by Stead, Nick
“Oh, look who’s back in the land of the living,” Gwyn said as I got to my feet. He was sitting nearby, cross-legged and with his back to the wall.
“Shut up, Gwyn,” I growled. “I take it there’s been no change?”
“No,” Lady Sarah answered. She stood to the side with her arms folded, her eyes on Selina. “They will either come back to the mortal realm, or slip away into whatever lies in wait for them beyond the veil.”
“Why’s it taking so long? How much longer do we have to wait?”
“I doubt even Selina would be able to answer that.”
Angry thoughts crossed my mind but I had the sense to keep them floating in my skull instead of starting another fight with the vampire. Patience had never been one of my strong points as a human. I tried to draw on the predatory patience of the lupine side to my nature, but with my sister’s life hanging in the balance and my rage burning so closely to the surface, I was soon pacing with frustration.
Silently I willed Amy to wake up, miraculously healed and full of life, like she was in my memories. But the minutes stretched by with no further change and my fiery impatience only grew, made worse by the knowledge that there was nothing I could do but watch and wait.
Gwyn met my gaze. “I’m sure Selina knows what she’s doing. Both your sisters’ lives are in good hands; keep positive and try to think of something else while we wait.”
“Like what?” I snarled.
Lady Sarah looked over at me as well. “The knocker speaks true. Fretting will not make this go any quicker.”
“Fine, how about you explain what exactly has changed after you healed from the holy water?”
I didn’t really expect her to give me a straight answer. She had shared plenty of information with me before when it came to some of the powers vampires possessed in general and even some of her own, and had been happy enough to recount tales from our bloody history when it suited her. Yet she seemed set on keeping this a secret. Her reluctance to open up irritated me though, and I felt compelled to keep pressing her for answers. But even if she had felt inclined to shed more light on what had happened to her, Selina began to stir and saved her the trouble of answering.
Lady Sarah rushed to her sister’s side, kneeling beside Selina in such an unusual show of emotion that she almost appeared human again, as she once had been so many centuries ago. New hope swelled up at the sign of life from the witch and I looked expectantly at my own sister, but Amy remained as still and apparently dead as she’d been since we’d first reached the chamber. I turned back to Selina, anger rising up once more.
“Why isn’t it working?” I snarled. “We had a deal. I went through a lot of pain to get your sister back and this is how you repay me, by letting Amy die?”
“Careful, wolf. Remember who you are talking to,” Lady Sarah said. She spoke with apparent calm but I could sense the icy fury lurking beneath the surface.
“It’s okay, Sarah,” Selina answered wearily. Her face was haggard, the turquoise of her eyes no longer the glittering warmth of Mediterranean seas. Instead they appeared dull and lifeless, drained of their usual energy. “He has every right to be angry, though I swear to you, Nick, I have done everything I can for Amy. If Death won’t release her from his clutches then there is nothing more any of us can do.”
“I can’t accept that,” I growled. “You’ve come back.”
“Yes, after having to fight my way back and that was with the aid of my witchcraft, limited though it currently is without my tools. And the Reaper’s hold was lesser over me. I wasn’t mortally wounded when I willingly entered into that state on the very edge of death. Your sister, on the other hand…”
“But Lady Sarah said you’d gone into that state to bargain with him, so surely there’s something we can trade. How much can he possibly want just for one human life?”
“I told you before, Nick, not all lives are equal,” Lady Sarah reminded me. She wore her usual impassive mask but I could see the impatience in her eyes.
“And what the hell does that mean?”
Selina was quick to answer, probably sensing the fight brewing as our angers continued to feed off each other. “Think about it this way. Some lives are much shorter than others, and Amy is young and perfectly healthy. The immediate sacrifices available to us would be any of the Slayers in this place we could lay our hands on, who are all bound to be older and possibly fated to die much sooner due to the nature of the lives they choose to lead. Why would Death accept one of their lives in return for your sister’s, when they could well be his in the near future anyway?”
“So we offer him them all,” I growled, then shouted out to the apparition I fancied was near, but couldn’t physically sense. “Is that what you want, Death? Dozens of lives to save Amy?”
Sadness slid into Selina’s eyes and she looked more tired still. “It doesn’t work like that, Nick. We have to reach the Slayers first and many may well be fated to die as we attempt to escape, if not all of them. In which case, Death gains nothing.”
“I won’t accept that,” I snarled. Then I roared at the Reaper “Have I not already given you enough? All those massacres I’ve committed, all those human souls I’ve doomed and dragged from the mortal realm into your domain, and you can’t spare this one life in return?”
The room was silent. I was vaguely aware that Zee had awoken, but Amy still hadn’t moved. I got the feeling the others were trying to decide what to do with me, probably all too aware of the damage I could do if I gave myself over to my rage and the dark need to kill that still resided in the human part of me.
