My Soul to Reap (Archived)

Blood+

    I didn't land, because I'd never really been falling. Instead I opened my eyes, and for the first time as a reaper I saw. Beside me the battle raged on, and Brie was still sitting with Rina. It was like no time had passed at all. Aryan looked startled, and he actually took a step back. But he didn't say anything. Really, I didn't know what he saw. All I knew was that I was wearing the makeshift dress the three women had given me, and that the bracelet on my wrists suddenly felt very heavy.

It was instinct, something telling me exactly what I needed to do. If I had of listened it might have sounded a lot like the three women, but I was too busy flicking my wrist to hear. The bracelet came off despite the fact it fit my wrist perfectly, and turned three times in the air. It blackened and instead the gold orbited around it in the same shards that had pierced my body moments before. On its two other sides it extended; a long black pole and a curved, glowing golden blade. It fit perfectly in my hand, because somehow I'd caught it. I was lucky Aryan was too stunned to do anything, because I was too busy staring at it myself. It was functionally double-sided, the regular blade of a scythe on one end and then the spikes of gold on the other. It wasn't solid gold like Rina and Brie's had been, because what had before been the bracelet was now a hinge that connected to the handle. The centre of the ring was gold, like it had been made of two separate pieces.

Experimentally, I flicked it to the side. The entire golden part moved, so that the blade was standing straight up and the spikes fanned out on either side of it. I looked at Aryan, digging the pole into the ground and leaning almost casually against it.

"Sorry about that, what were you saying?" I asked, smiling politely. It felt indescribably good to be this suddenly in control, but now that the scythe was ready for battle so was I. The all-consuming rage was creeping back, pushing logic away from my mind. I knew exactly how to fight with it, knew exactly how to kill a vampire. And he knew it.

"Well, that took you long enough," he sneered, because he knew there was no point in playing anymore. We'd been building to this for a while, after all.

The first hit was mine. I swung the scythe in an arc, and even though it should have been heavy I had no problem making it connect with his arm. But he knew it was coming and dodged out of the way. I didn't know what he was fighting with, which put me at a disadvantage. But as I swung again, he only dodged. It only fuelled my anger. How dare he not fight me, after all this? If I was thinking clearly, I would have realized there was a reason he didn't just run at first. But my mind was still clouded over from the change.

Finally, he did run. And I followed close behind. Even though we were getting away from the actual fight, I knew I needed to kill him. Regardless of where our fight would take place. I followed him through the front entrance and then out the door, which is when I finally realized something was wrong. Most of the guests had left, but a good number of them had stayed. And I could see them now, those who had stayed to see the outcome of the fight, lying dead in an ungraceful pile. Pacing around them was a pack of wolves, and I didn't need to guess what had happened. What Aryan had ordered the pack to do. It made me feel sick. I gripped the scythe harder as I pounded down the steps.

He was standing more or less in the middle of the carnage, looking as relaxed as could be. Like I wasn't a threat, like the corpses would shield him. I wanted to laugh and tell him that respect for the dead wasn't something I possessed at the moment, but I stayed silent. I approached the edge of the pile of bodies, and one of the wolves snarled at me. I just glared it down, having learned my lesson about attacking first. We stood, looking silently at each other, and I almost couldn't take the inactivity. I physically needed to fight, a desire burning in what was left of my soul. While he stared at me, his eyes changed.