by Nicky Graves
“I’ve heard some things.” He eyed me. “You’re the heir.” He paused as if waiting for me to deny it. “None of the reapers are happy about that, let alone the elders who stupidly gave you a life stone. Azrael wants you dead. The elders only want to use you to keep the life stone away from Azrael. And the demons are playing their own game. Most likely they’re hoping you’ll kill yourselves off and Lucifer will take over.”
“Lucifer? As in the devil?”
“Yep. He hates it when a reaper steals one of his souls before he can collect it.”
“So a demon might be working for Lucifer?”
“They normally do.”
“Lawson said—”
Vance groaned. “Yes, Lawson said, Lawson said, Lawson said. God, I’d love to never hear his name again.”
“What’s with you two? Do you have some history beyond you being a vampire and him being a reaper?”
Vance stared at me. “You can ask your precious Lawson that. But he’ll probably brush you off. Doesn’t like to talk about me.”
“Then why don’t you tell me.”
“I’m done with him.”
Obviously there was a sore subject between them that neither one wanted to talk about.
“I still have to find Treble. I thought when he woke up, he’d find me. Do you know where he could be?”
“Possibly the demon realm,” Vance said. “They know you’ll try to find him, and I guarantee they’ll have a trap set up for you.” He stood. “Which means it’s time for you to go.”
I stood as well. “Help me find Treble.”
“Did you forget who you’re talking to?”
“No.”
“Then maybe your pea brain doesn’t get it. I’m a vampire. I hate reapers, including you. Not once have I helped a reaper unless it helped me too.”
“So, you want to trade. Blood?” I didn’t know how to buy blood, but I’m sure he could walk me through a transaction.
“I have enough blood to last me for quite some time.”
What else did vampires need?
He walked past me and headed for the stairs.
“Vance, please.”
“I won’t tell you to leave again,” he said in a tone that made me think I was now on borrowed time.
Staring into his glittery red eyes, I realized I’d have to find a different path for now.
“Bernard isn’t going to jump out at me, is he?” I asked as I followed Vance, practically clinging to the back of him.
“He’s dead.”
“You killed him?”
He didn’t say anything. Just kept walking.
“So you did help me, and you didn’t get anything out of it.”
“Bernard was on my last nerve. The only reason I kept him around was because he was a decent guard dog.”
Vance opened the door and looked out. “It looks like they’re gone. Don’t linger in the alley.”
I stared at him. He had said he hated me and the reapers, and yet here he was helping in his own way.
“Go,” he said.
“Vance, I don’t get you. If you truly don’t give a damn what happens to me, why would you care if the other vampires are out there?”
“Because I don’t want to have to clean up their mess. That was Bernard’s job. Go.”
“All right,” I said. But just as I was about to walk past him, he grabbed me and shoved me against the wall.
“Don’t come back,” he warned right before his mouth crushed against mine and he bit my lip. He backed away slightly to look at the mark. I could feel blood as it beaded. His eyes turned shimmery again, and he surged forward—but not to bite me again as I feared he might. He licked the blood away and then looked me in the eyes. “That was a warning. If you ever come back here, I’ll do a hell of a lot more than that.”
He shoved me out the door and slammed it behind me.
Startled, I shifted to Lawson’s studio apartment to find it still empty and my note to him untouched.
I sat on the ground, wondering what had happened.
Vance had warned me not to come back. Was it truly because he hated me, or was it something else? I kept getting mixed signals from him.
But instead of dwelling on him, I pushed him out of my mind. He had given me some useful information. The only problem was that I still had no idea what to do. And there was no way I’d go to the demon realm to find Treble. Not without Ranger at least.
I was out of my element and without support. The only thing I knew was that Lucifer might be in the mix.
14
It was the next day, and I couldn’t stand to be in Lawson’s apartment for a second longer. If I stayed here and hid, it was just as useless as if I had stayed in prison.
I still had no idea where to go, but I had to reach out to either Lawson or Ranger. And where was Treble? The longer I was without him, the more nervous I became.
It didn’t help that I also had a guilty conscience. My mom had to be worried sick about me. Were she and David okay? Had the elders looked for me at the house?
Shifting to the street in front of my house, I looked at it from beyond an oak tree. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see. Maybe some reaper forcefield that alerted the elders if I returned home. Or maybe the house would be burnt to ashes by demons or Azrael. My mind whirled through possibilities. But seeing it completely untouched worried me even more. It felt like a trap.
I looked for movement in the house. But with the position of the sun, all I could see was a glare.
I shifted into David’s room, knowing he would be at school. At this point, I didn’t trust that my room was safe. Creeping to the door, I listened for sounds. Voices floated up from downstairs.
I recognized Mom’s voice, but there was a man’s voice that was unfamiliar.
“Does Riley have a history of running away?” the man asked.
“No, never. We hadn’t even argued.”
“Sometimes it’s not about home but the pressures of school.”
