Then I see red. There’s red painted on the floor, running past the living room.
“Mom! Dad!” I scream this time.
My chest is heaving with panicked breaths. “If this is a prank to get back at me for going to that party, it isn’t funny!” I scream, tears burning my eyes.
I keep my phone’s flashlight on as I force myself to walk into my ruined house. All the shelves and containers holding our charms, herbs, crystals, gemstones… everything! It’s all in ruins, scattered across the floor and pushed aside like pieces of garbage.
I’m so scared. I can’t think.
I’m going to pass out. Or maybe I’m dreaming. This is just a nightmare. This is a nightmare, right?
I close my eyes and pinch my arm, but when I open my eyes again, the scene is still there. I whimper when I hear the sound of something drip, drip, dripping. It’s coming from the kitchen. It’s probably just the kitchen sink. It’s always leaking. Dad said he was going to get it fixed, but he hasn’t yet. My parents are just trying to teach me a lesson. They went a little overboard trashing the house like this, but everything’s going to be fine. They’re fine. It’s just a prank… just a…
I follow the bloody trail into the kitchen. I try flipping on the light switch, but it doesn’t work either. I shine my light up to the ceiling and see that the lights have been busted.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Cautiously, I shine the light on the kitchen sink. But the faucet isn’t dripping. I scan my light over the room and walk farther inside so I can get a look at the kitchen table. I slip on the liquid under my feet and drop my phone onto the tiled floor, shattering my screen and causing the room to turn pitch black except for the dim light of the moon and stars shining in through the kitchen window.
I whimper again, tasting iron in my mouth. I must have bit my lip when I fell. Yeah, that’s it.
Pushing myself up off the ground, I grope in the darkness for my phone. I find it, but it won’t turn on.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
What is that noise?!
I look to my left, where the kitchen table is. The dripping sound is coming from over there. The table… looks weird. Are people sitting at the table?
“Mom? Dad?” I’m desperate for them to answer me.
Inching over, I reach for one of the table’s legs to help pull me up off of the dangerous floor, but I end up moving the table instead, and the figures both crash to the floor simultaneously. I reflexively cover my head with my hands as I curl up into a ball, waiting for the ruckus of falling objects to stop.
My eyes are closed and my head is pounding. I don’t want to look up. This is all just a bad dream. If I just stay here like this, I’ll wake up. I’ll wake up.
The room is dead silent again. I force my eyes open and I slowly unravel myself. I’m greeted by a vacant expression, eyes that hold no light, no life. The chocolate brown eyes that are my mother’s.
I scream. I scream louder than I’ve ever screamed in my life.
“Shut up. You’ll wake the whole neighborhood if you scream like that. Not that anyone seems to be around.”
I’m curled up on the floor again, holding my hands over my head. Whose voice is that? I don’t know that voice. The tone, the frequencies that make it up sound powerful.
Dark.
Menacing.
“Too afraid to even look at me? That’s no fun.”
The skin on the back of my neck prickles as he speaks again. His voice is deep and sensual in an uncomfortable way. It sounds like he wants to eat me. He must be the one who did this. He must have come back for me. A crazy serial killer has come to Reverie. My parents are just the first of many to come.
My parents. My family. My mom is dead. The other figure at the table was my dad. I just know it. I just know it…
This can’t be happening.
I don’t want to live without my parents. I want them back. Please. Please let me wake up now. Let this all be a bad dream. I’ve learned my lesson, God. I’ll never celebrate Halloween again. I’ll never do anything that has the potential to invite evil. Please.
Just when I feel like I’m going to shatter into a million pieces, never to be put back together again, all feeling leaves my body.
“Are you going to kill me?” I ask.
I unravel myself and look at the man, the evil monster, who will kill me—and I don’t feel scared.
It’s hard to see him in the darkness, but I can make out his figure well enough. He’s tall, muscular, and imposing in every way. But that’s not what holds my attention. It’s his eyes. His eyes look like they’re glowing. That isn’t normal. Is he a psychic? But I’ve never heard of a psychic with glowing eyes before. My brain tries to piece together this information to come up with some sort of explanation, but I draw a blank.
