Page 22 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 2

Theo was sprawled in an armchair, one leg up over the armrest, the other stretched out on the floor. They were playing a video game on their handheld console, and I heard a tinny ‘yahaha!’ come from its speakers as I hovered in the doorway. I rapped my knuckles on the doorframe, and Theo pressed a button and looked up at me.

“Hey,” I said awkwardly. “Can we talk?”

Theo considered me for a moment, then nodded. They set aside the console and waved a hand at the chair across from them. Of all the vampires who lived with Gabriel, Theo was most comfortably adapted to modern clothing. They were wearing a Henley and jeans, with colorful socks beneath the neatly folded cuffs. It might have been easy to forget exactly how old they were, but the confidence of their posture and the coldness of their expression made it clear. This was someone who had seen kingdoms rise and fall. Being allowed to forget that was a privilege I was no longer allowed.

The leather creaked under me as I sat down, and I fidgeted with the cuff of my sweater.

“You said you wanted to talk,” Theo said. “So, talk.”

“I’m so sorry,” I blurted. “It was an accident, but I know that doesn’t make it better. The curse was going wild, but I still need to take responsibility for what I did, and, and, I don’t expect you to forgive me for it, but I thought I should clear the air and?—”

Theo held up a hand. “Whoa, okay. You also need to breathe. Humans need to breathe, so you should probably… do that.”

Behind them, the Ugly Statue Room’s titular Ugly Statue leered at me. It was a horrible bust of either a very ugly old man or a very well-dressed, shaved orangutan. It wasn’t helping with my composure.

I sucked in a breath and blew it out again too quickly. At Theo’s prompting glare, I did it again, slower. It did help a bit.

“So, you killed me,” Theo said. Their tone was usually harsh, and I hadn’t gotten to know them well enough to tell when it was or wasn’t playful. Now, though, they were speaking surprisingly gently, especially given their words. “It’s not like it stuck.”

I blinked at them.

“I’ve died a bunch of times,” Theo told me with a one-shouldered shrug. “That one wasn’t so bad. I mean, it did suck, but it wasn’t as bad as being hanged. Or burned at the stake. Or… You get the idea.”

“You’re…” I felt severely off-balance. I didn’t know how I’d thought this conversation would go, but I hadn’t pictured anything like this. “I figured you’d be furious.”

Theo scoffed. “Are you gonna do it again?” they asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I—What? No!” I sputtered.

“Then, we’re fine,” they said. “You apologized, and you’re not gonna do it again. It was a quick, clean death, and I didn’t even scar.”

I shook my head, baffled.

Theo’s face shifted, showing their age again. “Was it your first time?” Their raspy voice was somber. I got the sense they’d asked that question before.

I shook my head, locking eyes with the Ugly Statue. It was easier than meeting Theo’s gaze. “It’s always been in self-defense before,” I murmured. “Or, you know, setting a ghost free. Ending a curse.”

“Not the same,” Theo said.

“No,” I agreed. “Not the same.” I cleared my throat. “You’ve…?” I asked, and they nodded. “How many?”

Theo sighed and shook their head. Gabriel had mentioned once that Theo had been a soldier, and it was all too easy to picture them having that talk with the new recruits. They were brash in a way I could see being comforting. “There’s a point,” they said quietly, “where you stop counting.”

We sat in silence for a moment. It wasn’t uncomfortable, which surprised me.

“Wait, hang on. You were burned at the stake?” I asked.

Theo grinned. “Oh, yeah. Officially, it was for ‘dressing in the cloths of a lord’, but unofficially, it was for having a threesome with the lord’s wife and her lady’s maid. Oh, and also for stealing a bunch of stuff. Like, a ton of stuff. Lotta gold.”

“Huh.” I blinked. “Worth it?” I asked after a beat.

Theo’s grin widened. “Oh, absolutely worth it,” they said with relish. Their smile faded, and they looked me in the eye. “Look, a couple of the times I died, it was for some dumb war, or because of some stupid shit I did. Most of the time it was because of, you know…” They waved a hand at themselves, a gesture that brought my eye to their short hair, their flat chest, their chipped nail polish, the pride stickers on the back of their game console. “You killed me because you were scared and cornered. I’m not gonna hold a grudge. I’ve survived worse than you, Evangeline.”

“You shouldn’t forgive me just because you’ve been through worse,” I said.

Theo smiled again, tired and small. “Probably not,” they agreed. “But I’m going to, and you can’t stop me. So, you’re gonna have to find a way to live with that.”

The only way to shake myself out of the uncomfortable, pensive mood the talk with Theo had left me in was to find something else to throw myself at. Time was flying by, too, and I wanted to get to Gabriel as soon as I possibly could. I figured the best way to start was by finding the self-appointed brains of the operation. It didn’t take long to track her down.

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