Rise of the Fallen 1 - My Soul to Keep Read Free

and turned the key, shutting the engine off.
I stood there mesmerized as she swung one leg over the bike and sat on the seat,
staring right back at me.
    She crossed her arms and lowered her gaze to my shabby Sketchers and
raised her eyes, slowly taking in everything else.
    I wanted to hide behind a tree. Nobody had looked at me like that since
the first time I met my great-aunt Harriet. I had a feeling she was doing the math
to figure out how much she could get for me if she sold me on eBay.
    “Connor Sullivan?” She made my name a question. I nodded dumbly. “Come
on, let’s get this over with.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Look, I don’t have time for this. I have three more after you. What
do you want?”
    “Excuse me?” The word hooker flashed through my mind.
    “Did you, or did you not, sign a binding contract offering your soul
in exchange for one wish? If I have the wrong Connor Sullivan who lives at 1432
Willow Street, I apologize.” She rolled her eyes and threw up her arms, apparently
more than a little annoyed.
    “That was real?”
    “Yes, completely. Now I haven’t got all night. What do you want? Make
it good. The price is a little hefty I’ll admit, but it's worth it.”
    Realization dawned on me. My knees went weak, but I managed to stay
on my Sketchers. “This isn’t some sort of joke?”
    “Nope, one wish for one soul, that was the deal.”
    “What are you?”
    “I’m what you would call one of The Fallen. Don’t ask me what that
means because if you can’t figure it out on your own, you don't deserve to know.
I'm not here to baby you. C’mon, what is it you want? Let me guess, like the five
billion other teenagers who saw the movie you want to be a vampire, right?” She
shifted herself more comfortably on the Harley and rolled her eyes again. She must
not have thought much of today’s youth. “Maybe you’re Team What’s-his-name? You
wanna be a werewolf? Less restrictions, but flea collars are kinda expensive.” She
actually laughed at her own joke.
    I couldn’t believe this was real. I looked around frantically for hidden
cameras and my sister. Then I knew. Just standing there, you could feel the power
flowing off of her. Legitimate didn’t begin to describe her. I wondered briefly
what a Fallen might be, but I seriously didn’t have the balls to ask her. She might
turn me into a frog and take my soul anyway.
    Thinking about my soul made tears well up. I didn’t start crying but
I came close, damn close. If I lost my soul, my parents would kill me. I wish I
had never bought the damn candle or written the stupid note. I needed a way out
of this and I needed it now.
    “Is there any way I can change my mind?”
    “Don’t even think about it. You wrote the contract in your own blood.
There isn’t anything in this world, or the other, that’s more binding. Make your
wish. By the way, I can see you’re about to turn around and run away. If you do
it, I will catch you in less than three seconds, take your soul, and feed your body
to some very, very nasty creatures. Don’t even think about it.”
    I had been planning on running just like she said. I don’t know if
she could see it in my face or if she could read my mind. It really didn’t matter,
I believed her threat. “When do you get my soul?”
    “The law states, not until you expire of natural causes or your body
is destroyed by an outside force not related, caused, or schemed by one of The Fallen.
C’mon, Connor, it’s a fair trade. You get what you want and we get your soul. Think
of it as job security. When people die, unclaimed souls are fought over, get lost,
or sometimes just disappear. This way, even after you die you still have a purpose.
What’s it going to be? Do you want to live for a very long time? Being a vampire
or werewolf would do that. Do you want wealth? Wish for a million dollars. I’ve
seen that one a hundred times at least,” she said sounding bored again. Like she
knew I would wish for something