A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)(35)

“Hello?” I called out, wondering whether anyone was in there, or whether the library had simply been left like this.

I heard shuffling footsteps and whispers from behind one of the giant, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves ahead. A head popped out from behind it, and I recognized Harper’s long black hair and twinkling eyes. She flashed me her pearly whites in a grin.

“Look who couldn’t sleep tonight!” She chuckled, then came out to greet me.

There were more voices from behind her. I walked forward, and we met halfway in the wide corridor between bookshelves.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I’m guessing the same as you, reading up on the Exiled Maras,” Harper replied, then took my hand and guided me to the source of the voices.

I chuckled when I saw Fiona, Scarlett, and Avril there, huddled around a large oak table with piles of old registries and history books on top of it. They’d been taking notes for a while now, judging by the small pile of written papers to the side.

Harper and I sat down, and she handed me a dusty registry bound in leather with brownish waxed pages. I checked the cover, reading the title out loud.

“The Mara Archives, 3,200BA to 2,100BA,” I muttered. “What’s this?”

“We’ve been checking the archives in a chronological order. BA stands for Before Asherak, whose date of birth was marked as year 0 by the Eritopians,” Harper explained. “Kind of like with Earth years, AD and BC, you know?”

I nodded slowly, then started flipping through the pages.

“How long have you all been down here?” I asked.

“Not that long,” Fiona replied. “Harper was the first to get here. Avril, Scarlett, and I followed, but, funny enough, we didn’t tell anyone that we were coming down to check the Druid Archives, not even each other. But we were all curious about the Exiled Maras.”

“As were you, obviously.” Harper smirked.

“Yeah, I mean, you can’t blame me.” I shrugged, turning another page. “Have you found anything interesting yet?”

“Some mentions of the Maras getting violent and not respecting the Druid truce.” Harper nodded. “But nothing consistent just yet. We haven’t gone past Asherak’s reign yet, though, and that was thousands of years ago. But I think we’re getting close.”

“The Druids kept ridiculously accurate notes of each event,” Avril added, browsing through another registry. “I’ve found mentions of Xunn Maras, too, but they were just listings of a noble clan that used to occupy Morius, one of the southern citadels of Calliope.”

I thought about Blaze and the way Rewa had looked at him, then spent a minute trying to find the right way to ask the question that had been bugging me since I’d left the platform earlier that evening.

“What do you think of Rewa?” I sighed, leaning against the back of my chair.

“I’m not sure,” Harper replied, pursing her lips. “I think she was scared senseless up there, overwhelmed by us. She could tell we weren’t all Eritopians, and I think she could also tell we weren’t defenseless or weaklings of any kind. Foreign invaders do like to send scouts to check stuff out before they storm in.”

“Do you think she’s a scout?” I asked. Harper shook her head. Avril, Fiona, and Scarlett seemed to share her opinion as well. “Why not? What cleared her, in your mind?”

“Oh, she’s not cleared yet,” Harper said. “I just think the probability of her lying is low. I couldn’t sense her emotions because she’s a Mara, albeit an exiled one. But her facial expressions, the tone of her voice… It all spoke of fear and desperation. I think that whatever is happening on Neraka is real.”

“But we don’t have enough data to make a proper assessment at this point,” Scarlett added. “So all we can do is presume.”

“We can also get ourselves nominated into the recon team for Neraka tomorrow.” Harper grinned. “So we can investigate and remove all doubt.”

“What about the Druid delegation that crash-landed on Neraka? Have you found anything on that?” I asked, shifting my focus back to the registry in front of me.

“Not yet, unfortunately,” Scarlett replied. “She didn’t give us any names or details, but there must be a diplomatic travel log here somewhere. To be honest, we’ve all focused on the Exiled Maras so far.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Rewa, but what could it be that keeps taking their people like that? And they can’t eliminate it, even with the spells that she claims the swamp witch left them?” I shook my head, frowning. “I mean, they can travel between galaxies and whatnot, but they can’t find out who or what is making their people disappear?”

“We’ll probably find out more tomorrow, during the council meeting,” Fiona said. “You can ask that question then. It’s a good one!”

I flipped through a few more pages, scanning the handwritten text entries, but stopped when I felt Harper’s eyes on me. I looked up and found her staring at me with a raised eyebrow.

“What?”

“You have nothing against Rewa,” Harper replied, the corner of her mouth twitching, “other than the way Blaze was kind enough to give her his room, and the look she gave him in return, huh?”