A Shade of Vampire 79: A Game of Death

by Forrest, Bella

  “To take the edge off. Yeah, got it.” Trev cut him off, laughing lightly. “I’m good, Kalon. I really am.”

  “Be careful,” Kalon advised, as Trev made his way to the door.

  “I will. I promise. Bigger things at stake here. I’ve been preparing for this for years,” Trev said, trying to reassure Kalon. “Trust me to make it happen.”

  Personally, I had faith in the former Rimian. He’d lied to us, sure, but I understood why he’d done it, and so did Kalon. Bidding us both farewell, Trev left the room, and I felt a knot forming in my throat. I worried about him, too.

  “He’ll be okay,” Kalon murmured, staring at the closed door.

  “Yeah. He’s a tough one.”

  “Resourceful, too,” Kalon said.

  Somehow, we were incredibly awkward together, in this moment, in this room. There was something in the air, perhaps, or a screw loose in our heads… but Kalon and I… we couldn’t even look at each other. My heart was racing, the distance between us shrinking as he moved. I realized exactly what was making this so weird.

  I wanted a certain gesture from him. I’d thought about it, though I hadn’t dared to voice it or even dwell on it for too long. But as he walked past me, briefly glancing my way, and as I inhaled his musky scent and felt my skin tingle all over… it hit me. A kiss. What would a kiss be like, coming from his lips? What would it lead to?

  Kalon stopped in the doorway, looking at me over his shoulder. “You coming?”

  “Where?” I managed, still reeling from that fleeting little thought. A yearning was brewing inside me, but what the hell was I supposed to do with it?

  “There’s a full moon tonight. I thought we might do a bit of training in the gardens,” Kalon said. “I doubt I’ll get much sleep until we hear from Trev. Besides, it’s been a while since you and I have had some time alone.”

  There was meaning in his words, but I couldn’t bring myself to untangle it, to make sense of it, to identify the hidden emotions he was trying to convey. To be honest, I was simply afraid that I might’ve been overthinking all this. That there was nothing more than a good friendship between us.

  Maybe I’d convinced myself that what Kalon and I had transcended the platonic barriers. It had been a while since he and I had had some time alone, though. I wasn’t a fool. I certainly wasn’t going to turn him down.

  Smiling, I walked out with him. We headed to the training room first to collect some sparring swords. My heart was already singing, and I had no way of controlling it. Whatever this was between Kalon and me, I would enjoy every second of it, regardless of what it entailed.

  Nethissis

  For more than two days, I had been running and hiding. Whenever I’d thought I’d escaped that wretched ghoul, it came around. It found me. Every damn time!

  The only advantage I had was that I wasn’t tired—not physically. The absence of a body had helped. I didn’t need sleep or food or water… what a crappy silver lining this was, given that I was still running for my life.

  I’d roamed through the city from north to south, from east to west. I’d hidden in attics and basements and preserve pantries. I’d screamed for help, but no one had heard me. I couldn’t even move a friggin’ glass to let somebody know that I was there.

  My soul was weary. I thought about Rudolph and the other Reapers, not knowing what had become of them. The black guards had Reaper scythes… that meant they must’ve taken them somewhere. Maybe they were being held captive, much like Seeley. Oh, and Seeley! He was probably going insane, not knowing where I’d gone or where Rudolph was.

  “What about Death?” I wondered aloud. “No one’s heard from Rudolph. Shouldn’t she be worried? Shouldn’t she be sending more Reapers in? What the hell is she waiting for?!”

  I kicked my way through the palace garden gates. The night stretched over the city with its indigo sky and trillions of twinkling stars and that one full pearl-shaped moon. Constantly looking over my shoulder, I allowed myself a deep breath. The ghoul wasn’t anywhere in sight—at least for now. That was better than nothing. Whatever respite I could get, I took it. It was only a matter of time before the bastard would track me down again.

  It felt so weird, being on my own like this. There wasn’t a single other lost soul out there. Visio’s veil was thick, yes, but it was also empty. Except for me.

