by D. C. Gomez
“Katrina, where exactly are we going?” I asked her as I looked around, taking in the street packed with a large group of people just standing around. It was really odd for this time of night.
“The building at the end of the street,” Katrina said as she pointed to a townhouse on the right-hand side. “The club is in the basement.”
I gave Katrina a wide-eyed look, then turned that same look to the building. “They have a vampire club in the middle of a residential area?” Was she serious?
“Easy way to hide,” Katrina told me. “This place is by invitation only. Not many people can find it.”
“Katrina, if the only ones who can come here are the ones who know where to find it, who are all these people just standing around?” I pointed at the crowd for extra emphasis.
“What people?” Katrina asked me as she scanned the area. Not a good sign.
“You don’t see anyone?” My heart sank. How had I not noticed the people standing there weren’t alive?
“None,” Katrina answered, still looking around. “How many are you seeing?” She met my eyes, and hers were soft with sympathy.
“At least twenty,” I told her as I pulled in a spot to parallel-park, trying to avoid the two souls standing in the empty space. I waved at them and they moved, apologizing as they went.
“Isis, should I be worried?” Katrina had pulled one of her guns from her ankle strap. “I can’t fight an enemy I can’t see,” she said, even though she looked more than ready to try.
“Only if you are afraid of the dead. Other than that, we are perfectly safe,” I told her, and I was sure we were safe from the dead. I just wasn’t sure about anything else on this street. I swallowed hard and turned the car off. “Are you ready?”
“That is so creepy that you can see the dead,” Katrina said. She strapped her gun and we stepped out of the car.
It was a little overwhelming to have that many souls in one place. It was also more than disturbing that none of them were moving. As we stepped through the souls, we made our way towards the stairs leading to the lower level. Before I made it, two ghosts rushed me, their cold fingers digging into my shoulders.
“Please, don’t go,” a beautiful lady, maybe in her thirties, with a fabulous Southern accent said.
Katrina almost jumped out of her skin when she saw her. Ghosts become visible to humans when they are connected to any of Death’s Interns. It comes in handy when I’m trying to show my team the situation at hand. It is terrifying when it happens in front of civilians, though. Most of the time, they all panic.
“It’s not safe for you,” a teenage girl with freckles and a skater outfit told me from the other side.
I needed to do something quickly because the other ghosts had noticed us and had already started heading our way. The last thing I needed was a scene in the middle of the street, so I reached out and took one hand from each of them in my own. Ghosts had no body temperature, so if I thought their hands had been cold through the clothing covering my shoulder, they were freezing now. I gave them my warmth, hoping some of my confidence drifted to them as well.
“It’s okay. They are expecting us,” I told them both. “Our business is brief. As soon as I’m done, I’ll be back to get you guys home. Deal?”
The women only gripped me tighter, and I could feel through their grip they didn’t want to let me go forward.
“Isis we need to go,” Katrina told me as she headed down the stairs.
“Please, let me go,” I begged the ghosts. “I can’t let my friend go alone.” The last part did it and the souls released me.
“Be careful,” my little skater friend told me.
I nodded and smiled before I rushed down the stairs behind Katrina, that way the ghosts didn’t have a chance to change their mind and charge me again. Katrina was already knocking on the door when I reached her.
“Remember, don’t look them in the eye,” Katrina told me one last time as the door opened.
We stepped inside, and I did my best to avoid eye contact. It was really hard to assess the situation when you were looking at the floor. I wondered if the guy who opened the door was the bouncer. I gave him a side glance and realized he was over six feet tall and at least three-hundred pounds. That dude could bench press me for breakfast.
“We are here to see Arthur,” Katrina told the giant in front of us.
“No weapons allowed,” said the giant. “That means I will need to search you if you want to see Arthur.” Giant inched closer to us.
“I don’t think so,” Katrina told him.
“You will let me search you, little lady,” the giant said, almost purring.
“Not happening and you can stop with your Jedi mind tricks. That shit doesn’t work on us,” Katrina told the giant as she put her hands on her hips.
Panic settled in my chest. I had no idea what was happening.
“Oh really,” the giant replied in a condescending tone. “How about I start with your friend.” Before I realized what happened, he stood next to me and had grabbed my butt.
It wasn’t my fault; I reacted without thinking. I slapped the Giants hands away from me and pushed him aside. Unfortunately, when I did that, it put my eyes staring right into his. In less than a second, my third eye flew open and I was face to face with a monster.
“Holy crap,” I screamed.
“Demon,” the giant screamed at me and opened his jaws.
I wasn’t sure what he was. Hollywood claimed vampires were bat like. I had never been afraid of bats before, but this thing was a cross between a bat, a snake, and probably a shark. It had rows upon rows of teeth, huge eyes, and claws for hands. I had taken a few steps back and realized the entire room was full of similar beasts. They radiated death and moved like streaks of light. I wasn’t sure what came over me, but I grabbed the scythe with my right hand and activated. The beast hissed at me and lunged. There was no place to run. The thing was between me and the door and I was sure his friends were heading my way.
