Vamped Up

by Kristin Miller

  “That’s it!” Lilith yelled. Strobes of light sparked from her fingertips, beating back the onslaught of shades. “Take it!” She tossed the Grimorium Verum onto Eve’s chest.

  The instant the weight registered on top of her, braids of energy rippled through the room, though not from the amulet or the tome. Thick waves of violet light shot from Eve’s palms, into the tome and the amulet, then burst through the opposite side of each. They twisted and turned along one another like a magical braid, stretching through space, searching the chamber for something to latch onto.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Savage asked over the rush of energy in her head. “This is not the way it’s supposed to be! This is not what’s written!”

  “We’re writing new history,” Lilith laughed. “And you’re no longer a part of it.”

  The death shades, taking form into something thick and ominous like shadows of demons, suddenly looked like faint reflections in broad daylight—insignificant and see-through in places. The waves of light, sensing dark energy, fired through her palms and tunneled right through them. One after another, the rippling streams of light passed through the death shades, carving a hole, then shooting through the other side and back again. With each pass, the waves illuminated brighter than before. The death shades fizzled and hissed, shrinking away.

  “I won’t let you!” Savage hissed, then looked to the cracked ceiling. “I summon all the death shades in my command . . . steal their souls!”

  Fort Point shook so forcefully, so loudly, Eve thought for sure the rock wall it sat upon was breaking away, tumbling into the bay.

  As a surge of death shades pushed through the chamber door, seething with fury, cresting over the top of them, Lilith lunged for Eve, splaying herself over the top of her. Pulsing waves poured out Eve’s palms, through the tome, through the amulet, wrapped around the both of them—faster and faster, tighter and tighter—until they were so thick and bright, Eve had to pinch her eyes shut to keep from being blinded by the magnitude of them.

  The stone tablet disappeared beneath Eve’s body. The air trembled, rolling in waves around them. Disorientation set in. When Eve dared open her eyes again, the chamber was no more. Savage and the death shades were nowhere in sight.

  She was enveloped in a white fuzzy mist that seemed to go on forever in every direction. She was floating in mid-air, though she felt firmly grounded. She reached out into nothing, feeling the mist dust her fingers like snow. Her gaze caught upon her sleeve.

  “Holy hell,” she breathed, and jerked her hand back. Her ice-blue sweater was gone. So were her jeans. And her Nikes. In their place was a midnight-black gown that put Lilith’s crimson ensemble to shame. Long sweeping train. Full skirt. Rustling black taffeta flowing off the sides and back. Sleeves that hugged her arms, then drooped off her wrists, tucking into the corseted lace bodice top. She pulled up the whimsical dress in front. Matching knee-high boots peeked from underneath. “This can’t be happening.”

  Wobbly on her own feet, Eve took a hesitant step on a floor she couldn’t see, but knew was there, beneath the mist rolling everywhere yet nowhere at all.

  This is the stuff movies are made of, she thought, reaching out into the blanket of snow-like fog surrounding her. What happened to the cresting wall of death shades, ready to crash over them? What happened to Savage? This can’t be real. Hell, what she was wearing couldn’t be real.

  “You’ll get used to the feeling,” a familiar voice sang behind her. “I’m just glad to see you’ve finally got some style.”

  Eve spun around, shocked to see Lilith standing before her, more elegantly poised than ever. Her scarlet hair seemed more red than Eve recalled. Amplified. Like the heart of a flame. And her eyes—were they always that piercing crimson? And was her skin as unblemished white as it appeared now? Somehow, in this place void of all color, Lilith stood out like the lone, ripe cherry on a white blossomed cherry tree.

  “You will learn that everything is exaggerated in this place. From your emotions to your thoughts to your hair.”

  Her hair? Eve reached up, touched two fingers to long Chinese pins criss-crossed through a twisted curl of hair. A slick chunk of blonde swept across her forehead and was pinned behind her ear. As she met Lilith’s glowing eyes, she wondered if hers were as bright and mesmerizing.

  “Yes, my dear. They are infinitely beautiful. Complementary opposites. Like the sun and stars,” Lilith swooned, gliding toward her. “But we have much more important things to think about than our beauty, if you can believe it.”

