“Yes, Whip,” Veliko said with a polite bow.
“Esme Vaughn of the outsiders is currently in my house, and she’s been digging a little too deep into the Darkling issue. She’s annoyingly persistent, and I’m concerned she’s also seducing my son away from our cause.”
“Kalon has proved impossible to bring into our faction,” Veliko replied. “Shouldn’t you brand him a nonbeliever and move on?”
“And let her take him from me? No!” Petra snapped. “I did not give birth to him and raise him for some foreign fang to corrupt him! We have work to do. Every ten thousand years, our very existence is endangered, and we must rise to the occasion every time. Our work is sacred and noble, despite us being reduced to working in the shadows like this. And I want my son, my dear Kalon, to be a part of it all. He’ll change his mind soon enough, as long as we get Esme out of the way. She’s getting on my nerves.”
Veliko glanced at one of his underlings, the shadow of a smile fluttering across his face. “What would you have us do?” he asked Petra.
“Take her. Alive would be preferred. I might have use for her later. She’s here in the house. I asked her to stay for dinner. I was going to ask Atlas to do the job, but since you’re all here, you might as well make yourselves useful.”
“What about our faction? For now, I’ve instructed them to head to Laramis,” Veliko said. “We can’t stay hidden forever. Valaine must die.”
“Let them stay in Laramis for now,” Petra replied. “They will be safe there. We have a few operations about to take place in the imperial city. Until then, it’s best if we all keep a low profile. Especially your men. Now, go. I want Esme out of here.”
“Where shall we take her?” Veliko asked.
I looked at Seeley. “We can’t let them do this.”
Petra fished a key out of her dress pocket. She gave it to Veliko. “We have a house south of the city. A beach villa near Tuskan.”
“Yes, I’m familiar with it.” Veliko turned the key over in his hand. “It’s quite remote and isolated. I’ll have my men stay with Esme there. I am needed back in Laramis with the rest of my faction.”
Petra sneered. “No, you’ll make sure Esme stays there. Your faction can wait in Laramis until I find the right use for this girl. Remember, you’re merely a substitute, and I will not allow you full responsibility over Zoltan’s entire crew. You must earn my trust.”
“Seeley, we have to stop them,” I whispered.
He didn’t respond, and I could tell from his expression that he was hesitant. Sidyan was on the same page: “We can’t. We are on strict orders not to interfere with the living, and given Lumi’s assistance back on the east coast, we’re already drowning in hot water with Death. There’s only so far we can push this.”
“You can’t let Esme get hurt!” I hissed. “No! I’m not allowing this!”
Lumi sighed, her brow furrowed. “Let’s wait a little while longer. See how it plays out. From what we’ve understood so far, Kalon is not a Darkling. He might be able to protect her.”
“From Veliko? It’s like none of you have seen the bastard and how dirty he plays,” I muttered, my spirit boiling over. “I’m not letting Esme get kidnapped. Just letting you know now.”
“You can’t do anything without a scythe,” Sidyan reminded me. The only reason Lumi could even see me was because of his death magic artifice. “Seeley’s got your loaner, remember?”
I scowled at Seeley. “You’d better not go against me on this one. Not after what you did.” It wasn’t a fair move, but I was willing to do and say anything as long as I got a chance to protect Esme. Petra was dangerous, and she had to be exposed. Derek and the team were too close to her. Especially Esme.
“Let’s not rush into anything,” Seeley said. “We might not have to take action. Hold back for just a little while longer,” he added, looking at me, then at Sidyan. “It’s too early to make a decision. Esme is a fighter.”
I scoffed. “Veliko is a monster.”
“Nethi, please. Let’s be smart about this and not let our emotions get the better of us,” Lumi replied. “I’ve already broken the pact once. We can’t risk fumbling the entire operation over this. Seeley is right. Let’s not make a move just yet.”
I didn’t like any of this. I’d seen Veliko do some pretty awful things, and I knew Esme would become another victim of his, sooner or later. As much as it pained me to admit, however, I also knew Lumi and Sidyan and even Seeley were right. We had a bigger mission to follow—and we all knew Petra was not the top of the Darklings’ food chain. Which meant she could lead us to their master, to the one who really called all the shots.
