A Shade of Vampire 73: A Search for Death

by Forrest, Bella

  There was a sense of urgency and agitation coursing through our base on Mount Zur. Many of our agents were tasked with protecting the cult prisoners—often from themselves. The crystal casings on their hands were painful now, because of the Hermessi’s increasing influence, but we couldn’t let them take them off, so we were stuck in an agitated limbo where GASP lieutenants constantly patrolled the prison cells, making sure that all the prisoners were still asleep. If any of them woke up, the others would scramble to bring in more sedatives and put them back down.

  On top of that, Hunter was due to come back with his crew and a fresh batch of cult prisoners. They’d been raiding the southern woods, and that particular campaign had yielded impressive successes. Twenty cult members had been captured, and not one of them fae. It also confirmed our greatest fear: the Hermessi were reaching out to other species now, not just the fae, and this was likely happening on other planets, as well. It put the quarantined fae at risk, making that five million mark even more possible. Downright imminent, even.

  “Harper’s gone?” I asked as we walked into Phoenix’s office.

  He nodded. “Herbert took her. Ramin left Calliope. It seemed to stop the Hermessi’s offensive. So far, so good.”

  “Can we trust Herbert to see this through?” Riza replied.

  “We can. The terms are ironclad,” Ibrahim said. “He only has his welfare and his life to lose if he doesn’t take Harper back.”

  “At least we have the advantage of none of the hostile Hermessi knowing about Harper and what she and Ramin did,” Eva chimed in. “Therefore, she’s not on Brendel’s most wanted list.”

  “Glad you all got out of there in time,” Herakles said and shook Phoenix’s and Ibrahim’s hands.

  “It was touch and go for a while,” Phoenix replied. “The Hermessi were quick to pick up on Ramin’s presence.”

  Ibrahim nodded. “And yet, they didn’t come down in full force right away. They sent Shills. Surely, they must’ve known Shills weren’t enough to capture a Hermessi.”

  I was genuinely surprised by this. “You’re right. It’s almost as if they weren’t trying hard enough. That’s odd, to say the least.”

  “I’d have thought Firr would be extra flamey as soon as he felt Ramin here,” Riza added.

  Eva thought about it for a moment, tucking a lock of black hair behind her ear. Golden-green scales had begun to grow just beneath the lobe. Only a few, enough to remind me that, one day, she’d be all covered in them, before shedding and revealing a new Eva altogether.

  “Firr destroyed Mount Agrith but didn’t kill anyone,” she said cautiously. “What if that gesture was a forced message? What if he sort of… I don’t know, had to do it? Firr was, after all, a rebel. I doubt he’d take pleasure in turning against us. They have his child, and that’s the only reason why he switched sides, in the first place. I’m starting to doubt his evil intentions, if I’m honest.”

  “It seems reasonable to think that,” Ibrahim replied, inclined to agree. “It would explain why he and/or his brethren sent the Shills, instead of coming down themselves.”

  “That being said, we certainly shouldn’t rely on any kindness from Firr or any of the others. Wei hasn’t stepped in yet, but I really don’t want to find out where his allegiance lies right now.” I sighed. “There’s too much going on at once, and I admit, I am not emotionally prepared for another betrayal.”

  Phoenix smiled. “I get it. I imagine we all feel the same way. Besides, the Shills did kill some Bajangs, so there was definitely aggression in the Hermessi’s reaction, just not as much as we’d have thought. Anyway, that’s done, for now. My sister is on her way back to Neraka, and Ramin is off Calliope. Hopefully, he’ll find a safe spot to meet with the other rebels in the meantime.”

  “Does Caspian know?” I asked.

  “Yeah, he’s been notified. This is coming at the right time, too. Harper’s body is hours away from certain death,” he said, his voice uneven. His aura burned yellow and red in fear and anguish. He loved his sister fiercely, and I couldn’t blame him for feeling this way. I’d have gone to hell and back to make sure my Lenny was okay.

  Ibrahim clapped his hands once, to move the discussion along. “I do have some good news,” he announced, the corner of his mouth twisted into a sly half-grin. “I’ve been digging through the many… many memories that Herbert transferred to me about Reapers and Death and all that side of their business. It will take some time to make sense of most of it, but… I think I’ve found Mortis.”

