A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,20

Morning said through the people.

“Okay, so. Ten potentially immortal Vetruvians,” Soul continued. “We have to find them. They will probably have the symbol on them, right?”

“Most likely, yes,” Phantom replied. “How many Vetruvians live here?”

“Oh, about five million, I think,” Morning said.

“That’s a lot of hay to search through,” I managed, my stomach growling from pure anxiety. “There has to be a faster, more efficient way, right? Morning? A little help, please? You’ve made them into a hive mind. You have access to their consciousness.”

Phantom threw me a broad smile. “I see why Death wanted you with us. Good idea!”

The Vetruvians stopped moving altogether, their eyelids moving as if they’d just gotten stuck somewhere between being awake and asleep, as if they were glitching. Widow cleared his throat, gradually inching closer to Phantom, Soul, and me and farther away from the people. I couldn’t fault him for feeling creeped out.

“I think she’s doing something to them,” he whispered.

“Kelara is right,” Morning said through the frozen Vetruvians. “I have access to their minds. I can search for the eldest, for those who still live despite my constant feeding on them.”

A few hours passed in the heaviest silence, while we waited. Not a single Vetruvian moved during that time, making me feel as though we’d gotten stranded inside a massive wax museum—this being the Nature Lovers’ exhibit…

I tried reaching out to Seeley and Rudolph again, but I got nothing except a pitying look from the First Tenners. They knew I wouldn’t hear from my friends, but they no longer tried to talk me out of attempting further communications.

“Ah!” the Vetruvians cried out, moving again. Some picked flowers; others cut wood or tended to their homes—all daily chores they executed while under Morning’s influence. “I found one! I can’t believe it! I found one!”

“A Beta element,” Soul said, as if to confirm. He didn’t seem to trust this version of his sister, not that I found that to be unreasonable in any way. Morning’s mind clearly wasn’t what it had once been.

“Yes. He’s coming your way. You’ll know him when you see him,” she replied.

“How did you find him, exactly?” I asked, curious about the process.

“I dug through their memories. I am still searching for the others, but this one’s the first I’ve come across to remember things from the first day Spirit and I got to Vetruvia.”

When the Vetruvian man came to the village from deep in the woods, we all realized that it wasn’t going to be as easy as we might’ve hoped. We had all overlooked something very basic, and yet incredibly complicated.

As Soul took the man’s hand and brought him closer to us, I noticed the symbol tattooed on the side of his neck, along with the fact that he looked like he was still in his early twenties, even though he was probably millions of years old, at this point.

“We need to break the Beta elements,” Soul said, eyeing me intently.

“No…” I mumbled, understanding exactly what he meant. “No… No, it’s not right.”

“We don’t kill the living!” Phantom cut in, agreeing with me. The look on her face told me everything I needed to know. She was just as uncomfortable with all of this, as I was, if not more.

“There is no other choice,” Widow replied. “Check with Death. She will confirm.”

“No, it’s not that. I trust your knowledge on the topic, but… is there really no other way?” I asked, pinching the bridge of my nose as I looked away from the seemingly immortal Vetruvian.

“The Beta elements must be destroyed.” Morning spoke only through him this time. It felt a little less odd than an entire village talking at once.

Exhaling sharply, I walked over to the Vetruvian and used the tip of my scythe to cut through the tattoo of the Beta element. His skin was soft, and it broke easily, blood trickling down his chest. He winced from the pain, but he didn’t move.

“Technically speaking, the symbol is defective now, right?” I asked, looking at the other Reapers. “Wouldn’t this be enough? Morning, do you feel any different, perhaps?”

“No.”

That was blunt. “Dammit,” I hissed.

“The Beta element has to be destroyed,” Soul repeated. “The symbol is just that. A symbol. A marker. The object or creature it occupies, that’s the true Beta element, Kelara. We have to kill him.”

“I will hold him in place,” Morning replied. “I can feel his consciousness flaring. He’s squirming and struggling to get loose.”

“Hold on!” I shouted, my whole body shaking. “Hold