Forever and Beyond (20 page)

“Okay.” Julie shot me a self-assured smile and glided through the closed door. A moment later, she called in a clear and melodious voice, “I, Juliette Baron, invite you to enter this place of wisdom and mysteries. As you make your way inside, may your path be lined with wonder...” I groaned, tuning out. Gosh, she loved melodrama and attention, and would’ve been a Broadway star in no time.

The door opened. I entered and closed it behind me. “Thanks,” I whispered.

“Should we split up?” Julie asked, hovering in mid-air, bored.

I nodded and pointed at the shop floor, signaling her to stay behind and watch the front of the shop while I checked the back. She bobbed her head so I headed for the narrow corridor that led to
Elyssa’s
office. In front of the door, I stopped and turned the knob, then peered inside. Apart from a very tidy desk and lots of bookcases lining up the walls, the room was empty. I tried the door next to it—an overstuffed storage space—and found nothing. Where could Maya have gone? And then I remembered the staircase leading to the basement.

Scanning the empty hall one more time, I held my breath to listen for any sounds. When nothing stirred, I opened the door to the basement and tiptoed down the stairs as my hands brushed the wall to find the light switch. My fingers connected with it when something hard hit me over the head with such vigor I lost my balance and toppled down the stairs. It wasn’t so much the pain but the shock at the realization that someone just hit me that kept me petrified for a moment. In that instant, as I sat up and my eyes fought to adjust to the darkness around me, a strange sensation seeped under my clothes and touched my skin, leaving a hint of gloom and doom behind.

I peered around me at nothing but pitch black. Slowly but steadily my surroundings began to take shape: the buildings below me with their closed shutters, the cobblestone streets lined with picturesque cottages, the vast abyss to my left. And then I realized where I was:

Alone on top of the wall with the strange, hurricane-like wind moving toward me at a fast speed. Letting out a tiny yelp, I crawled backwards as my mind fought to come up with a strategy to get away from here as quickly as possible. That’s when the first breeze caressed my skin and sent a shiver down my spine. A strong sense of desperation washed over me. I could think of nothing but taking the plunge once and for all, ready to give up everything and everyone just to get rid of the melancholy grabbing hold of my heart.

Don’t,
a voice in my head screamed. But it was too late. I couldn’t fight it. It was too strong.

Ever so slowly, I stepped forward to embrace the darkness descending upon me.

The End…for now.

Shadow Blood, the continuation to Forever And Beyond, will be out soon. Read on for an exclusive preview.

The Swiss Alps – around witching hour

When Death comes knocking on your door you don’t run or hide, you don’t grab your rosary and crawl into your safest corner to pray because no one will come to your aid. I should know for I have seen the future times and times again. My name’s Patricia and I’m a fallen angel. Together with a select group of supernatural beings—a coven of vampires, Lucifer’s daughter, a shape shifter, a voodoo priestess, a ghost, and a necromancer—I’m destined to save humanity in its darkest hour. But before you can be saved, blood will stain the streets and no amount of rain will be able to wash it away and no thunder will be able to stifle your screams of pain upon facing the evil that is about to be unleashed upon the world.

And so the Prophecy of
Morganefaire
begins.

***

A few days later at Blue Moon

Silence had fallen when darkness first descended. The air reeked of filth, a pungent smell refined with the fragrance of herbs and fallen leaves. The first sensation Rebecca Duboire felt when she opened her eyes was a gnawing, all-consuming hunger that let her scream out with pain. Her hands moved up to protect herself from another agonizing wave when she knocked her elbow against something hard. Her fingers pushed against the smooth surface as she tried to place the alien sensation. And then came the shock of finding herself in a tight place destined for the dead.

A coffin.

She let out another shrill scream; her fists began to pound her prison cell as hard as she could. The wood split and earth rolled inside. After what felt like an eternity, she managed to push her hand out, followed by her exhausted body, and she realized her frail body lay buried under a thick layer of damp earth.

Someone had buried her.

She frantically dug her way out, wiggling herself free before inspecting her tomb—a cave small enough to crawl but not to stand, exposed to the destroying power of the sun but well hidden from civilization so no mortal could ever venture here and find what was left of her once glorious self. Whoever buried her, knew what he was doing. She dispelled her thoughts as to who could be responsible for her predicament and focused her attention back on her surrounding and on finding a way out.

Little stones had dug themselves into her flesh, but she paid them no attention. Her whole body felt numb, dead, and that’s what she’d been only a day ago.
Dead
. Until the mirror resurrected her and pushed her back into the body that once belonged to her. Apart from the strong hunch that she was about to embark on an important mission, she had no idea who she was or what that mission was all about. She had no idea why she was wearing a simple dark-gray shirt that barely covered her hips or why the sleeves and sweetheart neckline were adorned with frills that didn’t really fit this century’s fashion style. In fact, she couldn’t remember a single detail about her life. But that’s the peril of resurrection. Your memory might be gone for a moment or forever. Rebecca had no doubt that it would return the moment she needed it.

Ignoring the slicing pain in her stomach, she pushed up on her elbows and kicked away the dry earth, leaves and branches covering her. The stones dug deeper into her skin as she forced her body into a sideway position. She could smell the forest beyond the tomb. Freedom was finally within her reach.

A wafer-thin beam of light fell through a hole in the wall on the moss covering parts of the floor. Keeping her had bowed, she struggled to her knees and let her gaze trail up and down the cave, looking for an exit. A cold draught caressed her skinny ankles. She bent down and noticed a narrow aperture on the other side of the wall.

