My Soul to Keep

CHAPTER 28



“Are you ready, brother?”

“Um, for what?”

“We need to find your creation. He must be stopped.”

“Oh, yeah. Duh. Sorry, my mind was on getting Jessie safe. How are we gonna find him?”

“We’re not. He will find us. We have something he wants,” Darius said and pointed at my chest.

“What?”

“You,” Clarisse finished for Darius.

“You think he’ll come after me?”

“What do you think? He’s got it bad for you. He thinks you’re the only thing in the universe stronger than he is. He also has been toying with you. Now he thinks you’re weaker than he is,” Clarisse added.

“I’m starting to think so, too.”

“We shall see,” Darius said ominously.

I faced him and my stomach suddenly turned. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. I could feel my sister’s fear in my head. Brett was there. He was going after my family. “No!”

“What?”

“He’s at my house. He has my family,” I said and jumped higher and farther than ever since becoming one of the Fallen. I beat my wings and headed home. I didn’t even look to see if Darius and Clarisse were following me.

* * *

I landed in the middle of the street right in front of my house. The front door hung open and no lights were on. I swallowed my fear and walked up the driveway. I didn't hear any screaming and told myself it was a good sign. I pushed the door the rest of the way open and…

“Well, that was fast. Maybe you’re not as stupid as you look.”

My eyes adjusted and I saw Brett standing there holding my sister in front of him. He had his elbow bent and held her throat in his talons. One squeeze and he could rip her throat out. That didn’t stop Caelyn’s eyes from bulging at the sight of me. I’m sure she figured I wasn’t wearing a Halloween costume anymore.

“What do you want, Brett?”

“You, dead. But not before you suffer.”

“Why? What did I ever do to you?”

“You made me what I am, so I guess I should be thanking you. One thing kept bothering me though. You made me promise never to hurt anyone. I couldn’t help myself. Those people who adopted me never loved me. They wanted a slave. It was time for a little payback if you know what I mean.”

“Brett, I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

“Don’t pity me! Pity yourself.”

“Why?”

“Because I realized something after I killed Janice and Phil. You didn’t know I'd done it. See, the way I looked at it is, if you were the creator and I misbehaved, you should have known. I think you goofed. I think you poured too much power into me. The other demon said it herself. I shouldn’t have changed that fast. You screwed up. You made me stronger than you are. The way I figure it is if I kill you, I’ll be invincible. The watching you suffer part is just a bonus.”

That settled it. Brett was crazy.

“You’re nuts,” I said.

“Yes, but there’s nothing you can do about it, demon!”

He brought his lips to my sister’s neck in an unbelievably fast strike. Her eyes widened as his fangs pierced her flesh. I expected him to rip it open like he'd done to the others. Instead he drank, looking up at me while he did. His blood covered lips pulled up in a smile.

I took a step forward. “Stop!”

He pulled back and Caelyn slumped in his grasp. “Or what?” He smirked as she dropped to the ground.

I prayed she was just unconscious as I called my blades and attacked. She surprised me by lifting up his pant leg, latching onto his ankle, and biting him with everything she had. He didn’t have time to stop her as I attacked twice, slashing his chest. He caught my other blade in his hands.

“Stupid demon,” he said and kicked me with the leg in Caelyn’s mouth.

His kick broke her grip and kicked me through the open front door.

Darius caught me before I crashed down on the driveway. “Problems, brother?”

“Always. He’s got my family.”

“Come.”

The three of us walked back into the house. Brett was reaching for my whimpering sister. She scrambled to get away from him. He looked up as we entered.

“Connor, now that just isn’t fair. Three against one. Really? You should have brought more demons.” He moved across the room so fast I couldn’t follow his movements.

Darius could though. He caught the vampire in his hand.

“Now you see why he’s a Reaper,” Clarisse said from behind me. I nodded. Darius was fast.

“That was unbelievable.”

“You should see the Warriors.”

Darius picked Brett up by his throat. The vampire struggled futilely in his grasp. He stopped when Darius put his hand against the vampire’s forehead and pulled. My arms shivered at the sudden drop of pressure in the room.

Darius’ hand left Brett’s face. A blue light leaked from the center of his forehead and gathered in Darius’ palm. The more light that escaped, the more it took on characteristics of Brett. It looked like a pale life-sized blue ghost of himself.

The ghostlike version smiled hideously and wrenched itself from the Fallen’s hand.

