A Shade of Vampire 84: A Memory of Time

by Forrest, Bella

  By the time Derek had returned to Roano, the sun had already set, hidden behind thick rain clouds. The air smelled of incoming rain, Esme had said. I wished I could still sense such things myself. I would’ve loved nothing more than to stand out here and feel the droplets of cold water on my face.

  “No way!” Derek exclaimed and hugged Sofia tightly. His eyes were wet. “No friggin’ way!”

  “Yes friggin’ way.” Sofia laughed. “It’s working. We finally got what we came here for.”

  “And yet here you are, in no way willing to leave,” Widow grumbled.

  “Do you think we should all just skedaddle, then?” Rose replied dryly, one eyebrow raised. Widow offered a shrug in return.

  “It was meant in a more admiring way,” he said. “The absence of my expression makes it difficult for you to pick up on the nuances in my tone.”

  “You know what, screw your nuances,” Soul replied and vanished for the briefest of moments. He reappeared behind Widow, taking him by surprise. He moved so quickly, Widow didn’t stand a chance. Soul grabbed his head cover and pulled it off to reveal Widow’s true face.

  “By the stars,” I croaked, breathless.

  Widow froze in the middle of our gathering, his galaxy eyes round and filled with horror. I could only imagine how he felt, since he’d never taken that thing off in public.

  “Oh!” Kelara blurted, equally surprised. “You’re—”

  “Gorgeous,” I filled in the blank, unable to look away.

  Soul had likely expected some laughter at least, but he was left looking foolish, still holding Widow’s gimp mask. Ridan and Trev stifled some chuckles, but everybody was in genuine awe of the Widow Maker’s true appearance.

  His hair was short. Buzzcut short and dark. His face met the golden rule of symmetry, his features almost artful in their design. With his high cheekbones and a straight nose, plus slightly fuller lips and flawless skin, the Widow Maker was an absolutely stunning man. He was pale, but with a delicate, pearlescent sheen that reminded me of Death herself. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he looked around, obviously horrified.

  “I can’t believe you did that,” Widow said, his voice low with barely contained emotion.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m glad he did,” Esme replied. “Nethi’s right. You’re as hot as mid-July. Why do you keep yourself hidden like that?”

  “Because it’s how I want to exist. Unseen. Unknown. With no connection to anyone or anything. The suit protects me,” Widow said.

  “Nonsense. The suit is just death energy compressed into fabric,” Soul shot back. “Take a chill pill, brother. I’ve always wanted to see what you looked like, anyway.”

  “Satisfied?” Widow retorted.

  Soul shrugged. “Meh. I can’t say I’m knocked off my feet.”

  “I am,” Kelara joked.

  Widow shook his head slowly as Soul glared at Kelara. Their dynamic provided at least half of the very little comic relief we had around here, and I was grateful for every second of it. Taking advantage of Soul’s temporary dismay, Widow snatched his gimp mask back and covered himself. At least now I knew what he looked like underneath that thing. I wouldn’t forget.

  “You’ve all ogled me enough,” he said. “Now back to business. Ridan, Amane, and Trev. Sounds good. Soul and Kelara will join you. Ghouls won’t be enough if you’re hunting Whips, trust me. I’ve seen what the bastards are capable of.”

  “Fine by me,” Kelara replied.

  “Meanwhile, I will take Hunter, Widow, Dream, and Nightmare for another hunting party,” Kailani said. “The more of us that go after the Whips, the faster we’ll get things done. Time is not on our side.”

  “Well…” The Time Master tried hard not to smile.

  “I didn’t mean literally.” Kailani rolled her eyes—though she was holding back at least a chuckle, judging by the redness in her round cheeks.

  “Then Derek and I will hold steady in Roano,” Sofia said. “We’ll coordinate accordingly. There are many things to consider.”

  Mira nodded. “The rest of us will remain here. The hunting parties going after the Whips should be small and efficient. I feel we’re of better use here, protecting the Visentis and Nasani children, along with the Orvisians.”

  “We can look after ourselves, you know,” Kalla interjected. “But your assistance will be much appreciated. Let us hope it won’t be needed.”

