Chapter TWO
Rebecca
It started in Japan.
It had taken me almost two months to get here, no longer able to tag-along with Landon and his friends through demonic transport rifts or on the wings of angels. It had taken a number of bodies, three dozen or more, each scared when I took their consciousness from them, and confused when I released it again. I was getting good at being a spirit, but to be honest, I didn't care for it. Whatever benefits came from being able to slip from shell to shell were lost in the flood of memories I was forced to endure whenever I claimed a new form.
I just wanted to be me. As me as I could be, in this state.
I just wanted to be Rebecca.
Not Reyka, and certainly not Solen. Just Rebecca, the once-upon-a-time child of a vampire and a succubus, who thought she knew the path to true power and with it true happiness. Rebecca, who had needed one of God's own swords to pull the curtains of darkness aside and teach her the real meaning of happiness.
It hadn't been easy getting here. After they had trapped the Beast, I had used the body I had taken - the one that had thrown aside the fiend Izak and saved everything, but had been forgotten in the shock of the aftermath - to try to catch up to Sarah and the Were. It was a futile effort. So many people, suddenly having their consciousness returned. So many others, already dead, their bodies tumbling to the earth as soon as the Beast's power fled them. In the mortal body, I couldn't make them move away from me. I couldn't make them forget I was there.
I considered abandoning the body to follow, but as a spirit I was slow unless I had something to hold onto, a purpose that propelled me forward. Landon was gone, and while the purpose remained, I had lost my beacon.
So I stayed. I tried to get through the armies of terrified humanity, but it was a waste of energy. The Beast had left Mumbai a ruin, the psyche of the people destroyed as only he could manage. It would take years to fix this place, if anything ever could. I wondered how the news would report it. An earthquake. That was my bet. There was enough rubble to justify the excuse, enough fire and destruction and death. Nobody would ever know what had really happened. The dead would stay dead. The Sleeping would continue to sleep.
Two months, but at least I was finally here. I'd been wrong about the earthquake. They'd called it an outbreak of some made up disease and quarantined everything. Nobody in or out. A wall of military kept it that way. I had to abandon my shell then and make my way through the vast expanse of space, little more than the thought of him trapped in there with the Beast to keep me going. I'd never believed in anything beyond myself before, but now I saw God's hand arch across the all of everything. He'd saved me from that dark demise. He put me on the path to salvation.
I just had to walk it.
I hailed a cab outside the airport, still a little awkward in the body of a short, round, Korean businessman with an odd taste for animated pornography. I preferred women because they were more familiar; a better fit, and less jarring to re-live the lives of. I would have chosen a woman, but I was afraid it would make me easier to spot. It was one thing to wander humanity as a ghost. It was another to walk right up to the Nicht Creidim.
I had no idea if they had an artifact that would allow them to see through the shell to the soul behind the wheel. There was no way to be sure they didn't have something that could destroy me for good. I had taken Elyse by surprise, right before she had opened the door to let Landon in. Her possession had felt different from the others, like she had the ability to resist, but didn't. As though she were allowing me to control her rather than being subjugated by my power.
She was strong, that one. I knew that's why I wanted her back. Between her strength and her access to the Nicht Creidim's collection of relics, she was the only mortal on Earth who could survive through what I knew would come next.
What was that, exactly? I'd spent more than enough time trying to answer that question. The top layer was simple enough: find a way to get Landon out of the Box without allowing the Beast to escape with him. Or, find a way to destroy the Beast while he was still inside the Box. I knew he had gone in with another, Charis. I knew he loved her, and would want her to be saved too. I would try for his sake, but she wasn't my goal, he was.
How to do either of those things? I didn't know. I didn't even know where to start. I had seen Landon in Egypt. I had seen him vanish, and I had seen when he returned that he had been given something, a bracelet. Maybe whoever had given it to him could help?
First, I needed a shell. A permanent, mortal shell that could fight the Divine and make it through. That was why I had come to Japan. That was why I wanted Elyse. One step at a time.
The cab dropped me off near the front of the dock. Most mortals didn't know about the Nicht Creidim, or if they did they called them by other names that were incorrect, but close enough. This driver knew what awaited at the other end of the pier. He didn't want any part of it.
"Good luck to you, sir," he said. He was speaking Japanese, but fortunately so did my host. I had the part of his mind that allowed me to do the translation.
"Keep the change," I said, handing him a large bill from the man's wallet. Of course he would have Japanese currency, he was headed here before I took him over.
