Soul Dealers Read online

  “Can you take me there?”

  “I’m going to meet up with him tonight. We have some important business to see to. You’re welcome to join us for dinner—”

  “Take me to Dan.”

  “I haven’t asked you how you found out where Dan was yesterday and how you knew he was in trouble.”

  “Take me to the art center,” Mya told him again, firmly. Her stomach fluttered. She knew Dan’s danger was hovering nearby, but she didn’t know exactly what it was. Zach asked nothing further. He made a U-turn and headed toward the highway.

  Chapter 10

  The exhibition was enormous. Artwork was displayed both inside and outside of a large, impressive building. People were everywhere. They poured in from a nearby tram stop and from around the botanical garden across the street. Both tourists and locals seemed to be enjoying a day out at the exhibition. The air was filled with the sound of chattering and laughing.

  Mya scanned the crowd with her human eyes, but it didn’t help much.

  “Can you get any closer? I can’t see Dan from here,” she asked Zach. Then she saw the barricades and stop signs for general traffic. “Damn it. Forget about it, Zach. They don’t allow traffic in.”

  “If you’re sensing that Dan is in some kind of trouble, by the time we finish scanning this ground on foot, he’ll probably be dead.”

  “Yes, but you’re not allowed to drive in.”

  “Then we’ll ride in,” Zach said as he dodged his motorbike through a gap between the fences.

  They circled the exhibition grounds a few times but couldn’t find Dan. Security spotted them snaking around on the motorbike among the crowd.

  “We might have to go into the exhibition hall,” Mya said.

  Zach glanced at the security guards who were speaking into their radios. “I agree,” he said and turned the motorbike around to find a parking lot.

  When they got to the exhibition hall, Mya couldn’t control her agitation. She looked everywhere, scanning everyone’s faces.

  Zach pulled out his phone to call Dan. “He’s on his damn phone.” Then he looked at her. “Okay, I think it would be best if you tell me what’s going on, Mya.”

  “Turn around. Don’t look at me.”

  “No, I—”

  “Turn around if you don’t want Dan dead.”

  Zach stared at her then nodded and turned away. Mya switched to her deity vision. Zach turned back toward her and stared at her. She was aware of what she looked like when she was in deity mode, but she no longer cared. She needed to find Dan.

  She blocked all the noise of the thousands of people out of her head and channeled Dan. She could hear him now, talking on his cell phone. She could hear his heartbeat, strong and healthy. She started walking toward it. She sensed Zach following her and felt him put his hand on the small of her back.

  They weaved their way through the crowd, and after a few minutes, Mya said, “He’s there,” and pointed. Then she switched back to her human vision.

  From a distance, Zach and Mya could see Dan still talking to someone on his cell phone.

  “Oh no, look at that painting.” A chill ran down Mya’s spine.

  Dan was approaching a large painting standing on an easel. It was a painting of a castle on fire. She charged toward Dan, calling out to him.

  Dan didn’t hear her, and he sauntered right in front of the painting. He turned around and saw them running toward him and heard them calling. The smile on his face faded suddenly, and then so did his image.

  Dan dissolved into the air in front of the painting as if he had been sucked right into it.

  Mya and Zach both watched it happen, but no one else saw it. Thousands of visitors, including those standing next to Dan, saw nothing.

  Zach and Mya ran toward the painting.

  “What the fuck? What’s going on?” Zach looked at the painting and scanned the crowd frantically. “Did you see that, too, Mya, or was it just me?”

  She nodded. “I saw it.”

  “So you… You’re a psychic? You told me to come here. Can you tell me what else you saw? Where’s Dan? Is he okay? I mean, is he alive?”

  “Yes, he’s alive.”

  Zach huffed. “He’s obviously been swallowed up by this painting. But as long as he’s alive, maybe I can yank him out. Are you sure he’s alive?”

  “What do you want to hear, Zach?”

  Zach calmed down. “I’m sorry.” He sat down on a nearby bench and grabbed his head. “If anything happens to him, it’s my fault.”

