Chapter 7

CHAPTER

SEVEN

I let the void keep the jacket.

The fabric peeled away from my body as I slipped my arms free, abandoning the last piece I had of grave roses and rain. I couldn't think about that.

My body stormed over the pavement; limbs numb with white hot anger as I charged for the beast. All thought had left me, all reason and caution had been swallowed up when I lost sight of Sias.

All I knew in that moment was that I was going to kill that thing. I was going to strap myself to it and we were going to ride to the void together. I'd bring its ass directly to the Goddess and hand deliver its smoldering corpse to her feet.

Worth and Beaumont were doing all they could to drive the beast backwards, to slow its consumption of their friends, or at least wound the fucker in some way. Haslet and Paris were just a foot away from its mouth, grasping at anything they could to keep their limbs from touching the vampire's teeth. The corrupted heart strings were wearing down their resolve, bleeding through to charm them enough to give in to their fate.

Austin's sword was still sticking out of it like a meat thermometer, squishing around in its ghastly flesh. Since my sword had been slapped out of my grip a while back, I helped myself to his. I figured since he was very unconscious and I was probably about to die, he wouldn't mind.

The vampire wheeled on me when I ripped it free, its mouth cracking bone to open wide. The stench of death and blood hit me like an open oven, teeth lined with the torn fabric and skin of the victims it had swallowed.

Its thumping heart mocked me from its throat, a scaly tongue lined with razers thrashed out to meet me.

And I saw a flash of gold.

My heart stopped when I saw that stupid gun.

Sias had tied a barbed thread around the vampire's pounding heart, anchoring himself against the muscles trying to swallow him. Wild hues of burning amber and ivory flashed in his eyes as he pressed his golden pistol to the vampire's heart and fired twice.

The vampire jerked violently, a wet scream erupting from within. Black ichor flooded its maw, the tongue curling back in on itself to try and fish Sias out.

That was my cue.

I dove into the vampire's mouth and shoved my blade through the tongue, pinning it down against the bottom of the vertical jaw. Pain grazed my calf as teeth caught me, but I pushed my weight down into the blade to make sure it successfully kabobbed the damn thing.

The body thrashed, almost knocking me sideways into more teeth.

"Sias!" I reached for him, using the hilt of the sword to keep me stable. "I don't want to be in here in case this fucker has a sensitive gag reflex!"

"Has anyone ever told you," Sias huffed as he flung himself forward, grasping my outstretched hand. "That you crack jokes at very inappropriate times?"

"It's cute, right?" I pulled Sias free from the vampire's gullet, catching him before another thrash could throw him into its teeth. "Jump clear. I've got an idea."

His eyes widened, the arm hooked around my shoulders was covered in the mess oozing from the wounded heart. My fingers were starting to slip from the sword hilt, too wet with gore.

"This sounds like the type of very stupid ideas I warned you against, Dallas."

"Be mad at me afterward." I shoved him toward the front of the mouth as the creature's tongue bucked against my blade. The threads spreading out from inside its core began to melt away, releasing Paris and Haslet just as their feet crossed the threshold. Haslet's leg was cut bad, and he was screaming as the thread finally dropped its hold. Sias staggered out of the mouth and hefted Paris up onto her feet, Worth and Beaumont rushing to Haslet's side.

The two holes in the vampire's heart were starting to heal from the blood Haslet left behind on its teeth, the flesh stitching back together over the wounds.

This thing was never going to die unless we hit it with everything we had.

I hissed as my leg met a wall of fangs, ripping my jeans and biting into my flesh. My hand shook from the effort of holding the sword still, and I used my teeth to pull the pin from the life magic grenade.

Turns out the vampire didn't have a gag reflex, because the bomb flew down its throat without so much as a flinch.

I absently wondered if that was true of all vampires as I leaped from the mouth of madness and ran for my life.

"Grenade!" I announced as I fled, trying to put as much distance between me and the exploding monster as possible. The soldiers hit the deck, covering their heads like we'd been trained to do. Sias grabbed me by the ruined shirt and pulled me down behind a car with him as the eruption ballooned behind us.

The noise was a hollow thump that vibrated through the ground, followed by a snowstorm of ashes as the damned void vampire melted away into sizzling dust.

I allowed myself a moment of relief, my head falling back against the car Sias and I were hiding behind.

