Darklight 7: Darkfall

by Forrest, Bella

  And they’re paying us a mint to deal with a problem they don’t want to touch.

  I continued, searching my teammates for any sign of doubt. Luckily, Cam and Sike seemed eager and focused. "We don't know all the properties of the new barrier,” I reminded them. “Like Dorian said, the Bureau hired us to deal with this chaos, so we're going to do our best."

  It was easier said than done. The new barrier represented a number of questions for our team and allies. Our researchers wanted to know why and how monsters were able to get into this area from the Immortal Plane, one of the few pieces of information they’d confirmed. Could humans potentially travel through it alone? I needed Dorian in order to go to the Immortal Plane through a gate. If the barrier were permeable, it could open up human travel to the Immortal Plane… but monsters leaking into the Mortal Plane was a bigger worry for the government. We couldn’t have more immortal beasts wreaking havoc in the Mortal Plane, like we had when Irrikus was sending them through the tear.

  By all accounts, it appeared that the properties of the planes themselves might've adjusted from their previous state. The immortal castes couldn't survive in the Mortal Plane before, but now… who knew? My biggest worry was what Dorian and the other vampires had picked up that radiated dark energy. They reported the sensation of dark energy seeping through the barrier and interacting with the Mortal Plane. I needed to know if that was true, if we planned to live in harmony with this new reality. Dark energy imbalances were the root of our trouble with Irrikus.

  I stared out at the trees. They were dark crimson, almost black, and reminded me of the redwoods I’d experienced in the Immortal Plane. The government wasn’t thrilled about vampires being included in this, but they couldn’t argue against vampire experience with immortal creatures. Our survival depended entirely on human cooperation with vampires. I liked to remind our client of that at every chance I got.

  Without vampires on our side, the Bureau had no chance of finding the missing cities, or of keeping the monsters at bay. We needed a balanced team with supernatural input in order to deal with the immortal obstacles we would find in the Leftover areas. Public opinion of vampires might be against us now, but we would eventually get them on our side. First, we had to fix this problem with small, secretive interspecies partnerships with our closest allies.

  Sometimes saving the world just meant waking up to another problem. I held on to the hopeful sense of determination when I remembered how much we’d done to get this far. I was thankful we still had a world and a country to protect.

  The immortal trees didn't scare me. Dorian and I had an ace up our sleeves, in addition to our years of fighting experience and the last year's adventure against the Bureau and Immortal Council. We had our necklaces to remove the curse, and the powers that came with those necklaces. Of course, we hadn't managed to test our powers beyond the tiniest trials to ensure they were still working, and we would have to be sparing with them going forward. There were no longer arbiters to feed us energy if we pushed ourselves past our limits. We only planned on using them for emergencies, but it was nice to know they were still available.

  I unbuckled myself as Bryce threw open the plane’s door. Immediately, the smell of acidic flowers and a gust of dry wind hit me. I tightened my new uniform jacket around me in the slight chill. My hand brushed against Dorian as we stood in the plane's open doorway. The sounds of strange birds and insects emerged from the forest, a symphony interrupted by the sound of something large crashing through the underbrush. A rush of determination filled me as I stared out into the wilderness. Whatever beasts lay out there, I would find and defeat them if it meant getting to my parents.

  Dorian met my gaze as we prepared to disembark. His handsome features were lit by the soft light of the morning. Mortal sunlight looked good on him and his blue eyes. A fire sparked inside him, perfectly matching my own. He wanted to find my parents, his parents, Kane, and everyone else we could save. It wouldn’t be easy, but we were going to do it. We had one another to depend on and our friends at our side.

  We were ready to start a new adventure. We would figure out what to do because we always did, in the end.

  I smiled at him.

  It was time to strike out in this new world—together.

  Darkwilds

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading Darkfall. I hope you enjoyed it!

  Book 8: Darkwilds embarks on the series’ next exciting chapter, and I’ve included an exclusive sneak-peek at the end of this book, so keep turning the pages!

  Pre-order your copy now and have it delivered automatically to your device on release day, June 24th 2020:

  Amazon USA: tap here.

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  I hope you love the awesome cover!:

  Bella x

  P.S. If you enjoyed the book, I’d very much appreciate a review!

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  BONUS Chapters

  Chapter 1

  Lyra

  Saving the world had cost me many things in life, but it was a new day. The cold February air in western Utah nipped at my face as I took in the unnatural, foreboding jungle stretched out before us. What better way to celebrate my wedding than by setting off on a dangerous scouting mission into supernatural territory?

  Nicholas Bryce—my Occult Bureau captain turned fellow rebel turned Coalition conspirator, and now my partner in crime for our human-vampire consulting company, Callanish—stood a few feet ahead of me, surveying our mission site. After instructing our pilot to stay with the plane, Bryce had slung the weighty gear bag over his broad shoulders, giving him the look of a soldier ready to face the elements for weeks. I hoped this new mission wouldn’t take that long, but we’d packed accordingly. We’d started our company on Bryce’s suggestion, so that we could continue our supernatural work without being under the Bureau’s thumb.

