Two Halves Box Set

by Marta Szemik

  * * *

  When I arrived at the emerald pond, Eric sat on the bench at the entrance, his elbows resting on his knees. The crickets chimed their concert, light bugs dancing in the air in time with the chirping. Moisture from the fluorescent pond hung in the air. It had been a while since I enjoyed a swim with William in water where our bodies became invisible, one of the few perks of being a half-breed vampire.

  “Any more news about the bodies?” I asked.

  Eric shook his head. He’d been working with Mira on reuniting the lost souls from the hereafter, and I knew I’d be the first one to know when my mother’s and aunt’s bodies were found.

  “I think Xela’s back,” I blurted without giving him a chance to reply. “I can hear her in my head. She’s taunting me.”

  His brows rose. “Are you sure?”

  I shook my head sideways and sat beside him on the carved out tree trunk. “I don’t know what to believe. Is it even possible? When I saw her in the cave, even though she was tied up, I felt her freedom more than mine. I don’t know how Eric. I know she’s contained, but it doesn’t feel like it to me.” My hands trembled and I heard vibrations in my voice.

  Eric placed his hand on mine. “If what you’re saying is true, then Xela is scheming again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Aseret was behind it. I thought there was something odd about her when we switched your souls. I have a feeling her soul is able to leave her body to roam the ghost realm, perhaps do Aseret’s bidding in that form. Your mother isn’t answering me, either,” he continued. “I think she’s gathering other souls to fight against Aseret.”

  Now my eyebrows went up. “My mother?”

  “And your aunt.”

  “They can’t.” I threw my hands forward and stood. “It’s too dangerous. He’ll steal their energy.”

  “I don’t think we have much say in this. I’ve been assigned to clean up Aseret’s chaos, but I can’t do it if the spirits don’t answer.”

  The leaves ruffled. Eric’s head darted toward the bushes at the same time as mine did.

  “It’s not your mess, Eric.” Mira stepped through the trees, her body a dark silhouette against the black backdrop of the forest. “I’m the one who opened the hereafter. It’s my fault your mother’s soul lingers and cannot move on,” she said me. “She’s fighting to keep her essence because of me.”

  “I don’t understand.” I shook my head. “Why would you do that?”

  “It’s not your fault, sugar. A lot happened that day.” He took Mira’s hand, pulling her to sit onto his lap.

  “I shouldn’t have pushed Aseret out of the way.” Her eyes glossed over.

  “You saved your brother.” He whispered.

  “When?” I asked.

  “When we bound Aseret to the underworld.”

  “Good job,” I whispered. “Sorry; I didn’t mean it.”

  Eric shook his head. “You’re right. We failed. Aseret found a way to free himself and even Castall, the most powerful warlock of all, couldn’t get rid of him last time. Unfortunately, the magic that holds him to the underworld now is temporary.”

  “He’s been rebuilding an army. He knows the prophecy threatens him. I’m sure he fears your children,” Mira added.

  “I know they’re part of the prophecy, but I just can’t see it.” I shrugged. They’re three, I wanted to add but didn’t.

  “You don’t have to see it. The keepers are ensuring that the children’s powers are kept as invisible as possible, to protect them.”

  I stood up to pace the narrow path. “The twins seem to grasp it more than I do.”

  “They understand it better than any of us. Now, what are we going to do about Xela?” Eric asked. “You’re sure you heard her in your mind?”

  “Yes.” I felt a little weird sharing my fears with Eric and Mira before I’d told William, whom I trusted more than anyone else, but I didn’t want to worry him for nothing, and I wanted to figure this out before alarming him.

  “She’s up to something. Xander had better do his job, and not give in.” Eric gave Mira a meaningful look, one I’d seen before: to keep Xela in the cave and nowhere near me.

  “I still don’t know why he’s keeping her.” I grunted.

  “Xander and Xela had met before. When he’s ready, he’ll tell you all about it. I’m sure,” Mira soothed, using the voice that had the power to mesmerize animals on me. She took a deep breath in before continuing. “Xander asked us not to involve you. He feels bad that she almost killed you. He’s been hurt in the past, very hurt, and he wouldn’t want you to be her victim again.”