“She was doing fine,” Mom said. “At least, I think she was. Maybe talk to her best friend, Larue.”
I backed away from the door. It sounded as though they were in the living room. Shifting to the kitchen, I quietly snuck food from the cupboards. While I wouldn’t die from starvation, my body wasn’t used to not eating. The grumbly emptiness demanded food.
A hand clamped on my mouth and I was dragged back into someone right before they shifted. Just as we reappeared in a wooded section of a park, the hand fell away. I turned to find Ranger.
“Sorry if I scared you,” he said.
Relieved at finally finding someone that could help me, I hugged him.
“Hell, you’re strong,” he said.
I let my arms fall away and stepped back. “Sorry.”
“Where have you been?”
“Besides reaper prison, I stayed at Lawson’s apartment the last two nights. I tracked down Vance to see if he knew anything.”
“You tracked down a vampire?”
“He got me into this mess. I figured he could at least tell me where Treble is.”
“Treble isn’t with you?”
“No. I don’t know where Treble is, but I still have use of the stone. I’m worried. Where could he be?”
“I didn’t even know they could be separated.”
“Apparently they can. And it was a demon that figured out how.”
“I heard about MacLean. I’ve asked around, but I don’t think that’s his real name.”
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked. “I can’t go home. I can’t go to the dead zone. I have no way of reaching anyone. And, I’ve been thinking.”
“Thinking what?”
“No one has heard from Azrael. What if he’s using the demon to cause distractions while he finds the other stones?”
“I’ll check into that theory. For now, don’t worry about it. Let’s just keep you out of prison.”
“How do we do that?”
“You�
��ll have to hide out for a bit longer.”
I really didn’t want to hide anymore, but now that I was speaking to Ranger, I felt a little bit better.
“I’ll hide for now. But not at Lawson’s studio. It only has a punching bag, and the floor is hard as hell.”
“Stay at your pod in the dead zone.”
“What about the elders?”
“The pod is your best defense. It won’t allow anyone in that you don’t want.”
“I forgot about that. But right now, it’s just a box. I have nothing.”
“I’ll take care of that. Just shift there now, and I’ll be by to bring you a few things and a new phone.”
“Thank you.”
He gave a nod; I knew that was my cue to leave, but I couldn’t just yet.
“How’s Mom?” I asked.
“Worried, of course.”
I let out a breath. “Lawson said I’d have to cut ties. Do you think now is the time?”
I hoped he would say no. I wasn’t ready to leave just yet. But with everything that had happened, I didn’t see how I could return home and pretend all was well.
“Let’s not worry about that now. It’s only been a few days. People have been missing for longer than that and have returned.”
He had a point. But even if I was able to return this time, there would be a next time. Would I want to put my mom through that twice? I had been so focused on finishing high school, getting my diploma, and then forging ahead with reaper life. My old life seemed out of reach now.
“Hey,” he said, putting his heavy hand on my shoulder. “One step in front of the other. We’ll get through this.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
“And don’t worry about your mom. I’m doing the best I can.”
“Are you ever going to tell her you’re half demon?”
“Are you going to tell her that you’re a reaper?”
We looked at each other, neither having the answers.
“Go,” he said. “I’ll be there soon.”
I shifted to my pod and stood in the empty, square space. Lawson said I could mold the space to what I required. The problem was that I didn’t know what I required. I supposed I would want a standard apartment layout with a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. But I doubted Ranger was going to bring me enough to furnish an entire home. Plus, I wouldn’t want him to. This was my place, and I wanted to fill it myself.
Ranger walked through the wall a few minutes later with a folding chair and a phone. He handed the phone to me.
“Thanks,” I said, taking it.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” he said. “Tight space.”
He set the chair down. And then with one hand flat against the wall, he pushed forward with his other hand. A dent was created in the wall.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Creating a doorway into another room,” he said. “It will take you awhile to get your place just how you want it. But I can help you get started.”
I watched as he used his hands to create a rectangle doorway.
“Give it a try,” he said.
I touched the inner wall of the doorway and pushed, but it bent the full length of the wall.
“What did I do wrong?” I asked.
“If you push, the pod will think you want the entire wall to move. You have to keep one hand motionless on the part of the wall you don’t want to move.”
He used his hand and pulled the wall back into place. “And if you mess up, you can fix it.”
I placed one hand where he indicated and then pressed in with my other hand, causing the doorway to shove back.
“This is so weird,” I said. “Do demons have this in their realm?”
“No. This is unique to the dead zone.”
“Do you ever go to the demon realm?”
“No. My kind aren’t welcome there.”
“Because you’re half human?”
He nodded. “I’m not really welcome on Earth either, but I can blend in better there.”
“You can’t blend in with demons?”
“They can smell the human on me.”
I felt bad for Ranger. He was both demon and human and wasn’t welcome in either of his natural homes.
“So that’s why you live in the dead zone,” I said.
He gave a nod. “It’s not a bad place.”