  Mya sat down next to him and rested a hand on his back. “Why?”

  Zach shook his head. “It’s a long story. I have to get him out of there. I need to get him to a place where he’s needed. It’s very far away from here…”

  Mya raised an eyebrow. From her perspective, there was no place as far away as the Babylonian court where she still served. But Zach wouldn’t understand. So she said nothing.

  Mya had her deity vision on, and she tried to reach Zach’s thoughts. But for some reason, his thought process was patchy. She couldn’t get a grip on it like she’d been able to before. Something in him had changed profoundly since the last time she had spoken to him, but she didn’t know what. She switched her deity vision off.

  Mya and Zach looked back at the painting. It had been replaced by a painting of a mountain landscape.

  “What the heck?” Zach gasped. They rushed toward it.

  “We’ve lost the painting. We’ve lost him!” Mya said.

  “Thank you for visiting. You look like you enjoy my work.” A man in his forties stood next to the painting and grinned at them.

  Mya and Zach turned toward the voice.

  “Where’s the painting of the castle on fire?” Mya asked.

  The artist frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t have that one in my portfolio.”

  “Did you just sell it?” Zach asked.

  “Oh no. I’m not that lucky. This blissful mountain has been here for a few days. I don’t see that it’s going anywhere now that the exhibition is coming to an end tomorrow. I don’t have a castle painting. You must have seen it elsewhere.” The artist sighed.

  Zach looked around. It had been here, on this very easel. “Didn’t we see it here, Mya?”

  Mya nodded and walked toward a quiet corner. She turned, looked at a wall, and switched her deity vision on. Zach knew what she was doing, but he kept quiet and waited.

  Mya scanned as she walked, and Zach followed. She heard Dan’s heartbeats, still strong and steady. But she couldn’t locate him now. There was no vision. The signals were distorted. She turned around and around until she became so disoriented she lost her balance. She almost fell into another painting when she felt Zach’s arms around her.

  “That’s enough, Mya. Come back to me, please.”

  She wanted to, but she had to find Dan. She turned around and around. She saw nothing. She was dizzy, but she continued to whirl around, scanning, scanning, and scanning. She felt as if she had gone blind. She felt a tear roll down her face. Then she felt Zach’s arms around her shoulders, his grip so strong she could no longer move.

  “Stop turning around. Stay still.”

  Her body was pressed against Zach’s, so closely she could hear his heartbeat and feel the warmth of his body. She smelled his aftershave, masculine and spicy. She stayed still until he sat her down on a bench and wiped a tear from her face.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t see him.”

  “As long as he’s alive—”

  “He is. I’m sure of it.”

  Zach lifted her chin up and looked into her eyes. “Can you turn off those glassy eyes? I want to see you again.”

  She switched off her deity vision.

  “Why are you so concerned about Dan? You’ve barely known us for a few months.”

  “Are you suggesting I shouldn’t be concerned about people dying even though I can see it in my vision?”

  Zach nodded. “Fair enough. I’m sorry…” He tra
iled off and narrowed his eyes at a far corner of the exhibition ground. “The gateway,” he said. He stood up and ran to the corner. Mya could see a strange layer of mist that made the air in the corner look like a smoking mirror.

  She followed Zach, but he told her, “No, you stay here.”

  “The hell I will.”

  Zach kept moving toward the misty pool of air. “It’s dangerous, Mya. You can get hurt.”

  “Then I won’t let you go there alone. I have to protect you.”

  “What?”

  Mya shrugged and didn’t answer.

  “Stay here. You don’t know what’s going on.” Zach tried to rush away from her.

  “You’re the one who doesn’t know what’s going on,” Mya protested.

  Zach shook his head and charged straight into the middle of the mist. Mya followed.

  They found themselves in a dungeon. Zach grabbed Mya and pushed her behind him.

  “Dan!” Zach called out.

