A Shade of Vampire 66: An Edge of Malice

by Bella Forrest

Kallisto grinned from the neighboring tree. “Let me show you how it’s done, then,” she whispered, then took out a handful of marbles filled with a reddish liquid.

  “What are those?” I asked.

  “A distraction,” she replied, then threw the marbles onto the ground beneath the tree that was closest to the service entrance.

  They landed and broke into thousands of little shards, releasing the fluid inside. The six Perfects noticed them, then cautiously approached the tree. They narrowed their eyes as they tried to figure out what they were dealing with. Several breaths later, they were all blinking rapidly, coughing and wheezing, as if they’d just been pepper-sprayed.

  We didn’t miss our opportunity, while the Perfects dealt with the temporary discomfort. We jumped through the rest of the trees on the jungle border and reached the service door. Raphael punched a code into the access panel on the right side of the door, but the screen lit up red. The code wasn’t good anymore.

  “Dammit,” he cursed under his breath. “They changed the locks around here.”

  “Not surprised,” I murmured.

  We froze when one of the six Perfects came running back. “Hold on, I’ll get some water,” he said to his colleagues, then pressed a different code on the access panel and rushed inside. He was too out of it from the stinky marbles to even think about anyone else being there in that moment.

  Raphael grinned, then stuck his foot through the door to stop it from closing. We followed him inside, then made our way through a series of narrow corridors until we got to a blind spot—a darker corner, close enough to the main ground-floor hallway to give us a good visual of our next route.

  “We need to find the animal sanctuary,” Amane said, looking around. “Ta’Zan is definitely keeping them here, somewhere.”

  “It would be on the ground floor,” Kallisto replied. “For ease of access. In case of a disaster or something, he’d need it to have easy access to the outside world, to make evacuation swifter.”

  Amane stilled at the sight of a Faulty male about to pass by us. The glimmer of recognition in her orange eyes made me realize she knew him. “I can’t believe it,” she mumbled. “Athos.”

  “Friend of yours?” Dmitri asked, only half-jokingly.

  “He’s in love with Amal. Stupidly in love. He’ll probably kill Ta’Zan himself if she asks him,” Amane replied. A devilish grin stretched her lips as she looked at the unsuspecting Faulty. “We need him.”

  She didn’t wait for any of us to respond. She rushed toward him, instead, forcing us all to follow him around. We moved through the main hallway, dodging Perfects and Faulties along the way as we tried to stay close to each other and right behind Athos.

  I wasn’t sure where this move was going to take us, but I did have faith in Amane’s instincts. She’d saved our asses more than once. She deserved the lead on this one. The universe seemed to work in our favor, as we ended up inside a small service chamber filled with cleaning tools and a plethora of bleach-like chemicals.

  Athos, from what we could see, was part of the cleaning staff, and not happy about it. He was trying to prepare a wheeled bucket and a mop for a cleanup, when Amane intervened.

  “Morfuris,” she said, making herself visible.

  Athos yelped at the sudden sight of her, then moved backward in a defensive reaction. Amane was quick to reach him. She slammed him against the wall, covered his mouth, and brought one of her diamond knives up to his throat.

  “Oh, wow,” Ridan breathed, surprised by her agility in this particular circumstance. “The girl does not play.”

  “Make a single sound, and I will slit your throat,” Amane hissed.

  Athos didn’t move but for a faint nod to show his immediate compliance. His eyes darted around as he tried to figure out what was going on. He’d heard Ridan, but he couldn’t see him anywhere.

  “Morfuris,” Amane added, vanishing again. She didn’t let go of Athos, who looked horrified and squirmed in her hold, to no avail. “Don’t move, Athos. You know the damage that a diamond blade causes to Perfects, so imagine the pain it’ll give you.”

  He nodded again, this time with more conviction. We moved closer.

  “You can’t see us, Athos, but we can see you,” Amane continued. “Now, I need you to tell me where I can find the animal sanctuary and my sister. My mind is already working at an insane speed I haven’t felt in days. I know she’s close.”

  “There are more of us in here,” I said, noticing Athos’s reserve. “All perfectly capable of slitting your throat if you don’t comply with our request.”

