Soul Thief (3 page)

WE ARRIVED IN FRONT
of a modern, flat-roofed house that had completely embraced the ‘less is more' style. It was painted white, without any decorations on the large square windows or glass front door. The front garden was landscaped in Japanese style, with a waterfall, a bridge, white sand, and a small pile of rocks.

Diane pulled me along to the front door.

My knees felt like they were made of Jell-O and I stumbled every step of the way. The fever crawling up my back made me shiver, but her iron grip yanked me forward.

Before she even rang the bell, the door flew open, revealing my Guardian-to-be, whatever the hell that meant. He had the height of a basketball player, at least six feet tall, and a slim but muscular build. His curly, dark blonde hair reached to his shoulders. I estimated him at least a few years older than me, but not older than twenty-three.

“Good evening. Come on in.” He stepped aside to let us pass through.

The entrance room was a spacious white cubicle. A designer couch stood in the middle of the room, along with a clear Lucite coffee table. An abstract painting in bright, vibrant colors, showing squares, circles, and other geometrical figures, completely covered one of the walls.

The Guardian held out a hand for me to shake. “I'm Leander.”

“Riley.” I managed to stop trembling long enough to shake his head.

“You don't look too well.” He looked me up and down, and concern flashed through his eyes.

“She kidnapped me out of the hospital.” I pointed at Diane.

Diane gasped and shook her head. “It's…”

“That'll be enough.” The Guardian's words were sharp, and Diane shut her mouth right away. “You can wait here while I talk with Riley.”

“Whatever.” Diane slumped down on the couch, crossed her legs and pretended the wall-sized painting was the most interesting thing in the room.

The Guardian led me out of the room and through a maze of equally large, more or less similar looking rooms, until we ended up in an office. The office was sparsely furnished like the rest of the house. One bookcase, a metal-colored desk with an aluminum finish and a black chair on wheels filled up most of the space. Two smaller black chairs stood on either side of the desk. He gestured for me to sit down and I picked one of the chairs.

Leander sat down behind the desk. For the first time since we met, he smiled. “Welcome to the world of the paranormal.”

I sniffed. “It doesn't exactly feel welcoming, to be honest.”

“You must be overwhelmed by everything that's happened. It'll take some time to get used to… not being human,” he said slowly, as if he was weighing every word, “but once you get used to the idea, you'll figure we're not as bad as we sound.”

“Your Council almost killed me. In fact, they'd decided to execute me, and then this woman named Seraphyn jumped to my rescue.” I paused and licked my lips. “Were they serious?”

Leander clacked his tongue. “Unfortunately, yes. The Council is a little old-fashioned. There's a lot you need to know about them and about Angels of Death in general. If you did, you might understand where they're coming from.”

I frowned and resisted the urge to laugh. This whole situation was ridiculous. “How can I
ever
understand why someone would want to execute an innocent girl? I've done nothing wrong, except that somehow they thought I was an ‘Angel of Death', whatever the hell that means.”

“An Angel of Death collects souls of the deceased,” Leander explained.

“I kind of figured that out after I saw Diane do her handiwork. But why would you think I'm one of you?”

“When we're on a mission to collect a soul and escort it to the afterlife, we're invisible. Nobody can see us. Other paranormal beings will catch a glimpse of us, at most. So there were only two options. Either you were an Angel of Death or you were a Reaper.”

“And what's the difference?” I pushed a strand of loose hair behind my ear and tried to ignore the shivers running up and down my spine.

“A Reaper is the demonic counterpart of an Angel of Death. We collect souls to bring them to Heaven, to the afterlife. Reapers collect souls to bring them to Hell, or to purgatory.”

“So we take the good ones, they take the bad ones?”

“More or less. At least, that's the way it's meant to be, but it doesn't always turn out like that.”

