Immortal Souls (The Immortal Souls: Magic & Chaos)

Chapter 25

It was the last Saturday before school was due to start, which meant that Sam had to spend most of the day dragging herself around the mall, searching for all of the back-to-school necessities.

Like every year before, Jack was supposed to accompany her, to keep her amused and awake while she wandered through the stores. But before she left the house, he'd claimed that there were 'things' he needed to do. And he hadn't stuck around for long enough to tell her what exactly those things were.

As a Ghost, she would have assumed that he didn't have anything better to do than to spend all of his time haunting her. It wasn't as though he had any friends to hang out with and it wasn't like he had any physical needs. So as she wandered lifelessly through the mall Sam found herself unable to do anything but wonder what exactly Jack was doing right now.

With a sigh, she blinked hard and gazed around. In her dazed state she had walked right past the book store. Without pretending she was lost—or pausing to put on an act for the people around who were sure to stare at her as if she were an idiot—she turned around sharply, startling the woman who had been walking near her, and walked back the way she came.

She stepped into the book store, and walked straight towards the stationary section, where she picked up some pens, notebooks, pencils and other school stuff such as highlighter pens and Post-Its.

Once she had picked up pretty much all of the items she needed and placed them in her shopping basket, she wandered over to the fiction isles where she spent countless moments staring at the rainbow of book covers.

It wasn't as though she was looking for anything in particular, and she already had more than enough books to read at home, but it just didn't feel right to be inside a book store and not browse through the actual books.

Sam had spent maybe five minutes staring at the books with barely focused eyes, when her vision became suddenly clear and her senses alert as though someone had just come up behind her and given her an injection of caffeine.

The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as her senses registered the presence of another non-human. Without drawing attention to herself—because she had yet to find out if the other presence was here for her, or was just here—she walked at a slow pace beside the shelves. Pretending as though she was scanning the covers with little interest, before she sighed and turned towards the register.

It was when the presence behind her didn't dim as she moved that she knew for a fact whoever—whatever—it was, was following her. She took a breath, and held her head high as she joined the line and waited for her turn to pay. Knowing that no matter who, or what it was, they wouldn't risk exposure by attacking her in a place as populated as this.

She paid for her things and made her way out of the store, pausing for a moment by the glass door to check the reflection of the room behind her.

When she noticed him she sighed in both relief and annoyance.

Stupid Vampires, she thought irritably as she made her way out the door.

Knowing that the only thing following her was a Vampire who couldn't take a hint calmed her down considerably and she decided to continue shopping as she had planned, trying as best she could to pretend that she couldn't see him following her around, hoping that eventually he'd get bored and go home.

And hopefully he'd leave before she did, because one of the things she wanted to get while she was out was some new underwear, and no way was she getting those with some pervy guy watching her like a creep.

Although after what she'd originally thought had been stalking her, his presence didn't irritate her all that much. Earlier she'd felt strange being out alone, it had been a long time since she'd left her house without another person being there with her, and to have someone following her who she knew wasn't a threat, was oddly comforting. As long as he didn't try to talk to her, or get himself into any trouble while he was there, she was content to let him stay.