Until I Die

by Amy Plum

  I knew what I was supposed to do. We had gone over it in my weaponry lessons. As the least experienced, I was expected to act as the second line of defense. If forced, I should fight. If not, I should stand behind Vincent or anyone else who had already been doing this for several lifetimes. I held my sword in front of me, bouncing nervously on the balls of my feet, ready to spring if I needed to. Be calm, I thought, pushing the fear into a far corner of my mind. Get into the rhythm.

  Vincent had led his numa to one side of the alleyway and was fighting it with a fury that made my blood feel like it was shooting instead of flowing through my veins. Once again, I saw him as the avenging angel that he had been for much of the last century.

  Violette had faced off with another numa, using the same martial arts skills I had seen Charlotte practice to make up for the drawback of her tiny frame. Her assailant was struggling just to keep up. She would have the advantage in no time.

  Arthur was fighting the other two numa, using himself as a shield to keep them away from me and Georgia. I assumed that his strategy was to stall until either Violette or Vincent could dispatch their foe and join him to even up the odds. He seemed to be succeeding until, with one concerted effort, the two attackers pushed past his blade and leapt by him to land right in front of me.

  I held up my sword just in time to meet the numa’s as it crashed down toward my head, and then jumped aside to let him follow through. His blade slid down mine, and the tip smashed the ground. Arthur dashed past me toward Georgia, following the second numa who had gone straight for her. I didn’t have time to glance her way but knew that Arthur could defend her better than I could. I had my own numa to concentrate on, and only two seconds to skip backward away from him as he recovered his balance.

  I can’t do this. As the thought flashed through my mind, I had a panic-induced out-of-body experience. I felt like I was up in the air looking down at myself: a teenage girl standing in an alleyway brandishing a sword at a man almost twice her size. I can’t, I thought again. I’m too afraid to move.

  My enemy righted himself and started toward me. I looked up into his cold, murderous eyes, and that was all it took. I felt the adrenaline coursing through my veins and my heart beating in my chest, and I was suddenly in the zone. With a yell that I didn’t realize was coming from my own throat until it stopped, I began moving, slashing, dancing backward and leaning from side to side to avoid his flying sword before lunging back toward him and chopping at his torso. He was able to match each of my moves, but I also met his.

  Time stood still as our battle raged on, until all of a sudden my foe was down on the ground. Vincent stood behind him, his sword run through the numa’s chest.

  I instinctively swung around, my sword held before me as I scanned the alleyway for any remaining danger. Violette stood a few yards away, pushing her foot against a crumpled heap on the ground, using her weight as leverage to pull her sword out of the motionless body. Vincent had taken out his own enemy as well as mine.

  And Georgia was sitting curled up in a little ball inside a doorway, as Arthur dragged himself down, back to the wall, into a sitting position next to her. He held his upper arm in his hand, blood flowing freely through a large tear in his shirt at his shoulder. He kicked at something next to his foot, and his slain numa’s dismembered head rolled away, settling to rest against its body.

  I ran to Georgia as she uncurled. As if in a daze, she stretched a hand toward Arthur. “Are you okay?”

  He looked surprisingly strong for being badly wounded as he glowered at the decapitated body. “I’ll be fine,” he growled.

  The others rushed over. Vincent took a look at the wound and then pulled off his T-shirt and wrapped it around Arthur’s shoulder, binding it tightly underneath the arm.

  Violette smoothed her hand comfortingly through Arthur’s hair and pulled out her phone. “Jean-Baptiste? They’re back in action. We have four dead numa here—up near Montmartre. Should we just leave them, or do you want to send someone for the bodies?”

  She made arrangements while Vincent went to pick up their abandoned coats.

  “You should probably come back with us to La Maison,” I said to Georgia. As I helped her to her feet, I glanced up at Vincent, who was back, slipping his coat on as he stood over us. He shook his head and gave me a helpless shrug. I had forgotten about Jean-Baptiste’s injunction against my sister’s visiting the house. Damn his rules.

