A Shade of Vampire 66: An Edge of Malice

by Bella Forrest

  Ten hours since our last conversation, and they’d already learned twenty languages, both modern and ancient, from Earth, Eritopia, and Neraka. Arwen and Shayla had a hard time keeping up with them, but Phoenix and the Daughters were quick to supplement any gaps in their knowledge with additional scrolls and manuscripts. They’d been particularly fascinated by the Druids’ archives—a treasure trove of travel journals from all over the In-Between.

  Even we were still trying to wrap our heads around the many places that the Druids had visited and explored before Azazel took over and almost destroyed everything.

  The best part about this sped-up learning program was the fact that all it did was reinforce our theories: the Perfects were not inherently evil. On the contrary, they were kind and righteous, curious and willing to understand both sides of each issue before deliberating and drawing conclusions. They consulted with each other, too, always asking for a second or third opinion where necessary.

  In the end, their judgment was the same as ours.

  “What Ta’Zan is doing is truly horrific,” Nathaniel said, putting yet another Druid manuscript aside. He and his three siblings were seated around an oval table in one of our study rooms on Mount Zur, with a pile of books and journals in front of them. Computer screens covered the walls, constantly playing a variety of documentary videos and recordings from our field missions. “There’s no other word for it.”

  I’d stopped by to check in on them, slightly amused by Arwen and Shayla, who were half asleep in their swivel chairs. I knew they’d need to go to sleep soon, but they couldn’t bring themselves to leave the Perfects alone. Not because they were worried that they might wreak havoc or something—we were way past that stage in our relationship with these four creatures. No, the witches were simply in perpetual awe of how fast they were learning. It was a pleasure to watch.

  “It’s good that you feel this way,” I replied, smiling. “We’ve been saying this for a while, now.”

  “I’m sorry for what our people are doing.” Uriel sighed, wearing a pained expression. “But I promise you that, even if he’s mass-producing Perfects like this, it won’t be enough to build his empire like he wants it. It takes more than that to change the universe. All the history books confirm it.”

  I nodded slowly. “Have you seen the footage from your memory chips yet?”

  “Yes. And it wasn’t a pretty sight,” Deena replied.

  “But we have learned a great deal about ourselves, about how Ta’Zan ensnares us in his bloody ‘utopia.’ We’ve been talking about it, actually,” Angelica added.

  “Oh?” I asked, curiosity making my skin tingle.

  Caspian was with Field and Aida, back in the main operations room. Bastien had come around again, accompanied by Caleb and River. We were due to have another meeting and discuss the next steps in our mission to stop Ta’Zan. Ben and Rose’s crew had secured immense advantages for our side by buying us a little more time and by restoring the comms systems.

  “Well, we would like to help,” Nathaniel said. “We can’t sit idly by.”

  An idea shot through my head. “We’re about to have a meeting about Strava soon,” I said. “Would the four of you like to participate?”

  They all nodded enthusiastically.

  “Absolutely,” Deena replied. “We’ve read all about your missions and your quests. You’ve done incredible things, despite the many obstacles you encountered. Personally, I’m fascinated by your problem-solving skills when dealing with creatures that are, biologically speaking, superior to yourselves, one way or another.”

  “Ah, yes. Your mission on Neraka, in particular, was quite interesting,” Uriel chimed in. “The daemons had the upper hand in terms of size and their use of swamp witch magic, yet you still managed to gather an alliance and take them on. In fact, you were dealing with two groups of enemies. The Maras and the daemons.”

  “And you personally took down the daemon king,” Deena said, smiling. “Based on Avril’s description in the field report, he was the size of a mountain, and he used swamp witch tricks, too. Nevertheless, here you are, living to tell the story.”

  My cheeks were flushed; I could feel them burning. I didn’t want to toot my own horn, but I couldn’t help but feel proud about what we’d accomplished back on Neraka. In hindsight, it was, in fact, quite the feat to take on a monster like Shaytan.

  “Well, thank you. But I didn’t exactly do it on my own,” I muttered, stifling a grin.

  “No. A Hermessi helped you, right?” Nathaniel asked.

