Kyle roared an unintelligible word, banishing Kihirin from using the means to manifest here ever again. Then he knelt to look down at the abandoned soul Kihirin had left behind. But before he could touch it, the ball of light changed and took something of a transparent form before him.
It was fleeting, but Katrina saw the form reach to touch Kyle’s face before disappearing entirely.
It was all Katrina could do to choke back the sob in her throat. It wasn’t enough, however, and attracted Kyle’s attention.
Kyle glanced at Katrina. Her cheeks were wet as he came to help her stand. He reached for her arm and righted her. She yelped again as his touch made her aware of her injury. Kyle held her wrist with one hand as he passed his other hand over her wound. It healed instantly.
“Are you all right?”
It was the first time in a long time that Katrina had felt gentleness and genuine warmth in Kyle’s touch. She pulled back to look at him.
Even without a soul, Kyle’s presence was formidable. What must it have been like when he was whole?
“That was her, wasn’t it?” Katrina asked softly. “He wasn’t lying to you. He had her, all this time.”
Kyle nodded absently as his eyes strayed to the empty place where Catrine’s soul had stood for a moment.
“Now that she’s free, she can return to you,” Katrina said, her eyes sparkling. “Sure, she’ll have to be born again and you’ll have to find her again and all that, but she’ll come back to you, I know it! Don’t look so unhappy. This is a wonderful thing!”
Kyle looked up at the heavens. Then he cocked his head to one side and slowly turned to gaze at Katrina. He could sense that she wanted to ask a question. He tried to hide his smile.
Katrina suddenly felt warm - too warm for the winter coat she had on.
“Kyle, um, you wouldn’t really have—” she looked up at him, meeting his pale ethereal eyes “—given your dad Catrine’s soul . . .”
Kyle lifted her chin with a crooked finger.
“. . . if he’d asked for it . . .”
He smiled slightly.
“... would you?”
The heat creeping up her neck was starting to become oppressive. She opened her coat and fanned the collar a moment, trying to cool herself slightly. She felt like she was being slowly strangled.
Kyle didn’t reply. He simply studied her, looking deep into her eyes.
She smiled at him, waiting, but still he said nothing. Not even a hint of a wry smile, no arched, derisive eyebrow. It was a little . . . eerie, and she thought herself pretty well used to eerie by now.
But then Kyle smiled and offered her a graceful half-bow.
She knew it was the only answer he was going to give. She laughed to herself for thinking he would . . . thinking he could have.
Would he?
She met his eyes again, quickly. Pale and sea green. She could see more in them now.
“Once a thief, always a thief,” her mother was fond of saying.
As Kyle gently took her arm, and shifted them both to her home, Katrina tried to silence her mother’s warning in her head.
“Once a demon, always a demon?”
Night Vision
Maria V. Snyder
Sophia started the Honda 250X dirt bike. The roar of the engine cut through the quiet darkness. A perfect September night for a ride, she thought. The air smelled of living green. No moon. No wind.