With All My Soul
Page 38
I was thinking. Thane got away with several stolen souls. Shouldnt we be...reclaiming them? I mean, if the others are too busy, I guess I could look into it. That sounded casual. Right?
Madeline folded her hands on her desk. Kaylee, Thane is a rogue reaper. Hes completely beyond our authority. The reapers police their own.
But he stole souls. Lots of them. I hadnt been able to rescue them from him at the time, because Em had just died and Lydias body was on the verge of death. Id had to act quickly to save one of them. Or, a piece of each of them. Besides, we deal with hellions whove stolen souls, and theyre way more dangerous than rogue reapers.
Madeline nodded. Its not about the danger. Its about the jurisdiction. Theres no other agency in place to deal with hellions when they steal souls, but the reapers have their own authority. Around here, thats Levi, and Im not going to step on his toes, especially after everything hes done to help us recently.
But
No. She leaned closer to me over her desk. Thanes a reaper. Let the reapers deal with him.
Theyre the ones who lost him in the first place! When hed killed my mother, then come back to kill me when I was three.
Madelines frown deepened. Was there something else I can help you with, Kaylee?
That was a dismissal if Id ever heard one.
No. Thanks. I stood and headed toward the door, because using it seemed more polite than just disappearing right in front of her, and Id obviously already pissed her off. I paused in the doorway with my hand wrapped around the doorframe. Hey, Madeline?
Yes? She sounded annoyed now.
Whatever happened to Mr. Becks soul?
Mr. Beck?
The incubus. The one who killed me. His soul was in my dagger when I turned it in that first time. Did it get recycled along with the others?
Madelines brows rose in sudden interest, and she put down the pen shed picked up. No. As it turns out, an incubus soul is a relative rarity, and it carries quite a bit of power. And since no one was expecting it at the recycling facilityyour incubus wasnt on the list, of courseLevi decided to keep it as a sort of...souvenir. A conversation piece.
Is he allowed to do that?
Well, no. Not technically. But he wasnt allowed to bring back your young reaper suitor either. He did that as a favor to me because Id refused to work for her if she couldnt bring Tod back to me so I will, of course, be overlooking his small indiscretion. As will you, naturally.
Naturally... I hardly heard the word as I spoke it, because my head was spinning with other thoughts. Other possibilities.
Levi still had Becks soul. If it would work for the father, it would work for the son. No one else would have to die to give Tracis baby lifea pattern that would hopefully continue throughout the little parasites existence.
What exactly is a conversation piece, anyway? That wasnt really a lie either, because I hadnt actually said I didnt know the definition. Id just implied it.
Its a piece of art or decor intended to start conversations. Thus the name. In this case, its a highly stylized letter opener. Its obviously just for show. Something interesting to set on his desk. And now when people ask about it, he can tell them not only the history of the letter opener itselfits hellion-forged steel he won in some kind of gambling gamebut that it contains the soul of the only incubus ever known to have died at the hands of one of his victims.
I started to argue with that statement. I wasnt an incubuss victim in the traditional sense. He hadnt wanted my body; hed wanted my soul. However, he had killed me, so Levis story wasnt really inaccurate....
But I had just as much right to Becks soul as he did. More really. And I wanted Traci to have it.
Thanks, Madeline. Just let me know when you need me. Ill be...around.
Thank you, Kaylee. Id been dismissed again, and this time I was eager to go.
I blinked from Madelines office back into my bedroom, where I silently lifted the broken dagger from my dresser. Id taken it from Beckit was the weapon that had killed us bothand hed bought it from Avari, whod evidently ripped the metal from the Netherworld ground and forged the dagger himself.
That thought made me pause, stunned to realize that Avari, Beck, and I were tangled up in as intimate and distressing a knot as Nash, Sabine, Tod, and I. Hundreds of years before my birth Avari had made the blade that would kill me, but Id survived its useand my own deathto retain ownership of my own murder weapon. Which he no doubt wanted back.
On second thought, the Avari/Beck/me tangle was much more disturbing than anything forged in adolescent hormones and rooted in love.
I stared at the dagger in my hand for a moment, tracing the jagged, broken edges with my gaze. Invidia, the hellion of envy, had broken off both of the points on the night Emma had died. Afterward, Tod had gone back to the Netherworld to retrieve it for me, but he wasnt able to find the severed points.
