Rachel Vincent - With All My Soul

“Sabine! I swear, every time I think you’re turning into a decent person, you do something to prove me wrong.”

“I was trying to expedite the process. I had no idea she was capable of vandalism. But I have to say, I’m a little impressed. Which is why I let her dad and the cops think I slashed the tires, then made her carry the weapon. He’s in there right now trying to influence us out of here.”

“You took the blame because you’re impressed that my cousin committed a crime?”

“Yeah. And I might be feeling a tiny bit of something similar to but definitely not the same as...guilt. Kind of.”

I groaned into the phone and sank onto the couch again, with my elbows on my knees, my forehead resting in my free hand.

“Is Luca there, too?”

“Yeah. It’s kind of a public spectacle. Sophie’s totally humiliated, and Luca can’t convince her that it’ll be all right. And she’s refusing to tell him why she did it.” Sabine made a wet chomping noise in my ear, and I realized she was chewing gum. At the police station. Like being there was no big deal. “So, what’s the emergency? What’d you need?”

“Backup. When you guys get out of there, come straight here. And bring my uncle.” I hung up before she could ask why, and I had to admit, hanging up on Sabine felt kinda good.

Next I called Harmony. She didn’t answer her phone either, which was really weird. Harmony always answered her cell except when she was working, and her shift at the hospital didn’t start until eleven. It was only four in the afternoon.

I dialed Tod next. When he didn’t answer, either, I got so frustrated I nearly threw my phone at the wall. Where the hell was everyone? Well, Em was still at school, but she wouldn’t be able to help me locate my father anyway. Neither would Nash, but...there was no one left to call.

He answered on the first ring.

“Hey.”

“I am so glad you answered your phone.” I pushed hair away from my face and leaned back on the couch, suddenly hating the empty house I’d been thrilled with ten minutes earlier.

“You...are?” I could hear the confusion in his voice and the road noise in the background. He was in a car.

“Yeah. I can’t get a hold of anyone else. Where are you going?”

“I’m picking up Emma in Sabine’s car. Bina’s at the police station with—”

“I know. I just talked to her.”

“Didn’t you just say people aren’t answering their phones?”

“She answered my uncle’s. Hey, have you talked to Tod today?”

His silence stretched over the wireless line between us, and I realized I’d said the wrong thing. I was getting really good at that. “Is that all you want? You called me looking for Tod?”

“No, that’s not all I want. But, yes, I called looking for him. It’s important, Nash.”

“I haven’t talked to him since lunch. Why?”

“I need help, and I can’t find him. Or your mom.”

“She crossed over.”

Harmony was in the Netherworld? “Why?”

“She’s looking for some kind of herb, or root, or leaf, or something to help Traci keep her baby. Which is a really dumbass idea, you know. Why on earth would you want to bring another incubus into the world when the last one killed you?”

“It’s more complicated than that. And it’s not my decision.” I exhaled, trying to decide exactly how close we’d gotten to true friendship. “Nash, I need help. Not that you owe me anything, so it’s totally okay if you don’t want to help me, but I’m asking. In fact, I’m kind of begging.”

“I’m in.” He didn’t even hesitate. “What’s wrong?”

“Avari took my dad.”

“Seriously?” I heard the squeal of his tires on pavement as he stomped on the brake. “How? Is he okay?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have any of the answers, but I have to get him back.”

“It’s a trap. You know this is a trap, right?”

“I know. Which is why I need help.” If I went after him alone, I was as good as dead. Well, dead er, anyway.

“Okay, I’m coming. Let me turn around....”

“No, get Em first, then meet me at my house. Please. I have to find him before we can go after him, anyway. Maybe by the time I manage that, we’ll have more people willing to follow us into the breach.”

“Oh.” I could hear the disappointment in his voice. “Okay. Yeah. I’ll get Em, and we’ll meet at your place in half an hour.”

“Thanks, Nash. Just...thank you.”

“Anytime, Kaylee. That much hasn’t changed.”

I stood alone in my high school cafeteria, feeling like a fool. The room was empty, but I was incorporeal anyway, just in case. Nash and Emma were probably pulling out of the parking lot at that very moment, but they had no idea I was there. I couldn’t tell them, because they’d never let me do what I was planning. What, under normal circumstances, I would never even have considered.

You need only bleed and use my name.

I understood the words but not their meaning. I’d had no idea hellions could even be summoned until Ira had told me. In fact, I wasn’t sure exactly what he’d told me. But I knew how to bleed.

It took a minute of searching through commercial-grade stainless steel drawers in the kitchen, but I finally found a drawer full of knives. I selected the shortest—a paring knife—and slid the drawer closed with the clang of metal. Then I sat on the floor, my legs crossed in front of me, and silently hoped I was doing the right thing. And that whatever summoning involved, it wouldn’t put me in danger of being killed or captured in the next few minutes.

Then I sliced open my palm.

It was a small cut. In the movies, they always make a huge gash whenever they need blood to summon the forces of evil, but that had always felt like overkill to me. Surely evil doesn’t care how dramatic your blood loss is, right?

In the movies, it never really looks like those gruesome self-inflicted cuts hurt, but in real life—even for the undead—it hurt. A lot.

I set the knife down and let blood well up into my palm until there was a pool the width of a dime. It was slow going, until I realized my heart wasn’t beating, which meant my blood wasn’t flowing. Not very quickly, anyway. So I concentrated on making my heart function, and blood collected faster.

Then I made a fist and let it drip onto the tile floor in front of me, because I wasn’t sure what else to do with the blood. Or what exactly Ira meant when he told me to “use” his name.

“Ira.”

My voice didn’t echo, because I was inaudible to human ears and thus most of the physical plane. So I wasn’t really surprised when nothing happened.

“Ira.” I tried it again, audible to the whole world, had anyone been there to hear me. That time there was a slight echo of my voice in the empty room. But no hellion appeared.

“Come on! You promised you’d...be summonable!” And hellions couldn’t lie.

My frustration and anger built as I stared at the blood still dripping slowly from my hand onto the floor. There were a couple of little red squiggles, because my hand had jiggled. They almost looked like...

Letters.

And suddenly I understood. He hadn’t told me to say his name. He’d told me to use his name.

I unclenched my fist and dipped my forefinger into the blood. Then I wrote his name in capital letters, several inches above the small pool of my own blood.

“Ira.” I wasn’t sure if saying it again would really help, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, out of nowhere, the hellion appeared in front of me, his denim-clad knees level with my eyes.