Scorched Souls: Web of Hearts and Souls #20

Smashwords Edition

Scorched Souls

Copyright © 2016 Jamie Magee

All Rights Reserved

Edited Amy Donnelly

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.

Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book. This purchase allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the right to resell, distribute, print or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload this book to a file sharing program. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

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EDGE SERIES READING ORDER

Alphas Rise

Dark Lure

Sacred Betrayal 

Risen Lovers

Fall of Kings

Queens Rise

Stolen Son

Disloyal Souls

Aftermath

COMBINED WEB OF HEARTS AND SOULS READING ORDER:

Insight

Embody

Image

Whispers of the Damned

Witness

Vital

Vindicate

Synergy

Enflame

Redefined

Rivulet

Imperial

Blakeshire

Derive

Emanate

Exaltation*

Disavow

The Witches

Revolt

Scorched Souls

*If you are a fan of Adult Paranormal Edge can be read with the Web of Hearts, before of after Exaltation--the stories share the same characters.

INSIGHT READING ORDER:

Insight

Embody

Image

Vital

Vindicate

Enflame

Rivulet

Imperial

Blakeshire (Drake's Story)

Emanate

Exaltation

Disavow

SEE READING ORDER:

Whispers of the Damned 

Witness of a Broken Heart

Synergy of Souls

Redefined Love Affair 

Derive (Aden's Beginning)

A Lovers Revolt 

Scorched Souls

EDGE SERIES READING ORDER

Alphas Rise

Dark Lure

Sacred Betrayal 

Risen Lovers

Fall of Kings

Queens Rise

Stolen Son

Disloyal Souls

Aftermath

CONTEMPORARY NOVELS

Deploy

Disengaged

Impulsion

Friction

FOR THOSE WHO SEARCH FOR WHAT HAS NEVER LEFT THEM...TRUST YOURSELF.

Let hope inspire you, but let not idealism blind you. Don't look back, you can never look back. Don Henley

Chapter One

Life as I knew it was fading. I was vanishing into exaltation with a mystical lavender beauty who’d literally stepped out of thin air.

Her writhing body was under mine, a heaven I could not cling any closer to, no matter how hard I tried.

The scent of ivory and desire infused the room that was growing hotter and hotter with each second that passed. My blood was boiling for this girl, a reflection of the sea of emotions that were coming too fast for me to truly grasp. The delicate feel of her hands tracing my face and the taste of her kiss was nothing short of a blast of adrenaline straight to my thundering heart.

At that moment I was only hers, nothing—no one else was in grasp.

I lost sight of my family, my friends. I forgot I was in a dark dimension—Esterious—that was tormented by evil. I forgot my home was worlds away. Hell, I forgot my own damn name. Aden maybe? In my mind, I was standing between two defining points of existence. Who I am today, and who I was in another realm of the universe. And in-between here and there I could feel threads of lives I’d lived, lovers that had come and gone. Wars I’d fought and won—ones I’d lost, too.

Aden Michaels. Yes, that is my name! Gah, the taste of this girl.

I wanted—needed to burrow deep inside of her and pretend this was the only life I’d ever known...my life with her. The craving—the need—it was impossible to ignore. I knew this didn’t make sense. There was no logic in the fact that not even five minutes ago I didn’t know this girl existed, and now my lips had trailed over her flesh once...twice…now overdue for a third trip—I’d told her I loved her.

I must be insane, love—really Aden? A bit deep way too fast. But damn, this pull to her...so familiar. It was like something that had been off my entire life was finally clicking into place. A ray of light was trying to show me what I was missing. Too bad my pull to her had distracted me from focusing on what that might be right now.

The truth of the matter was I’d say or do anything for more. Whatever drug she was, I aimed to devour it.

Mine.

Reason came before logic, which I hated. Later, I’ll analyze how fucked up this is, later my thoughts growled as I fiercely took her lips once more feeling her hunger match mine. I couldn’t touch this girl without her responding to me, each breath, sound, and gasp drove me forward as I learned...or rather remembered this goddess body of hers.