  “I’d rather go straight home,” she said, solving my quandary.

  “I’ll walk the two of you to a taxi,” Vincent offered, helping her along. Georgia was shaking so hard she could barely stand.

  “Is Arthur going to be okay?” she asked, addressing Violette directly for the first time that night.

  “He’ll be dormant in a few days. After that his wound will heal,” she responded with the assurance of someone who had lived through this type of experience before.

  Once on the main street, Vincent packed us into the back of a taxi. “Go straight home—don’t stop anywhere along the way,” he called as the taxi drove off.

  Jules was waiting outside our building when we arrived. He opened the taxi door and helped us out, and then leaned in to pay the driver. “I heard you were incredible,” he said, leading the way to our front door.

  “What?” I asked, confused.

  “Superhero Kate, fighting off the numa,” he replied, admiration glowing in his eyes. He swung his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to him.

  Having been so worried about Georgia and Arthur, I had completely forgotten about my performance in the alley. I fought a numa, I marveled. And this time I did it without Vincent possessing me. I shook my head in wonder, before glancing back at Jules and admitting, “It wasn’t me who killed him. Vincent did the honor.”

  “He told me you kept the guy at bay until he was able to get to you. That’s pretty amazing for only a couple of months’ training. But then again, I was already fully aware of your awesomeness.” He murmured this last part as he opened the door. Georgia staggered silently past him into the front hall and pressed the button for the elevator.

  “She was so close to being killed,” I said. “Arthur barely got to her in time to save her life.”

  “Vincent told me.” Jules nodded. “Make sure she rests the next couple of days. She’ll be pretty weak—Arthur will be getting all her energy.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “So . . . you don’t know all our secrets yet!” Jules responded with a wry smile. “Just ask Vincent about energy transfer. And make sure Georgia rests while she gets over her shock.”

  He turned to leave, stepping down from the door to the pavement.

  “Hey, what happened to your date?” I asked.

  “I’ve got my priorities,” he said, running his fingers through his hair in a debonair gesture. “And keeping you alive, Kates, is a bit higher up on my list than a late date with a pretty signorina.”

  “Glad to know you care.” I smiled and, hesitating for just a second, stepped down from the doorway and gave him a good old American hug before turning to follow my sister.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  .....................................................................

  TWENTY-TWO

  I PEEKED INTO GEORGIA’S ROOM THE NEXT MORNING. She was sitting propped up in bed, flipping through a music magazine. Her hair was sticking straight out, and her regular peaches-and-cream complexion was verging on kiwi-and-stale-milk.

  “There you are,” she said as I plopped down on the end of her bed. “You’re usually up at the crack of dawn.”

  “Yeah, well, fighting monsters in a dark alleyway at midnight seems to have taken a bit out of me,” I said, my shoulder muscles burning as I cautiously tested them. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like warmed-over crap,” she said. “I have absolutely no energy and was hoping you’d come in so I could hit you up for break
fast in bed.”

  “Is that right?” I exclaimed, laughing. “Well, I guess I can accommodate, seeing you were two inches from being taken out by an evil zombie last night.”

  “And rescued by a good zombie?” She smiled.

  “If you want to get technical, yeah,” I said with a grin, and then got up and walked to the door. “Jules warned me that you’d probably be in shock and should rest. I would spend some quality time in the bathtub if I were you. It’s my personal choice for post-traumatic stress. But first, I’ll get us breakfast.”

  I returned five minutes later with a tray for both of us, and sat on the floor with my back against Georgia’s dresser while I ate a bowl of cereal. She munched pensively on her toast for a few minutes and then said, “So tell me more about this Arthur guy.”

  I set my bowl on the ground. “Oh no, Georgia. Please do not tell me you’re crushing on Arthur just because he saved your life last night.”

