Your Soul to Take (Rise of the Fallen) (14 page)

“That
hurts,” I said calmly and pulled her hand off my left arm.

She
looked down at her hands and gave a little gasp. “Connor…”

“What?”

“I’m
wearing my orb.”

Chapter 19

I
sat back down at the table. Cae stared at her hand incredulously. I reached up,
took it, and pulled her down into the chair next to mine. “Cae, your
powers are…for lack of a better word, extraordinary. I have the same problem.
When they first turned me into one of the Fallen, I wore an orb. Then my power
started leaking through. I don’t know if you’re going to be able to wear it for
much longer.”

“What
happens then?”

“We’ll
find you a nice cave in the middle of nowhere, and maybe throw a sofa and a TV
in there for you.”

She
stared at me for a moment or two before she realized I was only kidding.
“Now is
not
the time to joke.”

I
sighed, reached over, and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. “I
know. But laughing beats crying.”

“Is
it that bad?”

“No.
I don’t care what it takes. We’ll figure a way through this and find a solution
to your problem.”

“You
mean a
different
solution than I’ve already come up with,” she said
in an exasperated voice.

“Yes.
Caelyn, you’re my sister. I can’t let you sell your soul. No matter how much
easier it would make things. All I ask is for a little time.”

“For
what?”

“To
find a solution that will make you happy, and keep your soul in your
possession. Deal?”

She
thought about it a moment, which was a big step up from stubbornly saying no.
“Deal. But I also want you to promise me that if you can’t find one, we go
with plan A.”

“Maybe,”
I said with a wink. “I promise I will think about it. Can I ask you one
more question?”

“Yes?”

“Is
it that bad?”

“What?”

“Being
a vampire. Do you absolutely hate it?”

She
thought about it before speaking. “No. I mean I spend most of the time
being human, thanks to the orb.
But
I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t wish
for it. It was kind of thrust on me and
that
makes me feel dirty. Does
that make sense?”

I
nodded. “Gotcha.”

“It
does have its downsides though.”

“What?”

“Feeding.
Even with the orb, I can feel the hunger for blood always there, nagging at me.
It’s like being hungry twenty-four seven. That and feeding is… Let’s just say
it’s uncomfortable.”

“Taste
yucky?”

“No.
Too good. It’s unbelievable. The bad part is… Nevermind. Not discussing it with
my brother.” She actually blushed which only confused me more.

“What?”

“Let’s
just say it’s
very
pleasant. For both people. And while Elizabeth is a
great friend, that amount of pleasant with another girl is
uncomfortable.
”

I
gulped and nodded in understanding. I also decided I didn’t want to hear any
more about it. Ever. “So. How about the Phillies. Think they’ll go all the
way this year?”

“Did
you just change the subject to baseball?”

“Yes.
Yes, I did.”

“Good.”

We
both laughed and it eased the tension in the room about a million percent. I
stood up, ruffled her hair, and fell to the ground.

I
could hear Cae call my name and the sound of her chair as she slid it back to
stand up, but the room around me vanished into a swirl of light that faded into
darkness.

Suddenly,
I was standing between two trees at the border of the park by the library
across town. I recognized it from the time I had spent there when I was
younger. It still had the same tornado slide and ancient swing set. I watched a
young couple by the swings. She sat in the blue plastic swing, while he stood
behind her, gently pushing her while they talked. I could feel the fire in my
belly as hunger washed over me.

I
couldn’t take it anymore. In a fit, I had thrown away the orb the stupid demons
had given me to hide what I was, but I wanted to be a vampire. I didn’t want to
hide. Especially from the cattle that surrounded me. I was above them. They
were food.

The
demon’s warning kept me in check for the longest time. For months I had been a
true vampire. Sleeping during the daylight hours and feasting on blood at
night. I hunted deer in the woods around my home, but I knew what I wanted. I
wanted to drink from a human. I wanted to feel their hot blood wash down my
throat as I drank the life from them. I wanted to drain somebody dry. Just
once. Just to know the power, the feeling. I wanted to be a real vampire…

I
gasped and came-to looking at my sister, leaning over me worriedly. “I
have to go.
Now!”

