Soul Thief (Dark Souls) (18 page)

Angie stiffened at his words. “Who is it?”

“Eddie.”

Her shoulders relaxed. “Eddie?” She hadn’t seen the youth in months, since he’d gotten shot and killed at the halfway house. Angie had been heartbroken when Adrian had told her the news, until he’d explained to her that Eddie was a Hybrid. Like Adrian’s, the boy’s death had only been a rebirth.

Adrian shot a concerned look at the door. “It might be best if you go upstairs.”

“Why?”

“He’s not human anymore. If Marcus failed to recruit him, then that means the kid went rogue.” His chiseled features sharpened. “Rogues crave souls, and last time I checked, yours was pretty damn compelling.”

“Eddie wouldn’t hurt me.”

“We can’t be sure of that. Chances are he doesn’t remember either one of us. When a Hybrid turns, his past life is wiped clean. He’s not the Eddie you knew.” The doorbell rang a second time.

Angie met his determined gaze with one of her own. “I’m staying.” Back when she’d volunteered at Reach, she’d taken a similar risk each and every day. She hadn’t been afraid then, and she had no intention of living in fear now.

With an exasperated sigh, Adrian headed to the door. The second he opened it, Eddie came barreling in, a tortured look on his face. “Are you Adrian?”

Even though Adrian had warned her about Eddie’s amnesia, it still came as a shock.

“Yes,” Adrian replied, strategically positioning himself between her and the newly turned Hybrid.

“Marcus told me where to find you. Said to come to you if I ever needed any help.”

Angie couldn’t believe how much Eddie had changed. His frame was wider, his features rougher, his jaw more pronounced. He looked like he’d aged three years in three months.

“Can’t imagine why he’d do that,” Adrian countered. “Knowing Marcus, he would’ve done everything in his power to recruit you.”

“He did, but I don’t want to join the Watchers. I’m not a soldier. I don’t want to fight any goddamn war. I just want to be left alone. Can’t you understand that?”

Adrian’s features softened. “Yeah, I can.”

A wild look came into Eddie’s eyes. “But I don’t want to be a monster, either. I don’t want to kill.” His voice rang with desperation and a hint of hysteria.

Adrian’s broad back hardened to steel. “You’ve recently fed.” It wasn’t a question. It was an accusation.

Eddie averted his eyes in shame. “Yes, and I hate it. Hate what I’ve become. That’s why I tracked you down. Marcus said you can teach me how to control it. Control the darkness. He said if I don’t join the Watchers, you’re my only hope.”

Angie slid from behind Adrian, revealing her presence to Eddie. With lightning-quick reflexes, Adrian extended his arm and pushed her back.

Eddie watched in shock as Adrian fought to safeguard her from him. “I’m not going to hurt her,” he said, horrified. “I only take souls that are corrupt or diseased.”

Like Adrian used to. Maybe his teachings were still in there somewhere, guiding Eddie, even if he didn’t remember them.

“But I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it up,” Eddie tagged on after a short pause. “You have to help me.”

Angie slid her arm around Adrian’s, giving it a reassuring squeeze. His biceps flexed beneath her palm as tension snaked through him. “Not sure that’s such a great idea.”

A broken expression claimed Eddie’s ragged face. “I have nowhere else to go.”

Angie’s throat tightened at the anguish she caught in his voice. “You can stay here at the development,” she offered, ignoring the scalding stare Adrian directed her way. “All the other townhouses are vacant. I’m sure we can accommodate you in one of them.”

Eddie’s features brightened. “Thank you. I promise you won’t regret it.”

Adrian stood statue-still, refusing to speak. Angie gave him an encouraging nudge. The storm brewing in his eyes told her she’d only be digging herself in deeper if she said or did anything else, but she didn’t care. Releasing Adrian’s arm, she headed to the console in the living room, where Adrian had stashed all the keys. She selected a set randomly and tossed it to Eddie.

“You’ll need to furnish the place,” she told him. “But once you do, it’ll feel like home. It’s quiet out here, safe and remote.”

Tears glistened in Eddie’s eyes. It was strange to see such a big man cry, disconcerting and humbling. “Thank you.” He choked on the words. “I’ll make you both proud.”

Gripping the keys like a lifeline, he turned and walked out the door, leaving Angie alone with a fuming Adrian.

“What the hell were you thinking?” He stalked toward her, his lips set in a flat, disapproving line. “Eddie can’t stay here.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s a Rogue.” Panic laced his tone. “Just being around him puts you in danger.”

“He promised not to hurt me.” She wouldn’t turn her back on someone in need. She couldn’t.

“He won’t be able to control himself. And even if by some miracle he does, the dark energy he emits could damage you, damage your soul.”

“I’m around you every day, and I’m fine,” she argued.

“That’s different. Your soul once belonged to me, which provides you with some kind of immunity. But you weren’t immune to Kyros, and chances are you won’t be immune to Eddie either.”

“We don’t know that.” She exhaled in frustration. “And even if you’re right, we can’t just turn our backs on him. He needs our help.”

Defeat crawled over his face. “I know.” He walked up to her and tenderly cupped her cheek. “But my first priority is to keep you safe.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Angie fused her body to his. “You worry too much.” She sprinkled tender kisses along his throat. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Adrian groaned, and not with pleasure. “Don’t talk to me about bridges. If I never cross another bridge again, it’ll be too soon.”

A mirthful laugh echoed from her chest, and she planted a heartfelt kiss on his mouth. “You were born for a purpose, Adrian,” she reminded him. “And that purpose extends far beyond me. You’re meant to help people. People like Eddie. He needs your guidance, and I’m sure he’s not the only one. Think of what you could accomplish if you set your mind to it. Think of all the lives you could change.”

