Val closed her eyes and returned to the present. She had to find out where she was and what had happened. But that wasn’t going to happen in bed.
Taking a deep breath, she moved to get up, but was instantly struck back by a flaring pain on her chest. She pulled down the front of her shirt and froze.
A roman numeral five, surrounded by smaller characters in some unknown language, was marked onto her skin.
Panicked, she frantically swiped and scratched to get them off. The pain intensified, and the heat quickly spread to the rest of her body. Then it was gone. Instead of burning, she was left with an all-encompassing emptiness.
Gluttony Incarnate.
The words hovered before her eyes, then burrowed into her mind. She calmed. She had no idea what they meant, but they felt as familiar as her own name. But what did that feeling even mean?
“Oh my god, what is happening?” Val slammed her palms to her temples and clenched her eyes shut.
“Oh my god, will you please calm down?”
Val whipped her head to the left and saw a girl about her age standing in the corner, buttoning her shirt. The name Avia flashed in Val’s mind, followed by the word Wrath. She was wearing tight fitting charcoal pants and a black blazer with floral imprint. A bleeding heart was stitched across the left breast pocket.
Val straightened herself back into to a sitting position and stared at the girl. “How long have you been there?”
“The whole time,” Avia said, straightening her tie. “You were too busy freaking out to notice.”
“Where are we?”
“Le Ciel’s infirmary. Didn’t you get the info rush?”
“Avia!” a loud voice boomed. “You’re awake! And not… on fire.” Both girls turned to the ceiling to find a man, late-twenties at most, hanging upside down from one of the light fixtures by his hands and feet. Shoulder length dreadlocks swayed freely in the air as he rocked back and forth from his inverted pedestal. Black tattoos of illegible symbols swam down his olive brown arms like they were alive.
Avia squinted for a moment before recollection crossed her face. “Vladimir Dracule the Fifth, heir to the Eastern Kingdom. The Sin of Lust.”
“Indeed, I am,” he said with a smirk. Val noted his accent. Her first thought was English, but there was an earthier quality to it. Perhaps, Romanian undertones. “I see the clothes are to your liking,” he added, nodding to Avia. “I knew you’d look good in black.”
“Yeah, they fit great. But question.” She crossed her arms. “How did you know what size underwear?”
“Well, anyone could give a simple estimate,” he said eying her over. “But, honest to gods, I had nothing to do with your clothes. I just dropped them off for the tailor when you got here. You passed out when Zadkiel took you out of the pod.” He innocently placed a hand over his heart and lowered his head.
Avia was clearly about to object but was cut off by sudden movement on his arms. In the blink of an eye, his tattoos had stretched to envelop his entire body in swirling darkness. Before either woman could react, he had sunk into the shadows between the light fixture and the wall. Seconds later, he was back, rising from the ground to stand beside Val’s bed.
“And you must be Valentina.”
Val jumped, her eyes having still been fixed to the ceiling. She wanted to run but couldn’t make her body move. His dark eyes were welcoming, but she could feel the predatory gaze beneath; watching, just waiting to make its move. Her eyes then locked onto his smile—and the two elongated canines grazing his lower lip.
“You seem confused?” he asked after a moment.
The shock had finally set in. “V-v-vampire,” Val managed to get out, shrinking back against the headboard. It was like someone had pressed Play, allowing the fear and panic to crash down again.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Avia sighed. She flipped the hair out of her face and walked over to them. “It’s like her Mark’s not working.”
“Hmm…” Vladimir reached for Val, then stopped. He looked down at her trembling frame and offered a gentle smile. “Valentina, would you mind showing me the Mark on your chest? I need to figure out why you don’t remember.”
Val had no idea how the two were connected, but she obliged. She gave him a small nod and lowered the corner of her shirt. Vladimir leaned close and scrutinized the lines and symbols.
“Oh,” he finally muttered. “One of the lines is crooked; I had to rush the Marking to avoid getting bit. Michael will have to fix it.” He shrugged, then casually lay down next to her. “What about you, Wrath?” he asked, turning to Avia.
