A Shade of Vampire 80: A Veil of Dark

by Forrest, Bella

  I couldn’t move. I doubted I was even breathing. My heart was crammed in my throat, a sweet pain balling in the pit of my stomach as I looked at him. There were many facets to Kalon. Numerous shades and sides, each more fascinating than the other. I was certain that I had merely scratched the surface with him, and I was already mesmerized. There was a path ahead for the two of us.

  If we took it, if we went past the point of no return… What will that be like? I will have to leave Visio, someday soon. Would we see each other again? Would I be allowed to visit? Would he find his way to me, across the many stars and galaxies between us?

  “Esme.”

  His lips barely moved when he spoke my name.

  “Hm?” I mumbled, lingering between reality and a would-be version of it, where Kalon and I were more, so much more than we already were.

  “I didn’t think you’d have such an impact on me, when you first arrived here,” he said, his hand slipping over mine and squeezing with conviction.

  “I could say the same thing about you.”

  “You’re a difficult woman to read.”

  Sighing, I offered a faint smile. “I could say the same thing about you.”

  “I’m a difficult woman to read?” Kalon replied, raising an eyebrow.

  “Okay, not word for word. Jeez.”

  He leaned closer, and my pulse accelerated, the air contracting between us. “What will happen if I do this?” he asked.

  “Do what?”

  Without any warning, Kalon closed the distance between us and kissed me. I froze, then softened so quickly, I felt as though I was melting. His lips were soft but commanding. I parted mine without a second thought, his tongue eager to explore and conquer.

  Bright lights expanded around me as I closed my eyes and lost myself in the moment. Kalon tasted like… I wasn’t even sure what to associate this musky sweetness with. All I knew was that it could become addictive, dangerously so, and yet I couldn’t pull myself away.

  Before I knew it, he brought a hand up and gripped the back of my neck, pulling me closer into a deepening kiss. I moaned softly against his lips, welcoming him into the very core of my being, wondering if this was what I’d been missing this whole time.

  When he finally pulled back, he sucked in a breath as he looked into my eyes, likely seeing everything I felt in that moment. Inhaling, the image came into better focus. God, he’s gorgeous.

  “That,” he whispered.

  “I guess… I guess we’ll find out?” My voice sounded a little too squealy. I’d never met someone who made me feel like this, and it was a constant work to adjust and adapt, as the circumstances of my emotional existence shifted.

  He chuckled softly, then looked at the fire. “You can stay down here with me if you’d like.”

  “Sounds better than sleeping alone up there,” I replied, meaning every single word.

  I hadn’t been in any serious relationships before. My career had taken me all over the world and across dimensions. I’d met interesting people along the way, and some had stirred me—but none had had the impact of Kalon. He was utterly different, and he kept me on my toes, my heart always jumping with him, my spirit beaming… my mind dancing and swirling.

  Tonight, it was just the two of us on this sofa, in front of the fireplace. We didn’t know what tomorrow might bring, but we did know the Darklings posed an existential threat. There were secrets that no one wanted us to unravel. There were holes in my memory. There was fear nestling in my chest.

  But tonight, there was only Kalon. Only me. Only the fire burning slowly, consuming the wood logs and delightfully crackling and spurting its amber sparks once in a while. Tonight was ours.

  And as I lay on the sofa, tightly wrapped in his arms, I knew it was where I belonged. He watched me close my eyes, his embrace holding me firmly in place. Our bodies matched, curve by curve, line by line. Our souls were in sync, as were our hearts.

  We welcomed the dream together. We’d figure everything else out tomorrow.

  Sofia

  When morning came, Derek and I went back to the grand salon, as Danika and Acheron had invited us over for breakfast. The place looked even more beautiful during the day, just as I’d suspected. To my surprise, oversized awnings had been pulled over the terrace, making it the perfect place to sit, even for vampires.

  The ocean breeze swept through the room, the glass doors wide open.

  Servants had already brought pitchers of blood on a silver tray, which they’d left on the table outside. Seated in one of the white chairs and reading another history book was Thayen, all alone. Derek smiled when he saw the boy, a glimmer of admiration persisting in his deep blue eyes.

