Soul Thief (Dark Souls) Read Online Free PDF

emotion, if only for a brief lapse of time.”
    Disappointment clouded her features. “And what about your own soul? How can you do these things and live with yourself?”
    He released the strand he held. “I don’t have a soul. Not anymore.” His old soul now dwelled in her, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.
    She parted her lips to question him further, but he cut her off. “Enough about me. I don’t even know your name.”
    “It’s Angelica. Angelica Paxton. But everyone calls me Angie. Everyone except my mom,” she tagged on after a brief pause.
    He examined her face—the stubborn tilt of her jaw, the pale, rosy skin stretching over her cheekbones, the velvet fullness of her bottom lip. “And why did you come back, Angie, after I specifically told you to leave?” What he really wanted to know was how she’d resisted his suggestion.
    She trapped the very lip he’d been contemplating between her teeth. When she released it, it gleamed pink with moisture. “I thought you needed my help. I was going to offer you some counseling.”
    A wry grin tugged at his mouth. “Do I look unstable to you?”
    “Do you really want me to answer that?” With a wobbly smile, she dug into her purse. Seconds later, she handed him a brochure. “I volunteer for an organization called Reach. It’s a halfway house, a suicide hotline and a counseling clinic all wrapped up in one. The goal is to get kids off the streets, reform them and make them productive members of society.”
    Laughter echoed from his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed or even experienced amusement. “I told you I’m nearly two centuries old. I don’t think I qualify as a kid anymore.”
    “Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that? Anyhow, I had a back-up plan.”
    “Really, what’s that?”
    “If you didn’t want to get help for yourself, I figured I could ask you to volunteer. With those hypnotic abilities of yours, think of the difference you could make. No more gangs. No more drugs or prostitution. No more delinquents on the streets.” Her face lit up like a beacon, guiding him toward a redemption he’d never wanted and certainly didn’t deserve. “You, Adrian, could change the world.”
    “And why would I want to do that, when it’s perfectly corrupt as it is?”
    The expression on her face was so guileless, so open and trusting. “Because you cared enough to save me. And because I sense a spark of goodness in you.”
    “You sensed a spark of goodness in those thugs who attacked you, too. Everyone deserves a second chance, right?”
    “Yeah.” She stroked his arm, sending a current of energy rippling over his flesh. “Even you.”
    Warmth spread from her innocent touch, heating his blood. The way she looked at him, with hope and a glint of fascination, made him want to believe that she was right, that even a soulless creature like him could be saved.
    “Didn’t you say you were part angel?” she asked.
    “Fallen angel. They’re not the good guys. Quite the opposite.”
    “Still, they were good once.”
    He saw her clearly then. This girl was an idealist, and yet he sensed a growing shadow within her, one she fought with every breath to contain. She needed to believe good outweighed evil, that hope burned eternal. Without hope, she would wither away and die.
    “Why don’t you try to get some rest?” He indicated the plush blue sofa by the wall with a jerk of his head. “We’re going to be here a while.”
    He couldn’t risk going back out until he was convinced Kyros and his soldiers had retreated. Outside, lightning slashed the black velvet sky, and rain began to fall in sheets to curtain the windows.
    If the Kleptopsychs were still searching for them, they wouldn’t keep at it for long. The rain would eventually force them to return to the catacombs.
    Angie obediently made her way to the sofa and lowered her body onto it. Whether she did so because his power took hold or simply because she