by Ally Thomas
“Now we can get some answers.”
“I'm not sure she'll know right off where they are. How could she?”
“Where who is?” I asked a man who seemed to have the most authority in the group. His face wasn’t completely bare of skin, but it was close. Only half of the bottom part of it seemed covered with skin. The remaining was a dull gray skull. His skin was slowly decaying, dropping off to leave a bone structure of his empty face. Staring through his vacant eye socket, I could see the darkness in the back of his head. I struggled to remain calm and focus on the ‘good’ side of his face. The one eye that remained in place, for now. How many people wake up to a crowd of walking and talking skeletons eyeballing you? I felt a tightness in my throat. I wondered if a bony hand held me in its grasp. The feeling deepened. Pressure surfaced behind my eyes and traveled down the front of my face to my shoulders. I reached out for anything, anyone to keep me from falling. My head swayed. My mind whirled. I collapsed on the floor. I had no idea what was happening.
Finally, when I saw the crowd of skeletons leaning in closer, they screamed and pointed at me. I realized that I had yelled at them. I did not hear my own scream because I saw fire rush up into the air before me. Had I just breathed fire?
Clattering and clapping deafened my ears. The crowd was cheering, rallying themselves into some kind of frenzy. I still was the main attraction. This is worse than the blackness, I thought.
“The vampire with the fire and fangs. Just breathe. You’re fine.” the man with half a face said.
"What is happening to me?" I examined my shoulders and face. Was I burning alive? Was I in Hell? What was going on? I stopped asking questions when I finally felt vampire fangs, my very long vampire fangs, drop and fall over my lips. I was a vampire?
The man did not answer. The crowd continued to enjoy my despair and confusion. Voices reached out to me and invaded my brain. After an extended period of silence, the noise was almost too much.
“She’s the one!”
“Finally a real way out!”
“Revenge will be ours!”
“Resurrection for the dead!”
I raised my hands in defiance and again flames shot forth. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry!"
A few skeletons laughed and cackled as a few others stomped out the flames. One small skeletal dog, on fire, ran in circles, chasing his tail in fright. Really I could not tell if he was a dog or a wolf. His bony body dismissed that distinction.
“Put him out please,” I begged the group.
They did not pay any attention to me until the man with the half face stood up. He seemed much taller than the others, maybe seven-feet and dressed in a long faded black trench coat, black jeans, clunky black boots, and a faded cowboy hat. He waved his hat over the crowd. A rush of ice cold air filled the area and extinguished my flames.
I scrambled over to the dog that I had set on fire. “Are you okay?” I did not think for a minute that the dog likely wouldn't be able to answer me. I spoke to him as I would any human. I never questioned this fact for a moment.
To my surprise, he did respond. But first, he lavished me with kisses. I didn't think I deserved that type of response because I had damaged his bone structure. Now he was several colors darker and covered in soot. Remaining fragments of skin hanging on his skeletal body had been burned away. I had cleared away those decayed shreds of hanging flesh with the fire, a purification of sorts. But the half faced man had saved him, not me. He had put out the flames.
I tried to understand the dog’s rapid speech, but I could not. Either my brain wasn't awake yet or I was close to panicking myself because I did not know where I was. I resolved that it was probably a combination of both.
“Me too. Me too. Pure. You good. You too. Good. Yes. Yes. Lovely. We. You. We to be. Free. You. Help. Woo hoo!”
I attempted to calm the dog down. I pulled him to my face, wrapping my hands around his lower jaw and the dome of his skeletal head. “Shhhh,” I began. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I'm so sorry I did that.”
A hush fell over the crowd. All the walking skeletons stopped celebrating. Their bony heads swiveled in my direction until their bodies turned too. That affect made my skin crawl a bit. The man stood nearby. “Now everyone, let us stay calm. Yes, after twelve months, she is finally awake and yes, we are all anxious to see what this means, but we have a long way to go. This is only the beginning.”
“She speaks concern,” one skeleton replied.
