Retribution of Soul: Book 3 of the In-Between

by Senese, Rebecca M.

  Sebastian barked out a laugh. It sounded off and felt even stranger coming out of him, as if he hadn’t laughed in ages. He hadn’t, he realized, not really laughed. Not laughed the way he used to when he was... normal. The laughter doubled him up, aching in his belly. He wiped at the tears in his eyes and glanced back over at the end of the pew. Charlie still sat there, his usual half smile on his face, looking exactly as he always had before...

  Sebastian’s laughter trickled off. “You are dead,” he said. “Do you know...?”

  “How?” Charlie said. “Oh yeah. I sort of remember. The transition is such a shock it’s hard to get it all straight but I remember Alexa making a dive for me, yeah. Poor Alexa, I really thought we’d gotten to her in time.” He shook his head. “It’s not like the movies. The good guys don’t always rescue the damsel in distress.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sebastian said. “I should have realized it. I should have stopped her.”

  “Yeah sure, because you knew what you were doing, right? You were on top of it and all. Come on, Sebastian. We were all caught off guard. Not your fault.”

  Sebastian’s chest tightened. “I’ve missed you, man.”

  Charlie chuckled. “Don’t know how long you’ll be saying that. You’re probably gonna get sick of me.”

  Sebastian shook his head. “I don’t care if you are just a figment of my imagination and it does mean I’m losing my mind. It’s still good to see you. Hasn’t been the same.”

  “Hmm, college classes. Vampire hunting. Yeah, I guess those are different.”

  “Can I help you, young man?” A voice spoke from the center aisle. Sebastian turned. A priest stood with his hands folded in front of him. He looked right at Sebastian.

  “Can I help you?” he repeated.

  “Ah, no thanks, father,” Sebastian said.

  The priest pursed his lips and began to turn away.

  “Just a minute,” Sebastian said. The priest turned back, eyebrows raised.

  “Yes?”

  “Is there anyone else sitting on this pew?” Sebastian said. He glanced over at the end. Charlie grinned at him.

  “Anyone else?” the priest said. “No. Should there be?”

  Charlie chuckled. The priest made no sign of hearing him.

  Sweat trickled down Sebastian’s sides.

  “No,” he said. “No, there isn’t. Thanks, father.”

  The priest nodded and turned away. He walked back up the aisle, glancing back over his shoulder once at Sebastian before continuing on his way.

  “You might not want to hang around here,” Charlie said. “He’s gonna call someone about you.”

  “Really?” Sebastian said.

  Charlie nodded. “Oh yeah, you look a little odd. I mean, you are sitting here talking to a ghost. It looks like you’re talking to yourself.”

  “He can’t see you,” Sebastian said.

  “Of course not, he’s not close enough to the veil or whatever the hell it is. You’re an In-Between and you touched that freaky book. Besides, you’re just a plain fricking weirdo anyway. Of course you see me but you’re gonna be seeing the inside of a rubber room pretty soon if we don’t get out of here.”

  Sebastian risked another glance to the front of the church. The priest was heading across to a door on the right. He was definitely looking over at Sebastian.

  Time to go.

  “Okay, I’m outta here.” Sebastian pushed the sunglasses up his nose and crawled out of the pew. After the calm and darkness, he felt stronger. His legs carried him with purpose toward the back door. He noticed Charlie walking beside him. The sense of déjà vu made him stagger. How many hallways and rooms had they crossed together in just this fashion? Charlie on the left, Sebastian on the right. All he needed to complete the picture was Alexa walking on his other side.

  His chest tightened again, remembering the sorrow he’d pushed away into a tiny corner of himself. Would it ever go away? Maybe in ten years. Maybe in twenty.

  Sebastian pushed through the door, wincing as the sun struck him in the face. He took a covert look at Charlie. Out in full sunlight he looked a little... faded. It was the only way Sebastian could think of it. His friend didn’t cast any shadow either. Was he a ghost of a hallucination? Sebastian couldn’t tell and didn’t have any idea of how to figure it out.