  The Faulty was stunned, but it wore off quickly. He mumbled something against the palm of her hand.

  “I’m going to remove my hand. Don’t scream,” she warned him.

  As soon as his lips were uncovered, Athos smiled. “Amane. It’s good to see you alive. Well, sort of see you.”

  “Where’s the animal sanctuary?” she asked again, in absolutely no mood for chitchat.

  “Hold on, hold on,” Athos replied, pursing his lips. “You’re here with the outsiders, aren’t you?” he asked, then let out a mocking cackle. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

  “You seem to be cleaning floors for a living. If I were you, I’d tone down the snark,” Ridan retorted.

  Athos sighed. “Yes, well, I’m not good for much else.”

  “I’m not going to ask you again, Athos,” Amane said, gritting her teeth.

  “The sanctuary is here, on the ground floor. And so is Amal, for the rest of the day, but I’m not allowed to talk to her anymore, so I’m not sure where she is, exactly. I could ask,” the Faulty replied, his gaze lowered and his aura flaring red from the grief.

  “Why aren’t you allowed to talk to her anymore?” I asked.

  “She’s too precious to Father,” he said. “He makes sure no one bothers her with trivial matters. Imagine that. After all these years of loyal service and friendship to her, I’m considered trivial.”

  “You don’t sound happy about that,” Varga said, somewhat amused.

  “Of course not,” Athos replied. “I’m a cleaner now! I wipe up after snooty Perfects! My father has forgotten about me! Amal can’t see me. No, I’m not happy at all.”

  “Athos, focus.” Amal pressed the diamond blade deeper against his throat, drawing a droplet of blood. He gasped from the pain but didn’t give in straightaway.

  Using my True Sight, I was relieved to see that no one was in any way interested in the closet room we’d ambushed Athos in. There was no sign of Amal.

  “I don’t see her anywhere,” I muttered. “And I can’t see the sanctuary.”

  “Ta’Zan had us mount a mirror system around it,” Athos replied. “I don’t know why. He never told us.”

  “Oh, I think I know.” I sighed, wanting nothing more than to tear Ta’Zan’s head off with my bare hands. After what Abaddon and Araquiel had pulled during their hunts, I was more than accustomed to the concept of mirrors to throw off a sentry’s True Sight. Ta’Zan was not an idiot, though. That much credit was due. He knew I’d be coming, and he clearly knew what I could do. He also seemed to be aware of what we’d try to take from him, which must’ve been why he’d chosen to secure his animal sanctuary like that. “Take us to the sanctuary, Athos.”

  I was getting that devil-viper venom, one way or another.

  “It’s not going to work like that. You people don’t scare me more than Father. Take me with you when you go, and I will show you where the sanctuary is. I’ll find out where Amal is working today,” Athos said. “Just don’t leave me here. I can’t take it anymore.”

  Silence settled in the chamber as we looked at each other. A minute later, we all nodded in agreement. Amane took out a small pouch with a red garnet lens tied to it—it became visible the moment it left her hand, prompting Athos’s eyes to bulge.

  “When I tell you, you’ll swallow this paste,” she said to him. “Now, show us the sanctuary.”

  He nodded slowly, w
hile Amane shifted back, giving him room to move.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” Varga added, his tone firm. “Or you will lose your head. From what I know, you Faulties can’t regenerate like the Perfects. There will be no coming back from the chop-chop.”

  “I won’t,” Athos said. “Chill. I want to get out of here, safely, just like you.”

  “But why? Is it because you’re a cleaning Faulty?” Raphael asked, stifling a chuckle.

  “I was promised the future, the land of tomorrow. Now look at me,” Athos replied, then walked back to the door.

  We followed him outside and down the hallway.

  “Keep quiet. Don’t waste any time,” Amane instructed him.

  Athos led us through a few corridors and wide halls, as we headed farther to the west side of the diamond colosseum. We were like ghosts in there, unseen and unheard, almost floating behind him, glancing around and hoping to find salvation inside an animal sanctuary.

