A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,25

we'll have to travel through the pink waters, which isn't exactly a problem, but we should keep that in mind for our own movements."

"Side note, and pardon me for asking, but shouldn't we find more swamp witch supplies here on Strava?" Eira asked.

It was a good question, but I doubted she'd like the answer. "All the swamp witch supplies were given to an evacuation team of Perfects that led the people away from the fae sanctuary here. They're to use them in case they need to get off the planet. It's the last-resort protocol, and it’s being led by the agents who chose to stay behind. It's been put in place on every GASP planet. I guess it was Derek and Sofia's way to make up for the fact that they withdrew most of their troops into the Earthly Dimension."

"So, we can't use any of that, then? It's a pretty special situation," Eira replied, frowning slightly.

Eva shook her head. "We'd need a lot, considering all the locations we have to visit. The one interplanetary spell we have left is the only one we'll use, and only if we don't have any other choice. We cannot tap into the evacuation resources of innocent civilians. It wouldn't be fair to them."

"Plus, we actually move faster through the pink waters," Herakles added.

"The only downside to the interplanetary spell evacuation is that all the worlds they'll escape to will also be subject to the Hermessi rule. So it's not exactly an escape, rather a prolonging of the inevitable." Amelia sighed, putting her tablet away. "That being said, how are we operating, going forward? Shall we assume Spirit Bender found a way to snatch her?"

“There’s no better explanation,” I said. “You called it the first time.”

"Even so, how the hell do you kidnap Death?” Raphael asked. “I still can't fathom the possibility."

"Oh, with the right knowledge and understanding of one's opportunities, an experienced Reaper like, say, one of the First Ten can, in fact, orchestrate a successful abduction, provided she is without Thieron," Soul replied. "It's what Spirit Bender would have banked on if he did, indeed, do such a horrible thing."

Kelara got up from her seat, putting her scythe away. She'd spent the past twenty minutes polishing its half-moon blade with a silken napkin she kept in an inside pocket. "We need to find the Time Master. Regardless of our course of action, he's the only one who can give us the time we require for this operation."

"We could all use a bit more time," Phantom replied, a smile fluttering across her face.

"I can take Dream and Nightmare with me for this," Kelara said. "We'll turn the entire universe upside down, if we have to."

"I hope you don't mean that in a literal sense," Nightmare interjected, one hand resting on his hip. "My hamstrings are out of shape."

Kelara groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I think I'm making the obvious sacrifice here, taking these two off your hands," she said, nodding at Dream and Nightmare.

"No need to be a drama queen about it," Dream retorted. "My brother and I will come along. No one knows Time better than the two of us."

I went over to one of the laboratory's main windows, which offered a full view of the jungle surrounding our GASP base. Layers of wild green rolled beneath a clear blue sky, the window's transparent filter making sure no vampires were affected by daylight while indoors. It was a beautiful world, filled with some of most fascinating creatures I'd ever seen. It was unique, much like my Fire Star, and the more I thought about it, the more desperate I became in my need to save them all.

From a logistical point of view, Kelara's suggestion made sense. "We do need the Time Master's abilities, for sure," I said. "He might very well be our best shot at stopping the ritual. Where do you think he might've gone, Dream, Nightmare?"

They glanced at one another and gave me a double shrug. "No clue," Dream replied. "But he's got to be somewhere in the In-Between. Most of us chose to stay here, albeit scattered to the very ends of it. See our Desplan home, for example."

"Speaking of which, you two are in for a world of pain when Death gets her mojo back." Soul chuckled. "You have been living large and way out of the rule spectrum."

By now, we'd all learned about Dream and Nightmare's feeding habits on Desplan, so chillingly described by Kelara. I