Soul(s) Read online

  Soul(s)

  a novel by

  VERA WEST

  SOul(s)

  (ARC COPY DISCLOUSURE)

  This version of Soul(s) is an advance reader copy and is subject to change as the author sees fit and will remain free and will be available for an estimated time frame of a month from the initial publication date. If you find any errors please get in touch with the author. Thank you for reading.

  Copyright 2013 Vera West

  Published by Vera West at Smashwords

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TITLE

  COPYRIGHT

  DEDICATION

  QUOTE BY LANGSTON HUGES

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE: SECOND-PLANE

  01: SARIAH

  02: KEEGAN

  03: SARIAH

  04: KEEGAN

  05: SARIAH

  06: KEEGAN

  07: SARIAH

  08: KEEGAN

  09: SARIAH

  10: KEEGAN

  11: SARIAH

  12: KEEGAN

  13: SARIAH

  14: KEEGAN

  15: SARIAH

  16: KEEGAN

  17: SARIAH

  18: KEEGAN

  19: SARIAH

  PART TWO: FIRST-PLANE

  20: KEEGAN

  21: SARIAH

  22: KEEGAN

  23: SARIAH

  24: KEEGAN

  25: SARIAH

  26: KEEGAN

  27: SARIAH

  28: KEEGAN

  29: SARIAH

  30: KEEGAN

  31: SARIAH

  32: KEEGAN

  33: SARIAH

  34: KEEGAN

  35: SARIAH

  36: KEEGAN

  37: SARIAH

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOLEDMENTS

  ABOUT

  VENKUS COVER DEMO

  HELLCAT

  For myself and my own soul mate.

  I will take you heart.

  I will take your soul out of your body

  as though I were God.

  I will not be satisfied

  with the touch of your hand

  nor the sweet of your lips alone.

  I will take your heart for mine.

  I will take your soul.

  I will be God when it comes to you.

  To Artina,

  By Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

  PROLOGUE

  The air was damp; I breathed it in raggedly as my feet hit the cold pavement in a fierce rhythm. I’d lost my flats somewhere back down the road, but I was glad. I was faster barefoot. I could feel it, I had a chance. If only I could get far enough ahead of them. I was so close. The door to the apartment lobby was right there, but everything slowed.

  My body crashed into the door. I look at my hands—dripping crimson. I reached towards the buttons but I couldn’t push any of them, my hands kept sliding. My legs slumped beneath me and blood smeared against the door frame. My heart ticked like a clock as life slipped out my body like pouring sand. Wouldn’t anyone see me? Wouldn’t anyone help me?

  I feel my legs unfold beneath me as I fall. My head skids down the pavement, bumping to the beat of my draggers’ stride as he pulls me away. My gaze cabooses behind me and I can see the red smudges of my blood sparkling like liquid rubies on the door.

  My vision is suddenly shadowed out by a figure. It grasps my neck, squeezing so tightly my mouth reflexes open. I reached forward but find nothing. My body tenses fighting against giving up but it’s not enough. I wonder what I’ll miss rather than who will miss me.

  PART ONE: SECOND-PLANE

  01: SARIAH

  My body jerked alive and my eyes shot open. My hands slapped hard against my thighs as I sat up. The first thing I noticed was being naked. The second was that it didn’t bother me. At least, not in a shamed kind of way—I was a little bit cold though.

  Cement against my feet. Red wet numbered buttons of an apartment door buzzer. Fear.

  Images flood back to me, just fragments of concepts that I couldn’t categorize or order. I felt disoriented and confused, like I was on the cusp of remembering a dream I’d just had.

  I wasn’t alone in the dark. I felt it, but I couldn’t see it. My senses were different. I could feel energy; seeing without seeing. I focused: there was something dark and hungry lurking near—actually a few somethings. I was afraid,

  I turned my head from side to side, trying to get more than just this sixth sense of my surroundings, but I still couldn’t see them. Desperately to know what’s nearing me, I go back to focusing. It takes a moment but then I can almost pinpoint each one. There are four maybe five. They’re waiting as they prowl around me.

  I looked forward and up. I saw a moon above me and my eyes finally caught the glimpse of a shadow. I strained and could just barely make out an elevated ridge through the dark. There is something on it. I concentrated, trying to see what it was, and somehow I connect with it. I can see myself through its eyes. I’m sitting there on the ground with the others’ circling my physical body. I begin to feel its thoughts.

  Not yet, it beckons to them, not yet. This one is different. This one might be too strong.

  But its minions aren’t listening.

  Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now.

  They are too young and too hungry. She can’t reason with them because they aren’t as logical or smart as she is. They’re from a lower cast.

  If you disobey, she warns them, I will not to save you.

