Dark Souls (Soul Hunters Book 1) Read online

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  Keep reading for an excerpt from Soul Hunters Book Two

  Broken Souls

  A week after Ethan and Rafe moved in upstairs, I woke in the middle of the night to loud, steady thumping above my head. With a groan, I loudly cursed Rafe and proceeded to spend the rest of the night glaring at the ceiling.

  Eventually, I gave up trying to get any further sleep and pulled on my running shoes. The town of Jackson had been hit by a mysterious heat wave in the past couple of days and after running just a few blocks, I was covered in sweat. After five miles, I quit. I walked the last few yards back to my house, lifting the hem of my shirt to wipe sweat from my eyes.

  “What a nice way to start my day.”

  I tensed at Rafe’s words, then dropped my shirt. Seeing the smirk on his face, I couldn’t be sure whether he was commenting on me semi-flashing him, or how disgusting I likely looked. I stepped onto the porch, standing a few feet from where he was seated.

  “You’re up early,” I said, choosing to ignore his possible innuendo. “Though I’m pretty sure you started your day a few hours ago.”

  Rafe’s brow furrowed slightly as he tried to figure out what I meant.

  “Your bed is right above mine,” I said, helping him out.

  “Oh.” He gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry about that.”

  I shrugged. “No need to apologize. I have to say I’m surprised to see you down here alone right now.”

  “We’re out of coffee.” He looked at me hopefully.

  “Fine.” I sighed. “Just give me five minutes to shower.”

  “I’ll put the coffee on.” He jumped to his feet and followed me inside.

  The cold shower was perfection and finding Rafe in my kitchen, filling a mug with hot coffee, was a close second.

  “This is five days in a row,” I said, blowing on it gently. “Eventually you guys might want to buy some coffee of your very own.”

  “You mean the best part of waking up isn’t having me in your home?” Another of his adorable smiles that we both knew I couldn’t resist.

  “Feel free to give back my spare key at any time.” I smiled so he would know I was just kidding.

  Rafe followed me outside and we sat on the porch, drinking our coffee like an old married couple. I was surprised to see Ethan walk up the path a few minutes later.

  “What are you doing up and about so early?” I asked.

  Neither of the brothers was what you would call a morning person. I usually had my morning coffee with them around lunch time.

  “Couldn’t sleep.” He glared at Rafe. “Someone was being loud last night.”

  “I know.” Rafe threw up his hands. “I’ve already talked to her about it, but you know how Kaylie is, partying all night and interrupting our beauty sleep.”

  “Hey.” I glared at him.

  Ethan tossed a newspaper onto my lap. “Take a look at the headline.”

  “Murdered girl found in woods,” I read aloud. Next to the article was a picture of a young girl that looked vaguely familiar. “Is this-”

  “Breanna Butler. Your friend that went missing the night of the party,” Ethan confirmed.

  “She wasn’t my friend, Ethan,” I corrected him.

  My friend Hope had invited me to a party with some of the girls in her dorm. Breanna had been one of them. While we were at the party, Breanna had gone missing. At the time, I just assumed she had gone home with some guy. But after a week, she still hadn’t turned up. Until now.

  “How did she die?” I asked while I skimmed the text.

  “Murder. That’s about all the article says.”

  “Severe blood loss?” I looked up. “Sounds like a vampire to me.”

  Ethan shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe it was a Chupacabra. Or a Dhampir. Or a Volkodlak. Or a-”

  “Okay, okay. I get it.” I held up a hand to stop him. “Morgue trip?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” He pretended to swoon as he dropped into the chair across from me. “Rafe, you in? This could be our first family hunt.”

  Rafe shook his head. “No can do, little brother. I’ve got big plans today.”

  “Sleeping all day isn’t really a plan,” I said.

  “If you must know, I’m heading out of town to meet up with an old friend.” Rafe made a big deal about finishing his coffee. I couldn’t help but notice that he was avoiding eye contact with both of us.

  “You don’t have any friends,” Ethan said, suspicious.