  “Whoa…” I managed, my eyes bulging.

  Phoenix chuckled. “I know, right? As soon as Ibrahim gives me all the details he can, and I find you Mortis’s coordinates, I can go back to locating Tae and his crew… and obviously send a team over there to retrieve them.”

  “Herbert was on Mortis?” Eva asked.

  “At one point, a very long time ago. I’ve seen a few things there. It’s mostly woods and, from what I could tell, wandering spirits, but I did see a building atop some waterfalls. Weird place. But Herbert knew, for a fact, that he couldn’t be there for too long, let alone go anywhere near that place. Death lives there,” Ibrahim recounted. “I have enough data for Phoenix to get you an exact location.”

  Just then, Kailani appeared in the middle of the room with a faint huff. “Okay, I’m done with Stonewall. What did I miss?”

  Ibrahim frowned. “What do you mean you’re done with Stonewall?”

  “I’m not needed there anymore. Viola and her sisters and Grandma are perfectly capable of handling it,” she said. “I’m anxious to know what you got from Herbert, so spill it, Grandpa. All of it!”

  Once she learned about Mortis’s location, Kailani went quiet, nodding slowly as she processed the information. Her aura glistened in shades of blue and green, a mixture of determination and resolution I hadn’t seen in anyone in days. The Hermessi had certainly managed to clamp down on our collective spirit, but they couldn’t stifle our individual resolve. And Kailani’s seemed stronger than ever.

  “You’ll need to prepare for the trip,” she said after a long pause, looking at me. “Gear, weapons, the whole shebang. You should bring pulverizer weapons, too, just in case.”

  “Those are kind of big and clunky, though I wouldn’t mind them in case we run into Shills,” Eva mused, pursing her lips.

  “We’ve made a newer, slightly more compact model,” Phoenix said. “Smaller, but equally potent. Prior to this Hermessi problem, we were still testing them in the shooting range, but they passed all the marks. They’re good to go in the field, if you ask me.”

  “And given the urgency, I doubt Derek and Sofia will object to us using them without GASP’s final seal of approval,” Fallon interjected. “Okay. I’m down. Count me in.”

  “You really don’t have any other choice,” I said with a grin.

  “What, you’d make me go, if I didn’t want to?” he retorted, jokingly scowling at me.

  “You’re damn straight.” I laughed. “You’re good for us, Fallon. I hope you know that.”

  He blushed like a lovestruck teenage girl. “Aw.”

  “And! You can’t go there without a witch,” Kailani added, hands on her hips. She’d assumed her commanding pose, the kind that made it clear it would be her way, or the cosmic highway.

  “You want to go to Mortis?” I asked. Knowing her strength and her fusion with the Word, I sure wouldn’t have objected to her coming along for the ride. Kailani was a most gifted White Witch-swamp witch hybrid, and she was particularly good at what she did. She’d come a long way since Strava.

  “I’d like to, but I’m still needed here and in all the other sanctuaries,” she replied, her shoulders dropping. “The fae require my care, not just the White Witches’. But I’ll give you two of Lumi’s apprentices. Hold on.”

  “Wait, who are you—” Fallon never got to finish his sentence, for his answer came as soon as Kailani closed her eyes and summoned Acantha and Nethissis. They appeared next
to her, tall and proud and beautiful creatures, clad in long white dresses with wide gold bands clasped around their waists. Dozens of small silken pouches hung from the bands, likely filled with swamp witch spell paraphernalia.

  “I believe you remember Acantha, a Bajang of Stonewall, and Nethissis,” Kailani said, smiling.

  Eva gasped and rushed to hug Nethissis, a Lamia from her mother’s protective detail. “I’m so glad to see you’re coming along!” she said.

  Nethissis grinned. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Meeting Death has been on my to-do list since we first learned she existed.”

  “Acantha and Nethi, as we call them, are the first two of Lumi’s apprentices to ascend. They’re now full swamp witches, like me,” Kailani replied, beaming with pride.

