A Shade of Vampire 79 A Game of Death - Bella Forrest Page 0,56
long black hair and piercing galaxy eyes helping the soul of a male creature out of the smoldering lava.
Moving closer toward him, I noticed that the Reaper kept looking around, perhaps hoping that no one would see him. His features were beautiful, almost ethereal, his skin pale and the blade of his noise perfectly straight. His lips were full and pearlescent. He was tall and well built, though not at all bulky. His frame was imposing, though his Reaper eyes were more intimidating than his physique. “What is your name?” he asked the soul.
“Bym,” the soul replied. “What… What happened?”
“I’m afraid the worst thing possible happened, Bym,” the Reaper said. “The death of the planet. The death of all of you. I’m sorry.”
The soul blinked several times, staring at his semi-transparent limbs and wiggling his fingers, as if just to make sure he still had them or felt them. The look on his face didn’t confirm or deny that sensation, but he was definitely curious. “Who are you?” Bym asked.
“I’m a Reaper. What were you doing in a prison?”
Taeral and I listened carefully, both of us intrigued by the question. Bym wasn’t that shocked, though, so there was truth in the Reaper’s words, for sure. “I… I was locked up.”
“For what?” the Reaper asked, occasionally glancing over his shoulder. The other Reapers were far away, moving deeper into the red desert. The air rippled above it from the heat. Thunder boomed in the distance—only it wasn’t thunder but cracks deepening into the planet’s surface, breaking and tearing and destroying whatever was left of this once-civilized world.
Bym lowered his gaze, saddened by his own fate. “For killing…”
“That’s Sidyan,” Taeral whispered. “One of the Reapers from the Calliope sanctuary. Not a bad fella. But he captured my interest a few months back. He’s the one I want you to meet.”
“Why did he capture your interest?” I murmured.
“Hold on. Give him a minute,” Taeral replied, a smile testing his lips.
“Killing who, exactly?” Sidyan asked Bym.
“Does it matter? I’m dead,” Bym said, sullen and grave and not at all happy with this ending.
“It matters to me,” Sidyan replied.
“Will it change where you take me? What is there beyond death? What will happen to me?”
“It depends entirely on your honesty, Bym. So, tell me… Who did you kill?” Sidyan insisted, his tone cold and flat. He definitely wasn’t playing around.
After a short hesitation, Bym sighed deeply. “My sister. Her friend. Her friend’s friend. My aunt. My mother…”
Bile rose up in my throat. I already loathed him. But what more could be done, given how he’d died here? Sidyan took a deep breath, unrelenting in his questioning. “Why did you kill them, Bym? Did you kill them all at once?”
Bym shook his head. “I took my time. I… I… Does it really matter?”
Sidyan touched him with his scythe. As soon as the blade made contact with Bym’s shoulder, the wretched soul bared it all as if the time of his confession was running out, and he needed, he desperately needed to tell it all.
“I reveled in each kill. It started with my sister, years ago, because I was curious what it would be like to take a life,” Bym said. “I loved it. I loved watching the life drain from her eyes. Knowing that I had that power. A month later, I took her friend. I took advantage of her grieving, and I slit her throat, slowly. Then another girl, and another… One day, I was itching for another kill. I’d gotten away with so many. I was so strong, so powerful… I don’t know what happened. My mother said something… something that upset me, and I killed her, too.”
“How were you caught?” Sidyan asked quietly, watching the other Reapers, a muscle ticking in his sharp jaw.
“My father walked in. Killing my mother had not been planned. It was impulse. Pure impulse. I lost control, I wasn’t careful.”
“Do you regret murdering any of them?”
Bym shook his head. “No. I would do it all over again if I could. When the earth started shaking, I thought this was my chance to escape, so I could keep slitting throats and feeding on the cries of these women begging for my mercy.” He gasped, his eyes wide with shock. “Why am I telling you all this?!”
“Because I made you tell the truth,” Sidyan said. “Come now, Bym. It’s time for you to move on,” he added, putting an arm around the spirit’s shoulders.