My Soul to Keep

CHAPTER 14



“You need to start practicing calling another weapon. Think of something deadly. Just don’t call the twins anymore,” she said as we exited the mall. I expected her to go back to work, but she didn’t.

“Now?”

“Well, not at the mall. Let’s go to the clearing.”

“Clarisse, it’s dark!”

“Schmuck, you can see in the dark.” Her bug was parked in the handicapped spot right outside the mall. Talk about shallow. I gave her a dirty look as she popped the door with the little key fob in her pocket and started the engine.

“What do you mean I can see in the dark?”

“Come on, I’ll show you,” she said and motioned for me to get in.

We drove the whole way in silence. She turned on the radio to break the awkwardness filling the car. When we turned off the main road, she killed the headlights. For a second, I sat there, completely blind. Moment by moment, everything came into focus. The coolest part of the whole experience was that it wasn’t like looking through night vision goggles. Everything looked almost normal, but had a silvery sheen to it. I stared at Clarisse and she looked over at me and smiled.

“Cool.”

“It is. Welcome to not being human anymore,” she said and killed the engine. She opened her door and stepped out into the chilly night.

I did the same and by the time I caught up to her, her wings were visible and she wore some sort of leather outfit. I looked down at my jeans and T-shirt and figured they were good enough. “What are we doing?”

“We’re going to practice calling a different weapon. I need you to always reach for it, instead of the twin blades.”

“I wish you would tell me what the big deal is,” I said one last time.

“I can’t, Connor. I wish I could, but I can’t. Maybe someday, but not until I get permission. I don’t even want to tell anybody you called them. It would make things difficult.”

“Okay, so what do you want me to call?”

“Call just a normal sword, just one?”

“I’ll try.” I held out my hand, pictured a long, gleaming silver sword, and called it into being. It sat in my hand, just like I imagined. “That was easier than I thought it would be.”

“Good! Now banish it and let’s try it again.”

I tossed the sword into the air and it disappeared with a little pop. I went to call it back again when Clarisse’s hefty sword swung in an arc toward my face. I panicked and called the blade back…and blocked her sword with two of mine.

Two matte black curved blades. Crap. “Clarisse…”

“It’s okay, I kind of expected it. Get rid of them. We need to teach you to call the other one when you’re in danger.”

I nodded and tossed the blades away. Clarisse attacked and they came back. I banished them again and tried calling the silver blade to my hand. Every time I tried, the twin blades made an appearance.

“Concentrate, worm.”

“Let me try something different,” I said and pictured a small hunting knife with a thick blade and a horn handle. I actually owned one just like it. It used to be my dad’s and he gave it to me during my brief stint in the boy-scouts.

Closing my eyes, I pulled. Pop. I opened my eyes and a single one of the twin blades sat firmly in my hand. Shaking my head, I looked up at Clarisse in defeat. I opened my other hand in surrender and pop the other blade appeared. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I do. Darius!” She barely whispered his name, but it echoed around us like thunder.

I looked up and saw the clouds start to swirl with a thick green color reminiscent of soup. They formed a hole in the sky and swirled faster and faster until it looked like a small tornado would form and suck us up into the sky.

“Banish them, worm.”

I quickly tossed them away and heard them vanish into nothingness as the Reaper, Darius, plummeted from the sky and landed on the dirt in front of us on one knee.

He lifted his head and stared at Clarisse quizzically. “No. It cannot be.”

“I’m afraid so, Darius. He bears the blades and cannot call anything else. What do you want to do?”

“Um, excuse me. What’s going on?” They both turned to stare at me.

“Call your weapon, brother. Please,” Darius added.

Just for shiggles I called a Swiss Army knife. It didn’t work, the twin black blades popped into my hands.

Darius bowed his head and I saw his chest swell as he inhaled deeply. He took the few steps separating us and reached out his open palm. I took it he wanted to see one of my blades, so I gently set the handle in his hand. Immediately the skin around the handle started to sizzle and burn. Darius ignored it and brought the blade to his face.

"What is it?" I looked to Clarisse, even though I'd asked Darius the question. She brought her finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet.

"They are different, but the same as well. The Script on the blades isn't the same," Darius whispered, but I doubted he was talking to me.

"What does it say?" I really wanted to know.

"I wish I knew. It is in the language of Creation. I only know the difference because I saw the usurper's blades. The runes are longer."

"The Usurper?" I saw Clarisse's eyes widen as I asked the question.

"Yes. The Usurper. You know the tale, brother. There isn't a mortal in this realm who hasn't heard it. He led us against our cousins and bears the brunt of mortal sin. He is blamed for all, even though he is gone."

"He died?"

"No. He merely washed his hands of everything and fled. None of us was willing to search for him either. It is better this way. Clarisse, you feared for naught. While the blades appear to be the same, they aren't," he said and handed me the blade.

I felt a little better with it back in my hand. They belonged there.

"Thank you, Darius." she said and bowed. I did the same.

He nodded and launched himself back in the air, vanishing with a swirl of clouds and a clap of thunder. "So is everything good now?"

"I hope so, worm. I hope so."

"Good. Because we need to talk…"

"More?" She sighed and sat down in the grass. "What now?"

"The Halloween dance."

"Oh, come on. We'll have fun."

"I'm sure we would, but…you see…Clarisse…"

"You want to go with the mortal girl," she finished.

"How did you know?"

"Because I've been alive for a very long time. There's something we need to talk about first…"

I braced myself for "the talk". My parents had tried to give it to me several times in the past year alone. It never went well. "Clarisse, I know all about that stuff. I don't need to hear it from you, too."

She stopped talking and laughed. Hysterically. "You think I'm going to tell you about the birds and the bees? You moron!" The laughter continued for several more minutes. When she finally finished, she wiped her eyes on her sleeve and gave out a final bark of laughter. "No, you dolt. I need to talk to you about humans. Don't forget. You're not one anymore."

I panicked. I did the first thing any young man would do in this situation. I cupped myself. There. My eyes must have gone completely white and terror must have shown on my face because it set Clarisse off on another long laughter train. I felt stupid and embarrassed. "What?"

"Relax for a minute, Connor. Everything still works. Even as a Fallen, we still um…yeah…you know. I've just got to warn you about becoming too involved with a human."

I raised my eyebrow skeptically. "Why?"

"Because we live forever, they don't. They’ll grow old and die. We won't. All we can do is watch it happen. There's one other thing. Should we ever um, have offspring with a human, the results are bad."

"Like not healthy?"

"Like doomed to suffer until their mortal life is extinguished and they take their true form as a Chosen or Fallen. History is littered with examples. None of them good."

"Like?"

"Goliath. Most of the Greek Heroes. Merlin. Most have considerable power, but never have a happy ending. Humans call them Nephalim. We call them screwed."

"Really?"

"Basically. Their true name is The Cursed, but screwed fits the bill. I can't tell you what to do, but mating with humans is selfish."

"Clarisse! I have no intentions of mating with her. At the dance."

"Just be careful, and fine. Our date is cancelled. But I want my scooter back."