  “I’ve gathered considerable intel on the Whips,” Trev reminded us. “During my clandestine trips over the past week or so, I’ve uncovered some names of possible associates and potential locations. So at least we’ll have somewhere to start our searches from. Visio is big, and we don’t want to waste our time searching all the wrong places.”

  “Agreed,” Kailani said. “Right, then it’s settled. We leave at dawn, and we’ll spend the rest of the night preparing our weapons and supplies. Hopefully, we’ll get some shuteye, too.”

  Looking at Thayen, I could see fear swirling around in his azure eyes. He’d seen too much for his age, and he’d suffered tremendously at the hands of his own mother. But seeing Derek and Sofia by his side, I took comfort in knowing they’d do anything to keep him safe. Kailani was right: time wasn’t on our side, and Danika moved remarkably fast. It was imperative for us to get to the Whips before she did.

  At least it felt like we had a better sense of direction. We knew where this was going, and we still had the energy to push through and fight. While Valaine worked to remember herself as the Unending, the rest of us would retaliate against the Darklings in a way that could make an actual impact.

  With Petra on the loose, I would also have to mentally prepare myself for a future encounter. She was coming for Kalon. My time in her captivity had taught me a lot, but it didn’t stop the chills from running down my spiritual spine whenever her name popped up. She was a true adversary, an enemy to be reckoned with, and we would all have to be extremely careful. Once Petra set her mind to something, she was almost unstoppable. Almost.

  Nethissis

  With the groups and missions established in painstaking detail, I left the others to their own affairs and took my favorite Reaper out for a walk. Seeley and I had to do our round of the city, anyway. As we walked, nightfall approached, and the rain began an incessant downpour. Rudolph stayed back with a gradually healing Maya and the other ghouls, content with the day’s hunt. Trev was going to assign defensive positions to some of them, as well.

  Roano was big, and despite its Word and death magic protections, it still needed physical defenses. We didn’t want a repeat of Orvis, though we had a slight advantage this time around: the city had been built on higher ground.

  Most of the wall surrounding Roano had been eaten away by the passage of time, so we could see much of what lay beyond. There was a sense of calm coming from the Nightmare Forest in the east. It was nothing more than a blanket of darkness at this hour. We couldn’t see much, but the knowledge that it was there gave me a sense of comfort. The Darklings could probably survive a trip through those woods, but it wouldn’t be easy, and that made me feel better.

  To the north, only jagged rocks and an abandoned road ruled along the coast. The south worried me, since the road down there connected directly to the imperial city. Granted, there were about eight hundred miles between us and them, but it still made me feel uneasy. The west was the safest. Nothing but water, a raging ocean with foaming waves and who knew what swimming beneath the surface.

  “There’s a lot on your mind,” Seeley said as we strolled along the old wall. Neither of us could feel the rain. Our feet didn’t sink into the softening mud. The cold would never seep into our bones. We’d left the material world behind to linger between life and death. At least Seeley had a sense of purpose. I didn’t.

  “You can tell?” I replied, half-smiling.

  He took my hand in his, and I was thankful that I could feel his touch. It was different than physical contact, however. Perhaps more intense. I sensed his very sou
l every time. “You’ve got that look on your face,” he said. “This might come as a surprise, but I know you pretty well by now.”

  There was a note of pride in his voice. I couldn’t help but smile. “It doesn’t surprise me at all, considering everything we’ve been through together. These past couple of weeks have been... intense. I believe troubled times are when we get to really know the people closest to us.”

  “True friendships are forged in the fires of adversity, right?”

  “Pretty much.” I chuckled. “I guess there’s a lot on my mind. It would be hard for me to lay it all out for you.”

  “I get it. You’ve got your own situation on top of all this,” Seeley said. “And honestly, I’m still adjusting to everything we’ve learned. I have always known death magic was more than just the sounds and sub-words I was taught, but I never dared to ask. I only took what my superiors gave me.”

  “Spirit must’ve gotten really close to Death for her to trust him so much,” I said.

