House of Slide: Hunter Page 23

“I’d love to stay in your camp, but I believe I’ve found what I’ve been searching for.”

  I gripped my wrist as his heat still swirling through me, leaving an imprint if such a thing were possible, warmth that kept the darkness at bay, that stung but diminished the pain in my heart.

  “And you,” Osmond said. I saw the flicker of tension in his jaw before his features smoothed. “I’ve been defending you to Snowy. Tell me. Can I trust you?”

  I stared at him and saw him smile, drop to his knees and pull a simple gold band out of his pocket. I blinked and took in the tent, the mess of the bed behind me as though I’d been having a rollicking good time with the Hotblood who I must have ripped the shirt off of, and the mostly empty bottle on the floor beneath my feet.

  I shouldn’t have come there. I knew better. Could Osmond trust me to be as stable as he needed one of his Hunter’s to be? I’d been the cause of Chloe’s death. My actions, my intentions had triggered that entire train wreck of Orrin and Marcus. I had to keep my promise and take her to the Hollow One to see if he would save her. It made no logical sense, but somehow, I knew I had to do it. Osmond shouldn’t trust me, not when I’d been broken so badly I’d never be right again.

  I stood, noticing the lacing of my shirt was undone in front showing my scar. My hands twitched as I felt the need to tighten the laces, to cover up from the situation I’d been caught in, however innocent it had started.

  “You were right. Snowy’s right. I don’t belong here and I never did. I’m sorry for everything.”

  I reached out and touched his face, seeing the hurt in his eyes even though I couldn’t feel it through leaning.

  His jaw clenched before he lifted his chin, letting my hand drop back to my side. “What you do is your business,” he said before he turned and left.

  Chapter 19

  I stopped at the hut. Sue guarded the prisoners, her split lip held in a frown as she cocked her head at me.

  “What do you want?” she asked, arms crossed over her chest, like I was the enemy.

  “I need to see Orrin again,” I answered. The voice I’d heard when I’d looked in his eyes had been Devlin’s. I had the stones. I needed to see if I could break through, see his vision before I left with Chloe.

  “He won’t see you,” she answered, unmoving.

  I looked at her noticing the careful way she watched me, waiting for an attack. I’d leaned her friend Stand without trying to be careful.

  “Is Stand okay? I didn’t treat him gently.”

  She uncrossed her arms and put her hands on her hips instead. “Stand can take anything you throw at him although he was a little bit frustrated when I saw him. Said you were just like your step-father. That’s never a good comparison.”

  I shuddered as I thought of Matthew, of me becoming like him. What was he truly like, though? He may have been a murdering sadistic jerk, but he had good qualities too.

  “My step-father’s also my trainer. I guess I picked up some bad habits. Can I see Orrin?”

  She nodded and the rune ward fell down just like that. I stepped through and she nodded again, bringing it back up. Impressive.

  “He’s still there but the other one Stand took to the infirmary.”

  “What’s he going to do?”

  “You could compare it to dialysis. They’ll take all his blood out of him, run it through the wash and put it back in. It’s not a pleasure cruise, somewhere along the lines of getting your tattoos, I suppose, but the guy wanted it done, wanted to make up for killing the girl. That’s something we didn’t expect.”

  I shrugged. Marcus wanting to get better was a pleasant surprise, but it wasn’t worth Chloe’s death. I went to the hut while Sue let me, apparently trusting me to go in alone in spite of what happened to Chloe, although maybe she thought that would be a good trade, my life for his sanity.

  “Orrin?” I said as I ducked through the small door. The interior had been slightly improved, a cot against the wall where Orrin was tied, tight enough so that when he lunged he didn’t hurt himself. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust so that I could see the color of his eyes. I went to him and squatted on my heels.

  “Orrin,” I said as I took the stone wrapped in a leaf and raised it up so that he could see it, but he wasn’t looking. I closed my eyes and could see the bright energy wrapped around the stone, the large one from Lewis’s garage, smaller sparks from the other one.

  I felt his nose brush my cheek, one touch, but that’s all I needed as I curled my fingers around the stone.

