A Shade of Vampire 89: A Sanctuary of Foes

by Bella Forrest

  I found myself breathless. “That doesn’t make sense. Anunit is lying through her teeth?”

  “Maybe. She doesn’t know we’re in contact with Death and able to verify her stories,” Unending said. “It’s possible. But still… I’ll be honest, I didn’t sense any deception so far. Either Anunit’s source got it wrong—”

  “Or she’s lying. Or Death is lying. Who is telling the truth?”

  She put her scythe away, straightening her black leather shirt. It was cropped above the waist, and she wore a skirt that flowed down in pure white folds, briefly outlining her elegant hips. Her shoulders were half-bare, sometimes beckoning me for a kiss, her skin supple and pearlescent like the sheen of a Stravian oyster. “Given Death’s prior behavior, I would consider both options equally possible,” Unending said, resting her palms on my chest as she moved closer, her floral scent of midnight lilies filling my heart and lungs with endless love. “I suppose we need to follow Anunit’s lead on this and investigate. If anyone can tell us the truth, it’s the Dainians and Shezin himself. Think about it. What are the odds that Anunit is the one who’s lying, when she herself told us to inquire and get to the bottom of it? Versus the odds that Death sold me crap just now?”

  “Has she tried to persuade you to give up on the trials?” I asked. “It would prove she definitely had something with Shezin.”

  Unending exhaled deeply. “Yeah, that’s the weird part… She didn’t try to persuade me at all. In fact, she insisted that I continue with the investigation. Death is convinced that Anunit is up to something, but she isn’t sure what. She also insists she knows nothing of a Shezin.”

  “Well, then it’s settled,” I said. “We find out for ourselves and see who’s lying in this whole cosmic mess.”

  “I admit, I’m even more curious now that I’ve spoken to Death about it. Believe it or not, she seemed sincere. It’s confusing.”

  I kissed her forehead softly. “Not for long.”

  As the evening stretched overhead, Unending and I made a plan for the following three days. We would’ve liked to see the spell that Anunit would use to bring the scythes together with the Mixer, but she’d vanished and was likely beyond our reach. Besides, we had bigger fish to fry. Three days to get to the truth and potentially end up killing Shezin—our feelings remained mixed on that score, but we’d have to cross that bridge when we got to it.

  Three days to complete the second trial that would bring us closer to our family dreams, as well as Anunit’s endgame. Death was right about one thing: she was absolutely up to something.

  Astra

  Minutes had passed since this angelic warrior had reached us and since she had basically saved our rookie behinds. We’d meant well by coming there, by trying to find our friends and loved ones, by trying to bring justice upon the monsters that had invaded our lives. We’d meant well, but we were woefully unprepared for what this place kept throwing at us.

  This didn’t mean we would give up. On the contrary. This whole encounter with the shadow creatures and what appeared to be their blue-eyed master had only made us more curious, more determined to find out what was happening.

  “We ask who you are, and you tell us it doesn’t matter, but it does,” Thayen said to the woman in gold and steel armor, the woman with hair like the summer sun and eyes like the summer sky. He seemed torn between awe and curiosity, his frame stiff as he stood before her, chin up and bold as ever. I didn’t need full sentry abilities to observe that she had unwittingly ensnared his attention. Truth be told, we were all dying to know everything there was to know about her. Thayen was speaking for all of us. “It does matter. You saved us just now, and you obviously know more about this place than we do.”

  The woman frowned, the blue in her strange gaze darkening. “I’m not strong enough here. I need more light. The shadow creatures will be back soon. You can’t linger. You must keep moving.”

  “Oh, for the love of… What’s your name?” Soph snapped, still panting from our earlier fight. My adrenaline was wearing off, and my body had begun to shake as if I’d stuck my fingers into an electrical socket. “I’m Soph, short for Sophia. I’m a half-daemon of Neraka. This is Jericho, a fire dragon and fire fae from The real Shade, and Dafne, a half-ice dragon, also of The Shade. He’s Thayen, vampire and Spirit Bender extraordinaire. And this is Astra, Daughter of Eritopia and sentry of Nevertide. See? Not that hard. Your turn.”