  The clanging of swords made my ears twitch.

  Somewhere in the middle of the garden, beneath the exterior lamps mounted along the trimmed hedgerows, I could see Esme and Kalon Visentis. They were sparring, using dull swords and dancing around one another, looking for a way in. I smiled, wishing I could just reach out and touch Esme. Wishing I could tell her that I was still here… that I needed her help…

  Heartache notwithstanding, I was glad to see her. It meant that she was okay. The way she looked at Kalon when he wasn’t paying attention surprised me. There was longing in those deep green eyes. A wanting. And she seemed worried, too, that maybe Kalon didn’t reciprocate. That was a familiar feeling for me. I’d experienced it a lot since I’d died and seen Seeley again.

  But little did Esme know, when she wasn’t looking, Kalon was gazing at her, as well, the corner of his mouth pulled into a secret smile. There was something here, something between them. Something that neither of them dared to act upon.

  “Use your feet,” Kalon told her.

  “I am using my feet!” she replied, slightly frustrated.

  “Well, you’re not using them well enough!” he said, bolting past her and smacking her hind with the width of his blade.

  “Ouch!” she screeched, making him laugh, and making herself laugh, as well.

  They had no idea that I was out here, trying to find my way back to safety, back into the world of the living. There was no time for me to ponder things, though. No time for me to linger here in the gardens, either. As long as the ghoul wasn’t around, it meant I could at least get back to Seeley.

  I’d been running for too long. Maybe Seeley had a solution against the fiend.

  Sour as a bad grape, I ran past Esme and Kalon and passed through walls and doors and down secret staircases until the underground maze unraveled before me once more. The darkness. The humidity. The incessant dripping of water. It was all there. Nothing had changed.

  I bolted through the main hallway, paying attention to every sound around me. Every growl and hiss from ghouls locked inside some of these charmed cells. Remembering what we’d learned about ghouls during our Death crew missions, it dawned on me… how had these ghouls been brought here?

  “Did Zoltan capture you all?” I wondered. “Or did he… make you?”

  Suddenly, the latter option—as chilling as it sounded—felt like the greater possibility. It made sense. Maybe that was what had happened to Rudolph and his crew, too. Maybe Zoltan was keeping them hostage, waiting, torturing them?

  “How the hell do you make a Reaper into a ghoul?”

  That happened if the Reaper in question ate a soul. Then, the process of degradation would be automatic. What were the odds that Zoltan had figured something like that out? And where the hell did he get the knowledge from?

  The best way for me to check was to try and speak to one of the ghouls. Ideally not a loose one that might want to eat me. I already had such a specimen tracking me.

  I stopped in front of a large iron door—one of many down the hall, with runes carved all over its black and rugged surface. They were present on the lock, as well. But they had no effect on little ol’ me, a wandering spirit. With all the “what if” theories broiling through my head, I needed some answers.

  Taking a deep breath, I listened for a while. Someone was inside, whimpering and wailing and scratching at the walls.

  It took courage, but I found some in the pit of my consciousness, and I stepped through the door, smiling. I had one suspicion confirmed: none of these cells were warded against a spirit. Which makes sense. If a wandering ghost comes knocking, the ghouls can just gobble them
up before they even realize what’s going on.

  The room was small, maybe ten feet by ten feet, tops. Water trickled down the black stone walls. The floor was wet, riddled with small puddles. In the middle, a creature sat, legs crossed. It had remnants of a black suit on and a thick iron collar around its neck—a chain connecting it to the wall behind it.

  My spiritual heart jumped as the creature looked up at me. Its eyes were big and black, but there were still galaxies inside them. Only… they were fading. One star at a time, but they were definitely fading. Darkening. Devolving.

  “Bert,” I managed, recognizing the Reaper.

  He wasn’t a Reaper anymore. He had some of his more recognizable features, but his limbs were slimmer, longer… His bones cracked and shifted inside, and he cried out in pain. His skin had lost its matte complexion, gradually becoming translucent, revealing veins and stringy muscle mass.

