The Better Part of Darkness

I found Will’s body facedown on the floor.

“Will!”

Quickly, I scrambled over the chaos and knelt by his side. His pulse was faint, but still there. Thank God it was there. With shaking hands, I called 911 and then continued through the house, yelling for Emma.

Somehow I knew she wasn’t there, but I checked anyway, checked every goddamn room, closet, and corner. In the bathroom, I slumped against the wall, holding my Nitro-gun to my chest, the pain washing over me in enormous waves. The sour burn of raw anguish built in my torso and throat. I couldn’t remember how to breathe. It felt as though everything—soul, heart, lungs, skin, and blood—was being sucked away, leaving behind a hollow shell.

She was gone. Em was gone.

Find Em … have to find Em. Have to breathe.

My lungs deflated.

Pressure built in my chest and face.

Numbness stole through my oxygen-deprived limbs, but slowly a vibrating, demanding force, my will, shoved me out of my immobile panic. Breathe, Charlie! I gasped for air, heart straining and tired lungs filling. Finally.

I pushed away from the wall, my senses returning, and then I sprang into action, flying down the stairs to Will, heart and lungs trying to keep up and recoup.

“Will! Will, wake up!” I turned him over, tears choking my words. My shaking hands roamed over his head, neck, and torso, but there were no outward signs of trauma. Fueled by desperation and adrenaline, I slapped him across the face, screaming his name and shaking him by the shoulders.

His eyes blinked open with a start. Oh, thank you, God. “Will, where’s Emma?”

He didn’t answer, but his gaze darted around the room as though seeing it for the first time.

“Where did they take her? Did they say anything?” My heart was pistoning so fast, tears flowing, throat closing. “Come on, Will, please stay with me.”

Will’s arms moved slowly over his head, and then he gave a lazy, thorough stretch. I released his shoulders and sat back, dumbfounded, as he yawned, pushed up on his hands, and graced me with a blinding grin.

The aura around him went from his usual cloudy blue to gray with black swirls. Dread sucked the air from my lungs once again. I floundered around for the Nitro-gun, which I’d set on the floor before checking him for injuries, and then scrambled back on my rear, pointing it at him. It clattered in my hand, I shook so badly.

“You must be Charlie.” He sat up all the way and inspected his hands.

“Who the hell are you? And where’s my kid?”

He stopped examining his hands to study me for a moment. One corner of his mouth twisted into a half smile. A shiver crept along my spine. “I’m the guy your hubby sold his soul to.”

Shock siphoned the blood from my face. “I don’t believe you. Will would never do that.”

His head cocked slowly. It was Will, but it seemed like a puppet worked the strings, a puppet still not used to its body. “I have the paperwork, signature and all.”

“Soul bartering is illegal. Restore him to his body now.” I stood. Tremors weakened my limbs. I never thought I’d find the sight of Will Garrity eerie and repugnant. I never thought he’d go this far. The reality of what he’d done began to sink in and made my eyes sting.

Will pushed to his feet, unfolding himself slowly, testing out his new body, stretching his legs and arms, and wiggling his fingers. He tipped his neck both ways until it cracked and then rolled his shoulders. “Soul bartering is not illegal in Canada,” he said with a vacant look as he accessed Will’s recent memories; the only ones available to him.

“You’re not in Canada anymore. Will is a United States citizen. Give him back.”

“No.”

My fingers gripped the gun harder. Goddammit, Will! He’d sold his body and soul to a Revenant—a spirit entity that granted one’s greatest desire in exchange for a body to inhabit when it was that body’s time to die. Revenants were good at making deals with those whose lives would be cut short. Some said they could see a person’s death and, therefore, only made contracts with those who’d die at a young age.

I wanted to hurt this thing inside of my husband’s body, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Still in disbelief and my head spinning, I whispered, “Why?” How could he do this?

“Because he loved you,” Will’s voice echoed in the quiet. “I was going to give him the means to win your heart back, but … timing is everything, I guess. The guy sold his afterlife to live out his life with you. Too bad he kicked the bucket before that could happen.” He shrugged. “Not my problem, though.”

“And you knew,” I muttered, my legs giving out. I sank into the chair behind me, the gun hanging limp in my hand. “You knew he was going to die.” My stomach clenched hard against the queasiness burgeoning in my gut.

“Not like this. When I met him, the guy had a good ten years at least. He thought it was worth it. But then love makes people do desperate, stupid things. I’ve seen far worse, believe me.” Will lifted his arm and delicately sniffed the skin and then brushed his lips against the hairs on his arms. “I didn’t swindle him if that’s what you’re thinking. Look, your ex wasn’t an idiot. He knew when I agreed to contract with him that he’d die in the prime of his life. Living out whatever time he had left with you, with all the things he’d ever wanted, was worth it to him. If you’re going to go anyway, why not, right?”

I tried not to shout, but it didn’t work. “Why not?!” I should just shoot him now. “Why not is because you’re giving up any chance of an afterlife, that’s why not. His soul is stuck inside a body he no longer controls!” I wanted to kill Will for this! Anger was much easier than guilt. Realizing Will had given up his afterlife just to be with me and Em again was too much to swallow.

He ignored my outburst. “Took quite a beating from the jinn who were here earlier,” the Revenant said, delicately straightening Will’s bloodied shirt with his fingertips.

I went completely still. “The jinn.”

“Yeah. They gave me a message for you: ‘The boss says to tell you the second debt is paid.’”

Oh God. Tennin. He had taken payment for the debt. He had taken Will. I doubled over and grabbed my stomach, rage blinding my vision.

“Have to give him props,” the Revenant went on. “Your guy took a hell of a lot more than I expected. His heart was on its last few beats by the time I got here. Good thing, too, or he would’ve gone straight into the afterlife.”

Something I didn’t know. I raised my head. “If you’re not here to collect at their last breath then they go to the afterlife?”

“Soul and all. Contract null and void. We can’t inhabit a dead body without its soul. Just the way it is.” He sniffed. “If you wanna reanimate a corpse, go talk to a necromancer.”

I forced down the desperation rising in my throat. “Does that mean he’s still aware, alive?”

“Eh, sort of like in limbo.”

It was a tiny bit of hope, but I grabbed on to it for dear life. If there was a way to save Will and eject this creature, I’d find it. But right now, Emma was out there somewhere. And there were sirens in the distance. We needed to go before getting held up by the police and medics.

I stood, spurred into action, already halfway to the foyer. “C’mon. We need to find my daughter.”

“Not my problem.”

Oh, no he didn’t.

Fuck it. I swung around and shot him with my Nitro-gun.

CHAPTER 13

The Revenant flew back against the wall, denting the drywall and sliding down in a heap. He was a supernatural; he’d heal himself just like he’d healed Will’s body from the fight. I walked over, knelt down, and tapped his cheek with the barrel of the gun. His eyes popped open. “I need to find my daughter, and you’re going to