47: A Very Special Soul

This place still gives me the creeps. The abandoned feeling, the invisible eyes that follow you. Especially after my last death dream, cemeteries are the last place I should be. Not to mention the last time I was here I was attacked and nearly killed by a vampire, now I’m semi enslaved by one.

The ivy is thickly wound around the rotting gate and I mutter the incantation to cast it away. Quickly, too quickly for just normal vines, they slither away. Gabriel goes to push open the gate and it creaks from the pressure, a creak so loud it startles me and probably the dead.

I don’t give directions, because he probably knows exactly where Georgio’s tomb lies. We walk through the crumbling tombstones, disturbed graves and leering trees to the mausoleum in silence. It doesn’t take long for the stone building to come into view.

My feet pick up pace once we get closer. I’m so eager to get this done that I forgot the blood lock. “Do you mind?” I ask Gabriel, my finger sticking out to him. “Can you peirce the skin? It only opens with blood.”

“I can do it.” He starts to bring his own finger up to his mouth, but I swat it down.

“No. He’s connected to it somehow. It’s how he knows who’s coming.” I jab my finger higher, more in front of his face.

He reluctantly listens to my request. His sharp canines slide down as he gently grabs my hand. My heart stops as he brings the flesh part of my index finger to the tip of his tooth. I don’t feel it as his fang stabs into my finger as it has my heart racing for different reasons.

“Thank you.” I mutter as I slide the bleeding finger over the jam of the door. It swings opens on it’s own and I stumble over the threshold. Gabriel’s hand swiftly rights me and doesn’t let go until he’s sure I’m firmly back on my feet.

The lid to the tomb itself is propped open just the slightest, the yellow glow from the lights below pour through the crack.

“If you could, slide the lid a little more. Enough for us to crawl inside.” He gives me an appalled look as if crawling inside a large cement coffin shaped box was disgusting. “A vampire that doesn’t like a coffin?”

“Half vampire.” He teases as he slides the stone lid to the side without breaking a sweat, without a struggle.

“Show off.” I retort as I lift a leg over the edge. “Ladies first.” I say just as the tip of my foot touches the first step.

Gabriel quickly follows. He takes it all in as he comes to a stop beside me at the bottom.

“Could it be? My favorite witch come to see me again.” Georgio coos from somewhere in the labyrinth of his ‘home’.

“Georgio.” I call out. “I’m here for some help, assistance.”

“And you brought a friend.” He replies just as I spot his shadow straight ahead. His limp is gone and the decay of skin has grown back, but is still pasty white.

“Eating well, I can see.” I say as he comes to a halt right before us. There are still little rodent carcasses littering the corners of the space, but that’s not what I was referring to.

“Business is good.” He looks between Gabriel and myself. “What can I help you with?”

I dig out the book and hold it out to him. “I need your help translating a spell. Page thirteen.” I shake the book a little urging him to take it.

He does but with pause. He recognizes the runes on the front just as well as I do, but he flips to the thirteenth page anyways. I watch him as he skims it over the page. It isn’t more than a second or two before his eyes land on mine. “I didn’t take you for a tapping into darkness.” He says.

“I’m not.” I let out a huff. “It’s a long story that can’t really go into. All you need to know is that I’m not involved and I don’t want to die, so I’m stuck helping them out...forced to help them out.”

“Can you read it?” Gabriel asks, putting Georgio’s quizzical stare onto himself.

“Yes, but it will cost you.”

“Of course it will.” I mutter.

“I won’t ask for less, but I won’t request more, because I like you.” Georgio purrs.

“Fine.” I snap and unzip my jacket.

“What’s the price?” Gabriel asks.

“A piece of my soul. He trades for pieces of souls.” I take in Gabriel's blank eyes. “He eats them. It keeps him from...rotting. It’s fine. We’ve already been through this once before.” I shake the memory from my head as I shake my arm out of a sleeve.

“Ah, Hazel, how I did love the taste of your soul, but this one though,” he turns to Gabriel, “has a very special soul. Don’t you vampire?”

“Take what you want.” Gabriel says somberly, pretending to be a savior or something.

I stop with one arm out of my jacket and the other one only halfway free. “A silver, Georgio.” I snap. “nothing more.” My words break Georgio’s enthralled stare as he oggles at Gabriel.

“Of course.” He agrees and quickly turns away.

We watch him rummage through drawers and dash down hidden halls. It’s several minutes before he returns with a glass test tube in hand. “Saving it for later.” Georgio says with a wicked smile on his lopsided face.

“And how exactly do you retrieve a sliver of one’s soul?” Gabriel asks, his voice isn’t as strong as it usually is.

“With dark magic.” I reply just as Georgio pulls out a long thin, bewitched bone. To this day I still have no idea who’s or what the bone came from.