  “Bert. What happened to you?”

  He growled and bolted toward me, his long black claws bursting from the tips of his fingers. That was painful, and he cried again and pulled himself back. I was ready to go through the door again, for my own safety.

  “He… He made me…” Bert managed, his voice merely a fractured whisper, staring at his hands and crying black tears. The entire sight of him was strange and awful and heartbreaking. The worst part was that I couldn’t do anything to help him. Bert had eaten a soul.

  “How?” I asked. “How did he make you eat a soul?”

  That was the part that didn’t make sense to me. It wasn’t like Reapers spent an eternity trying not to eat souls. The entire practice of consuming one’s spirit for the first time was entirely voluntary. So how did Zoltan force it upon Bert—and not just him?

  “He… He has ways. Get out. Get help.”

  Bert was struggling to talk. His muscles jerked angrily beneath his skin as he resisted the impulse to jump at me again.

  “Get… out!” he snarled, and sprang to his feet, menacingly towering over me.

  I was shaking. “I’m sorry this happened to you,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  “Get out!” Bert roared with the fury of a thousand lions, his veins swelling and darkening beneath his shimmering, almost transparent skin. He was turning and losing control. Soon enough, he’d be nothing but beast.

  It still didn’t make sense, though. Once a Reaper ate a soul, he’d first devolve into an original ghoul. Those were self-controlled creatures who needed more spirits in order to stop their degradation into the more animalistic versions of themselves—the kind that ate flesh in the absence of ghosts.

  As I walked out and went back into the hallway, I understood that what was happening to Bert was a much more accelerated version of that process. Zoltan had something… he used something to force Reapers into servitude as mindless, feral ghouls.

  But I only had Bert as an example. Surely, he wasn’t the only one.

  He banged on the door, growling and calling out my name until he could no longer pronounce it. I put a couple more feet of distance between me and the door, just in case. Cold currents blew through me like unforgiving blizzards as I silently said goodbye to him and moved on to the next door.

  Without much surprise, I recognized Dina in the cell next to Bert’s. She was in worse shape than him. She couldn’t even articulate full words anymore, thrashing and screaming and inwardly cursing her predicament. She tore her clothes off, revealing her decaying body. It was the same as Bert’s, with transparent skin and shifting bones.

  In another cell, I found Lisl. She couldn’t speak, either. All she wanted to do was eat me. I couldn’t help but cry, though I didn’t feel any tears streaming down my cheeks. It was more of an emotional reaction, my spirit still bound to the living world.

  The others were here, too, Rudolph included.

  He looked better than the others. The moment he saw me, his eyes widened, and he backed himself into a corner. His fangs were growing, pushing through his gums and making him quiver from the pain.

  “Rudolph,” I said, my voice trembling. “Do you recognize me? Do you know who I am?”

  He nodded once and growled, warning me to stay away. I realized then that he desperately didn’t want to hurt me. That was why he’d kept himself cornered, why he shook so hard… why he grunted and snarled and tried to bite his chain off.

  “You want to eat me, don’t you?”

  He nodded again.

  “Stupid question, I know. I’m sorry,” I said. “Just trying to understand what’s happening here. Zoltan did this to you, huh? To all of you?”

  He bared his new fangs at me. But he also nodded a third time.

  “I have no idea how this must feel for you,” I continued. “But I’m deeply sorry. I didn’t know the ghoul was out there. It’s still out there, looking for me. I’ve been running from it for two days, now, and I’m terrified. I’m terrified I won’t pay attention for a moment, and at some point it will get me.”

  Rudolph stilled, suddenly paying attention. Galaxies died in his eyes, but I knew he was sympathizing. I knew that, despite his physical and spiritual agony, he was trying to stay above, to retain some semblance of consciousness. I kept myself close to the door, though, not wanting to end up a snack.