  “Oh, wow,” I breathed, my eyebrows going higher than ever before. “How did that happen?”

  Kailani shrugged. “I guess… I don’t know!” she said, laughing lightly. “We assumed it was because of this current situation. The Word wouldn’t tell me, but I am inclined to at least think that it might’ve softened up on the apprentices, allowing Acantha and Nethi to become fully-fledged swamp witches.”

  “We need all the magic muscle we can get,” Riza replied. “Maybe that’s what the Word had in mind as well.”

  “Either way, we sure didn’t mind.” Acantha giggled, while Nethi gave me a startling glance—the kind that said she’d do a lot more than just look at me.

  And Eva was quick to pick up on that, as she scowled and moved back to stand by my side. Granted, Eva and I weren’t in any kind of relationship, but I doubted either of us could deny the intense magnetism between us. It had become uncomfortable for me to exist without at least seeing her.

  Nethi was gorgeous, though. Not as beautiful as Eva. But she carried herself with a lot of grace and dignity, her hair long, straight, and copper red. Her eyes were white with amber rings around the irises, the sign of a full swamp witch, and her Cupid’s-bow mouth could easily make any man wonder what it would be like to kiss her. I felt Eva’s eyes on me, so I turned my head and found her watching me—her aura flared with swirls of gold, pale yellow and a dirty red. She certainly didn’t enjoy me looking at Nethi. I decided then that I would need to find a moment to have a word with her. We’d known each other for long enough to be able to just talk about this… this thing between us. I didn’t want Eva getting the wrong idea.

  “Okay, so, we’ve got two swamp witches on our side to go visit Death. That’s great!” Fallon said, loud enough for all of us to look at him and forget whatever thoughts we’d just had.

  Phoenix settled in front of his monitors with Ibrahim by his side, and they began a new search through the astral maps of the In-Between, looking for Mortis based on Herbert’s memories of the place.

  “And it’s an honor to be a part of such a powerful and… dashing crew,” Acantha replied, smiling and constantly stealing glances at Herakles. She ran a hand through her rich, blonde mane, and Herakles gave her a polite but downright awkward nod. Her eyes had once been reddish-brown, but only a ring of it remained around the white irises, much like Nethissis and Kailani.

  Riza’s enthusiasm began to simmer down, from what I could tell. We’d formed bonds in this crew. I saw them, better than most. Amelia and Raphael. Eva and me. Riza and Herakles. Acantha and Nethissis were double-edged blades, it seemed. Yes, they were going to be quite helpful on Mortis, especially since we didn’t know how Death would react to our presence there, but they also seemed to threaten the balance of two of these bonds in our midst. Acantha was clearly pretty sweet on Herakles, and Nethissis… Well, I’ll just have to talk to Eva about this before the claws come out.

  Eva was reserved in her nature, but I doubted she’d last long if Nethissis started making moves on me. I’d be understandably flattered; however, any attempt on the part of Nethissis to garner my romantic attention would fall flat. My heart was leaning toward Eva, and I doubted it would ever change its sway.

  “Good. So, you guys get ready, take some time to get to know Acantha and Nethissis a little better, and I’ll meet you all back here in…” Kailani said, glancing at Ibrahim. “How long till you find Mortis?”

  “A couple of hours, tops?” Phoenix replied.

  Kailani nodded energetically and shifted her focus back to us, finishing her sentence. “And I’ll meet you all back here in two hours!”

  That sounded like quite the plan, and I was the first out the door to implement it. Eva was second, followed by the others. My pulse was racing with a strange composition—excitement, for we would finally go where Death lived; fear, for we would finally have a chance to talk to Death, and there was no manual on how to do that without getting ourselves obliterated, in case we got on her nerves; hope, for we were, in fact, one step closer to potentially stopping the Hermessi and their end-of-days ritual… and steely determination.

  For I was in no way, shape, or form ready to say goodbye to this world without at least first experiencing Eva’s touch and kiss and everything else that she had to offer. The Lamia-vampire princess was a warrior, a fighter like I had not seen in a long time. There were layers there, which I looked forward to peeling away, one at a time, until I reached the core and experienced the full intensity of her.

