Chapter 1: Pool of Souls

1. Pool of Souls



“Do you love me?” I whispered in his ear as my fingers caressed the side of his face.

“Yes, I love you.” His clammy hands clasped my hips as I straddled him against the mattress. Staring into his eyes, I could see he was mesmerized by my beauty and oblivious to everything else in the room.

I grinned victoriously. I had him right where I needed him. I gave him a tender kiss on the lips. He moaned and I pulled away, making him crave more. Instead of giving him what he wanted, I asked him, “How much do you love me?”

“I love you…I love you…” I suppressed a sigh of irritation. I supposed he was racking his brain for some corny response to my necessary question. “I love you enough that I would give the world to you for your love in return, baby.” I felt his hands slide up the curve of my waist and back down again to my hips. His sly smile made me want to roll my eyes, but I kept in check.

This was the moment. The question I’d been dying to ask for the past three days. “Do you love me enough to give me your soul?” One little answer and he’d be mine.

“I’ll give you anything you want, baby girl.”

“Say that you give your soul to me.”

         “I give my soul to you.”

My gaze searched his. No matter how hard I tried to look, I only found truth in those words. “So be it,” I muttered.

“What was that, baby girl?”

I leaned over him again. My mane of black curls cascaded down and around my shoulders, creating a curtain around his face. This close, I could smell his cheap cologne mixed with sweat. Didn’t exactly turn me on. I locked my gaze on his and called his soul to me. Erick’s attentive body arched, and then collapsed on the bed, unmoving. He made no sound. A soft glow radiated off him as his essence responded to my calling. It ran up his body and poured out of his eyes into mine, a wave of an opalescent colored spectral. I was blinded as it entered my system in the ephemeral moment, but it never failed to fascinate me. The eyes were the mirror to the soul.

My body glowed and I tingled all over. My sight returned, fixing upon the vegetable-like person beneath me. I saw emptiness in his eyes; no reflection. I now had him inside of me. I felt him there: his personality, likes and dislikes, favorite things, memorable moments in his lifetime. I could feel what he felt about me if I thought about it. This was how it felt to have two souls in one body.

I got off Erik and straightened my blouse from wrinkles. Glancing at the guy, my soul—our soul—screamed out to him. I shrugged off the uncomfortable feelings. What happened, happened. So sad, too bad. He wasn’t dead. No, not at all. Just merely paralyzed. With no soul, you became a zombie; a vegetable. Not the I-want-to-eat-your-brains kind of zombie in the Hollywood versions, but a zombie that lived and was dead to the world, which, in my opinion, was even worse than the brain-eating zombies. And that’s exactly what Erik was now.

Once they gave me their word to possess their soul, I had full control of what came next. Silly humans. Too naïve when it comes to the meaning of words.

Assembling my emotions—and Erik’s emotions—I bent down to give him one last kiss on the lips. As I helped myself to the door, instead of leading to the hallway of the hotel we rented, it opened into a torch lit tunnel in the Underworld. The smell of dirt and carcasses made my nose wrinkle in distaste. My feet led the way, knowing where to go. The dirt tunnel soon uncovered a vast cave made of stone. An enormous candle chandelier hung from the ceiling, casting an eerie glow throughout the cave. Weapons from machetes to guns were pinned against the stone walls. Three cave openings—excluding the one I came from—were visible, each in one of the cardinal directions. In the center laid the Pool of Souls. It was the size of an average swimming pool with a stone wall surrounding it. Water so black and thick, you couldn’t see a hint of your reflection—and neither could you see the souls in it.

On the opposite side of the Pool, Amarian stood. The Soul Collector. Dressed in a floor-length black robe with the cowl covering his face, he raised his head and stared straight at me. Despite the hood covering his features, I felt his gaze upon me. I suppressed a shiver. I still hadn’t grown used to his ethereal looks, despite being around him for the last couple centuries as his soul carrier.

“Alas, you’re back. Another effortless task for you, I presume?”

I walked around the Pool of Souls towards him, knowing the routine. Standing less than a foot apart, I responded with a sigh full of boredom, “Just as easy as the rest of them.”

This close, I saw the white of his teeth as he grinned. “Outstanding, Sabine. I suspected another night would suffice, however I underestimated your ability.”

I smirked at his rare compliment. He was youthful, patient, and naturally seductive—things I was born immune to. It gave me clear a sight of his aspect: power, greed, and evil.

“Stand on the platform,” he ordered.

The platform appeared out of magic, hanging on the side of the stone wall above the Pool of Souls. I took the stairs leading up to it, refusing to glance below me. I stood above the murky Pool where I could hear the frightened, confused, and despairing souls of the damned screaming to be freed. Most of which I collected.

Inside of me, Erik’s soul responded to the Pool, forcing me to take a step back. I fought his soul as it tried to take over my body and flee from the Underworld. This wasn’t the first time a soul acted up. Plenty of practice helped me stay in control of my body—and making sure that I didn’t fall in the Pool during the process.

Behind me, Amarian began to chant. His words flowed through my body, contacting Erik’s devastated soul in a language I was familiar with, yet didn’t understand. His soul responded with reluctance, as did most of the other souls that I’d captured.

