25 | Silver
Afew days later, I’m waking up in my bed in The Spire. Recently, it feels like I wake up exhausted every single morning, after spending the entire previous day poring over books on how we might stand a chance against taking down the vamps.
“I need you.” The voice is barely more than a whisper in my head. I brush it away like a pesky fly, not ready to wake up just yet.
“I need you.”
I’m hot. So damn hot and I think it’s Dante murmuring softly into my ear. It must be his hard cock pressed up against my ass as he whispers me awake.
I shift under the covers and feel the sheer heat of four thighs pressed up against my legs. Definitely not Dante, he doesn’t give off this kind of body heat.
Huh, it’s probably Zeph, sneaking in for a snuggle before we have to get up. Or maybe all my dirty dreams have come true, and it’s all four of them together in one bed.
“Fuck. Not this again.”
That makes me snap into consciousness.
That voice. It’s not something I want in my head, especially when I have two hard dicks pressing up against me.
I keep my eyes jammed shut as I reach for the ring that I’ve kept on my finger all night long. No magic is coming off it. Seems like the magic in the Pretty Princess trinkets doesn’t last forever. They’ve lasted a surprising amount of time considering that they’re basically children’s toys, but I’m going to have to remember to keep topping them up.
My mental walls are low since I’m barely conscious and Ember snuck right into my head again.
“Silver, please.” Ember sounds quieter than usual. Something about his tone catches my attention and has me stiffening.
I’ve been determinedly pushing him out for almost a month now, but he’s somehow snuck right back in again. After he was a no-show at Second Circle, I tried calling and texting him a bunch, but he never replied.
“Ember? Are you all right?”
“No. I—This.... Not good.”
He sounds weird, like we have a dodgy mental connection or something, and I’m only able to hear half of the words he’s saying.
That makes zero sense, since telepathy doesn’t work that way.
“What’s wrong? Is it another attack?”
“You... could... say... that. The vamps, Silv. Made their... next move—” The words are stilted, barely comprehensible.
Dammit. Whatever is happening, he doesn’t sound good.
“Where are you? What’s happening?”
“C-cold. My—head’s—fuzzy.”
I chew my lip, drawing my knees to my chest. “Ember. I need you to tell me what’s going on and where you are.”
My stomach drops as I get no reply.
I crawl out of bed from between Zeph and Roscoe’s sleeping bodies, removing Ro’s clingy fingers and grabbing some fresh clothes, slathering on some deodorant and shoving my feet into my boots.
It seems we’ve been playing musical beds while I was sleeping. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep with just Roscoe and my vampire, but Dante is nowhere to be seen, and Zeph rolls into the space I just vacated. Ro snuggles up against him, making a sleepy sound and patting Z’s ass.
Zeph awakens and shoves his hand off with a muffled curse against the pillow. “Told you before, man. Keep your grabby hands to yourself.”
“Peachy butt,” Ro mutters back, still mostly asleep. “Bet you’d like it if Silver took a bite.” He peers around with squinted eyes and spots me watching, a grin breaking out across his face. “Hey, why’re you up? Get back here for snuggles.”
“Can’t. Sorry. Go back to sleep, both of you.”
I open the door and head into the living room. As much as I’d love to climb back into bed for a long cuddle, I can’t ignore Ember.
It might make me an idiot, but I can’t ignore any of my family if they need me.
I find the kitchen buzzing with activity, despite it being a barely acceptable time to be awake. To my surprise, Dante is still here. I figured he’d have snuck out at first light.
Instead, he’s on the couch with Seb on one side and Hanna on the other.
They’re... watching cartoons and eating cereal.
Not something I ever expected to see.
When he spots me, Dante pauses with a spoon halfway to his mouth, like I’ve just caught him taking a shit in the street. It’s a weird contrast. Hanna and Seb are in their pajamas and both look bedheady and puffy-eyed. Meanwhile, Dante’s in his shirt and slacks from yesterday, looking perfectly put together although he has his sock-clad feet kicked up on the coffee table in front of him.
Seeing him here like this, so relaxed and at home, sends a wave of warmth through me and I find myself smiling at him.
Then I remember why I’m up and dressed so early and my joy dims.
“Morning,” Hanna says, waving her spoon in greeting.
“I need to get going. Not sure where, but I’m gonna figure it out,” I say.
Hanna yawns and squints at me. “What are you jabbering about? How come you’ve got your boots on?”
Ugh, I don’t know how to explain this without upsetting her. And it’s far too early for Hanna to be yelling.
