The Lost Souls (2 page)

Fall

“You really don’t want to do this,” the young woman repeated, her bright green eyes fixed on the shotgun barrel Carrie was aiming at her chest.

Carrie laughed. She laughed because the woman was right. She didn’t want to be doing this—any of it. She didn’t want to be holding anyone at gunpoint. She didn’t want to be starving. And she definitely didn’t want to be living through hell on earth.

“Where are the keys, bitch?” Jason yelled, whipping the woman’s duffel bag across the room.

Jason, her big brother, had recently lost his mind.
The constant stress that bombarded them—the lack of food and other necessities of life, as well as constantly being afraid—had taken its toll, and Carrie knew he was going to kill this woman just for a set of car keys.

• • •

Caroline “Carrie” Andrews had been fifteen when the disaster struck. During her spring break from school, her entire family was at their church’s annual barbeque. Actually, the entire town of Elderton, Pennsylvania, was at the church barbeque. Elderton had a population of around three hundred and fifty people, so small that when a public event was held, absolutely everyone attended.

It was a town where everyone knew one another. No one locked their doors, and pets roamed free without problem. No one drove over twenty miles an hour through the town streets
; everyone smiled and waved, and always attended church on Sunday. All four of her grandparents, along with every single one of her aunts and uncles and all fourteen of her cousins, lived in Elderton.

Most people who were born in
Elderton died in Elderton. But Carrie had never wanted to be one of those people, so she studied like crazy, got straight As in school, and joined every possible after-school activity and club available to her. She wanted the biggest and best—to go to college in New York City and then travel all around the world. She wanted adventure and intrigue and romance. But mostly, and more realistically, she just wanted out of Elderton.

During the barbeque, she snuck away with her boyfriend, Kris, and once inside the church, safely ensconced in a confessional, they began making out.

She’d started dating Kris when she was fourteen, a little over a year ago. They were official and exclusive, and all of her friends had decided she should have sex with him already since it was obvious they would get married one day. This had revolted Carrie. It wasn’t Kris that disgusted her, he was attractive in an all-American way with sandy-blond hair and pretty blue eyes. No, it was marriage that repulsed her. Even more so than marriage, it was that marriage to Kris would mean she was never going to leave Elderton. In Elderton, high school sweethearts ended up married either directly after high school or right after college, and college to an Elderton native meant the community college two towns over.

And since she had no plans
to remain in Elderton, she had no plans to have premarital sex with anyone from Elderton and accidentally get pregnant with an Elderton baby and be forced to marry an Elderton resident because of it. So, no sex. She would remain a virgin until she could get out of this town. In fact, she would remain a virgin until she met a dark, exotic stranger with a ripped abdomen, who rode a motorcycle, and could bench press her, her brother, and their Doberman all at the same time.

So, inside the confessional, when Kris’s hand started inching its way up her skirt, she
had immediately slapped it away. Kris had been about to let loose a litany of his usual protests when the screaming began. Startled, they jumped apart.

“CARRIE!”

Jason?

“Jason!” she cried, wrenching the door open.

Her eighteen-year-old brother was standing between pews, breathing hard as he scanned the inside of the church.

“I’m here!” she yelled, rushing toward him. “What’s wrong?”

That was when she noticed the blood. His shirt and jeans were covered with it.

“Oh my God!” she shrieked. “Are you hurt?”

Reaching out, he grabbed hold of her wrist and yanked her forward. “I’m fine,” he hissed, looking around. “But we’ve got to get out of here!”

Just then, the church’s double doors burst open and Mr.
Habermen, the town pharmacist, fell through them, drenched in blood. Two people were right behind him; they jumped on top of him and…

Her stomach lurching, her vision blurring, she swayed backward. They were eating Mr.
Habermen. Eating him. Literally.

Things got fuzzy after that. Kris was screaming, and Jason was yelling, but none of it was making any sense. She remembered blood, so much blood, and so much screaming, familiar voices screaming in agony and fear.

But she remembered her mother. She’d never forget.

She remembered her mother running beside them.