“Okay.” I slumped back in my seat and took a minute to let that info sift through my mind. “So what now? I go collect the souls of the deceased? Is there any bonus to this gig? Superpowers?” I tried to keep my tone light because if I didn't see the humor in this, I'd go crazy.

Leander sighed and toggled his fingers on the desk. “At the moment, your powers are slumbering. They've been dormant your entire life, as if there's a barrier separating your human and your angel side. I've got no idea how that barrier got there but if we want to activate your powers, we'll have to break that barrier.”

“Hold on — how exactly do you know about this barrier?”

“Seraphyn told me. She could sense it right away.”

“She told you — when? Diane and I came here right after we left the Council meeting, there's no way she could've been here sooner.”

“We can read each other's thoughts.” Leander said it in a casual tone, as if talking about the weather.

I nearly tumbled backward, chair and all. “Read each other's thoughts?”

“Yes, and send telepathic messages to each other. It's a lot faster than talking.”

“So you're reading my thoughts right now?” I felt a hot blush creeping up my cheeks, more from anger than from embarrassment.

“I can't read them. Not yet, anyway.” Leander scratched his head. “You're still human and angels can't read a human's thoughts. Our thoughts aren't on the same plane. Think of our thoughts and energy like radio frequencies. We operate on another frequency than humans.”

“And for me to become an Angel of Death you want to break the barrier in my mind.” I bit my lip. “That sounds painful.”

“It
is
painful. But if it makes you feel better, I can put you into trance first and that should lessen the pain.” He looked at me, searching my face for God knows what.

“We'll need to spend as much time as possible practicing to control your powers. Seraphyn suggested you come live here and…”

“What?” The word escaped my lips before I could stop myself. “I'm not living here, or anywhere else. I have a home.”

“And then I told her that wouldn't be a good idea,” Leander continued, unmoved by my sudden outburst. “We made that mistake once. We found a Halfling and we brought him to Heaven with us, treated him like any other Angel because we thought that was for the best. But in doing so, we ripped him away from his family. We never realized how much that must've hurt him, until he turned against us.”

“I'm not letting
you
or anyone else tear me away from my family!” I put all the strength I had left into that one sentence. The same blind panic that took hold of me when the Council voted about my life or death came crashing over me again.

“Don't worry, I have zero intention of doing that.” Leander looked me straight in the eyes. “But we'll have to spend a lot of time training your powers. If you can't control them it could be dangerous, and not just for you, but for your family as well.”

“Here's an idea. What about we
don't
lift that barrier at all? I've been perfectly happy these past sixteen years as a human, I think I can manage some more.”

A small smile played on his lips. “You have a sense of humor. You'll need that. Unfortunately your suggestion isn't an option. If a demon had discovered your powers instead of one of us, then they'd be training you to become a Reaper right now. It's nothing short of a miracle that your powers haven't been discovered long ago.”

“Well, I never actually saw anyone die until the accident, so the opportunity never presented itself, I guess.” I shrugged. “But tell me more about training my powers.”

“You'll have to learn how to control them as soon as possible. I suggest we meet at least a few hours a day. You still go to school, right?”

“Yes, and sadly that means I also get homework, extracurricular activities I have to participate in if I ever want to go to college, and tons of other stuff. I don't really have ‘a few hours a day', unless you're telling me that now that I'm an Angel, I don't need sleep.”

“A Halfling Angel. And no, you'll still need sleep.” He clacked his tongue and stayed quiet for a minute, as if he was thinking things through. “I'll think of something, don't worry.”

Easy for him to say. “What exactly is a Guardian, by the way?”

“Guardians are responsible for all Angels of Death in a particular area. We're all assigned certain areas of the world. For instance, Diane is only one of the several Angels responsible for this county. I make sure everyone gets a fixed list of assignments, so they don't have too much workload on their hands. We can only collect a certain number of souls a day, or else it drains our powers. So if something bad happens, like a natural disaster or a major accident, then I can call in other Angels to help.”

“You're like the administrator of the Angel office. Got it.”

