A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones - Bella Forrest Page 0,74

It’s the only thing holding these monsters back.”

It saddened me a little to hear him refer to his brothers as monsters. Unfortunately, he was speaking the truth. The Berserkers in Hrista’s service were determined to kill us. They didn’t value life or the Order that had made them. They had gotten involved in something truly heinous, and there was no excuse for their terrible behavior. Darkness flashed past us. Something big and black grabbed Brandon and pulled him away from me.

I let out a soft whimper and held up my hands, pushing light from both hands and aiming at the violent clash of shadows. It hit them hard and bright, and the Berserkers were equally affected. Brandon shrugged it off quickly, but the other one needed another moment to pull himself together. I knew I’d hurt an ally too, but I couldn’t allow anyone to take Brandon down permanently. Fortunately for me, he’d seen it coming.

He came down on the Berserker hard and without mercy. Both blades pierced the guy’s throat, and he hissed from the pain, the shadows running off him, revealing his paled skin and blackened veins as they dissipated. That was the effect of a dark stab, I realized. There was so much I didn’t fully understand about their light and dark powers, about their weapons and their magic.

I only knew we couldn’t let them take us.

Myst and Regine amplified their blows against the Berserkers, while Torrhen continued to follow me around, never attacking unless I hit first. It always ended in my light pushing him away, but even I could see the glow weakening with each use. I didn’t have much left, and there was no shimmering portal around for me to feed on.

“Thayen, don’t!” I heard Myst shouting, then saw him doing the one thing he’d been warned against. A Berserker had gotten the better of Regine, and Myst was too busy with two other foes to come to her sister’s aid, so Thayen tried to glamor him. The intention had been good. The outcome… not so much.

His glamoring worked, but only for a brief moment, before the targeted Berserker, the stocky and fast one, flexed his muscles. Thayen gasped as blood shot from his nose. He fell to his knees, eyes rolling back in his head. Around us, the battle raged on. Jericho and Dafne were no longer enough against the throng of clones. Thayen was down. Myst and Regine were overwhelmed.

My light was running low, and Brandon couldn’t hold on for much longer, either. The energy I’d felt buzzing through me earlier had turned into something meek and bland and tasteless. Nothing I did brought me any closer to a resolution. This wasn’t a fair fight, and I wanted us all out of this place. I wanted us safe and alive.

“Thayen,” I murmured as I rushed over to him. The liquid darkness on the ground pulled back wherever my boots landed, still very much allergic to me. “Thayen, wake up!”

I tried to slap him back to consciousness, but he was really out of it. He had a pulse and his breathing was steady, but I couldn’t think of any way of bringing him back. If I were to use my healing powers on him now, I’d have little to no light left to fight the Berserkers—and if my light went out, we were absolutely screwed.

Myst finally reached us, growing pale when she saw his face. “Will he live?”

“Yeah. He exerted himself again,” I said, shaking.

“The fool. I told him not to—” Myst screamed as a long blade pierced through her shoulder. It was a weapon of light, much like a rapier with an elegant swirl of gold and steel serving as the handguard. Hrista rose from behind the Valkyrie, smiling as she pushed the sword deeper, its glowing tip inching closer to my throat.

“Myst…” I managed, trying to wrap my head around this new reality.

The illuminated rapier turned black as Hrista’s lips moved. Torrhen was right. She was more than a Valkyrie now. She had darkness and light in her hands and an ability to work with both. And she’d learned death magic from the Spirit Bender. Hrista had said so herself. And I… I was speechless as Myst cried out from the pain her own sister had inflicted upon her.

“Did you think I’d go away without making sure your head came off first?” Hrista snarled as she pulled her blade out of Myst’s body. I caught the Valkyrie, losing sight of Thayen