I can’t tear my gaze away from his eyes. They’re beautiful, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. They’re a distinct gleam in the dark, like vivid stars plucked from the night sky. My first impression of his eye color is green, but they’re too vibrant to simply be green or any variation of it. It’s almost like they’re a color I’ve never seen before.
A flicker of self-awareness finds its way back to me when his teeth flash white in the dark. He’s smiling at me.
“And what exactly are you supposed to be?” he asks, instead of answering my question. “A rejected bride? Just how much crying have you done tonight? Ah, but that tail and those ears…”
His footsteps don’t seem to make a sound. My eyes are glued to him. I wish I could look away, and I wish he’d just kill me quickly, but that doesn’t seem to be the way this is going to go. He stops walking when he’s standing just above me. I have to crane my neck to look at him now. Why don’t I feel afraid anymore? Is it because I looked into his eyes? Did he cast some kind of spell? I feel dazed. My feelings are muffled somehow.
“Yuki would find this laughable,” he says, reaching down and plucking the fox ears from off my head. He does it in such a swift and smooth gesture I don’t even recognize the pressure leaving my head. He runs a finger over the orange fur before discarding the ears to the floor. Then he rests his eyes on mine. “You don’t seem to be afraid of me anymore, and yet moments before you were hysterical.”
I don’t say anything. I only stare at him more intently. Now that he’s closer, I can see his clothes are torn. He’s wearing blood, but that’s not where my eyes rest. His hair is jet black and a little wavy. His skin is flawless and olive. He doesn’t look like he could be any older than 18 or maybe 20. He isn’t clean cut like Rynne. He has stubble on his face, but it suits him. He looks strong enough to snap my body in two. He’s terrifying, covered in blood, and somehow… gorgeous.
He reaches down and pulls me up by my forearm. I flinch at the pinching sensation his grip sends up my arm and down my spine.
“Scream for me,” he says. “Humans always scream when it comes to this part.”
I’m paralyzed, but not with fear. I’m enraptured by him, and I don’t know why. I don’t mind that his grip on me is rough and painful. I only want to keep looking into his eyes.
My thoughts trail away and echo what he said. He called me a human. Does that mean he isn’t?
A growl rumbles from deep within his chest, like he’s some kind of feral animal, a wolf or maybe a bear. Then I can’t even process what’s happening. The room spins around me and pain shoots up my back as he slams me against a wall. He holds me there, level with him, making it so he doesn’t have to lean down to bring his lips to my neck. All of the emotions that were numbed inside of me start coming back. I gasp and struggle, trying to kick him or to do anything at all. But he doesn’t budge an inch. Then I feel it, the smooth, sharp sting of his teeth. He has fangs. They’re pressing against my neck. Is he a vampire? An actual vampire? Or is this some kind of cruel joke?
“Vervain again,” he mutters under his breath, but he doesn’t move away. “Yo
u have a silver chain necklace, too. What else… a crystal?”
That’s right! Vervain. It makes sense my black diamond wouldn’t be able to protect me from this monster when none of the other charms in the house stopped him, but I drink vervain tea every morning. My parents used to tell me people drank it to protect themselves from vampires and other creatures of the dark, from darkness in general. According to stories, vervain will poison and even kill a vampire if they try to drink blood infused with it.
Vampires.
My parents made me drink vervain tea because vampires are real? What other monsters are out there then? Are all the stories they told me entirely true down to every last detail? I thought… I thought they were fables! I thought they were stories to show people the dangers of evil. I didn’t think the monsters in those stories could be real. Even ghosts are nothing but deceased humans. So what are monsters?
I suck in a breath of the gross, stagnant air permeating my home. If everything my parents’ taught me is true, at least this monster won’t have my blood.
