Soul Screamers, Volume 1

“You made the right choice,” Dekker told Regan, flashing that famous, million-dollar smile. The caps that launched a thousand amusement park rides. His grandfather would have been proud. “You’ll be rich and famous for the rest of your life.”


Sudden anger flamed behind the icy blue rings of Addy’s contact lenses, blazing through her weaker emotions like kindling. She ripped her arm from Dekker’s grasp and pulled Regan away from the reaper. “Is the hellion still there?” she demanded, her focus shifting between me and Nash as she held her sister’s thin arm with a granite grip. “If we destroy her contract, will that kill the deal?”

“No!” Regan tried to twist away, and Dekker followed Addison’s gaze to me and Nash, standing at the edge of the room like freshmen at the prom.

“Who are they?” he asked calmly, clearly speaking to his female colleague, though he looked at us.

The reaper sneered but looked like she really wanted to hiss. “Bean sidhes,” she spat.

“Friends,” Addison said. “I…invited them.”

Dekker dismissed us at a glance and turned back to Addy, flipping open his folder so we could all see that it was empty. Because, as Tod had discovered, demon paperwork was kept in the Netherworld. “It doesn’t work like that, Addison.” Dekker shot her a smug, patient smile. “Hellion contracts are indestructible by human means. Like fireproof, Kevlar paperwork. And if Regan invokes her out-clause before she has a pedestal to fall from, her willpower and decorum will corrode until she wouldn’t recognize a good decision if it ran her over on the street. You’ll likely be an aunt in a couple of years, and I’m sure the brat’s father will be a convict, or a dealer, or something equally prestigious.

“Regan’s flaws will be exploited and magnified, and because her sister’s famous, her every stumble will be front-page news.” He paused, and his eager brown eyes seemed to spark with a little extra oomph. “Oh, and any tendencies toward addiction—something she might have inherited, for example?” His raised eyebrows said Dekker was more than familiar with Ms. Page’s fondness for prescription drugs. “Well, let’s just say they’ll be awfully hard for a new, disgraced teen mother to resist....”

Regan stared at Dekker in growing horror, and rage flushed Addy’s cheeks. “It doesn’t matter,” she insisted, while her sister’s head whipped back and forth in denial. “She’s not taking the out-clause.”

“Why not?” Regan demanded, but Addy turned to me without answering her.

“Is the demon still there? I want to talk to him.”

“He’s gone,” I said, remembering the largest of the three dark figures I’d seen in the Netherworld. The one who’d walked away as I let my wail fade.

“Take us,” Addy demanded softly. “We’ll find him.”

“No.” Nash shook his head firmly. “You can’t go there, and neither can Kaylee. It’s not safe.”

“Neither is this!” Addison shoved her sister forward, and Nash flinched as his gaze found Regan’s newly empty eyes.

“What’s happening?” Regan shouted, tears filling her eyes. “Who’re they?” She waved one arm at me and Nash, then her bewildered gaze slid back to Dekker. “Why is he threatening to wreck my life?”

Dekker crossed his arms over his chest, the empty folder flat against his side. “I’m not threatening you. I’m simply stating facts. You’ve signed a contract, and you’ll be expected to stand by your word.”

“She had no idea what she was signing,” Addy said. “You didn’t tell her the truth.”

“I never lied,” Dekker insisted calmly.

“What are you guys talking about?” Regan demanded, more bewildered than truly scared.

“We’re talking about this!” Addison whirled her sister around until she faced a mirror hanging on the wall above a beige couch. “Look!”

Regan looked, and her eyes went anime-wide. But though her cheeks flushed bright red, no color returned to her eyes. That beautiful blue was gone, along with her soul.

“What…?” Regan started to step closer to the mirror for a better look, then changed her mind and stepped back instead, shaking her head slowly in denial. Then she whirled on John Dekker and his reaper with a rage and confusion almost equal to her sister’s. “What’s wrong with my eyes? How can I see if I don’t have eyes? You didn’t say anything about this.”

“It was in the fine print.” The reaper crossed her arms over a gaunt, black-clad chest, contempt glittering in her normal gray eyes. “You are old enough to read, aren’t you?”