Veiled Innocence (Book One, The Soul Cycle) (7 page)

She waited for the revelation. At first, several emotions crossed his face before it settled into a look of utter terror. His mouth agape, he stared at her speechless as she floated past him and disappeared into the shadows at the end of the alley. 

The footsteps following her
stopped.   

Her tall black boots kicked up dust as she walked, quiet as the dead.

Behind her, the old man pleaded. There was a loud crack, followed by a
thump
, and the alley was silent, save for the hurried footsteps heading in the opposite direction. 

She knew what would happen to that old man the moment she laid eyes on him. Could she predict the future? Far from it. It was a simple fact of life. He was much easier prey, and besides, he had been close to death anyway. She had only sped up the inevitable.

Oh, well. At least he had experienced happiness for a short time in his wretched life. 

She flattened her body against a wall as a patrol rounded the corner and marched toward her. Her body tingled with the familiar sensation of becoming nothing more than air, and within a split second, she
m
erged with the shadows themselves. The soldiers were so close
that
she could see the pores in their skin, but she was invisible to their eyes, as she was to most anything, save for spirits and other creatures tied to the Realm of Death.

She had only seen spirits a handful of times, but she always sensed their presence.
At first it had frightened her, but now
she barely paid them any attention. They gathered in places of death, floating around as balls of blue light, some brighter than others depending on what type of a person they had been.

Vishka had always been able to sense a person’s
spirit
, whether they were noble, corrupt, timid, or passionate. Her immortality had also heightened that gift, granting her the power to actually see a person’s
soul
, or aura, as strands of light emanating from a person’s body. Each
aura
had a different color. Immortals also had colored auras, but theirs differed in that they were ringed by silver light. Animals, plants, and insects too had auras, usually green, brown, or yellow, the colors of nature.
His
aura
– her master – was the only one she had ever seen glow like liquid moonlight, but she had seen all manner of the rainbow of auras since being in the m
ortal realm again, which was ex
citing and new at first but quickly grew dull.

Once the patrol passed,
she
peeled away from the wall, becoming solid again as she did, and took off in the opposite direction. It looked like the street had not been used in years. She passed a temple where a statue to Erebus, the God of Death, lay knock
ed off its pedestal, His head l
ying a few feet from the rest of His body.

She pried her eyes from the sight of His decapitated head and frowned.
If only it were that easy to kill a god
.

She quickened her pace and turned at an abandoned stable yard, at last coming to a decr
epit wooden fence. Crouching, she
felt along the ground. 

Her fingers t
railed only mud
,
and she growled, beginning to think her lead had misinformed her. False leads and dead ends were part of the job, especially when hunting something as precious and rare as an Immortal, but all the same it annoyed her to no end to think she had wasted more time.

Her fingers patted furtively.
It must be here somewhere.
She had never been a patient woman. One would think a century’s worth of pursuing the same task would be enough to teach one a virtue, but alas
,
she found her fingers racing faster and faster through the slush. At last, they brushed raised metal.

Found it.

She dusted the handle off with her hands, revealing a small square with a symbol of swirls and spirals at its center. It appeared to be little more than a few feet across. Fortunate
ly,
she was slender.

She hooked her index finger around the loop of the storm drain and tugged the cover off, revealing a shabby rope ladder. Her mouth twitched in amusement.
How appropriate they hide like vermin.

Without hesitation, she swung herself over and descended into the abyss.

The hole was not as deep as she originally thought. After a few steps, her boots met with something mushy but definitely solid. She let go of the ladder and settled into the muck.

As she began walking, she found it increasingly harder to keep
an even
pace because her feet kept sticking to the ground. She closed her eyes and merged with the darkness, becoming nothing more than shimmering vapor, and pushed forward with ease.

Ahead, the gentle murmur of running water reverberated around the tunnel – appearing as swirling, dancing threads of teal light – as sewer rats the size of her forearm ran alongside her on the bank, lined in auras of brown. When she reached the end of the tunnel, she found it widened into another filled with a steadily flowing stream. The smell of fresh rain water and rust permeated the air.  

She braced herself and slowly dipped her boot in. The current was not very strong
,
and the water only came halfway up her
calf
, though the bottom was still slippery. Even in her vaporous state, she had to keep one hand on the wall to remain balanced, one of the quirks of the ability.

As she sloshed along, she reviewed the informant’s directions.
Down the ladder, to the right at the river, and past the Hall of the Dead. There you will find Gerard’s underground kingdom.

She licked her lips.

The tunnel grew brighter, and
a cavern emerged, lit with crudely-made torches assembled from wood and oil-soaked cloths. Under each torch was a skeleton speared through with a tall iron javelin, haphazardly protruding from the ground like crooked nails.

She suppressed a laugh, as if this crude display was supposed to scare her.

After stepping
out of the stream,
she completely materialized
and shook her boots free of water. A single faded red carpet, the first color she had seen since her arrival, ran through the center of the corridor, leading to a curtain. She drew up her hood and walked along, ignoring the remains that stared back at her. Spirits, invisible to mortal eyes, floated along the walls and floor. They would be trapped there until one of H
is servants came to dispel them.
I
t was not her job,
so she ignored them. 

Gravel crunched under the carpet as she walked. Laught
er and the smell of abintroth, a foul-smelling wine,
drifted from behind the curtain, growing louder and stronger with each step.

