Page 24 of Tortured Soul (Soulless #1)

Lola

“ A little bird told me we’re getting a new housemate?” Savi signed while Francesca was braiding her hair.

I stopped pacing, watching her fingers before my eyes drifted to the mischievous expression on her face through the mirror.

“It’s just for a few days,” I said, although I wasn’t sure how long Dimitri would stick around this time. “Don’t be alarmed by his…features. He’s a Nephilim, and he hasn’t broken his curse.”

Telling them felt safer. Dimitri was used to people staring at him and did not react much anymore. But I did. Sometimes.

Francesca rolled her eyes and gave me a pointed look as she signed, dropping the elaborate braid on Savi’s shoulder.

“ Carrie said he’s hot. I’ve met a Nephilim once, but the madness had barely spread and he found his mate. I love how freaking tall they are. ”

There was a good reason Nephilims were called Giants in religious writings. They were taller than any other Immortals. Where Arc was really tall with what I assumed was a good six foot seven inches, he couldn’t compete with Dimitri’s seven foot height.

And I wasn’t talking about the weird way abnormally tall humans looked, with strangely long gangly limbs. No, tall Immortals were something else. If their appearance wasn’t giving them away as inhuman, their height and frame usually did.

It was a mystery how we managed to stay hidden from humans for so long.

“ Is he your mate too? ” Francesca asked, while Savi adjusted the spaghetti straps of her sister’s dark emerald dress.

So Marcus didn’t exaggerate when he said that mostly everyone knew except me about Arc and Carter.

I nodded with a grunt.

“ Lucky bitch, ” Francesca said, but her grin was kind.

“ Not that lucky, ” Savi countered, nudging her sister. “ She still has to deal with Carter. ”

Francesca’s wince came from the heart and I groaned internally.

“I don’t have a soul,” I said, sliding my hand along my silk dress, watching the vibrant red in the mirror. “They’d do better to just ignore the mate link and move on with their life.”

Whether they understood that I was serious or not, the girls stared at me through the mirror, pity in their eyes. Savi took a step forward and placed her hand on my shoulder, making me turn toward them.

“ You know they can’t, right? ” Francesca asked. “ Once the link has been felt, they can’t turn away from it. ”

How I wished I could feel it. All of them. The little tug I felt instead couldn’t compare to how it felt when I first met Dimitri all those centuries ago, back in my hometown, in that damn cave. A tug was nothing when you already felt that pull .

“We should go,” I said, forcing a smile. “Dimitri doesn’t do well in crowds; he’ll get anxious if I don’t show up soon.”

To be fair, I guessed there was going to be an event the first time I set foot inside the City Hall. Although, I never would have assumed it was going to be a party .

What definitely used to be the main room of a religious temple was now transformed into a fancy reception.

A large bar was installed on a platform at the far back of the room where an altar must have been placed back when humans still lived here.

A round buffet was at the center, people picking at food in small groups and talking with each other.

There were people dancing, people sitting at tables, people going in and out for a smoke break.

People everywhere .

But Dimitri was nowhere in sight. Nor were any of the Guardians .

My palms felt clammy as I wiped them distractedly against my sides. My heart was beating fast in my chest, so loud I could hear it pulsating in my ears.

Aymeric was in deep conversation with another angel near the bar, both holding glasses in their hands.

Marcus was doing his best to avoid me, going from group to group and turning away every time our eyes met.

The girls were kind enough to stay with me until they were called over by what appeared to be guards from their team.

I had no idea what to do with myself. I hadn’t exactly been forthcoming with people, avoiding them as best I could for the whole time I’d been here. Most of them either gave me curious glances or distrustful glares.

I don’t belong here , I thought, nervously playing with a strand of my hair.

At least my pheromones weren’t acting up and there was little chance those people would try to assault me in a corridor or a dark corner…

Small victories. Focus on small victories .

With a determined sigh, I kept my head high and strode toward the bar, my steps confident, red heels clicking on the marble floor, hips swaying.

I was safe. My energy was high, which meant my strength and power were enough to defend me if needed. After all, unlike my peers, I could turn into anything.

I sat graciously on an empty stool and called for the bartender.

“Good evening.” He smiled. “Lola, isn’t it? You’re the Succubus who keeps to herself.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Am I?”

“You’ve been the talk of the town for over a week. Becca’s been bragging about being one of the only ones who had actually talked to you.”

I had no idea who this Becca was. Was it one of the girls working with Aymeric at the bakery?

“I’m not sure who she is,” I said with a small shrug.

“You don’t? She works at the clothing store a few streets over.”

Oh. Right. The cashier.

“I’ve talked to her once, for about a minute. Not sure there’s anything to brag about. ”

He chuckled and picked a wine glass, pouring red wine before handing it to me.

“That’s more than most of anyone here,” he said.

I accepted the drink with a slightly forced smile, and turned to the side to look at the people in the room.

“You can’t blame them for being curious,” the bartender said, leaning on his elbows over the counter. “A lot of them have been lusting after Arc for quite a while now, and he never returned the attention.”

I narrowed my eyes at some of the bystanders looking my way. Some of them turned their eyes away in embarrassment.

I ignored the small pang of jealousy at the idea of Arc being with someone. I had no right to feel this way about him. Not when, without my soul, I could never be what he needed me to be.

“I mean, there was a bet going on about who would manage to finally seduce him, it kind of makes sense that a Succubus —”

“People should mind their own business,” I snapped, turning abruptly toward him. “What’s your angle here? Are you searching for juicy gossip about Arc and Carter? Trying to get a rise out of me? You’re asking the wrong person.”