“It won’t hurt.” Georgio claims to try to sooth Gabriel’s vampire fight reflexes.

“You’ll definitely be able to feel it though.” I say adding a voice of realistic reason to the conversation. It’s probably best not to surprise Gabriel, because who knows what he’ll do.

Georgio puts the nub of the bone to Gabriel’s chest, “You might want to remove your shirt or tug it down. Easier to retrieve.” Georgio winks at him.

Gabriel reluctantly takes off his leather jacket and pulls his shirt over his head. Like Georgio, my eyes are glued to his toned chest, but I break my gaze away. “I’m going to be over here,” I say as I twist around, but before I can take my second step Gabriel’s hand jolts out and latches on me pulling me back to his side.

“You’re not going anywhere.” He says through clenched teeth.

“Are you scared?” I say at the exact moment Georgio places the tip back onto Gabriel’s chest.

“No.” Gabriel replies with his strong headedness I’m used to.

I don’t know the spell or care to know the spell that Georgio performs. He speaks in an unfamiliar language, nothing remotely close to any language some spells are written in that I know of. No, this is something dark, something demonic.

My train of thought is snapped back to the present as Gabriel sucks in a breath, it hisses between his teeth, his fangs pierce his bottom lip. Georgio doesn’t falter, he keeps muttering his words and pulling the bone back. A thin, wispy glowing string is attached to the end, it almost looks like a tendon. Slowly, it’s pulled from Gabriel’s chest.

The essence isn’t too big, maybe three inches. It breaks away from Gabriel with an audible snap and quickly coils around the bone. Georgio gently taps it into the tube and pushes a stopper onto it trapping the piece of soul inside.

He gives it a little shake as his eyes go back and forth between Gabriel and I. “Fascinating. The color, so different from anything I’ve seen before and I’ve seen plenty of souls.”

We all examine the tube taking in the reddish blue color. It is different considering my sliver of soul was a shade of green.

“Now the spell.” I say breaking Georgio’s fascination.

“Of course.” He places the tube inside a cabinet made up of several small locked drawers. He clears his throat as he joins us. The book is still open to the ritual.
I pull out my phone and tap the record button. This way I get the pronunciation and the translation without missing any details.

He goes through it very quickly in the unknown language and then repeats it in english.

*All hail the sun and the darkness it brings
The damned, the loyal and the subservient will obey you
For the blood of the lost, will break the binds of the dead
They will rise and those will bleed
They will stride and those will be devoured
The soulless will reap victory
For darkness of the sun and shadows become one as the world is cleansed *

I’m speechless for several seconds after Georgio finishes. With a quick glance at Gabriel, he too thinks over the words putting meaning to each line.

Georgio breaks the silence. “You are aware of the blood sacrifice that is needed for the ritual, aren’t you?”

“Unfortunately.” I grumble as Gabriel nods.

Georgio eyeballs me not realizing all the terrible things I’m a part of. “Don’t judge me.” I snap at him. “My hands are tied on this. I’m bound by a blood oath that was not willingly performed. We all have our monsters. Mine just happens to have a pretty face.”

“And what are these people trying to achieve?” He asks.

“We can’t tell you that, but it's not that.” I reply. I pass over the ‘binds of the dead’ and ‘they will rise will rise’ bits. Those strictly refer to ghosts and bringing them back, but “The soulless will reap victory.” I pause, “as the world is cleansed.” I repeat the words aloud. Those don’t refer to ghosts or vampires.

“You can’t figure it out? It’s pretty straightforward to me. Demons.” Georgio replies. “This ritual calls forth the dead, like me, but different, to feed on souls leaving the soulless to conquer.”

“But vampires don’t have souls, well most don’t.” Gabriel interjects.

“They were human once so they have some sort of soul.” Georgio replies. “but demons...demons were never human.”

No wonder she didn’t want to admit where she got the book. No one would approve of coercing with demons, especially, having them help you put one demzin race ahead of all the others.

“Thank you, Georgio.” I blurt out before making a mad dash to the staircase. He already knows so much and it’s better if we don’t admit everything. I’m not sure who Georgio is loyal to or if he’s fond of vampires.

I catch a quiet mutter from Georgio as we climb the stairs. “Tread carefully, Hazel.”

My breath painfully fills my lungs as Gabriel slides the lid of the tomb back into place. “This isn’t good. I can’t do this. I can’t-”

Gabriel silences me with his lips. His kiss is aggressive and it puts a stop to my words. “If anyone can fix it, it’s you.”

“I’m not so sure.” I can’t lie and I can’t pretend. Does the spell need to be in demonic language for it to work? If I change the words to relate to vampires, I don’t know the demon translation and I’m sure they’re not going to just give it to us.

I’ve never been one to admit my failure, especially not when my failure has my life on the line, but this is pushing limits that never should be touched.