A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,76

clear mark of how different she really was. I had a lot of questions for Death, where Nethissis was concerned. Now, I could finally ask them.

“I wish I could hold you.” Lumi sighed, her voice trembling.

“You and me both,” Nethissis replied, a smile lighting her up from the inside.

“What happened to you, honey?” Lumi knew, but it probably felt good to ask that question aloud. Nethissis let a deep sigh out, her shoulders dropping.

“I wasn’t careful,” she said. “A ghoul whacked me.”

“They were blaming Zoltan.”

“Well, it was his ghoul,” Nethissis replied.

Lumi looked at Sidyan and me. “It’s not normal. Death by ghoul shouldn’t count. Right?”

“I’ll have to address this with Death,” I said. “Along with a few other aspects, including how Nethissis was able to keep herself invisible to scythe-wielding Aeternae. That was unexpected.”

“Do it. Talk to Death. I need to know. We need to know,” Lumi insisted.

Sidyan stepped in. “Rest assured, we’ll raise the questions soon enough. Frankly, I’m now just as curious as Seeley regarding Nethissis’s invisibility issue. Meanwhile, however, you know we still have work to do. This whole rescue was not part of the plan.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, frowning.

Lumi rolled her eyes. “You have no idea how hard I had to fight him on this. By Death’s order, we were supposed to remain invisible. That meant leaving you and Nethissis to fend for yourselves back there.”

Anger burst through me as I scowled at Sidyan. “Dude. You would’ve left me there? Seriously?!”

“It was one of the options, yes,” Sidyan replied. He shook his head, looking at Lumi. “Just one of the options! I wasn’t going to leave him there!”

“Right. Sure. Okay. I believe you,” Lumi retorted, crossing her arms. “Where’s Maya?”

“Who?” I asked. Clearly, I was miles out of the loop, and so was Nethissis, who looked equally confused until she put two and two together.

“Oh, snap. That tiny ghoul!” she exclaimed.

“Maya is a friend. Also, yes, a small-sized ghoul,” Sidyan said, looking around. “She’ll be here in a… wait, there she is.”

Running up the hill with Veliko’s hand clutching his scythe still in her mouth, Maya seemed quite pleased with herself. I unhooked the Darkling’s cold fingers from around the scythe. Ironically, I now had two weapons, and none were mine. I’d get my blade from Zoltan soon, though. He was not meant to have it.

“I’m going to hold on to both,” I said to Nethi, “until I teach you an invisibility spell, so you can carry a scythe without showing yourself. You’ve already proven yourself quite adept with death magic.”

Nethissis gave me a soft nod, then looked down at Maya, who was now busy devouring Veliko’s hand.

As gruesome as it looked, I had to admit, there was some satisfaction brewing inside me, knowing it would take that bastard months to grow a new one. I did hope he’d be killed by then, but, if he somehow survived what was to come next, he’d at least be miserable.

“Good girl,” Sidyan said, stroking the ghoul’s tuft of black hair. The creature purred, settling next to him like a faithful pet. This was weird, to say the least.

“I’m sure there’s a backstory here, and you’re going to tell me all about it, right?” I asked him. Sidyan offered a faint shrug, affectionately looking down at Maya.

“Yeah. She’ll probably be the literal end of me, but for as long as this might last, I’m happy she’s here. Maya’s a good girl.”

Nethissis cleared her throat, holding up the scythe. “So… What do I do with this?”

“Whatever you did when you first had it,” I said. “You clearly have a knack for Reaperhood.”

Her eyes widened as she stared at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ll have to talk to Death about it and let you know,” I replied, mentally preparing to open a telepathic connection with my maker. I was dying to tell her everything we’d learned so far. “Besides, she’s got a lot of answers to give us.”

“No, don’t reach out to her!” Sidyan stopped me, looking downright frightened. “Not yet.”

Lumi cursed under her breath, prompting Nethissis to pay extra attention. “What the hell is going on here? What are you two not telling us?”

Sidyan exhaled sharply. “It all sort of comes back to Maya and me. And Death, too, for that matter.” It didn’t take him more than a few minutes to explain the entire situation, including Death’s orders regarding Visio. But at the end of those minutes, I felt significantly more tired than I’d ever felt