Saving Souls Read online

  Maybe in a way, it is a curse, but not in the way that Karly thinks. It’s more a self-fulling curse.

  “That’s a regret he’s taken to his grave.”

  Her eyes lift to meet mine, a challenge slipping into them. “His grave? He’s truly dead? Really dead? Not just hurt and hiding somewhere?”

  I nod, knowing we’re repeating this again. “Yes, he’s dead.”

  Her jaw tightens as her lip trembles. “Dead dead.”

  “There is no death for you to see.”

  In a quiet voice, she says, “Is that why I’m here? He can’t use me so you will?”

  I hold in my sigh. To get a sense of her soul, I’d need to touch her, but none of that is going to happen any time soon, if at all. But from the feel of her conversation, I’d say a piece of her soul is already shattered. Those are the hardest to fix.

  “Do you know where you are, Karly?”

  She looks around with a frown, turning her body to look behind her too. “A building.” Her eyes land on Emerson and Karen, pausing before finishing her perusal.

  “We are at MacFarlane’s, a psychiatric hospital.”

  She snorts. “The crazy house? I don’t need to be here.”

  “That’s what we’re here to find out. If you’re in a good place to move on from this.”

  “Move on?”

  “To move forward after Holsen’s death.”

  Her jaw clenches. “You’re lying. There’s no happy ending to this story. No one gets a happy ending.” Her top lip curls in disgust, the black tendrils moving around her. “No one.”

  I swallow my fear, forcing it to stay away, and follow the tendrils briefly before looking back at her. “Are you referring to everyone dying?”

  “Yes. Everyone.”

  “You don’t think there’s anything after death.”

  “How can there be?” She leans forward. “There’s no happy ending. None. Not for Holsen, not for me, and definitely not for you. I’ll prove it.”

  Before I can react, she jumps across my desk with more speed and strength than I expect from such a small body and slams into me. We topple over as yelling and screaming fill the space. Her hands wrap around my neck.

  The moment she touches me, her body jerks. Unfortunately, instead of her grip loosening, it tightens, cutting off my airways.

  She shudders over me, blinks down, and gives me a cruel smile. Hands grab at her, but I can’t see past her, and she’s so much stronger than expected, holding tightly on to me despite their tugging. It’s like she doesn’t realize they are even there. All her focus is completely on me; her expression has a dark satisfaction etched into it.

  Leaning forward, her lips rest against my ears, her breath hot against my skin. “No one,” she hisses. “Not even you.”

  Coldness sweeps through me as a new set of hands wrap around her chest and pull her away from me.

  She begins to scream, trying to fight against the touch. I slump against the floor, coughing as fresh air fills my lungs.

  I lean up far enough to see Raid pulling her away. Emerson’s expression is twisted with regret and fear as he touches her and forces her into a sleep. It takes moments, and then she slumps in Raid’s arms, out cold.

  “She already saw my death in the past,” Raid says, eyes meeting mine. “She won’t see anything from me.” His gaze flickers to Emerson. “I think you knocked her out fast enough that she didn’t have time to see it.”

  Emerson’s shoulders slump in relief. Emerson comes from a spiritual background. There’s no telling what the knowledge of his potential death would do to him.

  “Are you okay?” Jur asks, standing over me with a hand. I smile and let him help me to my feet. That’s when I realize he’s a very tall man, taller than Raid by three inches at least. Darn. And he had lifted me up like I was a rag doll.

  “Yes,” I reply.

  He steps back, letting me go.

  Raid is in front of me with a deep frown. He lifts my head and looks at the damage to my neck, flinching.

  “That bad?” I ask with a twisted smile. This isn’t my first choking session. There’s a reason I’m not into it as a kink.

  “You should get someone to look at it.”

  I step back from his touch. “I’ll have Karen look at it once she finishes getting Karly settled.”

  “Okay, good.”

