Afterlife

Chapter Nine

“BIANCA?” PATRICE LOOKED AS ASTONISHED AS I felt. Her face seemed to fill the whole sky, or ceiling, or whatever else I saw above me in this black, formless place. “You’re — You’ve become a wraith?”

“Patrice, I don’t have time to discuss this right now!”

“We have lots of time, seeing how we’re both dead,” Patrice snapped, her expression clouding over. The old animosity between vampires and wraiths seemed to be at work. “Eternity, in fact. Start with how you died.”

“Black Cross is here in Riverton, and if you don’t let me out this second, they’re going to kill Lucas and any other vampire they find, probably including you!”

The strange tar — pit drag on my movements released me so quickly that I felt like I went flying. Light seemed to explode all around — but it was only the streetlamps of downtown Riverton, in contrast to the darkness that had enclosed me. As I made sense of the world again, I realized that I was just in front of Patrice, who in turn stood in an alleyway just off the main strip. She held in her hand a small makeup mirror, which was crusted with frost. I must have been visible, but only just — as I reached out one hand, I saw only the faintest gray outline of fingers and palm. Nobody would see me if they didn’t know to look.

Patrice knew. She blinked once, then shook off her astonishment. “Where are they?” she said. “Tell me quickly.”

“The theater. The diner. I don’t know where else. Lucas is headed toward the coffee shop; we have to get to him before they do.”

She took off across the street, running as hard as if it were her existence on the line instead of Lucas’s. I followed her, but slowly. Being trapped had taken something out of me — l needed time to get my strength back, time Lucas didn’t have.

Patrice got to the coffee shop while I was still two dozen feet away. She didn’t so much open the door as burst through it, violently enough that most of the customers looked up to see what the commotion was. One of those was Lucas, who had been sitting in one of the green velvet armchairs with his head in his hands. As he stared at Patrice, she held out her hand to him, clearly urging him to leave.

That was the moment my view was blocked by the hunters.

Kate. Eliza. Milos. Ten or fifteen more that I didn’t know, but each of them with the brawn of Black Cross troops. Somebody had given the word that Lucas was in town, and told them his location. Patrice and I had been too late.

Oh, no, I thought. Please, no.

“Weapons,” Kate said. The word fell as heavy and unyielding as iron. She’d come here to kill her son, and the weight of it deadened her eyes. As the hunters shouldered their crossbows, Lucas rose and walked toward Patrice, ready to go — and saw his mother. He saw the attack about to happen, and there was nothing he could do about it.

That meant it was up to me.

I stretched myself thin, into one long horizontal line, and imagined myself like the sharp edge of a sword — then plunged forward.

“Fire!” Kate cried, just as I swept through the hunters. It must have hit them like a slimmer, swifter stroke of ice, because they all shouted and most of them fired blindly, their arrow — stakes slamming into the pavement or nearby walls. But at least one got through, because the coffee — shop window shattered in a spray of glass. People inside started screaming, and I could see passersby on the street begin to freak out.

Lucas! I couldn’t see him. Though I desperately wanted to find out whether he was okay, I knew I had to end this before anybody else got hurt.

My strength remained shaky, but I had to do whatever I could.

Already the hunters were regathering. Although a few of them had doubled over in pain from my blow, they were straightening up, readying themselves for another assault. My first thought was to possess Kate again and order them to stop. Could I do that? If desperation was the key, as I’d suspected before, then yes, I could do it. But as I rushed toward her, I felt something pushing me back, until I came to a halt.

What the —? Then I saw, shining on her fingers, half a dozen copper rings. Copper, like any other mineral found in the human body, repelled wraiths. Black Cross only knew a little about wraiths, so far as I’d been able to find out, but apparently Kate had discovered enough to pmtect herself from possession. I could strike at her, but I could never again take over her body.

I’d just have to take them out one by one, then.

I plunged toward the hunter closest to me. To punch him with that fist of ice, I would have to take form, and I knew that was probably a bad idea; not only would it give me away to tons more Evernight students, but it also would give Black Cross somewhere to aim. They’d probably looked up ways to harm or demolish wraiths since our last encounter.

Instead, I whirled around him, a breeze becoming a gale, willing myself to be colder and colder. As my speed increased, I could see icicles beginning to form at the ends of his hair and beard. His skin went bluish, and he cried out in pain.

Enough. I let him go, hearing him fall in an apparent stupor, and rushed toward another hunter. Dimly I could sense the rest of the fight around me: Patrice had taken on Kate, matching her blow for blow with a ferocity I’d never realized she possessed. Lucas was in the thick of things, too; he roared with rage as he tackled Milos to the ground. My emotions were torn between being glad Lucas was okay, and terrified that this would be it the time he would take a human life, the sin for which he could never forgive himself.

