“I’m sorry you got dragged into this,” Kalon muttered as he comforted his youngest brother.
Tudyk stared at his hands, a single tear rolling down his cheek. Ansel reached out and gently squeezed his shoulder, and the boy didn’t pull back. He accepted his brother again. For the first time in a while, the Visentis brothers were truly together once more. If only Simmon had been smart enough to doubt the Darklings like Kalon had.
Maybe he would’ve still been here, as well.
Esme
I left Kalon with his brothers. They all needed some time to heal and come together as a family. Without their mother, the boys only had each other, and those ties needed strengthening now more than ever.
Besides, there were other aspects of our operation that required my attention. With all the madness going on, the emergence of a day-walking cure had almost slipped through the cracks, and I now had the energy and focus to fully explore this new angle.
Amal and Amane were in their room, where they’d set up a small lab. Sofia, Rose, Caleb, and Ridan were also present, watching as the Faulty twins put together a series of syringes filled with a bright red liquid.
“We can begin testing the day-walking cure,” Amal said when she saw me come in. “It’s ready for the first round of trials.”
“That’s amazing!” I replied, smiling.
“We’ll spread treatment out over the course of a few days,” Amane said. “Much like Derek when Ta’Zan was giving him the pills back on Strava. We opted for injections because they should work faster, and we don’t have the resources to synthesize the cure into hard pills, anyway.”
“Should we expect any side effects?” Rose asked.
“Not that I can think of. You might be able to stay out in the sunlight for prolonged periods of time, but as soon as you feel your skin get hot, you’ll have to cover yourselves,” Amal said. “You’ll need multiple shots for the treatment to hopefully stick.”
“Hopefully?” Sofia asked.
“Well, it’s not a sure thing until we see if it actually works. This is our first attempt at reproducing Ta’Zan’s day-walking cure,” Amal explained. “We must leave some room for error and failure; otherwise, we’ll be in for quite the disappointment.”
Sofia nodded slowly. “I see. Let me try it first, before anyone else.”
“Mom, no. We should all test it,” Rose said.
“Honey, it’s okay. I’ll take the first shot. Give me twenty-four hours to see how I respond to the treatment, and then you can all join me.” Sofia gave her daughter a warm and loving smile. There weren’t any known risks involved, but we couldn’t be a hundred percent sure until we tried it. Sofia was our GASP matriarch, so she felt like she had to be the first guinea pig in this trial run.
“Sofia, are you sure?” Caleb asked.
“It’ll be okay. Just humor me, please.”
Amal took one of the syringes and injected Sofia with the first batch. A minute passed in tense silence as we all watched Sofia like hawks. My heart was thumping, though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to see. With Derek, no one had noticed any changes until he stepped out onto Sun Beach back in The Shade, months after the Strava incident. This was just the thrill, the anticipation of a potentially life-changing event.
If the cure worked on a permanent basis, then it would quickly become a gamechanger. Day-walking vampires had an uncontested advantage in the field—especially against the Aeternae, if push came to shove.
“Now what?” Sofia asked, breaking the silence.
Amal checked her vitals, jotted down some notes in a journal, and added Sofia’s medical information—heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, the usual stuff. “Now we wait. Give yourself a few hours before you poke your head out in the daylight,” she said. “Give the serum particles some time to bond with your DNA. If it works, then as soon as your skin cells come into contact with the sunlight, even in its filtered form from the reddish haze, your body will immediately react and activate the day-walking protein. Theoretically, that’s the expected process.”
“How do you feel?” Rose asked her mother.
“I’m… fine. I don’t sense anything different, to be honest.”
“We’re not sure you will. Derek didn’t have any symptoms,” Amane reminded us.
“Well, we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed.” Ridan chuckled, settling on the edge of the bed. “In other news, preparations for Dieffen are currently underway. Kale and Hunter are getting the supplies ready.”
“Weapons, too?” I asked.
He nodded once. “Pulverizers, swords, smoke bombs… everything we might need in an insurgency.”