The opening was barely bigger than an oblong hole, worn out by rain, but it was big enough for her emaciated body to pass through. She pressed herself flat against the naked ground and reached out the hole, searching for something to hold on to. Her fingers clenched around a notch and she flexed her tired muscles, breathed in and out, and then pulled herself with all her might out of the cave into the black night.

The strenuous effort exhausted her so she lay on the ground for a while, gasping for air. Late twilight had transformed a dark gray sky into a magnificent curtain dotted with a few lustrous stars. She sat up on her elbows, and looked down to inspect her half-naked body. Her skin looked old and wrinkled, and felt as dry as the parchment she used to write on, stretched over protruding bones that creaked from old age. Her once luscious, dark red locks had fallen out, leaving behind round patches of flaky skin with raised edges she could feel under her fingertips. Her ribs stood out beneath the thin material of her shirt. Her once curvy body with long, shapely legs and a thin waist, had faded away. The left shin was dangerously bent, and she tried to remember if she had broken her leg before dying, but could not recall. She didn’t dwell on the thought. It was nothing a little blood couldn’t solve. She might seem old and ugly now, but she knew she’d soon be young and beautiful again, despite centuries of living in Hell and not feeding from the source. Her beauty might be hidden behind a thick layer of dirt and saggy skin, but a good scrub and a few drops of blood would solve those tiny problems for her, and then Rebecca’s glory would once again be both admired and feared.

Without further delay she started walking. The ground was damp as if it had been raining all day. The thick mud on the sole of her feet slowed down her pace, but she didn’t worry. She had at least five hours before sunrise and she was determined to find a mortal before the first ray of light fell.

Soon she reached a paved road. The night had deepened when her sharp eyes noticed two soft beams not far away from her. She stumbled forwards, eager to find out what kind of light could break a dark night. The two dots moved nearer, getting stronger, and passed without noticing her standing just a few feet away. She stopped in astonishment and stared ahead. Prior to her resurrection she had been a ghost accustomed with this century’s technology, but seeing it all live overwhelmed her nonetheless.

***

At least another hour must’ve passed and the moon had risen to a high crescent, illuminating the dark asphalt. Rebecca’s supernatural ears picked up the sound of the approaching car long before it reached her range of vision. With only the light of the bluish moon above her she began to wave, all the while concentrating her supernatural powers on influencing the driver’s mind. The headlights drew nearer, accompanied by the motor’s whirring sound. Rebecca kept on waving until the lights fell on her shape…and passed by. Her eyes followed it, too disappointed to notice that the driver had slowed down, coming to a halt some distance away, then changed into back gear and pulled back to the point where she was standing. A few feet away he stopped, the headlights focused on her, and then the engine revved and he sped off, probably frightened by whatever he saw in the rearview mirror. She couldn’t blame him. A stranger stopping a car in the middle of nowhere was strange. An old, withered woman dressed in a thin shirt was a whole different level of suspicious.

Cars weren’t her friends. They were too fast, leaving the driver the choice to speed off and escape her grip at any second. She left the road and ventured back into the surrounding woods, following an unpaved path that seemed to go on forever. For a moment, she considered the possibility to go back, and hide in the cave, but changed her mind, and stumbled toward the trees not far ahead.

The moment she reached the forest she knew she wasn’t alone. She turned her head sharply and sniffed the air to catch a whiff of the stranger watching her from the shadows, but her senses were too weak to distinguish if old or new blood coursed through his veins. Nevertheless she smiled because she had a target and this one was within her reach.

The thicket moved with a mild breeze. She looked up to the sky, wrapped her arms around her waist, and strolled towards the bushes as her thin voice broke the eerie silence of the night.

“Penny, where are you?” she shouted. “Come here, doggie!” She didn’t sound like a grown woman, merely like a frightened thing afraid of the dark. She figured that ought to infuse confidence and trigger anyone’s protective instincts. Feigning hesitation, she took another step forward when a huge shadow rose in front of her. She let out an exaggerated gasp and fell rearwards on her back.

She could sense his hesitation and then a hand reached for her upper arm, ready to help her back to her feet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” a low, male voice said. She tilted her head slightly to inspect him, but it was too dark and her burned, immortal eyes were too weak to make out more than just the curve of his nape where a steady pulse thumped beneath the skin.

“What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” he asked. “Did you get lost?” He tugged at her arm gently, as though to reassure her of his good intentions, a moment before he let go of her again.

“I’m looking for my dog. Have you seen a small, little thing with shaggy, brown hair, big eyes?” She forced a tremor into her thin voice to make it seem choked, as though she’d been crying for a while. “My baby ran away. She must be so frightened.”

 
“I haven’t seen her. How long have you been looking?”

“I don’t know,” she lied.

“She’s probably hiding. It’s too dark to find her at night. Do you live nearby?”

“I don’t know where I am,” she said. A few drops of moisture fell on her and gathered on the ancient skin of her head. The air was heavy with the damp scent of oncoming rain. She considered her options. Under normal circumstances she’d just attack, but the mortal seemed strong, used to the rough life out here in the woods. He fetched a torch out of his jacket and flicked it on, directing the dim light on her face, blinding her. A small gasp escaped her throat. Cupping a hand over her eyes, she blinked in succession. He averted the beam from her so she dared a look at him, which confirmed her first impression. He was well past his prime but sturdy and tall, taller than any other man she had ever seen, with short, bristly hair crowning his graying head. Weak as she was, if she wanted to take down this bull of a man, she’d need to be sneaky about it.

“You’re hurt. What happened?” He sounded worried as his glance wandered down to her twisted leg. She could only imagine what she looked like, what someone must’ve done to her centuries ago. And then parts of her memory came to her, together with a name.