The thing was dead and we weren't. We were banged up, bloody, and covered in vampire spit, but we weren't dead.

Truly the best-case scenario, even though I could have gone without feeling as sticky as I did.

Our moment of bliss was short lived, as screams sounded from the terrified bystanders watching the nightmare continuing to unfold.

Sias and I stood up from our hiding place to see the state of the tear had intensified into an infected wound of death magic. The veins had grown thicker and had started to creep up the side of the apartment building. People were fleeing in a panic from the fire exits, nearly trampling each other to escape.

Austin was back on his feet, dazed and bleeding from a cut on his brow, and was scowling at me.

"You used the damn grenade?" he demanded.

"Yeah, I used the damn grenade!" I shook vampire ashes off my arms. "It was the only way to kill it."

"That was how we were going to close the tear!" Austin's anger was losing against his panic. "What the fuck do we do now?"

I didn't have an answer. Cold dread sank marrow deep as I watched the tear churn and consume, an endless disease spreading over reality.

"You need to close it," Sias announced beside me, the idea so ridiculous I laughed.

"I can't close that! Are you insane?"

"You're the only one here with necromancy powers." Sias eyed the tear with open concern before aiming his attention back to me. "You have to try, love. It's all we have."

"Sias, I can't even bring a mouse back to life. I can't control something like that." I presented the tear to him with both hands, like maybe he didn't see how bad it was. "I couldn't do something like that when I still had the scythe!"

"Dallas." Austin held his side, wincing in pain from what was likely a cracked rib. "If you can at least stabilize it, maybe we can get some life magic inside and get it to seal. It sucks, but at least it's a plan."

"Fuuuuck," I groaned. "Why didn't you pack two grenades?!"

"Now that I know you'll steal one, I'll pack extra," Austin snapped. "You seeing this through or not?"

"Fuck you, Austin. I'm going to haunt your ass when this fails." I tried to swagger away, but it was hard to do with a limp. My leg ached from where the vampire's teeth had grazed me and my joints felt like I had been thrown into a damn wall or something.

OH WAIT.

I had.

"Fuck this day," I mumbled, limping with an equally banged up, bloody and gore covered Sias. "We should have just kept bowling."

Sias put my arm around his shoulders so I could lean on him. "You were going to lose anyway."

"I'd take losing at bowling over this, believe it or not."

It was nice to hear him chuckle, even if the circumstances were dire.

"I'll give you this," Sias lamented. "You do know how to make my evenings interesting."

We approached the tear like two cowboys riding into the sunset, knowing it was the final ride but still doing our best to look cool. I was limping, Sias was gross, and we had nothing else to lose. Either by some wild miracle this was going to work, or we'd get swallowed up into the endless nothingness waiting for us on the other side.

Pretty shitty night.

"You should stand back," I told him as we drew close to the tear. "For when this inevitably fails, you can get a head start on running."

"I don't believe I ever gave you permission to give me orders." He eased my arm off his shoulders so I could stand on my own two feet while facing our demise. "You can do this, Dallas. Remember what Funus has taught you, and don't back down."

"Funus told me I'm too emotional and unpredictable for my magic channeling skills to stick," I confessed. "I keep pushing too far and botching the lesson. Last time I nearly opened the door too wide and almost turned into an ash monster, Funus had to save me."

"If you can open a door, maybe you can shut one as well," Sias countered.

I inhaled deeply as I stared down the tear.

This was beyond an "open door." This was a storm blowing away the whole damn house.

My confidence wasn't exactly through the roof as I took in a few deep, calming breaths, and fell back into the practiced mantra Funus had taught me.

My fingertips shook as I lifted my hands to hover over the icy tear humming with power. There was no mistaking the tug of death this time, no fleeting, silky spiderwebs teasing their presence. It thrummed through my body at full volume, ignoring any calm mantra I tried to put in place. The wily kraken I had once been able to wrestle was beyond my control, beyond my capability to sense it properly.

It wasn't tendrils and threads; it was a sonic boom of energy that almost knocked me on my ass.

"There's no fucking way," I managed through a gasp. My chest was filled with the chaotic drumbeat of panic, my temples pounding along with the symphony. The death magic was so strong, so overpowering, and I felt like my breath was being stolen each moment I tried to draw it in.

Through the fog of despair, a sharp, golden light pierced through and cloaked my reality in amber and tobacco.

