A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,50

here and dumped you, making sure all the specters he left behind would keep others away," I concluded.

"Yes. Without the First Ten keeping an eye on things, and with Death lacking Thieron, millions of souls have gone unaccounted for," he said. "In this instance, Spirit was able to build an army of specters for the sole purpose of keeping other curious Reapers at bay. When I got here, I was astonished that no one had bothered to check on this world after the asteroid hit."

Dream scoffed. "Why would they? The holier-than-thou Spirit Bender had said he'd handle it. What reason was there to doubt him, if you were silenced and unable to do anything?"

"He hates Death more than anything," Time said. "He'd been planning this long before Thieron was taken. Hell, the whole number with Brendel was simply the perfect opportunity. He's been looking for ways to hurt her from the moment the Reaper circles were established. Imagine you were made a First Tenner against your will, unable to retire and move on, to then be rendered obsolete by Reaper hierarchies. He flipped. He just flipped."

"He may not be able to kill her, but he can destroy everything she wants to protect," Herbert murmured, glancing into the crimson horizon. "The living, the dead, everything in between. I suppose the Hermessi's ritual felt like the perfect opportunity."

The Time Master stared at him for a moment. "Seriously, why is he still alive?"

"Technically speaking, I'm as dead as you," Herbert hissed, narrowing his black eyes.

"Be thankful, brother. He and his friends helped us clear the army of specters that were keeping us from getting to you," Dream conceded.

"You're abominations. How are you even coherent?" Time said to the ghoul.

"Herbert has served the living for a long time. He's been immensely supportive, even before he brought his cohorts here," I replied. "He's against the Hermessi winning this, much like us."

"He's also looking to score brownie points with Momma," Nightmare added, shooting Herbert a cold grin.

"As much as I hate to admit it, we'll need the ghouls, going forward," Dream said as she got up. "Spirit is likely to have hordes of specters watching his back wherever he's gone."

Time joined her, his brows pulled into a dark frown. "I don't like this."

"Well, tough one, buddy. Because A, you don't have your scythe anymore, and I'm going to guess Spirit took it, and B, he also took Death. We need all the help we can get!" I replied.

His jaw dropped. "What?"

"Are you shocked about the scythe part or the Death part?" Nightmare asked, and Time glowered at him. "Okay, the Death part. Gotcha."

"How did that happen?!" Time asked.

"We don't know! She was supposed to be on Mortis," Dream said. "Imagine, after five million years, there's a bunch of people who've actually managed to retrieve Thieron for Death, and she vanishes into thin air. A tad suspicious, don't you think?"

He nodded. "It was definitely Spirit. He's moving into the endgame now. I need my scythe back from him, otherwise I cannot do much against him."

"So you're not at all surprised that there's a Hermessi ritual going on? I mean, you've been out of it for a couple of years," I said.

"It was bound to happen. It was never a matter of if, since Brendel had succeeded in stealing Thieron. It was a matter of when," Time replied.

"We're under a lot of pressure here." I sighed. "There are only a couple dozen fae left to influence, maybe less, before the Hermessi hit their magic number and complete the ritual."

I focused on Seeley for a moment, while Time got his bearings. Herbert let out a long, spine-tingling howl, summoning his ghouls back to the dried-up oasis. We could hear them tumbling and dashing across the red desert.

"Are we sure we need these monsters?" Time asked.

"Specters may not be able to kill you, but they're perfectly capable of being horrible nuisances," Herbert replied. "While I know it's not the best way to get rid of them, we simply don't have the time or the resources to clear them all out."

"He's got a point. Summoning hordes of Reapers with the ritual currently unfolding wouldn't just be a logistical nightmare. It would be a waste of time," Dream said. "I'm not comfortable with it, either, but it's the best we can do with just hours on the clock. Especially since you're rather useless, for the time being."

"I resent that," he grumbled.

Nightmare laughed. "I'm sure you do. For what it's worth, it's good