  Mya switched her deity vision on to figure things out, but it didn’t work. It was dark except for a dim, flickering light that came from nowhere. A cold breeze crept in, but there was no door or window in sight…which also meant no way out.

  Chapter 11

  On the left, there seemed to be a tunnel. Zach held Mya’s hand, and they followed the smooth wall of the tunnel.

  The faint sound of someone singing began to echo in the cold air and bounce off of the tunnel walls. The voice was soft and misty as if it rose from the floor. Mya recognized the song. It was the one the girl Riko had been singing from the ledge. Zach had referred to her as a hologram yesterday. But wouldn’t light be needed to project a hologram? Mya wondered. It was dark here—no light and no hologram. Just the voice.

  A wedge of deep blue light appeared in front of them, and within it stood Riko. The image wavered a bit, the blue light beams bent by the mist seeping out from the wall. The voice came out from the girl, but unlike yesterday, her mouth was not moving.

  Zach did what he had done the day before. He concentrated and stared hard at Riko. Her image flickered, but it didn’t go away this time. Zach grunted and staggered back, falling into Mya. It seemed like the girl had pushed Zach backward without even moving. Mya grabbed him and felt his body vibrate as if an electric current had passed through him. He was as cold as ice, and a drop of blood trickled from his nose. He kept staring at the girl’s image as if firing a missile at her with his eyes.

  Zach suddenly clenched his jaw, stood back up, and charged at the girl. The singing stopped, and a blanket of blue current wrapped around him, throwing him backward and smashing him against the wall close to the ceiling of the tunnel. His body slid down to the floor. He wiped away the blood coming from his nose and the corner of his mouth and pulled himself back up.

  Mya charged at the girl. When he realized what she was going to do, Zach tried to grab her, but she slipped out of his grip. She picked up a loose brick from the ground and threw it at the girl’s head. Blankets of blue current flew at Mya, wrapping her up, but they had no effect on her. Mya smiled. She picked up more bricks—and anything else she could get her hands on—and threw them at the image. Riko flickered a few times and then disappeared.

  Mya returned to Zach. He was standing up, leaning against the wall. He grabbed her arms and checked her body. Mya didn’t know what kind of damage the current had done to him because it had had no effect on her, but she could tell that Zach was in too much pain to talk.

  “Can you walk, Zach?”

  He nodded. She slid her arm around his waist for support. They took a couple of steps before a red wedge of light appeared in front of them. In the middle of the light stood an ugly half-zombie, half-ape creature.

  “If you want to take an Earth form, try picking a better looking one,” Zach muttered.

  The creature sent a red blanket of light at them. Zach spun Mya around, not knowing that the current had no effect on her. The current hit him full force from behind. He slumped to the floor. Mya searched around on the dark ground for something she could use as a weapon and found what felt like a metal bar. She grabbed it, charged at the creature, and swung the bar.

  The creature sent blankets of light at her but was stunned to see they had no effect on her. She didn’t even suffer a scratch. Unlike the computer-generated image of Riko, this one seemed more real. It seemed to have substance and a thought process. With her deity vision, she could see images and text flowing out from the creature in the form of an electrical wave. It seemed like data was being processed.

  A hollow voice croaked out from the creature. “Who are you?”

  “I’m your death,” she told it. Then she pounded at the image with the metal bar. As Zach said, it was indeed a hologram, just a collection of light beams. She couldn’t physically hurt it, but the metal bar appeared to interfere with its electric current and light frequency. She swung repeatedly at the image until it roared, flickered, and vanished.

  The dungeon vanished along with the creature. Mya and Zach were back in the middle of the exhibition. It was dark, closed up for the night. No one else was around. Zach lay on the floor, semi-conscious. Mya pulled out her phone to call emergency, and Zach groped in the dark for her hand. She held his hand tightly, and he relaxed.

  “No doctor,” he said and then passed out.

  “That’s great, Zach. You want no help, and now you’re dead weight for me to carry,” she griped as she called a cab.

