A Shade of Vampire 73: A Search for Death

by Forrest, Bella

  “How do you know that?” Kelara asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Because we’ve never let a small thing like death keep us apart for too long,” I retorted. “I know GASP, and I know my people better than you ever will. You heard my parents earlier. Tae and his crew are on Mortis already, about to speak to your boss. We’re not stopping until we find a way out.”

  “And if you don’t? Would you feed your daughter false hopes?”

  “No, I’d just… I’d just tell her that it’ll be okay, no matter what happens,” I insisted. “You gave your son away, Kelara. If you had an opportunity to say your last words to him, wouldn’t you? This is my daughter, for Pete’s sake. She’s a chunk of my soul, a piece of my heart, a reason for why I’ve fought everything that life and the universe have thrown at me since the day she was born. I just… I just need to see her.”

  Kelara thought about it for a while, as River wiped her tears and rested her palms on the crystal casing above my head. The seconds that followed were the longest in my life. I waited, quietly, for Kelara to make a decision. I could feel her bending, ever so slightly, to my will. I was getting through to her, finally, so I had to be persuasive in my patience and not push her more than I already had.

  Hope blossomed in my ethereal chest, but I kept a tight lid on it, unwilling to let it flourish unless Kelara said yes. She looked at me, warily. “If I let you see her for a bit, will you move on when it’s time?”

  I blinked several times, wondering that myself, earnestly. Would I move on, if only to get a few minutes with my daughter, at least? Maybe. But was I out of options yet? Not so much. Still, the answer seemed logical at this point. I nodded.

  “I would, yes.”

  “Without opposition or bargaining or running off?” she asked.

  That brought a new question to mind. Could I actually run off on her? Linger around like a ghost until I found another fae body, perhaps? Who’d give me a sweet deal like that again? The times had changed. No fae peddled souls and bodies like that anymore—not to my or GASP’s knowledge, anyway. Even so, I was too close to getting what I wanted from this Reaper, so I saved the question for later.

  “Yes,” I said firmly.

  Kelara bit her lower lip, her gaze fixed on Grace’s crystal casing. This is it. I can feel it. I am so close.

  She exhaled and took out her scythe, whispering something against the curved blade. I heard my daughter’s name leave her lips. A gasp followed, but it didn’t come from her. Right next to Lawrence, Grace became visible, translucent and shimmering, like a wondrous summer night’s dream.

  “D-Dad?” she managed, her lips quivering.

  Behind her, a Reaper stood. Tall and stocky, wearing a black suit and white shirt like Kelara’s. He seemed angry, scowling at my Reaper.

  “What the hell, Kelara?!” he barked.

  Kelara sighed. “It’s just for five minutes, Malleus. Relax.”

  “Dad, it’s you!” Grace exclaimed, lighting up like a firefly.

  “It’s me, honey,” I said, smiling warmly at her. “It’s going to be okay, I promise you.”

  “Oh, Dad, it’s so good to see you,” she murmured, her expression soft and burning with grief and longing. It mirrored my own state so well, I could almost feel her.

  “Kelara, it’s against the rules!” Malleus snapped and moved around the crystal casing as he pointed his scythe at my Reaper. “You’ll pay dearly for this!”

  Kelara stood her ground, though, narrowing her dark eyes at him. “Temporary rules we set in here. Nothing that goes against Death’s code, so lighten the hell up, Malleus.”

  “No, if you do it, others will want to do it, and before we know it, it’ll be chaos!” he shouted and raised his scythe. I wasn’t sure what he intended to do with it, because it clearly didn’t scare Kelara. It startled Grace instead, who covered her mouth with her hands to stifle a gasp.

  Kelara stomped her foot on the ground and tapped the blade of her scythe with her index and middle fingers. Before Malleus’s scythe could slash her, she ducked and brought the same hand she’d used to touch her blade up. She used it to tap Malleus’s wrist and whispered something. A triangular symbol lit up on his pale skin, and the sound of burning, sizzling skin startled me.

  Malleus shrieked from the pain and nearly dropped his scythe. He was quick to put it in his other hand, as the other had been rendered limp and useless, hanging from his shoulder. “You bitch!” he snarled.

