Reapers -- The First Familiar (Reapers Chronicles Book II)

10 - Reunion

Flustered, I cleared my throat and tried to steady my voice. My fingers involuntarily tightened around his freezing hand.

"Vincent... Can you hear me?" I murmured, leaning closer to him.

Still, Vincent did not respond. He kept staring up at the small window, motionless as a statue, seemingly forever frozen in his waking dream. From outside the cell, Byron Flynn circled, huffing softly as if telling me to hurry. We were lucky there weren't any guards on our way here. It made me suspicious. But no one was complaining so far. We might not get lucky on our way back so we had to hurry, though.

"Vincent!" I hissed in panic, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. "Wake up... Please wake up!"

He hadn't heard me. Had I lost him? Was I too late?

No way. I couldn't accept that. Not now that I had come this far, that I had finally found him. Or else, all the sacrifices everyone had made, everything that used to matter would lose all meaning.

Mindlessly, I cupped his face in my hands, forcing him to face me. Then I looked hard into his opaque eyes, trying to search for the long lost Transference Link between us. He wasn't wearing the Diviner's Amulet but I was hoping that maybe he would hear me.

Struggling to keep my focus, I let my consciousness drift slowly. I let it flow through him and as if in total darkness I began looking for him. The link was so weak it was almost faltering; a severed tie that was nearly impossible to fix. In his mind, all I could sense was an endless night. There was nothing to see, nothing to feel. His thoughts were so quiet I wasn't even sure if he was still in there.

When searching proved to be futile, I tried calling for him but no sound came out when I opened my mouth. It seemed that he had already shut his mind from everything, including me.

Again, I pushed forward, trying to break the walls he had created to isolate himself from the rest of the world. No matter what I did, the defenses wouldn't cave in. I clenched my teeth and kept pressing on. My head was already throbbing with the struggle.

"Vincent," my mind cried out, almost like a plea. "I'm here. Come back... Please come back to me." The words reverberated in the empty space of Vincent's consciousness. "Please. Please. Please..."

I let go of his face and let my hands fall to my side. The lump in my throat kept rising up and I didn't know if could hold it back any longer. It was no use.

Weakly, I turned to Byron Flynn for some answer, for the help that I knew wasn't coming. The over-sized dog just sat there, staring back intently at me as if waiting for something to happen.

"He's not listening, boy..." I murmured miserably. "Maybe we should just take him with us and let Vlad-"

I almost swallowed my tongue when I turned my attention back to Vincent. My heart almost stopped when I saw his intense gaze fix on me that it was almost like they were boring holes through my skull. For a short while, his eyes stayed that way-very still nonetheless hateful like an animal's, like he was about to eat me whole. At first they made me terrified. There was no getting used to a Reaper's glare, I guess. Then I remembered that this was Vincent. I trusted him to do me no harm. Trusted him with my life even.

"You," he growled through his teeth, his whole body shaking with what appeared to me as wrath.

I had no idea what he was so mad about. But then, Vincent was always angry about everything. Nothing I could do about that.

Abruptly, he grabbed me by the arms, his fingers digging into my flesh. He breathed in and out sharply, his eyes widening like a fish being brought out of water. Then his gaze slowly mellowed, shifting from corner to corner before finally focusing on my face with some hint of recognition.