Remembered. Is that what I was doing? I didn’t know. If it was the memory of another life, would that still make her a stranger? Wait. What if none of this was real? Had I not lived through enough BS? Did I care? Surely I’d earned a wild fantasy or two?

Hell yes, I have! My thoughts roared as my desperation grew and I rocked all my strength into her.

Yep, these clothes have to go. Yesterday.

The rush of welcoming back a sin into my life was twisting my head and heart. I was feeling this lavender goddess under my touch, gripping her far harder than I should as I struggled with my mind that kept tugging me back to the times I’d worshiped another.

I quit doing shit like this almost a year ago. Hook ups, hit it and quit it, one night delight, none for me, thank you very much. I set aside my walk of shame shoes and never looked back. Until now. God was I ready to look back? Ready for that mind-trip slash reality check that I had been avoiding since I was a boy? Probably not.

My life is too dangerous and unpredictable to become tangled with a girl—even if it was for only one night. Who am I kidding; it was never for one night. They, she—all of them always came back to me. Usually, at the wrong time and place.

I’m not a mean guy, at least not on purpose. But my ex hook ups would all argue with my take on how approachable and friendly I could be. They’d say I was a selfish bastard who only cared about myself.

A lie, I’m proud to finish second, thank you very much. On the other hand, they were right. I used them. Not as a one-night kick but as a weapon against happiness I knew I didn’t deserve. I used them to break the right girls heart. At least I thought she was the right girl.

Considering where I was now, what I was doing, that I found a pull just as strong in this lavender beauty, I had to have been wrong in the past, right?

This girl...she’s different, I told myself.

She even tasted different. It was like I’d been surfing the sugar-free isle all my life and someone decided to pour a bucket of honey on me. So damn primal, so addicting. Natural.

I’d used my gift of sight, the ability to see into the mind of the living and dead using enough girls’ minds to know the game.

This lavender angel was not playing one. At least not the same juvenile one I’d always been roped into in the past. She was on an entirely new playground. Different city, who am I kidding—a different universe.

More times than not when girls slid me ‘the look’ they’d already stacked their assumptions and molded me into something I wasn’t. Some saw me as the bad boy drummer who was going to give them a memory or two. Others saw a scholar who would drive them mad with my maturity and deep mind—a true romantic as it were.

All of that was surface bullshit that had nothing to do with who I was. Or what haunted me.

Much less what I was hunting.

Depending on who you talked to, I was either the sweet twin or the bad one, the safe bet or the dare. One thing that was always sure was I’d always been the available one. Draven had never been on the market; Charlie had his heart since we all were in diapers. Supply and demand had always been in my favor. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how I chose to look at it.

I’d been clutching the negative side of it for a bit. Getting my social life down to pretty much zilch had been a priority for me over the last few years, more so the last year. I knew my brother and me—along with Charlie and Madison—were going to be hittin’ the exit door on the dimension we were raised in, and making our way to a less haunted one.

It’s not like you can go around saying shit like that. They’d lock us in the nut house for sure. Not that we couldn’t get out of it, but still. It was the principle of the matter. We wanted to slowly fade away; the way most teen circles do right after graduation. Remembered well, not badly.

Beyond my exit plan, it had become abundantly clear to me that I was a tormented soul. Haunted day in and out. A dilemma that was getting worse, not better. Almost like hell itself dared me to leave its gates the way we’d all planned to do for years.

I’d never known life without haunts. They weren’t all bad. I had no prejudice. They never really inflicted pain, only nudges here or there, maybe tossing something across the room. Most of those uproars happened when I was provoking them, or trying to help them when they didn’t want help.

Well, at least that was all they did until recently. I swear every time I even looked at a girl something would happen. If I tried to go out, my truck tires would be flat, my tank would be empty, or my keys would vanish. If I made it past all that nonsense and found a hook up all hell would break loose. Lights would turn off and on, the sound of a violin would cry out, or the room would turn frigid. The last time, the girl with me was actually pulled from under me and tossed on the floor.