“How’s The Shade?” Amal asked. “What are our people saying over there?”
Ridan took a moment to look at each of us before he smiled broadly. “They’re all incredibly proud of you, first and foremost. They’re worried sick about you, not to mention Derek. And they’ve put together a literal army of Perfects and Arch-Perfects, in case the worst-case scenario unfolds and it’s an all-out war. They’re significantly superior against the Aeternae, but with all the death magic, we’d still run the risk of major casualties.”
“Let’s hope we don’t end up in a war with Visio,” Sofia said. “There are too many innocents in the middle, and we can’t exactly pick them out and set them aside.”
“Yeah, they’re not a bowl of Skittles,” I grumbled. “But it’s good to know our forces are ready to go if we need them. I think it’ll help with our own morale going forward.”
“I reckon our greatest accomplishment will be to release Unending,” Amal replied. “If she’s out, she can help the other First Tenners in breaking what’s left of Death’s seals. And once Death is free, she’ll haul her ass straight to Visio and end the Darklings for good. There’s no amount of death magic that can protect them from the main lady herself.”
On this, we all agreed. It was the best possible outcome and precisely what we were fighting for. We’d already agreed that the Darklings’ political campaign would make an all-out war even more difficult, since they would hide behind the support of innocent people. Defeating them through Death herself was our optimal solution.
“Tristan is helping Valaine,” I said. “And Morning and Phantom are handling the death magic side of things. Hopefully, she’ll remember her past lives, all the way back to the Unending. Once we figure out what sort of seal she’s under, the First Tenners are confident they’ll be able to break it and ultimately release her.”
“And while they do that, we’ll take Dieffen,” Ridan replied. “What they did there… it’s horrendous.”
“I’d like to join the mission,” I said. “I’m sure Kalon will come, too. Ansel can watch over Moore and Tudyk while we’re gone. I think we’ve finally deradicalized the boys… they understand what the Darklings are really doing.”
Sofia’s eyes lit up. “Well done, Esme! So they’re no longer a threat?”
“They’re still hurting over their mother. They feel angry and betrayed. I wouldn’t take my eyes off them for a while,” I replied. “Minds change, but not overnight. Right now, Moore and Tudyk are basically processing everything they’ve been told. But Ansel and the rest of Orvis can watch over them and make sure they don’t do anything stupid while we’re gone.”
“Like reach out to Petra?” Rose said.
I offered a faint nod. “Yeah. Orvis is warded and protected now by Reapers and Kailani. I doubt the Darklings will be able to get through. That is, if Petra does come around.”
“Do you think the boys will bring her here?” Caleb asked, his brow furrowed. He was probably assessing the expected risks of such an endeavor.
“Like I said, we should keep an eye out until we’re fully convinced Moore and Tudyk won’t give in to Petra’s demands,” I said. “It’s still a possibility at this point, and I can’t say I blame them. She’s their mother.”
Sofia clicked her teeth. “Yeah, I can imagine. Let us all talk about this later t
onight. Kalla is organizing a fireside dinner for us. We can go over each operation in great detail with her, since she’s already shown willingness to give us some of her troops to assist us in Dieffen.”
“I’m not sure they’d be needed or even helpful, considering our Reaper alliance, but I won’t reject their support,” Ridan said.
The next twenty-four hours would be crucial for every aspect of our mission. Sofia was waiting for the cure’s effects to kick in. Valaine was digging into her past. Kalon was working to bring his brothers into the fold without risking them calling Petra to the gates of Orvis. And we were getting ready to invade another Darkling-held town.
The bloodshed wasn’t over.
But there were more of us now, and we were all wiser and more determined to see this through to the end. If the Darklings thought they were going to defeat us, they had another thing coming. Our worst-case scenario involved an army of Perfects and Arch-Perfects. I doubted theirs could rise to that challenge.