I
sprang to my feet and ran out the door into the backyard. Ignoring Caelyn’s
frantic pleas from behind me, I leapt into the air, called my wings, and flew
frantically toward the library. I knew I didn’t have much time. I could feel
the hunger overwhelming the rationality in the vampire’s mind.

The
last time it happened, I instantly knew everything about the soul I was about
to reap. This one had been different. There was
only
hunger. It was as
if it had consumed him from the inside out already. There wasn’t anything left
but the driving need to feed. I pitied the poor teens in the park, trapped with
the monster they didn’t know was there.

In
desperation, I beat my wings faster.

I
landed in a cloud of dust by the swings. The couple wasn’t there. I remembered
the angle which the vampire had stared and gazed in the direction I knew he had
been just a short while ago. Nothing. Then I heard the scream from the parking lot
next to the ancient library.

Another
burst of speed and I was in the middle of a bloodbath. The girl had fallen to
the pavement and was scrambling to get away from the grisly scene before her.
The vampire had claimed his first human victim: her boyfriend.

The
vampire had sunk its fangs into his throat. Blood splashed the car door he had
been trying to open for her. The vampire let the body go and it slumped to the
ground. I almost became transfixed as I watched the poor boy’s soul leave and
start to drift upward. The vampire’s hiss brought me back to the task at hand.

As
he turned to claim his next meal, I ran and swung my fist while putting myself
between him and the screaming girl sprawled on the ground. The bones in his
face crunched as my fist connected. Pain lanced upward from my hand, but
dissipated and healed by the time I stopped and spun.

Fear
appeared in the vampire’s eyes as realization of what and who I was dawned on
him.

“Shit,”
he spat, and ran instead of fighting.

I
looked behind me at the girl. “Don’t call 911 and wait here,” I said
as I mind magicked her into complying. I took off after
my
prey.

He
ran straight through the park and headed toward the woods he had come from,
hoping to lose me in the darkness beyond. Little did he know, I could see him
perfectly, just as I could see the streak of blond heading toward him from the
east. It collided with him and they both tumbled across the mulch covered
playground.

When
Caelyn sank her fangs into him, he screamed and then stilled as whatever sensations
a vampire’s bite of Caelyn’s breed did to overload his system. I slowed and
walked up to them.

Before
I could speak, Cae pulled away, licked the blood from her lips, and tossed his
head to the ground. He wasn’t dead, but he would be soon. I looked at my sister
as I kneeled down next to the fallen monster.

“What
did he do?”

“He
killed a guy over by the library. I wasn’t fast enough to stop him.” I
felt the weight of guilt settle in my chest. “I saved his girlfriend. It
was the best I could do.”

“You
can’t save everybody, Connor. All you can do is try.”

I
nodded and put my hand on his forehead. His skin was cold and clammy. I assumed
it was from the lack of blood. I used my power to reach inside him to find that
spark that was his soul and pulled. It took only a moment and the blue light
that was usually present was very dim and faded in and out of view. Without any
words or remorse, I let it go and didn’t watch it as it flew up and faded into
the night sky.

“Thanks
for your help, Cae. You might want to go home while I deal with the rest.”

“No.
I don’t mind helping you.”

I
thought about arguing, but just nodded. She had seen the worst, the part I
hated. Now it was just cleanup.

When
we made it back to the parking lot I realized one thing, I had no idea what to
do with a human body. The vampire had crumbled to dust as soon as his soul
left, but the human was still there and bleeding. So was the girl. She stared
straight ahead, not paying attention to her surroundings as she remained under
the effects of my mind magic. I decided to deal with her first.

I
knelt in front of her and lifted her face to look straight into her eyes.
“What’s your boyfriend’s name?”

“Jimmy.”

“You
and Jimmy came to the park tonight. He told you he had someplace to go and
something to take care of and wasn’t sure if he was ever coming back again. He
was very sorry, and hated that he had to hurt you by leaving, but he didn’t
want you to get involved.”

“That
was nice of him.”

“Wasn’t
it? Jimmy was a good guy, and you will miss him, but it’s for the best.”

“Definitely.”

I
helped her to her feet. “Go on and head home and get some sleep. You’ll
feel much better in the morning.”

“Good
night,” she said and wandered off, leaving my wide-eyed sister and the
corpse of her boyfriend as my only company.

“That
was
totally
cool.”

“No,
Cae. It wasn’t. How would you feel if somebody messed with your mind like I
just did to her?”