  “Meh. I think she felt lonely, thankful he’d stuck around. Remember, we’re talking about millions of years here, not a decade or a century. That’s a lot of time to spend in solitude, so I get where she was coming from with her gratitude toward Spirit. And his patience was extraordinary. He’d been harboring hatred toward her all that time.”

  I sighed. “It doesn’t come as a shock, then, to see how detailed his plans and contingencies have been. He thought of pretty much everything, including the eventuality of his demise.”

  “Our challenge is to figure out exactly how far he went with all this. Spirit considered a number of possible scenarios, so we just have to analyze each of these threads and adjust accordingly. Whatever we might consider a measure against him, he’ll likely have thought of and implemented a countermeasure. It’s certainly complicated.”

  We stopped near the crumbling base of the western tower. It was round and covered in dust and reddish dirt, the bricks gnawed upon by the wind and rain of two million years. The bad weather didn’t look like it would end anytime soon, and I kept thinking about it, even though I could no longer feel its effects. My whole life I’d looked to the sky and smelled the air to determine what the days would be like. Now it didn’t matter anymore, yet I was still wondering. Listening. Sniffing.

  “Do we know what’s going to happen to me?” I asked after a while, slowly leaning into him. “Death did mention keeping me around for a while longer, but… do we know why?”

  Seeley shook his head. “No. I won’t reap you anytime soon, that’s for sure. The others know to leave you be, as well. Unfortunately, Death keeps serving up limited amounts of information. I ask the questions, but she often tells me to focus on the Darklings, on awakening the Unending, on pretty much anything that doesn’t involve you. I’m frustrated but thankful you’re still here.”

  “The feeling is mutual,” I replied, giving him a warm smile. The way I felt about Seeley was pretty much the only thing that kept me going these days. There were moments when all I wanted to do was curl up in a dark corner and do nothing. Feel nothing. But whenever I saw his handsome face, with his debonair smile and his galaxy eyes, I’d come back to life, so to speak. “Has she at least told you why I’m able to perform death magic?”

  He shook his head again. “No. But the most obvious explanation is that you’ve got Reaper potential. I reached out to one of my superiors who has access to future records. Reapers are usually selected randomly upon death, but given your condition and the fact that you’re already manifesting some abilities, I’m thinking your name might have popped up somewhere. He has yet to get back to me, but I’m patient.”

  “You really think I’ll be a Reaper?”

  “What other explanation is there?” he asked, shrugging and looking perplexed. “Look at Taeral. He’s already predestined to become one. Why wouldn’t you be like him, too? I’ve turned this over in my head countless times. There’s nothing else that makes sense. But if you are a Reaper, you’ll never cross over. Not until Death releases you from duty, and that could literally take forever.”

  I felt a smile coming on as I gazed into his starry eyes. “Would you like me to become a Reaper?”

  Seeley put his arms around my waist, pulling me closer. Our spirits met, energy flowing and tingling through me as it released a flurry of delightful sensations everywhere. It was as if I’d been dropped in a tub of sparkling water, the bubbles tickling my skin as they popped. His expression softened as he leaned down to kiss me.

  His lips were cool and soft. His breath was absent, but I could swear I felt his heart beating, drumming against mine. Lights flashed between us, the air crackling at every touch. He deepened the kiss, and I surrendered, trying to understand the taste of him. Being undead changed everything, including my sensory perception. Touching felt different. The taste wasn’t really there, just the ghost of it. The idea of an aroma, of a fragrance. It haunted and thrilled me at the same time.

  I focused on what I could perceive, on what I truly felt, in a bid to anchor myself into some form of reality, and I came to the simplest conclusion. There was more than this spiritual attraction between us. There was love. I could sense it glowing inside me like an infant star. Heat rippled outward as his hand settled on the small of my back, our tongues playfully meeting.

  When he pulled back, I sucked in a phantom breath. “I would love nothing more than for you to become a Reaper, Nethissis. Because it would mean you’d stick around, and I wouldn’t be left on my own again.”

  “I would hate to leave you,” I murmured against his lips, closing my eyes for a moment.

