A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones - Bella Forrest Page 0,47

turn into one of those entities scared the daylights out of me. I couldn’t even consider such an outcome. Not anymore. “We can try and get Hammer back, if you’ll let us help you,” I said. “You’ve done a lot of good things for us to make up for the bad. I’d like to reciprocate.”

He stilled, his blue gaze fixed on me. For a moment, I feared he might look deep into my soul like Hrista. I felt powerless and speechless, mesmerized by the dancing flames in his irises, the azure shifting into a soft white, and then back into an intense sapphire glow. “I’ve done you more wrong than right, if you think about it. I’ve been sneaking around your Shade, stealing DNA, kidnapping your friends, syphoning military secrets and passing them on to HQ.”

“You also guided us to safety more than once. You saved my mom twice, even if it didn’t seem like it at first. And you helped us get Isabelle and the others out, too,” I said, raising my chin. “I think we have a balance here.”

I was actually surprised to hear myself talking like this, but my reasoning made sense. We needed people who could help us, regardless of their powers and origins. This was a new and frightening world, and we would fare better with allies than with one more Berserker on our enemy list. Besides, Brandon was clearly trying to be a friend. Why push him away?

He leaned closer, the space between us shrinking with an alarming speed, and I held my breath as he smiled. “You could help me get Hammer, sure. But first, I need to get those two Valkyries on our side. As you said, Myst is easier to convince. She never truly worshipped Hrista the way Regine has. The irony doesn’t elude me, of course, considering that Myst is ‘younger’ than Regine in Purgatory. I suppose age isn’t just a number.”

“I didn’t know you even tracked time in Purgatory,” I murmured, unable to break eye contact.

“We don’t. But we do have relative notions about who came first or before or after ourselves. It’s experience we appreciate,” he replied. “For us, the present and the past are combined, lived at once. The future is never really there because it always becomes the present. It’s a little hard to explain to a creature who only perceives time in a linear fashion.”

Clearing my throat, I inched back, unable to take the tension building between us. I wasn’t sure what it was about Brandon that shook me up with such intensity, but I didn’t want him to see how he was affecting me. “How do you plan on convincing both Myst and Regine that Hrista is behind all this?” I asked, trying to steer his attention away from my face. My cheeks felt hot, and I was having a hard time concentrating.

“I’ll show them where Hrista has taken up residence,” Brandon replied. It almost irked me that he hadn’t done this sooner, but I did understand why he’d had his reservations about us. Our efforts to rescue Isabelle and the others must’ve convinced him that we were reliable—that maybe we could help him get Hammer back, too. There was no telling when the Berserkers might in fact step on their own souls and destroy the Aesir to pay Brandon back for his betrayal. They were dragging their asses for now, despite their displays of aggression. “We need to reach Hrista, anyway. She’s the one who controls access to and from Purgatory into this world, and I absolutely have to figure out how she’s doing it. If Order hears about this entire plot and her operation, Hrista will be done and dusted in the blink of an eye.”

“Do you know what her plans are? Why she’s doing any of this?”

He shook his head. “No. And neither do my brothers. That’s the scary part. They’re in this without understanding the final payoff. Unlike them, however, I chose not to surrender. I will do whatever I can to keep you and Pink Lady safe. Hrista will stop at nothing to hurt you and kill you, especially now that you’re here.”

“Why are you helping us, Brandon? Why not just fall in line with the others? Honestly, I wouldn’t blame you, especially at the risk of becoming a shadow hound,” I replied.

He brought a hand up, ever so slowly, and tucked a lock of pink hair behind my ear. The mere touch of his finger made my skin