Prologue
Sixty years ago
Oliver Samuelson shuffled his feet and struggled to maintain his place in line.
He wasn’t the patient sort. Nope. Not even a little. He’d been waiting his entire life to see what was on the other side of the doors they were approaching. He could almost taste it, smell it. Yes, he could almost feel it. He didn’t want to continue waiting.
He had no choice. He could hardly toss the other recruits aside and barrel his way into the room. If he did that, they would be suspicious.
He didn’t want them to be suspicious. That would ruin his entire plan.
“This is exciting, huh?”
Oliver slid his gaze to the man keeping pace with him. Doug Dunning. He remembered the name from orientation. Their qualifications were listed in the packets that went around. Doug was a college graduate who had lived in Michigan his entire life. That’s all Oliver remembered about him ... and he wasn’t impressed.
“It’s work,” Oliver replied after a beat. He was determined to play it cool. If the others found out he was resolved to find placement in the gate room they might try to keep him from what he felt was his destiny. He had no intention of letting that happen. So, he had to be nonchalant. That was his only option.
“It’s more than work,” Doug countered, refusing to back down. “This is ... well, this is so much more than work.” His dark eyes sparkled with interest as the line came to a halt. The man leading the tour was explaining something to those at the front of the line. Oliver had researched what they would find on the other side of the door for so long, so deeply, that he wasn’t worried about security protocol. He already knew exactly what to do. More importantly, he was familiar with what not to do.
“I just think of it as work,” Oliver lied. His fingers twitched at his sides so he shoved his hands in the pockets of his blue trousers. Some of the others were dressed up for this excursion. Again, he didn’t want to appear too excited. He dressed in clean clothes, made sure he looked professional, but did not go all out. It was all part of his plan.
“Then you’re stronger than me.” Doug was the enthusiastic sort and wasn’t afraid to show it. “All I’ve been able to think about since I heard I was moving past the third round of orientation was that I was finally going to see the gate. I mean ... we’re actually going to see it.”
Oliver fought to control his temper. “That’s the rumor.”
Doug ignored Oliver’s dry response. “The gate was the entire reason I agreed to go through the training. I mean ... on the other side of that door there’s a gate that allows you to travel between worlds. It’s not just planes of existence either. We’re talking the line between life and death. One side of it is in that room.”
Oliver was well aware of what the gate signified. He, more than anybody, grasped its true ramifications. He was a vampire, after all. He’d managed to cheat human death a good ten times over and for a very long time. That was one of the reasons he wanted to visit the gate. He had questions about mortality.
Most vampires hit this wall at some point. They eventually started questioning the meaning of it all. Why live forever if you didn’t have a purpose in life? Was it better to live fast and die young than linger without a purpose? Was any of it worth it or would he be better at the sharp end of a pointy stick and leaving this world behind? He was asking himself all those questions. He hoped the gate would provide answers.
“I’m curious about it from a scientific standpoint,” Oliver said finally. It was obvious that Doug wasn’t going to stop talking, so there was no reason to be rude. “Energy and matter meld to make humans. Only energy passes over. At least that’s what they say, and I have no reason not to believe them. It’s an interesting phenomenon.”
Doug stared at him for a full beat, unblinking, and then smirked. “I’m more interested in the philosophical implications. People always wonder what happens when you die. Aren’t you curious about that?”
In truth, Oliver wasn’t much of a student of philosophy. He’d always been more interested in the science of an afterlife. “Not really. The gate is basically a conduit. Energy separates from the body on this side and then is passed through the opening. I’m wondering if it’s possible for that energy to become solid again on the other side.”
Doug turned thoughtful. “You’re saying that you believe a second body awaits the soul on the other side. That’s interesting ... although it sounds impractical. Why would there be another physical body over there? The energy is what’s important. The soul doesn’t need a body to carry on.”
“I know that, but ... if you can’t touch and interact with your environment what’s the point of living? Are you just supposed to float around and do nothing for thousands of years? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Your final resting place depends on your belief system,” Doug replied. To Oliver, he sounded as if he was reciting from a textbook. “Technically, what’s right on the other side of the gate is a waiting room. Everyone is sorted in the waiting room and then transported again.”
Oliver’s interest was officially piqued. “How do you know that? About the waiting room, I mean. I don’t remember reading that in our orientation materials.”
“They don’t tell us everything. I happened to run into a reaper at the main office — one of the reapers who is actually collecting souls on the streets — and he said that what’s on the other side of this gate isn’t the final resting place. There’s more.”
“How would he know?” Oliver wasn’t trying to be difficult. No, really. He simply wanted answers to the questions that had been plaguing him. “As I understand it, reapers can’t cross over to the other side, check things out, and then come back again. We have no proof that anything we believe is true. We only have hypotheses. That’s what I find fascinating.”
“Oh, well, I didn’t think about it that way.” Doug furrowed his brow. “Still, I would think someone had to voluntarily cross over at some point just as an experiment.”
“It would have to be a suicidal individual because no one has crossed over and then come back,” Oliver pointed out pragmatically. “I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure someone did pass over. They never came back, though. Nobody has ever come back.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I ... well ... .” In truth, Oliver couldn’t be absolutely positive. He had an opinion that he wanted to believe was fact, but he couldn’t prove it any more than the others could prove their wild hunches. “I think we would’ve heard if someone had crossed over and returned,” he said finally. “It would’ve been big news.”
“Unless the reaper council wanted to keep it secret for some reason.”
It was an offhand comment, but Oliver took it to heart. “You think they’re trying to hide the truth from us?”
Doug immediately started shaking his head, fervent. “I didn’t say I believed that. Don’t tell them I believe anything of the sort. That will severely limit my prospects with the organization.”