“Caia, I’m so sorry,” Blaze finally spoke, his gaze a bit more focused.
“There he is! Welcome back!” Heron grinned.
“I’m… I’m so sorry. I don’t know how… I couldn’t stop myself,” Blaze murmured, and Caia took his hands in hers, giving him a warm, broad smile.
“Listen, it’s okay,” she said softly. “It wasn’t your fault. We all know it. I know it. Mind-bending is a powerful thing.”
“I could’ve killed you.”
“You didn’t!” Caia insisted, cupping his face in an attempt to make him feel better.
“Besides, she kicked you in the nuts, man. Consider the price paid for that,” Heron quipped, and we all laughed lightly.
“It’s okay,” Caia reassured Blaze, and he nodded slowly, looking at us.
“What do we do now?” he asked.
A couple of seconds went by before Jax cleared his throat and straightened his back to get our full attention.
“Well, our first objective, at this point, is to get into the daemon city up north and find out where they’re keeping what’s left of the Druid delegation. Especially the swamp witch,” he said.
“I will take you there,” Vesta said. “I know two daemons there, pacifists, who can help us. One can help us get in. I’ve already sent word to him to let him know we’re coming. He knows the city inside and out, and can help us move around undetected. The second is the one with the answers you seek regarding the Exiled Maras and the daemons’ plans to bring more of your kind here.”
“Oh, you mean replenish their food source,” Fiona muttered, gritting her teeth. Her anger was mirrored in all of us. I felt it twisting my stomach in painful knots, and, just like Fiona, I looked forward to snapping some Exiled Mara necks. In fact, we all did.
“We’ll leave at dawn,” Jax continued. “Eat, drink, and rest, in the meantime. As soon as the sun is up, we’re out of here. It’s imperative that we find the swamp witch. She can help us break every single disruption spell that these bastards have set up. Once we reach out and alert Calliope, it’ll be the end of the Exiled Maras.”
“The daemons are temporarily weakened after what we did to them,” Hansa added. “However, that is just one city. They will get reinforcements. And when they do, they’ll be coming for us. I think the Maras will do the same. I’m worried they might be able to follow our tracks here.”
“They won’t, Hansa,” Vesta assured her. “My people will move farther to the west as soon as we leave. I’ve already confirmed this with Amund. Besides, I told you, we have a few good tricks up our sleeves when it comes to eluding those creeps—it’s how we’ve managed to survive until now.”
“We need allies, in the meantime,” I said. “We’re on our own, and, dragon or not, we have to get some strength in numbers. Enough to hold out until we find the swamp witch and contact Draven and GASP.”
“There are some creatures still living in this world,” Vesta murmured. “They’re almost extinct, though. We haven’t seen most of them in years. But there are rumors, whispers flying across the western meadows. We can try and reach out to them. I can send a couple of scouts, if you’d like. If they see people rising against the daemons, and if they see you, they might be interested in joining the fight. This is our world, too.”
“Thank you, Vesta, that would be a great idea.” Jax nodded his approval. “Hopefully, they’ll let Lord Kifo out by morning, as well. We need him.”
“I believe they will,” the water fae replied.
They had to. I wasn’t going to leave him behind. I looked over my shoulder again. Caspian was sitting by the iron bars of his cage, his gaze fixed on me as he listened intently. He gave me a nod and a discreet smile, his jade eyes flickering with newfound resolve. I mirrored that perfectly.
Come morning, we were going to dig deeper into the world of daemons, then reclaim the freedom of the Imen and stop this soul-eating madness, once and for all. We’d been deceived and betrayed by the Exiled Maras—and their punishment was going to be swift, unforgiving, and, this time, final.
They’d been spared once. We had no intention of making that mistake again.
Not when the lives of so many innocent people were at stake, along with our own. No way in hell would I let them lure more GASP agents to Neraka, just so they could fulfill their insane fantasy of replenishing their soul food supply.
The soul was never meant to be treated like this. Life deserved more respect than what the daemons and Exiled Maras were showing. And I was going to make sure they learned this lesson the hard way.
Derek
We’d been planning an expansion for The Shade since the Daughters of Eritopia had established a permanent portal between our worlds. With the influx of Eritopians visiting our beautiful island, we’d finally reached the point where we simply needed more space. We’d built as many cabins and treehouses and townhouses as we could on the mainland—if we permitted more construction, things would start to feel cluttered, and I was not going to let that happen. With so many supernaturals inhabiting our land, it was vital we all have ample open space to stretch our legs… or wings, as the case may be.
“Honestly, I expected this day to come a lot sooner,” Eli remarked, standing to my right at the end of the Port’s jetty. He was holding a large scroll of paper which contained the proposed layout of the artificial extension we were planning to build out over the ocean, side by side with the Port. His wife Shayla, Ibrahim, Corrine, Kiev, and Mona were also with us, examining the ocean that stretched out within The Shade’s protective barrier. Eli and the witches made up the core of our expansion team—Eli being lead architect—while Kiev, having some downtime, had tagged along with his wife.
