A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones - Bella Forrest Page 0,19

bells. I doubted they had been rung since the civilization had perished.

A low growl emerged from the temple, sending chills up my spine.

“They’re here,” I whispered.

One by one, the figures emerged from the darkness between the columns. To my surprise, they didn’t look like ordinary ghouls. No… they looked more like Reapers. Slim and clad in black and white, they carried half-moon scythes in their bony hands. They had pale skin, almost white, and obsidian eyes where the stars had long ago burnt out.

There were six of them. Six men of fae origin, I noticed, with long pale blond hair and eerily identical facial features. I wondered if they’d been born brothers, died brothers, and then become Reaper brothers before their eventual downfall. It didn’t make sense that they still had scythes, however. Ghouls and scythes did not belong together.

One of them bore a scar down his right cheek, a delicate pink line that traveled from his temple to the left corner of his mouth. He sneered as he descended the temple’s steps, black boots clicking on the white stone. He gripped his weapon tightly, knuckles almost tearing through his pearlescent skin.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he said. His voice made me tremble.

Tristan’s blood was frozen. His temperature had dropped a few more degrees, and his hand was sweating as it clutched mine. These ghouls had a powerful effect on me. I loathed to even imagine what they were doing to my husband, an otherwise fearless creature.

“And yet I stand before you,” I replied, raising my chin in defiance. “You’re keeping a secret in there. I want to know everything about it.”

The scarred ghoul threw his head back and laughed, while the others grinned in amusement as they too reached the ground floor. Mere feet remained between us, and my free hand was already moving toward my scythe. One more step, and I would be forced to use it sooner than I’d hoped.

“You’re brave, I’ll give you that,” the scarred ghoul said. “State your name, so we know who it is we’re sending away.”

“I am Unending, and you will accept my presence, soul eater! Who are you to think you can stop me?”

He smiled. “We are the Ghoul Reapers of Biriane. And we’ve never eaten a soul.”

The statement hit me like a sledgehammer. Its implication didn’t make sense. How were they ghouls and Reapers at the same time? How was this even possible? Questions flooded my mind as I beheld these strange creatures. Unfortunately, Death was not a reliable source right now. I would have to get my truth from the so-called Ghoul Reapers of Biriane instead.

Unending

“How is that even possible?” I asked, unable to look away from these strange and unexpected creatures. They looked more like me than the animalistic ghouls I’d become accustomed to. It was only their eye color that betrayed their nature. Nothing else. Only the blackness in their eyes. It spoke of hunger and solitude, of emptiness and a void that could never be filled.

The first ghoul gave me a faded smile. “There are many things we thought impossible, until they became possible.” It made his pink scar arch into a smile of its own.

“Then explain. How does a Reaper become a ghoul without consuming a living soul, when that is the very trigger that creates the ghoul in the first place?” I replied.

“Perhaps we should begin with some names,” my husband suggested, in a gentle bid to diffuse the tension that had gripped everyone present. No, I wasn’t supposed to be here, but they weren’t supposed to exist. There were questions that needed answering, and a hostile environment was not the best way to achieve that. “I’m Tristan, a vampire of The Shade.”

“A living creature! I might rip your heart out, just for kicks!” the scarred one spat, narrowing his black eyes at Tristan’s hand, then mine. “Are those wedding bands I see?”

“Yes. We are married,” I said, noticing the sudden shifts in the ghoul’s demeanor, jumping from agitated and bloodthirsty to calm and eloquent with incredible speed. “The union was blessed by Death herself.”

“Of course,” another ghoul grumbled. “Anything for her precious Reaper.”

“Odd. But I suppose we’ve all seen odder things come to pass,” the scarred one replied. “I’m Eneas. Once Reaper of the Fire Star. Now Ghoul Reaper of Biriane. That’s the best we’ve been able to come up with.”

“I’m Fileas,” the second one said, proceeding to introduce the others, too. “That’s Malin, Deas, Hadras, and Filicore. We’re all brothers in