The Soul Healer (10 page)

Hold on. I backtracked on tiptoes and peeked in to see Philip in the middle of undressing. I froze, feeling like a pervert as I watched him shimmy out of a sweaty t-shirt and grab another one from a pile on his bed. He dressed quickly, but not before I saw a large scar on his left shoulder that looked like it hurt a lot.
Was it from demon hunting?
Still, how could I ask him about it? “Hi, I saw you undressing the other night—where’s that scar from?” Realizing that I didn’t want to be caught staring, I inched away, but the floor decided at that moment to creak, giving me away.

Philip paused, looking up. “Gabiella?”

Whoa. He remembered my name. My correct name. I knew I liked this guy for a reason. Even if he was currently staring at me oddly. Oh yeah, because I had been watching him undress. “Uh, hi. I’m not creepy, I swear.”

“What?” Philip let out a surprised bark of laughter. “Oh, because you saw me change?” He laughed again. “It’s okay. I’m flattered, but I guess I should tell you what Scott said earlier is
true. I like guys.” He ducked his head slightly, watching me through his eyelashes as he waited for my reaction. Like he was expecting me to denounce him on the spot and run away screaming before I caught his gay cooties.

Instea
d, I hopped into the room (geez, I was turning into Nina) and chirped, “Me too! What a crazy coincidence! No wonder we’re best friends!”

His worried expression melted into pure relief. “Yeah, definitely.” Clearing a spot from his bed, he gestured for me to sit down. “So, what’s up?” he asked as I snuck a few glances around the room. It was cozy, Philip’s room. And not pink. Thank
the universe it wasn’t pink. There were a few sports posters hanging on the walls, and instead of books on his bookshelf, it was crammed with weights.
No wonder he’s so built,
I thought. Dirty clothes were strewn everywhere—typical of every teenage boy that wasn’t Rafe the neat freak—and Philip hurried to pick them all up, stuffing them into a laundry bag.

“I was sleeping and then I woke up and…” I hesitated. Tossing the full laundry bag into a corner, Philip settled down on the bed next to me, sitting cross-legged. His expression was earnest, and I couldn’t help but be honest with him. “I was trying to find a way to escape.”

“Oh.” He nodded. “I don’t blame you. This place sucks. Sometimes I pretend when I go out those doors, I’m finally leaving, but then… I don’t.”

“Why don’t you?” I
asked, even though I suspected the truth.

“I have nowhere to go.” Philip reached over to
the table next to his bed and picked up a stress ball. He squeezed it tightly, the veins on his arms popping out. “No money, no house, no family…”

“I’m sorry Charles is your dad,” I said before I could stop myself.

He shook his head. “Yeah, tell me about it. If they ever gave away awards for the biggest bastard dad, he’d win every single year.” He stopped squeezing the ball to throw it up in the air, catching it when it came down. “I’m sorry he found out about you. If you really are a Soul Healer…” He trailed off, and I was actually grateful that he had. We both knew what that meant for me, and it wasn’t good.

“Who do the two of you want me to bring back to life?” I asked.

Philip grimaced. “You’re going to think I’m the worst person in the world, but the person I want to bring back is different from my dad’s choice. He wants to bring back my mom.”

I swallowed hard. Philip’s mom was dead? God, that sucked. “And you don’t?”

“She died when I was a baby,” he explained, a faraway look in his eyes as he stared across the room. “I don’t remember her at all. The only things I know about her are what my dad told me. So I mean, yeah, of course I want her to be alive, but there’s someone else, someone I actually knew, that I want to bring back…” He glanced at me. “You probably think I’m a real jerk.”

“No, I don’t. I was actually wondering if it’s better that way, to lose her before you knew her.” I clapped a hand over my mouth, turning red. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong. I’m not usually such a bitch, I swear.”

But Philip wasn’t pissed at me. “Did you lose your mom, too?”