  The woman measured each of us from head to toe, and in this heavy and strained silence, I found a moment to try and study her spiritual energy. There was so much coming off her that it was impossible to ignore. Unlike all the living creatures I’d been around, she was like a beacon of soul power. Raw life, yet… distant. Out of my reach despite being mere feet away from me.

  The blue fires in her eyes were dimmer than when she’d first arrived. I wondered if the presence of light had something to do with it. The Shade was a dark place, after all, and if she relied on light to power herself up, I could see why she’d said she wasn’t strong enough here.

  “Myst,” she finally said. “My name is Myst.”

  “Okay, now we’re getting somewhere,” Thayen replied, trying not to smile. His eyes sparkled in shades of azure. I’d never seen him like this. There was more to his intense curiosity about her—a subtle edge I didn’t quite understand. I had a hard time reading his spiritual aura while she was around, that much was certain. Myst was an absolutely stunning sight to behold. Even I found myself in awe of her. “And where do you come from? What are you?”

  “That is none of your business,” she shot back sternly, sheathing her marvelous sword. The bare glow of this clearing twinkled in the gems encrusted in the bone handle. It was the most beautiful weapon I’d ever seen—strange, to see such artistry on an object designed for violence and death. But something told me this wasn’t a regular sword. It had captured light, and it had used that light against the darkness itself. No, this was more than just a weapon. “You have my name, and that will have to do. It matters not where I am from. Obviously, I’m not from here.”

  “Yes. And we’re fighting the same enemy, aren’t we?” Thayen asked. “The clones and the shadow creatures.”

  Myst raised an eyebrow. “Clones. That makes sense. Copies… That’s why there were more than one of each in some places, yes…”

  “They were modeled after us. After our people,” I said. “We’ve come to rescue the originals they’ve stolen from our island. This isn’t the real Shade. This… I don’t know what this is.”

  “Me neither,” Myst replied, looking around with a mixture of wariness and suspicion. “I only know it’s crooked and wrong, from every point of view. It doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s not supposed to be here. Or anywhere.”

  Soph scoffed. “I’m confused.”

  “It’s not safe,” Myst insisted. “They’ll come back. The shadows. They like the darkness. They thrive in it.”

  “And you thrive in the light, if I’m not wrong,” Thayen said. “You fuel your weapon with light, don’t you?”

  She glanced down at the sheathed blade, then nodded slowly. “Which is why I doubt I’ll be able to protect you again when the beasts return.”

  “What were those things, exactly? And who was the one controlling them?” Thayen asked, his brow slightly furrowed. We were still haunted by that particular encounter, and a connection between Myst and the shadow giant seemed to worry him. “He had eyes like yours, and the shadows reacted to his whip. At least I think it was a whip he was holding—I couldn’t make out much in the darkness.”

  Myst let out a heavy breath while I listened to our surroundings. It was silent. Too silent for my comfort. Not a hint of wind or a rustle of leaves. Just dead silence, as though this whole place was nothing more than a tomb. Maybe it was just that, a cemetery, and we’d died… doomed to fight these tenebrous phantoms for all eternity. Maybe the clone invasion of The Shade had claimed our lives without us even knowing it. No, that didn’t make much sens
e. We would’ve been reaped. No. Judging by the heart that kept pounding in my chest, we were all very much alive and kicking.

  “His name is Haldor,” Myst said, her voice uneven. “He is strong here. I am not.”

  “Where did Haldor come from? What is he? Or is he from this place?” I asked, following Thayen’s line of questioning. For all her splendor, Myst didn’t seem like the sharing type, so I braced myself for plenty of stone walls going forward—supposing she’d stick around. The look on her face said otherwise. She was restless. Looking for a way out.

  “Haldor isn’t from this realm, but he has made it his home, it seems. He and others like him. It’s not right,” Myst muttered, hand slowly reaching for her sword once more. I only had to observe her frame stiffening to realize that our troubles were nowhere near over.

