A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones - Bella Forrest Page 0,39

Voss and Chantal were with her, IV needles piercing their forearms.

“Finally!” I groaned, then revealed myself and swiftly kneeled beside Voss’s bed. He gave me a curious look as I pressed my hand through his chest, his soul tickling the tips of my fingers. “It’s him,” I told Thayen, who took my place and gently removed the hawk-wolf’s IV. I checked Chantal and Isabelle while Jericho cleared their arms of needles and gave them plenty of water to drink so that the medication would leave their systems as quickly as possible.

It was the one thing I couldn’t help with. They weren’t ill or hurt, so I had nothing to heal. We would have to wait for the drugs to pass naturally through their bloodstreams and wear off.

“Can you stand?” Thayen asked Isabelle, who could barely keep her eyes open. She shook her head slowly, and he put an arm around her shoulders to help her up.

“This isn’t the holding section,” Jericho noticed, looking at some of the boxes filling this particular glass house. “This is storage.”

“They were using Isabelle, Chantal, and Voss to get to us,” I said. “They knew we were coming for them. They knew Myst or even Brandon would spot them here, and that they would bring us to this place.” It had been a ruse from the very beginning. But we’d found them. That was all that mattered.

Thayen took Isabelle, Jericho handled Voss, and I had Chantal. The three of them were drowsy, their knees weak and eyes drooping. “Come on, it’s time to go,” I said, looking at Mom. She was frozen in place, her eyes wide and cold purple as she stared at me. “Mom?”

A low growl slipped past her, wisps of black coming from her back like steam rising. The shadow hound behind her reared its ugly, shapeless head. Only then did I see the obsidian claw extending from its crooked, smoky hand and up to the side of her neck, where it threatened to pierce.

“No…” I mumbled, my blood running cold, the horror suddenly too real. “Let her go.”

The shadow beast hissed, and I felt the light growing inside me. It screeched and tightened its grip on my mom, hiding behind her while its claw broke the skin and drew a generous drop of blood. It was its way of telling me to stop or it would do much worse before I could get it off her.

“There’s only one of you,” I said firmly, though my voice trembled. I wasn’t sure it was enough to deter the fiend, but I was desperate to get my mom out safely. “This isn’t going to work.”

The creature growled, its jaw dropping, and I could see the pitch blackness in the back of its throat, an abyss that hungered for my flesh and my soul. Mom tried to stay calm, not moving a single inch. “Don’t provoke it,” she said. “Take a deep breath, baby.”

“Why don’t you zap away from him?” Jericho asked, holding Voss close.

“It’s got another claw in my back,” Mom replied. “I can’t risk it. He’ll feel me as soon as I prepare to vanish, and he’ll cut deep…”

This was unbelievable. Unfair. We’d made it so far. For once, I would’ve liked a more significant victory against these monsters. For once, I would’ve liked the truth, devoid of any complications. For once, I would’ve liked those I love to be safe and out of harm’s way. Was I really asking for too much?

The shadow monster shrieked in agony as a dark mass appeared behind it. The black shimmer of a blade cut through the fiend, and it let go of Mom, scattering away in wispy ink strips that splashed onto the wooden floor. Brandon emerged from the dark mass, twin swords out and thirsting for violence. “Go on, Pink Lady. Take your little one and her friends away from here,” he said to Mom.

“Little one?” I shot back, raising an eyebrow for good measure. Seeing Brandon here wasn’t that surprising, though it did fill me with unexpected joy. I hadn’t faulted him for leaving, but I sure as hell thanked the heavens he’d returned.

Brandon smiled faintly. “I do like how you light up when I poke you one way or another. Now, leave. All of you. It’s time.”

“Why’d you come back?” I asked, as Mom came over and wrapped her arms around Chantal and me.

“He took us,” Chantal mumbled against the leather of my GASP uniform. She pointed a finger at him. “He…