I blacked out—of all things, from too much laughter. If the Soul Crusher or the Hermessi wouldn’t kill us anytime soon, irony definitely would.
Varga
Upon waking up and realizing what had just happened, we were all pretty flushed, trapped in an awkward silence. None of us dared speak for a while as we took deep breaths, thankful that the gas had completely dissipated.
“Well, that was weird,” the Soul Crusher said, startling us.
“Maybe if we ignore him, he’ll go away,” Raphael whispered, loudly enough for the Reaper to hear him.
Herakles pinched the bridge of his nose. “I never thought I’d pass out from laughing.”
“The gas was effective. I’ll give credit where it’s due,” Eva said.
I got up, my abdominal muscles still sore from all the giggles. “We need to try again,” I said. “We don’t have time to recover like we’d probably like… or need.”
“You’re right,” Lumi replied and gave Amelia a sly smile. “Your turn, then.”
As expected and based on our experiences thus far, Amelia didn’t look happy.
“Yeah, what’s the worst that could happen?” Riza added sarcastically.
“So far, we’ve passed out twice and nearly gotten ourselves killed once,” Nethissis shot back. “With three exceptions, of course,” she continued, narrowing her eyes at Taeral, Eira, and Lumi.
“For what it’s worth, we felt the effects of the poison much like you did,” Taeral said. “It was as close to dying as we could get.”
Eva was thinking about something. I could tell from the way her gaze was fixed on a single lever, her brow slightly furrowed and her full lips pressed into a small line. Crouching in front of her, I gently brushed her cheek with my knuckles, triggering a soft smile from her.
“Your wicked mind is cooking something up, I know it,” I said softly.
She nodded once. “I’m remembering the clicks we heard, before pressing the levers. They weren’t all the same.”
“No, they weren’t,” Amelia replied. “But the ones that released a gas or whatever sounded the same, as opposed to the neutral ones, right?”
“Exactly,” Eva said.
“Yeah, I thought so, too.” She sighed, setting her sights on another lever. “Let me try something. I have a feeling that a lever with a trigger will be slightly harder to press than the others. It’s just a hunch. I’ll half-press several of them at once, to see if I’m right.”
“If you are, we can half-press more of them and identify the neutral ones,” Raphael said. “But it doesn’t get us closer to the lever we need to get out of this room.”
Amelia pouted, but Lumi was quick to outline the bright side of this endeavor. “No. However, it saves us time by showing us exactly which levers are on a trigger, instead of us going all over the room, waiting for each of them to do something or do nothing.”
“Plus! Chances are the good lever is among those with a trigger. It has to be connected to a mechanism, right? I mean, there’s no door, so it would have to… I don’t know, pull one of the walls back or reveal a hidden exit,” Nethissis replied.
Amelia went over to the third wall, which we’d yet to try. She half-pressed all the levers on it, listening carefully to the mechanisms beyond. We waited quietly, our ears pricked. We gradually identified the sound pattern.
About twenty minutes later, I, too, could do what Amelia had just done, but to another wall. “Guys, gals, I’ll do the other wall like Amelia, only halfway down,” I said. “Two of you should cover the remaining walls.”
“I can do one,” Eva said.
“Me too,” Raphael replied.
Lumi, Nethissis, Riza, Herakles, Taeral, and Eira stood in the middle of the room, armed with what was left of the healing potions and volcanic water—there wasn’t much to go around. We had maybe two rounds of usage, tops, after which we’d have to rely on Eva and Amelia’s vampire blood for healing, along with mine. Without any magic or supernatural abilities, we were pretty limited against any hostile force triggered by the levers.
Once we were done with all the levers, we moved back into the center of the room, analyzing our work. All the levers were angled halfway down toward the floor. We’d used chalk to mark the ones that had made a neutral sound, but we were still left with about one hundred trigger levers. Taeral groaned with frustration. “Ugh. Still better than all of them, I guess, but… dammit.”
“I know,” Raphael said, shaking his head in dismay.
“You’re a lot smarter than you look,” the Soul Crusher interjected, his voice echoing through the room.
