A Shade of Vampire 53: A Hunt of Fiends

by Forrest, Bella

  Gasps and sobs erupted from the crowd as the tragic news set in. Maras and Imen hugged one another, crying, grieving the loss of one of their leaders. I fought back tears as I watched the entire scene. It was impossible not to feel their pain, not to feel invested when witnessing such a tragedy. Whoever had done this, they had aimed for maximum damage and loss of life. They didn’t care who got hurt or killed.

  My mind kept rushing back to what had just happened to Avril, as well. Though the two incidents didn’t seem connected—except, perhaps, by the horrible timing—I couldn’t help but wonder whether the daemons had something to do with both. After all, they did have swamp witch magic. But to what extent? How much did they possess, to be able to destroy an interplanetary spell? This was something I was determined to address with Patrik once we got a minute with just our team. I wasn’t connecting the dots just yet, but they seemed awfully close the more I thought about it.

  “We are all truly sorry for your losses,” Jax said. Hansa stood silent behind him. “This is the tragic result of a heinous act, and, rest assured, you have our full support in investigating this. We will help you bring the criminal… or criminals to justice.”

  Emilian wiped back his tears and gave Jax a polite nod, then stared at Rewa. She inched closer to her father’s body, her hands reaching out, her fingers trembling, as she wasn’t sure how to touch him. Scarlett whispered something in her ear, and Rewa, through her grief and pain, nodded and sat back, leaning against her.

  “You mentioned it started from the Xunn mansion,” I said.

  “Yes,” Farrah replied.

  “Judging by the damage, the Xunn mansion was the hot point.” Blaze looked over his shoulder, briefly analyzing the remains of Darius’s house.

  “It would be fair to assume that perhaps he was the intended target?” I shrugged, glancing at Jax for feedback. It made sense in my head, based on everything I’d learned about arson during my GASP training. We’d held special sessions on extremist attacks, arson, and murder as part of our induction.

  “Could it be daemon-related?” Fiona chimed in. “Whoever blew up the tunnel on the east side of the mountain wanted me separated from Hansa. They wanted me to reach the prison. Daemons attacked the prison. I’m just trying my luck at an educated guess here…”

  “Someone blew up the gorge earlier today, as well,” I added. “Whoever did it wanted to break us away from the Correction Officers. Then… daemons attacked.”

  “I wouldn’t exclude it as a possibility, but we’ll need to do a thorough investigation,” Jax replied, then glanced over his shoulder at Hansa. “What do you think?”

  Hansa was still reeling from everything that had happened. The pain emanating from her was impossible to describe, and I didn’t want to mention it out loud, either. She valued her image as a strong succubus, and everything she was experiencing in that moment pointed to a weakness she never would’ve wanted to display in front of strangers.

  “Jax, we should definitely discuss this later, after all the bodies are cleared out and we can plan our resources,” I said, trying to draw attention away from Hansa. “This is an unexpected turn, and we need to rethink our strategy now.”

  “Yeah, especially since we can’t leave this damn place,” Heron muttered, keeping himself close to Avril.

  Caspian gave me a surprised look.

  “What do you mean, you can’t leave?” he asked, his voice low and husky.

  “The interplanetary spell didn’t work,” Patrik replied. “Neraka’s atmosphere rejected it for no apparent reason.”

  “That’s not right.” Emilian frowned, scratching his beard with trembling fingers. “Rewa was able to leave… You were able to come in… It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Tell me about it,” Avril muttered, her arms crossed over her chest. “I nearly got killed when the spell tried to reach space. It exploded.”

  Farrah then gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

  “Oh, dear, that’s what that flash was,” she said. “I saw it from my bedroom window…”

  A minute passed as we all stared at each other.

  Whether we liked it or not, we were stuck here. Someone had managed to kill Darius by blowing the entire top level up. The daemons were far better organized than we’d initially given them credit for. And there were still so many questions left unanswered from before. It was as if Neraka were deliberately toying with us, testing our limits and playing with our heads—when it wasn’t trying to kill us.

  “Either way, GASP will start sending people after us soon,” Jax said. “We’ve been gone for three days now, and they’ve yet to hear from us. Surely they must be rounding up the troops now. We might see them as soon as tomorrow.”

  “But until then, we need to stay alert and keep doing our jobs,” Patrik added. “We have to expand the city protection spell to its underground. Do you know if the tunnels have been sealed, Lord Kifo?”

