Wicked Souls Read Free

life,
I prayed. Dear God, remember me? Could use a little help here. Your left-hand man’s gone off the rez.
    Nothing. No bolt of lightning. No voice from
on high. No intervention of any kind.
    And Father Leonard wondered why I was having
such a hard time with the third step of Witches Anonymous. What
good did it do to offer up my soul and turn my will over to a
higher power when that power didn’t give a damn about me?
    They say your life flashes before your eyes
when you’re about to die. I should have seen Emilia, my best
friends, Keisha and Liddy. I should have seen my cats, Cain and
Abel. For God’s sake, I should have seen Adam.
    But the only thing that flashed before my
eyes was Lucifer, tall and dark and menacing.
    Help me , my brain screamed in the
throes of pure panic. He’d been eavesdropping on my mental world
ever since I gave up magic and couldn’t shield my thoughts from
him. I prayed he was listening now.
    Luc, he’s killing me!
    The darkness closed off the last of
Gabriel’s light and I thought that was it. I was done for. I closed
my eyes, my limbs giving up the fight and my mind floating free of
my body.
    Would I go to Heaven or Hell? Stupid
question , my last few brain cells chided. I’d given my soul to
the Devil years ago, and I’d only been on the straight and narrow
for five months, twenty-nine days and roughly sixteen hours. If I
died good, did that mean God would forget the previous twenty-seven
years of badness? Probably not. Plus the soul thing weighed heavy
in Lucifer’s favor.
    On the other hand, did I really want to go
to Heaven if it meant hanging out with the likes of Gabriel?
    A loud crack interrupted my last logical
conundrum and my body fell to the concrete floor, shaking like a
bowl of Jell-O. Flashes of light played across my closed lids. I
heard fists connecting with flesh and loud grunts. Angel or demon? I couldn’t tell and didn’t care.
    My lungs filled with air even as they
protested the movement, radiating more pain through my chest. The
concrete was wet and cold under my cheek and I kept my eyes closed,
hoping if I didn’t move the pain would ease.
    The next thing I knew, Lucifer’s voice was
waking me. I’d lost consciousness somewhere along the line. “Amy? Can you hear me?”
    Gabriel was gone. Luc’s hands felt like hot
brands on my chilled skin as he grasped my shoulders and gave a
gentle shake. “Open your eyes, witch. Look at me.”
    “Don’t,” I gasped, as the shaking made my
ribs rub against each other. “Hurts.”
    He stopped shaking me, and as he leaned
over, the heat of his body warmed me to a crisp. I cracked one eye
open and looked into his face. His brows were knit together in a
deep scowl but his eyes were filled with concern. “What the hell
did you do to Gabriel?”
    What had I done to Gabriel? What the hell
had he done to me? Taking a hesitant breath, I grimaced at the fire
in my chest cavity. My voice came out breathy and rough. “Noth…ing.”
    “Gabriel doesn’t kill humans over
nothing.”
    My brain continued floating in fog. I caught
myself mesmerized by Luc’s jet black hair, hard jaw line and full
lips. He was so handsome, and not just to me, to everyone. To me,
he was more than unabashed good looks, though. I’d loved him for
seven years. Given him my soul. We’d shared a history no one on
Earth would ever understand. Or experience.
    I laid a hand on his arm. “You fought him
for me.”
    Luc’s eyes narrowed, watching me closely. His head tilted as he sized me up, surmised I was loony, and shook
his head. He glanced up at the cracked tile overhead. “How hard did
you hit your head?”
    The first time Gabriel and I mixed it up,
I’d also whacked my head and woken up in Eden—the original Eden,
complete with beautiful gardens, animals, and a sin-free policy. Fun place to visit. Wouldn’t want to live there.
    Glancing around, I made sure I was still in
the station’s locker room. Fluorescent lights, cracked tile,