A Meet of Tribes (A Shade of Vampire #45)(20)

My limbs tingled, and I felt a velvety warmth glazing me from head to toe. I relaxed into it, taking deep breaths as my eyelids began to feel heavy. My head slowly dropped to the side, and I could see Phoenix in his bed, the Daughter standing next to him.

His eyes closed, and I figured he was the first to go under. I took another breath and felt my body melt and expand outward, transcending time, space, and matter.

I saw the Daughter as she rolled her eyes and passed out, collapsing on the floor with a loud thud. It prompted Anjani and Jovi to rush over to her.

Everything warped, and darkness enveloped me.





Serena





It happened so fast. One moment I was watching my brother close his eyes as the spiced rose mixture took over, and the next I saw the Daughter drop to the floor. Jovi and Anjani reached her in seconds, lifting her onto a spare bed.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, my breath short.

“What happened?” Draven asked.

“The Daughter collapsed,” I said to him.

Anjani looked for vitals.

Yesterday Anjani couldn’t feel her heartbeat, so I wondered how she’d be able to tell whether the Daughter was alive or not. My blood froze at the thought of her dying while in our care. Her sisters would probably wipe us off the face of the planet with a snap of their fingers. No—they would make us suffer first.

Anjani lowered her head, her ear close enough to the Daughter’s lips to register breathing. “She’s alive,” the succubus said.

Relief washed over me. I sighed and instinctively leaned against Draven for support.

“She must have passed out,” Anjani continued, her fingers looking for a pulse. “Her breathing is even, and I can see movement beneath her eyelids.”

“That’s curious,” Draven mumbled. “Passing out at the same time as Phoenix.”

“Do you think there’s a connection between their consciousnesses?” I asked, trying to think of reasons why that would happen.

“I’m not sure,” he replied. “Anjani, can you please keep watch over her, just in case?”

The succubus nodded and kept her stance by the Daughter’s bedside.

Jovi moved over to watch Phoenix during his immersion. I looked over to my brother, then Aida and Vita. They were deep under, their chests rising and falling slowly and evenly.

We’d reached a point in the dynamic of things where we could no longer rely on Draven for information about the Daughter. Given her condition, courtesy of my blunder, we couldn’t tell what would have been deemed as normal and what was weird in this entire situation. All we could do was keep an eye out and try to paddle our way through the unknown.

I couldn’t help but wonder where the Daughters were. They must have sensed that their sister was awake. I’d ask Draven about that later. He might know something.

In the meantime, however, I shifted my focus back to my brother and friends.





Aida





I stood in absolute darkness with no sound or sense of anything.

“Hello?” I called out, hoping that this wasn’t going to be my vision.

It was tough enough that I had to see what was happening in real time without being able to stop or change any of it. Being stuck in the darkness throughout an entire vision would’ve added a whole new level of uselessness to my gift.

The blackness dissipated, and I found myself in the middle of what looked like a jungle with massively tall trees as thick as buildings and reaching so high it looked like they must brush the sky. Giant green and yellow leaves with waxy surfaces emerged from the foliage. Beautiful pink and white exotic flowers blossomed on the ground supported by a bed of tall grass and black ferns.

I could hear birds singing from the tree crowns and what sounded like insects whistling and crackling below. Before I could move, three creatures passed right through me, as if I were made of smoke.

“Do you think they’ll work with us, Chief?” one asked the other.

They followed the trail that unraveled ahead of me, snaking through the forest toward what looked like an enormous mountain with black ridges and dense purple forests. It looked beautifully weird as it towered above us.

I looked at the creatures ahead—feminine figures with long black hair cascading down their backs, familiar-looking silvery skin, and husky voices. Their voluptuous curves were clad in thick black leathers, and stripes of red paint crossed their bodies in a diagonal pattern down their arms and legs. They carried heavy swords in metallic scabbards with bone sculpture details on the handles. Crossbows and quivers with short arrows hung on their backs, and bright red feathers were braided through their hair.

They had to be succubi.

I decided to follow them as they walked toward the black mountain.

The sound of thunder boomed from above, but as I looked up, the sky was perfectly clear and blue. The rumble continued somewhere in the distance, and the ground trembled beneath us.

“The volcano is fired up,” said one of the succubi.

“It must be giving birth to a new Deargh,” the one in the middle mused.

“Is that possible in this day and age?”

“It might be. I wouldn’t put anything past Eritopia. As for your question, Lessa, they have every reason to form an alliance with us and the Druid against this bastard, Azazel,” replied the succubus in the middle.