Page 31 of A Shadow in the Reaping
Chapter 16
Well shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
That's not good. That's not good at all.
For one, no wonder the Reapers are so pissed. They would have been pissed regardless, seeing as how I killed one of their own. But accidentally killing the wrong one isextrabad. In my defense, I totally thought it was the guy I saw skulking around Anthemoessa when I climbed back onto the island, armed with the sword that killed Aglaope and a spell from Sarno in exchange for his freedom. The Reaper I encountered looked pretty shifty as I watched him rifling through Aglaope's home, so it seemed like an obvious conclusion to draw at the time.
...My bad...
So I guess that's how Ember recognized me, if she was the one that drove the blade through Aglaope's back. I never saw who it was, I only saw the sword of silver and hellfire as it pierced through Aglaope's chest. I only saw the fear in Aglaope's eyes. Not for herself, but for me. But even knowing now that it was Ember, it doesn't answer the question of what she wants, and she must want something. Otherwise, she would have cut me up the second she saw me in House Urbigu.
What's also pretty shit, however, is the obvious conundrum of now wanting, perhapsneeding, to kill Ember, even though she's Ashen's sister. Whether I want to admit it or not, he's growing on me. Sure, it's a little complicated, considering I'm basically lying to him on the daily about my identity. Being bound together by my shitty spell doesn't really help either. Also, there's that tricky issue of me being supposedly dead but actually not, making me the biggest vampire bounty on the planet. Not super straightforward when your new buddy (ughfine, 'crush', but like,mildcrush) is an executioner of immortals. Any way you slice it, killing Ember would go down like a lead balloon.
The one saving grace is that I don't recognize any of the names listed beneath Ashen's entry on the stone. That said, he does have nearly twice as many souls to his name as anyone else in House Urbigu.
Good for you, I write, sweeping a shopping channel hand toward his name. I give him the thumbs up, my face leaden with dead-eyed sarcasm when he looks down at me.
"Yeah, I guess..." Ashen gives the slightest grimace as his eyes shift from mine to the list of names beneath his own. "If it helps to ease your discomfort, this werewolf was an asshole, to use your favorite word," he says, pointing to a name halfway through his list. "You would have hated him. He stabbed me through the eye and killed me in the Living Realm. He sent me back here."
I like the sound of him already. I have a feeling we could have been BFFs. Tell me more. I look up at Ashen and smile as he gives me a side eye glare.What's with this Cole guy? He doesn't have many souls to his name, I write, pointing to the bottom of the stone and a Reaper with only three souls listed.
"He's new. And he's insufferable."
Oh good, I can't wait to meet him. I bet I'll like him too.
The Reaper lets out a quiet groan, his hand pressing to my back once more as he steers us away from the marble slabs. Part of me wants to stay and read the other tablets. I want to see who felled my other sisters, to see who killed friends and enemies and lovers long ago. But my eyes stay fixed to Aglaope's name until we pass the black stone.
We walk to the left of the vestibule and up a set of stairs to the second floor. A sign hangs over the landing,EKIMMUinscribed in black metallic letters.Vampire. We walk beneath the sign and the space opens to a wide foyer, books stacked along the rows and rows of shelves that line its perimeter. On the far wall is a wide marble slab withKUD EKIMMUcarved at the top in the same shimmering gold as the lists of reaped souls in the vestibule.Clan of the Vampire.
I stray from Ashen's hand, drifting toward the marble wall, my eyes fixed to the tablet. Beneath the title, scrolling across the stone, are the names of my sisters. Gunura. Aya. Lamashtu. Nanaya. Ligeia. Parthenope. Thelxiope. Molpe. Aglaope. And lastly, my name. Leucosia. Each of our names is crossed out, either in black or in gold.
My breath is trapped like a beast in my chest. All I can see is everything I've lost. All I can feel is memory, pressing its inescapable weight on my heart.
I sense Ashen next to me and I point to the top of the list. I clutch the journal and pen to my breast with my other hand. I can feel my heart hammering at my black blood, pressing it through my veins.
"The ones crossed in gold are souls that were reaped. The ones crossed in black are vampires that were killed by other means, by werewolves or witches or their own kind. Even by humans, on occasion. The ones without a mark are those that still live, though the list is not comprehensive. There were many vampires made by the earlier generations that are more difficult to track. The list is updated continuously."
I look up at the list of names beneath mine. Many of them have been struck through, and some are unaccounted for which gives me a certain sense of relief. Some live on, like Sora, who I made a vampire in the days when we fought together alongside Tomoe Gozen. If the record that stands before me is accurate, she has managed to survive for seven hundred years despite surely being in the thick of every battle she could find.
"This is one of the vampires that was captured for the creation of the hybrid," Ashen says, pointing to the top of the list beneath Aya's name. "Zara Sargan. She was one of the few first generation vampires left. This is another," he says, shifting his hand to point below Molpe's name. "Arne Larsen, a second generation vampire created in 1066 by a powerful vampire known only as Valentina. She passed much of her strength and abilities to the ones she created, but the line has since dwindled."
I feel Ashen's gaze shift to me, but I don't look at him. I keep reading, absorbing the map of history into my memory. I look for familiar names. I look for those that are missing from the list and I pray they stay hidden. I look for a thread between the two that were taken and myself, but there is nothing I can see that directly connects us.
"Where are you on this list, Lu? Are you here?" Ashen asks, his voice quiet and deep, like a creature surfacing from dark water.
My eyes flick in his direction and back to the stone. Ashen steps in front of me without fully obstructing my view. I feel the heat of his presence. I don't look in his eyes. I keep my gaze on the list, committing it to memory.
"Do you know Zara or Arne?"
I shake my head.
"Which generation are you, Lu?"
I don't make any movement to respond. I look across the first two generations down the line from my sisters and me. Nearly everyone is wiped out, except for Valentina and a vampire I created in Rome named Cassian Agnello.If I was willing to bet, and I am, they’re in as much danger as me.
"Lu..." Ashen says. He steps further into my line of sight, though I still keep my eyes on the marble as I read and re-read the names. "Who created you?"
I shake my head. I honestly don't know who made me, so that part is not a lie. I don't remember my parents. I don't remember any other life. I just remember waking up on the island, on the sand by the sea. It was like I washed up on the shore never having been anything else but what I am.