A calmness settled over me, a wash of warmth that trailed up my neck like fingers and laced themselves into my hair. I felt them curl, squeeze just enough to let their presence be known.

"Relax," Sias purred into my ear. "Breathe, pet. Settle yourself."

The fear I had felt dropped away, the panic fading into a muted scream at the back of my subconscious. My heart began to thunder for touch, for release. For a moment I tried to turn into his lips, to feel them against mine, to feel anything beyond the cold assaulting me from the tear.

Sias squeezed my hairline, stilling me. I obeyed.

"You know this game, darling. You do as I ask, and I'll be happy. Are you going to be good for me?"

A chill ran up my spine at the unspoken promise, and I licked the dryness away from my lips.

"This doesn't seem like the right time for—" I tried but had to bite back a moan as he tsked.

"You answer, ‘Yes, Sias.' You know the rules."

"Yes, Sias," I echoed, my heart hammering so hard it shook my voice.

The warmth of his breath trailed down my ear and kissed my neck, sending shockwaves of terrifying pleasure through me.

"Good, pet. Now. Lift your hands back up and focus on the magic in front of you. Do you feel it?"

There was no way in hell I was going to disobey him at this point. Every word he whispered was like a bolt of heat through my body, and I was starving for the attention.

I lifted my hands and felt the unforgiving, harsh death magic before me. It blasted through my hands like an artic storm, and I flinched from the sensation.

"The tear," I remembered. "It's too strong…I can't?—"

"Yes, you can," Sias stepped over my words before I could finish. "You can handle this, pet. I've seen you take much more than this."

"I don't think death magic equates to the amount of di—" I tried to quip but was stilled with another bone melting squeeze by his fingers. A wave of agonizing pleasure ripped through me as his magic tightened, and I felt my knees wobble.

"Yes, Sias," he reminded me through his teeth.

I had to catch my breath before I could respond.

"Yes, Sias."

"Then do as I ask," he commanded. "Reach out to the void and take control. Don't you dare disappoint me."

How could I argue with that?

The magic swirling around me thrashed, wild and unpredictable as I began to navigate through it. Funus had told me each night that all magic had a set of rules governing it, even something as endless and infinite as the void. If I played by those tenants, if I reached out in a way that it understood, I could control the ebb and flow of death.

I could understand what it was to be a necromancer.

I let my eyes fall shut, the charm magic around me a shield against the terror trying to flood my mind. My fingers waded through the waves of chaotic, corrupted magic, pinpricks of frostbite numbing them. Angry spirals from the void curled around my wrists, creeping up my arms as I searched for something I understood from my lessons with Funus.

The moment a spike of panic would begin to bloom, a squeeze at the back of my neck would stamp it back down.

"Breathe through it, pet," Sias whispered, lips trailing the cusp of my ear. "That's it."

Sias was going to make me develop a kink around controlling death magic, and I wasn't mad about it.

Whipping, thrashing threads spun around me, biting into my skin and freezing my fingers, wrapping my arms in a vise grip of unrelenting force until I finally hit bedrock.

The void.

The true void, buried deep within the wilds of the corrupted magic surrounding the tear.

I never thought I'd be so happy to feel death at my fingertips again, to feel those stupid, fleeting threads just barely graze my fingertips.

"There," I breathed. "The void. I can feel it through the tear."

"Good boy," Sias praised me, fluttering my heart with the need for more. "I need you to keep it open for me. Can you do that, pet?"

I hissed as he squeezed and I quickly corrected. "Yes, Sias."

I focused on the soft threads teasing my touch and curled my fingers, concentrating on the fragile hold I had. Tiny cuts of fear, false charm and snapping persuasion magic began to bite at my calm, but I closed it out of my mind.

A pressure began to form around my temples as I continued to concentrate, my fingers wrapping gently around the fleeting kisses of the void.

"Breathe," Sias reminded me. "A bit more."

Pain spread from where the pressure had begun, my breath catching from the sudden sting. I choked out a stuttered exhale as Sias spread his fingers out over the back of my skull and ran his nails over my scalp, soothing me.

The threads in my palm solidified, and I nearly sobbed when I felt the familiar, icy tendrils of death magic trail up my arm.

I had it. I had the void with me.

My head started to pound, the ache from maintaining control against the onslaught of outside forces crept down my jaw and threaded through my ribcage.

"Good, Dallas. Yes. Like that."

