A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,24

it was a sign that we would not be able to take the Darklings by surprise again. This was our only shot to attack, and we had to take it.

Valaine had reluctantly agreed, hoping her father would catch up with the rest of the troops before much longer. The soldiers we had with us were enough to intimidate and carry out a good offensive, especially after I’d used all my blue smoke pellets. They were small enough to fit inside a single leather pouch, yet they’d been potent enough to daze the dozens of Darklings we’d caught resting away from the coastal road.

My heart raced as we rode our horses into the mushroom cloud of cobalt-blue smoke. We heard the Darklings screaming and the ghouls screeching—we’d sent the gold guards in first to neutralize as many of them as possible. My only hope was that the ghoul training I’d given them would be enough for many of our people to survive.

I jumped off my horse, stopping at the edge of the skirmish. My gaze darted across the swollen mass of blue smoke and limbs and black armor and snarling ghouls, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. I had to give the gold guards credit—they barely understood the danger of these undead creatures, yet they dove right into the middle of it all.

“Get ready! They’ll start scattering soon!” I shouted at Valaine.

She slipped off her Vision and joined me, her claws and fangs out. Her eyes blackened as she unleashed the darker side within, black veins swelling across her temples. “I… Make sure you bring me back if I lose my way,” she hissed, delving deeper into her most feral self.

I nodded and watched her go. Seconds later, I joined her inside the blue smoke. It was finally beginning to dissipate, revealing a most horrendous sight. Gold guards were gruesomely decapitated, their lifeless bodies sinking into the bloodied grass. The ghouls were all visible—I had a feeling it had something to do with the iron collars around their necks—and their Darkling handlers struggled to pull them back while the black-armored guards defended their cluster.

The soldiers we still had standing were putting up quite the fight, slashing with their claws and darting through the thinning smoke as they sought to take down as many of the hostiles as possible.

I spotted Zoltan. He was limping away from the brawl when one of his own men grabbed him by the shoulder and tossed him backward, closer to us. I set my sights on him and went straight for a live capture.

“Veliko, you traitorous son of a bitch!” Zoltan cried out from where he’d fallen on his back in the wet grass.

The Darkling snickered as he motioned for the ghoul handlers to follow him. They moved back by another thirty yards or so, and Veliko snapped some of the creatures’ chains with his scythe. Our theories had been correct, then. The Darklings definitely had more than a few Reaper blades and plenty of death magic knowledge—further evidenced by the presence of so many ghouls in their possession.

The remaining Darklings were joined by the dozen ghouls that Veliko had just let loose. The creatures were now able to disappear, and I had to rely on my instincts and understanding of how they moved while in their subtle form to defend myself and the other gold guards from their snapping jaws.

Valaine howled as she bolted through the bloodied crowd. She went straight for a cluster of Darklings. The ghouls yelped and jumped back, suddenly still and visible, terrified of Valaine.

The Darklings were on their own again. I reached Zoltan just as he was about to get up. He swung his scythe out in a bid to cut me, but I’d already learned his techniques from Esme. I caught his wrist and wrung it until every single bone broke. Zoltan howled from the pain, dropping the scythe.

I caught the blade under my boot and pushed it aside, making sure he couldn’t reach it. Zoltan tried to fight me, but he wasn’t fast enough, not after I’d just shattered his wrist. I only needed a couple of moves to tackle him, both of us sinking into the mud forming from the constant rain. I wound up on top of Zoltan, yanking his hands back and slapping on a pair of steel cuffs.

“I got him!” I shouted victoriously. “I finally got him!”

Valaine hissed as she cut down another Darkling. There were plenty of bodies gathering at her