  Eve felt her face crinkle. Had she spoken her thoughts aloud? Wasn’t she thinking it? How could Lilith be reading her thoughts?

  Lilith’s thick lips curled into a luminous, spell-binding smile. “In this place thoughts are as good as spoken. You’ll learn that over time. And you’ll learn to block some thoughts from intrusion, too.” She winked.

  Why was she using phrases like you’ll get used to it and over time? Was she going to be stuck here? And where exactly was here anyway? Where was Ruan? If this was the Ever After, shouldn’t he be here? Suddenly dizzy, Eve closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

  “I’ll try to catch up.” Lilith took a deep breath, then said, “You won’t be stuck here, unless you want to be. Here is the Ever After. Your equilibrium will be off for awhile, but as you learn to judge the speed and time of your entry, the dizziness will abate.” Lilith placed a gentle hand on the small of her back. “For now, I need you to walk with me.”

  Walk where? There was nowhere to go. Just miles and miles of milky white skyline that blended into an even murkier white landscape stretching as far as the eye could see. And what did she say about judging her entry?

  Laughing, Lilith guided her slowly into a thick curtain of mist.

  “What’s so funny?” Eve asked, stomach tumbling.

  “I forgot how confusing the first entry into the Ever After can be.” They walked along, destination masked. Lilith said, “I assure you that all your questions will be answered in time. After all, this is your enlightenment and it would not be right for me to deny what you seek.”

  “Enlightenment?”

  “First, you must listen. If you are to help elders, you must further understand them. I felt disillusioned when I transitioned into an elder. The change is . . . sudden, to say the least. One minute you’re as normal as any other vampire, bloodlusting and cocky as hell, feeling as if you’ve conquered the world and defeated death. The next minute, you’re tumbling into the Ever After.”

  “Is it really that sudden?” Eve asked, feeling lightheaded. “Wait, how am I being enlightened? I don’t have vampire blood. And if elders can tumble into the Ever After, are they considered dead?”

  “You have many questions. And many of them will be answered in time.” Lilith squeezed Eve’s arm. “But let me finish. When a vampire first transitions into elder status, they notice the veil between your world and the Ever After thinning away to nothing. One day, out of the blue, the world slips through their fingertips. The pull to the Ever After becomes too strong to resist. Only after an elder has successfully transitioned to the other side is a maware bestowed upon them. They may then freely pass through dimensions, from earth to the Ever After, as often as they wish.”

  Her words caught. “What do you mean ‘successfully transitioned’? Are there vampires who fail to transition into elders?”

  Laughing, Lilith said, “For a transition to be successful, an elder must fully commit to leaving their old world behind. Every part of it. There is no room in the Ever After for vampires who selfishly hold on to worldly things.”

  Eve clutched the amulet, which was still pulsing from remnants of the energy she’d miraculously summoned in the chamber. Why did she get the feeling that Lilith was no longer talking to her, but about her? Was she trying to say Eve was like a newly-transitioned elder, confused and naïve? Or was Eve the distr
acting possession for a transitioning elder? She’d never been more confused.

  Lilith smiled again, breezy and light. Just the way the air in this place felt on Eve’s skin.

  “You never answered my question,” Eve said simply, her feet now walking alongside Lilith’s like they knew where they were headed of their own accord.

  “Which of the ones you fired off, do you want answered the most?”

  Eve thought about the information Lilith had spouted, and the answers she craved. “How can an elder die if they’re already able to pass to the Ever After?”

  “If angels can fall from grace, elders can lose the ability to dimension-jump.”

  Angels?

  “Those creatures are a tale for another day. What’s important to understand now is that when elders die, they become bound to the Ever After as every other soul on earth. That is, if their mawares are intact and not spellbound into the amulet around your neck. And now, because of you, elders have that opportunity again.”

  Eve’s eyes focused far off. Was that a series of rolling hills in the distance? She squinted. With arches perched on top? Or was it some eerie Ever After mirage? She breathed deep, trying to come to grips with what Lilith was saying and how it connected to her. And to Ruan.

