A Shade of Vampire 73: A Search for Death

by Forrest, Bella

  “How is this going to work?” Phoenix asked Corrine. “Herbert carrying Harper’s soul. Like, physically, how would that manifest?”

  Corrine took a deep breath. “The beauty of a soul is that it does not conform to the same rules of physics as us. Once separated from their bodies, they’re basically interdimensional, existing between the world of the living and that of the dead,” she explained. “That being said, an interdimensional being like the ghoul can pick a soul up and hide it inside him, much like Ramin did with Harper. Our only concern is that, unlike Ramin, the ghoul subsists on eating souls. But I’m willing to trust him as much as Ibrahim does.”

  Phoenix sighed. “We don’t have a choice,” he said. Viola squeezed his shoulder.

  “I’m going up there with my sisters,” she murmured.

  He nodded. “Just be careful, please.”

  “They’re Shills, babe. We can handle them. Besides, as soon as Harper and Ramin clear the area, we’ll all be gone, and the Shills will be rendered useless.”

  “We’ll move as fast as we can,” Kailani said to her. “We certainly don’t want to be here when the actual Hermessi show up.”

  “Do we not fear retaliation from them afterward?” Viola asked, fear present in her violet eyes. “I mean, we are aiding and abetting a rebel Hermessi.”

  “Let’s hope they don’t come after us. After all, our main concern here is Harper. We are doing this to save Harper,” Corrine said and gave Ramin an apologetic smile. “Sorry. It is how it is. We do appreciate your support, and we’d hate to lose it.”

  “Do not worry,” Ramin replied. “I understand. Your lives and your community are at risk because of me. You have me as your ally for as long as I live.”

  Ibrahim exhaled sharply as Herbert moved back. Judging by the dazzled look on the warlock’s face, the ghoul had given him quite a lot to work with, going forward. The Shills got louder. I couldn’t see them from here, but I could tell that they were out of the woods now and headed toward us.

  The rustling grass around the crater denounced movements. We looked up and saw dozens of Bajangs in full feline form. They dashed across the plain, growling and eager to tear the Shills apart. The Daughters watched them with sheer awe as they vanished beyond the blades of tall grass. Savage sounds erupted about two hundred yards away. The Bajangs came to our aid, even though we’d asked them to stand back. Such bravery had to be commended.

  One by one, the Daughters moved away from the crater’s edge and walked toward the conflict zone, from where terrifying growls and roars erupted. Beasts clawing and biting at one another. Savage creatures vying for supremacy in this patch of green, once the battleground in the fight against Azazel’s Destroyers. I’d hoped this land would never see such bloody skirmishes again, but that wasn’t meant to be.

  Hopefully, the Daughters would destroy as many of those Shills as possible before the Bajangs were hurt or, worse, killed.

  “He’s ready,” Ibrahim said to Ramin and me. “Just let him take you, Harper.”

  “I’ll see you soon, hopefully,” Ramin whispered.

  “You be careful, you hear? Neraka needs you, and I sure as hell don’t want to see your boy taking your place,” I replied firmly.

  “We’ll both fight this as hard as we can, Harper. I only wish to see you back in your body, with your husband… just as I wish to someday return home and find nothing but peace, happiness, and prosperity.”

  Herbert came forward, his arms wide open. He kept a remarkably straight, albeit deformed, face, though I couldn’t ignore the tiny string of drool stretching from the corner of his mouth. Oh, God, he’s slobbering already…

  “He’s an animal, Harper,” Ramin whispered. “He can’t control such a reaction. Have faith.”

  “Herbert has never hurt anyone while under my rule,” Ibrahim said, noticing how long it was taking me to let go of Ramin. He couldn’t see me, but he would’ve seen Herbert taking me in if I’d let go by now. “Besides, remember, Harper. Herbert is free only after he delivers your soul safely back to your body. If he doesn’t, I’ll be able to track him and destroy him. Once you’re well and conscious again, I will break the spell on his pencil case. That’s how it works.”

  That gave me enough confidence to take the next step. I could feel myself loosening up inside Ramin. Herbert’s big, black eyes grew even bigger. I figured he could see me better, now that I wasn’t fused to the Fire Hermessi anymore.

