Secrets of the Dead

by Becca Vincenza

  “I’ll help you as long as you help me.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Just a trip into the Other Side to get my soul back.”

  Chapter 11

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Not impossible. I’ve heard rumors of a necromancer who was able to do it. If you’re supposed to be the most powerful necromancer in the line of the previously most powerful necros, you of all people should be able to do it.”

  “Why would you want your soul? I thought vampires had to choose this life or they were born into it, and in that case you have no living soul.”

  “Not all humans get to choose this life. After all, has a vampire ever been compassionate to you before?”

  “I have no answer to that. And for finding your spirit, there’s no information for that sort of thing. I’d have nowhere to begin.”

  “Well what’s your plan?” Acacia asked, her hand on her hip.

  “That’s where you come in. I need more information, and you know this city.”

  “You need information?” Acacia looked intrigued.

  “I’ll probably need more than that.”

  A cold blast next to me reminded me that Horace stood nearby. I glanced over at my uncle, taken aback once again by how much he looked like my father. It hadn’t clicked before when he’d been missing half his face. What had changed since our time in the graveyard?

  Static and electronic buzzing filled the room as all of Ever’s electrical appliances flared to life at once. Acacia snagged a dagger from her hip and twirled around, searching for the disturbance. Mystics and humans alike didn’t know how to deal with ghosts, so they reacted as if it was a physical threat.

  “Don’t worry; it’s just my deceased Uncle. He wants our attention.”

  “Oh, is that all?” she said with a sneer. Lowering her dagger, she straightened, acting as if she wasn’t bothered by the disturbance. “You said you’d need more than information. For what?”

  “I’m trying to get my sister out of having to be bonded to a vampire.”

  “No.” Acacia’s eyes turned cold.

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.” She turned on her heel, disappearing into Ever’s room.

  Another cold blast from Horace forced my attention back to him. Whatever he needed to tell me had to be urgent.

  Releasing the tight hold I had on my magic and focusing on him resulted in my world spiraling out of control. I’d never experienced vertigo before, but I couldn’t tell what was up or down.

  I gripped the back of the couch and closed my eyes. Trying every method of control my father had taught me, I reined in my unruly powers. Horace stepped closer, a chill twisting up my spine as a silent reminder he was there.

  The power I had once so masterfully controlled and understood had changed overnight. Our parents had warned us all of our lives, but living through it was different and challenging.

  As my powers went down to a more manageable level, I opened my eyes.

  Horace stood on the other side of the room, watching me closely.

  “What happened to you?” I asked him.

  Horace just stared. His Tome was filled with vampire knowledge. He’d been doing investigations on missing necromancers, and he usually linked them to vampires. The vampires had to be the cause of his death. I would eventually discover the truth of what happened to him, but Rowan was the most pressing matter. Rowan’s future could change. Horace’s could not.

  If Acacia wouldn’t help me, then I needed to ask Horace. The memory of him speaking to my father was imprinted in my mind. He had to know more than the little he’d shown me. I hadn’t been strong enough to stay in the Other Side before, but my powers flexed now as if reacting to my thoughts.

  “Will you be able to speak with me in the Other Side?”

  Horace nodded once and flickered out of sight.

  Walking to the guest room, I pulled out my burner phone. I could call Ro to check on her. Had the vampires moved in even though we hadn’t completed the ritual? To other races, it was a bunch of show and unnecessary tradition, but to ours, it meant a great deal. It meant control, a thankfulness to our ancestors that we honored their traditions and old ways. Those who gave us the power we now wield. And they always offered their knowledge.

  Rowan would demand to know where I was. She wouldn’t stop until she knew. Then she would rush in, trailing danger behind her. I had the upper hand since no one knew where I’d gone. If the vampires were around, which I suspected they were, they would come after me. No, contacting her would be a mistake.

  The longer I stared at the phone, the more I realized I needed to take a page from Rowan’s book for once and allow my magic to run its course. I needed to trust my instincts.

  I put the phone back in its hiding place and walked back into the living area. Acacia kept the door to Ever’s bedroom firmly shut. Had she backed out because she refused to fight her own kind, or was there a different reason? Her cost was too high. Getting her soul back? Impossible.

  Most Mystics had their own sets of gods they believed in or didn’t. Necromancers weren’t any different, believing there were gatekeepers in the Other Side. Retrieving her soul could mean giving mine up. The cost was too high, and it would be better this way. No matter what Horace said, Acacia couldn’t be trusted.

  I decided to eat and then try to sleep. I would start early the next morning.

  ****

  As a child, my first encounter with my powers was an Echo. An Echo was a spirit that had become trapped in the moment of its death. Usually they only happened if the death had been extremely traumatic and the soul couldn’t process it. I’d managed to reach out to an Echo miles away. The spirit had died violently after being pushed over the edge of a cliff.

  The hands pressed between my shoulder blades, my chest pushing forward as my toes caught the edge of the cliff. For a moment, there was freedom then complete horror. Trust broke inside of me, this great feeling of betrayal followed by sorrow. Then overwhelming fear took its place as the uneven, ragged rocks came closer and closer to my face.