  “There is one thing I want,” Charlie said. “I know you’re hell-bent on getting home but I want to see Stan first. Before we leave. I want to look that crumb in the face and find out why he betrayed me.”

  “He didn’t betray you,” Sebastian said. A woman pushing a stroller glanced over at him. Her pace increased.

  “Watch it, Sebastian, you’ll get more people calling the cops on you.”

  “How...” Sebastian stopped. He held his lips tight together and tried to talk. “How do I ‘alk ‘o you?”

  “Just think as if you’re saying it in your head,” Charlie said. “And no I can’t read your mind. Don’t look at me that way. You have to purposely direct your thoughts at me or I can’t hear it. Wouldn’t be much to hear anyway, given that wide, vacuous...”

  Fuck off, Sebastian thought.

  “That’s it,” Charlie said. “You got it.” He grinned.

  I have to go home. I don’t have time to take you to Stan, Sebastian thought.

  “Find the time or I’ll be haunting your ass the entire time. I’ll drive you nuts too. Well, more nuts.”

  I don’t even know where he is.

  “Find out. It takes us a couple of days tops, then we head back to whatever, Michigan.”

  Michigan first.

  “Stan first. I mean it, Sebastian. You owe me this.”

  Even with his faded form, Sebastian could see the serious expression on Charlie’s face. It wasn’t the mock serious one he’d sometimes put on but the genuine one. He wanted to see Stan.

  “Email your brother, tell him to look out for vampires,” Charlie said. “And you might want to look out for cops.”

  He pointed over Sebastian’s shoulder. Sebastian glanced over. A police car was pulling up beside the church.

  Sebastian pushed the sunglasses up his nose and ducked down the street, moving fast among the pedestrians. Within a few moments, he was gone.

  CHAPTER 3

  “Why?” the voice on the other end of the phone line asked again.

  Sebastian tried to contain his exasperation. “I was there when he was caught,” he said. “I think I deserve to know where you’re keeping the man.”

  “Hang on.” The phone clicked and Sebastian found himself listening to the vacuum of dead air. He hunched farther underneath the slight overhang outside the bank. More clouds had rolled in, taking the edge off the sunshine but even the hazy light pounded in his brain, made all the more annoying by the smells of the people around him and the sight of Charlie, leaning on a lamp post in front of him. Occasionally someone would pass too close to him and Charlie would reach out, passing an insubstantial hand through the person’s body. Whenever he did it, the scent of the person’s blood became even more acute to Sebastian, even more alluring. He clenched his teeth.

  Stop it!

  Charlie pouted and stuck out his tongue.

  Do you want me to find out about Stan or not?

  Charlie crossed his arms. When a woman walked by carrying a shopping bag Charlie just watched her go.

  The cell phone in Sebastian’s hand clicked. He focused back on it.

  “I got an address,” the voice said. “You got a pen? I’m not repeating it.”

  “Go.” Sebastian held the phone in the crook of his neck and wrote down the address on a piece of paper.

  “Better hurry if you want to see him,” the voice said. “They’re finishing up with him soon.”

  Finishing up. Sebastian knew what that meant. They’d been grilling Stan for the past eight months, trying to find the holes to patch and any other weakness Stan might be able to tell them about the vampires. Once the In-Between finished with their interro
gations, Stan would probably disappear forever.

  Sebastian had to get to him before that.

  He managed half the address when the man finished and hung up. The cell phone buzzed in his ear, vibrating against his shoulder as he hurried to scribble the rest down.

  There, he thought he had it. He thought he recognized it. An old safe house on the outskirts of London. Maybe an hour away.

  “Can we go?” Charlie said.

  “It’s not that simple.”

  A couple standing in front of a magazine shop turned to look at him. Sebastian held the cell phone up to his ear. At least that gave him a good excuse to talk to himself. Maybe he should get one of those earphones. Then he could talk out loud to Charlie and no one would think he was crazy.

  Or no one would know that he was crazy.

  No one but him anyway.