But right now, the best thing I could do to help Lucas was keep fighting. I forced myself to become a whirlwind yet again, whipping colder and colder. Within moments of my wrapping myself around the next hunter, she, too, fell prey to frostbite, or hypothermia, or whatever it was I was doing to them. So I went after another, but as I began, I heard Lucas shout out in pain.

I couldn’t focus. In terror, I looked behind me to see Lucas — fangs extended, face monstrous — on the ground as Milos raised a stake. Blood flowed freely from a cut on Lucas’s forehead. They were too far away; I couldn’t get to them in time — Then Raquel appeared, running from a nearby side street, and slammed something into the side of Milos’s head. Milos fell to his knees, stunned. As I watched in disbelief, Raquel cried out, “Lucas, get out of here! Now!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Kate shouted. But Dana had arrived, too, holding a crossbow aimed directly at Kate.

“This ends,” Dana said. She was shaking so hard that her voice trembled. “This ends now.”

From the distance, I heard sirens begin to wail; somebody in Riverton had called the police.

Lucas stumbled to his feet, obviously somewhat dazed from the blow to his head — and deep in the urge to fight, and to kill. I went swiftly to his side, unable to be anything more than a cool breeze against his cheek, but maybe that would at least remind him of who he was.

Behind me, I heard Kate’s voice trembling with rage. “You two will regret this.”

“I’ve got plenty of regrets,” Raquel said. She hadn’t budged from her place between the hunters and Lucas. “What’s one more?”

“Damn you.” Quick as a blink, Kate dodged left and shouldered her crossbow. Dana slammed into her side, sending the arrow flying askew thank God, it Wouldn’t hit Raquel or Lucas — but then I realized it was headed straight toward one of the Evernight students gaping at the fight, a human girl who would never be able to dodge in time.

Although the next moment lasted no more than a fraction of a second, it seemed to unfold before me in slow motion. The arrow, slicing lethally through the air. Lucas, leaping with his vampire strength and speed, directly at the girl in danger. Their bodies colliding, her shining dark hair trailing behind her, both of them falling to the ground — just a couple of inches short of the arrow, which thwacked into the side of the building, burying itself inches deep in the wood.

The sirens came closer, and the crowds were growing — dozens of witnesses, now, something Black Cross hated. Kate must have given some signal, because I heard the hunters take off, running or stumbling as best they could.

Dana called, “Lucas!”

From where he was sprawled on the sidewalk with the rescued girl, he looked up at her. His whole body shook, and he didn’t smile. I knew that, while Lucas might have overcome his blood hunger to protect another, he was still too close to snapping.

“Don’t approach him right now,” Patrice said. She’d seen the signs that Lucas was close to breaking. “Both of you have weapons. The police will think you were part of the group attacking us.”

“We resigned last night, when Kate said we were gonna go after Lucas,” Dana said. “Not that we exactly mentioned it to her or anything.”

Raquel said, “What was that — ice cyclone thing?”

“That was me,” I answered, still invisible. Everyone jumped. “Dana, Raquel, you guys have to listen to Patrice. You’ll get arrested if you stick around.”

“And no Black Cross to post bail this time.” Dana sighed. “Raquel, baby, time to run.”

Dana took off, but Raquel hesitated a moment, searching the air in vain for a glimpse of me. “Bianca …”

“I get it,” I said. “I understand.” Which wasn’t totally true — I didn’t know what, exactly, had brought Raquel around from the fear that had led her to betray me. But I knew that something had, and that she and Dana had risked their lives and left Black Cross in order to protect Lucas. As far as I was concerned, that mattered more than anything else.

Raquel ran after Dana, disappearing around a corner just as the pollee car pulled up. I realized that Patrice had stepped away from me and turned to see that she had put herself smoothly between Lucas and the human girl he’d saved — Skye Tierney, I recognized her now — so that Lucas couldn’t look at her. Her quick thinking might have saved him from snapping. Or, more accurately, saved Skye’s life.

As the cops got out of the car, Patrice whispered, quietly enough so that only Lucas and I could hear, “Leave the explanations to me.”

Within a couple minutes of the police officers’ arrival, I understood why Patrice had wanted to take charge of this. A century and a halfs experience of providing supposedly rational explanations for supernatural events was paying off. With expertise, Patrice played the part of a terrified young girl, sure she had seen gang members from the city, and they’d said something about an initiation, and it was just like those emails you got sometimes where you heard that gang members were going to kill some innocent person at random, wasn’t it?

The cops might not have believed that, but they believed that her fear was genuine and, more importantly, that neither she nor any of her friends had anything to do with starting the fight. The other witnesses’ testimony, including Skye’s, would back that up. By the time they got to Lucas, the only questions they asked were about his head and whether he needed to see a doctor. 90 He was able to answer their questions calmly enough. Although I knew he was struggling, Lucas had won out over the blood hunger awakened by the fight, at least for now.

