Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 36

The room filled with an awkward silence after Sam left. Jamie sat on his chair and stared down at the book he was supposed to be reading, but he barely paid any attention to the words. He could feel Jack watching him, even without looking up.

What can you talk to a Ghost about? he thought to himself, feeling as though he should be the one to break the silence, since it seemed as though Jack wasn't going to do it.

"So . . . um . . . is there really a heaven?"

Jack simply stared at him like he was asking the strangest thing that he could have possibly thought of. "How the fuck would I know? I'm not there, am I?"

"I suppose not."

"I know there's a Limbo. I've been there. Technically still am."

"Okay, so what's Limbo like?" Jamie asked.

"Boring," Jack said vaguely, as he stared out the window, chin resting on his fist.

"That's it? It's just boring?"

Jack nodded. "Speaking of which, I have stuff to do. So when Sam comes back, just tell her I had to go."

"O—" Before Jamie had time to finish saying 'Okay' Jack vanished into thin air.

Jamie sat alone in the attic for countless moments, before Sam finally came back up the stairs.

Sam looked at the empty place where Jack had been when she'd left, then at Jamie. "Where did Jack go?" she asked.

"Oh, he said he had some things he needed to do. He just left about a minute ago."

Sam sighed. "Okay." Jamie watched her as she walked over to him. She leaned over his shoulder to peer at the page he had been staring at. His stomach flipped, his breath momentarily stuck in his throat as her hair brushed against his cheek. "Find anything useful?" she asked coolly, as if his proximity didn't affect her at all.

"Not sure," he said, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "All the words started to blur together about an hour ago."

Sam nodded her head as she stepped away from him. "We'll just work with what we know so far, and maybe we'll figure out some more stuff later."

The book made a thud as Jamie closed it. "Alright . . . what are we doing now?" he asked, while hoping she wouldn't tell him it was time for him to leave.

Sam walked over to one of the shelving units on the far side of the attic and rummaged through it. She took some jars and what looked like stones and plants off the shelf. "We're going to your house to make it safer for you to be there."

  Jamie stood and walked over to Sam. "Why does it need to be made safer?"

  Sam looked at him as if he was asking a question to which the answer was extremely obvious. "Um . . . because a whole load of Vampire Hunters know where you live and will probably come back for you when you least expect it."

 "Oh . . . " Now he felt stupid for asking. " . . . right."

She opened the lids of all the jars and started to pull apart the plants, putting even amounts of each into all of the jars, then she placed a stone in each one before she twisted the lids back on and carefully placed them into a bag.

"How many times in your life have you used a weapon?" Sam asked, as she walked over to some wooden chests in the corner of the room.

"Not many . . . " Jamie said slowly, not sure why she was asking about weapons. "Not at all really, I've never needed a weapon. I mean, I've been in a few fights, but I just use what I've got, and anything that's lying around. Why, how many times have you used a weapon?"

"I don't really need weapons. I carry a dagger around with me, but that's just because Jack insisted. I've never had to use it before. I've got enough strength to get by without having to."

"Okay, now why are you asking about weapons?"

"Just wondering if you knew how to use them if you needed to or if I needed to teach you how to sword fight or anything."

Jamie's head was immediately filled with the image of Sam, a girl who couldn't have weighed more than one hundred pounds soaking wet, wielding a sword to fight off monsters. He laughed. "You know how to sword fight?"

"Yes," Sam said defensively. "Jack taught me. He taught me how to use all kinds of weapons. Not that I need to, but it's a 'just in case' sort of thing."

"Um . . . okay. Should I be afraid?" Jamie asked with a smile.

"You mean of me killing you? . . . No. But not because I can't, because I don't feel like it. If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead before you could blink."

"Wow . . . thanks," Jamie said sarcastically.

Sam laughed. "I said I wasn't gonna kill you . . . Chillax."

Jamie stared at her for a moment. It was difficult to picture her using a weapon to fight someone off without laughing . . . it was difficult to picture Sam fighting at all. When he looked at her he didn't see someone with enough Power to burn him alive without so much as blinking, he simply saw a human girl. Even though he knew she wasn't human, it was difficult for him to think of her as anything but.

He sighed to himself. "So what are we going to do once we get to my house?"

Sam kneeled down on the floor, opened the wooden chest and pulled out three daggers. She placed two of them in the bag with the jars she had taken from the shelves, and held the third one out to Jamie. "You keep this one on you, leave one in your bedroom, under your pillow or somewhere you have easy access to it, and keep the other in whatever room you spend most of your time. Again, leave it somewhere you'll be able to get to quickly if you need to."

Jamie stared uneasily at the dagger she was holding out to him. "I told you I don't need weapons."

She stood and walked over to Jamie, then she took his hand in hers and placed the hilt of the dagger in the palm of his hand. "Just in case you do."

She walked away from him, leaving him holding the blade. At least it's sheathed, he thought as he tucked it into his belt. Now I just have to be careful not to stab myself.

"I've got some spell jars we can bury around your house," Sam said as she picked her bag up off the floor and pulled the strap up to her shoulder. "They'll keep people away. And I can place some barrier runes around your house so that once people get to a certain place they can't get any closer without an invitation from you."

"And this Magic stuff, it will actually work?"

Sam gave Jamie a sideways glance. "You're walking around in the sunlight, and you're unburned, and you're still questioning my Magic?"

Jamie smiled guiltily. "Sorry. I just want to make sure."

"Well be sure," Sam said, holding her head high, her eyes burning bright with Power and confidence. "My Magic never fails."