Heart and Soul

I would. If she wanted to kill each and every mutt here, I would fight until I couldn’t fight anymore. Whether she believed me or not is a different story, but she forged on. I reached for the warmth pooling on my shoulder, wiping away the blood from her sonic blast; loud ringing noises echoed through my left ear, but I probably deserved it. She needed a friend. Someone to calm her down, to care for her. Can I be what she needs, especially after what she’d done to…?

I stepped to her side as she snarled at Orrin, who seemed nearly unfazed by her, but I knew differently. Even though my left ear drum was more than likely shattered, I could still hear the fluttering in his chest. It was fast and nearly uneven. “Where are they?” She demanded. I grabbed her hand, determined to lend her strength, but she pulled away, crossing her arms over her chest. It was her turn to reject me, and I imagine it would've stung more in the moment if my heart weren't so far away.

“I know why you are reluctant to trust us, Orrin.” He raised an eyebrow. I smirked.

“Do you, Stealer?” A crooked grin crossed his features. “Do tell.”

“Your reputation precedes you, Hound.” I felt the muscles in my body coil together. The mutt behind me stirred from his pain, quietly shaking it off. In our fit of anger, I’d let the Hounds surround us even more. There was no exit now.

“Is that so?” He grinned wickedly, watching my actions. I clinched my fists, not in my usual nervous habit.

“I also know,” I stated while baring my teeth, “that mine precedes me.” Braylon’s growl echoed through the room like thunder. My hands stung as my nails dug into my palms; I knew they could probably smell my blood, but I didn’t care. “Boss sends me to steal from you. He chose me to lead his armies against you in this stupid feud, so you want assurances.” I laughed bitterly. “Let’s be rational. I’m a runaway rebel who also stole his favorite possession. He may reward you for his witch, but do you really think I want to go back to the Pit. Do you know what he does to us there?” I chanced a step forward around Annika, now standing on one of the five steps that led to his platform. “Do you know what I’ve been through?”

“You created the rules,” Orrin responded coolly. “You keep them safe and warm in their beds until their families have said goodbye. We kill people.” Orrin glanced over my shoulder. I imagined Annika cringing before her anger filled that void of trust too.

“If you help me take back what is mine, Orrin…” my dead eyes locked onto his war ravaged vision. He took a step away from me as I pushed my way up another two steps while his animals’ growls roared behind me. “Give me what’s mine, and I’ll no longer be his to control. I will no longer threaten you.”

“What use are you, Nicholai?” he barked. “What use are you if you cannot be controlled?”

“I’m much worse if I am.” I felt that smirk cross my face. The smirk that appeared after he took it, my heart. If looks could kill, I’d have conquered at least four worlds with that smirk alone. I turned my back to Orrin—relinquishing his power over me, for a moment at least—and walked around Annika close to the crowd of hounds. Before he could give the next order, three black hounds surrounded me. Their lips pulled over their jaws bearing their fangs like knives while I looked each one in the eye. People did not challenge the hounds lightly, but I stood there challenging three of his warriors at once.

“I don’t believe a word of your legend, Stealer, you are just another vampire.” He said the last word as if it were poison on his lips. I shook my head before the hound on my left lunged. Without moving a foot, I reached out, my nails elongating into claws, and wrapped my fingers around the beast’s heart. I could practically taste a fresh soul on him, not Maddon’s but a soul nonetheless.

“Dead or alive,” I asked aloud. The question was meant for no one in particular, but Annika cleared her throat.

“Alive, Nick,” she whispered.

“You killed my eardrum,” I retorted as the evil crept through my veins. “You’ll have to speak up.” Adrenaline mixed with rage, pain, and frustration rushed the blood through my body. The hound’s heart beat matched my rapid pulse as we stared one another down for a long moment.

“Release him,” she yelled. I squeezed his heart just a little, watching the color drain from his eyes.

“Stop it!” she hissed. “Please…” Something in her voice shot through me. The feeling reached places I hadn’t felt in decades. I nodded as I let go, letting the animal fall to the ground shuddering. She shouldn’t have done that, not here. I should’ve killed him, but that word…please… The two black hounds back away from their friend, from me. A path cleared before like a blast of fresh air.

“I’ll let him kill the next one,” Annika stated. Though my back was turned to her, I imagined her standing there in front of Orrin, probably closer than I was, her eyes sharp no longer begging for information.

