Soul Screamers, Volume 1

Addison cleared her throat, and more springs groaned. “Yeah, but we can’t let that happen. We have to stop her from signing.”


“I know.” I held up one finger to tell Nash and Tod to wait—that I really was going somewhere with this. “But my point is that in order to take her to the Netherworld, Dekker has to bring along that reaper, right? The lady who took you to the hellion?”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“And, Tod…” I twisted in the driver’s seat to face him, though the steering wheel bruised my side. “Using your soul-wrangling abilities for anything other than reaping from the approved list is illegal for a reaper, right? Including taking humans to the Netherworld to facilitate the removal of their souls?” He nodded, and I continued. “Would you call that a firing offense?”

“Definitely.” His eyes lit up, as my point became clear.

“And would your boss be interested in the chance to fire such a reaper?”

His brows arched. “It would make his decade.”

“That’s what I thought.” I faced forward again to spare my ribs, just as the first drops of rain went splat on the windshield. “And without his pet reaper, Dekker has no way to get Regan to the Netherworld. Right?” My excitement grew as Tod and Nash both nodded eagerly. We had a chance to save Regan from making a huge mistake and bring justice to the rogue reaper involved. Plus, if I could peek into the Netherworld, I could at least get a good look at the hellion we needed to identify. “So, what do you think? Will it work?”

Nash grinned from ear to ear and made a gruff happy noise deep in his throat. “I think it might.”

“So, wait, you have a plan?” Addy squeaked over the line.

“Yeah, I think we do.” I twisted my key in the ignition, and the car rumbled to life, more like an ailing house cat than a purring tiger, but so long as my poor car moved, I wasn’t going to complain.

“What should I do?”

I rebuckled my seat belt and flicked the switch to start my windshield wipers. “Stall them until we get there.” The passenger side wiper stuttered across the glass once, then died without so much as a whimper. Fortunately, I didn’t need to see through that side. “Say whatever you have to say. But don’t let her sign that contract, and do not let the reaper take Regan to the Netherworld.”

“Okay, I’ll try.” But she sounded less than confident.

“Try hard, Addy.” I punched the button to make the hazard lights stop blinking and glanced over my left shoulder before pulling into traffic again. “You only have one sister, right? And she only has one soul.”

“Yeah, okay.” She sniffled again, but this time determination echoed in her voice like a vow sworn in a cavern. “I’ll keep her here if I have to chain her to the kitchen cabinets.”

“I hope you’re kidding, but in case you’re not, that won’t work. Neither your cabinets nor your chain exist in the Netherworld, because they’re in a private residence.” Huh. Look at that. I’d actually learned something in how-to-be-a—bean-sidhe lessons…

“Yes, but the concept has some real potential,” Tod muttered from behind me, and I glanced in the mirror to see him grinning lasciviously.

“I’ll come up with something,” Addison said. She obviously hadn’t heard the reaper’s last comment.

“Good. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” I nodded at Nash, and he closed my phone, but held on to it, so I wouldn’t have to dig for it if it rang again. Then I stomped on the gas, and nearly had a heart attack when my poor little car hydroplaned a good ten feet before finding traction again.

“I’d rather be late-but-whole than punctual-but-dead,” Nash suggested, teasing me much more calmly than I could have managed if he’d nearly killed me.

“I’m gonna find Levi and meet you guys there,” Tod said, and I frowned when I realized the fear shining in his eyes probably had as much to do with my driving and the possibility of his own second death than with being late to Regan’s soul harvest.

Was that some kind of residual human fear, or could a car crash actually hurt a reaper, if he didn’t blink out in time? And for the first time, I wondered exactly how dead Tod was....

“Wait!” I shouted, and Nash reached for the wheel again when I stretched my neck to catch his brother’s gaze in the rearview mirror. Tod arched one brow at me. I’d caught him right before he would have disappeared. “Reapers don’t have death dates, because they’re already dead, right?” I asked, and Tod nodded. “So…do you guys still have souls?”

He scowled. “Do my eyes look empty to you?”