Once the police left, I was eager to talk to him, to see how he was — but so was someone else. Skye stepped to his side, glowing with excitement and relief. “I just had to tell you, that was amazing, “she said. “You saved my life. For real. I can’t thank you enough.”

“just glad you’re okay,” Lucas said, and despite the turmoil I knew he had to be in, he smiled a little for her. That made Skye beam at him, and I realized with a start just how pretty she was: sleek dark hair, pale blue eyes with thick lashes, perfect skin, thin but not emaciated looking — All at once, I wasn’t entirely thrilled about the fact that Lucas had saved her. Not that I wanted Skye dead, but she was a gorgeous girl who was probably about to have a huge crush on my guy. And that was not good.

“Do you really think they were gang members?” She looked doubtful. “They looked kind of old for that.”

“Guess you never get too old to be stupid.” Lucas couldn’t quite meet her eyes.

Skye put one hand on Lucas’s forearm. I was this close to hating her when she said, “I’m kind of shaken up…. I want to go call my boyfriend back home — but before I take off, thanks again. Seriously.”

just like that, I suddenly liked Skye a whole lot more. When Lucas waved good — bye to her, I murmured in his ear, “It’s okay. We got through it. You didn’t break. Lucas, see how strong you are?”

“I need to be alone.” Lucas stalked away from me, and I wanted to follow but didn’t. His mother had just tried once again to kill him; no wonder he couldn’t take any pleasure in his small victory over himself.

As I sadly watched him go, I caught sight of someone else — Patrice, who now sat alone on a small bench. She appeared to be studying the hem of her floral — patterned skirt for any rips or tears. Typically, she’d gotten through that entire fight, giving as good as she got, without messing up her hair. l went to her side and said, “Thanks for all of that.”

“Bianca.” Patrice lifted her head, with that faraway look people got when they talked to me while I was invisible.;’You’re a wraith now?”

“Yeah.”

She settled herself onto the bench, clearly getting comfortable. “Tell me the whole story. Start back when you and Lucas broke up, which I now assume was not exactly the truth.”

Patrice had never been someone I confided in much, but after the way she ‘d come through for us, I knew that I could trust her. So I told her the whole story, as concisely as I could, from the beginnings of my clandestine relationship with Lucas to our deaths to the current situation at Evernight Academy. She listened not as sympathetically as some people might have, talking about how terrible it was and how bad they felt for us — but she didn’tjudge. After all the guilt and recrimination going around, that alone was a relief.

Once I’d finished, I realized I had a few questions of my own. “Why did you trap me? How did you trap me?”

““d felt something following me around. Or following Lucas around, I see now, but I knew I sensed it. Something ghostly. I Wasn’t positive, but I decided to take action ifl felt it again. You’re chilly sometimes, you know iliat?”

“How come you aren’t scared of me? Most vampires are.”

Patrice’s full lips quirked into a smile. “Most vampires are pretty stupid about wraiths — I heard about the panic last year. What a lot of silliness. But in New Orleans, where I started out? Back then, there was a woman named Marie Leveau who knew everyiliing about vampires, ghosts, spirits, you name it. I went to her when I was newly turned.” She gazed into the distance as though she were trying to look into the past. “There was a man who’d died.. someone I wanted to see again… well. Bringing someone back against his will turns out to be a bad idea.”

“I can imagine.” Adjusting to being a wraith had been hard enough for me. For someone who had been peacefully dead, it was probably a lot worse. “Did you trap him in a mirror?”

“And in the end, I broke the mirror to let him go.” From her purse she pulled out the compact she’d used to trap me. The frost had melted, and when she opened it, I saw the reflecting pane remained intact. “Since then, I’ve figured out how to release ghosts without breaking any mirrors. It’s such a pain, replacing them.”

That was Patrice for you — worrying about her cosmetics case while she was messing with the line between the living and the dead. “Where do ghosts go when you use the mirror to trap them?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” she said. “Into the mirror, as far as I know.”

To me it felt more like no place, some area between existence and nonexistence, but mysteries like this were beginning to feel almost routine now that I’d become a wraith. Besides, earthly concerns felt more pressing at the moment.

I began, “You know, Lucas could use a few more friends at Evernight Academy. And it would be nice to have somebody else to talk to.”

Particularly, I thought, another girl. Lucas, Balthazar, Ranulf, and Vic were each terrific in their own ways, but hanging out with only them did get a little sweat socky after a while.

“I don’t tend to make friends with Black Cross hunters, unlike some people,” she sniffed. But I could see her regal features softening slightly.

“Though I guess Lucas isn’t with them anymore. So backing him up is basically the same as giving Black Cross the finger.” Not much of an avowal of eternal friendship, but I would take it.