“I’m good,” she said with a shrug. She then leaned against the bedside wall.
“Perfect... Another thing for Zadkiel to lord over me later.” He turned back to Val. “My screwup is probably why you’re only having fragments of information flash around your head. They feel like old memories coming back up, don’t they?”
Val nodded while scooting toward the other end of the bed. A gleeful smile broke across Vladimir’s face as realization dawned upon him.
“It’s okay, I don’t bite.”
It would have been reassuring if his fangs weren’t clearly visible as he spoke. Her eyes darted around the room. There had to be a closer exit than the door. At the very least, she needed a weapon to defend herself.
“Much,” he added, clearly amused by her unease. “But I must admit, I find it odd for a ghoul to be so startled by another creature of the night. How much do you remember?”
A crack split down Val’s mind and memories seeped through.
Blood.
The feeling of running through the rain at inhuman speeds. The feeling of being on top of the world and finally at peace in her own skin. The feeling of actually being full.
Blood.
Claws sinking into human flesh behind a dumpster in a back alley.
Blood.
The ecstasy as blood washed over her face and hands. The joy from the utter exhilaration of the hunt.
Tears pooled in her eyes. “No. No, I couldn’t have—”
“But you did,” Vladimir said with a wave of his finger. “Nothing to feel bad about; it couldn’t be helped.”
“But I don’t know how I even got to that point.” Val pulled at her hair, which she now noticed was far longer than she remembered. “Crystal and Li... They said that ghouls could survive off the dead… Why couldn’t I?” She started shaking. The memories of Franklin and Elaine crept to the forefront of her mind. Their bodies were in her arms. Her mouth.
“You’ve got to be kidding me, Vladimir.” Avia threw her arms up, exasperated. “This girl? Really? This is supposed to be the horrifying Gluttony incarnate? The ‘beast that will make streets run with blood, her hunger never satiated?’” Flames sparked in her eyes as steam trailed from her hands.
Vladimir uncomfortably bit his lip. “Could you give us a sec?” His eyes darted from Avia to the door.
“Fine.” The flames went out and Avia quickly crossed the room. “I’ll meet you in the main lounge.” Without another word, the door slammed, and they were left alone.
“I apologize,” Vladimir said after a moment. “She’s been through a lot. Plus, you know, the whole ‘Wrath of Heaven’ thing.”
Val could only nod before tears wracked her body in ugly sobs. It was over. She was a murderer and a monster. She couldn’t remember much, but the images that did break through were soaked in blood. And now she was sitting in a golden room with a vampire. She shuddered and buried her face in her hands. For all she knew, these were the people sent to kill her for her crimes. It made sense. If this Gluttony Incarnate was the root of everything, then maybe it deserved to die.
A soft pressure on her back brought her back to the infirmary. Vladimir had placed an arm around her shoulder.
“It’s okay to cry. Just know that, whatever you did, you’re still you. No one here is going to hold you to it.” And like that, the waterworks started again. She buried her face in
his chest and soaked his shirt with tears.
Vladimir silently reached into a shadow across the comforter. He then pulled out a thin black square of rippling darkness. Val gratefully took it, blew her nose, then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. The tissue vanished and he took her hands in his. It took Val by surprise, and she had to stop from pulling back. His skin was ice cold, but just the touch of another person made her feel a little bit better.
“If it’s not too much, I would like to ask you a question,” he said quietly. “There’s something I’m not getting.”
“What is it?”
He let go of her hands and shifted to sit cross-legged beside her. “Were you born a ghoul, or turned?”
“Turned.” She quickly looked away as images of the creature—the original ghoul—played behind her eyes.
“What happened when it bit you?”
“I don’t know. Umm…” She took a deep breath, forcing herself to re-watch the memory. “It reeled back like it had been burned. Then it ran off into the woods. What does that have to—”
“Exactly!” He jumped off the bed and started pacing.
“What?”