  Charlie shook his head. “You’re not crazy. I’m real.”

  “Sure,” Sebastian said. He shoved the paper in his pocket. “I’m getting one of those ear things.”

  Charlie shrugged. “Fine. Then can we go?”

  “Yes. Wait here.”

  Charlie’s lips thinned in annoyance but Sebastian turned away. He’d had just about enough of this nonsense. The blinding sun, burning in his eyes, giving him a horrible headache, and now Charlie turning up as a ghost.

  All he wanted to do was get home.

  How could it be so hard?

  He found a small phone store half a block away. Even with his head pounding, Sebastian found it relatively easy to Influence the young man behind the counter. He got the same defocused look in his brown eyes, the same slack-jawed expression on his scruffy bearded face. He looked to be around Sebastian’s age, early twenties. Maybe working here to earn enough money for school.

  Sebastian could almost see himself doing that, standing behind a waist-high glass counter, displaying an assortment of mobiles and their accessories. He picked out a Bluetooth ear piece and the young man slid it over the counter without speaking.

  Easy peasy.

  Even if his head hurt just a little bit more from it.

  He took another two steps toward the door and hesitated. He still needed money for the plane. He hated having to do it…

  He had the young man empty the register into a paper bag and then erase the security video.

  He wanted to apologize as he left but any unnecessary words could break the Influence. He had to settle for a frown.

  Back on the street, he shoved the ear piece into his left ear, hooking it over the top. It felt a bit crooked. He adjusted it. Fine. Good enough.

  At least now he could talk out loud and not look like an idiot.

  He headed down the sidewalk. Charlie appeared beside him. He looked more substantial in the gloom created by the sunglasses.

  Sebastian’s gut twisted only a little. If only he hadn’t let Charlie come along that night…

  “Took the money, huh?” Charlie said.

  “I had to. I have to be able to pay for a ticket home.”

  Charlie shrugged. “If you say so.”

  “How else am I going to get the money?” Sebastian said.

  “I’m not judging, man. But if you can get that guy to give you money, why can’t you get them to give you a seat on the plane?”

  “It would take too much energy,” Sebastian said. “I’d have to keep focused the whole flight so they wouldn’t notice and ask me. I’m not like you. I can’t just appear over there.”

  “Who said I can appear over there?” Charlie said. “Here I am with you. What does that tell you?”

  “That you’re annoying?”

  Charlie shook his head. His blond hair shimmered and settled into a fashionable tossled look. “I’m tethered to you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Charlie shrugged. “I don’t know. I just can’t go too far from you. Maybe cuz you were there when I died. I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers. But I do know I want to see Stan so can we go?”

  Sebastian sighed. Was Charlie holding something back? Did he really not know how he’d ended up here? He studied his dead friend. It sure looked like Charlie, everything was Charlie-shaped, every gesture, every cadence, every hrmph was all Charlie. Did he really not know anything? And why the insistence on seeing Stan? What would that accomplish?

  Too many questions and no answers. Maybe if he took Charlie to see Stan something would come of it. Maybe he’d learn something.

  He pushed the sunglasses up his nose.

  “Let’s find a car.”

  The safe house was a plain, yellow bricked two story house. The hour long drive took Sebastian almost two hours as he tried to focus on staying on the left hand side, deal with his pounding headache, and ignore Charlie who kept flitting from the front seat to the back and then to the front again. Finally he had to threaten to pull over before Charlie would stop doing it.

  Then Charlie settled into the front seat, arms crossed over his chest, pouting.

  The sun glinted on the facing windows as Sebastian stepped out of the small Saab he’d stolen. Heavy curtains covered the windows, blocking any inside view. As he moved up the narrow cobblestone walkway, he couldn’t hear anything from within and there was no scent.

  None of the In-Between had any scent for him. A disadvantage since he couldn’t tell how many there were inside.

  But they couldn’t smell him either.

  Would they be able to see Charlie?

