Chapter 26: When you are dead, but not quite.

If you are reading this anywhere else but at Webnovel, then you are reading a stolen copy. Please — consider reading at Webnovel.

Ending up as a ghost for the second time in so many months was not a pleasant experience. Oh, sure, Edwin could now approve all the runes he wanted to approve, but that did not mean that he could go around without a body.

Which brought him to this hospital.

The expecting mother was staring with wide eyes at her cooling infant, born just minutes ago. The baby had not cried. Had not had any hope of surviving. Car crashes and births did not mix well.

Edwin looked at the boy, a small thing who he knew would one day have blue eyes and brown hair. He smiled brightly, as he thought about how happy the mother would be when cries echoed in the room.

Edwin grinned, dived into the small corpse.

A slap was his answer. 

He felt a burning on his right butt cheek. Without even wanting to, he showed everyone in the room that he had a healthy set of lungs, even if everything else of his was dead.

The mother started to pray; the staff were ready to throw a party.

Edwin had only revenge on his mind…

0000

Growing up for the second time was no less confusing than the first time around. He had his memories, yes, but that did not matter.

For he looked like a copy of his old self, including his long hair, in its braid and a blue ribbon tied around it.

He was 18, sold runes for ten gold coins or less on the black market, and knew that he could catch Orion with his pants down.

His mother, however, was adamant that he called her at least five times per day. He loved the woman just as much as he loved his real mother.

But right at that moment, when his phone went off, while he was in the process of devouring the soul of a demon, who he had chained up with a rune, was not a good time, darn it all!

"Yes, mama?" Edwin asked, as he tried not to sound so, as if he were in a hurry. His mother, Martha, liked to guilt-trip him if she thought that he had no time for her.

"Eddy, what did you cook for dinner?" Martha asked, knowing full well that Edwin cooked only rice with meat, or maybe some French toast, if time was really a luxury he could not afford.

"Rice…" he began, only to hear a sigh. He did not understand where the problem was. After all, rice was a staple food in more than a billion households…

"Eat some potatoes! Pasta! Why do you want to live so, as if you are a poor college student?"

Edwin shook his head. His mother knew about his business. Had been ok with it, for the most part.

Her being a hacker had made for a very fun childhood. Adam would have loved her…

Edwin sighed. Oh, if he only could figure out where all the souls he had eaten had gone to.

The demon chuckled; Edwin narrowed his eyes and tore another chunk of the man's soul.

"Why you little…" The demon began, but Edwin redid the rune on his mouth, forcing the man to keep quiet.

"Who is with you, Eddy?" Martha asked, as Edwin was digesting the demon's heart. Ah, he could finally eat his fill. His mother might have been able to notice something, if he had tried eating souls under her roof.

Now that he was out of the house and living on his own, there was no danger of getting found out.

"That… mom, I am with a client," Edwin did not know what else he could say. Should he tell her that he was gay? Surely, one of those days, he had to tell her.

Would she hate him? Martha had this "live and let live" attitude when it came to those different from her, but he had never seen her do anything good for a gay person before, either.

Even though they did have a gay couple in the neighborhood.

He sighed.

Better live a lie, than disappoint your ma.

"Oh, Eddy! You must eat something!"

"And I will, mom," Edwin did not want to tell her that he was in the process of eating his first real meal in this body. What was the point? He would only scare her.

"Do you promise?" Martha asked in the tone all mothers used, when they knew that they had to get what they wanted.

"Of course," he waited for her to hang up, and then looked at the dead demon at his feet.

"Now, to find someplace nice for lunch," Edwin said, as he snapped his fingers, and the corpse turned to ashes. A ghoul, the demon whom he had just killed, materializing by his side.

"Wait, you are a Lich? Not some mage who has gone off the deep end?" The demon asked. Edwin raised an eyebrow.

"Look here, you," Edwin began, as he took a hold of the demon's hand, and started to lead him out of the dead-end side street. "I need to get into Hell. You will take me there. But first, I need some information from you."

The demon narrowed his eyes. The ghoul bond could not be broken, Edwin knew. He was not the Edwin of his former body. Fairytales about Liches were something he had consumed with the speed of a daredevil this time around.

No, he knew just what he was supposed to do. Nothing else mattered to him.

He needed to get to Hell and take everything away from Orion. The throne, which he had given the man seconds before the man had killed him for the second time, was going to belong to him once more.

With Damon and Seraphin by his side.

As for Orion, well, the man's snowstorm eyes looked pretty enough if Edwin remembered right. He was going to turn them into gems, use them to show the world that Orion had never owned him.

No, it was the other way around.

And Edwin was going to prove it.