“That’s
the catch. I wouldn’t know. And you did your best to make it right.”

I
nodded, not caring anymore. I just wanted to deal with the body and go home.
“True.”

I
stood over Jimmy. Or what was left of him anyhow. His throat was mess of
shredded flesh. If I left the body, someone might chalk it up to a bear attack,
but they might run DNA tests on the wound anyway. I couldn’t take the chance. I
just didn’t have a clue how to deal with it.

I
thought about fire, but I had no idea how long it would take to turn the body
to ash, or if it would even work. With my luck there would be a charred
skeleton left for the librarians to find in the morning. I had never seen
Darius deal with one either. Everybody had always ushered me away when they
cleaned up my messes.

A
nagging thought trickled its way into my brain. It often happened that way with
being a Fallen. Sometimes, knowledge would just make its way in there. A vision
of my sword answered my question.

Without
thinking about it, I called my blades and sank them deep into Jimmy’s flesh.
Immediately, the wounds began to smoke and sizzle as fire spread out and
consumed him. Weapons that had been created to harm the Chosen evaporated
humans in a heartbeat. Convenient.

When
there was nothing left of Jimmy, I turned to my sister, who looked like she was
going to be very ill at any moment.

“Not
what you had in mind, huh?”

“No.
But I’m glad I saw it.”

“I’m
glad you did, too. Now you know what it means to lose your soul and how fragile
it is to be human. Now you know why I don’t want you to make a deal with the
demons.”

She
nodded and dropped it. “Can we go home now?”

“Hell
yeah.”

Chapter 20

After
the longest day in recorded history and the worst night’s sleep since the dawn
of time, I felt like going back to school about as much as I wanted to get the
word “anus” tattooed on my forehead. My alarm sounded like a death
knell.

Mom
barging into my room and telling me to get my lazy butt out of bed didn’t
exactly enhance my mood either. She took one look at my face and said,
“What’s wrong.”

I’ll
admit it. I used my powers for evil. I looked her straight in the eye, let out
a little bit of magic, and coerced her into calling the school and telling them
I was ill and wouldn’t be in today.

With
a blank look on her face and a smile on her lips, she went to do just that. I
buried my head under the pillows and sighed heavily. Then my conscious got the
better of me.

No,
I didn’t go to school, I picked up my phone and texted Jess that I wasn’t
feeling good and was staying home.
Then
I went back to sleep.

I
woke up after noon, yawned, and stretched. The extra rest had done me some
good. Sure, I still felt guilty about the death of the human and the reaping of
the soul, but I no longer felt like I needed therapy to deal with it. Who said
sleep wasn’t magical?

My
growling stomach reminded me that I’d never finished my dinner from last night.
I pulled myself from the warmth of my bed and padded downstairs in my boxer
shorts. Mom was at work, Dad was at work, and Caelyn was stuck at school. I had
the house to myself. More importantly, I had the house and my Playstation to
myself. I saw a couple of sandwiches, a bag of chips, and a twelve-pack of Mountain
Dew on the menu.

I
took the stairs two at a time and landed just as a knock sounded on our ancient
wood front door. Briefly, I debated ignoring it. After all, I was a minor, home
alone. Mommy always said never to answer the door for strangers. With that
reasoning firmly lodged into my head, I turned toward the kitchen instead of
the door.

The
knocking grew louder as I rummaged through the fridge looking for lunchmeat. By
the time I got the pound of roast beef out and the bread out of the breadbox, I
couldn’t take it anymore. I set everything down on the counter and walked
quickly to the front door with every intention of giving whoever was knocking a
solid piece of my mind.

Forgetting
what I was wearing, I reached out, grabbed the handle, and pulled the door
fully open. Clarisse stood there looking rather annoyed. “What the hell,
you can’t open a door?”

“Sorry.
I figured you were a Jehova Witness or something. What are you doing
here?”

“Came
to check on you. Your sister was rather worried.”

“Oh.
I’m fine. Rough day and night. Come on in.” I backed up, let her in, and
closed the door behind her. “I’m making a sandwich. Want one?”

“Sure,”
she said and followed me into the kitchen. I picked up the bread and threw
together some lunch for us.