  When most people dreamed of falling, they woke up before they hit the ground. Most people didn’t feel every bone in their body snapping out of place and blood rushing into their lungs, drowning them. Most people didn’t have to relive it over and over and over again.

  That had been my introduction to my magic. My parents were worried about me in the morning when I told them, but I’d been more concerned about the young woman who I felt die over and over. I needed to give her peace, if not for herself then for me who kept living in that echo of time. It rippled through me, wave after endless wave.

  That’s how I felt when I dreamed, that falling sensation again. It wasn’t something I could easily forget, and often I’d feel that same sensation at night. When the dream began, I would usually try to force myself awake.

  But the forceful shove never came. It was as if the floor opened and swallowed me whole. Darkness surrounded me, and there was no concept of time or space. My feet hit the watery sludge first. It slipped past me like silk, embracing me in a comforting hold. The further I sank, the more relaxed I became.

  Once my head submerged, it was as if the comforting hold became a living thing and stole the air from my lungs. As soon as the sensation began, it ended.

  “Breathe. You need to remember how to breathe,” A voice so familiar reminded me.

  When I opened my eyes, the world before me was a wasteland like the color had been sucked dry, and everything that remained was a husk of what it once had been. A bone-cold chill seeped into me, locking up my muscles.

  “Don’t think too hard about the cold. It’ll only make it worse. Remember: in and out.”

  I did as coached. Air returned to my lungs, and thankfully some of the chill went away with it. I grew up in Alaska, so the cold didn’t bother me, but this felt different, almost wrong somehow.

  “Why did you come?” Horace asked as he pla
ced his hand under my elbow, helping me to my feet.

  Trying to get my bearings back, I stood with him and stared at the gray substance underneath our feet. It wasn’t a sand texture, but it looked like dirt that had turned to dust.

  “I hadn’t intended on coming here at all.” I surmised that I had unintentionally arrived in the Other Side. I hadn’t had such an abrupt entrance during the short time I’d spent there already. My arrival had been unnerving enough. How had I managed to enter again? And without the preparations I made before?

  “You need to be more cautious with your powers, Abel.”

  Frustrated and hating that I had no control over my powers, I ignored him. This hadn’t been the plan—I was supposed to sleep and tackle the problem in the morning—but it would be foolish to waste the opportunity. And getting upset over my lack of control wouldn’t accomplish anything.

  “What do you know of the contract between my parents and the vampire coven?”

  “Ask me anything but that, son.”

  “That’s all I need.”

  “It is not.”

  Horace wasn't forthcoming with his answers, and before, he’d barely been able to contact me at all. There was only one logical answer that made sense since he seemed to want to help me. Otherwise, why would he have planted that memory in my mind? Told me to trust a vampire? Even though that didn’t pan out at all.

  Another necromancer had to have a hold over him. Maybe not all his actions, but he’d been commanded to certain limitations. Unless tethered to another, most ghosts had more freedoms than the living ever could.

  “Who murdered you?”

  “You’re getting closer, son.”

  “To the answers of your death or to what you’re steering me to ask?”

  Horace remained quiet. It still unnerved me sometimes, the similarities between him and my father. But out of all the other uncles I’d met, some spread across the world, only one aside from Horace had passed, and his spirit moved on. My father never mentioned being a twin, but the thought certainly crossed my mind the first time I saw Horace. I wondered if that could be a reason he hadn’t crossed over yet.

  “Why should I trust Acacia?”

  “She’ll lead you to your destiny.”

  “I don’t believe in destiny. I believe in decisions.”

  Horace smiled brightly for a moment, humor lighting his eyes. If he weren’t dead, it would’ve made him look a decade younger.

  “So like your father. I would’ve loved to meet you in person. Rowan too. Your other brothers were always such a treat. I should’ve been around more often, soaked all of you in.”

  “Can you at least tell me if Rowan is safe?”

  “For now, she’s protected. You must continue. Trust the vampire.” Horace looked over my shoulder, his voice becoming urgent. “Trust her, Abel. Trust me.”

  He didn’t take his eyes off the spot just over my shoulder. Unable to stifle my paranoia, I looked to see what had captured his attention. Behind us, yards away, stood another figure cloaked in a hood. This one wasn’t void of color like Horace—the figure was alive. It had to be the necromancer who was controlling my uncle.

  Anger pumped into my veins. This fucker kept my uncle from finding peace, finding his family again.

  Necromancers had unwritten rules they lived by. One of those rules was you didn’t tether yourself to another necro’s family member. Keeping them away from their loved ones or from finding their peace was unnatural. Yet this necromancer had done exactly that.

  “Show yourself.”

  The hood lifted, but instead of answering me, the figure chanted a winding spell that would force Horace back to his side in the land of the living. Before I could try to counter the spell, they both flickered out of existence.

  The wasteland became cold, and more bodies started to filter out around me. Spirits grabbed at me, demanding my attention. Their lives and knowledge bombarded my mind, making it hard to concentrate on escaping their clutches.

  Closing my eyes, I envisioned myself returning to my body, to the land of the living. It took more work returning home than it had to arrive to the Other Side, but eventually I found myself on the right side once again.

