A Trail of Echoes (A Shade of Vampire #18)(46)

Finally, she let up her speed when the clear sky gave way to thick clouds. She flew right through them, everything blurring as she navigated through the fog. Perhaps hours passed, it was hard to say for certain, but when the clouds got a little thinner and she lowered in altitude, the Hawk and the baby were flying over a landscape unlike any they had passed so far.

They were looking down upon a vast range of black mountains that stretched out as far as they could see. There was not a hint of vegetation in sight, nor any other life for that matter, just miles upon miles of shades of black and grey. It appeared that they had left the sun behind, yet the sky, which was filled with dark clouds, had an eerie reddish tinge.

A strong wind swelled up, forcing the woman to battle against it until she touched down on the peak of a mountain. Her talons gripped the rocks as her wings folded behind her back. Her long hair was a tangled mess as she adjusted the baby in her arms. Her eyes fell on a wide crater about ten feet away from where she stood. She moved toward it, and stopped at the very edge.

Staring down into it, she let out a piercing shriek.

Then she stepped back and fixed her eyes directly above the crater.

“I have the child,” she said, her voice low. She remained staring into empty space.

A breeze blew against her, catching the edge of the baby’s blanket and lifting it right off to unwrap the infant.

The infant levitated from the arms of the woman and began to float in midair, toward the center of the crater.

Its small fists clenched and eyes shut tight, still, the infant slept.

A thin veil of reddish mist manifested, and began to swirl around and around the infant. As it gathered speed, it became denser and denser until the mist turned into thick smoke and enveloped the baby completely. The woman watched, her narrow eyes fixed unblinking on the scene unfolding before her.

As the smoke billowed, gradually, it began to thin again… until there was nothing left but the light reddish mist that had first touched the infant.

Leaving the center of the black crater, the baby floated back into the woman’s outstretched arms. She looked the child over, then wrapped him again in a blanket.

“Is that all?” The woman spoke to some invisible force.

The answer came as a bone-chilling hiss:

“Take him back to Aviary… His time will come.”

The vision disappeared as suddenly as it had shrouded me, and I sat bolt upright, almost sending River rolling off the narrow bed and falling to the floor. My chest heaved as I panted, trying to make sense of what I had just seen.

“Ben?” River whispered, clutching my arm. “Are you okay?”

I barely took in her words as my hearing was hijacked once again by the strange whispery voice for what would be the last time that night:

“We know who you are, and we know what you want…”

Chapter 34: Jeramiah

Looking up and down the length of the dark island’s shoreline, The Shade was more spectacular than I could have imagined.

While Amaya and I had been waiting outside the boundary for Benjamin and River’s arrival at The Shade, I had wondered something that I had wondered many times before. Did The Shade truly live up to its hype?

Keeping the two of us invisible as we hovered over the waves, Amaya had landed us on the back of the submarine just as it entered The Shade’s border. When we arrived inside, any doubts were proven unjustified.

Amaya transported us to the nearest beach, where I began my tour of the island. I didn’t want to miss any part of it, and so I took my time. My witch companion might have been annoyed at the speed we were traveling if we had been in any other place, but even she appeared enamored by The Shade. I didn’t hear a single complaint out of her, not that she had a right to grumble anyway—she owed me a favor.

We were careful to avoid people as we traveled by foot—although The Shade was so large and spread out, it was not difficult. I was fascinated by how varied the landscape was. There were not only lush forests, filled with giant redwood trees, but also fields and meadows where crops were being grown, despite the lack of sunshine—something that could have only been the work of a witch. There were also lakes, and the part of the island that we had not gotten to yet—far in the distance on the opposite side, the great mountain range.

As we walked along a particularly wide path through the woods, I finally noticed what I had been dying to see since I arrived. Craning my neck upward, I found myself staring up at magnificent treehouses. The Residences. I had heard that was what they called this part of the island. They had once been home only to The Shade’s Elite vampires, but now it appeared that many more vampires resided here. As I gazed up at the penthouses, I couldn’t help but wonder which my father might’ve once inhabited…

Sensing Amaya less than a foot away from me, I whispered to her, “Wait here by this tree. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Stepping away from her, I launched into the air, aiming directly upward for the nearest veranda to me. Climbing up over its railing, I looked around, admiring the gorgeous residence up close.

Careful not to creak any of the floorboards, I walked silently toward one of the windows and peered inside. I found myself looking into a spacious living room. A dark-haired woman with blue-violet eyes sat in an armchair, a mug of steaming liquid clasped in one hand. I could tell in an instant that she was a human, and as my eyes lowered from her pretty face to her stomach, I realized that she was pregnant.