He moved faster than anything I imagined, but I could still follow him. I wasn’t sure how, but I could anticipate his moves. His claws extended as he tried to scratch my face off. I turned into him and elbowed him in the chest. That caught him off guard, giving me enough time to spin around and cut him down the middle with the scythe. I was expecting blood to gush at me, screams, or even curses. What I didn’t expect was the beast to explode into a shower of ashes from the cut. I was spinning the scythe like a baton, ready to take on the rest of the monsters.
I turned around just in time to see Katrina kick one of the monsters across the room. Through my third eye, she looked like a mystical warrior. She was covered in a pure golden light, even more beautiful than she was in real life.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw three more monsters heading her way from behind.
I rushed forward and screamed, “Katrina, down!”
Instead of ducking like a normal person, Katrina dropped down in a full split.
I didn’t have enough time to admire how flexible super-trooper was. I jumped over her and slashed the head of the monster closest to her. More ashes went flying everywhere as I kicked the second in the groin. It had to have been the silver that brought him down. He looked too strong to be bothered by a simple kick. I spun my scythe around, looking like a deadly version of Bruce Lee. There were too many of them, but we were not going down without a fight.
“Enough,” a male voice shouted from the rear of the club.
The monsters stopped coming. Katrina gracefully got up. She really did make everything look easy. I didn’t take my eyes off the beast. They cleared a path and a tall man with jet black hair walked towards us. He was glowing, something I had never seen in humans. He wasn’t dead, but he was something other than alive.
“Master, she killed Caleb and Cain. Let us kill her,” one of the monsters said.
I had no clue why they called him master. He was nothing like them.
“If they were dumb enough
to challenge a Reaper, then they deserved to die,” the man said to the crowd.
“We don’t mean any disrespect,” Katrina said quickly. “We are here investigating Genevieve’s disappearance,” she told the crowd.
“The emperor really did make a deal with a Reaper?” the same monster asked the man. I could feel all the creatures looking at me. In that moment, I understood Constantine’s warnings. This group would tear me apart.
“Yes, he did,” the man replied. “I knew she was beautiful, but I had my doubts she was deadly enough to handle the challenge. I guess I was wrong.” He gave me a wicked smiled as his eyes roamed over my body. He had the same predator demeanor as the monsters. “If we behave, would you promise to do the same, Reaper?”
“I came here in peace,” I said in answer. I was surprised how calm my voice sounded because my heart was beating double time. “Your pets attacked me. I will behave if they do the same.”
The man gave me a nod and the crowd retreated. I looked around and retracted the scythe. It wasn’t much of a peace offering if I kept it out. The man smiled and motioned for us to follow him towards the back. I did not like the idea of entering this twisted den of beasts, but he’d given us his word. Katrina followed him first and I was right behind her. He led us to a table in a corner. I took the seat that let me face the room, which meant my back faced a wall. I was not taking any chances.
“Are you okay?” Katrina whispered.
I just nodded.
“You don’t look good,” she said.
I had no idea what Katrina saw in my face, but I was too busy scanning the room to focus on that.
“Please don’t look at my men like you are planning to kill them by breakfast,” the man told me as he took the seat right between Katrina and me.
It took me a minute to realize my third eye was still open. I took a deep breath, closed my real eyes, and focused on closing my third. I always imagined my third eye being in between my two real eyes, maybe up a little on my forehead, and to close it, I had to visualize a curtain shutting, but it wasn’t working. Whenever I opened my eyes again and looked anywhere in the room, it popped open again. The strain of trying to close it was giving me a headache. After the fifth time, I decided to do something different. Instead of closing my eyes and shutting the curtain, I kept my real eyes open. I imagined I was draping a veil over my face. It actually worked. I could still see the shapes of the monsters, but now I was able to see the human body they showed to the outside world.
“Oh God, that is so creepy,” I said aloud.
“What do you see?” Katrina asked me.
“Our true forms, right?” the man answered.
I nodded in reply. “Why are you different, though?”
“Am I that different?” he asked me.
“Yeah. You look human, while they all look like the monsters right out of a nightmare,” I told him.
Katrina shifted in her chair and glanced around the room with a lot more caution.
“I would ask you not to repeat that again, or it will be hunting season on the elves to bleed them dry,” he told me. My mouth dropped. “Yes Reaper. Ginny and I share more than our bed.”
I held up my hand, stopping him before he could go any further. “No need for details.” This whole experience had already traumatized me so much I feared I’d start having nightmares again. Somehow, I forced myself to take a calming breath and addressed him again. “No offense sir, but let’s get to the point. When was the last time you saw your fiancé?”
“You are serious?” the man asked me, his voice lifted with surprise.
I raised one eyebrow at him. I had no clue what he was thinking.
“Are you actually going to look for Ginny?” he asked.
“Yes. Why else would I be here?” Did I look like I was having fun?
“You are different,” he said softly. “We figured you just wanted to find one of our locations and set-up a trap to kill us.” He gave me a fixed stare.
