Kalla frowned. “Don’t tell me she’s—”
“She’s come to get the shard transferred to one of the boys. I’m certain of it,” I said. “It’s the only reason why she’d try to mess with us like this.”
“Derek. Crap, he’s been pretty much alone with her in the western tower,” Sofia said, gasping.
“I doubt he’ll be able to do much if she’s found a way to set herself free. I think Moore did something else. I think he helped her, somehow. Look at his face,” Ansel said, and we followed his startled gaze. Indeed, the youngest Visentis boy was still grinning, but there was a glimmer in his eyes. It told me he knew something we didn’t. “We should all go back to the western tower,” Ansel added. “Whatever Mother is planning has already begun.”
Kalla took hold of Moore, hoisting him up and over her shoulder. “I’ll hold on to this little rascal. Tudyk, Ansel, you’d best stay with me, boys. I hope you understand why we can no longer let you anywhere near your mother.”
Neither objected—except Moore, who flailed like a miniature demon in Kalla’s hold. Despite her being a Nalorean, she definitely seemed to have what it took to keep him in check, at least while he remained bound.
Sofia and I looked at each other. “We need to head back to the tower,” I said.
We both took off running. Moving as fast as our legs could hold us, we glided breathlessly across the worn cobblestone. Overflowing with adrenaline, my mind started working faster than ever, knowing that, in the end, Kalon was still vulnerable, despite Time’s protection. Even if he stayed inside that interdimensional pocket, it didn’t mean his mother couldn’t find a way to get to him.
I’d been foolish to think she’d actually care about her children. That the prospect of her own death might’ve changed her mind. No. Petra had come here with a plan, and so far, she’d succeeded in executing it. We had to stop her before it was too late.
Derek
“I’m not buying your remorseful attitude,” I said, leaning with my back against the wall.
Petra was still sitting cross-legged on the floor, hands cuffed behind her back as she smiled up at me. “And I’m not buying your sanctimonious attitude,” she shot back. “Your past is full of blood and darkness. It’s written all over you.”
“I’ve grown,” I replied. “Unlike you. Hundreds of thousands of years, and you still do nothing but harm to those around you.”
“Please don’t make me repeat myself. Everything I have done has been for what I thought was the good of my people. I don’t have any regrets.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “None whatsoever? Your sons despise you, Petra. Your own children, alienated by your lies and machinations.”
“My sons will forgive me one day. When all this is over, they will understand everything I did and why. You’ll be gone by then. You will be… dust.”
I was missing something here. Petra’s statement was ominous, and I had a feeling she was holding back. “If you know something, now’s your chance to share. While your information about the Whips will be useful, we can both agree there is more you can tell us.”
“Oh, there definitely is. But my question is, do you really think you’ll live long enough for that information to help you?”
“What do you mean?”
She chuckled softly. “Derek, if you think you’re going to win this battle against the Darklings, you’re in for a rude awakening.”
“I thought that’s why you came here. To help us.”
“I came here to see my sons, and I gave you intel in return. I don’t want Danika to kill me, sure, but what are the odds the rest of you will survive? Let’s be honest here. You’ve all met her. You should know better.”
“Where are you going with this, Petra?”
She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “From what I remember, you’re a man with a pretty big family, right? A daughter and a son. Grandchildren. Great-grandchildren. Some great-great-grandchildren, too, if I’m not mistaken. A brother, a sister, each with their own families and equally stellar progenies.”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I watched her closely, waiting for the punchline. There had to be one coming, sooner or later. I just didn’t understand where it would all lead. In the darkness of the room, moonlight pierced through the window, glazing the floor in an iridescent glow. Petra glanced down, the shimmer reflected in her blue eyes.
