Afterlife (34 page)

A trap! I tried to claw at the windowsill, the stones of the
wall, anything, but I couldn’t solidify my hands. My bracelet had been taken
out of its 21J cubbyhole, leaving the greenish copper trap in its place; my jet
brooch was with Lucas, sound asleep, far away. I tried thinking of him as my
anchor — of any of the other places I could go — but it was too late. The trap
was too close, and I’d practically put my hand right into it. As I began
slipping toward the shimmering sinkhole, I tried one last time to call out to
Lucas — but I could only just manage to think his name before everything went
black.

It was like sinking into hot tar. I couldn’t materialize,
couldn’t dematerialize. I had no sense of the world around me, or whether I was
anyplace in either the mortal or ghostly worlds. After I’d died, there had been
a moment like this — and again when I had first traveled to the land of lost
things but those terrible, depthless voids had lasted for only a second. This
stretched on, and on, and on. A suffocation of the soul, made more horrible by
fear.

No wonder they go crazy, I thought wildly, recalling the
many shrieking spirits I’d sensed within Evernight’s traps. It’s going to drive
me crazy, too, any second, and I’ve only been in here a few minutes — or has it
been longer? Would I even know
?Is
this eternity? Is
this the death beyond death?

Make it stop, Samuel had said. Make it stop. The ghost
within him — the one that had been trapped like this — had lost the ability to
think anything else. I would, too. Already I felt myself boiling down to the
desperate instinct to escape, nothing more.

Then, in that formless void, a soft rectangle of light
opened. I rushed toward it, not caring what it was or what it meant: It was
something, in a world of nothing, and that was reason enough.

Then, in the frame of the rectangle, far bigger than life, I
saw Mrs. Bethany.

“Miss Olivier.” She smiled as placidly as ever, but there
was no mistaking the avid light in her eyes. “At last. I’ve been waiting for
you.”

I COULDN’T LASH OUT; I COULDN’T ESCAPE. ALL I could do was
stare up at Mrs. Bethany — at this moment, quite literally the only thing in my
world.

“I had thought Mr. Ross would be the one to bring you to
me,” she said. “But he was more devoted to you than I’d imagined. Then I
finally found your little trinket in the records room — after weeks of
searching — and realized how simple it would be to replace it with a trap and
claim you for myself.”

She had always known about our visits to the records room.
She had always known about me. “How did you know I was here at the school?”

Mrs. Bethany tilted her head, as though she felt sorry for
me. “Based on your past behavior, it was natural to assume that where Mr. Ross
was, you would be also.”

I hated her so much at that moment, I was surprised the trap
didn’t shatter. My anger was hot enough to melt metal.
to
break stone. “I’m the reason you gave my parents jobs here in the first place, aren’t
I
?
You set us up from the beginning.”

“I gave you every chance, you know.” She sounded calm.
Satisfied. “If I enjoyed victimizing the helpless. I’d hardly have founded a
school such as Evernight. Furthermore, I quite liked your parents; they’re fine
teachers. So I felt bound in honor to explore every other possibility. I
changed the admissions policy in order to bring in students attached to other
wraiths, irn case one of those spirits might work equally well. Whenever you
deviated from the path your parents had in mind for you, I urged you back onto
that path. This summer, I told you that throwing away your chances for the sake
of love wasn’t worthwhile. But you would never Listen. You ran headlong toward
your ultimate destiny. And now I am free to act as I see fit.”

“You don’t want to be a vampire anymore,”l said. “But if you
use me for this — you’ll be worse than any vampire.”

“I will be alive.” Mrs. Bethany displayed not a flicker of
hesitation. “An old betrayal will at last be set right. I will be able to die
as I ought to have — as a human woman. And you will be no less dead than you
already are.”

A swirl of light, and the world took shape around me. At
first I thought myself free, and prepared to vanish or run or do whatever I
could — but 219 then I saw where I was.

Mrs. Bethany stood in front of me, trap in hand, in the
middle of a room that shimmered in every color, floor, ceiling, walls. I
realized that it had the exact same dimensions as the records room, but instead
of bare stone and dust, this glittered, deep and translucent. Mother — of — pearl,
I realized. And the copper roof on the south tower — the strange sensation I’d
often detected from the empty room above my parents’ apartment — she’d brought
the trap into the other tower, into this place. And now I knew what it was.

