A Shade of Vampire 73: A Search for Death

by Forrest, Bella

  “What do you mean?” Zeriel replied, slightly overcharged. He’d been like this since I’d first fallen from Vikkal’s cut-and-spell trick—calm, for the most part, but always treading on the edge. My ethereal fingers were itching to touch him, but I doubted he’d feel anything. I couldn’t feel the floor I was standing on, barefoot.

  “I just mean Reapers… the fact that they exist. That they do what they do, and not a single one of us knew about them until one revealed himself to us, with foul intentions.”

  “Something tells me that Yamani fellow was a horrible exception,” Mom cut in, one hand resting on the crystal casing, just above my head. It was as close as she could get to touching me, and I wanted nothing more than to feel her warmth on my skin.

  “Even so, you’ll have to forgive me, I’m still wrapping my head around the entire Reaper concept. All my life, I’d thought we just live and… well, die. That we’re concentrated energy that just moves on. Then, I remember the likes of Sherus, who once worked with ghouls and gave him souls,” Dad said, shaking his head slowly. “Death was something distant and mysterious. Knowing now that it functions on order and tasks, much like our world of the living… I don’t know. I’m baffled.”

  “You and me both.” Zeriel sighed. “It’s even more astonishing to learn that, much like the Exiled Maras and the daemons of Neraka, Reapers could be seduced by the power of our souls. That they could feed on them. Destroy them…”

  “But there are immediate repercussions for the Reapers, at least,” Dad mused, scratching his pale stubble. He’d rarely allowed himself to go unshaven for more than a day, yet, since my falling, the rough, grain-colored shadow on his jaw and chin had become a regular sight. “They become ghouls.”

  “And they just get hungrier for souls,” Zeriel replied.

  “True. But they’re no longer Reapers. Imagine being one, eating souls and getting away with it for centuries, if not millennia, on end,” Mom said, then shuddered at the thought. “Frankly, the existence of Reapers and their descent into ghouls isn’t even what scares me the most. It just answers some questions I’ve had since I was a child. No, what truly terrifies me is the fact that Death is an entity, that she orders these Reapers around, that she once stopped the first Hermessi ritual, and now, she’s holed up on this Mortis planet, somewhere… who knows where… while my daughter is languishing away in this…” She knocked on the crystal casing. “This thing.”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. I could almost feel them, hot and burning with sorrow, tickling my skin. How unfair that my own parents had to witness my slow descent into death, long before their time came to even get close to the grand finale, so to speak.

  Dad put an arm around her shoulders and held her close. He kissed her temple, closing his eyes for a moment, as if to stop his own tears from falling. “Our girl is a fighter,” he declared quietly. “She’s opposing this. I know she is.”

  Zeriel couldn’t help but chuckle. “Vesta will probably flip off a Reaper before he takes her away.”

  “I can agree with him,” Seeley muttered, clearly amused.

  Even I was smiling, though I didn’t even realize it until I spotted my reflection in his night-sky eyes. “You won’t take me away. You know that, right?” I asked him.

  “It won’t be up to me, Vesta,” Seeley said. “If they save you and your fellow fae before your time is up, I will be more than happy to stand back. But if your life-chain breaks, I will have no other choice.”

  “I could—”

  “And don’t tell me you could run away from me and linger on as a ghost until you find a new fae body, like Ben did. We destroyed those loopholes. No more tricks. You’ll be wandering between worlds, not belonging anywhere, unable to touch or speak to your loved ones, until a ghoul finds you and snacks on you. That is your future, Vesta, if you don’t allow nature to take its course.”

  I was instantly deflated. Settling by Zeriel’s side, I chose to focus on him. My post-death options were too crappy. My pre-death options were blurry, at best, and depended on whether Taeral and his crew could find Death and get her to stop the ritual before it killed us all. The best I could do, right now, was focus on my fiancé… maybe even find a way to talk to him.

  “I know it’s not what you want to hear,” Seeley added, but I interrupted him before he could give me the it’s-what’s-best-for-you speech.

