A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)(41)

“How do we get there?” Caia asked.

“There’s a bit of a problem,” Viola replied, frowning. Her eyes glowed violet. “I cannot seem to contact the planet. I do not feel it the way I feel other worlds in the In-Between. Therefore, as a Daughter, I won’t be able to open a portal to connect Neraka and Calliope.”

“That’s strange,” Derek muttered, scratching his stubble. “Do you know why?”

Viola shook her head, then looked at Rewa.

“Perhaps you have an answer, Rewa?”

The Mara fidgeted in her chair with an apologetic expression on her face.

“It might have something to do with the asteroid belt orbiting our planet,” she said. “The Imen say the crystals in its composition have mystical properties that keep Neraka hidden to outsiders. It never bothered us, but we wouldn’t have been able to change its effect, either. It goes way beyond any of our capabilities.”

“It seems like Neraka is determined to keep its cards close to its chest,” Field said, staring intently at Rewa. “Which further fuels my curiosity. We could use the swamp witches’ interplanetary spell instead, right?”

“Yes.” Viola nodded. “I know how to do it. I just need an object of any kind that originates from Neraka, to help set the destination.”

“I believe one of these will do,” Rewa said, pulling a few small red beads from her dress pocket and showing them to her.

“If they’re from Neraka, yes,” the Daughter replied.

“They were crafted in Azure Heights, from red crystal mineral deposits that my people found when they carved the city into the mountain. I took them with me for the return spell.”

“Then they’re perfect.”

“Then how did the swamp witches send your people to Neraka the first time around,” I asked, “given that you had nothing from that planet to calibrate the spell?”

“I don’t know, milady.” Rewa shrugged.

“It was probably random,” Viola explained. “The interplanetary spell does work without an object from its destination, but then it takes you to a random place. Much like the Druids’ passage stones, come to think about it. The Exiled Maras didn’t choose Neraka, it sort of picked them.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about traveling from one galaxy to another inside a bright sphere of light, but given that portals were out of the question, I had no other choice. Besides, Rewa had made it here in one piece; why wouldn’t we make it there the same?

“Thank you, milords,” Rewa said, choking up again. “Thank you for your assistance.”

“Don’t thank us yet,” Jax shot back, fists balled on the table.

“Members of the Neraka Recon Team,” Field stood, prompting us to shoot up from our chairs, “you’re all dismissed. Please go to your locker rooms on Mount Zur and prepare for the journey. You will be leaving in two hours. We’ll now move on to discuss Tenebris.”

“We’ll see you all back here in two hours, on the platform,” Draven added. “We’ll perform Telluris before we send you off.”

We nodded, then, one by one, left the meeting hall.

“My wards will take Rewa to her room,” Jax said.

Two of the Maras flanking Rewa stood up, then politely escorted her away from the table, moving toward us. I walked out, accompanied by Caia, Scarlett, Avril, and Fiona, while Blaze, Heron, Jax, Hansa, and Patrik followed. Rewa was the last to come out, accompanied by two wards.

As soon as we were left on our own, with Blaze and the others gone up the main stairs leading down to the stables, we stopped, then yelped and giggled and hugged each other, like the happy young warriors we were.

“Oh, man, this is going to be epic!” I grinned.

“Sure, we can’t intervene and whatever, but I cannot wait to go over there and find out what or who is taking all those Maras!” Fiona rubbed her hands together.

We headed toward the stairs at the other end of the hallway. We needed to get the flying horses, our fastest means of getting to Mount Zur within the allocated timeframe.

“I seriously can’t wait!” Caia chuckled.

“How long do you think we’ll be there?” Scarlett wondered.

“Well, given that we’ll probably have a lot of families to interview and a trail or two to follow, I’m guessing it could be anywhere between five and twelve days before we have enough data and leads to report back to GASP.” I made a rough estimate.

I was extremely curious about Azure Heights and the Exiled Maras’ way of life. If Rewa was telling the truth—and nothing other than her forefathers’ reputation suggested otherwise—it sounded like we were going to like Neraka a lot.





Hansa





I didn’t have much to pack for this journey from my Luceria room, so I took one of the flying horses from the stables and raided my locker in Mount Zur, as did the rest of my new team. Anjani and Jovi also came with me, to help make sure I didn’t leave anything important or potentially useful behind.

My quarters in the GASP base were the equivalent size of a master bedroom, complete with built-in dressers and en suite shower. I emptied the herb and poisons cabinets in the middle of the floor, leaving Anjani to pick out the most potent elements I’d need against any hostile creatures on Neraka, while I slipped into my favorite combat suit.