Vladimir looked back at Val with surprise, almost like he’d forgotten she was there. He plopped back onto the bed and leaned in. Much closer than she would have preferred. “You were already a ghoul,” he whispered.
“What?!” She shot up, any fatigue from crying gone. “No, that’s impossible.” But even as she said it, the symbol on her chest began to pulse. Somehow, she knew he was right.
“Improbable, yes. Impossible? Obviously not,” he answered, laying back on the pillow. “Most mirage are born from two parents of the same bloodline—”
“Bloodline?” She recognized the term; something Ligel had said years ago, but the definition was lost over time and bloodshed.
“More technical term for species. Fairy. Elf. Merman. Blood carries the imprint of what you are. Occasionally, a mirage and a human bang it out. You are then left with a hybrid or a retrai. Retrai are mirage, but because the gene is recessive, they live out their lives as humans. I’m surprised you didn’t know. Were you adopted?”
"I, um... No?” She had to fight through a fog for the memories, but details began to trickle in. “My biological dad died when I was just a few months old. My mom remarried when I was six.”
“Ahh, and so it is revealed!”
Val barely heard him. How could she have been a ghoul? Her mom would have known if her biological father was out harvesting organs every night. Plus, he had been a lawyer. Where would he have even gotten… Val’s stomach dropped at the memory of her own hunts. If he was hungry enough, he could have found food.
“My guess is that your mother assumed you were human when you didn’t show any signs,” Vladimir said. “That’s probably why she didn’t bother with a family history lesson.” Val stared back dumbfounded. It was like he was constantly one step ahead. She wanted to accuse him of reading her mind, but she had never heard of that skill being in the typical undead repertoire. Maybe he was just perceptive.
“But, you said that I had a recessive trait. Why am I a ghoul now? Wouldn’t I be like, I don’t know, immune to getting turned?”
“Ghouls can’t eat ghouls. Something about their kin’s blood burns like acid. When it bit you, it unpleasantly realized you two were the same. And because the gene was recessive, the saliva that would have transformed a human simply woke your inner ghoul.”
“Oh.” Val closed her eyes and tried to process. It made sense, both her mom thinking she was normal and her getting turned. But there was one question left unanswered.
She looked back at Vladimir, hands nervously fidgeting with the folds of the blanket. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answer.
Another memory struck.
She was crouched at a pond, lapping water to chase down blood. The ghoul that bit her had blue, human eyes. The eyes staring up from her reflection had been a demonic purple.
Val swallowed before gripping the blanket tighter. She needed to ask. “Why do I have to eat the living? Why couldn’t I survive off of the dead.”
“You’re not just a ghoul.” He yawned, arms barely missing her face as he stretched. For a moment, she questioned if he even heard the question. “Do you see that mark on your chest?” Val looked down at the black emblem and nodded.
“We all have one. See?” He pulled down the front of his shirt, revealing a similar symbol in the center of his chest. The only difference she could notice between the two was that his was the number one.
“What do they mean?”
“That we’re the sins of heaven.”
“Well, what does that mean?” she snapped. His half answers were only making her more confused.
He gave a bitter laugh and stared at the ceiling. “Michael can explain better. But what Avia said about you being a terrifying beast that will make streets run with blood— accurate. In my spirit is the carnal sin of Lust. In yours, is Gluttony. The Mark will contain the curse and your hunger, but the beast is still in there. Its hunger will live inside of you until the end of the world.”
Vladimir turned on his side to face her. “Do you really think a slab of meat from the morgue could satisfy such a terrifying creature? You were made for the destruction of the entire human race. The only thing that could possibly soothe that longing is blood.”
A chill streaked down Val’s spine. Memories of what felt like a past life continued to bleed before her eyes. A frame stuck and the feeling of creeping dread wrapped its claws one by one around her throat.
“You were there.” The words drifted so softly that she nearly questioned if she had said them aloud.
