And a year since anyone had last heard from Alexandru.
Most people thought him dead now, but all of them were wrong.
She would know if he were.
She couldn't not know, and it wasn't just because he was her Master and she was his pet.
She would know because she loved him, and he loved her, and God...
A sob rocked her body as Zari slowly curled herself into a ball. She closed her eyes, and another sob shook her to the core as memories of him instantly flooded her mind. She remembered how the sheer gorgeousness of him could easily take her breath away, remembered how the velvety wickedness of his
charm was always enough to make her blush, and most of all she remembered...
How good it felt, Zari thought painfully, just to be with him.
She remembered that one day he had visited her when she was still studying in LSL, and he had flicked her forehead hard enough to make her yelp in pain. 'What was that for?' she had demanded, and her Master had right away answered back in a mocking tone, 'Because you're too cute. Is that all you've learned in this school? Being cute and turning me on?'
Zari squeezed her eyes shut, but her tears refused to stop. It was those little things, just countless, silly little moments that she shared with Alexandru, just the little things really...
Those little things that kept her heart breaking even as she refused to lose hope.
I've kept my promise, Master.
I'm the one who can save lives now.
I'm strong...just like I promised.
So please keep your promise, too.
Come back.
I miss you so much.
Please come back.
Please.
The Vision That Broke
A Soul Seer's Heart
Chapter Two
IT WAS A VIOLENTLY stormy night in Chalys, savage winds whipping out of the silvery Woods of the Wraiths before slashing a destructive path into the rest of the kingdom. From the lofty heights of the angel-run territory of Ciel to the remote shores of Aquarius - no ducal territory was spared, and as rain that tasted of vengeance and fury struck their roofs, whispered rumors began to swirl about.
From elegant townhouses in the city to noisy pubs hidden in the back streets, the storm had heated debates arising between otherworlders of all walks of life. The storm, the older ones believed, was a harbinger, fulfilling an ancient prophecy about the return of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The younger ones, however, dismissed this. There were no such horsemen, and the storm, mysteriously vicious its strength might be, was still just a storm.
Zari, however, was one of the few residents of the kingdom who cared naught about the raging storm that battered against the fortified walls of her school. She was too busy raiding the wine cellar, and once she had a bottle of Brimstone's finest whisky hidden under her shawl, she wasted no time running up the steps and locking herself in her room.
It took a while for her to figure out how to uncork the bottle, and a strong scent immediately filled her room.
She poured herself a glass. "Cheers, Master." She drank the whole thing in one gulp and poured herself another...and another...and another until she was so maudlin and her senses properly befuddled, that Zari, in between drunken hiccups and chest-heaving sobs, finally mustered the strength to speak of the words that had been haunting her for weeks.
I had a vision, Master. And in it, all I could see was death. It was all around me. So much death, and I don't know if I have the courage to change things, knowing what might...
Her throat tightened.
I'm scared, Master.
I'm so stupidly scared.
I wish you were here to tell me I'm strong enough to do what's right.
I wish...I just wish you were here.
The (Half) Angel Who's
(Sometimes) Up To No Good
Chapter Three
ZARI WOKE UP THE NEXT day with a pounding headache. Kinda like someone with a hangover, but in her case, it was because she had ended up crying herself to sleep.
No shame, Zari reminded herself as she dragged her body out of bed.
Crying was as natural as any other bodily function, and as her therapist liked to say, she could simply think of it as peeing out her sadness. The analogy still grossed Zari out to this day, but since it did make sense...
Nothing to be guilty about, she thought determinedly to herself as she stepped into the shower. Optical peeing was therapy, so nowadays she did it whenever the urge struck, which - more often than not - was when she was alone at night, and the pain of her Master's absence got to be a little too much.
After changing into her self-imposed work uniform (turtleneck in some neutral shade, jeans, boots, and a trench coat with more pockets than anyone could ever need), she went about locking up and was out of her apartment building a few minutes past seven.
With time to spare, she got herself a bagel and coffee but still made it to the office one full hour ahead of the daily roll call.
#workaholic mode on, Zari thought, never mind if she hadn't really ever switched off.
Like most other buildings in Hudson Yards, AGNEX's New York office was housed in a stately old stone building and - according to Google Maps - the listed address of an investment firm. It was why, when asked by strangers about her work, Zari would always offhandedly say she worked in "finance".
Middlemarch, AGNEX's day shift sentinel, glanced up at hearing the revolving doors start to spin and was unsurprised when he saw Zari Baltimore enter the vestibule. Petite and coltishly slim, the girl was in her early twenties, with ash blonde hair she always had twisted up in a fuss-free bun and smoky gray innocent-looking eyes that belied the trapper's murderously good skills with a blade.
"Sup, Mid." Zari absently gave her arms a brisk rub as she spoke, thinking that the building's antechamber felt more somber and colder than usual. Even with its vintage Art Deco chandelier, stained-glass cathedral windows, and a mosaic installation depicting the Garden of Eden spanning an entire wall, its beauty struck her as soulless and empty, like a fancy mausoleum that had somehow found its way into the heart of Manhattan.
"You need a life, kid." The hell was she doing, coming to work early when she wasn't ever gonna get paid for the extra hours?
Zari simply wrinkled her nose in response. "I don't like sleeping in." Not anymore, at least.
"The way you look," Middlemarch remarked, seeing the half-moon shadows under the girl's eyes, "doesn't seem like you sleep at all." When the trapper only shrugged, he knew he had guessed right, and sympathy momentarily softened the older man's weathered features. "One of those nights again?"
"It's always one of those nights." A lopsided smile curved over the girl's lips, but the trace of pain in her eyes didn't go away. "Anyway, I gotta head up. Micah wants to see me. I think I might be in trouble again."
Middlemarch only grunted, thinking that the trapper was a little too optimistic for her own good.
Might be in trouble?
The girl's missing-lover-slash-vampire-Master was one of the most powerful half-demons in living history, and here she was, working for an agency best known for exterminating demons.
Being a quarter vampire himself, Middlemarch was sufficiently familiar with the role pets played in vampire society. It was considered a great honor for a human girl to be handpicked as pet, and there were even "Legacy" families whose greatest pride was to have their womenfolk serve vampires generation after generation.