  I go to one of the drawers at the desk and dig through it until I find an almost sheer blue and white striped scarf. It’s meant to be a fashion scarf, and I use it now to hide the bruises. I use this office often for the initial interview with patients and keep some supplies in the drawer. It can get a little chilly in here sometimes. With a smirk, I face Raid.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Raid asks.

  “I’m not looking at you in any particular way.”

  “You are. Like you’re about to do something I’m going to hate.”

  “Oh! That look. Yes.” I pretend to I understand. “Well, then, it’s time to meet your daughter.” I rubbed my hands together. I want to meet the little girl fathered by Raid. Picturing the indomitable man with a kid is hard.

  4

  There’s a knock on the door, getting my attention from the small amount of notes I was able to jot down. I stand up, rubbing the soreness in my neck. Emerson and Karen are still busy with Karly, so I’m on my own for this one. Though after talking to Raid, there’s nothing to fear about a seven-year-old girl. And she’s generally well-behaved.

  I open the door and step back. “Hey, please come on in,” I say to the adorable little girl, flashing her a smile.

  Sidney looks so nervous, but she’s a brave soul and steps forward, ready to face me. Raid moves to come in too, and I block him.

  “I need to talk to her alone.”

  Sidney’s eyes widen as fear slips in. She looks between me and her father.

  Raid sees the change in her, and his expression blanks. “Not happening.”

  I turn to Sidney. “Hey, little princess. Go take a seat in that big chair, there behind the desk. It’s super comfortable and spins around. I need to have a talk with your daddy. Is that okay?”

  She blinks a couple of times, and I can see the similarities between her and her father. Finally, she nods and moves further into the room. I close the door, only leaving it open a crack.

  “Raid, I need to talk to your daughter by herself,” I try again.

  “No. Not happening without me.”

  “Oh, it’s happening. If you want me to help your daughter, I need to have an honest conversation with her without you.”

  “After all the shit she’s been through, I’m not leaving her.”

  “Because of all the shit she’s been through, you need to wait outside.” I soften my voice. “You aren’t leaving her. You’re just outside the door. I can’t risk you influencing her in any way. She needs to be comfortable enough around me to open up. Some of the things she says she might worry will upset you, so she won’t say it, or she’ll make it out to be less. Without the right information, I can’t help her.”

  His stubborn expression pisses me off, and I know I’m not getting to him. I straighten my spine, push back my shoulders, and glare hard.

  He glares back. His energy brushes against my skin, sparking across the little hairs on my body. That pisses me off more because I can’t see it and it’s frustrating me to no end.

  That’s it. To think he can threaten me like that.

  In a furious voice, I say, “If you won’t let me talk to her in private, then I cannot help her. If I can’t help her, then we’re done here and I’m going to have to ask the two of you to leave.”

  Raid’s eyes widen in shock at my aggressive stance. I despise using threats like this but sometimes, the big guns have to come out, and I have huge ones in my repertoire.

  “You won’t abandon her.”

  He’s right, but it doesn’t mean I’ll admit that. “I will if it means my other patients are safe. I’m already putting them at risk because whoever’s chasing after your daughter will come here looking for them. This hospital is full of the gifted, and many of them have dangerous abilities. A chunk of them have already been used thoroughly by Holsen. I won’t put them at risk.”

  That seems to do the trick, and he deflates before me. “No. No, she needs your help. I know about you; you can help her.”

  That hits me hard, stealing the breath in my lungs. I’m extremely selective about who knows me and what I’m capable of doing. It kept me off Holsen’s radar.

  Well, a lot of radars.

  My skin itches at that and I hate, hate, that I can’t read anything from him. Being blocked by half his team only makes me more suspicious of them.

  “Raid, these sessions need to be private, not just because of patient confidentiality, but also because I need to build a relationship with your daughter where she trusts me enough to open up about herself. She won’t do that with you hovering over her. I can already tell that you’re her person, the one she runs to about almost everything. That won’t change. You still get to kiss her booboos goodbye and chase away the monsters under her bed.” I tapped my head. “My job is to chase the ones up here.” I tapped where my heart was. “And the ones inside here. Let me help heal her soul. That’s what I do best.”

