A Soldier of Shadows Read online

  A Shade of Vampire 19: A Soldier of Shadows

  Bella Forrest

  Contents

  Also by Bella Forrest

  Copyright

  1. Chapter 1: Ben

  2. Chapter 2: River

  3. Chapter 3: River

  4. Chapter 4: Corrine

  5. Chapter 5: Ben

  6. Chapter 6: Derek

  7. Chapter 7: Ben

  8. Chapter 8: Ben

  9. Chapter 9: River

  10. Chapter 10: Ben

  11. Chapter 11: River

  12. Chapter 12: Ben

  13. Chapter 13: River

  14. Chapter 14: River

  15. Chapter 15: Ben

  16. Chapter 16: Sofia

  17. Chapter 17: Ben

  18. Chapter 18: Ben

  19. Chapter 19: River

  20. Chapter 20: Ben

  21. Chapter 21: River

  22. Chapter 22: Ben

  23. Chapter 23: Ben

  24. Chapter 24: River

  25. Chapter 25: Ben

  26. Chapter 26: Ben

  27. Chapter 27: Derek

  28. Chapter 28: Jeramiah

  Read More by Bella Forrest!

  Also by Bella Forrest

  A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES

  Derek & Sofia’s story:

  A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)

  A Shade of Blood (Book 2)

  A Castle of Sand (Book 3)

  A Shadow of Light (Book 4)

  A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)

  A Gate of Night (Book 6)

  A Break of Day (Book 7)

  Rose & Caleb’s story:

  A Shade of Novak (Book 8)

  A Bond of Blood (Book 9)

  A Spell of Time (Book 10)

  A Chase of Prey (Book 11)

  A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)

  A Turn of Tides (Book 13)

  A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)

  A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)

  An End of Night (Book 16)

  The Shade lives on…

  A Wind of Change (Book 17)

  A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)

  A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY

  A Shade of Kiev 1

  A Shade of Kiev 2

  A Shade of Kiev 3

  BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY

  Beautiful Monster 1

  Beautiful Monster 2

  For an updated list of my books, please visit my website: www.bellaforrest.net

  Join my VIP email list and I’ll personally send you an email reminder as soon as my next book is out! Click here to sign up: www.forrestbooks.com

  Copyright © 2015 by Bella Forrest

  Cover design inspired by Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations LLC

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter 1: Ben

  “We know who you are, and we know what you want…”

  I had no idea to whom the voice belonged, why it kept echoing in my ears, or what presence had followed River and me since leaving that Egyptian desert, but after the vision I’d just had, I knew one thing: The Oasis held answers. Answers about my past. Answers that nobody in The Shade had any clue about.

  There was no doubt in my mind that the infant in that vision had been me. I had been taken to Aviary as a newborn.

  “What is it, Ben?” River asked as she stared at me. “What’s wrong?”

  I couldn’t find my voice to explain to her what I had just seen. Not yet.

  Ibrahim, who was sitting in a chair against the door of the chamber, stirred at River speaking. Opening his eyes, he looked our way. His sleepy expression turned to one of concern. “Is something wrong?”

  “I need to speak to my parents,” I said, swinging my legs off the narrow bed.

  Ibrahim looke'd confused, but I was relieved when he just nodded. “I will go wake them.” His eyes fell to River. “While I’m gone, you had better make sure that Ben doesn’t lose control of himself and escape the Sanctuary.”

  River gulped, then nodded. “Try not to be too long,” she said, her voice strained.

  Ibrahim vanished from the spot, leaving River and me alone. I reached for her hand and pulled her against me, wrapping my arms around her small waist and resting my chin on her head so that I could breathe her in. Her arms slid around my midriff and she held me as we stood in silence, my mind still playing over the vision I had just experienced. The vision I had been given.

  River didn’t ask again what was wrong, and I was glad that she gave me space to collect my thoughts before my parents arrived five minutes later. Both were in their nightclothes as they appeared in the room alongside Ibrahim. My gut clenched on catching the strong scent of my father’s blood. I backed away into the furthest corner of the room with River.

  Before they could ask me what was wrong, I began to explain. “I just had a vision. I saw myself in Aviary as a newborn. Something happened to me while I was being kept there… I was carried away by a Hawk to another place briefly before being brought back again.”

  My father’s brows furrowed. “Wait, Ben. A vision? What do you mean, a vision?”

  “I mean I had a vision,” I said. “Just now. As I was lying in bed with River.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t a dream?” my father asked.

  “It wasn’t a dream,” I said impatiently. “I wasn’t sleeping. I know that for a fact.”

  “What do you mean you were taken somewhere else?” my mother asked, her face tense. “Where?”

  I described the place as best as I could. The black mountain ranges with their sharp peaks. The absence of greenery. The dark clouds. The sky tinged with red.

  The expression on my parents’ faces was one of shock.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Ben,” my father said, “the place you’ve described… it sounds like Cruor.”

  Cruor. The land of the Elders, the original vampires.