And then she remembered her father jumping in front of them and her mother throwing herself at him and the look in her father’s eyes…

His red eyes.

That was where the memories
went from vague to completely blank.

Then her memories started up again locked inside the food pantry in their basement where Jason had hidden them for several days.

Jason
had been fiddling with a radio, curled up in a corner with their dog, Tex.

The first thing he
had told Carrie was the world had ended. The second was that their father had gone crazy, turned into a monster, and killed their mother. And the third was that they were going to die.

For the remainder of spring and all summer long, they continued living in their home. They raided the local grocery store and the homes of friends and neighbors. But out of fear, fear of what was happening outside of their now deserted town, they never strayed too far from home, and eventually they ran out of gas for the car. By fall, they ran out of food, and had to kill Tex. It was Jason who shot him, skinned him, and cooked him.

After that, Jason…well, Jason’s mind began to deteriorate. At first, it was his temper. It had always been bad, but it was out of control now. He began talking to himself, fighting with himself.

Then one night, he kissed her—not a chaste kiss between brother and sister but an honest-to-God kiss with tongue and groping hands.
Carrie screamed and slapped at him until he reluctantly let her go. Grabbing hold of her throat, he told her he would leave her alone…for now, but eventually she would need to accept their fate, that she should stop fighting the inevitable because they were the last two people on Earth, and he had needs.

That was when she started cuddling with her dad’s shotgun, and stopped sleeping altogether. She didn’t want to kill her brother, but she would if she needed to. And things continued on the same as before.

It was nearing the end of fall when she began begging Jason to search for food on the outskirts of town. Winter was coming, she told him, and they would need everything they could get their hands on. Eventually, when their food supply was all but gone, he agreed.

Only a few blocks away from their house, Jason
had spotted a dark blue Jeep Wrangler on the lawn of a neighbor’s house that hadn’t been there before. He’d run inside and before Carrie could stop him, he started attacking the young woman he found sleeping upstairs.

• • •

“I’m only going to say this one more time,” the woman said to Carrie and Jason. “You really don’t want to mess with me.”

Pushing Carrie out of his way,
Jason yanked the woman up by her shirt collar, bringing her face-to-face with him. “Listen, bitch, I want the keys to that Jeep outside, and I have no problem killing you to get them.”

As Jason began pulling open her jeans, readying to reach inside them, the woman’s eyes turned black. Pitch black. Not a speck of white was left.

Shocked, Carrie began blinking rapidly. Was she seeing things? She hadn’t slept in two days and hadn’t eaten in nearly a week. Maybe she was hallucinating, maybe she—

The woman’s hands were smoking! No, not smoking but…oh my God, they were releasing shadows of some sort
, shadows that appeared to be in the shape of skeletal arms and hands!

“Jason!”
she screamed. “No!”

“Jesus, Carrie, it’s the only place we haven’t looked.”

“No! Her eyes! Look at her eyes! They’re black!”

“I warned you,” the woman said, her voice eerily calm.

Jason finally looked up at her, and his eyes widened in astonishment. “What the—”

Jason suddenly flew backward, crashed through the wall, and then fell to the floor in a heap. Carrie stared in horror at the blood seeping from the gaping wound on the back of his head. In a state of shock, Carrie barely registered when the woman ripped her shotgun from her hands and tossed it across the room. Stalking
past her, the woman grabbed her duffel bag.

Still, she only stared. This woman
…or witch…had just killed her brother. Her brother. And now, she was leaving…leaving Carrie here all alone without food, without her brother, without anything…leaving her here to die.

“Wait!” Carrie screamed, not caring what kind of hellish creature this woman was as long as she didn’t try to eat her. “Take me with you! I’ll die if I stay here!”

The woman paused and leveled her black-eyed glare on Carrie. “Good,” she hissed. “It’ll save me the trouble of killing you.”

Fear rippled through her. “Please!” she begged.

“Listen, Carrie, I might have considered it if you hadn’t just held me at gunpoint and tried to steal my only means of transportation. With that said, fuck off.”

Fuck off.

Her brother was dead and…fuck off?