  “It’s almost over,” I said, staring at the field ahead of us. The bodies strewn over the grass bled into the soil, the red making the green look even more rich and bright. My own hands were blood-stained, splattered with red that wouldn’t wash away.

  “So this is it? This is how it ends?” Dariana asked. She didn’t sound angry anymore.

  When I looked at her, what I saw was defeat, but her eyes, they’re filled with fury so great that I could almost see the demon taint in her.

  I said slowly, “We’re the last to go. Why are we the last ones…”

  “Why?” Her short laugh sounded sharp, like broken glass. “You’re still looking for alternatives? Still trying to save the world? It’s over. You saw it. The temptation for power has always been the Wild’s weakness. The Hollow One handed this world over on a plate to the demons. He doesn’t care who lives or dies. He…” She closed her eyes and trembled, from her lips to her chin.

  “What if there was an alternative?” I said, quietly.

  “What alternative? I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to see the world burn.”

  The flames would come next, consuming the bodies, leaving ashes where nothing would ever grow again.

  “What about losing your soul for a decade?”

  She looked at me. The anger faded as she stared, studying my eyes. “What about Osmond? Would he suffer and die?”

  I shook my head. “He would live, but without you.”

  “A decade without my soul… like in the books, the ones Carve had? Soul-bait? You think that if I’d been soul-bait, none of this would have happened?”

  “Not none of this, but this…” I said, gesturing to the field, to the smoke that covered the sun beyond it. “The end of the world. The darkness and demons winning. Here we are. We survive, but nothing else does. I don’t want this. Do you?”

  She stared at me, eyes flashing dangerously. “I do not choose this. If there is something we can do, we will do it. Together. We’re always going to be together. If anyone can stop it, we can.”

  “We can,” I agreed, nodding.

  “How will losing my soul change things?”

  “It will draw him out before he turns.”

  “Draw him out then kill him,” she nodded, smiling. “The demons won’t get a chance…”

  “We can’t kill him. You know that we can’t kill him.”

  She stared at me. She didn't want to understand, but it was impossible for her not to. She coughed, inhaling too much smoke. I saw darkness of blood smeared on the black leather of her pants.

  “You think that we can convince him to only attack demons, not Wilds?”

  “You know that no one has succeeded in killing a Hollow One like him. If he were centered, if the Lost Souls didn’t possess him, there is a chance that he would listen to persuasion, particularly if it came from one he knew before, one who was bound to him before he turned. You could draw him in.”

  “Bound to him? That might draw him, but there would have to be a circle of seven with Hollow blood,” she said, rubbing her temples. “So, this is why the Mistress took out Slide? So there was no way to reach the original soul?”

  I looked up and saw him rise from the smoke, unbound by gravity since as the Hollow One, he didn’t notice such things. Destroying the world had finally gotten his attention, but too late to save anything.

  “He never hurt you, even consumed with Lost Souls.”

  “No, just
millions of Wilds. I still hope they kill each other,” she said.

  “But if there was another way, would you take it?”

  She turned to me, her eyes bright and clear. “Why ask? You know that I would fight beside you always.”

  “And if I didn’t make it?”

  She blinked, suddenly less certain. “I would lose my soul and you would lose your life, but we would save the world?”

  I nodded.

  She grabbed my hand, squeezing hard, filling me with the assurance, the peace and love that no one else in the world could give me.

  “Let’s do it.”

  The smoke and shadows roiled and spread, racing across the field of bodies, consuming them as they came for us. The darkness held us, wrapped us, then darkness, and hope.

  I blinked in the room, seeing Orrin’s flaccid face, saliva spilling from the corner of his mouth. This reality, the one I lived in was the one where Devlin would die, where I’d be bound to Lewis and bring him back after he turned. How was I going to bring him back? What was a circle of seven? Was the knowledge really in Carve’s books? I ran my hand over my face and could almost smell the blood, the smoke, the death and destruction. Devlin. He’d loved me. We were going to save Osmond and the world.

  I felt more energetic as I smoothed Orrin’s hair back and kissed his head, sending him as much love and positive energy as I could. The hut was near some good trees. He should take their energy, and try to stay who he was.