“Ember. He contacted me a few minutes ago. Said he needs help.”
“Of course he did,” she scoffs.
I shake my head and try to muddle through my thoughts. I don’t know how to explain the feeling it gave me or how he sounded so... off. Strange.
“He sounded weird,” I say. It might not be the most eloquent way to put it, but it’s accurate enough.
“Like he’s been used as a personal blood bank a few too many times?”
“No. Like semi coherent. He said he was cold. And now he’s not answering me.” I try again to get through to him, but there’s nothing. It’s the same feeling I get when someone’s unconscious or sleeping and there’s nothing but a blank void.
I haven’t got this far in life, survived this long, by ignoring my gut. And right now, it’s screaming at me that something’s wrong.
“I just... I don’t know if it’s the vamps stepping up their game, or if it’s something else.”
“They might have gotten pissed off with his moaning and laziness and kicked him out,” Hanna says. “Maybe drained him just to shut him up.”
I stride over and flick her in the back of the head. When she twists around and sees my unamused expression, she just shrugs and rubs her head.
“Not helpful, Hanna. Will you tell the others where I am when they wake up?”
“You’re thinking of going alone?” She gets to her feet, displaying the milk stain all down the front of her oversized t-shirt. “That’s not happening. I’m gonna come with you and no way is Rook gonna be happy if we don’t wake him.”
“I’ll come along too,” Dante says.
I glance at Seb. “So you’ll—”
“Tell everyone else the news once they surface? Yep, I’ll be here, like always.” He salutes me only semi-sarcastically.
“Let me know what happens,” Hanna tells him, gesturing to the cartoon dinosaur prancing across the TV screen.
It doesn’t take long for Hanna to rouse Rook next door and for us all to grab our jackets and head out. We’re unwashed, bleary-eyed, and we don’t know where we’re going. A real A-team.
Just who you want coming to your aid.
“How the hell are we going to find him if he’s not answering you?” Hanna asks.
I have a few ideas and I’m already on my phone, checking to see if Ember has his cell phone switched on and his location shared.
No dice. Because that would be too damn easy.
“I guess we can try going to Arcanum Heights, to the mansion where the vamps are holed up, and then go from there.”
“Could you track him down like you did with Silver?” Hanna asks Dante.
“While it’s always enjoyable to be treated like a talking bloodhound,” Dante replies drily. “I don’t think so. I doubt I have the same ability to focus on his scent like I can with Silver. Hers is a powerful scent that calls to me.”
“Ew, gross.”
He shakes his head at her and snorts.
“Might be a trap,” Rook says. “Lure you to the mansion.”
“And what are they gonna do when we get there? Drop a massive net from the sky?” I snort.
Rook shrugs. “Must be luring you in for a reason.”
“I’m about seventy percent sure this is some kind of trap,” I reply. “Doesn’t mean Ember isn’t in trouble, though. He needs us.”
“He betrayed us. Lied to our faces for months. Teamed up with a bunch of nut jobs and then gets spooked when they turn out to be psychos who have started killing kittens.” Hanna snorts. “Nah. Excuse me if I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the bed he’s lying in right now.”
“He thought he was helping us climb out of the gutter,” I reply. The more time that passes and the longer I’ve let what happened at the Solstice sit and marinate in my brain, the more convinced I am.
Unless I don’t know Ember at all, which is a distinct possibility, but one I don’t want to consider right now.
“He’s always been a dreamer. More interested in ideals than practical stuff, you know that. I reckon he saw an opportunity and didn’t realize how dumb and na?ve he was being. And by then it was too late, anyway.”
“He made a deal with the devil,” Hanna replies.
“He and the vamps also underestimated the city’s ability to sweep things under the rug and ignore them.”
We’re heading to Arcanum Heights on foot, considering traffic is so dicey at the moment and you never know when you’re going to get stuck in an hour-long tailback thanks to another roadblock courtesy of angry Nexus inhabitants. While they’ve mostly stopped setting stuff on fire by this point, that doesn’t mean they aren’t letting their dissatisfaction be known in other ways.
The snow melted weeks ago and has been replaced by a sky that’s gray and miserable. It’s cold and there’s a thick mist of rain in the air that makes me tug my jacket tighter around me. Despite the early hour, the streets are busy with people bustling about, their heads down and their focus entirely on themselves.
As we walk, I’m wracking my brain for ideas of how we might track Ember down. I just hope that reaching the mansion will trigger something and there will be a trail of breadcrumbs that leads us directly to him.