Carrie fell to her knees screaming nonsense, screaming out of grief and fear and…

She was going to die. There were monsters out there—red-eyed, fanged creatures with superhuman strength who ate human flesh, who used to be her family and friends and neighbors.

And now, she was alone.

She was going to die, all alone.

Shandor
Asenov smelled the human before he saw it. As it grew closer, he heard its footsteps tapping on the cement, heading in his direction. Fists clenched, his talons were digging into the skin on his palms, painfully drawing blood. He tried not to breathe, refusing to inhale the sweet, delectable scent wafting along the cool breeze.

He wouldn’t kill a human.

He couldn’t kill a human.

Fuck, he really didn’t want to kill a human…again.

Several months ago, he’d awoken in the midst of carnage, the likes of which even his wildest, most gruesome imaginings couldn’t have thought up. And the worst part was…he’d caused it all.

In his newborn haze of hunger, desperate to ease the pain, he ran and ran until he came across a family hidden in their home. He sniffed them out, found them hidden in their attic
, and killed them all—the mamă, the
tată
,
and their three
copii
.

Children.

All dead at his hands.

Shandor was no stranger to death. He’d worked plenty of jobs with Xan—running guns for the clan, stealing from thieves, and yeah, he’d killed some people. Shitty people who’d done shitty things.

But he’d never hurt an innocent person
, and he’d certainly never killed a child.

On his knees, surrounded by human remains
and covered with the blood of his victims, he had vowed he would stay as far away from humans as possible, that from that day forward he would feed only on animals to cure his hunger.

But he was so hungry.

No, he was starving.

Animals were scarce,
and humans were all but extinct. He’d have to move on soon. Pennsylvania wasn’t just deserted. It was empty, a dead state, thoroughly picked over by Skins and humans, both attempting to survive. It would be winter soon, and although the cold didn’t bother him, there would be no chance of finding food.

Fuck it.

No longer caring, his hunger superseding his morals, Shandor took off running down the alley, crouched behind a Dumpster, leaped, and…

He saw fire the moment it appeared, and reacted with his own fire. Just as he
landed on his feet, the dual dark flames collided and instantly evaporated.

Long black hair, bright green eyes, olive skin, and nice curves
. She was a little on the skinny side now, obviously not eating well, but she was still just as beautiful as she’d been the first time he’d seen her.

Trinity Deleanu was the last person he’d ever expected to run into. She was the last person he wanted to run into. Anything from his past, any reminder of what he’d once had and lost, he’d hope
d to never come into contact with.

After he’d changed, once he’d been able to think clearly again, he shut it off, all of it—his home, his family, his clan. Names, faces, and memories, he let them all go because he could never go back. Therefore, he was determined to take what he still had left, his life, and continue moving forward.

But here was Trinity, and from the smell of things, she was alone. With
dark magic
emanating from her
, which only meant one thing. Actually, it meant several things, but none of them were good.

One, she had magic, meaning Gerik and she…

But what about her marriage to Xan? Shandor felt his gut clench. If Trinity had finally succumbed to Gerik, that meant Xan hadn’t made it back to camp after the raid.

Then there was the matter of her magic, her dark magic. For Trinity to have dark magic, it meant Gerik had dark magic when he’d joined their souls and given his powers to her.

Why would Gerik have dark magic?

What could have happened to Gerik, to Trinity, and to his clan?

For all Shandor knew, they could all be dead, every last one of them.

Swallowing back his rising fears, he tried to grin. None of it was his concern anymore.

“Trinity,” he drawled, trying desperately to channel the man he’d once been. “Lucky me. Of all the cities in all the world, you walk into mine.”

“Shandor,” she sneered, sounding bitter, angry, and very un
like Trinity. He knew instantly that this
fată
had been suffering.

“It’s so nice to see you,” she continued. “You look great. Did you have work done? And congratulations on owning your own city.” She glanced around at the carnage and destruction. “It’s very beautiful.”

In the face of female sarcasm, his typical response would have been to smirk and say something equally sarcastic. So he smirked and said, “You’re packing some kind of power there, fată. Did Gerik finally fuck you?”