I was close to giving in to the bloodlust, a part of me all too tempted to throw all caution to the winds and rampage through the rest of the dungeon until I either faced Death myself (and not for the first time), or beat the ‘game’ and escaped into the main part of the base, where I would at least be granted my revenge. But that would mean completely giving up on Amy so instead I growled “You never answered before. You were supposed to be bargaining with the Reaper, so what was his price for letting you and Amy live?”
“It doesn’t matter. The cost was too high.”
“What did he want?” I snarled, moving closer to her. Lady Sarah bared her fangs in a fierce warning.
Selina couldn’t hold my burning gaze, casting her own eyes downwards in defeat. When she answered, her voice sounded so tired, and older than her physical body, as if she’d seen too much horror and death and had just reached the point where she could take no more. There was almost a frailty to her in that moment which I’d never have expected to see in someone with her power. But I was only concerned with Amy’s fate and my anger demanded an answer.
“You, Nick. He wanted you.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Between Life and Death
Her words should have hit me with enough force to send me reeling, or fed my anger when, after everything I’d been through, I was now being asked to give up my life just like that. But I felt nothing. My anger was still there, smouldering away at the very centre of my being, and yet it was as if the words hadn’t reached it. Or maybe I was just numb to them. I supposed it shouldn’t really have come as a shock though. I’d thought I’d seen the Reaper for myself on a couple of occasions after I’d almost died, out on the moors. For a time afterwards, I’d felt like Death was stalking me, no doubt feeling cheated of the life which had been within his grasp. Whether I had truly seen him or he’d just been another hallucination was debatable, but even if he had merely been the product of my tortured imagination, it didn’t necessarily mean he hadn’t taken an interest in me after I’d slipped through his grasp.
“Okay,” I growled.
“No, you are too valuable,” Lady Sarah answered for her sister.
“Why, because of some destiny she thinks she’s foreseen? I already told her – I make my own destiny. And if this is my destiny, so be it.”
“Are we sure there’s no other way?” Zee asked.
Selina sh
ook her head but seemed to have lost the energy to do much more.
“She’s my sister and it’s my fault she’s in this mess. Do you really think I can live with myself if she dies?”
“Family’s family. It’s Nick’s decision to make,” Gwyn said.
I dipped my head in a show of gratitude, then motioned for Zee to hand me his blade. The pirate was reluctant to pass it over but he did as I wanted. I raised the sword to eye level, intending to drive it right through my skull and into my brain so there could be no mistakes – I would be guaranteed instant death. “Just promise me the four of you will do everything you can to get her out of here alive and in one piece.”
“Wait,” Selina managed, with some effort. She looked like all she really wanted to do was sleep while her body recovered its strength. “Not like that. I can put you in the same state between life and death that Amy’s still trapped in, then you are free to bargain with the Reaper yourself and at least you have a chance of saving her without having to give up your own life. Perhaps you can convince him to release her in return for someone else.”
“I guess it’s worth a try,” I said.
“It’s definitely worth a try,” Gwyn agreed. “And if Death won’t settle for anyone else, don’t let him take you without a fight, fluffy.”
I narrowed my eyes, more suspicion creeping into my mind. “What do you care?”
“Hey, joking might be in my nature but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. It’d be a bit of a shitty way to lose the last living werewolf. And some might call us kindred spirits so you know, I can’t really be all cold and heartless about what happens to you.” He paused a moment. “Well I could, but then I’d be even more alone if I let you get yourself killed trying to be the big dumb hero, and I’d rather not see that happen. I’ve got your back, matey.”
“Kindred spirits because we’re both the last of our kinds and we’re both a type of shapeshifter?”
“Something like that, fluffy. Make it back to the mortal coil and you might find out more,” he winked.
As irritable as he made me, I couldn’t help the curiosity that stirred within. Was there even more to this strange being than what he’d told us? Yet again I was left wanting more answers, and yet again I knew it would have to wait. There was no telling how much longer Amy had left before Death decided to take her, and as patient as such a being could no doubt be, the offer of my life for hers was probably only ever going to be a limited time deal. I felt certain he would only wait so long before allowing nature to take its course and delivering her to whatever afterlife she was destined for, if any.
“Let’s get this over with,” I growled at Selina.
She beckoned me over and I laid down beside her. With Lady Sarah’s help, she sat up and placed a hand on my furry chest. Her sister was clearly not happy with the way things were going but she stayed quiet, maybe out of respect for Selina or maybe even out of respect for me.
“To put you in that same state as Amy, I’m going to have to stop your vital organs. Think of it as being cryogenically frozen like in all those sci-fi movies the modern world are so fond of. You’ll be physically dead for as long as my magic holds but when I release the power, your body will return to the state it was in before – in your case, back to full health. If I were to release Amy, she would die from her wounds. But if Death takes you, willingly or not, your body will remain dead and there will be nothing more I can do. And if you succeed in persuading him to let Amy go, she will awake and her body will have the chance to recover.