“And I guess I did miss you,” Patrice added. ““d been thinking about you earlier tonight, actually.”

“Really?” That made me feel nice, being missed.

“You always did have wonderful taste in vintage jewelry, and I wanted to hit the shop here to find something to wear with this outfit. Worth a ride over the river, don’t you think?”

Patrice would stop at nothing to have the perfect look, but I no longer found that annoying — instead it was funny. and kind of great, and, well, just her. “Okay, I’ll go with you. They won’t see me. I may be dead, but I can still shop.”

She perked up. “Ooooh, we need T — shirts saying that.”

I shopped with Patrice, urging her toward an antique charm bracelet, but while it was nice to reconnect, on another level I was basically killing time. When we were in the clothing store, I couldn’t help remembering how Lucas and I had come here on one of our early dates. He’d been so happy. trying on awesome long coats and crazy hats, so carefree. So alive.

It wasn’t that I loved him any less for being dead — how could I? — but I knew that his life was something that I had loved about Lucas, and it was gone.

When the students began to gather in the square to catch tlhe bus back to school, Lucas didn’t appear with the rest. Nobody except Skye seemed to notice. As everyone started boarding, she went to the chaperone and said, “We’re one person short. He might be hurt.”

“Ross? He’s not hurt.” The driver — a vampire — shrugged it off. “He told me earlier that he had another ride back to school tonight. You’ll see him tomorrow.”

Skye didn’t look very happy about Lucas being left behind. and I could understand why. At any normal school, that would ‘ve been a cause for concern; even at Evernight, if it had been a human student who had gotten lost, there would have been search parties and considerable worry. But vampire students were allowed more independence and were assumed to be able to take care of themselves.

I hoped that was true.

“Go find him,” Patrice whispered before she stepped onto the bus. “See you later.”

Swiftly I moved away from the square, toward the woods that Jay between the town and Evernight. Once the houses were few and far between, and the night breeze stirred around me, I had the solitude I needed to concentrate.

I imagined my jet brooch, the one he had bought for me here in Riverton. The black stone, the shape of the flower, the stone filling in the life that had once pulsed at the core of the wood.

Everything around me swirled like so much smoke, changing colors, taking shape. To my surprise, I Wasn’t with Lucas; the brooch had been in the pocket of his jacket, which now Jay discarded in a heap on the forest floor. As I peered down at it, I saw that it was stained with blood. His from the fight, I assumed — but then I saw that other things were lying around it. A dead raccoon. A dead bird of some kind. A dead fox. Their bodies hadn’tjust been drained; they’d been torn apart. The pile was the aftermath of a killing frenzy, taken out on small animals instead of human beings.

In the near distance, I could hear a thud, thud, thud — blows against wood, like with a mallet or maybe an ax. Taking hold of the brooch and becoming solid, I walked toward the sound until I saw Lucas, stripped down to his undershirt. He stood facing a tree, punching it the way a boxer would a bag.

I came closer. ILucas was oblivious to me, maybe to anything. He hit the tree so hard that bark flew with each punch; on either side of the trunk were stripped — down places of splintered wood, glistening with his blood. Horrified, I realized that he’d!beaten through the skin of his own hands, and a sliver of bone jutted through one finger. The pain he felt with each blow had to be tremendous, and yet he kept going, relentless.

“Lucas!” I ran to his side and grabbed at one of his arms. “Don’t do this to yourself!”

He stopped, but he didn’t look at me. Sweat slicked his skin, making his T — shirt stick to him and his face shine in the moonlight. Lucas kept staring at that tree like he hated it. “I wanted to kill her.”

“She’s your mother,” I said. “She’s betrayed you, as badly as anybody could ever. . it’s okay to be mad.”

“Not just her. I wanted to kill Dana and Raquel, while they were trying to save me. I wanted to kill Skye the whole time I was rescuing her. And now I look back on it, and I’m not proud, and I don’t feel strong. I’m just so mad at myself for not killing them and drinking their blood when I had the chance, and I hate myself for it, and I — Damn it. Damn it.”

Lucas punched the tree again, so fiercely that I knew he Wasn’t imagining hurting anyone but himself.

“Please don’t do this.” I took both his arms in my hands and brought his broken hand to my face. It was a twisted mess of bone and sinew and blood, like he’d been in a car wreck. “It hurts to see it.”

“I keep trying to break my hand worse and worse, so it won’t heal,” he said. “But it is healing. I can feel the bones coming back together even while I break new ones. It goes back to the way it was before. I can’t tear myself down. I can’t escape from this. There’s no way out.”

He was right. I couldn’t argue with him. So instead I flung my arms around his neck and held him tightly. After a moment, Lucas embraced me back. He shuddered, as though the madness was leaving him.

Only for now, I knew. But if that was the only help I could give, then I would give it. I closed my eyes and hoped that love truly could win over death.