  “I really don’t want to hear anything, to be honest,” I said firmly, then smiled down at Zeriel. “I would, however, like to be able to touch him one last time, and tell him how much I love him.”

  Seeley would’ve said he had no power in this, because of the rules. But I didn’t expect him to do anything. I’d already understood that, and I had no intention of pleading with him to do anything. He’d saved my friends on Hellym. He’d done enough.

  Zeriel couldn’t take his eyes off me. “Do you think she’s here? That she can hear us?”

  “I am… I can,” I whispered.

  “I hope so,” my mom said. “Because if she is, at least she knows how much we love her.”

  “As long as her heart still beats, our daughter is here,” Dad replied, his brow furrowed. He was working so hard to keep himself together through all this.

  “Good. I need her to hear us. I need her to know that we’re not stopping until we find a way to get her back,” Zeriel grumbled.

  Instinctively, I reached out and let the back of my hand gently brush his sharp cheek. I’d done it before, but it had never sent sparks flying through me, like it did just now. It startled him, too. His skin was all goosebumps, and I was electrified.

  I jumped back and covered my mouth to stifle a shocked gasp, while Zeriel straightened his back and widened his eyes at my parents.

  “What is it?” Mom asked, clearly confused.

  “I… I’m not sure,” he managed.

  My whole being was still humming from our touch. An actual touch! I’d touched Zeriel, and he’d felt it! I was dangerously close to jumping with pure, unadulterated joy—a rare sight for a semi-ghost like me.

  “Something happened,” Mom insisted.

  Zeriel blinked several times, then glanced at her. “I… I think I felt her just now,” he said. “I’m not sure how, but… deep down, I could feel her. I knew it was her, touching my cheek.”

  Mom was beside herself, hiding her face in her palms, while Dad held her tight, resting his head against hers as he stared at my crystal casing. Zeriel touched his cheek with his fingers, exactly where my hand had been. My entire arm was on fire from that strange contact.

  “You’ve got some explaining to do,” I said to Seeley.

  The Reaper himself looked surprised, his eyes almost bulging. But there was a twinkle of familiarity in his eyes. It wasn’t shock that had gripped him now. He was more impressed than anything else. He’d seen something like this before.

  “Whatever do you mean?” he asked innocently.

  I laughed. “Oh, come on. We’ve known each other long enough not to do this silly dance. Spit it out. Does this happen often, or ever? Am I some sort of pioneer in my not-yet-dead field?”

  “I’ve seen it before,” Seeley replied, giving me the type of glare that warned me against asking further questions. He should’ve known better.

  “Can I get Zeriel to see me, eventually, if I concentrate hard enough?” I asked.

  It was his turn to laugh. “You think you managed to touch him now because you concentrated hard enough? It doesn’t work like that, Vesta. Only a Reaper can see a ghost. It used to be that ghosts could see other ghosts, too, but that only applies to the dead now. Not the semi-living, like you.”

  I didn’t find this to be a satisfactory response. But his puzzled expression and brief glance to the side made me wonder. “What’s on your mind?” I replied.

  “Not much. I just realized something somewhat unrelated.”

  Was he trying to distract me? Or was he being truthfully and unexpectedly enlightened by something? “Okay,” I mur
mured, waiting for him to continue.

  “Only a Reaper can see a ghost. Or whoever is holding a Reaper’s scythe, for that matter,” Seeley said. “I may have killed Yamani, but the last time I saw his scythe, Amelia had it. I think she still does.”

  “Oh. All right. What does that mean, exactly, other than an ability to see ghosts?”

  He chuckled. “Well, I just hope she doesn’t think she’s losing her marbles if she comes across one or more of them.”

  “Can she use that scythe as a weapon?” I asked, going over the possibilities.

  Seeley nodded. “As a weapon, yes. As a deadly weapon, no. Not on a Reaper, and not on a soul. Granted, a non-Reaper carrying a Reaper’s scythe would’ve been considered impossible until recently, but… you know, GASP never ceases to amaze.”

  “What else can Amelia do with it?”

  “She can see ghosts and Reapers. She can certainly defend herself against a Reaper’s scythe. She could retaliate, too—”

  “But not to kill.”