Turns out we don’t even need that.
We’re about halfway to Arcanum Heights when a ghost pops up on the sidewalk in front of us. I’m about to skirt around him when he calls out.
“Hey, aren’t you the witch who said she’ll grant favors for information?”
The way he words sounds lascivious, like I’m giving out handjobs for news about the vamps. It doesn’t help that he accompanies his words with a leer which has my lip curling in disgust.
“Uh, no. You must have the wrong gal.” I continue walking, not letting up our fast pace. It’s now been at least half an hour since I last heard from Ember and my anxiety is ratcheting higher with every minute that passes without hearing from him.
Maybe he’s fallen asleep and I’m worrying for nothing. But something tells me that’s not the case.
“Fine,” the ghost continues. “You are the witch who’s looking for information, though, right? You’re kind of hard to miss since you have a weird energy to you. Not sure if anyone’s ever told you that before.”
“It’s not something I’ve heard before,” I reply, eyeing him. He looks in his early twenties, kind of scruffy in a hoodie and jeans that look at least two sizes too big. I wonder if they’re constantly falling down and he’s cursed with being unable to wear a belt. That must suck.
“We all saw the video of you as well, fighting off those weird bone men. I know it was only a big thing for all of ten minutes, but none of us have forgotten.”
“Ghosts have cell phones?”
Maybe it’s the fact we’re still walking and I’m distracted by my worry for Ember, but I don’t realize how dumb a question that is until it’s out of my mouth.
He gives me a pitying look. “No. But people have these things called shoulders, which we can look over. You were pretty famous there for about a minute.”
Well, he’s certainly the snarkiest of the ghosts I’ve spoken to recently. And I’ve spoken to a lot of them. Now that I’m not tamping down my powers so much, it’s like they keep popping up wherever I go.
“A few of us were wondering what else you might be able to do. You were like pow-pow now you’re dust, bone boy. We figured maybe you might have other powers that could apply to other unalive residents of the city.”
“Oh.” I have actually been thinking about this a lot recently, although I don’t exactly want to test things out and assume I can send ghosts on to the next place without knowing what I’m doing.
That could spell disaster.
“I’m looking into it,” I tell him.
“Well,” he replies. “When you can fit it in between dyeing your roots and plucking your nose hairs, give me a call.”
Okay, that was rude.
And I don’t have roots to dye, or nose hairs.
I don’t think so, anyway.
“Anyway, I figured you might want to know there’s a bunch of living sculptures downtown that appeared overnight. Thought that might be some of the weird shit you’re interested in hearing about.”
From all this buildup, I kind of was expecting more. “Okay and—”
“A few of them were... kind of screaming earlier. They’re not anymore, though.”
I grind to a halt, nearly causing Hanna to plow right into my back.
“Show me.”
I charge off after the ghost as he leads the way downtown, toward the riverside. We come to a stop only a few hundred feet from where Hanna used to do her busking every week.
The ghost wasn’t exaggerating. Down here, there are at least fifty sculptures standing in various poses. All of them have their eyes open wide. All of them have faces contorted into expressions of horror.
“Holy shit.”
“Pretty sure I went to school with this one’s sister,” Hanna says, peering at the nearest one.
Looking closer, I can see that I recognize a few of them. There’s a man I remember from Arcanum Heights, one of the Archarcans who used to live on the next street to me. There’s a witch I recognize from one of the downtown pubs and a guy dressed in a local pizza place’s uniform.
“Uh, Silver,” Hanna says, tapping me on the shoulder.
I spin around, my stomach clenching at what’s got her sounding like she’s gritting her teeth.
Then I see them.
There’s also a mound of bodies beside the river. Bodies lying in the broad daylight, drained of their blood. It’s twice as large as the one from last time. Twice as many people have lost their lives to enable the vampires’ greed.
We’re not the only people staring around in shock. I don’t know how word spread so quickly, but there’s already a crowd of people forming, making their way through the living statues. Every so often there’s a little cry as someone seems to spot someone they know, trapped.
We make our way through the statues, looking at each one in turn. Most of them have their eyes open, their faces distorted into expressions of shock and terror.
It’s horrifying.
“Do you think they drained their blood before they froze them like this?”
Then I hear Hanna’s voice from behind me.
“Ember. He’s here.”
Even though I was half expecting this, time freezes as Hanna announces his name. She gazes over at me with horror-filled eyes as I twist around and see the shock of red hair.
“He’s trapped in there. Silver, what do we do?”