A Shade of Vampire 79: A Game of Death

by Forrest, Bella

  He exhaled deeply. “It’s also chafing the crap out of my neck.”

  “When I find Rudolph and his team, I’ll bring them down here, like we said, but we’ll have to be extremely careful. Zoltan is probably already on the lookout,” I replied, anxiousness spreading through me like a dull but persistent flame.

  “You have an advantage in your position,” Seeley said. “Zoltan underestimates your ability to help me. And Death must be told about what’s happening here. We need more than Rudolph’s team if we’re to set things straight on Visio.”

  “Especially since we don’t know who else is involved.” I sighed. “Do you think Acheron and Danika are aware?”

  “If we’re to follow the simplest logical thread, I’d say yes, since this is their palace. They should know what’s going on, even down here in the dungeons.”

  I frowned, noticing his hesitation. “But?”

  “But I have seen plenty of instances where the rulers had no idea about what was going on in their own homes, so to speak. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if Zoltan has been pulling this off without any other upper-echelon Aeternae knowing. Of course, we won’t know for sure until we figure out what exactly it is that Zoltan is doing here in the first place. I don’t understand the purpose of these dungeons or why he’s keeping ghouls around like this. I’m missing something.”

  “The thing that bugs me the most is… where did all the Reapers go? I know I’ve asked this before, but surely you understand why I feel the need to ask again.”

  Seeley nodded slowly. “I’m positive it’s got something to do with Zoltan, but again, I can’t think of a reason why. I don’t even know if he’s killing them or keeping them prisoner, like yours truly here.”

  “I can check the other cells. There are hundreds down here,” I said.

  “After you find Rudolph,” he replied firmly. “Informing him and Death is paramount right now.”

  I got up again, stretching my arms. The ghouls snapped their fangs at me, roaring with undying aggravation, but I no longer cared. We had work to do, and I couldn’t let a bunch of hungry soul-and-flesh-eaters get in my way. Besides, they were chained to the wall and confined to this room. All was not yet lost.

  “I’ll go up to the library now. Hopefully, Rudolph will already be there,” I said, giving him a soft smile. “I’ll see you soon, Seeley.”

  “Whatever you do, stay out of sight and out of trouble,” he warned me. “Zoltan is planning something. We need to figure out what it is before other Reapers get hurt.”

  I moved away from him, wishing I could do more to get him out of here. But I was helpless, merely a lost soul, frustrated and alone, with zero supernatural abilities left. I couldn’t even turn on a light or push a glass off the table. Vesta had been able to communicate with Zeriel eventually because she wasn’t dead during that Hermessi debacle, and I remembered Zoltan also mentioning that the veil on Visio was thicker, preventing me from trying to reach out to the living.

  Even so, I was determined to bring everything to light. Zoltan’s actions had led to my death, but I was certain that everything he’d done before last night, along with everything he was going to do in the future, would get more people killed. He had access to death magic, the likes of which not even Seeley had come across before. Otherwise, he would’ve set himself loose already.

  The little I could still offer, I was ready to give. Whatever was going on in the pits of this palace was unnatural, breaking innumerable laws of the universe and its greatest forces. It was time for it all to stop.

  Kelara

  We were finally making progress on these blasted seals. Since I’d last seen Seeley, we’d managed to break three dozen. Their difficulty levels varied, thus making it impossible for us to estimate an end date for this endeavor. Some seals took mere minutes, others hours, days, even months and years. Thankfully, the Time Master had helped by stopping time around us—we were able to spend years working on one particularly stubborn seal for five years, while only hours passed in the outside world.

  There were perks to having a time-manipulating Reaper handy.

  But the work was nowhere near finished, and we knew that reuniting the remaining First Tenners would speed things up significantly. Death had been quite persistent about that. The Spirit Bender’s seals aside, however, I was troubled.