"Hurry," I pleaded. "I think my heart is going to stop."

"Almost there, pet. Almost," he promised.

The pressure was intense. Blinding. Just a little bit more. I could do it. I wanted to do it.

"Sias," I thought I whispered, but my lips didn't move. The cold bite of magic grew suspiciously numb.

My legs folded under me as I stopped breathing.

Death and I got to know each other again.

Ripples of the void were beautiful, shadows playing against themselves in an endless dance to eternity.

Somewhere deep in that forever, I had someone trying to find me.

It was hard to keep my thoughts straight, hard to keep them anchored to my conscious. That tends to happen when one travels into the abyss because typically when you're floating around in the void, you're…well…. very dead. Your physical you, the flesh and blood you, detaches from the more complicated, abstract you. That nebulous bit that lives between your favorite movie quotes and your first kiss starts leaking out into the void, taking all your daydreams with it.

It was nearly impossible to keep track of myself. I couldn't tell what I was thinking, what was possibly happening around me, and what was spilling out from my undefinable memories.

Grief. Pain. Fear. Panic.

Flashes of my life half-remembered floated in misshaped blobs in my hazy mind: holding my knees in the darkness of a vampire den, having a push up contest with Austin when we were preteens. I could smell the blood-soaked concrete, feel the grass of the training yard under my palms, the blurry edges of the two memories almost melting together.

There were others that didn't fit, that I couldn't place as my own in my dissociative state of dying.

A woman with hazel eyes was watching me with so much hurt I felt myself crumble inside. She had given so much of herself to me, to us, and I couldn't find it in myself to budge.

We were supposed to love each other. It was supposed to be so simple.

I felt terror as a new memory swam over me. I walked through sand, my legs disobeying me. The void was out there in the ocean waves, I knew it. I was going to meet it, but I was so afraid of it—that wasn't me. I wasn't afraid of the void. The salty taste of sea water choked me, and I fought, I had fought so hard…

This wasn't my memory. Something was wrong.

Everything started to fall away. The memories drifted from me like I was sinking into a deeper sleep, somewhere the false memories couldn't follow. The golden threads around me were breaking.

You said you could always find me.

Don't take him.

Find me now.

I'll go into the void myself to pull him back.

Find me now.

Dallas. Can you hear me, pet?

Find me now.

Please. Dallas. Don't leave me.

Find me now.

Find me now.

Find me?—

Hunter.

I never thought I'd see those red eyes again.

In the darkness, in the forever, I saw the smoky figure of my vampire. He was a wisp, a trick of shadow and memory, moving like a fleeting flash out of the corner of my eye. He wasn't material, not in any true sense, but there was no mistaking those glowing red eyes.

I'd know those eyes anywhere. I saw them each night when I fell asleep. They lived in the best parts of me, sharing space with my deepest regrets.

Zane.

If I had the ability to reach for him, I would have. Standing in the void, losing all sense of myself, I was happy to let go of the threads keeping me from falling forward. I had finally found him. It had worked.

Twig would be so happy to see him. Maybe she'd stop being such a damn bed hog now that he would be back. I knew Barnaby would be thrilled to see him, because he had a mountain of crossword puzzles he'd been saving from their morning routine. He'd have a real chance to know Sias. I wouldn't stand in the way anymore.

We could pick up where we left off. We could figure this out together.

I was so tired.

I could finally rest.

Everything was going to be okay.

Red eyes filled my world, a shadow of my vampire floating before me.

You're the damn master at hide and seek, I tried to tell him, but my mouth wasn't working anymore. I hoped he could hear my thoughts. I thought I'd never find you.

The shadow shifted, his eyes settled over me. I couldn't understand why he looked so sad.

Don't be too hard on yourself , I thought at him. Two months is a long time to hide. Pretty sure that's a record.

Zane's ghost placed the outline of a hand to my chest.

I was dizzy with the sensation of crisscrossing patterns around my wrists, tangling up my arms before strapping over my chest. They tightened in bands of warmth, the void around us started to fade.

Zane started to fade.

No.

No!

Red eyes met mine, and I swear to God he somehow managed to smile. I couldn't see it. I felt it.

You have to stay alive to bring me back, hunter. Don't fuck it up.

Then, just when we were having a moment, a true reunion after months apart, after he had died in my goddamn arms?—

He shoved me back.