I knew it was the right call, but it didn’t make me feel any better about watching Veliko and his Darklings go after Esme.
Esme
Kalon and I spent a few minutes discussing the Darklings and his affiliation with them. He was determined to make me understand that although they had approached him repeatedly, he had always turned them down. Ansel listened to our conversation, and I caught subtle shifts in his expression, little hints that we were somehow getting through to him.
“As long as I keep telling them no, they won’t be able to force me into the faction,” Kalon said. “An unwilling member is a liability to the entire group. It’s why they keep the crucial information in limited circulation, even among the underlings.”
“Who else do you know is involved with them? Your mother? Your other brothers?” I asked, finding it increasingly hard to believe that the Darklings had approached Kalon without his mother or siblings’ knowledge, since Ansel was clearly in the loop here.
Kalon ran a hand through his hair, the silver strands dancing under the warm ceiling light. “Like I said, this really isn’t the time to talk about this. It’s not safe here, Esme.”
“So, the rest of your family is involved?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Kalon replied. “I just… I’m trying to protect you. Will you please trust me on this?”
“I can’t trust you right now,” I said. “You need to give me something here. There’s no blind faith left, not after all the things you’ve hidden from me, regardless of your good intentions!”
“You’re not being fair to him,” Ansel cut in, frowning. “If there’s one thing I can fault my brother for, it’s the fact that he cares too much. About the people he loves, in particular. His family. His friend Valaine. Clearly you, as well.”
“That’s not a good excuse to keep more secrets,” I replied. “But now that you seem all chatty, perhaps you can help fill in some of the gaps? What do the Darklings want with Kalon?”
Ansel smirked. “He’s an exquisite fighter. A ruthless hunter. He’d be a champion for the Darklings if he were to accept their request.”
Kalon lowered his head. “I suppose all my Blood Arena victories caught their attention.”
“And what about Valaine? How can they prove she’s the source of the Black Fever? That doesn’t make any sense, considering she’s only five thousand years old and the disease has been around for much longer,” I said.
Ansel gave this some thought before responding. “I wouldn’t know. I was only told the Darklings are mounting an attack against her because she’s the root of the Black Fever.”
“So, they didn’t give you details. Any kind of proof… anything?”
He shook his head slowly, and I could see the seedling of doubt in his blue eyes. Kalon put a hand on his shoulder. “Then why would you blindly follow their orders? We were all taught from a very young age to question everything. To seek our own answers, our own proof. Don’t you see, Ansel, how they’ve brainwashed you?”
“If anyone can tell you what you need to know about the Black Fever, it’s the Whip,” Ansel muttered. “She has the full history. She’s the one who pinpointed Valaine as the source. The one who gave the order in the first place.”
Ansel’s words hit Kalon right in the solar plexus. “No…”
�
�Kalon?” I asked. “What is it?”
The look of horror on his face startled me. He was beyond shocked. He was shattered, and I had no idea why. Kalon clearly knew more than I did, proving that he was still withholding information. My blood boiled.
“Kalon, do you know who the Whip is?” My voice was shaky. I had a feeling he knew, and that I wasn’t going to like the answer.
“Oh, man, that’s a tough one,” Ansel grumbled. Kalon shushed him and gave me an apologetic look.
“Esme, you have to understand, I can’t—”
“Who’s the Whip, Kalon?” I asked again, raising my voice.
“I am,” Petra cut in.
“Mother, no! You promised you’d leave Esme alone!” Kalon replied, but he stilled at the sight before us.
I hadn’t heard her approach. Horror froze the blood in my veins as I processed her words, along with the fact that she was joined by Aganon, Simmon, Moore, and Tudyk. Oh, my God… Even the children are involved in this! Behind them, I recognized the Darkling garb on seven other Aeternae—one of whom was sneering at me in a way that made me tremble.
Kalon sighed. “No… Aganon…Simmon…”
I gasped. “You mean to tell me you’re all Darklings?!”
