Souls of the Damned (Kat Redding) (16 page)

A tear slid from beneath my closed lids. My throat closed up and all of the emotions I had tried so hard to clamp down on all of my life boiled to the rim. I buried my face into my pillow and sobbed long and hard until everything blurred together. I wasn’t even sure what I was crying about anymore.

Eventually, the sobbing fit eased and the world around me dimmed.

Somehow, I slept.

The morning came unexpectedly. My eyes fluttered open and then immediately closed again as sunlight hit them. I pulled the covers up over my head and tried to make the night last just a little bit longer.

I could still feel the sun through the comforter. I instinctually wanted to hide, to flee from the burning light, yet it wouldn’t hurt me in Sienna’s body. No matter how long I spent under the light of day, I doubted I’d ever get used to it. I’d hidden in the dark for far too long.

Eventually, I couldn’t take lying awake in bed any longer. I rolled out of bed and staggered on wobbly legs across the room to gather a bundle of clothes to take to the shower. Levi’s voice came from downstairs, but was too low for me to make out what he was saying. I crept down the hall to try to hear a little better.

The sound remained muffled even as I reached the stairs. His voice was loud enough that I should have been able to make out
something
of what he said, yet no matter how far down the stairs I went, it still sounded like I was trying to listen to him through padded walls.

He had to have been doing something to the air around him to blunt his voice. It sort of reminded me of what Mikael did in the Bloody Stake, though he seemed to be able to deflect attention as well as muffle sound. Still, it did create some interesting thoughts about my snitch. If I ever got out of this, I might have to ask him about it.

While I couldn’t hear what was being said, I figured I could at least take a peek to see who he was saying it to. I’m not sure why he would feel the need to muffle his voice, but hey, if someone from the outside was here, they very well might be a way out of this mess. I didn’t find it very likely, but if the only other option I currently had was killing Eilene, I was willing to try anything.

The stairs didn’t creak much as I took them slowly one by one, but thanks to Sienna’s body, I wasn’t as stealthy as I used to be. I was only halfway down when Levi abruptly stopped talking. A strange loss of pressure caused my ears to pop and the sounds from downstairs became much clearer.

“Sienna?”

“Yeah,” I said, coming down the rest of the way with my clothes tucked under my arm. There was no sense in trying to lie about it; he’d obviously heard me coming.

“You’re up early.”

“I am?” I glanced at the clock and noted it was only a little after seven in the morning. “I guess my system is a bit messed up.”

Levi’s brow furrowed. “Guess so.”

He was standing in the living room next to where Eilene sat in her glider rocker, gently swaying back and forth. She was frowning and looked paler than usual. Whatever they’d been talking about had upset her. Her eyes flickered to me and I caught the faintest shake of her head.

“I thought I’d see if breakfast was ready before hitting the shower.” I shrugged one shoulder and tried to look embarrassed.

Ronnie was standing by the door, boots on and looking as if he was ready to leave. He looked at me, blinked once, and then looked away, apparently dismissing me.

“You know I don’t have time for breakfast in the mornings,” Levi said, frowning. “Your cereal is the cupboard where it always was.”

“Yeah, sorry,” I cleared my throat. “I don’t know what I was thinking. It was probably because of last night and dinner and . . .” I trailed off, not really sure how to continue.

Levi’s frown melted away. He crossed the room and put a big hand on the back of my neck. With a gentle pull, he brought our foreheads together.

“Maybe next time, sweetie,” he said. “I really have too much to do today or I’d stay.”

The muscles and my neck were tense, but I managed not to pull away from him. He squeezed once, and then let me go, causing me to nearly fall over backward from the sudden release of pressure. I expected him to say something or give me a strange look at how I acted, but all he did was smile and walk over to where Ronnie waited.

“We best get going,” he said. “I’ll see you girls later.” He opened the door, gave us both one last look, and then was gone.

“What were you thinking?” Eilene rasped from her chair the moment the door was closed. “Do you want to get caught?”

“I heard voices,” I said. “I wanted to see if I could make anything out.”

She huffed. “I thought you were better than that.”

I ignored the dig, knowing she was right. I should have realized I wouldn’t be able to sneak up on an angel. “What were you talking about?” I asked instead.

