My chest twisted uncomfortably. I didn’t like him talking about Anaya like that. She might have been dead, but she wasn’t a corpse. She was so much more than that.
“And what makes us different?”
Noah smiled. “We can walk among the living,” he said. “And we can cross over as the dead. We’re hovering somewhere in between. You have more power in one fingertip than a reaper has in their entire body. Enough power to force a soul into flesh. Enough power to scare the shit out of them. Why do you think Balthazar wants you under his thumb so badly?”
I stared at my fingers, flexing them open and closed, feeling the energy buzzing under the surface.
He was telling the truth. I could feel it.
“You’ve got a choice in what and who you use that power for,” he said. “I’m just trying to help you make the right choice.”
I thought about Anaya and her light, the goodness that poured out of her like sunshine. She couldn’t possibly be batting for the wrong team. She was too good. I watched the darkness pulsing in Noah’s veins, buzzing beneath his pale skin. In answer the blood in my veins pulsed back. Maybe Anaya wasn’t the bad one here. Maybe it was me. Maybe it was Noah.
“They’ll destroy you,” Noah said as if he could read my thoughts. “You are too much of a danger.
They’ll destroy you just like they would destroy me if they ever got their hands on me. They’ll stop at nothing to keep you out of the underworld’s hands, even if that means baiting your human hormones with a girl who looks like Anaya.”
“And who are you using your power for?” I stepped forward, my boots creating a mini tidal wave in the puddle beneath me. “Because from where I’m standing, it seems like you’re in pretty deep with the same things that want to suck the soul right out of my skin.”
Noah frowned, no doubt hearing the distrust in my voice. “You want to know what I use my power for? What I’m asking you to use yours for as well?”
I nodded and Noah spun around, his gray coat flying out behind him. “Follow me.”
Maybe Noah was batting for the dark side, maybe I was walking into a gigantic trap, but I had to know. No way could I walk away from all of this, not knowing what I was, where I was going to end up at the end. I took off at a jog after Noah and we emerged onto a busy city street. Shock stole my breath as I looked up at the high-rises in the distance and the people crowding the sidewalks. Two girls with beads dangling from around their necks walked past us, laughing. The blond one with purple streaks and a leather miniskirt spun around and grinned, giving us a little wave before her friend dragged her off, giggling.
“Wait…they can see us?” I asked. “They can see you?”
Noah grinned at me over his shoulder. “Like I said, you walk with me, you get some perks. Women, food, booze… There is nothing off-limits for us, Cash. Not on my team.”
“Where are we?” I spun a quick circle as I walked. “Why did we leave Lone Pine?”
“First rule. Avoid small towns,” he said. “I do my best to avoid your reaper friends, and trust me when I say there are a whole hell of a lot of them out there. It’s easier to find souls that slip through the cracks in the bigger cities. Stick around Podunk towns like yours, and you’re asking for trouble.”
“And why are we trying to find souls?”
He grinned at me over his shoulder. “You’re about to find out.”
We walked a few more blocks, the city air so humid I felt like I was suffocating. Despite my skin feeling like ice, sweat caused my dress shirt to stick to my frame. Noah stopped in front of an old abandoned warehouse. Windows were shattered and spiderwebs clung to the dusty brick.
“What are we doing here?”
Noah turned to face me, the look on his face deadly serious. “Do you know what happens to the souls that reapers take?”
I shrugged. From what Anaya had explained, there were several ways a soul could go.
“Some go to Heaven. Some go to Hell.” He glanced back at the rotting building behind him and pressed his lips together. “But these kinds of souls. The escaped. The banished. They don’t even get those options.”
“Wait…” A streak of blue light zipped past one of the broken windows. “There are souls in there?”
Noah nodded solemnly. “Yes. And do you know what happens to them after the decay sets in? After they have wandered this place long enough for the darkness to take hold?”
A hiss drew our attention to the crumbling brick wall at the top of the steps. A shadow, dark as oil, slithered into a corner where it was met with three more just like it.
“Them,” Noah said, motioning to the shadow. “That’s what they turn into. I can save them from that. Take them to a place where they will never have to watch the darkness eat away at everything they once were. A place where they will never have to live in fear of becoming just another eternally hungry monster. Where I take them, they will never wander lost or alone. They will never become a shadow demon. I can give them peace.”
Shadows had begun to gather around the base of the building. Drawn in by Noah and me or the buffet of souls inside, I wasn’t sure. I did know that whatever Noah’s intentions were with me, he needed to get those souls out of there unless they wanted to become dinner for some sick shadow demon.
“There are your choices, Cash,” he went on. “You can help me give souls the peace they deserve, or you can aid in delivering them into an eternity of torment. That is if they even decide to keep you around for that. For all I know, your other option may very well be eternal death.”
I nodded, feeling numb and confused. I didn’t know what to think. Who to trust. I just knew in that moment, I wanted whatever option got those souls out of here before it was too late.
“Just think of how many we could help if we worked together,” he said.
“What do we do?” I stumbled back a few steps as the shadows closed in tighter. Knowing they could hurt me was enough to kick my fear up a notch. Noah didn’t budge, allowing them to surround him like a second skin. He glanced up to one of the windows where a set of luminescent eyes peered out at us before disappearing back into the dark.
“I’m going to take care of them,” he said. “And you’re going back home. You’re not ready for this yet.”
“But—”
Noah clamped his hand over my shoulder again and the words got caught like peanut butter stuck to the insides of my mouth. The ground vibrated under my feet and the world around me began to blur.
Noah smiled at me and winked.
“No worries, friend,” he said, sounding distorted and muffled. “I’ll see you soon.”
Darkness engulfed me in an instant and then the slap of cold tile exploded against my cheek. I opened my eyes, feeling like I’d gone ten rounds with a heavyweight and the heavyweight had won.
Bile rose up my throat and I scrambled for the toilet to choke up the pills I’d swallowed earlier. When
I collapsed back onto the floor, unable to move, my thoughts slowly came back in pieces. A few blue pills lay the in the coffee-colored grooves of the bathroom tile near the toilet. The bathroom. I was back in Emma’s bathroom. I didn’t have much time to contemplate what any of it meant, because by the time I took my next breath, a thick hazy darkness was pulling me back under again.
Chapter 14
Anaya
I couldn’t believe I was about to do this—cross over to the one place I’d vowed never to go. Hell was only a fall away, and fear swam inside my chest at the thought that I might not make it back. But I had to go. I needed answers. I had to do this for Cash.