Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger
32
Morgan rolled off Cassius,jumped down from the bed, and grabbed his blade from the floor.
“Excuse me,” a familiar voice said from outside. “Are you two quite done?”
Morgan froze.
“It’s okay.” Cassius had propped himself up on his elbows. He dropped back down on the bed and rubbed his hands over his face, his cheeks and ears flaming with embarrassment. “Er, could you give us a second, Benjamin?”
He tugged a sheet over his lower body and sat up.
“The cat and I have been waiting for you to stop copulating for a whole hour,” the voice said sullenly. “I guess a little more time will not matter.”
Morgan stormed across the room and yanked the bedroom door open.
“What are you, the Peeping Reaper?!” he snarled at the tall, skeletal figure with the scythe.
Loki yawned where he sat by Benjamin’s feet, exposing small white fangs.
“I do not peep,” Benjamin protested. The Reaper drew himself up to his full height, his hooded head rising well above the lintel. “Besides, watching humans mate is not exactly entertaining. All that exchange of bodily fluids is quite frankly disgusting.”
“This, coming from a guy who swallows dead people’s souls,” Morgan muttered. He wrapped a sheet around his waist while the Reaper ducked and came inside the bedroom.
“What’s up, Benjamin?” Cassius said.
The Reaper inspected the bedroom with a curious, crimson stare. “I came to inform you that one of my kind has detected the Dark Blight you showed an interest in at another location.”
Morgan stiffened before trading an alarmed look with Cassius.
“Where?” Cassius asked grimly.
“In the vault of a church, in the Richmond District. He went to collect a soul nearby and smelled it.”
Morgan took his phone out of his jeans and dialed Adrianne’s number. Loki coiled himself around Benjamin’s skeletal feet, low purrs rumbling from his belly. The Reaper’s red eyes narrowed as he studied the cat.
“He likes you,” Cassius said.
“Hmm,” Benjamin mused.
“What?”
“He is an imp,” the Reaper said.
Cassius stared at Loki, surprised. “He is?”
“Yes. A powerful one. I did not sense it until he touched me. There are not many of them about in this realm.”
Cassius frowned.
Adrianne answered Morgan’s call with a mumbled, “What?”
“Get everyone except for Charlie,” Morgan ordered curtly. “We have a fresh lead on our case.”
A pause followed. Adrianne cursed. “It’s not even four a.m.!”
“We can grab some rejuvenating potions from the Argonaut mage on duty,” Morgan said ruthlessly.
The sky was starting to lighten to the east when they pulled up opposite the dark, hulking shape of a Presbyterian church in the Richmond District. A faint glow lit the immense, stained-glass window taking up half the facade of the redbrick building. There wasn’t any sign of activity outside it.
Morgan and Cassius stepped out of the SUV with Adrianne and Julia. Zach and Bailey joined them from the second vehicle.
“Can you sense anything?” Morgan asked Cassius.
Cassius frowned faintly. “Not yet.”
“Are those fresh hickeys on his neck?” Bailey hissed at Zach.
Cassius shrugged his jacket collar up, color staining his cheekbones.
“I bet the poor guy didn’t get a wink of sleep,” Adrianne told Julia sotto voce.
Morgan flashed them a dirty look before meeting Cassius’s annoyed stare. “What?”
“You need to stop marking me places where others can see.”
Morgan’s dick perked up slightly at that. “Does that mean you’re granting me permission to mark you in…other places?”
He arched an eyebrow, knowing full well Cassius would understand exactly which parts of his delectable anatomy Morgan was referring to.
Cassius frowned. “You’re such an ass.”
Morgan smiled. “And you love it.”
The telltale flush of Cassius’s ears made Morgan’s smile widen. A pang of regret shot through him; he’d really been looking forward to making out with the Empyreal until daybreak.
“If you guys have finished flirting, maybe we can get on with what we came here to do?” Julia said drily.
They entered the church through a side door, Bailey using a spell to manipulate the lock open. Silence greeted them when they emerged into the nave.
Oak beams curved above their heads, forming arches that merged into a shadowy, vaulted ceiling. Rows of wooden benches spread out on either side of the central aisle that led to the altar gracing a dais on the eastern wall of the church. Votive candles flickered in shallow recesses flanking the seats, casting a soft light on the dark wood and the stained-glass window.
“Benjamin said there was a vault under this place,” Morgan muttered.
A muscle jumped in Cassius’s cheek as he headed up the central aisle. “It’s this way.”
Morgan frowned, knowing the Empyreal had finally picked up on the Dark Blight stain. They followed the angel past the altar and down the corridor leading off it, their guard up and their gazes sweeping the shadows for enemies. But it wasn’t sorcerers they found in the basement Cassius led them to.
“Oh God,” Bailey said hoarsely as Julia and Zach shone their flashlights around the gloomy chamber, the beams sweeping the walls and ceiling before focusing on their grim discovery once more.
Morgan clenched his jaw.
The badly mutilated bodies of a woman and a teenage boy lay in a bloodied pool on a stone altar covered in dark runes, in the center of the vault. Even Morgan could smell the Dark Blight in the black lines and symbols carved into the rock and the flesh of the two victims.
“This is a fresh kill,” Adrianne observed in a hard voice.
She squatted and examined the crimson, congealing puddles around the altar.
Cassius walked over to the corpses and carefully peeled their eyelids open. “Their souls were definitely stolen.”
“Call it in,” Morgan told Adrianne grimly.
Adrianne straightened, her cell phone in hand.
A pulse of power made the air shiver. Everyone looked at Cassius. His skin lit up briefly, highlighting the fury painted across his face.
“They were related,” he said in a voice that sent a shiver down Morgan’s spine. “Mother and son.”
Morgan glanced at the victims.
“How do you know?” Bailey asked hesitantly.
“Their scent.” Cassius whirled away and headed for the exit, hands fisted at his sides. “And the fact that they managed to grab hold of one another as they were dying.”
Morgan blinked. Cassius had seen what the rest of them hadn’t clocked yet.
The woman and the boy’s hands were wrapped tightly around one another.
Morgan headed after Cassius. He found him sitting on a bench in the church.
“Are you okay?”
“No. I’m angry!” Cassius snapped. “We need to find these bastards and stop them!”
Morgan sat down next to him. “We will.”
Cassius chewed his lower lip. “If only I knew what Eric Crawford meant in that alley. It might lead us to him.”
Morgan frowned faintly. “None of this is your fault, Cassius.”
Cassius opened his mouth to voice a retort and paused. He sagged slightly before leaning into Morgan. “I know. I just—”
Morgan closed a hand around Cassius’s fisted fingers. “That’s one of the things I like and worry about when it comes to you. The world has given you plenty of reasons to hate it. Yet, you seem to hold its weight on your shoulders all the time.”
Warmth bloomed inside Morgan as their soul cores connected, Cassius’s feelings of gratitude echoing through him.
“I can’t help it,” Cassius mumbled. “It’s a terminal condition.”
Morgan tipped Cassius’s chin up with a knuckle and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I’m sure I can find a cure.”
Cassius’s eyes darkened to a smoky gray.
“They are sinning in the house of God,” Adrianne told Julia irritably where they’d appeared from the direction of the corridor leading to the basement.
Morgan sighed and released Cassius.
Adrianne’s cell phone rang. She took the call. “Hi. What’s up?” She stiffened as she listened. “Thanks, Lucy,” she said in a steely voice. “We’ll be there by daybreak.” The sorceress’s face radiated grim satisfaction as she ended the call. “Our guy from the park just woke up.”