A Shade of Vampire 26: A World of New (16 page)

I
was sitting
with Ruby in the dining room of my family’s treehouse, helping her with her math homework while getting on with my own studies in between.

Since my visit to Saira, I had been doing everything I could to distract myself from watching the hours go by. My mother had promised that they would do all within their power to find Bastien. Now I just had to wait for their return to see if they had been successful.

When the elevator doors slid open outside our front door several hours later that day, my chest swelled in anticipation. I shot up from my chair and rushed to the door to see my parents approaching on the veranda. They looked dirty, sweaty, and battle-worn, but otherwise okay.

I rushed to them and flung an arm around each of their necks. “What happened?” I asked. “How come you’re back so soon?”

As I glanced from my mother to my father, their faces lit up in smiles.

“We found him,” my father said. “Your werewolf friend.”

My jaw dropped.
Oh, my God!
It was everything that I had been hoping for, but now that my father was confirming it, I could hardly believe my ears.

“We discovered him on the ogres’ shores,” my father went on. “He had been adrift in the ocean for some reason. He reached a beach and crawled for shelter amid some shrubbery.”

“He was in a bad state when we—or, I should say, Micah—found him,” my mother continued. “We were thinking to just send him back here with Arwen and Brock to be treated, but the rest of us could do with stocking up on weaponry. We’ll be leaving again soon, perhaps even within the day.”

I was burning to ask how the mission had gone so far, but right now, I couldn’t think about anything other than…

“Bastien,” I breathed. “Where is he?”

“In Meadow Hospital. The fourth floor. Being treated,” my mother explained.

I wished that a witch could vanish me to the hospital in an instant. I darted into the elevator and hurried down to the ground. I grabbed my bike and began racing as hard as I could toward the hospital.

I passed family and other League members along the way, including Ben, River, and Aiden, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop. I called greetings to them as I dashed past, until I finally reached the edge of the sunflower meadows. Panting, I left my bike by a tree and ran the rest of the way through the flowers, skidding to a stop at the hospital’s rotating entrance. I rushed in. Since all the elevators were occupied, I took the staircase and rushed up to the fourth level on foot.

My parents hadn’t told me Bastien’s door number. But many of the rooms up here were clearly vacant at present. It didn’t take me long to find the right one. As I arrived outside a door near the middle of the long corridor, low muttering drifted from inside. I held my breath and knocked softly.

“Come in,” a male voice responded.

I entered to find three jinn hovering around a bed: Horatio, Aisha, and one of Aisha’s cousins, Fina.

I darted to the bed, my entire being lighting up as I found myself gazing down at Bastien Blackhall, either asleep or unconscious. The jinn had covered his body with blankets, so the only part of him exposed to me was his upper chest and face. I moved near his head and placed a palm over his forehead. Then I leaned in, planting two gentle kisses over his eyelids.

I could hardly contain my excitement at the thought of him waking up. I would finally have the chance to get things straight with him and allay any doubts he might have that I could have betrayed him. I would be able to hear his deep voice, feel his fingers closing around mine… gaze into his beautiful gray eyes again.

As he lay with eyelids closed, he looked ever so worn and weary. I hadn’t even asked the jinn what was wrong with him yet. I would soon, but for now, the only one thing that mattered in the world to me was that Bastien was here. He had found his way back to me… just like Saira had predicted he would.

He was safe now. Safe in The Shade.
Safe with me
.

A
surge
of heat spread through my body. My limbs slowly awakened. I did not feel pain, even though I should have. I did not feel dampness beneath me. I was not resting on my stomach. I was lying on my back… in my human form.

My bed was no longer lined by undergrowth, but rich cotton sheets. I opened my eyes slowly. My vision was blurry. I was in some kind of room, a warm room glowing with soothing, orange lighting. There was someone leaning over me. A face.
An angel. Am I in heaven?

A soft palm pressed against my cheek and then a pair of lips pressed down against my forehead. I wished I could see who this person was.

My senses returned to me one by one. My vision was still lagging behind. But I could smell again. And it was a sense that flooded back to me far more quickly than my vision. I breathed in a heady mix of ointments, the smell of a burning lamp, and other things that were strange to me. But pervading all of them was a familiar scent, a scent that made my spirit soar as I breathed in.