  “You really like him,” I said.

  “What’s not to like? He’s barely eight, and he’s already smarter and wiser than most of the people my age,” Derek replied. We stood in the middle of the grand salon, watching him.

  “Danika and Acheron have done a fine job with him, don’t you think?” I asked, leaning into Derek. He put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer. With everything that had happened so far, I welcomed the comfort of his embrace as the sole cure for my anxieties regarding Visio.

  “I wonder how much of him is Danika, and how much is Acheron,” Derek said.

  “That would involve drawing some conclusions about each of them, separately, then matching them against Thayen,” I said.

  Derek thought about it for a moment. Nodding, he gave me his thoughts. “I think Danika is perfectly fine with blood slaves, even if the Darklings supply them. She didn’t seem too pleased yesterday with her son’s opinion on the topic, despite her approval. She cares too much about the elites’ support.”

  “And she would do nothing to potentially harm those relationships,” I continued. “Yeah, I saw that, too. She’s rather shrewd, isn’t she?”

  “Potentially dangerous. I don’t trust her as much as I used to,” Derek replied. “Ever since the Zoltan situation… I don’t know, I would’ve expected a stronger reaction from her. A Darkling had infiltrated their government, after all.”

  “Whereas Acheron is fuming,” I said. “I think he was wary of upsetting the elites, too, but he comes across as more genuine. Maybe I’m wrong?”

  “No, you’re not. I saw the same in him. This willingness to do good. To be a better parent for his son, too, even if it means banning the blood slave trade—because we both know it’s the only way for them to stop the Darklings from raiding villages for blood slaves.”

  I sighed deeply. “Right. Make the elites fearful of punishment, and the Darklings won’t have clients to sell their blood slaves to.”

  “Out of the two, I see Acheron pushing forward with such a measure. I figure we’ll hear more about it this morning,” Derek said.

  We walked out onto the terrace. Thayen lit up at the sight of us, putting his book on the table. “Good morning!” he said. “Mother and Father had the terrace covered for you! There isn’t much sun with the haze, but still. I think you’ll like it here during the day.”

  “I’m already loving it,” I replied, taking a seat next to him. “What were you reading?”

  “Oh, a brief history of the Naloreans pre-occupation,” Thayen said. “Father says I need to understand what the world was like before the Visio empire, so as never to let our world regress in any fashion.”

  The more time I spent with Thayen, the more I looked forward to finally taking the adoption step with Derek. We’d talked about this for so long. We’d done our research. We’d prepared a new room in our Shade home for a future son or daughter. Then the presence of Visio had popped up on our radar and, well… here we were.

  Thayen was a noble young soul. So kind and eloquent. Willing to learn, to be a good person. Despite his privilege and noble bloodline, he seemed more down-to-earth than most bourgeois Aeternae I’d met in the palace. In many ways, I felt he was more like Acheron than Danika, though he was frequently closer to his mother whenever we met them.
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br />   “Learning from the past has taught many of us not to repeat certain tragic mistakes,” Derek said, flipping through the book’s pages.

  Thayen nodded his approval. “And the Naloreans have always been a dualistic kind of people. Scholarly by nature, yet so violent and sectarian. Their pre-conquest history is a shocking mixture of progress and spilled blood. Nalore is definitely better off under Visio’s control, that much I can say with undeniable certainty.”

  “You don’t think people should have the freedom to do as they wish with their lands?” I asked, pouring myself a glass of blood.

  Thayen opened his mouth to respond, but his mother beat him to it. “Not all people should be trusted with autonomy. Not all people understand the responsibility they have to their children, their peers, and their lands,” Danika said, joining us on the terrace. “Had Visio not invaded Nalore, that planet would’ve ended up a frozen mass grave. The clans were so violent and ruthless to one another, their life expectancy was thirty years, tops. Thanks to Visio, they now live to be a hundred, even a hundred and fifty.”

  Acheron came out, carrying a scroll and a small stamp box. “Their long lives have given us great knowledge. Fantastic stories. A true cultural treasure. The Naloreans are what they are today because of the Aeternae.” He sat next to Derek and me, spreading the scroll on the table. “I spent the night drafting a new law.”

