A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,77

before.

“You have got to be kidding me.” I scoffed, shaking my head in dismay. “The Spirit Bender?! Really?”

I’d had my suspicions, sure. But they all faded in comparison to Death’s theories up to this point. None of this felt right, and yet we had to keep going like this, exercising discretion instead of ringing alarm bells all over the Reaper world.

“Let me get this straight. While Death and her First Tenners work to free her from those seals, we’re supposed to just keep following the Darklings around and find their top leader?” Nethissis asked. “And until then, I shouldn’t ask Death about what she can do for me, given my… unnatural situation?”

Sidyan nodded slowly, while Lumi teared up again. “I’m sorry, honey,” she murmured, and Nethissis smiled gently.

“It’s okay, Lumi. It’s obviously none of your doing. No one expected me to end up like this. But you! You piss Death off by making buddies with a ghoul, and we’re the ones paying the price?” Nethissis snapped at Sidyan, who took a couple of wary steps back, closely accompanied by Maya.

“Let’s give Death something to go on, first. She’s the only one who can fix this, as soon as she’s out of those seals,” Sidyan said. “Then, we’ll all get to make our cases before her. You, for maybe another shot at life. Me and Maya, well, I suppose for just a little bit of mercy. I’m not sure you remember, but Death does not operate by your moral standards. She never did. She’s capricious and moody. She can level an entire planet if she lashes out. We have to be careful and make sure we’ve got something good before we can ask her for anything.”

As horrid as that might’ve sounded, I knew that to be true. The good deeds she’d done after the Hermessi apocalypse was stopped were not a guarantee that she would follow the same pattern. That she would spare Nethissis and bring her back. Sidyan was right. We needed to make a solid case for ourselves.

“We have to prove our worth and usefulness,” I said. “The fewer reasons she has to wipe us out, the better it will be for us.”

“And we can’t speak to the living about this,” Lumi reminded Nethissis. “Tristan, Esme, Sofia, Derek… GASP… No one can know we’re here. We’ll have to be careful with the Darklings, too. They saw us. They know there are at least two Reapers on the loose, and they’ll be looking to tie up these loose ends soon enough.”

I pointed at Astoria. “Right now, I think they’re just looking to disappear.”

Flashes of light erupted across the ruins, while Tristan and Valaine’s small army proceeded along the main road toward them. Seconds later, I couldn’t see any more movement in the ancient city. The Darklings and the ghouls were all gone, leaving behind the bodies of their fallen and probably traces of their death magic, too.

Frankly, I was disappointed, but at least we’d managed to spook them, to show them that they couldn’t just mess around with Reapers indefinitely.

“It’s okay,” Lumi said. “At least we got you guys out of there.”

“We don’t have anyone else to rely on, other than ourselves,” I replied. It didn’t sound good, especially since Death had tasked us with finding the Darklings’ leader—well, she’d tasked Sidyan and Lumi with it, but since I was free again, I hoped Death could at least sense that I was also on board.

Nethissis placed a hand on my shoulder, and I looked at her, warmth spreading through my very soul. She was my silver lining, my escape. My shining light, and we’d survived a week with the Darklings together. “We’re more than enough,” she murmured, and I knew that to be the absolute truth. “We’ll get through this. Now, if we can find Rudolph, too, it’ll be some extra strength added to our crew.”

Sidyan lowered his gaze, sadness drawing the corners of his mouth downward. “Poor fella. I can’t believe they turned him.”

“Yeah. How did they do that, exactly?” Lumi asked.

Nethissis and I both shrugged. “We’re not sure,” I said. “We didn’t see the actual process. Only the final result. But it’s safe to assume that every Reaper that made it to Visio since the Darklings’ inception has ended up a ghoul in their service.”

Maya growled, glancing downhill. Something moved between the bushes, making the large leaves tremble. She bolted and jumped into the green mass. A creature responded, poking its head out and hissing with discontentment as