  He glanced over at his friend. Charlie stood to the right of the wood door, in shadow. The deeper darkness from his sunglasses and the shade made Charlie look almost solid. For a moment, Sebastian could almost imagine him still alive.

  If only…

  Sebastian knocked on the door, using an In-Between code.

  Then he waited.

  A few minutes later, he heard the whisper of shoes on tile. The thin beat of a heart sounded from the other side of the door. But the door remained closed. He could almost picture someone standing on the other side, listening to him breathe, listening to his heart beat as he listened to theirs.

  Stalemate.

  He lifted his hand to knock again.

  The door flew open.

  A gun jabbed him in the nose.

  Behind it, a woman with short red hair, wearing black pants and a khaki short sleeved top, scowled at him.

  “Whadya you want, mate?”

  No smell, just the hostility coming off her in waves, buffeting him.

  “I need to see Stan,” Sebastian said. “You’ve got him here, I understand.”

  “Don’t know who you’ve been chattin’ with, mate, but we got no one by that name ‘ere,” she said. “Best you be running along before I gets reason to use this.”

  She wagged the gun in his face.

  Sebastian huffed out an annoyed breath. “I’m an In-Between like you,” he said. “I helped catch Stan and I know he’s here.” He took a deep breath in. “I can smell him.”

  Her green eyes narrowed behind the barrel. “What’s your name?”

  “Sebastian.”

  Her mouth twitched. A flicker of recognition? He’d never met her before. How could she recognize him?

  “You’re the one who feels ‘em, ain’t ya?” she said. “You can Influence the vampires.”

  He could hear the capitalization of the word “Influence,” the way her voice emphasized it. Her head cocked to the side.

  “I’m not sure what I do,” he said. “But that’s me.”

  “Thought so.” She lowered the gun and stepped back from the door. “Heard you destroyed that book. Killed a clan head.” She gave him a nod. “Good job.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “You gonna stand on the step all day or are you comin’ in, mate?”

  “Oh right.”

  He stepped inside the foyer. She shut the door behind him. The lock engaged with a click. Would Charlie be able to follow? Oh what was he worried about, Charlie was a ghost.

  Or the lo
ose screw rolling around in his head.

  “I’m Cath,” the woman said. “Been In-Between for four years. Stationed here for two.” In the shadows, he saw the frown turn her lips down. “Hoping to get stationed over in Europe soon. They keep promisin’.”

  Yeah, promises. He’d heard his share of those too.

  In the darkness, they passed several small rooms. He took quick glances inside, caught glimpses of a beige couch here, a dining table with four wooden chairs there. Before they reached the kitchen at the back, she opened a door to stairs leading down.

  She didn’t bother with the light, just started down.

  Sebastian followed.

  The darkness deepened to pitch black as they descended. With each eye blink, he deepened his focus, called up his In-Between vision. Now he could make out the pale green carpeting on the wooden stairs. See the wooden railing affixed to the plaster wall on his right. They reached a landing and the stairs turned to the right, leading down. Another few steps, another landing. Odd, the plaster in front of him looked different. Then the stairs twisted down again.

  And down.

  This was no ordinary basement. Somehow they must have dug deeper. He could almost imagine them doing it over time, carrying out sacks or buckets of dirt as they dug, hauling tools and lumber up and down the stairs as they worked. Did the In-Between have other places like this? Other locations they’d adapted for some “use”?

  There was so much he didn’t know about them even though he was one of them.

  More stairs down.

  He lost count of the landings but it felt like they’d gone down about four floors worth. Finally, ahead of him, Cath reached level ground. She pulled out a flashlight, or torch as she would call it he knew, and switched it on. After the total darkness, the weak beam of light seemed almost blinding.

  Sebastian blinked as tears flooded his eyes.

  “Come on,” she said.

  She led the way down a dirt tunnel. He could feel the unfinishedness of it. The earth felt hard beneath his feet. The walls were packed down but some bits of grit still came away to his questing fingers. The tunnel gave him a scant few inches above his head and if he stretched his arms, he’d hit either side.