  I click back into my own mind. There’s not much time before I will have to fight. They’re ready to devour me. I know I should brace myself for their attack, but I’m so overwhelmed by my new awareness, I can’t move. I just sit here. I can feel so much that I can’t feel just one thing. I can’t bring myself to tune them all out, so I can tune myself in.

  I breathe in deep, steadying myself, trying to control this power, but then I feel something else. Something stronger than any of them is coming and it’s headed right to me.

  02: KEEGAN

  In every moment, when I feel I can’t run any faster, my body keeps accelerating. I have to get to her. That’s all I know. I don’t know where I am, or who I am, or even why she is so important to me. But I have to get to her.

  I haven’t been running long, or at least through my own conception of time I haven’t been. It’s dark but I can see everything. I see her about a half mile ahead of me and them looming around her. They’re like these twisted versions of humans. They are crouching low and moving in a crawling-spider like motion. They are hungry and are overcome by their own desire to feed. Their mouths drip in anticipation; their bodies are ridged with excitement. Another second and they’ll pounce. I won’t let them have her.

  My senses heighten and I can analyze their movements before they finish their motion.

  I grab some natural debris from the ground as I move and throw it at the first beast that’s about to strike. It hits him with such force that it impales him through the middle. He spirals back, snarling loudly as he falls. The sound is a mix of pain and surprise. They didn’t know I was coming but they know I’m here now.

  Even so, I’m faster than them and I’m in front of her before the next one attacks. The only thing I can think to do is shield her. I don’t have any weapons.

  Our eyes lock and there’s an instant recognition, even in all this chaos, something stirs within me. Her eyes flit to my right, looking behind me. I look over my shoulder in time to see another beast lunging, but it stops only a foot or so from us and then its body crinkles as if simultaneously many bones have been broken. It wails as it slumps and then a ball of light floats out of its carcass.

  That energy escaping its body caused the remaining two monsters to slink backwards and away. I look further behind us and see a larger figure standing on a ridge. It raises its hand and the energy ball from the fallen beast zips to it. There’s a flash before it absorbs into its being, then it too turns and leaves. We’ve won, for now.

  I turn back to the woman.

  “Are you alright?” I ask.

  I instinctively reach out to her. Even though my whole being is sure this is the right thing to do, I don’t want to frighten her. I trail just my thumb down the side of her cheek. That small touch of affection sends energy through my whole body. I’m startled and suddenly aware for the first time that we’re both naked.

  “Thank you,” she says to me. I can’t see her blush but I can feel her body’s response. She’s just as overwhelmed by this intense physical connection between us. I let my hand fall away from her and face back to my thigh.

  “I’m Keegan,” I tell her.

  “Sariah,” she responds back smiling and I implode.

  “It’s lovely.”

  “Do you know where we are?”

  “No, but I can see a building a few yards off, let’s go there,” I tell her.

  “How can you see in this dark?” Sariah asks next.

  “I’m not sure, but I bet it’s connected to how you were able to kill that thing without touching it.”

  She brought he
r knees to her chest and covered her face with her palms. “I could feel its pain when I did that,” she whispered.

  "It was right, even if it didn’t feel like it. Here,” I said offering my hand to her, “let me help you up.”

  03: SARIAH

  Keegan was holding his hand out to me. I was hesitant to take it. The way my body reacted to him was frightening and all he’d done was lightly touch the side of my face. I knew I wasn’t ready for more contact. I looked up at him, when our eyes met I saw the confidence give way to another emotion. Maybe he was just as thrown by our connection as I was.

  “I’m fine,” I told him, getting up easily. I actually wasn’t hurt. I expected him to look offended by me not taking his hand, but he just shrugged.

  “The building is just up ahead we can make it there in no time if we jog.”

  I remembered how he’d appeared in a blur between me and those things.

  “I don’t think I can move as fast as you do.”

  “Yeah,” he responded back, his cheeks tugging into a full smile. I don’t think I can run that fast again for a while. We’re not that far from that structure we don’t have to jog we could walk. I just don’t want more of those beasts to come back.”

  “I got a glimpse of what their leader on the ridge. They were horrified of us. They’re afraid of how strong we are,” I explained.

  “I thought you couldn’t see in the dark?”

  “I can’t, but somehow I could feel each one of them. It was almost like seeing. I connected with the leader and understood some of her thoughts. She didn’t want the beasts to attack us, but they became impulsive and uncontrollable. They were so hungry.”

  We had easily fallen into a comfortable walking pace. It felt surprisingly relaxed. My own attitude was weirding me out, shouldn’t I be a nervous or anxious? We had just been attacked but then we had also defended each other easily. I was ironically calm and at ease. As mushy as it sounds, I felt like, together we were safe.

  “I feel like we’re safe together too,” Keegan said looking at me as we moved through the night.

  His words sent a chill down my spine. Was he in my head like I was with those animals that were hunting us?

