A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,42
confused.” I was also scared and angry, but I had figured out that these situations required layers of inquiry, otherwise I’d risk descending into a dark spiral of madness, overwhelmed by the many secrets of the universe around me—secrets to which a Reaper like myself didn’t normally have access.
“To my knowledge, there are only five hypersensitive Reapers in existence,” Soul said. “Phantom here, Unending, Time, the Night Bringer, and our late brother, Spirit. Well, that actually means four, now that he’s dead. And you’re the fifth.”
“Your eloquence is something else,” Phantom muttered.
“But I’m right. Kelara is the fifth now,” Soul insisted.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Morning briefly interrupted us, as another Beta element was coming through. Widow was quick to take him out, further loosening the spell. If Morning had put the last ounces of effort into guiding that Vetruvian our way, she was downright spent. The remaining locals began to scatter, mumbling mostly to themselves.
For the first time since the dawn of their civilization, they were finally free, and they didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves. They wandered around for a while, gradually dispersing into the woods.
Morning’s voice was gone, with no other Vetruvian left around to speak on her behalf. The silence was upsetting, as it made me feel heavy and filled with bitterness. We needed two more Beta elements, and she wasn’t able to tell us where they were anymore.
“Well, this is a problem.” Soul sighed. “We’re missing two. We should’ve held on to the others before she found them all.”
“A little late for hindsight, don’t you think?” I replied, inching closer to the edge of my patience.
“Morning could’ve warned us,” Widow said. “But her head’s a mess, scattered all over this place. I doubt the thought occurred to her.”
“Morning?” Phantom called out, but no answer came.
“She can’t control the Vetruvians anymore,” I said.
“Which is great for the Vetruvians, but not that great for us, obviously,” Soul replied. “We have to find the other two Beta elements, otherwise Morning is stuck under an incomplete spell.”
On one hand, I felt infinitely better knowing that the people were safe from her influence. On the other hand, however, I worried it would hinder our mission going forward. All the Beta elements we’d killed so far had to count for something. Their deaths could not be in vain.
Leaves rustled somewhere to my right. I turned around to see a young Vetruvian woman coming toward us, her knees shaking as she struggled to stand. It didn’t take me long to realize what was happening, as she kept walking toward us.
“I had to… I had to let them all go,” Morning said through her. “I had to… So I could bring the last two Beta elements to you…”
“Damn, our little sister is remarkably persistent,” Phantom said. Moving like a shadow, she bolted across the tall grass and captured the Vetruvian woman.
“One more,” I replied. “Where the hell is it?”
My anxiousness was not without reason. The sooner we got this over with, the faster we’d get off Vetruvia. This place was beautiful, but it had been scarred by the Spirit Bender’s malevolent actions. The Morning Star had forced the people into a hive mind, taking over their bodies and minds, keeping them awake for days on end in order to stop the curse from torturing her. Ironically enough, darkness and sleep had been known to offer relief in most instances.
In Morning’s case, unfortunately, darkness and sleep had brought nothing but torturous agony. We had to end it, no matter what. The longer she lingered here, the harder it would be for the Vetruvians to recover and rebuild after all this time.
“What do we do after we finish this?” Widow asked.
“What do you mean?” Soul replied. “We get Morning out of here and we go find the others. I thought that was obvious.”
Widow sat on a rock, his elbows resting on his thighs. “No, I know that, Captain Obvious. I mean what do we do when Death is free? I understand all of us First Tenners working together to help her, but what does she want from us afterward?”
“It’s my understanding she wishes for your support in ruling over the Reapers,” I said. “Actually, I think she made that pretty clear.”
“She could’ve asked us if we wanted to do that, in the first place,” Phantom replied, looking at her brothers. “I, for one, can see where Widow is going with this.”
“What would you rather do?” I asked, hands in my pockets.