Read Online Unnatural Souls by Linda Foster - Free Book Online Page B

she wanted to try
intensity training, and I was scared as hell of it … but on board
with the idea. I didn’t have much time left, and that meant only
one thing: I was either going to call my angelic weapon, and save
Ash, or die trying. It was time to push myself.
    And Kali wouldn’t be there to save me
if I screwed up—because I was going to be on my own.
    Instead of staying in no man’s land, I
mentally focused on a spot where we’d gone hunting before. I pulled
the picture of the haunt in New York to my mind, and then
concentrated on it with every ounce of my being. That was how I
teleported—I had to imagine where I wanted to go, and pull at my
power to take me there.
    As for the location I had in mind, it
was a place I knew would have plenty of demon activity. If I was
going to be left alone to hunt, I might as well find a location
where I had a real shot at running into a demon. I had no clue if
there were any in this abandoned town, and that wasn’t good enough.
I needed guaranteed demon presence, to push myself. To see if I
could do it. To call my weapon. Hunting on my own was going to be
terrifying, but if I got in over my head I could just teleport my
butt out of there, right?
    Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to
initiate what I’d come to think of as the jump. Because a voice
interrupted me almost immediately.
    “ Going somewhere,
sweetheart?”

 

     
     
     
     
    THE LOW, GROWLING voice came from my right, breaking my
concentration and causing the image in my mind to slip away before
I could call upon my power to teleport me. I flung myself in the
opposite direction, up against the wall, and stared wild-eyed at
the demon in front of me. For a moment, the glowing red eyes were
all I could see, causing me to freeze in place. Well, crap. I’d
thought I was alone.
    Turned out I wasn’t that
lucky.
    The monster was pale and wore a black
cloak. He was silent now, just staring at me with a blank
expression, but then he moved and his robe pulled back, revealing a
thin, almost skeletal body. There didn’t seem to be an ounce of
muscle or fat on him. I could see his bony fingers flexing, his
almost translucent skin looking like it would tear off with every
movement.
    I heard footsteps as he stepped
forward, but his movement was so graceful that it looked like he
was floating.
    What on earth was this
thing?
    He drifted closer and I quickly moved
sideways, adrenaline coursing through me. I was cornered, and
definitely, really alone with a demon. Kali wasn’t here, and
Michael wasn’t likely to pop up to save me like he’d done that
first time. Unless Kali showed up at the last moment, I was up a
creek without the proverbial paddle.
    I could protect myself with my other
powers for a small amount of time, but I couldn’t kill him. I
needed a real defense.
    Call your weapon, call
your freaking weapon! I shouted at
myself. Idiot! I
reached down inside myself, the way I had to when I called my other
powers, and tried to summon it. But I felt empty, like nothing was
there. For whatever reason, now—when I really needed them—my powers
had decided to vacate the premises. I wanted to scream in
rage.
    So I turned around and took off
running. I needed to calm down and focus—and that would take a
second. I had to get to a place where I could stand still and
breathe, and get my emotions in check. If I couldn’t do that then I
wouldn’t be able to defend myself at all, or escape if I needed to,
and I would have no chance at calling my weapon to me. I leapt over
a trashcan near the end of the block, and rounded the corner to
find myself in a dead end. Shoot. Turning, I prepared to run the
other way, hoping to see a door, an opening—anything I could slip
through.
    Instead, I ended up face to face with
another demon. This one looked almost identical to the first, and
for a second I thought the monster had just caught up to me. But
then I saw that this one had a scar over its right eye. And just as
I realized