  Thayen’s eyes grew wide, while Danika’s rolled with frustration. “Is that for the blood slave trade?” the young Aeternae asked.

  “Despite my pleas to not make it so harsh, yes,” Danika replied.

  “You know damn well that we have to deter blood slave trade altogether if we want to stop giving the Darklings a market,” Acheron insisted, voicing exactly what Derek and I had already discussed. It was proof that Acheron was more on the good side, while Danika preferred pandering to the Aeternae elites, just like my husband and I had suspected.

  “It’ll bring the nobles down on our heads,” Danika muttered.

  “We’re Lord and Lady Supreme, with an heir to the throne. Their support may be important, but that doesn’t mean I can’t ram this through. The elites will be furious, and they will object, yes, but the Empire’s constitution is still on our side. I can use my veto power. I haven’t vetoed those self-entitled jerks in a very long time,” Acheron replied, heating the wax stamp above a lit candle. “The masses hold us up, not the rich Aeternae. Maybe it’s time for some drastic measures to remind them of where each of us stands in the greater picture.”

  “You’re already signing it into law?” I asked, genuinely surprised by the speed with which Acheron had reacted to our suggestions, though I knew part of his haste had to do with making a good impression on his son, whom he basically worshipped.

  “Corbin sent word. They stopped numerous raids along the Green Road, on their way to Astoria,” Acheron said. “It’s a crisis, if you ask me, and Zoltan has been keeping a lid on it for too long. We haven’t done anything because we didn’t know, but things are going to change now.”

  With the cat out of the bag like this, I doubted they had another choice. Danika was definitely annoyed. She’d previously mentioned righteousness and teaching her son about doing the right thing during one of our many conversations, but when it came to actually doing something about it, she didn’t seem that excited. In my book, that made her dangerous and untrustworthy, and I now wondered whether she’d really been in the dark about the blood slave trade, or she’d just pretended.

  “It will be fine, dear wife,” Acheron continued, pressing the wax stamp onto the document, thus making it official. “They’ll be angry for a while. They’ll object. They’ll try to go behind the empire’s back, of course. One or two heads will fall, and then everybody will get in line. Our son is right: there is no shortage of blood on Visio. The Rimians and the Naloreans give it willingly, without any form of blood slavery. We can’t keep encouraging the Darklings, dammit.”

  “I trust your judgment, dear husband,” Danika replied, though she didn’t sound like she’d actually meant it. Her tone was flat. Her gaze was empty as she stared at the full glass in front of her.

  We’d accomplished something incredible, mainly thanks to Thayen. The Lord and Lady Supreme of Visio had approved a law that banned the blood slave trade. If that didn’t put a dent in the Darklings’ operations, I wasn’t sure what else would. It wasn’t enough to destroy them, of course, but the loss of funds was bound to affect their operations.

  Stealing glances at Danika, I wondered how she would discuss this issue with the aforementioned elites. Her problem, not ours, I thought. What truly mattered was that significant progress had been made. Those villages and remote settlements were now better protected. It spoke to Thayen’s character more than it did to his parents’.

  Nethissis

  As the morning washed over Astoria with mild sunshine through a thinly veiled haze, I stayed close to Rudolph near the ghouls’ pen. It was time to speed things along and get us a Reaper scythe for me to help set Seeley free. I had a feeling his safety net was crumbling, and that Zoltan might decide to turn him into a ghoul—that was a process I didn’t even want to see, as intriguing as it might’ve sounded.

  Ghouls were made from Reapers who ate the souls of the dead. I had no idea how Zoltan was speeding up that process, nor how he made the Reapers eat souls, to begin with. Frankly, I did not have a shred of interest in finding out.

  Veliko came to the ghoul pen early, unfastening Rudolph’s rune chain from the central stem which Zoltan had mounted on a massive, immovable boulder. “Rise and shine, you translucent beast,” he said.

  Rudolph let a low growl leave his throat.

  “Obey him,” I advised the former Reaper. “It’s our only shot. You’re already on his good side with… you know, with what you did yesterday.”