  That seems to get through to him, and he finally steps away from me. I don’t realize how close we were standing until his body heat disappears. I do my best to hide how much that affects me.

  It felt really nice.

  Closing the door slowly, I give him a chance to raise any concerns. Our eyes stay on each other, his intense with a hint of hurt in them. He desperately wants to be there for his little girl, but he’s also a father, and that means doing what needs to be done to make her bet
ter. I give him a supportive smile before the door clicks shut.

  “Okay,” I say with false cheer and turn around.

  Sidney is already in my chair, letting it swivel from side to side as she stares at my desk. There’s nothing for her to see that concerns me. The only thing there is a file with her name on it, staring back at her as she glares at it.

  I grab one of the visitor chairs and sit down, facing her. She tears her eyes away from the file and looks up at me with a frown. She looks so much like her father, but softer. It was like her mother’s genes softened the pointedness, or maybe it’s part of being a child with all the extra baby fat still there. She’s tall for her age, but skinny. No doubt once she sees our nutritionist, it’ll reveal that she’s underweight and malnourished. People coming from Holsen’s care usually are. Her curly black hair rests around her face, frizzy and a little knotty. Once she’s done with me, I’ll have an orderly help her get settled into her room and take a bath.

  “Would you like to take a look?” I ask and point at her folder.

  She nods.

  “Go ahead.”

  While still staring at me, she grabs the folder and slides it to the corner of the desk before lifting it up and pulling it into her lap. She’s small enough to cross her legs on the chair, and the folder rests on her legs.

  Sidney looks up at me again, searching for a sign that I’m about to punish her, like what I was doing was a trick. I paste a soft smile on my face while I wonder what her life was like with Holsen. What kind of mind fuck did he do to a little girl?

  After another long moment of hesitation, like she thinks I’m about to pounce on her and punish her, she flips open the folder. Her dark eyes flicker over the page and confusion mars her expression.

  She looks up at me with a deep frown.

  “Can you read it?” I ask.

  She shrugs. I’m sure she recognizes her name, but I don’t know her education level. In theory, she should be in second grade.

  “Not much there, right? Did you think I was going to have all your life secrets there to read through?”

  She nods again.

  “Anything in there is the information you or your father gives us. We don’t go digging into our client’s past without their permission. Do you understand?”

  She glances back down at the page, and her finger goes to a section of the paper. I know it’s where her photo sits. One we took when they arrived.

  “Sidney, do you understand where you are and why you are here?” I ask.

  It takes a moment for Sidney to look up at me.

  “Do you?”

  She nods.

  The session with Sidney ends up being a quiet one. She doesn’t talk. I ask questions, and if she can’t nod, shake her head, or shrug her shoulders, then she doesn’t answer. She keeps looking down at her folder every once in a while, and I wonder what her voice sounds like. Will it be soft, high pitched, or maybe even scratchy with how much she doesn’t talk?

  Does she talk at all, or is this her choice? Is it selective mutism, or is she just not a talker? I’ll have to ask Raid if she speaks. He didn’t say anything about her being mute. She hears just fine, and when I do a simple sign language move with my hands, she doesn’t respond at all.

  By the end of all my questions, she’s irritated and unable to sit still.

  “Okay,” I say, standing up. “I think we had enough for today.”

  Her eyes widen at me, and I give her a big smile.

  “Would you like to see your room here? I’ll give your daddy special permission to go with you since he’s your parent.”

  The vigorous nodding she sends my way worries me. It looks like she’s about to snap her neck doing it.

  I laugh. “Okay, okay. I get it. Come on.”

  Emerson and Karen are back, standing with Raid. There is a small distance between the two of them and him. I grin, unable to hide my humor.