Yeah, but it wasn’t home either.
“Keep going,” he said. “I’ll be back later with a mattress.”
“Okay,” I said. Before he could leave, I asked, “What about a bathroom?”
“Plumbing is a bit tricky in the dead zone. We’ll have to eventually bring in professionals. Until then, shift to a campground that has facilities. Some don’t monitor the bathroom and shower areas.”
“Okay.” It wasn’t perfect, but I could live with it. I’d just have to find one in a warm area. The ones in Illinois would be closed for the winter season. And I definitely didn’t want to shower in freezing temperatures.
He shifted, leaving me to figure out how to build an apartment, find a campground, and avoid reapers, demons, and Azrael.
Instead of thinking about it now, I began working on molding my new home. After a few hours, I had created a living room, bedroom, and a nook. I wasn’t really sure what the nook was going to be, but I’d probably expand it into a kitchen or something. But right now, the place was big enough that I didn’t feel imprisoned, and it would fit a mattress once Ranger returned with it.
I had hoped Ranger would be back by now. I didn’t want to search for a campground until I saw him again. But it seemed as though I wouldn’t have a choice.
I wasn’t sure where to shift; normally I had a destination in mind. Boomer had told me shifting to the unknown was sometimes problematic. I could end up standing in the middle of a highway. But since I had no way of knowing where I was going, I quickly shifted, hoping I wouldn’t get bulldozed by a semitruck.
When I arrived on a road, I was thankful it was in a quiet suburban area.
It was definitely warmer than in Illinois, so at least I got my directions right. But now, how did I find a campground? From where I stood, I could see a main street up ahead. Maybe someone in town would know.
But as I walked in that direction, my stomach twisted. And not the kind of twist that happens after eating my mom’s casseroles. The kind that happens when someone needed to be transitioned.
I tried to ignore it, knowing I’d be easily found if I transitioned a soul. But the twisting grew stronger.
I needed to get away from the pull. I attempted to shift back to my pod, but it didn’t work. Instead of returning to the dead zone, I found myself standing in a house. I glanced down at an elderly man with a newspaper in his hands. His sightless eyes told me he was no longer reading it.
But where was his spirit?
“Hello?” I called.
No answer.
Perhaps another reaper had already taken him to be transitioned. But even as I thought that, I knew it wasn’t true. The twisting in my stomach was still there.
“Sir?” I called.
I checked the first-floor rooms and didn’t find him. Dreading to head upstairs for fear of another wall sucking me in, I stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Is anyone home?”
Again, no answer.
I held my stomach as the twisting became excruciating.
Attempting to shift again, I failed. Something was keeping me here. I had to find the spirit and transition it. While I feared this to be a trap, I also knew I couldn’t withstand the pain for much longer.
Heading up the stairs, I listened for sounds. But all I heard was silence—which scared the hell out of me.
“Sir, I’m here to help you,” I said as I walked from room to room, peering into dusty bedrooms that hadn’t been used in years. A smaller staircase led to an attic. Flashbacks of my previous transition gone bad flooded back to me. What were the odds that I was being set up again?
Fe
ar was making me second-guess everything.
But if I was being rational, the other house had acted strangely from the beginning. This house was just old and creaky. It wasn’t a setup. It was just a regular death.
I headed up the stairs to the attic, trying to keep my nerves calm. What was the worst that could happen?
Jail.
Death by some unknown power.
I halted my thoughts from proceeding further.
Heading to the top of the stairs, I opened the attic door and peered inside.
“Hello?”
The attic was empty except for dusty boxes, and yet my stomach was about to burst out of me.
Where was the spirit?
15
After not finding the soul upstairs, I headed back downstairs. I checked each room again and then headed outside. Maybe the spirit was in the yard.
It wasn’t until I was in the backyard that I saw a man on his hands and knees, pulling weeds from the garden. Well, he was attempting to pull weeds. In his spirit form he couldn’t grasp them.
Without speaking to him, I set my hand on his shoulder and shifted us to the transition room.
When we arrived, two reapers stood in line in front of me. Neither turned around to look at me. It was just another day at the office for them.
The soul I had shifted didn’t say anything to me, just stood upright and stared ahead. Did he know what was happening? I wanted to ask him, but I didn’t speak for fear the reapers would turn around.
We didn’t have to wait long before it was our turn.
When the keeper told me to deposit the soul in door three, I wasn’t surprised. It was always door three. And yet, I didn’t understand why. Behind the keeper was an endless hallway filled with numbered doors. Why not go to the first door or the hundredth? What was significant about the third?
I didn’t ask. Not only was I trying to be inconspicuous, he never seemed in the mood to talk. Just poked at his typewriter with no paper; only speaking when he had to say a door number.
I led the man to door three and opened it for him. All I saw was blinding light, but he smiled and walked in.
Closing the door behind him, I headed to the exit, wondering how I wasn’t getting arrested. Weren’t the elders looking for me?