  Finally, sounds emerged from the almost-black redwood forest. Sounds I’d hoped I wouldn’t hear again. Steps that cracked twigs and crushed dried leaves. Creatures of the night that hissed with hunger and malice. Growling as they closed in on their prey. We were not hunters in this world. We were the hunted. “They’re coming back,” I warned.

  Soph’s claws were already out, fangs sharp and eager to tear flesh from bones. I wasn’t sure if there would be anything for her to bite into. The shadow creatures certainly didn’t have the form or the mass for it. They were sentient wisps of darkness with flaming blue eyes and the ability to tear us apart, limb from limb. Jericho’s hands burst with orange fireballs as he took a defensive stance. Dafne stayed close, ready to shift into her dragon form, though I wondered what good it would do. Myst was the one to voice our thoughts in a single most effective sentence: “These monsters are darkness. Ghosts of the past, forced into Haldor’s service. You will need light to defeat them. Everything else is useless.”

  “How do you know? Have you fought such creatures before today?” Thayen asked.

  “I never thought I’d see this. My kind and Haldor’s were supposed to be united beneath the same authority. What they’re doing here, it… it boggles the mind. It’s wrong on so many levels,” Myst muttered, carefully watching the darkness just ahead. I could see why that particular spot had caught her attention.

  A pair of eyes like hers materialized from the blackness.

  “Jericho, might we get some light, please?” Thayen said, following Myst’s worried gaze.

  The dragon fae complied and threw out a massive circle of roaring flames, enough to keep the approaching monsters at bay. Myst looked at me. “You have light, as well. I need some. Please.”

  She took out her sword and held it straight. I nodded once and pressed my palms against its cold blade, chills tumbling down my spine with childlike delight. This was unlike anything I had seen and done before, yet it made sense to me—even though I couldn’t explain it in words. My hands glowed pink as I summoned the light within, allowing it to flow into the weapon.

  Within seconds, as the blood rushed through my veins like an electrical current, the blade illuminated like a blinding beacon. The light spread around us, accomplishing more than the circle of flames. It showed everything that the darkness of the forest had been hiding. The deep claw marks that had ravaged the trunks of every redwood nearby. The dried blood drizzled across the forest floor. The shadowy silhouettes that loathed us. And the giant man with blue flames for eyes, a whip in his left hand and a black cloak streaming down his right shoulder.

  “There he is,” Thayen breathed, and I could almost feel his horror as though it were mine. “Haldor…”

  “I’m warning you!” Myst shouted, loud enough for the shadow-man to hear. “Leave them alone. Don’t make this any worse for yourself. A judgment awaits you, Haldor.”

  We heard his dry chuckle, though we couldn’t see his face. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into, Myst. You don’t belong here.”

  “Neither do you,” she replied.

  “Oh, but my business is none of yours, dearie. I suggest you take that needle of yours and walk away before you regret ever setting foot in this realm. You should’ve stayed in Pur—”

  “You’re a criminal!” Myst cut him off, her tone sharp and clipped. “You will pay for this treason!”

  He laughed again. The air was so thick, I could barely breathe. Personally, I was only thankful we didn’t have any clones to deal with on top of the shadow monsters. I’d had enough of these skirmishes. We didn’t have enough information to win a battle, that much I could tell simply by watching this strange dialogue between Myst and Haldor.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But sooner or later, you won’t be around. And I will get to your living friends. I will tear them apart, one by one. And they will no longer bother us,” Haldor said.

  “What did we ever do to you, anyway?” I asked as my eyes burned with a mixture of anger and fear. I certainly didn’t deserve this horror, nor did any of my friends and family. We needed answers more than anything, and I could only hope that we’d get some from this deeply frightening moment. The light from Myst’s sword could only protect us for so long. My energy was not without end, and Jericho’s fire would wear out, too, if Haldor insisted on sticking around. “Why do the clones want me dead? What is this place? Who made the clones?”

  Haldor’s blue eyes were on me, and I didn’t like having his attention. It felt as though I was in the crosshairs of a deadly weapon. “You must die, half-Daughter. You will, soon enough. Maybe not now, since your new friend here has a slight advantage. But later. Maybe tomorrow or the day after,” he said, then looked at Thayen. “I’ll kill you too. You will not leave this place alive. You have my word on that.”