  Kelara smirked. “That’ll teach you to strike a fellow Reaper over something so petty and insignificant. Now, leave the girl and her father be. They have five minutes. Don’t waste this precious time for them.”

  Malleus cursed under his breath but didn’t get involved again. Instead, he stood begrudgingly back, glowering at us. Excited and relieved, I rushed toward the casing, my life-chain jingling merrily. “Honey, are you okay? Oh, I wish your mother could see you now.”

  “I’m fine, Dad. Just lingering here, like the others, from what I’m told,” Grace replied, carefully moving around her crystal casing to reach me. The life-chain protruding from her chest had only five links left glowing now, the others black and grimly signaling her impending death. It tore me apart to see her like this, but it was better than not seeing her at all, so I sucked it up and smiled, so my baby wouldn’t feel scared anymore.

  “What has he told you so far?” I asked, nodding at Malleus.

  “Not much. I didn’t know I could see you, for example,” she replied. “I knew the others were like me. And he said I’m dying. Everything else I picked up from Lawrence, from Mom, from Aunt Rose and Grandpa Derek and Grandma Sofia… It’s not looking good for us, is it?”

  I shook my head slowly. “For now, no. But I haven’t lost hope yet, and neither should you, honey.”

  “Dad. I hurt you. I made you sick like me,” she remembered, her eyes wide with horror.

  “It wasn’t your fault. That cut-and-spell trick that the Hermessi cultists did, it’s… it’s damn tricky,” I said, in a bid to comfort her.

  “I’m so sorry,” she replied.

  I wondered if I could feel her, in this spirit state of ours. Two physical bodies could touch, so why wouldn’t two spiritual forms touch, too? It didn’t take long for me to remember my previous experience as a ghost. I hadn’t been able to feel anything then. However, something was different here. I wasn’t entirely dead. My soul was still tethered to my body. Maybe the conditions were different this time. Maybe I could feel something in this state. Before I could try it, Grace closed the distance between us and hugged me. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Dad,” she mumbled, hiding her face in my chest.

  I stilled, overwhelmed by the tactile sensations. Yes, I could feel her, like one felt the sun on his face, or the warmth of a fire crackling in the fireplace on a cold winter night. I could feel my daughter’s spirit in my arms, and I was beside myself. She giggled with delight, realizing this, as well.

  “That’s not a good idea,” Kelara cut in, arms crossed and frowning at us.

  “I told you!” Malleus hissed at her, but she ignored him, fixated on Grace and me.

  But my daughter and I… we didn’t care. We could hold each other, and we could feel it. I couldn’t ask for anything more right now.

  A peculiar brightness expanded between us, and I sensed a white-hot rush blazing through me. It seemed… right. Grace and I looked down, curiously, and jumped back with surprise when we saw the source of that light. A black link on each of our life-chains had begun to glow again, first white and pure, then golden amber, like the others.

  “Whoa…” Kelara managed, taking the interjection right out of my mouth on this one.

  “Whoa, indeed,” I mumbled, staring at my rejuvenated chain link. “I… Is this supposed to happen?”

  Grace shrugged, looking at me with wide, ecstatic blue eyes. “I don’t know…”

  The blackness that had covered the two links was shed like ashes, dark gray flakes settling on the marbled floor. Ke
lara and Malleus were both stunned.

  “I’ve never heard of this happening anywhere else,” Malleus replied, his voice now soft, equally baffled. “Then again, no two fae spirits in the sanctuaries have touched before.”

  “And neither of us was a Reaper during the first ritual to remember such an incident, either. Our elder colleagues didn’t mention it,” Kelara added.

  “So, in short, no one knew or thought this might happen,” I concluded. “Do you know what this means?”

  “We can slow the Hermessi’s influence,” Grace said, a broad smile forming on her sweet and darling face. I couldn’t even find the words that could accurately describe the happiness bursting through me like wildfire. “One chain link… maybe more… maybe one at a time.”

  An unknown male voice interjected, somewhere to my right. “Okay, that’s weird,” he said, and both Grace and I turned to see who’d spoken.