“You turned this entire room into a trap,” I said. Already I
knew I wouldn’t be able to get out.

“My theory is that you can provide the power for many of us
to revive,” Mrs. Bethany said. “You will be returning life to nearly a dozen
individuals, Miss Olivier. Perhaps that is some small consolation.”

I backed away from her. The mother — of — pearl felt
slippery against my feet — but no, that Wasn’t it. I couldn’t be solid or
insubstantial; I couldn’t float, couldn’t run. Everything was in — between,
robbing me of the abilities I could use in either state. Although I had a sense
of place within this trap, it was still a trap, eating away at my very sense of
reality and self. It just took longer. A slower death. No wonder I’d heard the
wraiths screaming..
. .

More gently, Mrs. Bethany said, “Think of it like being an
organ donor.”

I had been able to hear the wraiths screaming, even when
they were
trapped….

With everything I had, with every ounce of strength, I
screamed, both aloud and within my soul, “Help me
!
“In
the scream I put the place I stood, Mrs. Bethany in front of me, everything I
thought and felt and knew. The effort alone seemed to make me less than I’d
been before — as though I had screamed out part of myself.

“The room is soundproofed,” Mrs. Bethany said. “No one can
hear.”

Not with their ears, maybe. But if Maxie or Christopher
detected it, or if Lucas could hear me within his dreams — A rap on the door
startled me into hope. But Mrs. Bethany didn’t seem surprised. She simply held
up the trap and opened it, then set it on the floor. The grayish swimming void
unfolded before me again, and I desperately tried to keep from sinking within
it. As I flailed about wildly, unable to resist, I heard a murmur of voices — hardly
the rescue mission I’d been hoping for.
o
The trap
swung shut. For a couple seconds, I felt a dizzying rush of relief, and I tried
to make sense of what I could see. We remained in the mother — of — pearl room,
but the door had already been closed again, cutting off my chance at escape.
And now Mrs. Bethany and I weren’t alone. Half a dozen vampires ringed the
room, each of them staring at me as eagerly as Mrs. Bethany had. Most were
students; a couple were teachers. None of them were people I knew very well,
but I knew one thing — they were ancient and powerful. Mrs. Bethany had chosen
her accomplices well.

“I do not know how many of us you can resurrect, Miss
Olivier.” Mrs. Bethany reached into the pocket of her long skirt and pulled out
the blade I remembered from Samuel’s transformation. “But for myself, and those
who follow, may I express my most profound gratitude?”

“You can go to hell,” I said.

“We’re vampires,” Mrs. Bethany said, and for a moment I saw
an echo of the darkness and self — hatred I’d glimpsed within Lucas these past
months. “We’re already there.”

“You’re killing me.” I still couldn’t believe it, although
it had begun.

“If it helps, you are also killing me.” Mrs. Bethany smiled,
like that was great news. “I do not intend to live long as a human. This
extended existence has been more torment than pleasure to me. I want only to
die as I ought to have done.”

“To die? You’re doing all this just to — to die all over
again?”

“To die as I ought to have done,” she repeated. A deep
sadness darkened her eyes. “To go where I should have gone, after death, and be
reunited with those I knew in my one rightful life.”

Christopher, I realized. She thinks if she dies as a human,
she’11 be with Christopher again.

She pushed up the sleeve of her lacy blouse, angled the
knife.
and
sliced open the skin of her wrist. Her
vampire’s blood began flowing down her hand, and I felt a crazed hunger unlike
anything else I’d ever known. I didn’t want to drink her blood; I wanted to be
one with it. The instinct to rush into her — to become a part of her and lose
myself forever — was more powerful than anything I could’ve imagined.

Don’t
!
Hold back! Think about
Lucas, think about everyone else you Jove, hold on for them! But as I thought this
and I tried to cling to it with all my strength. I could feel my resolve
breaking down with the rest of me. My humanlike form began turning into cloudy
vapor. Mrs. Bethany lifted her 221 head, triumphant. Soon she would be human
again, and I would
be .
..
nothing
.

Then the door thudded, making the vampires jump. It thudded
again and gave way, splintering wood and mother — of — pearl in a thousand
directions as Lucas burst into the room, crossbow in hand.

