Chapter 65: Soul transfer
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 Daniel was doing laps around Wandermere. He felt better. Not only a month ago he felt pain as if each one of his nerves was on fire because of the tree man syndrome. Now, he could do exercise again.

He heard steps next to himself, and then he nearly fell on the ground. A red haired, red-eyed vampire was keeping pace with him easily. Daniel’s hand shot to his sword and he stopped, managing to unsheathe it and swing at the head of the man.

He could see that the vampire’s ears were pointy. He must be an elf. Which was strange, since those preferred death to ending up like this. The vampire stopped and waved and then did something that surprised Daniel. He bowed.

“I’d like to clear a slight misunderstanding…” Daniel didn’t let him finish.

“Where is your wraith? I can take you both. You have nothing on a dragon,” Daniel was sure in his ability. He has been running for three hours and was yet to grow tired. He was back on track.

“I suppose that now is not the time to put on masks. I wish to speak with Roberts,” there was a strange venom when he said Edwin’s last name. Daniel was not letting him anywhere near the healer.

Just as he was about to lunge, he felt a prickle in the back of his neck. He reached out to see what it was and found a needle. Pulling it out he brought it to eye level and saw something purple drip from the tip.

“What?” That was all Daniel could say before he fell face first in the dirt. Just as he was losing consciousness, he heard the bastard make tsking noses and clap his hands. Then feminine hands picked him up and the whisper of “my boy” was the last thing he heard.

Sebastian figured that the best disguise was someone who stuck with Roberts. What better than the body of the man’s patient…or was it something more?

It was curious, how Roberts lived with two other men and not one, but four children. It appeared to Sebastian like the necromancer had a family. But, to which one of the two was he closer to?

Overtaking Hadrian Deranges, who had earned his last name after the Myrna coven massacre, was out of the question. Sebastian was thousands of years away from that level of power. Besides, his fellow vampire knew many things. It would be a shame to do away with him.

If there was one thing that Sebastian valued it was knowledge. That was power, no matter how overused the notion was. His mother had horded the knowledge of being a vampire, so Sebastian had created his body switching spell.

Now, he only needed to push a soul out in a crystal, and then he had access to all the memories in the brain. And the soul? It was nothing. A terrifying experience, Sebastian was sure. But, and he knew it from some volunteers, once he returned the soul it was like nothing had happened. So, unless he killed the meat sack, he wasn’t doing any harm.

Not that Sebastian cared about that. In the comfort of his crypt, well, not his, but a family that had died out in the coughing sickness that had been cured by Roberts, he placed Daniel Hollow on a stone slab.

Then he cut a cluster of the man’s hair and placed it in an incense burner. Now, the hard part. Sebastian put a hand over where Daniel’s heart should be and attuned himself to the heartbeat that proved that the dragon slayer was healthy, for the most part.

There was something wrong with his liver, though. That made Sebastian frown. He didn’t feel like living with a liver problem. But, anything short of committing suicide by attacking Deranges meant he was out of options.

With a sigh, he began to tune in their mana and to pull out his soul and transfer it inside the new body. He felt his body slum and the hands of the wraith. It was a rebellious thing, that dead thing. But it wanted its son, and Sebastian was going to oblige. Two wraiths were better than one.

The memories that flooded Sebastian confused him. Not the ones where the warrior grinned like a loon and butchered dragons. Those were understandable. The strong enjoyed carnage. It was the way of the world.

What surprised him was how Hollow treated Roberts. The constant taunts at someone who saves your life were something that made Sebastian grimace with his new facial muscles.

He would need to keep in character. One good thing about his transfers was that he no longer was a vampire in the new body, if the body didn’t belong to a vampire. So, he would be able to eat.

Which begged the question, why did he bother coming back to his old husk? The answer was simple, his soul needed time in his original body to mend. It chipped away at it, every time it was separated from its original meat sack. Sebastian had a month, but…

Hadrian Deranges had felt that he was a vampire in the body of the librarian. Granted, he had drunk blood for old times’ sake a couple of times in that meat sack, but the white-haired vampire shouldn’t have been able to sense him.

Unless…yes, why not? This would make Daniel Hollow’s life a living hell once Sebastian was through with him, but it would mean that he wouldn’t need to hide in the apartment.

He went to his old body and bit his wrist. Drinking deep, he felt the change coming. More painful, as the body of Daniel still had all its blood in its veins. The wraith watched him hungrily. He had to make sure it didn’t eat his empty husk.

It was time to throw it a bone.

“Come, we will get your son,” for the first time, the wraith smiled. Sebastian had seen such grotesque smiles before, but not mixed with hope. Only malice.

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