8 - Ryet
Too much is the only answer.
I go outsideand start making my way to the lab, my mind still caught up in the dreamwalk this morning. The three of us. I’ve never been interested in Paul that way and if you had asked me a couple of weeks ago whether or not I’d be up for sharing my girlfriend with a demon, it would’ve been a firm no.
Which bothers me.
Not really the ‘no’ part. Well, that too. Paul. I dunno. I can’t go there right now.
It’s mostly just the fact that I can’t count on anything anymore. Reality is so… unstable and unreliable. And it makes sense, I guess. I did turn into a vampire and I am living in some sort of second body.
That’s another thing, too. Second body? Paul did explain it. Kind of. He was all, “you could split yourselves” and “be in two places at once” and “walk away from your soul.” Which, looking back, really should’ve been the flashing red warning sign where I focused all my attention.
Walk away from your soul? What the fuck? Soulless? And we agreed to this.
It was the blood lust, I’m sure of it. Blood. It makes you do weird shit.
This last thought is still swirling through my head when I realize there’s no one around. Like… no one. I stop on the walking path and look all around. Empty. Every trail, every path—just empty. I’m kind of in the woods now, so I lean to the side, trying to get a glimpse of the clearing up ahead where some shops are, but again, no people.
I throw up my hands. See? This is what I mean. Un. Reliable. I need some stability here. “Where is everyone!” I yell this into the forest and it echoes back in a weird way, like my own voice mocking me.
“Funny you should ask.”
I whirl around and find Paul sitting on a bench about twenty feet behind me. “What the hell are you doing here? And… nice coat.”
“Isn’t it though?” He grins as he straightens the lapel on his fur coat. An actual fucking grin. Which is so out of character for him—his usual expression is more of an evil smirk—that it knocks me back a step. Because… it looks good on him, that grin. “It’s wolf. It’s not real, of course. It’s made of magic purple dreamwalk.” He looks down at his left shoulder and brushes a leaf off the coat. “But I’m having one made just like it back at the compound.”
I blink my eyes and shake my head a little to snap myself out of whatever trance I’m falling into, then point at him. “How are you here?”
“How do I get anywhere, Ryet? I dreamwalk it.”
“I understand that. But it’s not answering my question.”
“Because you haven’t asked that question yet, Ryet.” He pauses here to smile at me. Not a grin or a smirk. Just a smile. Kind of a sad one. “You’re afraid to ask that question.”
I blow out a breath. I know what he’s gonna say and I don’t want to hear it. I really, really don’t. So instead, I say, “I can’t live like this.”
“Good news.” He beams. “You’re not.”
I shake my head. “I can’t do it, Paul. I really can’t. I’ve lost all sense of reality. I have no idea where I am, or what I am, or who I am.”
Paul stands up and walks towards me. Our eyes are locked together as he approaches. We stand, facing each other, mere inches apart. He speaks first, pushing a piece of hair away from my face like I’m his fucking lover and he’s trying to be tender. “It’s temporary. I told you that. Remember? It’s all temporary.”
I think back to a conversation we had not that long ago.“If we had a herd,”he said, “it would be easier. Right now, all we have is Syrsee. So we must share. It’s temporary. Black witches are hard to farm.”
I turn my back to him and stare off into the forest. “We’re not here, are we?”
“No.”
I turn back, furious. “Why? Why are you doing this? Are you trying to make me insane?”
Paul laughs. “Insane? Dear Ryet, I’m saving that mind of yours this very moment. You’re doing remarkably well—thanks to me.” Now he glares at me. “But I’m glad you brought it up.”
“I didn’t bring it up,youdid.”
He waves a hand in the air. “Regardless. If you don’t pull back and rein it in right now, you’re going to decapitate our one and only Black witch. And while I see the draw of this act—all that Black blood all at once would certainly be the feast of a lifetime—we don’t have a backup food source. So.” He throws up his hands. “That’s why I’m here. Pull back, Ryet.Right now.”
And then he’s gone.