Either he instantly understood what was happening, or he was
going to kill Mrs. Bethany first and ask questions later. Lucas shouldered his
crossbow to fire, but Mrs. Bethany lunged for him, pushing the crossbow up so
that tl1e arrow smacked the ceiling.

“Let her go,” Lucas said as they struggled for the weapon.

“She is no longer yours,” Mrs. Bethany said, shoving him
back. “She is mine.”

The other vampires began to go after him, too, but Lucas
hadn’t come alone. Balthazar and my mother smashed through what remained of the
door; Balthazar had grabbed his fencing foil, and Mom just seized the vampire
nearest her and punched him hard.

As I swirled, disoriented and unable to resist, the fight
intensified around me. To me, it seemed to be happening in slow motion,
dreamlike and yet more terrifying for the clarity of the violence. I caught a
glimpse of my father, wielding a broken chair leg as a kind of stake. I saw
Balthazar go Skye didn’t budge. She was a lot cooler than most people would be
in a situation like this, but then again, she’d grown up in a haunted house.
Maybe it came with the territory. “You said Bianca. That’s the girl you loved,
the one who died — she’s a ghost?”

“She’s a ghost and she’s trapped and we’re getting her out
of here,” Lucas said, never taking his eyes off me. “Now you get out ofhere,
too
!
”

Instead, Skye took a couple of steps forward and spoke again
— this time, to me. “Bianca, come into me. Like the spirits did at the ball.”
She wanted me to possess her? Could I do that?

“What are you doing?” My mother tried to push Skye back. “This
is dangerous!”

“I know what it is to lose somebody,” Skye said. “If anyone
could do this for my brother. I’d want them to try. So I’ll try. Bianca, it’s
okay. Come on! Do it!”

I let go of my vapor self and let the swirling energy in the
room carry me down toward Skye. Everything vanished — and then suddenly I felt
hard stone against my back, and pain. I tried to inhale, but the breath had
been knocked out of me — Breath. Pain. A heartbeat. I opened my eyes — her eyes
— and looked up to see my parents and Lucas kneeling above me. “Bianca?” Lucas
said, hesitantly.

“It’s me,” I said. “It’s us.”

Because Skye was there with me, totally. This wasn’t like
possessing Kate; Skye had welcomed me, and because of that, her spirit and mine
existed side by side. Although she was frightened — her heartbeat fluttering as
fast as a bird’s — she didn’t flinch.

Thank you, I thought to her.

She thought back, You’re welcome. But shouldn’t we maybe
run?

“Good plan,” I said. Her voice sounded so strange as mine. Lucas
and my parents stared at me, and I grabbed on to Lucas’s hand. “Let’s go. We
have to save Maxie if we can.”

“We should just get out of here,” Mom said as Lucas helped
me to my feet. I was startled to be able to look him directly in the eyes; Skye
was taller than me. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry about your friend, but we have to
think about your safety.”

“Maxie didn’t think about her safety when she came after
me,” I said. “Besides, Vic’s trying to help her. Are you going to make Vic go
up against Mrs. Bethany alone
?
”

Lucas guided me toward the door. “No way. Come on.”

My mom and dad glanced at each other for a second, but they
followed us. Now that I was enclosed in Skye’s body, as though it were a warm,
living suit of armor, the trap room had no more power over me; leaving was as
simple as taking the stairs. Of course, those were a little clumsy — I didn’t
wholly know how to move in Skye’s body yet, and both of us were shaky after
what had just happened.

As we started going down the stairs, I said, “Was it Maxie
who told you where I was?”

sliding
across the floor, grimacing
in pain before staggering to his feet. Lucas reclaiming his crossbow and firing
— Mrs. Bethany smoothly dodging the arrow that sank into another vampire, with
a plume of blood and the vampire’s cry.

Vampire’s blood, drawing me in, dragging me further down
into nothingness.

Beyond the trap, I heard Maxie’s voice. “Bianca! You have to
get out of there! Come on!” I could just make out her form as she stood on the
very edge of the room, risking her own existence to try and help me. A few
other faces appeared behind her — female students who lived in the upper floors
of the dorm, no doubt startled by the noise, and Vic, who appeared to be trying
desperately to get those students to go someplace safer.