A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,19
to track down their leaders and destroy the entire faction. We have the manpower, we have the resources and the ability to annihilate them, and yet… we haven’t.”
We settled close to the fence, away from anyone’s earshot. The sky turned into a reddish blanket as dark clouds traveled from the west, unraveling in shades of charcoal and dirty orange. A storm was coming—the first of many, given the change of seasons.
“Are you trying to tell me that the higher-level Aeternae have prevented the capture and elimination of the Darklings?” I whispered the question, shivers trickling down my spine like droplets of ice water.
“It’s a suspicion of mine, yes,” Acheron admitted. It wasn’t an easy thing for him to say; I could tell from the way he glanced downward, his head hung low. “I think the Darklings have been allowed to fester. Maybe because their silent supporters agree with whatever it is these monsters are trying to accomplish, or maybe because they get immense benefits from the blood slave trade and accept the Darklings as a necessary evil. I mean, you’ve heard my wife.”
I nodded slowly. I certainly remembered Danika’s hesitation with regards to banning the blood slave trade. She’d been quite vocal, claiming fear of the elites. The ruling dynasty needed their support.
“Which is why I’m talking to you,” Acheron added. “None of my spies have brought me anything useful in terms of intel, and yet your Esme was able to oust the Darklings from my bloody palace basement!” He paused, taking another deep breath. He even closed his eyes for a moment as he collected his thoughts. “I need your help, Derek. I know we’ve already asked enough of you, what with the Black Fever and all, but I cannot trust my own people on this. I cannot even trust Danika. She’s too reserved. Too comfortable with this vicious cycle we’ve allowed the Darklings to create.”
I had to admit, I didn’t see this coming. “I… I’d be more than happy to assist with whatever I can, Your Grace, provided it’s… you know, doable. The last thing I want is to cause trouble with the Aeternae.”
“Which is why I want to keep this conversation between us and away from the ears of the Aeternae,” Acheron replied. “Zoltan hasn’t been captured, despite the massive reward. The Darklings continue with their machinations and attempted coups. We’re not getting anywhere with any of this. I want to get rid of them. I want them to stop meddling with the empire’s affairs. I want them all just… gone.”
I didn’t say anything, giving him the time he needed to properly formulate his request—because there was a request coming. He’d already laid out the groundwork through his previous statements.
“I need you and your people to infiltrate Visio,” Acheron finally said. “I can only trust you to handle these Darklings. You’ve proven yourselves more than once already.”
“Your Grace, our team is small. Esme and Tristan are already on it. Amal and Amane have to continue their work, and Sofia and I are doing our best to support our agents,” I said, not revealing to Acheron that we wanted to stay close to Amane and Amal in case anything else decided to go wrong. If the Faulty twins got into any kind of trouble, Sofia and I needed to be close enough to react, so we wouldn’t be faced with more senseless deaths. “I would be more than happy to help you, but I will need more people.”
Acheron nodded. “I know. Once I get all my plans in order, I’ll be able to make some of our air fleets look the other way for a few hours while you smuggle more of your GASP troops into Visio. But I will need a couple of days to make such arrangements. It’s imperative that it’s all done in total secrecy. I’ll have to orchestrate something to distract the fleets.”
“Okay. That makes sense. I will talk it over with Sofia and our base.”
“I’ll give you whatever your people need to blend in. There are certain advantages to being a monarch on Visio. I can get away with a lot of things.” Acheron chuckled, leaning against the fence.
“I’m sure you know everything you need to do in order to make such an operation work,” I replied, smiling. “And we’ll have gathered enough intel from Esme and Tristan to help our incoming agents identify the Darklings.”
“Just have them ready to deploy, Derek. Once I give you the go-ahead, hopefully within a couple of