Chapter Twenty

Sasha spent the next week keeping as busy as possible, just for the sole purpose of avoiding Razor. Because having a little chat with him about what had gone down in the apartment that night was the last thing she wanted right now. He’d seen right past her lies, and they both knew it.

She didn’t know if she had the strength to face him and continue to lie and hide her feelings. Or continue to hurt him with this…this thing inside her that made it so damn difficult to let anyone close. Although it wasn’t just him. Sasha had been pushing away, lashing out, at anyone who dared try to get close enough to Sasha’s heart for centuries. Sael, Locke, and Archer were the exception. They had somehow slipped through, and Sasha was thankful. She wished she could just let Razor in without getting hurt, but how? It was getting more difficult to pull off the I-don’t-give-a-shit act.

Sadly, no matter what she seemed to do—getting more involved on the streets, training harder with Sael, working with Archer and Locke—the thoughts and feelings she didn’t want to admit she had for Razor wouldn’t leave her alone.

But she stubbornly continued to find ways to avoid him. If that meant she was following up with some street kids while also collecting her souls, well, too bad. Luckily, since taking on the investigation, Xavier had made sure that the majority of her soul collections were given to Locke and Archer so she could focus on work. But she still got one every once in a while.

On the fifth day of ignoring Razor, she got a Call to collect a soul from Sector Three. Her streets, her turf. She sighed, transporting to where the soul was waiting for her.

She appeared in a tiny bedroom with a mattress on the floor serving as the only furniture. A body was splayed across the mattress, but there wasn’t much left of the body to identify. It was becoming too common of a problem. This body wasn’t all the way melted like the previous deaths were. Kneeling next to the bed with arms around what was left of the body was a small, thin girl. She was crying, and as Sasha stepped closer, she became familiar.

“Hailie?” Sasha asked tentatively.

The girl didn’t move, tears streaking down her dirty face. Hailie was just as filthy as the last time Sasha had seen her, though her clothes were different. She looked absolutely miserable, and her scratchy voice confirmed it. “She-she’s…my sister is…” Her voice broke on a sob.

Sasha was instantly there, putting a light hand on Hailie’s back, rubbing in small circles. Nothing she could do would ease the pain, but she couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. “What happened?”

After hiccupping and wiping tears and snot from her face, the girl attempted speech again. Her gaze stayed firmly on the messy body she clung to. “She found one of the old packages of the special drugs Maverick gave me to sell. I told her not to, but she took the drug anyway. I said I was going to get in trouble, but then…something happened to her. She fell to the floor and couldn’t stop shaking. Then she started to rip at her skin. She clawed half her arm off…then she tried to attack me.”

Finally moving, Hailie lifted her arms enough for Sasha to take in the long sleeves that had been shredded away from her arms, and the messy bite marks that ran along almost every visible inch of her skin.

“I tried to push her away,” Hailie mumbled, “and then she just stopped. Shook a lot more while some of her body, like, melted. She didn’t move again.”

Sasha hugged the girl with one arm, her eyes closed as she digested everything. “Oh, Hailie…I’m so sorry.”

Hailie leaned on her, shoulders shaking weakly. “I don’t know what to do…she was all I had left. Maybe Castor will—”

Suddenly stiff, Hailie pushed Sasha away and stumbled back herself. Her eyes were wide, fearful, as she looked around. “I’m not supposed to talk to you. Go away.”

The anger from nowhere made Sasha frown. “Of course you can talk to me. It’s okay.”

Hailie shook her head sharply. “No, I can’t.”

Sasha’s brow furrowed in concern. “Maverick?”

Hailie shook her head. “You need to go. Please…” Her voice came out barely a whisper, and then the girl bolted out of the room.

Deeply troubled, Sasha silently collected the soul while anger grew within her. It was clear that Castor was up to no good, as usual. But even worse was the sickening dread that came with the knowledge that none of the kids he was supposed to be protecting were actually safe.

She needed to tell Razor about this, but she was afraid of what would happen the next time they were face to face. At some point, she would suck it up and talk to him. Until then, she would go headfirst into this lead and talk to more of the kids in her Sector to find out everything she could. Then she would bring it all to Razor.

Just not today.