He grinned. “I guess you could summarize it like that. But there's more to being a Guardian than just that. Sometimes we can save people. You see, we have a list of names of people about to die, and we can feel when their time draws near. Those names aren't always written in stone however. If the name flickers, then we can still save them, and that's where Guardian Angels come in.”

“Wow. So there are actual Guardian Angels. Awesome.” Even though it was obvious Leander tried his best to explain everything to me, it was like the information didn't really reach my brain, as if my mind was clouded. I stifled a yawn and sat up straighter. My eyelids felt heavy and I blinked a few times to stay awake.

“You should get some sleep.” Leander grimaced and his eyes shone with worry. “But first, let's break the barrier in your mind. I wish we could do this some other time, but the sooner we get this done, the better. You'll probably want to sleep afterward either way. It's an exhausting process.”

“How do you know all this? You just said that this whole barrier thing is a mystery to you as well.”

Leander's smile vanished, and his expression became hard, unreadable. His eyes darkened, and he stood up brusquely, almost throwing his chair on the ground. “Come on.” He held out a hand to help me up.

His voice was as warm and friendly as before, but still I hesitated before grabbing his hand and letting him help me out of the chair. My hand looked very tiny in his hand, as if I was a child.

He dragged me along to the room next door, which looked like some kind of yoga room. The walls were bare and windowless and the entire floor was covered in carpet. Large, purple pillows were scattered across the floor.

“Sit down.” Leander pointed at the pile of pillows.

I didn't need to be told twice. I sat down on one of the pillows and propped another against my back. The urge to sleep overwhelmed me again. If only I could close my eyes for a second…

“Now, I need you to stay awake just a little longer.” Leander was still holding on to my hands as he sat down across from me. “Once we're done, I'll tell Diane to bring you back to the hospital and then you can catch some sleep.”

I nodded. “Let's do this.”

“Are you scared?”

“Well, part of me is still convinced this is some feverish dream, so I'm not sure,” I replied. “If I was completely awake, and not feeling like I took an overload of tranquilizers, I'd probably be terrified. I'm alone with a stranger who's going to probe into my mind and pull down some kind of barrier. What's not to be scared about?”

Leander's laugh filled up the entire room and my heart raced at the sound of it. “Don't be scared. It will hurt, but you'll be fine.”

“Very reassuring.” My voice dripped with sarcasm.

“All right, close your eyes.”

I did as he told me to. From the moment my eyes closed, a tingling sensation started at my fingertips where he touched me, as if he was sending small bursts of energy into my hands. “What are you doing?”

“Shh. Relax.”

A warm glow spread through my hands and then the glow traveled all the way to my shoulders. It was a pleasant experience, as if I was being tucked under a blanket. The glow spread to my chest and stomach, and nested there. My pulse, which had been racing just minutes ago, slowed down. My breathing slowed as well, and I was overwhelmed by a strange, otherworldly calmness. A bomb could've exploded and I probably wouldn't have panicked at all.

“I'm sorry,” Leander whispered. He touched both sides of my head with his hands.

Less than a second later, a breathtaking pain exploded in my head. I struggled, wanting to grab his arms and pull him away from me, but I couldn't move. My eyes stayed shut even though I willed them to open. I was locked inside my own body, a prisoner in my own mind. I screamed but no sound came out.

It was like a parasite tore through my mind. Every cell was investigated, twisted and put back in its original position. Some kind of warped magic crawled through all barriers I had and pulled them down, one by one. It was the worst possible violation, a thousand times worse than what I'd gone through at the hands of the Council member earlier. This wasn't just probing into my thoughts, this was investigating them, convoluting them, deforming them.

Then he touched the barrier in my mind and searing pain flashed through my entire body. The blood burned in my veins, my skin turned on fire and every molecule of my being fought against this intrusion. He pushed against the barrier, pushed again and again and again, until it exploded in a myriad of light, vibrant colors.