A Shade of Vampire 24: A Bridge of Stars
Bella Forrest
Contents
Also by Bella Forrest
Copyright
1. Ben
2. Lucas
3. Ben
4. Ben
5. Derek
6. Ben
7. Ben
8. Ben
9. Ben
10. Ben
11. Ben
12. Ben
13. Ben
14. Ben
15. Ben
16. Ben
17. Ben
18. Ben
19. Ben
20. Ben
21. Ben
22. Ben
23. Ben
24. River
25. Ben
26. Ben
27. Ben
28. Ben
29. Ben
30. Ben
31. Ben
32. River
33. Derek
34. Ben
35. River
36. River
37. River
38. Ben
39. River
40. Derek
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)
Ben & River’s story:
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 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
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Copyright © 2016 by Bella Forrest
Cover design inspired by Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations LLC
All rights reserved.
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Ben
I could hardly believe what we’d done. I had proposed and River had accepted. We were engaged. Even though, for all I knew, in less than three days I could be stripped of this body and returned to my previous half-existence.
If ever I’d needed an incentive to hold on to this physical form, I had it now.
Having River accept me the way she had, even though she was fully aware of how uncertain my future—our future—was, left me high. I shot up with her into the sky with abandon, barely paying attention to how high up we were or how fast I was flying.
I lost myself fully in her kiss until, finally, I came to my senses.
Time was ticking and we still had a terrifying number of obstacles ahead of us. If we did not leave now, we were making our chances of success even slimmer.
Pausing in our ascent, I began drifting us back downward, all the while making the most of these last moments we had alone together. I had no way of knowing how long it would be before we would find private time again. We continued kissing and caressing until our feet hit the island’s boundary. Unlocking our lips, I guided her to climb onto my back so that she would be in a more secure position.
“Corrine!” we both began to yell. “Ibrahim! Shayla!”
Then I called out to my parents while River did the same. We shouted out any name and made as much noise as possible, even as I roamed with her over the surface of the barrier.
“Coming!” a voice finally called up. Corinne’s voice.
And then I heard another voice.
“Benjamin?”
To my confusion, it did not come from beneath us, but rather from behind. I whirled around with River to find myself face to face with…
“Aisha?” River and I gasped in unison.
The young jinni hovered several feet away from us. She looked worse for wear. The smoke that surrounded the lower half of her body appeared duller and thinner than usual, and her skin was less radiant, almost gray. Her face looked tired and worn.
“What are you doing here?” I gaped.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, staring at me as though I had come back from the dead. Her face twisted in confusion. “Benjamin, what are you?”
I barely registered her question and all curiosity I’d felt at the shock of seeing her at The Shade evaporated. Excitement coursed through me.
A jinni.
We’ve found a jinni!
Maybe destiny was finally turning a kind eye upon me. About time…
“I managed to evade the Elder by taking a potion Arron gave me.” I gave her a rapid recap explaining how I ended up in the body of a fae. “But it’s on loan,” I said, getting to the crux of the matter. “I can keep it no longer than three days unless I bring the fae a jinni.” Well, actually I had told Sherus I’d bring an army of jinn, but failing that, perhaps one would suffice.
Aisha’s mouth dropped open. “You made a pact with a fae?”
“Yes,” I said, impatient. “Aisha, I desperately need your help. I don’t know exactly what the fae need the jinn to do, but you’re powerful, aren’t you?”
To my horror, her shoulders sagged. “Not any more.”
“What?”
Aisha heaved a deep sigh and clasped one palm to her forehead, rubbing it wearily. “The Drizans took my family, just like I suspected. I still haven’t recovered from the shock, let alone the grief. Mourning drains a jinni like a bloodsucker. I don’t know when I’d be of any use to you again…”
My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. I was about to ask Aisha whether she could just try — at least hear what Sherus’ task was — but then I realized that was the stupidest idea imaginable. The risk was far too great. If she really couldn’t help Sherus, then I would have returned to the fae not only without the promised army, but also incapable of fulfilling their demands. I was sure he’d swipe my body from me in an instant, and likely, in his rage, even take me back to The Underworld. A place I could safely say I would not want to visit again.
No. I had to get over the disappointment of Aisha not having her powers, or at least claiming to not have them. We were back to the original plan. We had to free the Nasiris from the Drizans.
Corrine emerged through the boundary muttering, “Sorry for the delay…” Her voice trailed off as she laid eyes on Aisha.