Tudyk and Moore, too... I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea what to make of this mess. Looking at Kalon, I realized that he was also distraught by what we were witnessing here. Ansel wasn’t shocked at all and gave me a pitiful half-smile.
“Kalon, did you know?” I managed, taking a couple steps back.
“Mother, what did you do?” Kalon asked, breathing heavily. His anger was boiling over and dangerously close to exploding. The rage coming off him felt like a heatwave, making my skin simmer. “You swore you wouldn’t get Esme involved. It’s why I brought Ansel here in the first place. I hoped you’d convince him to abandon this Darkling nonsense and surrender for clemency.”
“Kalon, you must think I’m stupid if you actually believed that,” Petra said.
“Your word used to matter in this family,” Kalon snarled. “Instead, you lied. I put Esme at risk. And you… you corrupted all your children? How could you be so selfish? So stupid?”
“Really? I’m the stupid Aeternae in this situation? Not the one who chose a bloody outsider over his duty and his family?” Petra replied, visibly infuriated by his reaction. “I’ve asked you, over and over. The Scholar asked you, over and over. Every time, you said no. Did you really think the rest of the Visentis dynasty wouldn’t rise to the challenge in your absence?”
“We’re doing what you’re clearly too afraid to do,” Simmon said. “Coward.”
“The Darklings rely on all of us to pitch in. Your faux morality is a disservice to our entire species,” Aganon added.
“Moore, Tudyk… you’re still kids. Do you even understand what she’s gotten you into?” Kalon blurted, pointing a finger at Petra.
“We both got our Blood Arena introductions,” Moore replied. “We’re old enough to know what we’re doing.”
Somehow, I didn’t really think they actually knew.
“They’re obviously smarter than you are, and unimpressed by a foreign skirt,” Petra shot back, giving me a deadly stare. How was I the villain in all this?
“Kalon,” I whispered, tears welling in my eyes. “Tell me the truth.”
The skeevy Darkling laughed, eager to mock me. “Look at her, so prim and righteous. It makes me want to hurl.”
“Veliko, you’re here to do your job, not waste air in Visentis-related conversations,” Petra retorted without so much as looking at him. She had her sights set on me, and that couldn’t be good. My instincts were flaring, and I knew I wouldn’t leave this place without a fight. In fact, there was a good chance I wouldn’t leave this place alive.
“I knew who the Whip was,” Kalon finally said. “I just didn’t know she’d stoop so low as to drag the entire family into it. I had sent her a secret message using mazir to let her know that we were coming. I’d set some conditions, most of them regarding your safety. Mother had sworn you’d be okay here… clearly, she deceived me, while I only wanted to save her other son from certain death.”
Was that supposed to make me feel better? He’d known Petra was a high-ranked Darkling this whole time. Again, Kalon had been keeping secrets, and it hurt me even more. I had to tell Tristan. I’d walked right into the hornets’ nest and was about to get stung. Badly.
The Darklings’ conspiracy ran deeper than I’d ever imagined, and it meant we couldn’t trust anyone in the Visentis dynasty. Not even Kalon. That realization broke me in so many ways… I doubted anything Petra or the Darklings could do to me would hurt more than that.
Esme
“I can’t believe this,” I murmured, trying to accept this new and terrifying reality.
“Esme, I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Kalon said.
Petra laughed. “I doubt you’re in a position to do anything about what’s coming next, darling. Esme is going away. Veliko is going to take good care of her until I figure out whether she’s useful or disposable.”
Kalon’s gaze darkened, his claws extending. He was ready to defend me, and I was in too much trouble to argue.
“Telluris, Tristan,” I said, desperate to contact my brother.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Petra snapped her fingers, and a tiny white pulse burst from her hand. It smacked me right in the forehead, causing a severe pain as though something were literally slicing through my brain. “No more Telluris for you, missy. I’ve had enough of your magic.”
“How… Telluris, Tristan!” I shouted, but my brother was gone. I couldn’t even feel our soul connection anymore. “No! How did you do that?!”