  “Xela hurt him?”

  Eric and Mira remained silent, but they didn’t have to answer. I read their faces, and more anger boiled in my veins toward the witch. Not only has she tried to kill me, she was the source of my best-friend’s internal turmoil.

  “Fine. I’ll wait, but he better not let her loose.”

  “He won’t. In the meantime, I’ll chat with the souls,” Eric said. “You let me know if the witch threatens you again. We’ll talk to Xander, have him make sure her soul’s not escaping.”

  Better you than me. I don’t want to be anywhere near him and that cave.

  Ah, so he tried to kiss you too?

  I tried to kiss him. I crossed my arms.

  Interesting. Eric stretched, then pulled his shirt off. “Anyone in the mood for a swim?”

  Mira bit her lip. Eric’s torso, scarred from the battles he’d fought in his time, made him sexier than if his flesh were flawless. The white marks defined him like a map of accomplishments, a reminder to his opponents what they had to deal with, although I’d never seen Eric take off his shirt in a fight.

  Eric’s “anyone” meant Mira, and I wasn’t in the mood to be a third wheel. For the first time since I’d known my best friend, she was happy and in love, living the life she was meant to with her soul mate, my watcher.

  As I left, I heard a splash in the pond, and spray hit my back. I shivered.

  On my way home, I tried to determine why Xander would keep the witch in that cave, which led to recollections of when I posessed her body. I’d never shaken off the pain of swapping our hosts four years ago. At that time, living without my body estranged me from others. Only Eric recognized me; everyone else fell for Xela’s trick.

  The loneliness I’d experienced while in Xela’s figure still haunted me. William sensed it, I could tell. Everything he did for me took on the form of an apology. Or perhaps it only seemed that way. Maybe I wanted everyone to be sorry, but I wasn’t brave enough to admit it.

  My conciliatory nature since the children’s birth had begun to bother me. I missed my rage, my quick thoughts and sharpened senses. The time when I’d denied my abilities seemed to be so long ago, and I began to forget why I’d ever reject my traits. Now, it seemed I was reverting to my old ways, wanting to be sensed by the underworld again. The idea brewed inside me. Was I inviting the underworld to haunt me? Did I want it to haunt me? The dark pleasure I’d felt when I’d almost kissed Xander roamed within me, and I liked it. The joy of quickened pulse when I didn’t follow any rules spread through me like a toxin. I needed the frenzy of a black witch controlling me when I was near Xander, more than air. Could the need to seem perfect and good be abandoned? The idea intrigued me and tingled my senses.

  Before I reached home, Xela’s laughter thumped in my head. When I touched the doorknob, I heard, “I’m ba-ack!”

  Chapter 3

  The tour of the Huntsville prison ended in the execution room. I wanted to close my eyes as the vampire sank his teeth into the inmate’s neck. The prisoner didn’t twitch, and I wondered what her crime was. She seemed to enjoy the puncture, smiling with her eyes, face slack from blood loss. In her drugged state, her body swayed in the vampire’s arms as if she were dancing. For all she knew, the handsome young male sucking on her neck had courted her. In truth, he was draining her. The toxins meant to calm and disorient her flowing through her veins would have no
effect on the vampire; to him, they were a harmless by-product in the form of a bitter taste. And she wouldn’t turn; her heart would stop before she had a chance to feed. She would be dead.

  The inmate smiled as the rhythm of her pulse slowed. Her eyes mellowed, the lids closing. There was nothing romantic about the way the vampire sucked the human dry, unlike in movies. Finally, her heart gave its last beat, and the vampire dropped the woman onto the metal bed beside him, licking the blood from his lips. I pitied anyone on death row and leaned on my father for support.

  “It’s done.” The warden pulled the curtain across the glass window, sheltering those of us in the viewing room from the satisfied vampire who probably dreams of human death.

