A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)(46)

“Don’t worry, ladies.” Heron winked and called out to two GASP succubi to our left, who were quietly and worriedly watching him, “I’ll be back soon so we can finish what we started last night!”

I chuckled, unable to hold it in. I noticed the succubi glowing with embarrassment, while Avril rolled her eyes, feigning a face-palm and topping it off with a groan.

“You are incorrigible.” Jax scoffed, shaking his head slowly, while Heron glanced around, equal parts amused and confused.

“And you’re just jealous I at least get some action in this place,” he taunted his older brother before he was shushed by Hansa.

The bright light emanating from the mandala before us became more intense. Viola raised her arms to her sides and muttered the last part of the incantation. We instinctively moved closer to one another as the spell was activated and we were enveloped in pure white light.

I held my breath.





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)





I closed my eyes for a moment, the light too powerful to look at directly. I felt Caia, Scarlett, Avril, Fiona, Hansa, Heron, Blaze, Jax, and Patrik getting closer. The brightness dimmed, and I peeled my eyes open.

My breath hitched as I realized we could see through the sphere. Everyone else around us couldn’t see inside, but we could see them squinting or shielding their eyes from the light. The only one who looked straight at us, unaffected, was Viola.

Our gazes met, and she smiled.

The transparent sphere lifted us off the ground, and I lost my footing. We all immediately sat down as the orb shot through the sky. My heart stopped when the sunlight glazed over it, but we didn’t feel it, much like the faux roof spell on the platform. We were protected.

I looked down. Our families, friends, and allies cheered, whistled, and clapped their hands. They got smaller as we flew higher at an incredible speed. My pulse raced as I watched Antara, Calliope’s biggest continent and the home of our Eritopian GASP base, get smaller with every second.

Rivers became bluish lines. Mountains became jagged forms with snowy peaks and dark green spots of forest. Soon enough, we passed through a blanket of white clouds, and the sphere trembled and shed sparks as it broke through Calliope’s atmosphere.

I’d never experienced something so strange, so beautiful, and so awe-inspiring. We looked around as the sphere took us farther away. Blackness sprinkled with planets and stars surrounded us. I glanced over my shoulder and marveled at the giant sun, its flames licking at the void around it.

“This is so freakin’ cool!” Caia gasped, pointing at Eritopia’s planets.

All twenty of them moved lazily around the sun, thousands of miles away from one another, like giant marbles in a variety of colors, each with small moons and orbiting asteroids, and some even hosting gaseous rings.

“I’ve only seen them in illustrations.” Heron sighed, his jade eyes wide and bright with interest. He inched forward and put his hands out, and when he reached the transparent layer of the sphere, it seemed to act like glass, stopping him from getting out.

We could breathe and hear each other perfectly.

“You saw this on your way here, didn’t you?” I asked Rewa.

“Yes.” She nodded and smiled. “And it’s beautiful and breathtaking, all at once…”

“Makes you feel so small,” Jax mused, gazing at Calliope, which was now a gorgeous ball of blue oceans, green, dry lands, and wisps of white clouds, accompanied by a pearly moon.

“Look, that’s Purgaris.” Caia grinned and pointed at a smaller, red planet. “Azazel’s old home!”

“And that’s Persea,” I said, pointing at the seventh planet, all blue and white, much like the amulet that Serena had given me. “Land of the Druids…”

“I see Tenebris!” Fiona showed us the tenth planet, a large dark purple marble with yellowish streaks and two moons.

“I wonder who they’ll send over to deal with the rebel incubi,” Avril muttered, then nodded at a planet farther away. “That’s Jolessi.”

Jolessi was the fifteenth Kingdom of Eritopia, a colorful bead with lush jungles and turquoise oceans, a vibrant splash in the cosmic darkness.

We spent a few good minutes naming all the planets in Eritopia’s system, as the sphere took us farther away. We passed thousands of small stars, shapeless asteroids, and racing comets, piercing through pink and yellow gas clouds before we left the galaxy.

The more distance we put between us and Eritopia, the better we could see the full picture. The galaxy itself was huge, thousands of stars and the twenty planets spiraling around the massive sun. Our parents, our siblings, and our friends were down there, little specks of dust at the heart of the In-Between.

All I could think of was how tiny we were—and yet how powerful we could be. My sister, my cousins, and a handful of Eritopian rogues had managed to save an entire galaxy, that giant spiral of stars and planets and pink and yellow gas and dust clouds.

There was nothing we couldn’t do ourselves.

The universe may be big, but we can be bigger.

The sphere began to tremble and hum, then shot to supersonic speed. Everything darted by us in thin white lines against the black backdrop of the In-Between.





Harper