A Shade of Vampire 65: A Plague of Deceit

by Bella Forrest

  “I’m going stir-crazy down here,” Bogdana mumbled, drawing imaginary circles with her index fingers on a glass table.

  The other Draenir had settled in the other chambers of the stronghold, preparing their food reserves for the day and cleaning their weapons. There wasn’t much we could do while waiting—our real work would start once Araquiel was awake. I kept an eye on the map tablet and checked surrounding areas of Merinos for a better safe spot, mainly because I wasn’t sure we would be safe here for much longer. We couldn’t go anywhere without a healthy Araquiel first; otherwise, he would’ve slowed us down.

  “Araquiel will be awake in a few hours,” I said. “We’ll have our hands full then.”

  Bogdana shook her head. “Not good enough. I came here for a reason,” she replied. “I have to do my part.”

  “It’s not safe out there,” Hesidi muttered. “We agreed to stay away from the surface until nightfall. We scattered that black mineral dust all over the camp area; we burned everything else down. We can’t be out there if Perfects come around.”

  “We don’t all have to be up there,” Bogdana retorted.

  “What do you want to do? Reach out to the Hermessi?” I asked, and Bogdana nodded. “We’ll do that when it’s definitely clear and safe up there.”

  Bogdana got up from the table, then left the room. “I can’t wait that long. I’m going to the river.”

  “Wait, Bogdana, no!” I called out after her, but she wouldn’t listen.

  I groaned with frustration, then motioned for Hesidi to come with me and for Ansid to stay back.

  “My orders were clear!” Ansid protested.

  “I know, but I need you with the Draenir, just in case,” I replied.

  He didn’t like it, but he did as I asked, and moved into Araquiel’s room with Rakkhan and the others. I dashed through the narrow corridor and up the ladder toward the surface after Bogdana, who’d already made it outside.

  “Bogdana, wait!” I shouted.

  Once Hesidi and I got to the top, we found Bogdana standing still, staring at the former campsite. All the tents had been removed, and everything had been taken apart and burned down in several piles deeper in the jungle. The flames were controlled with several Draenir substances—fire deterrents in liquid and crystal form scattered around to stop them from spreading.

  There was no one else out here, other than us. The silence, in fact, bordered on creepy.

  Insects chirped from the trees, and birds sang their melodious trills in the darkness of night. In the distance, I could hear the water flowing—the river where Draven and his crew had initially landed. Echoes of sonic booms rippled overhead, but I didn’t concern myself too much with them. The Perfects were too far away to spot us or to pose any kind of threat. And the black mineral dust concealed our tracks.

  “What is it?” I asked Bogdana.

  She didn’t answer straightaway but, when she did, I sensed the change in her voice. “I need to get to the water.”

  “Why?” I replied.

  She glanced at me over her shoulder. There was something about her amber eyes that made me quiver—a transcending coldness I hadn’t spotted before. Then again, maybe it had always been there, but I’d only just noticed it.

  “The dreams that the fae had, here on Strava, involving the Hermessi, occurred in instances where water played a key part. Specifically, the cave episode with Douma that you told me about. It tells me that the water Hermessi are more powerful than the others,” Bogdana explained. “To be honest, I don’t know why, exactly, but I can feel the pull of water. The river is calling out to me.”

  “The Hermessi are reaching out to you, maybe?” I sighed, trying to make sense of what Bogdana was telling me.

  “We won’t know unless we try something,” Bogdana said.

  One of the sonic booms thundered a little too close for comfort, this time, making both Hesidi and me frown.

  “How about we go back down there, and answer the river’s call later this afternoon, huh?” Hesidi grumbled, both hands gripping a pulverizer weapon and holding it close to his chest.

  I kept Bowie in my pocket—the little tech ball had been less useful without the comms, but it was packed with useful information about Strava. I carried it with me this time in case we got a connection again, once Elonora and her crew were done with the comms towers.