“Yes,” he answered quietly. “The king was given an approximation of when the Sin would awaken. He sent me to make sure the transition was unobstructed. I created a thrall and we watched you until it was time to place the Mark.”
Val remembered now. She had watched herself die as Vladimir and another man stood over her body. Anger should have been the first reaction, but instead, she sat between sadness and apathy. Her shoulders slumped and she slowly spun her feet off the bed and onto the floor. The Mark, which had been pulsing steadily, now hammered into her chest like a second heartbeat. There was a lot that she didn’t know, but something inside told her that he spoke the truth.
But truth or not, it didn’t matter. She refused to kill anyone else. There had been enough bloodshed. She would go with Vladimir to find this Michael and demand he remove whatever was on her chest. He’d obviously made a mistake; she wasn’t a killer, and she certainly wouldn’t become this beast.
“I can’t be what you want me to be,” she finally said, turning her back to him.
Vladimir yawned again—not the reaction she had anticipated. “I honestly don’t care either way. But you will. Our fate is set in stone.”
Though she was positive he hadn’t moved from the bed, Val turned to find him standing at the door.
“Come on,” he said with a smile. “I’m sure the king is waiting to meet you.”
The door distantly slammed behind Avia as she stared wide-eyed down the corridor. The stonework that made up the walls and floor was completely transparent.
A river as clear as crystal ran several hundred feet below. It was breathtaking; the orange glow of the rising sun made the surface shimmer in its light. Mountains rose on either side of the river. The foliage twisted itself to become a part of the stone in a picturesque frame. As the rocks ascended, she could see stone blocks begin to take shape. The base of the castle was built into the mountain itself.
Tearing herself away from the scenery, she started down the hall, boots clicking on the brick. She now had a decent idea of what was going on. An angel named Zadkiel, who also happened to be the Sin of Pride, had pulled her from the nothing and brought her to Le Ciel—Heaven. She remembered from their conversation in the void that they had talked about burning the world alive. Everything else was hazy. She sup
posed that Vladimir would have filled her in had she stayed but leaving was the best call. She hated criers. Dealing with that girl, right when she woke up, no less, would have ended in disaster. It sucked even more because she had actually been excited when she first saw Val. The word Gluttony had appeared in her mind, along with a portrait of a terrifying monster with claws and fangs and purple-black eyes. Maybe one day, she’d get to meet the monster.
I guess even heaven has its disappointments.
But she still needed to know what had happened. If not within, perhaps the answers were on the other side.
Avia closed her eyes and tried to focus on the nothing. But as she half-expected, the nothing didn’t open its arms to her. Something else came instead.
She opened her eyes to find herself standing on a stone circle. Darkness stretched as far as she could see. It wasn’t the nothing, but something else. A veil. A bright flash blinded her and she shielded her eyes. When she opened them again, a giant door loomed several feet ahead. Flaming vines decorated the trim, the door itself made of swirling silver. Giant molten chains stretched across in an x pattern. The chains came together in a gigantic flaming lock that hung at the door’s center.
Avia stepped closer and could instantly feel the true nothing on the other side. The aether was past that. She reached out to touch the lock and a memory trickled out of its vault.
Alcohol, drugs. Loud music. Dancing. She was at a party. She had tried crossing to the aether but it didn’t work. Something went wrong and—
She froze. The house had burned down. Her fires scorched the aether and Earth Proper. Nothing made it out of the house alive.
“Cheshire!”
Tears broke the dam and cut down her cheeks. She threw herself against door, slamming her fist on the chains until a heat wave sent her stumbling back. The Mark on her shoulder burned. Fire enveloped her hands to form clawed gauntlets. Her eyes engulfed in flames and everything went red.
“Cheshire!” She thrashed against the door, clawing ferociously at the lock and chains. She had to see it for herself. She had to break through. Zadkiel could’ve been wrong. Cheshire could still be in there; somewhere, just waiting for her to return to her throne of cotton candy and card soldiers and mountain climbing and hikes and concerts, yes, that was it.
When We Were Still Human Page 15