  I left the hut, smiling brightly at Sue who frowned back at me but let me pass out of the wards.

  I took Chloe from the Hybrid who true to her word had kept her soul in place.

  “Does Osmond know you’re going?”

  I hesitated. “Of course. He’s delighted that I’m leaving with her.”

  “What are you going to do with her?”

  I hesitated. “I know a Hybrid who brought someone back to life once. It’s a long shot, but right now that’s as good as it gets. Take care.”

  I left the tent, found a motorcycle and climbed on, memories of alternate realities showing me where to put my feet and hands, even while holding onto Chloe’s stiffening body, I could manage the motorbike. It was faster than walking. If this reality was the key, me being bound to Lewis had purpose. I could see him, bring him back. He really wasn’t dead.

  The drive passed like a dream. I drove with a mixture of soul-sight and my rune enhanced eyes, following the narrow trail that carved through the land then widened into a rough road until it shifted once more into gravel then pavement. What was a circle of seven? My mother’s seven brothers probably, but what did they have to do? The demon mistress must have destroyed them in that alternate reality, but would she still be able to do that in this one? I should warn them, but what difference could I make?

  I needed Lewis so much. We should be in his car with Chloe in the backseat instead of her limp head resting against my shoulder as I balanced on the old, dusty motorbike. On the highway, I leaned the cars around me, careful to keep them aware of me. Lewis. I felt him, or the Hollow One north of me. I would get to him soon. Was there really a spark left of him? I needed it to be true.

  It began to rain reducing visibility while Chloe’s head banged my shoulder when I went over a bump. I took an exit to my right then turned left onto a small road through the overhanging trees, icy rain dripping inside my collar.

  I let my motorbike idle as I looked at the large house behind the iron wrought fence, the spires and roofline muted in the drizzling rain. I gripped the handles a little tighter before I twisted and let the engine sputter to its death. I wiped my face, feeling my heart race as I stared at the old stone house.

  This was the culmination of so many plans, so many deaths. The world as we knew it depended on what would happen in the next few moments, whether I succeeded, or whether another soul would walk around in my body. I shivered as the rain came down, harder. Could I trust Devlin, the brother who had stolen my soul? What choice did I have?

  I closed my eyes tightly for a moment before I took a deep breath and got off the motorcycle swinging Chloe up into my arms. I couldn’t think anymore, otherwise, I’d turn and run instead of keep walking towards the boy who had stolen my heart, given me his soul, and bound me to his death. I shuddered as I took one step at a time over the slick grass, the house seeming to watch me.

  My heart pounded louder as I walked, step by slick step over the unkempt, wet lawn towards the mansion that looked more haggard and ominous the closer I got. It looked haunted. Lost Souls did tend to haunt a place, a person, and the grand master of all Lost Souls lay somewhere ahead of me. I could feel him tugging slightly on the bond in my arm that ran through my heart. Lewis.

  I climbed the front steps, overgrown and crumbling away, gripping Chloe tightly. She felt so light, like an empty shell in my arms. I closed my eyes and checked her soul. It still undulated in a ball near her head. Ahead of me, the stone walls of the house blocked everything I should have seen with soulsight. I was walking in blind.

  I took another step, beneath the edge of the porch where dripping rain streamed onto my head. I should have brought a slicker. Snowy would have thought of that. Rain pooled on the stone porch floor while the leaky roof drip dropped around me.

  I stood on the porch in front of the door with a ripped screen and broken panes of glass, the wood darkened from age. An old bell attached to the wall looked broken.

  “Hello?” I called, my voice cracking so I had to do it again. “Hello. I’m here to see the Hollow One.”

  The front door creaked open, beckoning me inside without anyone in sight. A shiver ran down my spine that had less to do with the water down my back than the haunted house beckoning me in.

  I opened the screen door and walked inside, my boots echoing on the flagstone floor. I entered a large room that looked like someone had swept it recently and a hall ran along the right side of an enormous staircase made of stone that curled above me, looking like it would fall down on itself.