Her bright green eyes turned black. “Gosh, thanks for asking
. But no, he didn’t.”

Shandor
let out a shaky-sounding laugh. “Are you all alone, fată?” he asked as he glanced around, wondering, hoping that maybe someone else was with her, that someone else had survived.

No. It didn’t matter. He couldn’t go back.

“Nope. I have my dark magic keeping me company. How about you?”

Goddamn her. Why couldn’t she just be nice? Her attitude was making him angry, and when he was angry, all he wanted to do was attack. Add hunger into the mix, and it could get ugly. And if it got ugly
, she would undoubtedly kill him. Through Gerik, Trinity would have derived an affinity for all elements. This meant that despite his own power, she could still kill him.

Unable to completely contain the animal inside him, he bared his fangs. “I’ve still got my affinity for fire,” he growled
. “Only now it’s dark, same as yours. Courtesy of my happy transition into the world of the damned, I suppose.”

Shandor’s
magic, the innate power of fire he’d been born with, hadn’t left him when he’d turned. Instead, it had shockingly turned dark. In addition to possessing the element of fire, he now also had spirit. Spirit gave him the ability to not only burn any living thing to death, but to also utilize the power of the dead to eat away at them faster than any flame could kill.

And none of it made a bit of sense. As far as he’d
ever known, dark magic only came to the most powerful
Roma
, those who possessed not just one or two of the elements but all five of them—earth, air, water, fire, and spirit. But in order to summon spirit to the body, the first four element
s had to be called upon.

Yet, somehow, when he’d changed from human to monster, his meager ability for fire had turned dark.

“Listen, fată,” he said. “I’m gonna go that way.” He pointed in the direction Trinity had come from. “And you’re gonna go that way.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

She gaped at him, her eyes wide with shock
, and he knew that she now realized he was afraid of her.

“Such self-control you have, Shandor,” she said smartly. “I’m impressed. Most of your kind still come snapping and snarling, even after they’ve seen what I can do.”

He forced a grin. “I’ve never played by the rules, fată.” Which may have been true, but even so, he needed to get out of here before he attacked her and ended up dead.

Refusing to breathe through his nose, he turned to go, stopping when he heard her yell.

“Wait!”

He closed his eyes and took a breath before turning around and refocusing on her. “What? You want a hug? Maybe a fuck for the road?”

She ignored that. “When did this happen to you?”

Shandor’s
jaw clenched. He knew what was coming next and he didn’t want to have to tell her. Fuck, he didn’t want to have to think about it because he didn’t want it to be true. “The raid,” he bit out.

Fear squeezed Trinity’s features and he felt his stomach churn with sympathy.

“Xan?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Is he…okay?”

Fuck. So, Xan hadn’t made it back.

“The last time I saw him,” he said quietly, “frate was still an omnivore.”

Trinity
blew out a relieved breath, leading him to believe that maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe nothing had happened to his clan but instead had only happened to Trinity. And Gerik? But he couldn’t dwell on it; he had to keep telling himself that it didn’t matter anymore.

“You and me, fată,” he said quietly, “we’re not so different, you know? We’ve both been dealt a shitty hand, and we’re just trying to make it work in any way we can.”

He watched as her black eyes bled to green once again, and in them, he saw the gathering moisture.

“Do me a favor,”
Shandor said, choking back his own rising emotion. “Try not to judge so harshly that which you don’t understand.”

She watched him for several heartbreaking moments before whispering, “Okay.”

Okay. Yeah, it was time for him to leave. The last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of Trinity.

He took a crouching step and then paused. “If you find him again,” he said, “tell him…remind him of the Fat Tuesday twins.”

Her brow lifted. “The Fat Tuesday twins?”

This time, his grin was sincere. “Yeah, baby,” he said, his tone crude
. “I’ll let him tell you all about it.” This time, before she could delay him again, he took off running, leaping from car to car in order to get as far away from Trinity as fast as he could.

Shandor
couldn’t go back. He knew that. He could never go back.

But even knowing that didn’t stop a lifetime of memories
from flooding him—of family and friends, of his clan. Nor did it help ease the ache inside him.