  “Yeah. It was rather unexpected, but I do see a pattern emerging. I don’t know what’s been happening or why, but these entities seem to be coming back to the surface, in a way. They seem to be reacting to unnatural behavior on our part. Shaytan was going against the laws of nature with what he was doing to the Imen, and the Hermessi wanted to do something about it. However, they lacked the strength, since so few people still believed in them.”

  The Perfects looked at each other, then back at me.

  “There’s not much known about them,” Angelica said.

  I shook my head. “For some reason, they went off the grid about ten thousand years ago. It’s like people just stopped believing in them. But they seem to be making a comeback now, as evidenced by their activity on Strava.”

  “With everything that Ta’Zan is doing, it doesn’t come as a surprise.” Uriel sighed. “The Perfects are multiplying at an alarmingly high rate. I don’t think Strava’s environment is equipped to adapt to such a change, so quickly.”

  “We’re on the same page here,” I replied.

  Arwen was close to dozing off, and Shayla was quietly watching us. I gave her a wink, then motioned for the door. “We’re meeting up in about ten minutes. See you and our new friends in there?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Let me get Arwen back to a functioning state.” She chuckled.

  Even witches needed sleep. Fortunately, they still had their secret little artifices to give them temporary spurts of energy, enough to keep them from dropping like logs due to physical exhaustion.

  I left the Perfects with Shayla and Arwen, then headed back to the main meeting room, where half of our executive team had already assembled. With everything that had been happening, particularly after the recent minor victories, we had to draw up an action plan—one that wouldn’t end with more of our fleets going down in flames.

  Once everyone was gathered around the massive meeting table, Perfects and revigorated Shayla and Arwen included, we started a discussion about the thing I’d been eager to get into: making the next move against Ta’Zan.

  Mona and Kiev, Eli and Shayla, Arwen and Brock, Scarlett and Patrik, Caia and Blaze, River and Caleb, Field and Aida, and Caspian and I were present, along with Bastien, Phoenix and Viola, and the other Daughters. We had eyes on Strava through both telescopes. One gave us a view of Ta’Zan’s occupied archipelagos, while the other was set up with a blood spell to stay focused on Rose and Ben’s crew.

  The image wasn’t clear on the latter, mainly because of the snowstorm raging above them, but we caught glimpses of the icy refuge in which they’d taken shelter, and we didn’t see any signs of hostiles flying around. So far, so good.

  “Do we know what they’re planning to do next?” Bastien asked, wearing a permanent frown. He wasn’t going to rest until he got his family and the rest of GASP back home safely.

  “Ben and Rose?” I replied. “Not yet. They’ll be coming online soon, though. We’ll ask them.”

  As if summoned, Rose’s voice came through our earpieces.

  “Everyone there? Caleb? River?” she asked.

  “Yes, we’re all here,” Caleb replied, then gave River a soft nudge and a smile.

  “Me too,” she said. “Ben? Are you with us?”

  “He’s busy with Lumi and Kale,” Rose replied. “We’re getting ready to deploy again.”

  “Am I late?” Derek asked, jumping in on the group’s comms channel.

 
; I couldn’t stop a grin from stretching my lips as I heard my great-grandfather’s voice again. It wasn’t the first time since the blockers went down, but, after not knowing how they were and with no way of reaching them for so long, every time he spoke was a marvel.

  “Nope, you’re right on time,” Bastien replied. “How is everyone there?”

  “As well as expected.” Derek sighed. “I’m waiting for Isda to give me some updates about Sofia. I haven’t seen her since Ta’Zan took her.”

  “She’ll be okay,” Arwen interjected. “She’s a tough cookie. Plus, Ta’Zan won’t risk alienating you by hurting your wife. It wouldn’t make sense. He’s not exactly a textbook sadist.”

  “I agree. But I’m still uneasy,” Derek replied. “Let’s focus on what’s coming next. Rose, honey? What’s the plan here? Share with the whole class.”