“How
come you’re not in school?” I set the plate of two sandwiches, a pile of
Doritos, and the can of Mountain Dew in front of her. She immediately dove in.

“Didn’t
feel like being there. And I told your sister I’d check on you.”

“Weird.
She could have just texted me.”

“She
said she did. You didn’t answer.”

I
reached down for my phone and realized I was standing there in my boxers.
“Um. I’m going to go get my phone. And put some clothes on. I’ll be right
back.”

“Your
food will get cold. Eat first.”

“It
is
cold.”

“It
will get warm then. Sit. Eat.” She pushed the chair out with her foot. I
felt rather uncomfortable, but sat down next to her anyway. “So, other
than the explosion at lunch, what else happened?”

“Had
to reap a soul last night. Nasty vampire. He killed a human before I got
there.”

Clarisse
set her sandwich down, reached out her hand, and put it on my arm. The warmth
of her skin sent a prickle of goosebumps up my arm. “You can’t always save
everybody. The quicker you learn that, the quicker you’ll fall into your
roll.”

“I
know. I tried. I saved his girlfriend at least.”

“You
dealt with the body and cleanup?”

“Yeah.
Nobody told me how to deal with a human body, but I figured it out on my own.
Thanks.”

“Sorry.
Not a Reaper. I forget what you do and don’t know.”

I
nodded at her apology. I still wasn’t in the greatest of moods and didn’t want
to take it out on her. Especially when she could still kick my ass. “No
worries. You working tonight?”

“No.
I actually have the day off.”

“Cool.
You’re welcome to stay here, but I might not be the best company.”

“I’ll
stay,” she said with a funny lilt in her voice.

I
started picking at my food, lost in thought. Clarisse and I fell into a
comfortable silence. She finished eating before I did and took her plate into
the kitchen. I was staring out the window and nibbling on my food when she
walked up behind me. She put her hands on my shoulders and just stood there
while I replayed everything from last night over and over in my head. She knew
I was brooding and just comforted me.

“You
okay,” she asked when I finally set my food down, uninterested. It sucked.
I had woken up refreshed and at peace with what happened, but now it was all I
could think about.

“Yeah.
I’ll be fine.”

“I
didn’t ask if you would be, I asked if you were. That tells me you’re not. Want
to talk about it?”

“Not
really.”

“Want
to forget about it?”

“Definitely.”

“Call
of Duty?”

“You
bet your ass. I’m player one though!”

I
stood, tossed my food in the garbage and my plate in the sink, and took off
upstairs leaving Clarisse standing in the kitchen. As soon as I was back in my
room, I kicked the door shut and grabbed some shorts, boxers, and a T-shirt out
of my dresser. I figured she would knock before she came in, so I pulled off
the old boxers and scrambled to get the new ones on. I had them over one foot
when the door opened.

I
froze.

“I
brought more Dew…

“I
uh…”

“Am
naked…”

“Changing.”

“Your
door has a lock!”

“No.
It doesn’t.”

“Oh.”

We
were frozen. She wasn’t turning away. I wasn’t getting dressed. I don’t think
either of us knew what to do. I did notice that her eyes were glued to me, but
not on my face. Finally she gasped and turned around. I quickly pulled up my
boxers. “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry,” was all I could manage to say.

“My
fault. I didn’t know your door didn’t lock. I should have knocked.”

“I
should have changed in the bathroom. Didn’t think about it. Sorry you saw me
naked.”

She
laughed. “Yeah. It was horrible. Are you dressed?”

“Yes.
Boxers at least. Let me get my shorts on.”

She
turned around anyway and sat on my bed. I wasn’t totally sure, but it looked
like her cheeks were a little redder than usual. “It’s your house. You
don’t have to put shorts on if you don’t want to. We’re just playing video
games.”

“I
um… Yeah. I think I better.”

“Up
to you,” she said disinterestedly.

I
pulled my running shorts up over my boxers and felt a million times safer. For
some reason. I don’t know why.

I
turned the console on, grabbed the two remotes from the charger, and flopped
down next to her on the bed. She yanked one from my hand and propped some
pillows up at the other end. I liked to lie down when I played, but I guess she
didn’t. She kicked off her shoes and brought her legs up on the bed, stretching
them out next to my head as we waited for it to finish turning on. The logo
flashed on the screen and then the COD logo finally appeared with the start
screen.

