Deception - Episode 3 (Lost Souls) Read online

  Table of Contents

  LOST SOULS

  The World of Lost Souls

  The Characters of Lost Souls

  Previously on Lost Souls

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Laurel O’Donnell Book List

  LOST SOULS

  “Deception”

  Episode 3

  Laurel O’Donnell

  Copyright © 2013 by Laurel O’Donnell

  www.laurel-odonnell.com

  ISBN# 978-0-9848895-9-4

  Published by ODONNELL BOOKS

  www.odonnell-books.com

  Please note: This is the third episode in the Lost Souls series by Laurel O’Donnell. The first episode is Lost Souls: Resurrection and the second episode is Lost Souls: Imperfection, both of which are available on Amazon.

  Cover design by Hot Damn Designs!

  www.hotdamndesigns.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems – except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews – without permission in writing from its author, Laurel O’Donnell.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  The World of Lost Souls

  Souls who refuse to pass into the afterlife become wandering spirits, trapped between the world of the living and the dead. These are the Lost Souls. Some of these Lost Souls have banded together, uniting to fight against an evil endangering both their existence and the safety of the human world they once inhabited. This evil has taken shape in unholy creatures called the Changed, beings who were once Lost Souls but who are now dark, dangerous and disturbed monsters. The Changed feed on the energy of the Lost Souls, growing stronger with each Lost Soul they drain. The ultimate goal of the Changed is to harness enough energy to return to the land of the living by possessing the body of a human. The mission of the Lost Souls is to stop them…

  The Characters of Lost Souls

  SAMANTHA aka SAM – Sam is a fierce warrior, wielding an iron sword with ferocious precision. She is hot headed, loyal and smart. She has been a Soul for six hundred years with her brother Ben. It is becoming increasingly difficult for her to control her anger.

  BEN – Ben is a trained fighter. He is more level-headed than his fiery-tempered sister and is often the one trying to keep everyone calm. Family means everything to him. He has vowed to find his other sister, Cora, who has recently turned into a Changed, yet he hesitates to leave Sam’s side fearing her path is the same as Cora’s.

  CHRISTIAN – Known by Ben and Sam as a “freshie” – Christian is a recently deceased man, new to the world of the Lost Souls. He struggles to find his place as he learns his new abilities, such as the power to faze from one place instantly to another. He is stubborn and often knocks heads with Sam.

  DAMIEN – Damien was once a Lost Soul, but has succumbed to his anger and is now one of the Changed, a being that has embraced the darker side of their ethereal world. He is Samantha’s dead husband.

  CORA – Cora is Sam and Ben’s younger sister. She has recently turned into a Changed. Sam and Ben are searching for her.

  EUGENE – A good friend of Sam and Ben’s. Eugene is a master at creating devices and machines that can be used in their ethereal world. He secretly loves Sam and would do anything to protect her.

  DANIEL – The leader of the original group of Lost Souls. He is furious with Sam and Ben for blatantly defying his orders.

  Previously on Lost Souls

  SPOILER ALERT: If you have not read the previous Lost Souls episodes, the following reveals some major plot points in past episodes. If you have read the prior episodes, or if you just want to get up to speed in the Lost Souls series, then this will give you a quick recap of the world of the Lost Souls.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Then let me start at the beginning. When you die, when a human dies, they are supposed to pass on. To the next world or heaven or whatever it is.” He waved his hand in the air. “But what happened to us, to you, is that there was something binding us to this life. Whether it was a person –”

  “Aurora.”

  Daniel nodded. “Or unfinished business. When the door opens to the next life and you don’t accept the invitation, the door closes. For good. You don’t get a second invitation.”

  Christian recalled the woman on the sidewalk, the glowing woman who had appeared right after his accident. Could that have been his door?

  “Either way, you are bound to this world. This life. A Lost Soul, as it were. Unable or unwilling to pass. Eventually, the task you were bound by is accomplished, or the person that bound you to this world gets old and passes.”

  Christian stared at Daniel with an uneasy realization. He had not considered that his daughter Aurora would grow old while he remained as he was. He had only been concerned about protecting her now.

  “Then the Soul is left alone. Wandering aimless, friendless, loveless, companionless. It’s enough to drive anyone mad. The change begins slowly. The Soul becomes more prone to anger. Less likely to listen to reason. Sometimes the change is quick, sometimes slow. The eyes are the final change. They turn black, cold, emotionless. It’s then that it is too late. The Soul is unsaveable. They have turned into vengeful, wrathful creatures. The Changed. You met one of them already.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The white woman tilted her head to the side and her entire body wavered. Suddenly, without taking a step, she appeared in the middle of the street.

  Christian’s eyes widened.

  The pale ghost woman flickered again and then stood directly before him. An angry scowl wrinkled her forehead; her black eyes locked on him.

