Ascended

Morning came too fast.

I expected to see Max staring at me when I opened my eyes. I was relieved to find myself in an empty room. I had too much to do today to deal with his bad habits this early.

I dressed and flipped the blanket out. It didn’t look like it had the night before, but I wasn’t exactly sure how it had been made. I’d been around beds, but making them was something that the Bokor had neglected to teach me.

I stopped at the first room and knocked softly on the door. The answer I got was not from the other side of the door. It came from the first floor.

“What are you doing?” Val’s sharp voice sent a shiver down my spine.

I stepped away from the door. I had expected her to still be asleep after how hard she had passed out last night.

“I was just checking on Sera,” I tried to think of something else to say. “I thought she’d be up by now.”

“She usually is,” Val took the stairs two at a time, “she stayed in my room?”

I nodded, “She thought it would be easier for me not to have to carry you up the stairs.”

Val paused with her hand on the doorknob, “You carried me to her bed?” There was no mistaking the venom in her voice.

I couldn’t speak. Despite being a Bokor in a human city, I felt like an apprentice who had just messed up. A single nod was the best I could manage.

“Don’t do that again,” Her glare bored through me, “understand?”

I gave another single nod. Part of me was outraged at her for talking to me like that, and another part was mad at myself for letting her get away with it. I was about to say something when she opened the door. The scene inside rearranged my priorities.

Val’s room was exactly what I expected it to be. Weapons and clutter were everywhere. Judging by the way some piles of broken swords and bows were stacked, I doubted it had been cleaned in a very long time. The whole room reeked of dirt, oil, and blood. It was the last smell that grabbed my attention. Val appeared to be smart enough not to bring zombie blood into the tavern. Besides, it was the salty smell of human blood, not the acidic smell of zombie blood.

My eyes were fixated on the empty bed. A decent-sized pool of fresh blood was soaking into the middle of it. I tore my eyes away from it and scanned the room. The blanket was missing as well, and there was no other trace of Sera.

Val grabbed my vest and slammed me into the doorpost, “What did you do?”

I broke her hold and stared into her silver eyes, “You think I did that? Why would you think that?”

“You’re Bokor, aren’t you?” She turned away and ran down the hall, throwing open the other doors.

“The Bokor protect humans!” I called after her, “We don’t kill them!”

She threw open the door to the room I had slept in, “Really? And what do you think those zombies you kill used to be? Bunnies?”

I had seen a rabbit once. I thought about informing her that despite looking sweet and innocent, rabbits were as vicious as any zombie I had ever fought. But her words hit the mark before I could speak. I had never thought about what the zombies had been before. To me, they had just been a monster to kill. A case that had to be cut away so that I could harvest the heart stone inside.

Val marched up to me with balled fists. She was breathing heavily and I could tell that she wanted to hit me.

“What. Did. You. Do. To. Her?”

“I swear that I didn’t do anything.” I held up my hands to get ready to block the impending blow.

Her fists never flew. We were interrupted by a male voice entering the tavern.

“Hello?”