A Shade of Vampire 77: A Fate of Time

by Forrest, Bella

Sherus was also right. The odds weren't all in Brendel's favor. Not anymore. She'd kickstarted the ritual thinking she'd get little to no resistance from us. She hadn’t expected us to investigate, especially after Brann's rebellion and desperate attempt to bring the issue to our attention. Brendel had thought she could crush us before we could put up a fight, but we'd proved her wrong, rather consistently, all the way up to the Yahwen mission.

  Stripping her of the Hermessi children had significantly set her back. Even with a First Tenner's help, I knew Brendel's victory would not come easy. We still had a shot at this.

  "You know, Derek and Sofia have already assigned an evacuation mission for the Hermessi children," I said after a long pause.

  Sherus's spirit form lit up with delight. "Really? That's great! The farther we get them from Earth, the better our chances to keep them out of Brendel's reach."

  "Yeah. Victoria, Bastien, Liana, Cameron, and several of The Shade's White Witches are coordinating for this. The plan is to send a shuttle with the children into one of the neighboring galaxies. There are several Earth-like planets where they can be stationed temporarily. I mean, we've used magi-tech combinations to travel through the Supernatural Dimension and the In-Between quite frequently. We can use them out here, too."

  "Of course, these are all worst-case scenarios," Sherus reminded me. "Evacuating GASP officers, dispatching the Hermessi children from Earth… The worst has not yet come to pass."

  "It's just around the corner." I sighed. "Only a matter of time now."

  "Frankly, and despite my current condition, I find it difficult to give up hope," he said. "I love you and our son too much to let you go. Most importantly, I believe in Taeral more than anything and anyone else."

  I chuckled softly. "He's relentless, isn't he? Who'd have thought he'd turn out like this?"

  "With a mother like you? I certainly did."

  My cheeks felt warm. "You give me too much credit."

  "I don't give you enough, my love," Sherus said, a flicker of anguish clouding his gaze. "But I trust Taeral on this. He will leave no stone unturned. He will go to the ends of the world to find Death."

  "Heavens, it nearly killed him to take Phyla and the rest of Thieron straight to Mortis," I mumbled, leaning back into the chair. Outside the glass house, I caught glimpses of Amelia's parents, Abby and Eric, coming from the extension's far end, where we held the Hermessi children. GASP seniors had been taking turns watching over them and trying to talk the loyal ones out of serving Brendel. It wasn't an easy feat. Brendel might've been a mindless fanatic herself, but she sure knew how to radicalize these creatures and get them to work toward her agenda. "He feels terrible for leaving you here like this."

  "He did the right thing," Sherus replied. "Not that I'm in any way eager to leave this world, but if I have to die for him to succeed and save everyone else, I figure it's a fair price to pay. Don't you think?"

  Tears welled up in my eyes. "You're asking me a very difficult question. I don't want you to go anywhere. But yeah, I get it. I suppose becoming parents sort of killed our selfishness, didn't it?"

  He smiled. "For the most part. I admit, there's a reason why I'm not too bummed out about dying, and it's rather selfish, given the many lives that are at stake besides mine."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "The deal our son made with Death. He's essentially immortal until Thieron returns to Death. He can't die. Neither can Eira or Lumi. I think it was some kind of safety feature Death inserted into the pact, just to make sure this ends her way, sooner or later," Sherus replied.

  "If the Hermessi win, it won't end her way because she might not be able to kill them afterward," I said. "They'll be too powerful. However, I do understand your point. It is good that Taeral cannot die. Frankly, this whole Death and Reapers thing is still something I'm struggling to wrap my head around."

  "It's rather complex," my husband agreed. "Can I be honest, though?"

  He made me laugh. "I really hope you're not pulling a slew of last confessions on me, Sherus. I am not ready to say goodbye to you yet."

  "No, no, nothing like that, I promise. There's no Reaper in sight to take me away. And I'm still hoping Taeral finds Death before my expiration date as a ghost."

