by Hayden, Sean
“What happens then?”
“We’ll find you a nice cave in the middle of nowhere, and maybe throw a sofa and a TV in there for you.”
She stared at me for a moment or two before she realized I was only kidding. “Now is not the time to joke.”
I sighed, reached over, and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. “I know. But laughing beats crying.”
“Is it that bad?”
“No. I don’t care what it takes. We’ll figure a way through this and find a solution to your problem.”
“You mean a different solution than I’ve already come up with,” she said in an exasperated voice.
“Yes. Caelyn, you’re my sister. I can’t let you sell your soul. No matter how much easier it would make things. All I ask is for a little time.”
“For what?”
“To find a solution that will make you happy, and keep your soul in your possession. Deal?”
She thought about it a moment, which was a big step up from stubbornly saying no. “Deal. But I also want you to promise me that if you can’t find one, we go with plan A.”
“Maybe,” I said with a wink. “I promise I will think about it. Can I ask you one more question?”
“Yes?”
“Is it that bad?”
“What?”
“Being a vampire. Do you absolutely hate it?”
She thought about it before speaking. “No. I mean I spend most of the time being human, thanks to the orb. But I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t wish for it. It was kind of thrust on me and that makes me feel dirty. Does that make sense?”
I nodded. “Gotcha.”
“It does have its downsides though.”
“What?”
“Feeding. Even with the orb, I can feel the hunger for blood always there, nagging at me. It’s like being hungry twenty-four seven. That and feeding is… Let’s just say it’s uncomfortable.”
“Taste yucky?”
“No. Too good. It’s unbelievable. The bad part is… Nevermind. Not discussing it with my brother.” She actually blushed which only confused me more.
“What?”
“Let’s just say it’s very pleasant. For both people. And while Elizabeth is a great friend, that amount of pleasant with another girl is uncomfortable.”
I gulped and nodded in understanding. I also decided I didn’t want to hear any more about it. Ever. “So. How about the Phillies. Think they’ll go all the way this year?”
“Did you just change the subject to baseball?”
“Yes. Yes, I did.”
“Good.”
We both laughed and it eased the tension in the room about a million percent. I stood up, ruffled her hair, and fell to the ground.
I could hear Cae call my name and the sound of her chair as she slid it back to stand up, but the room around me vanished into a swirl of light that faded into darkness.
Suddenly, I was standing between two trees at the border of the park by the library across town. I recognized it from the time I had spent there when I was younger. It still had the same tornado slide and ancient swing set. I watched a young couple by the swings. She sat in the blue plastic swing, while he stood behind her, gently pushing her while they talked. I could feel the fire in my belly as hunger washed over me.
I couldn’t take it anymore. In a fit, I had thrown away the orb the stupid demons had given me to hide what I was, but I wanted to be a vampire. I didn’t want to hide. Especially from the cattle that surrounded me. I was above them. They were food.
The demon’s warning kept me in check for the longest time. For months I had been a true vampire. Sleeping during the daylight hours and feasting on blood at night. I hunted deer in the woods around my home, but I knew what I wanted. I wanted to drink from a human. I wanted to feel their hot blood wash down my throat as I drank the life from them. I wanted to drain somebody dry. Just once. Just to know the power, the feeling. I wanted to be a real vampire…
I gasped and came-to looking at my sister, leaning over me worriedly. “I have to go. Now!”
I sprang to my feet and ran out the door into the backyard. Ignoring Caelyn’s frantic pleas from behind me, I leapt into the air, called my wings, and flew frantically toward the library. I knew I didn’t have much time. I could feel the hunger overwhelming the rationality in the vampire’s mind.
The last time it happened, I instantly knew everything about the soul I was about to reap. This one had been different. There was only hunger. It was as if it had consumed him from the inside out already. There wasn’t anything left but the driving need to feed. I pitied the poor teens in the park, trapped with the monster they didn’t know was there.
In desperation, I beat my wings faster.
I landed in a cloud of dust by the swings. The couple wasn’t there. I remembered the angle which the vampire had stared and gazed in the direction I knew he had been just a short while ago. Nothing. Then I heard the scream from the parking lot next to the ancient library.
Another burst of speed and I was in the middle of a bloodbath. The girl had fallen to the pavement and was scrambling to get away from the grisly scene before her. The vampire had claimed his first human victim: her boyfriend.
The vampire had sunk its fangs into his throat. Blood splashed the car door he had been trying to open for her. The vampire let the body go and it slumped to the ground. I almost became transfixed as I watched the poor boy’s soul leave and start to drift upward. The vampire’s hiss brought me back to the task at hand.
As he turned to claim his next meal, I ran and swung my fist while putting myself between him and the screaming girl sprawled on the ground. The bones in his face crunched as my fist connected. Pain lanced upward from my hand, but dissipated and healed by the time I stopped and spun.
Fear appeared in the vampire’s eyes as realization of what and who I was dawned on him.
“Shit,” he spat, and ran instead of fighting.
