Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 14

Sam was sitting at the librarian's desk, reading the second book in the trilogy she had started yesterday.

"This was the first real book I ever read," Jack's voice sounded suddenly as he walked out from among the shelves holding an old, worn copy of 'Salem's Lot' by Stephen King.

"What age were you when you read it?" Sam asked, thinking that maybe she could guess the year he died.

"Twelve," he answered while flicking through the pages.

Sam was a little surprised. "You read horror at twelve?"

Jack smiled. "I lived horror since the day I was born." He pointed to himself. "Hunter, remember?"

"So you never got a choice about being a Hunter? You were born into it."

"I did get a choice," he stated. "Everyone gets a choice. But when you've spent twenty one years studying the supernatural, and training in fighting skills and hunting skills, you tend to stick with what you know. The odd few choose to do other things. More normal things, like a lawyer or a doctor or a shop manager or something. But, the families never approve of that . . . they usually get disowned. It's quite sad."

"So you chose to be a Hunter?" Sam asked in shock. She couldn't understand why anyone would choose to be a Hunter unless they were a murderous psychopath. But Sam knew Jack and he didn't seem like the type of person who enjoyed hunting and killing things. Sometimes human things.

"Yes," Jack said simply, then made a face. "Kind of," he sighed. "I never did the ritual, like the other Hunters did. The immortality ritual. You know, slower to age and difficult to kill."

"Why?" Sam asked. She knew of those spells, everyone did. It was a 'just in case I need to live through something I know will be fatal' kind of spell. However, there weren't a lot of creatures out there with the Power to cast it. Only the strong could achieve immortality through Magic.

Sam was one of those creatures which could become immortal if she chose to; though it was something she knew that she would never do.

"I guess I always kind of wanted to do something else. I don't know what. I just didn't want to fully commit myself to being a Hunter. I wanted to have the option of leaving." Jack scratched his head. "I guess, looking back on it, I probably should have done the ritual." He smiled sadly. "If I had . . . " He let his sentence drift off, then shook his head. He held the book up and looked at Sam. "I'm taking this on your card." Then he turned and sat in the chair closest to where he'd been standing.

Sam put down her book for a moment and typed Salem's Lot into the computer. She looked through the information file on the book, it was published in nineteen-seventy-five. If Jack had been twelve when he read it, assuming it also came out the year he was twelve, then died when he was in his mid-twenties, he would have died sometime in the late eighties. Sam sighed. Math, she thought tiredly. "When did you die?" she asked bluntly, deciding it would be easier than attempting to do calculations in her head.

"Three days after you were born," he replied without looking up at her.

Sam stared at Jack, slightly stunned by his sudden openness. "How did you die?" she asked slowly. Hoping he wouldn't notice she was taking advantage of the situation.

Jack smiled as if he knew exactly what she was doing. "Sam." He gave her the warning tone and the matching look.

"What?" Sam asked innocently.

"You know what."

Sam looked around the vacant library and sighed. Thinking that right now, while the building was empty would be the perfect time for her to go looking around.

She turned to look over her shoulder where the door to the basement was. Clearly that would be the most obvious place for her to begin her search as Michelle had been so adamant that she not go in there.

But then again, the first time she'd gotten the feeling that there was something not quite right with this place, had been as she stood by the front door.

So perhaps the best thing to do would be to check around the exterior to see just how strange it felt on the outside.

Decided in her plan, Sam stood and declared to Jack, "I'm going to wander around outside the building to check for any more markings like the ones on the desk."

Jack stayed seated as she walked past him and continued reading his book. Without looking up at her he said, "Okay . . . scream if you see any monsters."

Sam rolled her eyes and opened the door, peering outside before she left, just to check that there was nobody on their way in, or walking around the general area.

Again, the street surrounding the library was just as empty as it had been the day before. Sam stepped outside and took a deep breath of the fresh air, closing her eyes as she did so. She stood by the door and stretched out her senses, casting a psychic net around the building in an attempt to find anything that didn't belong.

The building was still, it's aura even, nothing inside or out seeming even a little out of place.

With a frown, Sam opened her eyes.

She knew she wasn't going crazy, which meant she was sure there was something to be found.

With a sigh she moved away from the front door and began walking by the wall, making her way round the building. As she moved she paid extra close attention to every brick she passed, staring at them for more than a few seconds each, hoping that somewhere, there would be etchings like the ones under the desk inside.

By the time she had come back to the door where she had started she had found absolutely nothing.

For a moment, Sam just stood there, taking some time to just think.

There was something there, she knew it, even though she couldn't really feel it. She moved a step closer to the door, standing in the exact same place she had before and looked around. Gazing up at the stone arch above her head, then over her shoulder at the street beyond the gates, then back at the wooden door.

As she looked at the door her memories returned to the night previous, where she had slammed it shut and locked it in panic, thinking that there were shadows moving within and more than that, that there was something watching her from those vary shadows.

She furrowed her brow in confusion and frustration, wondering how she could have seen such clear evil the night before and yet now there was nothing.

The only difference between now and then was that the Vampire wasn't with her.

Momentarily she wondered if perhaps the Vampire was the cause. Had he managed to get inside her head and plant images in there in there just to mess with her?

No likely.

Even if he could find a way inside her mind without her noticing, Sam was immune to Vampire mind tricks.

The only other thing she could think of that was different between now and then was that it had been night time before.

Perhaps that was it.

Maybe whatever was hiding within the walls of the building only made itself known at night.

With a whole new theory to test, Sam walked back into the library and walked back to her desk.

Picking up her book and reading as she waited for the sun to set.