Tristan
Valaine and I walked around the village for more than an hour, staying close to the black stone fencing that surrounded Orvis. With so many ghouls patrolling the Nightmare Forest, I didn’t worry much about sabre tigers. Surrounded by the dark woods, their emerald crowns stretching overhead, I basked in the natural beauty and the sounds of its wilderness.
Something had changed between us. It had to do with that kiss, but I didn’t have any regrets. My lips were still tingling, as a matter of fact. My heart was singing, the serenade ringing in my ears.
But Valaine was silent, her eyes even darker, her lips pressed tightly together as we walked. “You shouldn’t have kissed me,” she said after a long pause.
“You participated.”
“I know. It wasn’t… well, I didn’t plan on that. I couldn’t control myself,” she replied.
“Neither could I. But I’m not taking it back. Valaine, there’s obviously something between us. It’s been there since we first met, and I don’t feel sorry for pushing it forward.”
“It’s not about that, Tristan. It’s not that I… that I don’t feel the same way. I do,” she murmured. “But I’m the Unending. This version of me is just a piece of the whole, and there’s no telling what I’ll do or how I’ll react when I’m complete again. The last thing I’d ever want to do is hurt you. So why pursue this romantic interest between us if it ends with me incorporated into the Unending, anyway?”
“That’s a gloomy outlook,” I said. “Once you become Unending, once you remember it all, it’ll still be you in there. You’ll have the option to follow your heart then. But the problem is I don’t really care if… I don’t know, you remember it all and you decide to kick me to the curb. I’ve already fallen... You’re Valaine, and you’re Unending. You’re an Aeternae, and you’re also the first Reaper ever made. I’m attracted to every side of you, and whatever fate throws at us, I’m certain we’re better equipped at facing it together. You don’t have to do this alone. No one wants you to do this alone.”
Valaine groaned, utterly frustrated. Seeing her pout and roll her eyes was almost endearing, if not even a bit amusing. “I’m not letting you get hurt.”
“That’s not your decision to make.” I laughed, though my heart ached at the prospect of losing her. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. The sooner you get accustomed to that fact, the better we’ll get along. You can stomp your feet and throw as many tantrums as you’d like. I’m not leaving you.”
She whirled around to face me, her hand gripping my upper arm. “I hurt you in there! Whatever is happening to me, it’s coming out. It’s manifesting in an increasingly dangerous fashion. You described it as despair in its purest form. Why would you even want to be close to someone like me, if that’s how I make you feel?”
“Because that was just a slip. A symptom of an underlying problem we’re already working to fix,” I said. “I’d be a fool to walk away, especially when you need me now more than ever. Say what you will about the darkness inside you, but I was able to contain it with that kiss. I stopped it. I brought you back.”
“What if I hurt you in worse ways going forward? What if I lose control and, I don’t know, tear you to shreds?” Her voice trembled as she spoke, and I knew she was terrified at the possibility. I didn’t like the idea either, but I wasn’t going to let it deter me.
“If you slip again, if you blank out and let the darkness out like that, I’ll kiss you,” I said firmly, resting one hand on her hip. “And if it’s not enough, I’ll kiss you again. And again. And again.”
“What if that doesn’t stop me?” she whispered.
I pulled her close, and she leaned against me, her body perfectly molded to mine. Her heart thundered in my chest, as I was certain mine was already echoing inside her. My breath was short as I lowered my head, my lips yearning for hers. “I’ll hold you like this. I’ll give you everything I have and more. You don’t want to hurt me. You don’t want to hurt anyone, Valaine. That is a fundamental part of you, regardless of the darkness. It’s why I was able to pull you out of it.”
Her gaze lowered to settle on my chest. “Your confidence might get you killed,” she said.
“At least I’d die holding you.”
She looked up, her eyes wide with terror. “Don’t ever say that again. Don’t tempt the universe!” she hissed. “I told you, I don’t know what I’ll do if… if you get hurt.”