  The Soul Crusher, the Widow Maker, the Phantom, the Time Master, the Dream, and the Nightmare worked tirelessly on breaking seal number 902, while I tried reaching out to Seeley again. I hadn’t heard from him since last night, and it wasn’t like him to just disappear—especially after the mystery he’d clearly stumbled upon there on Visio.

  Death noticed my frown as I realized I wasn’t going to reach him this time, either. It was as if our telepathic link had been squelched. Something was wrong.

  “What is it, Kelara?” she asked, sitting with her legs crossed in front of the ice hole, chains still binding her to the bottom of the lake.

  The others moved around her, scratching symbols into the ice with the tips of their scythes, following a precise pattern, whispering spells and working to disable one more seal.

  “Seeley’s MIA,” I said.

  It was enough to stop everyone in their tracks. It even drew a scowl from Death, whose expressions had once been so smooth, so frosted, that it would’ve been damn near impossible to read. This whole situation was taking its toll even on her—and that said something.

  “What do you mean?” Death replied, her cherry-red lips barely moving.

  “I haven’t heard from him since last night,” I explained. “I’ve been trying to reach out to him, but there’s only silence. Seeley would’ve said something by now, even if there was nothing to report.”

  The Phantom sighed. “You should tell Rudolph. It might mean trouble for him and his team.”

  “Rudolph,” I said, calling out to the Reaper through our telepathic link. “Rudolph, are you there?” Several minutes passed. The First Tenners and Death stared at me, waiting for my face to light up as soon as Rudolph’s voice came through. “Dammit, Rudolph, say something!”

  “I’m here,” he finally replied, sounding farther than ever. “What’s up?”

  “What do you mean, what’s up?!” I croaked. “Are you kidding me? Where the hell are you?”

  “On my way to Visio. We finally finished our work. The calamity was a bloody nightmare, killing way more people than we’d expected,” he said. “I’ve got a crew of six with me. We should be at the palace in about an hour, tops.”

  “I can’t get ahold of Seeley,” I replied, Death’s dark and starry eyes still fixed on me. “Something’s wrong, and I need you to be careful once you get there.”

  “Kelara, I will apprise you on the situation as soon as I reach Visio. Thank you for the warning. We’ll be cautious,” he said.

  “I’ll be waiting for you to reach out. Find Seeley, please!”

  Rudolph definitely got my message, even though silence settled in my mind. All I could do now was hope that everything would be okay. Then again, what were the odds of everything actually being okay on a planet seemingly without Reapers or ghosts? I didn’t like any of this, and Death’s insistence on keeping the intervention team small got on my nerves.

  “I still think we should send a bigger team over there,” I said. “An army, if possible. Visio just doesn’t feel right.”

  “Your persistence is unbecoming, Kelara,” Death said. “I told you, discretion is crucial at this point.”

  “Discretion for what, exactly?” I asked. “Who’s pulling the strings over there? We don’t even know who that is or why they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing. We’re completely in the dark here!”

  “What Kelara is trying to say is that you’re withholding precious information,” the Time Master interjected politely. “And it’s counterproductive. If you tell us more about what you know or think is happening on Visio, perhaps we will be less persistent in requesting additional Reapers to go
there.”

  He was definitely more eloquent than me. My very soul was cluttered with anxiety and concern, and Death’s annoyingly calm demeanor and refusal to answer the most basic of questions wasn’t helping.

  “It’s not that I know more, or that I don’t want to tell you. I have a hunch, but it is worthless until we get more information from Visio,” Death said. “I appreciate your concern, Kelara, and I understand where you’re coming from. However, my previous statements stand. If there is a culprit involved, we do not want to spook him—or them, as the case may be. A discreet reconnaissance mission is the best way forward, until we learn more about that place.”

  Resting my hands on my hips, I breathed out. It didn’t make me feel any better. “What if something happens to Rudolph, too?” I asked.

  She thought about it for a moment, stealing glances at the First Tenners. Each of them wanted to say something, but they were genuinely frightened of her. They didn’t have to show it. I could tell from their hesitance alone, since they, too, believed a greater presence on Visio might get faster and better results as to what the hell was going on there.