Herakles rolled his eyes. “Oh, good. He’s back,” he said, his tone flat.
“Also, it’s not the first time we’ve gotten that… compliment,” I mumbled, my cheeks burning. “Your superiority complex is rampant. Maybe tone it down a notch.”
“I’m perfectly sociable,” the Soul Crusher retorted, sounding rather irritated. I couldn’t help but chuckle. It didn’t sit well with him. “Tick tock, Varga. Tick tock.”
He knew our names. He knew our abilities. He must’ve read our minds after knocking us out and shoving us in this box. His magic was multidimensional, for sure—time and space were different here, but he was still vulnerable to Hermessi attacks. The Widow Maker had to be outside, probably doing everything in his power to protect us.
When the Soul Crusher mentioned time passing, I wondered if he was doing it to tease us or to make us move faster. After all, he’d been locked inside Zetos for so long, there had to be a part of him yearning to be free again.
“I suppose you really want to get out, right?” I asked the Reaper.
“Of course! But I can’t cut you any slack, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said. “Rules are rules, and I’m not the one who made them. You must prove yourselves worthy of touching Zetos, and, in order to do that, you need to survive my puzzles. So, you know, chop-chop!”
I walked over to one of the unmarked levers and glanced back at the crew, waiting for their nod of approval. Once I got it, I pulled the lever down and quickly rushed back to the group. A clang echoed somewhere beyond the room.
“Oh, my. This is going to be fun.” The Soul Crusher giggled.
“Glad we’re providing you with entertainment.” Taeral scoffed.
A loud hiss emerged from a corner. Covering our mouths, we scattered and checked all eight of them. Nethissis and Lumi found the source first. “It’s here,” Lumi said, her voice muffled by her sleeve.
We looked down and noticed the air rippling as another gas was released. Eva passed the healing potion vials around, which we downed quickly. Less than thirty seconds later, the color drained from her cheeks. “Crap, we just wasted some potion.” She sighed, her serpentine tongue flicking over her lower lip.
“Why do you say that?” I asked, bracing myself for another type of poison to turn me inside out in painful convulsions.
“It’s not toxic. It’s not poison,” she replied. “I recognize the scent… the taste,” she added and fumbled through her backpack, looking for something.
“What is it?” Taeral asked, his brows set in a confused frown.
She stilled, raising her gaze to look at us. “It’s my truth serum,” she said. “It’s not in my backpack anymore. The Soul Crusher took it and set it up as a trap here, and we just unleashed it on ourselves.”
“Oh, good, now everyone gets to hear about how insecure I feel when I’m around you fabled warriors of GASP.” Herakles snorted, then paused, his eyes popping wide as he became aware of what he’d just said. “Crap.”
“So, the serum is effective.” Raphael chuckled.
“What’s your biggest fear?” Herakles asked him, scowling.
“Manticores,” Raphael replied promptly, and quickly covered his mouth.
Taeral grinned. “Seriously? Why manticores? They’re allies.”
“They’ve got poisonous tails. I’m sorry, but there’s something about them that just cr
eeps the heck out of me. I can’t help it. I met Pheng-Pheng once, and I had nightmares for weeks. They all ended with her coming after me, and that stinger coming down and killing me.”
“You’re a Perfect. Manticore venom isn’t deadly to you.” Amelia tried to reassure him, though she had trouble keeping a straight face.
Raphael snapped. “It’s an irrational fear, I know, just… leave it at that.”
The Soul Crusher laughed. “It’s definitely working! Thank you, Eva!”
“I didn’t give you the serum. You stole it!” Eva shot back, genuinely unnerved. She exhaled sharply, giving me a worried look.
“It could be a lot worse,” I said to her. “It could be poison, or darts, or whatever else he’s got planned for us. How long until it wears off?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’m unable to identify the concentration.”
The hissing had long since stopped, but the serum was already working on us. It wasn’t until the Soul Crusher spoke again that I realized the implications of him using it on us, at this stage in our mission. We’d all been thinking things about each other, some less flattering than others. The pressure and the urgency had taken their toll on every member of this crew, but we’d had the privacy of our own heads in which to vent and cool off.
