not.”

“Fair enough.” She stood up, as fast and lean as a panther. “Come on.”

We zigzagged through the labyrinth of rooms and doors to the library. I'd never been in here before, but the place was gigantic, and a stark contrast to the rest of the house. While the walls looked streamlined in a light green color and the bookshelves were sleek and modern, the books were anything but.

My mouth dropped to the floor. Some of the books looked ancient, their spines nearly crumbling apart. The room smelled of dust and mold. In the middle of the room stood a reader, like a pastor would use to put his bible on before reciting texts from it. And on the reader lay the small black book Leander showed me yesterday.

“Here you go,” Diane said. “Don't try to steal it, but feel free to look as much as you want.”

“I'm not a thief,” I snapped.

She shrugged. “The Book of Names is very valuable. It has more value than the most expensive diamond. If you stole it and sold it to a demon, or even a regular human, you could become one of the wealthiest people on earth.”

“Well, luckily I don't care much about material possessions. Except cars. I might sell it for a convertible.”

Diane laughed. “You have a better sense of humor when you're not being threatened by the Council.”

“Tell me about it.” I stood in front of the Book of Names and let my hand glide over the cover. Now or never. I hoped I was wrong because I had no idea what it would mean if I was right.

I turned the pages until two days ago, Saturday. There were five names on the list, but Marissa Meyers wasn't there. Saturday night could also mean early Sunday morning, so I checked Sunday too, but the name wasn't there either.

I browsed back through the pages for the last few weeks, looking for an Emily. I couldn't remember the girl's full name, but I was pretty sure the second victim's first name had been Emily. There was no record of any Emily dying in Fairhaven in the last few weeks either.

“Tara,” I whispered before I could stop myself. I searched for her name too. With every page I turned, every page without her name on it, panic rose up in my throat and the world started twisting into something oppressing and evil.

“What's wrong?” Diane asked. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I said. “I have no idea what the hell this means, but I think it's bad. Do you know about the girls dying in town during the last few weeks?”

“I've been a bit too busy to read newspapers,” Diane said. “But I may have picked up something vague about it. Why?”

I waved the Book of Names at her. “Because their names aren't in here. None of them.”

“WHAT?” THIS TIME,
it
was her turn to have her mouth drop to the floor. “That's not possible.”

“But it is. Look.” I showed her the pages from Saturday and Sunday. “A girl named Marissa Meyers died in town that night. But her name isn't here. Same thing for a girl named Emily who died last week, and a girl named Tara who died two weeks ago.”

Diane's fingers trembled when she touched the pages. “You're right,” she said. “I know what's going on.”

I looked at her, waiting for her to continue. All color had drained from her face and her lower lip trembled.

“Those girls, they didn't die,” she said. “Everyone who dies is mentioned in the Book of Names. If they're not mentioned in there, then they didn't die.”

“But they're dead.” I stared at her as if she'd grown two heads.

“They're not dead. They only appear to be dead. That's what happens when your soul gets stolen.”

“You mean… someone stole their souls? Like a Reaper?”

“That's exactly what I'm talking about. But Reapers usually don't work this way. They like to keep their appearance hidden, but this, three girls within weeks, that doesn't sound like their usual MO. People would start to notice something is wrong. They don't usually target teenage girls either. In most cases, they close deals with people and then their soul is payment at the end of the deal. This would take a great amount of energy.”

“Maybe one of them went a little crazy or decided teenage girls' souls are worth the most right now. Either way, we've got to tell Leander what's going on and we have to stop it,” I said, putting the book back on the reader.

“I'm with you on the whole stopping it part,” Diane said. “But don't tell him right away.”

I frowned. “Why not? You'd think this is a bit more important than his meeting with Seraphyn.” My voice sounded harsher than I intended and I wondered if part of that was jealousy talking.

“True,” Diane said. “But I don't trust her. It would be better if we handle this ourselves.”

I contemplated what she said. Seraphyn did save my life, but from what I heard, she wasn't the nicest cookie in the jar. “Fine,” I said. “Deal. We'll wait and tell him after she's gone.”

“Great. Let's order pizza.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Now? I think I should get home. I told my parents I'd be a little later, but they'll be mad if I miss dinner.”

“Oh, come on,” Diane said. “If you stay, I'll tell you all the juicy Angel stories Leander is way too decent to tell you about.”

“Fine, you win. I'll call my Mom first, you go order pizza.”

Diane smiled from ear to ear like a child at Christmas. I took my cell phone from my pocket, called Mom and told her I was staying at Stacey's to work on the biology group project I'd told her about earlier.

When I was done with the call, I felt like a cheat and a liar. No matter how many times I lied to my mother, it just didn't get easier. Diane had left me alone in the library and my fingers traveled across the cover of the Book of Names. A Reaper was at work in Fairhaven, stealing innocent girls' souls. And from what Leander had told me about souls that end up in Hell, that might be a fate worse than death.

Figuring out who was behind this and stopping them was important enough to qualify for a few white lies to my Mom, but it still made me feel guilty.

“Will you be in there all day?” Diane asked. She'd appeared in the doorway, sneaking up on me as silently as a cat. “Pizza will be here in half an hour. I found a bottle of wine from 1876 in the cellar too.”

“Isn't that expensive?” I asked. “Leander won't be pleased if he finds out we pillaged his wine stash.”

Diane snorted. “Since when do I care about his feelings? I've been waiting here for three hours now and for all I know they could be having sex on his desk.”