  “Do try and focus,” Lilith said. “I’m trying to tell you that you’ve done it. You’ve harnessed the energy within you and released the fragments of mawares that were trapped in your amulet. I have to admit that I’ve never been more proud of a mundane—pure spirit or no. A second later and I would not have been able to fight off those death shades.”

  Eve’s chest warmed as soft waves of energy flowed through her. It felt like the rush of first love. Admiration. Respect.

  Up ahead, a cobblestone path came into view, snaking though white-topped grass. Lilith guided Eve along, stepping carefully upon it. As they glided over the heavenly smooth cobblestone, dipped around its bends and hugged its curves, the mist faded away as an unexpectedly warm breeze swept over the whitescape.

  A massive stone arch perched upon the closest hill pushed through the fog. It was beautiful. Unbelievably large. Angelic white. With cherubs tooting horns embossed on the sides. And coiling from the bottom of the hill, all the way to the top, walking right up to the opening of the monolithic arch, was a line up of silhouettes.

  Elders.

  “Where are they going” Eve asked as they wound around the bottom of the hill. She kept an eye on the peak as, one by one, the elders stepped between the arch’s massive legs, blended with the shadows beneath, and disappeared.

  “These elders were ones who were previously earth-bound as ghosts. Thanks to you, they’ll now rest in peace, the dark and light of their shades forever in tranquility. When you bring elders here, you will guide them to this arch.”

  Eve nodded, understanding. That’s what Lilith wanted for the elders in her charge all along.

  As they passed by, setting the next hill and arch in their sights, the elders looked down upon Eve and Lilith. Some waved. A few nodded. Most stared on, waiting their turn beneath the heavenly gateway.

  When they reached the base of the next hill, Eve couldn’t help but notice the white-topped grass had turned brown, splotchy, and dead in more places than it lived. Warm breezes dancing across the Ever After had turned cold. Chilling to the bone. The arch on the hill wasn’t magnificent and welcoming like the last. It was gray and cracked with dark tinged spots and black vines spidering up the sides. Gargoyles baring thick fangs hung over the edges, glaring down at the few elders waiting to pass beneath its cracked arch.

  “Who . . . who are they?” Eve asked, coming to a stop at the base of the hill where the cobblestone path turned to clay and trod upward to the gothic arch.

  “They are elders who lost the light of their souls . . . the light half of their shades. They must now descend to the pits of the Ever After with other souls who are as dark as they are.”

  As Eve opened her mouth to question every word she’d heard, Lilith said, “There are things in the pits of the Ever After more menacing than vampires and therians, though mundanes would like to think those are the worst of the world.”

  “Why . . .” Eve swallowed hard, watching the slumped shoulders of an elder skulk beneath the shadowed arch and evaporate into thin air. “How did they lose the light half of their souls?”

  “They chose to give it away for another. A sort of donor program that goes much deeper than anyone on earth could imagine. It’s a bargain that carries over for eternity . . . one that doesn’t even have to be sealed by words, but by thoughts or actions alone.” Lilith’s words resounded like thunder in Eve’s ears. “They will live forever in a deeper, darker dimension of this world so a loved one can have their light . . . and live.”

  Eve turned, glaring up the hill at the looming silhouette next in line to stand under the arch. She’d know that shoulder-sweeping curtain of gold hair anywhere. Those broad, square shoulders, pulled back proudly. That shadowed square jaw. The strong gait that meant business.

  “Ruan! No!”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “When love overrules fear, our society will find peace.”

  San Francisco Haven Newsletter: Note from the Primus, 2011

  EVE TOOK OFF at a dead sprint up the hill. Clay sucked at her heels and kicked up on her gown. She trudged harder, picking up the taffeta folds, horrified when Ruan took his place beneath the shadowed gateway. She threw her arms into the air over her head, shaking them wildly back and forth. “Ruan! Don’t! Wait!”

  His broad shoulders squared to the mountain. The sharp cut of his emerald eyes lit up when they met hers. Then, as the arch rattled, threatening to suck Ruan into a realm filled with nightmares Eve didn’t even want to think about, he stepped forward slowly, effortlessly, out of the shadows.

