A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,19
was trying to do, when I started to dissolve, quite literally. Everything changed around me. It shifted. It didn’t hurt until I blacked out. Then, it was sheer agony. By the time I woke up, I was… everywhere. I could see this entire world, through every blade of grass and every little pebble.”
“So, when you sleep, the pain comes,” I concluded.
“Yes. And if I let myself sleep, if I go into deep sleep, specifically, I can’t wake up until I’m fully rested. During that time, I’m forced to endure the worst.”
“Was Spirit still here when you first woke in this condition… you know, being everywhere?” Phantom asked, her brow slightly furrowed. She looked like a sullen teenage girl, though the large black bow on her white nightgown made her seem even younger. Her expression, however, complete with cherry-red lips and galaxy eyes, reminded me of Death.
“Yes.” Morning sighed, and another local dropped dead somewhere to our left. “I’m sorry. Usually I am less active, mentally speaking. The more I speak, the more I try to remember, the greater the toll on these poor people.”
“Quit saying you’re sorry. It’s getting annoying,” Soul snapped. “And it’s not your fault, sister. You did the best you could, given the circumstances. Now, tell us. What did Spirit say when you woke up?”
“He admitted that he’d tricked me into coming here, because this world is far away and isolated enough for him to keep me trapped for as long as he needs,” Morning replied. “He mentioned the Beta elements… Oh dear, the Beta elements, yes! I remember something!”
I frowned. “The Beta elements?”
“Ten pieces of the seal. Right. It’s a seal, not a curse!” Morning gasped. “My, oh my… I do like how your presence stimulates my frazzled mind. So, yes. The Beta elements. Ten parts of a seal which forced my natural form to dissolve and scatter. I’m atoms, spread everywhere… It’s why I can possess these people and speak and move through them. Yes…”
Following this particular stream of consciousness, she didn’t sound as incoherent anymore. Morning was onto something, and it was beginning to make sense for the rest of us, too.
“Spirit called them Beta elements,” I said. “Did he say anything specific about them?”
“No need,” Soul interjected, looking at me. “Some heavy seals use Beta elements, though not as many as ten. I’ve used some myself.”
“What are they?” I asked.
“Pieces of a seal. Like pieces of a puzzle, if you will. While they’re all intact, they hold the spell together. You break or destroy one, and the spell falters. You take them all out, and the spell is undone,” Soul explained.
“Yes, but what are they, exactly? Objects? Symbols? What do they look like?” I replied.
Soul bit his lower lip, as if realizing something, his eyes widening with some kind of disappointment. “Oh… Crap. They could be anything. Pebbles. Leaves. Any surface on which a Reaper can imprint a symbol of the Beta element, really.”
Widow scoffed. “We’re screwed. That’s like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“Not necessarily,” Morning said. “Spirit said he likes his seals to be living and breathing. It’s how he makes a creature live forever. I admit, it sounds strange even as I say that now, but… I think it was a pleasure of his. Finding loopholes to prolong life.”
It certainly sounded strange, and it made me wonder, but it was too early in the game to even generate theories. I set that thought aside and focused on the task at hand. “So, we’d be looking for ten creatures that have been living for an unnaturally long period of time?” I asked, glancing at the locals, wondering which of them might hold the key to Morning’s freedom.
“It’s a good starting point, for sure,” she said.
“Even so, the pool is still huge,” Widow replied. “Spirit could’ve used small animals or something. How do we find creatures that have been alive for so many years? We could comb the entire planet, but jeez, that’ll take a few lifetimes, at least.”
“Spirit would’ve used the people,” Phantom murmured.
Goosebumps pricked my skin. I knew exactly what she meant, considering that she knew her deceased brother as well as she did, and having seen how twisted Spirit had been with my own eyes. “He wouldn’t have wasted such life-giving seal pieces on animals. He would’ve used humanoids, for sure.”
“Well, Spirit was always a big-league player, I’ll give him that.” Soul sighed and got up. “Okay. So, we’ve got ten potentially immortal… what’s this place called again?”