“If you keep going with this so-called war against the Darklings, it won’t be just you they’ll kill. Or Sofia. Or whoever else is here in this dead city with you. No. Corbin will use all the death magic knowledge at his disposal, along with all the Knight Ghouls, and he will head straight for your home planet. And once he’s done with you, he’ll go for your brother and your sister. Your children. Their children. He will burn your family tree down to the root. And when it’s all done, he’ll set fire to your precious Shade, as well. Derek, if you keep pushing against him, Earth will become just another province of Visio. The humans will feed us, much like the Rimians and the Naloreans.”
“If that is the future you foresee, Petra, why are you still here? We both know you could escape if you really wanted to.” My spine tingled. Everything she’d just described was entirely possible, and such an outcome was simply unfathomable. Unbearable. Unacceptable.
“I told you, Derek. Have you not been listening? I’m here for my sons.”
“You’ll never get your sons back,” I said. “They’ll never go with you, no matter where you take them. They’re smarter than you give them credit for, Petra. And better, too.”
She exhaled sharply. “You know, we were all perfectly happy here in our empire. The circle of life was simple. We’re born, we live forever if possible, and we keep the Unending’s cycle going so she doesn’t wipe us all out. Simple. Effective. Eternal. Then you came along and made everything harder. As if we’d ever feel sorry for one Reaper. Don’t be ridiculous, Derek. They’ll never let you set Unending free.”
“What do you know about setting the Unending free?” I asked.
Petra shook her head. “Finally, you’re asking the right questions. I know plenty, but are you worth such revelations? My bet is you’ll be dead in a day. Two, tops. Whatever knowledge I have, it won’t do you any good.”
“Why are you so certain I’ll die?” I asked. “You keep talking in riddles and circles and vague notions, which makes me consider one of two possibilities: either you know nothing, and you’re just wasting air because you like the sound of your own voice, or you know plenty, and you’re stalling. Buying time. Which makes your initial motive for being here completely false.”
Esme came in with Sofia right behind her. They both looked scared, their breathing ragged and fast. “I’m afraid it’s the latter,” Esme said. “She’s not here to be with her sons. She’s here to transplant the soul shard into one of them.”
Petra scowled. “What sort of nonsense is that?”
“She put a sleeper spell on Moore. It was activated when she whispered in his ear. He just tried to kill us,” Esme replied, looking at me.
“I tried reaching you through the comms system,” Sofia said.
“Nothing came through,” I replied, suddenly confused.
“Ah, I’m afraid that was my fault.” Petra lifted her hands to reveal that the cuffs were gone. A scythe emerged from between her fingers, its blade curved and capturing fragments of moonlight along its sharp edge. “You see, Derek, I’ve learned a trick or two from the Reapers I’ve turned over the years, including this little bit about hiding a death magic weapon on one’s person, beyond the physical realm. Using the Spirit’s teachings, I adapted the spell so that not even Reapers could detect it. My little Moore has been carrying it with him since he was born, and he had no idea until I activated the… what did Esme call it? Ah, yes, the sleeper spell.”
“That hug he gave you. It was to pass the scythe back to you,” Esme murmured.
Fear was quick to implant itself inside my chest as I grasped this new r
eality. Petra had already set herself free, and she had a powerful weapon at her disposal. Sofia’s gasp reached my ears, along with the clicking sound of Esme’s pulverizer weapon as she removed its safety. A moment later, it was pointed at Petra.
“You lying, heartless bitch,” Esme muttered.
Petra was not at all intimidated by the weapon, though she knew what it could do. Her lack of reaction worried me, and I suddenly doubted whether we had what it would take to defeat her. We had superior numbers, but this air of confidence she exuded… it felt wrong. Dangerous. Maybe even deadly, if we weren’t careful.
“Finally, some bite with that bark,” Petra replied, raising her scythe. “Now, here is what’s going to happen, and there is nothing you can do about it. I’m going to find Kalon. You’ve lied. I know he’s here. He’s close by—I can feel him. I can feel all my sons when I’m near them. It’s quite literally the first spell I performed after each one was born.”
“Or I could pulverize you right here, right now. After what you just did to Moore, I’m absolutely certain they’ll forgive me,” Esme said and fired her weapon.