“Death magic trumps your little tricks, Esme. You should’ve learned that by now,” Petra replied, revealing a scythe of her own. It was beautiful, with a slim blade and a jewel-encrusted silver handle. “It’s time for you to learn your place. You’ve been meddling in our affairs for too long.”
“Mother, you’re not touching her.” Kalon took a step to put himself between them and me. Ansel appeared stunned by this development, though I wasn’t exactly sure where his allegiance lay. Had it been my imagination that he’d seemed to waiver earlier?
“You’ve stolen my son from me,” Petra snapped, pointing her scythe at me. “You self-righteous little bitch! Look what you’ve done!”
“Esme didn’t do anything, Mother. You did. And you keep pushing me farther away. The fact that you brought Moore and Tudyk into the Darkling faction proves how woefully inadequate you are as a parent. Father would’ve cut your head off a long time ago had he known what you were truly capable of.”
At this point, I briefly wondered what had happened to the other boys’ father. Kalon was the only child from Petra’s first marriage, which had ended five thousand years ago during the last Black Fever outbreak. Simmon, Ansel, Tudyk, and Moore came from a second marriage, but where was their dad? Was he a Darkling, too? The thought alone made me feel nauseated. What a broken, twisted family this was…
“Kalon, my darling. Don’t be foolish. Don’t declare yourself an enemy of the Darklings to protect this… this ignorant outsider!” Petra insisted, though his words had definitely wounded her deeply. “Don’t sign your death sentence to support a stranger.”
“You signed all our death sentences the moment you got the family involved in this mess,” Kalon replied. “I have no intention of dying because of your choices, and I sure as hell don’t plan to let you drag my brothers down with you!”
Veliko stepped forward, passing Petra in the process. “To be honest, one of you is already pretty much dead. Aren’t you, Ansel?”
“What the hell are you doing, Veliko?” Petra gasped, caught off guard.
Ansel was just as confused. “What… huh?”
“You got caught. The rest of the outsiders know about you. It’s only a matter of time before the public learns of your stupidity. With one Darkling in the Visentis clan,
more doubt will linger over your mother and siblings. It will put the mission at risk. We can’t have that, especially since you’re young enough to be tortured until you tell everything you know.”
“No!” Petra snarled. “I told you, Veliko. Don’t touch my son!”
Veliko snapped his fingers. “I’m here to do what you don’t have the courage to do, Whip. You’ll thank me someday,” he said. The Darklings brought their scythes out so fast, the Visentis siblings didn’t see them coming. Petra, Aganon, Simmon, Tudyk, and Moore were suddenly still, blades pressed against their throats. “It’s time for some law and order in this place. No more nepotism and family favors.”
The brothers and uncle were livid, but they couldn’t do much with Reaper scythes so close to cutting their heads off. Petra remained calm, but she was pale as a sheet of paper. That worried me. How would I get myself out of this? She’d cut me off from my brother with a mere snap of her fingers. And Kalon, despite his good intentions, was still badly outnumbered.
“I take it you’re trying to be the next big chief among the Darklings?” I asked Veliko, looking to buy myself some time. I couldn’t leave Ansel at his mercy, so I needed a way to get all three of us out of here.
“You can’t do this,” the young Visentis said. “I’ve been loyal. I haven’t said anything!”
“To answer your question, Esme Vaughn, yes. I am the new leader. The new Scholar, to be specific. And the Whip here knows that what I’m doing is right, according to the Darkling bylaws,” Veliko replied, shifting his focus to Ansel. “As for you… you were weak enough to get caught. If Valaine or Corbin get their claws on you, boy, you will sing like a bird. I know your kind better than you know yourselves.”
“You’re not touching Ansel,” Kalon growled. “You’re not touching anyone in my family! If anyone’s going to take them down, it will be me!”
Veliko laughed, throwing his head back for good measure. “Look at you, all brave and foolish. I might as well kill you, too, and rid the Darklings of a potential risk. Your family affair is beginning to sound more and more like a promise, while Valaine Crimson is still breathing.”
A Shade of Vampire 81: A Bringer of Night Page 18
