Soul Screamers, Volume 1

He shrugged and leaned back in his seat. “You wanted me to show her, so I showed her. Now ask her if we can borrow her car so I can get back to my part in the plan.”


“Borrowing a car was your part of the plan, and we are not taking Emma’s.” Even if she was willing to lend it to us, I wasn’t willing to ask. I wanted as little contact between her and the Netherworld as possible.

And I was already regretting asking Tod to show himself.

“Wait, why do you need my car?” Emma glanced from Tod to Nash, then to me.

“Kaylee’s dad took her keys,” the reaper said.

“We don’t need your car.” I glared at Tod. “Though, we really appreciate you taking us to Nash’s house. Assuming you’re not completely freaked out by all this.”

“Oh, I’m totally freaked.” Emma smiled slowly, and I wondered how deep her shock went. “But I asked, right? Besides, this isn’t much weirder than you and Nash bringing people back to life. Not really.” As if she were trying to convince herself. “And it’s much better than listening to you talk to people who aren’t there. Or yell at me.” She raised one brow at me. “You were yelling at him, not me, right?”

“Yes.” I returned her hesitant smile easily. “We yell at Tod a lot.”

“I can see why. So…” She glanced at all three of us again. “You need to borrow my car?”

“Yes,” Tod said, just as Nash and I said, “No.”

“Look.” Tod turned a dark look my way. “Everyone I know is dead, and has no use for a car. Except Mom, and she needs hers to get to work tonight. So either you let me take one, let me get your keys back from your dad, or we borrow Emma’s car. Those are the options.”

“What about Addy?” I demanded, before Emma could break in and volunteer her car. And that’s exactly what she would have done. I recognized the gleam of curiosity in her eyes, and I knew that if we used her car, she’d insist on coming with us. And that could not happen. “You can’t tell me Addy doesn’t have a car.”

“She doesn’t.” Tod scowled, and I got the distinct impression he was a little irritated with his pop princess. “She never got her license, because there’s always someone else around to take her wherever she wants to go. Which poses a whole new problem. If we can’t get some time alone with her, whether or not we can find a car won’t matter.”

“Who’s Addy?” Emma asked.

“No one.” I glared at Tod to keep him from contradicting me. “Just some girl Tod has a crush on.”

“It’s not a crush,” he spat, as if the word burned his tongue. “I’m trying to save her life.”

“Not really her life,” I corrected, when Emma’s brow wrinkled in worry. She knew that each life had a price, and I couldn’t let her think we were willing to kill some likely innocent bystander to save Tod’s girlfriend. “We’re trying to save her soul.”

“What’s wrong with her soul?” Emma asked Tod, having obviously come to the conclusion that he was her best source of information.

The reaper shrugged. “Nothing. She’s just not actually in possession of it. At the moment.”

“Whoooa…” Emma sank back into her seat slowly, her expression bleak, and I realized that somehow she understood the gravity of what she’d just heard, though she wasn’t privy to the whole story. And if I had my way, she wouldn’t be. “I get off at eight. My car’s yours after that.”

“Emma, no.” I shook my head, one hand gripping the side of my headrest, but she only shook hers back at me. “Thanks, but…”

“You need the car. Take the car. Don’t let some poor girl lose her soul because you were too stubborn to drive a loaner.”

I sighed and closed my eyes briefly before giving in with a short nod, despite my better judgment. “Thanks, Em.”

“You’re welcome.” Her smile grew, and her eyes glinted with mischief eerily similar to what I usually saw in Tod’s. “And you’re buying your own gas. Unless you let me tag along…”

“No.” I smiled, to soften the blow. “It’s too dangerous. And if you argue, I won’t take your car.”

“Yeah, I figured. Okay, let’s go. I have to be at the Cinemark by four.” Emma straightened in her seat and started the car again. “Though, how I’m supposed to serve popcorn for four hours after this, I have no idea....”





Chapter 14





“Hey, come on in.” Harmony Hudson held the front door propped open for us before we’d even made it out of the car. “What’s wrong with Emma?”

Nash glanced back at her as he crossed the dead grass, and I followed his gaze to find Emma looking a little dazed as she locked her car, as if what she’d learned had finally truly sunk in. The reaper had disappeared entirely.

“She just met Tod.” I stepped into Nash’s dark, warm living room and dropped my bag on the floor by the couch.