“Aisha Nasiri is with me,” I said quickly, “You should know by now that the Nasiris are ally rather than foe.” A
notion I understood was hard to accept for Corrine after the Nasiris had turned her into a dove.
Aisha barely spared a glance for Corrine—or River, for that matter—her focus on me.
“Come down with us,” I said to the jinni. “Somehow, we need to save your family.”
The look the jinni gave me made my stomach sink to new depths. “I don’t think that’s even possible.”
But I blocked out her words. I couldn’t believe them. I wouldn’t believe them.
The Nasiris were the key to this body. The key to my future with River. And, dammit, I was going to pry every one of that family from the Drizans’ hands… even if it was the last thing I did.
Lucas
As strange as this reunion was for my younger brother, it was tenfold stranger for me.
Hell, I was still getting used to the feel of soil beneath my feet, the wind blowing against my skin, the sounds of the living world—so many sounds that I had forgotten even existed. Now that I had been deprived of it all for decades, I sensed it all in far greater detail than I would have even as a vampire. The sensations surrounding me were enough to bring me to my knees, but then to be faced so suddenly with my brother, my sister… my son… My mind struggled to hold it all in.
A myriad of emotions had overwhelmed me on seeing Jeramiah leap out of that boat… on him seeing me for the first time in his life. He was a grown man now, but I had spied on him enough times as a boy to recognize his features.
All the bitterness, the resentment, self-hatred and regret that the ghouls had given me ample opportunity to harbor over the years roared to the surface. The regret for having abandoned him, for having willingly given up one of the truest pleasures life had to offer a man—raising a son—erupted like a seething boil. Every part of me ached, mind, body and soul.
But at least whatever happened to me next—even if this body was swiped away from me in a few days and I was thrust into the ghouls’ Necropolis—I’d met my son. And I had said that I was sorry. And I’d told him the truth that his mother had been too kind to tell him.
That I was a coward.
A waste of space.
Indeed, now it felt like my whole life had been a waste of space. I’d been so concerned with the life I’d thought I should be living as ruler of The Shade—obviously superior to Derek—that I’d forgotten to live the life that I had been gifted. And it was, indeed, a gift. Any creature with a beating heart possessed the greatest gift the universe had to offer. A gift to be guarded, treasured, and appreciated every damn day.
And when it had been taken away from me so suddenly… so unexpectedly…
I still remembered the night I’d exhaled my last breath. The last moments of my former life during the battle in The Oasis. I’d had Sofia in my grasp. And I had been so sure that I would finally pry her forever from my brother. But that envy had made me blind. Blind to the hunter aiming a gun at me. Blind to him pulling the trigger. That envy had made me blind my whole life.
Everything had been taken from me in a flash. And all the things that had formerly been invisible to me about my life had sprung into existence in vivid detail. Only then, I could not touch any of it.
A month spent in The Underworld would’ve been enough to make me cast aside my jealousy and determine to live the rest of my life in its own full, perfect glory. But… almost two decades? I was shocked that I’d even been conscious enough to utter a single word when Ben had found me in my pool, let alone form a sentence.
Now here I found myself, standing in a body again—a real body—relishing everything in sight… even the familiar sight of my younger brother, looking only a few years older than when I’d left him. Now that was a strange feeling.
It was bizarre to realize that I was hardly capable of feeling jealous of him anymore. Not even when I knew that he’d gotten Sofia for himself in the end. He’d even ruled over this place as king for the past two decades—a position I’d always considered my own—while I had been locked up in hell. How could I feel jealous of anything when my spirit soared so high? When my heart was beating, and I had my son standing just next to me. When I was back in The Shade. Back home.
After Derek had asked me what on earth happened to me, of course I was expecting the barrage of questions that followed. Even from my son, whom I had rendered quite speechless after my admission that I had not been a victim of circumstance, but rather a coward who had willingly abandoned him. I began to answer, still unable to shake the strangeness of talking to my brother. I tried to remember the last words I had exchanged with him, and I could not even recall them now. But whatever they were, I was certain they would not have been pleasant.
Sofia, Vivienne and Ben’s twin sister uprooted from their spots by the jetty and hurried over. As Sofia arrived at Derek’s side, I could not miss the way she clutched his arm. It took me back in time to when Sofia had first arrived in The Shade. When I interrupted their time together, she’d always flinch and move closer to Derek, as though I were a venomous snake. I doubted she was conscious of her instinctive action now, or how identical it was to when she had still been seventeen.