“You’re in a lot of pain. I understand that. Your father is trying to kill you. Most of your friends and family, too. It can’t be easy,” I said. “But you are not alone. I’m here, and so is my sister. Kalon. Ansel. Sofia. All these people who’ve fought hard to keep you safe and out of the Darklings’ clutches. Don’t push us away, Valaine. You can’t do this alone. You need us.”
“I think this is the closest I’ve ever been to the truth, and it scares me,” she replied, palms pressing on my chest. “I see people getting hurt because of me through the Black Fever, and I don’t want anyone else to suffer. Especially you, Tristan. I’ve fallen in love with you, and it’s a big problem. It’s my weakness. I’m worried the Darklings will use it against me.”
For a moment, I lost my words somewhere in the narrow space between our lips. She’d just confessed her feelings for me, and I understood why she was trying to protect me by pushing me away. “That’s not how love works,” I whispered. She looked up, and our eyes met, sending trillions of jolts through my body. “Where I come from, we don’t walk away. We stand up. We fight. We tear everything down to protect those we love. I’ve fallen for you, too. Why do you think I’m still here?”
She shuddered in my arms. “What are we going to do?”
“We’ll take it one day at a time. We will not surrender. We’ll do this together.”
“And if the Unending comes out and… and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with you? What then?”
“Valaine, you are the Unending. Whatever she feels, you feel. I doubt these emotions are exclusively yours. Phantom made that clear, so I’m confident you’re not the only one whose heart is throbbing for yours truly. The Unending must think I’m pretty hot, too.” I chuckled, trying to ease some of the tension I could feel gathering around us. The darkness was trying her again, but if I could anticipate its return and stop it early, maybe I could keep it at bay for a while.
Valaine giggled. “She’d be a fool not to love you.”
I kissed her again, and she welcomed me. Her lips parted, the skin soft and as sweet as fresh honey dripping from the comb. Her arms came up, snaking around my neck as she drew me deeper into the kiss. For a moment, nothing else mattered. The woods whispered around us, and I could hear children laughing somewhere in the village.
There were no Darklings. No remnants of the Spirit Bender’s awful work. No suffering of the Unending. It was just me and Valaine. Me and the Unending, actually. It would take time to get used to the thought, but I knew I had to adjust quickly if I was to keep up with the change ahead.
>
We’d already begun exploring her previous life. There was more to come, and she needed me strong and by her side. I’d talked a big game earlier, and it would’ve been foolish of me not to deliver. For now, we basked in the warmth of blossoming love, our hearts dancing and our souls bonding on a deeper level.
I couldn’t promise her anything. I couldn’t guarantee everything would be all right. I didn’t have that power. But I could stay by her side and keep her close. She needed friends and affection more than anything. She would soon delve deeper into herself and fully understand the suffering that she’d endured for so long.
But for just this fleeting blip in the fabric of time, we kissed.
Tristan
The fireside dinner Kalla had organized for us was an impressive feast. The Aeternae of Orvis had gone hunting and gathering, and they’d returned with plenty of food. A large rectangular table was brought out to accommodate our larger crew, Reapers included. A few yards to our left, a bonfire burned brightly, the flames lashing at the night sky. The stars could no longer be seen, but the moon lingered somewhere to the east. Most of the villagers had retreated to their homes, with the exception of a handful who were kind enough to serve us fresh animal blood.
The Reapers didn’t participate in any of the eating or drinking, since they had no need for such physical sustenance. Dream and Nightmare’s feeding on people’s dreams didn’t exactly count as eating, but rather a disturbing pastime. They did, however, smile and engage in conversations, often admitting their fascination with the Aeternae. In a way, they regarded the Aeternae as being descended from the Unending.
Kalla sat at the head of the table, with Sofia and Rose on either side. Caleb and Amal were seated next to them, followed by Hunter and Kailani, Amane and Ridan, Esme and Kalon, Valaine and me, Trev and Ansel, and even Moore and Tudyk. The boys were glum and silent, but they didn’t seek to disturb the dinner. They were learning to socialize again.
A Shade of Vampire 83: A Bender of Spirit Page 9