Free Stone Cold by Devon Monk

thing about Soul Complements is they became closer and closer until they could read each other’s minds. Then they were in each other’s minds more than they were in their own, and in a very short amount of time, they were no longer separate at all. They were joined so tightly they were something else, a combination of two people, two souls.
    Allie and Zay had that kind of closeness. They didn’t seem to mind it, so bully for them. But it was more than a little strange to see the two of them so easily slip into being just one of them.
    I looked over at Terric. He had a kind of wistful expression on his face until he glanced over at me. Then all that emotion locked down tight.
    Yeah. I didn’t want that for us either. Shoving Life and Death in the same little cage would only end up with one or both of us bloody and broken.
    â€œWell,” Dash said. “I’ll contact the Hounds, make sure they have eyes out for Sunny. I’ll let Clyde know about it too, since I’m sure we’d like the current head of the Authority to know what we’re doing, right?”
    Terric nodded. “He should know.”
    â€œGood,” Dash said. “If there’s anything else I can do, please give me a call.”
    Allie and Zayvion opened their eyes at the same time. They had that sort of not-quite-them look on their faces.
    Gave me the creeps.
    Zayvion pushed up to his feet. “Thanks for coming by, Dash. Keep us in the loop. If one of the trails pans out in Spokane, I want to be a part of it.”
    Dash filed the photo and report away into his messenger bag. “I’ll let you know if we get anything on Davy’s location. But I understand you have other more pressing priorities.”
    â€œThank you,” Allie said softly.
    This suddenly seemed like a good time to bail and go find me something to kill before Allie decided she was going to bring up the whole Brandy Scott thing with Zayvion.
    â€œI’m off, then,” I said. “Terric, you going to catch a ride with Dash?”
    Terric frowned. “No. We came in my car.”
    â€œThen let’s go, mate.” I said my good-byes with a wave and a “later,” then tromped out of the house, wanting distance between me and the living, pronto.
    Terric lingered to talk to Zayvion, which left me out by the car smoking for a minute or two.
    Dash strolled up to me. “You okay, Shame?”
    â€œI’ve been worse. Including dead.”
    He leaned against the car, hands in his back pockets, and faced the house the way I was facing the house. “Do you have any idea what Terric’s been doing?” he asked.
    â€œSpecifically?”
    â€œResearch of some kind,” he said.
    â€œHe hasn’t mentioned it. Why?”
    â€œIt’s just . . . he asked me for access into some pretty old texts. He’s been spending a lot of time looking for them. The word
obsessive
comes to mind.”
    â€œMagic, I assume? Old Authority stuff?”
    â€œNot exactly. He wanted into some of Allie’s father’s records.”
    Allie was a sweet woman. Loved her dearly. But her father was a complete dick. He was a cold, hard bastard, who was also Eli’s mentor. He had an obsession with mixing magic and technology. An obsession that had made him a very rich man and had given Eli the kinds of ideas that landed us where we were at—kidnapped Davy, and kidnapped people spelled up with enough magic and tech they were human bombs. Beckstrom had been a big player in the Authority, and yeah, he’d killed my father.
    So in general, I hated the son of a bitch.
    But his magic tech? The disks that could store magic, and the networked conduits underground that could channel magic? Damn. He changed the world with his technology.
    I had no idea why Terric would be digging into that man’s past.
    â€œWhich of his records?” I asked.
    â€œA lot. Notes from decades ago. Tech records. I