“She is kind!”
“She is nice. Nice, I tell you!” another one said.
The dog broke our embrace. He stood up on his bony back legs, punched his paws in the air at me as if he was a giant grizzly bear. “You cleanse. You nice. Thank you! Much thanks!” He returned to standing on his four legs and proceeded to race around my legs.
“Will he be okay?” I asked the man.
I felt his presence as he stood near us. He put his hand on my shoulder, as a long lost friend would do. I felt his icy energy radiate down my arm.
“Fire burns away the dead flesh,” the man said. We watched on as the dog ran through the crowd of skeletons. When the man wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into a half sort of hug, I felt like I had been thrown into a freezer. The icy sensations of his touch seeped into my flesh. I tried my best to not shiver in his embrace, but his closeness creeped me out.
“The decaying flesh itches and annoys them, especially the young ones. Unfortunately, I do not possess your gift. I cannot burn their discomfort away as you just did.
As the dog flew to my side again, the man stepped away from me. “You made a friend for life,” he chuckled.
Trying to ignore how strange the man’s icy touch had felt, I leaned over and placed my hand on the dog’s forehead. I wanted to soothe his rising excitement. I could tell he was starting to freak out, and the excitement was about to overload his system. I feared he'd spontaneously combust or something. Comforting him seemed a natural thing to do.
“You my friend! We get out of here. You see! Jax your friend.”
A few more dogs, large and dragging decayed flesh beneath their paws, slowly approached me.
I sat down on the floor and crossed my legs. This way, I thought, I could make the group of dogs understand that I was a friend.
The small dog whose bones I had just “polished” snuggled up beside me. He lifted his head up and barked at the approaching larger dogs.
“Tell me your name again.” I rubbed his bony head over and over, fast at first, then slower when I began to relax and felt his body do the same.
"J-j-j-jah-jah-ack."
"Jax? Jack or Jax?" I asked.
I glanced up to seeing him wagging his bony tale. The digits rattled like a rattlesnake's tail as he moved it. As the large dogs encircled us, he growled at them with a warning. He whirled around to me and yelled his name. “Jax!”
Finally understanding what he meant, I repeated his name. “Jax, I’m their friend too. Let’s all be friends. Okay? Behave yourself.” I invited the other skeleton dogs to join us. They too wanted to be ‘cleansed’ so I thought caressing them would solve the problem. As I gave each one of them some attention, rubbing them as if they all had the normal appearance of a canine, a gleaming white light began radiating from my hands, encircling them. The decayed flesh evaporated or sizzled away in a fury of bright light and smoke, followed by a rapid blue colored electricity that swarmed around them. As I rubbed the dogs, the energy surging in my hands grew hotter than fire, a white hot of immense power. It poured from my hands and encircled the dogs. Both lights of power fought each other, whirling around their bodies and faces until every trace of dead flesh was stripped away. Jax barked and ran around me in a circle. The other skeletons looked on in amazement as I too tried to understand what I had just done. Each animal stood before us, their skeletal bodies gleaming as white as snow.
I glanced at the man with half a face as I stood up. I fidgeted with my clothes, acting like I was dusting myself off
, but I knew a wave of awesome power was about to hit me from the inside. I noticed my attire wasn’t too glamorous. A pair of black boots, faded jeans, a fitted grey t-shirt. Nothing to write home about. On the inside, my body was fueling itself of what I had just consumed through my hands. What kind of vampire am I? I wondered. My legs felt like jelly for a moment. Then a wave of intense warmth rushed through my entire body, starting at the center of my stomach and washing over me. I thought about sitting down again. Surely I wouldn’t be able to hold the power in. I gritted my teeth, refusing to let my fangs plunge forth. The energy I had just consumed from the skeletal dogs was astounding. Flesh and matter, and bits of deadness. My hands had taken it in. Evaporated any remaining decay from them. Glancing down at my hands again, I wondered if any flesh remained on them. What kind of a vampire am I really? Flames one minute. White hot electricity the next? My skin glowed a bit. Swirls of bluish waves still whirled around my hands and up my arms. I remained still, closing my eyes for a moment, hoping I could disappear. Please let this stop.