“You, if you must know.”

“What about me?”

“He suspects.” Eilene’s hands clutched the armrests of her chair. “He doesn’t know that Sienna’s mind isn’t here, but he knows something is wrong. He’ll figure it out eventually.”

Really, it wasn’t much of a surprise. I’d never been like Sienna, even when I was young. Acting like her didn’t come natural to me and I’d never been much of an actress anyway.

“Then I best get searching,” I said, turning toward the stairs.

“No.” Eilene groaned as she stood. “He claims to smell a demon’s touch on you. He won’t let that slide. Right now, he thinks Sienna somehow crossed paths with a demon while she was gone. He’ll realize what happened soon enough.”

“I’ll do better.”

“You can’t risk letting him discover you.” Eilene made her slow way over to me. She was moving with more difficulty this morning than she had last night. “You have to kill me now. It’s the only way to be sure.”

“You promised me time.”

“I don’t think you
have
time.”

“Do you really want to die that badly?” I couldn’t stop the heat in my voice. She was pressing me and I didn’t like it. Never have.

Eilene gave me a sickly smile. “Oh, my dear,” she said with a sad shake of her head. “I’ve wanted to die for a very, very long time.”

There was something in her voice that told me she was telling the truth. She didn’t want to live with Levi anymore. She didn’t want to live anywhere for that matter, not after what she’d done.

But Sienna would never forgive me if I killed her stepmother. The girl deserved to see the woman who’d taken care of her one last time. Even if she only had a few minutes, it would be worth it.

“You won’t die here,” I promised her. “I’ll find another way.”

I turned and hurried up the stairs before she could argue.

I wanted a shower in the worst way, but taking advantage of Levi’s absence was far more important. I tossed my clothes in the bathroom for later and headed down the hall to Levi and Eilene’s bedroom instead.

Like Sienna’s room, the furnishings were sparse, but at least here there was something of a personality to the few items around the room. There were a few knickknacks of cats and a sewing kit that was covered in dust. I wondered when the last time Eilene was healthy enough to sew. There was no way she could do it now. In a way, it was heartbreaking.

I went straight for the bed and flipped up the duster. Sienna’s eyes weren’t good enough to make out anything beneath but vague shadows, so I began dragging things out. There were a few boxes of old knitting magazines and a container of baby clothes that looked to have never been worn, but little else. I shoved everything back in, not bothering to try to keep it orderly. From the look of things, Levi had no reason to look beneath the bed.

The closets came next. There were two in the room. The first turned out to be Eilene’s. It held nothing but her clothes and shoes. There wasn’t even a spare blanket on the top shelf, just a couple of old sweaters. The other closet was much the same, though it held Levi’s clothing. There was absolutely nothing inside I could use against him.

“You won’t find anything.” Eilene said from the doorway where she watched me. “He keeps nothing here.”

I grunted and moved on to the master bathroom. There was the usual toothbrush and combs lying on the counter. Eilene’s sparse makeup rested in a small plastic container beside the faucet. A scale sat just inside the door and I very nearly tripped over it as I went to open the medicine cabinet above the sink. I stepped around the scale and opened the door to find it stocked with unopened toothpaste and pills for Eilene’s pain.

“You shouldn’t waste your time,” she said. “Don’t you think I would have found something if it was here?”

I walked past her and headed downstairs. Levi usually kept his victims in a dark room just off of the laundry room. Perhaps that was where he kept his supplies.

The laundry room looked like any other laundry room. A hamper was filled partway with dirty clothes. It sat next to the washer. Another hamper—this one empty—sat beside the dryer. A couple of pairs of jeans were lying inside the dryer itself, seemingly forgotten by whoever had last done the laundry. A closet door was to my left. The door that led to what I thought of as Levi’s torture room was to my right. I opened the closet first, expecting to find fabric softener and maybe an iron, but instead found a small fridge.

Eilene entered the room as I knelt. She leaned against the door frame, breathing hard. She was so out of breath from simply walking up and down the stairs, she couldn’t even talk. The poor woman should have stayed seated in her chair, resting, rather than chase me all over the house.

“Have you been in here before?” I asked, hand on the door of the fridge.

