Free Lost Soul (DarkWorld: SkinWalker Book 2) by T.G. Ayer Page A

new eyes. Brave, strong, tenacious. She was no longer that lost, rebellious, stubborn girl I once knew. "Lily, how are you doing?" She knew what I meant.
    "I'm fine. I haven't touched the Synthe since we got out of Niko's lab. I don't need it anymore. I know why I used. I was empty inside. Even though I had Anjelo, being Pariah made me feel hollow, like I was only a shell."
    I understood what she meant. I'd been an Alpha but I'd never felt like it was a title I deserved. I'd felt empty too for a lot of reasons. But I let Lily talk. She needed it.
    "But when I saw what Niko had done, and what your sister had become because they were just like me, I saw a future I didn't want. I knew I needed to deal with how inadequate I felt before it took any more control of me. And then there was you. No matter how nasty I'd been, you still helped me. You didn't care what I'd done. You just went ahead and saved my ass. Like you're doing now with your sister. Forgive me, but there's no way in hell she'd do the same for you, yet there you go, off to save her sorry ass too. And that's what made me wake up too. I lost Anjelo and I gained you, and I don't want anything to ever get between us." She paused, then turned to face me. She took my hands in hers and said, "I accept you as my Alpha."
    That was not what I was expecting.
    I cleared my throat, unsure what I was meant to say to her pledge. But Lily had already stuck her spoon into the ice-cream again and was busy eating. Saved me from concocting a response. "Right then. If you're going to be by my side, then you're going to need to get shooting."
    "Huh?"
    "Guns, Lily. You're going to need to practice your shooting. Now is as good a time as any. Let me just grab you a couple of my practice weapons. A gun, a crossbow, and a few different knives should do it. And a bunch of dead shots."
    "Dead shots?"
    "Yeah dead ammo. So you can shoot, but won't hurt anyone or anything."
    "Okay, fabulous. That's just so cool." Lily bounced up and down on the couch a few times.
    "Do you need to be anywhere tonight?"
    When Lily frowned, I said, "We can start tonight if it's okay with you. I'm also going to teach you how to fight. Just a little. Just enough so if you're ever in a dangerous situation, you can debilitate someone long enough for you to get away."
    I thought of Brand, then. For all my own ability to fight, I'd walked right into Brand's lair and got myself trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey ready for carving. If not for Logan, I would have made a tasty snack for Brand.
    "Oh thank you, Kai. You won't regret it. I'll be the best student you've ever had."
    "Don't get ahead of yourself, Lily. You're the only student I've ever had." Then we both laughed.
     
    ***
     

Chapter 11
    While I packed up, I had to deliberately zone Lily out. She buzzed with so much energy I wanted to tape her mouth shut, tie her up, and leave her in a dark corner. My head ached, my arm ached, my neck ached.
    Purple and blue bruises darkened the skin around the healed ridge of the cut. And dark blue veins were beginning to spread throughout my body again. Sure didn't take long for the poison to reclaim its hold again. Would it be worse in the Greylands? Or better?
    I tried to wipe it out of my mind. Pointless thinking about something I couldn't change. Logan would have to treat me before I left and we'd just have to hope for the best.
    I packed my weapons into my rucksack and Lily and I headed out the door. It was easy to ignore her chirpiness as we strode deeper into the abandoned part of town, beyond the unspoken line between the good part of town and the part where you could lose your life in the blink of an eye. But there were worse things than dying and we had a mission.
    The pace we set wasn't normal. I usually only used my panther speed in the really late parts of the night when the chances of being seen speeding around the streets were nearer to zero. But the part of town we headed for wasn't very populated. You only