Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 19

Sam watched Jamie as he walked out the door, her shoulders relaxed and she let a sigh as she heard the heavy thud of the door closing.

"What the fuck happened?" Jack asked. He was standing right next to her now, looking at her with an expression that was somewhere between concern and anger.

Sam chewed her lip as her eyes wandered to the room behind her. "There's something down there," she said without looking at him. She just stared at the door, reaching out to it with her psychic senses, trying to get a clear read on whatever was in there.

"What do you mean? What's down there?"

Sam clenched and unclenched her hands, trying to stop them from shaking. She'd had to deal with everything so fast that she hadn't had time to calm down yet. Her pulse was still racing, her nerves still felt frayed, she still felt scared.

"I don't know," she answered, turning her head so she could see him. He was watching her intently, almost as if her face would hold some vital piece of information that would help him figure out what had happened.

"It looked like . . . " Sam let her sentence trail off, not wanting to say it out loud, knowing in her mind how crazy it sounded.

"Like what?"

Sam sighed and shook her head. "I'm sure it was nothing." She let a nervous laugh. "I'm probably just tired or something."

"Sam." Jack's tone was serious. "Tell me what you saw."

Sam shrugged, glancing at the basement door that was now sealed with a protection spell that would keep things from getting out . . . but it wouldn't keep people from going in.

She remembered Michelle, and how freaked she'd been when Sam had tried to go down there yesterday. Did she know there was something down there? Did she know what it was? Did she realise it was evil?

And if so, then why hadn't she warned Sam that there was something potentially dangerous lurking in the shadows right behind her?

It was unlikely that Michelle, if she did know there was something down there, fully understood the level of its Power and the extent of its evil.

She let another sigh. "It looked like a shadow," she said, meeting Jack's eyes. He nodded his head as if she were making perfect sense, but she could tell that he didn't understand what she meant, or what she was describing. As far as Sam was aware there was nothing in the supernatural world that took the appearance of a shadow. Not one that looked like that anyway. "Not like a shape though . . . more like, I don't know . . . like mist or something. Black fog. And it came in through the walls and it attacked the lights and made it dark. I had to use Magic to light the room and scare it away, but . . . "

"But?"

"It adjusted to the light and came at me. And . . . " She chewed her lip nervously, looking at Jack from under her eyelashes before she told him what she should have told him when he first got back. "It wasn't the first time I saw it. You weren't here," she spoke quickly, before Jack had a chance to get angry that she hadn't told him right away. "And by the time you got back I just kinda convinced myself that I imagined it."

"Right." Jack slapped his hand on the desk and jumped over it, landing with more grace than a man his size should logically have. He stepped into the hallway behind the desk and stood outside the basement door. "Unlock it." He pointed at the door, stepping up to it as if he wasn't even slightly scared.

The thing down there wasn't physical, Jack wasn't physical, so the chances were that the thing in the basement could hurt Jack in some way. Maybe even kill him for good.

Sam shook her head. "You could die."

Jack smiled. "Sam . . . Been there, done that. I'd have gotten you a postcard but there's never any good ones."

"No." Sam folded her arms across her chest, letting him know that she meant it.

"One way barrier," he said. "I'm going in, I just wanted you to unlock it so I could get back out." Then without waiting for Sam to reply, he stepped through the wood.

Sam rushed to the door, throwing it open so fast it made a loud crash as it slammed into the wall. Jack stood on the other side of the door grinning at her. "Why Sam, I never knew how much you cared." He wiped away a pretend tear and sniffled. "It makes me so warm and fuzzy on the inside."

Sam scowled at him. "You suck."

He just laughed.

Sam sighed and removed the barrier spell, following Jack down the stairs where he found the light switch and flicked the lights on. Sam stayed close behind him as he walked into the centre of the room and looked around. She saw his shoulders drop, as if he was disappointed when nothing happened.

Sam furrowed her brow in frustration as she looked around. Everything felt normal.

There were no dark patches, no shadows.

The air didn't feel tainted.

She didn't feel irrationally scared.

"I swear, it was here!"

"I believe you," Jack stated. Sam looked at his face, his expression seemed troubled and confused. As if he didn't know what was going on, and wasn't sure what to make of what Sam had told him.

"What do you think it was?" she asked, as they headed towards the stairs.

Jack shrugged. "I don't know . . . could have been someone playing mind games with you. Maybe your Vampire isn't as nice as we thought and he likes to mess with people's heads."

"It wasn't him," Sam said surely. "First off, I'm immune to Vampire mind tricks. Secondly, I was in his head and he was freaked out when he saw my Magic."

Jack shrugged again and sighed. "I don't know then. I don't know what it could have been. Maybe it was just some bad energy or something."

"Maybe," Sam said, nodding her head in agreement, while the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that what she saw was more than just some bad energy. What she saw . . . what she felt was something with a consciousness.

It was something that could think.

It was something that could feel.

It was angry.

It was evil.