I knew that scent. It was the scent of home. The scent of longing. It was the scent of Victoria.

Maybe I really had gone to heaven, or was stuck in some fantastical dream of the afterlife.

I reached up to her face, still blurred, and cupped it in my hands. I slid my fingers down her neck, around the curve of the base of her head, and drove my fingers into her silky hair. I pulled downward. And then she was close enough for me to be able to behold her beauty through my patchy vision.

Ocean-blue eyes. A gently rounded nose. Dark, expressive brows. A small, pert chin. And her lips… I couldn’t help but brush a thumb against them. Soft like flower petals.

She breathed my name. I tried to sit up, but she clasped my shoulders and pushed me back down against the pillows.

“You need to rest,” she whispered.

“I don’t want to rest,” I croaked, only half aware that I had spoken aloud, rather than in my head.

I had just found Victoria again, in whatever strange half-existence this was. How could I possibly rest?

She placed her hands over mine and gave me that familiar squeeze.

“It was Detrius all along, Bastien,” Victoria began, gazing down at me through starry eyes.

I found myself trying to figure out what in heavens she was talking about, and what my cousin had to do with anything. Only as she continued did I remember how Victoria and I had gotten wedged apart to begin with. The hunters. The mutants. Brucella yelling that Victoria was a traitor, for me to cast her aside. And then one of Victoria’s relatives swooping her away.

And then the crushing aftermath. The doubt. The confusion. The desolation.

But now Victoria was telling me that it had all been a setup. That none of it was true. It was my cousin who had caused the hunters to arrive at Rock Hall. Not Victoria. Of course, not Victoria! Not my kind, beautiful friend Victoria.

After she finished recounting her tale, I gazed up at her, the corners of my eyes heating. It felt like an iron weight had been lifted from my chest, freeing me. As I felt the urge to sit up again, this time she allowed me to lean against the headboard.

“Our jinn have been working on your leg,” she explained, gesturing to the bottom half of me that was covered with blankets. I had been so consumed by Victoria that I had even forgotten all about it. “And don’t worry. A male nurse put you in clothes,” she added, indicating my crisp blue clothing.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“You’re in Meadow Hospital. In The Shade.”

In The Shade
. My lips parted as her words sank in. A dozen questions fought to the front of my mind at once.
How was I saved? How did I get here? Who saved me? How did they know where to find me? What is happening in my home country, The Woodlands?
I also wondered how thoroughly the jinn had managed to fix my leg. I had feeling down there, and I was able to move it.

But somehow, I could not quite bring myself to ask any of this yet. With my newfound Victoria sitting just inches away from me, she still had my mind beguiled.

A span of silence fell as we gazed into each other’s eyes. Then, as though we were being drawn together like puppets on a string, slowly we leaned closer to each other. Hesitant. Tentative. Until our noses touched. She closed her eyes as my hands moved through her locks. I ran the tip of my nose down the bridge of hers, breathing her in. Cherishing her presence.

She rested her palms against my chest, her fingers curving and gathering the fabric of my shirt. I closed my own eyes, pressing my rough cheek against the smoothness of hers. My heart was pounding. I wanted to taste her lips. I wanted to kiss her again, with nobody watching. With nobody to decree what was right and what was wrong. With nobody to tear us apart.

I wanted to set us free. Was that what she wanted, too?

I distanced my face from hers a couple of inches so that I could behold her eyes. As she lifted her eyelids, my pulse raced harder. They were glazed with the same emotions that I felt deep within my chest. Longing. Desire. Need.

Her cheeks flushed even as her mouth curved in a smile. She leaned in and touched our noses together again. And this time, it was her lips that pressed against mine first. I couldn’t help but wind my arms around her waist and pull her to lie sideways next to me on the mattress. Her head resting against my pillow, I relished every sensation her kiss ignited in my body. I treasured her every touch, her every tender caress, like gold dust.

It felt like she was back where she belonged. Close to me. Safe with me…

Loved by me.

W
here has
that boy gotten to?

I could not believe that I had let him get away. We had been searching for him nonstop, sailing around the waters where I had lost sight of him, as well as all the surrounding areas.