  Bogdana walked across the vacant campsite, headed straight for the river. Though reluctant, Hesidi and I followed. Bogdana didn’t seem at all bothered by the prospect of Perfects finding us. She moved through the woods, light on her feet, as if the water was, indeed, calling out to her.

  “Are we sure about this?” Hesidi asked me, his voice low.

  “We’re not sure about much, I’m afraid. But if one of our fae is so determined to contact the Hermessi, who are we to stop her, right?” I replied, wearing a half-smile.

  Once we reached the river, everything got even weirder, as Bogdana went in.

  “I could mind-bend her back here,” Hesidi said.

  I shook my head. “Don’t. I want to see what she does. Besides, she’s right. It’s what we brought her here for. It’ll never be perfectly safe for us out here.”

  The old fae went deep, until the water reached up to her chest. Despite the powerful stream, she didn’t budge. Instead, she used her elemental ability to manipulate the water, moving toward the middle of the river. Despite the depth, Bogdana was steady and above the surface. She closed her eyes, then allowed herself to float on her back.

  The stream didn’t push her, though. It flowed past her, its crystalline waters caressing her sides. The dimming moonlight cast its bluish hue over everything, accompanied by a trillion twinkling stars. Hesidi and I stayed on the edge, watching her carefully. The sun would be up soon.

  “Should Perfects come around, we’ll obliterate them, no questions asked,” I whispered. “Whatever Bogdana is doing, it’s important. I can feel it in my bones. She can’t be interrupted.”

  Hesidi nodded. “Yeah. I feel it, too. There’s something weird going on here.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck were electrified. My stomach tightened into a painful little marble. My breathing was ragged. It was as if gravity pulled us down harder, and we put additional effort into resisting. The air was thick and supercharged, as Bogdana floated without getting carried away.

  I gasped when bubbles emerged to the surface, steam rising toward the moon. The river was boiling! Bogdana seemed unaffected, but I still worried for her wellbeing. We didn’t know the Hermessi well enough to trust them in any way, shape or form.

  “That can’t be good,” Hesidi murmured, unable to take his eyes off Bogdana.

  Movement in the sky above us filled me with dread. “It can’t be worse than that,” I said.

  Six flashes of light headed toward us, crisscrossing the sky like an electrical storm about to come down on us. Perfects. They’d spotted us. Hesidi and I readied our weapons and pointed them at the incoming hostiles.

  It was too late for us to use any invisibility paste, at this point. Granted, Bogdana’s moves had taken me by surprise, and I hadn’t even gotten the chance to grab a batch on my way out of the stronghold.

  “The less noise we make, the better,” I added, aiming at the flash that seemed to be leading the group. Whoever that was, he or she was toast.

  Neither of us got to shoot, though. Arms made of water shot out from the river, long and flexible and determined to catch all the Perfects like the petulant flies that they were. I heard one of them yelp when one of the arms smacked into him, then swallowed him whole and sucked him into the river.

  The others didn’t stand a chance, either. One by one, they were caught and drowned in the boiling river, while Bogdana floated in it, still and seemingly unperturbed.

  “Consider me shocked,” Hesidi croaked. “What the hell just happened?”

  A couple of seconds went by in absolute silence, as we caught glimpses of the Perfects’ bodies dragged far
ther down the river, pulled toward the ocean by the furious waters. This was a Hermessi at work. It was Douma’s drowning, all over again, only this time multiplied by six.

  “The water Hermessi,” I managed. “It answered Bogdana’s call, I think.”

  “What will happen to them?” Hesidi asked.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off Bogdana. The Perfects were long gone, taken away by the stream and probably cast into the ocean. Less than a second later, we both heard the waters rumbling and moaning, miles away from our location. I couldn’t say how, but I knew, deep in my heart, that what I was hearing was the ocean, angry and in motion, as it pushed the Perfects farther away from us.

  “They’ll be far away by the time we’re done here,” I said.

  “You can feel it in your bones, huh?” he said, reminding me of an earlier statement I’d made on the topic. I couldn’t help but chuckle lightly.

  “Yeah. Pretty much.”