  “Raid doesn’t have cooties,” I say to my employees. The two of them look away, and I laugh. “Glad you’re back. Please take Sidney up to her room.”

  I turn to Raid. He’s looking his daughter over, checking in on her welfare. It’s cute how he’s hovering over her.

  “As her guardian, you have my permission to go to her room only. You will not be allowed out of sight of Emerson. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” Raid replies.

  “Okay. Once you’re done, please come to my office.”

  Raid picks up his little girl, and she snuggles into him. Having her in his arms softens him, and I get a peek of who he is as a father. It’s nice. Cute even.

  While they get her settled, I put down all my notes, adding more to her folder. No doubt in our next session she’ll want to see her folder again. I don’t mind showing her if it makes her more comfortable with me.

  Exhaustion pulls at me just as I finish sending an email off to Jackson with all the information about Raid’s team. My hope is the information Jackson sends my way matches up with what Camden finds. I glance at the clock, surprised with how late it is. It’s way past dinner time. It’s as if my realization sent a message to my stomach because it starts to grumble in need of food.

  “I know,” I say, patting my stomach. “I’m hungry too. Soon. Hang in there.”

  There’s a sharp knock before my door opens and Raid slips in with Jur and Christo.

  “Please, have a seat,” I say.

  Raid and Jur sit while Christo stays by the door.

  “Do you guys have a place to stay? You can’t stay here.”

  “Not yet. We were going to stay at a hotel until we found one.”

  I sigh and look them over again. “Have you got everything settled with Camden?”

  “He’ll have our IDs in the morning. We were cleared,” Raid replied. “He’s very efficient.”

  “I know. I had to beg him to come work with me. He’s worth the extra cost.”

  Camden worked in the military for a long time before going freelance. When I came to him about working for me, it took a lot of convincing. But he believes in this hospital and what we can do. He’s had family who had to come here before, nothing serious, but enough to spur him to help me once I sweetened the deal enough to make it worth it for him.

  “What’s the plan for you guys? How will you work with Camden and not step on any toes?”

  Raid’s lip tilts up into a tight smile. “We’re going to provide extra support under the pretense of him needing the extra bodies while he works on expanding his team. At night, we’ll have one or two guards on shift. Then the rest of us during the day. Tonight, Felipe is staying.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, what is his gift?”

  He glances at Christo before replying. “He can sense bad intentions. If someone is coming toward us with the intent to cause harm, he’ll sense it. Up to five miles.”

  “A warning system.”

  “Correct. There’s more to it, obviously, but he’ll be able to raise the alarms and give us time to respond.” He tilts his head toward Christo. “He’s a transporter. Now that we’ve been here, once the alarm is raised, we can teleport here.”

  “Nifty.” I nod. That’s a good set-up they have going on. “I’m guessing you want to be nearby?”

  “Preferably.”

  “Okay.” I tap my desk, wondering if I’m making a mistake. But it’s a good idea to have them close by. And every time I look at Raid, he pulls at me, even while I have my reservations. “Stay at my place? I have a neat setup and enough room. Granted, you’ll be sharing a bedroom and the living room, but they’re big and open. There’s enough space for you guys to squeeze in there. At least until you find something else. Better than small hotel rooms that may or may not be next to each other. Especially at this time of night. It’s free boarding, and it’s only half a mile from the hospital.”

  “You live that close?” Jur asks.

  I shrug. “It’s easier when an emergency occurs. Often, I can get here before it ends and help.”

  Jur and Raid exchange looks before Raid shrugs. “Very well. We’ll take you up on that offer. At least until we can find a more permanent place.”

  “Let’s go then. You can follow me.”

  Raid’s reaction is genuine this time around as he grins. I take in a sharp breath as my stomach flutters. I don’t ever get a fluttering stomach. His smile transforms him completely. Softens him. I have a feeling he’s really a big softy when lives aren’t at stake.