A Shade of Vampire 79 A Game of Death - Bella Forrest Page 0,111

before us, she became restless.

I gasped at the sight. It was as beautiful and as strange as Derek had described it. The reddish haze persisted around Visio and its two neighboring planets, Rimia and Nalore. The color display beyond that magic was extraordinary. Greens and blues so intense that my soul expanded with wonder. Whites and reds so pure that my heart tingled, ever so slightly.

Shuttles moved to and from Visio, their lights flickering yellow and purple.

It looked so beautiful. So… normal. Yet there was darkness dwelling in this place; I could feel it. As we got closer, Maya growled in protest, trying to get away, but Sidyan kept her close by force.

“There’s something here she doesn’t like,” I said.

“If what Seeley said about this world is true, then I would be as creeped out as Maya right now,” Sidyan replied.

“What do you mean?” I asked, as we finally set foot on dry land, the imperial city rising ahead with its majestic buildings and proud towers, ships glistening in the massive harbor to our left.

“According to him, and I know this from a brief conversation I had with Kelara not long ago, there aren’t any Reapers here. No souls, either. No ghouls or ghosts. Nothing. Literally nothing, except for the living.”

That struck me as odd. “How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. But since we’re here, we might as well find out,” Sidyan said. “Once you do whatever it is you’re planning to do with that Zoltan guy.”

I stared at him, then at Maya for a moment. “I get the strange part about this place, the absence of post-death entities… but how does that scare her? Why would it scare you, too?”

A smile tried his lips. He gazed into the distance, taking in the complex sight of a city brimming with life and culture, a world unlike his or mine. “Maya and I… we’re used to death, in general. Wandering souls, angry ghosts… Reapers, other ghouls. Death herself, as a concept, at least. Not having that around is scary, because we wonder… if death doesn’t exist here, what happens to the people who die on Visio? Or on Nalore or Rimia?”

I looked up at the sky, wondering about the magic used to conceal this place from our telescope. “Do you think it’s got something to do with the red haze?”

“It might, I don’t know. It felt a little strange passing through it.”

“Strange?”

“Familiar, but like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, at the same time,” Sidyan said, giving me a long sideways glance.

Only two minutes in, and we both had questions about Visio. Maya was shaking by Sidyan’s side, and I was dying to get my hands on Zoltan Shatal. Between the three of us, there was a lot to be done, and since nobody else knew I was here—except for Taeral and Eira, at least—I had a certain amount of freedom that Derek and his crew lacked.

If any of the Aeternae were hiding something… well, I was eager to dig deep, until all their secrets saw the light of day. There was definitely something fishy here. The Word hummed inside me, almost urging me to go ahead.

How could I refuse, with all this mystery in plain sight? Besides, I had a feeling I might come in handy later, even to Derek and the others. Unlike them, I had a Reaper in my service. And a partially obedient ghoul.

Whatever Visio planned to throw at me, I was ready.

What’s next?

Dear Shaddict,

Thank you for reading A Game of Death!

See the details for the next Shade book, ASOV 80: A Veil of Dark, right after the following announcement:

I’m excited to reveal my brand new supernatural romance called Darklight, which releases September 8, 2019. All new characters, an all new world… I’ve included a special sneak peek of the first 3 chapters in this book, so keep turning the pages if you’re curious! (P.S. And I hope you love the cover!)

Blurb:

"Vampires don’t exist. At least, not anymore..."

I celebrated when vampires were declared extinct.

Those monsters had preyed on humanity for millennia, committing senseless, brutal murders. Like the rest of my colleagues at the Occult Bureau, I looked forward to a world where we could all sleep at night—where constant cover-up jobs were no longer required to keep the public calm and unaware.

But the end of vampires wasn’t the end of our problems. It was only the beginning.

Other blood-sucking creatures began to lurk in the night. As soon as I turned twenty-one, I became a ground agent at the