“You can, Alek. We need you to go to where she is and help us with a little something.”
“Little? I’ll bet it isn’t.”
“We have a problem. My good friend, Dante, is trapped, and he needs help to leave. He can’t get through like Shades can. They’ve prevented him becoming…what’s the word... corporeal again...”
“Trapped where? Who by?”
“Somewhere unpleasant. He needs to borrow you.”
“Borrow me how?”
“You’re strong enough to carry him.”
I stiffen. “Carry him?”
“Dante needs to borrow your body.”
Whoa. I stand. “What the fuck? No way! This guy is a demon, right? If he possesses me, he might never leave!”
Julian makes a scornful noise in his throat. “Believe me, he won’t want to stay with you. He has his own form, which is preferable and probably a good deal stronger.”
If he’s as powerful as Julian says and is trapped, there’s a reason. This Dante must be powerful if demons are desperate for him to re-enter a world where the Dark are killing people. I don’t have time for people, don’t care what happens to them; however, I’m part of their world. This world is comfortable and I’m still part-human. I don’t want it to change again. “No, I won’t do it.”
“Fine.” Julian shuffles some paper around on his desk. “We’ll get Rose to carry him instead. I guess she’s there already...”
I slump back onto the seat. “No. No, you can’t. She can’t.”
“I guess she might fail.” He sucks air between his teeth. “Nasty. I wonder what would happen to her then? How terrible if her soul was completely destroyed.”
I chew inside my cheek, refusing to show him how his words are affecting me.
“You know the answer.” He leans across the table. “I mean, I can’t guarantee your soul will come out of this completely untainted either, but it’s worth the risk?”
Anger toward Finn seethes in every ounce of my body; the fact he brought me to this point overrides the fact he did this to her. He made Rose, weakened me, and brought me to a place I avoided for years. Finn made me feel again - and not just the growing love I admit to myself I have for Rose. I care about what happens to the world, and I hate that.
I continue to fight against showing any reaction, but Julian smiles. He knows without asking. When I made the choice to swap places with Laura, the Dark told me where they took the souls. I was told they couldn’t describe the horror of the repetitive cycle of torture I’d endure for eternity or until I broke and became a demon. My sister would be there if it wasn’t for me and I can’t let Rose suffer the same fate, if that’s what they’re threatening. They can’t leave Rose in the Void because they know I would spend eternity trying to bring her out again. They would have to send Rose to the Dark. To Hell.
In the early days, when I ran from the place the Dark brought me back to, I spent time confused, not knowing exactly what or who I was, but I was determined to fit back into the world in some way. I lived alone before I died, kicked out of home for using drugs when I was a teenager, which sent me further into the scene. The irony is I’d been clean for months before the night Laura died. One relapse and my world was fucked. So the emotional isolation I returned to wasn’t new; I went back to my old life in a lot of ways by blending in and pretending I was still a hundred percent human. I lived on the edge again.
Realising I wasn’t human anymore was a huge shock, something the Dark neglected to tell me when I agreed. I was fucking immortal. There was so much I didn’t know and couldn’t cope with. The worst: the thirst for energy that saw me unable to make friends and interact. The first time I screwed a girl, she died. Not immediately, but I learnt staying in a girl’s bed all night was bad for their health. Permanently. That was the day Lizzie appeared, almost a year after I became Between. I retreated into a life with her, where she kept the humans safe by keeping me away from everything but necessary contact.
Raven stands behind, listening to every word. I look over my shoulder at the betraying bitch. She’s wearing her Lizzie disguise. Twenty years she’s been with me, helping and guiding. She taught me about feeding on Shades, about how to integrate while keeping to the shadows. I lived in that house with her for twenty years and never once suspected. I confided in her on the few occasions I let my guard down; and she kept me alive on the dark days, where I wanted to give in and walk into the Void forever.