  Rose chuckled softly. “We’re splitting into three teams again. We need to find a better shelter, to establish a central base for other Faulties to find us. Lumi and Kailani will lead the fae on a little trip to reach out to the Hermessi again. And Elonora’s crew will sneak back into the colosseum. They’ve still got work to do.”

  She went on to explain the to-do list of each team, until we were all up to speed. It brought us to the next topic of our discussion.

  “So, what do we do?” Mona asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’m not kicking back while our people on Strava do all the hard work.”

  “About that. I actually have an idea,” I said, then nodded at the four Perfects. “I think they can help us. The Perfects, I mean,” I added, for Rose and Derek’s benefit.

  “What do you mean?” Patrik replied.

  Nathaniel stood up, looking around at the table. “We’ve gathered enough intel from our recorded memories to infiltrate the colosseum. We could sabotage it from the inside without arousing any suspicion.”

  “Ta’Zan wouldn’t immediately realize that we were missing in the first place,” Deena added. “There were thousands of us out there. We could’ve simply drifted into space. We could’ve reentered the atmosphere later. We regenerated, and here we are, back in the colosseum.”

  “And Ta’Zan wouldn’t know to get to us with his wireless memory restore system, either, because he won’t even remember us,” Uriel said. “The system doesn’t just restore memories willy-nilly. It needs someone to give it a target. With Douma or Raphael it’s different, because Ta’Zan knows them, he knows what happened to them, he knows they’re still alive, he can set them as targets—though that endeavor would be useless, since they have blockers on. Once we get inside the colosseum, we’ll steer clear of Ta’Zan. Even if we do bump into him, he wouldn’t realize we’re foreign agents now. Like I said, he doesn’t keep track of us like he does with Douma or Raphael. Those two are important to him, for some reason.”

  “Therefore, you wouldn’t need blockers, like Douma and Raphael?” Rose asked.

  “For the amount of time we’re going to be in there, no,” Nathaniel replied. “Think about it this way. It’s an in-and-out thing. Our goal is to just plant and detonate the devices. Ta’Zan and the others won’t even know. We’ll just be four Perfects in a sea of Perfects. We’re inconspicuous.”

  “That makes sense. It does spare us the trouble of having to put serium blockers on you. That would be a logistical nightmare.” Rose sighed.

  “I agree,” Caleb said.

  Everyone else was quiet, their eyes wide as they took it all in. Judging by the auras I could read, they seemed curious, maybe even open to the possibility of Perfects helping us. There were still slivers of doubt here and there, but I couldn’t exactly blame them, not after the fleet disaster.

  Uriel took a deep breath. “We could destroy certain sections without arousing suspicion. We could do pretty much whatever you want us to do—even talk to other Perfects and see if we can sway them away from Ta’Zan.”

  Silence settled across the table. We all looked at each other, as if waiting for one of us to take the lead and say something in response. Unsurprisingly, Mona, ever the firecracker, was the first to speak up.

  “Why would you help us? I mean, I get that you don’t agree with what Ta’Zan is doing and whatever, but he created you. His destruction may be the only thing standing between him and the end of this world—for us, not for you. You’d be fine, because you’re Perfects. So, why?”

  “We don’t want to perpetuate mass murder and genocide. While we are, of course, grateful to Ta’Zan that we are alive, it doesn’t mean we’re fine with just turning a blind eye or, worse, killing in his name. He doesn’t own us. We can make our own paths in life, without his influence. All of us can do that, including the many brothers and sisters who cannot yet see things the way we do,” Nathaniel said.

  “As long as you can guarantee that Strava will be our home, and that we will be left alone once Ta’Zan is gone and peace is restored, we’re okay with doing whatever it takes to help you,” Angelica added. “We’re more than fine with sharing our world with Faulties and the Draenir. I’m sure we’ll do our best to make reparations to both species, for what Ta’Zan did to them.”

  Bastien got up from his chair and casually walked toward one of the wall screens, which had an aerial view of the winter island where Ben and Rose’s crew had settled temporarily. He thought about it for a while, then gave Nathaniel a glance over the shoulder.

  “Will you die for our people to succeed?” he asked, his tone low and cold.