  “I’ll find a way to help you. I promise, Rudolph. One way or another, I’ll come back to you. I’ll help you. I’ll figure something out. But I need you to stay strong, okay? I need you to remember yourself, to remember who you really are, no matter what your physical form tells you right now, okay?”

  He didn’t move. He didn’t even growl. His breathing was ragged, but I knew he was listening and registering every word, gathering whatever strength he had left to go down on his own terms, if needed. And I had meant every word I’d said to him.

  “Don’t forget me, Rudolph. I’ll come for you soon. I… I just need to talk to Seeley about all this, okay? Nod if you’re okay with that, please. Nod if you’re going to wait for me. I need you to promise, Rudolph, do you hear me?”

  He nodded a fourth time, and I felt a smile blooming on my face, with all the heartache included. I’d gotten through to him, and he was paying attention. That mattered. In the long run, it might even be our ticket out of here.

  A plan was forming in my head. Seeley definitely had to have some input on it.

  I couldn’t do it without him. Or without Rudolph, for that matter.

  Nethissis

  Carefully moving through the hallways, I paid attention to every single sound, every single snarl and growl echoing from the cells. My pursuer had not tired, and was bound to show up again, eventually. It had caught my scent more than two days ago, and a ghoul was not known for its ability of self-restraint. Herbert had been an amazing exception.

  I could’ve used Herbert right about now.

  Downtrodden by what I’d seen earlier, I made it my objective to find a way to expose Zoltan and all his projects. He was doing something to the Reapers he captured, turning them into ghouls. He trained them and made sure they obeyed him. My worst fear was that the same would happen to Seeley, sooner or later. The thought alone was enough to make my whole being run cold, ice working its way through me, stiffening my every move.

  I found him in his cell, still chained to the wall. His face illuminated when he saw me. The four ghouls he shared this place with jumped from their sleep, proceeding to snap their fangs at me, but I waved them away with sheer disinterest. “All of you need to go to hell,” I said.

  They didn’t scare me anymore, and it showed. Surprisingly enough, they didn’t know what to do with my reaction, so they just sat on their hinds and watched me, occasionally letting out a low growl to remind me that they were still there, and that, once they were free, they would come for me. Until that happened, however, I was free to continue to flip them off whenever they made their presence heard.

  “Nethissis. Are you okay? What the hell took you so long?” Seeley asked, moving against his restraints. He was getting stiff and sore, but t
here wasn’t much he could do about it. He measured me from head to toe, his gaze darting past the private parts with genuine respect. Perhaps he’d forgotten that I was dead. There wasn’t much the outside world could do to me—except for that friggin’ ghoul. Or maybe I just looked really good naked… Ugh, still so awkward.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s… It’s been insane.”

  “What happened?”

  “I found Rudolph and the crew,” I replied, and he was tempted to smile. “But so did the black guards. They had a ghoul ready and scythes of their own.”

  His face dropped. “No. Please, don’t tell me that—”

  “It was vicious. I have never seen anything like it. These maniacs have protocols in place for Reapers. They use ghouls to take them by surprise,” I said. “Rudolph and his team didn’t stand a chance. They didn’t even see it coming!”

  “Where are they now? The Aeternae can’t kill a Reaper, no matter what tools they have in their arsenal,” Seeley replied, his jaw clenched with raw anger.

  “Zoltan has done something to them. I wasn’t there to see it because I was running from the ghoul. But he—”

  “Wait, what?!”

  I exhaled sharply and told him about the last couple of days, emphasizing my inability to come check on him, given that I had been on a constant run for my afterlife. “It homed in on me, over and over. Relentless in its pursuit. By the time I got back here, it was too late for Rudolph and his team. Seeley, Zoltan is somehow forcing them to become ghouls.”

  The revelation made Seeley freeze, his galaxy eyes dark and blank. He stared at the ghouls on the other side of the room, and I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head.

  “I saw Rudolph, too. He’s turning. They’ve all been turning, but Rudolph’s got a bit more control over himself. I suppose it varies from Reaper to Reaper,” I added. “I think I can get him to help us, if we play our cards right.”