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Authors: Bella Forrest

A Shade of Vampire 25: A Clan of Novaks (18 page)

BOOK: A Shade of Vampire 25: A Clan of Novaks

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Derek

I
felt bewildered
as to how the hunters had known to come here, but when Ben returned carrying my niece, we had to leave.

Victoria begged our five witches to do something to help, but she was out of her mind in panic. We didn’t have enough time, enough warning. God knew how many hundreds—maybe even thousands— of mutants had flocked in the sky and were but moments from devouring our part of the woods.

“Where is the gate, Vicky?” I asked, gripping her shoulders.

“On the other side of the mountain,” she croaked. “There are five oak trees. Above them is a plateau. But Uncle, please! We have to help Bastien! He was still in the treetops!”

“I’ll go,” Kailyn said. “I’ll join you by the portal.” She lifted into the air and hurtled away toward where Victoria was pointing.

Our witches vanished the rest of us to the other side of the mountain, where we located the gate. My niece was practically trembling as we gazed out from this vantage point. The sea of trees had become a blazing ocean of fire.

Anger coursed through my veins.
These hunters have lost their damn minds!

I caught sight of Kailyn shooting toward us, empty-handed.

“There was too much fire for me to see anything,” Kailyn panted, landing. “I’m so sorry, Victoria.”

Victoria looked like she’d been winded as Xavier caught her by her midriff and carried her to the edge of the gate. He leapt through with her, and the rest of us tumbled in after them.

On the other side, we landed in a field of wheat, bordered by low, oblong buildings. We were on the outskirts of some kind of walled human settlement, no doubt. But we had no time to ponder where in the world we might be. I just ordered the witches, “Take us back to The Shade.”

“
H
ow did it happen
?” Vicky asked shakily, as we reappeared at the end of the Port’s jetty. “How did the hunters know to come?”

I didn’t have the slightest clue. Neither did anyone else.

But before any of us could start coming up with speculations, Victoria gasped. “Oh my,” she said softly. “Wh-When you visited Bastien’s cousin…” She gulped. “Could he have tagged you in any way?”

“Tagged us?” Vivienne frowned.

“Planted a tracker with you?” Victoria pressed.

“W-We accepted water flasks from them,” Grace blurted.

Oh, God.

So we did.

A chilled silence followed.

“Show them to me,” Victoria demanded.

We retrieved them from our backpacks and laid them on the floor in front of her. She crouched over them and picked them up one by one, examining them closely before discarding them. When she came to Arwen’s flask, however, she pored over it much longer. Her fingers trailed along a tiny ridge that ran the circumference of the flask’s lid, a ridge so small and insignificant, one could hardly notice it. She began twisting the lid forcefully, and to my shock, it pried in half, revealing a small hollow interior, inside of which was… a tiny metal bullet. A metal bullet with a minuscule red-flashing light at either tip.

A tracker.

There was no way in heaven or hell we could have guessed a medieval-looking chieftain would have implanted this kind of technology in one of our water flasks. At the time, we’d had no reason to distrust his offer of something so simple and innocent as water. It was only later that Victoria had informed us that he had been compromised by the hunters. But still, I’d never thought to suspect the water flasks. I’d had far too many other things on my mind.

Now I was cursing myself.

“That snake of a cousin had you tracked the whole time!” Victoria exclaimed.

The thought made me sick to my stomach. It reminded me of a time when Lucas would’ve done such a thing to me. I knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of such deceit. I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

I gathered up the flasks and bundled them into Ibrahim’s arms. “Destroy these,” I told him.

“We have to go back!
Now!
” Victoria urged.

“Darling,” Vivienne said, catching her hands. “We can’t just return blindly.”

I moved to my niece and placed a kiss on her forehead. Her face and limbs were covered in cuts and bruises. The urgency in her eyes was familiar to me. I’d witnessed the same in my own daughter’s before, when she had been separated from Caleb. Something much deeper than friendship had obviously formed between her and the werewolf. “I need to gather my thoughts,” I said, addressing not just Victoria, but the whole group. “For now, go and recuperate. But be ready for my call.”

Vivienne and Xavier escorted Victoria away, while the rest followed, leaving me and Sofia alone at the end of the jetty.

I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and turned my attention to it. Now that we were back in the human realm, it had been buzzing constantly. When I flipped it open, I had twenty-two missed calls from Fowler. Twenty-two.

Grimacing, I dialed Fowler’s number and put the phone on loudspeaker.

“Novak!” Fowler picked up after half a ring. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Trespassing in IBSI headquarters? Interfering with highly sensitive operations?”

I experienced a flood of déjà vu. Wasn’t it only a short while ago that I’d been calling him up in a rage and posing similar questions regarding Thornton and his branch?

“While we’re asking questions,” I replied, my voice steely, “would you care to explain what exactly you and the IBSI are high on?”

Fowler let out a breath. “Novak, we’re letting you go. All of you. Henceforward, TSL is no longer recognized or sanctioned as an official body, and you are ordered to disband immediately. Know that if you unlawfully encroach or interfere again, the IBSI have full authority to decide on the appropriate action.”

In other words, the hunters have full sanction to kill us dirty supernaturals.
Well, that wasn’t exactly new. We’d never trusted these hunters anyway.

“This will be the last time I talk to you, Novak… You’re fired.”

With that, he hung up the phone.

“I honestly think those hunters
are
high on something,” Sofia said, still looking shaken. “The way Thornton and his people moved, and then those guys in the compound… they had agility and speed that just isn’t human. It’s like they’re on some kind of steroids.”

I grunted. Perhaps they had managed to develop something in their labs. It wouldn’t surprise me.

Very little could surprise me anymore.

Although the idea that Fowler thought he could fire us made me shake my head in disbelief.

Whatever we ended up doing next, he was in for a rude awakening…

Because one can’t simply fire a Novak.

Ready for the next part of the Novak clan’s story?

D
earest Shaddict
,

The next book in the series is
A Shade of Vampire 26: A World of New
!

A World of New
releases
April 25th, 2016.

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