Eventually we came upon the ogres’ shores. I wondered if he really could’ve swum this far. He would have been a fool to. These waters near the ogres’ kingdom were swarming with dangerous creatures.

Still, I had to remind myself that the poor boy was confused. Ever since my sister and brother-in-law had died, he seemed to have quite lost his senses. Thus, as much as his behavior aggravated me, I could not bring myself to be too angry with him. He was still in mourning. Grief could make a man do things that they never would have otherwise done. In any case, that girl was gone now. I couldn’t imagine that she would be returning to the battleground The Woodlands had become.

Rona, bless her heart, had asked me why we were so bent on chasing down Bastien. I explained to her the truth: that he was mad with grief right now. That he was in shock, needing to be guided and protected closely, until he recovered his mind. As his only remaining family, it was our duty to do what was best for him.

I directed Sergius to navigate the boat closer to the ogres’ shoreline, and slowly but steadily, we traversed the entire circumference of the island, looking for clues. As we came a half-circle around the vast island, many hours later, I beheld a sight that made me both sigh with relief and tense with fear. A trail of blood running along the sand.

I leapt off the ship and bounded toward the beach, sniffing at the trail. Even though it had gone cold, I knew instantly that this was Bastien. I could scent my nephew better than anyone. I followed the trail toward a line of trees while my husband and family leapt from the ship and followed my lead. I foraged through the bushes and reached a huge patch of dried blood. My eyes widened at the sight. He had been bleeding a lot. Enough to make a werewolf pass out, possibly even die. But where was his body? Had an ogre come to scoop it up and carry it off for a meal?

Then I picked up on Bastien’s scent again, as well as the scent of another werewolf. A werewolf I didn’t recognize. The scents led us through the trees for several feet and then back onto the sand. I followed another trail of blood drops along the beach. Who was this second werewolf? We hurried further, gaining speed. The trail swerved back toward yet another cluster of trees many miles down the beach. We traipsed through thick undergrowth before stopping abruptly. We’d arrived at the edge of a gaping black hole. A gate I’d never known existed.

Bastien never would have known about it either. It was impossible. My sister and brother-in-law had deliberately made him lead a sheltered life. He had never been out of The Woodlands. He would never have known to come here unless he’d had help. The second werewolf must have helped him. But who was he? Why would he help him? And why would he head to the human realm—a place full of perils for a werewolf?

I grimaced as a theory formed in my mind. There had been a wolf among those Shade people. It was very possible that they had used this starry portal to travel to The Woodlands in the first place. And their wolf had managed to scent him…

Gazing down into the crater, my chest heaved imagining where Bastien could be now.
Sharing the bed of that wench back in The Shade!
My blood boiled.
Oh, he had better not be. He had better not…

It appeared that fate had transpired against me. Which meant that now, I had no choice but to transpire against fate.

I shuddered even as I thought about what I was about to propose to my husband. But I gritted my teeth. I could not have that boy make a mockery of my daughter or my family. After he’d been betrothed to Rona for so long, no other werewolf worthy of my daughter would ever accept her. Even though Bastien and Rona had hardly touched since childhood, she would already be considered tainted, spoiled. Rejected by someone else.

Besides that, the progeny Bastien’s seed produced would be the envy of every family in The Woodlands. His bloodline was fine… finer than he even knew.

He just had to be my daughter’s. And he already
was
my daughter’s. It was simply a matter of him giving up his delusions and accepting the fact.

Thus, I turned to my husband and said in a low, grim voice, “We must call upon the Mortclaws.”

As I expected, my husband’s eyes bulged with shock, then sheer terror. “
What?
The Mortclaws? You can’t be serious, Brucella!”

“I am quite serious,” I replied, even as my lower lip trembled slightly at the thought of facing such creatures.

Whether I liked it or not, the time had finally come for Bastien to meet his
real
birth parents…

* * *

D
earest Shaddict
,

The next book in the series is
A Shade of Vampire 27: A Web of Lies
!

A Web of Lies
releases
May 15th, 2016.

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Thank you so much for reading.

I will see you again very soon, back in The Shade!

Love,

Bella xxx

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