A Passage of Threats
Page 1
A Shade of Vampire 47: A Passage of Threats
Bella Forrest
Contents
Also by Bella Forrest
New Generation List
1. Serena
2. Serena
3. Vita
4. Jovi
5. Serena
6. Phoenix
7. Vita
8. Serena
9. Serena
10. Aida
11. Vita
12. Phoenix
13. Jovi
14. Serena
15. Jovi
16. Aida
17. Phoenix
18. Vita
19. Phoenix
20. Aida
21. Serena
22. Serena
23. Serena
24. Jovi
25. Phoenix
26. Jovi
27. Field
28. Aida
29. Serena
30. Serena
31. Vita
32. Serena
33. Serena
34. Vita
35. Aida
36. Vita
37. Phoenix
38. Phoenix
Read more by Bella Forrest
Also by Bella Forrest
The Girl Who Dared to Think (Release August 9th 2017)
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)
THE SECRET OF SPELLSHADOW MANOR
The Secret of Spellshadow Manor (Book 1)
The Breaker (Book 2)
The Chain (Book 3)
The Keep (Book 4)
The Test (Book 5)
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 Hero of Realms (Book 20)
A Vial of Life (Book 21)
A Fork of Paths (Book 22)
A Flight of Souls (Book 23)
A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)
Series 4: A Clan of Novaks
A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)
A World of New (Book 26)
A Web of Lies (Book 27)
A Touch of Truth (Book 28)
An Hour of Need (Book 29)
A Game of Risk (Book 30)
A Twist of Fates (Book 31)
A Day of Glory (Book 32)
Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians
A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)
A Sword of Chance (Book 34)
A Race of Trials (Book 35)
A King of Shadow (Book 36)
An Empire of Stones (Book 37)
A Power of Old (Book 38)
A Rip of Realms (Book 39)
A Throne of Fire (Book 40)
A Tide of War (Book 41)
Series 6: A Gift of Three
A Gift of Three (Book 42)
A House of Mysteries (Book 43)
A Tangle of Hearts (Book 44)
A Meet of Tribes (Book 45)
A Ride of Peril (Book 46)
A Passage of Threats (Book 47)
A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY
A Shade of Dragon 1
A Shade of Dragon 2
A Shade of Dragon 3
A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY
A Shade of Kiev 1
A Shade of Kiev 2
A Shade of Kiev 3
BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY
Beautiful Monster 1
Beautiful Monster 2
DETECTIVE ERIN BOND (Adult thriller/mystery)
Lights, Camera, GONE
Write, Edit, KILL
For an updated list of Bella’s books, please visit her website: www.bellaforrest.net
Join Bella’s VIP email list and she’ll personally send you an email reminder as soon as her next book is out. Tap here to sign up: www.forrestbooks.com
Copyright © 2017 by Bella Forrest
Cover design inspired by Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
New Generation List
Aida: daughter of Bastien and Victoria (half werewolf/half human)
Field: biological son of River, adopted son of Benjamin (mix of Hawk and vampire-half-blood)
Jovi: son of Bastien and Victoria (half werewolf/half human)
Phoenix: son of Hazel and Tejus (sentry)
Serena: daughter of Hazel and Tejus (sentry)
Vita: daughter of Grace and Lawrence (part-fae/human)
Serena
It did not look good. We all stood outside the mansion beneath the protective shield, as dozens of Destroyers and swarms of Azazel’s green fireflies circled the property. The fact that they were unable to see or hear through the Daughters’ spell was the only thing that helped me keep it together, and, judging by the looks on the others’ faces, it was a collective thought.
“We can’t stay here forever. That much is clear,” Jovi muttered.
He paced around the group, looking at the monsters waiting outside. Knowing him, he was scanning them for potential weak spots. After all, how often did we get the chance to stare the enemy in the face without getting killed?
Aida and Field stood close to each other. The Hawk looked sullen as he occasionally glanced at the squished fireflies in the grass at his feet, scattered between pieces of broken glass. I couldn’t help but sympathize with his misery. He couldn’t have known what those little bastards were. He’d only tried to do something nice for Aida.
Vita seemed pale.
Bijarki inched closer to her. The moment their eyes met, some of the tension seemed to leave her petite frame. She looked to the side and frowned as one Destroyer, the one named Goren, took another step forward, bumping into the invisible shield.
