A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)(36)

The girls giggled, while I crossed my arms over my chest and scoffed.

“That’s nonsense!” I shot back. “I just have a feeling she isn’t telling us everything, that’s all.”

“Like I said, maybe wait until tomorrow before you pass that judgment,” Fiona replied. “She’s probably still shaken up from the whole interplanetary sprint anyway. Not to mention the ‘warm welcome’ she got from Jax and his wards.”

I let a sigh roll out of my chest and nodded again, resuming my rapid scan of the first registry I’d been given.

“You’re probably right,” I muttered, once again haunted by the ease with which Rewa had shown interest toward Blaze. It bothered me even more than I’d originally thought, and I had to shake it off if I wanted to get myself nominated for the Neraka expedition. GASP wouldn’t deploy a biased agent into foreign territory.

We kept on digging through the archives until we reached the year 1,100BA. That was when the Maras really got into trouble. Reports of bloodless bodies strewn across Calliope started pouring in, particularly where the citadels were involved. The Maras had signed an agreement with and had sworn fealty to the Master Druids. They’d been allowed into the cities, and given homes in the western districts. Less than a few months later, the bodies started piling up.

It had all happened just as Jax had explained. The swamp witches had intervened, and House Dorchadas, Jax’s ancestors, had pleaded with them for a better solution, rather than seeing the entire Mara species wiped out. I found the official decree that called for the exile of the murderous Maras. A list was compiled of all those accused of breaking the Druid agreement. The entire House Xunn had made it on there, but Rewa was telling the truth. She hadn’t been born yet.

Maras never showed their true age. After their bodies reached the equivalent of a twenty-something-year-old adult, the aging process slowed down considerably. They were destined to live an eternal life, unless interrupted by external forces that would lead to their decapitation or incineration. True to form, Rewa didn’t look a day past her twenties.

The Exiled Maras had been sent away, and those who remained had been allowed to build their own cities to avoid further clashes with the already angered population of Calliope. There was no mention of the Exiled Maras’ destination. There was no other mention of them, period.

We compiled all the info we found, including names and specific events, in a separate folder, with references and named sources, hoping it would assist Field and the other GASP officers in the decision-making process.

“We need to score brownie points with this one,” Harper said, both palms resting on the manila folder as she looked around the table at us.

Fiona nodded, then got up and went to another bookshelf, returning with an armful of dusty, leather-bound catalogs. Avril instinctively rolled, then rubbed her eyes.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” she groaned, feigning a collapse on the table.

“Harper is right, and Caia made a good point earlier,” Fiona replied. “We need to find some mention of a Druid delegation that crash-landed on Neraka. Or at least try. It doesn’t all have to be done tonight, but we need to show them we tried.”

“We showed initiative,” Scarlett chuckled.

“But we totally did!” Fiona insisted, putting the catalogs on top of the other registries. “If we want to get ourselves to Neraka, we have to push hard.”

“Speaking of which!” Avril straightened her back, index finger in the air, demanding our attention. “How do we get nominated tomorrow?”

“Senior GASP officers are usually the first to put recruit names forward,” I answered, stretching my arms out and reveling in the sound of my joints cracking and my muscles relieving some tension.

“That’s not a guarantee that anyone will mention us.” Scarlett sighed.

“What makes you think they won’t? We’re damn good at what we do!” Harper muttered, moving her head around to loosen her neck muscles. She then took one of the catalogs for inspection.

“What if we put each other’s names forward, too?” I asked. “On top of what senior officers might or might not do about us. And our parents might recommend us, as well. Or they might not. They may prefer us on Tenebris, slightly safer, within the galaxy where the enemy is known, rather than all the way out there on Neraka… Why not put ourselves into the nominee pool? I’m pretty sure we aced our training screenings the other day, and we’re doing this research work now, too. Might as well speak up.”

The girls stopped their page turning to look at me. One by one, smiles stretched on their faces. They all gave me a conspiratorial nod. I grinned, then put my hand out over the table, palm down. They put theirs on top of mine, to seal the deal.

“Perfect,” I said. “We all want the Neraka mission more than we want the Tenebris one, clearly, so let’s help each other out and kick the ass of whatever evil is plaguing that planet.”

“Deal.” Harper winked.

We kept digging through the travel logs for another hour or so. We couldn’t find any mention of a Druid delegation crash-landing on Neraka. There were plenty of entries on Druids visiting neighboring fae stars and a couple of other planets I’d never heard of, deeper in the In-Between, but none had recorded an incident on Neraka.

Whether they’d chosen not to disclose it or they weren’t the Druids we were looking for, we had nothing to certify that Rewa was telling the truth regarding the way the Exiled Maras had acquired the swamp witch magic.