“And you still agreed to see me?” I asked him in disbelief.
“This place is surrounded,” he told me. “If you refused to stop, we were planning to sacrifice every man we had to kill you,” he said in a serious tone.
“That is crazy,” I told him.
“Very practical,” Katrina added. “It would make a huge statement that you are willing to go to war with Death just to get what you want. Are you sure that’s wise?”
“Katrina, what would you do for the person you love?” the man answered with a question.
“Arthur, we are not the enemy,” Katrina told him as she grabbed his hand. He didn’t pull away. “What if Isis is right and Ginny is missing? We are wasting time.”
I hadn’t considered that Katrina was friends with either one of them. Arthur relaxed and took a deep breath.
“Last time I spoke with her was Friday night,” Arthur said as he leaned back in his chair. Then he took a deep breath, and I wondered if he actually needed to breathe or if it was just a nervous habit. “She was going to tell her father she was giving up her claim to the throne, the army, and leaving everything. She was supposed to call me back after she did it. I never heard from her, and I knew something had happened.” He looked fragile as he spoke of his fiancé.
“Did she have any enemies?” I was horrible at questioning people, but every show I had seen always asked that one.
“Not a soul—at least none that are alive,” Arthur answered. “She is one of the most loved elves in over five-hundred years.”
I glanced at Katrina, and she nodded once in agreement.
My mind was having a hard time processing that fact. I wondered if it was because I was still struggling to close my third eye.
“Who was she close to in her house?” I asked Arthur, hoping she had a girlfriend who could help us.
“Her brother, Iason,” Arthur answered. “They are twins. That’s why I figured she was fine. Iason is not concerned. They have a special bond and can feel if the other is in trouble.”
“Makes sense,” I told Arthur. I was also wondering what kind of name was Iason. Granted, with a name like Isis, who was I to talk about odd name selection?
“Guess we need to find the prince now,” Katrina told me.
“Here.” Arthur gave me his card. “Please call me if you find anything. If you think Ginny is actually in trouble, I want to help.” He looked crushed, and it made my heart sink.
“Okay, I will.” I took his card and put it in my trench coat. “I’m sorry about your friends.” I told him as I glanced at the floor, seeing the ashes still lying there.
“Don’t be,” Arthur told me. “They were planning to rip your head off. I am impressed you managed to stop when I asked you.”
“Why?” I asked him.
“I will explain in the car,” Katrina told me instead of Arthur. “Thank you, Arthur. We will stay in touch. Isis let’s go.” Katrina did not wait for my answer. She got up and out of the chair, then pulled me up, too.
I waved at Arthur and followed her out. I didn’t want another episode, so I kept my eyes on the floor as I walked. Plus, the strain to keep the thin veil covering my third eye was already too much. If I looked at a single one of the monsters, I knew it wouldn’t last, which would put me in even more trouble. And we couldn’t have that.
The moment I stepped outside, my breaths came normal again. It felt like I’d been holding my breath under water for hours and had just broken through the surface. My lungs burned and my head pounded, so I squeezed my eyes shut while I attempted to close my third eye again. I couldn’t face a street full of ghosts with it open. Bending over, I grasped my knees and tried to breathe. If I didn’t calm down soon, I’d end up having a panic attack, and I didn’t want Katrina to see that.
My head spun as I straightened. Inside, I felt despicable. I had never killed anyone before, a fact I’d prided myself on. But tonight, I didn’t think twice before turning those vampires to dust. That made me a hypocrite, and that thought tore
my heart apart. If either of those vampires had been human, if they hadn’t looked like monsters beneath the surface, I knew I wouldn’t have been able to hurt them. I hated the reality of that. It made my stomach churn, and I had to swallow down the bile that rose in the back of my throat.
“Isis, are you okay?” Katrina asked, but I hardly heard her. Her voice sounded muffled and distant.
I waved at her, hoping she understood I was okay. With my left hand, I held myself against the wall. Slowly, I started counting backwards from one hundred to clear my thoughts. It took over a minute and a lot of deep breaths before I could close my third eye. The moment it closed, my entire body relaxed. My breathing went back to normal and the pounding in my head stopped. I let my eyes drift open to find Katrina standing less than six inches away from me with her 9mm out. She scanned the area, ensuring our safety. I had to smile. At least I knew if I ever needed back-up, she would do it without asking.
“I’m good now, thank you,” I told Katrina.
“Let’s get upstairs and away from the building,” Katrina whispered, still eyeballing the area. “Their hearing is amazing.”
I looked at her and nodded. If they could hear through concrete walls, we were in trouble.
We climbed the few steps and I was glad my legs weren’t shaking. The street was still filled with souls—even more than there were when we arrived. I had a feeling it was going to be a long night.
“Katrina, I’m sorry about downstairs,” I said before I could stop myself. Truthfully, I needed to apologize to her because I could have easily gotten her killed. “I don’t know how it happened, but my third eye opened on its own and those beasts scared the hell out of me.”