  Gut-wrenching shrieks pierced the sky. Bajangs were going down. There was a bloody fight taking place, worryingly close to the crater. I heard strange swooshes and grunts, heartbreaking wails and bloodcurdling growls. We had to get away from here, fast.

  Herbert slowly reached out, while I did the same. Phoenix gasped. “Holy crap, I see you… sort of. You’re just a mass of white light.”

  “This is so beautifully weird,” Kailani murmured, staring at me.

  So they could see me now. Sort of. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Herbert and I were touching one another, and Herbert had made himself visible to them. Perhaps I was visible by proxy. The ghoul pulled me out of Ramin and pressed me against his skinny chest like a cloth. I didn’t even realize I was literally being absorbed into him until I could practically feel his insides, moist and cold, tightening around me.

  For a few seconds, I was blind.

  “Open your eyes, darling.” A hissing voice startled me. I could hear it so clearly, as if it was inside me. The voice inside me, while I’m inside a ghoul… Oh, boy… It snickered. I’d amused it. “Yes, Harper, you can hear me, and I can hear you. I can hear your thoughts… everything. So, careful what you think of.”

  “Herbert?” I croaked.

  Clarity engulfed me, as I could see, once more. This time, however, I had a view of the world through Herbert’s eyes. Everything seemed more colorful, the image sharper and brighter. Before us, Ramin stood—a flaming figure, the fire licking at the air around him.

  “Mm-hm. You’re in me, and I promise not to eat you. How’s that for a beginning to our new friendship?” he replied. His tone was heavy, weighing me down with every consonant. “Don’t be afraid. I can feel your fear, and it’s quite insulting. I promised the warlock I’d keep you safe, and I will. Ignore the drool, darling. A well-behaved dog won’t take the snack until you give it to him, but that won’t stop the poor chap from drooling.”

  Actually, that made a lot of sense. It also made me giggle. “You consider yourself as well trained as a dog?”

  “I didn’t ask for it, but… yes,” Herbert said. “Now, are we ready to go?”

  “Hold on,” I replied, noticing Ramin move.

  The Fire Hermessi took a step forward, and I could sense the ghoul’s wariness. He wasn’t fond of the Hermessi, from what I was able to tell. “You hold her close,” he said, “or it won’t just be the witches you’ll have to deal with if anything happens to her, Herbert.”

  Herbert purred like a cat and gave Ramin a nod. “Don’t even go there,” the ghoul said to me, inwardly. “Little known fact, but an angry Hermessi can rough up a ghoul, if provoked. I haven’t experienced it myself, but I hear it’s nasty business.”

  “Insightful. And somewhat reassuring, actually. Thank you, Herbert,” I replied politely, doing my best to put my fear aside, as he’d asked. The terms of this arrangement worked in our favor, after all. I’d get my body back, and he’d get to live freely for it.

  “Take care of yourself,” Ramin said to all of us. “Harper will relay everything she’s learned from me, once she’s back.”

  “And, worst-case scenario, what if she doesn’t?” Corrine asked, and immediately apologized, noticing the startled glances around her. “I’m sorry, but I have to ask!”

  “I will know, and I will find a way to tell you everything myself. I’m afraid there is no time left for me here.”

  He lost his humanoid shape and turned into an incandescent ball, hovering inches above the ground. A blink of the eye later, he shot u
pward and became a tiny glimmer in the sky, before piercing the storm clouds and leaving Calliope altogether.

  The Shills, the Bajangs, and the Daughters were getting closer to the crater. Both Herbert and I could hear them. Blood trickled from the upper edge, a quiet and heartbreaking little stream signaling the loss of someone’s life.

  “You need to go, now,” Phoenix breathed, increasingly agitated.

  Ibrahim showed us the pencil case. “This breaks as soon as I hear Harper’s voice from Neraka again.”

  Herbert huffed, then moved away from the group. He rushed upward and out of the crater, and as soon as we reached the top, I could see the true horror unfolding on the plains. Shills and Bajangs at each other’s throats, snarling and biting and tearing and clawing with a viciousness I hadn’t seen since the pit wolves rammed into Shaytan’s daemon army on Neraka, during our final battle. Blood glazed the green grass, and loose tufts of reddish fur were scattered across it. The Daughters were fierce in their defenses, casting violent physical attacks against the Shills—a telekinetic offensive that caught most of them and mangled them beyond recognition. The Bajangs didn’t hold back, either, filling the gaps of the Daughters’ attacks.