  Whimpering, Rudolph looked at me, and I felt awful.

  “I know. I’m sorry you have to go through all this,” I added. “But you don’t want to spend an eternity serving these bastards.”

  Relenting, Rudolph put on a friendly demeanor for Veliko, who pulled him away from the other, half-sleeping ghouls. I had noticed that most were more active during the night, reserving the days for lounging about and napping for hours on end. Not because they needed the sleep, but likely because they preferred darkness to light.

  “That’s a good boy,” Veliko muttered, taking Rudolph on a perimeter check around Astoria.

  I caught glimpses of Darklings along the way, many clustered in small groups and whispering among themselves. They all went quiet when Veliko passed them by. Some nodded at him, and he smiled back in return. I had a feeling they were planning something, and that Veliko was in the loop. Based on his sharp rhetoric against Zoltan, it didn’t seem like such a leap to assume that they were planning to overthrow him as the Scholar of this group.

  Veliko struck me as ambitious and ruthless. The kind who would not settle for being an underling much longer.

  On the other side of the encampment, we saw Zoltan performing spells to strengthen the protections around this place. He drew symbols into the hard ground with the tip of his scythe, whispering ancient words that I didn’t understand. He didn’t even pay attention to Veliko as we circled around and moved on to the north side of Astoria, where the soldiers were resting and drinking blood from brass flasks.

  “If you behave, I’ll make sure you never go hungry,” Veliko told Rudolph, staring at the soldiers. “See? Like them.”

  Rudolph followed Veliko’s gaze from his sitting position. He sneered at Veliko.

  “Lie down,” Veliko ordered him. Rudolph obeyed, lying down on his side. “Get up.” In an instant, Rudolph was back on his feet. “Sit.” The ghoul sat. Veliko grinned. “Who’s your master?”

  “He is,” I whispered, looking at him.

  Rudolph hissed and nudged Veliko’s hand with his crooked nose. It pleased the Darkling, and he produced a piece of dried and cured meat from his pocket and
gave it to Rudolph. The ghoul practically inhaled it, eager to get more. “Jeez… I’ve seen Hazel do the same with Lucifer back in The Shade,” I grumbled. “He’s literally turning you into a pet.”

  Rudolph looked at me, and I offered a deep sigh in return, feeling genuinely sorry for the poor creature. Not that long ago, he’d come to help Seeley. And here I was, the dead girl, trying to help him instead.

  “As soon as he leaves you with one of the black guards, I’ll need you to prepare yourself,” I said. “When the time comes, you’ll be in charge of swiping a scythe and handing it over to me.”

  I felt the need to repeat these things to him sometimes, just to keep him focused and away from the darkest pits of his animalistic nature. The ghoul nodded slowly. Veliko noticed, frowning as he followed Rudolph’s gaze. Since he couldn’t see me, there was no reason for me to worry.

  It had already become common knowledge that I was around but harmless.

  But Veliko took out his scythe, his lips moving as he whispered a spell, persistently staring in my direction. That worst-case scenario Seeley had mentioned with regards to my visibility was finally coming true.

  “Oh, crap,” I mumbled, while Rudolph froze, his black eyes wide. He looked at Veliko, then at me, and back at the Darkling again.

  Veliko slashed at the air with his scythe, its blade glimmering white as it missed me by mere inches. He’d just tried to cast magic in my direction, probably to reveal me.

  “Oh, crap, crap, crap!” I yelped and jumped back. Maybe that worst-case scenario wasn’t going to happen, just yet!

  “What are you doing?” a black guard asked from nearby.

  Veliko stilled, looking at him over his shoulder. “Nothing. I just thought I heard something. Figured a reveal spell might clear the air.”

  He didn’t hear anything! He just thought Rudolph was looking at… something. Something dead. Me. That had been a close call, I realized. Whatever spell he’d used, it clearly had needed to hit its intended target. Given that I was invisible, however, and that I’d moved quickly out of its way, the spell had failed to touch me. Come to think of it, maybe Veliko wasn’t all that good at spell casting in general. Maybe that was why he’d been struggling to advance into the upper ranks of the Darklings. It could certainly explain his whole garbage attitude.