Twenty-Four
Eshim
T he large room was empty for the most part. A few broken beer bottles in a corner, graffiti on the walls, nothing special.
In the center of the room, Maximus and Malik fought the dark soul, who looked like a big, bulky man thanks to Mammon's magic. Souls couldn't have a physical form in the human world. They needed a body, except if they had a powerful demon at their beck and call. Still, Mammon couldn't keep this going indefinitely, which was why they needed bodies they could possess.
I scanned the room, then spotted the crumpled heap of a man on the other side of the room.
Fressia and Lux had seen him too, and we teleported to his side so we wouldn't be in Maximus's way.
The human was covered in blood, and there was so much of it I was struggling to see his wounds. He needed a hospital.
"He needs a hospital," Lux said, mirroring my thoughts, and I nodded.
Reaching out, I placed my hand on the back of his head, the only part of him that had no blood on it. "Hey, you're safe now. We'll get you out of here, okay?"
The man went still under my touch, and I worried that we were too late. I leaned forward, trying to get a glimpse at his face, when Fressia shouted "Look out!" and jerked me back so suddenly we both fell over just as the human flipped around far faster than he should've been able to, a knife clutched in his hand that would've been buried in my chest if Fressia hadn't acted.
The blade of the knife was onyx and dripping with black magic. It would've sent me straight to Afterworld in a second.
"Thanks," I said a bit shakily as I got to my feet and took a few steps back.
"Maximus, a little help here!" Fressia called, and a few members of Maximus's team smoothly moved between us and the human.
The human wasn't human anymore, and it was clear as he stood up, his limbs a little jerky like he wasn't used to them yet. I forced myself to take a deep breath and focus, then sucked in a surprised breath. There were two souls in that body. One light, one dark. The souls were struggling, both barely holding on to the body as they struggled for dominance.
"Shit! There's a human and a dark soul in there," I told the Otherworlders. "You'll have to be careful."
Otherworlders could not intervene in the lives of the living. They definitely could not kill them. Which meant these people would have to find a way to separate the souls if they had any hope of hurting the dark soul.
A sound from behind made me turn, and I watched as Maximus pulled a knife out of his shoulder, wincing in pain. Another knife full of dark magic? I was glad it was just his shoulder. Consort Reece should be able to heal that.
The dark soul he'd been fighting took advantage of his momentary distraction and took off, leaving the trapped dark soul to deal with us. That was interesting. Did that mean there was no loyalty between the dark souls? We'd assumed the four who escaped had planned it together, but what if it'd been chance? What if they were four random dark souls who'd seen an opportunity and just acted? And now they were struggling to work together, which was why we couldn't figure out their plan. Maybe they didn't have a plan at all. Or maybe they had multiple plans and were still fighting over what they were going to do.
"Shit!" Maximus shouted as the dark soul took off, then waved Malik toward us, who joined the other team members in keeping the other dark soul contained. He didn't want to abandon the human body he was possessing, which was good for us. But we had to be alert in case he decided to run, because we'd only have a second to capture him before he disappeared like his cohort.
"Kym, I need your help," Maximus was saying, and I glanced over to find him on his phone. He was calling his mate. Smart move. Kym's fire magic could literally burn the darkness out of souls. If anyone could get the dark soul out of this human's body without harming him, it was Kym.
We didn't have to wait long for him to arrive, and Kym popped a kiss on Maximus's cheek as soon as he arrived, then frowned at his shoulder. "You're hurt."
"I'm okay. Reece will patch me up later. Come on."
Kym took one look at the human and hurried over. He would've walked right up to him if Malik hadn't grabbed his shoulder. "Careful, Kym."
"I know you'll keep me safe, Malik," he said with a wink, making Maximus grumble as he took his hand and led him closer, his sword held at ready.
"Poor guy. He's trapped in his own body," Kym murmured.
"Can you help him?" Lux asked, and Kym nodded as he stepped closer to the man. Far too close for Maximus's comfort, it seemed.
Raising his hand palm out, Kym exhaled slowly, and a blaze of pure white flame streamed out of his hand, getting the human right in the chest. He screamed, but it was easy to tell it wasn't the human screaming but the dark soul. I could literally see the dark soul writhing in pain inside, while the human's soul remained unaffected.
"Get ready to catch," Kym said through gritted teeth as the flames intensified, and the dark soul shot out of the human's mouth in a display reminiscent of a human show Jerry had shown me a while ago to explain what humans imagined when they thought 'demons.'
Maximus grabbed the dark soul—that was nothing but a blob of charcoal smoke now—before it could escape, and stuck it into his pocket like he'd done it a hundred times before. Which he probably had, since capturing dark souls was his job. Usually, the souls he captured had just died. They weren't running around after escaping their prison.
The human fell to the ground like his strings had been cut, and I winced as I rushed to make sure he hadn't hurt himself more.
"Will he survive?" Fres asked, and Maximus shook his head.
