A Shade of Vampire 82 A Circle of Nine - Bella Forrest Page 0,7

into, of course, but they also tended to get nervous and lose their self-control.

We couldn’t afford any slip-ups here. We were alone, smack dab in the middle of enemy territory, and we had one hell of an ancient ghoul to go against if we decided to take action against Petra.

“Does anybody have an idea?” Lumi asked.

“Not yet,” I replied. “I’m working on it.”

“Well, it’s a little sticky in there. We’ve got Petra, her brother Aganon, and her three sons. I’m not too worried about them,” Sidyan said, then paused for a second. “Except for Petra. She’s skilled in death magic. She scares me, I admit.”

“And Atlas. Atlas is our biggest problem,” I said. “He’s big and old and insanely dangerous.”

“Also a former Bounty Reaper. You know what those fellas are like,” Sidyan grumbled, scowling at the ghoul through the window.

Lumi shook her head. “Mind filling me in?”

“Bounty Reapers are fierce. Merciless. Incredible trackers. They put the rest of us to shame, really. I think they could give the First Tenners some serious competition, too,” I explained. “Their scythes are different, imbued with just a smidge of extra power from Death, and finely attuned to the presence of souls. The older a Bounty Reaper is, the finer his nose, so to speak. Atlas there, even in his ghoul form, is at least four or five million years old. That’s… a lot.”

“It makes him all the more dangerous because he’s ultra-sensitive,” Sidyan added. “He already knows we’re here, so he’ll be prepared for whatever we might throw at him. It doesn’t really matter that he’s a ghoul. His instincts remain, perhaps even sharper than ever.”

“If it’s the three of us and not just me, there’s a chance we’ll come up with something,” I said. “But I’m perfectly fine with going in there on my own if you fear retribution from Death for disobedience.”

Sidyan thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “I’m starting to agree with you, Seeley. That should be enough of a green light for you to hold back and work through this instead of charging into the house half-cocked.”

I chuckled. “Half-cocked? I’ve got my scythe plus two loaners. I’m anything but.”

“Either way, whatever we decide to do, we’ll have to be fast about it,” Lumi warned us. “This whole town is under Darkling control. The faction members are basically within earshot of this place, and the locals are scared. They’ll make noise as soon as they see or hear something wrong.”

Looking around again, I realized she was right. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“What did you learn about this place?” I asked. “During your earlier rounds, I mean.”

Lumi and Sidyan exchanged brief glances before giving me a shrug.

“There’s a different kind of law and order,” the swamp witch said. “They’re all very protective of each other. The locals are basically prisoners here, but I’m starting to think they’ve developed some kind of Stockholm syndrome. They will react and alert their oppressors if their lives are in any way disrupted.”

Sidyan nodded. “Earlier, one of the local teenagers tried to run away. Her own parents screamed until Darklings intervened. They tackled the girl, then cuffed her and threw her in a basement. She will not be fed for days, until she learns her place here, they said.”

“Her own parents,” Lumi repeated, shaking her head with disgust.

“Okay, so we’ll have to be stealthy,” I muttered, making it sound much easier than it actually was. Sidyan raised his eyebrows at me.

“We have to really think this through,” he said. “Most importantly, we have to be ready to face the consequences when this is all over. Death will not be merciful if we bypass her orders.”

“As long as Petra is still in town, we’re within the scope of our arrangement,” I said, remembering yet another potentially useful loophole. “I’m genuinely not worried about what she might do. I’d like to get Nethissis out first, then obliterate the Darklings altogether, then address any concerns our maker might have.”

Lumi shot me a cold grin. “You’ve come a long way, Seeley. From obedient Reaper to bad boy extraordinaire.”

“You people are rubbing off on me,” I replied. “Not that it’s a bad thing.”

That made Sidyan laugh, but I knew that, deep down, his mindset had also changed since he’d first interacted with the creatures of GASP. Yes, we’d come a long way, like Lumi had said. We were wiser. Not necessarily braver, but certainly more determined to do the right thing. And we’d rediscovered parts of