AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He didn’t speak, didn’t smile, just stared as if he wasn’t sure what to think of me.
Welcome to the club.
Something about living my life with a constant awareness of death had made the idea of dying less scary. Sure, I didn’twantto die. Who did, really? Even if the afterlife didn’t frighten me the way it did people with less information, I also wasn’t looking to make the leap any time soon. I doubted they had coffee worth a damn, there. However, demystifying it had also loosened my tongue through the years, and that loose tongue was probably what would send me to the afterlife.
When I did go, I planned to find a medium and bug the shit out ofher.Maybe it was petty, but I figured I’d earned it. It was like hazing. I might hate it when I had to experience it, but I was sure as hell going to pass that trauma onto the next person.
“What does this mean?” Kase folded his hands behind his back again, a stance that seemed pompous.
Then again, hewaspompous. It showed in the way he walked, the way he spoke. I’d thought at first that he was a glorified errand boy for Colter, but now that I could really look at him, I realized it wasn’t the case. He was far too old and powerful for anything so simple.
It took a moment to recall his question. My brain wasn’t ready to return to real life. “I have no idea,” I admitted.
“Not the best answer.”
“Probably smarter for me to lie and tell you what you want to hear, but honestly? I’ve got no clue.Thathas never happened before.”
“Explain what you do know.”
I took a deep breath and turned so my feet could rest on the floor. It made me feel slightly more in control. “I follow the trail the spirit leaves, the one that tethers it to the body. It thins the longer a soul is still here, but if they haven’t left this realm, it’s there. If they have, I don’t have a trail at all. Therewasa trail.” I spoke those words carefully, as if to really drive that point home.
Therehadbeen a trail. I’d grasped it, been able to follow it. The time I had tried such a trick with a soul that had already moved on was like touching sand, with nothing to hold onto.
Kase didn’t interrupt me, only stared as I continued to try to explain.
“At the end, where the spirit should have been, there was nothing. Just a huge empty void.”
“Could the soul have moved on right at that moment?”
I considered it, the god-awful timing it would take for such a thing to happen. Still, I shook my head. “I don’t think so. The tether would have disappeared. It was there. It was just broken, like something had snatched the soul away.” I risked staring directly at Kase. “What the hell was Olin? What aren’t you telling me?”
Despite it not showing on his face, I couldfeelhis surprise at the question. So, he wasn’t used to people asking him things? People probably took one look at him—once they knew what he was—and did whatever he said. Vampires tended to have that sort of influence on people. It wasn’t magical—it was fear.
Anyone who didn’t fear vampires was an idiot. There were so many things that prowled this world, but I doubted any had a worse reputation for being cruel and dangerous.
I knew better, though. Kase was scary, sure, but he made sense. I understood him.
There were things I glimpsed in the afterlife from time to time, the parts of it that were normally safely sealed away, the twisting shadows and flame-covered monsters, and I knew Kase wasn’t so bad.
“I told you once before, but I will offer the same advice again, since you seem to not learn quickly. Stop asking questions. They will be the end of you.”
“They haven’t been yet.”
“You haven’t dealt with me before, either.”
And that made me realize Kase might just be worse than that void…