  But more Shills were coming from the woods. The storm clouds above thickened and darkened, and lightning bolts began to reach down and tear hot holes into the ground around the Daughters and the crater.

  “They’ll be fine,” Herbert said, walking away from the conflict, a little too casual for my taste.

  “I just want my brother and my friends out of there,” I replied.

  He threw a glance back. The farther we got from them, the less I could see. Pink streaks of light dashed into the crater a few minutes later, and everyone disappeared. Herbert breathed the sigh of relief for me. “See? They’re gone now.”

  The Bajangs withdrew as well, running as fast as they could back to Stonewall. They left their dead behind, unable to both carry them and fend off the Shills’ attacks. Fortunately, the monsters didn’t chase after the Bajangs. They stayed there, roaring and looking around, trying to figure out where Ramin had gone.

  “Are we walking to Neraka?” I asked, my sarcasm back.

  “No, sugar plum, we’re going to a high point so I can let loose and tread between dimensions again,” Herbert said to me.

  “Okay, now that I can actually process this whole situation properly, can you please tell me how it is that I can hear you and understand you without speaking your hissy language?” I asked. I’d been so busy stressing over Ramin and the others that this blatantly obvious anomaly had entirely slipped from my awareness.

  “You’re a sentry. I’m a ghoul. One of the original ghouls, like I once was, made your entire species. Of course we can communicate, darling,” Herbert replied. “You perceive me differently, if I want you to.”

  “If you want me to?”

  “Well, your brother’s a sentry, but I didn’t bother revealing this type of connection to him, did I?”

  No, he hadn’t. He’d stuck to his ghoulish language back in the crater. “Why didn’t you?” I asked him.

  “Because it wasn’t the time or the place to establish new relationships between my kind and yours,” Herbert said. He moved remarkably fast, and the world dashed past us in shades of green and dark ocean blue. He took us down the rocky coast, farther south. A tall cliff rose in the distance, its base smothered in trees and leafy shrubs. I figured that was the high point he needed in order to “let loose.”

  “I see. Why all the terms of endearment, then? Darling, sugar plum, and whatever else you might come up with along the way. Are they part of your vocabulary? I doubt you’d ever call Ibrahim ‘sugar plum.’” I giggled.

  “No, I used to call him Master. As for you, Harper, well… you’re a Hellswan. I knew Hellswan.”

  “Which Hellswan?” I asked, somewhat confused.

  “The original ghoul that created your bloodline. His name was Hellswan. The six early kingdoms of Nevertide all started from original ghouls who gathered humans around them and turned them into sentries. They gave their names to the royal bloodlines a long time ago,” Herbert explained. I found myself to be astonished and speechless for a while. I hadn’t known that, and I doubted my father or his ancestors knew about this. We would’ve found something in Nevertide’s document archives or folklore, if they had.

  Herbert stopped for a moment and glanced back toward the northwest, where the crater was still visible, albeit significantly smaller from here. “Hm. They’re being destroyed.”

  Indeed, the mass of Shills began exploding into pink puffs of dust. Pop. Pop. Pop. One after the other, leaving the battered plain empty but for the Bajangs that had perished in that fight.

  “Maybe the Hermessi don’t need them anymore. They probably sensed that Ramin is gone, so they have no reason to pursue aggression against the locals,” I said, watching the storm clouds disband, clearing the sky in wandering grayish threads that eventually dissipated.

  “There’s no use in punishing the locals now, when they can just wipe them all out later, right?” Herbert chuckled.

  “I take it Ibrahim briefed you on our situation?”

  “More or less. I dug through his brain while giving him everything I know about the Reapers,” Herbert replied. “Lots of nasty stuff in the warlock’s head. You people have your hands full, obviously.”

  “That’s one way of putting it.” I sighed. “It’s the end of the world, unless we find a way to stop it.”