  Once we reached its entrance, however, I got my confirmation as to why I hadn’t been able to spot it with my True Sight. Thousands of small mirrors were mounted on the walls, both out and in, on every single inch of floor and ceiling. The reflective surfaces created the illusion of invisibility from whichever angle, until we were close enough to see the mirrors as they slowly tilted left, right, up, and down, functioning on an automated system of sorts.

  Whenever motion sensors around the sanctuary were triggered, the mirrors moved a little, enough to bend light a little more on one side than the next, keeping the place invisible. Athos pressed a code into the access panel, and the doors opened inward.

  “This is incredible,” Nevis muttered, looking around as we entered.

  The doors closed between us. An entire tropical paradise unraveled before us, guarded by mirrored diamond walls. It looked strange and superb at the same time. Trees, palm shrubs, and a variety of colorful flowers grew from a thick layer of soil in this massive hall, fitted with UV lights and sprinklers to help boost the fauna and the natural growth of things.

  “He keeps a lot of poisonous things in here,” Athos replied, unwilling to come closer to the greenery.

  Amane sighed, then nodded and stayed with him. “Kallisto, help our friends collect some devil-vipers,” she said. “You know where they’d hide in any kind of wilderness, natural or colosseum-made, and you know what they look like.”

  Dmitri, Varga, Ridan, Nevis, Raphael, and I stayed close to Kallisto while she guided us deeper into the mini-jungle. The air was horribly humid, making it harder for me to breathe. It was also too hot, and it didn’t take long for my nerves to stretch beyond their limits.

  I took deep breaths and took out one of the storage boxes that Amane had made just for this occasion. It was designed with holes and a sealed top to stop any critter from dying or escaping. We spent the better part of an hour inside the sanctuary. About ten minutes in, Kallisto snuck through the green shrubs and came out grinning, with a devil-viper wrapped around her arm.

  The snake itself wasn’t big, but its venom was incredibly potent.

  “It could kill a giant whale, all on its own,” Kallisto said, slipping the snake into Dmitri’s box. “One drop of venom will kill someone your size, wolf-boy.”

  That was enough to make Dmitri quiver a little as he stared at the creature inside the transparent box. We spent the next forty minutes or so searching and finding more in the humid greenery. My True Sight helped a lot, since we couldn’t exactly spend half the day in this place, with enemies swarming outside.

  The invisibility spell made the boxes invisible, as they were a part of what we’d worn upon ingestion. It also made the devil-vipers vanish upon entering the boxes, making it easier for us to sneak out with about twenty snakes in total.

  “These will be enough to generate a healthy amount of pulverizer pellets per day,” Amane concluded, counting the devil-vipers from Athos’s side.

  “Okay, so part one of the mission is practically done,” Varga replied once we all gathered in front of the double doors. “Amal is next on the list, right?”

  “Yeah. So far, so good,” Nevis murmured, frowning. “I don’t like it. It’s too smooth. We are never this lucky.”

  “First of all, the job’s not done yet, so don’t jinx it,” I retorted. “Second, we deserve some luck, don’t you think? After everything? Come on.”

  He threw me a half-smile, then shoved the box in his backpack.

  “Where is my sister?” Amane asked Athos.

  “I’ll need to ask around,” he replied. “Your patience is needed here.”

  “Ugh. Just do it quickly. We don’t have much time,” Amane said, then looked at me and stilled, dread freezing her features. “Oh, no.”

  “What?” I asked, confused by the gawking.

  Nevis followed her gaze, then looked down at himself, and groaned, rolling his eyes.

  “The spell is wearing off,” he replied.

  “Ah. Dammit,” I grunted, then fumbled through my backpack for another dose. “Reload. Reload, quickly!”

  We all shoved our hands deep into our bags for this. We’d had to use the first dose a lot earlier than expected, with Cassiel. The time had already run out on what we’d ingested, and we needed a new batch before someone came in to find us literally standing in Ta’Zan’s most precious sanctuary.

  Athos smiled at the sight of Raphael. “I knew that voice sounded familiar.”

  “Guys, she’s coming,” Amane murmured, seeming transfixed.

  “Whoop-tee-doo,” Raphael retorted, and clicked his teeth as he found his dose of invisibility paste. He frowned, then shot her a cold look. “Wait, what?”