“Me too,” Ibrahim said. “Ever since GASP replaced the IBSI.”
I nodded. That had been a significant milestone in The Shade’s growth, to say the least. Before defeating Atticus Conway and becoming the official protective agency for Earth, we had made official alliances with the dragons, white witches, and jinn—which increased our population, as a significant number of them came to live with us—but in taking the IBSI down, we had formed further alliances with the werewolves, Hawks, and ogres, which just added to our “zoo”, as Corrine fondly referred to it.
Then came our Nevertide excursion, which had brought in an influx of sentries, and most recently Eritopia, which had opened up a whole other Pandora’s box of diverse creatures, many of which I hadn't even known existed: Maras, Druids, incubi, succubi… Yes. It was time.
I couldn’t deny, though, that I felt a stab of melancholy at the prospect. No, building an extension over the ocean would not really alter the main island, but still, it was a sign of change. And with change came the bitter-sweetness of nostalgia, of times lost and gone, never to be returned to.
I couldn’t help but think back to how The Shade was… before it was even The Shade. Centuries ago, when I’d first discovered it, that fateful day my ship had washed ashore. It was just a wild island back then, inhabited only by the local animals. And we were just a handful of vampires. Me, my sister, brother, father, Xavier, Cameron, Liana, Eli, Claudia, Kyle, Sam, and some others, many of whom we’d lost along the way. Then there was Cora, followed by her successor Corrine, and the humans we began kidnapping.
As much as those times had been filled with struggle and heartache, I wouldn’t have traded them for the world. Not just because the circumstances had brought Sofia to me, but because they’d shaped me into the person I was today. A man I could comfortably look at in the mirror—which was a lot more than I could say for myself before.
As I looked at the plans Eli was holding, I realized that watching The Shade grow was like watching a child grow. I guessed, because it was my child, in a way. I’d founded it, then fought to protect and preserve it for the past… almost six hundred years now.
“God, I feel old,” I muttered, breaking the quiet that had descended on us. The feeling was not exactly helped by the fact that I sensed one day very soon
I was going to become a great-great-grandfather…
Corrine smiled wryly. “Ah, Derek.” She reached out and patted me on the shoulder. “I know. This is a nostalgic time, isn’t it? Just take comfort in the fact that Kiev is way older.”
The green-eyed vampire threw Corrine a scowl. “You’re not exactly a spring chick, witch.”
Mona prodded him. “I thought we talked about you calling your son’s mother-in-law that.”
“What? Chick or witch?”
Corrine snorted, while Mona and Ibrahim rolled their eyes.
I chuckled. Even after decades of being co-in-laws, Corrine still hadn’t gotten tired of taking pokes at Kiev.
Eli cleared his throat, straightening the plan he was holding. “So… this is our first solid draft. For now, what I really want is comments on the size of the platform. Do we start smaller and see how we do? Or larger than we think we might need? I mean, The Shade’s population is only going to continue to grow, so it’s probably almost impossible to build something too large. We want to accommodate at least a hundred houses at first, and since this area will be mostly inhabited by Eritopians, I’m thinking—”
“Derek!” I heard Sofia calling my name from behind us.
I turned and saw her approaching with Draven. I’d left her in the Great Dome with Rose and River, where they’d been talking about extensions for The Shade’s school, so I was surprised to see her approaching now—especially with Draven. Even from this distance, I could see that her face was concerned, which unnerved me.
“Draven?” Eli narrowed his eyes, spotting the Master Druid of Calliope, too.
We left the jetty and walked toward them.
“Sorry to come all the way here and disturb you,” Draven said as he reached us, bowing curtly. His manners always surprised me—Serena had married an absolute gentleman. Thank the stars.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
“Not exactly.” Draven shook his head. “The team on Neraka is okay. I just spoke to them. Not even worried about Tenebris anymore; the boys there are doing an excellent job of dismantling the rebel groups. But Serena and I have been digging through the Druid Archives, and… well, we’ve found an inconsistency.”
“What kind of inconsistency?” I asked.
“The Druid delegation that was traveling in the area close to Neraka, the one we assumed had crash-landed there… they never came back,” Draven explained. “I checked the coordinates over and over, and the records, too. It’s the only delegation that vanished.”
“But Rewa said they bid them farewell and watched them fly off in their light orb,” Sofia murmured, looking at me, the wariness in her eyes evident.
“Do you think the Exiled Maras lied?” Corrine asked, frowning.
“I’m not sure, but yes, I am considering that possibility,” he replied.
“To what end, though? I’m not sure I get it,” Kiev muttered, scratching his stubbled chin as he pursed his lips.
“Again, I do not know at this point.” Draven shrugged. “But, like I said, the team was okay. I checked in via Telluris, and they were still in the gorges, investigating. They’ve yet to uncover the mystery behind all those disappearances.”
