Surrender the Void Read online

  “Is your brother stupid?”

  I furrowed my brows. “What? No.”

  Smoke suddenly hit my face. I wrinkled my nostrils and tried to keep from coughing.

  “Just you then?”

  My patience waned. I clenched my teeth. I didn’t like to be insulted, and he had already called me an idiot three times. Anger was the only thing that seemed to override my fear, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. I took a step forward, even though I didn’t have any clue where the shade positioned himself.

  “How do I know you’re even Keaton?” I asked. “He would have-“

  Without warning, the voice materialized out of thin air right in front of me. He was half a head taller than I was, with wild blond hair tinged with a green color that stuck up at all ends like he stuck his finger in an electric socket and got shocked. Eyes were green with…evil was the only word I could think of that accurately described the beady irises. A chiseled jaw, lips bared over teeth that looked like they hadn’t been brushed in a while. Something was one his face, something dark and green and looked almost like mold. I noticed a couple of patches of the same substance on his neck. His shoulders were broad, clothed in an ill-fitting black suit and bright red pinstripes.

  “Fucked you so hard against his own crypt, made you scream in both fear and pleasure, before ripping your body completely in half?” he asked in a low, gravelly voice.

  I sneered with disgust. The man was dead. I knew that. And he wasn’t classically handsome - at all. But there was something intriguing about him, something that didn’t have me throwing up in my mouth at the crude words he slung at me, probably hoping for some sort of reaction.

  I was more astounded by the fact that I could feel his breath on my face. I didn’t know anything about Heathens. The professors wouldn’t talk about them. Shades couldn’t breathe. They couldn’t touch. They couldn’t do anything except haunt. But if this was Keaton, as a heathen, I wasn’t sure what to expect from him.

  “What can I say, babes?” He stepped back, shrugging his shoulders, and grinned like a jack o'lantern. “You’ve piqued my curiosity. And for a breather, that shit doesn’t happen.”

  I swallowed. I wasn’t sure whether to take this as a good sign or not. The fact that I was still alive was certainly a relief, but if this truly was Keaton, I knew wickedness made up whatever the hell he was now. Because it definitely wasn’t a shade - at least, not based on what I knew about shades.

  “So,” he said, taking a step back and dropping those supernatural green eyes to his nails. “What do you want? You said something about a brother?”

  I cleared my throat. “Y-yes,” I said. My heart skipped a beat and I tried to find the words that would help persuade him to my cause. Maybe it was naive of me to hope, naive of me to think someone like this creature would be inclined to offer assistance not only to a breather but to a Keeper, but I had to try. And he seemed willing to hear me out. Which meant I had to take advantage of that. “My brother. He was, well, when I was seven, my parents were killed by shades and my brother was taken by them.”

  The ghost gave me a flat look. “Impossible,” he barked.

  I furrowed my brow and took a step towards him. “It’s not impossible,” I said. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

  “Do you know what you’re dealing with, babes?” The ghost gave me a long look but there was nothing lecherous about it. His teeth were clenched, annoyance tightening the muscles on his face.

  Without warning, the ground started to rumble. I dropped my eyes away from him to look at the floor, like I could somehow see the cause of the disturbance. Somehow, it got even darker, so dark where I couldn’t make anything out in front of me. I waved my hands but I couldn’t see them. My heart increased its pace, beating rapidly against my chest. Suddenly, I realized how stupid I was. I was in his crypt. Even if this guy wasn’t Keaton, he was still something. And it was Samhain, when the walls between realms were at its thinnest. I thought I wanted this. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get information on Richard.

  But I was an idiot.

  What good was information going to do if I was dead?

  “Maybe mind that pretty little mouth of yours, hmm?” Suddenly, the ghost was in front of me, invading my space, overwhelming me.

  Goosebumps crawled all over my skin. The temperature of the crypt decreased dramatically. Power radiated through my body - but not power from some inner part of me I could suddenly channel.

  No.

  This was all him.

  “You really are -“

  I stopped myself before saying his name.

  He gave me a lopsided grin which didn’t quite reach his hollowed eyes.

  “Go ahead, babes,” he said, leaning in. The smirk was still on his face, but this time, his eyes narrowed slightly. “Say it. Say my name, and then say it twice more. Get me out of this Hell.”

  I pressed my lips together and shook my head. I felt young, ridiculously childish. I had made stupid decisions before but never this stupid. I couldn’t believe I listened to Graham. I couldn’t believe I let him convince me that shades were locked up in this crypt - not just Keaton but all the shades the Keepers had ever rounded up and took in their custody.

  Mattie was right. The Keepers took me in, raised me, and the first opportunity I had to betray that, to betray them, all because I wanted information on my brother, I did it without hesitation.

  Who was I?

  I decided I needed to get the hell out of here. Without thinking, my eyes jumped over to the entrance of the crypt before they slid back over to Keaton. He continued looking at me - he was always looking at me - and his lips slowly curved up into a wider smirk. This time, he bared his teeth, like some sort of wolf animal.

  “You want something.” He said it as though it just dawned on him that I was here for a reason other than morbid curiosity or his disgusting company. Even though I told him what I wanted, he still didn’t seem to hear me. “Something about your brother? You said shades took him?”