That was gone now, and the Soul Crusher was ready to let loose. “Okay… let’s start with some easy questions,” he said, stifling a chuckle. “Who’s your weakest link, in your opinion?”
“Herakles,” Raphael replied and gave his friend an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. It’s the damn serum. It doesn’t make you any less valuable to us… and you are still my best friend.”
Herakles said nothing, as more members of our crew said his name out loud. When my turn came, I sighed. “Eira.”
“What?” Eira replied, clearly stunned. “Why?”
“Herakles gives it his best, at all times. Emotionally, your head’s not in the game,” I said. “You lack our particular experience across worlds and cultures. Deep down, you’re still a Cerixian, and thus limited. It’s not a bad thing.”
It wasn’t enough to stop her from deflating like a beachball left in the sun for too long. But I couldn’t control my honesty anymore. I’d thought this about her for a while now, but it had never made her less worthy of being on our crew. Given our bloodlines and genes, there was bound to be a weaker side and a stronger side.
“I’m not that far behind you and Herakles, though,” I added, breaking into a cold sweat. “I’m just a vampire-sentry. There’s only so much I bring to the table.”
Jaws dropped among us, but Herakles kept a straight face throughout. And since I couldn’t read his aura anymore, I couldn’t tell how he felt about all this.
“I’m sorry,” Amelia said to Herakles. “I really am.”
“We all are,” Taeral added. “You’re vicious in combat, but… you have tighter limits than most of us, Eira included.” He threw me a cold glare, and I raised my eyebrows in return.
The air thickened around us. I could cut through it with a knife. This was just one of the things we’d all hoped to keep to ourselves but the Soul Crusher had forced us to expel. Herakles, however, chuckled. “Guess the Widow Maker was right.”
“But you’re not—” Taeral tried to reply, but Herakles cut him off.
“Enough with the excuses and the apologies. Jeez. You think I don’t know that I’m your… weakest link? It’s why I always try twice as hard and sleep less. But I’m a damn good tracker, I’m invested in this mission, I’m deeply fond of you all, and that doesn’t change. I’m aware of my value, even though I sometimes lose track of it myself. So cut it out.”
We all relaxed at once, our shoulders dropping from the sudden release of pressure. He wasn’t mad, and that was what really mattered. Eira even smiled at me. “In a way, you’re right, Varga,” she said. “And it’s okay. I can’t become a badass GASP agent overnight. We all have limits, right?”
Lumi chuckled. “Look at me. I’m at the whims of my patron, the Word. Sometimes I manage to save us, and sometimes I’m pretty damn useless.”
“Also, I’m in love with Riza. Thought I should let that out while I’m still under the serum’s influence,” Herakles said, stunning everyone—Riza, especially. “I might not have the courage to say it again later. Provided there’s a later. Maybe that’s why I’m saying it now, because there might not be a later.”
“Oh, just stop,” Raphael replied, laughing and covering his face with both hands.
Riza, the poor soul, was speechless, her amethyst eyes fixed on Herakles. He gave her a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry. It’s just… You’re something else, entirely. I’m in awe of you, and I barely recognize myself when I’m around you. With the end of the world just around the corner, I simply don’t think we have time to go slow and nice and easy and whatever. You deserve to know how I feel.”
“Okay… I… I think we can talk about this later,” she replied gently.
“I think I’m going to vomit,” the Soul Crusher interjected, reminding us that he was still around, listening and likely laughing his ass off. Son of a... “Next question, since the first one got way too soppy for my taste. Taeral! Are you willing to let your father die, if that’s what it’ll take to complete this mission and save the world? Be honest, little prince.”
Taeral’s forehead smoothed. He looked at each of us for a few moments, then lowered his gaze. “Yes.”
Silence followed.
“You realize no one is going to think less of you for this, right?” Raphael replied, watching him. “I think we’d all do the same thing if we were in your shoes.”