“Set
it up. I’ll be right back,” she said and slid off the bed.

“Where
you going?”

“Getting
rid of my jeans. I’ll be right back.”

“Um.
Clarisse?”

“Yeah?”

“Nevermind.”

She
opened the door and walked into the hallway. Thank the Creator. For a moment I
thought she was going to just pull off her jeans in the middle of my room. We
were friends, close friends, but not
that
close.

The
bathroom door opened and she came back into the room, lightly closing the door
behind her. I was afraid to look, so I chose the players and the map. I hit
start as I felt her sit down next to me on the bed and pick up her controller.

Bare
legs and feet stretched out next to me. I looked out of the corner of my eyes
at her toes. I think it might have been the first time I had ever seen her
without shoes. I was half-expecting talons, but she had dainty feet and cute
toes with a pink, perfectly manicured little nail on each one. I gulped as my
eyes travelled over the smooth skin of her legs. I stopped at her knees and
turned toward the TV, not wanting to look any higher.

Okay.
I did want to, but I didn’t.

The
game started and she sniped me in the first twenty seconds. It was a clean
headshot, too. I groaned while I waited to re-spawn.

“Ha!”
She nudged me with her leg, bringing the warm skin against my shoulder. I had
put shorts on. Maybe I should have put a shirt on, too. Long sleeves. Maybe a
hoodie.

I
re-spawned back in the middle of the ship where I had started. I tried sneaking
to where she had sniped me from a different direction, but she was waiting for
me there. I rounded the corner into a well-placed knife attack to the face. I
lowered my head in humiliation.

“Oh,
come on. It’s not that bad.” She patted me on the back. With her foot.

“Says
the girl with a two kill streak one minute into the game.”

“You
just need to accept my superiority. Tell you what. I’ll only use my knife for
the rest of the game.”

“You
just stabbed me in the face.”

“True.
But at least I won’t be able to snipe you with it.”

Ten
minutes later, Clarisse was dying of laughter and I had only killed her once.
“I hate you.”

“Awww.
But I wuv you. And I wuv killing you! Want another Dew?”

“Sure.”

She
got off the bed and I turned to watch her leave. Her jeans were gone. She had
put on shorts from somewhere. If you could call them that. They were dark grey
yoga shorts with the word “smoking” stenciled across the back of them
in big pink letters. They ended about a half an inch above her butt, leaving
the bottom of her cheeks hanging out for the world to see. And by world I mean
me. I gulped and turned back to the game. I had brought up the start screen to
choose a different map. It was the farthest thing from my mind.

I
valued Clarisse’s friendship more than anything next to my relationship with
Jess. For the five-thousandth time I wished that Clarisse was a little less
attractive than she was.

I
loaded the map and waited for her to come back before starting the round. She
did and I made the mistake of looking up. The shorts looked even better from
the front. I shook my head and focused on the screen.

Instead
of taking her original position, she set her can of soda on the floor and
handed me mine, split and then plopped down and lay the same direction as me,
putting her face to face and shoulder to shoulder with me. “Hit
start.”

I
did.

The
second round didn’t go any better than the first. I managed to kill her twice,
but she utterly wrecked me. At the end, she leaned over and… Well I hope she
had meant to kiss me on the cheek, but I happened to turn at that exact moment
in time. Her lips landed on mine.

It
started out innocently. I should have pulled away. She should have pulled away,
but we didn’t. I felt her lean into the kiss and I turned on my side. Clarisse
scooted closer and brought her arm over me, slipping her hand over my shoulder
and down my back. I rolled even farther, drawing her across my shoulder and
onto my chest.

Her
lips parted and I felt her tongue brush across my lips. I opened my mouth and
the kiss truly started. She climbed on top of me, never pulling her mouth from
mine. My hands lifted and slid down her back and over her butt. I grabbed two
handfuls and she moaned into the kiss.

“Connor.
Jess is downstairs, I told her I would see if you were up. I see that you are.
Claire, could I talk to you for a moment?”

No
kiss in the history of mankind had ever ended so abruptly. My sister’s voice
from my door dripped with anger and disdain. My life was–for lack of a better
word–over.

Clarisse
slid off me, looking more embarrassed than I had ever seen her. She was quiet,
too. Another uncharacteristic trait.