Resistance crept into his bones, and his body grew rigid against hers. “I don’t want to change anyone’s life. All I want is to be with you.”

Angie barely heard him as an idea took shape in her mind. “We could start an outreach program right here in Spokane, recruit others like Eddie.” She extricated herself from his arms and began pacing back and forth in the foyer, her bare feet gliding across the shimmering hardwood floor. “We can house everyone here, in the development, offer counseling sessions.”

Adrian gripped her by the arm and pulled her to him, trapping her against his body again. “You’re nuts, you know that?”

She gave him her most radiant smile. “That’s what you love about me. Admit it.”

“Nope.” He held her so tight she labored to draw breath. Her lungs felt crushed beneath the weight of his hard chest. “I love a lot of things about you, but that’s definitely not one of them.” His mouth claimed hers once more, and her next protest died on her lips.

She melted against him, letting him sweep her off her feet and into his powerful arms, his mouth doing things to hers that threatened to blast every last thought from her head. Before she succumbed to the power of his molten kisses, she made one final promise to herself. She would win him over to her way of thinking. Adrian had a destiny, and she would make sure he fulfilled it, no matter what it took.

He carried her to the couch, where he spread her out beneath him. Gazing down at her with the oddest look on his face, he touched his finger to the pendant she always wore around her neck. The one that had led him to her that fateful evening on the bridge.

“I still can’t believe I didn’t lose this in the East River.” He spoke about the pendant, but Angie suspected he was secretly referring to her. They’d come so close to losing each other that night, and that sad truth only made them cherish the time they had together all the more.

“I guess my mother was right,” she said with a note of wonder. “The wings really did save me. They brought me you.” Smiling up at him with all the love in her heart, she pulled his face to hers and whispered sweetly against his mouth, “My very own dark angel.”

About the Author

Anne Hope is the author of emotionally intense romances with a twist—a twist of humor, a twist of suspense, a twist of magic. All her stories, however, have a common thread. Whether they make you laugh or cry or push you to the edge of your seat, they all feature the redeeming power of love and the heart’s incredible ability to heal.

Anne’s passion for writing began at the age of eight. After penning countless stories about enchanted houses, alien girls with supernatural powers and children constantly getting lost in the woods, she decided to try her hand at romance. She lives in Montreal, Canada, with her husband, her two inexhaustible kids, a lazy cat and a rambunctious Australian Kelpie.

To learn more about Anne Hope, please visit
www.annehope.com
. Send an email to Anne Hope at
[email protected]
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Look for these titles by Anne Hope

Now Available:

Where Dreams Are Made

Broken Angels

Dark Souls

Soul Bound

Soul Deep

Coming Soon:

Soul Chase

A man she’d die for, a world she was born to defend… Only one can survive.

Soul Chase

© 2013 Anne Hope

Dark Souls, Book 3

For twenty-five years, Adrian has mourned the loss of his soul mate, Angie. He’s content to live as an outcast…until a series of abductions force him out of seclusion and into the arms of the very woman he loved and lost. Angie’s reincarnation, Emma.

Emma is on the run, hunted by soulless creatures whose one goal is to possess her soul. They have taken everything: her home, her identity, her mother. Left with no other choice, she must trust her fate to Adrian, the enigmatic stranger who comes to her rescue. An immortal being whose illicit touch makes her blood burn and awakens an inexplicable desire in her heart.

Emma follows Adrian to his isolated community in Arizona, where she is assailed by visions of a past life. As passion ignites and her enemies close in, Emma is drawn into a world where nothing is what it seems and where love could prove the greatest weakness of all.

Warning: Contains a dark, tortured hero, a hunted woman who can’t remember loving him, a nasty villain hell-bent on destroying the world and a timeless love story you won’t soon forget.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Soul Chase:

Chapter One

Emma wasn’t going to die tonight, or any other night, if she could help it. She’d spent her entire life expecting this moment, dreading it. The moment her destiny would finally catch up to her.

Someone shattered the living room window with his bare fist.

“Run, Emma!” Her mother hastened to the small desk by the door and retrieved one of the weapons she’d hidden throughout the apartment, a butcher knife carefully coated with blood. “I’ll handle this.”

“No, I’m not leaving you.”

The man-beast squeezed through the window, followed closely by two others.

To the untrained eye, they looked human, but Emma recognized the darkness within them, knew at a glance what they truly were. There was no humanity in them, no light. They were an empty imitation of life, ruled only by greed and the sick need to consume the one thing they lacked—a soul.

And at the moment, the soul they craved was Emma’s.

Her mom firmly planted herself between Emma and the intruders. “You have to go.”

One of the creatures closed in on them, and her mom swung her blade at him, cutting him across the middle. With an agonized howl, he fell to his knees. The other two stopped their dogged advance, their eyes rounding with shock.

“She’s armed.”

Emma wasn’t sure which of the creatures had spoken, and she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was the hint of hesitation she caught behind the words.

Her mom lifted the butcher knife, swept down and rammed the blade in the kneeling man’s chest. Black smoke instantly spilled from his body, and the heavy scent of candle wax rose to saturate the air. The remaining two intruders stood momentarily frozen by the broken window. Using their distraction against them, her mom lunged forward and ran them both through with efficient, violent thrusts.
 

At seventy-one, Christina Russo was still a force to be reckoned with. Something had happened to harden her, something that had turned a pampered housewife into the fierce warrior who now stood between Emma and those determined to possess her.