Yeah, that was a hard one to explain. But luckily, not only was she not a flake, but more so, the coolest girls I’ve ever met, Raylen Scorch. The girl. At least she was...

My intuition has always been a strong weapon of mine, almost as strong as my ability to see. I knew that night that if I could not get my head right when I was with Raylen, a girl who had always been my anchor—sanity, there was no way I could deal with the sick guilt that slammed into me when I was with random girls anymore. I took it as a sign I needed to focus on getting the hell out of dodge.

I almost died today.

In fact, I’m sure I did. A few stabs in the gut in a secret, dark palace passageway was almost a poetic way for me to go. And not just because I was defending one of my friends—trying to unravel a warped fate that was hunting us all—the common script for my life. It was fitting because I was sure lifetime after lifetime I’d died the same way. In a different place, with a different weapon, but the same way, for the same reasons.

I survived this time, and I was sure I knew why. For once, the warriors needed in this war, the ones who are meant to rise and end the sick reign of the dark Escorts are aware, and they are close. Some say they’re too close—we are too close—but as far as I’m concerned they can suck it. They were not the ones who almost hit the bench in this war again.

Landen Chambers, the dimension of Chara’s true golden boy; a healer, seer, traveler—warrior not to be crossed for it’s the calm ones you really need to watch—saved my ass today. I don’t know how he knew I was struggling, how he found me. But he did. And I’m still here.

Coming that close to lights out, only to cross the line into an unknown world that you’ve faced your entire life would make anyone pause—then thirst to feel any sense at all. Close calls have a knack for reminding you that there’s a clock ticking above your head, and no one knows when it will stop, much less what will happen when it does.

Dealing with those twisted emotions, worrying about my friends that were all scattering in different directions, had only added to the stress and the need for a release. I was craving a jolt of life and then...she appeared.

The taste of her on my lips was a mindgasm all on its own. The willful, rational side of my head was trying to make sense of what I knew and what I thought I knew about the course of time I was on now.

I was sure I’d seen her face in my dying moments. The death I had scarcely escaped. She wasn’t there, no. But the one I was with...he showed her to me. Didn’t he? I didn’t have time to think about the dying visions I had, not right that second, at least.

I was far from home. I was in a world where nothing was what it seemed. Death was promised. Fates were not only destined but so intertwined that one misstep could bring down an entire generation—change the course of humanity for all of time.

Mine, my thoughts roared once more as she stopped our kiss, held my face in the palm of her hands and looked deeply into me. There was nothing sexier than a woman opening her mind and asking you to waltz right on in. The invitation meant that you got what you saw, the good and the bad. The pain and the glory. I’ll show you my demons if you show me yours...

She was mine.

I had been awash in this ecstasy before, tasted this, felt this. No, I wasn’t lying when I told her I loved her moments before. At least, I loved her in the past. When I was sure she was made of me.

The ugly truth of the matter was those memories—the life she was showing me that was flooding my senses—belonged to a guy that wasn’t me anymore. Experience had changed me. Lifetimes had influenced me. Darkness had somehow tainted me. Logic had become a curse.

I wanted to feel shameful guilt for how drastically I’d changed since I last knew her. For how confused I was, how starved I felt. But that was the way of it; the only thing unchanging was death. I’d lived, therefore, I’d changed.

I wasn’t the only one. She wasn’t the same either. I felt how her gaze and touch were no longer timid like they were in my memories. I saw it. When I looked into her, I saw glimpses of her wars, endless lives she’d walked through in worlds I could not begin to understand in my current state of mind.

With each second that passed, the memories I had of her grew, and they were stronger—like I’d lived them moments ago.

I never take what’s not mine. But I damn sure possess what is—I wanted to own every inch of her.

