Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Book 2 - Chapter 2

Jamie stared at himself in the mirror for a moment; an image in the corner of his eye had caught him off guard as he'd walked past. But as he stared at the mirror the only thing he saw was his own reflection, and behind him the reflection of the Vampire Hunter.

She was watching him with a slight gleam of curiosity in her expression. Their eyes met in the reflection and she smiled at him seductively, still pretending that she wasn't here to kill him. Jamie let his lids drift shut and sighed before turning to face her. "So how do you want to do this?"

The woman stared at him, one eyebrow raised in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Jamie sighed with impatience; he was hoping to get this over and done with as soon as he possibly could. The longer he stayed alive, the more apprehension he felt at the thought of dying. "Look . . . I know what you are, you know what I am, so let's just cut to the chase. I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible."

"What I am?" the woman asked incredulously.

"I'm a Vampire," he said. "And you're a Hunter, I can smell it on you."

"You knew that and you still brought me here? That explains why you didn't play along anyway. When you didn't ask my name I just thought you were really really hungry," she said while laughing nervously. She looked around as if she thought she had walked into some kind of trap. "It's Lucy by the way, and I'm not alone! There's a group of us!" She spoke loudly as if trying to make sure anyone hiding would hear.

"We're alone," Jamie stated. "I'm the only one, and this isn't a trap. I brought you here so you could kill me."

Lucy's eyes widened as she stared at him. "What? You want me to kill you?"

"Yes."

Lucy cocked her head to the side and gazed at him in confusion, as if she'd never expected a Vampire to say anything like that. "Why? I mean, were you just Turned or something? Or is it that you've been alive too long?"

"Neither," Jamie replied. "I did something bad, something for which the only acceptable punishment is death, so I need you to kill me."

"I can't," she said, shaking her head. "I'm just the bait, I don't do the killing."

"Are you trained?" Jamie asked. "Surely they wouldn't send you in here completely defenceless."

"I took a potion," she said, as she slowly took a step away from him. "My blood is poison to you."

Jamie stepped towards her. "What if my plan wasn't to drain you, but to kill you? There are a lot of ways I could do it you know?"

"You wouldn't—"

"I could stab you, break your neck, rip your heart out with my bare hand, did you know that there's a moment before your body falls that your brain registers the fact that you're dead? It's quite horrible."

"Stop it," she said as she backed away from him. Jamie could smell the fear emanating from her.

He didn't back down, instead he advanced. "I could feed you my blood and watch that poison in your veins burn you up from the inside . . . that might be amusing for me."

The woman stopped so suddenly Jamie froze in surprise. "You won't hurt me," she said with a smug smile. "I know that because you're so desperate to be killed for what you did wrong. A monster with a conscience isn't going to do anything too bad."

"Tonight I killed a girl for no reason!" Jamie yelled. He took a deep breath to try calm himself but it was no use. His head was frantic as he naturally tried to remember, and then his desperation exploded when he hit the same mental block. "I don't even remember it!"

"Okay, just—"

"How could I not remember killing her?"

"Calm down!"

"How can I not remember? It's not like she was nothing, she mattered, and now she's dead because I killed her and I don't even know why!"

"It's what you are!" Jamie stared at the woman as she spoke. "It's what your kind does. You kill and you destroy and you don't care!"

"But I—"

"No!" she interrupted, taking a step towards him with an expression of unadulterated fury. "You don't remember it because it's not important to you, killing isn't your second nature, it's your first and only nature! You and your kind . . . you're all just monsters!"

"Then kill me," Jamie whispered.

Lucy considered him for a moment, then a slow smile crept onto her face. "This girl you killed, did you love her?"

Jamie nodded his head. "Yes."

"And you killed her?"

Jamie couldn't bring himself to speak so instead he simply nodded.

"Does it hurt? Is your heart broken? Are you suffering?"

"Yes."

Lucy leaned forward, invading his personal space before saying, "Good." She shoved past him and walked towards the door.

"If nothing else," he said, before she could walk out of the house, "do it for the money."

"What?" Lucy turned to face him, her expression half amused, half curious. Humans are all the same, Jamie thought, they all think they're better than everything until you offer them money or something they desire. "You'd pay me to kill you?" She paused as she seemed to consider it, then asked, "How much?"

Jamie shook his head. "A man named Kraven wants me dead. I'm worth about a million. If you don't believe me then do whatever you need to do to check it out."

Lucy stood there and looked at him for a moment as if trying to assess his sincerity. Then after a minute said, "Wait here, I'll be back in a couple of minutes . . . if you're telling the truth."