Fortunately, the jagged blades were just as scaryand almost as sharpas the original weapon had been.
Madeline folded her hands on her desk. Kaylee, Thane is a rogue reaper. Hes completely beyond our authority. The reapers police their own.
But he stole souls. Lots of them. I hadnt been able to rescue them from him at the time, because Em had just died and Lydias body was on the verge of death. Id had to act quickly to save one of them. Or, a piece of each of them. Besides, we deal with hellions whove stolen souls, and theyre way more dangerous than rogue reapers.
Madeline nodded. Its not about the danger. Its about the jurisdiction. Theres no other agency in place to deal with hellions when they steal souls, but the reapers have their own authority. Around here, thats Levi, and Im not going to step on his toes, especially after everything hes done to help us recently.
But
No. She leaned closer to me over her desk. Thanes a reaper. Let the reapers deal with him.
Theyre the ones who lost him in the first place! When hed killed my mother, then come back to kill me when I was three.
Madelines frown deepened. Was there something else I can help you with, Kaylee?
That was a dismissal if Id ever heard one.
No. Thanks. I stood and headed toward the door, because using it seemed more polite than just disappearing right in front of her, and Id obviously already pissed her off. I paused in the doorway with my hand wrapped around the doorframe. Hey, Madeline?
Yes? She sounded annoyed now.
Whatever happened to Mr. Becks soul?
Mr. Beck?
The incubus. The one who killed me. His soul was in my dagger when I turned it in that first time. Did it get recycled along with the others?
Madelines brows rose in sudden interest, and she put down the pen shed picked up. No. As it turns out, an incubus soul is a relative rarity, and it carries quite a bit of power. And since no one was expecting it at the recycling facilityyour incubus wasnt on the list, of courseLevi decided to keep it as a sort of...souvenir. A conversation piece.
Is he allowed to do that?
Well, no. Not technically. But he wasnt allowed to bring back your young reaper suitor either. He did that as a favor to me because Id refused to work for her if she couldnt bring Tod back to me so I will, of course, be overlooking his small indiscretion. As will you, naturally.
Naturally... I hardly heard the word as I spoke it, because my head was spinning with other thoughts. Other possibilities.
Levi still had Becks soul. If it would work for the father, it would work for the son. No one else would have to die to give Tracis baby lifea pattern that would hopefully continue throughout the little parasites existence.
What exactly is a conversation piece, anyway? That wasnt really a lie either, because I hadnt actually said I didnt know the definition. Id just implied it.
Its a piece of art or decor intended to start conversations. Thus the name. In this case, its a highly stylized letter opener. Its obviously just for show. Something interesting to set on his desk. And now when people ask about it, he can tell them not only the history of the letter opener itselfits hellion-forged steel he won in some kind of gambling gamebut that it contains the soul of the only incubus ever known to have died at the hands of one of his victims.
I started to argue with that statement. I wasnt an incubuss victim in the traditional sense. He hadnt wanted my body; hed wanted my soul. However, he had killed me, so Levis story wasnt really inaccurate....
But I had just as much right to Becks soul as he did. More really. And I wanted Traci to have it.
Thanks, Madeline. Just let me know when you need me. Ill be...around.
Thank you, Kaylee. Id been dismissed again, and this time I was eager to go.
I blinked from Madelines office back into my bedroom, where I silently lifted the broken dagger from my dresser. Id taken it from Beckit was the weapon that had killed us bothand hed bought it from Avari, whod evidently ripped the metal from the Netherworld ground and forged the dagger himself.
That thought made me pause, stunned to realize that Avari, Beck, and I were tangled up in as intimate and distressing a knot as Nash, Sabine, Tod, and I. Hundreds of years before my birth Avari had made the blade that would kill me, but Id survived its useand my own deathto retain ownership of my own murder weapon. Which he no doubt wanted back.
On second thought, the Avari/Beck/me tangle was much more disturbing than anything forged in adolescent hormones and rooted in love.
I stared at the dagger in my hand for a moment, tracing the jagged, broken edges with my gaze. Invidia, the hellion of envy, had broken off both of the points on the night Emma had died. Afterward, Tod had gone back to the Netherworld to retrieve it for me, but he wasnt able to find the severed points.
Fortunately, the jagged blades were just as scaryand almost as sharpas the original weapon had been.