  It was another Reaper, judging by his eyes and his suit, but he was likely in charge of another fae in this place. I wasn’t sure what to make of his presence, or why he’d chosen to reveal himself.

  “Who are you?” I asked. He just stared at my life-chain.

  “Seeley, what in the world—” Malleus replied, but the new Reaper cut him off.

  “Shut up for a second. This is amazing.”

  “I agree,” Kelara said. “Would the others react the same, if they could see each other? Or is this solely a proprietary feature of the Novaks? They’ve defied the norms of nature and physics before, after all.”

  She meant my resurrection, along with Lucas’s, among other past adventures. But it was a good question to ask. “We could try,” I said.

  “I admit, I’m curious,” Seeley replied.

  “We wouldn’t be allowed,” Malleus interjected, like soggy rain on a perfectly good parade. I hated his guts by now. “We’d be interfering in the natural order of things. Kelara interfered now by allowing Ben to see Grace. It’s not right. Death won’t like it.”

  “How do you know?” I shot back, understandably irritated.

  “Because I represent her, like all my colleagues here. And whether Seeley and Kelara want to admit it or not, the rules don’t lie. We’re not allowed to interfere and help you evade death, okay? It’s forbidden, and the punishments are, I’m told, quite severe. Now, please, Seeley, go mind your fae and leave us alone.”

  Seeley scoffed, running a hand through his thick black hair. “None of this is natural, if you ask me, starting with what the Hermessi are doing to these people.”

  “Even so, we were summoned here to do our jobs, not help them,” Malleus replied tersely.

  “He’s right, Seeley.” Kelara sighed, her shoulders dropping. I was losing her, too, dammit. Grace and I exchanged worried looks, as we both realized what was coming next. “Your five minutes are up,” Kelara announced, and the urgency rammed into me like a battering ram.

  “No, no, wait, I need to—”

  “Dad!” Grace’s voice faded as she disappeared, along with a sullen Malleus and a pissed-off Seeley. I breathed out, my shoulders dropping and my core aching. I couldn’t see Grace anymore. And there was so much we’d yet to talk about, including this life-chain development. It was so important, yet the Reapers worried more about their rules than about doing the right thing.

  “I’m sorry, Ben,” Kelara said to me. It sounded genuine, but it didn’t do anything to comfort me. “It’s the rules. I can’t break them further than this. Malleus will likely file a complaint about what I just did, anyway.”

  “Screw your rules,” I growled. “I’m back to square one, unable to see my daughter or my granddaughters or any other fae in this place. On top of that, I now know of a way to slow down the Hermessi’s influence and stop it from killing us… and you… you won’t do anything because of your precious friggin’ rules. You’re cowards.”

  “Don’t say anything you’ll regret,” Kelara warned me, but it was too late. I was too angry.

  “You are! You’re all cowards, sticklers, adhering to rules with no regard for life. You’re just mindless drones, punching in that Reaper card to rack up dead people and cart them off into the next world, without any consideration for the fact that, instead of helping the Hermessi kill them with your inaction, you could help me… us! Shame on you!”

  I took deep breaths, trying to control myself. Kelara did have a point there—I was still here, with her, and I sure as hell didn’t want to alienate her. I had an angle now, and despite my rage and crippling helplessness, I could still work it.

  However, for that I needed Kelara’s support. Glancing at my wife, the longing to hold her again trumped my despair once more. Solutions began to form in the back of my head, possible options for how to proceed.

  I could try to get Kelara to rebel again. Maybe she could let me speak to other Reapers, like that Seeley fella, instead of Malleus. If we succeeded in making all the fae here visible to one another, we could try touching and seeing if what had happened between Grace and me could be done again. Slowing the Hermessi’s influence down had become my priority—and possibly my only way to survive, ahead of the ritual.

  If the fae refused to die, even if there were five million of them, perhaps the Hermessi wouldn’t be able to complete their ritual. Imagine that. Five million of us just saying no, choosing love and hope and holding each other, fighting to keep our life-chains glowing…

  Wishful thinking, I thought. Reapers weren’t allowed to get involved. But, then again, it only took one or two like Kelara and Seeley to break the rules. One or two to get me to see the other fae and tell them what Grace and I had just discovered. From there on, we’d still have a shot at resisting the Hermessi’s influence.