  I would've given anything to be able to hug him, to kiss him and feel his arms around me. To take a deep breath and inhale his spicy, masculine scent. Sherus was the only creature who'd stirred me beyond repair. If I were to lose him for good in this war, I doubted I'd ever be able to find someone who'd make me feel the way Sherus did. And to think I'd barely given him a second thought when we'd first met…

  "Tell me, then," I said. "What is it that you want to be honest about?" I stifled a smile as he straightened his back, perking up like a proud papa bear.

  "I'm over the moon that our Tae is going to be a Reaper when his time is up in this world," he said. "I'm not sure what kind of afterlife the rest of us are looking at… whether we'll ever see our loved ones again over there—wherever 'there' is. But I know our son will make a fine Reaper."

  I nodded slowly, finding myself in agreement with him on this. It was an honor, though I'd yet to figure out exactly how random the Reaper selection system was. There was hardly any time to discuss such details now, in the midst of the hell we were dealing with, but I did hope to find out more about the Reapers and their existence once this was all over.

  How this would all end, I did not yet know.

  But I shared my husband's thread of relief, comforting myself with the thought that, regardless of whatever came next and how many of us died, our son would still live. The more I thought about it, in fact, the better I understood why Sherus was so upbeat about everything. It was the love for our son that kept him going. The thought that Taeral would survive this, one way or another.

  Taeral

  With Amal, Amane, and the others in our Stravian GASP division back in The Shade, my team and I were left with Kelara, Dream, and Nightmare in the Faulty twins' laboratory. I felt sorry for all those who'd been left behind, but I maintained a teeny drop of hope that the Perfects might survive the apocalypse, should it come to pass. Their species was, by far, the most resilient. Maybe they'd get lucky, somehow.

  I shook that thought away quickly, refusing to consider such an ending. I was not ready to admit defeat and to watch billions of innocent creatures die. On the contrary, I was all the more determined to make a plan and organize an effective search for Death.

  We'd spent the past hour going over possible routes and places to visit, assuming two scenarios were possible: that Death left Mortis on her own, which was highly unlikely, or that she was drawn or taken away from it by someone else, like the Spirit Bender, who was now our main suspect as the traitor who had been working with Brendel since Thieron had first gotten stolen.

  "We need to get organized," Seeley said.

  Amelia was reading through the constant stream of incoming messages from GASP, which confirmed the return of our troops to The Shade from all over the federation. None of us felt good about this, but we did understand and accept the judgment of our superiors. If the worst did come to happen, we'd all have to focus our forces on protecting the Earthly Dimension.

  Until then, however, Seeley made a point. "I'm all for organizing," I replied. "But we need a premise on which to function. If we assume Death left by herself, we'll have to search places where she might've gone to… I don't know, hide? Like Phantom mentioned before, planets where she's settled in the past."

  "Amelia was right about this. Surely Death would’ve left a message or something if she’d taken off on her own. If we assume that the Spirit Bender had a hand in her disappearance, however, we'll have to think more like him, not like Death." Varga completed my train of thought, almost down to the last word.

  "Good point." I nodded and shifted focus back to Seeley. "We only have one interplanetary spell left to use. So we'll have to travel through the pink waters, which isn't exactly a problem, but we should k
eep that in mind for our own movements."

  "Side note, and pardon me for asking, but shouldn't we find more swamp witch supplies here on Strava?" Eira asked.

  It was a good question, but I doubted she'd like the answer. "All the swamp witch supplies were given to an evacuation team of Perfects that led the people away from the fae sanctuary here. They're to use them in case they need to get off the planet. It's the last-resort protocol, and it’s being led by the agents who chose to stay behind. It's been put in place on every GASP planet. I guess it was Derek and Sofia's way to make up for the fact that they withdrew most of their troops into the Earthly Dimension."

  "So, we can't use any of that, then? It's a pretty special situation," Eira replied, frowning slightly.

  Eva shook her head. "We'd need a lot, considering all the locations we have to visit. The one interplanetary spell we have left is the only one we'll use, and only if we don't have any other choice. We cannot tap into the evacuation resources of innocent civilians. It wouldn't be fair to them."

