A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,23

a whole minute passed, and they weren’t even looking at me anymore. They dug their noses into the grass as the black guards brought them back to the temporary camp. Zoltan watched them with grim interest. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

One of the black guards huffed nervously as he yanked on the chain, forcing the ghoul in his charge to catch up with him. “They’re not eating much,” the guy said. “They keep sniffing around, growling, looking left and right and front and back, but they don’t seem to have much appetite.”

“We got them close to a herd of deer,” another guard said. “A couple of them went after the animals and came back with carcasses, but the others didn’t seem interested.”

Zoltan muttered a curse. “They’re not eating. You all know what that means.”

“The source of the Black Fever is close by,” Veliko replied, his brow furrowed as he glanced around, probably hoping it was all just a bad dream.

My instincts flared. Valaine was close—closer than ever—and she seemed to have a certain amount of influence over the ghouls. At least, that was what Zoltan was saying, though I had a hard time finding the connection between the Black Fever and the ghouls. It made me wonder how much of their belief system was rooted in reality, and how much was just bogus superstition.

I couldn’t exactly ask Zoltan to explain the connection between the ghouls’ loss of appetite and Valaine’s proximity. All I could do was listen and pay attention. My skin crawled as I watched the ghouls huddle together, clearly uncomfortable, as they were forced to sit in the pouring rain. Rudolph stared at them, his gaze occasionally darting back to Veliko and Zoltan—these two scared him, so he kept a reasonable distance.

“We’ll have to get moving,” Zoltan said. “If she’s this close, it’s only a matter of time before she finds us.”

“Why don’t we stand our ground and fight, then?” Veliko replied. “If we kill her now, we’ll be heroes!”

“There are too many of them.” Zoltan sighed. “Too many of our own kind we risk killing. That’s not how we do things. If a few Aeternae get killed during our missions, it’s collateral damage we can accept. But they have at least three thousand gold guards and Crimson soldiers with them, and you’ve seen how powerful Valaine can be. Killing her now would mean killing her defenders, as well. All three thousand of them. The Whip will not accept such damage, not when we’re trying to save the Aeternae. Use your brain, Veliko.”

“We can make them understand why she must die!” the ambitious lieutenant retorted. “This is as close as we will ever get to her, considering our current circumstances. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“I said no!” Zoltan shouted. “We keep moving. We lose them. We find our way back to the Whip. That’s all. That is our protocol, and we will follow it!”

Before Veliko could respond, several pellets fell from the sky. Each one burst into a puff of blue smoke and ashes upon hitting the ground. Confusion was quick to set in.

“What the…” Zoltan’s voice faded, as hundreds of pellets fell.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

They all exploded, causing the blinding blue smoke to expand, swallowing the entire formation of dazed Darklings and ghouls. The creatures snarled and bawled, covering their big black eyes. The Darklings struggled to stand upright as they coughed and wheezed.

I recognized this attack technique. There wouldn’t be any more pellets coming. Those were as much as Tristan would’ve been able to fit into his bag before replenishing his resources from the shuttle.

“Rudolph, get back!” I shouted.

Gold guards roared as they descended upon the site. Their armor glimmered through the thick blue smoke. They moved like shimmering shadows, hacking and slashing. Blood sprayed outward, thousands of droplets passing through me to glaze the grass at my feet. The rain would wash it all away.

I heard Valaine shouting orders. Turning around, I saw her and Tristan atop their Vision horses, joining their soldiers in this unexpected attack. They had planned this well—the Darklings had obviously not seen them coming. I couldn’t see Seeley and my crew, but I had to move back to the road as fast as possible. Things were about to get extra nasty.

This was it. The reckoning had finally reached Zoltan and his people.

Tristan

When the ghouls had come out of the woods with their handlers, we’d seen some of the creatures looking our way. It was barely noticeable to most, but to me