  “Well, I wasn’t there when the first ritual happened. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t even born, but I do remember a few mentions of it during my time as a Reaper. The Hermessi were dormant at the time, though. Nobody worried they’d do it again.”

  “We had to awaken them. They were our only way to defeat Ta’Zan. He would’ve destroyed entire worlds,” I said. “We didn’t know any of their history. We had no idea what we were unleashing.”

  Herbert continued his trek toward the cliff. He snuck between the thick trees and past the dark bushes, and climbed up the rock wall with expert agility. His claws were long and curved, perfect for gripping without the risk of a slip. I could see him, even though the nearby animals couldn’t. Then again, I was inside him. I was privy to his field of vision.

  “I thought you ghouls traveled between worlds,” I said a few minutes later. “Is it necessary to climb this cliff? I mean, you’re not bound by the usual laws of physics, are you?”

  “I still respond to gravity, darling. But no, you’re right, I don’t need to. I’m doing this to stretch my legs. If I’m to make my way to another planet, I have to make sure I’m in decent shape,” Herbert replied.

  Personally, I kind of looked forward to this trip. Not just because I’d be getting back to my body, but also because I was beginning to see flashes of Herbert’s memories. Nothing too clear, but enough to make me understand that he’d seen and experienced a lot prior to his capture by the witches. Most importantly, he’d said he knew Hellswan, the original ghoul that had founded my sentry bloodline. Needless to say, I was dying to know more about him, since he was basically responsible for my existence, from across the centuries.

  “How does a ghoul move from one planet to another?” I asked.

  “Like you said, we’re not bound by the usual laws of gravity. Space, for us, is a soft fabric that we can move through. It’s like slipping through doors in a maze of… dimensions. You’ll see for yourself, soon enough.”

  “But you respond to gravity.”

  “Respond, yes. Not conditioned by it,” he said. We reached the top of the cliff. The ocean breeze brushed past us, cold and salty, as the sun began its descent into the west. “I can jump off this cliff, for example, and graciously land on the bottom. If the physical you jumps off, chances are you’ll sprain an ankle, at least.”

  He was right. The height of this peak was too much, even for a vampire. “Okay… Makes perfect sense. So, you respond to gravity. How do you respond, specifically?”<
br />
  “I use it when I need it. Like now, to remind myself of how my bones, my muscles, and my reflexes work. I’ve been locked inside a pencil box for decades. I needed this,” he replied. “Now, are you ready?”

  “Ready to…”

  “To get the heck out of here, for starters,” Herbert said.

  “Yes, yes, I am,” I said and paused for a moment. “Wait, for starters?”

  “We’re going to make a bit of a pit stop on the way to Neraka,” Herbert replied. “Nothing too long, don’t worry. I just need to figure something out about these ritual Hermessi. There are some ghoul buddies I haven’t seen in a while, and they might have the information I need.”

  “Whoa. You’re taking me to other ghouls?!” I croaked, fear mercilessly gripping me by the throat.

  “Relax, darling. I’ve no intention of defrauding Ibrahim. My freedom depends on it, and I didn’t give him everything I know about the Reapers to have them easily find me later, in a damn pencil box.”

  Whatever was coming next, I couldn’t help but feel like I couldn’t do anything about it. Whether I liked it or not, Herbert was going to make this so-called pit stop and talk to his so-called buddies. I had no way of stopping him. The only thing I could do was brace myself and hope for the best.

  Caspian was still on Neraka, waiting for me, and Herbert was maybe many things, but definitely not an idiot. Corrine had made it crystal clear that not delivering me safely back to my body would spell nothing but trouble for this peculiar ghoul. I had to rely on that.

  What else can I do?

  “Have a little faith in me, perhaps,” Herbert replied to my thought.

  I’d forgotten about his ability to read me so easily. But yes… I could find a sliver of faith and put it in Herbert. He had my soul and every reason to keep his word to Ibrahim.

  Varga

  As soon as we got word from Phoenix about what had happened at Stonewall, Eva, Riza, Herakles, Fallon, and I rushed back to meet with him and Ibrahim in his office. The Daughters, Corrine, and Kailani returned to Stonewall in order to assist the Bajangs with the clean-up operation—the fallen felines had to be brought back so their pack could give them their proper burial rites.