“Once all your vital functions stop, your body will automatically shift back to human form to try and heal itself, but my witchcraft will prevent them starting up again. It will be unpleasant. You should be prepared for the state of panic it’s going to put you in, before you lose consciousness and reach that place where the Reaper waits.”
“Just get on with it.”
“This is especially dangerous without the proper tools to guide such power,” she continued. “Though you can take comfort from the fact I just performed this on myself and came back from the very brink, despite the Reaper’s best efforts to drag me over. If you’re sure this is what you want, then I’ll do as you wish.”
“I have to. Wouldn’t you do the same for your sister?”
She didn’t answer my question but she didn’t really have to, since her price to attempt something so risky for Amy’s life had been for me to save Lady Sarah. “I understand, though I wish it could be otherwise. We can only hope it will not change the events I have foreseen. Be careful, and as our new friend said, don’t let Death take you without a fight!”
With that, a surge of power seemed to pass through her hand and into my chest. My understanding of witchcraft up to that point had been that they needed to chant the words of a spell or perform a ritual of some kind to work their magic (or both) but this seemed to be something that went beyond words, though where the power came from or how she controlled it I couldn’t even begin to guess at. Presumably she could have used a ritual to help work the magic, judging from what she’d said about having the proper tools to guide it, but there evidently didn’t need to be a ritual to conjure the power in the first place. I supposed that was as well, since she probably wouldn’t have been able to put herself in the state she was placing my body in if it had required an incantation or anything. But on some level I was a little unnerved to learn she could call on such power without the tools of her craft or any spoken words. Then the power took hold and such thoughts were driven from my mind.
A feeling of pressure descended on my chest, some invisible force crushing the life from my body. Even with Selina’s warning, I’m not sure anything could have fully prepared me for the trauma of the experience. It was definitely on a par with being shot through the heart, if not worse.
I’d been winded before, and I had that sensation again of having all the breath forced from my lungs, but the moments dragged by and the feeling of a weight on my ribcage never lessened, preventing me from taking a gulp of fresh air. Terror shot through me as my survival instincts sent me into a panic, just as Selina had said would happen.
My body screamed for fresh oxygen but no amount of willpower could overcome the magic constricting my organs and preventing them functioning, my lungs refusing to swell and fill with more air. That unseen power also put a stop to the frantic beating of my heart, squeezing until it could pump no more. I tried to move my limbs, instinct driving me to fight back, but another stab of cold terror went through me as I realised I was paralysed. Utterly at the witch’s mercy, there would have been nothing I could have done if she’d wanted to kill me for real.
I tried to remind myself of why I was putting my body through this latest hardship, tried to think of Amy and the need to save her. But my primal instincts left little room for rational thought, and I would have been thrashing in the grip of such power if I hadn’t been rendered completely immobile. Then the transformation kicked in and I knew true agony.
I couldn’t even scream as the bone of my skull ground back in on itself, my snout shrinking back into my face and the black wetness of my lupine nose turning pink and dry, reshaping itself into human nostrils. Skin itched while the fur of my handsome wolf pelt receded, leaving only the sparse covering of dark hairs that belonged to my human form. The cartilage of my ears slid down the side of my head and became rounded, and my eyes stung as the amber fires gave way to the calmer hazel I’d been born with. But all those changes had long since become familiar and the pain manageable. It was in my chest cavity where the real torment raged, the pressure caused by Selina’s witchcraft combining with the pressure that came with the shapeshift. I’d never felt anything like it.
Despite my body being mostly humanoid, my organs seemed to be straining against Selina’s power as part of the transformation. And yet, for all that regenerative ability that went right down to a cellular level, for the first time since becoming a werewolf it seemed my lycanthropic healing had met its match.
It felt like my heart and lungs were struggling against the chains of witchcraft keeping them from functioning, but to no avail – my heart remained still and dead, my lungs deflated and incapable of taking any more breaths. The transformation completed but there was no surge of fresh power. Instead, blackness closed in as my brain lost its hold on consciousness, due to the lack of oxygen. My eyes rolled up into my skull, and I slipped away from the earthly realm.
I found myself back out on the moors, in the exact same area where I should have died after the bullet had pierced my heart. Just behind me was a blinding white light which I assumed represented consciousness and the way back to life. Ahead the moorland was just as I remembered it from the earthly plane, except it ended in darkness, so complete that I could see nothing of what lay beyond, if indeed there was anything beyond for me.
That blackness was surely the way to death, and at its very edge there stood a figure who had to be the Reaper, though he didn’t have the face of Death which I’d been expecting to see.
Rather than the robed, skeletal figure I’d seen before (even if it was only ever dreams and hallucinations), he resembled the same grizzled Slayer who’d almost succeeded in killing me, if Selina hadn’t intervened. And he was pointing a gun at my chest, just as he had that day on the mortal plane. He also had hold of Amy’s arm in his other hand.