A Shade of Vampire 44: A Tangle of Hearts
Bella Forrest
Contents
Also by Bella Forrest
New Generation List
1. Aida
2. Phoenix
3. Jovi
4. Phoenix
5. Jovi
6. Vita
7. Serena
8. Serena
9. Aida
10. Jovi
11. Serena
12. Jovi
13. Vita
14. Serena
15. Serena
16. Jovi
17. Vita
18. Serena
19. Serena
20. Vita
21. Jovi
22. Vita
23. Phoenix
24. Aida
25. Jovi
26. Serena
27. Jovi
28. Serena
29. Serena
30. Jovi
31. Serena
32. Jovi
33. Serena
34. Phoenix
35. Vita
36. Aida
37. Serena
38. Jovi
39. Serena
40. Vita
Novak Family Tree (You may need to turn the page to see it!)
Read more by Bella Forrest
Also by Bella Forrest
THE GENDER GAME
The Gender Game (Book 1)
The Gender Secret (Book 2)
The Gender Lie (Book 3)
The Gender War (Book 4)
The Gender Fall (Book 5)
The Gender Plan (Book 6)
The Gender End (Book 7)
THE SECRET OF SPELLSHADOW MANOR
The Secret of Spellshadow Manor (Book 1)
The Breaker (Book 2)
The Chain (Book 3)
A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES
Series 1: 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)
Series 2: 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)
Series 3: The Shade continues with a new hero…
A Wind of Change (Book 17)
A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)
A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)
A Hero of Realms (Book 20)
A Vial of Life (Book 21)
A Fork of Paths (Book 22)
A Flight of Souls (Book 23)
A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)
Series 4: A Clan of Novaks
A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)
A World of New (Book 26)
A Web of Lies (Book 27)
A Touch of Truth (Book 28)
An Hour of Need (Book 29)
A Game of Risk (Book 30)
A Twist of Fates (Book 31)
A Day of Glory (Book 32)
Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians
A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)
A Sword of Chance (Book 34)
A Race of Trials (Book 35)
A King of Shadow (Book 36)
An Empire of Stones (Book 37)
A Power of Old (Book 38)
A Rip of Realms (Book 39)
A Throne of Fire (Book 40)
A Tide of War (Book 41)
Series 6: A Gift of Three
A Gift of Three (Book 42)
A House of Mysteries (Book 43)
A Tangle of Hearts (Book 44)
A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY
A Shade of Dragon 1
A Shade of Dragon 2
A Shade of Dragon 3
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
DETECTIVE ERIN BOND (Adult thriller/mystery)
Lights, Camera, GONE
Write, Edit, KILL
For an updated list of Bella’s books, please visit her website: www.bellaforrest.net
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Copyright © 2017 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.
New Generation List
Aida: daughter of Bastien and Victoria (half werewolf/half human)
Field: biological son of River, adopted son of Benjamin (mix of Hawk and vampire-half-blood)
Jovi: son of Bastien and Victoria (half werewolf/half human)
Phoenix: son of Hazel and Tejus (sentry)
Serena: daughter of Hazel and Tejus (sentry)
Vita: daughter of Grace and Lawrence (part-fae/human)
Aida
[Victoria & Bastien’s daughter]
The morning sun invaded our room through faded drapes and stained windows, warming the side of my face. I opened and closed my eyes a couple of times to help them adjust to the light. The damp smell was still there, and my nose crinkled. I hated this place.
I lay on the bed with my arm over my face, willing myself to sit up. In the silence, images of runes flickered before my eyes, and the previous night’s chilling images of myself in the mirror crashed into me—the symbols and icons moving across my limbs like spiders. My skin crawled. I sat up and checked myself again.
My skin is clear. Not a single marking. All me, all there.
I took a deep breath and tried to shake the images from my mind. Maybe I had imagined it. Maybe the heat and exhaustion of yesterday had finally gotten to me. But, then again, maybe my reflection had been trying to tell me something, to give me a preview of what was going to happen to my body as an Oracle.
I gave myself another once-over. Still nothing. No weird black liquid on my skin. Not a single rune.
Vita shifted next to me on top of the damp sheets. She looked uncomfortable as she, too, pulled herself from a heavy sleep.
I’d probably managed a couple of hours of downtime after I’d seen myself doodled in runes in that glass cabinet. It had taken a while for me to will myself away from my own reflection and back to our room. Vita had still been asleep when my head touched the pillow, and for a brief moment, I’d envied her. She was just as screwed up as I was with this Oracle madness, but she had been able to at least sleep some of it off. I, on the other hand, had started to hallucinate.