  "Welcome to Black Rock Bureau office," Bryce said to our small group, tilting his head to indicate the site. He gave us a gruff scowl. "Or what's left of it." These days, the silver in Bryce’s red hair was more prominent, especially in his beard. Our journey over the last several months had hit us all in different ways, but right now all I could feel was the exhilarating anticipation in my veins.

  I gave Bryce a hum of agreement as I scanned the area. This campus used to have four buildings, but now only two remained. The main section was already overgrown with plants in this strange part of the world that we now called the Leftovers, remnants of the Immortal Plane that had been merged with the Mortal Plane while the planes were being disentangled from the meld. Ruk and the other arbiters had repaired the barriers, but they’d completely vanished after that. I still missed the Gate Maker’s wise, mischievous lavender eyes. But then, I still missed many of the people we’d lost.

  Callanish was trying to forge our path in this new, changed world. I was nervous, but excited to be back in the field. I stood with my new husband as we officially undertook our first mission, united in wedded and professional bliss. Dorian stared out at the closest building, which was covered with wily immortal plants that seemed bent on consuming everything in their path.

  The immortal trees greeted us with their eerie beauty. Vines seemed to crawl out of their crimson bark and circle up their thick trunks. The vines choked the sad remains of the building in front of us. I could make out the faded sign for the Black Rock office, but the metal in the ground was partially ruined, crumpled by some force of nature or giant creature. I turned a wary eye to the dark green leaves climbing the walls. They moved, waving tendrils around. There was no breeze.

  "That's... new," Dorian muttered with a note of interest. Everything f
elt off about the area. The air was thick with a humidity that was heavy to breathe. It reminded me of missions down South. I tried not to focus on the rotten scent in the breeze.

  Bryce’s nephew Cam followed our gazes. "The reports stated in their footnotes that all failed rescue teams noted strange flora, inconsistent with any plant life typically seen in this region. They noted the vines moved an average of several feet per day." He paused for a moment and adjusted his tight collar, his face deadly serious as he relayed facts from our briefing. "They also thought the trees were moving." There wasn’t an orange-red hair out of place on his head, whereas my ex-captain, Bryce, looked as if he might be an entrant in some kind of lumberjack competition. It was hard to believe the two were related.

  I glanced back at the tree in front of me. It looked firmly rooted to the ground, especially with the vines on it. I peered closer to watch the thin strands of vines swell and shrink. It was as if the vines were breathing, like an external lung.

  We needed to work our way through these buildings, creepy vines or not. Our first goal was to find a nearby portal site for Dorian and Sike to use. They would travel through in order to connect to the Immortal Plane. After Ruk and the arbiters closed the tear and separated the planes, they left the portals open, in their original state. Now, humans could use portals with the help of vampires. That way, we could easily move back and forth between the Mortal and Immortal Plane. This would help us to case the place without a lot of travel to faraway gates or trips to resupply. Regular Bureau soldiers had been chased away by the strange environment and fearsome creatures, but we could handle it.

  Finally, I could focus on my ultimate goal: finding my parents. They’d wanted to be useful to the Bureau before the mess with the meld happened, but the last phone call I’d had with them during the merging of planes had been disconnected by the unstable dark energy. Last I knew, my father had reported the area as swampy and glowing, but now, if there had been any water here, it had dried out and left these bizarre trees in its wake. Maybe that was responsible for the humidity, unusual for this arid part of the Southwest.

  I steeled myself with the knowledge that, several hundred yards away in a clearing, our carrier plane and pilot sat locked up with plenty of supplies. Since it was just outside the radius of the Leftovers, Bryce had agreed that it was safe to leave them there for the moment. Thankfully, the weirdness left behind hadn’t expanded beyond its current borders after the meld’s end. As far as we knew, there was nobody in this area but us and any misplaced immortal creatures in these strange parts. I had seen the occasional Mortal Plane squirrel here and there, but they avoided the edge of this place like the plague. It was like they could sense how wrong this area was.

  Sike, our last team member, sucked in a breath as he yanked his foot away from something. He was in a spot of lush grass that swept against his pant leg, a bright, unnatural green against the slate gray of our new uniforms.

  "Something fast just ran over my foot," he muttered with a quick grimace. "It wasn't the vines. I heard squeaking." I trusted Sike’s vampire senses. He and Dorian both had superior hearing to humans—well, that and just about every other sense. I frowned, straining to pick up the noise, and then it came all at once, with a wave of rustling grass.

  A swarm of dark, scurrying blue forms rippled the grass next to Sike. He jerked out of the way with a curse as the creatures, slightly larger than rats with spikes like rogue, mutant hedgehogs, darted past him, every so often bounding several feet into the air, at a height that should've been impossible for rodents.

  We barely had time to react as the swarm went squeaking off into the forest. I shot a curious look at Dorian. He looked baffled.

  "Our woodland pests don't do that," he explained. “At least, not near Vanim.” His handsome face turned to study the surrounding area of the Bureau office, his glacial eyes keenly calculating. "They appear to be fleeing something." Fleeing away from where we need to go, how comforting.