  She dragged him toward a wall and propped him up against it. While they waited for the cab, she checked her scorecard even though she knew she would not have earned this point. She may have saved Zach down in the dungeon, if it was indeed a real location, but his profile hadn’t been flagged as being in immediate danger, so his saved life wouldn’t count. Right now, however, she wasn’t concerned about the point. She was just glad Zach was safe.

  What had happened in the dungeon didn’t seem to register on her scorecard at all. Mya was pondering that fact when she heard the sound of the car engine.

  Zach stirred when he heard it. She asked the cab to take them to his apartment. She rolled her eyes to herself at the thought that yes, she had stalked him. She knew where he lived, and she knew he lived alone.

  Chapter 12

  Mya spent the night in Zach’s apartment. She was worried about leaving him alone. During the night, she left her deity vision on so she could do her work. Dan’s files confirmed that he was still alive. She logged his file as a case she was in charge of. If he died of unnatural causes, it would count against her record. But if she could save Dan in the next seven days, it would be one point up for her.

  Her deity network must have given her incorrect information about the fire, and she understood the reason why. Her deity intelligence network was based on observation by the deity minions. They had no skills, no training, and no support. Their bland job description included staring at the world through blurry eyes and relating the information to her via their primitive technology. She speculated that they had gotten wind of the red painting and had thought it was a fire. After all, it had sucked Dan into it.

  But what was the gateway Zach had referred to? How had her system and the Gods’ files totally missed it? And how had they totally missed the incident down at the dungeon? If she hadn’t gone down there with Zach, would he have been killed? She was in charge of his safety, so it should have come under her radar that he was in danger. But there hadn’t been a whiff of information about the dungeon or the weird holograms.

  A few weeks ago, Zach had suddenly disappeared. She had received no signal from her network. Mya remembered the day vividly as she had just returned from London after saving one of her subjects. She had looked for him everywhere. The only reason she hadn’t pulled a gigantic multiversal search and rescue for Zach was because her file suggested that he was fine but had switched dimensions and gone to a place her jurisdiction couldn’t reach.

  Zach was different when he came back. She could no longer read his m
ind. The information had become sketchy, and he was sending out waves of a strange energy she had never before encountered. She didn’t understand what he had done with the holograms. Why had the light waves in the dungeon affected him so much? Why didn’t he want to go to the hospital? Why did he say it was his fault if something happened to Dan? There were so many questions she needed to ask him.

  Mya looked at Zach, watching him sleep for a bit. Finally, she switched back to her human vision. In her human body, she was unbearably tired. She curled up on the sofa and willed herself to sleep.

  Mya woke in the morning, refreshed. Zach was sitting on the chair opposite the sofa looking at her. Her eyebrows rose up as soon as she registered her surroundings and imagined her before-coffee-and-make-up morning look. She was facing Zach. He must have been watching her sleep. She had stayed up most of the night, so that meant she had to look pretty rough right now. Mya silently wondered if she snored.

  Zach smiled and pushed a cup of black coffee in front of her. The coffee mug’s contents were still steaming, suggesting he had just made it.

  “Good morning.” He smiled at her.

  Mya sat up and grabbed the mug of coffee as if it were a rare diamond. She held it up to her face and inhaled the rich coffee aroma. The caffeine, along with a hint of bitter spice and a floral blend, surged through her system. She smiled as she recalled that Zach was a coffee snob.

  “Good coffee.” She smiled back at him over the rim of her coffee mug. “You want to ask me how I knew Dan was in trouble.”

  Zach nodded and leaned back in his chair.

  “I’m kinda psychic.”

  He shook his head. “You’re either psychic or you’re not.”

  Mya wasn’t sure that telling Zach that she was a deity was a good idea. She shrugged. “All right, I’m psychic. I can sense danger around people I know and care about. But it’s not a gift. It’s a curse. So I’d prefer not to discuss it. I know you have gifts you don’t want to talk about, either. Like the way you saw the tunnel. The way you looked at the holographic girl and attacked her with your gaze.”