  "Plus, we actually move faster through the pink waters," Herakles added.

  "The only downside to the interplanetary spell evacuation is that all the worlds they'll escape to will also be subject to the Hermessi rule. So it's not exactly an escape, rather a prolonging of the inevitable." Amelia sighed, putting her tablet away. "That being said, how are we operating, going forward? Shall we assume Spirit Bender found a way to snatch her?"

  “There’s no better explanation,” I said. “You called it the first time.”

  "Even so, how the hell do you kidnap Death?” Raphael asked. “I still can't fathom the possibility."

  "Oh, with the right knowledge and understanding of one's opportunities, an experienced Reaper like, say, one of the First Ten can, in fact, orchestrate a successful abduction, provided she is without Thieron," Soul replied. "It's what Spirit Bender would have banked on if he did, indeed, do such a horrible thing."

  Kelara got up from her seat, putting her scythe away. She'd spent the past twenty minutes polishing its half-moon blade with a silken napkin she kept in an inside pocket. "We need to find the Time Master. Regardless of our course of action, he's the only one who can give us the time we require for this operation."

  "We could all use a bit more time," Phantom replied, a smile fluttering across her face.

  "I can take Dream and Nightmare with me for this," Kelara said. "We'll turn the entire universe upside down, if we have to."

  "I hope you don't mean that in a literal sense," Nightmare interjected, one hand resting on his hip. "My hamstrings are out of shape."

  Kelara groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I think I'm making the obvious sacrifice here, taking these two off your hands," she said, nodding at Dream and Nightmare.

  "No need to be a drama queen about it," Dream retorted. "My brother and I will come along. No one knows Time better than the two of us."

  I went over to one of the laboratory's main windows, which offered a full view of the jungle surrounding our GASP base. Layers of wild green rolled beneath a clear blue sky, the window's transparent filter making sure no vampires were affected by daylight while indoors. It was a beautiful world, filled with some of most fascinating creatures I'd ever seen. It was unique, much like my Fire Star, and the more I thought about it, the more desperate I became in my need to save them all.

  From a logistical point of view, Kelara's suggestion made sense. "We do need the Time Master's abilities, for sure," I said. "He might very well be our best shot at stopping the ritual. Where do you think he might've gone, Dream, Nightmare?"

  They glanced at one another and gave me a double shrug. "No clue," Dream replied. "But he's got to be somewhere in the In-Between. Most of us chose to stay here, albeit scattered to the very ends of it. See our Desplan home, for example."

  "Speaking of which, you two are in for a world of pain when Death gets her mojo back." Soul chuckled. "You have been living large and way out of the rule spectrum."

  By now, we'd all learned about Dream and Nightmare's feeding habits on Desplan, so chillingly described by Kelara. I wasn't the Reaper twins' greatest fan, but I did admire their abilities. From their expressions, however, I could also tell that they feared Death's retribution more than anything.

  "Which is why we're here, helping," Nightmare retorted. "Brownie points and whatnot."

  "What are brownie points?" Widow asked, prompting Dream to giggle.

  "Ugh. Living inside Eirexis made you miss out on a lot of the good stuff," she said.

  "Okay, so Kelara, Dream, and Nightmare will handle the Time Master," I said, drawing focus back to our main issues. "I take it none of you have been able to reach him through your Reaper telepathic connection?"

  Dream shook her head. "Not for lack of trying. He's either unable to talk to us, or he doesn't want to. Frankly, I'm hoping for the former, not the latter. I have a problem with lack of communication in people."

  "Said the Reaper who likes putting them to sleep and feeding on their dreams instead of talking to them." Eva scoffed.

  Dream's eyes turned to two dark slits. "Less judgy, more worky, snake lady."

  "Then we'll pursue the Spirit Bender," I said, once again having to draw their attention back to where our problems were. Dream and Nightmare's snark could be quite bothersome in the long run. My initial enthusiasm about having them on board was beginning to fizzle out, as the practicality of their presence began to present its share of problems. They were definitely best suited to being apart from our group, in light of their difficult tempers, and I did feel sorry for Kelara. But someone had to put up with them, and my team already had four Reapers—three of whom were like super-powered psycho children. "Assuming he took Death is the best way forward. That has to be part of the reason why he sent Kelara over to Dream and Nightmare, in the first place. He thought he'd get rid of her, which means he deceived her and he's got something to hide."