My cheeks instantly turned red.

“Jeez, Riley, you're such a prude.” Diane laughed at my expense, but handed me the wine bottle anyway. I followed her out of the library.

“Do you know how to defeat a Reaper?” I asked her.

“Nope. Never had to deal with them before. Well, except that one time in a bar fight,” she replied. “I knocked him out and that was that.”

She poured me a glass of wine. I only felt slightly guilty for attacking Leander's secret stash. The wine was exquisite, with a deep, rich taste.

“What are you girls doing?” Leander interrupted our conversation.

His appearance was a stark difference to how he usually looked. His hair was a mess and his face looked gaunt, as if he hadn't slept all night.

“We're drinking wine,” Diane replied before I had the chance to. “And wondering why it took you so long to finish dealing with Seraphyn.”

“We had important matters to discuss,” Leander replied mysteriously. “Is that from my wine cellar?”

“See it as revenge. I don't like to wait.” Diane downed her glass and poured a new one. I was beginning to suspect she may have a drinking problem.

“We have important news also,” I said, and told him about the girls who weren't in the Book of Names, their mysterious deaths and how we suspected a Reaper was behind it. With each word we spoke, Leander turned paler.

“Give me some wine too,” he said when I was done. He sat down in between us.

“Do you know how to kill a Reaper?”

“I do,” Leander replied. “But the problem is, how do we find him? How does he choose his victims? Sixteen year old girls, that's a wide range of targets.”

“Maybe we need to find something else they have in common,” Diane suggested. “Like, if they all went to the same school.”

“Tara didn't go to school in Fairhaven,” I replied. “So that's a dead end.”

“What if they had the same hobbies?”

“Could be, but I don't know them, so I have no idea.” I sighed out loud. “It's like searching for a needle in a haystack.”

“What I'm wondering about,” Diane said, “is why he'd attack so many girls and why only them? It's almost like he was looking for something. When was the first attack?”

“A few days after I left the hospital,” I replied.

The doorbell rang. Diane's face lit up. “Great, pizza's here!” she said.

“You ordered pizza?” Leander frowned as he watched her walk away. As soon as she'd left, he turned to me. “Riley, we need to talk.”

“You don't have to explain yourself to me,” I said. “I may not understand why you want to stay with Seraphyn, considering Diane thinks she's a royal pain in the ass, and Diane isn't exactly the nicest person either, but if you want to, that's your choice.”

“Seraphyn didn't come here to talk about us, although in retrospect, I wish she had.” Leander sighed. “The Council arranged a test for you.”

“A test?” I almost fell off my chair. “What kind of test?”

“Each Angel is tested to find out if they're suitable for the job. I knew all along they were going to test you, but I figured they'd at least give us a year or so to practice. Turns out they've given us two more months.”

“What happens if I fail?”

“It won't be that bad,” Leander promised me. “It will be like failing a test for school, maybe a little worse.”

I breathed out in relief. “So I won't get executed if I fail.”

“They're strict, not impossible,” he said. “But the better you do, the better it will be for both of us. Sounds like we've still got a lot of training to do, and since we won't be able to meet at school much longer, I'm not sure how we'll handle that.”

“We'll figure something out. This Reaper stuff is way more important.”

“Not more important than pizza, I hope,” Diane said as she walked in carrying three large pizzas. “Hope you're hungry and like pepperoni.”

“Pepperoni is fine,” Leander said. “I have some contacts in the underworld I'll get in touch with tonight, figure out if maybe they know the identity of this Reaper.” He grabbed a slice of pizza.

“I can stroll through some bars,” Diane suggested. “Talk to some people.”

“What can I do?”

“Find out, if you can, if there's any connection between the three of them, something we may have missed.”

“Kind of like a detective,” I said. “Cool. I wish my friend Michelle could help us, she's a better sleuth than I am. She's also nearly on to me.”

“What? How?” Leander asked.

“She saw the puncture marks on my neck, and given how weird I've been acting lately, plus finding out you're not a real psychologist, she knows something's up. She doesn't know the truth of course, but she knows I'm hiding something.”

“It's too dangerous to tell anyone,” Leander said. “Sorry.”

“There might come a day I'll have no choice but to tell her,” I said in between bites.

“If you have no other choice, then you can, but until then, don't tell anyone.”

“Fine, but keep in mind that I'm not Sherlock Holmes.”

“Don't worry, I'm not expecting miracles,” Leander said. He put his hand on my lower back and my cheeks turned bright red.

The memory of the kiss of yesterday hit me straight in the chest. I relived it all over again — the taste of his lips on mine, my heart beating in my chest…

Diane looked at us, one eyebrow raised and a small smirk playing on her lips. I tried to ignore her, but I knew she was on to us.

We ate the rest of the pizza and Diane offered to take me home. We walked outside and Leander waved to us as we left. I waved back at him, cursing the dreamy expression plastered on my face.

“You got it bad, sister,” Diane said the moment he closed the door. “I hope you know what you're doing.”

“I'm sixteen, how the hell am I supposed to know what I'm doing?”

She grinned. “Good point. Come on.” I grabbed her hand and we teleported to my house. At least this time my stomach didn't feel like it was turned inside out.

“Enjoy sleuthing,” she said, before she waved and vanished again.

I sighed, threw my backpack on my shoulder and walked inside. Tonight was going to be a long night.