My lips melted with hers, craving the taste of her tongue. When I felt her open for me and the sear of her kiss, my mind was made up. The paranormal side of us could be sorted later. Right now, our bodies and emotions had to be sated.

I’d already made quick work of ditching the corset she was wearing and was aiming to do away with the rest of her otherworldly clothes. My lips broke from hers, then my gaze locked on hers—green to blue. It was her chance to stop me.

She didn’t take it.

My hand reached for her waist to jerk down her leather bottoms. She hissed through a smile as she lifted her hips to help me, then greedily moved her hands over my chest.

I locked hard onto her gaze, devouring all that she was showing me in her mind—the last time we were alone like this, how tender and in love we were with each other. It was a mind trip to see it one way, but feel it another. I knew from the craving and urgency in her touch she didn’t want me to be tender tonight.

Not an issue.

Fierce little witchling, I growled just before I captured her lips once more, feeding into the need. We were in an equal battle to possess the other.

All at once, she tensed. I hesitated then met her eyes wondering what I’d misread. It was then I knew something was wrong. Moments ago her eyes were sky blue, a color that would make you swear she was an angel, but right then they were flooding with darkness.

I was scared—not for me, but for her.

In a beat, I was cradling her. She began to tremble, and she was turning pale. I felt her fading.

Sky?

What the hell have I done...

Chapter Two

Panic slammed into me. There was no way in hell I was taking this last blow life was swinging at me lying down. No. I did not find her, feel this, only to lose her.

Take—take—me home, she struggled to say. My mother.

Home? Where the hell was home? The other universe? There? How was I supposed to do that?

It didn’t matter that her body and mind were shutting down or hurting her—she noticed my furious, confused state and gripped my neck pulling me to look into her mind.

I saw it then. It was a place I wasn’t completely a stranger to. I’d been there days before. I’d watched Charlie face off with this woman Sky was showing me in the middle of the street in the heart of New Orleans.

Recently, we’d all learned that if we had been to a place, or even if we could see a place in another’s thoughts, we could move there body and soul. I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t have much practice with using this gift, and zero when it came to moving someone with me.

Sky gritted out, Mother.

For some reason, she was calling the witch named Saige her mother, a woman who was very much alive and well when I saw her days before. How was Sky her daughter? All that I had seen in Sky’s mind, granted I’d been a bit distracted, was of a world that was hard to fathom, but it was not New Orleans. That much I knew to be true.

I grunted a curse. I knew Austin, the guy who had connected my friends and me to all these new dimensions, was all but strapped to the dimension of Chara. All the travelers from there were due to attend some ascension the dimension was going through—it was imperative that Austin was close to his soul mate as it occurred.

Seriously, how in the hell was Saige Sky’s mother? The logic in me would not let this anomaly slip by, even though I was in a state of panic.

At first, I thought Sky was a spirit, a manifestation of my wildest fantasies. But that was before I looked into her mind. Her thoughts told me I was once an elite member of The Selected. I watched Sky fall from the heavens and I pulled her from an emerald sea—I held her for three days, then lost her for lifetimes. Well, I’d lived lifetimes. From what I saw in her mind, she’d only lived one, a super long one—as a Shadowed Soul.

Any mother that she had in this dark universe should not be alive and well in New Orleans. Right?

Frankly, I didn’t care what Sky called Saige. I’d give this girl the moon if that were what it took to keep her here.

I had more than one issue; for one I couldn’t move her with my jacked up supernatural gifts, and two, I wasn’t even in the same dimension as New Orleans. Three, I wasn’t positive I could navigate through the string, the passageway between dimensions, alone.

I had to think—and fast.

Madison came to mind; she and Drake were just down the hall. I’m sure one of them could move her or help me figure out how. Come to think of it Drake Blakeshire did know how to travel to different dimensions.

Sky pushed me away, her way of telling me to find our way there. When I stepped off the bed I nearly knocked down the circle of candles on the floor—the ones that had appeared after a spell Preston, a child from Chara, and Zander, a close friend of Drake’s, laid