  “I was waiting for Cadmus to come up and confirm, but I haven’t seen him yet,” Caspian replied, then glanced around with a concerned expression, as if hoping to see Cadmus somewhere.

  “We need to get back to the infirmary,” I said. “The protection spell satchels are down there.”

  “Right, first things first.” Jax nodded. “Caia and Blaze, take Patrik with you to the infirmary and follow his instructions with regards to planting the satchels in the prison. I’m sure one of Lord Kifo’s Correction Officers will guide you to it from the city, since we’re assuming the tunnels are sealed.”

  “Absolutely,” Caspian replied, and snapped his fingers. One of his guards moved forward from the crowd, waiting for Caia, Blaze, and Patrik.

  “Fiona, you know what you have to do as well, I suppose.” Jax raised an eyebrow.

  “Yup,” she replied, and joined Patrik’s side.

  “The rest of us need to talk,” Jax continued, then looked at Caspian. “Can you have your Correction Officers clear this level and keep everyone away? This is a crime scene now. We can’t have anyone tamper with evidence.”

  Caspian agreed and motioned for his guards to usher people off the edge of the terrace and away from the stone stairs. I glanced at the mansion ruins, while Vincent helped Rewa up and guided her away from Darius’s remains.

  “I’m sure the White Star Hotel below will accommodate us,” Vincent said slowly, his arm around Rewa’s shoulders. “We’ll go make the arrangements now.”

  With everything that had happened, my nerves were stretched beyond their limits. More questions and a crippled trust between us and the Exiled Maras were the defining factors of our current circumstances. On top of that, we had soul-eating daemons prowling around the city, and thousands of innocent Maras and Imen as potential victims, with hundreds already missing or dead.

  It felt like we were swimming upstream, and I feared where this salmon run would lead. GASP couldn’t come soon enough.

  I turned to find Caspian staring at me, his jade gaze dark and soft. In that moment, at least, all I could feel was relief. Relief that Blaze had managed to get to him in time. Relief that he was still alive. The reasons for my relief were mixed and… complicated, and I didn’t have the energy to sort through them right now. There was one my mind could settle on, however:

  He owed me an answer.

  Draven

  The early morning sun rose lazily over Mount Zur, its golden rays bathing the terrace outside in a warm light. I was the first in the council room, so I pulled the window shutters down and turned the lights on, instead, preparing for the others’ arrival. Derek, Tejus, and Lawrence had agreed to meet with Field, Serena, and me to go over our last conversation with Hansa.

  We’d watched our GASP team leave for Neraka only yesterday just before noon. I knew Serena worried about Harper, but she’d managed to relax a little after Hansa’s updates. They were all okay, and actively investigating the disappearances in Azure Heights.

  There was something still bugging me, a sliver of doubt that I was unable to i
dentify. As if something felt off. But I couldn’t put my finger on it. I sat down, resting my hands on the table as I closed my eyes.

  I took a deep breath. Day two of the Neraka investigative mission, and we’d just reached the six-hour mark. It was time to reach out and check in with the team.

  “Telluris Hansa!” I called out.

  There it was again—that little nudge that didn’t feel right. I couldn’t sense Hansa’s soul at all. I couldn’t sense any of their souls. This connection was meant to be flawless, altogether resistant to time and space.

  A buzz emerged in the back of my head, reminding me of Field and Jovi’s radio communicators whenever they switched frequencies.

  “Telluris Hansa!” I tried again.

  Several seconds went by, during which time a knot quietly shaped in my stomach.

  “Draven!” Her voice came through.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yes, yes, I’m fine. We all are. Just enjoying breakfast here at the inn,” she replied, seemingly in a good mood. “The food is fantastic, by the way!”

  Since when does Hansa care about food?

  “How is the investigation going?” I asked.

  “It’s slow, but there’s definitely something fishy going on here,” Hansa said, her voice muffled. “We’re going to study the Valley of Screams after lunch again. Caia and Blaze are still doing some interviews. We don’t know what’s causing the disappearances, but there are suspicions of strange animals lurking in the gorges that might be linked to this. We didn’t find anything during last night’s expedition, so we want to try an analysis under daylight, for now.”

  “Are there any traces? Perhaps Avril can track a scent?”

  “Yes, that’s one avenue we’re exploring,” she replied. “But we’re also… look… may… Maras… if they…”

  Her voice began cutting out, like a bad radio transmission.

  “Hansa? Hansa, can you hear me?” I called out.