  Air returned to my lungs, and I woke to see Acacia standing over me with her hands together as if she was going to start chest compressions.

  “What the fuck just happened?” she asked, stepping backward.

  “Visited my dead uncle.”

  Then I passed out.

  Chapter 12

  “You stupid necromancer. Wake up!” Acacia pulled on my shoulders and shook me violently before releasing me.

  I fell back, my shoulders hitting the hard backing of the couch. I grunted loudly, letting her know she could stop and that I was awake.

  It took a couple of blinks before my vision cleared. Acacia took a step back and glared at me. She had her hair pulled back into that tight ponytail once again.

  “You done?”

  “What just happened?”

  “I passed out, and you shook me until I woke up again.”

  “Don’t be a smartass. You were dead. Your heart stopped for a full minute,” she snarled, fangs flashing. That explained why my muscles felt like I’d run an extra couple of miles after a marathon. A trip to the gym would be a requirement later so I could loosen my muscles up. I’d been putting a lot of strain on my body lately.

  “I visited my dead uncle. He’s been the cause of the electrical disturbances and the cold blasts.”

  She didn’t need to know that he’d been adamant about trusting her. I didn’t. But I also wouldn’t ignore the advice of the dead. And Horace, who I’d hoped would’ve been able to give me the answers, only brought me more responsibilities. I would find the necromancer controlling him and fight him for the right to Horace’s soul. If it meant the other necromancer’s death, then I would kill him.

  My kin would not be forced into the servitude of another in their afterlife.

  “You entered the After World?”

  “No, I entered the Other Side. It’s limbo.”

  “You can walk in the land of the undead.” Acacia’s hand twitched. I think like me, she thought better with a weapon in her hand and a sparring partner at the other end. Or rather the physical exercise allowed my mind to go silent and work on the problems unconsciously. Whatever she was thinking on, I didn’t want to be part of it.

  “Why did you say no when I said I would need your help with vampires?” I asked.

  “That’s none of your business. If I help you, will you promise to do everything in your power to help me get my soul back?”

  “I don’t believe it’s possible. But I will if you help me with breaking this contract and finding my uncle’s killer.”

  She arched a brow at me.

  “You’re asking me to bring back your living soul. This doesn’t seem like that hefty of a request.”

  “Fine, it’s a deal.”

  “Just like that, even knowing vampires are involved?” Something had made her run scared at the thought of working with me because there were vampires. But her knowing I’d entered the Other Side suddenly made her willing? She had to know more about what getting back her living soul meant than she let on.

  “Even then. Just means we’ll need to be more cautious.” Acacia leaned forward, her low-cut top gaping open. Instead of taking her bait, I kept eye contact. She wanted the power in the situation. It was probably the way she fought—gritty and dirty, anything to win.

  She pressed one hand on the back of the couch near my head, the other on the armrest, her eyes on mine. The quiet struggle we had between us remained.

  “We’ll go tonight, then. Where do you think we’ll be able to get solid information?” she asked finally.

  “Depends. What happened when you were in the Other Side?”

  “Does it matter for what we’re doing now?”

  “You hadn’t mentioned finding out who killed your uncle until you got out from that plac
e. If we’re going to be partners, I need to know.”

  “Then I need to know what your issue with your kind is.”

  “No.”

  “We’re going to work together, Acacia. It doesn’t mean I trust you, and you don’t trust me.”

  She stared down at me for a moment longer before she blinked and stepped back, nodding as if she’d agreed.

  “Good,” Acacia said as she stepped away. “Make sure to pack your weapons. We’re visiting the Dungeon tonight. A lot of necros hang out there. And vampires.”

  That didn’t make any sense to me. Vampires had been our enemies until a century ago. For vampires, that was barely any time at all. And necromancers, who distinctly felt time more than vampires, would’ve remembered that.

  Instead of questioning her, I went into my room. If we were going out tonight, then I’d have to get a workout in before we left. I owed it to my body, and I needed to be prepared.

  I changed and left the bedroom. Acacia lingered in the kitchen and noticed my workout clothes.

  “If you wait, I’ll join you,” she called out. “Maybe teach you a thing or two.”

  “Perhaps I’ll be the one doing the teaching. After all, I believe I was the one who almost beat you last time.”

  “Which time? The time I had you on your knees or your back?” Acacia said with a suggestive smile.

  “Touché.”

  Acacia laughed as she walked away and headed into Ever’s room.

  ****

  I stood in the kitchen and waited as Acacia changed clothes. She hadn’t been gone for very long before she stepped out of Ever’s room. When she walked, it was with complete confidence and an air of malice. Acacia didn’t simply walk into a room—she filled it and dominated the space she used.

  She wore a black sports bra that crossed in the front, accenting her breasts. The sharp muscles on her flat stomach flexed as she placed her hands on her hips, which were covered by short spandex.

  Shaking her head, she took a step forward.

  “Think you’ll be able to focus enough on the fight to actually win?”

  “I’m focused.”

  She made a noise of agreement, but her lips twitched upward into a smile. Acacia led the way to the apartment’s gym, which sat on the first floor tucked into the back. Even the harsh lights seemed to cast gently on her.