“Actually…” I picked at a loose thread on the cuff of my borrowed hoodie. “She left when I was nine, and I haven’t seen or heard from her since.” I couldn’t believe I was telling a virtual stranger my darkest secrets, but there was something about Philip that made him so easy to talk to. I had really meant it when I said I wanted to be his friend earlier. “And it hurts, Philip, it hurts every freaking day, so maybe it’s better that you were spared that heartbreak.”

He put a hand over mine and squeezed lightly before pulling away. “Maybe you’re right. And you can call me Phil, you know.”

I smiled shyly. “Only if you call me Gabi.”

“Deal.” We shook on it, and I laughed.

“Why are you so easy to talk to?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s a gay thing.”

“Oh my god.” I swatted him and he grinned. “If you don’t mind me asking, who do you want me to bring back to life? If I can even do that, which I’m not saying I can,” I added quickly.

Philip immediately sobered. “Sam. Sam Chen, Alexandra’s older brother. He was my best friend and… I was in love with him.”

Chapter Sixteen

Oh. I swallowed hard. Already I could feel my cheeks burning up. Love… Wow. I hadn’t expected to hear him say something so serious. Besides Penny and Harrison, the freaks of nature who had found true love at such a young age, no one else my age was throwing that word around. Not when people hooked up and broke up in the same week. “How old are you again?” I blurted out.

Philip looked amused. “I’m nineteen now. But I was fifteen when I realized I loved Sam. We had known each other since we were babies. We grew up together, trained together, and fought together. Hunters usually fight in pairs—it’s safe, and it also helps with the cleanup process.” He paused. “You do know all the details about hunting, right?”

“I’ve seen Rafe—alone, usually—take out quite a few demons.” I began checking things off on my fingers. “You have to chop their heads off to kill them. Green blood flies everywhere and it tastes really disgusting when it gets in your mouth—”

“What!” Philip laughed. “Why were you eating it?”

“Ugh, I was actually
screaming
when Rafe decided to do some beheading and the nasty crap ended up in my mouth.” My stomach rolled. Talking about it made me remember what it tasted like. Nasty, nasty.

“Okay, I’m a little confused. You and Rafe are…”

“A couple,” I finished for him. “But that’s not important right now. Tell me about Sam!”

Philip shook his head. “We are definitely coming back to this, Gabi. I can’t believe you’re Rafe’s girlfriend—and a Soul Healer at that!” He caught me glaring at him and quickly amended himself. “A potential Soul Healer.”

“Better.” I scooted backwards, leaning my back against the bed’s headboard. Philip joined me, still tossing the stress ball into the air.

“So, me and Sam. Best friends. Hunting buddies. You get the picture,” he said. “And then one day, something happened.” Philip caught the ball and stared at it, squeezing it tightly. “I’d known for a few years that I was gay, and Sam hadn’t cared, but for some reason, I woke up that morning, joined him in the gym, and realized he was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen.”

My mouth was partially hanging open as I became absorbed in Philip’s story. I pictured a younger Philip and a super sexy Asian boy talking, laughing, kiss—

“Hey pervert, what are you thinking about?” Philip asked, gently tapping me on the shoulder.

“I’m not!” I said, even though my face was probably bright red. “I’m just listening to your story, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, smiling. Clearly he didn’t believe me. “Sorry to disappoint your fantasy, but Sam was one hundred percent straight. At fifteen, he’d already had two girlfriends.”

“So you didn’t tell him you liked him?”

“Nope.” Philip was still smiling, but it was a sad, wistful one that didn’t reach his eyes. “I suffered in silence for over a year before I finally confessed. And that,” he said, hurling the ball across the room, where it smacked against the wall with a loud
thwack
, “was the worst mistake I could ever make.”

I frowned. I didn’t like where this story was going one bit. I already knew Sam was dead, but I had been hoping—
For what, Gabi? For the two of them to fall in love, only to have Sam killed, leaving Philip heartbroken? Hadn’t you just said it was better to not know what you were missing, so you could avoid the pain that comes with losing someone you love?

“Was he mad?” I asked.

Philip’s face scrunched up. “Mad wouldn’t even begin to describe what he was. He… Sam said I betrayed him.”