  They disappeared into the forest and their fleeing steps echoed bizarrely back to us, almost like we were in a cave instead of near trees.

  I took a step forward to join Bryce near the entrance of the largest building, taking care not to let the trailing vines touch my hair. Somewhere, I hoped, my parents were surviving in this area. I had felt their souls when I’d briefly died during the fixing of the meld, and they’d still been living; I had to believe they were still out here.

  Dorian's brows furrowed with concern and stayed that way. He was listening along with Sike, while Cam watched them, seeming to note their every move. When he caught my look, he turned away, going a bit pink. It was Cam's first official mission with vampires, so he was naturally curious.

  Bryce cleared his throat irritably. "Cam. Scanner?" The young man stiffened at Bryce's tone, which dripped with the unspoken question, why aren't you already announcing this? It had been a long time since I’d heard that particular gruffness, but I remembered it. Bryce was always hard on newcomers when he was training my old teammates and me for the Bureau. Now, our client was the US government, and Bryce wouldn’t go easy on Cam just because they were family. If anything, I suspected Bryce might be even worse to his nephew.

  "I'm getting some signatures that suggest living creatures. They're certainly organic, but..."—his eyes roved across the black hand-held device that he gripped—"it's like it can't lock onto some of the signatures. The Bureau reports claimed that the human technology they brought along was only partially functional."

  Bryce snorted. "Don't read me back reports I've already read. Sike, can you confirm Cam's assessment?" Sike trotted over, his gangly limbs putting him just a few millimeters under Cam's tall, still-filling-out frame. He peered over at the screen. Our devices were based on Bureau technology, but they'd been tweaked by Reshi, the Coalition’s genius maker inventor. Although Sike wasn't very skilled with human machines yet, he had a natural affinity for technology, and Reshi's supernatural touch on the scanner allowed him to work on the machine easily enough.

  "He's right," Sike confirmed. His eyes flickered to Dorian. "The physics here don't make sense."

  "Is it the sound and plants bothering you?" I asked. I reflected on the vegetation, wild and overgrown but viciously beautiful in its own way, that had swallowed up most of the surrounding area. Old Bureau photos had showed a few weathered brick cabins from the old ghost town, but they were long gone after the meld.

  Sike nodded. "I don't think our technology is flawed. It's working as it should, since Reshi gave it an independent source of dark energy; the problem is likely that we haven't attuned it to deal with an area like this." He gestured to the area all around us. The Leftovers were strange, unique places. Good men and women had gone in for rescue and scouting attempts in this area and then fled. But Callanish can do it.

  A bizarre caw echoing from inside of the building stopped our conversation. We quieted, listening to the faint echo of what sounded like a bird's call.

  "It’s not a redbill," Dorian said. "And I don’t sense any auras or dark energy nearby."

  "Good enough for me, if the scanners and vampires say we’re good," Bryce said cheerfully. He gave us all a determined smirk. "Ladies first, to sweep the building?"

  I pushed past him with a tiny chuckle, glad that Bryce didn’t feel the need to haze me any longer. We’d been through enough together.

  We needed to be quiet while we went through the building. Although our scanners said there were no signs of large fauna, it was best to be careful. The animals we’d disturbed in this area could easily spook like the rodents from before. If we managed to find survivors around these parts, they might hide from our noises, too. Bryce and I had already agreed to identify ourselves as allies of the Bureau.

  Somewhere, an insect buzzed faintly. It sounded just as off as the rest of this place, like the wings were too fast and too heavy. I braced myself as I slid through the first corridor, searching the dark corners for motion. Weathered leaves sprinkled the ground. Th
e hallway was dirty beneath my feet, kicking up a fine coat of dust around the edge of my new boots as I moved through the area. Besides the buzzing insect and the occasional bird trill, I heard nothing. Dorian followed, keeping close.

  Behind Dorian, Cam paused in a doorway, sweeping it with the practiced attentiveness of a soldier. His eyes missed nothing. I was beginning to think he had a photographic memory. He’d obviously memorized those reports. It was enough to impress me, but I wouldn't say anything just yet. I trusted Bryce’s instincts—not necessarily about the hazing, but I knew that we needed to make sure Cam got the right experience. I would be careful not to step on Bryce's toes with that. After all, I knew that he’d brought his nephew along because he believed in Cam. The young man was fresh from his military service in Scotland; he’d wanted to work with the supernatural, and he had the potential to be a formidable part of our team.

  My toe found the discarded wrapper of a granola bar next to the tiny skull of a dead animal. Initially, I thought the wrapper a result of scavengers, but a closer look revealed that it had been opened by human hands with a single tear. We moved on. Bryce kept watch at the front door.

  As we entered a new room, Sike pulled out his own scanner, one provided by Reshi. This one was meant to sense auras in a more comprehensive way than the Bureau scanners, which relied solely on human technology. Sike fiddled with the button. Reshi had taken to modifying human technology well—but we still didn’t have a perfect formula for transporting technology back and forth between the Mortal and Immortal planes. Sike noted the tech stopped functioning a third of the time as we neared the Leftovers. As brilliant as Reshi was, even she couldn’t plan for an area that was absolutely unstudied.