  His brow puzzled as Eve flew into his arms. He grabbed her tight, squeezing her middle, burying his face in her neck. He pulled back, dragging his hands to cup her neck, and gazed deep into her eyes like he was trying to make sure she was real. “What are you doing here? Are you—tell me you’re not . . .”

  “I’m not dead,” she finished, then kissed him, letting her mouth draw open, and his tongue slide in.

  He sighed against her lips, then pulled back, staring at her gown, her hair. His eyes shone with such intense reverence she thought she’d melt from their awe. “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here.” He led her down the hill, their fingers threaded together, stopping when he spotted Lilith waiting for them at the bottom. “You brought her here?” he snapped. “Take her back. She doesn’t belong in this place.”

  “Oh, she belongs here, and you know it.”

  He tugged Eve protectively behind him. She wrapped her arms around his middle, curled her hands around his chest, and peered around his shoulder. His sweater smelled like him. A little musk. Subtle spice. A whole lot of overly possessive male.

  “You know the deal, Lilith. My soul for her life. You can’t make her do your bidding like some slave. She’s free.”

  Eve spun him around, despite his holding back. “What are you talking about? Your soul to save my life?”

  “In the fort . . . it was the only way.”

  She placed a delicate hand over his heart where the bullet wounds had pierced his rib cage. His chest sank beneath her touch. He’d given his life for her. And when he realized he couldn’t save her, he gave his soul so she could live on. That’s what he’d said to Lilith before he passed. My soul for her life. “There’s no need for that now, Ruan. Now that I’ve accepted my fate, you can accept yours, as my life mate. I can come here anytime I want. We can be together in this place.”

  It wasn’t much, but with Ruan at her side, she could live anywhere.

  “That’s not the way it works.” He grazed his thumb across the back of her hands. “I’ve already given half my soul away
. To you. I’d make a joke about being half the man I used to be, but I think you’d smack me for making light.”

  “Damn right I would.” Eve looked to Lilith. “What if I don’t want him to trade his soul for my life. Can’t I say no?”

  “No,” Ruan answered for her as a low whooshing sound hummed from the arch. “It’s too late.” His gaze shot to the shadowed space beneath the walls of cracking stone. “They’re calling me back.”

  Eve’s world caved in around her. The Ever After was much more depressing than her Catholic school teachers had made it sound when she was younger. “There has to be something we can do.”

  “You’re right.” Ruan snatched her into his arms and cradled her head against his chest. She could feel him pulling away. Could feel the dark energy building beneath their feet, waiting to claim him. “You can let me go as deeply and wholeheartedly as you loved me.”

  She trembled in his embrace. “I can’t. I won’t.”

  “You are so beautiful, Eve.” He fingers drifted down the curve of her cheek. “Not because of the dress you’re wearing in this place or the way your hair is perfectly twisted the way it is now, but because of the way your body molds into my embrace. Because of the way your heart answers mine. Your love has given me the strength to bear any evil in this world . . . or the next.” As if the demonic clock of the Ever After struck midnight, Ruan peeled out of her arms and took off up the hill.

  “Ruan, please! I love you!” Eve cried, running after him. “I don’t know how to let you go! Wait . . . I’ll go with you!”

  Her last words had him charging back down the hill. Unearthly moans spilled from the hollow arch the instant he turned back. “Don’t ever say that,” he gritted between clenched teeth. “Don’t even joke it.”

  “I wasn’t joking.” To her surprise, knowing the evil that could be waiting for her below this world, she meant every word. “All that matters is that we’re together.”

  “Damn it, Eve, all I ever wanted was to protect you. To keep you separate from all of this. I loved you the best that I could. The only way I knew how. Now look where I’ve gotten you . . . closer to the fire than mundanely possible.” He spread his arms to the monochromatic landscape of forever, then slapped them against his sides. “You can’t come with me. I won’t have it. I couldn’t live with myself. The pure part of my soul is gone, don’t you see? I’m no better than the demons down there waiting for me. But you are.” He ghosted his hands along her cheeks, then settled them on her neck. “You’re the most precious thing in the world to me, Eve, and I won’t have you giving up the best part of yourself on a love-struck whim.”