“What?” I felt a flash of anger. “That’s ridiculous! You can’t choose who you love!”

“That’s not what Sam thought. He thought I had done it on purpose, to ruin our friendship,” Philip said. “He said a lot of things that night, in anger, and I said so many things myself, things I’ll regret every day for the rest of my life…” He ran a hand through his close-cropped hair. “Sam stormed out of here, completely pissed off. We were supposed to go hunting that night, but he told me not to bother coming with him. And then…”

There was a dull ache in the back of my throat, making it hard for me to swallow. I knew exactly what Philip was going to say. “And then he died.”

“Yes.” He was blinking fast, his eyes bright with unshed tears. “Yes, that’s right. Sam went out hunting, and never returned. There were too many demons for one hunter to handle, and they destroyed him. I’ll never—” Philip took a deep, shuddering breath, one hand over his heart as if it was causing him pain. I placed a hand over his and he squeezed my fingers. “I’ll never forget the sound of Alex’s screams echoing through the hallways, when they brought her brother in…”

“Phil, I’m so sorry.” My heart was aching too—for Phil and Sam and Alex. Strangers, all of them, and yet… How could I not hurt for them?

“And that’s why I’m being selfish and want to keep you here, so you can use your powers and bring him back,” Philip said, his hand still holding mine. “I want to tell him how sorry I am for everything. Everything I said, and everything I did. I just need him to know that I’m sorry.”

“But I might not be able to…” I told him quietly. “I healed Rafe and Evan while they were still alive. Not dead.” I didn’t add that I was in a trance at the time, and that it was also quite possible that they had died and I just hadn’t know
n. “I’ve only just learned about these powers in the last few months. Bringing someone back to life?” I pulled my hand away from his and flexed my fingers a few times. “I don’t think I can do that. I’m sorry, but I just don’t…”

He was quiet for a few moments, long enough to make me worried I had pissed him off with my declaration. After clearing his throat a few times, he said, “If that’s the case, then I promise I’ll get you out of here, Gabi, and away from my dad.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

I seized on his offer to help and asked, “And can you call Rafe? Right now? To let him know where I am?”

Philip looked surprised at my request. “Yeah, sure, why not?” He slid off the bed and fumbled around for his phone, finally locating it in the back pocket of a worn pair of jeans. “I haven’t called him in a long time—do you know if this number is still the right one?” He showed it to me and I blinked.

“Ummm….” I stared at the numbers, waiting for a flash of recognition, but nothing came to me.

“You don’t know it?” Philip asked, raising his brows.

I let out a scream of frustration and smacked myself in the forehead for being so stupid. “I have no idea what it is! And this isn’t the first time I’ve needed to know it, either! What kind of girlfriend am I that I can’t be bothered to memorize ten stupid numbers! I’ll tell you what kind of girlfriend I am, Philip!” I jumped off his bed, ignoring the gobsmacked look on his face. I reached for my necklace, currently buried under the sweater and hoodie, and pulled it free, flashing the diamond rose in his face. “The kind of girl that gets this amazing, wonderful gift from her amazing, wonderful boyfriend and yet can’t even be bothered to remember his goddamn phone number. I am the worst girlfriend
ever
!”             

“Whoa, whoa, calm down!” Philip held his hands out in front of him, shaking his head. “Let me call it first; maybe it is the right one.” He pressed the call button, paling when we heard the automated voice inform us that it was sorry, but the number he had dialed was no longer in service. I started growling and Philip quickly hung up. “Okay, so this isn’t the right one.”

“I suck,” I declared, “so much. So very much. Oh my god, I need to give this necklace back to him—”

“I’m sure Rafe doesn’t have your number memorized—”

I gave him a look. “Are we talking about the same Rafe here?”

“Okay, fine, he probably does have it memorized, but he’s the only one who would.” Philip waved the cell phone around. “No one needs to memorize numbers anymore, not when you can just store them in here. Don’t worry about it, Gabi. We’ll find a way to contact him.”