A Shade of Vampire 79 A Game of Death - Bella Forrest Page 0,107

job, Kelara. I was actually dismayed by all this. Not that surprising that Spirit had ended up turning against her. Now you’re just being mean and bitter.

“We need to find the Morning Star,” I said to the group. “Her physical form is here somewhere. Once we do, Death will help us release her.”

“Ah. You make it sound so easy.” Soul chuckled.

“I would like to be free again, please,” Morning said. “I sincerely do not enjoy tiring people to death. The pain… it’s too much.”

I hadn’t expected to end up in a situation like this, especially since both Seeley and Rudolph, not to mention Rudolph’s crew, were missing in action. My concern for them and my frustrations regarding Visio were clouding my judgment. I hadn’t even taken a moment to consider this incredible achievement.

We’d actually found one of the missing First Tenners. Well, sort of, anyway.

The Morning Star could help us get to the Night Bringer and maybe even the Unending, eventually. First, however, we had to find her Reaper form. With no additional help from Death, Soul, Widow, Phantom, and we had our work cut out for us.

This was a big planet, with lots of nooks and crannies to sift through.

Damn you, Spirit Bender. I hope you’re suffering, even in nonexistence.

Esme

The darkness was sweet and quiet.

Sometimes, voices emerged. Kalon, telling me to wake up. Tristan, promising me that everything would be okay. Amal, asking Amane to give her a new dressing for my wound. I’d been injured somehow, but the memory of it was so fuzzy, so far from my reach, that I couldn’t even be bothered to try to get to it.

“Esme, please. Come on, sis.” Tristan’s voice came through again, almost surprising me. I’d been so well rested, so deeply relaxed in this sensory deprivation, that I’d almost forgotten who I was and what I was meant to do.

My brother was calling out to me.

What had happened?

“I need you,” Tristan said. “I need you back.”

My eyes peeled open, and I took a deep breath. The light was soft and orange, from wall sconces and a nearby candelabra, most likely. I heard my brother gasp, though I couldn’t quite make out what I was seeing yet.

“Esme.”

“Tristan,” I managed, my throat dry as a desert.

“Here, drink this,” he said, and I felt his hand cupping the back of my neck as he helped me to a drink of fresh blood. The warm liquid trickled into my stomach and reinvigorated every cell in my body. Clarity returned—or at least as much of it as possible, given my near-death experience.

“Tristan… It was Zoltan,” I whispered, finally seeing my brother’s face. “He killed Nethissis. I don’t… I don’t know how, but he got to her. He said she was in the… Oh, hell, how did he put it?”

“Take it easy, Esme,” Tristan replied. “You’re just coming to.”

“No, I have to say this before it slips away from me. My mind’s a mess,” I said, grasping at broken fragments of memories. “He said she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Nethissis must’ve been down in the dungeons, then,” Tristan concluded.

I looked around, noticing that the rest of our team wasn’t here. “Where are the others?”

“Amal and Amane are visiting the quarantine area with Petra. They’ve got twelve sick Aeternae, now. Derek and Sofia are with Corbin and Valaine, preparing a search operation to catch Zoltan.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “GASP is in an uproar. They’ve offered their assistance, but the interdiction on the number of GASP operators on Visio still stands. Acheron and Danika won’t budge. Hell, they’re even more determined now to resolve this without outside interference. They’re boiling.”

“Oh… Okay. Well, I kind of saw that one coming, to be honest. What about the basement?” I asked, remembering venturing down there. I’d followed Trev. Invisible, until Zoltan had revealed me. That schmuck.

“It’s empty. Wiped clean. There wasn’t anything there. Just empty cells and discarded chains. They found a tunnel leading far away from the city, but the Darklings must’ve sealed it off. No one could get through. The collapse was at least a mile long,” Tristan explained.

I remembered the scythe, and my blood ran cold. I gripped my brother’s arm, feeling my eyes widen with pure horror. “Tristan… He had a scythe. Zoltan had a Reaper scythe. He knew how to use it, too.”

“We figured that much based on your leg wound.”

I glanced down, noticing the layer of bandages strapped around my thigh. The pain pulsated from beneath, spreading