“I doubt they’ll find out that quickly. It’s only, what… day three?” Ibrahim raised an eyebrow, and Draven responded with a brief nod before shifting his focus back to me.
I wasn’t really sure what to make of this. If the Exiled Maras had lied about the Druid delegation, it didn’t look good for them. Most importantly, it put the GASP team we’d sent over at risk. But the delegation could also have disappeared after they’d left Neraka. Without more information, it was difficult to draw any final conclusions. I couldn’t even consider any kind of action in response to either possibility, because it was simply too soon.
“I think we should give the exploratory team a couple more days to do some more digging into the disappearances,” I concluded after a long moment. “Let’s see what findings they come up with. The Maras might not even know that the Druid delegation never returned to Calliope. It would cause a diplomatic mess if we started suspecting the victims of proven crimes of wrongdoings of their own, at least at this point in time.”
“I must say, I agree,” Eli added. “We could reconvene in a couple of days, while you keep in touch with the Neraka team. We can decide on a course of action then, once we learn more about what’s going on there with all the disappearances.”
“I understand.” Draven nodded. “I was also thinking I could tell Jax to ask the Five Lords to give him an account of what they saw when they bid the Druid delegation farewell. You know, just to fish for details. They might hold important clues and not even know it, if we go on the presumption of innocence.”
“That makes sense,” I replied. “Just make sure he’s… gentle about it. I think the team’s findings regarding the abductions are essential right now. The sooner they discover the culprits, the sooner they’ll come back to us. Frankly, I’m not at all comfortable with them so far away, with just Telluris as a means of communication and just a swamp witch spell for interstellar travel.”
Sofia wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled herself closer to my side. I knew she felt the same way. As proud as we were of our younglings, and regardless of the immovable faith we had in their abilities, neither of us was truly comfortable with the risks they were exposing themselves to in a completely foreign world.
I wanted to see them all back, sooner rather than later.
“Draven,” I added, “can you do me a favor?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Yes?”
“Do you have any way of looking into that galaxy as a whole?” I asked. “One of our witches will help you, if needed. I want you to analyze it. I know we can’t see Neraka because of whatever weird effect that asteroid belt has on the planet’s visibility in space, but you should still be able to see the rest of that solar system.”
“I see where you’re going with this,” Draven replied with a nod and a confident half-smile. “We can study the galaxy and get a better idea of what that part of the In-Between is like, even from afar. Whatever dwells on Neraka could also be found on neighboring planets.”
“Exactly. Consider it research,” I said.
“Leave it to me.” He bowed again, then turned around and walked back to the Dome, while Sofia remained with me.
We watched him as he gradually became a small dot at the end of the sandy beach, and a sliver of unease crept up to my throat, clutching tightly as I swallowed. It was too soon to draw any conclusions regarding Neraka, I reminded myself. But, still, as a great-grandfather and, most importantly, as the leader of GASP, I worried about my people.
The possibility of Exiled Maras lying about the Druid delegation didn’t sit well with me. However, we didn’t know for certain that they’d deceived us. I disliked this kind of decision limbo, but right now, I didn’t have much choice.
A couple more days, and we’d take another look at what was going on there, and Draven would keep in close contact with them via Telluris.
In the meantime, I could focus on this development project… while secretly pondering worst-case scenarios regarding Neraka.
* * *
Ready for the next part of the Shadians’ story?
Dear Shaddict,
Thank you for reading A City of Lies!
The next book in the series, ASOV 56: A League of Exiles, releases February 19th, 2018!
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Read more by Bella Forrest
HOTBLOODS
(Brand new paranormal romance series!)
Hotbloods (Book 1)
Coldbloods (Book 2)
Renegades (Book 3)
THE GIRL WHO DARED TO THINK
The Girl Who Dared to Think (Book 1)
The Girl Who Dared to Stand (Book 2)
The Girl Who Dared to Descend (Book 3)
The Girl Who Dared to Rise (Book 4)
The Girl Who Dared to Lead (Book 5)
THE GENDER GAME
(Completed series)
The Gender Game (Book 1)
The Gender Secret (Book 2)
The Gender Lie (Book 3)
The Gender War (Book 4)
The Gender Fall (Book 5)
The Gender Plan (Book 6)
The Gender End (Book 7)
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story
A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)
A Shade of Blood (Book 2)
A Castle of Sand (Book 3)
A Shadow of Light (Book 4)
A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)
A Gate of Night (Book 6)
A Break of Day (Book 7)
Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story
A Shade of Novak (Book 8)
A Bond of Blood (Book 9)
A Spell of Time (Book 10)
A Chase of Prey (Book 11)
A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)
A Turn of Tides (Book 13)
A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)
A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)
An End of Night (Book 16)
Series 3: The Shade continues with a new hero…
A Wind of Change (Book 17)
A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)
A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)
A Shade of Vampire 55: A City of Lies Page 20
