Borrowed Souls: A Soul Charmer Novel by Chelsea Mueller

Author:Chelsea Mueller [Mueller, Chelsea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Talos
Published: 2017-05-01T18:30:00+00:00

Two of the three other retrieval jobs they did that night had also had run-ins with Tess, though not a one knew her name. Anonymous benefactors were real, but could Tess be classified as such? They were leaving the final stop, Callie’s flask a hot stone against her thigh, filled with another soul. While she’d expected the inherent grimy sensation of being good at something foul, she was surprised how much Tess and Bianca had gotten under her skin. Understanding others is how you avoid getting hurt, and she just didn’t get them. That made them the scary unknown.

Bianca had alluded to some masterful plan to cleanse the city. If she were donating millions to city renovation, avoiding credit could make sense. Not everyone said yes to her little proposal—it’d been a fifty-fifty split, half too fearful of the Soul Charmer (and probably Derek as well) to accept whatever she offered. Why not give a name? She didn’t hide where she worked. Though, maybe that was just a front. Leave your name and we’ll mystically pop up at your house later.

Derek swore under his breath while reading messages on his phone. “We’ve got another stop to make.”

“How many souls can this thing hold?” Callie wondered aloud.

“The most I’ve heard of is seventeen. So you’re good for at least one more, doll.”

She’d climbed on his bike expecting a drive to an apartment building. But when Derek pulled into the parking lot of St. Catherine’s Memorial Hospital, her stomach dropped to her toes. Only the pegs below her feet kept her insides from dripping to the pavement.

“Why are we here?” Her voice had gone reedy, but Derek had already killed the engine.

He avoided her gaze as he stowed their helmets. “Need to snag a soul real quick.”

“From here?” She bit back the urge to tell him she couldn’t.

Hospitals didn’t scare her. She used to find the astringent-laced hallways comforting. Before she’d been sacked from her gig there because of a brother with sticky fingers. From the hiss of the automatic doors opening as they entered, to the muted commotion of heart rate monitors and EKG they passed, to the hearty clacking on keyboards from the nurses’ station, every sound inside the building reminded her of what she’d lost. Her plan to become a nurse, her better-than-average pay gig, her escape from being like her mom. She’d lost it all when she’d lost her job at the hospital. Derek couldn’t know how much pain walking down these hallways was causing her, but he must have guessed at least part of it, because his silence had grown tenfold.

He paused outside a closed patient room. The nurses had averted their eyes as Callie and Derek passed. He was known here, too. Great.

“This is going to be different.” He winced as though waiting for the wallop the words could deliver.

Callie narrowed her eyes. “How?” No point in avoiding bitterness now.

Derek pushed open the door, and Callie’s fingers pricked with simmering heat.

He walked in. Curiosity made her follow.

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