  “Perhaps you have a connection to the Hermessi, too,” he replied.

  “Maybe. Or maybe I’ve seen enough in this lifetime to understand weird when I see it. It probably just resonates with me.” I sighed, then shifted my focus back to Bogdana. “She isn’t moving.”

  “And she’s not drowning.”

  The water arms were gone, but the river kept bubbling and rushing over the large rocks as it made its way toward the ocean. Shivers ran down my back. What I’d just witnessed no longer shocked me, but it did creep me out. I’d been around for long enough to recognize that nature could be more than scary, given the right outlets.

  In this case, all it seemed to have needed was a river and a fae old and faithful enough to harness the raw, pure power of the Hermessi. Before I could finish my thought, I froze at the sight of Bogdana disappearing underwater.

  “Crap,” I breathed.

  Hesidi was ready to jump in and go after her, when she came back to the surface, a couple of feet from us. Bogdana was conscious, breathing heavily as she walked back to us. Once she set foot on dry land, she quivered like a sapling in the northern wind.

  I gripped her shoulders, measuring her from head to toe. “Are you okay?”

  “I… I think so,” she mumbled, then wiped the water from her face with her bare palms.

  “How’d you do that?” Hesidi asked, genuinely curious.

  Bogdana, on the other hand, seemed confused. “How’d I do what?”

  Hesidi then looked at me, downright befuddled. I gave Bogdana a frown. “The whole water thing. You were smack in the middle of it.”

  “What water thing?” Bogdana asked, blinking rapidly as she tried to remember.

  “Bogdana, what’s the last thing you remember?” I asked, deciding to start from the very beginning.

  She thought about it for a while, then stared at me for a couple of seconds.

  “We were by the river, and I wanted to go in. I mean, I, personally, didn’t want to go in. But I could feel this… pull. The river wanted me in,” she said.

  “So, you don’t remember the water practically boiling with you in it?” I gasped.

  She shook her head. “No, as soon as I got into the water, everything became a colorful haze. I couldn’t hear anything. I think I blacked out at one point. I had the same dream that Ben and Vesta described. Everyone I knew, everyone I didn’t know, they were all there. And the earth swallowed them whole. It split open, layer by layer, and ate us all up. I definitely think this was the Hermessi’s work.”

  “Gee, ya think?!” Hesidi snapped.

  Bogdana had no recollection of what had just happened. And it wasn’t even the weirdest part of this entire episode.

  “Bogdana, you went into the river and floated in the middle. The water was boiling; steam was rising,” I said. “Seconds later, Perfects probably noticed us from afar. They flew in, and we had our weapons ready to destroy them, but the river grew arms made of water and dragged them all under. I think it sent them far, far away.”

  The old fae didn’t fully comprehend the magnitude of this event.

  “Arms?” she mumbled, raising an eyebrow.

  “Oh, yeah. Arms. Actual arms,” Hesidi said.

  Despite his black, crew-cut hair and firm jaw, his green eyes depicted a hilarious form of bewilderment. The Mara was covered in tattoos, from his neck all the way down to his wrists and ankles, most of them hidden by his black leather tunic uniform—he was a serious-looking kind of guy, who served the Mara Lord of White City. He’d seen his share of strange things, yet a creature like Bogdana and her relationship with the Hermessi still had the power to stun him and reduce him to what could easily qualify as a bumbling mess.

  “Hah,” Bogdana quipped. “Whaddya know. That’s interesting.”

  “Yeah, that’s one word for it,” I grumbled, once again rattled by sonic booms approaching our area.

  Merinos was supposed to be difficult to reach, given the harsh climate conditions in the region. Yet, our presence here was no longer unnoticed. I had a feeling that Araquiel’s disappearance would draw even more of his people here. Moving was clearly a better option.

  “I’m genuinely stunned... I didn’t know I could do that…” Bogdana said, still absent from reality as she gazed at a random tree in the distance.