  “And you said it was impossible,” I said, placing my hands on my hips. “Look, I should go. I shouldn’t have come.”

  “What?”

  The walls between worlds were thinnest during Samhain. That was probably why I could feel him.

  Then again, I was beginning to suspect this was Keaton. Not just a shade hanging out in his crypt but Keaton himself.

  I needed to get out.

  Now.

  “I shouldn’t…” I ran my fingers through my hair, trying not to be scared. Predators fed on fear, and the way his creepy green eyes took me in, I was certain he saw me as prey. “I need to go.”

  “You just got here,” he said.

  “Yes, but -“

  I made a run for the door, but his hand shot out and snagged my wrist. He pulled me to him so I was pressed against a surprisingly solid chest, even if the gut was slightly round in comparison.

  I swallowed.

  I shouldn’t be able to feel him at all.

  “I’ve been thinking,” he said slowly, cocking his head down and forcing me to look at him. “What say you and I make a deal, hmm?”

  3

  A deal?

  My mind flashed to my history class from earlier this month. Keaton wasn’t unfamiliar territory. Though no one ever dared speak his name, his legend rocked the Keepers to their very core, partly because he wasn’t even king of Hell and partly because no one knew what actually caught him. He brimmed with unmatched power, and only adhered to the laws of the supernatural. He was dead. No one knew what he died of, only that even with his power, he couldn’t transition back to earth without binding himself to a living soul.

  He was also notorious for his silver tongue. I had taken it for granted until coming to experience it directly. I, myself, had forgotten that he was Keaton, a brutal ghost who could string me to ribbon and bathe in my blood, who would be fascinated to hold my beating heart in the palm of his hand.

  Deals with Keaton ne
ver ended well. Apparently, there was only one person who got out of a deal with him, and his wrath was worse than even Satan’s.

  “Come on, babes,” the ghost said, sliding behind me.

  I could feel his shoulder brush my back and I straightened. It still unnerved me that I could feel him at all. Such a thing was not supposed to be possible. He was supposed to be transparent in every way. The Keepers had him in his crypt. Why keep that from us?

  “Cat got your tongue?” he continued. “Want me to try and find it for you?”

  Before I could help myself, my face twisted up with disgust. “I know where my tongue is,” I snapped. “I’m thinking.”

  “Well, don’t think too long,” he said, jerking his thumb at the door. “Your friends are trying to figure out a way to get inside here, and if they want something I can give them, I’m going to make a deal with whoever can give me what I want.”

  I furrowed my brows, tilting my head to the side. “What do you want?” I asked before I could stop myself.

  I shouldn’t care. This was Keaton I was talking to. The epitome of danger and evil and everything we should be frightened of. And yet, I couldn’t help my curiosity. After all, we didn’t know anything about him.

  Not really.

  Which was crazy to me since he was locked up in his onyx crypt.

  Did the Keepers not care to ask him? Maybe they wouldn’t believe him. He was pretty slick. I could see why they wouldn’t bother.

  Still...It felt like a wasted opportunity.

  “I want, babes, what I’ve wanted the last hundred years of my life,” he said slowly, standing in front of me in a blink.

  I nearly stumbled back, only to realize I had nowhere to go. I hit the wall behind me. If he planted his palms on either side of my head, he’d cage me in.

  “I want out.”

  The t at the end of the word was a crack in the silence. His eyes narrowed, and despite his bedraggled appearance, there was a gleam of unhinged fury inside of him. He was dangerous.

  Obviously.

  I knew that. I learned that.

  The Keepers had been repeating this over and over since they took me in. But I didn’t actually get it until now, until I experienced it for myself.

  “And, in exchange for helping me out, I’ll get you everything you want to know on your brother,” he said, his tone casual and indifferent. He was still entirely too close to me, but it was like he was a completely different person. Like he was a calm, rational businessman and not some slimy, skeezy, heathen.

  I swallowed, trying to figure something out. Maybe if I could ease away from him, get to the door, I could escape. He said my friends were just outside, hadn’t he? Which meant I wasn’t entirely alone. The thought gave me hope, even if it was just a spark of it.

  “You said it was impossible,” I said slowly, catching his eye. “I told you what I thought happened and you said it wasn’t possible.”

  He shrugged. “What do you expect?” he asked, pulling at his collar. “I’ve been down here for a century. I’m not completely on the up and up. And the Keepers ain’t exactly reciting the truth, are they?” He arched a brow, daring me to contradict him.

  “So...what are you?” I asked slowly. “Some kind of ghostly Rumpelstiltskin? Offering me deals for something in return?”

  “Not sure what a Rumpelstiltskin is, but the only deal I’m offering is the one that’s going to get me out of this crypt,” he said. “You want information on your brother? I’ll get it for you. You just have to promise I get out. Hear me?”

  “How can you get information on my brother?”

  He blinked. “How?” he asked. “What do you mean, how? You know who I am, don’t you? Shouldn’t that answer your question?”

