A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,46

Blood had dried over their faces, a remnant of the fights they’d survived against Corbin’s Crimson guards. He’d ordered his men to take as many alive as they could. “Once we settle somewhere, they will be tortured for information. They’ll beg us to kill them.”

She was repeating words I’d already heard from her father. Words she clearly believed in. But I had a feeling that this particular mantra would not be enough to sway the captives into cooperating.

“Maybe they don’t believe you,” I said. “The Darklings seem to operate on a rather familiar principle. As long as they don’t talk, they’re precious. We won’t kill them until we get information out of them, and they know it. Besides, given their ability to heal, as Aeternae, torture isn’t exactly scary enough to make them talk.”

“You make a valid point,” Valaine replied, interest glimmering in her black eyes. “What would you suggest we do, then?”

I thought about it for a moment, taking every possibility into account. Looking around, I noticed the soldiers still had plenty of energy for this journey. I figured we had enough in us to make it to Astoria without camping anywhere for the rest of the night.

“What you did to that Darkling, back at the palace, seemed to work a lot better,” I said, though I was a little wary of setting that side of her loose again. We needed the intel, however, and the captives could provide it. “Would you be able to do it again?”

Valaine sighed deeply, pondering my question. She nodded slowly, giving me a concerned glance. “I don’t know how to control it. I might need you to pull me back if I go too far, Tristan.”

“You can count on me, Valaine. You know that.”

The smile she gave me made my heart sing as it swelled and challenged my ribcage. This was one hell of a woman I was traveling with. A creature like nothing I’d seen before. And I seemed to have her attention.

“Okay… let’s see what happens,” she murmured, and drew her horse closer to the cage, ordering the guards to stop for a few minutes. Two of the Crimson soldiers handled the Visions. The entire caravan came to a halt, questions rising from guards up and down the road. Valaine’s name was mentioned several times, followed by nods of acceptance. I could see Corbin looking over his shoulder from where I was.

Valaine got off her Vision and reached the cage, looking through the metal bars at one of the prisoners. The temperature dropped, something heavy settling in the pit of my stomach. Feelings I’d experienced before came over me, pummeling my senses with cold violence. My hands gripped the reins, but I didn’t move. Beads of sweat erupted on my forehead, trickling down as I struggled to breathe evenly.

“Tell the truth,” Valaine whispered to one of the captives.

The Darklings were quickly terrified, taken over by her peculiar and crippling influence. Whatever this power was, it seemed incredibly strong. Valaine could easily push a person beyond the brink of madness, if she put her mind to it.

“Make it stop,” one of the Darklings screamed, blood gushing from his nose.

But Valaine couldn’t stop. I could almost feel her. She’d gone past a certain point of self-control, exerting her power and filling their minds with anguish and terror like nothing they’d experienced before. They cried out, begging us to stop her, but I couldn’t bring myself to end this just yet.

She’d made that Darkling talk, back at the palace. She could do it again. I had faith in Valaine, perhaps more than anyone else around her. She scared me, too, but I embraced that fear. I welcomed it as a precious part of her. Every moment that passed was one more step that brought me closer to her.

“Make it stop, please!” another Darkling shouted. He was pale, his eyes bulging as he covered his ears in a bid to stop whatever it was that Valaine was doing to him.

“No more… No more!” a third captive sobbed, tears streaming down his cheeks as he curled up on the metal floor of their cage.

“Tell the truth!” Valaine said, her voice sending shivers through my limbs and down my spine. Black veins expanded around her eyes. The winds swelled and blew with increasing strength. Leaves rustled as the forest shook in her presence.

“Stop it!” Corbin cut in, pulling Valaine away from the cage. “Please. Don’t do that anymore.”

“But Father…” Valaine couldn’t take her eyes off the Darklings.