  Behind me, Nethissis cleared her throat, as if to tell me she was still there. We walked down the hallway, headed straight for the armory, and I thought to myself… This is going to be an interesting trip.

  Vesta

  After having learned that Harper was on her way back to Neraka, hidden inside a ghoul, I was quite conflicted in my emotions. Zeriel was on edge, too. Not to mention Derek and Sofia, though Derek had spoken in favor of Herbert. He remembered his own encounter with the creature and had tried to assure Sofia and Zeriel that Harper would likely be okay—Herbert was still in Ibrahim’s service, and would suffer dearly if he welched on the deal.

  Varga and his newly enhanced team were getting ready to go to Mortis, thanks to Herbert’s memories. Taeral and his crew were still stranded on an unknown planet, and they’d reported some strange, spirit-related activity there. I’d tried to talk to Seeley about it, but the Reaper had put the lid on his information stream. According to him, he’d already told me enough to get him in trouble if I survived this second ritual attempt.

  In the meantime, my angst didn’t subside. It only grew more uncomfortable, occasionally making it difficult for me to even concentrate. How could I keep my head clear, given my circumstances? I’d been forcibly kicked out of my body, with only my life-chain tethering me to it, and its links were still blackening further. More and more fae had been brought into the sanctuaries over the past few hours, each of them like me, souls barely holding on to their flesh. I was staring death in the face, with zero intention of leaving.

  Seeing Zeriel by my crystal casing was, by far, the most painful part of this experience. We loved each other deeply, in a way that, according to Seeley, made our bond unique and everlasting. Zeriel was tormented over my situation. I could see it in his eyes as he gazed at my unconscious body in what I’d begun to refer to as “my premature coffin.”

  “Caia’s got five black links on her life-chain, now,” Seeley said, his voice low. He’d been doing this for the past hour, at least, sitting on top of my crystal casing, at my feet, and counting the infected links on the other souls’ life-chains. I couldn’t see them, but he would sometimes tell me the numbers. Ben had five links compromised. Grace only three, but it was only a matter of time before more would be affected. Hers had been a sporadic development—at first, just one link, then two at once.

  “Either way, it’s not looking good,” I grumbled. Even so, a part of me was so enraged, so determined to live, that I couldn’t possibly accept death as an outcome. In my mind, I’d been going over ways of getting some messages across to Zeriel. He’d felt me, earlier, and that had encouraged me to think of something more concrete. After all, I wasn’t dead yet. I could still be useful.
<
br />   It was only a question of finding the right method of communication. One that would allow me to tell Zeriel that not only was I still here and very much conscious, but that I also had a Reaper on my side who’d given me some pretty important information. It wasn’t as much as I would’ve wanted, but it was certainly more than what Varga and the others had.

  “Your friends have Yamani’s scythe, remember?” Seeley replied. “Their odds just increased, if only by a smidge.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “How will a scythe help them against the Hermessi?”

  His expression turned to stone. “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  “Then don’t bother telling me,” I snapped and resumed my quiet gazing at my fiancé, the mighty Tritone king, my beloved goofball. He was smiling, his eyes moving as he took every part of me in, as if he’d never see me again.

  “You’re grumpy.” Seeley sighed.

  “Wouldn’t you be, if you were in my shoes?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Sorry, Vesta. I’ve distanced myself from the emotional side of things. I don’t process these situations with as much empathy as you’d like. It’s not personal.”

  “It’s fine. What irks me is that you know a lot more than what you’re telling me, and I’m worried that, among these chunks of information, there is something that might help my friends when they reach Mortis,” I said. “It’s not your soulless attitude. I’ve actually gotten used to that.”

  Seeley didn’t respond. Unless he’d be willing to tell me everything he knew, he’d already understood that I wasn’t interested in any excuses or additional insights into his motivations for withholding this knowledge. I only cared about results.

  I focused on Zeriel instead, trying to make myself visible. I wasn’t sure how or if I’d be able to do that, since Seeley had been pretty specific that the living couldn’t see spirits, but I wasn’t dead yet. Maybe there was a loophole in the system that I could take advantage of. I willed myself into it, staring at the crystal casing in front of him.