Petra slashed outward with her scythe in a diagonal motion, blocking the pellet’s trajectory. It exploded into shimmering blue dust, but the blade survived. Death magic objects didn’t belong to the physical realm, which apparently rendered them immune to pulverizer pellets. The high priestess sneered.
“Once I’ve located Kalon, I’m going to implant my soul shard into him. If Danika wants a sacrifice, it’s high time she gets the one son of mine who has been a constant disappointment. I’ve given him all the chances in the world, but he prefers consorting with a vampire wench.”
Esme shot another pellet, and Petra destroyed it again.
“We need another angle,” Sofia said under her breath.
“Then, once that’s done, I will gather my surviving sons, and we’ll move somewhere nice. Maybe a place down south, somewhere with a beach. Or maybe up north, where there’s only snow and ice as far as the eye can see. We’ll put it to a vote,” Petra continued. “Either way, you will lose, and the Visentis bloodline will live on.”
I moved slowly to my right, occasionally exchanging glances with Sofia, who carefully made her way to the left. We were going to come at Petra from both sides, giving Esme the opening she needed to take Petra down. The high priestess couldn’t take us all on at once.
But before we could do that, it was my turn to buy us a few more seconds. “So that was your plan all along. Get in here, pretend to be a captive, mess with Moore, then… this?” I asked.
“I knew you wouldn’t trust me completely,” Petra said. “But I needed some time in here for you to attempt to verify the intel I gave you. I just needed Moore close enough for me to do my thing. Fortunately, none of you could resist the idea of holding me prisoner. Predictable creatures, all of you.”
“And what will you do next? Give our location to Danika? You can’t really still be friends after she tried to kill you,” I replied.
“We share a common goal. And we both wish to live in order to fulfill it,” Petra said. “Now, enough of the chitchat. Which one of you wants to die first?”
Sofia smirked. “You still underestimate us, even after all this time.”
Petra didn’t get to deliver a snarky reply this time, as my wife and I launched our attacks. Esme gave us a second before she pointed her weapon at the high priestess again. Using my claws and speed, I took Petra on with all my might, each blow designed to rip her apart. Sofia did the same, and Petra had no choice but to defend herself using the scythe.
Esme released a third pellet. It almost hit Petra, but she ducked, leaving Sofia and me to stare blankly at each other for the briefest of moments. For every action there was a reaction, and I feared it was our turn to receive the latter, whether we liked it or not.
Petra muttered something under her breath and kissed the blade of her scythe. The gesture released a wave of peculiar and startling energy. It hit Sofia, Esme, and me right in the solar plexus, knocking us back and smacking us against the floor. It felt odd, as though my bones had suddenly vanished. They were still in me, but I could no longer feel them. I had nothing left to move with.
My body was now my enemy, as Petra stood over me and laughed, a satisfied grin extending from ear to ear. She looked down at me, unable to resist having the last word. “I won’t kill you, Derek. Our Master of Darkness wants that pleasure, and I wouldn’t dare deny him such a rare joy in this long and complicated life. You will all stay down here for a while, and I shall get on with my business. I’ve got a son to sacrifice. Not an easy thing to do as a mother, but a necessary evil in this case.”
“Don’t… Petra. Don’t... do it!” Esme managed, pinned to the floor and struggling to move, as her bones were paralyzed like mine.
Petra walked over to her, kneeling and pressing the blade against her cheek. “I’d love nothing more than to slice you into little pieces. You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass from the day you set foot on Visio. Kalon is going to die, and it’ll be your fault. I want you to remember that. In fact, I think I’ll ask the Master to keep you alive, so I can torment you with that fact for an eternity. Danika’s not interested in that sort of punishment anymore, even though she’d been quite keen to try it on Derek, but I do see the appeal in spending forever to make you suffer.”
“No… please don’t!” Esme mumbled, her speech slurring. “Don’t... hurt him!”
