A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,78

Maya nipped at its bony shoulder.

“Rudolph!” Nethissis exclaimed.

I was genuinely relieved to see him. He carried injuries and the iron collar around his neck, but with three scythes between us, that wasn’t going to be a problem for much longer.

“Oh, Rudolph,” Sidyan murmured.

Maya dragged the ghoul uphill. Rudolph yanked himself out of her hold and reached us with a grumble, settling at Nethissis’s feet and looking at her with childish adoration. It still broke me to see him like this. However, I was also impressed by his resilience. Despite being reduced to this form, he’d managed to fight for the right side, more than once.

“So, we’ve got two Reapers, two ghouls, and two witches, one of whom is dead,” Nethissis concluded, raising an eyebrow at me. “It’s us against the Darklings, huh?”

“Pretty much,” I replied, slightly amused.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” Nethissis gasped. “We need to tell Valaine something. Or at least Tristan!”

Lumi was intrigued. “What are you talking about?”

“I overheard Zoltan talking. He says… I mean, it’s the Darklings’ belief that it’s not the Rimians or the Naloreans causing the Black Fever. It’s an Aeternae, one of their own, who unwittingly starts the cycle, normally every ten thousand years, though much faster this time around.”

“That’s why they want Valaine dead,” Lumi managed. She and Sidyan had eavesdropped on Tristan and Valaine’s conversations on their way here. It wasn’t hard to draw the same conclusion.

Nethissis nodded. “Exactly. They think she’s the source.”

“But that’s insane. It’s a virus. They tested the blood of everyone in the palace, Valaine included. I remember that from GASP’s earlier reports. It can’t be Valaine.”

“Maybe. But the Darklings don’t care. We need to tell her,” Nethissis said. “She needs to know that they will stop at nothing until she’s dead.”

“It might give Amane and Amal a reason to do a more in-depth study on Valaine, too,” I suggested. “Perhaps she really is the true carrier, but not so easily detected. We can’t exclude that possibility.”

Lumi thought about it for a while. “Seeley’s right. We need to find a way to tell Tristan first, without revealing ourselves, ideally. We can’t jeopardize our side of the mission, no matter what.”

This felt wrong on so many levels. I understood Death’s desire for discretion on our part, but we were all stronger together. Despite my rigorous upbringing as a Reaper, I did believe that this was one of those instances where we were better off working with the living rather than parallel to their efforts. It felt like the first half of the Hermessi apocalypse, all over again.

We were making progress, for sure. But we were also being hampered by secrecy and mystery. I would’ve killed to speak to Kelara, as well, and find out what she was up to, but Sidyan looked at me, and I knew it was time for us to keep moving.

Our work was nowhere near close to ending.

At least Nethissis and I were around and together for a while longer. Better than nothing.

Tristan

As soon as we entered the ruins of Astoria, we all knew that something had happened here. It was hard not to reach that conclusion, considering the dozens of runes carved into marble monoliths, the smoldering traces of campfires, and the body parts and puddles of blood left behind. Something terrible had occurred in this place, and we had a hard time wrapping our heads around it.

The gold and silver guards fanned across the ancient city to investigate, gathering evidence and recording their notes on small scrolls, using drops of their own blood for the ink. That was an odd custom, I thought.

“It’s how we mark field documents as official,” Valaine clarified, watching me intently. She’d probably guessed what I’d been thinking. “A soldier’s blood is his vow and his word. It’s been like this for eons.”

“We missed them by a short period of time, don’t you think?” I replied, as we got off our Vision horses and toured the city. Corbin joined us, equally befuddled as he looked around.

“Less than an hour,” he said. “But the Darklings were definitely here,” he added, pointing at runes carved into a chunk of marble on the ground. “Those are symbols I’ve seen in the basement before.”

“They didn’t have time to hide their tracks, this time around,” Valaine replied, crouching and running her fingers across the etched surface. “Something surprised them. Something violent.”

We reached the bloodiest area of Astoria. Body parts had been left here, now pale and drained of blood, which covered most of the dirt