Borrowed Souls (Soul Charmer #1)(17)
“You’re still untainted,” the Soul Charmer said. “Only you can mark your soul. I simply made it easier for you to detect other souls.”
“Why?” She kept the pleading tone out of her voice, but she couldn’t completely mask the aching need to know. Just how deep had she gotten herself?
“Someone is stealing my souls. If you can detect those in possession of too many or too few, you will be quite useful in helping me recover my products much more quickly.”
“Wait a second. I thought I was just the one with the flask. That was the deal.”
“The deal was you’d assist Derek in retrieving souls. You will continue to do so. If that means also finding the person who thinks they can take what is mine, so be it.”
Her body went rigid as she began to understand what he was getting at. “You can’t force magic into people.”
The Charmer glared at her, and the muscles in her neck snapped sharp like tension wire. If she turned her head, the squeal would echo for hours.
“Why don’t you use your fucking skills to make everyone able to find these souls?” Hysterics were a new one for Callie, but light-up fingers could do that to a person.
“Oh, child, you’ve primed yourself to take magic for years. You just never realized it.”
What the hell did that mean? The staccato beat of her heart tapped against her temples. Callie opened her mouth to reply, but Derek spoke instead. Finally. “I can handle hunting down the chakra therapist on my own.”
Callie held her breath, but the Charmer’s reply didn’t change anything. “Of course you can. Now you have a better tool to do so.”
How had her day gone from helping an underworld soul rental service to being a magical tool in a matter of minutes? The room rocked beneath her feet. Why had she thought she’d ever be able to get out of this unscathed?
Derek spoke over her shoulder, closer, as if he was trying to distract her from the fact the Charmer had just called her a tool. “We’ll start tomorrow.”
She wanted to argue. To fight. To be the badass everyone wanted her to be. She was Josh’s savior. Couldn’t she be her own, too? Derek’s gigantic hands emerged from behind and cupped her upper arms in a tight grip, steering her toward the door they’d entered through. When her legs didn’t immediately follow along, he whispered in her ear, “It can only get worse if we stay in here. Please.”
It was the please that got her feet shuffling across the floor and through that nasty hallway, even if she still hadn’t ruled out slugging him when they made it outside. The Charmer didn’t say a word as they left. Whatever he’d wanted with her, he’d already gotten it.
In the safety of the alley—she’d already adjusted her definition of safe—Derek edged to her side. “We should talk.”
Oh, so he could speak. With every step away from the Soul Charmer’s shop, the numbness Callie had endured from the oppressive magic inside dissipated a little bit more. A fiery anger quickly moved in to replace it. “You knew what he was going to do to me in there, didn’t you?”
“I’ve worked for him since I was twenty-two, and he still keeps secrets from me. You deserve more answers.” His guilt was painted in plain stripes over his face.
Derek could stew in his shame, though. He chose to hold all his words until they didn’t matter. Callie was too familiar with being tossed to the wolves and getting a sloppy apology when it was too late. She needed to quit being surprised when it happened.
“Yep. I do, but I’m done for tonight.” Her car was only ten feet away. A teensy drop of relief slid down her neck as she looked at her escape, haloed in the light of the streetlamp.
Derek stepped in front of her, blocking both her progress and her view of her beat-to-shit magic pumpkin. “That stuff in there, though—”
“Am I going to die?” she cut him off.
“What? No.” She’d thrown him off balance with that question. At least she could make him uneasy, too.
“Then I’m going home.” She stepped around him, and he didn’t move to stop her. “You have my number?”
His grunt was close to a “yeah.” She hadn’t given it to him, but then again, she wasn’t surprised he had it either.
She didn’t bother making plans with him. Derek wasn’t done with her any more than the Soul Charmer was.
—— CHAPTER SIX ——
Callie’s fingers were no longer glowing. She’d stared at them for the last hour and a half, and zero light had shot out. If she watched them all night, she swore she could convince herself the magic-fingers shtick hadn’t happened.
It might have been easier if her hoodie hadn’t held on to a mix of Derek’s clean masculine scent and the musky spice of the Soul Charmer’s shop. She’d taken the sweatshirt off and shoved it deep in the hamper an hour ago, but the aromas still filled her nose.
She needed to get a grip. Her fingers weren’t going to glow again. It was like a watched pot; it would never boil. She scrubbed her normal hands across her face, but the slight roughness of her palms against her cheeks wasn’t enough to remove the grime of what she’d gotten into that day.
Callie moved into the kitchenette. She scooped some Folgers and put it in the coffee maker. Caffeine could fix anything, right? As the machine did its thing, she gathered a mug from the cabinet. The flock of little chinstrap penguins on the cup made her smile. Her cheeks ached. Letting go of her locked jaw probably had something to do with that.