  My skin prickled as I recalled the shadowy presence that had surrounded my infant form, and that bone-chilling hiss…

  “Take him back to Aviary… His time will come.”

  Could that have been an Elder who enveloped me? What did he mean by those words?

  But none of it made any sense. “Are you sure?” I said. “How could that have been Cruor? Hawks and Elders were, and are, the deadliest of enemies. Why on earth would a Hawk take me to Cruor? Especially since my blood was supposed to be rare and valuable. Why would a Hawk risk taking me anywhere near that place?”

  My parents exchanged glances. Ibrahim didn’t have any insight to offer either. We just looked at each other, confused.

  After moments of silence, another voice rang out in my memory. This time, it was the voice of my cousin. Jeramiah Novak.

  “Something tells me you will be returning…”

  After we’d first escaped from The Oasis, I’d said to River that I hoped we would never find out what he meant by those words, or why he had let her escape so easily.

  Now, it appeared that I had no choice but to find out.

  Chapter 2: River

  I thought that Ben had lost his mind when he said, “I need to return to The Oasis.”

  “What?” Ibrahim, Ben’s parents and I all exclaimed at once.

  “There’s someone, or something, there that knows more about me than any of us do.”

  Sofia stepped forward and clutched her son’s shoulders. “I know something about The Oasis has left its mark on you and that’s why you’ve been having all these bizarre experiences,
but this is an extremely drastic conclusion. What if all of this is just a trap to lure you back there? What if it’s one of their witches creating an illusion in your head?”

  “I don’t doubt that it’s a trap,” Ben replied, “but I don’t believe the vision I just had was an illusion. I don’t see how they could’ve made that up. They know far too much about me and my past.”

  “But Ben,” I breathed, “how can going back be the answer? Even if you did discover the truth about what happened to you and why you’re like this, you could end up trapped there. There’s no way of knowing whether Jeramiah would allow you to escape again. How does going back solve anything?”

  To my surprise, it was Derek who replied. “I agree with Ben,” he said. “And I believe him when he says that what he had was a vision, not a dream. I can’t be entirely convinced that what he saw was truth, but so far, this is the closest we have come to an answer. It’s the only clue we have, and I don’t see how we can leave this road unexplored. So I think Ben should go back.”

  Apparently he was just as desperate as his son to find an answer. Sofia gaped, turning on her husband.

  “What?”

  “I think Ben should return,” Derek repeated calmly. He turned his eyes toward his son, who had his gaze fixed on his father. “But I don’t think you should go alone. That would be foolish when we have many capable people to accompany you.”

  Ben looked reluctant. “I don’t want to be the cause of any more casualties,” he said. “This is my problem and I don’t see how it’s fair to expect any of our people to share my burden.”

  “Not expect, Ben,” Derek said. “But I think that you will find that many on this island will want to help their prince.”

  Ben bit his lip, apparently seeing truth in his father’s words.

  “So far from what you’ve told us,” Derek continued, “we know that they have an army of vampires, five witches, half-bloods and a lot of humans. Unless there was anyone else living there you didn’t see, that’s hardly much to contend with. We have stood against much, much worse. You said that the witches cast a protective spell over The Oasis, but I don’t see that as anything that the force of our witches combined couldn’t crack. And once inside the atrium, we wouldn’t leave until we’d solved this mystery—why you had that vision, why you are experiencing these voices, why you are still hearing sounds of that place even thousands of miles away.”

  Ibrahim cleared his throat. “Derek,” he said, “before doing anything, we need to wait for Corrine. The look on her face when she was examining those tattoos… We shouldn’t take her reaction lightly. She told River and Ben to wait in this room until she returned, and I really think that you should heed her advice.”

  Derek and Ben both let out sharp breaths. “How much longer is she going to take?” Derek asked.

  Ibrahim shrugged. “You saw how she wouldn’t tell any of us what she was thinking. She just said to wait.”

  “Well, we have waited enough,” Derek said. “Would you just go and talk to her? Even if she is not sure of whatever she suspects, she can at least give us some idea. She can’t keep us in the dark any longer.”

  Ibrahim looked reluctant, but nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Ibrahim vanished, leaving Derek, Sofia, Ben and me in the room.

  “Of the people who are willing,” Ben said, “who do you suggest we bring?”

  “First off, as many witches as we can spare,” Derek replied. “Then we should bring an army of vampires, werewolves… and I also suggest we bring a couple of dragons if they are agreeable.”

  Dragons. The notion was so strange to me. Since we had arrived, neither Ben nor I had come across any, but I had seen footage of dragons lined up along a California beach on the TV. My mother had convinced me those giant beasts had just been works of a talented CGI artist.

  Ben’s eyes turned on me, his hold on me tightening.

  “River,” he said, “I don’t want any of this to affect your plans. You said that you would wait for me to turn into a human before thinking about going to visit your family. Well, now that’s not possible, you need to start thinking about your own plans. I don’t want to drag you any further into my problem.”