Eilene shook her head. “He never lets me,” she gasped. She put a hand over a chest that was rising and falling at an alarming rate.

I rose without opening the fridge. If she died here while I was in Levi’s house, what would happen? Just because her illness couldn’t kill her, didn’t mean she couldn’t die from other ways, right? I mean, she was pretty sure I’d be able to kill her, so why not a heart attack?

“I’m fine,” she said, waving me off. “I can’t die like this.”

I hesitated before returning to the fridge. It was one of those small ones you might find shoved in a garage or a downstairs room, filled with beer. I seriously doubted this was where Levi kept his Budweiser, so what else could he want it for?

There was no lock on the door. Why would there be? It wasn’t like Eilene or Sienna would ever dare go against his word, and the people he brought here were either locked in the little room or were accompanied wherever they went. Whom did he have to fear?

I pulled open the door, not sure what to expect. What I saw brought a sigh of disappointment gushing from me.

“Blood bags,” I said, more to myself than anyone. “Fucking blood bags.”

“Language.” Eilene spoke automatically. She hesitated and then frowned. “You sound like her, but you speak like the devil.”

I slammed the fridge door closed. If I’d known he kept a few blood bags down here so close to the room I’d stayed in, I probably would have snuck some when the hunger was at its worst.

“I told you you’d find nothing,” Eilene said. She wasn’t gloating or anything. She said it like she was stating an inevitable fact.

“I had to check.”

There were still more rooms in the house where Levi might hide some things, but I doubted I’d find anything. He was too careful for that. He was an angel, sure, but would he really leave the means to destroy him lying around in plain sight?

I glanced at Eilene. Then again, here she was. If he lost control of one of his vamps or weres even once, it could be all over for him. Why would he take such a risk? Was he that confident in his abilities or was there something else going on here?

“Are there any safes in the house?” I asked, not really believing there would be.

“None.”

“He really doesn’t keep anything here, does he? Not even in the garage?”

“Of course not,” Eilene said. “If he brings something home with him, he keeps it close until he can take it back to his truck. He keeps everything there until he can take it back to . . .” She trailed off, eyes going wide. She looked quickly away, but the damage had already been done.

I took two quick steps forward so that I was standing right in front of her. It wasn’t as intimidating as it might have been in my old body, but it still caught her by surprise.

“Where does he take it?”

“Nowhere.” Eilene tried to back up, but I kept pace with her. This might be my only chance.

“Do you want to be free or not?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “I do,” she said. “But to be free, I must die.”

“Not if I can help it, Eilene. Tell me, where does he do his work when he’s not here?”

Eilene wiped her eyes and sighed. “You won’t find anything that can stop him there either.”

“I don’t care,” I said. “Maybe I’ll discover something that will help me understand why he’s doing all of this. Maybe there will be a way out in that.”

“And when you come up empty?”

I knew what she was really asking.

“I’ll do what I have to do.”

The rumble of a truck neared. Levi was back already. Whatever he’d done, it hadn’t taken long.

“Please, Eilene,” I said, easing off the intimidation. “Just tell me where he works. I promise I won’t take any unnecessary risks.”

“Going there is an unnecessary risk.”

“But if I find something, you might get to see Sienna one last time before you die.”

Her breath caught in her throat and she looked away, eyes going to the stairs. She stood like that, almost as if she was waiting for Levi to come down them and catch us plotting against him.

“There’s a building about two miles west of here,” she said at a whisper. “I’ve never been there myself, but heard him mention it before. If there is anything to find, that is where you’ll find it.”

The upstairs door opened and Levi’s booming voice filled the house. “Eilene?” he called. “Where have you gotten off to?”

“Thank you,” I whispered. I glanced around the room for an escape. My eyes fell instead upon the hamper. “Laundry,” I said, helping Eilene over to the machines.

She began unloading the jeans into the empty hamper. I opened the washer and was thankful to find it filled with damp clothes. I began shoveling them from the washer, into the dryer. I was about halfway through when Levi appeared behind us.

“Well,” he said, sounding strangely jovial. “Looks like you two have been busy.”

I didn’t look back. I was afraid he’d see in my eyes somehow what we’d really been doing.