  And I’d still get a chance to go back to my family and my friends.

  Taeral

  With our crew only partially recovered and still rattled by the ghosts’ ability to attack us, along with more than two dozen Reapers having shown up to prevent us from reaching the waterfall building—Baethal, Wrik and Theoth included—our choices were limited. Either we stayed and fought, or we got out of here, preferably without agents of Death tailing us.

  The former option was insane and downright suicidal. Even with all our abilities combined and Yamani’s scythe, the chances of defeating all these Reapers were slim to none. The latter came with a downside. I could teleport everyone out of here, easily, but there was a risk that the Reapers would follow us. On top of that, our objective was clear and immovable. We needed to get to the waterfall palace and past the murderous ghosts in order to speak to Death.

  The contradiction of circumstances was also baffling. The Reapers and the spirits that surrounded that palace were determined to stop us from getting in, while every atom in my body begged me to go there. My instincts were flaring, and my nerves were stretched. Lumi exhaled, looking rather concerned—her Word flash of light had worked once before, but it didn’t seem like it was an option now. As much as I appreciated the craft of swamp witches, the insecurities it came with had a tendency to put me off.

  “One last time,” Baethal said, his midnight-sky eyes set on me, specifically. “Leave, and you won’t be hurt. You know your way back now. Take this chance we’re giving you.”

  Glancing around, his fellow Reapers were equally determined to stop us from advancing. Their curved blades were out, each of them capturing the moonlight along the sharp edges. From where I stood, they looked as though they’d been carved out of glistening diamonds.

  “I’m sorry,” I replied. “We’ve come too far, and our entire worlds depend on this. Why can’t you just stand back? I’m sure Death won’t mind, once she hears what we have to say.”

  Wrik laughed, though it was difficult not to notice the mocking musicality in his tone. “What part of ‘We were ordered not to let you anywhere near her’ didn’t you understand?”

  “She doesn’t even know what we’re here for,” Amelia said.

  Meanwhile, Raphael and I exchanged knowing glance
s. We’d already talked about this worst-case scenario regarding the Reapers, though we hadn’t anticipated so many of them. Eira, Lumi, and I would skedaddle out of here, while the rest of our crew would split into teams of two and keep the Reapers busy. It was easier for me to teleport only two other people straight to the waterfall palace—hoping the ghosts wouldn’t have time to try to kill us again, since we were dead-set on entering the damn building as soon as we set foot outside.

  My only concern was for the others. There were more Reapers here than we’d anticipated, and that raised the stakes a little. Either way, this needed to be done. There was no other way.

  “We’re here to obey her orders, not to question them,” Baethal snapped. “Gosh, you’re so hard-headed.”

  I raised my scythe at them, wondering if I’d get the desired effect. Baethal just grinned, while his two friends scoffed with sheer contempt. The rest of the Reapers frowned—some were downright wary of the blade, from what I could tell. Varga gave me a sideways glance. “They’re actually scared of it,” he whispered. “They might not look it, but they are.”

  It was me they wanted, then. It was me they were trying to convince to leave Mortis, and it was me holding a stranger’s scythe. All these elements combined made me realize that the Reapers would likely be less interested in my crew, and more focused on me, even after I disappeared. That made my part of the mission even more dangerous.

  “You don’t like me holding this scythe, do you, Baethal? I do remember I nearly slit your throat with it not that long ago,” I said.

  Wrik and Theoth scowled at him. They didn’t know.

  “You may be able to hurt me with it, but you cannot kill me. Only a Reaper can kill another Reaper,” Baethal said.

  Theoth groaned. “You shouldn’t have told him that.”

  “There are more of us than there are of them,” Baethal replied, visibly angered.

  “Change of plan,” I said to our team. “We’re all going to the palace.”

  I’d thought this through. We were all better off together, especially if the Reapers were going to come after me—they couldn’t take their eyes off my scythe, and the thought bothered me.