  Diana turned the handle and opened the door, stepping into the house, holding the door as Aurora walked inside.

  Christian stepped back, but the pale woman reached out to him, shoving her hand into his chest. An electrical charge surged through him, stiffening every muscle, every fiber in his body, with bolts of agony. Christian couldn’t move, paralyzed by the spearing shocks soaring through him.

  The black-haired woman from the morning suddenly stood behind the pale woman. She swung a sword at the pale ghost woman’s back. As the blade slashed through her form, the pale woman disintegrated into a puff of black smoke.

  Later, Christian learned that the black-haired woman who had saved him from the Changed was Samantha.

  ~ ~ ~

  “You’re making a mistake,” Ben warned, displaying the metal cuffs. “I’m not the one that should be locked up.”

  “I’ll make this right when the Changed is dead,” Daniel said.

  “I don’t think you can ever make this right again, Daniel,” Ben said.

  Christian surged forward, but was stopped by Luke’s hand on his shoulder.

  “Right now, I don’t have time to argue with you,” Daniel said. “I must prepare. Surely you understand, Ben. You understand how important this is.”

  “I understand there are other ways to handle the situation. We’ve discussed this before.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I’m more than willing to discuss options with you. For future Changed. But for now, for this one, I have it where I want it and it will not escape.” He looked at Luke. “Take them to the Iron Room.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “That stunt you pulled with the Changed. It’s all over the airwaves.
All the souls are talking about it.” Eugene said. “Did you really do it? Did you blast the crap out of it?”

  Sam nodded. “Remember? I was telling you my theory about the Changed being pure energy. They are at their peek when they make the jump. So, what would happen if you pumped them full of more energy?”

  ~ ~ ~

  Aurora began to shake. Christian held his daughter in a deadly embrace, unable to sever the fusion of power pushing through him into her. Finally, he put his arms around Aurora, holding her in a tight cocooning embrace.

  Ben called forth power from every cell of his body, pushing it forward into Christian. He heard a whimper.

  Aurora went suddenly stiff in Christian’s arms. Her eyes opened wide. They were completely white. The power within her blasted out of her body, shooting out from every opening, her eyes, her ears, her nose, even her mouth.

  Christian was thrown back, slamming into Ben.

  Aurora tipped her head up and a stream of white blasted from her open mouth, pushing the Changed right out of her body into the air, where its ghostly form rocketed toward the ceiling, disintegrating in the bright beam of white light.

  ~ ~ ~

  “There was another Changed near the house that night.”

  Ben waited for her to continue.

  Samantha stared straight ahead. “It was Damien.”

  Ben straightened to a standing position. “It can’t be. Damien was killed.”

  A wrinkle of pain etched into Samantha’s forehead. “I know that. But I’m telling you what I saw. It was my husband. It was Damien. I was standing across from the human’s house. No one was around. No one. And then…” She shook her head. “It was him, Ben. It was Damien.”

  “A Soul? Could he have been a Soul?”

  Samantha shook her head. “No. He was a Changed. There’s no doubt. I saw it in his eyes. He put his hand in my chest, and took a little of my power. He had warned me to get out of there.” She looked off into the alley. “I had this feeling he was trying to protect me.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Sam hesitated. She didn’t know how Eugene would feel about this. “I need you to find someone for me.”

  “I heard about Cora and I’m looking for her, but so far nothing.” Eugene twisted one of the wires in the machine.

  “Thank you for that. I appreciate it. But it’s not Cora.”

  Eugene lifted his gaze to her, but then quickly lowered it back to his machine.

  Sam fidgeted just a little, adjusting herself in the seat. “When I was back working with Daniel, I saw my husband.”

  Eugene’s hands froze over the machine.

  “I know you know who he is. I know you keep files on all of us.”

  Carefully, slowly, he began to turn the black box in his hands.

  “He was a Changed, Eugene. I want to find him.”

  ~ ~ ~

  That was it, then. The reason he hadn’t told her about Damien. The reason he had remained silent all these years. And now she knew why. Eugene thought he was in love with her. Damien, and her feelings for Damien, would only get in his way. “You’ve never had me to lose. I can’t work with you anymore, Eugene,” Sam told him. “After we finish with Scala, don’t call me again.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Sam could have sworn she saw tenderness in Damien’s eyes. But in the next moment, they were hard and cold. “I want you to leave Scala alone.”

  It was as if he had just splashed ice cold water over her. She blinked. “Scala?”

  “You are not to blast him or whatever it is you did before.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Sam stared at him without flinching. Part of her wanted him to drain her. Part of her wanted to be a Changed so they could be together. “I’m not running away from you.”

  Again, his look softened his dark eyes. His hand lowered just slightly. “You think I’m not evil enough to drain you?”

