A Shade of Vampire 79 A Game of Death - Bella Forrest Page 0,102
about her.
Had it not been for him, I realized, my sister would’ve died down there.
Zoltan was out there, free and incredibly dangerous. He had a Reaper scythe, and he was a Darkling—that organization spread farther than I’d thought. How many other people knew of their whereabouts? Who else knew about the basement and the scythe? The more we’d dug through this festering pile, the more questions we stumbled upon.
But I would be damned if I was going to let the Darklings win. They had almost killed my sister. That switched something on inside me. Something feral and vicious. It demanded retribution. If anyone was going to take Zoltan’s head, it was going to be me. That much I knew, in the midst of all this murkiness.
Nethissis
Seeley had a look of pride about him whenever he looked at me. It must’ve had something to do with what I’d accomplished regarding Rudolph. I welcomed it. It made me feel incredibly good, which was a rare emotion for me these days.
We’d spent the last few hours talking about Zoltan and the ghouls, reaching the same conclusion. The guy had put together one hell of an operation down here, and chances were that few people knew about it—except the Darklings. I’d seen them through the hallways; I’d heard them mentioning Valaine and how important it was that she was to be killed. We couldn’t understand why, but at least we had a few undeniable facts to work with.
The chained ghouls had sort of gotten used to me now, not even bothering to look my way whenever I came through the door. I took it as a good sign, sometimes wondering if I could reach out to them, like I’d done with Rudolph. Then again, Rudolph had been freshly turned. Who knew how long these guys had spent down here, as mindless animals, slaves to the whims of mad Zoltan Shatal? Because one had to be mad, if not clinically insane, like Amelia used to say, in order to do such things…
“Rudolph is definitely on to something,” Seeley said after a while. “If he takes a scythe, he can transfer it to you.”
“Yeah, I got that part. Will I have to do anything in particular, other than scratch these runes off your collar?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I’m not sure. You’ll have to describe each rune, first. I can’t see what’s on my collar.”
“Right. Okay. We’ve got this. Maybe in a day or two, tops, we’ll get Rudolph to snatch a scythe. He’ll be growing on those black guard suckers, eventually.”
“You haven’t seen or heard any other Reapers around, huh?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been out and around the palace twice so far, since I last saw Rudolph. There wasn’t anyone. Do you still think Death will send others?”
Seeley thought about it for a moment, as if unsure of how to answer. “I don’t know. If she does, it won’t be a lower-level Reaper like me or Rudolph. She’ll probably send a higher circle… or even one of the First Ten, if she can spare one from her search for the others.”
“Even that might be problematic,” I said, remembering how blindsided Rudolph and his team had been. “Whoever she sends, they won’t know what they’re getting into. Zoltan has trained the ghouls and the black guards to be constantly on alert for incoming Reapers. The protocol is airtight.”
“But not flawless,” Seeley replied. “Let’s get me free first, and things will be different. Someone needs to tell the other Reapers what to expect, at least. As long as I don’t know what Death is planning with Visio, I can’t even dare rely on her full assistance. I’ve never been so confused before.”
“Listen, we’ll figure it out. Whatever kind of crap Zoltan has been pulling up here, it won’t last. Sooner or later, Derek and the others will come across this place… this stuff. I know it.”
“What have they been up to?” Seeley asked, his gaze softening as it settled on me.
“Last time I checked, Esme was out on some covert mission, but I didn’t see her. I only heard Tristan mention it. The rest of them were in the study room, pushing on with the research of the Black Fever and the day-walking protein. But I’m telling you, Seeley, something super weird is going on here, and I’ve got a feeling that this whole basement full of ghouls is just one part of it.”
He leaned back against the wall, giving me a warm smile. “You’re a relentless