Darius looked at his palm in surprise as Bret slashed him across the throat. Darius fell clutching his wound.

“No!” Clarisse’s scream brought me to my senses.

I'd only started to move when Brett smashed the wooden end-table next to the couch, grabbed one of the splintered legs, and drove it through Darius’ chest.

“Stupid demon,” he said and kicked the dying Fallen. “Where were we? Oh, yes. I was about to kill you, your friend, your sister, who is quite tasty by the way, and your parents.”

He struck Clarisse in the face. She hit the wall and slid down. I still hadn’t seen him move. One minute he stood on one side of the room, the next he had attacked. We were seriously screwed.

“Brett, please stop.”

“No,” he said and threw a couch at me. I ducked, but not fast enough. I hit the wall and began to search for loose change in the cushions. With my face.

I pushed the couch off of me and pulled myself out of the wall separating the living room and the kitchen. Pieces of drywall and 2x4 were stuck in my back. I could feel the blood dripping down. It felt like a Mack Truck had plowed me into the wall instead of a 1970’s couch.

That’s enough of that shit.

“Let’s see you deal with the real me,” I said. I called my true form. Maybe then I would be strong enough and fast enough to kick his undead ass.

“Bring it, bitch,” Brett said.

“You have serious anger management issues, I hope you know that.”

“That’s what my therapist said. Right before I killed her.”

My body grew taller, my wings longer, and everything became sharper and clearer. I could see the rhythmic rise and fall of Caelyn’s chest as she struggled to breathe. I could hear my parent’s heartbeats from upstairs. At least I knew they were still alive. I could even hear Clarisse breathing behind me. Darius, not so much. I needed to end this now. I called back my blades.

They came to my hands sporting red and black flames along the blades. I held them out to my sides, tried not to bang my head on the ceiling, and beckoned Brett on. He smiled and charged.

I could see his movements now. He closed the distance between us and clawed my stomach before I could get a blade up to defend myself. I did, however, manage to slice his back as he retreated. He howled in pain when he reached the other side of the room.

“You’re a little better, but still not good enough, Connor.”





“We’ll see. Let’s finish this. I have a date tomorrow.”


“With destiny.”

“No, Jessie. I stopped dating Destiny in the third grade. She was a nice girl though.”

Brett looked at me confusedly. Apparently being undead screwed with your sense of humor. Or maybe he was just a douche to begin with. Either way, I would be kicking his ass. I gave him a feral smile.

He gave me a kick to the jaw I didn’t see coming. I swung down with the blade in my left hand as a reflex, peeling his jeans and the skin on his shin back. I saw bone glistening through the hole in his jeans. Sweet.

He must have felt the pain in his leg because he looked down in disbelief. He snarled and reached down and pulled the flesh back up on his leg. He held it there for a moment and when he let go, he had completely healed. Damn. That sucks.

He must have hit his breaking point, too. “Enough games, this ends now. Just know that once you are dead, so is everybody else you love,” he said and full on, arms flailing, mouth snarling, attacked me.

I tried to use my blades, but he was still faster than me and slapped them away before I could score a hit on him. He slapped one blade completely from my hand and it disappeared instead of clattering to the floor. He got three more strikes to my face, neck, and chest before he slapped the other one away, too. He closed in for the kill and wrapped his arms around me as he prepared to fully bite my throat out. In one final act of desperation, I called back my blades and drove them straight down into his back.

He screamed in my face.

I pushed down on the blades and forced him to the ground in front of me.

He knelt down and tried to grab my hands.

I turned the blades.

“No! You can’t kill me! I am immortal!”

“So am I.”

I released one blade and touched my palm to his forehead just like Darius had done. I concentrated on his soul. I don’t know how I did it, but it worked. As my hand pulled away from his face, I felt his soul following. He screamed until I fully wrenched it from him. I let go of my other blade as his body turned grey. He fell dead at my feet as I held his soul in my hand.

Clarisse finally woke up.

“What did you do?” She stood and walked over to look at the soul in my hand.

“I guess I reaped him,” I said hoping I didn’t sound stupid.

“But you’re not a Reaper!”

“Apparently he is,” a raspy voice called from behind us. We turned and saw Darius raise himself up on one elbow and yank the wooden stake from his chest.

Right then the police showed up.

I looked at my battered broken house, the dead body at my feet, the soul in my hand, and my sister unconscious on the floor.

“Oh, shit.”