  My own plans… I was so overwhelmed with everything that had happened in the past twelve hours with Ben, I’d barely thought about my own plans.

  As much as the idea of visiting my family thrilled me, I didn’t feel comfortable about abandoning Ben. It felt like we were on this journey together, and just as he’d been there all along to help me, I ought to do the same for him. Although the idea terrified me, I found myself saying, “I want to come with you, Ben.”

  He immediately shook his head. “No. It’s going to be far too dangerous, and I really can’t see the need for you to come.”

  “You don’t know what exactly is going to happen while you’re there,” I persisted, “and there might be a need for you to have my blood near you. For a start, the place is filled with humans.”

  “River—”

  “As for danger,” I continued, cutting him off, “it will be very different this time. You’ll be going there with a whole army. From the way you and your father are talking, it sounds like the only ones in danger will be the residents of The Oasis themselves.”

  Ben looked toward his parents, as though he wanted them to back him up in convincing me to stay. Sofia set her eyes on me. And then a small smile appeared on her face.

  I wasn’t sure why she smiled exactly, but she said, “One thing your father and I have learned recently is to never underestimate a determined seventeen-year-old girl.”

  Ben looked surprised by his mother’s response. He paused, then said with a sigh, “Okay. If you want to come, I won’t try to stop you… But what about your family? You’ve been saying all this time how much they need you, how much you want to get back to them.”

  “I do want to visit my family,” I said slowly. “But maybe I could visit them now, while you’re waiting for Corrine and making preparations to leave? I would only need an hour or two.” I paused, realizing that I wasn’t confident in leaving Ben’s side for even that amount of time.

  Ben seemed to be reading my thoughts. “Yes, you could do that. And I would find a way to manage during that time.”

  “How will you manage? Even with me by your side, you struggle to rein yourself in.”

  “You won’t be gone long,” Ben said. “You could leave me some more of your blood, then I would go and wait in the submarine, along with perhaps four or five other vampires in case things get really bad.”

  He seemed to be confident in his words, so that put me at ease a little. “Okay,” I said.

  Ben addressed his father. “Can we spare a witch for a couple of hours? Just to transport River to New York. The plan is for her to bring her family back here to visit, if her mother agrees.”

  Derek nodded. “She can go with Shayla.”

  Ben lowered his head and pressed his lips against the side of my neck in a tender kiss. His caress sent tingles running down my spine.

  “I’ll manage for a couple of hours, River,” he said softly. “Now, finally, go back to your family.”

  Chapter 3: River

  Derek left the room and reappeared about ten minutes later accompanied by a witch, Shayla. She was holding a map in her hands and, after glancing in my direction, she sat down on a chair, placed the map on her knee and asked me to show her the exact location of our apartment in Manhattan.

  Once she had studied it, she manifested a cup. She raised a brow at me. “Ready for me to draw some blood?”

  I held out my wrist, wondering how she was going to do it. Extending a forefinger, she ran it over my skin, leaving behind a thin cut. That was certainly less painful than the times I’d cut myself or Ben had dug his fangs into me. She gathered my blood into the cup.

  “Shayla,” Derek said, once she’d finished drawing blood, “take Ben, River and Sofia to the submarine. Sofia, you will stay with Ben
there and I will find four or five other vampires to join you. You’ll all wait there while River is gone.”

  “And you?” Sofia asked.

  “I’ll be gathering our army and making other preparations for leaving for The Oasis.”

  And so it was done. Shayla transported us to the submarine, and after I kissed Ben goodbye, he disappeared beneath the hatch with his mother. I still felt nervous about leaving him, but I repeated to myself Ben’s reasoning—I wouldn’t be gone long, he had a cup of my blood, and soon there would be five vampires waiting with him down there. It’s going to be okay.

  When my thoughts turned to my family, I lit up with anticipation at the prospect of seeing them again. I could already picture the relief that would spread across my mother’s face and the tears that would form in her eyes. I could hardly contain my excitement when Shayla closed her hand around my arm and our surroundings disappeared.

  The ground beneath me gave way, and it felt like I was hurtling at lightning speed through an endless expanse of air. Wind whipped around me, and by the time my feet hit solid ground again, I felt dizzy.

  My vision coming into focus, I found myself staring around the dark living room of our small two-bedroom apartment.

  It felt so strange to be back here. Breathing in the familiar smell, feeling the carpet beneath my feet… to be home after so long, and after so many times when I’d believed that I might never see this place again.

  It was early in the morning, so my family would be in their bedrooms sleeping.

  Leaving the living room, I made my way through the kitchen and stopped outside my mother and Jamil’s room. Pressing my ear against the door, I held my breath and listened. I could hear nothing but silence. Not even the slightest intake of breath.

  When I pushed the door open, the room was empty. I hurried to the second bedroom—my, Dafne, and Lalia’s room. Also empty. The bathroom door was wide open, clearly nobody inside.

  Panic threatened to overtake me. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.