I shoved the body over across the back seat of the cab, and grabbed the handle with meaty fingers. A soft shove, the door swung open, and I waddled out. The driver didn't waste much time getting out of there, making a tight three point turn and revving away. I stood at the mouth of the dragon and stared down its throat.
I took a deep breath and starting walking forward, retracing the steps that Landon had taken when he'd come for the sword. The Deliverer, sister to the Redeemer, which had pierced my heart and made me whole. Staring ahead into the deepening twilight with mortal eyes, I felt a weakness and vulnerability that I could barely describe. Did humans feel like this all the time? I wondered that often.
The smallest splash behind me alerted me to an attacker. Before, I would have heard or smelled him from a dozen yards out or more. Now, I had just enough time to squat beneath his attempted grapple, and then sweep his legs out with an awkward twist. The motion took him off his feet, but it also brought me off mine.
"Christ!" I shifted, trying to bring the weight under control and put myself back to my feet. I flopped onto my side and shoved with a pudgy arm, feeling the muscles complain. I had only gotten halfway up when a sneaker planted itself in my gut.
"Stay down," he said.
I stumbled to my hands and knees, lifting my head to get a look at him. A younger man, with a ring in his nose and a tattoo on the side of his face. He had short, spiked hair and big ears. "Take what you want," I said, staying still. He was a few yards away. I wanted him to come closer.
"I don't want your money," he replied.
"What do you want?"
He smiled, his teeth extending into sharp points. A vampire. It figured.
"Your blood," he said.
If he were human, I could have just dumped the Korean and taken him. He would have been a better ride. He wasn't, so I couldn't. Jettisoning the body and floating in the aether wasn't an appealing thought just yet.
He started walking towards me, but he looked confused. "This is the part where you're supposed to be afraid," he said.
"This is the part where you're going to be afraid," a voice said from somewhere in the darkness.
The vampire and I both turned our heads, seeking it out. She jumped down from the warehouse next to us, landing softly despite the twenty foot drop. Elyse.
"You're a fool to come around here," she said.
I didn't know if she was talking to me, or to him. Probably him. I waited.
"Who are you?" he asked. He did look a little bit afraid.
"I'm security." She started walking towards us. She was decked out in black, her head covered by a scarf so that only her eyes were visible. They turned my way for only a moment, but I got the feeling she knew who I was.
The vampire's grin widened. "You're hot, so I'm not going to kill you," he said. "I'm going to make you my bitch."
He really had no idea who he was dealing with. I didn't understand how that could be? Even if his family didn't know this was Nicht Creidim territory, they would have known to stay away.
Elyse didn't answer. She pulled an ornate dagger from her hip and threw it at him. He didn't even move, his eyes following the trajectory of the missile while it planted itself in his stomach. I expected the wound to begin steaming immediately, but it didn't. Blood began running out like a river and he screamed from the pain.
"Please," he screamed. "Please help me." He looked down at the dagger in disbelief, and then dropped to his knees. What kind of vampire was this?
Elyse finished her approach, took hold of the dagger, and pulled it from his gut. Intestines trailed behind it and he fell over onto his stomach, dead. He didn't turn to ash.
"What?" The word escaped me without thought.
Elyse knelt and wiped the blade off on his back, and then turned to me.
"Rebecca," she said. "I'm glad you've come. We need to talk."
I stayed on my hands and knees, looking at her. I didn't know what to say.
"How did you know it was me?" I asked at last.
She lifted her scarf back from her head, revealing a bald scalp, her forehead carrying a fork-shaped scar that had been inlaid with gold. A small amount of blood still oozed from the wound around it.
"The secret to seeing spirits," she said. "You aren't the only one."
I stared at it, my eyes wide. "Where did you learn that?"
"As you know, we have quite a collection of ancient scrolls. If Landon had known how many, I'm sure I would have met him sooner." She held out her hand, and helped me to my feet. "If you were trying to look inconspicuous, you failed. If you were trying to look helpless, you succeeded."
I pointed at the body of the vampire. "I don't understand that."
She looked back at him and sighed. "The world is changing, Rebecca. I don't think in a good way. He's the second I've put down this week."
"Shouldn't vampires know to stay away from here?"
"The vampires do. He isn't a vampire. Not a true blood-drinker, anyway."
I was more confused. "I don't understand."
"Come," she said, taking my hand. "I'll tell you everything I know. I think perhaps we can help one another."