  “I think you are.” Sam’s jaw clenched. “I’m not letting Scala go. Nothing you can do to me would ever be as bad as what he did.”

  Damien lowered his hand. “I can drain you completely.”

  It would be too merciful, Sam thought. Because she didn’t think she wanted to exist knowing Damien was evil. She lifted a hand to rest against his cheek. “It’s the only way to stop me.”

  His lip quirked up in his familiar grin. “Always so stubborn.” Still grinning, he lowered his lips toward hers.

  Sam waited to feel the touch of his skin, the pressure of his lips, his tongue. She had imagined it for so long. But she never felt his touch on her lips. Instead, agony flared from her chest as he slowly put his fist into her and began draining her energy.

  ~ ~ ~

  “That Scala Changed guy drained him?” Christian wondered.

  Sam nodded. “Completely. Even Souls can die.”

  “Do you remember when the Changed was draining you?” Ben asked, referring to the first time Christian had met Sam and Ben. “That pale haired woman was sucking out your energy. Gaining power. If it takes all of a Soul’s energy, that Soul dies.”

  “We’re already dead,” Christian corrected.

  “We’re creatures of energy. If we lose that energy, we disappear. We die… for good.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Damien whirled, shoving his hand into Tom’s chest. The power surged through him, flowing from Tom’s body, filling his own. Damien watched the surprise on Tom’s face fade with the draining of his energy. He tried to fight it, tried to resist, but Damien was much too powerful for him. Damien continued to extract Tom’s energy, draining him, pulling all the energy from him. It took some time, but Tom finally collapsed, now truly dead to the universe, dead for all eternity.

  ~ ~ ~

  Sam bent beside the dead girl. She didn’t know what to do, where to touch. The dagger handle was sticking out of the center of Claire’s chest. Right through the heart. Sam felt a wrenching in her own chest. She knew without touching her, without looking, Claire was dead. No human could survive a blow to the heart like that.

  Her hand shook as she reached out and brushed some of Claire’s dusty gold hair from her cheek. She had not been able to protect her. And she had promised. Just like she had promised Cora.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Sam,” Ben called sternly.

  Sam tore her gaze from Claire and pushed all her power forward. The son of a bitch.

  Scala’s eyes turned white. His mouth formed an ‘o’ as the energy slammed into him, through him, filling him.

  Sam grit her teeth and forced every last drop forward, into the killer, into the Changed. She wanted Scala to explode. She wanted him gone. Forever.

  Scala stiffened. White light shot from his ears, his mouth, his eyes.

  Suddenly, Damien appeared beside Scala.

  Sam opened her mouth.

  Damien plunged a knife into Scala’s chest, killing coach Fredericks, killing the man whose body Scala had possessed when he made the Jump from his Changed state back into the world of the living. That is how the Changed re-entered the world of the humans, by possessing the body of one.

  A giant explosion of power and electricity threw them all back. Ben knocked into Christian, who flew back into Sam. The explosive white energy knocked over the iron table and Claire tumbled to the floor.

  ~ ~ ~

  Ben gasped and Sam glanced at him. He was looking past Claire, past her body into the corner of the room. Sam followed his gaze and froze. An agonizing longing filled her as she saw the woman there. Her golden hair waved in an invisible breeze. Her white dress shimmered around her body.

  Claire followed their gaze and looked at the woman, too. She stepped away from her, closer to Sam.

  No, Sam thought. No. She stepped up to Claire’s side. “Go with her,” she urged.

  “I want to stay with you,” Claire said.

  Sam shook her head. She would not be the cause of someone else’s inability to pass. Not again. “She’s come for you. She’ll take you…” Sam looked at the beautiful woman. “…somewhere
wonderful.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Sam looked at the coach where he lay slumped against the wall, a trickle of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. She couldn’t help feeling they had lost this one. It seemed like they hadn’t saved anyone. Suddenly, she searched the room. “Where’s Damien?” The room was empty. She glanced at Ben. “You didn’t –”

  Ben shook his head. “I wanted to. But I didn’t. He disappeared when the angel appeared.”

  “Is that what she is?”

  Ben shrugged. “What else could she be?”

  ~ ~ ~

  Damien managed to see the small electrical current swirling around in the sky as the mist coated it. He watched its form for a moment. The shape itself was not new. He had seen a similar phenomenon when they had blasted the last Changed.

  What was different was the whisperings. He couldn’t make out words, but it was like tiny buzzing in his ears. Humming. He doubted anyone, including Souls, could see or hear it. But he could.

  And he needed more. More energy.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Eugene is really hurt. You wouldn’t even use his regen bed.”

  Sam shrugged. “There’s a trust issue, you know?” She could no longer trust Eugene, knowing that he had blatantly lied to her about his knowledge of Damien.

  “Damien is a Changed,” Ben said gently. “Eugene knew that. He was trying to protect you.”