Free Forfeit Souls (The Ennead Book 1) by Lila Huff Page A

holding up the sweatshirt.
    “So that you’ll blend in… most people don’t walk about barefoot and shirtless in the dead of winter.”
    I just nodded as I stood, still holding the sweatshirt in my hands.
    “Sasha and Carlo are going to be collecting and we’ll be hanging back as observers. I’ll be giving you the commentary and you can ask any questions you want.”
    “Joy. It’s just what I always wanted for Christmas!” I said sarcastically
    “Demons don’t generally celebrate Christian holidays.” Jack laughed loudly. “Besides, even if we did we’ve still got another week or so.”
    I had to snicker at that. I wouldn’t believe it was winter until I saw snow, and there was no snow in this underground fortress that was my tomb.
    “Ok. To get out of the basement, all you have to do is focus on being somewhere else.” Jack said, his smirk growing. “Think about being in the street in front of your house again. Focus on actually being there, but make sure you focus on keeping your clothes… if you forget to keep them on your mind, they’ll burn up.”
    I looked at him sideways, “It would be inconvenient to arrive somewhere without your trousers.” Then I laughed, “Mike?”
    “On a few occasions.” He said with a smile. “But you need to focus.”
    I did as he said and the room burst into flames as the street formed in front of me.
    “Welcome back to the land of the living,” Jack said from beside me.
    The street was dark, but the lamps that illuminated the snow-covered ground weren’t necessary. They were almost a hindrance to me now. I pulled the sweatshirt over my head, it wasn’t necessary either, I was not any colder or warmer with it.
    “What now?” I asked as I looked to the house I had grown up in.
    I wondered how much of a heart attack my mother would have if she looked out of her lace-curtained windows and saw me standing here. The house hadn’t changed; it was still its red brick, with the faded green paint that was beginning to peel off of the two narrow steps that led up to the black front door, which now held a simple, green wreath. It was covered in snow, just as it had been almost every December, back as far as I could remember.
    “Now we meet up with Giancarlo and Aleksandr.” Jack and Gallu were the only ones I had ever heard refer to Carlo, Sasha and Mike by their full names.
    We walked several blocks before we saw them. They were visible, leaning against an alley wall, in the yellow light of a lamp that barely hung by a wire from the building above them. Sasha was reading a newspaper and Carlo had his eyes closed, his head tilted toward the ground. As we approached, Carlo’s eyes opened slightly, they did not illuminate the surrounding area as Gallu’s had. But perhaps that was just an effect of her gilded throne room. It was the only place I had ever seen her.
    “Hail, Hail.” Carlo said apathetically as he stood up from the wall.
    “The gang’s all here.” Sasha finished his statement with a bit more fervor as he closed his paper and threw it to the ground behind him.
    Jack just jerked his head slightly to the side and the two took off down the road ahead of us. They seemed to be intent on their destination, wherever it was, as Jack and I trailed along behind them.
    “How do they know who they’re looking for?”  I asked quietly. There was no noise around us anymore and I was sure that my whispers rang out as clear as a bell. At this point I wasn’t sure they weren’t just looking for two schmucks that were in the wrong place at the wrong time, as I was beginning to think that my own demise was less than fated.
    “Gallu showed them.” And then with a knowing smile that seemed a bit evil in the lamplight, he added, “it will be easier to wait until she shows you.”
    We followed the hunters into the night as the streetlamps behind us flickered and died, sending the lane they lit into darkness.

5. Mother
    -Joellen-
     
    The room was much smaller than