Sverik blanched. I couldn’t blame him. We’d just rescued him from something akin to hell, and now he was stuck here, surrounded by the very demons he’d narrowly managed to escape.
Draven stood next to me, his expression alternating between pensive and infuriated, a deep crease drawing a dark shadow between his eyebrows.
We’d briefly gone over options, and venturing through the passage stone beneath the mansion had seemed like the most viable one—although it was challenging and risky.
“What about the invisibility spell?” I asked, wishing there was another way. “We could use it to leave, a few of us. It will hold us for at least a mile, based on our previous experience, and it should be enough to get out of here unseen and get help from Sverik’s incubi bre
thren and the Dearghs.”
“There isn’t enough,” Draven replied. “We need to use what we have left wisely and only in the absence of other choices. It will take months for some of the plants needed to grow back. We’ve used up the existing supply, and they can’t be found anywhere nearby.”
It seemed like all our roads led to the passage stone below.
“Come out, come out, whoever you are,” Goren bawled from the jungle beyond the shield.
He took one of his swords out and used it to scratch the surface of the spell as he walked along its border, leaving a shower of golden sparks behind. It sounded like metal screeching against metal, but that was all it could do—make noise.
Anjani and Hansa watched him, their eyes glinting and their mouths twisted with fury and disgust, as if they were watching the world’s largest cockroach parading through a fine fruit cake.
Hansa was the first to react. I heard the whistling sound of her sword leaving its scabbard as she charged toward Goren, eager to slice him up.
“By the Daughters, I will chop you into pieces and—”
She didn’t get far. Sverik grabbed Hansa from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist as he lifted her off the ground. The succubus was strong even for him. Sverik struggled with her before Bijarki jumped in to help calm her down.
Her arms and legs flailed, and she roared for the Destroyer’s head.
“Let me go!” she barked. “He killed my sisters, my daughters, my friends! Let me go! I need to do this!”
“You’ll do it another time, Hansa!” Bijarki shouted as he helped Sverik bring her back to our group.
She didn’t stop struggling, though, and made it extremely difficult for the two army-trained incubi to keep her from darting back toward Goren.
“Let me go! I have to wipe that smirk off his putrid face!” she heaved.
They put her down but held her arms behind her back.
“You’ll expose us all,” Sverik pleaded. “We have to be smart about this!”
Finally, she conceded defeat and accepted Sverik and Bijarki’s line of reasoning. I glanced over at Anjani and wasn’t surprised to see the genetic similarity to Hansa. Unlike her sister, however, the young succubus seemed to have a slower reaction time and no use for words.
She slipped away from the group, pulling both knives from her belt as she ran toward the shield. Her expression spelled a most painful death.
“Anjani, no!” I shouted, enough to catch Jovi’s attention.
She was fast but not as fast as Jovi, who shot across the grass and swept her off her feet, inches from the protective shield and Goren’s disgusting grin.
“Please, don’t do this,” Jovi said to Anjani as he carried her back to us.
She didn’t say anything, gritting her teeth and breathing heavily as tears glazed her eyes. She looked at him for a moment before she sighed and shuddered, breathing in and out in an attempt to regain her composure as Jovi put her down.
“You will both get your revenge against Goren and every other creature responsible for your sisters’ deaths. I promise you that,” Draven said solemnly. “But for now, we need to focus on what lies ahead and what needs to be done.”
“Easy for you to say,” Tamara the Lamia screeched, visibly infuriated. “You’re probably used to these slithering monsters roaming around, but you’ve put my daughter and me in danger! What sort of alliance do you wish to achieve here, when you put our heads in the snake’s mouth?”
Her daughter, Eva, didn’t seem as upset, but fear flickered in her amber eyes. She stayed quiet, occasionally glancing at Draven as her mother continued her rant.
“I didn’t come all the way here to get torn apart by these oversized snakes! I came here for an alliance, for a peaceful talk with a Druid! Get us out of here now! It is your duty!”
Draven raised his voice to the volume of thunder. “Will you please just shut up? I obviously did not plan for this to happen, and your hysteria isn’t helping. If anything, it’s distracting. So please, let me think.”
Tamara’s eyes widened, and her mouth shrank into a thin red line on her alabaster face. Her nostrils flared with indignation, but she kept her mouth shut.
“We could just shift into snakes and try to get out,” Eva mumbled mostly to herself.
“I’m not putting you in such danger unless we have to. This is the Druid’s doing, he must fix it!” Tamara snapped.
