A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)

“It’s coming straight at us,” I heard Avril say, and Serena gasped.

They swiftly split up and moved across the platform in different directions, grabbing GASP officers and senior Eritopians along the way. Avril made it to our table.

“There’s something coming from the sky,” she said. “It’s headed straight for Luceria.”

“Like what, an asteroid?” Field shot to his feet.

“It’s got a zig-zag trajectory,” she replied. “So definitely not. We’re going up on the platform to observe and intervene, if needed. Draven’s getting the Daughters as we speak.”

We instantly sat up and followed as she moved toward the main exit. One by one, I saw the rest of our family politely stepping away from other wedding guests and calmly joining us in the hallway. We headed for the stairs.

“I don’t get it,” I heard Vita telling Bijarki behind us. “I should’ve seen this coming. It seems big enough to warrant at least one vision. I… I don’t know why my visions are so counter-productive sometimes!”

We reached the platform, which was our best observation point. The indigo sky was home to billions of twinkling stars, a pearly moon in the east, and a bright, round light getting bigger with every minute that passed.

The Daughters of Eritopia hovered quietly between us, reaching the edge of the platform and staring at the strange object. All the Novaks were there, watching quietly. Draven moved closer to the Daughters, accompanied by Field and Derek.

“What is it?” Draven asked Safira.

“We do not know,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the light. “We cannot sense it.”

“I wonder why,” Chana added.

The closer it got, the better we could see that it was a perfect sphere of white light, shining like a miniature sun. It stilled and hovered several hundred miles away, then settled on a straight-line trajectory, increasing its speed and cutting my breath short.

“It must be destroyed,” Safira muttered.

“At that speed, and given that we don’t know what it is, that would be the best course of action,” Draven agreed.

The Daughters nodded and raised their hands, their silk-wrapped bodies lighting up pink as they prepared to dismantle the foreign object. I’d not yet seen them in offensive action, and I was curious to see exactly what degree of destruction their power could inflict.

“Stop,” Viola intervened suddenly, stepping in front of her sisters. She looked at the light sphere. “It’s not… It’s a spell… There’s someone in it.”

“How can you see inside it?” Safira frowned.

“I don’t know.” Viola shrugged. “But I can. There’s a person inside. It’s the same interplanetary spell I mentioned during our last council. It’s swamp witch magic—I recognize the form…”

“What do we do, then?” Draven asked. “We can’t let it crash into us.”

“No, we slow it down.” She nodded, then shifted her focus back to the light sphere, which was only a few miles away and moving fast.

She put her hands out, and so did her sisters. They sent out an invisible pulse that captured the glowing orb, helping it slow down and gently stop above the platform. Its milky white light shone over us, a faint buzzing coming out of it.

We all stepped back, giving the sphere enough room to settle on the white marble floor. It was the size of a large hot air balloon, but, as soon as it touched down, it started to shrink before our very eyes, its hum louder and heavier.

“Whoever is inside, they used swamp witch magic that we’ve just unearthed from that book,” Viola muttered. “And I told no one about it, other than the GASP council and Phoenix.”

I felt my heart thudding in my chest. We were all ready to strike if needed, but we were also equally intrigued. The last original practitioners of swamp witch magic had been driven to extinction during Azazel’s reign of terror, and their books had been hidden for decades before Draven and Serena got them back together. Who could it be, and who could have access to magic of such proportions?





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)





As soon as the light sphere began to shrink, I stepped forward. I quietly made my way between Eritopians and Shadians, my gaze fixed on the foreign object that had just landed on Luceria’s platform. The brightness dimmed, as did the constant hum, until the sphere dissolved altogether and revealed… a woman, standing and looking at us.

I heard mumbling around me. Our GASP elders got closer, led by Derek, Xavier, and Cameron. Draven, Field, and Serena were next to them, along with Jax and Hansa. I noticed movement at the corner of my eye and saw Jax’s ten Mara wards slipping between us and circling the woman. I hadn’t even seen them during the wedding party, as they preferred keeping mostly to themselves and in the more secluded areas of the banquet hall.

Before any of us could react, I heard the screeching of metal—swords drawn from their sheaths as the wards closed in on the strange, swamp witch magic-wielding visitor.

“Hold!” Jax barked his order, prompting his wards to obey and still, their blades out and glistening under the moonlight.

Only then did I notice that our party-crasher was a young Mara female, with black hair trimmed into a pixie cut, big jade eyes, and a small, heart-shaped mouth. She wore a simple but elegant black dress that reminded me of late nineteenth-century styles, cut straight just below her shoulders and revealing her pale skin and accentuated collar bones. There was a red symbol on her neck, just below her ear. It looked like it had been branded onto her with a hot iron.

“Milord, she doesn’t belong here,” one of the wards said through gritted teeth, his dislike of her obvious and, at the same time, intriguing.

“Please,” the female Mara said, her voice trembling, genuine fear imprinted on her delicate face. “I mean no harm, and I come in peace!”

Jax’s sword nearly howled as it left his scabbard, its tip pointed directly at her throat. He seemed upset, barely holding it in. The rest of us were baffled—including Hansa, whose gaze moved back and forth between Jax and the female Mara.

“What’s going on?” Hansa mumbled. “Who is she?”

“I come in peace, I swear,” the strange visitor said, tears glazing her wide eyes as she slowly raised her hands in a defensive gesture. “I had no choice. I had to come here…”

“You are not welcome here,” Jax shot back, his voice so low and sharp that it sent chills down my spine.

“Who is she?” Draven repeated Hansa’s question, his brow furrowed and his lips pressed into a thin line. He stepped forward and positioned himself between Jax’s sword and the female Mara.

“She’s an Exiled Mara,” Heron answered from the crowd behind us.

He moved and joined his brother’s side, his inquisitive gaze fixed on the Exiled Mara.