A Shade of Vampire 80: A Veil of Dark by Bella Forrest

Author:Bella Forrest [Forrest, Bella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nightlight Press
Published: 2019-09-18T18:30:00+00:00

Lumi

Sidyan and Maya were able to pick up minute traces of Seeley and other Reapers in the palace basement. Invisible to the living Aeternae soldiers charged with investigating that enormous maze of underground corridors and rooms, the three of us had spent the first ten hours of our visit to Visio combing through the entire place.

Maya had used her ghoulish nose to capture familiar scents of Reapers, but she had frequently come back to Sidyan whispering and shaking like a leaf. “She’s smelling a lot of ghouls,” Sidyan had concluded at the time, without giving me additional details.

Needless to say, I was growing increasingly frustrated, since both he and Maya seemed to know more than me, at this point. Eventually, after casting several death spells, Sidyan had finally found a spiritual trail for Seeley. Staying close to him, I’d followed as we moved through a tunnel, passing by gold guards and Rimian workers tasked with removing the rubble that had come down.

The Darklings had definitely been here, and they’d gone out of their way to stop the others from coming after them. With Sidyan’s help, I’d passed through the thick layers of rocks and rubble, reaching the other side, where the massive tunnel was not only clear, but it also seemed to go on forever.

By now, we knew a few things about what had happened here, using both the intel we’d gathered from Aeternae conversations and Sidyan’s own study of the cells and hallways. The Darklings were using death magic, though we had no idea how they’d gotten their hands on it. Technically speaking, they weren’t even supposed to be able to use this stuff. One exception, like Taeral, who’d clearly been fated to become a Reaper upon dying, was one thing. But these were hundreds of Aeternae Darklings who could do more than Taeral could with a scythe.

We also knew the Darklings kept ghouls with them. None of the other Aeternae had seen them, but since Maya had picked up their traces, well, it had become fact. I wasn’t sure what the implications were, but I was ready to assume that the Darklings had also figured out a way to capture and weaponize ghouls. Part of me worried there was more to this story. I’d find out soon enough, though.

A third fact that had arisen from early on in the investigation was that the Darklings had also captured Seeley and Rudolph’s crew. Wondering how they had been able to keep Reapers under control, I continued following Sidyan and Maya through the tunnel.

Two days had passed while we’d spent most of our time looking for and continuously finding more slivers of Reaper energy scattered around. During this time, I’d come to know both Sidyan and Maya a little better. I felt sorry for the young ghoul—she didn’t deserve her situation. Unfortunately, there was no cure for ghoulishness, so she was doomed to exist like this forever, unless Death put her out of her misery when the time came. I knew Sidyan would go out of his way to prevent that from happening.

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