  “We’ll carefully discuss the next steps, should that come to pass,” Death finally said. “I know you’re upset and worried. I know you would like to do things differently. But if my suspicions about Visio are correct, any number of Reapers will be absolutely useless.”

  Above us, the blue sky was clear, an endless mass of frosted azure. Around us, there was nothing but ice and pure white snow. Aledrasian cities rose in the distance, but a blizzard was brewing on the horizon, soon to swallow them whole. It all seemed so quiet and peaceful—the complete opposite of what was happening inside me.

  “I wish you would tell us more about these suspicions of yours,” I muttered, glancing at the chains that bound her to this world. Spirit had done a spectacular number on her. I was still in awe of what he’d achieved, often wondering how long it had taken him to pull it all off. It had nearly ended the worlds.

  “All I can tell you is that we need to find the other First Tenners,” Death replied. “Should my theories prove true regarding Visio, I’ll be the only one who will be able to do something about it.”

  “I am so confused right now.” The Widow Maker groaned, crouching next to her. “Why don’t we get more Reapers involved with the seals, at least? Or with finding our siblings?”

  Death shot him a cold glare. “Because they would be useless. It takes the strength and talent of the First Ten to break a seal made by one of their own. You saw how exerted poor Kelara was after the second seal. And the Night Bringer, the Morning Star… the Unending… they won’t speak to any regular Reaper. They’re very good at hiding, as you all know by now.”

  “So what do you suggest, then?” I asked.

  “You need to be patient about Visio, first and foremost,” she replied. “You also need to take Soul, Widow, and Phantom with you and go find the others. Unending, Night, Morning… I need them back here, with me.”

  “To help break the seals faster,” I said.

  She nodded once. “And not just that. It’s time we bring the family together as a whole.”

  “What about us?” Dream replied, raising an eyebrow as she looked at Nightmare and Time. “Do we stick around and keep working the seals?”

  “That is exactly what you will do,” Death decreed.

  “I still don’t like this.” I sighed, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. It had been tickling my cheek for the better part of a minute, thanks to a cold northern wind blowing in. “You holding back on Visio. I don’t like it.”

  “I will not spend another minute trying to convince you to follow my lead, Kelara,” she said, her tone frosty and sharp. “You either obey or you go back to your regular duties.”

  “She clearly has a plan,” Soul mumbled, visibly dismayed. “And she ain’t sharin’.”

  “Exactly,” Death shot back. “Frankly, I am tired of having my authority and decisions questioned. You’re all forgetting that I will be free again—if not with your help, with other Reapers’ assistance, since our society cannot function without me at the helm for too long. Someone will get me out eventually. You’ll want to be on my good side when that happens.”

  Sooner or later, Death was going to regain her freedom and full power. She was right about one thing: I definitely wanted to be on her good side when that came to pass. But I also didn’t want to be another cog in her machine, a drone that didn’t at least ask questions or object to her decisions.

  Whatever she was hiding from us regarding Visio, it had to be big; it had to be important to her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have cared. But I could no longer risk angering her. I had to do my job, which was now about finding the Unending, the Night Bringer, and the Morning Star. The sooner we set Death loose, the faster we could resolve whatever it was that had occurred on Visio.

  Aware that my curiosity might be the end of me, I knew I wouldn’t stop asking questions about that planet and its Reaper abandonment. Luckily, I had a direct line to Rudolph. All I could do for now was get Soul, Widow, and Phantom together for a search mission, while praying that Seeley would be in touch again soon.

  Lumi

  I’d lost Acantha to the Thieron challenge, and it had nearly broken me. Nethissis’s death was infinitely worse. The sigh of relief I’d breathed upon her surviving the Hermessi war had now come back to pummel me into the ground, each blow more painful than the previous.

  My heart ached in a way that made my eyes sting and every inhalation downright agonizing, and there was nothing I could do to move past this. It was done. Nethissis had been killed, and regardless of what the Aeternae had suggested, I refused to believe that a damn venomous fox had been the one to topple her. No. Not my Nethissis.