"I'm not sure. This isn't exactly the kind of injury a human doctor can fix."
"What about healers?" Lux asked, chewing on his lower lip. "There has to be one somewhere that deals with the unusual. Right? A supe you can trust?"
Maximus frowned, deep in thought, and Kym smacked his arm. "You know who can help him."
"I...do?" Maximus sounded a touch puzzled, and I bit back a chuckle as Kym rolled his eyes. I liked their dynamic. Maximus needed someone who kept him on his toes.
"Finn's dad is a healer, remember?"
I had no idea who he was talking about, but Maximus clearly did.
"Oh right. That's a great idea." Turning to us, he said, "Thank you. We couldn't have captured them without you."
"You'll let us know what you find once you interrogate that one, right?" Fressia asked, nodding toward his pocket.
"I will. We'll take care of the human, so you don't need to stay."
I didn't need to be told twice, and neither did Fressia or Lux. I checked the time, and while the workday had ended, I had a feeling I'd still find Jerry at the office.
"See ya," I told the others, since they'd be poofing back to their own mates, then let my magic take me to Jerry, wherever he was.
Jerry
I glared at my screen, scowling at the colors I'd been adjusting for the past half hour. I was pretty sure I'd circled my way right back to my first option, and it was frustrating the hell out of me.
Or maybe it was the fact that Eshim still wasn't back, and I was worried sick about him. What if something had happened to him? What if he was hurt? Or worse? How long would it be before someone told me? And what would I do if he was...
Nope. I was not going down that road. Eshim would be back at any moment. I just had to wait.
"Coffee?" A coffee cup was placed on my desk, and my eyes snapped up to Eshim's smiling face.
Jumping to my feet, I practically threw myself at him, glad everyone else was gone—because I would've died of mortification—as I wrapped my arms and legs around him and clung to him like an octopus. I wished I had more arms so I could hold him tighter and never let go.
"I love you too," Eshim said, as if not even a moment had passed since I'd said those words to him, as if he'd been dying to say those words to me.
"Fuck, Eshim. Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" There was a faint scent of blood clinging to him, and it had me worried.
"I'm fine, Jerry. I promise. Everything went well, and we even managed to capture a dark soul. Once they question him, we might finally find out what their plan is."
"That's good," I said, though honestly, in that moment I didn't really care about the world all that much. I was just grateful to have him back, and didn't want to let go.
"You ready to go home? I need a shower, and some cuddles," Eshim said, making me smile.
Pressing a kiss on his neck, I lowered my legs and stepped back, trailing my hands down until I was cupping his hips.
"Okay, let's go home. I'll make dinner."
Eshim grinned, and we made our way to a hallway without cameras, from where Eshim teleported us home.
Tom barked in excitement when he spotted us—he still wasn't quite used to us popping up out of nowhere—and we spent a few minutes petting him to his heart's content.
Once Tom was satisfied, we left him to his toys and made our way to the shower, where we washed up together as Eshim gave me an abridged version—which meant he removed any sense of danger from the story and made it sound like he'd just been hanging out with his friends, as if I didn't have other sources to get the real story from—of what had happened. I felt bad for the man who'd gotten caught up in this crap, and hoped he'd get the help he needed.
Afterward, I made dinner—we could've ordered, but I felt a little restless after all my worrying, and there was something soothing about following a recipe and cooking for someone.
As we ate, I told Eshim about what he'd missed at work, which was mostly banter and the many, many whining baby designers who went absolutely nuts when they realized their coffee-and-cookies supplier was missing.
"We barely avoided a revolt," I said with a shake of my head. "Kat got word of it somehow and popped by with supplies. Somehow, she got everyone's orders right." I raised a brow at him, and he smirked.
"I gave Rita my notes, just in case."
I shook my head, impressed by just how good he was, especially since he'd never done anything like it before. I supposed he was naturally good at taking care of people, and that translated well in this job.
"Well, just know everyone in the design department is very grateful for you, and they do not like it when you take time off."
Eshim grinned, clearly delighted by it, and I smiled. I liked that he enjoyed his job. When he'd told me he'd gotten the job just to get close to me, I'd been worried. First that he wouldn't be good, and then that he was only doing it for me. I didn't want that kind of... responsibility, and I certainly didn't want him to grow to resent me.
"I'll wash up," Eshim said, then snapped his fingers, turning our dirty dishes spotless.
I shook my head at him, and he grinned. "It's perfectly clean, I promise. I removed every speck of organic matter from it, so it's even cleaner than what the dishwasher would do."
"I don't doubt it," I assured him, and he collected the plates and took them into the kitchen, where I was sure he'd cleaned everything else the same way.
Once he was done, we retreated to the bedroom since we'd both had a busy day.
I couldn't wait until this project ended, because I really, really wanted to be intimate with Eshim again, but not when every other part of my body hurt from sitting in a damned chair all day.
Friday could not come fast enough.