A Shade of Vampire 79 A Game of Death - Bella Forrest Page 0,74

sole motivation to get out of bed in the morning. The thought that I will get them eventually.”

“How do you plan on doing that, exactly?” I asked.

“The Red Threads have connections to the Darklings. Connections that not even that guy you two captured knows about,” Trev said. “It’s known only in the leadership circle. They exchange intel, occasionally. They don’t work together, as factions, and they pretend to be against each other, but really, they’re not.”

“I’m confused,” I mumbled. “The dude we captured said they were anti-Darklings.”

“He knows what the leaders told him,” Trev said. “In the end, the Red Threads are perfectly happy with Darklings dropping Aeternae bodies. A little bit of anarchy never hurt a rebellion, did it?”

“Holy crap…”

Kalon chuckled softly. “Right there with you.”

“I’m in touch with one of the Red Thread leaders. I told him I want to switch over to the Darklings after I’m turned. He said he can introduce me to the right people,” Trev said. “That’s been my strategy from the very beginning. I spent months in the Rimian taverns, eavesdropping on the right conversations, until I realized that my best shot as a Rimian at entering the Darkling circle was via the Blood Arena and the Red Threads. It’s the only reason why I joined these so-called revolutionaries.”

I noticed the contempt in his voice. “You don’t seem to like the Red Threads much.”

“They traffic in Rimians and Naloreans, much like the Darklings,” Trev replied.

Kalon didn’t seem surprised by this.

“What do you mean?” I asked, increasingly overwhelmed by this sudden dump of crucial information. My blood ran cold, as part of me already understood what Trev had meant.

“They abduct Rimians and Naloreans from the poorer neighborhoods. In some cases, they pay flying-ship pirates to smuggle them in from Rimia or Nalore, directly, by the hundreds,” he explained. “They tag them and sell them to rich Aeternae. It’s Visio’s best-kept secret, in case you didn’t know. The upper echelon and the government know about this, and even though outright slavery is illegal, they don’t enforce the law on these hounds because they’re direct beneficiaries. Almost every Aeternae household worth over a hundred thousand gold coins has at least one Rimian or Nalorean locked in a room, somewhere, on whom they feed.”

My stomach turned. I was close to retching, instinctively covering my mouth. Kalon, on the other hand, was perfectly calm, his gaze fixed on the ground as he listened.

“You know about this?!” I croaked. “Do you have Rimian or Nalorean blood slaves at home?”

He looked at me with ice-cold shock. “Never! I would never do this to anyone! I would never hold someone against their will.”

“But you know about the practice.”

“He knows, Esme. But there isn’t much he can do about it,” Trev said. “He’s tried, more than once, for as long as I can remember. They always shut him down.”

“How do they shut you down?” I asked Kalon.

His brow furrowed as he avoided my gaze. “You don’t want to know. Trust me.”

“I’d like to trust you, but you seem to be holding back a lot of information!” I said. “You could’ve told me about this sooner!”

“It’s none of your concern, Esme!” Kalon replied, his tone clipped. “It’s got nothing to do with Nethissis’s murder, or your day-walking protein. I’m still an Aeternae, remember? I cannot turn against my people. Once you leave, I’ll have to answer for a lot of things. Stirring up this blood slavery is just one thing I’m not itching to put back on my naughty list.”

“This is insane,” I whispered, suddenly disappointed in all of them. Valaine probably knew about it, as well. As much as I hated to admit it, though, Kalon was right. It wasn’t my business. I wasn’t supposed to get involved in their internal policies. But still, dammit… it made me so angry!

“The best way to take both organizations down is from the inside,” Trev said, after a long pause. “The members you caught today? Low-level grunts. They wouldn’t be able to give you good intel even if they had it.”

“And this is where you come in, right?” Kalon replied, staring at his friend. His gaze was cold and impassive, but I caught the occasional glimmer of guilt in there. I knew he had a conscience, but there was a small rift between us now, and I had to find a way to get over it. The mere thought of distancing myself from Kalon made me feel bad. There had to be a middle path…