All Of The Dead (a necromancer story)

Chapter 19: Death

Lucan

I dropped Dana home and when she was safely inside, I drove us home. Tom, as always, was all over Esmeralda and waiting for her to pick him up. She did and walked inside with him.

I was glad it was the weekend tomorrow, as it gave us time to find my witch. While Esmeralda played with Tom on her lap, I saw the mark I’d left her on her neck, claiming her as my mate, and I liked it a lot. I went over and kissed it softly. She smiled up at me and I said, “I might know of a witch who could help me trace the one who made me what I am, I’m going to see her tomorrow if you want to come.”

“Of course, wherever you go I want to go, Lucan.”

Smiling I kissed her and left her to play with Tom while I made us something to drink.

I was busy getting cups down when I felt the air drop in temperature, the place itself felt darker like the lights had been dimmed, despair and sadness was so palpable in the air I could almost taste it, I knew that meant death was here again.

I turned to Esmeralda but she hadn’t realised and was still playing with Tom, that was odd, so far, death usually only came to torment her.

“Lucannnnnn Warlowww.”

F.uck, its voice was depressing as f***k. I saw its dark black figure in the corner of the room, so tall it reached the ceiling.

“What do you want because you can’t have her,” I growled, walking towards it and drawing Esmeralda’s attention.

“Lucan?” She asked.

I couldn’t answer right now, I needed to keep my focus on death.

“You cannot bring back the dead, it is against the laws of nature and the natural balance of things,” death said in that creepy despairing voice.

“Esmeralda wasn’t technically alive to begin with, she was in between both life and death.”

“But the elf was not, one half life could perhaps have been left alone, but a half life and a full life restored is unacceptable.”

“I don’t care that you’re upset because you can’t have one soul.”

“You will when your world starts to fall apart into chaossss.”

“What do you mean?” Esmeralda said, standing beside me.

I put my arm around her waist, holding her close against me, I didn’t like how fast Death looked at her and how focused it was on her.

“You cannot cause a ripple effect by tampering with the natural balance of things and expect there to be no consequences.”

“Consequences as in you chasing me?” She asked.

“Consequences as in more people will start coming back to life when they shouldn’t, more dying in your place.”

Esmeralda looked guilty and scared, and I whispered, “don’t say anything or agree to anything, don’t you dare.”

Death heard me and said, “everything will be restored to its natural balance if she comes back to where she belongs, the othersideeee.”

It moved closer towards her and I snarled, “don’t you f.ucking dare.”

“Lucan, maybe I—”

“No! Don’t f.ucking agree to a damn thing it says, I went through hell to get you back, and I will do the same to find a way to fix this.”

While I was busy talking to Esmeralda, death had crept its way towards her without us noticing until it latched on to her arm. She fell to her knees, gasping in pain and clutching her throat like she couldn’t breathe.

“Let her go!”

Death ignored me and opening up my necromancy allowed me to see more of what was going on, I could see death literally tearing her soul from her body, something as traumatising as that could leave her as one of the damned and I begged, “please! Give me time to find a way to fix this without you taking her, please! Will you not listen to one of your sons!” I yelled, I’d heard death mention necromancers being its children, so I tried to use that to get its attention. It looked at me and said, “fix it how? There is no other way.”

“There must be, there’s always another way.”

Death was silent and then said, “dark magic, a life for a life, could restore things.”

I knew Esmeralda would never agree to such a thing, but I wasn’t her, and I wasn’t losing her, so I said, “yes! Deal, give me time.”

“There is no time, childddd.”

“Give me one year, just one.”

“No.”

“f***k, fine, six months.”

“One month.”

“Two!”

Death released its grip from Esmeralda and I saw her soul snap back into her body painfully as she crashed to the floor unconscious.

“Two months, after that, I take her and you shall not stop me, so far, I’ve allowed you to.”

“Allowed me to? You allowed me to shove you away with my power?”

“I am death, did you truly think you could simply cast away death itself? Two months.”

It left, and I felt the room grow warm and light again. I rushed to Esmeralda’s side, kneeling next to her and checked her pulse, it was there but slow, too slow. Using my power, I placed one hand over her heart and the other over her stomach, it wasn’t a power I used very often, but if someone was on the brink of death, while I couldn’t stop them from dying if that’s what was happening I could help their soul realign itself with the body if it wasn’t their time, but it was struggling to get back in.

Esmeralda’s soul glowed brightly and beautifully, it didn’t have a form right now or any consciousness because she was halfway trapped between life and death, the best way I could describe it was I could see her soul half inside her body and half hanging out like some sort of liquid form, it was complicated for a necromancer to explain, but I got to work and closing my eyes focused.

I started chanting in the language of the dead, allowing my power to very gently flow down my arms, into my hands, and through her, the power flowed through my arms and hands, a pattern like veins along with my tattoos glowing an icy blue and because of my new wolf gene they also glowed a mix of black and an icy sort of yellow like the literal glow of the moon.

The more I chanted, the more they glowed, and my power came to life, the chanting, and words were to encourage her soul back into her body gently, helping guide it back correctly, slowly it started flowing back into her and when I felt silence and calm I knew it was done.

I closed off my necromancy and gently lifted Esmeralda into my arms and carried her to bed. She’d be fine with some rest, but I still didn’t want to leave her alone, I lay down next to her and held her close to me.