“She the one. Look!”
My eyes flew open when I heard Jax’s words. The wave of intense power had lessened and I felt normal again.
Just as I had cleansed the dogs free of their decayed prison of flesh, it also had unlocked some other transformation. The man with half a face stood over the dogs. He pulled out antique revolver from the inside pocket of his long worn-out coat, tipped his cowboy hat backwards with the barrel, and then touched each animal’s back gently with it three times. The name ‘Icy Western Godfather’ filtered into my head and I choked down the giggle. Where did that come from? I expected the man to shoot each animal in the back of the head with his gun. Luckily he did not.
Instead, a flurry of sparkling silver dust brushed over them. It took a moment for me to realize what I was witnessing. The silver dust fell upon them and a bone dropped off to reveal a patch of fur, then a healthy ear popped out, a black button nose appeared, and before I knew it the skeleton creatures were fully formed and fully recognizable grey wolves.
“Jax, and the others, were on their way to being G’s guardians before they were kidnapped and sent here to rot away for an eternity. Jax was only a wolf pup.”
The words the man with the half face spoke stunned me. “Who did this?” I couldn't stop the question as it came out. I picked up Jax in his new furry white form as he returned to my side and clutched him in my arms. He looked a lot like a Siberian husky with a black button nose, big ears, long legs he had yet to grow into, and eyes as blue as an ocean. However his fur had no highlights of grey. It was entirely white.
Jax laughed and whipped his head back and forth. He was a ball of fun and mischief. He smothered me with wet kisses and hit the sides of my hip over and over with his tail.
“You will meet her soon, and then you and I will settle a debt. And heaven help her when she sees the likes of you,” the man said.
This declaration by the man sent the other skeletons into a frenzy. I had probably woke in the middle of a war or a nightmare. This was certainly a nightmare, even a very weird one. Jax and the other larger wolves who looked like mature adult canines rolled over on their backs in celebration. Then they jumped up, howled a few times, and ran off again into the crowd.
A walking skeleton dog who was formerly a wolf pup? A guardian frozen in time. A creature locked in a prison of bones? I looked over at the skeleton man with the cowboy hat. I assumed the questions were written across my face.
Another cold chill ran down my spine as the man with half a face placed his hand on my shoulder again. The hand of death?
My former state of quiet deadness that I had been in faded into a memory. The dreams of my ideal guy evaporated before my eyes. My existence, if I had one before this moment, vanished like a whisper I thought I had heard, but had not. This was the end.
The man with the half face smiled down at me with a mouthful of yellow stained fangs. His one dark red eye radiated with some secret knowledge I feared I’d soon discover. He moved his bony hand to the small of my back and pushed me forward. More icy sensations tingled through me. “Here they call me the Ice Man. That’s rather obvious as I'm sure you can tell. You may remember my name? Beelzebub. We have met before. I’m one of the seven princes of Hell, the Hell your father stole from us. My brothers and I are soul searchers actually. You referred to me as ‘the best tracker you knew’.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I don’t recall. What do you mean a debt?”
“It probably doesn’t’ matter now, especially if you don’t know who you are. I get that. Really I do,” he said and waved his bony arm at me. “But a bet is a bet, and I always collect.”
“What are you doing here? Wherever here is!” I snapped.
“Currently I am the keeper of this realm for the Ancient Council. We fabricated the documents so they think this is a Rest and Resurrection realm. It’s not really. Before that, you promised me a portion of Hell, your father’s domain in exchange for my help and you failed me. Mehen put me in charge here and we have been waiting a long time for you. Let me welcome you to Valeria. And today, Rayea is your Judgment Day.”
As Beelzebub pushed me forward through the crowd of skeletal creatures, Jax and his wolf mates laughed and jumped around us. They roared over and over, “Judgment. Judgment. Judgment. Judgment. Judgment. Judgment.”