Amarian’s finger pressed against my lower back, ascending my spine to where my shoulder blades met. His voice echoed in the cave, bouncing off the stone walls. I felt Erik’s soul shrivel and then expand as it followed Amarian’s finger up my spine. The Soul Collector continued up my neck to the back of my brain, Erik’s soul following the whole time, making my body shiver and me feel noxious.

Once his soul passed through my esophagus, into my brain and out through my eyes, I relaxed my body. Amarian directed the wispy spirit away from my body and down into the depths of the Pool. Once it hit the water, it lost its brilliant glow. Erik’s spirit joined the rest of the damned-lost souls.

“Another job well done,” I muttered underneath my breath.

“Come, Sabine. It is done with.”

I forced my feet to turn around. Amarian held out a hand to help me down the stairs. I took it without question.

“Why, you are shaking.” He grasped both of my hands and looked me in the eyes. His hood still covered his face, but I saw two spots that were darker than the shadow that veiled his features. Eyes. “You are not weakened by this soul, are you?”

Straightening my spine, I stood tall and snatched my hands from his. “He was a fighter,” I half lied, eyes narrowing. “He wanted to live really bad and fought me for it, harder than the others normally do. I hate it when that happens.”

Amarian continued to stare, unaffected by my attempt to unnerve him. “Rest,” he said in a calm voice. “I will have need of you in later time.” He turned and left through the cave exiting to the east.

I stood there several minutes after he left, staring into the mirthless Pool. Erik’s soul had long vanished. Once in the Pool, no soul could ever be heard or seen again, unless it was taken out. Still, I stood there, observing. With an elegant shrug, I turned away. Oh well. He wasn’t the last soul I’d bring to be damned.

Footsteps reached my ears as I walked away. Or rather, the sound of bones hitting stone. Looking up, I spotted the skeleton known as Francis. An Ankou, he was a grave watcher who carried a scythe and lantern everywhere with him.

Behind him, Lexi and Bear appeared. Lexi was a succubus, a winged-demon who seduced men, stole their ‘waste’, and gave birth to more pitiful demons like her. Bear, on the other hand, was a hobgoblin. They entered through the west of the cave; opposite of where I stood. 

“So Little Miss Favorite is back, I see,” Lexi snarled in a voice that was deep and sensual. Her bat-like wings folded in close behind her as she twitched her way towards me. Two black horns sat on top of a head full of fiery red hair. As a succubus, it was her nature to look seductive and captivating, a tool to capture her prey. But she could’ve toned down with the perfume, unless she wanted to choke her guys to death. As a soul carrier, I was immune to all demons and their natural abilities. If I were another teenager standing there, envy would’ve ripped through me at the sight of her beauty.

“What do you want?” I regarded the succubus’s every move, prepared to defend myself if necessary. Not that anything I did would protect me. A human wouldn’t stand a chance against a demon, no matter the situation.

Lexi sat on top of the stone wall surrounding the Pool of Souls. She glanced down, eyes wide and childlike. It gave me the shivers whenever I saw her feline eyes. “Was your new boyfriend added yet?”

“Of course.” I leered at her casual stance. “Him and all my ex’s.”

She opened her mouth to give me an earful about my snappy attitude when Bear stepped in. “Leave her alone, Lex.” His deep voice rumbled through the cave. It was incredible how he could speak so clearly when his teeth jutted out of his mouth at different angles. His stumpy legs waddled over to us. He reminded me of a dwarf, but he was at least a foot taller than one, hairy, and had bear claws for hands and feet. I could taste bark and dirt in the air whenever he was nearby, reminding me of the woods. “Amarian will have your head and eat your soul if you lay a hand on her.”

If she even has a soul, I joked to myself.

Even when she sneered, Lexi looked gorgeous. “Always his favorite,” she complained. “I don’t know what he sees in her, Bear. She’s so…human.”

Ignoring her whining, I turned to Bear. “What do you want?”

“The hag is asking for you,” Bear informed me.

My body stiffened. He was talking about the Candileja, a spectral, fiery hag. I never dealt with her personally. All I knew was what I’d heard, and none of it was good. She was Amarian’s personal secretary, and every meeting with her always ended badly.

I recoiled from Bear and Lexi, goosebumps rising on my arms and neck. “What does she want with me?”

“Who cares?” Lexi jumped off the stone wall and sauntered closer to me. “She wants to see you, so you better go see her. There’s no way you can turn the other way, Sabine.” An impish look crossed her face. Her plump lips twisted into a grin. “You’ll be roasted by the time you return.”

“Lexi,” Bear warned, grabbing the Succubus’s arm and pulling her away from me. “Sabine,” he nodded his head at Francis, waiting patiently by the west entrance, “Francis will guide you.”

I nodded at the goblin and walked off. He was probably the closest demon I’d call a friend, since he always had my back from day one as a soul carrier. “Hey Francis,” I greeted. The skeletal man couldn’t talk. He had no vocal chords. Amarian used magic to help him with that problem, but turned out that Francis was too annoying for his liking and made him speechless.

Francis nodded his skull, his teeth making clanking noises as he snapped them together. I could tell he was saying “Hello” to me, despite the muteness. Without another word, I followed him down the dirt tunnel, anxious to meet the Candileja.