Free A Toiling Darkness by Jaliza Burwell

the spell and the impact of the
blade. My body moved on its own, knowing the spell could
potentially kill Kalen and I couldn’t let that happen just yet.
    The spell sent me backwards, into Kalen’s
arms. All my senses went on the fritz, blinking in and out. I knew
Kalen yelled my name. I knew a woman screamed. And someone died. I
just didn’t hear or see any of it. My body went cold, filling to
the top with thousands of screaming torturous souls. Each one of
them begging for salvation and crying out in vain.
    Save us.
    Help me.
    Save us. Help me. Save us. Help me. Save us.
Help me.
    Save us. Save us. Save us.
    Help us.
    Their begging drowned me. A part of me
wanted to reach out and help them. Instead I found my inner
strength and pulled at it, tugging as the souls tried to tear it
away from me.
    No. I won’t do it. I refuse.
    I screamed, not out of pain, but out of
anger. This was my body. There was no room for them.
    None.
    It took a good amount of power. I collected
it all within me, and then used it to push all those damned souls
out.
    They put themselves in that situation, doing
things in life and being punished for it afterwards. They had no
right to take their suffering out on me. I have my own suffering to
deal with. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be just like them.
    Just not today.
    I felt each soul leave from every pore in my
body as I casted them out. It was like forcing them through a pasta
machine. Slowly, my senses cleared up enough to know I was on the
ground and Kalen was above me, shirtless.
    Nice.
    “Where’s your shirt?” I coughed, hacking out
another soul, distracted by all the hard ridges of his body. I
followed them from his collarbone, down the defined lines to his
abs and then to his hips. All the delicious looking muscles were
bunched together as he leaned over me. He didn’t even know the kind
of affect he was having on me. I was still a woman after all. He
was so damn oblivious.
    Blood was splattered on his shoulders,
slowly dripping down his chest. I checked again. No wounds.
Good.
    “Stopping the bleeding.”
    I tore my eyes from his chest to look at his
face. He was in freak-out mode. His face pale, eyes big and mouth
tight. Why?
    I tried to sit up, only to be pushed down
again.
    “Stay down,” he growled and put more
pressure on my stomach. I looked down and realized he thought I was
going to bleed out or something. He was genuinely scared for me. I
stared at him, trying to figure out why. Where was his foundation
for this fear?
    I finally gave him a genuine smile, the
muscles around my mouth confused at the new way it was being used.
“No worries, doc. I’ll be fine.” I grabbed his arm and tried to get
him to move, but he wouldn’t budge. The wound didn’t even hurt. I
healed fast, faster than most beings. It made that simple knife
useless. There was no way it was even going to put my life in
jeopardy. To a human, this wound was on par with being just a
scratch, maybe a really bad paper cut. Definitely not life
threatening.
    “You were stabbed, you’re not fine.”
    “Kalen.” My voice was cold now. If he didn’t
move his shirt, it was going to become part of my body. The last
thing I wanted was to walk around with part of a shirt embedded
inside of me. “Move your hand.”
    He glanced at me before looking back at
where the wound was. Slowly he drew his hand away, taking his
blood-soaked shirt with him. The shirt even made a sloshing wet
noise. Ick.
    Kalen drew in a breath. “Wha-how?”
    “I’m not human, remember?” I said, feeling
tired. Kicking out all those souls took a whole lot of power and
now I was using the rest to heal myself. “I’m harder to kill than
even you.”
    Kalen was speechless, not sure how to react.
I just stood up, looking around the alley. Two men laid dead on the
ground, the third was gone. Their boss-man was not one of the guys
on the ground, meaning more would probably attack later on, after
regrouping and a little more planning than just