  “This thing between us, it’s complicated,” Seeley replied. “But I know it’s real. Palpable, even. I love you, Nethissis. I’ve loved you for a long time, and being able to feel you like this, it’s… it’s incredible.”

  My eyes popped open at his words. My undead heart thundered as our eyes met, and I knew, I knew in the depths of my being that Seeley was being truthful, baring his soul for me.

  “I love you. It’s not that I really like you, or that I’ve fallen in love with you, because both terms feel… superficial and ephemeral. No, Nethissis. I love you. It’s an irreversible condition, and I may never be able to get away from it. You’re embedded in my soul, and I cannot fathom the rest of my existence without you,” he continued.

  I cupped his face and kissed him. I was soft and sweet, putting everything I felt into this fleeting moment. A peculiar glow emerged between us, and we both looked down. It came from the cores of our souls. A warm light permeated our spiritual forms, a link that could never be broken. This was true love, I thought, in its most naked variant, and it was ours.

  “I love you, Seeley.”

  “I can see that,” he managed with a smile.

  “How is it possible?”

  “I’m not sure, but there’s no other way for me to describe it. It’s what I feel from it, so why not consider it love?” he replied.

  We stepped back for a few seconds, watching the glow subside. It was still inside me. I felt it—a warm permanence that would never leave me, but its illumination faded slowly. “This is so weird,” I said. “Wonderful, but weird.”

  “I’ve heard tales about Reapers falling in love, but this phenomenon was never mentioned.”

  “Maybe the First Tenners can tell us more,” I suggested.

  He put an arm around my shoulders and beckoned me away from the wall as we continued our walk around the city. I didn’t feel the rain or the wind or the mud, but I could feel Seeley on the deepest level. “Let’s finish this round first,” he said, and I didn’t object, glad for more time with him, alone and away from everyone else.

  Yes, I felt our love blossoming, growing stronger every minute. I wasn’t sure what would become of me, since I only had a couple of possible futures. With that in mind, I decided that I was better off living in the now, cherishing every moment I had with him. For as long as the Reapers allowed me to exist as a ghost, I would be happy
.

  I would be happy because I would be with Seeley.

  Tristan

  The room had begun to shift, with Phantom’s help. It wasn’t Kyle and Anna’s place anymore. We were somewhere else. It was dimly lit by old sconces flickering on the walls, their soft light dancing across the peeling wallpaper. A broken table occupied one corner. Something heavy had fallen onto it, splintering the top board. The legs were fractured, abandoned beneath thick spiderwebs. The chairs had apparently been used as weapons at some point. Only pieces remained, scattered on the squeaky floor.

  “Where are we, exactly?” I asked.

  Valaine sat in front of me with her legs crossed. She didn’t seem to have an answer, and neither did Morning, who’d settled to my right. Phantom sat to my left, the shadow of a smile testing her lips. I waited for her to tell me, but it felt like forever before I got tired and allowed myself a bored groan.

  “Come on,” I said. “You obviously know something.”

  “It’s a memory,” Phantom replied dryly, looking at Valaine.

  “What, one of mine?” she asked, surprised.

  Phantom’s ability involved reaching deep into people’s minds and building alternate realities, dreams that felt real. Taeral and his crew had experienced the full force of her power about a year ago, during the last stage of the Thieron challenge. She’d done something similar here, even though the space provided belonged to Soul.

  “Yes,” Phantom said.

  “I don’t remember this place,” Valaine replied. “I’d know, trust me.”

  “You’ve awakened lifetimes of memories into your subconscious. Every time you delve into your Unending past, you unlock more doors. All I need to do is stick my nose in there, look around, and pluck out a memory I can work with,” Phantom explained. “This is yours, from your days as Eliana, Mira and Kemi’s daughter.”

  Valaine’s gaze moved from Phantom to Morning, and then to me. There was grief in her dark eyes, the kind that might never fade away. There was guilt, too. A smidge of sadness. All this was weighing on her, and despite wanting to do the right thing, Valaine struggled to focus. All the running around and the repeated loss of control over her darkness had taken their toll. She had the best intentions, but her mind was the prime saboteur.