I cringe as I feel his teeth rake across the tender skin at the front of my neck, like he’s an animal that’s going to go straight for my jugular instead. Then, without warning, he drops me. I hit the ground hard and feel my body scream in pain upon impact.
“You don’t seem all that dangerous to me,” he says.
I have no idea what those words mean, but I dare to look up at him again. No. I have to look up at him again. There’s something compelling me to do it. To stare into his eyes. I need him to make eye contact with me. I need him to really look. Without knowing why, I follow through with the strange urge.
The vampire avoids my gaze at first. He shifts his eyes back and forth. It seems like he wants to look back at me, but at the same time he doesn’t. The next time his eyes make contact with mine, he doesn’t look away. The smug look on his face holds only for a moment before his expression goes completely blank.
It’s like time stops for a moment. Everything stands still. We’re the only two beings in the world and our eyes are locked onto each other, and neither one of us can look away. There’s something in his eyes I’m trying to find. I’m looking for something, but I have no idea what it is.
Then he blinks.
His face contorts into a look of utter anguish. His gaze wavers, and then he can’t hold it anymore. He can’t meet my eyes any longer.
“Arsen!” a woman screams.
The vampire reacts sluggishly as he looks over at the woman who enters the room. She’s a beautiful woman, slender, and elegant with dark hair that flows freely behind her, like she’s in one of those hair commercials. I don’t know what’s going on, but her face suddenly pales. I glance back at the vampire and see why. He looks sick, like he’ll pass out at any moment. She rushes over to support him.
“You killed my parents,” I say in a whisper. My dead feelings are coming back to life in a rush of emotion. Anger and disbelief bubble inside of my gut. “You killed my parents!” I scream. I need a wood stake. What kind of wood did my parents say was most effective against vampires? Golden ash. But wood from any ash tree will be effective.
I look around wildly, wondering if we keep wood stakes anywhere—but when I look back at the space where the vampire and his vampire girlfriend stood, I see nothing. I feel only air rush past. There’s no indication they were ever here aside from the mess they left behind.
They got away. He got away. I couldn’t do anything. I…
I turn my attention back onto my parents. They’re dead. They’re really dead. They’re looking at me, asking me why I couldn’t do something. They’re asking me why I let him get away. They’re asking me why I’m so weak. I feel like I’m going to break. This time I am going to shatter, and the pieces will never be put back together.
“I’m so sorry,” I whimper as I crawl over to them.
I try to bring their lifeless bodies closer to me. I want them back. I want their warmth. I want their comfort.
“I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave me. I don’t want you to leave.”
Please.
Then an idea hits me. Maybe I can bring them back. They haven’t been dead that long. What was it my parents always told me about zombies? If vampires are real, zombies must be real too. They said zombies are created when a spirit tries to return from the dead by taking over a corpse. But my parents haven’t been dead that long. They haven’t. Their bodies should still be able to function if I just…
I look back at their lifeless forms and the blood coating their bodies. I don’t know how deep their wounds run, but I have to try. I need them back. If there’s even the slightest possibility, I have to take it.
I have the ability to feel spirits. They’re able to reach out to me when I’m not blocking them with my black diamond. If I take it off, will I be able to find my parents’ souls? Can I do that? Or will evil just try to consume me? I tremble and shake as I grab my necklace. Maybe this is a bad idea, but what do I have to lose?
I tear off my necklace and toss it into the living room where every other charm and resource has been cast away.
At first, nothing changes. But then I start to feel it. This darkness creeping around me, consuming me. My vision goes dark and my ears start ringing. I try to block out the sounds, the unfamiliar voices.
“Help me.”
“Help me.”
“He…me…”
“Me…”
I curl up into a ball and scream.
THE HUNDREDS OF MIRRORS mounted on the walls and domed ceiling of the Mirror Room make it impossible for me not to see the worry etched onto my face. Normally, I’m very good at hiding what I feel. My face rarely has those creases many get on their forehead when worried. Like Tasia. She almost constantly has those creases on her forehead. They’re cute, small, but there all the same.