He took a step back, pinching his lips together.

“I was just making friendly conversation.”

“Were you?”

His eyes drifted behind me and he groaned, teeth grinding.

“Get lost,” the person at my back rumbled.

The hair on the back of my neck and my arms rose, my hands turning to fist on the counter.

The barman scurried away, grumbling something inaudible under his breath.

Of all people that could have joined me at the bar, it had to be him .

“I don’t understand what’s so special about you,” he drawled, sitting on the stool next to me. “You’re a damned Succubus. If you were at least a powerful demon, I would have understood. But a Succ —”

“Will you shut up already? All of this is getting old, and fast.”

Carter scoffed, leaning over the counter to grab a bottle of beer by himself. He opened the cap using one of his rings.

“You shouldn’t talk to me like that. From what I saw yesterday, you’re barely able to defend yourself against a scum demon. It would be so easy for me to just destroy you and be over with it. ”

I rolled my eyes and turned to face him. He didn’t put up much of an effort in his presentation, wearing a barely buttoned up khaki shirt and ripped Denim jeans. His hair was a mess of dark blond waves and his blue eyes were empty of any warmth.

At least he shaved…

“Been there, done that.” I sighed. “Didn’t end well for you, did it?”

His eyes darkened in anger, probably at the memory of Arc handing his ass to him for his behavior toward me.

“You think Arc will always protect you? It’s only a matter of time until he realizes that you’re worthless and that we’d be better off ignoring the mating link binding you to us. There’s something wrong with you. He’ll see it, eventually.”

I told Carrie about my missing soul. Did she not tell them? My lips stretched in a smile. Hiding my pain when people hurt me was like a second nature after over a millenia.

“Did you think you’d be the core of the binded group?

” I teased. “Is that why you’re being a jackass?

You’re acting all mighty and shit, but in reality, you were just hoping for your own personal harem, weren’t you?

Fucking Divines and your duplicitous minds.

Pretending you’re saints, when about eighty percent of the fallen fall because of lust .

So tell me, Carter. Why did you fall? Because I can’t seem to narrow it down to only one sin when it comes to you . ”

A loud crash sounded and my eyes drifted to the crushed bottle between his hands, beer soaking the counter and dripping from his cut hand. The room fell silent behind us, but our eyes were locked on each other. Mine, determined and burning. His, furious and ice cold.

His hand snapped around my wrist and pressed hard. The room became dark and my stomach churned, bile rising to my throat.

I was going to throw up.

As the nausea became unbearable and my vision was dotted with little white spots, it all stopped and my surroundings were clear again.

The archives.

He fucking moved us there.

My back was slammed against a shelf and boxes rattled behind and above me.

“You don’t get to ask a Divine why or how he fell,” he spat, caging me between him and boxes of files. “You’re a mere demon, too low in the whole Hellrisers family to even be considered something more than a pest.”

I forced a chuckle, chasing the fear away, not fighting back. Not yet .

“Isn’t a fallen angel barely more than a demon? Our blood might be different, but you’re nothing more than that to your precious all powerful daddy.”

“I swear, I’ll snap your damned neck,” he growled in my face.

My laugh intensified. “And then what?” I asked.

“Wait until it heals so you can do it again? You can’t kill me.

” His hands tightened painfully around my wrist as rage swirled in his dark blue eyes.

“I don’t care how highly you think of yourself, you’re just as much of a sinner as any other lower demon.

All this pride, and wrath…The list is growing, Carter. ”

A small amount of energy burst through me from the places his hands held my wrist and my eyes widened in shock.

“ Or , was I right in the first place? Was it fucking lust ?”

He shoved me harder against the shelf with a disgusted grunt, making the boxes move again, one of them falling to the ground next to us.

“And you have the nerves to look down at me because I’m a Succubus?” I hissed, not laughing anymore.

“I want you to leave this place,” he said, his tone dark and cold. “You and that Nephilim abomination of yours.”

His words echoed in my mind and my heart stopped for a couple of beats. You and that Nephilim abomination of yours .

The tip of my fingers prickled and the next second, he growled in pain, stumbling backward into another shelf.

My nails were sharp, eight inches long and covered in golden blood. I swiped my hand at his face and he barely avoided the attack, the back of his head colliding against the wood of the shelf.

“What did you say?” I asked, stepping toward him.

“Fuck,” he gasped as the blood poured heavily from his arm and stomach.

“What. Did. You. Say?”

This time, the tip of my claws left three deep scratches on his jaw and neck. He took a few other steps back, cursing under his breath. My eyes drifted to my wrists where bruises were forming.

“I said,” he panted, walking backward toward the desk at the center of the room, “I want you to leave and take the Nephilim with you. ”

“No, that’s not the word you used.”

I pounced on him, my nails stabbing into his shoulders and we tumbled to the floor. Straddling him, I went for his face again but he dodged with a groan of pain, rolling us to the side.

His hands managed to get a hold of my wrists again and blocked them on the floor over my head.

“Let go of me!” I yelled right before my forehead connected with his and he fell back again.

“For fuck’s sake, enough !”

We both stopped as Arc walked in, holding Dimitri back. Dimitri’s red eyes were swirling, fists held tight at his sides, jaw twitching as he stared at Carter and the golden blood pouring from his many wounds and his nose.

But he didn’t say anything. It was Arc who asked, “What the hell is happening here?”