Chapter 1

• Early evening was one of Bastian’s favorite times to watch humans. The low light made their souls so easy to see, but that wasn’t the only reason. As nighttime approached, they changed. The polite, carefully composed people that smiled innocently during the day, turned into entirely different people once the sun went down.
• He was sitting on the roof of a five-story building, looking down at them moving along the busy sidewalk. Picking a location with coffee shops and fast food always ensured his entertainment.
• With the vast number of years he’d been alive, his entertainment was very important. Without it, the years, decades, the centuries dragged out and it was mind-numbing. The previous century, he’d been assigned to other areas, but then they’d—as in whomever it was that made ridiculous decisions about what was best, without ever asking those doing the work—decided each authorized watcher would be placed in one area going forward, so the chances of missing any souls in need of aid would lessen. It had made for some very tedious decades for him, but he’d also gotten to know the area better than his own home, which was useful at times.
• Leaning over the ledge, he looked down and smiled. There were so many of them down there right now, if he’d been higher up they’d look like ants in their colony. The addition of cell phones into society made for some humorous moments. One of them would stop dead and stare at their phone and the entire flow of the group would change to move around them. Of course, the collision of two watching their phones instead of where they were going happened too often to have any entertainment value now.
• A waning soul caught his attention. It wasn’t pulling at him yet, but the body it was in wasn’t long in this world. He’d been seeing it soon, or one of his kind would be—Bastian couldn’t be everywhere all the time. It was disappointing his kind couldn’t teleport with a thought as the Alterealm royals could. The things he could do if he had that power were countless and probably illegal.
• He held his breath as another bus moved down the other side of the street. The main reason he’d chosen this location tonight, was the bus terminal was only half a block over. Studying any females close to it, he looked carefully, not having a clue of what or whom he was looking for. The seer princess in Alterealm could have at least supplied him with a rough description. A woman and bus are what she had said. He had to find the woman. None of it was helpful.
• Not one of those women, or rather their souls struck him with any sense of urgency in any way, so hopefully, he didn’t miss the one he was supposed to save. Of course, if the bus-woman scenario meant for him to be at the bus station watching those boarding and departing buses, the mystery woman was good and truly screwed because the tedium of that held zero entertainment value, so he was here instead.
• Many from his realm complained about the modernism of the human realm, there were too many to watch over now, they traveled too quickly and many more obscure grumblings. Bastian, he loved the fast pace of this current time. So many souls, so little time. He chuckled. Although lately, he’d been busier than he cared to be with a lot more than watching for souls to help cross to their next life, it was— Pausing, he turned and looked back the other way again. The darkness of a soul popped out like a flashing nefarious sign. One from the lawless faction was down there and they were coming down the street in his direction.
• “Won’t be a fruitless trip after all.” He watched as the man impersonating a normal human paused a moment before moving again in his direction. “That’s it, come to Bastian, you traitorous cur.” He rolled his eyes at the word from long ago, then shrugged, he was allowed to think in any time period, he’d been around for many of them. Too many some days.
• He glanced along the sidewalk, trying to find the soul the lawless traitor was after. It wouldn’t be the sickly one whose time was almost up. They didn’t highjack those. They liked the strong souls with many decades left in their current bodies. There were too many strong ones in the area. Most were just human with very little hints of anything otherworldly mixed into their genes.
• Maybe he was going to pick some random soul, that was happening far too often lately. Headlines of people’s sudden, unexpected deaths were far too common. Although, the lawless ones weren’t behind all of them. After all the human body was fragile and sometimes unforeseen things did happen. He’d been on morgue detail a lot recently and after tracing the soul’s signature in the corpses, he knew many were being taken by the unsanctioned soul suckers from his own realm.
• Standing up, Bastian glared at the other side of the street. Another dark-souled bastard was on the other side. Two in one area was not a whimsical coincidence. They were hunting a specific soul.
• “Now, I’m intrigued, boys. Thank you for keeping things interesting.” He exhaled slowly and focused on making himself invisible.
• Of course, if his brothers knew he often perched in very visible, precarious locations where the chances of being seen were high, they’d have monumental conniptions. Did he care what they thought of his habits? Not in the slightest.
• Being invisible was necessary this time though, it wouldn’t do if these lawless spotted him, then he’d have to run. Being a prince and somewhat a celebrity among his people, made him very memorable. But he still wasn’t fond of running.
• Keeping them both in his sights, he quickly moved down the fire stairs. Getting both of them was going to be a challenge, but nothing spiced up an endless day better than an impossible task.