  “No, not to kill. However! I’m pretty sure she can kill ghouls with it. The blade’s primary role is to reap souls and to kill those who wish to harm the souls. Therefore, Amelia wouldn’t be able to kill Reapers or ghosts, but she’d certainly manage to permanently take down a ghoul.”

  I nodded slowly. This was good information—only, I couldn’t exactly tell anyone about it just yet, and it irked me like crazy. I exhaled, crossing my arms. “If Amelia came in here with that scythe, would she be able to see me?”

  The color instantly drained from Seeley’s face. Holy crap. I scoffed.

  “Yes,” he said meekly.

  “Hah. Then I might have a chance to tell her everything I know if she comes back here,” I replied, grinning like the elemental devil that I still was.

  “Please, don’t,” Seeley breathed, positively distraught.

  I might’ve been enjoying this a little too much, but I’d earned this moment. “Because you wouldn’t be able to stop me from blabbering, if she came around and she could see me. Oh, the universe can still work in my favor after all…”

  It sounded amazing, if I thought about it properly. I could either keep trying to reach out to Zeriel, maybe even find a way to get a message across to him, or I could wait for Amelia to come back here. The latter was a bit of a long shot right now, since we didn’t know where she was, exactly.

  But it was only a matter of time. Surely, GASP would find her and Taeral and the rest of their crew, and they’d bring them back. I lowered my gaze, my shoulders heavy as I realized that, by the time Amelia made it back, it might very well be too late for me. What if it took her days or weeks to return?

  More than half of my life-chain had turned black.

  “You’ve lost your sparkle,” Seeley noticed, narrowing his eyes at me.

  I offered a faint smile. “I thought I’d get more satisfaction out of teasing you, but…”

  “Let me guess, you realized you might be dead by the time Amelia gets back?” he asked with a cold grin. I rolled my eyes at him.

  “You’re the epitome of insensitivity,” I said.

  He shrugged in return. “I’ve been dead a long time, Vesta. People’s feelings aren’t exactly at the top of my priority list. That being said, you’re probably right about Amelia. You could focus the little time you have left on reaching out to Zeriel, instead,” he replied, nodding at the Tritone king, my soulmate. “Who knows?”

  “Are you making fun of me?”

  “I’m not, actually. I know I come across as cold, maybe even a jerk, but I am rooting for you, Vesta. I’ve told you that before.”

  He certainly had. Credit was due to him for it, too. He’d inspired me to keep going, to not fall into the vortex of fear and anguish that had been quietly forming beneath me. I would’ve snapped days ago, had it not been for Seeley.

  Yes, he was rough around the edges, and yes, he was a cold and sometimes mean jerk, but he did have a sense of who I was. He understood me, and, most importantly, he could still find a way to drop the occasional nugget of precious information without breaking his precious rules—like he’d done just now, by suggesting I could try harder to reach out to Zeriel instead of waiting for Amelia to drop by.

  It meant that I could, in fact, make more meaningful contact with Zeriel. That I could maybe even send him a message, if I worked hard enough. Perhaps I could write something… or even implant a thought or something?

  Nah, that’s ghoul territory.

  Nevertheless, I wasn’t at all discouraged. I made a plan to keep trying until I could get actual words across to Zeriel. If Seeley suggested I could do it, then I would’ve been a fool not to give it a shot.

  Seeley stifled another chuckle. “Oh, man, I can only imagine what Amelia must be going through right now, if she’s seeing ghosts.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, frowning.

  “She has no idea what the scythe can or cannot do in her possession. Wherever she is, there must be a wandering soul or two there. Once she sees them and the others in her crew don’t, she’ll start to think she’s losing her mind.”

  He was so amused, as if he’d just told himself a fabulous joke. “You’re such a jerk.”

  “Can’t help it,” Seeley replied, pressing his lips into a thin line as he tried not to laugh some more.

  I, on the other hand, found myself worried about Amelia. How long before she’d realize that she could see spirits, and that it was strictly because of the scythe? She was, by far, one of the most intelligent creatures I’d ever come across, but even she had her limitations, especially since she was dealing with so many unknown things at once.