  Can you hear me too? Keegan’s voice hummed in my mind.

  Why are we so connected? I thought back.

  I don’t know, Keegan thought to me, but we should keep it to ourselves. Being able to communicate without people knowing is definitely an advantage.

  I nodded. He was right. We’d made an unspoken pact when we’d defended each other from the beasts. It was always like that. In trauma, bonds are made. Ours just felt unnaturally strong. There was a part of me that wanted to resist forming any kind of connection. Lyrics flashed in my mind from a song: everyone I know goes away in the end. I remembered those haunting images of the blood shining like rubies and I shivered. I didn’t want to be alone again. I might not trust anyone else, but I was willing to risk trusting Keegan.

  I blushed. Had he been listening to all of that? Keegan looked like he’d been having some inner monologues of his own. I didn’t want him to know that I was thinking about him as much as I was. I wanted there to be some privacy.

  “We’re you listening to my thoughts?” I asked nervously.

  “No. I can’t hear your thoughts if you’re not talking to me—or thinking to me I guess I should say. I bet you could listen to my thoughts if you wanted to,” Keegan went on. “You’re probably strong enough to lock me out of your mind since were able to get inside the head of those monsters.”

  “It was like a reflex,” I replied back. “I don’t know if I can do it again at least not yet. It was intense when I did it. I couldn’t focus on anything else really because my senses were so overwhelmed with everything outside of myself.”

  “Why are we like this? I don’t think I was like this before.” Keegan looked troubled as he said it.

  “Do you remember before?” I asked excitedly. I wondered if Keegan was as confused of what he remembered as I was.

  “No. Not yet, at least.”

  “I wonder if we will eventually remember,” I said more to myself than to Keegan.

  “Do you remember?” He asked me.

  “Just images, they’re vivid but too scattered for me to understand what I’m remembering.”

  “It’s just up this way,” Keegan said, his attention turning to the building a few yards ahead of us. He sprinted at a human pace to the entrance way.

  The building was stone and reminded me more of a classic temple than an official looking business edifice. It was made from a smooth lime stone. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I did.

  Keegan had moved to the side of the building. There was some sort of scanner. It had a sunken imprint of a hand. He placed his hand on it the doorway opened. He walked in but before I could follow the doors shut swiftly behind him.

  There was just a wall between us, but I couldn’t stop my heart from fluttering at the idea of us being separated.

  Keegan?

  I’m here. Open it the same way I did. If that doesn’t work, we’ll figure something out.

  I walked over to the door but I was hesitant to touch it.

  What if it doesn’t open? Will they come back when they sense we’re not together?

  It won’t come to that, Sariah.

  I inhaled deeply, deciding I’d wait to panic until after the door didn’t open.

  I lined my fingers up to the imprint and moved them into the ridges. My hand tingled and the door opened smoothly.

  I ran inside to Keegan.

  My first instinct was to hug him—relieved that the door had just simply opened—but I checked myself before our bodies touched again. Keegan smiled at me but didn’t say anything.

  We were in one large open room. Around the walls, were various shelves built in around the walls. Keegan and I both walked to opposite sides. Everything was uniform with a clean design meant for functionality over beauty; except for the circular area in the middle that was raised up like a podium.

  “Clothes!” I heard Keegan say from behind me.

  I had been drawn to a blue round stone that was plum sized. Keegan had gotten my attention before I’d touched it.

  “Clothes?” I repeated turning around.

  “We’re naked,” Keegan said. “We should have some sort of protection in case we have to fight again. I think these body suits are more like armor than clothing.”

  I looked at him in the light. I started from his crown and worked down. He was tall, about six feet, more stocky than lean. His body wasn’t fat but he wasn’t frail either. He looked strong. His shoulders were broad and the muscle on his back rippled lightly as he bent down to dress himself. My breath stuttered a little. Everything else about him was just as streamlined. For the first time I became self-conscious of my own physical reaction to him.

  Keegan he caught my gaze with his own and winked before tossing me a suit.

  I like your body too. Keegan thought to me.

  Embarrassed, I dressed quickly.

  The suit felt soft pliable polyester against my skin but on the outside it was prickly like stucco paint. It was easy to move in. It contoured to my entire shape, even my toes. It felt natural almost like not wearing anything at all.

  I turned back to the shelf and picked up the blue paperweight like stone.

  “I wonder what this is,” I said turning to Keegan.

  He was holding what I could best describe as an elongated jellybean with an indent in it.

  “I don’t know,” Keegan said, “but what I’ve got looks like it could hold some supplies. There’s a ridge in it too, I bet some type of weapon would fit in there.”

  He picked up another object from the shelf. He held a rod, that was about a foot long.

  “How do you know it’s a weapon?”

  Keegan smirked and took a small step to the left. His shelf had a label: WEAPONS.

  I laughed.