“You will come back here after you’ve retrieved it?” Orrin questioned. His voice slightly shaken, but he did a decent job of hiding it…from Annika at least.

“You’ve disrespected us,” she half yelled. “So, I won’t make any promises.”

“You need us,” Orrin growled.

“No,” I laughed. “I can find others, lots of people hate him.” I imagine the leader of the hounds quivering a bit; I could hear Annika scoff softly.

“We’ll be back, if you give us the directions and do not follow us.”

Orrin talked slowly, clearly. I kept my back to him, eyes on the door in front of me, while Annika took brisk notes. We didn’t need them, but I let her try to follow his words. The place he described—the field of ash trees whose roots wrap together creating a barrier, the dogs can’t dig through it, and the fairies magic won’t work on the trees—was the vampire safe house. I smiled. Of course he’d hide it under my nose.

***

About an hour passed when we arrived at the edge of the field. This place held a dense population of fireflies, so the lanterns weren’t needed here. Their golden light bathed the crooked weaving branches in color. I loved this place; this is where I recovered from my heart removal, where I got the news of Sora’s arrest, and where I ran after she was taken from me. The trees weaved dozens of stories, but ours never made it here. She never made it here.

“She loved this place, didn’t she,” Annika whispered. That wall—the one that was built in a matter of seconds after she’d banished my love to hell—reappeared in my mind, coiled my nerves into live wires, but worst of all it cracked. The softness of her voice and the way she asked the question, sweet and peaceful, stopped the wall from building to its full height.

“She would have,” I answered with a nod before trekking toward the limbs. “I wanted to bring her here, but the boss said it was forbidden.”

“Why didn’t you bring her anyway?” Her eyes were wide with curiosity. I wanted to crumble into myself, to stop talking, breathing.

“She died before I had the chance.” I took a deep breath before I found the trap door I was looking for and pressed my thumb against the sharp white branch. Blood prickled across it before the door unhinged.

“I’m really sorry,” Annika whispered. I shook my head while holding the door open while she climbed into the chamber. I followed her before shoving open the underground door that led into the base of one of the larger collections of branches.

The small dimly lit hallway opened to a spacious room that appeared to be lit by sunlight, but it was the marvel of the fireflies flitting around outside. My ears weren’t sensitive enough to hear the faint beating of my heart, especially not with my left ear out of order. I growled to myself. She watched me carefully.

“It’s here. I know it is.” I took a deep breath. “My heart is surrounding me, but I can’t find it. I can’t hear it.”

“Maybe, I can help with that?” She smiled at me, holding out her hand palm facing the ceiling. “Let me see your hand.”

I offered her my hand, and cringed when I saw how deep the marks on my palm were. Four half inch marks spaced nearly evenly apart crossed the center of my hand like a dotted line. They were red from the incident we had not long ago in Orrin’s compound. She brushed a finger over the scars.

“I need your blood?” Her eyes locked onto mine as I curled my fingertips into my palm and squeezed. The motion was quick and easy, and I hoped she didn’t notice that I was already squeezing my other hand. I opened my hand to revel a slight pool of blood in my palm; she whispered soft unrecognizable words over the crimson mess. Nothing happened for a moment, but then a familiar silvery green light crossed the room.

“Follow it.” She stated as she ran after it. I wiped my hand on my jeans before running after her. Through a secret passageway behind a bookcase there was a room filled with boxes matching the ones I’d put souls in for as long as I could remember. There was a safe in the center of the room, one I’d never seen before.

“That has to be it.” I walked toward it, but as I got closer a weight began to settle in my chest. The emptiness filled with things I didn’t understand anymore. Before I could reach the safe, I fell on my knees.

“What is it?” Annika asked walking toward me. I threw a hand out to signal her to stop, but her feet still clapped against the floor.

“Nick?”

I clutched my shirt, my chest. There was so much pain. Fear filled every ounce of me. It crumpled me like a child after several nightmares. Like someone who’d lost their parents. Like someone who watched the love of his life die before his eyes. Like someone who has lost countless friends over the years due to his own rage, his own stupidity. Memories flooded me, crippled me.

“I don’t want it!” I screamed to the top of my lungs while somehow managing to gasp for air. I realized, at once, that this was going to hurt more than it was going to help. We needed this. The pain. It’s the only way. “I don’t want it,” I cried again before she reached me, if she reached me? I couldn’t tell if her feet hit the ground anymore.