But what if it was all real?
I looked over at her again and found her looking at me. Compassion and concern shone in her turquoise eyes. She pressed her lips together tightly, as if she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure whether she should.
“In other circumstances, I‘d say Good Morning, Sunshine,” I said. I cocked my head, trying not to sound like the bundle of gloom I was inside.
Vita smiled gently, rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands, and sat up.
“You got back late,” she said.
Her words caug
ht me by surprise. I could’ve sworn she’d been asleep both when I’d left and when I’d returned from my short-lived expedition through the mansion. I looked away, trying to focus my attention on the patches of blue skies and wisps of white cotton clouds outside.
“I had a hard time falling asleep,” I said.
“I don’t blame you.” Vita sighed and fumbled with strands of her hair. It was the color of sun-kissed summer wheat fields and slightly curled from all the humidity. As quiet and reclusive as she usually was, she was always able to comfort me without words.
She’d come a long way over the past few days. We all had. From our soirée with the fae, to this life-changing insanity of Oracles, Druids, incubi, and shape-shifters—and whatever else lurked in the jungles around us—in a world where we didn’t belong… and with our families stripped of the very memory of us.
Vita got out of bed and started picking out some clothes for the day.
Memories of my runes flickered through my mind, as I willed myself to tell her about what I had seen in the mirror. I just didn’t want to risk worrying her unnecessarily.
She pulled out a pair of undergarments that would serve as pants, a yellowish shade of white, yet another victim of centuries past. She wrinkled her nose, apparently unhappy with her selection, but it wasn’t like she had a better choice. Our sartorial whims were the least of our concerns this morning.
“Vita…”
“Hm?” She looked up at me. This was harder than I’d originally thought.
“How are you feeling?”
Her blank stare made me realize I hadn’t asked the brightest question.
“I mean, with these Oracle abilities, how are you feeling? Other than visions, have you been experiencing anything else?”
Vita pulled a pale pink linen camisole from the same pile of clothes we’d recovered from the attic and examined it while she mulled over my question.
“Honestly, Aida, I’m having enough trouble with what I see,” she finally said. “I’m in no rush to turn into a blind, barren, tattooed Oracle and end up in an evil overlord’s fishbowl.”
Fair enough.
But last night’s memories nagged me like a twig poking at the back of my head.
“Yeah, I get that. I’m not eager to see where this takes us either,” I said cautiously, “but I think something’s happening to me, and I don’t know who else to talk to about it.”
My voice sounded raw in my own ears.
Vita’s big bluish eyes doubled in size. She set the clothes aside on the bed and came closer to me. Concern drew a small crease between her slim eyebrows.
“What do you mean?”
I took another deep breath, one that made me feel like my lungs were about to burst and let it all out in one long sigh. I described the runes I could remember and the way they had appeared and vanished.
Sweet Vita listened quietly.
“At first I thought I imagined it,” I said. “But then I saw myself in another reflective surface, and the runes were all there, and something dark was trickling out of them through my skin.”
“But when you’d look down, there was nothing?” Vita asked.
I nodded and waited for her reaction.
She bent down and looked at my shoulder where it wasn’t covered by my camisole. She studied my back and pulled my arms out to check them as well. She didn’t speak for a full minute. In these circumstances, maybe silence was a good answer.
“It’s weird,” Vita murmured eventually. She passed a hand through her hair. “There definitely aren’t any runes on your skin now.”
“But when I looked in the mirror—”
“Wait.” Vita grabbed a hand mirror from the old vanity in the corner and held it to my skin to check my reflection. I tilted my head in order to see in the mirror as well.
Nothing. Even in the mirror, my skin was clear. Relief coursed through me in hot and cold waves. I let out a tortured sigh.
Vita watched me intently. Her face said more than her words ever could; she understood.
Before I could say anything else, she hugged me tight. I hugged back. I would do anything for this girl.
“Right, so for now, let’s just keep this to ourselves,” Vita said. She grabbed her clothes and headed for the shower. “No need to worry the others yet. And let’s be vigilant and keep an eye on each other from now on, okay?”
Her question hung in the air. She disappeared into the bathroom without waiting for my response.
I straightened my back and got out of bed. Whatever last night had been, I pushed it to the back of my head.
If any of us wanted to get out of here alive, we had our work cut out for us. There was so much still to be done.
Phoenix
[Hazel & Tejus’s son]
I tried to wash off the previous night’s event with a cold shower, but it didn’t do much good. Giving up, I went down to breakfast. The warm morning was hard on all of us judging by how late everyone else was.