  “I doubt it was you,” I replied. “This was the Douma incident, all over again. The water took on a life of its own. It killed the Perfects, almost effortlessly. Then, it just went back to its normal, usual flow. But, the thing is, before the Perfects even came into the picture, the river was already reacting to your presence. If any of us had any doubt, whatsoever, about your connection to the Hermessi… well, trust me, it’s gone. You’re definitely one of our best links to them, and I need you to keep working this line until we get them to speak to us.”

  “Like Ramin did to Harper, huh?” Bogdana sighed.

  I nodded. “Yes. Exactly like that.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Rose. I’ll try to remember what happened. Or, at least, if I heard anything during this… trance, for lack of a better word. It’s good to know my and Lumi’s suspicions are confirmed, though. The elements are definitely powerful here, on Strava. We may succeed, after all,” Bogdana replied, turning to face the river again.

  This was the right moment to do what Hesidi and I had already talked about, long before we even left the stronghold. I gave him a discreet nudge. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he took a step forward to stand right next to Bogdana.

  His eyes had an amber shine, a faint twinkle, as he placed a hand on Bogdana’s shoulder and squeezed gently, prompting her to look at him. One glance was all it took to capture her full attention, whether she liked it or not. Bogdana was now under the mind-bending influence of a powerful Mara, whose swamp witch tattoos not only amplified the Lord’s abilities, but also his own.

  Lumi and I had previously agreed to have one of the wards mind-bend Bogdana. We were convinced that Bogdana was still holding something back—whether the information was useful or not, we wouldn’t know unless she told us. Since she was fresh out of her Hermessi trance, Bogdana’s mind was vulnerable.

  She stilled, as Hesidi held her gaze.

  “Bogdana, there’s something you didn’t tell us about your time here on Strava,” he said, his voice eerily gruff and low. All Maras sounded different while mind-bending, but none made my blood curdle like Hesidi.

  “I told the truth…” Bogdana whispered, her eyes vacant and her expression blank.

  “No, you didn’t. Not the whole truth,” Hesidi replied. “Tell me everything, Bogdana. You left something out. I need to know.”

  She nodded slowly. But what came out of her mouth nearly blew my mind away.

  We already had our hands full, since it was clearly time to move our camp. Perfects were bound to discover the stronghold, eventually, and we couldn’t risk discovery—not with only a bunch of Draenir, two wards, two Faulties, and an old fae to defend our mission. The others had tracking spells at the ready to come find us, after
all.

  In addition, knowing what we knew now about Bogdana, we definitely couldn’t let her out of our sight. Most importantly, under no circumstances could we lose her to Ta’Zan or the Perfects. Bogdana was an absolute game changer, and not just because of her ties to the Hermessi.

  Kailani

  I had some time to mull over what I’d observed during our mission as we rested on the edge of the jungle, overlooking Ta’Zan’s diamond colosseum. Elonora was talking to Nevis, and I could tell that something more was going on between them—besides a conversation. I didn’t need her sentry powers to tell that they were into each other.

  Raphael and Cassiel caught up, as well. The so-called upgraded Perfect gave us all the information we needed regarding the colosseum, the best routes in and out of the place, and the guards’ movements over the course of an entire day. Varga also contributed with his own observations from inside the diamond dome, as well as from his escape.

  The Draenir kept watch—the four boys were quite young, but they had been extremely helpful throughout the mission so far. I was certain that they’d continue to help us. After all, this was their world we were trying to save.

  My grandparents were inside that diamond dome. Hundreds of our people were trapped in there, including Hunter’s parents and Varga and Elonora’s grandparents. GASP founders and close allies were reduced to mere prisoners, with shock collars around their necks that prevented them from so much as thinking of escaping. They were all counting on us, and, despite my rocky yet budding relationship with the Word as a swamp witch apprentice, I had faith that I could carry on and stop the end of the world from unraveling.

  We had one last tower to disable, after which we were going to infiltrate the colosseum and destroy everything that Ta’Zan had about space flight—ships, notes, calculations, and blueprints, anything that could assist him in leaving the planet with his Perfects.