“What are you talking about?” I yelled over the thudding noise their chant made, a rhythmic beat of a drum calling my soul into allegiance and retribution. I should have stayed asleep, I thought to myself. How complicated did death need to be?
“When we die, we all must be judged. Your powerful friends have kept you from this day for a very long time. But now it is here. It doesn’t matter if we’re a human or a god, a dog or a cat, or a zombie or a vampire. We are all judged. After you killed J and G went into hiding, the council had to invent another ‘station,’ if you will. We have looked forward to seeing you for a long time now. After you are judged, I will have your soul. That’s my price for helping you find your sister before she harmed your friends. Mehen has signed off on it. It’s a go,”
“Surely you have me confused with someone else,” I interrupted. “What sister? What powerful friends? What are you talking about?”
He laughed and patted me on the shoulder, continuing to lead me through the crowd. “The fire-throwing vampire? Satan’s rebellious daughter? J’s prodigy. Oh no Rayea, we don’t have that wrong. Besides we knew you were coming. We are happy you are here. It just took you longer than we expected. How you made it out of that bar is still a mystery to me. I’m guessing your ex-boyfriend probably had something to do with that. Or maybe your beloved Blick did? No matter. I’m sure I’ll be meeting them soon as well. Soul searching is my life.”
Author’s Note: To learn all about Beelzebub, you can see Rayea’s first interaction with Beelzebub in the chapter named ‘Change of Plan’ and the Epilogue in A Vampire on Vacation (The Vampire from Hell Part 3).
Chapter 7
Waiting for the End (Blick)
***
“Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.” ~ John Lennon
***
September 2
1 pm
When Grace had handed me Rayea’s book, I could not put it down. I paced the hardwood floors reading it all morning. Her online blog being on the Internet was one thing I supposed, but in print? Her words were in print? I could not believe what the girls had done. It was something I did not want to think about. Really it did not matter. It was too late. Revealing the existence of vampires and werewolves to the world was rather outrageous, an idea that could be ignored. Maybe. Revealing the existence of celestial beings, gods like Ra, angels like Michael or Demetri? That was another story entirely. Finding a panel of curtains hanging over the front window, I raised my hand and pulled them off the wall. I ignored a loud zinging sound as some metal flying past my face. I reached for another panel of curtains and dropped Raye
a’s book. I stopped myself and sighed. The girls had no idea what they had set in motion. At some point, we would all pay for this evidence.
Controlling my anger lately had not been working. I had not been sleeping. I had not been eating. I had not been hunting. Eventually I knew it would catch up with me, but I did not care. I had to find Rayea. Until I had a square meal, the anger would continue to grow. Until I found Rayea, I did not care. Let the wolf come out.
I had asked Demetri to send me the bills for all my destruction. He had not done that so I needed to figure out a way to thank him and Grace for their recent hospitality. They had held me together. What would I have done without them?
I grabbed my phone and sent Ra another text message. It was not like him to not reply. My intuition knew something was wrong. Demetri’s concern about gods and angels being ‘unavailable’ was starting to worry me too.
‘Do gods die, Blick?’
I had ignored Demetri’s question that day. I did not know if we could or not. I had heard long ago that celestial beings fell into a prison of nothingness. That’s all I knew, but I wasn’t worried about the gods and angels missing. I was worried about finding Rayea. That was my number one priority.
I sat my phone and the book on the kitchen counter. While I searched for a highlighter in my room, I thought about that first time when J had tasked me with Rayea’s protection.
‘She’s in Satan’s possession right now. This means a lot to me, Blick. I have friends who want her safe, but we can’t remove her from Hell yet. I need you to go there and protect her. Do not reveal who you are, but do your best to use your shifting abilities to convince her you are helpless or scared. I know she has a thing for animals. Use that. Hopefully she’ll take you in. That way you will be able to be near her. Can you do this?’