  “I didn’t say I was crushing on him. I’m simply interested in who he is. Will you allow that, Miss Protector-of-the-Undead?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t really know much about him. He and Violette knew each other in life—she was one of Anne of Brittany’s ladies-in-waiting, supposedly, and he was one of her dad’s counselors . . . at least that’s what Charlotte said. Which would mean they’re aristocrats.”

  “Oh believe me, it shows.” Georgia smirked.

  “They both died around 1500, so he’s really ancient. And they’ve been living in isolation in this Loire Valley castle for a really long time.”

  “What’s he like?”

  “Honestly, Georgia, I don’t know,” I conceded. “After he said that humans shouldn’t be allowed in revenant meetings—right in front of me—I haven’t really felt like getting to know him. The chip on my shoulder’s pretty much superglued there.”

  Georgia smiled. “Are he and Violette . . . together?”

  “I thought they were. She acts really possessive of him. But Vincent said it’s platonic. Platonic but codependent. Sounds like a healthy relationship.”

  “He looked really hot in that T-shirt last night,” Georgia mused, taking a sip of coffee.

  “Georgia!” I shouted. “You have a boyfriend. And plus, you’ve said it before yourself: You don’t do dead guys. You’re not even allowed in their house!”

  “I’m not doing anything,” she said. “Especially not today.” She leaned back against her headboard, looking a little weaker than before.

  “I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation,” I said, shaking my head. “He’s five hundred, for God’s sake! Plus he has this love-hate relationship with humans. There’s no way he’d look twice at you.”

  Oh no, I thought. That was totally the wrong thing to say to my sister. She was going to see him as a challenge now. I changed the subject fast. “Anyway, what’s wrong with good old Sebastien?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with him,” she said, gazing dreamily at the ceiling. Her expression suddenly changed to alarm. “Nothing except . . . oh my God, Kate. I ditched him last night and never called! Quick—bring me my phone. It’s in my bag.”

  I picked up the breakfast tray as she was babbling some ridiculous explanation of why she hadn’t shown last night to Sebastien’s voice mail. At least she was still concerned enough about him to make an effort, I reassured myself. The interest in Arthur was just one of those hero-worship infatuations. Knowing Georgia, she’d forget about it by lunchtime.

  Vincent and I sat side by side, peering at the over-the-top gore of Géricault’s famous painting The Raft of the Medusa. He had convinced me to take him to the Louvre, even though it was a weekend and packed with people. “I want you to teach me about art so I can understand why you’re so affected by it,” he had said. Which was so romantic that before it was even out of his mouth, I was pulling him down the street in the direction of the museum.

  We sat in one of my favorite rooms—one that contained melodramatic historical paintings on canvases as big as king-size beds. The sensational scene before us seemed oddly appropriate as a backdrop for a discussion about undead superpowers.

  “So what’s the story with this energy transfer thing?” I asked.

  “Energy transfer?” Vincent repeated, confused, his eyes glued to the scene before us. He seemed to be studying it in a problem-solving way. The decomposing bodies didn’t seem to bother him— I could tell he was just juggling the geometry of the live humans in his mind to strategize how many he could save in one go.

  “Yeah. Jules mentioned it last night. He said something like Georgia would be weak because Arthur would have her energy. What’s that mean?”

  Vincent tore his gaze from the painting. “Well, you know why we die for people?”

  “Besides out of the kindness of your nonbeating hearts?” I joked. Vincent took my hand and held it to his chest. “Okay, your beating undead heart,” I corrected myself, reluctantly pulling my hand away. “If you die saving someone, you reanimate at the age you lost your human life. It’s a compulsion meant to preserve your immortality, right?”

  “Right,” Vincent said. “But you know we only die occasionally—maybe once a year in times of peace. Most of our ‘saves’ don’t necessarily involve dying. Did you ever think about why we would spend our immortal lives watching over you if there wasn’t a solid enticement? Whatever you’ve heard about superheroes, none of them are out saving the human race just because they’re really nice guys.”