She thou
ght she would slip in unnoticed
when a man stumbled from behind the curtain. He was tall and lanky, no more than a mere boy. A vest hung open on his scrawny chest, and baggy pants clung to his waist with a strip of leather
,
from which dangled a knife. A half-empty bottle hung in his hand.  

She tried to m
erge, but he instantly spotted her, a splotchy black silhouette against the bright torchlight. He squinted.

Swearing under her breath, she
resumed solid form.
Nothing to be done for it now.
She studied the boy with a quirked eyebrow. His aura was dulled to a pale blue, usually meaning there was some drug in his system.

“Ay, who
ah you?” His speech slurred as
he reached for the knife at his belt. It took him a few tries, but he finally unsheathed it. He stumbled toward her, and the blade skirted across his exposed chest. 

She nearly laughed.
At this rate, he will do the job for me.

She didn’t move when he tripped and fell at her feet. His hand felt along her thigh until he found her forearm, which he used to pull himself up. He stood on
ly a few inches taller than she
,
but she kept her eyes on the ground, letting her hood mask her face.   

“
You lost or something, miss?” A grin stretched across his chapped lips
, and his breath reeked of abintroth, which she had always thought akin to rotting fish. Her face remained amused but nonplussed. His hand slid down her waist as he felt along the curve of her hip. “Not bad,” he said, leaning closer. “You, uh, must be here for the boss, eh? A ‘lil entertainment, perhaps?”

She looked up and smiled. “Something like that.”

With one swift move, she snapped his neck. The knife slipped from his hand as his lifeless body slumped to the ground. 

She
kneeled
and examined the knife. There was something scrawled across the blunt edge of the blade, and a symbol made of some sort of crystal was embedded in the hilt. It was the same symbo
l on the storm drain. She could have sworn she ha
d seen it before, but she traveled so much she couldn’t place exactly where.

“What’s going on out here?”

A heavily tattooed man peered behind the curtain, and Vishka quickly tucked the knife away in her waistband. The man glared at her, gripping a large sword in one hand while the other held back the curtain. His gaze was much too alert for him to be intoxicated, and his aura blazed deep orange with flecks of blue.

This must be the guard.

She still
kneeled
by the dead boy’s body.
The man eyed her suspiciously while s
he stroked
his back and cooed to him
.

“Poor dear passed out on me,” she said, taking on the dialect of the Irirahlanian’s, the desert people. She gave him a dazzling smile. “A little too much to drink, I’m afraid. Not that I don’t have that affect on people,” she added with a wink. 

Before he could ask any questions, she stood and unfastened the silver brooch at her throat. In one fluid motion, her cloak fell to the floor
,
and she stepped out of her muddy boots. His eyes grew wide
,
and his jaw hung open.

A filmy black dress clung to the curves of her body, flaring out slightly around her calves, with two thigh high slits and a plunging neckline that nearly reached her navel and lower back. Bands of silver hung around her wrists and ankles. She pulled out the clip that secured her dark hair, letting it fall in long, silky waves past her shoulders. She had been attractive as a mortal, and she let shadows shimmer across her skin, heightening her exotic beauty with a dark luminescence.

For a few seconds
,
the guard just stared, speechless.

She strolled over to him;
her hips r
ocked
sensually with every step. Her face was only a few inches from his when she trailed a long fingernail down his chest. “Do you think he’ll like the dress?”

“Um, I, he… well, yeah. He’ll like it.” He gave her one last appraising look before his face turned serious once more, though his eyes betrayed some of his awe. “You must be the new girl Gerard’s hired. I gotta say, if he ain’t pleased with you – not that I think you’ll have that problem – don’t hesitate to visit my quarters.”

She smiled. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll be very satisfied.” 

The guard smiled back and shook his head. “Right. Well, I’ll go announce you then.” He disappeared behind the curtain. Something rancid
whooshed
behind the curtain flap, and she wrinkled her nose. Sometimes her heightened sense of smell was as much a curse as a gift. 

A minute later, the guard poked his head from behind the curtain and motioned her forward. He held the curtain up for her as she entered the room. 

A hush immediately fell over the crowd. She looked around her, careful to ignore the lusting stares she received as the man led her through the cluttered room. As with most crowds, th
eir auras ran the full spectrum;
only all of theirs were flecked with blue. Vishka’s eyes narrowed slightly.
They’ve all been marked for Death. I wonder if I’ll be the harbinger.

The place was small and poorly lit. Dirt and debris caked the floor, giving it a dingy look. There were at least fifty
men and women cramped in there. S
ome
were
sitting at makeshift tables made from crates and pieces of furniture playing cards, while the rest stood around with pitchers and mugs in their hands. Someone had added red dye to the drinks to make them look like blood. The fresh carcass of a decimated dog lay on an altar made from a washing basin, its yellowed porcelain stained with splattered rust.

No, not rust.
Blood.

Vishka eyed the drinks again. She had seen far stranger things in her time than drinking blood; she was certainly used to its presence. Her skin chilled, surprising her.
I must have walked in on a ceremony.
Not that it concerned her. The deed was done. She made a face at the dog.
Pickings must have been slim that evening.
Trying to hide her amusement, Vishka turned her attention to the rest of the room.