• He was on the last few steps when his heart practically did a flip inside his chest. He looked around with a feeling of urgency. He didn’t have time to help a soul pass right now, he really didn’t. He glanced around, looking for the soul calling out to him and then he saw her.
• Stopping, he put his hand over his heart, which now felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest.
• She was breathtaking. Miles of pale blonde hair, high cheekbones—Bastian wanted desperately to see her eyes. It wasn’t a myth that you could see a person’s soul through their eyes.
• Of course, Bastian could see it regardless, but the view from those intriguing orbs was always better. That and his people had black, without variation irises and humans’ eyes were so pretty with the flecks and differences in color.
• She glanced behind her and much to his disappointment, she was wearing sunglasses, which was odd for the fading light, but each to their own. He more than agreed with that. He was the epitome of that.
• There was something more important than her beauty and no doubt lovely eyes, that made him dizzy with joy, she housed the very soul that haunted his every dream and all his nightmares. The soul he had chased through time since his own began. He’d never felt drawn to a soul that wasn’t close to passing on or burning out, just this soul that was now in her fragile human body had many times over the years given him the motivation to carry on.
• He wanted to rush to her, touch her skin, and feel that she was real. He wanted to kiss her. Take her breath of life into his body—
• Movement caught his attention, and he remembered the lawless ones. They were both moving in her direction. All the pieces clicked together in his head like cogs on a gear. They were here for her and now he knew why. Grabbing his phone, he knew he should call Tor or at the very least Trendan for backup, but did he? No. He dialed the first number on his call list. Chase, one of the kings from Alterealm.
• “Bastian?”
• Scowling, Bastian watched her look over her shoulder again, over the rim of the glasses covering her light-shaded eyes, she was afraid. She knew she was being hunted.
• He remembered the king, “yes. Where is the little seer? Is she there?” He’d hoped to bring these bastards in alive to question them, but that probably wouldn’t be happening now. Pulling the wand from his pocket, he decided he was sucking their souls right the hell out of those bodies. He’d have to send in clean up afterward, couldn’t have any of his kind ending up in a morgue somewhere to terrify and amaze some coroner when they sliced them open to discover the secret inside.
• “I’m here.” Princess Crissy said.
• “The woman—the one with the bus, what did she look like?” Jerking his head in the other direction, he looked one way and then the other, checking for a bus.
• “I-I didn’t really see her.”
• The woman started to hurry along the edge of the sidewalk, to avoid collision with others, she was barely staying on the curb. A loud hissing drew his attention. A bus was coming along the same street.
• “I think I’ve found her. This can’t happen. Kings, I may need that favor soon.”
• An ambulance went blaring past, the bus moved over into the other lane to get out of the way. It was very close to the curb now. They weren’t getting her.
• “Someplace secure in your realm. It can’t be here, and it will have to be guarded.”
• Bastian ran down the steps, then jumped over the last few.
• “Damn, why didn’t I see this?” Another ambulance went by.
• “The easiest way to take down the leadership of my realm…” He was such an idiot. He froze, trying to decide the best course of action. Then remembered he was on the phone, “would be to take out the soul I can’t live without, the one that I live for—”
• How did she know she was being hunted? He could count on one hand the number of times in all his life when a human knew one of his were nearby.
• He ran, trying to avoid the people on the sidewalk and was failing. “I’ll call you later.” Hanging up, he shoved the phone into his pocket and ran toward her.
• He felt the pull of a hot soul and stumbled, debating for a moment if he should see who it was from. He couldn’t, not this time. One lost soul was worth the answers. Answers he’d been looking for since that first time many centuries earlier. He’d end up doing penance later for losing a soul, but he needed to save her.
• Bastian rushed through those coming toward him on the crosswalk and then started looking, searching—she had to be here.
• He couldn’t be too late. He just couldn’t, not for her.
• Spotting her, he sucked in a breath, she was going to step off the curb. It couldn’t end this way.
• He jumped out onto the street, not caring about the cars flying past him.
• “Stop.” He bumped into someone and didn’t care that now he was no longer invisible and would also be a target for the lawless—if they didn’t run the other way after seeing he was also in the neighborhood.
• He hopped back up on the curb when she paused and looked in his direction.
• Dammit, he wanted to see her eyes, needed to, but the glasses covered them.
• Tires screeched as a van lost control for a moment, swerving. If she had stepped off that curb, it would have hit her.
• The glasses slid down her nose and revealed to him the most beautiful pale eyes he’d ever seen. They were huge as she realized the near miss she’d just had.
• She was all right. His shoulders slumped in relief. For the briefest of moments, she looked at him and he held his breath for fear she would look away if he moved.
• A horn honking brought them out of the hypnotic moment and then he remembered those after her.