  I immediately thought of Violette. Of her and Arthur holding out until their sixties until they died for someone, and then only doing it because Jean-Baptiste needed them. They didn’t seem to love their job, to say the least.

  Vincent turned his body toward me and linked his fingers through mine. “Imagine that everyone has this kind of life energy inside.”

  I nodded, picturing all the tourists walking around the room with a glowing cloud inside them.

  “So you know how, when someone’s been in a near-death situation, they sometimes suffer post-traumatic shock? Well, try to picture it as that energy, or life force, being temporarily sucked out of them.”

  Remembering my own brush with death the previous year, I said, “After I barely escaped being crushed by the side of the café, I was pretty weak and shaky for a couple of days.”

  “Exactly,” Vincent said. “So if a revenant is responsible for the rescue, the energy or strength that has been figuratively ‘sucked out’ of the would-be victim is literally infused into the revenant for the hours or days that it takes the human to recover.”

  I thought about it for a minute, and then stared at him in surprise. “So when you and Charlotte rescued me, you guys got my energy? And same for Arthur with Georgia?”

  Vincent nodded.

  “And what about the girl who almost got run over by the truck the other day? I saw her afterward, sitting in shock by the side of the road.”

  “Which is why I was able to stand up and walk away from the accident scene,” he confirmed. “That transfer of energy makes us physically stronger. Our muscles, hair, nails, everything goes into overdrive. It’s a rush—like a hit of power for us.” He watched for my reaction.

  “So, basically what you’re saying is that I’m going out with a druggie zombie with a death wish. Who used me for my energy. Well”—I gave him as serious a look as I could muster—“I guess I could do worse.”

  Vincent’s laugh turned several heads, and we stood to leave before we drew any more attention to ourselves.

  “So Arthur’s going to be okay?” I asked as we passed the gigantic tableau showing Napoleon’s coronation.

  “Yep, thanks to Georgia loaning him her strength, among other reasons”—and at this, Vincent turned his eyes from mine in an incredibly suspicious gesture— “he’s actually not in any pain and has his full strength.”

  What was that about? I thought, my curiosity piqued. But I had to drop the thought to refocus on what he was saying.

  “But
his wound won’t heal completely until he’s dormant. And since it’s pretty serious, he’ll probably be laid up in bed a whole day after he awakes.”

  “Why?”

  “The more severely wounded you are before dormancy, the longer it takes you to recover,” he stated, shrugging as if it were mere logic. “If a severed limb is reconnected during dormancy, we could need another day or two of recovery after awaking. Regenerating body parts lays us up for weeks.”

  Eww. Although I wanted to know everything about the revenants, sometimes the details Vincent gave me fell into the TMI category. Like now. I tried not to visualize what he had just said, and thought instead about the repercussions. As we walked out of the museum and headed toward the bridge crossing the Seine to our neighborhood, I mulled it over.

  The revenant-human relationship was symbiotic—to say the least. Humans relied on revenants (however unknowingly) as we would on doctors or emergency workers: to save our lives. Revenants needed humans not only to keep them existent, but to ease the emotional and physical pain imposed by their particular lifestyle. Or deathstyle, rather, I thought in a flash of morbidity.

  Without revenants, humans would still exist . . . many would just die a lot earlier. Without humans, revenants would cease to exist. Not to mention that they started out human in the first place.

  The system had been working for a long time. Problems only arose when something out of the ordinary happened. Like a human and a revenant falling in love. And, once again, my mind returned to our plight. If I was going to see the guérisseur—that is, if I ever showed up when she happened to be there—I needed to know what to ask. Since Vincent was in an explaining mood, I decided to dig a bit deeper.

  “So, how does it work? Can a revenant ever die—of natural causes—and just . . . stop existing?”

  “Strictly speaking, it’s possible,” he said. “But no one can withstand the temptation to sacrifice themselves at the end.”