  The warden’s pasty skin reminded me of a drag queen in makeup. Hunch-backed, he wobbled more than walked to my side. “Mrs. Mitchell,” he cleared his throat to get rid of his usual grunt, “you’re saying this potion you’ve developed will allow the vampires to feed on dead blood?”

  “Technically the blood won’t be dead, but yes, we don’t need to kill the prisoners this way any longer.”

  “You want us to kill them the old-fashioned way?” He tilted his head up, looking at me from below.

  “Yes. No. That’s not what I meant. Whatever laws humans make for their kind, vampires will not have to be involved.” I paused. “We’ll survive on your donations.”

  The donations were not for me: I hunted animals to feed. But for the vampires who weren’t vegan, the alternate arrangement would spare human life; I understood their need for blood. It was odd to speak of myself as not being one of the humans, the way I had always tried to be. But I wasn’t a human; I was a half-breed vampire with a priority to raise twins and nurture human-vampire relations.

  “Donations from us?” The warden’s unibrow rose.

  “Yes, and in return, the vampires agree to continue their services and protection against demons.”

  In the past four years, we’ve been able to introduce the human and vampire races to one another. My father and William’s, Ekim and Atram, had worked hard with the governments to ensure a swift transition. William introduced them to the human authorities. With a little help from Mira and Xander’s parents and their magic, persuading the public to see the world in a new light proved less difficult than we thought it would be. Vampires publicly protecting and saving human life from frequent demonic attacks helped with the inevitable changes.

  “I understand.” He cleared his throat again. “We’ll set up a meeting to get the board’s approval. I don’t see a problem with this new way of doing things. Your operations in the first aid sector and security services are ranked the highest in all categories.” The warden wobbled toward the exit. “I’ll get my secretary to draft a new agreement and mail it to you. Where can you be reached again? I don’t believe we have an address on file.” He raised his brow.

  The way the warden spoke seemed peculiar. His slurred speech reminded me of Aseret. For someone running a rigid prison, his tone was too calm, shadowed by sloppiness.

  As if in a subconscious response to the hunched warden, my father straightened his back and spoke for the first time since entering the prison. “There’s no need to mail. As agreed, Ms. Mitchell will come back in a week to sign everything and discuss the details of the deliveries.”

  “And where would you like us to deliver the blood?”

  I grabbed the collar of his shirt and shoved him against the wall before he’d even blinked. His feet dangled above the floor. “Don’t patronize me, warden! You know the arrangement has nothing to do with our location. Continue to ship them to our plant in Mexico,” I grated through clenched teeth.

  My father touched my arm, and I dropped the warden the floor. He pushed himself up against a chair, grunting.

  My self-control was usually intact, but today, a ravaging force flowed through my veins, as if someone fiercer than me had entered my body to show this nitwit who he was dealing with. I enjoyed watching him squirm.

  “Like I said, you’ll discuss it next week,” my father interjected, before I threw the warden against another wall. “The shipments can continue as always.”

  The secrecy of our location was necessary. No one could know about our rebuilt cabin in the Amazon. When people questioned where I lived, even unintentionally, I fumed. The warden’s questions today seemed premeditated, and I didn’t like it.

  “Yes, of course. It was nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Mitchell.” The warden almost pressed his hand against my lower back to rush me out, but I turned just in time. To my surprise, he’d regained his composure quickly after being attacked by a vampire. I studied him. He seemed the same as the first time I’d met him: too quick, too subtle.

  “Pleasure.” I shook his hand, forcing a businesslike smile.

  The warden stepped back; a strange creature for a human, he acted as if nothing had happened. My aggression hadn’t startled him enough. He controlled his emotions in an almost unnatural way. I hadn’t met a human who wouldn’t fear a vampire when they first met. Was this odd? Or was this a new way of life in a changing world I was no longer accustomed to?

  When I opened the door of the viewing room, the curtain covering the execution area fluttered. A lifeless body rested on a bed with side extensions that made it vaguely resemble a crucifix. Its flesh was as pale as the metal it lay on. The vampire still licked bloody residue from his lips, looking at the limp body as if he wanted to tear it apart in search of more blood.