  Thayen brought a hand up, and it caught Haldor by surprise. I saw the blue fires widening with shock. Something was happening. Something that stunned even Myst, who gave Thayen a troubled look. “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Your glamor works on this guy?” Soph mumbled, eyeing Thayen with curiosity. He offered a faint nod, his brows pulled together as he focused on the grip he’d managed to get on Haldor.

  “It’s weird, though,” he grunted. “He feels… raw. Too much soul in him… I can’t describe it any other way.”

  “Why… you little bastard!” Haldor snarled, and Thayen cried out in pain, then dropped to his knees. He clutched his head with both hands. Soph and I were beside him in a second, trying to figure out how to help him. His nose was bleeding profusely, and he’d lost the color in his cheeks. “Don’t ever pull that stunt on me again, or I will turn your brain into mush!”

  “You tried to bend his spirit,” Myst managed, utterly astonished.

  “Emphasis on tried,” Haldor grumbled, gradually fading into the darkness behind him. I heard his shadow monsters scuttling back, following his lead. “I’ll be back for you, little mice. And no one will be able to protect you. Not even your light.”

  From this point onward, I knew things would only get stranger and more difficult. Haldor would definitely return with reinforcements—including the clones—but first, we had to make sure Thayen was okay.

  “He’s not well,” Soph said, giving me a scared glance. “His nosebleed won’t stop.”

  “What’s happening?” Thayen managed, his voice trembling as he watched the blood pooling on the ground. “This isn’t right…”

  “You cannot bend Haldor’s spirit. Not without destroying yourself,” Myst sighed.

  I cupped Thayen’s face with my glowing hands and allowed my healing energy to flow through him. I came upon mountains of pain and anguish. His soul was suffering because of the spiritual contact he’d made with Haldor. What the hell was that guy?

  “I’ve heard of it before,” Myst said. “But it will never work on Haldor’s kind. Or mine, for that matter. We’re more than he would be able to handle.” She paused to look at Thayen, whose agony was fading as I worked my way through his spiritual injuries. “I’m sorry you’re hurting like this.”

  Dafne clicked her teeth. “You need to start talking, Myst. You can’t leave u
s in the dark like this.” That statement was metaphorical, as the light from Myst’s sword was still shining brightly, keeping the darkness at bay. The heavy silence from earlier had returned, but I believed Haldor when he’d said he would come back for us.

  Soon this place would be crawling with worse things than his shadow monsters. The clones were dying to get to us, and we were nowhere near our intended destination. We had a long way to go through the redwood forest and we were smack in the middle of enemy territory, lost in a world so much like our own yet totally foreign. Our objectives had not changed. Only our circumstances.

  Myst sighed again as she dimmed the light on her sword before sheathing it. I looked up at her while Thayen healed under my hold, his breath gradually returning to a slower rhythm. “We need your help,” I told Myst. “I don’t think we’ll survive without you.”

  Perhaps I was lying, but it didn’t really matter. We would do better with someone like her on our side. She didn’t seem to know much more than the rest of us, but she definitely knew enough to help us navigate this strange realm. She’d been here longer. I could tell by how she surveyed the area, not with the doubt of a stranger but with the dread of an experienced trekker of these redwoods. She knew Haldor, too, and his shadow monsters.

  What were the odds she’d stay with us?

  Astra

  “You’ll have to,” Myst said.

  That wasn’t the answer we’d been hoping for. With her sword sheathed and her strange blue eyes gazing out into the darkness of this strange place, she was preparing to bid us farewell.

  “This isn’t right. You definitely know more than we do,” I argued. “At least tell me what Haldor is. The better we know this enemy, the greater our odds of survival.”

  She gave me a stern look. “You’re not supposed to know about us. My existence shouldn’t even concern you, let alone his.”

  “This doesn’t make sense,” Thayen said. “You’ve been incredibly helpful. We deserve the truth, don’t you think? This is obviously not something any of us have ever dealt with before.”