  “No need to get so defensive,” I said, holding up my hands. “I’m just saying, you’re trapped in the crypt. How can you get information from here?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “You saying you don’t trust me, babes?” he asked, his voice flat.

  “You said it yourself,” I replied. “You’re Ke- you are who you are.” His face fell when he realized I wasn’t going to say his name. Luckily, I remembered myself and promptly corrected my mistake before it turned dangerous. “I can’t trust you. That would just be stupid.”

  “I’m a man of my word,” he said. There was something about how he said it, like he was offended I would suggest anything else. For some strange reason, I actually believed him. I did believe that he would do anything to get out. Which was why there was no way I could make any sort of deal with him.

  “How do I know that?” I held my breath and sidestepped around him. I was trying to be casual about it. “I don’t know you.”

  “Oh, don’t you?” He stepped towards me, waving his arms around. “You Keepers think you know everything. But you’re being fed bullshit and you’re too stupid to see it. You want the truth? Keepers hunt shades for nefarious fucking reasons. That’s the truth. They experiment on us -“

  “You?” I furrowed a brow. “You’ve been experimented on? But how? You’re…” I let my voice trail off. I could touch him. I could feel him. It would be stupid to think I was the only one who could.

  I swallowed and turned away. Stupid, to expose my back to him, but I didn’t want to look at him. I didn’t want to feel sorry for him. In fact, I didn’t want to feel anything for him at all.

  But the word experiment, the thought that maybe the Keepers had done something untoward…

  So what if they have? Do you forget who you’re dealing with? It’s Keaton! It’s not just any old shade, it’s Keaton. Even if what he’s saying is true, so what?

  I frowned at my callus thoughts. Even if Keaton was rotten to the core - and there was an overwhelming amount of evidence that said as much - that didn’t mean we had to be just as cruel.

  Right?

  Were bad people afforded the same liberties as the good?

  I pretended, for a moment, how I would feel if he was a prisoner. Would I still be against the experimentation?

  I supposed it depended on the crime.

  But if that was the case, who drew the line? I had no business doing it. I could justify some types of murders but rapists and child abusers would get the fucking electric chair every damn time, no question.

  “I can hear you thinking, babes.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Stop calling me that,” I said off-handedly.

  “Why?” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Might like it?”

  “I might puke in my mouth is more like it,” I drawled.

  Keaton smirked a slow, small tug of his mouth before he chuckled. The sound caused my stomach to drop and I shivered despite my best effort not to.

  “You know what? I like you, babes,” he said, emphasizing the little moniker at the end.

  I scowled before reminding myself that this wasn’t some asshole I studied with at the academy. This was Keaton. Keaton. I didn’t understand how I could go from being consumed with an icy fear that clutched at me in a vice grip and bantering with him like we were leads in a romantic comedy. It was exhausting.

  “You’re not afraid of me,” he said. I heard a snap, and I turned, ready to defend myself only to see him lighting a cigarette dangling from his lip. “And I like that in a woman. You’re feisty.”

  I wrinkled my nose.

  “It’s why I think you should seriously consider my offer,” he said, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and pointing his fingers at me. “Believe it or not, babes, I can get you what you’re looking for. I just need something from you in return.”

  “And how am I supposed to get you out?” I asked, throwing my hands up.

  He furrowed his brows. “You mean, they haven’t told you?” He seemed genuinely perplexed by that, and something in my chest stuttered. If something perplexed him, this heathen who knew if not everything then most of everything, I wasn’t quite sure how I was supposed to feel about that.

  “Told me what?” I asked. “The only thing the Ke
epers have said is not to interact with shades because we’re not ready to capture and detain, and we definitely shouldn’t interact with you.”

  He grinned, his gnarled teeth looking like a jack o’lantern. “And yet, here you are.” He swept his arm out like he was some nameless model on a gameshow, revealing a grand prize to the contestants.

  “I told you,” I said, my voice quiet. “I thought…” I let my voice trail off. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I just wanted information on my brother. You said you could give that to me.”

  “I said it was possible,” he said, sticking up a finger. “For one, your Keepers sure as shit aren’t as open about the demonic hierarchy as I assumed they were. And considering you don’t seem to know what they do to us once we are detained…” He cocked his head to the side at an odd angle. “You ain’t shitting me, are you?”

  “Excuse me?” I asked, not to give attitude but because I genuinely had no idea what he was getting at.

  “You heard me,” he said. “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, know what I mean?”

  “I thought you were a man of your word,” I pointed out.

  He was stalking towards me again. Despite my best efforts, I found myself backing up. He had done this a few times already. I wished I could stay put. I wished I didn’t have to show just how afraid of him I was.

  But this was Keaton.

  Keaton.

  “I am,” he said as though it was obvious. “There’s a difference between keeping a promise and bullshitting in general, babes. I don’t say shit I mean. But I also know how to get what I want.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “And what are you doing right now?” I asked. “Trying to get what you want by offering me something you can actually fulfill? Or just trying to charm me?”

  “I make a deal, it’s a fucking deal,” he said. “If we agree on this, you have my word I’ll find out what happened to your brother. But you have to get me out.”

  “You already said that,” I pointed out, throwing my hands up. “What is it I have to do?”