“Please, be quiet for a second,” Draven hissed.
Perhaps it wasn’t polite of him, but she’d had it coming. I would’ve said worse, particularly after her alliance conditions regarding the impregnation of her daughter by Draven.
A moment passed before Draven spoke again.
The rest of us watched the massive Destroyers walk along the edge. They used their weapons to charge the shield head on and failed miserably each time.
“As you can all see, the Daughters’ magic is impenetrable, otherwise the Destroyers would already be inside,” Draven said. “You should all be safe here while we attempt to get out through the passage stone. We cannot all stay here and wait for the problem to solve itself. Risks must be taken or we all perish here in the end.”
“Who are you referring to when you say ‘we attempt to get out’?” Field asked.
“I know I have no way of convincing Serena to sit this one out,” he replied. “And given that she’s proven herself an invaluable asset to this campaign, I’d be foolish not to ask her to come with me.”
Draven looked at me as he said those words. His look warmed my insides, and my heart swelled with pride.
“Hansa should join us as well,” he continued. “Her skills are of more use on the outside, rather than sulking in here.” He looked at her and smiled briefly, enough to make her understand that she was valued and that he wasn’t ready to lose her to a botched attempt at revenge against Goren. “Sverik will come as well, since he knows where the incubi outpost is. Something tells me he’d rather land in a volcano via the passage stone than stay here, surrounded by the very beasts who caged him.”
“Not to be a buzzkill, but the protective shield sounds better than hot, burning lava,” Sverik smirked. “Nevertheless, I will gladly join you on this mission, not only because you need my guidance to find the rogues, but also because I cannot stay here while my rescuers face countless other dangers to save this world.”
Draven nodded and looked at all of us, trying to give us a reassuring smile. The corners of his mouth struggled to lift.
“Let us go inside the banquet hall and get everything ready,” he said. “We leave in a few hours, and there is no time to waste. We have to cover all possible scenarios with what we do next, as there is the risk of Vita’s vision coming to fruition, while we still have a lot of work to do and ground to cover.”
Serena
“What do you want the rest of us to do?” Phoenix asked as soon as we entered the banquet hall.
“First and foremost, we need the Daughter to take the swamp witches’ book and translate anything that may be of use to us on this mission,” Draven replied and took his seat at the head of the table.
“We don’t know what will be waiting for us on the other side,” Hansa said to the Daughter, who stood quietly by my brother’s side. “We don’t know where the other passage stones are. Our worst-case scenarios involve getting trapped beneath several feet of dirt, falling into a volcano, drowning, or, Daughters forbid, walking right into Azazel’s chamber, where my passage stone probably is by now. We will need any spell that can help with protection from such calamities, as well as combat magic if you can find any. Whatever you can dig up in the next two to three hours, we’ll take it.”
The Daughter nodded firmly and left the hall to fetch the spell book.
Phoenix sat down across from Aida and poured himself a glass of water. I could see a muscle jerking in his jaw, a sign of tension I’d rarely seen in him.
My heart got smaller with each minute that passed, as my brain processed
all the risks involved—each ending with me never seeing Phoenix, my friends, and my family again. Then again, there was the slim chance we’d make it safely out of here and do what we’d set out to do. I channeled all my energy into that one positive outcome. I figured that the universe would be more tempted to work in my favor if I focused on the most positive, if unlikely, scenario.
“Anjani,” Draven said, “I need you to check all our supplies, from herbs to powders, potions, and poisons. Anything we can carry in the satchels, we’ll take them. We have to be prepared for any hostile creature we might come across, Sluaghs included. So, don’t skimp on that death’s kiss toxin either.”
She nodded and gave Jovi a quick glance before she headed out to the greenhouse. As a succubus of few words, I figured it was her way of saying, “See you later.” With the dangers waiting outside, every gesture counted.
Aida, Vita, and Field sat next to each other. Bijarki and Sverik hovered nearby, occasionally glancing at the two Lamias who’d found seats at the other end of the table.
“What can I do?” Bijarki asked, hands in his pockets.
“Can you get some weapons ready? Something light that we can easily carry. We don’t need anything that will weigh us down, should we find ourselves in the middle of a lake or an ocean,” Draven replied.
“What about us?” Aida looked at me.
“We need your visions,” I replied. “Everything you’ve seen so far, every detail you can remember.”
“I’ve made notes of their runes during the visions, as well,” Field added. “But the Daughter has yet to translate them. They’re very recent.”