A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,72

to keep them away, but they didn’t seem frightened. Rudolph didn’t have a good attack angle, so he stayed close to me as we moved backward, trying to put some distance between us and them. He whispered something, a string of sounds that I couldn’t understand. But the other ghouls did.

The black guards sneered at us, likely thinking they’d just averted a tragedy. Voices boomed in the distance. More soldiers and Darklings were mobilized, darting toward us between the monoliths and the marble ruins of Astoria. I wanted to say it out loud—that we were screwed. But my instincts wouldn’t allow it.

“Get over here,” the first guard said, pointing his blade at me. “This will hurt you badly. Worse than anything you might’ve experienced while you were living.”

“Who the hell is she?” the second guard asked, unable to take his eyes off me.

He never got his answer. None of the twelve guards got their chance to capture Rudolph and me again, either. The chained ghouls pounced on them. Their chains kept them tethered, but the soldiers had been easily within their reach. Out of nowhere, the ghouls took over. They slashed and tore and ripped their limbs and heads off, their fangs piercing flesh and breaking bones.

Rudolph and I moved farther away, and I was suddenly thankful to be dead, because I would’ve been extremely nauseated by the sight before us, had I still had a body.

It was a bloodbath. The ghouls claimed the bodies and removed the heads. They chomped on the souls. By the time the other guards and Darklings came around, it was far too late. There were only pieces of them left, scattered across the ground, blood pooling over the dirt and dried grass.

I was so shocked by the speed with which the creatures had reacted and killed a dozen black guards. I wondered what they could do if I let them all loose. Unfortunately, that wasn’t yet an option, for Veliko and Zoltan had also made their way up to the ghouls’ pen. And they were both staring at Rudolph and me in sheer disbelief.

It didn’t take Zoltan long to recognize me. “The witch,” he murmured. “The damn witch…”

“The one Ignatius killed?” Veliko asked, his brows furrowed as he watched me take a few more steps back. He took out his scythe, the blade glinting in the daylight as if it had been infused with diamonds.

I had to get Rudolph and me as far away from these maniacs as possible.

Most importantly, I had to get Seeley out of here.

Nethissis

“Don’t be foolish, witch,” Zoltan said to me. “You’re only a spirit. There’s not much you can do with a Reaper scythe. It certainly won’t save you from us.”

“I don’t know, man, I kind of like what I’ve managed to do with it so far,” I replied.

The ghouls were quiet again, huddled together and licking their thin, bloodied lips. That was quite the feast they’d had, and there was bound to be some kind of punishment for what they had just done. I knew that from the way Veliko scowled at them. I could only imagine what sort of cruelty was brewing between his ears.

“Suit yourself,” Zoltan muttered. He started whispering a spell, and that was my cue to run away.

“As fast as you can, Rudy!” I breathed, as we bolted across the lazy slopes in the southwest of Astoria. I was basically gliding over the land, my feet moving more as a reflex than anything else. I clutched the scythe tightly in my hand, and I didn’t stop until we reached Seeley.

The air swooshed behind us several times. I’d felt the faint brushes against my back. I’d narrowly escaped several death spells, for sure.

Veliko was hot on our trail, closely followed by Zoltan. The other guards and Darklings were coming, too, having left a platoon to keep the ghouls’ pen secure. There were a spirit and a ghoul on the loose and in possession of a Reaper scythe. They couldn’t leave anything to chance, obviously.

My heart was racing as I slid down on my knees and bumped into a stunned Seeley.

“Nethi… What the…” he managed. I showed him the scythe.

“Tell me what to do,” I said, panting from the excitement. Even in death, I seemed to get quite a thrill out of dangerous situations. “Tell me what to do, what to say… how to set you free!”

Rudolph circled us several times, putting on a fierce expression. If he’d been scared, he had now managed to bottle