I looked behind me at the girl. “Don’t call 911 and wait here,” I said as I mind magicked her into complying. I took off after my prey.
He ran straight through the park and headed toward the woods he had come from, hoping to lose me in the darkness beyond. Little did he know, I could see him perfectly, just as I could see the streak of blond heading toward him from the east. It collided with him and they both tumbled across the mulch covered playground.
When Caelyn sank her fangs into him, he screamed and then stilled as whatever sensations a vampire’s bite of Caelyn’s breed did to overload his system. I slowed and walked up to them.
Before I could speak, Cae pulled away, licked the blood from her lips, and tossed his head to the ground. He wasn’t dead, but he would be soon. I looked at my sister as I kneeled down next to the fallen monster.
“What did he do?”
“He killed a guy over by the library. I wasn’t fast enough to stop him.” I felt the weight of guilt settle in my chest. “I saved his girlfriend. It was the best I could do.”
“You can’t save everybody, Connor. All you can do is try.”
I nodded and put my hand on his forehead. His skin was cold and clammy. I assumed it was from the lack of blood. I used my power to reach inside him to find that spark that was his soul and pulled. It took only a moment and the blue light that was usually present was very dim and faded in and out of view. Without any words or remorse, I let it go and didn’t watch it as it flew up and faded into the night sky.
“Thanks for your help, Cae. You might want to go home while I deal with the rest.”
“No. I don’t mind helping you.”
I thought about arguing, but just nodded. She had seen the worst, the part I hated. Now it was just cleanup.
When we made it back to the parking lot I realized one thing, I had no idea what to do with a human body. The vampire had crumbled to dust as soon as his soul left, but the human was still there and bleeding. So was the girl. She stared straight ahead, not paying attention to her surroun
dings as she remained under the effects of my mind magic. I decided to deal with her first.
I knelt in front of her and lifted her face to look straight into her eyes. “What’s your boyfriend’s name?”
“Jimmy.”
“You and Jimmy came to the park tonight. He told you he had someplace to go and something to take care of and wasn’t sure if he was ever coming back again. He was very sorry, and hated that he had to hurt you by leaving, but he didn’t want you to get involved.”
“That was nice of him.”
“Wasn’t it? Jimmy was a good guy, and you will miss him, but it’s for the best.”
“Definitely.”
I helped her to her feet. “Go on and head home and get some sleep. You’ll feel much better in the morning.”
“Good night,” she said and wandered off, leaving my wide-eyed sister and the corpse of her boyfriend as my only company.
“That was totally cool.”
“No, Cae. It wasn’t. How would you feel if somebody messed with your mind like I just did to her?”
“That’s the catch. I wouldn’t know. And you did your best to make it right.”
I nodded, not caring anymore. I just wanted to deal with the body and go home. “True.”
I stood over Jimmy. Or what was left of him anyhow. His throat was mess of shredded flesh. If I left the body, someone might chalk it up to a bear attack, but they might run DNA tests on the wound anyway. I couldn’t take the chance. I just didn’t have a clue how to deal with it.
I thought about fire, but I had no idea how long it would take to turn the body to ash, or if it would even work. With my luck there would be a charred skeleton left for the librarians to find in the morning. I had never seen Darius deal with one either. Everybody had always ushered me away when they cleaned up my messes.
A nagging thought trickled its way into my brain. It often happened that way with being a Fallen. Sometimes, knowledge would just make its way in there. A vision of my sword answered my question.
Without thinking about it, I called my blades and sank them deep into Jimmy’s flesh. Immediately, the wounds began to smoke and sizzle as fire spread out and consumed him. Weapons that had been created to harm the Chosen evaporated humans in a heartbeat. Convenient.
When there was nothing left of Jimmy, I turned to my sister, who looked like she was going to be very ill at any moment.
“Not what you had in mind, huh?”
“No. But I’m glad I saw it.”
“I’m glad you did, too. Now you know what it means to lose your soul and how fragile it is to be human. Now you know why I don’t want you to make a deal with the demons.”
She nodded and dropped it. “Can we go home now?”
“Hell yeah.”
Chapter 20
After the longest day in recorded history and the worst night’s sleep since the dawn of time, I felt like going back to school about as much as I wanted to get the word “anus” tattooed on my forehead. My alarm sounded like a death knell.
Mom barging into my room and telling me to get my lazy butt out of bed didn’t exactly enhance my mood either. She took one look at my face and said, “What’s wrong.”
I’ll admit it. I used my powers for evil. I looked her straight in the eye, let out a little bit of magic, and coerced her into calling the school and telling them I was ill and wouldn’t be in today.
With a blank look on her face and a smile on her lips, she went to do just that. I buried my head under the pillows and sighed heavily. Then my conscious got the better of me.
No, I didn’t go to school, I picked up my phone and texted Jess that I wasn’t feeling good and was staying home. Then I went back to sleep.
I woke up after noon, yawned, and stretched. The extra rest had done me some good. Sure, I still felt guilty about the death of the human and the reaping of the soul, but I no longer felt like I needed therapy to deal with it. Who said sleep wasn’t magical?