  I walked forward, shifting Chloe in my arms as I tried to figure out a way to hold her and my knives at the same time. No. I’d come here for his help. Threatening him with my knives wouldn’t give the right impression.

  “Hello?” I said as the door creaked closed behind me. I turned and saw no one, just the porch outside the broken glass of the door and the door securing me inside. I wanted to run to the door, leave this place and never return. It didn’t feel like Lewis. It felt like insanity, like a horror movie waiting to happen, not hot chocolate and sweet kisses.

  I took a deep breath, staring down at Chloe’s pale face before I turned back and walked to the hall. The second doorway was open, golden light dancing on the stone floor from a fire inside. When I edged around the corner, I saw a man standing in front of a long table with feathers and animals spread along it. The smell, like turpentine or something else, something worse burned my nose.

  He wore white gloves that matched his white suit, white shoes, auburn hair almost the same length as mine, brushing his cheekbones as he leaned over the table holding a pair of long tweezers and a scalpel in his hands.

  His skin had color now along with his hair, but his eyes when he looked up at me were not brown, gold, green, warmth that made my fear melt away. His eyes were pale blue, icy eyes that looked over me in an inhuman, coldly clinical way.

  He stared at me while my heart beat in my chest and my arms grew weaker and weaker. I couldn’t look away from him while he delved into my soul, stripping me naked and analyzing all of my pieces.

  “You’ve come a long way,” he said gently as he smiled, laying his tweezers down on the spread feathers of a peacock. His smile chilled me more than the rain, more than the stone crowding around me, threatening to crush the soul out of me.

  I couldn’t breathe while he looked at me with the eyes that weren’t Lewis while the rest of him was. I knew those hands, the fingers still curved around a scalpel. I knew his cheekbones even though they were sharper and more
angular. He’d changed, but still, I knew him.

  For a moment eyes burned, but it must have been the reflection of the fire where it blazed in the oversized fireplace. The golden flecks glowed above his pale cheeks and warmed his skin.

  “What can I do for you?” he asked in a smooth voice that did not belong to my Lewis.

  I felt my breath catch as I opened my mouth to answer him, but I couldn’t think, not with a stranger staring at me through the eyes of Lewis my love.

  “I’m going to make an intuitive leap and guess that you want me to bring someone back from the dead.”

  He took a step towards me that had me trembling as my arms threatened to let Chloe tumble to the floor.

  “I suppose you could be here to offer up a body, but I don’t think you’d have bothered to bring her soul with her in that case. You must have some Hollow to do that.”

  His smile, the twist of his lips that didn’t reach his eyes made my stomach churn and my heart ache. That wasn’t Lewis’s smile.

  “You’re the Hollow One.” My voice came out rough and croaking. I swallowed hard.

  He cocked his head, studying me again. Something crossed his eyes, recognition as he said, “I am merely the voice of the Hollow One.” He bowed with a flourish, the scalpel held out parallel to the floor in his pale fingers. He rose to his full height, making me feel small. “And you are? We wouldn’t want to be rude. You must introduce yourself and your corpse.”

  “I’m Sand,” I said while I felt like I was choking. “I’m a Hunter. This is Chloe. She’s my friend.”

  He lifted his face, looking down his nose at me as he circled me, taking me in from all angles as he smiled. “How loyal of you. Do you know that most people would feel a little hesitant to walk into the home of the Hollow One? I haven’t the best reputation, my pretty bird. Half pretty, half maimed. You must have been caught in a net. Nets are so difficult to untangle. Why should I bring her back to life with her soul instead of all those worthy Hollows who yearn to be free?”

  I shook my head and licked my lips. “Please. I owe her.”

  He sighed as he walked behind me, the feel of his breath on the back of my wet neck making my skin prickle. “You owe her?” he whispered behind my ear as he moved, looking at me, as though he could see every scar, every bruise, every hurt I’d ever had, inside and out. He smiled as he raised an eyebrow. “What does she owe you? She didn’t save you when…” he said as he lifted his hand and touched my scar, running his cold fingers lightly over my face. “Beautifully twisted,” he murmured before he shook his head and took a step away from me.