Reapers - Thirteen Brothers

XX - Transference

I begun wrapping the scarf around his neck. If I were to be a good familiar, I would have to learn to be thoughtful. And as futile as most of my efforts had been so far, I really had no idea why I was trying so hard.

Mei told me to be patient. Really patient. Repeatedly, she told me that because of his upbringing, Vincent became very shy.

Vincent snatched my hand rather forcefully. “What do you think you’re doing?"

“Making sure you wouldn’t lose your nose to the cold. There.” I brushed a piece of dried leaf from his shoulder and tugged on his sleeve, towing him to the porch’s steps while he was still too surprised to get angry. “Let’s go. You sure this’ll work?”

“In theory,” he mumbled, still looking a little dazed as he gazed up at the gloomy gray sky, perhaps to watch out for wraiths.

“Okay, let’s do this.” 

I clutched his right arm, trying to remember the technique he taught me last night.

Transference.

It was simple, really.

In order to keep myself from attracting wraiths all the time, all I had to do was to stay as close to Vincent as possible and shift part of my life-force to him temporarily, making him sort of like a safety vault. A safety vault with serious anger management issues.

Easier said than done, judging by how many times I lost consciousness during our little practice. Plus, he was not the most conducive teacher, having that inborn scowl on his face.

According to Vincent, the dangers were high—I could accidentally transfer all my life-force to him and die. But this was the fastest way to do it, and I didn’t want to be stuck in a creepy old mansion of the rest of my numbered days, so I agreed (groveled).

Direct contact wasn’t really necessary. I just have to be not more than five feet away from him at all times while maintaining the transfer link but I didn’t want to take any chances.

I tightened my fingers around his arm. I didn’t notice that they even dug a little into his skin. When he paused to glower at me, I relaxed my grip a little and stepped outside the invisible barrier that protected the whole mansion. Seconds later, a few blurs of black darted into the woods and hovered overhead, screaming at us.

Wraiths.

Squirming, I looked at them from behind Vincent as we took cautious steps to the Cruiser.

“Relax,” he hushed. “Transfer some more to me.”

Closing my eyes, I found the transfer link—like a wispy thread connecting me to Vincent.

With some effort, I willed part of my life force to flow through him. I felt my energy sluggishly seeping away from me, making my vision fuzzy.

Vincent caught me around the waist just as my knees buckled.

“Too much! No. Stay with me,” he urged frantically and gave me a light tap on the cheek.

I tried to keep my eyes open and pulled a little bit of my life-force back to me.

“That’s it. Okay, now try to maintain that level without tearing my arm off,” he instructed, not letting his guard down.

Slowly, I let go of his arm, watching the wraiths’ reaction.

For a second or two, nothing happened.

I ended up screaming in fright when the wraiths veered towards me. I snatched Vincent’s arm and hid behind him, panting as I waited for the transfer link to reestablish.