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A ripple.
A tear.
A wound.
For a moment the world was not in focus. Schuyler could see into the vastness of space and infinity. Alternate universes. Alternate endings. Alternate outcomes.
She felt a trembling deep inside herself as well as out, as if every atom in the known universe were shaking, as if time itself were being unhinged, as if the very earth, the very world they lived in, were in danger of being destroyed.
But then, just as suddenly, everything snapped back into place. Time fixed itself. The universe stopped trembling. The world was the same as it ever was.
Schuyler was sprawled on the sidewalk. She couldn't feel anything: her legs, her arms, everything was numb. Jack lay on the ground beside her. With the last of her remaining strength, she reached for him, brushing her fingertips against his cold ones, and then she felt his hand grasp hers in his strong, firm grip. He was alive. Her heart rejoiced. He was alive. They had survived.
But there was no sign of Charles Force anywhere.
CHAPTER 31
Bliss
"Is it really you? How is this possible?" Bliss asked, marveling at how well he looked. The Dylan she remembered had been skin and bones, but this Dylan looked healthy. His cheeks were pink, and his dimples were back.
"It's really me," Dylan assured. "You know, the Corruption, the thing that turns vampires into demons, works by drawing out the soul through the blood, and so the times that, uh... you know..."
Bliss nodded. The times that the Visitor had been in control, and had sucked Dylan's blood, she had taken enough of his spirit into her own, so that a shell image, or a faded version, a piece of his consciousness, lived inside of hers.
"So... you're alive?" Bliss asked.
"In a way," he said. "In that I can think, and I can still feel."
"But you're not real, are you?" she asked.
He shook his head sadly. "No. I'm not. Not in the way that you are. I mean, no one else can see me but you."
"Is that bad? Does it feel weird?" she asked.
For a while, Dylan merely smiled, and it was his same crooked sad little smile. "I don't know how to explain it, but part of me is here, with you, and another part is... somewhere else. I don't know, but I know I am not complete. I'm like... like a... template... you know, like a virtual personality trapped in a computer," he explained.
He confirmed what she already knew: that there were dozens, possibly hundreds of other souls living within her.
"The Croatan are insane because none of the spirits have the body for enough time to make it work. They become imbalanced and unpredictable, schizo, as the humans call it. Usually because the original host spirit loses control to a strong and forceful personality."
She shuddered. "Like I have."
"The Visitor. Yes. But you are aware of the transgression, which means you've been able to resist it. And there's something else that's different about you. Do you know what it is?"
"Not really."
"Your human familiar, Morgan. Remember him?"
Bliss remembered the cute young photo assistant from the Montserrat shoot.
"The Red Blood is poison to Croatan, and yet it did not harm you. Which means, part of you is still uncorrupted. And also, you have me," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"I keep them from you. I guard the wall," he said. "that's the best way I can put it. Imagine there's a curtain that stands between your consciousness and the others. I'm that curtain."
"So basically all that stands between me and the crazies is... you?" she asked.