Vivienne broached the invisible barrier Derek had drawn for himself about four feet from me, and closed the distance between us. As she reached out a trembling hand to clutch my own, she was warm. She was human. Yet she couldn’t have been one for long, because she didn’t look any older than when I had last seen her.
My heart hammered as Vivienne wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in for a tight hug. Vivienne. My sister. My darling younger sister. As much as I could not deny that even seeing my younger brother’s face had been a relief, my heart filled with true affection on seeing my sister. I slipped my own arms around her and hugged her back, just as strongly.
“I’ve missed you, Lucas,” she whispered, and I felt her breath hitch.
“I… I’ve missed you too,” I murmured, my throat tight.
As hard as she hugged me, her body also felt rigid in shock, as though her brain was still struggling to accept that this really was me. Her older brother. Lucas Dominic Novak. Back in The Shade. Back where I belonged.
I closed my eyes as she kissed my cheek, trying not to leak tears. I felt embarrassed enough as it was for my breakdown in front of Derek on greeting my son. But it was a vain attempt.
When I could hold off answering questions no longer, I went on with my story. Truth be told, there wasn’t all that much to tell anymore. The bulk of my days had been spent in The Underworld, shrouded in darkness, where I’d barely been aware of myself. But I told them everything I could remember: leaving my physical body in The Oasis, roaming The Shade for some time. Then moving on to where I’d thought that I was supposed to go, only to be caught by the fae and thrust into hell.
I paused, looking from one face to another, before averting my eyes to the ground. I found it difficult to hold eye contact for too long, especially with my brother. But I would’ve given anything to know what was going through his mind—heck, through all of their minds. Even despite Vivienne’s affection, I still didn’t know if I was welcome here. That had been why I was so hesitant to come to this island in the first place. I hadn’t thought I could handle the stress of seeing my family again. But now that I was here, surrounded by them, I couldn’t be more thankful that Ben had insisted I follow him. It was cathartic. And I realized that I needed this for my own sanity—to confront my past, no matter how uncomfortable it was.
Sofia cleared her throat, drawing my eyes to her beautiful green ones even despite myself. I found myself quickly exhausted as she eyed me intently, her gaze far stronger than mine.
Then, when she spoke, her voice sent tingles down my spine. I’d almost forgotten what her voice sounded like.
“All of us have learned to forgive on this island, Lucas,” she said.
Derek’s jaw tightened. Although he didn’t say anything to the contrary, I couldn’t help but sense he was less generous in his thinking than Sofia.
“If you’ve cha
nged,” Vivienne continued, looking up at me through her glistening violet-blue eyes, “I don’t see why we wouldn’t all welcome you back with open arms.”
There was a span of silence as I considered how to respond, or maybe not to respond at all. I had changed, even against my own will; that much was undeniable. But it didn’t feel like mere words sufficed in this situation.
Gulping, I nodded. Even though my words were in response to Vivienne, it was Derek whom I looked straight at as I replied, “I suppose you will be the judge of that.”
Ben
Corrine, Aisha, River and I arrived at the Port to find Lucas and Jeramiah standing in the same position, but now with the rest of my family surrounding them: my father, mother, aunt and sister. Marcilla, Nolan and Chantel still hung some distance away, wandering around by the trees and gazing at our island in wonder.
I guessed from the looks on my family’s faces that Lucas had explained to them what had happened, at least in part. That was good. It saved us time. Sensing us approach, they twisted around, eyes bulging as they spotted Aisha hovering next to me and River.
“This is Aisha,” I addressed my parents. “One of the Nasiris. In case Lucas hasn’t mentioned, we have less than three days to present a gang of fae with an army of jinn, or these bodies will be stripped from us forever… and then there’s no saying what will become of me. We need to retrieve the Nasiris from the Drizans so I can take them to the fae.”
My mother tensed with fear. “The Drizans,” she murmured.
“We must call an emergency meeting,” my father said, never one to skip a beat, even as he still appeared to be in shock. “Corrine, would you fetch the rest of our Council?”
The witch nodded before vanishing.
Five minutes later, we were seated in the Great Dome, waiting for the rest of the Council to arrive. I couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of Lucas as my mother and father took seats at the head of the table. I wished I could glimpse into his mind. Jeramiah sat next to Lucas, and I was still burning to know how he’d gotten here. I’d deliberately been avoiding meeting my cousin’s gaze because I knew that I would only end up glaring at him. It would take me a long time to forgive Jeramiah “Stone” for what he’d done to my family.