  I chose to focus on setting the record straight for her, instead of mourning. I refused to spend a single second grieving, not ready to surrender to my emotions just yet. There was too much torment waiting just around the corner, and if I were to cave in, I’d fall apart at the seams, unable to ever pick myself back up again.

  With this investigative mindset, I made myself unavailable to the rest of GASP. Ben and River had offered to stay with me, as had Kailani and my other apprentices, but I’d shut everyone out. As far as GASP was concerned, I was in my summer home, a couple of miles down from Stonewall, grieving and processing what had happened. Of course, I was lying through my teeth, but the fewer people who knew about my intentions, the better.

  What I was about to do could imperil Derek and Sofia’s mission as well, and that was one of the things I aimed to avoid. Secrecy was paramount if I was to get any closer to the truth behind Nethissis’s death.

  The summer house was something I hadn’t considered having before the Hermessi apocalypse. I’d never thought I’d need a place away from the world, far from the madding crowd and neatly carved into the shore’s massive, gray stone wall. I’d built it with the help of a couple of Bajang boys, and it was connected to both the mainland, through a series of narrow steps, and to the rocky beach below.

  I’d wanted it to be as inaccessible to the others as possible, mainly because I cherished my privacy more than anything. Situated approximately fifty feet above the beach and about fifty feet below the mainland, my little crib was perfect. I’d built a terrace for it, as well, which was wide enough to host a decent dinner party—provided I decided to invite anyone for dinner. It was also a good launchpad for my interplanetary spells.

  It was a good day on Calliope, bright and sunny and wonderfully breezy. The complete opposite of how I felt, but it didn’t really matter much, as long as I did what I’d set out to accomplish. Drawing the pentagram on the solid wood terrace, I placed all the spell paraphernalia in the appropriate brass bowls and checked my supply bag once more.

  I’d packed everything I thought I might need on this journey, including a considerable amount of invisibility paste. My ability to blend in and disappear was crucial to this mission. Nethissi
s’s image kept appearing before my eyes, like a sullen mirage, as if beckoning me to come to her. I knew she wasn’t real, but my heart didn’t care.

  “I’ll find your killer,” I whispered, sitting in the middle of the pentagram.

  The salty wind blew over the coast, making the windows tremble behind me. There were strong currents at sea. In the blue distance, I could see the boats—long and slender giants with pale yellow sails, their incubi sailors casting nets far and wide.

  Life was much simpler here on Calliope. Sometimes I’d wondered whether I’d be better off on my own, out here, away from GASP and all the many ways in which my other apprentices could die. This was a good place, by the foaming water, and I could easily add more rooms to the summer house. It was big enough to keep the entire swamp witch culture safe. Sure, I enjoyed playing a bigger part in the grand scheme of things, protecting supernaturals and saving innocent people, but… where would it all stop? When would it end?

  The more we fought, the more trouble there seemed to be ahead, and I was getting genuinely tired. Something needed to change, eventually, and I wasn’t sure I’d live to see such a day.

  Uttering the interplanetary spell’s incantation, I placed a piece of Fire Star rubble in front of me, smack in the middle of the pentagram. My destination was set, and the light bubble swallowed me and my bag of supplies.

  It hummed softly before it took off, raising me above the entire world in a matter of minutes. Looking back, I could see Stonewall farther up the coast, settled atop the wall and towering over the ocean with its dark gray walls and robust towers, where the morning fires still burned as beacons for the sailors out on the water.

  Deeper into the mainland, the beautiful castle of Luceria rose proudly above the thick emerald woods. Mount Zur was about a hundred miles to its right, a thin plume of smoke connecting its glimmering amber peak and the clear blue sky. For a moment, I remembered my younger days as a pixie, still figuring life out, wandering through those forests, climbing those mountains, and cozying up to the Dearghs around a midnight campfire.