Free Ignite

they retrain him. That is, if they can retrain him. From what I hear, he’s stubborn.”
    “That’s what I told her,” Azael calls over his shoulder. “Not. A. Threat.”
    I look over at him but ignore his comment. I brush a strand of fallen hair behind my ear and turn back to Gus. “There’s more.”
    Gus raises his eyebrows. “Oh?”
    I bite my lip. “About the souls we reaped…”
    “ I reaped,” Azael corrects again. He paces faster, and I’m sure he’ll burn a hole through the ground.
    I wave away his comment dismissively. “Remember how you were teaching me reanimation for the purpose of collecting memories?”
    “Of course. Have you gotten much practice?”
    “Only once,” I say, swallowing past a dry lump in my throat. “Things didn’t go exactly as planned.”
    Azael strides up next to me, still agitated, and crosses his arms firmly. “Understatement of the year. I’d say century, but hey, it’s early.”
    “What exactly happened?” Gus flips open his notebook to a blank page and looks at me questioningly. “Could you access the memory?”
    “I—well, I did the spell as you said. Blood, the feathers of a crow, grave dirt, soul.”
    “And the enchantment?”
    “It worked, just like you said. A long hallway with hundreds of doors lining the wall. Only, the first dozen doors we tried…” He scribbles in his notebook as I speak. “Well, they were empty.”
    His pen freezes and he stares at me, perplexed. “Empty?”
    “Empty,” Azael answers. “Adjective, from the Old English word aemettig. Two syllables. Meaning unoccupied, uninhabited, bare, desolate, clear, free, vacant. Used in a sentence: ‘My, those rooms were more empty than an alcoholic’s bottle of whiskey.’”
    I take a deep breath before going on. “They were completely blank. White walls, white floor, bright ceiling. Until this one door.”
    He nods at me to continue.
    “The handle was locked, and Azael,” I gesture next to me, “kicked it in. The room was pitch dark when we went inside and seemed like it would also be empty. Dark this time, but still empty. Except my pendant started vibrating.”
    Gus makes a quick note. “Yes, demonic activity.”
    “Right. So, the pendants were vibrating, and then it sounded like the walls were too. And then, the blackness was gone. There were giant clay cliffs with two huge ravines of boiling blood. But it was still empty. We were the only two there.” I shake my head. “It didn’t feel like a memory, exactly. Nothing like the ones I had practiced with. It felt like, well, like something was missing, and this need, this primitive desire and pain, replaced whatever was there.”
    Gus’s eyebrows knot together. He presses his lips into a tight, thin line but doesn’t say anything.
    “And then I kind of, um, blacked out, I guess,” I stammer.
    Azael snorts. “And by ‘blacked out’ she means kicked the shit out of me.” He points to a swollen green bruise on his jaw. “I just touched her shoulder and she cracked me across my face, broke my ribs with her bony knee, and then shattered my kneecap with those damn boots of hers.”
    “Maybe she finally realized how irritating you are,” Gus jeers.
    “Nonsense. And besides, I can take a beating. What I don’t like is being bitten into like I’m freaking Bella Swan and my immortality fantasy is finally coming to fruition. I’m no damn vampire-fetishist.”
    Gus’s eyes widen and he looks over at me. “You bit him?”
    “No comment about the exquisite execution of a pop-culture reference, Gus? Come on,” Azael goads him, “I know you’re a Twilight fan.”
    “Will you stop talking for five seconds?!” Gus snaps. He turns his attention back to me. “You bit him?”
    “I—I don’t remember,” I say, looking down at the altar. “All I can remember is standing by the ravine and then, next thing I know, I’m lying on my side with a huge welt on the back of my head and my mouth dripping with his