Eira nodded, taking Taeral’s hand in hers. “Sherus would want you to do this, as well.”
“I know,” he whispered, but it was impossible to ignore the tears gathering in his eyes. This hurt him deeply, and we were all witnesses to the kind of suffering he’d managed to keep to himself until now.
“Nethissis, my darling!” the Soul Crusher said. “Would you be able to live with yourself, going forward, knowing that Acantha was persuaded to sacrifice herself in your place?”
This question was like a punch in the gut for all of us, but Nethissis took it the worst, and understandably so. She gasped, gawking at us without the Soul Crusher here for her to stare at, directly.
“What… What are you talking about?” she asked, her voice uneven and weak.
Lumi was baffled. “How could Acantha have known that Nethis’s life was at stake? None of us knew, at the time. We were all offering ourselves as sacrifices for Eirexis. What… What are you talking about?”
“Oh… Oh, my, you didn’t know,” the Soul Crusher replied, clearly amused.
“This isn’t funny!” Nethissis screamed, tears already streaming down her cheeks. “This isn’t funny at all, you son of a bitch!”
Eva and Lumi wrapped their arms around her, as Nethissis caved in and let out a hearty cry. She’d been holding a lot of pain in since she’d lost Acantha. Lumi was old enough to process the loss differently, but Nethissis was still green, still prone to emotional breakdowns and perfectly natural weaknesses where her closest friends were concerned.
I’d known, the moment I’d met her and Acantha, that they were like sisters. Their auras carried a permanent golden glow for each other. I’d seen the crimson mist coming out of her body when Acantha had died. My heart had broken with hers…
“You’re being an asshole,” I said, glancing up, wondering if the Soul Crusher was somewhere above the ceiling. It made sense, since there were no levers or hidden mechanisms there to trigger. “At least tell us what this is all about!”
“I’m not going to,” he shot back. “But you should definitely ask Seeley when you see him.”
I was baffled. What did Seeley have to do with this? He’d saved us from Yamani, but we hadn’t seen him since. This was not just confusing; it was bordering on insane.
“What on earth are you—” Lumi said, but the Soul Crusher h
urried us away from the topic, as if he’d stepped into something he wasn’t that willing to handle.
“Moving on! How do you all feel about Taeral, Eira, and Lumi being unable to die, huh? Isn’t it annoying? Death marked them, but not the rest of you? Huh? Isn’t it… I don’t know, insulting, maybe?” the Soul Crusher asked.
It hit me then. I understood what he was doing. And I didn’t like it one bit.
“We don’t like it,” I said. “But it wasn’t our decision, and it wasn’t Eira’s, Lumi’s, or Taeral’s, either. In the end, it doesn’t matter. We’re in this together! Hell, if these three survive, at least they can carry on with the mission, and all won’t be lost.”
I spoke from the bottom of my heart, and I didn’t need the serum to tell this truth.
Taeral gave me a half-smile, meant as a thank-you. I welcomed it and shook his hand in return. I hugged Eira, too, which caught her by surprise. “I’m serious. Whatever happens, we’re in this together. It doesn’t matter what our abilities are.”
“What matters is what’s in our hearts,” Riza replied. “I feel totally useless without my ability to teleport, and I’m totally crushing on Herakles, too.”
We burst into laughter, caught off guard by the last nugget of information. Herakles cupped her face and kissed her deeply. Raphael pulled us all into a group hug, his long arms holding us together.
“Whatever happens, we’ve got this, okay?” he declared. “Weak or strong, scared or not… We’ve got this. Ninety-nine levers left. Let’s do it!”
“I’m not liking your attitude,” the Soul Crusher grumbled.
“Well, you can stick it up your—”
“Raphael!” Amelia chastised him, though she struggled not to laugh.
Inebriated by the sudden strength in our dynamic, I separated from the group. A grin stretched across my face as I took in our surroundings. “Forget the psycho Reaper for a moment. He’s just messing with us, making it harder. Let’s focus on the damn levers.”
A Shade of Vampire 75: A Blade of Thieron Page 13