  The sanctuary doors opened.

  “Ah, seriously?!” I moaned, not believing the horrific timing. All I could think was, Great, now we’re gonna have to fight them!

  “What… What is the meaning of this?” A female voice echoed in the sanctuary, just as we all turned around to face the doors.

  She was only ten feet away from Amane and Athos, and the resemblance was simply astonishing. But for the white silken tunic, everything else was identical to Amane—the position of every amber scale, the shape of her lips, her long white hair, and her almond, orange eyes.

  By some unexpected twist of fate, Amal was standing right in front of us.

  And no one was shocked more than Amane, whose knife dropped on the floor with a spine-tingling clang.

  Ridan

  No one saw this coming.

  We’d gotten the devil-vipers we needed for our pulverizer weapons, and we were going to get Athos to help us find Amal. But Amal had accidentally found us first, and, frankly, I wasn’t prepared for it. My brain stopped functioning for a moment.

  The doors were shut behind Amal. Beyond, Perfects moved up and down the hallway. I wondered how long it would take until one of them came in. The problem was that we couldn’t be seen if that happened—otherwise, all hell would break loose.

  We were all stunned and motionless, the sanctuary blossoming behind us in shades of green, red, and white, the ground and the trees riddled with a multitude of insects and animals—each of them poisonous or toxic. We knew that Ta’Zan harvested a variety of venoms and chemicals from these creatures. Some he used for medication, others he turned into deadly weapons, including his version of the Perfect pulverizer.

  “Amal,” Amane managed, her eyes wide as she stared at her twin sister.

  “What the hell are you doing here?!” Amal replied, her tone clipped and her hands balled into fists. Her frame was tense, and a vein throbbed along her temple.

  They were superb, two droplets of water. Identical in every single physical feature, Amal and Amane were perfect copies of one another. Every amber scale, every line and curve, every strand of white hair. If one had it, so did the other. Yet, as far as temperament and character went, they couldn’t be farther apart.

  Amane was determined, rebellious, and quite aggressive when she had to be. But she was also honest, war
m, and loyal to a cause. Amal, on the other hand, and from what Amane had told me, was calm and calculated, quiet and introverted, stubborn and, worst of all, she loved Ta’Zan too much. She was blinded by her fealty to her creator. That made her a liability, but she was also essential to Amane’s plan to devise a mass memory wiper for the Perfects.

  “I was looking for you, actually,” Amane said, pursing her lips. “What are you doing here?”

  “Father wants some toxins. In case you forgot, that’s what we do here. We serve him. We help him achieve the dream, the evolved society,” Amal replied.

  Amane chuckled, bitterness dripping from her voice. “That sounds pretty sad, if you ask me. I roam freely and do whatever the hell I want. I protect those you and Ta’Zan keep persecuting and hunting. I get to sleep at night.”

  “You don’t get to come in here and lecture me about anything!” Amal spat, pointing an angry finger at her. “You lost that privilege a long time ago, Sister!”

  Amane gave me a brief sideways glance. “Stand back, let me do this,” she muttered. All I could do was nod, noticing that the rest of my team was equally still and intrigued. We swallowed our reserves of invisibility paste, leaving Amane to take hers when she was ready. That moment wasn’t too far away, judging by the look on her face. As soon as we vanished, Amal seemed befuddled, but not shocked. I gathered she’d figured that we had magic on our side.

  Amane shifted her focus back to Amal. “That’s the sad part about this life you’ve chosen,” she said. “You quiver with joy for every little so-called privilege, while I enjoy nothing but freedom.”

  “You’ve yet to answer my question,” Amal replied. “What are you doing here?”

  Amane chuckled. “I would’ve expected a hug, at least. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.”

  “Don’t be dramatic. Only days have passed,” Amal said.

  “I like how you still fail to capture the nuance of sarcasm,” Amane replied, grinning like the sly, white-haired fox that she could be, when she set her mind to it. She was aiming to set her sister off, though I wasn’t sure why. The purpose was to get the two of them in the same room, then keep them there while their brilliant minds worked together to help us against the Perfects.