Rachel Vincent - With All My Soul

“Kaylee, I sympathize with Traci. I really do. But you can’t get involved with another incubus. It’s not safe.”

“I can’t not get involved with this incubus. His mother may not even be alive when he reaches his first fertile period, but I will. Traci deserves a chance to raise her son, but the rest of the world deserves not to be preyed on by him. So, like it or not, I’m involved.” I shrugged. “And honestly, I can’t swear that I’m not going to get involved in other crazy Netherworld chaos between now and forever. Eternity’s a long time.” I hesitated, searching his eyes while I took a deep, nervous breath. “Are you still with me?”

He took my hand, and that tension inside me eased, just a little bit. “I meant it when I said forever, Kay. You’ve been mixed up in crazy Netherworld chaos since the day we met, and I kind of like knowing that even if we live another thousand years, we’ll never be bored, in any sense of the word.” The heat in his eyes hinted at double entendre, and I couldn’t resist a smile. “But I wouldn’t mind a heads-up next time you decide to jump into the crazy end of the pool.”

“Fair enough. Though you should probably know there isn’t really a not-crazy end of the—”

The front door flew open and smashed into the wall, and Tod and I both turned toward the sound as Styx began growling furiously. “Kaylee!” Nash called.

Tod groaned. “You left the front door unlocked?”

“That was probably Emma. I don’t use doors much anymore. Besides, everyone who wants to kill me is on another plane of existence.” I shrugged. “The front door doesn’t seem like a particularly meaningful barrier.”

“Well, I hope you’ve learned your lesson.” He said it loud enough that I knew no one else could hear him. As they couldn’t yet hear me.

“Kaylee?” It took me a second to recognize Emma’s voice, even though I’d had two weeks to get used to it. Because it wasn’t Emma’s voice. It was Lydia’s.

“Back here, guys,” I called, and both sets of footsteps hurried our way. “I’m fine.”

Nash stepped into the bathroom doorway, nearly tripping over Styx, who came to growl at him, and I saw Em over his shoulder. His attention narrowed on the rag his brother still held, then rose to meet my gaze. “Then what’s with the blood?”

“When you cross the bridge, you have to pay the toll....”

I squeezed past him into the hall, and Emma fell into step beside me. “What bridge?”

“She made a deal with Ira to find out where Avari’s holding her dad,” Tod explained, and I looked up to find him waiting for us in the living room, one hand on the dead bolt on the front door. “His price was her blood.”

“Blood? How much? Are you okay?” Em looked terrified.

I showed her the bandage on my hand. “Just a little. He only wanted a...taste.”

“And he told you where your dad is?”

“Yeah. Avari’s holding him in the Netherworld version of Lakeside. In the basement. I’m assuming he considers that some kind of irony.”

“Or a joke,” Nash said. “Please tell me you didn’t go into the Netherworld by yourself to make this deal.”

“Nope. I summoned Ira. He came to me.” I held my hand up again, showing off the bandage. “Thus the blood.”

“You summoned him?” Nash said. “What does that even mean?”

“He came here?” Emma asked before I could answer Nash. “They can cross over again?”

“No.” I frowned. “Well, yes, but only because I summoned him with my blood and his name. While he’s summoned, he can only interact with me, and I can get rid of him just by wiping his name off whatever I wrote it on. He can send himself back the same way.”

“So you think that makes it safe?” Nash demanded. “Please tell me you don’t think what you just did was safe!”

“Of course not. Dealing with a hellion is never safe, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Avari’s latest game appears to be evil hide-and-seek. That way I don’t just suffer once I get to the Netherworld—I also suffer while I track my father down.”

“I didn’t know hellions could be summoned,” Em said, and I could only shrug. I hadn’t known, either.

“Most of them can’t.” Tod sank onto the arm of the couch. “Only the most powerful can cross over when called, and then only for very short periods. Once the blood used to summon them dries completely, they get sucked back into the Netherworld. And Kaylee’s right. There’s very little a summoned hellion can do in the human world. It’s mostly used for face-to-face communication and...exchanges.”

“Exchanges?” Nash looked suspicious, so I ignored his question.

“So, that means Ira really is more powerful than Avari?”

“My guess would be way more powerful. He’s a hellion of wrath, and wrath is one of the oldest, most primal emotions.”

“Weird.” I frowned. “He looked pretty young.”

“So does Levi,” Tod pointed out. “But then, compared to Ira, Levi’s practically still in utero.”

“So, how much trouble are we in with this new hellion?” Emma asked. “If he’s that powerful, maybe we should try drawing him out, as well. I mean, is he strong enough to just...squish Avari for us?”

“I don’t know. What I do know is that he wouldn’t do that for free, and I’m not willing to pay the price he’d ask. And I’m not eager to spend any more time with him, because just hearing his voice makes me angry. Touching him is even worse—that makes me truly furious, about things I haven’t even thought about in years.”

Nash scowled. “You touched him?”

“He touched me. That was part of the price. And when he touched me, I couldn’t think about anything except how furious I was about every time anyone has ever been...wronged. And I think he could see those times. All of them. I think he tasted them in my blood. Or maybe sucked them right out of my head when we kissed.”

“You kissed him?” The horror clear in Emma’s wide-eyed expression echoed in her voice as well.

“Not by choice. It was weird, though, because he didn’t taste like wrath. He tasted like peace. Like calm. But he was hungry for wrath, like he devours every drop he ever tastes immediately and is then starving for more.”

Tod scowled. “Feel free to stop telling me what hellions taste like.”

“She kissed someone else.” Nash wasn’t exactly smiling at his brother, but he didn’t look entire unhappy, either. “Wow. I wonder what that felt like?”

“That felt like Kaylee sacrificing a part of herself to help her father. And if memory serves, she’s not the only one in this room who’s ever kissed a hellion. Were your motives so pure?”

“Is that always going to be your default insult?”

“Okay, both of you calm down, please.” I was worried enough about the anger I couldn’t seem to purge. I couldn’t deal with more brother drama on top of everything else.

Someone knocked on the door, and Nash headed into the kitchen—hopefully to collect his temper—while I peeked through the curtains to see my uncle’s car parked in the driveway. I unlocked the front door, and Sabine walked in without being invited, followed by my cousin and Luca. My uncle brought up the rear.

“So, what’d we miss?” Sabine dropped onto the couch.

Nash returned from the kitchen with a bottle of water and took the cushion next to her. “Avari has Kaylee’s dad, and she kissed a hellion to find out where he’s being held.”

“What?” Uncle Brendon demanded, and I couldn’t tell which part he was more upset about. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I did. You were bailing Sophie out of jail. Or something like that.”