Seeing the Daughters of Eritopia in my sleep was one of the strangest experiences of my life. And their gift to me, asking me to sacrifice myself so that the last Daughter could wake up and save us all… I’d brushed it off as just a dream, until I’d found their stone knife next to me in bed.
I sat at the breakfast table, staring at the food with unfocused eyes. My hand touched the right pocket of my pants, where the stone blade rested coldly.
I glanced up when Jovi entered the room. He didn’t look great either. His fun-loving side was buried beneath a layer of grumpiness, as he grunted his way to the coffee pot. A few gulps later, he seemed to look at me with newfound interest, the color back in his cheeks.
“We need to move,” he said matter-of-factly, looking at me.
“By move you mean take a peaceful stroll in the garden, or beat each other up until we feel strong again?”
I knew where he was going with this, and I needed it as much as he did. The Daughters’ violet eyes, golden masks, and shivering touch couldn’t be washed down with a cold shower and coffee. I needed some action. I needed to move, like Jovi said.
“I mean me beating you up.” Jovi smirked and sipped loudly from his frilly porcelain cup, like a true alpha male. We didn’t have much to work with in terms of dinnerware in this place, but for once it made me smile.
I stood. “Bring it on, sassy-mouth. I can’t wait to watch you fall flat on your ass again.”
We clinked our coffee cups as if toasting a good game and headed outside.
We chose a strip of bare garden farther away from the plantation house. The house quietly watched over us with its French windows, aged columns, and pink magnolia trees surrounding it. Even the crows watched from branches high above as we took our positions.
Jovi and I tumbled around for a while. He kicked; I blocked. He swept my legs; I swiftly rebounded and came at him with extra fire in my heels. He seemed surprisingly rested and calm in his defense, his every move almost effortlessly blocking my hits.
I, on the other hand, felt heavy and irritated. I usually had the upper hand on the guy, and now I looked like I was trying too hard, like every move I made came back to bite me.
An hour into our training, I had yet to knock him out. I threw him down a couple of times, but Jovi got up and retaliated in kind. Then again, his mind wasn’t wandering off to a perfect woman, with iridescent skin and hair that seemed to be made of fire, hidden in a shell beneath a magnolia tree. He didn’t have to spill his own blood in order to bring her to consciousness.
His leg caught me in the solar plexus, pushing the air from my lungs and knocking me back. At least the grass was soft and still sprinkled with cool morning dew. It felt so nice that I didn’t feel like getting back up.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Sighing at Jovi’s question, I rose to my feet. I brushed some of the dirt and grass off and straightened my back. My muscles were getting tired, and my joints had begun their muffled protests. I resumed my fighting stance, my right
foot behind me ready to act as a spring board.
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” I replied. I lifted my arms slowly, preparing for another attack. My breathing was a little heavy and irregular, and beads of sweat trickled down my temples.
Jovi gave me his don’t-give-me-crap look and raised his hands in a peaceful gesture to pause our training.
“Seriously, what’s up? You’re way off your game,” he said.
The knife in my pocket weighed too much—on my mind and body.
“I’m fine,” I said, barely convincing myself.
Jovi cocked his head and lifted an eyebrow.
“I’m beating you six ways through Sunday and you never, NEVER go down this easy,” he replied and crossed his arms over his chest, not ready to let it go.
I couldn’t really blame him. We’d been training together for years, and he knew me better than most. I really was off my game.
I took a deep breath and looked in the distance, beyond the protective shield of the mansion, which shimmered like a nearly invisible membrane. Trees and shrubs prodded it from the swamp side, unable to penetrate. I wasn’t sure whether I should tell him about my dream, about the knife. The mission was clear; it was only a question of me deciding to do it. And the sight of her, curled up in her shell, sleeping for what seemed like an eternity, tore my heart to shreds.
My hand reached into my pocket instinctively. I decided to keep the dream a secret for a little while longer. Just until I figured it out myself. I would go see her again later and then decide what the best course of action was.
“I didn’t get much sleep,” I muttered, brushing the thoughts off and moving my head around enough to relax my trapezius muscles and get back to knocking the smirk off Jovi’s face.
“Boy, that is the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard you pull.” He chuckled, but his smile dropped quickly as I darted at him.
I bent down in my run and slammed into his torso.
He fell backward and hit the ground, and I followed with all my weight. It was his turn to get the air knocked out of his lungs. Quid pro quo.
“And this is the fastest I’ve seen you fall so far,” I grunted as we wrestled on the soft grass. Our feet pushed against the cool ground as we tried to prove that we were both perfectly okay, that this world wasn’t wrong, and that we could simply play-fight our way out of anything too dark, or too sad or too serious.