  The scythe didn’t come with a user manual. The poor soul. She must be freaking out.

  Amelia

  I was probably losing my mind. Or maybe I was the victim of a peculiar phenomenon that only targeted me. Of the two possibilities, my rational side was inclined to go for the former, while my emotional and supernatural side aimed for the latter. Either way, I had a lot of questions.

  As we moved through the tall woods, I continued seeing them. People of all origins, known and unknown, scattered between the trees and watching us. Semi-transparent manifestations of creatures I’d seen before and some I’d maybe dreamed about, figments of my imagination now firmly fixed in reality, somehow. I was well within my rights to doubt my sanity, at this point. We’d been through so much over the course of… what, a week?

  We’d lost a friend to the Hermessi. We’d been running and hiding and struggling to survive while trying to find a way to stop the natural elements from killing us and everyone we loved. The stress had to have been taking its toll on me.

  A few hours into our trek, we stopped by a waterfall. It marked the altitude shift from a narrow, stony plateau coming in from the east and a network of crevices packed with trees and shrubs. Between them, the waterfall fed a strip of even land and forest, allowing the sun to shine down on the mossy ground. By now, I’d pulled on my hood, my mask, and my goggles, once again thanking all the stars that Yamani hadn’t thought of taking those, too, along with our weapons and supplies. I wasn’t sure what happened to Reapers after they died, but frankly, given his clearly wretched soul, I dared hope there would be nothing for him. Absolutely nothing.

  “We should stop here for a while,” Taeral suggested.

  We hadn’t said much along the way, having spent most of our time analyzing our surroundings and getting to know the local fauna and flora a little better. Wherever this was, it was a beautiful and healthy planet. The oxygen surplus in its atmosphere made every breath a pleasure, heightening my senses and stimulating my circulation.

  “Great idea,” Lumi said, then bent down by the river. She scooped up a handful of water and took several cautious sips. A smile followed. “It’s really good. The faint sweetness is an added bonus.”

  “Fresh water, then. Drinkable,” Raphael concluded. He gave me a sideways glance. “You okay?”

  He’d asked
me the same question repeatedly along the way. His concern was endearing, but it was also an irritating reminder that I’d been seeing people, and that wasn’t normal, since no one else in my crew could see them.

  I gave him yet another faint nod. “For the umpteenth time, yes.”

  “Any more sightings?” Taeral asked, genuinely interested. His was a more clinical approach, which I appreciated. He didn’t worry about my wellbeing, even though I did. He simply believed I could see people around us, like it was acceptable. Well, at least, that was how he sounded to me, and it was a welcome respite. He probably worried, too, just not as obviously as Raphael.

  “Yeah, all the way here,” I said, then pointed at different individuals I was currently seeing around us. “Over there, your one o’clock. And there. Also there, farther to the west, approximately fifty yards from where we’re standing.”

  “Do any of them say anything?” Raphael replied.

  Finally, a question I could answer without lying to him or myself, because I was anything but okay. “Nothing whatsoever. They just watch. It hasn’t gotten any less weird.”

  “There must be a reasonable explanation,” Eira said. “Illusions? Or spirits?”

  “From GASP’s previous brushes with death, I can tell you for a fact that we can’t see spirits,” I replied. “The fae could, given Sherus’s past exploits, which would then mean that Taeral should be able to see them, not I.”

  “I’m half fae, though. Maybe that’s playing a part?” Taeral wondered.

  “Then illusions?” Eira replied.

  “If I’m the only one seeing them, it’s a possibility, and it doesn’t speak well of my sanity.” I chuckled, though cringing on the inside. I’d been going through the same process since I’d first begun to see them.

  “Could be visions,” Lumi said. She didn’t seem worried about me, either. Or maybe she was just good at hiding her concern, like Taeral or Eira. Raphael, on the other hand, barely took his eyes off me. Granted, I didn’t exactly mind the attention, but I preferred it when it came in the form of flirtatious teasing or those long, intense looks he’d given me back on Cerix. Those made my stomach fill with raucous butterflies.