  Rafe stood and stretched lazily. “You’re confused, Ethan. Everyone loves me. Just ask Mindy.”

  “Who’s Mindy?” I said.

  “She’s the young lady that kept us all from getting sleep last night.” He winked seductively at me and I made a gagging noise.

  “Have fun today, kids. Stay out of trouble.” With a wave, he disappeared inside.

  I turned to Ethan. “I guess it’s just you and me today.”

  “Perfect.” He grinned. “You ready to check out some corpses?”

  As unappealing as that sounded, I actually did enjoy spending the day with Ethan. Even with such a dire agenda for the day, we managed to have some fun.

  “Doctor Biggenhard?” I shook my head at Ethan’s hospital badge. “No one is going to believe that.”

  “I’ve got the goods to back it up,” he said with a grin.

  We walked through the front door of the hospital, trying to look natural. It helped that we were dressed in scrubs and had created semi-respectable badges. Ethan engaged me in a conversation about gardening as we made our way to the staff elevators.

  No one paid any attention to us when we exited into the basement, home of the dead bodies. Ethan waited in the hall while I ducked inside to see if we were alone. We weren’t.

  “Doctor.” I greeted the man behind the desk with a smile. He was busy filling out paperwork, which was way better than finding him elbows deep in a rotting body.

  “Can I help you?”

  I nodded. “You’re needed up in the admin offices. Something about a financial report?” I pretended to be confused.

  “Of course.” He sighed dramatically. “You ask for a new cooling unit and everyone around here freaks out.”

  “I’ll walk you up,” I offered.

  The doctor pulled the door firmly shut behind us. As we were about to round the corner, Ethan called out.

  “Nurse! Could you help me out?” He was holding a clipboard and looking overly concerned.

  The doctor waved me away. “Go. I can find my way up.”

  “Nice work,” Ethan muttered after the elevator doors shut. He pushed open the door, removing the strip of tape he had placed over the lock.

  “Smart,” I said. Normally, I just picked the lock, but this was faster.

  “I love what they’ve done with the place,” he joked, taking in the sterile, stainless steel décor. He pointed to the wall of oversized cabinets. “After you.”

  I’d been around long enough to know that the cabinets didn’t hold files or office supplies. Rather than randomly open them, I read each label until I found one that said “Butler.”

  “Here goes nothing,” I said, pulling it open.

  Ethan waited until the entire white-covered body was visible and then he peeled back the sheet. My heart thudded when I saw her ghostly face and I remembered how just a week earlier she had skipped into Hope’s dorm room and complimented my outfit. She wouldn’t be skipping anywhere now.

  “That’s her,” I confirmed, though neither of us was surprised.

  I checked her neck, but didn’t see any fresh wounds. Ethan was busy reading through her chart which had been on the top of the doctor’s stack.

  “It says here that in addition to some needle marks in her arms- possible druggie?- she had one small hole in the middle of her back.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Should we turn her?”

  I shrugged. We didn’t really have a choice. If we wanted to see it for ourselves, we ne
eded to rotate the body.

  She was cold and stiff as we turned her, keeping the sheet over her as much as possible out of respect. I found the puncture easily, but it didn’t help shed any light on how she had died.

  “Have you ever seen anything like this before?” I asked.

  “No.” Ethan took out his phone and snapped a picture. “Maybe there’s something about this in your family diaries?”

  “It’s possible.”

  After rolling her gently on her back, we closed the drawer and returned her chart. Just as we were about to step out into the hall, the elevator doors opened and voices drifted toward us.

  We were trapped. The room had no place for us to hide, even if that had been a good option- which it wasn’t.

  Ethan startled me when he grabbed both of my arms, pulling me close. His lips closed over mine and I gasped, but I didn’t pull away.

  The thought flashed through my head that he was only doing this as a cover story for why we were in the morgue, but my body didn’t seem to care. I kissed him back and didn’t resist as his hands squeezed my ass. Just as he pushed his tongue into my mouth, a throat cleared loudly in the doorway.

  I pushed Ethan away, flushed and out of breath.

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  Table of Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  EPILOGUE