A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,83
me while Phantom continued to care for Morning. The Night Bringer might have latched on to me, but she could still feel him on an emotional level. Out of all the Reapers in existence, only the Morning Star truly understood what he’d been going through, since she’d suffered a similar ordeal back on Vetruvia. I couldn’t help but sympathize with her plight, hoping I’d get her brother out soon. No one deserved this—well, no one except the Spirit Bender, and his death had been too easy by comparison.
“We’re here if you need us,” Soul said to me.
“I think I liked you better when you were playing mind games and messing with my sanity,” I muttered.
Widow chuckled. “My brother is rediscovering his conscience, apparently. I never thought I’d live to see such a day, but I’m on board with this version of him.”
“I could toss you inside a puzzle and watch you claw your way out of it,” Soul said to Widow. “Kelara’s going through enough already, but you… you I can still torment.”
“Let’s leave this argument for later,” I replied, then ran my fingers along the symbols engraved on the black marble piece. Inhaling deeply, I felt my body disappear.
After darkness’s sweet embrace, I came to. I was an old wood nymph this time. My knees were bony and felt heavier than they should. Age had caught up with me, and I moved slowly through the dying orchard. Carrying the black marble piece, I feverishly carved the Night Bringer’s message. My skin pricked. My spine ached. Most importantly, my heart was breaking.
The world wasn’t just dying. It was being tortured by a combination of elements. The Night Bringer’s pain poisoned Cruor. My people suffered—hungry and cold and thirsty. And now the Aeternae were taking over, raiding our villages and bleeding us dry.
I climbed up a tree to get a better look. Settling on a sturdy branch, I could see it all. My wood nymphs running as fast as they could, though the famine had visibly weakened them. Prometheus led the pack of Aeternae. Basilius and Elena were by his side. They tore through the village, dragging people from their homes and tearing into their necks.
Blood glazed their chins, but no matter how much they drank, the pain didn’t stop. The Aeternae were suffering. The Night Bringer’s toxic agony had caught up with them. Plumes of black smoke were still rising in the distance where their ship had crashed. Not even a day had passed since they’d been stranded here, and they were already transforming.
I sensed the Night Bringer’s presence. He didn’t want them hurting innocent creatures, but he couldn’t do anything about it, either. That made him suffer even more, and the air became thicker, harder to breathe. I carved the last symbol into the black marble, then tossed the piece away. It landed atop a house. Someone would find it later. Someone who might be able to help the Night Bringer.
Me…
“It’s no use!” Prometheus exclaimed. “It still hurts!”
“We have to make it stop!” Elena growled as she dropped one wood nymph and caught another. The villagers tried to flee from their path, but the Aeternae were significantly faster and stronger.
Basilius dropped to his knees, screaming from the bottom of his lungs. “What is happening?! What is this place?”
“It’s doing something to us…” Prometheus managed. He couldn’t stand anymore, either. His breath faltered, and he soon joined Basilius on the ground.
Another Aeternae cried out. He fell, but his body never felt the impact. It dissolved into millions of flakes of ash, leaving a black mist in its wake. Oh, my…
“Argh! What is this?!” Basilius croaked, staring at his hands with sheer horror. He disintegrated like the other Aeternae. The wind blew and scattered the ashes away, but the black mist remained, a shapeless and desperate confusion.
This was it. The exact moment in which the Night Bringer’s suffering forced the Aeternae to succumb. The exact moment in which the Aeternae lost their bodies and became the Elders. Basilius, Prometheus, Elena… all the members of the crew were reduced to wisps of black smoke, angry and helpless and constantly hungry.
This was it! The missing piece of the puzzle! The true origin of the Elders. Holy crap. Vampires and the Aeternae were even more closely related than Seeley had thought. Than any of us had thought. By some perverted twist of fate, everything bad about Cruor stemmed from the Spirit Bender’s betrayal and the Night Bringer’s suffering.