A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,71

actually knew.

“They’re obviously smarter than you are, and unimpressed by a foreign skirt,” Petra shot back, giving me a deadly stare. How was I the villain in all this?

“Kalon,” I whispered, tears welling in my eyes. “Tell me the truth.”

The skeevy Darkling laughed, eager to mock me. “Look at her, so prim and righteous. It makes me want to hurl.”

“Veliko, you’re here to do your job, not waste air in Visentis-related conversations,” Petra retorted without so much as looking at him. She had her sights set on me, and that couldn’t be good. My instincts were flaring, and I knew I wouldn’t leave this place without a fight. In fact, there was a good chance I wouldn’t leave this place alive.

“I knew who the Whip was,” Kalon finally said. “I just didn’t know she’d stoop so low as to drag the entire family into it. I had sent her a secret message using mazir to let her know that we were coming. I’d set some conditions, most of them regarding your safety. Mother had sworn you’d be okay here… clearly, she deceived me, while I only wanted to save her other son from certain death.”

Was that supposed to make me feel better? He’d known Petra was a high-ranked Darkling this whole time. Again, Kalon had been keeping secrets, and it hurt me even more. I had to tell Tristan. I’d walked right into the hornets’ nest and was about to get stung. Badly.

The Darklings’ conspiracy ran deeper than I’d ever imagined, and it meant we couldn’t trust anyone in the Visentis dynasty. Not even Kalon. That realization broke me in so many ways… I doubted anything Petra or the Darklings could do to me would hurt more than that.

Esme

“I can’t believe this,” I murmured, trying to accept this new and terrifying reality.

“Esme, I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Kalon said.

Petra laughed. “I doubt you’re in a position to do anything about what’s coming next, darling. Esme is going away. Veliko is going to take good care of her until I figure out whether she’s useful or disposable.”

Kalon’s gaze darkened, his claws extending. He was ready to defend me, and I was in too much trouble to argue.

“Telluris, Tristan,” I said, desperate to contact my brother.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Petra snapped her fingers, and a tiny white pulse burst from her hand. It smacked me right in the forehead, causing a severe pain as though something were literally slicing through my brain. “No more Telluris for you, missy. I’ve had enough of your magic.”

“How… Telluris, Tristan!” I shouted, but my brother was gone. I couldn’t even feel our soul connection anymore. “No! How did you do that?!”

“Death magic trumps your little tricks, Esme. You should’ve learned that by now,” Petra replied, revealing a scythe of her own. It was beautiful, with a slim blade and a jewel-encrusted silver handle. “It’s time for you to learn your place. You’ve been meddling in our affairs for too long.”

“Mother, you’re not touching her.” Kalon took a step to put himself between them and me. Ansel appeared stunned by this development, though I wasn’t exactly sure where his allegiance lay. Had it been my imagination that he’d seemed to waiver earlier?

“You’ve stolen my son from me,” Petra snapped, pointing her scythe at me. “You self-righteous little bitch! Look what you’ve done!”

“Esme didn’t do anything, Mother. You did. And you keep pushing me farther away. The fact that you brought Moore and Tudyk into the Darkling faction proves how woefully inadequate you are as a parent. Father would’ve cut your head off a long time ago had he known what you were truly capable of.”

At this point, I briefly wondered what had happened to the other boys’ father. Kalon was the only child from Petra’s first marriage, which had ended five thousand years ago during the last Black Fever outbreak. Simmon, Ansel, Tudyk, and Moore came from a second marriage, but where was their dad? Was he a Darkling, too? The thought alone made me feel nauseated. What a broken, twisted family this was…

“Kalon, my darling. Don’t be foolish. Don’t declare yourself an enemy of the Darklings to protect this… this ignorant outsider!” Petra insisted, though his words had definitely wounded her deeply. “Don’t sign your death sentence to support a stranger.”

“You signed all our death sentences the moment you got the family involved in this mess,” Kalon replied. “I have no intention of dying because of your choices, and I sure as hell don’t plan