  Seeley straightened his back, his head cocked to the side as if he was listening to something. "We’ve got a problem, though not unexpected, given that we figured him out. The Spirit Bender isn’t in the Neraka sanctuary anymore.”

  “Figures,” Kelara grumbled, her arms crossed. “Part of him probably knew there was a chance I’d make it off Desplan with my mind intact. He can’t risk being found now, especially if he’s got Death.”

  “Chances are Thieron will begin to glow again when we get closer to Death," Seeley reminded me. "If we find the Spirit Bender, and you see no reaction from her scythe, it'll mean he doesn't have her."

  Soul snorted a chuckle. "Come on, man. How many times have you ever seen a coincidence turning out to be exactly that? Never. Death is missing, and Spirit went AWOL. The two are definitely connected. Enough with the ifs already!"

  "Fine. Then we'll keep in touch… how, exactly? Your telepathic links?" I asked, looking at Kelara. She gave me a brief nod.

  "I'll handle communications with Kelara," Seeley said. "If push comes to shove, I'll know where to find her, and she will know where to find us."

  "Okay. That leads us to the next question. How do we pick up a trail for the Spirit Bender or Death?" I asked, leaning into the thick glass window.

  Outside, silence reigned supreme. Most of the Perfects, Arch-Perfects, Faulties, and the remaining Draenir had gone into hiding, as far away from the sanctuary as they could. I had no view of the fae sanctuary from this part of the GASP base, but I knew it was hovering somewhere to the south, hundreds of feet above the island's lush jungles, humming and brimming with destructive Hermessi energy ready to be unleashed.

  There were only a few hundred fae left for the elementals to affect. Only a few hundred till the five million magic number was hit, and everything came to a premature and unwarranted end.

  "I might have a solution for that, actually," the Soul Crusher said.

  Instinctively, I braced myself for anger. He'd probably been sitting on some crucial piece of information until now, not sharing it with us be
cause, well, he was a stone-cold psycho. But he was our stone-cold psycho, and we still needed him. One had to take the bad with the good where the First Tenners were concerned.

  "Pray tell." I sighed, giving him a sideways glance.

  "I picked up a faint trail of Death," he replied, opening the palm of his hand. A wisp of white light glimmered between his fingers, like a tangled, incandescent thread.

  The Widow Maker rubbed the back of his neck, the first to express his frustration and dismay. "And you're only telling us now because…"

  "Because now is the right time?" Soul shot back, raising an eyebrow.

  "No, the right time was back on Mortis, you scab," Phantom snapped. "I've been wasting precious minutes here! Why didn't you tell us you caught that?!"

  Soul grinned. "I like pissing you off. How is that not obvious by now?"

  "What exactly is that thing?" I asked after a deep breath, staring at the faint light in his hand. He closed his fist for a moment, then revealed it again. It seemed to react to his physical touch, glowing just a little bit brighter than before.

  "It's a literal trace of Death's pure energy. They're not easy to find. She only leaves them if she wants them to be found," Soul explained.

  "Solidified Death energy, if you will," Widow added. "One inch of that can power an entire planet's rotation."

  "Where did you find it?" I replied, scowling at Soul.

  "On her throne. No one else noticed it, but I did. Which makes me a better Reaper, don't you think?"

  "I'm not even going to get into that," I said. "What do we do with it?"

  Soul got up from his chair, tucking a lock of iridescent hair behind his ear. He pressed the light thread against his scythe, spreading it along the curved blade until it seeped through the cold metal.

  "We're going to follow its shine," he said. His scythe began to glow intermittently. "It's calibrating now… Okay, we're good to go!"

  "Go where?" Amelia asked, genuinely exasperated. "We can't follow you around like Reapers. We can't walk through space like you!"