  He’ll need to be retrained. Biting into a victim and drinking from a bottle were not the same for vampires. Thousands of years of imprinted feedings had to be erased through hypnosis. Vampires had to learn to drink blood, not suck it, and most had. Few were left like this one, to finish their jobs to execute humans on death row.

  I walked alongside my father through a dimly lit hall. The lights above flickered on and off as we passed.

  “The anger you’re holding inside can destroy you,” my father murmured, placing his hand on my shoulder.

  I stopped before reaching for the door handle at the end of the hall. “Is it that obvious?”

  “To me, not to others. I feel your pain. I understand why you’d lose faith in those closest to you. We failed you.”

  “She tricked us all, Dad. How could you have known?” I tried to hide the rage boiling inside me, never admitting aloud the hurt I still felt from my family’s betrayal.

  “Yet your heart tells you we should have known.”

  I looked to my father for guidance. “Am I wrong to feel that way?”

  “No, but keeping it inside is. It allows evil to connect with you. You never accepted our apologies.”

  “I did, and I do.” I hugged him.

  “Actions speak louder than words.”

  I shut my eyes, pictured him smile, and tightened my embrace. “I promise to fix it.” The father I had denied and hated most of my life was the closest person I had to reconnect me with my life. I wouldn’t disappoint him.

  “Good.” He gripped my shoulders and held me away from him to look at my face. The sun beamed through the peephole of a window in the door, warming the side of my arm in a criscrossed pattern from the wires on the inside of the glass. “Because I never want to lose you again.”

  “Nor I, you.”

  Never say never! The thought running through my head wasn’t my own, but I had a good idea who it belonged to.

  My father opened the steel door of the prison, and I squinted reflexively at the high sun. We rushed through a fenced-in pathway toward the parking lot, stopping a few feet in when the ten-foot chain-link fence shook behind us as it locked, sounding like someone had dropped fistfuls of dimes on a glass floor. Chills ran down my spine.

  The spring’s aroma of fresh buds and blossoms disappeared.

  “Can you smell that?” I whispered to my father.

  His arms tensed. “What?”

  We sniffed the air, crouching and scanning the naked fields, barren except for the m
esh of fresh sprouts.

  “Seekers?” Doubt crept into his question.

  I couldn’t detect the stink of dirty socks and rotten eggs, the common scent of the seekers, so I took another whiff. “No, demons.” I wiggled my nose. Sulphur and electricity fused around my nostrils.

  The air swirled in front of us, mixing dust with pebbles. My hair blew over my face, obstructing my sight. I picked the strands out of my mouth, then covered it with the neckline of my shirt. Goosebumps spread over my arms. The hairs on my arms stood up, not from fear, but from the electricity that encapsulated us.

  Two demons stepped out of the vortex. Smug grins stretched across their faces. A hint of purple glossed over their eyes. In the past four years, their sense of fashion had not changed, but the hooded cloaks smelled fresh; the material had been sewn within the last two days. An embroidered sphere decorated the upper left chest of each, where a heart was supposed to be. Either Aseret had rewarded old followers with custom clothing, or they had been just recruited.

  I cocked my head to the left and smirked. New recruits.

  The taller one eyed the settling dust. His gaze darted up to a stork’s nest perched atop a broken pole, and he watched the birds nestle over their eggs. Then, he looked to the tops of the trees swaying on the edge of a nearby forest.

  A mover.

  The shorter one, standing just under four feet, hadn’t moved since stepping out of the vortex. A freezer. Great combination! I held back the rolling of my eyes.

  “He said this was going to be difficult,” the first one complained, his steps calculated as he closed in.

  I bared my fangs and flexed my knees. So did my father.

  “Who?” I clenched my jaw.

  They looked at each other, though the freezer only moved his eyeballs in their sockets.

  “You’re not strong enough to defeat us. We’ve heard about your fight in the underworld. Had we been there, it would have all been over,” the mover said.

  “What’s Aseret promising you?” I asked.

  “What do you think? Power. Not like it will matter to you soon.” He laughed.