The sun went down a few hours ago, but the Highlands are never truly dark. The moon casts a brighter light here than it does anywhere in Terra. It somehow feels larger too, like it’s physically closer here.
“You’ve spent every spare moment you’ve had today in here,” the silver clad soldier closest to me comments.
“No one has told me I can’t,” I reply.
“Sure, but isn’t there something else you’d rather be doing?”
Definitely, but it’s the one thing I’m not allowed to do right now. I can’t see her yet.
I cast my eyes down to the frosted floor instead of answering him.
This building, the Citadel, is made entirely from frost crystals. They’re native only to Ilenima, but they look a lot like frosted glass. The frost crystals that make up the Citadel are just opaque enough not to be see-through, but they let in enormous amounts of light. It’s a beautiful place. I’m told all of Ilenima is—at least in the Highlands. But I’ve never seen anything more than Zenith, and even then I haven’t done much exploring. I’m an outsider to this world, and I always will be. I’m lucky I get to be a part of it at all.
The soldier who spoke to me regards me for a moment. “It’s almost time.”
I nod and close my eyes. This has been one of the longest days of my life, but soon all the waiting will be over. Soon I’ll be able to see her and everything will be right again.
I haven’t seen Tasia all day. I didn’t see her yesterday after school either. I snuck out of my last class early to talk to Imae, but I was outside, at the usual place Tasia and I meet, and I never saw her. She said she went straight to work, but I should have seen her. Imae and I were done with our business before school even got out. I suppose she could have left the school using the front entrance, though that would have been out of her way.
I’m not sure what happened, but I’m determined to make up for my absence when I see Tasia again. I was hoping that was going to happen first thing this morning, but then Imae told me plans had changed.
My overseer had a lot to say about what was going to happen today. That was why she chose that awkward time to speak with me. S
he told me to return to Ilenima first thing in the morning and ordered me not to send Tasia a message about my absence at school either. She said that Arsen showed up, and that it was time he met Tasia. She said I’d be in the way if I stayed, and that was why she made me spend the day in the immortal world.
I don’t ask questions, so I did as I was told. However, that doesn’t change the fact that I wish I could have at least warned Tasia of my absence. Imae purposefully cut me off from everything. Phones don’t work in Ilenima, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to pass the barrier between worlds. She, or maybe the oracle himself, didn’t want me to talk to Tasia or to interfere in this operation at all.
A couple of demons were sent out under Imae’s watch instead. I’m still not sure why their involvement was necessary, but Imae said it had to do with catching Arsen and his pet, Yuki, off balance. She said everything would be finished by midnight in Zenith, and that it would be the time I’m allowed to return to Reverie.
I stand up from my isolated seat on the floor of the Mirror Room, put on my jacket, and gaze at the Peacekeeper, the one mirror among all that others that has the magic to allow me entry into the mortal world. It’s also the one mirror that stands so tall and magnificent that it sits in the center of the room and reaches upward to the very high domed ceiling.
The reason this mirror is so tall is because it is made up of thousands of magical glass shards. The angels say they were pieced together during the previous oracle’s lifetime. Before all the pieces were put together, Ilenima only knew of certain magic shards, each one allowing access to a specific point in Terra. Since all of the shards have been collected, or at least all of the shards anyone knows of have been collected, all those single points exist in a collection that is this gigantic mirror. Instead of seeking a specific shard to reach the nearest desired destination in Terra, you need only clear your mind and let the mirror know where you intend on going.
Unless you know where you want to go, the mirror will end up sending you to any of the connected portals. I’ve done that before. It’s very disorienting. Luckily, a portal to return to Ilenima is always exactly where you are spit out, so it’s simple enough to come back to the Peacekeeper and try again. I’ve never found passing through portals to be an enjoyable experience, but they are convenient—for angels. Any intruders, namely demons, trying to reach Ilenima from Terra would be killed before they ever made it past this room. The angel soldiers lining the room at all times make sure of that.
Hearts Lie (Undying Love, Book 1) Page 8