  I couldn’t hear her anymore. That knot in my stomach twisted itself into a painful position. I didn’t like this at all. I sighed, then thought I’d try another team member instead.

  “Telluris Jaxxon!” I chanted.

  A few seconds later, his familiar voice echoed in my head.

  “Draven,” he responded. “I can’t hear you very well.”

  “Yeah, I can tell. I was just talking to Hansa when the conversation dropped,” I replied, slightly irritated, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Telluris isn’t supposed to work like this.”

  “I understand,” he said calmly. “Maybe it has something to do with the asteroid belt.”

  “It shouldn’t. Telluris links souls. It doesn’t answer to space and matter in any way.”

  “I don’t know what else to tell you.” Jax sighed. “I can hear you better now. It probably is affected by distance or the asteroids somehow. Maybe the Druids who devised this spell were wrong. Who knows?”

  “Maybe,” I muttered, unsatisfied by the way my stomach reacted to Telluris’s instability. “Anyway. I understand you’re going to the Valley of Screams today?”

  “Yes, in two to three hours, depending on when Caia and Blaze get back from the interviews,” Jax replied.

  “What can you tell me about the Five Lords of Azure Heights?”

  “They’re nice and hospitable,” Jax said. “They seem like nice people, but I can’t yet clear them of everything. Blame it on my people’s old grudge against the Exiled Maras, but I’ve yet to give them my vote of confidence. Their society seems well tied together, and the Imen seem okay with living among them. Technically speaking, I have no reason to distrust them right now, besides ancient bad blood.”

  “I understand. Have they given you any reason to be suspicious of them?”

  “None whatsoever. Like I said, it’s probably just the old family grudge I’m trying to shake off. My grandfather, Shadow, carried his anger into his grave.”

  “I was telling Hansa to maybe consider having Avril use her tracking skills to pick up a scent in the city, regarding the disappearances.” I changed the topic.

  “Yes, I’ll make sure she comes with us to the scene of the last disappearance,” he replied. “She’ll sniff something out for sure. Listen, Draven, we need to go now. Our guide for the gorges is here, we need to study the gorge maps with him. Let’s catch up in six hours.”

  I exhaled sharply, then leaned against the back of my chair.

  “That’s fine, I’ll speak to you then,” I said, my tone brisk. “Just be careful out there.”

  “We will, don’t worry. We have a dragon, remember?”

  I could almost hear the smile in his voice before the silence settled over me. Perhaps I was overreacting and I had no reason to worry so much about Telluris. Maybe Jax was right and the spell was, in fact, affected by the distance. There were few accounts of Telluris being used outside our galaxy, after all. I could do myself a favor and check them out in the Druid Archive, just in case. They could shed more light on the spell’s behavior.

  The door opened. Serena walked in, lighting me up on the inside like the morning sun. Her father, Tejus, great-grandfather Derek, and Lawrence and Field followed, each giving me a brief smile and nod before they took their seats at the table.

  “Have you heard from them yet?” Serena asked, taking her seat next to me.

  “Just now, actually.” I nodded and squeezed her hand in mine.

  “Any news? How is the investigation going?” Tejus pressed.

  “So far, nothing new,” I muttered. “They’re checking the Valley of Screams again later. They didn’t get anything out of it last night.”

  I briefed them about the rest of my conversations with Hansa and Jax, careful to also include the communication glitches. They all agreed it most likely had something to do with the distance or the asteroid belt. Or both.

  It did help to hear them say something I’d been contemplating since yesterday, but I still couldn’t get rid of that knot in my stomach. I figured I’d go ahead and check those Druid Archives later, just to get some peace of mind.

  In the meantime, I was already looking forward to the next check-in. I decided I’d reach out to Patrik or Harper directly, just to see if I had the same issues with them.

  Until then, however, I could only hope that our team would come through and unravel the Nerakian mystery sooner rather than later. I really wasn’t comfortable with them all the way over there. I knew it was part of GASP’s operation, but still… Neraka irked me a little.

  There’s something about it… Something just doesn’t feel right.

  * * *

  Ready for the next part of the Shadians’ story?

  Dear Shaddict,

  Thank you for reading A Hunt of Fiends.

  The next book in the series, ASOV 54: A Den of Tricks releases January 6th, 2018!

  Things are about to get wild…

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  Have a fantastic holiday season, and I’ll see you on January 6th!

  Love,

  Bella x

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  Read more by Bella Forrest

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