  Nathaniel blinked several times. “I understand we’re quite difficult to kill.”

  “Nevertheless, a pulverizer weapon could turn you to ashes. Will you be okay with that, as long as it secures the survival of others in this camp?” Bastien replied.

  I had to admit, that was a good question. The answer wasn’t easy, though. And there could hardly be a wrong answer, to begin with. Self-sacrifice wasn’t a requirement in an alliance, in a partnership, even in a temporary team-up meant to help us survive. No one was required to die, when such a moment arrived. It was a deeply personal choice, and there was nothing stronger, in all the creatures I’d met, than the will to survive.

  Therefore, I wouldn’t have blamed Nathaniel if he’d said no. Maybe it would’ve made me a little wary, but I wouldn’t have held it against him.

  “In the absence of other options, maybe,” Nathaniel replied, surprising us all. “I cannot guarantee it, though. It would depend on the circumstances, on my psyche in the moment. The one thing I can commit to, without batting an eye, is loyalty. I want your side to succeed.”

  “You people are driven by love and by freedom,” Deena added. “Ta’Zan is leading our people under a lie, and he’s damaging the planet in the process.”

  Patrik frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  Phoenix scoffed, amused, as he pulled up an image of Strava’s atmosphere on one of the screens. “This really shouldn’t have come as a surprise. They were bound to notice the weather patterns and geographical changes that the planet has been going through. They’re brilliant Perfects, after all. It took us days to figure it out, and they did it in hours.”

  “Again, what are you… Oh, wow,” Patrik gasped, finally noticing the changes on Strava.

  The terrain was changing. The Perfect population was expanding too fast for the planet’s environment to keep up and adapt. Forests were coming down at an alarming rate, to make room for more colosseums. Black smoke rose from recently built production centers—probably where they were refining the black oils required for Ta’Zan’s ships to function.

  He’d yet to figure out our combination of magic and technology, so he’d copied our backup fuel tanks from the downed fleet. We only used those in case of emergency, if the magic ever failed, regardless of the reason.

  Ta’Zan was forcing Strava into an industrial revolution, for which it simply wasn’t prepared. Phoenix outlined certain ocean areas with red.

  “These are fishing areas. Tons of ocean creatures, especially the big ones, are hunte
d and killed every day,” Phoenix said. “We don’t know what they’re doing with them, but the Perfects have clearly become a threat to their environment.”

  “The trees will keep getting cut. The weather will change. The chimneys will continue to spill noxious gases into the atmosphere,” Patrik breathed.

  “It will get worse, and fast,” Nathaniel said. “So, I’m not surprised that the Hermessi showed willingness to help stop him. I wouldn’t want to live in a derelict world, devoid of its natural beauties, either.”

  “Frankly, we’re not at all comfortable with the idea of killing, but, you know… if we’re to kill, we might as well do it for the right reasons,” Uriel said.

  He had a point there, and I found myself nodding in agreement.

  “What do you think?” I asked, looking at Bastien, Field, Aida, River, and Caleb. Their opinions mattered first, since they were at the top of the chain of command in GASP for the time being.

  Bastien exhaled. “I think we’ll have to talk about it. Alone.”

  We weren’t going to get much more out of him at this point in time. I gave the Perfects a sympathetic smile and a polite nod. It was all I could do. They seemed genuine in their desire to help. And, if we had four Perfects to infiltrate the colosseum undetected, then that could give us one hell of an advantage.

  One that could forever turn the tide in our favor.

  One that could help us defeat Ta’Zan.

  Sofia

  When Ta’Zan tore me from Derek’s side, I felt the world unravel before me.

  I ended up trying to fight him, and the collar shocked me out of consciousness. I lost track of time. When my eyes peeled open, I found myself inside a glass box with a ventilation system—much like the one I’d been in when Ta’Zan first abducted us.

  To my surprise, however, I wasn’t inside some dark cave. From what I could tell, I was still inside the colosseum, as diamond walls rose proudly around me. This was a private hall, complete with a sleeping area and a dining space, lounge furniture, and a terrace that opened out to the jungle below.