Hunting a Soul by Viola Grace Page A

crime. Three women were sliced to pieces in his immediate vicinity, but all of his family members said that he wasn’t violent and his last mental scans confirmed it. Our guess is that he saw the death of his loved ones and killed himself.”
    There was a soul wrapped in darkness, and it was struggling. Lee looked around and frowned. “Is there any way you can lock me in here with the bodies? Alone, I mean. Not with N’ran.”
    “No. I can’t leave you here with him. What are you going to do?”
    She looked at N’ran. “I am trying to separate the shadow from his victim.”
    “His victim is already dead.”
    “Dead and trapped. The shadow seems to be trying to ride the soul that belongs to the body, out of the body.”
    “Can’t you just do it now?”
    Lee shivered. “I can try.”
    She reached into the body and pulled on the souls, separating them as she removed them from their prison.
    The victim was fighting her, screaming and trying to get away. It took all her effort to control him, which meant that the shadow didn’t have any difficulty in escaping her grip and going in pursuit of its next host.
    With a quick gesture, she released the soul and she turned to N’ran. He was smiling, and there was a grey shadow across his eyes. “This body is amazing. Thank you.”
    Lee reached for the shadow again and gripped it tightly.
    “What do you think you are doing, little girl? You can’t fight the man who loves you.”
    Lee was thrown back as N’ran struck her. She curled to land on one side, keeping Krix safe.
    The sergeant stared from one of them to the other, but N’ran headed up the steps and was out of their sight in seconds.
    “What just happened?”
    “I just gave a mass murderer the best weapon he could have. I am only hoping that N’ran is still in there. This is not going to be easy.”
     

Chapter Nine
     
     
    She reached into the pouch she was carrying on her hip, and she opened the sling for Krix. “Come on, sweetie. We have to stop something horrible from happening.”
    The trail the soul left was dark and thick. To Lee’s amazement, she realised that she still had a grip on him. She used that link to run after him through the city streets and out onto the rocky dunes outside the elegant and civilized structures.
    Krix was on her back in the sling, and Lee followed the footprints as well as the waves of thick darkness that she was gathering and holding tight.
    Night was fully upon the ground, and she slowed down as the shadows took over and the moons gave her just enough light to see the footprints disappear.
    The peacekeepers didn’t follow her, because no crimes had been committed aside from the domestic assault and that could be put down to cultural differences. It was the only reason that the captain could think off to hold off pursuit for a few hours. If he injured one citizen, they would come after him with everything they had.
    The first slash came out of the darkness and opened the front of her suit. “You know, I thought you would be better at this by now, Leadra. I came for you, but you just wouldn’t stop looking at him with those huge, sad eyes. He couldn’t do it, so I took him to the bridge. We could have continued to have fun, otherwise.”
    She winced and looked back into the shadows where the monstrous figure of N’ran had disappeared. She had heard him moving, but it was hard to see more than the flash of his teeth in the darkness.
    Her own blood was soaking into the suit, but Krix healed her quickly. She touched the stone that Resicor had given her and willed it to show her some light.
    Nothing.
    Another strike left shreds on her suit, and Lee tumbled to the ground. She lay face down. N’ran slid his hand into her hair and pulled her upward, pressing against her neck with sharp talons. “You didn’t put up a fight. I am so disappointed.”
    N’ran was in the morphed form that his kind saved for battle. He was taller, stronger, wider and far more dangerous than his