Whatever this spell was, it wasn’t affecting just our bones. It had quickly spread, disabling other important functions. I found myself staring at Petra, unable to formulate a single thought, a single word that might stop her. I was helpless and limp, a sack of meat and blood that was absolutely useless.
Petra got up, giving Sofia one last look. “I’m going to enjoy watching you die. But remember that I’m not doing this just for my own pleasure. It is necessary for the survival of our species. It’s nothing personal, as far as I’m concerned, but I can’t speak for the Master. You’ve really pissed him off, kids. And he’s the kind who holds onto a grudge forever.”
“Please…” I whispered, my lips barely moving.
“What’s that, Derek? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of your own failure,” Petra retorted. The room was spinning, and it became increasingly hard to concentrate, to keep my gaze on a single object. I was losing my focus, and my eyes were starting to close against my will.
Petra’s heels clicked across the stone floor, fading somewhere in the distance. I couldn’t see anything. Darkness had taken over, wrapping me in its cold embrace, forcing me to surrender.
The blackout followed quickly, and I was but a blade of grass in the wind, bending to the will of the universe. Helpless. Damned and useless.
Kailani
The marshes were a sight to behold. About five hundred miles southeast of the imperial city, nature’s various forces had clashed, creating a peculiar but absolutely stunning environment. It reminded me of Florida’s Everglades back on Earth—just water and swirling mangroves and evergreen swamps—only bigger, wider, and brighter.
Visio’s mangroves were enormous, like wood-sculpted snakes that twisted and bent in and out of the perfectly still and brackish water, creating a strange and mesmerizing pattern of dark shadows between millions of massive shrubs. A species of lime-green moss spread across the surface, dotted with the occasional spiky yellow blossom. Cicada-type sounds emerged from beneath the mangrove forest, chirping in a steady, clicking rhythm.
Here and there, colossal trees reached for the reddish sky with perfectly straight trunks as wide as our Shade’s redwoods. At the top, their crowns spread out, heavy branches loaded with emerald and amber foliage stretching and bending under their own weight. Below, in the few spots of clear water that we could see, brightly colored fish and scaly lizard-type creatures moved, foraging for food around the mangrove roots.
Out here, the world was something else. There was barely a soul around excep
t for the animals. According to Petra’s intel, some of the Aeternae had chosen to settle here, building small villages deep within the mangrove forest. The nearest city was Tusla, about fifty miles north into the mainland, easiest to reach by boat, following the river upstream.
Widow stood on the edge of the last piece of muddy land before the mangroves, his reflection calm in the still, greenish waters. “Lyriana Amos lives here?” he asked, the tone of his voice revealing his incredulity.
“Beyond the water, over there,” Hunter clarified, pointing to a cluster of small islands. They were bordered by shrubs, and the giant trees rose in the middle of each. Every patch of land had been cultivated, as nature had done her best to create a beautiful and unique ecosystem here. “Between those trees, see?”
Nightmare joined his masked brother, squinting into the distance. “Ah, yes… I see them. Houses. Who would want to live in this place? It’s damp and soggy all the time.”
“I wouldn’t mind it,” Dream mused, gazing through the water at a school of red-and-blue fish that swam between the swollen, gnarly roots. “It’s quiet. The marshes keep most people away. If I wanted privacy, this is where I’d come.”
“Personally, I’d go to a desert. The scorching heat and sudden temperature drops at night are enough to deter anyone from trying to find me,” Night said. “Everything smells or bites here.”
“What do you care? It’s not like you have to actually smell or sense a bite anyway. Only if you allow it,” Widow muttered.
“I’m just trying to put myself in the head of an Aeternae, that’s all,” Night replied.
“Well, either way, we need to move. Ridan’s team hasn’t checked in on the comms system yet, and I’m not liking that one bit. Let’s get Lyriana out of here and head back. Something tells me we’ll be needed, especially with Petra still in Roano,” I said.
A Shade of Vampire 84: A Memory of Time Page 21