My growling stomach reminded me that I’d never finished my dinner from last night. I pulled myself from the warmth of my bed and padded downstairs in my boxer shorts. Mom was at work, Dad was at work, and Caelyn was stuck at school. I had the house to myself. More importantly, I had the house and my Playstation to myself. I saw a couple of sandwiches, a bag of chips, and a twelve-pack of Mountain Dew on the menu.
I took the stairs two at a time and landed just as a knock sounded on our ancient wood front door. Briefly, I debated ignoring it. After all, I was a minor, home alone. Mommy always said never to answer the door for strangers. With that reasoning firmly lodged into my head, I turned toward the kitchen instead of the door.
The knocking grew louder as I rummaged through the fridge looking for lunchmeat. By the time I got the pound of roast beef out and the bread out of the breadbox, I couldn’t take it anymore. I set everything down on the counter and walked quickly to the front door with every intention of giving whoever was knocking a solid piece of my mind.
Forgetting what I was wearing, I reached out, grabbed the handle, and pulled the door fully open. Clarisse stood there looking rather annoyed. “What the hell, you can’t open a door?”
“Sorry. I figured you were a Jehova Witness or something. What are you doing here?”
“Came to check on you. Your sister was rather worried.”
“Oh. I’m fine. Rough day and night. Come on in.” I backed up, let her in, and closed the door behind her. “I’m making a sandwich. Want one?”
“Sure,” she said and followed me into the kitchen. I picked up the bread and threw together some lunch for us.
“How come you’re not in school?” I set the plate of two sandwiches, a pile of Doritos, and the can of Mountain Dew in front of her. She immediately dove in.
“Didn’t feel like being there. And I told your sister I’d check on you.”
“Weird. She could have just texted me.”
“She said she did. You didn’t answer.”
I reached down for my phone and realized I was standing there in my boxers. “Um. I’m going to go get my phone. And put some clothes on. I’ll be right back.”
“Your food will get cold. Eat first.”
“It is cold.”
“It will get warm then. Sit. Eat.” She pushed the chair out with her foot. I felt rather uncomfortable, but sat down next to her anyway. “So, other than the explosion at lunch, what else happened?”
“Had to reap a soul last night. Nasty vampire. He killed a human before I got there.”
Clarisse set her sandwich down, reached out her hand, and put it on my arm. The warmth of her skin sent a prickle of goosebumps up my arm. “You can’t always save everybody. The quicker you learn that, the quicker you’ll fall into your roll.”
“I know. I tried. I saved his girlfriend at least.”
“You dealt with the body and cleanup?”
“Yeah. Nobody told me how to deal with a human body, but I figured it out on my own. Thanks.”
“Sorry. Not a Reaper. I forget what you do and don’t know.”
I nodded at her apology. I still wasn’t in the greatest of moods and didn’t want to take it out on her. Especially when she could still kick my ass. “No worries. You working tonight?”
“No. I actually have the day off.”
“Cool. You’re welcome to stay here, but I might not be the best company.”
“I’ll stay,” she said with a funny lilt in her voice.
I started picking at my food, lost in thought. Clarisse and I fell into a comfortable silence. She finished eating before I did and took her plate into the kitchen. I was staring out the window and nibbling on my food when she walked up behind me. She put her hands on my shoulders and just stood there while I replayed everything from last night over and over in my head. She knew I was brooding and just comforted me.
“You okay,” she asked when I finally set my food down, uninterested. It sucked. I had woken up refreshed and at peace with what happened, but now it was all I co
uld think about.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
“I didn’t ask if you would be, I asked if you were. That tells me you’re not. Want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“Want to forget about it?”
“Definitely.”
“Call of Duty?”
“You bet your ass. I’m player one though!”
I stood, tossed my food in the garbage and my plate in the sink, and took off upstairs leaving Clarisse standing in the kitchen. As soon as I was back in my room, I kicked the door shut and grabbed some shorts, boxers, and a T-shirt out of my dresser. I figured she would knock before she came in, so I pulled off the old boxers and scrambled to get the new ones on. I had them over one foot when the door opened.
I froze.
“I brought more Dew…
“I uh…”
“Am naked…”
“Changing.”
“Your door has a lock!”
“No. It doesn’t.”
“Oh.”
We were frozen. She wasn’t turning away. I wasn’t getting dressed. I don’t think either of us knew what to do. I did notice that her eyes were glued to me, but not on my face. Finally she gasped and turned around. I quickly pulled up my boxers. “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry,” was all I could manage to say.
“My fault. I didn’t know your door didn’t lock. I should have knocked.”
“I should have changed in the bathroom. Didn’t think about it. Sorry you saw me naked.”
She laughed. “Yeah. It was horrible. Are you dressed?”
“Yes. Boxers at least. Let me get my shorts on.”
She turned around anyway and sat on my bed. I wasn’t totally sure, but it looked like her cheeks were a little redder than usual. “It’s your house. You don’t have to put shorts on if you don’t want to. We’re just playing video games.”